How Are We Different From Other Law Firms?

A Practice Devoted to Trusts, Estates & Business Planning

We are experienced in these areas of the law and we take the time with you to develop the best course of action for you and your family.  We’re also passionate about what we do and about serving our clients.  We use our knowledge and expertise to counsel you on the best course of action to take in protecting your family (and your business, if you have one).  We do not provide one-size-fits-all trusts or business succession plans.  The reason we chose to develop our practice this way is because one-size-fits-all plans almost always fail in the end when they are needed most.  Tax laws inevitably change, you can count on that.  Family dynamics and financial circumstances also change over time.  Because of this, we have designed a unique annual maintenance plan to help ensure your plan will work when it needs to.  More about this plan is discussed below.

A Lifetime Relationship with your Attorney

We are also different in that we want to get to know you personally and stay in touch with you and your family for years to come.  Many law firms try to “disengage” from their clients once they have completed their legal work, fundamentally treating their clients like a docket number.  We however prefer to remain in contact with you on a regular basis.  This helps us ensure that if there have been any major changes in your life or in the tax law, that we can act promptly and address those changes with you to make sure your plan will work as intended.

Our Signature Trust Advantage Maintenance Program™

Another benefit that separates us from other law firms is our Signature Trust Advantage Maintenance Program™.  The Program includes simple amendments to your trust plan documents during the yearly subscription period, a one year subscription to Legal Directives (a health care document banking service), unlimited calls to our office for the next year, annual updates to your trust funding (if required), an invitation to our annual Trusts & Estates Lecture, a new set of Power of Attorney documents, and a subscription to our e-newsletter, the “Wealth Advisor”.

Trust Funding Services

Unlike many law firms, we help you completely fund your trust, whether it’s with our guidance or because you have hired us to completely fund your trust.  This means drafting a Trust Transfer Deed for your home, creating and having you execute an Assignment of Personal Property to your trust, assisting you in re-titling any brokerage or other accounts, and obtaining beneficiary designation forms for your life insurance and retirement accounts, as necessary.  Your trust is most effective only when the complete funding is done, so that your plan will go according to the “plan”.

Collaboration with your Other Advisors

In addition to the extraordinary differences listed above, when you choose us to advise you, we strive to enhance your existing relationships by bringing your team of professional advisors together (CPAs, financial advisors, insurance advisors, etc.), as each has a unique prospective and knowledge of your family and your life.  Working in concert together, we can provide you with the best plan to protect your hard earned assets, protect your children and provide a legacy for your family.

Advanced Estate Planning

We also counsel and advise our clients on advanced estate planning.  Many firms steer clear of this area of planning due to the complexity of the tax law involved.  We counsel our clients in this area because we know that often clients with a modest net worth today can become clients with a high net worth tomorrow.  We devote and limit our practice to estate planning and business planning because we need to be experts in these two areas for our clients.

Trust Administration

Upon the death of a loved one, it only makes the most sense to revisit the attorney or firm that originally created your estate plan documents.  However, many firms operate on a trust-mill mentality (trying to create as many “canned” estate plans as possible to drive income into their coffers) without offering trust administration or probate services when a client passes on.  However, we are there for you and your family when a death occurs.  We offer trust administration and probate services to our clients.  We never want a client or their family to feel like they are out there alone, especially at such a trying and sad time.

Business Succession Planning

We also counsel our clients on matters of business succession planning.  This type of planning is especially important to our family operated business owner clients because there can be many opportunities to transfer the family business into the hands of their children in a tax efficient and seamless way with proper planning.