If you are a person who might have a lot of things that will be left behind to others when the time comes to leave this earth, you may want to start thinking about estate planning. It is important that you do this as you want to feel secure about what will happen to your estate after you are gone. It’s probably a good idea to also find a good estate planning attorney who can help you with this task. Without a good attorney, it can be a daunting task. The reason is that estate planning is more than just a will, it involves living wills and other financial planning that will ensure all of your wishes are met.
The best thing to do when looking for an attorney is to meet with several different ones. You should do this to familiarize yourself with some of the attorneys out there and this will allow you to find one that you feel most comfortable with. Make sure you don’t sign any kind of agreement until you’ve talked to at least three different attorneys.
Make sure that when you talk to each attorney, you find out what their education experience was and make sure that the attorney you choose has a 4-year Bachelor’s degree and a 3-year Juris Doctorate from an accredited law school. You should also have passed the state bar exam.
You also need to find out who will actually be working on your estate planning file. Will it be the attorney himself or a paralegal or paralegal? The attorney will charge you a high hourly rate, while the paralegal will charge you less. In other cases, the attorney will only charge a flat fee and anyone in the office could work on your file.
If it turns out that a paralegal will be working on your file, be sure to ask to meet with them so you can build a relationship with them as well. You should have a working relationship with all of the people who will be handling your estate planning and handling all of your important information.
You should also find out how much of their time they spend on estate planning. You want to make sure that the attorney you choose does a great deal of estate planning and that it’s not something you do alone on the side. You want the lawyer you choose to dedicate at least half of their time to this type of work, better if it is more. This way you know that the attorney is taking continuing education to stay up to date with all the different rules of this type of law.
You want to make sure you don’t forget to ask how much a retainer fee is, and then when you’re sure you’ve found the right attorney, sit down and review a retainer agreement. This will outline the terms of the relationship you will have with the attorney and his law firm. Be sure to request your own copy of this contract and any other important documents that may be part of your estate planning.