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240-222-1579

Our Estate Planning Process

Initial Consultation

We conduct our initial consultations on the phone or via zoom. During our first conversation, we will provide you with some general information about estate planning and we will briefly discuss your estate planning goals. We will provide you with the price or the price range at the end of our initial consultation. We reserve the right to change the price or price range as circumstances dictate.

Hiring Documents

If you hire us to assist you with the design, drafting and signing of your estate plan, we will send you a letter of representation, terms of commitment and estate planning price agreement. You can also review and sign these documents on your smartphone or computer. We will send you a link to pay the invoice for the initial payment or the full price of your estate plan. We accept credit cards, debit cards and checks; you will receive more information about payment methods when you review and sign the estate planning price agreement.

Estate Planning Questionnaire

After your initial consultation, we decide that we are god fit and you would like to move forward with our service, You will be emailed an Estate Planning Questionnaire. The Estate Planning Questionnaire asks you about your personal and family information; your values, goals and concerns; your advisors; your beneficiaries; your property and those individuals whom you want to act on your behalf when are unable to act for yourself or after your death. Again, you can fill out the Estate Planning Questionnaire on your smartphone or on your computer. You can fill out the Estate Planning Questionnaire at different times if it is more convenient for you. All information received from a client is strictly confidential. Our firm takes every step possible to protect your privacy. The data submitted via this form is encrypted and secured using industry- standard 128-bit SSL encryption. After we have reviewed your responses to the Estate Planning Questionnaire, we will move into the design phase.

Client Design Meeting

The Client Design Meeting will be held via Zoom. During the Client Design Meeting, we will give you additional information about estate planning. We endeavor to present this information in an easily understandable format and often use animated slides to convey difficult estate planning concepts. We will talk about your best and worst-case scenarios should you be unable to take care of yourself and your children or pass away. We will discuss your emergency contact system, and if you don’t have one in place, then we will put one in place. We will talk about who you want to have the power to act on your behalf if you become incapacitated, when they get that power and how much power they have. We will discuss your medical care and end-of-life decisions and who you want to make those decisions. We will talk about how your property will be used to benefit you and your dependents during your life and after your death. We will talk about whether a will-based, trust-based, or wealth preservation-based estate plan best accomplishes your goals for yourself, your family, your business and your legacy. After the Client Design Meeting, our firm will begin the first draft of your Documents.

Document Review Meeting

During the document review meeting, we will discuss the design of the plan and make sure that you understood how your plan works during any period of incapacity and after your death. After the Document Review Meeting, we will finish the second draft of your documents if necessary. If you choose to review your documents, then we will provide you with a watermarked PDF copy of those documents. If necessary, additional changes will be made after your review. The document review meeting will be held via Zoom.

Document Signing Meeting

The document signing meeting will take place in person at one of our offices, your home or a place mutually convenient for all parties. You will formally

execute your documents in front of two witnesses and a Notary Public. This meeting typically takes 30-45 minutes. After the document signing meeting, we

will retain your original, signed documents until the documents are scanned into a digital file. After we have digitally scanned the documents, you will receive

your original documents in an estate plan portfolio. The estate planning process typically takes four to six weeks from initial

consultation to document signing.

Singles

Married Couples

Blended Families

With Minor Children

When Divorced

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© 2023 Gold Law Firm, LLC • All Rights Reserved

Estate Planning For Singles

If you are single, then you are in good company. According to the most recent U.S. Census, more than half of all adult Americans are single, too. Whether you just turned 18 or over, one thing you share with your married counterparts is the need for essential estate planning.

Even if you do not have two dimes to rub together, you are your estate. Did you know the law requires every adult American to make his or her own personal, financial and health care decisions? Who would make your basic decisions if you are legally incapacitated due to a serious injury or illness?

Unless you legally appoint the decision-maker of your own selection in advance through proper estate planning, then a probate judge will select one for you. The probate court process to accomplish this is expensive (it employs at least three attorneys), discloses your private, personal and financial information to public record and is a real hassle for your loved ones.

Did you know that in the absence of proper estate planning, your assets may be distributed after death based on “one-size-fits-all” state laws written for people who do not have their own estate plan? Of course, this impersonal estate plan written by state lawmakers may not reflect your own unique circumstances and objectives for your loved ones and assets.

