Estate Planning
Want to get your affairs in order? We offer comprehensive estate planning services ranging from simple wills for clients with modest assets to complex trust arrangements for clients with large estates. While the features of each plan are different, there are certain things we do every time, for every client:
- We charge for most estate plans on a flat or estimated fee basis, and don't charge for the initial interview. Also, we put each plan on a schedule. This way, you know what the plan will cost before you order it and you know when you will get it - no excuses.
- We do a short summary of your plan that tells you in plain language what your plan provides - who gets what (and when), who is going to act as executor/trustee, who is going to be the health care agent and so on. Our goal is to make sure that you understand it. If you don't, we don't want you to sign it.
- We make sure that your plan covers all of your assets, not just those that would be placed in a trust or disposed of by will. So, for example, we look at the beneficiary designations on your IRAs and 401(k) accounts, your insurance policies, annuities, pay-on-death accounts and joint tenancy assets so that all of your assets, regardless of how held, pass to your beneficiaries in a coordinated and cost-effective manner.
- We provide free document custody service after the estate plan is signed. Your documents are imaged for electronic storage in our system, the paper originals are lodged in our fire-rated files and you get a copy of everything for your records. After all, what good are estate planning documents if your executor can't find them when the time comes?
We believe that the end result of a good estate plan is peace of mind - yours. We do our best to be sure that every plan we deliver, regardless of its size or complexity, meets that goal.
To learn more about our approach to estate plan design see "Client Driven Estate Planning," [State Bar of California, Trusts and Estates Quarterly (Summer 2003)]. For PDF document, click here.
