It only takes a telephone call or e-mail to start the process. I make house calls, and I am happy to meet you at your home, office or other location convenient to you. It usually only takes about an hour of your time to find out the bulk of the information I need to prepare your estate planning documents. If you want to prepare ahead of time, I can send you a questionnaire to fill out, but I usually can get most of the information I need from you during the initial free consultation. It actually helps to meet at your house or office because if you have forgotten a piece of information, you can just get it and we can move forward.
If you want to get organized before we meet, the following lists would be helpful:
1. A list of your family members and /or friends, and their addresses.
2. A list of your bank and retirement accounts. I do not need or want account numbers, just the name of the institution, the type of account and an approximate value.
3. A list of any significant possessions, real estate, coin collections, jewelry that you may want to identify and treat differently in your will. If your combined assets and insurance policies could total $1 million or more at your death, a financial statement would be helpful to identify ways to minimize your potential estate tax obligations.
4. A list of any life insurance policies or retirement death benefits.
5. If you have minor children, think about who you would want to be appointed as their guardian (responsible for their physical well-being) and who you would want responsible for their finances. It does not need to be the same person. You should consider at least one alternate for each. It is better to name an individual guardian, and not name joint guardians.
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