Clients Come First

Blyss Cruz

Attorney

Hello! I’m Blyss Cruz, your neighborhood Personal Family Lawyer®.

As the owner and founding attorney of Cruz Law, my estate planning practice focuses on helping families enhance their lives today and secure their legacies for tomorrow. I can't emphasize enough the importance of proper planning, and you need the right person to guide you through the often-confusing maze of financial and legal decisions to create a plan that ensures the well-being of your family after you’re gone.

My goal is to be your trusted advisor who helps you make the very best personal, financial, and legal decisions for your family throughout your lifetime. I want to help you not just now, but also when you can’t be there. I can help guide your loved ones through a difficult process.

In short, my focus is to help families avoid collapse after the death or disability of a loved one.

With that in mind, I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself and why I think I'm the right person for the job.

My Background

I have lived in Alaska nearly all of my life and have been in Anchorage since 2007. During that time, I worked in special credits dealing with troubled loans and bank-owned properties at Northrim Bank while earning my MBA and raising two children with my husband. After leaving the banking industry, I went to work for nearly ten years at the Municipality of Anchorage as the manager of tax enforcement and delinquent court-ordered fine collection.During my time at the Municipality, my staff and I implemented two new tax programs: the Marijuana Retail Sales Tax and the Motor Fuel Excise Tax, which generate nearly $20 million in annual Municipal revenue.

But going to law school has always been my dream. So, when I discovered Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, the first - and only - law school in the United States to offer an American Bar Association-approved Juris Doctor program with equal portions of instruction online and on campus, I decided to turn that dream into a reality. The hybrid program permitted me to continue living and working in Anchorage while completing my law degree.

While at Mitchell Hamline, a classmate and I won the Moot Court Appellate Advocacy Competition, and I was an assistant editor of the Mitchell Hamline Law Review. I also became certified in Trauma-Informed Advocacy. I graduated cum laude and became a member of the Alaska Bar in 2019.

After graduation, I served as a law clerk at the Anchorage Superior Court to the Honorable Kevin M. Saxby from 2019 - 2020, and to the Honorable Thomas A. Matthews from 2020 - 2021.

Why I Chose Estate Planning

During my time working at the court, I learned more than I ever thought possible, and I will forever be grateful for the mentorship of both judges I had the honor of working for. But the most valuable lesson I learned was that I did not want to be a litigator, nor did I want to immerse myself in conflict, day in and day out. I knew I needed to find a better way to use my law degree to help others that did not involve fighting with opposing counsel every day. That's when I found estate planning.

Professionally, my background is well-suited for this practice area, as it is comprised of legal knowledge, as well as nearly thirty years of experience as a financial professional in banking and special credits, including a decade of public service in the Finance Department of the Municipality of Anchorage. I also understand the challenges involved with owning and operating a business, aside from my law practice, as I assist my husband with running a successful general contracting business here in Anchorage. I incorporate this knowledge into my law practice and use it to develop planning strategies for individuals and business owners, with a focus on family protection, wealth preservation, and values-based planning.

Personally, I have experienced the harsh reality of what incapacity and death are like when even basic foundational planning isn't in place. My father passed away in June of 2021, after spending nearly two weeks in the ICU. It was unexpected and I didn't have time to say all of the things I wished I had said, and I'm sure he didn't either. We had never had the tough discussions about end-of-life planning, and so I watched my mom make one heart-wrenching decision after another because he did not have a healthcare directive in place. The experience solidified my decision to pursue this practice area, knowing that if I could help even one family avoid what mine went through, I would be using my hard-earned law degree for the greater good.

I have thrown myself into learning everything I can about wills, trusts, and estate plans, which is a practice area that I hadn’t really thought much about since my Trusts & Estates class in law school and the studying I did in the subject area for the Bar Exam. Since delving into extensive training, I have drafted my family's plan--which did not exist until I started down this career path, and I have such peace of mind knowing that I'm doing the right thing for my loved ones and that my goals and wishes will be carried out when I'm no longer here to do so myself.

I want you to know you’ve made a big step toward gaining your own peace of mind simply by reading this. And once you’ve completed your estate plan, you can reclaim the energy you’ve been spending thinking about how you need to get it done.

We have many resources for you so you can ensure your family and loved ones stay out of court and out of conflict, if and when something happens to you. Browse around, see what we have, and feel free to request any of the resources we have for you, complimentary.

As your Personal Family Lawyer® I’d love to start protecting the people you love and everything else you care about today. I look forward to meeting you!

Giselle Koch

Client services Director

My name is Giselle Koch, and I am the Client Services Director at Cruz Law. I was born in Puerto Rico and lived there for a few years until my parents moved us to Anchorage, Alaska. I have been very grateful to call Alaska home for most of my life. This is where I met my wonderful husband, and we are now raising our beautiful children here.

I am a University of Alaska Anchorage graduate with a bachelor’s degree in English. When I was a little girl, I had two dream jobs: being a professional dancer or a lawyer. Working at Cruz Law is allowing me to dive into one of those worlds.

My work history includes being a daycare teacher and working in sales, along with positions at the Municipality of Anchorage in the Information Technology and Public Transportation departments. I have also taken paid positions and volunteered my time with various religious and political organizations, working in leadership roles and with youth of all ages. I have many years of experience working with the families and community of Anchorage.

I am able to bring my experience and knowledge of working with families to Cruz Law, alongside Blyss, who dedicates herself and her law practice to protecting and helping our local families for the future.

At Cruz Law, LLC we guarantee that we will work hard to protect your loved ones as if they were family, with personalized estate plans that are thorough to every last detail specifically for your family, so that you and your family never have to worry and wonder: what do we do now?

We at Cruz Law hope to provide you and your family with the peace of mind and ease that comes from knowing everything you have worked for will be taken care of.

I look forward to meeting and working with you and doing my part to assist in serving the Anchorage community, and all of Alaska, in making this process as smooth as possible.