A personal consultation with an experienced attorney is the essential first step in preparing an estate plan. That's why our consultations are a full 60 minutes.  This will give us time to learn about you and your needs.  

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Your first meeting with an estate planning attorney may seem a little daunting, especially if you’ve never consulted an attorney before. There’s no need to worry, however. This meeting is just a conversation in which we will find out about you, your family, and your goals. After you’ve shared this information, we will be able to recommend a range of estate planning tools, helping you tailor a plan that meets your needs.

 

Getting to Know You

 

At the start of your consultation, we will ask you questions about you, your family, and your finances. Some of the areas of your life that you may need to share about are those that can impact the type  of planning you’ll need to protect your assets and family, including:

 

Whether you’re married,

How many children and grandchildren you have,

Whether you’ve had any previous marriages,

Your age and the ages of the people in your family,

What assets you own, the value of those assets, and how they’re titled,

Whether you currently have a Will, a Trust, or other estate planning

documents, and

Which people you want to put in charge of your money, your children, and other important aspects of your life in case you die or become disabled.

 

Sometimes, clients have personal situations they are hesitant to share with anyone – even their attorney. If this is your situation, the questions we ask may seem uncomfortable or intrusive. The reason these questions are asked is so that we know what issues to anticipate. This way, we can help you plan around them.

 

First and foremost, remember that the information you tell us will remain confidential unless you give permission to disclose it. Second, the reason we need to know is to design a tailored estate plan that accomplishes your goals.

 

Putting Your Plan in Place

 

After we gathers all your information, we will review your goals with you and discuss the best strategies for achieving those goals.  We will agree on the appropriate strategies, and we will put together a set of documents that carries out these strategies. For example, we may advise you to have a living trust to help you maintain control of your assets during your lifetime, while keeping those assets out of probate at your death.  We may also recommend powers of attorney to designate who will make financial and medical decisions for you, if you become unable to handle these matters for yourself.

 

Our job is to put together a plan that achieves your goals, and to ensure you understand how it works. When you leave your consultation, you should know the basic framework of your estate plan as well as the basic purpose for each part of your plan. You should also know what to expect from the estate planning process: the next steps and whose responsibility they are.

 

After you establish an estate plan tailored to your needs, you’ll have peace of mind and be able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing your future is secure!

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