When you are interviewing estate planning attorneys, you might want to ask these questions:
- How responsive are you to your clients? What is your response time?
- Are you a licensed attorney? Are you a general practice lawyer or specialized?
- Are your fees flat fees, agreed to in advance? If not, how is the billing done?
- Are you available to help my family when I am incapacitated or gone?
- Do you make sure my assets are titled in the right way?
- What happens when things change in my life? What if I want to make changes to my plan later?
- Do you prepare a comprehensive plan for my kids’ care if something happens to me, one that names short-term and long-term guardians?
- Can you structure my estate plan so that whatever I leave to my kids will be protected from a lawsuit or divorce in their futures?
- Will you take the time to explain estate planning and to answer my questions at no additional charge?
- Can you give me recommendations or testimonials from other clients?
- Do you do trust administration, i.e., do you handle the legal aspects of administering the trust after a death occurs?
At the end of this process, think about whether you felt like you could trust this person and if you felt like he/she cared about you. Although you can always change lawyers (like you can with doctors), you should feel comfortable with your lawyer throughout the entire process. One of my clients told me that she’s never felt so close to an attorney and that I had become a family friend.