Frequently Asked Questions

INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR CONSULTATION
Thank you for scheduling your Initial Consultation.  This welcome letter will provide you with the information necessary to ensure the consultation meeting is a success.

PREPARING FOR YOUR CONSULTATION
PAPERWORK TO COMPLETE
Your Consultation Packet contains forms that can be completed and either faxed or emailed to us ahead of your Initial Consultation.

If you are a married couple and you wish to do joint estate planning, please complete the Married Confidential Consultation Worksheet and the Joint Representation Disclosure and Consent Form.

Please complete the Individual Confidential Consultation Worksheet if you fall into any of the following categories:
1. You are unmarried;

2. You are married, but you wish to do estate planning for your own property that is separate from your community property;

3. You are in a registered domestic partnership.  Please also complete the Joint Representation Disclosure and Consent Form;

4. You are an unmarried couple (please also complete the Joint Representation Disclosure and Consent Form).

For the asset information portion of your worksheet, please provide as much detail as possible.  Please provide estimated current values for your assets where requested.  Your best estimate is sufficient for purposes of your consultation.

NOTE:  If you are a couple and you plan to coordinate your estate planning, both of you must attend the consultation together, or we will not be able to properly advise you as a couple.

PREPARING FOR YOUR CONSULTATION
THINGS TO BRING
Please also bring the following items with you to your Initial Consultation if you have them:

1. The originals or copies of any existing wills, trusts or other estate planning documents which are currently in effect;

2. A current photo of you and your immediate family members (spouse, partner, and/or children) which we will scan and store in your file;

3. The originals or copies of the deeds and current property tax statements for any real estate that you own in California or elsewhere in the United States.  These may have titles such as “Grant Deed,” “Quitclaim Deed,” “Corporation Grant Deed” or “Warrant Deed.”  These are not “Deeds of Trust,” which are evidence of a loan against your property or a “Deeds of Reconveyance,” which are documents issued by a lender when you pay off the loan against the property.  If you cannot locate your deed(s), we can obtain them for you for a nominal fee;

4. If you have stock option grants or restricted stock units, a copy of the terms and amount of each grant would also be extremely useful to bring, but is not essential.

Having this information will make your time with us more meaningful.  Without this information, our ability to advise you may be limited.

OUR THREE-STEP ESTATE PLANNING PROCESS:
STEP ONE – THE INITIAL CONSULTATION

Initial Consultation:  During your Initial Consultation, we will be asking you many questions about your desires, concerns and goals for you and your family.  We will then discuss possible tax avoidance strategies, disability planning and the various levels of estate planning as well as the fees and costs involved in their implementation.  If you decide to hire us to prepare or update your estate plan, then we will do the following:

1. Execute an Estate Planning Engagement Letter;

2. Execute a Fee Attachment to the Engagement Letter, which calculates and sets out the anticipated fees for the planning you have requested;

3. You will provide us with payment;

4. We will provide you with a homework binder to complete and bring with you to your Plan Design Meeting; and

5. Schedule a Plan Design Meeting (usually from 1 to 3 weeks after the Initial Consultation).

OUR THREE-STEP ESTATE PLANNING PROCESS:
STEP TWO – THE PLAN DESIGN MEETING

Plan Design Meeting:  The Plan Design Meeting is where we meet to review your homework binder.  In this meeting, we will confirm your answers to various questions, ask you questions, and answer your questions so that we can complete the design of your estate plan together.

If you decide to have us prepare an estate plan that is a higher level of planning than the original Fee Agreement, or you wish to add planning such as a Children’s Legacy Plan, we will adjust your fee at the Plan Design Meeting, and additional payment will be due at the Signing Meeting.  A Signing Meeting will then be scheduled for 1-2 weeks after the Plan Design Meeting.

OUR THREE-STEP ESTATE PLANNING PROCESS:
STEP THREE – THE SIGNING MEETING

Signing Meeting: At the Signing, we will review the estate planning documents and make minor changes or corrections as needed.  You will then sign the documents, they will be notarized, we will scan them, and provide you with the original hardcopy in an estate planning binder.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at (310) 893-6200.  We look forward to meeting you at your consultation.