Top 5 Questions to Consider Before Hiring a Lawyer for Your Estate Planning Needs

We know that discussing death, incapacity, and other potentially frightening life events with an estate planning lawyer may feel intimidating or even morbid. Take a deep breath and relax. It doesn't have to be that way, and it shouldn't be.

Hiring a lawyer to help you make wise decisions for life and death can be the most empowering choice you ever make for yourself and your loved ones. The way we explain it is, "estate planning isn't about planning for your death, it's about planning for your life." So, with that frame in mind, let's talk about how to choose an estate planning attorney, because we aren't all cut from the same cloth.

The right lawyer will be there for your family when you can't be, so you want to understand who the lawyer is as a person, not just an attorney. Of course, you'll also want to discover the services your lawyer offers and how they run their business.

Here are five questions to ensure you don't end up paying for legal services you don't need, expect, or want. Once you know what to look for when choosing an estate planning lawyer, you'll be much better positioned to hire an attorney who will provide the kind of attention, care, and trust your family deserves.

01 | How Do They Bill For Their Services?

Your first question to a lawyer may be, "how much does it cost?" But that's typically only because you aren't clear on what else to ask. So we're going to give you an upgrade here.

The first question to ask isn't "how much does it cost," but rather, "how do you bill for your services and how do you determine what to bill for your services?"

The right lawyer for you will have a clear answer that helps you understand how they decide what to charge and how you'll be billed. They'll set clear expectations around fees, so there are no surprises later.

When working with an estate planning lawyer, look for one who bills for the estate planning work on a flat fee basis. A lawyer may bill hourly for other kinds of work, but a flat fee keeps the cost of completing your estate plan fixed and known in advance.

Ideally, a lawyer should quote that fee only after learning something about your family and your assets, and after explaining what would happen to both if something happened to you. That conversation is what makes it possible to match a plan to your situation and your budget rather than quoting a number before anyone knows what the work involves.

At our firm, estate planning fees are flat fees agreed to in advance, so you know the cost before the work begins. Figuring out what your situation calls for and what it will cost is something we can do together in a Life & Legacy Planning® Session, where we explain the law and you tell us about your family and your assets.

02 | How Will Your Lawyer Respond To Your Needs On An Ongoing Basis?

Responsiveness is one of the things clients care most about, and it is worth asking about directly rather than finding out later.

An office that handles this well usually has something behind it: a practice for returning calls within a set time, and someone available to answer a quick question when one comes up. An office without that can be perfectly competent and still leave you waiting, simply because nobody owns the task.

So ask how quickly calls are typically returned, and whether someone will be on hand for short questions as they arise.

Scheduled calls with a clear agenda also tend to work better than phone tag, because both of you arrive ready to focus on what actually needs to be covered.

03 | How Will Your Lawyer Proactively Communicate With You On An Ongoing Basis?

If you created an estate plan in the past, you may have had a "checked off the list and done" experience, where the documents were signed and that was the end of it.

That is a common way for estate planning to be delivered, and it leaves out something worth knowing: an estate plan works best as a set of decisions you revisit across your life, not a single transaction. Ongoing communication takes a system behind it, and not every office is built that way. It is a fair thing to ask about before you hire anyone.

So ask how a lawyer will support you in keeping your plan current, and how they expect to be there for the people you love when you can't be.

Think of it this way. Your estate plan includes a set of documents, but your plan is far more than those documents. Your plan is an inventory of your assets, which changes throughout your life. It is the structure your family will turn to when something happens to you.

You want to work with a lawyer who can keep your documents up to date and help make sure your assets are owned correctly over time. Ideally, that lawyer gets to know you and your family along the way, so that when something happens, there is already an underlying relationship and a measure of trust.

04 | Can You Call About Any Legal Problem Or Just About Matters Within Their Specialty?

Given the complexity of today's legal world, lawyers generally need specialized training in one or more practice areas, such as divorce, bankruptcy, wills and trusts, personal injury, business, criminal matters, or employment law. You are usually better served by a lawyer with real depth in a particular area than by one who takes on whatever legal question comes through the door.

That said, you do want your personal lawyer to have broad enough experience that you can raise all sorts of legal and financial questions with them, and trust that they can tell you whether you have a legal issue or not. Your lawyer will not be able to advise you on every matter, but they should be able to refer you to other trusted professionals who can help.

You probably would not want the lawyer who designed your estate plan to also handle your personal injury claim, settle a dispute with your landlord, and advise you on your divorce. But you do want that lawyer to hear your story, point you to someone qualified in that area, and serve as your first call on legal questions generally.

In that capacity, you can consult your personal lawyer before signing legal documents, when a legal or financial issue arises, or whenever something comes up that might affect your family or your business.

05 | What Happens When They Die Or Retire?

We all die, including your lawyer, and they may retire first. So ask what the plan is for your plan and your family when that happens.

This is an important question, and an easy one to overlook, when you are starting a relationship with any professional. It may feel uncomfortable to raise. A client-centered professional will have thought about it already and will have a succession plan so that clients are cared for regardless of what happens to the lawyer holding their file.

Look for a lawyer who can describe that plan specifically, including who would take over and how the handoff would work.

Our firm is part of the Personal Family Lawyer® network, a community of lawyers who serve clients using the same Life & Legacy Planning model. That network is where we would look for a successor if something happened to us, so your family would not have to start over with someone who knows nothing about your plan. If you want to understand how that would work for your family, it is a reasonable thing to ask us about.

A Lasting Relationship

Although hiring the *right* estate planning lawyer may not seem that important, it is one of the more consequential choices you can make for yourself and your family. This is the person you are trusting to act on your behalf and provide for your loved ones during one of life's most difficult experiences.

If you choose the wrong person for the job, your family could face avoidable conflict, expense, and legal complications at the moment they are most vulnerable. Estate planning is far more than having a lawyer create a set of documents and then never seeing you again.

What we aim for as your Personal Family Lawyer® firm is a relationship with you and your family that continues well past the signing. Family-centered legal service means your lawyer knows the people involved and not only the paperwork. If that is the kind of working relationship you are looking for, it is something we can build together.

What You Can Do Right Now

Write down the five questions above and ask them of every estate planning lawyer you interview, including us. Notice whether the answers are specific or general, because the specific ones tell you how an office actually runs. There is no one-size-fits-all planning here; creating a Life & Legacy Plan that reflects the people you love and what you want your wealth to support is something we can work on together.

The relationship doesn't end when the documents are signed. When something happens, your family knows to call.

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute discovery call here.

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