Getting Your Estate Plan Now: What To Expect?

Nicholas Costaras

Attorney, Investor, Philanthropist

发布日期: 2020年3月4日

You’ve decided that now is the time for you and your significant other to take the necessary steps to protect your family. You finally realize that every moment without your estate plan leaves your family vulnerable. You’re ready to take action now with whatever it takes to get your estate plan set up and operational.

Where do you go from here? How do you get things moving? What does the estate planning process even entail?

Great questions! This article walks you through what you need to know. After reading, you’ll know enough to make the informed decisions to get the necessary protection for your family with your estate plan.

In this article, you will learn what it means to:

Choose the right estate planning lawyer,
Schedule your free consultation,
Get your estate plan in place, and
Get your trust funded.

Finding the Right Estate Planning Lawyer

First, congratulations! You’re already on the right path! By simply being here reading this article, you’re doing what it takes to inform yourself.

By researching what’s involved with estate planning, you’ll get more comfortable with what it means and why it’s paramount to your family’s welfare. Learn more about estate planning and its benefits in this extensive article.

I encourage you to keep researching and following the unfolding path of knowledge before you. The more you learn, the more you’ll know what you need. Plus, you’ll now discover a variety of estate planning lawyers who might be the exact expert you’re looking for.

When you find an estate planning lawyer that seems like the right fit for you and your family, your next step is to schedule your free consultation. By meeting your potential lawyer, either in person or via video chat, you get the opportunity to look for two critical elements.

Is this person someone I like and trust?
Is this person an expert in and passionate about his craft?

No to either question? It may be worthwhile to keep looking. Yes to both questions? You have a strong match! Keep the conversation going until you feel 100% comfortable with the estate planning lawyer and the estate planning process.

I emphasize the importance of feeling absolutely comfortable and confident in the person and the process he or she shares. With any element of doubt, trust your instincts. Move on until you find the right match in a person and what he or she offers you.

Curious to learn more about who I am?

Scheduling Your Free Estate Planning Consultation

Often, people express anxiety at the prospect of ‘free’ consultations. Perhaps the anxiety stems from the erroneous, limiting belief that “nothing’s free.” The mistaken idea held by many that “free” means hidden strings attached.Or maybe this “common” belief is really just a limiting belief? An idea unintentionally programmed into one’s subconscious mind? From an authoritative, fear-based comment heard in youth? Or perhaps from a past experience that left a bad taste in one’s mouth.

For me, getting past this limiting belief that “nothing good comes free” stemmed from being on the wrong end of an aggressive salesperson. Being harassed with vampiric tactics that were highly pushing and pressuring. The result? Feeling awful and having an unhealthy limiting belief programmed into my subconscious mind.Ugh, can you relate? Leaves a bad taste in your mouth, right? I totally get it. The old “freebie” bait and switch tactic has been a go to favorite for snake oil salesmen for centuries. Possibly millennia.The challenge here is when we adopt the belief that every person offering free anything must be shady and have hidden motives. An agenda that hurts and takes from you rather than edifying and adding to you.

For me, this limiting belief has hurt me way more than served me. The disempowering belief has blocked me from one great opportunity after another. By closing off our minds before even taking a discerning look at something, we prevent any new, valuable information that could, in truth, dramatically enhance the quality of our life.

Where do you go from here? How do you get things moving? What does the estate planning process even entail?

In this article, you will learn what it means to:

Choose the right estate planning lawyer,
Schedule your free consultation,
Get your estate plan in place, and
Get your trust funded.

Finding the Right Estate Planning Lawyer

First, congratulations! You’re already on the right path! By simply being here reading this article, you’re doing what it takes to inform yourself.

Is this person someone I like and trust?
Is this person an expert in and passionate about his craft?

Curious to learn more about who I am?

Scheduling Your Free Estate Planning Consultation

“The best things in life are free.” - Coco Chanel

Reflecting on Coco’s statement, we get a glimpse into its profound wisdom. The best things in life ARE free!

