The 6 Questions You Must Ask the Attorney Before You Spend a Dollar on Estate Planning

1. How Long Has the Attorney Been Doing Estate Planning?
Don't settle for an inexperienced rookie. Attorneys agree it takes 10 years to gain enough experience to know an area of law - especially one as complicated as estate planning.  It requires knowledge and experience in estates and trusts, probate, trust administration, real estate, income tax, estate tax and capital gains tax planning, corporate and partnership law and asset protection. Many attorneys who do estate planning are litigators who just learned software and went to a seminar and think they know what they are doing, or they are new attorneys with no background or experience to understand and identify the subtle but complicated issues in family estate planning.

2. Does the Attorney Understand Your Needs?
Your attorney doesn’t have to be just like you, but he should have real life experience to relate to your concerns.

• If you want to protect your young children, ask the attorney if he has children and how he protects his children.
• If you want to protect your income properties from lawsuits, ask the attorney if he has an income property and how he protects his property

Book knowledge is good, but real life experience is much better.

3. Will It Cost You to Talk to the Attorney?
If the attorney bills you by the hour, will you call him when you have a question? Probably not. If the attorney says he won't bill you by the hour, will he return your calls or emails without delay?  You should not have to pay to ask your attorney a question.

4. Is the Attorney Part of a Trust Mill?
There are many fly by night firms and paralegals that sell trusts to the thousands. They are what we call "trust mills." If you want cheap, they are for you. How do you know if it's a trust mill? 1) They crank out trusts like a sausage factory; 2) the attorney is here today gone tomorrow; 3) there is no on-going review or maintenance program or any attempt to build a long term relationship with their clients.

Just as bad as the trust mill is the attorney whose primary practice is litigation, family law or who knows what. All they know about estate planning is how to use their software and send out advertising. If you are considering this type of attorney, you're better off with a $100 do it yourself software kit from Office Depot.

5. Does the Attorney Know About Taxes and Trust Administration?
Estate planning involves a delicate interplay with estate taxes, capital gain taxes, property reassessment taxes and income taxes. Make sure the attorney knows about tax – not just the estate tax.

You want an attorney that has handled many trust administrations. "Trust Administration" means the work required when someone with a trust passes away. Many attorneys draft trusts but don't know the first thing about how to administer trusts.  An attorney with experience administering trusts will have a much better understanding of how to draft trusts. You certainly will want the attorney who designs and establishes your estate plan to be capable of implementing the plan when needed.

6. Will the Attorney Be There For You, Your Family and Your Business?
To plan right, you need to trust and feel comfortable enough with the attorney to tell him or her about your family, your assets and your goals. You have to trust the attorney to design and implement a plan that works. You also want to be able to call or email the attorney periodically to ask questions and review your plan - without an additional charge. The days of a personal relationship with your attorney seem to be gone. At Allison Consulting, we build relationships with our clients. We are not a trust mill or a law firm clearing house cranking out clients by the thousands. We carefully select our clients so that we can personally work with them for the long term.