How We Work Together

Most estate plans don’t fail in the drafting. They fail after the signing — the trust never gets funded, the deed never gets recorded, and the binder goes on a shelf looking finished. I built this process so that can’t happen. Five meetings, in order, with nothing skipped — and then the part most attorneys hand back to you: moving your home and accounts into the trust before I close your file.

Here is exactly what happens, in the order it happens.

Phase One · Planning — the five meetings

I. The Conversation

An unhurried first meeting — in person or by video — to understand your family, your assets, and the moments you are actually planning for. No documents are drafted in this room. Thirty minutes, no fee, and I’ll tell you whether you even need a trust. If you don’t, I’ll say so.

II. Asset Review

A full inventory of what is actually there to plan around — accounts, real property, beneficiaries, insurance, business interests. The plan only works if it is built on what you actually own, so we document all of it before anything gets designed.

III. The Design

A written plan, in plain language, before any legal documents are drawn. You see exactly how the plan moves when it has to move — and where the old plan would have failed. This is also where you get the flat fee, quoted up front and in writing. It doesn’t change.

IV. Final Review

The drafted documents read together, line by line, with you in the room. We coordinate which assets move into the trust — and exactly how — so nothing is left to discover later.

V. The Signing

The documents executed, the people named, the language witnessed. In person, notary provided. This is the meeting most attorneys treat as the finish line — and where, for most of them, the work ends.

Phase Two · After the signing — where most plans fail

Proper Funding

We move the assets into the trust — deeds re-titled, accounts re-registered, beneficiaries aligned. A plan that is not funded is a binder. This is the work that most attorneys hand back to the client and most clients never finish. Here it is included, and tracked to completion — the house retitled by me, every account moved or confirmed before I close your file.

The Standing Review

Every three years, while we work together, we sit again — to update for new assets, new beneficiaries, new law, and the moments life has actually delivered. A plan is finished when it would still work today.

What you get at the end

Every account has a destination. The deed is recorded, the house is in the trust, and the person you chose — not a judge — takes the wheel if you can’t drive. If the day comes, your family’s whole job is one phone call, to a lawyer who already knows them.

The first call is free, thirty minutes, and unhurried. I’ll tell you whether you need me, what a working plan looks like for your family, and what it would cost — before you decide anything. Talk to Eric

(Not ready to talk? See if your current plan would actually work.)