What are some of the “best things” that come free? Immediately, my mental highlight reel explodes! Happiness, joy, fulfillment! Adventure, growth, achievement! Family, love, connection! And oh so much more!

I begin to envision the glorious, majestic wonders of our Earth. All free natural blessings that we may enjoy. Warm sunshine, sprawling mountains, and expansive oceans are some of the most awe-inspiring, soul enriching elements on our magnificent planet!

You feel me? Get what I’m throwing down? For you, take a moment to reflect on what you consider the best things in life that are free. What comes to mind?

I want you to now imagine the joy you share when spending time with your amazing loved ones, especially your children, if you are so blessed with them in your life. Now feel in your body the waves of love flowing through you when reflecting on the profound connection with your significant other.

It’s free to love, and absolutely free to enjoy that love. What on Earth trumps the love you feel for those dearest to you?

Here’s another great example, take a moment to envision that moment when your favorite, home-cooked meal is placed before you. Now imagine that first, delicious bite. Feel the glorious sensations of scrumptious ecstasy as the flavors and textures combine into pure heaven. Your mouth simply explodes in pleasure. Mmmmmm.

Salivating? Of course you are! It’s only natural. This fun exercise reminds us of the precious moments that are completely and absolutely free. The experiences that we often take for granted. Special moments to remember that make up the fulfilling joyful pleasures in our lives.

Back to the point. Do you agree now that the best things in life are in fact free!?

Now when it comes to looking for the best products and services to enhance your and your family’s quality of life. How do you determine whether a “free sample” or even a“free consultation” is actually worthy of your time and energy? That these freebies may indeed provide lasting value for you in some shape or form?

I submit to you that the first step involves evaluating the source of information. Is this person, company, or brand trustworthy? Does this information come from a highly competent individual, company, or brand with proven, effective experience? Is this information being shared for a purpose to uplift and benefit? (As opposed to simply capturing your attention to manipulate you to take some disempowering action?)

Like me, you likely recognize quickly when an information source isn’t authentic or serving in your best interest. Like me, you probably sniff out the shadier characters who may not have your best interest in mind. Like me, you want to only listen to trustworthy sources of information.

Now, you may not yet know me personally. You may not yet know the exemplary character I commit to always embody. Let’s pretend that what you see is what you get, in terms of the caliber of the content I strive to share with you online and on social media. (Speaking of, make sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram for fresh, inspiring content delivered right to your newsfeed!).

When you now trust in who I am, the experience I offer, and the prestigious legal minds on my team, you open yourself and your family to the value of what you deserve to receive.

Too often within the legal industry, you find lawyers who are nothing more than aggressive money-grabbing, domineering, colossal egos. While perhaps that may be the right sort of personality to represent you if you find yourself in a messy legal battle, it’s not exactly the sort of person you want to share a coffee with, let alone the intimate details of your family legacy.

When it comes to matters of family, you want a compassionate person you like and trust. You want the best expert for the subject matter. You want a person whose passion is to serve you and your family by giving their absolute best effort in the subject expertise you need.

I will let you decide who to trust when it comes to the matter of your Estate Planning. When you choose me and my team, you know you will get the highest level of integrity and compassion in your service. Again, please take a few moments to peruse my social media, like my LinkedIn, to get a better sense as to who and what I am.

Choosing the Right Estate Planning Lawyer

What we’re discussing now is building your legacy. Protecting your family. Ensuring you get the ultimate peace of mind that comes from knowing you’ve done your absolute best for the ones you hold most dear. We’re not engaging in legal warfare. We’re not looking to righteously make someone pay for any reasons of justice.

We’re building and protecting the foundation of your family’s future. We’re handling the delicate details of the life you’ve built to ensure the lasting legacy you have endures. Endures for your children, their children, and beyond.

