We’ve found that beginning with a guided Planning Interview leads to better outcomes for our clients. Estate planning involves important details to uncover, information to exchange, and different options to consider—more than can realistically be covered in a single introductory meeting without rushing you or putting you on the spot. The Planning Interview gives you the time and flexibility to work through those questions at your own pace, while giving us the opportunity to understand your situation fully before making recommendations. The result is more thoughtful guidance, clearer pricing, better decisions, and a more productive next step.

Not at all. Many clients begin the process with questions, uncertainty, or simply a sense that they know they need to get their estate plan in order. That’s completely normal.The Planning Interview is designed to help you organize your thoughts and information—not to test your knowledge or require you to have all the answers. Simply answer each question as best you can, and we’ll address anything that needs clarification.

Yes, you can. Brian is personally involved in every client’s planning process, and after receiving your Personalized Planning Recommendation, you’ll have the option to schedule a Planning Review Call with him. This gives you an opportunity to ask questions and talk through anything you’d like to explore or clarify. You can also request a conversation at any point throughout the process once we begin working together.

No. Completing the Planning Interview does not obligate any of us to move forward. Its purpose is to help both you and our firm determine whether working together makes sense. We want clients who feel informed, comfortable, and confident in their decision—not pressured to make one.

After reviewing your responses, Brian prepares a Personalized Planning Recommendation tailored to your goals and circumstances.You’ll receive:A written summary of our recommended approachA personal video walkthrough explaining the plan and answering key questionsClear pricing and scope details You can then decide whether you’re ready to move forward or would prefer to schedule a Planning Review Call with Brian to discuss the recommendation, ask questions, or explore anything you’d like clarified.

Our fees are flat-rate, so you’ll know exactly what your estate plan will cost before you decide to move forward—no surprises. Your Personalized Planning Recommendation will include complete details about the fees and costs for the planning your particular situation requires.As a general rule, we’re neither the cheapest nor the most expensive law firm specializing in estate and trust planning. Our focus is on providing excellent work, an organized process, and a long-term relationship.

Your Personalized Planning Recommendation will include an estimated timeframe based on what your plan requires and our current commitments/workload. In general, most estate plans take approximately 3–6 weeks to complete from the time we decide to move forward.

In most cases, your legal insurance benefits will offset the cost of your estate plan considerably—often by 50–75%. However, insurance typically does not cover everything involved in properly creating and implementing a trust. Certain elements of the plan, including essential tax-planning provisions, supporting documents, and advice and services related to funding your trust, as well as notary and County fees, will remain your responsibility.Please enter your Insurance Eligibility ID in the Planning Interview so we can factor your available benefits into the overall cost and provide you with clear pricing before you decide whether to move forward.It is important to understand that we do not design estate plans around what an insurance benefit happens to cover. We believe a trust should be properly designed and implemented based on your goals and circumstances, not reduced to the minimum documents an insurance plan will pay for. Your Personalized Planning Recommendation will identify what your situation requires, what your insurance covers, and what you would be responsible for.If your expectation is that your insurance will cover virtually the entire cost and leave you responsible only for notary and recording fees, our approach would not be the right fit. If, however, you want to use your benefits to substantially reduce the cost of a properly prepared estate plan, we can help you make the most of them.

Yes. We regularly work with clients whose existing trusts were prepared by another attorney or service, but there is an important distinction in how we approach that work. Rather than making a “simple” amendment to an existing trust, we will prepare a complete restatement—a new trust document that replaces the prior document while preserving the same trust name and original establishment date. This allows us to stand behind the entire trust and ensure that the provisions work together as intended.The cost is generally similar to creating a new trust, but you receive a plan built around our approach, documents, and standards, along with an ongoing relationship with our firm. Once we have restated your trust, future changes can generally be handled through simpler amendments.The process is otherwise the same as described throughout this Welcome Page. Your Planning Interview will ask whether you already have a will or trust. The one additional step is that we’ll need to review a copy of your existing trust before we can prepare your Personalized Planning Recommendation. We’ll provide instructions for uploading it securely or, if you prefer, you can bring it to our office and we’ll scan it for you.

Not before you complete the Planning Interview. There are several reasons for this.First, it’s impossible to determine whether a trust is appropriate without understanding your circumstances—including your family, assets, estate size, goals, and concerns. Second, the Planning Interview gives you an opportunity to tell us what you want your trust to accomplish and how you want important decisions handled. It may also introduce you to planning options and approaches you haven’t previously considered.Only after we understand both what you have and what you want your plan to accomplish can we meaningfully evaluate your existing trust and make recommendations about what, if anything, should change.

Our trust-funding services are available only for trusts we have prepared or fully restated. We do not transfer property into a trust that was prepared by another attorney or service and that we have not reviewed and restated.If you would like us to assist with funding, we would first need to work with you on the trust itself—either by preparing a new trust or completely restating your existing trust. Once that is done, we can assist with the appropriate funding.

Yes. We have the resources to assist with property transfers in any state.