You start by simply making a decision to complete your estate plan. Give yourself a firm deadline that you believe you will stick to. Make sure the deadline is early enough to cause you to stretch, as doing so creates urgency that will propel you through your planning.
- Educate yourself by learning a bit about the task at hand through materials like the Estate Planning Bullets posted on this blog, or by attending quality local workshops. Do-it-yourself estate planning products (while typically falling short in terms of quality of documents produced) can provide some valuable background and a framework to build upon. Whatever you do, the point is not to become an expert, it is to plant seeds as to what issues you'll be resolving as you create your plan.
- Decide which estate planning attorney you'd like to work with. You should meet and feel a sense of trust and rapport with your attorney before you ever get "on the clock." In fact, you should be able to get a flat-fee quote during your initial meeting (i.e. there is no "clock"). Fees quoted may or may not be indicative of the attorney's ability or quality of service (you have to trust your gut and / or your referring source's endorsements). In any case, you'll want to hold the initial meeting with your attorney about three to four weeks before your deadline. Beware: Not all attorneys will have your documents prepared for signature in a prompt manner. Some attorneys and firms let files "sit in the office" for months before something is actually done with them (long after the details of the plan have faded in memory or been passed on to an associate to piece together). Our documents are guaranteed to be prepared within four weeks, and its usually more like two or three. The details of your plan are arranged in our drafting system within 48 hours of meeting with you.
- Show up to your meeting having prepared in advance. Request a questionnaire from your attorney early on, and set yourself up to have it filled out and submitted to the law office three days before the meeting. You don't need to provide account numbers if you aren't comfortable doing so. Just the name of the financial institution, who's name it's in, and the approximate balance will suffice. You don't need to provide us with a copy of the deed to your home, but you should bring in a property tax statement to show the legal description. In other words, just get a bit organized. It's good for you.
The fact that you are reading this means you were referred by a family member, personal friend, or advisor. Suffice it to say that we are available to serve you.
