As a professional advisor, do you have clients
- Who need estate plans in place?
- Who have blended families?
- Who have minor children?
- Who are business owners?
- Who have unique beneficiary issues?
- Who are in unmarried partnerships?
- Who have estates that may be subject to estate taxes?
- Who have estate plans that have not been recently reviewed or updated?
Do any of these scenarios fit your situation?
- You suggest your client see Attorney A or Attorney B, but nothing happens?
- You send your client to Attorney C who then takes 6 months to complete the documents?
- You send your client to Attorney D who excludes you from your client’s estate planning process?
- Your client has special unique needs, but his attorney is a general practitioner who drafts a will only occasionally?
If you have experienced these scenarios, there is a viable alternative available for you and your clients through our Professional Trust Services program.
Our Team Working with Your Team
A Complete Estate Planning Portfolio Consists of:
- Revocable Living Trust
- Last Will & Testament
- Durable Power of Attorney
- Healthcare Power of Attorney
- Living Will
- Funding Documents (to facilitate asset transfer into the Living Trust)
- Administrative Documents (for adding assets or making future trust changes)
- HIPAA Compliant Language
AVAILABLE APPROACHES
You maintain direct involvement in the entire estate planning process with your client. Our approach to estate planning divides the process into three parts:
- Nonlegal Work & Non-Practice of Law
You provide all of the nonlegal services, or we make available a knowledgeable professional who works with you and your clients to provide all of the nonlegal work required. What work is this? The gathering of all information regarding the client’s financial and personal affairs necessary to the process and explaining in general terms what estate planning consists of – trusts, wills, powers of attorney, assist in the funding process, etc. This is not the practice of law. Your clients will have their legal questions answered by a personal conference with an attorney from our office. - Legal Work & Practice of Law
We prepare all necessary legal documents, answer specific legal questions your client has, and design an estate planning portfolio to meet his or her specific legal needs. The practice of law consists of explaining how the law applies to a particular client’s situation and recommendation of what that client should do. For example, as a nonlegal professional you should not say, “In your situation I recommend you do an A/B Trust”. Instead, you give us the facts, and we present you with our recommendations that you in turn present to your client. This can be an immediate turn-around while the client is at your office. You then assist the client in executing the documents, for which we provide detailed specific instructions, at your office if you desire. Finally, you assist your client in funding the trust by helping to retitle assets in the trust name and changing beneficiary forms.With this model, each party bills the client for his or her services. By using this program, our legal fee is less than for similar traditional planning because we do not spend time on many of the nonlegal aspects of the planning process. - Alternative Approach
This option is available to advisors who do not want to spend the time gathering the information, having the documents executed and funding the trust but yet want some involvement. We have an assistant, Jodi Vosika (480) 861-7743, who will meet with your clients at your office or their home. She will gather the information, submit it to our office and assist in the execution of the documents and funding the trust.
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