Our Unique Process to Help Clients Create their Estate Plan

In our office we have a fairly well defined process for helping clients create their estate plan.  We constantly review this process & our systems to improve the experience for our clients and to insure that we are delivering state of the art legal assistance.

When a prospective client calls the office, they will speak with my assistant.  My assistant will go over the big picture of our process on the phone.  They review our fee structure and if you are ready to move forward, my assistant will set the initial appointment with me.  When that initial appointment will be set is a construct of my calendar availability, which ebbs and flows.

We do not send anything out in advance and we don’t require anything to be completed in advance.  We send an email a month in advance with an outline of what to expect at the first appointment.  Then, we also do reminder calls leading up to the appointment, including one week before and the day before.

At the initial appointment I will ask how can I help you, if needed I will do a brief overview of what the main planning options are, and if the client(s) is ready to move forward, I will simply start asking a bunch of questions.  The questions are walking the client through all the choices and data points needed to create their comprehensive estate plan.

At the end of that conversation, I will quote a flat fee within our current ranges of fees and then we will set the next appointment which for the majority of our clients is the signing appointment.  You will leave that first appointment with a folder that contains your homework notes, so you know what additional information or answers are needed, as well as any other helpful reminders.

When needed, instead of a planned signing, the next appointment can be a further review and discussion appointment.  Once we get the process started, we will use appointments as the mechanism to keep you moving forward to completion.  We will mail a confirmation letter and invoice in between appointments.

At the signing appointment, my assistant typically will begin this appointment by facilitating the review of the various key points of the estate plan, including but not limited to “the name sheet”; “the cut-out”; and asset information.  If all is on track then the notary will collect ids for the notary book.  I will then personally meet with the client(s) to recap and answer questions, make changes if needed, etc.  If all is in order, the documents are then signed, that is when they become effective, the client(s) pays and we move directly into the funding stage – if it is a trust based estate plan.

Our fees are all inclusive – except for recording costs, future deeds and future changes to the documents themselves.

The main part of the process is a two meeting affair for the majority of our estate planning clients.  However, if needed we can, and do, have 3 or 4 meetings.  Sometimes a phone call in the middle of the main appointments helps.  The goal is to help the client(s) feel as comfortable as they can that their intent and goal is properly represented in their estate planning documents – and to complete the estate planning documents.  ALL meetings to create the plan and future “review only” meetings are included in our one flat fee.

A typical appointment for a single individual runs about an hour, to an hour and a half.  For a couple – we typically allocate two hours & these appointments last on average an hour and a half to two hours.

We actively help clients “fund” their trust – or transfer assets to the trust – this time and effort is included in the one flat fee.

The time between the initial appointment and the “signing” appointment is based on your availability and my calendar.  It can be as quick as 3 to 4 weeks or a couple of months.

If a client has an urgency (based on travel, health, surgery, etc.) when we have the bandwidth, we will attempt to assist clients with their deadlines based on my availability.  When we do not have the bandwidth, then we are happy to refer to others who may be able to assist on a quick turn around. When we are able to help in “urgent” situations, we do not charge a higher fee for rushing.

Because payment is due at the second appointment – we can upon request delay the signing to allow time to “save” towards the payment.  We do take all credit cards for your convenience.

This is more or less the big picture of how we help the majority of our clients create their estate plan.

Or goal is to help a client in the simplest way possible.  We strive to help people move forward to completion once they have begun the process and we try to not overburden anyone.

For more information – or to set an appointment – call the office at 925-447-0134.