ESTATE PLANNING PROCESS
Our family wealth plan (estate plan +) development process is designed to ensure your confidence at each step along the way from our first meeting through the delivery of your completed plan documents and beyond. Every decision is reviewed with you multiple times and yet the entire process doesn’t stretch out beyond 8 weeks. Also important to know is that within ONE MONTH after your first meeting with me, your family could be totally protected.
We believe that it’s the perfect combination of efficiency and warmth.
Our estate plan development process begins with you making an appointment for a personal Family Wealth Planning Session with me. This meeting is typically scheduled for the second week after you call unless there is some factor that requires accelerated planning, such as upcoming major surgery.
Within two days after your call, you will receive our confidential Family Wealth Inventory and Assessment to complete and return. We must have this Family Wealth Inventory and Assessment returned to us at least three days prior to your Family Wealth Planning Session so we will have enough time to understand the specifics of your family wealth before our meeting and not waste your time or ours.
At your Family Wealth Planning Session, we will determine whether there is a good fit between us. If two people will be involved in the planning, both must be present at ALL meetings, including the Family Wealth Planning Session.
During your Family Wealth Planning Session, we will walk you through exactly what your loved ones would have to do and where your assets would go if something happened to you with your current state of planning.
You will then be able to determine if there is anything about your current plan (or the state’s plan if you have no personal plan) that you wouldn’t like and you’ll get clear on what you would want your loved ones to have to do and where you would want your assets to go if something happened to you.
Assuming there is a good fit between us, we will help you to choose the planning level and fee range that is right for your family. We have four different planning levels to accommodate your needs. Our planning fees begin at $1,500 and are typically in the $4,000 to $6,000 range. They are all inclusive, so there are no surprises. If we decide to work together, before your Family Wealth Planning Session ends, working together we will design a plan that will give you the peace of mind of knowing your family will be taken care of in the event the unthinkable happens.
You will then return to our office about four weeks later for the Signing Ceremony at which you will sign all of your planning documents. Your family and assets will then be totally protected in the event of your death, subject only to completion of the plan funding process. During those four weeks, we will have several communications to make sure that what we are preparing is exactly correct.
In traditional estate planning law firms, the relationship ends there — with the signing of the documents. You leave with them under your arm and your head spinning from data overload — you are then on your own.
This is where our law firm really begins to be very different. For example, we don’t deliver your documents to you when you sign them.
Unlike a traditional estate planning firm, we see the Signing Ceremony for your efamily wealth plan documents as only a milestone in our relationship with you and your family, not the end of the journey. So, we work with you for about the next four weeks as needed to make sure your trust is properly funded and then we meet with you again to deliver your documents to you, review the status of funding, and begin the process of capturing your Intellectual, Spiritual, and Human Wealth for transfer to future generations.
If your plan is not properly updated over time, your documents become worth no more than the paper they were written on.
As your assets change, as your family changes, as the law changes, all of those changes must be accommodated. And we do all we can to makes sure that happens by communicating with you regularly, by being available to review your plan at least every three years (at no additional charge), and by keeping you informed so you can make the best possible decisions for your family during your lifetime and can have the peace of mind of knowing that we will be here for the people you love most in the event of your incapacity or death.
If this sounds like the kind of relationship you are looking for, please contact us so we can schedule time for you to meet with one of our lawyers. Click here to do that ► Getting Started