Estate planning, wills, & trusts.
Estate planning, wills, & trusts.
Our mission is to make the estate planning process as easy, stress-free, and meaningful as possible.
As your Personal Family Lawyer® and Family Business Lawyer™ law firm, we have specialized training, expertise, and depth of experience in estate, life, and legacy planning that traditional law firms simply can’t match. We’re different from other law firms, and we’re proud of that.
Part of what makes us different is that we don’t just draft one-size-fits-most legal documents. Instead, our personalized process is designed to help us get to know you, your family dynamics, your assets, your goals, and your concerns, so we can help you create an estate plan that will work the way you want it to for the people you love. The first and most important step in this process is to schedule your Life & Legacy Planning Session. In fact, we think this personalized session with an experienced estate planning attorney is so important that we offer you a way to get it for free.
Your Life & Legacy Planning Session
If you don’t want to do any work to prepare for your meeting ahead of time, the normal cost of the Life & Legacy Planning Session is $750. However, if you are willing to spend a bit of time preparing for your session in advance, we waive the full amount of the planning session fee, and you can get your Life & Legacy Planning Session for free. This is our preferred option, because the work you do in advance allows us to make really good use of our meeting time together. We call this preparation work your estate planning "homework.”
For your homework, you will complete an online Life & Legacy Inventory and submit it to your attorney at least 3 days before your scheduled appointment. The homework will guide you through the process of collecting and organizing all your important family, financial, and personal information. You will come out of your Life & Legacy Planning Session with all your information organized, so that it can be easily available to your loved ones if something were to happen to you. The homework also provides your attorney with important background information, so we can can hit the ground running in your Life & Legacy Planning Session and make the best possible use of our time together. Completing the homework is a critical first step in designing an estate plan that will work the way you want it to for your loved ones.
Your Life & Legacy Planning Session is productive, 1- to 2-hour working meeting with one of our attorneys (Pam, Joe, or Susan), where we will conduct an in-depth review of how the law (and any existing estate planning documents you have) would apply to your specific assets and circumstances. We will review exactly what would happen to your assets and to your family today if you were to die or become incapacitated. At a minimum, you'll come out of your Life & Legacy Planning Session with a clear understanding of everything you own, where it is, and what your estate planing status quo is. You will then have the information you need to identify what you like about your status quo, and what you’d like to change. If you identify things that you’d like to change, we will help you choose the one of our flat-fee planning packages based on your goals and priorities. There’s no obligation to do any additional estate planning with our firm after your Life & Legacy Planning Session. However, we know that no matter who you are or what stage of life you’re in, the education and clarity you get out of this session will have tremendous value for you and your family.
Your “Homework”:
Life & Legacy Inventory
A preview of the online Life & Legacy Inventory. This “homework” is a critical first step in designing an estate plan that will work the way you want it to for your loved ones.
In addition to completing your homework ahead of time, if you are doing your estate planning jointly with a partner or spouse, both partners must attend the session in order to have the $750 session fee waived. This is to make sure you can both receive the same education and information. Please schedule your session for a time when both of you can attend, and give yourself enough time to complete the homework. You won’t be getting a grade, but you should plan to spend approximately 1 to 2 hours completing your homework. You will receive the link to complete your homework once your session is scheduled and confirmed.
You can schedule your Life & Legacy Planning Session right now online, or by phone at (518) 309-2252. If you have questions about what to expect from the homework or the Life & Legacy Planning Session, you can click here to schedule a free 15-minute introductory call with a member of our team, or call the office at (518) 309-2252.
We know that the biggest risk to your loved ones when it comes to your estate planning is simply the risk of procrastination. We hope you’ll schedule a time for us to talk right now, while you’re thinking about it. We’ll help you figure out your next steps from there.
We look forward to meeting with you soon!
How Much Should My Estate Planning Cost?
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for estate planning. So the answer to this question will depend on your unique circumstances and priorities. No matter what stage of life you're in, we can help you choose a planning level that’s the right fit to create a plan that will work the way you want it to based on your goals, your family dynamics, and your budget. All of our estate planning packages are priced on a transparent, flat-fee basis, agreed to in writing in advance. There’s no hourly billing, and you’ll never get a surprise bill in the mail. To make sure that your plan stays up to date over time, all of our planning packages include a no-cost full review of your plan at least every 3 years.
The fee for our estate planning packages ranges from $4,000 to $10,000 and up (for complex estates). You will choose your fee level within that range based on the planning outcome you want to achieve. For a “typical” couple (married or unmarried) who owns a home and/or other assets, and who wants to avoid the probate court process for their loved ones, the average fee chosen by our clients is typically $5,000 to $6,000. We’re extremely proud of the value we provide to our clients within each of our planning packages.
The structure of your Life & Legacy Planning Session is designed to help you truly understand all of your different estate planning options, so you can assess the costs and benefits of each option over time. We’ll help you make informed, empowered decisions about the type of planning you want to do. And we promise that you’ll only choose to do your planning with our firm if it’s the best choice for you and your loved ones.