Birchstone Moore Law

Estate Planning

We begin our estate planning engagement by reviewing your existing estate planning documents, if any, and formulating recommendations on how to improve and streamline your plan. At our initial meeting, we listen to your goals and concerns, ensure we understand your family and financial circumstances, and share our recommendations with you. The initial meeting is usually 1.5 to 2 hours, and we prefer that it be in person or via video conference. At the meeting, we will formulate a plan for how to proceed and provide you with an estimate of fees.

In the estate planning process, we may recommend basic estate planning documents and more advanced documents.

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Basic estate planning documents include:

Revocable Trust and/or a Will
(these can include trusts for children or grandchildren, marital deduction trusts and credit shelter trusts)
Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (“SLATs”)
Financial Power of Attorney
Advance Directive for Healthcare
(this includes what is known as a "Living Will")

If additional documents are recommended, they may be included in the fixed fee or we may bill hourly, depending on the circumstances. More advanced estate planning documents include:

Life insurance trusts
Gift trusts for spouse, children and/or grandchildren
"Intentionally defective" grantor trusts
Dynasty trusts for the generation-skipping transfer tax exemption
Grantor retained annuity trusts ("GRATs")
Qualified personal residence trusts (“QPRTs”)
Charitable lead and charitable remainder trusts
Asset protection trusts
Family partnership and limited liability company agreements
Shareholder agreements that implement business succession plans
Trust funding through purchase agreements and promissory notes

It usually takes us 6 to 8 weeks to prepare your draft documents, which will be delivered to you with summary materials including a summary letter and spreadsheet to help ensure you understand the plan. Some clients also opt to receive a flowchart, which can prove valuable in the future as a way to quickly refresh clients’ (and our) memory of the estate plan.

After your review, we will meet again by phone or video conference to review your questions and any suggested changes you may have, and then we will schedule a meeting to sign the documents at our office. After the signing meeting, we will submit any beneficiary designations you have signed to the relevant financial institutions and life insurance companies, and you will be provided with an electronic copy of your estate planning binder, together with a hard copy if desired.

Estate Administration

For estate administration, we will provide you with a list of items that are needed for us to administer the estate. If you prefer, we can visit the decedent's home with you to collect all of the needed information. Once we have determined the scope of the project, we will charge either a fixed percentage of the estate assets or our hourly rates, depending on the circumstances.

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We will file all of the necessary pleadings with the probate court in the relevant jurisdiction, prepare an inventory and accountings, as needed, hire appraisers, and prepare and file any required estate tax returns. We will work with your financial advisors and accountants to transfer estate assets to the intended beneficiaries as quickly and tax-efficiently as possible.

We recommend that a reserve be set aside to cover anticipated estate taxes and expenses. Once the federal and/or state governments have issued their "closing letters" certifying that no further tax is due, the reserve can be distributed and the estate closed.

Trust Administration

Whether you are serving as a trustee of a trust for a friend or relative or we have agreed to serve in that role for you, we can prepare annual accountings for the trust and deliver them to the beneficiaries or their representatives. The accountings help limit the trustee's exposure to fiduciary liability.

We will also meet with the trustees, investment advisors and accountants for the trust at least once a year to help ensure the trust is being administered in accordance with the trust instrument and as required by state law. These services are typically performed on an hourly basis and charged to the trust.