Your job as parents is to ensure the best possible life for your children. That means instilling high caliber values and building their character foundation. Your job is also to find the right experts to support you on your journey to give the absolute best to your darling loved ones. Whether that means finding the best coaches, educators, or in this case, legal experts to help you fortify your legal legacy.

Now that you have a clearer sense of who I am and what I value when it comes to serving you, keep reading for the specifics of what you get when you schedule your free consultation with me, and how the process looks from estate planning consultation to your completed, fully funded trust.

Attorney Nick Costaras,Esq.

Step 1: Your (Completely) Free Consultation

Always first and foremost is to respect you and your family. That means your privacy, your time, and your best interests.

Our consultation will be short, sweet, and highly productive. We’ll keep things fun and simple. We’ll stay focused and paint the exact picture that you need to know for you to make the best decision for your family.

No gimmicks, tricks, or aggressive tactics here. Only compassionate and candid conversations.

By the end of our conversation, you will know exactly what it takes to get your estate plan prepared and fully operational. You will understand the exact specifics for your particular family situation. You will have the knowledge necessary to decide the best course of action for you and your loved ones.

Step 2: Clarifying Your Family’s Situation, Estate, And Needs

Where are you right now?

Our first step is to get clarity on exactly where you are right now. You and your family’s current position. You share with me who you and your family are, you and your family’s goals, and why now is the time to get your estate plan created for your family legacy.

By discussing your exact situation, we both get a sense as to what exactly you need to accomplish your goals. From here, we get into the specifics of what you need.

What do you need?

When we are on the same page with you and your family’s current position, we now can get clear on your exact needs. We don’t want to waste any time or energy on anything except what’s most relevant to your situation.

In this portion of our conversation, we get into the details of the legal options for you to consider for your estate plan. There are a myriad of legal strategies and techniques at my and my team’s disposal. We’ll discuss only those that matter for you and most align with your family’s best interests.

By discussing your family’s exact needs and goals, you will have a clear sense of the best options to take you from vulnerable to full legacy protection.

Estate Planning

What’s your best course of action?

Finally, we discuss the action steps needed to get your full estate plan of legacy protection in place. We dive into the exact steps, in order of priority, of what you and I need to accomplish to achieve complete and total legacy protection for your family.

Thankfully, the entire process is relatively straightforward. There will be a certain number of tasks to complete before your entire estate plan is prepared to a high level of quality.

While my team and I will manage the lion’s share of work, there are certain sensitive decisions and tasks that only you and your family can make.

Ready to get started now?

If not, great! There will be no pressure to move forward immediately. You will at least know a significant amount more about the entire estate planning process. You will be free to continue your research to find the best possible estate planning attorney for you and your family.

When you are ready to get the process started, terrific! We discuss the exact financial investment for your exact estate plan to serve your family’s needs.

Like with all sound investments, your estate plan becomes an asset that serves you and your family for decades and beyond. In fact, your newly acquired estate plan asset may even serve as the legacy foundation that empowers your family for generations.

When you decide to take action now, we sign an engagement letter to give you full transparency into what you and your family receive. You will understand the exact list of extensive services my team and I provide for you and your family. We will only move forward when you have full confidence in the process and exactly what you and your family receive with your total and complete estate plan.

Step 3: Being Decisive and Taking Action Now!

Now that we’ve committed to getting your estate plan created, we both begin taking massive and immediate action. We will both know exactly what the other is doing to get the process completed in a timely and efficient manner.

Generally, you can anticipate having your estate plan completed within a month or so after getting started. After completed, anticipate a few additional weeks of follow up tasks to complete the funding process to make your trust “fully operational.”

Yes, you and your family will have a few important responsibilities during this process. There will be sensitive decisions to consider and important phone calls to make. I promise that as we progress, you will begin to feel more and more comfortable with the process.

While the entirety of the heavy lifting will now be taken care of on your behalf, the most important priorities remain with you and your family.

