Getting Started
Getting started with your estate plan couldn't be easier.
Complete the Confidential Estate Planning Information Form.
This form provides the basic information we need to make our planning recommendations to you. You may download the appropriate form by clicking on the title below. By choosing the fillable form, you will be asked to fill in the form, save it to your computer and e-mail it to us. This requires that you have Adobe Reader, which is free software. We recommend that you use the latest version. To get or update Adobe Reader click here. If you are unable to download this form, please contact us and we will mail a copy to you.
Schedule a Meeting.
Contact us to schedule the initial meeting. If health or mobility is a factor, we will do our best to accommodate you at your home, hospital or nursing facility. Please provide us with the completed Confidential Estate Planning Information form prior to our first meeting.
First Meeting.
Depending on the complexity of your estate plan, the first meeting should take about 90 minutes. We will discuss your estate planning objectives, review your financial information, consider the effect of estate taxes (if any), determine if trust planning is appropriate for children or other beneficiaries, address the advantages of minimizing probate administration using funded revocable trusts ("living trusts"), and review the options for selecting executors, trustees and guardians who will administer the estate plan. By the conclusion of the first meeting, we will present an overall estate planning recommendation, including suggested ownership of certain assets and beneficiary designations for life insurance, annuity policies, and retirement accounts.
Engagement Letter and Fees.
After meeting with you, we will review our fee schedule and quote a fee for the estate plan. We will then prepare an engagement agreement summarizing the scope of the work, the fee and the terms of payment.
Draft Documents.
If the engagement agreement is agreeable with you, and after you have signed and returned it to us, we will promptly begin the process of preparing draft documents for your review. After reviewing the documents, you may decide to schedule a second meeting to discuss them further. In most instances, however, our clients are ready to sign the documents after a few questions or changes which may be handled by phone or email.
Document Signing.
After you review the draft documents and we make appropriate changes, we will prepare the documents for signing. It is our policy to supervise the signing of the documents at our office to insure that all legal formalities are observed.
Original Documents.
We will prepare and mail to you a binder containing your original documents, including information regarding the funding of trusts and the designation of beneficiaries of insurance policies and retirement accounts. We will also provide you with a digital copy of your signed documents that may be transferred to your computer, a thumb drive, CD or other means and given to your family members, financial advisors and physicians.
Get started now...fill out one of the forms below and submit:
Estate Planning Questionaire: Single
Estate Planning Questionaire: Married
Estate Planning Questionarie: Domestic Partner