Planning Your Estate: What To Bring To Your First Meeting

Even before you see us to start planning your estate…you’ve got homework to do!

Here’s a handy checklist for you…

ASSETS

• Pension or individual retirement account balances
• Bank account balances
• Certificates of deposit
• Value of stocks and mutual funds
• Value of U.S. Savings Bonds or other bonds
• Life insurance policies (face value, beneficiaries, cash value)
• Any other financial assets

INCOME

• Social Security and pensions, listed separately for each spouse
• If there’s a person with Alzheimer’s, any other income for that person
• Any other income for the spouse

LIABILITIES

• Credit card balances (list separately)
• Mortgage balance and monthly payment
• Vehicle loans
• Loans against insurance policies (list separately)
• Other liabilities

After you’ve got everything together, we’ll be able to create an estate plan customized for your needs (and wants!). During our first consultation, we’ll offer a possible plan of action, and we’ll detail what we can do to achieve that plan. Don’t be afraid to ask about our fees…how they’re calculated, if a retainer is required, etc.

Attorney fees are usually calculated in one of two ways, or a combination of both. The first is an hourly billing rate. The second is value billing, in which an attorney charges a flat fee for each specific service provided. Or, fees may be based on a mixture of both methods. For instance, she might charge a flat fee for specific services, but an hourly rate if you need a Medicaid appeal.

You should also ask if different rates apply for work being done by administrative staff.

At The Law Offices of Alice Reiter Feld & Associates, we believe one of the most important things we can do is LISTEN! We’ve been listening, in fact, to South Florida families for the past 33 years. By doing so, we’ve created customized estate plans – and wills, trusts, powers of attorney, long-term care planning, asset protection plans, and assistance with VA or Medicaid issues – for the individual circumstances of each client. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

We’ll help you reach you goal of never being out of money, and never being out of options. And we’re just a phone call away.