“Information Bits from the Boss: Samantha provides brief answers to clients frequently asked questions”

What if I need to determine if the attorney is the right one for me?
 
What type of questions should we ask? I’ve created a list of questions that when you call in to schedule an appointment or you are meeting with the attorney for the first time, questions you should ask. Also, if you’ve had an attorney for years doing your estate plan it would be a good thing to touch base and ask them these questions to determine if that would be an appropriate person to continue to handle your estate plan.
 

1. How long have you been in practice?  This would be a good question to ask every attorney. It doesn’t mean that if they haven’t been practicing long that they aren’t a good attorney. It does give them the opportunity to explain their journey and why they are choosing to do the area of practice that they are in.
2. Does your firm emphasize your practice in a particular area of law?  For example, our office, we are focused on estate planning and elder law planning. We want to make sure that we are always staying current on what’s happening. We always encourage clients to partner with an attorney who does focus on estate planning or elder law planning.
3. What percentage of your practice is devoted to Elder Law or Estate Planning?  If you have a general practitioner who’s representing you, they could be doing a fantastic job. You just want to know do they spend a lot of time in this area.
4. What organizations or associations are you a part of?  There are a couple of really important organizations for elder law or estate planning attorneys. The first one would be NAELA (National Association for Elder Law Attorneys). Each state has a subchapter. For example, Pennsylvania has PAELA (Pennsylvania Association Elder Law Attorneys). PAELA provides an opportunity for elder law attorneys to get together and learn. Typically, the PAELA provides continuing legal education credits that are offered through that organization. That’s also usually a good indication because there is membership fee so if the attorney that you are meeting with is paying to be a part of this organization it because they really value that particular area. 
5. When was the last time you handled an elder law matter or an estate planning matter?  If you’re dealing with an attorney that does all different types of law knowing when the last time, they met with a client to discuss this topic is really helpful.
6. How many elder law matters do you handle yearly? The law is always changing so it’s very helpful to have somebody who is handling a certain number of cases. There is no hard and fast rule about this, it’s just making sure that they’ve handled some that year, so they know if there are any law changes.
7. Do you offer home visit for clients? A lot of times when we are dealing with elder clients, we’re willing to go there to meet with a client in their home, if they have mobility issues so they don’t have to come into the office and have to navigate all of that. You want to ask your attorney if they are willing offer home visits. 
8. Is your office easily accessible for elderly clients? Are there stairs? Is there an elevator? Is there a ramp?
9. Have you visited any of the area nursing facilities?  Do you actually go to those facilities to meet clients? That would be helpful to know.
10. How many pages is your Financial Power of Attorney document?  Again, it doesn’t mean that there has to be a particular number of pages but asking the attorney about how long the financial power of attorney is going to let you know how much detail the provide in that document.
11. Is the Health Care directive one document or multiple documents?  You should ask them why they prefer that whatever is their preferred method of provide documentation. 
12. Do you preplan for clients to protect assets while accounting for a look back period?
13. Do they use basic estate planning? Do they use trusts? Are they will-based plans?  What are their thoughts on trusts versus wills? 
14. How many trusts do you typically draft yearly?  If you’re going to have someone recommending a trust to you, you want to make sure they are well versed in the area of trust law.
15. Do you prepare tax returns for any of the trusts you prepare?  Here in our office, we do not.  We do refer it out to an accountant.  The reason why we do that is because we really want to have the team approach so that we an accountant and a legal professional.  We really feel like our clients are getting the best representation that way.  That doesn’t mean that you don’t want an attorney who prepares tax returns, it just means finding out what do they offer and why do they feel that way.  In our case we want to make sure that we’re bringing the tax professional in and having them as part of the conversation.  We don’t particularly prepare the tax returns, but we do work very closely with the accountant or the tax preparer that you may have, or we can recommend an accountant or tax preparer.
16. How do you bill?  Is it an hourly fee or a flat fee billing?  In our office we are flat fee when it comes to estate planning. That way we don’t have to charge every call, every email, every visit, we know about how long it takes, and our job is to make sure every client feels comfortable and understands the estate plan that they have in place.
17. Is the funding done by your office or does the client have to fund any trusts that they would create?  In our office we do the majority of the funding as long as you are willing to provide us with the company and the account information, we are willing to help you fund the trust.  Some law firms don’t do that, but they do offer tips or recommendations regarding funding so just finding out how that law firm handles that is helpful and what do you want, do you want to fund it, or are you okay with the law firm taking on that responsibility.
18. How do you determine the best plan for each client? Make sure that you are comfortable with how they are determining the best recommendations for you.
19. Do you have a continuity program or are they going to do a periodic maintenance check?  At our office we always recommend check-up. That can be via phone, virtually or in person. We do not charge for that. What we do is we meet with the client so we can update them on any tax law changes or any law changes that happened throughout the year so the client can update us on what’s happening in their lives. Our goal is to make sure we offer the best recommendations to the client. We typically do not charge for that. We do charge if there are any updates that need to be made. We always disclose that amount upfront to the client if we make this change. That’s fair to the client so we can make sure that they understand what we are recommending, and they understand what we would be charging for.

 
If you have any additional questions that I have not answered please feel free to contact our office and schedule an appointment.