PROCESSES & RATES
We work with you to understand your needs and implement a customized plan unique to you and your circumstances and guide you through the processes. If the information below does not fully answer your questions, please contact us.
PLANNING PROCESS
Getting to know you is important to us, and that’s why it’s the first step in our Estate Planning and Asset Preservation processes. After we’ve learned a little bit about each other, everything else falls into place.
1. INFORMATION GATHERING
Together, we review your family and financial information, needs, and goals. You get to know us, and we make sure we can help you. You engage us to design your plan.
2. THE DESIGN MEETING
Behind the scenes we develop a detailed proposed plan to meet your needs and goals. With your feedback, we turn our proposed plan into your ideal plan. You engage us to implement your ideal plan.
3. IMPLEMENTATION
We draft the documents needed to implement your plan. You sign your implementation documents. As needed, we assist in retitling and restructuring your assets.
ESTATE AND TRUST ADMINISTRATION PROCESS
Estate & Trust Administration can feel like a daunting task at first, but knowing what to expect and understanding the process is helpful. Take a look at our breakdown of the steps we take to make the process flow as smoothly as possible.
1. INITIAL SETTLEMENT MEETING
Review tasks to accomplish, engagement letter signed.
2. INFORMATION GATHERING & ESTABLISHING FIDUCIARY AUTHORITY (months 1-3)
Gather/review decedent information, open probate estate, send beneficiary and creditor notices, obtain estate and trust TINs, retitle accounts to Estate/Administration Trust.
3. ASSET VALUATION (months 1-9)
Value and appraise assets, prepare estate inventory.
4. ESTATE TAX & ACCOUNTING COMPLIANCE, IF REQUIRED (months 3-9)
Prepare Federal and State Estate tax returns, prepare information report and inheritance tax returns, maintain records of estate expenses and income, Account to Orphans Court for Probate Estate, Account to trust beneficiaries requesting accounting.
5. DISTRIBUTION (months 6-12)
Liquidate illiquid assets, prepare estate/trust distribution plan, obtain beneficiary approval/releases for plan, retitle estate/trust assets to beneficiaries, instructions to new trustees re: Future Trust Administration.
6. FIDUCIARY INCOME TAX RETURN PREPARATION (months 6-15)
Prepare and file federal and state fiduciary income tax returns, notify beneficiaries of their individual income tax responsibilities
7. CLOSURE
Distribute final client copies, closing letter or meeting.
Call or email us for more information or to schedule an appointment and begin your planning process today.
HOW WE CHARGE
We generally charge for the time required for your planning on an hourly basis based on the personnel needed and time required to perform these services. Estate planning is not a “one size fits all” commodity. We take estate planning seriously, and diligently try to devote the time necessary to provide our clients with sophisticated results. Our fees fairly reflect the cost of these conscientious services. We do not attempt to be cost competitive with less attentive attorneys who provide “cookie cutter” estate plan documents.
However, we recognize that most clients will want an educated estimate in advance for what they will likely be paying. With this in mind we have developed a comparison chart of the representative range of the likely costs of our estate planning alternatives:
Click below to view this comparison chart for such ranges:
You may choose the type of planning that best suits your needs to get the most out of our Estate Planning, Asset Preservation and Planning For Incapacity & Long Term Care services.
A retainer payment will be required at the time we are engaged with the hourly based payment due when we provide you with drafts of your documents.
Please note that the chart referenced above does not apply to Estate and Trust administration services.
Because of the wide variety of issues involved in various estates and trusts, we typically charge for our post-mortem estate and/or trust administration only on an hourly basis.
For those clients who prefer to work on a fixed fee basis, we can propose a fixed fee quote, either for separate phases of the administration, or for the entire process. However, estate and trust administration clients should recognize that fixed fee quotations for post-mortem work will generally be based on a projection of the maximum time that may be required to complete such administrations in a complicated setting.
