APRIL 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 53
The lawyers at Futterman, Lanza & Pasculli, LLP
have earned a reputation for success and clientcentered
representation, specializing in elder law
and estate planning for many years.
Aaron E. Futterman and Ronald S. Lanza started
Futterman & Lanza in 2004 with one office in
Smithtown. They then merged their firm with
Felicia Pasculli’s, which had been operating for
more than 20 years in Bay Shore, in October
2018. The firm went on to move to brand new,
state-of-the-art offices in both Bay Shore and
Smithtown, and also added a Garden City office
in October 2019.
We recently interviewed Lanza about his firm’s
mission, challenges and more.
Q: What sets Futterman, Lanza & Pasculli
apart from other law firms?
A: In the world of elder law – and that’s the area
of law we practice – we’re one of the few firms
that offers three locations. Some of our business,
we cater to people advancing in age. And they like
to do things in their neighborhood.
Q: What is the mission of Futterman, Lanza
& Pasculli?
A: My mission of the firm is to try to give people
the best solutions in light of their needs and the
aging process that I can.
Q: What role does technology play in achieving
that mission?
A: When we moved into these new offices, I
also updated all of the computers. We made a
significant investment in computer systems. So, I
can meet with a client in any of my three locations
and I have every bit of information that I have
sitting in my Smithtown office.
Q: Have you had any cybersecurity
issues?
A: Fortunately, we haven’t had any
breaches. We’re fully protected
with whatever technology the IT
people installed on the computers
when we moved the offices. So,
we have all the requisite firewalls
and security things and whatever
it is the IT people said we need to
protect ourselves. We have all the
technology – brand new – that’s
designed to best protect us and
our clients.
Q: Is there a common piece of
advice that you find applies to
all your clients?
A: There’s no question about it:
Some planning, even if it’s very
simple, is better than no planning.
Anybody over the age of 18 needs
to do some planning, even if it’s
Futterman, Lanza & Pasculli, LLP: Elder-Law Attorneys,
Now Times Three at Three Convenient LI Locations
a simple healthcare proxy. The scenario where
the clients get into trouble is when they’ve done
nothing. Those are the real bad cases. That’s where
people could really be impacted.
Q: What is the biggest challenge that your firm
is facing?
A: The biggest challenge I’ve had in the last year
and a half is I’m managing now three separate,
fully functioning offices. There are many more
cases now than we had when it was just a single
office. And the way I’m dealing with that is I’ve
actually made an investment in human resources
and we’ve hired extra people to assist me and to
help me with these things so that I have more
time to make sure these offices are running right.
Q: What do you like best about your job?
A: My favorite thing to do is to actually meet
with the clients, find out what their needs and
their wants are, what their concerns are and come
up with a legal solution that fits their needs. If I
could do that all day long and not have any other
responsibilities, I’d be happy. And the reason I
like that is because what you’re doing is you’re
collaborating with people, trying to come up with
a solution that everyone is happy with.
Q: What misperceptions about your firm may
people have that you’d like to correct?
A: There’s one that always bothers me. There’s
this perception that we help wealthy people with
millions of dollars beat the system.
And that’s not true. Very few of
my clients are multimillionaires.
Most of my clients are middle-class
people that come to me for advice
because they can’t afford special
insurance for long-term care and
they want to protect themselves.
Custom Computer Specialists
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To learn more about Custom
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Right People. Right Results.®
Spotlight Long Island
LEFT TO RIGHT: Felicia Pasculli, Aaron E. Futterman and Ronald S. Lanza
Smithtown location
(Also, offifices in Garden City and Bay Shore)
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