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I know discussing topics like death, incapacity, and other potentially frightening life events, with someone like me, an estate planning lawyer, may feel intimidating or even morbid. Take a deep breath and relax… it doesn’t have to and shouldn’t be that way.

Hiring a lawyer to help you make wise decisions for life and death can be the most empowering choice you ever make for yourself and your loved ones. The way I explain it to my friends and family is, “estate planning isn’t about planning for your death, it’s about planning for your life.” So, with that frame in mind, let’s talk about how to choose an estate planning attorney, because we aren’t all cut from the same cloth.

The right lawyer will be there for your family when you can’t be, so you want to understand who the lawyer is as a person, not just an attorney. Of course, you’ll also want to discover the services your lawyer offers and how they run their business.

Here are five questions to ensure you don’t end up paying for legal services you don’t need, expect, or want. Once you know exactly what you should be looking for when choosing an estate planning lawyer, you’ll be much better positioned to hire an attorney that will provide the kind of love, attention, care, and trust your family deserves.

01 | How Do They Bill For Their Services?

Your first question to a lawyer may be, “how much does it cost?” But that’s typically only because you aren’t clear on what else to ask. So we’re going to give you an upgrade here.

The first question to ask isn’t “how much does it cost,” but rather, “how do you bill for your services and how do you determine what to bill for your services?”

The right lawyer for you will have a clear answer that helps you understand how they determine how much to charge you and how you’ll be charged. They’ll set clear boundaries and expectations around fees – so there are no surprises.

When working with an estate planning lawyer, find a lawyer who bills for all their services on a flat-fee, no surprises, basis —and never hourly—unless a court requires it for limited “court-related” services.

Your lawyer should determine the fees they charge you only after guiding you through a process of discovery in which they learn about your family dynamics and your assets and educate you about what would happen for your family and assets if and when something happens to you. Through that process, they will help you choose the right plan that meets your budget and desired outcomes.

At my firm, all of our fees are a flat-fee, agreed to in advance, and you choose your fee through our Family Wealth Planning Session process, during which we educate you about the law, and you educate us about your family dynamics and assets. Then, you choose the right plan, at the right price, for the people you love.

02 | How Will Your Lawyer Respond To Your Needs On An Ongoing Basis?

One of people’s biggest complaints about working with lawyers is a lack of responsiveness. We’ve even heard of situations in which clients went weeks without getting a call back from their lawyer. It’s unfortunate, and yet it makes sense when a lawyer doesn’t have systems in place to ensure they can serve their existing clients and respond to the needs of past clients.

So, to ensure your lawyer can be responsive to your needs, ask them how quickly calls are typically returned in their office and if someone will be on-hand to answer quick questions when and as needed.

Ideally, all calls to your lawyer should be pre-scheduled with a clear agenda, so you both can be ready to focus on your specific needs.

03 | How Will Your Lawyer Proactively Communicate With You On An Ongoing Basis?

Sadly, most lawyers fail to communicate regularly with their clients. As a result, if you’ve created an estate plan in the past, you may have had a “checked off the list and done” kind of experience and not even realized that estate planning means a lifetime of wise legal and financial decisions, not a one-and-done kind of thing.

Unfortunately, most lawyers don’t have their business systems set up for ongoing, proactive communication. They don’t have the time to get to know you or your family and then keep your plan up to date throughout your life.

Work with a lawyer who has systems to keep your plan updated to ensure your assets are protected (throughout your life) and who will communicate with you regularly.

Additionally, ask them how they will proactively support you in keeping your plan up to date on an ongoing basis and be there for your loved one’s when you can’t be.

Think of it this way: Your estate plan includes a set of documents, but your plan is far more than those documents. Your plan is an inventory of your assets, which changes throughout your life. It’s a structure and container for who and what your family will turn to when something happens to you.

You want to work with a lawyer with systems to keep your documents up to date and ensure your assets are owned correctly throughout your lifetime. Ideally, the lawyer should get to know you and your family over time so that when something happens, your lawyer can be there for the people you love. There will already be an underlying relationship and trust.

04 | Can You Call About Any Legal Problem Or Just About Matters Within Their Specialty?

