Hello, I am Amanda!

I’m a lifelong learner, systems-oriented entrepreneur, and someone who’s not afraid to dig in and do the work. My journey hasn’t been easy or linear. 

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I’ve seen firsthand how devastating it can be when families don’t have access to estate planning. I grew up low socioeconomic status, where money was always tight and access to services and information felt reserved for those with power and privilege. I was a "free and reduced lunch" kid, my father was a day-laborer and my mother worked retail for most of my life. Growing up just outside of Westchester County, New York, I like to say I "won the zip code lottery." I attended some of the best public schools in the country and was surrounded by friends and family who knew doctors, lawyers, scientists, and engineers. All of my friends and my friends' siblings were going to college and despite my family's circumstances, educational success was normalized for me. 

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What little wealth my family had was tied up in my grandmother’s home. She worked hard her entire life to provide for her family, as a single mother, and that home represented the fruits of her labor. But because she didn’t have an estate plan, we lost everything. The home, and the modest wealth it represented, was entirely consumed by the probate process, medical care, and legal fees. I know that if my grandmother had access to information, she could have made different and more informed choices

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At the time, I was working in higher education, fighting systemic injustices in the ivory tower. But this personal loss hit me deeply. It made me realize how critical estate planning is for families like mine and how inaccessible it often feels. That’s what drove me back to the law to become an estate planning attorney. I didn’t want any other family to experience what mine did. I wanted to make estate planning accessible, ethical, and empathetic, especially for those who feel like the system isn’t designed for them. Because of my background in education and public speaking, truth-telling to my community is how I accomplish this goal. My grandmother's legacy turned out not to be her family home, but this business - Legacy Gurus. Now, I get to empower families and help prevent what happened to my family from happening to others.

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I launched my first business in 2010 to help fund my way through law school. That business still exists helping athletes succeed in long-distance running. Academically, I’ve always pushed myself to excel. I graduated summa cum laude from Michigan State College of Law, passed the New York Bar Exam using only my notes (no review course), and 9 years later, scored in the top 1% of the Universal Bar Exam. I don’t just know the law—I obsess over it - as does my entire team here at Legacy Gurus. 

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My passion for education led me to develop asynchronous and synchronous online courses long before the world embraced virtual learning and that's why I strive to explain estate planning in a way that is approachable and easily understandable - non of this "legal jargon" (unless you're into that sort of thing! I love Latin!).

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At Legacy Gurus™, my goal is simple: I let my values guide me and I help families create lasting legacies—efficiently, expertly, and with love.

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In my free time, you can find me running with my rescue dog, Cypher. She is a Shepard-husky mix and the greatest athlete I have ever known (and that's saying something because I have trained with Olympians!). I rescued her, but she saved me.