ESTATE
Tips on Choosing an Estate-Planning Attorney
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How to Know When It's Time to Consult a Lawyer
Choosing an estate lawyer shouldn't be done based on who's the cheapest or whose office is closest to your home or where you work.
Follow these three steps in choosing the person who's going to help prepare your estate:
1. Get references.
Call your local bar association, which will give you a list of estate-planning attorneys in your area. Get references from friends and business associates (although you should talk to people who have similar situations. It doesn't make sense to pay top dollar for an attorney whose specialty is $10 million estates when your net worth is $10,000). Insurance agents can be an especially good source of referrals because insurance goes hand-in-hand with estate planning - agents often work with attorneys.
2. Check out the fees.
When you call an attorney's office, ask for a resume and a fee schedule. Usually you will find either hourly fees or a package fee (where the package includes all of the estate-planning documents you need). Drafting your will is usually the most expensive part of the process, unless you're using a "pour-over will" that passes everything directly on to one or more trusts. In that case, the most expensive part will be drafting the trust.
3. Ask for a free consultation of 15 or 20 minutes.
Of course, you can't judge an attorney's expertise in that period of time. But you can sense whether you think the two of you can work together. And when you consider the responsibility that this attorney has for your family's future, it only makes sense to work with someone you trust and with whom you feel comfortable
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Illustration by Terry Allen Copyright 1998 Microsoft Corporation