“Widlast Legal, specifically Lara and Janis, have been instrumental in the management of my father’s safety and wellbeing.  My father had a dramatic change in his physical ability and needed to be moved into a higher level of care.  He and I are both medical professionals, but we were absolutely in uncharted waters when it came to navigating the world of medical insurance, Medi-Cal/Medicaid benefits, in-patient care facilities, management of finances, financial planning, and maintaining general sanity during this difficult life change.  Lara and Janis have been there to guide and support us when we had no concept of what to do or how to do it.  They are knowledgeable, reliable, responsive, patient, warm, professional, and most importantly, excellent advocates for their clients.  My father and I will be forever grateful for the skillful and compassionate assistance we received and have continued to receive from Widlast Legal.  We highly recommend Widlast Legal to individuals and their loved ones who require legal assistance.  We have accomplished and learned so much thanks to them and could not be more grateful.”

– Mikela Z.

“If I hadn’t hired Lara and Janis I would’ve lost the family property and any funds that my family was entitled to. I would not have known what direction to go to in order to prevent that from happening. When I sat down with Janis and Lara and they explained the process of probate to me, it made me feel like I wasn’t alone anymore in the situation, and that I had this wonderful team to work with me and to help me navigate court.”

–  Jinaye B.

“Janis is so patient. She’s a wonderful person and has so much patience. We have been connected to the firm through the years so as things change, they’ll contact me and let me know if there’s something that needs to be done, or if we need to upgrade something in the trust; so it feels really comfortable here… I don’t have to worry about my kids. If anything happens to me or to my husband my kids know to call Janis and Lara. Everybody here has been so easy to work with so nice.”

– Julie M.

“We were getting to be in our 70s and we knew that it was time for the estate plan to be updated. Our attorney had retired and we just put it off until we found a little advertisement in the newspaper that Janis posted about education for estate plans. When we learned Lara was coming on board that was a big plus because here was the successor as Janis herself ages. I feel very comfortable knowing that we have a plan and it’s with a person that I am very familiar with.”

– Don & Mary S.

“We had done a basic living trust back in the early 90s when our kids were young but later on my daughter was having a lot of health issues and so we needed to get a special needs trust. My husband then ended up having health issues and we were worried about becoming destitute and needed to update our living trust. It was really stressful because in order to provide for his care we would need to spend down our assets. Janis had the experience to help us. We really relied on Janis and she stood out with her breadth of experience. I felt she was extremely well prepared before I even brought up the needs we were needing to have addressed. Having the peace of mind to go forward with Janis took a big load off of my shoulders.”

– Carla & Bill H.

“I already had a trust, and I had my trust updated by an attorney not too long before I met Janis. I was comfortable with what I was doing – I thought it was OK because I didn’t know! I found out when you’re at my age you need an attorney that knows elder law so that’s what I came to Janis for. I would recommend her to anyone. I think she’s a great person. Her office is very friendly, I feel like it’s kind of like a family here.”

– Karen W.

We started working with Janis Carney and her team a year ago after attending her estate planning presentation. In our initial interview, she clearly explained the process we would follow to create our estate plan, with documents showing the process and milestones. She also clearly explained the service pricing. Her pricing and billing are transparent and we always understand what we are paying for at each step. Janis and Daniel worked patiently with us to understand our requirements and incorporate those into the plan. Several times they were able to suggest options that brought our plan closer to satisfying what we really wanted, rather than what we thought we wanted at the outset. At the end of the process, we felt completely satisfied that the plan met our needs. We are impressed with the thoroughness of the plan. When we see articles about estate planning in the news and online, we find that issues in the articles that apply to our situation have already been addressed in our estate plan. That gives us great confidence in the quality of the estate plan they created for us. The plan also offers enough flexibility to evolve as we continue to age and our needs change. To that end, we are happy she has an ongoing service to address changes in the tax and legal environment and changes in our needs. We felt that they took all our concerns seriously, whether about the documents or about the process. They always responded quickly and thoughtfully to our calls and emails. Janis addressed our questions about document and data security honestly and completely. Not only is their practice serious about security, but they continue to improve, adding a data portal for secure messaging and document sharing. We would not hesitate to recommend Janis and her team. They are professional, patient, and complete and dedicated to quality.  

– Tom

“Janis Carney was recommended to my husband & I many years ago…..way back in the early ’90’s……. shortly after she began her law practice.
We found her to be delightful to work with.
We had, what I thought at the time, quite a complicated trust to be written, as it was a second marriage and involved two families.
Janis was so thorough and worked so diligently to cover everything we requested of her.
She worked long, hard hours on this trust, I am sure.
She interviewed us several times.
When completed, she handed us a thick beautiful binder, beautifully written,
well researched, and covered everything necessary to protect us.
To this day, I cherish this binder. It means so much to me.
At the time of my husband’s passing, I found I needed this protection and I was, and of course still am, so grateful for what Janis did for us.
My children will be very grateful for this document at the time they will need it.
Thank you, Janis Carney, for taking good care of me.

Now, many years later, I have had the opportunity to attend several of her workshops or seminars. She is always so well prepared and covers everything we need to know on her chosen subject of the day.
Janis is always very polite, answers questions, and is so knowledgeable.

On a scale of one to 10, Janis is definitely way above that.
She also becomes a friend.
As you can see, “I highly recommend her.”

– Marilyn H.

The information, products, and service Janis and Don (Quante) provide are invaluable. My husband has worked hard through the years to provide a comfortable life for us in retirement. The big uncertainty in recent years has been how we would provide for his health care needs without depleting our resources and causing me to become destitute.

Although we’re dealing with a lot of unknowns regarding my husband’s health, it’s a huge relief to have an answer to the question of how we’re going to pay for it. I highly recommend Janis and Don!

– Glenda

I found Janis and her entire team to be a very accomplished and professional company dedicated to helping similar people in my position, caring for an older parent and navigating the difficulties associated with that process.

Responsive, problem solver, and thorough are the first words that come to mind when I think back on our relationship.

She and her company made a very difficult situation very manageable and I am extremely grateful.

– Scott

I couldn’t be happier with the services, compassion, and amazing followup Carney Elder Law offers its clients. We love you all!

– Sally