Estate Planning
What Is Estate Planning?
Estate Planning is the process of deciding how your financial assets will be distributed upon your death, both in terms of who will receive those assets, and also how the distribution will be accomplished. Good planning strives to address the unique needs of the client’s family, as well as to make the how part of the process as easy and stress-free for the surviving loved ones as possible. It also involves putting in place very important tools everyone needs during their lifetime to allow another to make decisions and act for you in the event you cannot do things for yourself.
Who Is Estate Planning For?
Estate Planning is for everyone. A common misconception is that a person must have a lot of money to need an estate plan. The word “estate” conjures images of a stately English manor with rolling acreage. Your estate, simply put, is your stuff. We all have stuff, and that stuff has to go somewhere, somehow, when we die. If you don’t really care who gets your stuff when you die, and you ignore this process, then state law will dictate what happens to your stuff. But what that law does not do is make the process easy on your loved ones. On the contrary, your “estate,” such as it is, will need to go through Probate, which can be a lengthy and stressful process for your surviving loved ones. The aggravation you will save your family by making a plan cannot be understated.
Life Stages
Estate Planning Packages
Emergency
Plan
This plan is appropriate for anyone who just needs something in case they become injured or severely ill. Everyone over age 18 needs this plan at a minimum.
More Details
An emergency plan includes the following:
- Initial meeting to discuss client’s specific needs
- Draft documents with changes as needed
- Meeting to sign final documents
- Digital and/or physical copies of documents
The documents included in this plan:
- Durable General Financial Power of Attorney for Financial Matters
- Advance Directive for Healthcare
Single Plan
This plan is appropriate for someone who is not married, whether they are divorced, widowed, or have never been married.
More Details
Included in this plan:
- Initial free consultation
- Comprehensive meeting to discuss client’s specific needs
- Draft documents with rounds of changes as needed
- Meeting to sign final documents
- Detailed “homework” assistance to implement plan
- Digital and/or physical copies of documents
The documents included in this plan:
- Durable General Financial Power of Attorney for Financial Matters
- Last Will and Testament
- Advance Directive for Healthcare
and, if appropriate:
- Revocable Living Trust and
- General Assignment
Young Family Joint Plan
This plan is designed for a young married couple, with or without minor children, with a non-taxable estate.
More Details
Included in this plan:
- Initial free consultation
- Comprehensive meeting to discuss clients’ specific needs
- Draft documents with rounds of changes as needed
- Meeting to sign final documents
- Detailed “homework” assistance to implement plan
- Digital and/or physical copies of documents
The documents included in this plan, for each client:
- Durable General Financial Power of Attorney for Financial Matters
- Last Will and Testament
- Advance Directive for Healthcare
and, if appropriate:
- Revocable Living Trust (one joint trust for both clients) and
- General Assignment (one joint)
Empty Nesters Joint Plan
This plan is designed for a married couple who do not have an estate tax concern, but who wish to have a greater degree of control over the distribution of their assets.
More Details
Included in this plan:
- Initial free consultation
- Comprehensive meeting to discuss clients’ specific needs
- Draft documents with rounds of changes as needed
- Meeting to sign final documents
- Detailed “homework” assistance to implement plan
- Digital and/or physical copies of documents
The documents included in this plan include the following for each client:
- Durable General Financial Power of Attorney for Financial Matters
- Last Will and Testament
- Advance Directive for Healthcare
- Revocable Living Trust (one joint trust for both clients) and
- General Assignment (one joint)
Blended Family or VT Taxable Separate Plans
This plan is designed for couples with kids from previous marriages, and for couples who have an estate size warranting estate tax avoidance strategies.
More Details
Included in this plan:
- Initial free consultation
- Comprehensive meeting to discuss clients’ specific needs
- Draft documents with rounds of changes as needed
- Meeting to sign final documents
- Detailed “homework” assistance to implement plan
- Digital and/or physical copies of documents
The documents included in this plan include the following for each client:
- Durable General Financial Power of Attorney for Financial Matters
- Last Will and Testament
- Advance Directive for Healthcare
- Separate Revocable Living Trusts and
- General Assignment
Additional Services
You can hire me by the hour to review an existing set of estate planning documents or to ask multiple estate planning questions without committing to additional services.
Flat Rate Billing
I know how much clients value transparency and the ability to plan appropriately for major expenses. That is why I offer estate planning clients a flat fee option for my services. After an initial consultation, I will be able to quote you a flat fee based on your particular needs. The cost of the consultation is $125 for half an hour, which will be credited toward your overall fee should you choose to work with me.
What is The Process Like?
I find that clients are much less intimidated by the estate planning process when they know up front the steps that go into creating an estate plan.
I have set out the basic steps in the process here. Click on each of these six steps to read more about what is involved in each one.
1. Initial Discussion
In this initial conversation, we discuss the reason that the client has reached out to begin or update their plan, we review key elements of their situation that will help determine which kind of plan is best for their unique needs, we talk about several of the common goals and objectives of a good plan, and, if the client wishes, we set up another meeting to be scheduled once step 2 below is completed.
2. Information Gathering
Any estate plan worth its weight must be based on the particulars of the client’s family dynamics (whether a birth family or a chosen family) and on the client’s financial details. So the next step involves having the client complete the comprehensive new client worksheet.
3. Substantive Meeting
In this meeting, whether this happens in person or over video conferencing, we talk in much greater detail about the client’s motivations for their plan and we review the details of the completed client worksheet. Based on that information, I educate the client on plan options and how their plan would operate once they are gone. We talk through many “what ifs” until the client feels that all likely contingencies have been considered. This meeting is not rushed. We take as much time as necessary.
4. Drafting, Review, Revise as Needed
The next step is mine alone as I prepare documents to achieve all of the objectives identified in our meeting. Once drafts are ready for the client’s review, I either snail mail physical copies to the client, or send them a link to their client portal where they can view and download the drafts. It is not uncommon for client’s to rethink the details of their plan after seeing the first drafts, so we may have additional phone calls or meetings to address any questions or make any changes desired.
5. Signing the Documents
Once the drafts have been finalized we have a final meeting to sign all of the documents. This can be done in person, as appropriate, or it can now be done remotely over video conferencing. Once your documents are signed, your plan is “official.” But there is additional important work to be done.
6. Homework and Follow Up
Some of the most important work in a plan is done after the plan is in place. This is the time when the client must do the homework to coordinate their particular assets with plan using the strategy we decided on together. We will review east asset in detail to make sure that our goals are met.