Primarily, you will consider the important and sensitive decisions that directly affect your children and grandchildren. There will be important phone calls to make involving certain key financial elements of your estate.

While your only responsibilities are merely the tip of the iceberg of your estate plan, you can rest assured that the bulk of the work is getting taken care of promptly, and most importantly, with the highest degree of care. You will have full transparency as to what exactly we are creating and doing on your behalf.

Behind the scenes, my team and I will prepare the mountains of paperwork that comprise the technical legal documents that create your estate plan. With every crucial piece of the document puzzle prepared, your family will receive the highest degree of legacy protection in exact accordance with your wishes and goals.

Step 4: Completing Your Estate Plan

This step is the most fun! This stage is where we sign and notarize the documents that combine to make your estate plan! At this festive signing occasion, you will need two, disinterested witnesses and a notary who attest to the fact that you are signing these formal documents with a sound mind.

A disinterested witness is simply anyone not named in your estate plan. That means someone not mentioned in your will, living trust, power of attorney, living will, or any of the documents that make up your estate plan.

When each document is signed, witnessed, and notarized, your estate plan is official and good to go! To finalize your estate plan, we must now proceed to the last step, often called “funding your trust.”

Step 5: Funding Your Trust

This last and final step is called “funding your trust,” because you must formally transfer your assets into the trust. By transferring your assets, this simply means changing the title and ownership of your property, accounts, real estate, businesses, etc. from your personal name to the name of your newly created trust, most commonly, your revocable living trust.

For more information on living trusts, check out this in-depth article.

From a technical perspective, you as a person no longer own your assets. Rather, you as a person controls and owns the legal entity, your living trust, that owns and holds your assets.

Simply stated, you no longer own any property or assets. You own the living trust that owns your property and assets.

In reality, nothing changes. You still have complete ownership and control over your assets.. We’re simply playing the shell game in the best possible way under the United States legal system.

As the saying goes …

“Don’t hate the game. Learn to play the game… and win!”

As a winner of the game, from a legal perspective, you gain the massive and spectacular benefits from having a newly formed estate plan. You receive tremendous liability protection, you avoid the insanity of probate, and you ensure your exact wishes for your family come to pass.

Sound silly and even a bit bizarre? Let’s thank the centuries of legal and policy evolution that has created the legal environment in which each of us Americans are opted-in. By being a United States citizen, you are required to follow the law -- or pay the price. Let’s not consider the horrors of what might ensue if we choose to ignore the law. A conversation for another day.

Ultimately, does it really matter at the absurdity of this legal game? Or is what really matters that you receive the powerful result: complete legacy protection for you and your family!

What matters most? Of course protecting your family! When your family’s legacy is secure, you can sleep better at night. At the end of the day, it’s about you and your family’s peace of mind.

Next Steps From Here

“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

One step at a time, we move forward with purpose until your estate plan is complete and your trust fully funded.

Reading up through this point, congratulations! You now know what it takes to get your estate plan created! Knowing with certainty the process will give you the comfort in knowing what you need to do next.

To recap what you’ve learned, you now know how to:

Find the right estate planning lawyer,
What it means to schedule your free consultation,
What the estate planning process looks and feels like, and
What it takes to get your estate plan created and funded.

Feeling more confident about this process? Having a clear and transparent look into your estate planning process, you now have the tools to make the best decision for you and your family.

With the tools and knowledge now at your mental fingertips, it’s time to make a decision. You now know enough to start taking action.

Do you love your children? Do you have assets? Do you want the absolute best for your family?

Of course you do! When it comes to protecting your family, why wait? Why not schedule your free conversation to get your estate planning process started right now?

You now know that my passion is to protect your family legacy. Let me do what I do best on you and your family’s behalf. Let me help you get the legal protection you and your family deserve.

Do you see any reason now why you won’t move forward? Why wait? Schedule your free consultation right now.