About Enhanced Estate Planning
The wealth Preservation and Trust and Estates Section of the firm focuses on helping you to build and to implement an estate plan that does what you really want and that the plan really works.
Too many wealth, estate, and asset protection plans fail to really identify what is important to you while you are alive and following your death. Are you concerned about asset protection for yourself, a surviving partner or spouse or your children or grandchildren? Do you want to protect your heirs from the risks of divorce, litigation, or accidents and lawsuits? Do you want to minimize estate and inheritance taxes? Do you have other goals that past planners have simply ignored?
Many older estate or asset protection plans ultimately fail because the assets, ownership, and beneficiary designations have never been coordinated with the plan and the documents.
Our process offers a number of approaches ranging from very simply and inexpensive planning up to and including our premier Enhanced Estate Planning Program (TM) and our Extended Family Plans (TM) that offer comprehensive planning and/or the ability to pay for planning for children and grandchildren who need to plan but haven’t done it yet.
We are highly sought after by clients and by other lawyers and estate planning professionals that want their clients to be well cared for and to have the best options explained in a way that makes sense. In fact, many of our clients are other professionals such as lawyers, doctors, accountants, and financial planners. We also represent the officers of publicly traded companies as well as family owners of closely held businesses.
Another reason that clients say that we are highly client focused is that we offer and initial consultation and will quote you a flat fee , in advance and in writing, for each phase of work that we do. There is no risk to the client. You will know the fee for planning or for estate administration before your decide to retain us.
Our Enhanced Estate Planning Process(TM) also makes sure that you preserve important family, business and personal information for your heirs and for future generations. It encourages you to document (through memos, audio, or video) your personal, business, investment, and other important beliefs, knowledge and information that you need to share but may not have yet had the chance to personally discuss with children or grandchildren.
This process also has the added advantage of you being able to explain to children, spouses, survivors and heirs how to divide personal effects, how to avoid disputes, how to use their discretion as trustees and many other facts and strategies which can help to prevent disputes following your death.
Executors and trustees often hire us to assist them in the full range of trust and estate administration. If you are a trustee or executor you probably know that there is an increasing exposure to personal liability for performing these fiduciary roles. For that reason, many fiduciaries retain the firm to make sure that you are protected.
Again, these fees are set in writing before you hire us to act.
Finally, the firm has many departments and lawyers with a great depth of experience in areas such as real estate, corporate law, municipal law, personal injury, employment law, tax assessment appeals and more. However, Doug Kaune and I (David M. Frees III) like to be a resource for the families and clients that we represent. If you have any type of legal issue please feel free, without concern about a fee or hourly charge, to call us. We will help you to find an experienced and effective lawyer in our firm or outside of the firm. We look forward to helping and serving you.
