Every estate plan we do starts with a free consultation. We get a lot done during those meetings, but they (honestly) don’t require much preparation. Here’s what happens.
First, we cover the basics of what an estate plan does, and how the process works. (If you finish this blog post, this will sound very familiar.)
Next is a chance to get to know a little bit about you. We want to understand your family structure—children’s names and ages, and whether there are grandchildren. We’ll ask if anyone who might be included in the plan has special needs or is on disability. For clients who do not have children, we’ll ask who their nearest relatives are. We also want to understand asset structure. We don’t need to know too many details—just a general idea of net worth and how it is structured (i.e. how much is real estate, how much is IRA, etc.).
Once we know a little about you, we start on a rough draft of the plan. The first item of business is talking about distribution scheme—where you want assets to go if you pass away. That can be as simple as children in equal shares, or perhaps it will include other family members or charities. There are no right answers—our goal is to work with you to understand your goals and make sure those are written down in a way that is clear and workable.
Second is to talk about who you trust to handle some important roles. The first is your estate administrator—the person in charge of settling your affairs after your death. The next (which you may or may not need depending on your plan) is someone to manage assets for anyone who can’t manage them for themselves, such as a minor child or person with special needs. Third is (if you have minor children) a person to serve as guardian for the children. Fourth is power of attorney for finances—the person who would manage your financial affairs during your lifetime if you are unable to do so. The final role is health care power—someone to handle health care decisions for you if you can’t make decisions for yourself. For each of these roles, we work through what the job entails and who would be the best fit.
The last part is how to implement the plan. This gets into the tools we use to transfer property at death, which are wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations. Once we understand your plan, we talk about how which tool or tools are the best fit for you.
If we’re able to get through a rough draft in our first meeting (we do more often than you might think) we give a quote, and if the quote works, we move forward with drafts. If there are some items that require further discussion to finish the draft, you get a homework list, and we’ll re-convene and pick up where you left off once you’ve had a chance to work through the list. And that’s it for the first meeting.
Ready to get started? Call our office to schedule or schedule online. We will look forward to meeting with you.