Preparation makes estate planning meetings more productive and efficient. Walking in with organized information allows your attorney to provide better recommendations and move your planning forward quickly. Our friends at DP Legal Solutions discuss how clients who arrive prepared get more value from meetings and create more comprehensive plans. Your wills lawyer can work more effectively when you provide complete information about your assets, family, and goals upfront.
We’ve compiled a list of ten essential items to bring to your estate planning consultation.
Item 1: List of Assets With Approximate Values
Create a comprehensive inventory of everything you own. You don’t need exact values, but reasonable estimates help attorneys understand your financial situation and recommend appropriate strategies.
Include:
- Real estate with estimated market values
- Bank and investment accounts with current balances
- Retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs
- Life insurance policies with death benefit amounts
- Business interests with ownership percentages
- Vehicles and valuable personal property
- Outstanding debts and mortgages
According to estate planning preparation guidance, complete asset information allows attorneys to recommend strategies appropriate to your actual wealth level.
Item 2: Existing Estate Planning Documents
Bring any wills, trusts, powers of attorney, or other estate planning documents you’ve created previously. These reveal your prior thinking about beneficiaries and distribution, identify potential problems in old documents, and help attorneys understand what needs updating or replacing.
Even DIY documents from online services provide valuable information about your goals and concerns.
Item 3: Real Estate Deeds
Property deeds show exactly how you own real estate. Individual ownership, joint tenancy, tenancy by the entirety, and community property all have different estate planning implications.
Deeds also reveal mortgages, liens, and other encumbrances that affect planning strategies.
Item 4: Account Statements Showing Beneficiary Designations
Life insurance, retirement accounts, and investment accounts pass to named beneficiaries outside your will. Bring statements showing current beneficiary designations so attorneys can coordinate them with overall planning.
Outdated beneficiary forms are one of the most common estate planning problems. We need to see what you currently have designated.
Item 5: Business Formation Documents
Business owners should bring partnership agreements, operating agreements, corporate bylaws, and shareholder agreements. These documents affect how business interests transfer and what planning strategies work for your situation.
Buy-sell agreements particularly impact estate planning and require coordination with personal planning documents.
Item 6: Life Insurance Policies
Bring policy documents or declarations pages showing coverage amounts, beneficiaries, policy owners, and cash values. Life insurance plays important roles in estate planning for liquidity, equalization, and tax planning.
We need to understand your current coverage to recommend whether additional insurance would benefit your planning.
Item 7: List of Potential Fiduciaries
Think about who you’d want serving as executors, trustees, guardians for minor children, and agents under powers of attorney. Bring a list of candidates with contact information.
Consider multiple options for each role since primary choices may be unable or unwilling to serve. Include information about relationships, ages, locations, and relevant capabilities.
Item 8: Information About Family Members
Provide details about your family structure including:
- Spouse’s full legal name and date of birth
- Children’s names, ages, and current situations
- Parents’ ages and health status
- Special needs family members
- Estranged relatives you want to exclude
- Stepchildren and blended family considerations
Complete family information helps attorneys identify planning needs and potential complications.
Item 9: Written Questions and Concerns
Write down questions as they occur to you before the meeting. Estate planning involves unfamiliar concepts that prompt numerous questions. Having them written prevents forgetting important topics during discussions.
No question is too basic or simple. We’d rather answer straightforward questions than have you confused about your own plan.
Item 10: Your Spouse or Partner
Both spouses should attend estate planning meetings when possible. Joint planning requires both people’s input on beneficiaries, fiduciaries, distribution strategies, and healthcare preferences.
Attending together prevents miscommunication and allows both spouses to ask questions and express concerns directly.
Additional Helpful Information
While not absolutely required, these items also help planning discussions:
- Tax returns showing income and deductions
- Information about expected inheritances
- Details about charitable causes you support
- Digital asset inventory with account information
- Healthcare preferences and end-of-life wishes
- Special concerns about particular family members
Organizing Your Information
You don’t need fancy binders or elaborate organization. Simple lists and copies of key documents work perfectly fine. The goal is providing complete information, not impressive presentation.
Many clients use spreadsheets for asset inventories and simple word documents for family information and questions. Whatever format works for you accomplishes the goal.
What Happens If You’re Missing Items
Don’t delay your meeting because you can’t find everything on this list. Come with whatever you have and gather missing items afterward. Initial meetings establish planning direction even without complete information.
We can begin discussing your goals, family situation, and general strategies while you work on assembling detailed financial information.
Making the Most of Your Meeting Time
Preparation allows attorneys to spend meeting time on substantive planning rather than basic information gathering. You get more value when we can focus on recommendations, strategy discussions, and answering your questions instead of creating asset inventories during the meeting.
The hour or two you invest in preparation pays off through more productive meetings and better planning outcomes.
Moving Forward With Your Planning
Estate planning protects what matters most to you and your family. Arriving prepared with organized information helps create comprehensive plans efficiently and effectively. We appreciate clients who invest time in preparation because it allows us to serve them better and create stronger protection for their families. Schedule your estate planning meeting and use this checklist to gather the information we need to help you build a plan that truly protects your loved ones and accomplishes your goals.