A bio box for Frederick Misilo
Updated: November 25, 2024
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2024 Champions of Health Care
Champions of Health Care: Misilo advocates and educates for those with special needs
Photo | Courtesy of Fletcher Tilton
Frederick Misilo, shareholder at Fletcher Tilton
By Laura Finaldi
A lawyer by trade, Frederick Misilo has always been passionate about helping people with disabilities.
In college, he worked for community-based programs and in institutional settings. When he graduated, he ran a nonprofit providing residential and family support services in Greater Boston. After he started practicing law, he wondered how he could blend together his new career as a lawyer with his passion for helping people.
“I was thinking, ‘How can I integrate all the non-legal work that I’ve done in health and human services with a legal background? What's the alchemy there?’” he said. “What that led me to was trust and estate work, primarily emphasizing the special needs aspect.”
Misilo’s work brought him to the public sector; he served as deputy commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services during the Gov. Bill Weld Administration. For the past 28 years, he has worked at Fletcher Tilton, where he is chair of the firm’s trust and estate department. In the community, he serves as board chair for Worcester insurer Fallon Health.
“From my very first conversation with Fred, it was clear that his commitment to public health and his passion for advocating for and with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities set him apart as a healthcare leader,” Fallon President and CEO Manny Lopes said.
A key part of Fletcher Tilton’s offerings is its annual special needs planning webinar. Originally a daylong, in-person seminar, the service shifted to a three-session webinar series during the COVID pandemic. The idea, Misilo said, is to equip family members who may be asked to support another family member with an intellectual disability with the best possible information.
Special needs planning is a multi-faceted and complicated issue, Misilo said. It involves figuring out eligibility for government benefits, figuring out social determinants of health for the family member, and guarding them from financial exploitation.
“For many family members, this is a daunting obligation. We break it up into three separate webinar series to teach them: What is a trust? What are the necessary obligations of serving as a trustee? What is the government landscape?” he said. “It’s an attempt to equip them with the basic information to decide if they want to serve as a trustee or if they need to hire people who can help them or serve as a trustee.
“The ever-present question that parents have about their son or daughter with a disability is, ‘What’s going to happen when we die? Who can provide advocacy for our loved one?’ The torch is usually passed to the sibling of the beneficiary, but sometimes professional trustees can fill that role,” he said.
The seminar is offered free of charge, Misilo said. Although he chairs the trust and estate practice, Misilo said it’s really a collaborative effort: The idea came from another attorney at the firm, and the series includes multiple presenters.
Offering the seminar for free is part of Fletcher Tilton’s commitment to community service, he said.
“We believe the more informed families are of what options they have available to them, the better decisions they’re going to make,” Misilo said.
Fallon’s focus on public health insurance is partly what led to Misilo wanting to serve on its board and as chairman, as the insurer exists to serve the community, he said.
“As chair of the Fallon Health board, he demonstrates a deep commitment to the organization’s mission,” Lopes said. “He is steadfast in maintaining as the board’s utmost priority the needs of the communities we serve.”
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