Demystifying the Law Office
You don’t have a will or trust, or you have a will but think you might need a trust too. Every now and then you worry about it, but the feeling that it can wait, combined with the unsavory prospect of finding and paying a lawyer, leads you to put estate planning off for another year.
Or.
You have a will and/or trust but your documents were prepared long ago and need updating. The lawyer who drafted your original estate plan has quoted an exorbitant price to update it. Or has retired. Or died. Or you don’t even remember who the lawyer was. The hope that your old documents might still be adequate (even though your family composition and/or financial situation and/or real estate has changed since then), and the feeling that it can wait, combined with the unsavory prospect of finding and paying a lawyer, leads you to put estate planning off for another year.
Is this you?
I’m writing this post in the hope that demystifying the process through which estate planning is carried out in our office—and in many small law offices—might help you take action. Read on to find out what will happen if you reach out to Caplan Wilkinson or a firm like it.
First contact. You can reach us by phone (408-320-9980), email (info@caplanwilkinson.com), or the form on our Contact page. We’ll respond over the phone or via email (sometimes both) to schedule or confirm your …
Initial consultation. There is no charge for this 20-minute meeting with an attorney. We usually conduct it by video using Google Meet, but we can do it over the phone or in person at our Willow Glen office if you prefer. (You don’t need to download software to use Google Meet; you just click a link that we email to you.)
During the initial consultation, we’ll discuss your goals and talk about the components of an estate plan—not just the will and trust, but also powers of attorney, medical directives, final disposition instructions and more. Once we have determined what type of estate plan (or revisions) you need, we can give you…
Pricing information. Caplan Wilkinson charges on a flat fee basis—not by the hour—for preparing or updating an estate plan. (Estate planning services are often billed this way, but some larger law firms bill on an hourly basis.) You can find general pricing information on our Pricing page. The few expenses that will not be covered by your fee are laid out clearly in writing before you hire us.
If you decide to hire our firm, we proceed to the …
Payment of retainer and exchange of information in writing. You’ll sign an engagement letter and representation agreement and pay a retainer of one-half of the agreed-upon fee. Then you’ll receive a fact-finding email, inviting you to click a link to complete a (secure) online questionnaire. This is our way to gather most of the information we’ll need to draft your documents. (Other firms may do this part differently.) The rest of our information-gathering is done by …
One or more phone or video calls. In follow-up calls between you and your attorney (or an in-person meeting if desired), we’ll counsel you through choices for devising property, appointing trusted people to fiduciary roles, and end-of-life care planning. Once these consultations are complete, we’ll share a final draft of your estate plan and schedule a …
Signing meeting. All of the documents that constitute your estate plan will be signed, witnessed and/or notarized at your signing meeting. The remaining one-half of your fee will be settled at this time, and you’ll walk out of the meeting with a complete estate plan. If your estate plan includes a trust, you’ll also walk out with a little bit of …
Homework. Thought you were done, didn’t you? This last bit is very important. Using documents and instructions provided by your lawyer, you will title assets to your trust. (If you need to title Santa Clara County real estate to your trust, Caplan Wilkinson will take care of filing that paperwork; for real estate elsewhere, we will provide the paperwork for you to file.) You may also need to update beneficiary designations on financial accounts. This should be a straightforward process if your lawyer did her job right.
Live in or near San Jose and want to know more about preparing or updating an estate plan with Caplan Wilkinson? Contact us!
