Our Estate Planning Process

Question: “What is the process of working with Stacey to complete your Will and other estate planning documents?

Answer: It’s straightforward.

Step 1: Complete the Estate Planning Form on this web site. This form asks a lot of questions about your assets, family members, etc. Although it can be lengthy and time consuming to complete, this information is needed in order to develop a comprehensive estate plan.

Even if you do not plan to distribute anything to a family member, it is smart to identify that person and helps prevent legal challenges down the road. By providing dates of birth and contact information for all family members, it helps to track them down later in the event that they move after you’ve completed the Will.

By providing information about your assets, it helps determine the overall picture of distribution as well as whether or not tax planning is desirable.

If two people want to do their estate planning together, such as a husband and wife, you each need to complete separate forms. However, if the information on a portion of the form would be the same for both of you, you only need to complete that portion once.

If you have any questions about completing the Estate Planning Form, please contact Stacey – info@staceyromberg.com.

Step 2: Send completed form to our office by mail, e-mail or fax. When you send it in, please indicate some dates and times that you would be available for an initial consultation.

Step 3: You are contacted to schedule an appointment.

Step 4: You confer with Stacey to discuss your estate planning needs. She makes recommendations. Generally, all estate planning work is done on a hourly basis. If you feel comfortable with the recommendations and pricing, you will enter into a clear written fee agreement for the legal services. An advance fee deposit is due prior to the initiation of work.

Step 5: Stacey drafts all documents, and sends them to you for your review. You can ask questions and make changes to your documents.

Step 6: Once you are satisfied with your draft documents, you schedule another appointment to sign everything. There are technical legal requirements involved with signing a Will, so it’s important that you sign everything in front of an attorney who is knowledgeable about these requirements.

Step 7: You receive your original documents in the mail, along with a letter providing further instructions for storing your original documents and when they need to be changed.

Step 8: In approximately five years, you will be contacted by our office to see if any changes need to be made to your documents. It is important to review these documents periodically, to ensure all information is up to date.

Any questions? Please contact Stacey’s office at inquiry@staceyromberg.com.