Given the complexity of today’s legal world, lawyers must have specialized training in one or more specific practice areas, such as divorce, bankruptcy, wills and trusts, personal injury, business, criminal matters, or employment law. You do NOT want to work with a “door law” attorney – a lawyer who professes to be an expert in whatever random legal issue walks through the door.

That said, you do want your personal lawyer to have broad enough expertise to consult with him or her about all sorts of legal and financial issues that may come up in your life—and trust he or she will be able to offer you sound guidance about whether you have a legal issue, or not. And while your lawyer won’t be able to advise you on all legal matters, he or she should be able to refer you to other trusted professionals who can help you.

Trust me, you wouldn’t want the lawyer who designed your estate plan also to handle your personal injury claim, settle a dispute with your landlord, and advise you on your divorce. But you do want him or her to be there to hear your story, refer you to a highly qualified lawyer who specializes in that area, and overall, serve as your go-to legal consultant.

In this capacity, you can consult your personal lawyer before you sign any legal documents, any time you have a legal or financial issue arise, or whenever anything that might adversely affect your family or business comes up, and know that you’ll get excellent guidance.

05 | What Happens When They Die Or Retire?

We all die, including your lawyer. And they may retire before they die. So be sure to ask what the plan is for your plan and your family when they do.

This is a critically important—and often overlooked—question to ask your lawyer and any service professional before beginning a relationship. Sure, it may be uncomfortable to ask. A client-centered professional will have a succession plan to ensure their clients are cared for no matter what happens to the lawyer managing your plan.

Look for a lawyer with a detailed plan that will ensure that someone warm and caring will take over your planning without any interruption of service.

Here at our law firm, we work with a community of lawyers just like us who serve clients as a Personal Family Lawyer with Life & Legacy Planning.  We have a network of successor attorneys who practice with the same morals and model as we do, so if anything happens to us, you will be treated with the same level of care and relationship that we provide.

A Lasting Relationship

Although hiring the right estate planning lawyer may not seem that important, it’s one of the most critical choices you can make for yourself and your family. After all, this is the individual you trust to serve on your behalf to protect and provide for your loved ones during one of life’s most emotionally challenging experiences.

Should you choose the wrong person for the job, your family could face unnecessary conflicts, expenses, and legal entanglements when they’re most vulnerable. Ultimately, estate planning is far more than having a lawyer create a set of documents for you and then never seeing you again or only seeing you when something goes wrong.

We develop a relationship with you and your family that lasts a lifetime. Our unique, family-centered legal services are specifically tailored to provide our clients with the kind of love, attention, and trust we’d want for our loved ones. To learn more about our one-of-a-kind systems and services, schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session today.

This article is a service of Brittany Cohen, Personal Family Lawyer. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session, during which you’ll get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

[email protected]

858-427-0539

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Like most people, you likely think estate planning is just one more task to check off your life’s endless “to-do” list.

You can shop around and find a lawyer to create planning documents for you or create your own DIY plan using online documents. Then, you’ll put those documents into a drawer, mentally check estate planning off your to-do list, and forget about them.

The problem is, estate planning is more than just a one-and-done type of deal.

It’ll be worthless if your plan isn’t regularly updated when your assets, family situation, and laws change. Failing to update your plan can create problems that can leave your family worse off than if you’ve never created a plan.

The following story illustrates the consequences of not updating your plan, which happened to the founder and CEO of New Law Business Model, Ali Katz. Indeed, this experience was one of the leading catalysts for her to create the new, family-centered model of estate planning we use with all of our clients.

A Game Changing Realization

When Ali was in law school, her father-in-law died. He’d done his estate planning—or at least thought he had. He paid a Florida law firm roughly $3,000 to prepare an estate plan for him, so his family wouldn’t be stuck with the hassles and expense of probate court or drawn into needless conflict with his ex-wife.

And yet, after his death, that’s exactly what did happen. His family was forced to go to court to claim assets that were supposed to pass directly to them. And on top of that, they had to deal with his ex-wife and her attorneys.

Ali couldn’t understand it. If her father-in-law paid $3,000 for an estate plan, why were his loved ones dealing with the court and his ex-wife? His planning documents were not updated, and his assets were not even correctly titled.

Ali’s father-in-law created a Trust so that his assets would pass directly to his family when he died, and they wouldn’t have to endure probate. But some of his assets had never been transferred into the name of his Trust from the beginning. And since there was no updated inventory of his assets, there was no way for his family to even confirm everything he had when he died. To this day, one of his accounts is still stuck in the Florida Department of Unclaimed Property.

