The purpose of your first visit will be for you to become comfortable with us as your estate planning law firm and for us to determine your planning goals, wishes, desires, concerns, and to educate you on what you can expect during the process, and the range of fees.  This is the beginning of the planning process and the foundation from which your personal estate plan will emerge.

The Law Office of Antoinette Bone has developed an Estate Planning Form to assist our clients in gathering all pertinent information.  You should send us the completed form at least two business days prior to your initial meeting.  This will allow us to review your situation and expedite the planning process.  During this meeting, we will discuss the options you have for obtaining your goals and decide which one will be best suited for you and your family. This conference will last approximately 60 minutes.

Following your appointment, The Law Office of Antoinette Bone will begin preparation of your estate plan along with all relevant estate planning documents. What those documents are will be determined by the planning goals, wishes, desires, and concerns you expressed during our Discovery meeting.  Although there are certain basic documents everyone should have, every estate plan our firm creates is tailored to the specific needs of a particular client.  These may include wills, medical directives, guardianship paperwork, trusts, or powers of attorney.  They may also include documents for advanced planning, covering such matters as the care of those with special needs, charitable giving, business succession, as well as the transfer of tangible and intangible personal assets.

This meeting may be combined with the discovery meeting if you have decided that you want to move forward with planning.  During this meeting, we will gather information about individuals you want to serve in various roles in your estate plan and flesh out the details of what your plans design will be.

During this visit, we will review all relevant documents with you and commemorate the event with a signing ceremony.  Once signed, your documents will be presented to you in an attractive binder.  You will have a wonderful sense of security that you have looked after everything you have and everyone you love.

At The Law Office of Antoinette Bone, we do not believe that our relationship with you ends once the plan has been completed and all documents have been signed.  That is because we recognize that circumstances will undoubtedly change as you move through the different stages of life.  A single individual may have very different planning needs than the married couple just starting out.  The young couple will grow into a young family and need to rethink some of their choices.  The middle-aged couple with elderly parents will experience the loss of one of those parents.  The empty nesters or the more senior individual may experience an unanticipated need for appropriate long-term healthcare services.

Change in your personal life, as well as the law, will at some point necessitate the revisiting of your estate plan.  It is for this reason that we have developed a legal long-term care plan called the “Lawyer for life” program.  As a participant in this plan we will sit down together once every two years to review your plan to ensure that it not only still reflects your personal circumstances, but also that you are maximizing every opportunity to achieve your goals and minimize risk.  This along with other special benefits will keep your estate plan current.

It is important to remain aware that not only do your circumstances change, but so do state and federal statutes.  In that spirit, we will consistently keep you updated on changes in regulations that may affect your personal plan and offer regular tips and thoughts on how you may be able to take advantage of some of these.