Price of Estate Planning in Michigan Part I
Written by Christopher J. Berry, Esq. on August 5, 2008 – 1:11 pm -
As a Michigan estate planning lawyer, occasionally I will meet with a potential client in need of estate planning who is very sensitive to price. Prior to meeting with them and finding out their goals and the complexity of what they want to accomplish, I have no idea what the price of a comprehensive estate plan will be. Estate planning for me and my firm is not a “one-sized fits all” proposition. Each family, individual and business is different so each estate plan is also different.
Everyone says they just want a simple will, or simple plan, but they don’t understand the hidden traps, or complexities that need to be overcome to meet their goals.
What are you paying for by preparing an estate plan, especially when you use a lawyer who’s main focus is estate planning? Is it the documents? No, because you can download or by forms off the internet for less then $50. Better yet, and this was new to me, use someone else’s trust document and just change the names.
What you are paying for is a) the expertise b) the counseling c) the documents d) peace of mind that your planning has been done right. That peace of mind that it’s been done right is elusive and difficult to show value of.
The best way to demonstrate it is to look at examples where it has not been done right. I will take a real world. Just recently there was an error in a family’s estate plan that cost a special needs child nearly $800,000. The way the documents read is that this special needs child had a trust that was only funded with $34, when most likely the trust was supposed to be funded with $800,000 of the deceased’s estate. That is an expensive mistake for a family. That one example of the price you can put on peace of mind, not only for you but also your loved ones. That is who this planning is for. I feel comfortable saying that to set up an estate plan ahead of time would have been much cheaper then the $800,000 cost to this decedent.
Posted in Estate Planning, Living Trusts, Michigan Probate, Personal Reflections |
