FEES RELATING TO YOUR INITIAL PLAN
We take your estate or business plan seriously because we
know the importance of proper planning. Collectively we have
prepared and/or helped administer more than 10,000 plans over the
years. Problems tend to be much more prevalent in those cases where
little or no planning was done.
Often the client perceives a visit to our office as "going to the
lawyer to have Wills prepared." Please understand that while the
preparation of documents is an important and integral part of the
process, it is just that part of the process. You could obtain fillin the
blank forms from the internet. Often the most challenging aspect of the
plan is how are you going to provide for your beneficiaries while
mitigating estate taxes and protecting your property from creditors,
while keeping the property in the family. Do you have a child with a
responsibility, creditor or marital problem? A soninlaw or daughter-
inlaw that you have concerns about? Who owns what property (i.e., is
it separate or community property)? Who will manage your property if
you become incompetent for any reason? How will these issues be
handled based on the Internal Revenue Code and state law? Carpenters
have a saying, "Measure twice, cut once." This applies to your plan.
Before we can even begin the drafting, the most critical service we
provide is working with you to determine the best estate plan design
based on your particular desires and circumstances. We prepare many
estate plans for other lawyers who have access to forms but do not have
the expertise to design the plan and draft the documents.
Our education, training and experience allow us to do this for
you. We restrict our practice to only estate and business planning so
we can focus and concentrate on staying up with the law in these areas.
We attend educational seminars, write articles and speak on these
matters so that we can be in a position to give you the best advice.
Please note that sometimes there are situations where there are no
perfect solutions (i.e., a grown child that cannot handle money or a
child with an unstable marriage); however, we will provide you with
what we consider to be your best options.
At the first meeting, we will discuss estimated fees based on
what may be done for you. For most plans there will be an hourly fee
for conferences. This will consist of "engineering" time to determine
the design followed by a set document fee to actually draft the
document. The set document fee is subject to adjustment if the client
contacts us after we have drafted the documents with changes they
wish to make. This "change order" charge is normally going to be
billed hourly. Typically there will be conference(s) to go over the plan
and documents to execute. Depending on the plan chosen, there may
be other action items we need to take to implement the plan, and if so,
we will address how those will be billed. Most of our clients are
careful with spending money on legal fees, and we are aware of that.
We sincerely design the plan to achieve the client’s desires in the most
efficient manner from a legal and accounting fee point of view in light
of the potential tax savings. It is extremely important that once your
plan is complete that you maintain it. That means updating your
powers of attorney every three to five years and reviewing your plan
every few years to ensure it still meets your objectives.
We look forward to having an opportunity to allow us to
represent you and save you the excessive expenses which are incurred
when one overlooks planning one’s estate or business affairs.
Thank you,
Granstaff, Gaedke and Edgmon, P.C.
know the importance of proper planning. Collectively we have
prepared and/or helped administer more than 10,000 plans over the
years. Problems tend to be much more prevalent in those cases where
little or no planning was done.
Often the client perceives a visit to our office as "going to the
lawyer to have Wills prepared." Please understand that while the
preparation of documents is an important and integral part of the
process, it is just that part of the process. You could obtain fillin the
blank forms from the internet. Often the most challenging aspect of the
plan is how are you going to provide for your beneficiaries while
mitigating estate taxes and protecting your property from creditors,
while keeping the property in the family. Do you have a child with a
responsibility, creditor or marital problem? A soninlaw or daughter-
inlaw that you have concerns about? Who owns what property (i.e., is
it separate or community property)? Who will manage your property if
you become incompetent for any reason? How will these issues be
handled based on the Internal Revenue Code and state law? Carpenters
have a saying, "Measure twice, cut once." This applies to your plan.
Before we can even begin the drafting, the most critical service we
provide is working with you to determine the best estate plan design
based on your particular desires and circumstances. We prepare many
estate plans for other lawyers who have access to forms but do not have
the expertise to design the plan and draft the documents.
Our education, training and experience allow us to do this for
you. We restrict our practice to only estate and business planning so
we can focus and concentrate on staying up with the law in these areas.
We attend educational seminars, write articles and speak on these
matters so that we can be in a position to give you the best advice.
Please note that sometimes there are situations where there are no
perfect solutions (i.e., a grown child that cannot handle money or a
child with an unstable marriage); however, we will provide you with
what we consider to be your best options.
At the first meeting, we will discuss estimated fees based on
what may be done for you. For most plans there will be an hourly fee
for conferences. This will consist of "engineering" time to determine
the design followed by a set document fee to actually draft the
document. The set document fee is subject to adjustment if the client
contacts us after we have drafted the documents with changes they
wish to make. This "change order" charge is normally going to be
billed hourly. Typically there will be conference(s) to go over the plan
and documents to execute. Depending on the plan chosen, there may
be other action items we need to take to implement the plan, and if so,
we will address how those will be billed. Most of our clients are
careful with spending money on legal fees, and we are aware of that.
We sincerely design the plan to achieve the client’s desires in the most
efficient manner from a legal and accounting fee point of view in light
of the potential tax savings. It is extremely important that once your
plan is complete that you maintain it. That means updating your
powers of attorney every three to five years and reviewing your plan
every few years to ensure it still meets your objectives.
We look forward to having an opportunity to allow us to
represent you and save you the excessive expenses which are incurred
when one overlooks planning one’s estate or business affairs.
Thank you,
Granstaff, Gaedke and Edgmon, P.C.