Fortunately, we can help you avoid the probate and replace that impersonal, state-written, one-size-fits-all estate plan with one we design together for your unique circumstances and objectives. We even help you coordinate the beneficiary designations on your life insurance and retirement plans with your estate plan to avoid unpleasant, unintended consequences.

Book a call today.

Estate Planning For Married Couples

With each marriage come new rights and new responsibilities. If you already have an estate plan created when you were single, then you must bring your estate plan up to code to reflect your wedding vows. Estate planning for married couples is important.

Unfortunately, many married couples mistakenly believe that they can make personal, health care and financial decisions for one another should either spouse become legally incapacitated due to a serious injury or illness. Nothing could be further from reality!

Without proper estate planning in advance to appoint your spouse as the incapacity decision-maker, he or she will not have the legal authority to make even fundamental decisions for you (or affecting both of you). For example, medical privacy laws will bar access to your medical records and the ability to consult with your attending physician, financial laws limit control over your finances and IRS regulations will prohibit filing a “legal” joint income tax return, for starters.

Unless you legally appoint the decision-maker of your own selection in advance through proper estate planning, then a probate judge will select one for you. While the judge will likely appoint your spouse, the probate court process to accomplish this is expensive (it employs at least three attorneys), discloses your private, personal and financial information to the public record and is a real hassle for your spouse.

Did you know that in the absence of proper estate planning, your assets may be distributed after death based on “one-size-fits-all” state laws written for people who do not have their own estate plan? Of course, this impersonal estate plan written by state lawmakers may not reflect your own unique circumstances and objectives for your spouse and assets. In fact, depending on how you titled your premarital assets and how your beneficiary designations are arranged, you may disinherit your own spouse and force your spouse to sue your estate!

Fortunately, we can help you avoid probate and replace that impersonal, state-written, one-size-fits-all estate plan with one we design together for your unique circumstances and objectives. We even help you coordinate the beneficiary designations on your life insurance and retirement plans with your estate plan to avoid unpleasant, unintended consequences

Book a call today.

Estate Planning For Blended Families

Times have changed. In the new millennium, whether due to the death of a spouse or through divorce, blended families now outnumber traditional nuclear families. And the number is likely to grow based on current statistics and trends.

Many blended families face unique social, psychological and economic challenges. As a result, over 60% of second marriages end in divorce. Fortunately, there are numerous organizations and support groups dedicated to helping blended families with these challenges.

If you already have an estate plan created when you were “previously” married, then we can help bring it up to code to reflect your new wedding vows. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the critical estate planning challenges confronting blended families. These challenges include disinheriting your ex-spouse and protecting your own children.

Without proper legal planning, your ex-spouse (as surviving parent/guardian) would likely be appointed by the probate court to manage the inheritance you leave to your minor children. To make matters worse, what if your children later predecease your ex-spouse and are single and childless at that time? Who would inherit your assets then? That is right: your ex-spouse, as the next-of-kin of your children.

Chances are you made a few solemn promises to your new spouse on your wedding day. Among them were promises to be there through thick and thin, personally and financially. In the absence of a premarital agreement to maintain separate assets, most spouses in blended families tend to blend their wealth. For example, they title their respective assets in the names of both spouses and also designate one another as the primary beneficiary of their respective retirement plans and life insurance policies.

Warning: If you predecease your new spouse, then you may forever disinherit your own children from your share of such blended wealth! Thereafter, upon the death of your new spouse, your assets may be inherited by your stepchildren, or even by your new spouse’s next spouse and their children. Yes, things can get complicated – and fast!

Regardless of whether children are reared in a traditional nuclear family or in a blended family, great care should be given to protect any inheritance both for them and from them. For starters, wealth representing a lifetime of hard work and thrift can be squandered in very short order. Dollars earned just spend differently than dollars inherited. In addition to good old-fashioned squandering, an inheritance can quickly vanish through divorces, lawsuits and bankruptcies.

Fortunately, with proper (and very careful) estate planning, you can both honor your vows to your new spouse and provide an inheritance that is protected for and even from your own children.

Book a call today.

Estate Planning With Minor Children

Are you the parent of minor children? If yes, then they are your most valuable treasure. So, what arrangements have you made for their care should something happen to you and their other parent?

As with your own personal, health care and financial decisions, would you rather select the guardians (i.e., backup parents) yourself, or let a probate judge make the selection without your input? Only through proper legal planning can you select the guardians.

