For Professional Advisors

The Estate Planning Team

     As an estate planning law firm, we work closely with other professional advisors, including CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioners, Registered Representatives, investment advisors, financial consultants, insurance professionals, Certified Public Accountants, and tax advisors. We believe in the team approach providing our clients with the most comprehensive, realistic and effective estate plan. To that end, we strive to keep you informed and involved at all stages of the estate planning process. 

The Process

Step One: The Initial Consultation

     We generally offer prospective clients a complimentary initial consultation (except in the cases of probate clients, who require immediate advice about preparation for a probate appointment). With the clients' permission, we encourage you to attend this initial consultation as well. If you cannot arrange this, we will seek the clients' permission to discuss their estate planning with you afterward.
     During this first meeting, we will spend approximately an hour with your client. After listening to your clients' needs, plans and goals, we will generally make some estate planning recommendations. If the situation is complex, we may ask for a follow-up meeting to present a summary and specific recommendations.
     After making our recommendations, your clients may choose to engage our firm, or they may choose to take a while to reflect before moving ahead.

Step Two: Signing the Documents

     When your clients engage our firm, we will schedule a follow-up meeting to sign documents and begin carrying out of the plan. This meeting may be quite lengthy as we will thoroughly explain the planning documents to your clients, and to their family members, if necessary. We also begin helping your clients with the trust funding process.

Step Three: Follow-Up

     We have an extensive follow-up system, which we believe helps build stronger client relationships. Each client receives a follow-up letter after we have funded their plan and a subscription to our estate planning newsletter. Through the newsletter we try to keep our clients informed about changes that could affect their planning, and help them maintain an awareness of their estate planning goals. In this way we hope to ensure that our clients' plans are never out-of-date with their current needs.

Resources

Client Education

     Please visit our online Client Learning Center and our Charitable Planning Resources section for an online library of articles on issues related to estate planning. 

Joint Marketing

     We are happy to work with you to speak to your clients or prospects on estate planning issues, including basic estate planning, charitable giving strategies, generation-skipping and other advanced topics, business succession, or asset protection. Please call the office if you would like to plan a workshop or refer a client.