We provide this page in order to give our
clients an idea of what it’s like to work with us at the Law Offices of Thomas
A. Coughlin. There may be parts of your estate plan that vary from this
process, but most clients can expect that we plan according to these steps.
Through the counseling process, we try to educate
our clients to help them understand their planning options. For clients who are
averse to complexity and whose affairs are relatively simple, the complexity and
expense introduced by a living trust or other sophisticated estate planning may
be inappropriate. For them, a relatively simple Will, with full recognition
that additional work will be required at a later date, either before or after
the client's death, may be preferable.
For others, the client's needs
and desires will dictate development and implementation of a sophisticated plan
with immediate funding of revocable and irrevocable trusts, an aggressive
gifting program and other planning. Each client is unique. Each situation is
unique. "One size" most definitely does not "fit all."
The
Initial Conference -- Goal Setting, Basic Plan Design and
Fees
At our Initial Conference, which can last as long as two
or three hours, we will help you identify your goals for yourself, your family,
and any business and charitable organizations that are important to
you.
After you have identified your goals, we will evaluate whether your
existing planning accomplishes the goals you have identified. As part of our
discussion, we will also discuss the likely range of taxes and expenses that
would be incurred for an estate of your size under your existing plan and
identify any tax savings that might be attainable if we restructured your plan.
We will also discuss fees and billing practices during our first
meeting. Generally, we will be able to quote you a fixed fee for all the work
you ask us to undertake. If you wish us to proceed, we will ask you for
one-half of the agreed fee at that time. The remainder will be due when we meet
to review and execute your planning documents. The quoted fee will be
all-inclusive for basic planning, including the cost of retitling your assets to
your living trusts if appropriate (often referred to as "funding"). Second
Meeting -- Plan Review and Execution
Our second meeting
is generally scheduled 2-3 weeks following our Initial Conference. Prior to our
second meeting, we will prepare the foundation documents for your estate plan.
Foundation documents typically include a Last Will and Testament or a Revocable
Living Trust with tax planning, one or more Durable Powers of Attorney, a Living
Will or Advance Medical Directive, a Health Care Power of Attorney, and
miscellaneous documents to further the estate planning decisions you make.
At our second meeting, we will review each document with you in detail,
carefully explaining each document and pointing out what the documents do for
you and how they interact with each other. We will not read the documents to
you, but we want to make certain that you know enough about the documents that
you understand them and are comfortable that we have fully accomplished your
goals. If the foundation documents meet with your approval, we will ask you to
sign the documents at that time.
Advanced
Planning
Depending upon the nature and complexity of your
estate, we may need to schedule one or more additional meetings to design,
review, and execute any advanced planning documents that might be necessary.
Advanced planning might include creation of:
one or more irrevocable trusts for single or survivorship life
insurance,
minor's trusts for children or grandchildren,
family limited partnerships and family limited liability companies,
qualified personal residence trusts,
grantor retained annuity trusts
business buy-sell agreements,
deferred compensation and other executive compensation arrangements,
and
various forms of charitable planning, including creation of charitable
remainder or charitable lead trusts, family foundations, and conservation
easements.
Each of the foregoing planning techniques involves
complex financial, tax, accounting and legal decisions which require additional
counseling time to understand, design and implement. This work is billed
separately, generally on a flat-fee basis.
Funding
We
will also need to review the way each of your assets is titled to ensure the
plan we design on paper actually works in practice. Your estate plan only works
if the legal title to each of your assets is coordinated with your estate
planning documents. Assets that pass by operation of law (such as jointly
titled assets) or by operation of contract pursuant to a beneficiary designation
(such as insurance policies, pay on death bank accounts, and retirement plan or
IRA assets) are not controlled by your Will or Living Trust. The title to each
asset needs to be reviewed carefully. This titling work is usually accomplished
in one or more "funding" meetings, during which we review and make decisions
about how each of your assets should be titled to insure that the plan will work
exactly as you intend it to work in the event of your disability or upon your
death.
We hope this gives you a general understanding of how we might
work together. Please feel free to contact the offices with questions or to
schedule a meeting.
This web site is designed for general information only. The
information presented at this site should not be construed to be formal legal
advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship.