- Get Started by Scheduling Your Telephone Consultation
- Prepare for Your Family Prosperity Planning Session
- Attend Your Family Prosperity Planning Session
- Design Your Plan and Ensure Its Success
- Leave a Legacy
- What Happens After My Plan Has Been Created?
Get Started by Scheduling Your Telephone Consultation
We’re delighted to share how we work, as we do things a bit differently here at L J Estate Planning than at other law firms. And that’s why our clients have such a pleasant experience planning with us!
Call our office at 925-918-5320 to schedule your Telephone Consultation. We’ll schedule the most convenient appointment time available for you with our attorney.
One of the unique qualities of our law firm is that we focus on making sure your plan actually works when you need it to, in the way you need it to, so our initial meetings are a little more comprehensive than most. (Read more about what makes our firm different.)
Prepare for Your Family Prosperity Planning Session
Immediately after you schedule your Family Prosperity Planning Session, you’ll receive an email with instructions for completing your Family Wealth Inventory and Assessment Worksheet online. The Family Wealth Inventory and Assessment Worksheet is designed to help you focus in on the important information and questions that are necessary to get your legal and financial house in order.
Feel free to call the office at any time if you need assistance completing your Worksheet or have any questions at all.
Attend Your Family Prosperity Planning Session
On the day of your Family Prosperity Planning Session, please expect to spend up to 2 hours with our attorney. This Session with our attorney has the following purposes:
- To educate you about the law
- Answer your questions; and
- Design your plan
During your Family Prosperity Planning Session, we’ll start by making sure you have a sufficient understanding of what successful estate planning entails, so even after you’re gone, your family remains prosperous. We’ll then specifically address what would happen for your loved ones and with your assets if something were to happen to you (as things stand now) and help you create a plan that precisely articulates what you want to happen.
Design Your Plan and Ensure Its Success
Once we’ve completed your plan design, we’ll schedule a meeting for you to sign your planning documents, approximately 4-6 weeks later.
In the interim, we will review your assets in more detail for the purpose of ensuring that everything you own will be titled for maximum protection. We’re proud of our unique process for reviewing your assets, as it has proven a key component in achieving our mission to make sure our clients’ plans actually work when they need them to, in the way they need them to. (Read more about what makes our firm different.)
During these interim weeks, we will also review your design choices with you through a process that not only makes your plan easy to understand, but will also give you great confidence that we clearly understood exactly the way you want things to happen when something happens to you.
Once you sign your planning documents, your assets and your family are protected in the specific ways you decided during your Design Session. However, you may make changes to your planning documents at no charge for up to 60 days after you sign your documents.
Leave a Legacy
The Legacy Meeting is your final meeting during this initial planning phase (you’ll return for complimentary reviews of your estate plan every three years!) and is one of the most important meetings of our process because it’s where we:
- Follow-up on the funding of your plan and ensure you are on track, if you have chosen to take the lead with our guidance. Alternatively, if we are taking the lead on the funding of your plan, we’ll give you a detailed updated on our progress and acquire necessary signatures, etc;
- Provide you with an electronic record of all of your legal documents, so you can easily access them anytime you need to in the future;
- Review your asset spreadsheet with you and ensure all of your questions are answered.Of course, if they aren’t or they become unclear later on, we are always available to answer your questions at any time in the future. And, there’s no charge for that!
- Ensure your assets are all owned in the right way (you can have the best set of legal documents, but if your assets are not owned in the right way, it’s all been a waste);
- Make sure everyone knows just what to do if and when something happens. Whether you’ve named them to take care of your kids, the money you are leaving behind, or you (if you cannot care for yourself), we’ll provide the information they need should something happen to you;
- Capture and plan for your intangible assets– the values, insights, stories, and experiences – you would never want lost. Click here to learn more about Leaving a Real Legacy
Finally, during this meeting we make sure you understand everything we’ve put in place for you and your loved ones. And of course, you’re never without our support and guidance because we meet with you at least every three years to review your plan and make sure it stays up to date and actually works when you need it to, in the way you need it to.
What Happens After My Plan Has Been Created?
After the planning phase, we want to make sure your plan is maintained on a regular basis. At no additional charge, we review your plan every three years and keep you informed about changes in the law and about other issues that affect your family and your wealth. Finally, we are always here for you and we don’t charge you for phone calls or emails. We welcome your communications! Additionally, if you decide to join our membership program, you’ll receive even more guidance and support. Click here to learn more about our membership program.
You’ll be amazed at how easy and painless the entire planning process will be for you and your family.
Call us today! 925-918-5320.
