How to prepare to meet with an estate planning attorney
So you’ve made that call and have scheduled your first appointment with an estate planning attorney to discuss creating your will or trust. Congratulations! The hard part is done, but there is still a bit more work that you need to do before that first meeting. While it may be tempting to go in unprepared and let the attorney take charge of the discussion, it’s actually far more productive if you come prepared and armed with important information. The more organized you are before your meeting, the more your attorney can successfully help you make the right choices.
Questions to think about before your first meeting
Before you meet with an attorney, you should think about what your goals are for your end-of-life plan and your property after your death. Who, for example, do you want to be the person who will be financially responsible for your estate (your executor, personal representative or trustee, who makes sure that your money and assets are distributed in accordance with your wishes)? And, if that person is not available or cannot perform those duties for some reason, who would be your second choice? If you have minor children, who will take care of them if you die? Additionally, you’ll want to have a general idea of who is going to get your money and property, including whether or not you want to give part of your estate to a specific charity or to a person who is currently a minor.
Although it’s challenging, you’ll also want to consider what you’ll need in the event that you become unable to make decisions for yourself. What will you want your care to look like, and who will you want to be in charge of your care. Making an end-of-life plan is a difficult but necessary way to plan for a more secure future. You’ll want to think about what your medical directive will look like. Do you know if you’d want to be on life-support or in hospice care? Who do you trust to make those decisions for you? By knowing, even in a general sense, what you want in your later life, you’ll be able to craft a plan with your attorney that is in line with your needs and desires.
What to bring to your first meeting with your estate planning attorney, and what your attorney needs to see and know
You should come to your first meeting armed with some key information and documents, which will allow your attorney to move forward with your plans quickly and effectively. This information includes:
List of family, including their names, ages, and contact information. Remember to include your spouse, children, living immediate relatives, as well as former spouses. Also, if there are others who will be involved in crucial decisions (i.e., executors, guardians, beneficiaries, etc.), make sure to include those names and contact information on your list.
Information for both retirement and non-retirement assets, such as your bank statement, stocks, bonds, and other investments, 401 (k) statements, IRAs, pension statements, and the like. Your attorney is not looking for the hard and fast numbers here. Rather, he or she is getting a sense of your combined financial assets and future projections of assets. Your attorney will also want to explain how each type of asset should be planned for your particular family situation.
Record of real estate and lists of personal property, including your home and mortgage, rental properties, vacation properties, or investment properties. You’ll also want to include a list of personal property that is either financially or emotionally valuable. If you own your grandmother’s engagement ring and want it passed down to a specific person, your attorney will need to know about those special requests.
Remember, you don’t have to stress over every detail, or wonder if you are forgetting something crucial. Your estate planning attorney should be a skilled questioner that can hone in on unusual or difficult details in your assets. However, by bringing in the standard documents and having a broad sense about your end-of-life wishes, your attorney can effectively lead you on the path to a well-planned future.
If you think you are ready to meet with an estate planning attorney at Lewicky, O’Connor, Hunt & Meiser, LLC, make an appointment today.
Verena Meiser has 16 years of experience as a trust and estates attorney. She has been practicing law in Columbia, Maryland for the past 12 years. She specializes in estate planning and asset protection, special needs planning, elder law, VA planning, estate administration, trust administration, and trustee support
