To create a comprehensive estate plan that will protect you and your family when the inevitable happens, you must have a plan for both your death and your potential disability. However, there are many considerations that go along with planning for both of those circumstances, and if a consideration is skipped it can cause unnecessary stress and expense on your loved ones at a very vulnerable time. Therefore, we have developed the Fawcett Consulting Process, whereby we walk you through all of the considerations. That way we can customize your estate plan to your circumstances and your wishes. Below is an outline of the general estate planning process.
Prior to the Initial Meeting
Before the initial meeting we ask that you download and complete the questionnaire and return it to us prior to our initial meeting. This will allow us to have a much more productive initial meeting.
The Questionnaire has several parts. Part one is were you provide your personal information. Part Two discusses how to leave a personal legacy with your family. It is designed to begin the process of you thinking about leaving a broader legacy than just a financial legacy. Part Three is were you name the potential people who will be in charge of executing the plan. Part Four ask questions about your financial situation and assets. This portion allows us to determine if there are any potential issues with your property that needs to be addressed within your estate plan.
The Initial Meeting
The Initial Meeting will last approximately two to three hours. We will ask a number of questions designed to help us better understand you and your family, the concerns that you have, and the objectives you seek to accomplish. For every concern or objective, there are many planning solutions. The first part of this initial meeting is to gather information that will aid us in making recommendations and then to develop a structure for your estate plan while you are still there to provide input.
At the end of this meeting, you will have our recommendations for how to structure your personalized plan. Once we have a designed a plan that you agree with, we will give you a price quote for that plan. If you agree with the price and you trust me to draft the required documents to implement this plan, we will do three things to move forward. First, we will execute an engagement agreement with the necessary releases and notices that will control our arrangement. Second, payment will be due either in full or as a down payment if there is an payment plan established. Lastly, we will schedule our next meeting, usually within the next two weeks, to review and execute the documents to implement this estate plan.
Advisors’ Meeting
If you desire, before we finalize your personalized plan, your professional advisor(s) and I will discuss the plan that we collaboratively designed. Based on the collective knowledge of the professionals, I will confirm that the finalized set of planning recommendations we discussed is the best solution for you. Following this meeting, I will call and discuss any problems they may have identified.
The Review and Execution Meeting
This meeting will last approximately one and a half hours. In this meeting we will review the documents designed to implement your personalized plan. We will address any questions or concerns that you may have with the documents or plan. Once the documents and plan have been reviewed and approved by you, we will execute the documents with all of the formalities required by law. If you do not approve of the documents during the meeting and they require significant revisions, we may have to reschedule a short execution meeting after the revisions have been completed.
Estate Plan Maintenance
Once your estate plan is signed and effective, it needs to be reviewed periodically to make sure everything stays current. We offer several Maintenance Plan packages that take the stress off of you and place it on us to make sure your estate plan is always current.