Family & Asset Protection
Protecting your family well depends on getting the details right, so the process is built to make sure nothing is guessed, nothing is skipped, and every decision you make is captured exactly as you intended it. Every engagement moves through the same eight stages, from the first meeting to the day your plan is fully in place.
Two stages most plans get wrong
The decision confirmation letter. After your planning meeting, and before a single document is drafted, you receive a letter confirming every key decision: your fiduciaries in order, distribution ages or structure, guardians, and any specific gifts. Nothing is drafted until you confirm it. This single step is what keeps a plan from drifting from what you actually intended.
Funding. A trust that isn't funded, meaning your home, accounts and other assets are never actually retitled into it, does not do what it was built to do. This is the single most common way an estate plan fails when a family needs it, so it is its own stage here. We record your deed, deliver certification of trust to your financial institutions, and submit beneficiary designation changes on your behalf, then follow up at 30 and 90 days to confirm everything actually went through.
The standard track, and when yours is not standard
The standard track is the path most married couples with children follow: a revocable living trust plan with the companion documents that make it work. If your situation includes a non-citizen spouse, a taxable estate, a special-needs beneficiary, a blended family, out-of-state property, or a business succession question, your matter follows a modified path with more attorney judgment built into the middle stages. We tell you early if that is the case.
Eight stages, start to finish
Engagement & scheduling
We run a conflict check, issue your engagement letter, and send a short intake questionnaire with a document request. Your planning meeting is scheduled at least five business days out, giving you time to prepare.
You: sign, complete the questionnaire, upload documents three business days before the meetingPre-meeting review
We check your questionnaire for completeness. Every role has a named alternate, every asset listed matches what you uploaded, and any planning flag is reviewed before we sit down together.
You: respond quickly if we follow up on a gapPlanning meeting
You meet with Martin to walk through your family situation, your fiduciary choices, and how you'd like assets distributed. The meeting is recorded so every decision is captured accurately.
You: come ready to discuss trustees, guardians, agents, distribution structure, special circumstancesDecision confirmation
We translate the meeting into your matter's working record, resolve any open questions internally, and send you a letter confirming every key decision. Nothing is drafted until you confirm.
You: review the confirmation letter carefully and tell us it is correctDocument drafting & review
Your documents are drafted strictly from the confirmed decision record, never reconstructed from memory, then independently checked name by name and date by date.
You: nothing, this is our workAttorney review & signing
Martin reviews the finished documents, then we schedule your signing ceremony with witnesses and a notary already arranged.
You: attend the signingFunding
We record your deed, deliver certification of trust to your financial institutions, and submit beneficiary designation changes, then follow up at 30 and 90 days to confirm everything is actually retitled.
You: respond to funding follow-ups and provide account details as institutions request themClose-out
Once funding is complete, or any exception is documented in writing so you know exactly what is outstanding and why, we send a closing letter summarizing your documents and recommending when to revisit the plan: typically every three years, or sooner after a birth, a death, a move, a marriage or a divorce.
You: file the closing letter with your documents
A first talk is free, and it is short.
Bring what you have, even if it is a rough number and a rough timeline. Martin will tell you plainly what can be done now and what has to wait. No pressure to sign anything.