Ali thought for sure this must be malpractice. But after working for one of the best law firms in the country and interviewing other top estate-planning lawyers across the country, she confirmed what happened to her father-in-law wasn’t malpractice at all. It was common practice.

This inspired Ali to take action. When she started her own law firm, she did so with the intention and commitment that she would ensure her clients’ plans would work when their families needed it and create a service model built around that mission.

Will Your Plan Work When Your Family Needs It?

We hear similar stories from our clients all the time. In fact, outside of not creating any plan, one of the most common planning mistakes we encounter is when we get called by the loved ones of someone who has become incapacitated or died with a plan that no longer works. Yet by that point, it’s too late, and the loved ones left behind are forced to deal with the aftermath.

We recommend you review your plan annually to ensure it’s up to date and immediately amend it following events like divorce, deaths, births, and inheritances. This is so important we’ve created proprietary systems designed to ensure these updates are made for all of our clients. You don’t need to worry about whether you’ve overlooked anything as your family, the law, and your assets change over time.

Furthermore, because your plan is designed to protect and provide for your loved ones in the event of your death or incapacity, we aren’t just here to serve you—we’re here to serve your entire family. We take the time to get to know your family members and include them in the planning process so everyone affected by your plan is well aware of your latest planning strategies and why you made the choices you did.

Unfortunately, many estate planning firms only engage with a part of the family when creating estate plans, leaving the spouse and other loved ones primarily out of the loop. The planning process works best when your loved ones are educated and engaged. We can even facilitate regular family meetings to keep everyone up-to-date.

Built-In Systems To Keep Your Plan Current

Our legal services are designed to make estate planning as streamlined and worry-free as possible for you and your family. Unlike the lawyers who worked with Ali’s father-in-law, we don’t just create legal documents and put the onus on you to ensure they stay updated and function as intended—we take care of that on our end.

For example, our built-in systems and processes would’ve prevented two of the biggest mistakes made by the lawyers who created her father-in-law’s plan. These mistakes include: 1) not keeping his assets properly inventoried and 2) not correctly titling assets held by his Trust.

Maintaining a regularly updated inventory of all your assets is one of the most vital parts of keeping your plan current. We’ll not only help you create a comprehensive asset inventory, we’ll make sure the list stays consistently updated throughout your lifetime.

Start creating an inventory of everything you own to ensure your loved ones know what you have, where it is, and how to access it if something happens to you. From there, meet with us to incorporate your inventory into a comprehensive set of planning strategies that we’ll keep updated throughout your lifetime.

To properly title assets held by a Trust, it’s not enough to list the assets you want to cover when you create a Trust. You have to transfer the legal title of certain assets—real estate, bank accounts, securities, brokerage accounts—to the Trust, known as “funding” the Trust, for them to be appropriately disbursed.

While most lawyers will create a Trust for you, only some will ensure your assets are properly funded. We’ll not only make sure your assets are properly titled when you initially create your Trust, we’ll also ensure that any new assets you acquire throughout your life are inventoried and properly funded to your Trust. This will keep your assets from being lost and prevent your family from being inadvertently forced into court because your plan was never fully completed.

For The Love Of Your Family

Our planning services go far beyond simply creating documents and then never seeing you again. We’ll develop a relationship with your family that lasts not only for your lifetime but for the lifetime of your children and their children if that’s your wish.

We’ll support you in not only creating a plan that keeps your family out of court and out of conflict in the event of your death or incapacity, but we’ll also ensure your plan is regularly updated to make sure that it works and is there for your family when you cannot be. Contact us today to get started.

This article is a service of Brittany Cohen, Personal Family Lawyer. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session, during which you’ll get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

[email protected]

858-427-0539

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Investing in life insurance is a foundational part of estate planning, and when done right it’s a primary way to say “I love you” to your loved ones after you’re gone. However, when naming your policy’s beneficiaries, several mistakes can lead to potentially dire consequences for the people you’re investing to protect and support.

The following four mistakes are among the most common we see clients make when selecting life insurance beneficiaries. If you’ve made any of these errors, contact us immediately, so we can support you to change your beneficiary designations on your policy and ensure the proceeds provide the maximum benefit for those you love most.

