Joseph R. Burcke, Esq.

What Makes Attorney Joseph R. Burcke Uniquely Qualified To Represent You?

Joseph R. Burcke is a St. Louis, Missouri based attorney whose practice focuses upon estate planning issues, including representation of disabled individuals and their families. He provides clients advice upon the appropriate use of Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorney, Non-probate beneficiary designations and other legal techniques to maintain client control of assets, avoid needless costs of probate in the event of disability or death, prevent impoverishment as a result of nursing home costs, and minimize estate and gift taxes and related costs.

Joe is devoted entirely to helping families preserve and protect their future and the futures of their children through appropriate estate planning. This includes development of Wills, Trusts, and sophisticated planning techniques for clients, as well as Trust and Estate Administration, Elder Law Planning, including Medicaid, Special Needs and Life Care Planning issues. He has helped thousands of people who are concerned about protecting their families from the devastating legal effects of disability and death. Through public and private seminars, professional continuing education seminars and numerous articles, both for other attorneys and the general public, Joe strives to inform other professionals and the public of the need to properly plan for the future. He is dedicated to helping people protect their children, their assets, provide for their loved ones and plan for life’s contingencies through proper estate planning.

He understands the concerns that both young and old have to best protect their family’s economic and personal well being. That is why every plan is hand crafted to specifically address each client’s individual concerns. His aim is to help you accomplish your estate planning goals and to take the mystery out of the planning process. During an initial consultation, you will discuss your needs and he will make recommendations as to how to best achieve your goals.

His special awareness of the need for proper estate planning for the benefit of disabled individuals first arose by virtue of his participation in the formation of The Independence Through Employment special workshop in St. Louis Missouri, of which he served as a Director and Officer. He is also a past director of the St. Louis Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the St. Louis Chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association. He is also a past director of Payback, a not for profit corporation developed in association with the circuit courts of both the city and county of St. Louis. Payback seeks to raise funds for use by the juvenile courts in support of their restorative justice programs, the purposes of which are to teach juvenile offenders social responsibility to reduce recurrence of juvenile criminal offenses.

Joe has been serving clients in the Metropolitan St. Louis area and throughout the state of Missouri for more than 49 years in the practice areas of estate planning and administration, disability planning and probate avoidance planning. A graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law and St. Louis University.

He is  AV Preeminent® rated by Martindale Hubbell,(the highest professional rating available both as to ethics and professionalism) and has been named a “Top Rated Lawyer in Trusts and Estates” and a “Top Rated Lawyer in Litigation”. He serves on the Missouri Bar Probate and Trust Law Committee.

The “AV Preeminent” rating is the pinnacle of professional excellence earned through a strenuous peer review process that is managed and monitored by the world’s most trusted legal resource, Martindale Hubbell.

Joe is the doting father of two beautiful, adult daughters, Meg and Jill. A former soccer coach, avid skier, and long distance bike rider, he prefers reading to TV viewing and is one the last holdouts to a cable or satellite TV subscription.

License:

• Licensed for 49 years

Work Experience:

• Owner – Joseph R. Burcke, L.L.C. (2009 – Present)

Education:

• University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law – J.D. (1975)
• St. Louis University – Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude (1972)