There are two critical choices commonly faced by parents of minor children. First, who will take care of my minor children, if orphaned, and, second, who will manage their inheritance?

If you are separated, divorced, or you never married to the surviving biological parent of your shared minor children, then that parent will continue to be their guardian, absent a court-proven case of unfitness. Nevertheless, you will want to make prudent choices regarding guardianship should your minor children be orphaned.

While every family situation is unique, here are some general practical pointers to consider when selecting guardians for your minor children:

  • Select guardians who share your faith, values and life priorities; and already have an established positive relationship with your minor children
  • Consider, when selecting a married family member, appointing the family member only, in case your family member predeceases or divorce
  • Make sure your legal plans provide for the compensation of the guardians, or at least that the inheritance is available to cover all legitimate expenses incurred when rearing your minor children
  • Obtain permission from the selected guardians before appointing them in your legal instruments. That is only meet and right

Great care must be taken when selecting a financial fiduciary to administer and distribute the inheritance. Simply put, a fiduciary is a person or institution legally responsible for the financial affairs of another. Fiduciaries are held to the highest standards of care and loyalty in this role.

So, who will manage any inheritance left upon your death? What if you and the other biological parent are divorced or were never married? Even though he or she may rear your minor child or children to adulthood, would you also want them to control the inheritance you leave behind, too?

There are three basic options when it comes to financial fiduciaries, each with its unique advantages and disadvantages.
Option one is the most common option. Here, you appoint trusted family members or friends. On the upside, they likely know the strengths and weaknesses of your loved ones, plus they may not charge much, if anything, to oversee the inheritance. On the downside, they may be busy with and distracted by their own life and financial responsibilities. Also, they may find it difficult to say “no” to an irresponsible heir.

Option two finds you appointed a professional fiduciary, such as an institution (e.g., a trust company) or an individual (e.g., your CPA). Interestingly, the upsides and downsides are the opposite of option one.

Option three is what I call the Pro-Am approach. You combine option one and two for the best of both worlds. In short, the family appointee knows the strengths and weakness, has an “abominable no-man” to help preserve family relationships when the minor child asks for a Ferrari and is not bogged down with investments, accounting, tax and legal details. Instead, the professional fiduciary shoulders (and is rightfully compensated for) the day-to-day management of the inheritance.
As you can see, selecting guardians and fiduciaries is essential for the physical and financial well-being of your minor children. Few decisions in life are more important. Only you can make these decisions through proper estate planning.

Book a call today.

Estate Planning When Divorced

Whether due to divorce or death, you are now single Again.

You may have children and even grandchildren. In any event, you need to create (or revisit) your estate plan.

Did you know the law requires every adult American to make his or her own personal, financial and health care decisions? Now that you are single again, who would make your basic decisions if you are legally incapacitated due to a serious injury or illness?

Unless you legally appoint the decision-maker of your own selection in advance through proper estate planning, then a probate judge will select one for you. The probate court process to accomplish this is expensive (it employs at least three attorneys), discloses your private personal and financial information to the public record and is a real hassle for your loved ones.

Did you know that in the absence of proper estate planning, your assets may be distributed after death based on “one-size-fits-all” state laws written for people who do not have their own estate plan? Of course, this impersonal estate plan written by state lawmakers may not reflect your own unique circumstances and objectives for your loved ones and assets.

What if you remarry? Well, if you want to risk losing about half of what you have should the remarriage not work out and disinheriting your own children and grandchildren, then do nothing. On the other hand, it is best to go into a new relationship with both eyes open.

In short, you need to have a legally enforceable premarital agreement inked before you say “I do” on your wedding day.

In a recent University of California study, researchers found that 60% of widowers are involved in a new relationship within two years after losing their wives, while only 20% of widows have a new relationship.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, men are 10 times more likely to remarry after age 65. And the average time before they are remarried is just 2.5 years. When dad remarries a new wife some 20 years his junior, that can trigger all kinds of drama in the family, to say the least.

As you can see, planning for being single again includes planning for any new relationships on the future, while preserving (and protecting) the relationships you already have.

Fortunately, we can help you avoid probate and replace that impersonal, state-written, one-size-fits-all estate plan with one we design together for your unique circumstances and objectives. We even help you coordinate the beneficiary designations on your life insurance and retirement plans with your estate plan to avoid unpleasant, unintended consequences.

Book a call today.