01 – Failing To Name A Beneficiary

Although it would seem common sense, whether intentional or not, far too many people fail to name any beneficiary on their life insurance policies or inadvertently name their “estate” as beneficiary. Both of these errors will mean your insurance proceeds must go through the court process known as probate.

During probate, a judge will determine who gets your insurance death benefits. This process can tie the benefits up in court for months or even years, depending on who the beneficiaries of your estate are under the law. Moreover, probate opens up the proceeds to creditors, which can seriously deplete—or even totally wipe out—the funds.

To keep your insurance proceeds out of court, make certain you designate—at the very least— one primary adult beneficiary. In case your primary beneficiary dies before you, you should also name a contingent (alternate) beneficiary. Name more than one contingent beneficiary for maximum protection in case your primary and secondary choices die before you.

Ideally, we often recommend that the primary beneficiary of your life insurance is the Trustee of a well-considered and thoughtful Trust Agreement to provide maximum benefit and protection for your heirs.

02 – Forgetting To Update Beneficiaries

While failing to name any beneficiary is a huge mistake, not keeping your beneficiary designations up to date can be even worse. This is particularly true if you’re in a second (or more) marriage and fail to remove an ex-spouse as beneficiary, which can leave your current spouse with nothing when you die.

To prevent this, you should review your beneficiary designations annually as part of an overall review of your estate plan and immediately update your beneficiaries upon events like divorce, deaths, and births. When you’re our client, we have built-in systems to ensure your beneficiary designations (along with all other documents and decisions in your plan) are regularly reviewed and updated.

03 – Naming A Minor (Or Their Guardian) As Beneficiary

You’re technically permitted to name a minor child as a beneficiary of your life insurance, but it’s never a good idea. Minor children cannot receive insurance benefits until they reach the age of maturity—which can be as old as 21 in some states. In the event a minor is listed as beneficiary, the proceeds of your insurance will be distributed to a court-appointed custodian, who will manage the funds (often for a not insignificant fee) until the child reaches the age of maturity. At that point, all benefits are distributed to the beneficiary outright and unprotected.

This is true even if the minor has a living parent. A child’s living parent could petition to the court to be appointed custodian. Still, there’s no guarantee that a parent would be appointed custodian, especially if the parent cannot qualify or pay for a bond. In many cases, a court could deem a parent unsuitable (if they have poor credit, for example) and instead appoint a paid fiduciary to control the funds.

Rather than naming a minor as a beneficiary, you may think to name the person you have chosen as guardian of your child. But that’s not the right answer either. In that case, all insurance would pay outright to the named guardian and could be used in any way they choose, or even be at risk of being taken in a divorce or by a judgment creditor of the guardian.

Instead, the right answer is to set up a trust to receive the insurance proceeds and name a trustee to hold and distribute the funds to a minor child you would want to benefit from your insurance proceeds, when and how you determine, or even hold them protected for your beneficiary to control but safe from divorce and creditors if you choose.

04 – Naming An Individual With Special Needs As Beneficiary

Although a loved one with special needs is likely one of the first people you’d consider naming as beneficiary of your life insurance policy, doing so can have tragic consequences. Leaving insurance directly to someone with special needs could disqualify that individual from receiving much-needed government benefits.

Rather than naming someone with special needs as a beneficiary, you should create a “special needs trust” to receive the insurance proceeds. This way, the money won’t go directly to the beneficiary upon your death. Still, it would be managed by the trustee you name and dispersed according to the trust’s terms without affecting benefit eligibility.

The rules governing special needs trusts are complicated and vary greatly from state to state, so if you have a child with special needs, meet with us today to discuss your options. In the end, special needs planning involves much more than just life insurance—it’s about providing a lifetime of care and protection.

Eliminate Future Problems Now

While naming life insurance beneficiaries might seem simple, if you’re not careful, you can create major problems for the loved ones you’re doing your best to benefit. Meet with us today to ensure you’ve done everything properly.

We can also support you in planning tools like trusts—special needs or otherwise—to ensure your  insurance proceeds provide the maximum benefit for your beneficiaries without negatively affecting them. Schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session to get started.

This article is a service of Brittany Cohen, Personal Family Lawyer. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session, during which you’ll get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

[email protected]

858-427-0539