In a nutshell, we offer comprehensive estate planning, probate and estate administration services, although in practice this means very different things depending on you and your family. (If you’d rather skip the how and get right to the what, please click here. If you want to know about fees, please click here.
For instance, when we are talking about estate planning, a single client in her twenties who has a chronic medical condition may need more advice about a Health Care Proxy and medical decision making while a young family with two year old twins may focus more on Guardianship for their children and establishing a Revocable Trust to manage the family’s finances in the event that something were to happen to them while their children are still young.
People on the verge of retirement likely need to talk about estate tax planning and, in some cases, long-term care, and families who have children or other loved ones with special needs require special needs planning.
In short, we have no “typical” clients and we don’t offer a one-size-fits-all solution.
Instead, our goal is to really learn about each client and then offer a set of potential solutions. There is often (but not always) not a “right” answer when it comes to estate planning – your family is not a question on a law school exam. But we aim to give you an estate plan that both provides peace of mind and meets your practical legal needs, whether that is a Will, Durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Proxy or multiple Credit Shelter Trusts and beyond.
The same applies to probate and estate administration. When someone passes away, we are here to offer legal and, often, emotional support to our clients. We understand that the legal procedures that families often need to go through after the death of a loved one can be overwhelming and we strive to make that process as easy as possible.
As with estate planning, every estate administration is different. Some families have done significant tax and probate planning in advance while others have done none at all. Our job is to determine whether it is necessary to go through the probate court system, to develop a strategy for filing estate tax returns and paying estate taxes, and to assist Trustees and Personal Representatives as they gather estate and trust assets and manage them for the beneficiaries.
*Now that you have a sense of how we do what we do, here is a list of some of the many of the actual tools we use when we help families with estate planning, probate and estate administration. This is not a comprehensive list, but it gives you a good idea of what we work on every day. The best way to find out what is right for you is to contact us to book a free appointment to discuss your needs:
We charge a flat fee for almost all estate planning work. The fee is based on the amount and complexity of the work and is agreed upon after we meet and before we start the work. It can literally range from $100 – $10,000, so it is impossible to give a good estimate until we’ve met to discuss your needs. Having said that, we do not charge an hourly fee to speak with our estate planning clients at any time – before, during or after we’ve prepared your actual plan. We feel strongly that this open-door policy encourages collaboration and results in the best possible planning.
So if we’ve worked together and questions arise, even years later, you can rest assured that your call or email will be answered and you won’t be handed a bill along with it.
We do most estate administration and probate work on a hourly basis at a pre-determined rate. When we work on these matters, calls, emails and letter writing are billed and clients remain responsible for filing fees and other expenses.
114 Waltham Street, Suite 21
Lexington, Massachusetts 02421
(781) 698-2365
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