Pennsylvania Estate Planning & Administration Blog
Bonnie Smith Moses
Direct Dial 215.496.2904
Fax 215.658.0747
600 Easton Road
Willow Grove, PA 19090
Bonnie Smith Moses is one of the founding partners of Dessen, Moses & Rossitto. She was awarded her Juris Doctorate degree from the Temple University School of law in 1978, and her Masters of Law degree in Taxation from the same law school in 1981. She is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as well as the United States Supreme Court and the United States Tax Court. Always academic by nature, Bonnie is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies and was on the staff of Temple Law Review. She was an adjunct professor teaching Business Law and the Legal Environment of Business at Arcadia University (formerly Beaver College) from 1982 through 2008.
While Bonnie has always considered herself a true general practitioner, and although she has handled a wide and diverse variety of cases throughout her long legal career, she is most passionate about everyone having their estate planning documents prepared early and revised often. She has experienced first-hand the problems associated with aging and ill parents, and often says that while the tragedies of life befall all of us, we can at least make it easier on those we love by making sure that our documents are in place before the inevitable problem arises. She recognizes that not everyone can afford to pay for the preparation of their documents in one payment, and so she offers a wide variety of payment plans (including no charge for the “under 30” crowd), and routinely donates free estate planning documents to many charitable auctions, including Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Temple Spin Auction and the Legal Clinic for the Disabled.
The wide breadth of her wide general practice experience has made her aware of how the problems associated with divorce and other family law issues, real estate ventures, elderly competency problems, and the like affect the preparation of estate planning documents, and her clients get the benefit of her years of legal and life experience. Sensitive to the fears that people have that as soon as they get their documents done something terrible will happen, she mixes wit and humor into her client interviews, and her clients spend a lot of time in her office laughing along with her, while she relates real-life situations to them, draws pictures so they can visualize complicated legal terms and makes every effort to have them understand the various documents she believes they need prepared. Married with two adult daughters and one granddaughter, she has accrued enough stories about her real family and her family of clients to make every person understand that they can tell her anything, no matter how private or personal, and that she will never be judgmental of them or their family lives. Bonnie is a warm and genuine woman who has likely experienced many of the same experiences through life that she frequently shares with her clients.
Enthusiastic about people and energetic about life, Bonnie has always been involved in numerous charitable activities. She is a Life Fellow of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, has been a member of the American Prepaid Legal Services Institute (“API”) for about 20 years and has been the chairperson of the national educational Conference Committee for API for the past 15 years. She has served in a wide variety of leadership roles in Girls Inc. of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, the Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and the Jewish Heritage Program. She has also been involved with a number of other charities as a board member, volunteer attorney, mentor and other assorted roles. She has written many legal articles and has spoken at numerous conferences on various legal subjects. She has received community honors such as “Super Lawyer” and “Woman of Vision of Montgomery County” for her wide philanthropic efforts.
Samuel A. Rossitto
Direct Dial 215.242.3830
Fax 215.242.6750
86 Bethlehem Pike, Suite 200
Philadelphia, PA 19118
Samuel A. Rossitto, originally from Wilmington, Delaware, has lived, worked and raised a family in the Chestnut Hill section of Pennsylvania for over 20 years. After graduating from the University of Delaware in 1977 and from Villanova Law School in 1980, Sam joined the Law Firm of Dessen, Moses & Rossitto (then called “Dessen, Moses & Sheinoff”) in 1986. In 1989, he moved his practice from Center City to manage the firm’s Chestnut Hill office and was promoted to partner in 2005.
During the past 30 years, Sam has handled literally thousands of legal matters for individuals and businesses – cases ranging “from A-doptions to Z-oning”. His general law practice is concentrated in the areas of Family Law, Inheritance Law, Wills & Estate Planning and Divorce Mediation. Sam also has extensive experience in Real Estate Law, Small Business Law, Consumer Law, and Civil Litigation.
Sam was one of the first attorneys in the Philadelphia region to include Divorce Mediation as part of his law practice. Receiving many referrals from family therapists and attorneys, Sam is considered by many as one of most experienced and talented professionals in this field. Sam serves as an adjunct assistant professor for Temple Law School’s Philadelphia Family Court Custody mediation course.
In the areas of Estates, Estate Planning, Inheritance Law and Wills, Sam has handled many complex cases, some involving dozens of heirs with very complicated issues of law. Sam sees the challenge of this area of practice as balancing the need for compassion and understanding with clients who have lost loved ones with helping them carry out the many duties legally required of them in the complex world of estate administration. In addition, he has prepared hundreds of wills, Powers of Attorney, Special Needs Trusts and the like for his clients’ estate planning needs. He uses his wide general practice experience, especially his extensive family law practice and his mediation skills, to assist his clients with insight into how devastating domestic and other issues can be to the family unit.
Sam sees correlations in his work as a lawyer/mediation with his love of music, singing, composing and piano playing. He helps disputing parties harmonize and see common ground leading to resolution. Like music, complex cases often involve many individuals with unique personalities, needs and interests – all of which need to be understood and orchestrated to achieve positive, balanced results for the many parties involved in the various legal issues. His years of Yoga training helps him to keep the sometimes disjointed members of the family unit calm and focused on the main goal – getting the job done and the matter resolved. His soft and quiet approach to the resolution of estate matters, both pre-death and post-death, has caused his practice to continue to grow steadily.
Hope S. Bosniak
Direct Dial 215.496.2914
Fax 215.658.0747
600 Easton Road
Willow Grove, PA 19090
Hope S. Bosniak was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1982. A Dean’s List graduate from the Temple University School of Law where she received her Juris Doctorate, she also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech, Communications and Rhetoric from Temple University.
Hope was a general practitioner for most of her legal career. However, unlike Bonnie Moses and Sam Rossitto, Hope’s legal and business career did not follow the traditional path. Hers was enhanced when, as a young attorney, she was recruited to become the financial manager of a medical practice for several years. This experience allowed her to become intimately knowledgeable about the financial and managerial aspects of running a business, as well as managing people in distress. Utilizing this background and knowledge in the medical field, she later practiced casualty and medical malpractice defense and assisted in the defense of hospitals, physicians and other health care professionals. A highlight of her career was her involvement in a successful trial and defense of a high-exposure defamation case in which plaintiff’s demand was $83 million.
While she originally came to Dessen, Moses and Rossitto as a general practitioner, over the past few years, Hope has become increasingly engaged in the estates field, which has captured her enthusiasm. Her experience, accessibility and rapport with clients and estate beneficiaries alike make her a wonderful addition to the firm’s Estate Team. She enjoys focusing on her clients’ needs, whether they require her to accompany them to the Register of Wills office to help them initiate the probate process, or in complicated administration and maneuvering of legal issues and tasks that arise during through the estate quagmire. She has exhibited her valuable skills in drafting the legal documents that are part of the estate process and in negotiating complicated settlements and truces for family squabbles. Patience is one of her many attributes, one that she finds herself exercising regularly because handling estates can often be a tedious matter. Kind-hearted and compassionate by nature, Hope’s legal assistance is also appreciated by family members whose elderly relatives need assistance in initiating guardianship procedures. She also handles many other domestic matters such as adoptions, custody and support issues with the same tenacity and competence that she exhibits in her estate work. Her clients adore her charming and pleasant ways, and they embrace her keen knowledge of the complexities of their individual legal needs.