Estate Planning
Process
We work with your referring advisor, so we can understand your financial background, your situation and needs. During this part of the estate planning process, you will complete our Estate Planning Deficiencies Check-Up, provide us with basic contact information, and begin to identify and express your goals and concerns using our Estate Planning Design Questionnaire.
Initial Consultation
We will discuss in detail your background and family, goals and concerns, and any issues identified in the Estate Planning Design Questionnaire that require further consideration. At the end of this meeting, a fee range will be quoted based on a preliminary plan design.
Design Meeting
During this meeting, we will design your estate plan together. Together, we will work through the details of the plan to create a customized strategy that meets your goals and objectives while addressing your concerns and anxieties.
Signing Meeting
Once we verify the estate plan reflects your wishes, we will prepare the documents per your instructions. At the signing meeting we will execute the documents and instruct you on how to effectively use the pieces of your estate plan to accomplish your goals.
Funding Meeting / Probate Strategy Meeting
Once the estate plan documents have been executed, it is important to review how the documents created fit with the rest of the planning you have done. This is especially true with your beneficiary designations on the many accounts in your life. At this meeting we review these designations and form a strategy on how to best arrange the documents and your designations to ensure the planning is effective and works as designed.
For clients who have opted to form a trust-based plan, we will execute any necessary documents to fund your trust and instruct you on how to place any future acquired assets into the trust as well.
Family Care Meeting
A plan is only as good as carry it out, for an estate plan that means the trustees, agents, future personal representatives who make up your emergency response team. If you want us to do so, we will also educate your family members and friends who you have selected to assist you in these vulnerable situations. We will educate them on overview of the plan, their roles in the plan, and why the plan is designed as it is. We will also allot time for your team to ask questions regarding their role.
Note: We take confidentiality very seriously. Subject to certain limitations, nothing about your estate plan will be revealed unless you specifically authorize us to release it.
Follow Up and Review
Life changes us, and our plans need to change as a result. We work with clients to modify and review documents on a periodic basis to ensure that the plan still fits you and accomplishes your goals.
