What I do (404)

I usually start by having a brief phone call with you - so I can understand what you're looking for. (Maybe it's not me.) Then it may go like this:

We meet to discuss your situation and needs. You'll meet with me and not delegated to a junior, less seasoned attorney.
I read any of your existing documents. So I can understand your previous estate planning.
Then I answer your first questions. I try to listen well; and to speak in a plain, clear, educating way, with patience and empathy.
After 20 minutes or so, I may draw (on a large whiteboard in my conference room) my understanding of your current estate plan.
Then I may draw and explain an alternative to your current plan. I want to show to you an estate plan (wills or trusts) that deal better with more of your needs. Simply put, I explain how a simple or more complex will or trust can better deal with costs of estate tax, eliminate probate of will and provide overall better protection and certainty. And to deal with children if still young, by naming a guardian.
If you decide to move ahead, I explain what the cost and time frame would be, and show you how the new documents will work from both the tax and non-tax perspective. I'll prepare a written fee agreement we review together. It doesn't take long.
During the week after we meet, I'll call you to make sure my spelling and details are correct. I then produce the new documents.
We meet a second time about 3 weeks after our meeting - to review in depth and sign the documents. Many times a health care proxy and durable power of attorney will also be signed.
For clients in the Metro-West area, Boston, and towns such as Lincoln, Acton, Concord, Bedford, Burlington, Weston and Newton, they may come see me give annual update Client Appreciation Talk at a local library. The typical agenda is a refreshing of how their estate planning documents work, how retirement planning fits together with estate planning and long term care/government benefits. It is free. And in Plain English!

This is the replacement page.