Mark Rubin: Problem Solver / Attorney / Fiduciary

September 14, 2022

Mark Rubin: Problem Solver / Lawyer / Fiduciary

problem solver lawyer fiduciary

Mark Rubin

I’m 65 – and a day (as I have finished editing, having forgotten about this piece) – and I’ve been a lawyer for just about 41 years. People ask me what I do, regularly. They’re often other lawyers or legal services consumers. Usually, they’re looking for a cubbyhole. (Employment lawyer. ERISA expert. Estate planner. Etc.) Almost always, I fail them, for I do too many things. (Many years ago I talked with a large Phoenix firm about employment. After a wasted day the very rude managing partner said “We’re not interested. You don’t fit in anywhere.”)

Problem Solver

Tired of failing people, 60+ years old, and having spent 62.93% of

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News from the Work Front

October 8, 2021

News from the Work Front

2021

Lawyers and the Canine Corps

I work from home, mostly. I went home on March 15, 2020 and when someone asked me why, I said, “Because my government recommended it.” I was 62 and I have residual lung issues. So, why now, fully vaccinated and only around vaccinated people? Working from home lets me think I am semi-retired. From attire to the nature and length of breaks, my days feel different in kind from the days – Days? Decades. – when I dressed up every morning, went to an office, stayed there until late afternoon, etc.*

So, the news? Rubin & Bernstein PLLC and our sister entity, Southern Arizona Fiduciary Services LLC move into new

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Perfect: When It Takes on Good!

November 17, 2018

Perfect: When It Takes on Good!

Perfect

Voltaire

Le meglio è l’inimico del bene­—the best is the enemy of the good—gets credited to Francois-Marie Arouet aka Voltaire often but, in fact, it’s an old Italian proverb he cited in his Dictionnaire Philosophique, first published in 1764. Sadly, it fits our times, too well!

The Ds control the House of Representatives, beginning on January 3, 2019. The House elects a Speaker, who can be a Congressperson or not, although every speaker has been a member of the House of Representatives.

The Ds will have a solid majority, once the remaining races get resolved. Still, there’s doubt about whether Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will serve as Speaker.

I can offer and

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Hurrah, Hurrah: Rubin & Bernstein PLLC

May 24, 2018

Hurrah, Hurrah: Rubin & Bernstein PLLC

We’re Here … Finally!

382 S. Convent Ave.

382 S. Convent Ave.

Well, gentle readers, you’ve certainly gotten teasers, here and here. (Candidly, I thought there were more.) Rubin & Bernstein PLLC is, like, the real deal! As of May 29th we’re located at 382 S. Convent Ave., with an annex office at 307 S. Convent. The picture shows 382, and we’ve got lots of parking. (Moving today, May 24!)

The Lawyers

Leigh Bernstein—my partner—devotes herself to the needs of elderly people and those who surround them in their later years. She provides estate planning services for people of all ages. Her practice also includes guardian/conservatorship cases involving people with dementia or mental illness. She handles trusts

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Happy New Year

January 2, 2018

Happy New Year

happy new year

Mark Rubin

Days go by fast or slow, depending on what’s up, my mood, etc. Weeks and months and years? They pass like a train in the biggest hurry to get to who knows where. 2018 already? Incredible!

With yet another loss at the end of a year, my mind wandered to an emblem of aging: more funerals than weddings. Googling that phrase took me to Ecclesiastes 7:2: It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. Hmmm! From writings which include the reminder that there’s a time for everything and a season

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Exit Strategies for Business and Complex Asset Owners

October 26, 2017

Exit Strategies for Business and Complex Asset Owners

exit strategies

Mark Rubin

I am hosting a session on Exit Strategies for Business and Complex Asset Owners on November 16, 2017, in Tucson at 4:00 p.m. The session will entail a presentation and discussion of practical preparations, strategies, markets, and considerations vital to embarking on these transactions. Refreshments, too!

I have been practicing law in Tucson for nearly 40 years, focusing primarily on business and real estate law. Estate planning and fiduciary matters are also part of my practice. (I have been a Licensed Fiduciary—License No. 20546—for a dozen years, dealing mostly with cases involving complex assets, dysfunctional families, or both.) During my practice, I have worked with myriad situations involving a principal’s

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It’s Personal: Downsizing, Etc.

October 17, 2017

It’s Personal: Downsizing, Etc.

Note: If you’re looking for straight lines and A to Z writing, skip this post.

Downsizing has been on my mind lately. (Truth be told, my mind gets crowded with notions; without Mark Rubin Writes, it might explode!) Anyway, and as I have noted recently, the -0 birthday and the annual reckoning with another year as an attorney—as I write I joined the State Bar of Arizona 36 years ago today, and I started working on October 19, 1981—have brought on a reflective mood.

Closets, as it happens, have brought forth downsizing. I moved on September 14, 2017, the day of my 60th birthday. I’d been planning my move, but it happened on that evening,

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Health Care: A Philosophical Approach

October 16, 2017

Health Care: A Philosophical Approach

Health care has been on my mind lately. Renewal time comes shortly, and there’s no little bit of anxiety about: (a) pricing, (b) availability, and (c) just plain getting onto the flipping website. (Tell me I shouldn’t think the site might just crash, right about the time when tens of millions of people—like me—need it!)

Health care means insurance. Wait. What? Care and payments differ? An insurer’s decision not to pay doesn’t prevent someone from getting health care?

Actually, I know the argument first-hand. And it’s clap-trap, plain and simple! Back in the 1990s I represented a health insurer. People sued, claiming that when the insurer failed to pre-certify procedures, it deprived them of

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Days of Awe / Personal Reflections

October 1, 2017

Days of Awe / Personal Reflections

markrubin

Mark Rubin

The Days of Awe aka High Holy Days—the days which encompass Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—ended at sundown on September 30. Ten days, for reflection and repentance. Jews look back, of course, for reflecting and repenting demand that perspective, but our most important 10 days are very much about going forward.

Reflecting, in a blog, leaves me totally comfortable. Repenting? Not so much. No big confessions here!

During the last several days much has been on my mind. The sorting process leaves me focused on Luck* and Openness. (There’s also a trial in eight weeks, moving, PredictIt –my new cool distraction, etc.)

Luck and I know one another well. A better

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Obamacare Repeal, and Free Labor and Employment Markets

September 21, 2017

Oh my G-d, have I written about the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare! More than 700 posts, and almost 10% mention the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. Here are a few of my favorites:

Health Insurance: Getting Personal

Who Called the Viruses and Bacteria?

More on Health Care … and We v. Me-I

Trouble Ahead: Thoughts on Health Care

The game ends on September 30, 2017, at midnight, Eastern Daylight Time. Senate reconciliation rules—obtuse to the nth—mandate that the Senate pass a new law by September 30, or not at all in 2017. (Not clear? Whether the House of Representatives must pass the same bill by 9/30, or if it can simply adopt the same bill before the Senate adjourns

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