You are not hiring a firm. You are hiring me.
I take the first call, I write the documents, and I sit across the table at the signing. There is no associate to be handed to and no paralegal drafting from a template. It is the whole reason the price is fixed and the reason I can only take 6 estates a month.
September
2 of 6 places left
When a month is full I will offer you the next one rather than squeeze you into this one. Documents that decide who raises your children are not something to do in a hurry.
If somebody has died and you do not know where to start, that is a phone call rather than a form.
Ring (207) 555-0121. If I am with someone I will ring back the same day.
What you actually leave with
An estate plan is 4 pieces of paper, and three of them are for while you are alive.
Will
In the packageSays who gets what, who raises your children, and who is in charge of carrying it out.
Works: Only after you die. It does nothing at all while you are alive.
Durable power of attorney
In the packageLets somebody you choose handle money and property if you cannot.
Works: While you are alive and unable. It dies with you.
Health care directive
In the packageNames who speaks for you medically, and says what you want if you cannot say it.
Works: While you are alive and unable to speak for yourself.
Advance directive instructions
In the packageThe specific wishes — resuscitation, feeding, where you would rather be.
Works: Alongside the health care directive, as guidance for the person named.
Revocable living trust
ExtraHolds property so it passes without going through probate at all.
Works: As soon as it is signed and the property is actually moved into it.
Deed transferring a house into the trust
ExtraThe step almost everybody forgets. A trust with nothing in it does nothing.
Works: On recording at the registry of deeds.
Almost everybody rings asking for a will. The will is the one that does nothing until you die; the other three are the ones your family will be reaching for at a hospital, and they are why the package is a package.
A price agreed before I start.
Estate planning is fixed. Probate is hourly, because I cannot know at the start whether a family agrees, and quoting a fixed fee for a fight would be dishonest.
- Estate plan, one personMost people under fifty with a house and no complications.
- $1,150
- Estate plan, a coupleMarried or unmarried couples. Two people, one meeting, one signing.
- $1,700
- Estate plan with a trustPeople with property in more than one state, a child who needs protecting, or a wish to avoid probate.
- $2,900
- Second and further deedsAnyone with more than one property.
- $350 each
