If you reach out via phone, email, or through this website’s contact form, I’ll chat with you briefly and then direct you to my scheduling page so that you can pick a convenient time for our 1-hour Legacy Plan Initial Consultation. If you’d like, you can skip the Meet & Greet and go straight to the scheduling page.

The legacy planning process starts with a 1-hour initial consultation, which you can schedule online here. Once you schedule your appointment, you will receive a confirmation email containing my Intake Form for you to fill out.

You must submit your Intake Form via email to carina@clrlaw.pro at least 48 hours before your scheduled Initial Consultation.

During your Initial Consultation:

• We’ll get to know each other a bit.

• I’ll explain what Concierge Attorney services include.

• I’ll educate you on different kinds of plans and what “comprehensive” estate planning includes.

• We’ll go over the answers you entered on your Intake Form.

• We’ll discuss your needs and goals.

• We’ll address any questions or concerns you have.

• I’ll recommend which legacy plan options best meet your needs and goals.

• I’ll explain the planning process for the options I recommend.

• We’ll decide if I’m the right attorney for you and you’re the right client for me and whether to proceed with building your legacy plan together.

After your Initial Consultation, if we decide to proceed, you will receive an Engagement Letter for Legal Services to review and sign as the contract between us. At the end of the Engagement Letter, you will select a date and time for your Design Meeting (next), approximately 30 days after signing to allow you enough time to complete and submit your Life, Legacy & Estate Planning Questionnaire. 

You will receive the Questionnaire as a fillable PDF. It asks for all the information I need to build your initial plan, along with certain documents I’ll need to review, including previously executed estate plans, property deeds, marital agreements, LLC operating agreements, and the like. You must submit your completed Questionnaire and your documents to me (digital or hard copy) no less than 5 days before your Design Meeting (next).

If you don’t have an existing legacy plan, the goal of the Design Meeting is to set out the details of your estate plan. For us to do this well, you must submit your preparatory documents to me no less than 5 days before your scheduled Design Meeting so that I can be best prepared to advise you on your specific wants and needs.

If you have an existing estate plan, we will review it and discuss your desired changes. 

We will discuss various options regarding your wishes for how you want your tangible property distributed, who will make financial decisions for you if you become incapacitated or after you pass away, who will advocate for your medical needs, who will care for your children, and much more. We will discuss various choices and I’ll make recommendations based on your particular situation. At the end of the meeting, we’ll have a clear blueprint I will use to build you a comprehensive estate plan.

Once the design of your estate plan is complete, we will discuss the second component of your legacy: your deliberate family plan. This plan is the best way to ensure a smooth, conflict-free transfer of both your tangible and intangible assets. Together, we will go over the various planning tools and decide which ones you would like to employ.

The Design Meeting usually takes 2+ hours to complete. Please plan accordingly.

During your Draft Review Meeting, we will conduct a thorough walk-through of the first drafts of your Last Will & Testament and your Trust(s). The intent is to ensure you understand what your documents say and mean, and that they achieve and meet your planning needs and goals. I will answer any questions, discuss any concerns, and mark any changes to be made to your plan.

Because your Powers of Attorney and Advance Directives are more straightforward documents, we will review them briefly and ensure the appointed Agents are correct. If you desire, I will send you those documents to review on your own, and then let me know if any changes need to be made.

Once your Draft Review Meeting is complete, we will schedule your Signing Meeting and Legacy Interview (if requested).

This meeting will take 2+ hours to complete.

We will sign, witness, and notarize the final versions of your estate plan documents at your aptly named Signing Meeting. Then, I will take the executed documents back to my office to digitize them.

You will not receive your estate planning documents at your Signing Meeting because I must digitize them before releasing them to you.

This meeting will take approximately 1 hour.

Trust funding can be accomplished in 3 ways:

1. I can fund it for you for an additional fee (0.25% of all assets funded).

2. I can connect you with a trusted financial advisor who can assist you with funding your trust and provide additional financial advice, if desired.

3. You can fund it yourself using the written instructions I will provide you.

All 3 options require some involvement by you because only you can make changes to some of the accounts.

If you elect me to complete your trust funding and asset alignment, I will do so at this phase of the legacy planning process. If you do not elect me to complete your trust funding and asset alignment for you, we will discuss how you must do so at the end of the Signing Meeting. We will review my written instructions to assist you in handling your assets, retitling each account, and updating your beneficiary designations. Your Trust must be funded correctly for it to operate as planned. If you skip this step, your Trust will fail.

If you own real estate that needs to be retitled, I will do that during this time.  

The final meeting is your Legacy Plan Binder Delivery Meeting. At this meeting, I will deliver and release your original estate plan documents to you. We will walk through your binder together to show you your documents and how they are organized, ensure you understand your responsibilities to safeguard your plan, and discuss the non-legal tasks remaining to be done by you. You will also receive a USB containing all digitized documents. I will retain digital copies of all documents and store them on my online legal platform’s secure digital document storage.

Your Binder Delivery Meeting is also a good opportunity for you to discuss as much of your plan as you would like to share with your family, especially to prepare them for any future roles they may play in it as a beneficiary or fiduciary. This is also a good time to introduce me as your estate planning attorney so they will have a friendly face to turn to when they must take up those roles.

You can also discuss particulars like where to locate your critical documents, who holds Powers of Attorney and HIPAA authorizations, who takes the dog and cat, who takes leadership of the family business, etc. Discussing this with your family in advance will considerably lessen the burden, confusion, and opportunity for conflict that often occurs at a time when they should be left in peace to grieve

This meeting will take 30 minutes or more depending on whether you also choose to hold a Family Meeting.

You don’t just need a Legacy Plan, you need peace of mind. All too often, a Legacy Plan that is entirely effective when it was drafted but becomes woefully out of date by the time it’s needed. The law is ever-changing, and inevitably families and assets change, too. I believe an ongoing relationship is necessary to ensure your Legacy Plan remains current, appropriate and advantageous for your needs and goals, and will create the outcome you desire when you desire it. To accomplish this, I recommend we review your Legacy Plan and asset alignment annually.

If you elect to take advantage of CLR Law, PLLC’s Legacy Sustainment Plan™, your entire Legacy Plan will be reviewed annually the week of your signing anniversary (without your having to remember). Learn about all of the Plan’s benefits and services at legacy sustainment plan™.