Please contact us for more information based on your needs.
Choose the plan that best suits your needs to get the most out of our Estate Planning, Asset Preservation and Planning For Incapacity & Long Term Care services.
Note: This chart does not apply to Estate & Trust Administration fees.
Because of the wide variety of issues involved in various estates and trusts, we typically charge for our post-mortem estate and/or trust administration on an hourly basis. For those clients who prefer to work on a fixed fee basis, we can prepare a fixed fee quote, either for separate phases of the administration, or for the entire process. Please contact us for more information based on your needs.
Click below to view a full comparison chart of all available plans.
BASIC PLAN
- is most concerned about the transfer of their assets after death and wants to guarantee that the right people will carry out their plan and take care of their children and their children’s inheritances while they are minors.
- wants a simple plan that does not use testamentary trusts.
- is not concerned about the tax impacts of their estate planning.
- is not concerned about protecting their assets or their beneficiaries’ inheritances from the claims of creditors, divorce, and the cost of long term care.
- creates a simple will and utilizes beneficiary designations to provide for the administration and distribution of your assets after your death.
- names appropriate fiduciaries to carry out your estate plan including guardians for your children and minor beneficiaries.
- provides for the orderly transfer of your assets outright to your intended beneficiaries after your death.
- nominates appropriate surrogates for financial and health care decision-making if you are unable to make these decisions on your own.
FOUNDATION PLAN
- wants not only a smooth transfer of their financial assets and the naming of the right people to carry out their plan, but also wants their plan to provide after-death inheritance protection from taxes, creditors, and divorce for the financial assets that their beneficiaries will receive, and/or who.
- is concerned about the impact of federal and state taxes.
- wants to avoid public processes and provide for management of assets in the event of incapacity.
- provides everything included in the Basic Plan and additionally ensures that the assets left to beneficiaries are protected from their creditors and administered according to your wishes.
- utilizes all available estate tax exemptions to minimize the payment of federal and state estate taxes and to postpone the payment of any remaining such taxes until after the death of the surviving spouse.
- protects your children’s right to inherit your assets in the event that your surviving spouse remarries.
- protects your beneficiaries’ inheritances from estate and gift taxation at the times of their deaths to the maximum extent possible.
- retitles your financial assets to ensure your plan works.
LIFETIME ASSET PRESERVATION PLAN
- is most concerned about the protection of their assets from unforeseen creditors and nursing home during their lifetime.
- is concerned about the transfer of assets after death and wants to guarantee that the right people will carry out their plan and take care of their loved ones and their loved ones’ inheritances, potentially for life.
- wants to avoid public processes and provide for management of assets in the event of incapacity.
- develops and implements a plan that restructures your assets to maximize eligibility for Medicaid and other government beneficiaries.
- includes all of the benefits and protections of the Foundation Plan for incapacity and post-mortem distribution to your intended beneficiaries.
- can create an irrevocable trust that transfers your hard-earned assets to your intended beneficiaries according to your wishes.
- can include a meeting to explain the planning to family members so that they can understand the decisions made and better contribute to the plan’s long term success.
FAMILY LEGACY PLAN
- wants to identify their most important family values through in-depth counseling with their family attorney to create instructions and tools to perpetuate those values for their future generations.
- is concerned about the impact of federal and state death taxes.
- wants their plan to provide after-death inheritance protection from taxes, creditors, and divorce for the financial assets that their beneficiaries will receive.
- wants to put family members at ease by communicating in advance how and why the plan will work for the benefit of the current and future generations.
- provides everything included in the Foundation Plan.
- uses trusts to protect your assets from risks occurring during your lifetime.
- can include the development of specific extensive and detailed directives for the distribution and stewardship of your financial assets and family values.
- can include a meeting to explain the planning to the family members so they can understand the decisions made and better contribute to the plan’s long term success.
Call or email us for more information about our rates or to schedule an appointment and begin your planning process today.