How To Get Started

It’s Easier Than You Think

By now you've seen that KSMH LAW is something special and because you love your family and want to keep them out of Court and out of conflict, when something happens to you, you are ready to take the first steps to get a plan in place. We think that’s a great idea. You know your family deserves the kind of protection, guidance and love we provide for a lifetime. It's important that you know how we work because we do things a bit differently here than at other law firms. 

How Long Is A Family Wealth Planning Session

When you schedule your personal Family Wealth Planning Session, we block 2 hours on our calendar so we can focus entirely on you and your family during this time.  We will send you a package of information to complete before our time together, which will help you begin the process of getting your legal and financial life in order.  During our meeting together, we will guide you to gently look at what would happen for your loved ones and with your assets if something were to happen to you.  And then, we’ll look at what you want to happen and help you create a roadmap to get that plan in place as easily as possible.  Clients routinely say “Wow, if we had known how easy this would be, we would have done it years ago!” after meeting with us.

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How Much Does a Family Wealth Planning Session Cost?

Our Family Wealth Planning Session is $750 and if we create a comprehensive plan for you, that planning fee is applied to your legal fees for your lifetime estate plan.  In some circumstances, we will waive the planning session fee and instead you can secure your appointment time with a credit card number. 

In such cases, so long as you keep your appointment, nothing will be charged on your card unless you decide to proceed with a comprehensive estate plan after the Family Wealth Planning Session.  In such a situation, if you must cancel within 1 week of your appointment, your credit card will still not be charged unless you fail to reschedule your appointment within 30 days of your cancellation. If you cannot keep your appointment and you choose not to reschedule, your credit card would be charged the $750 planning fee.

We understand that this policy of securing your appointment with a credit card may seem unique. So is our law firm. We provide our very best service to those families who are looking for a long-term relationship with their trusted advisor. We expend most of our energy providing an exceedingly high degree of service to our existing clients and limit the number of new clients we see each week. We only take referrals from trusted Professional Planning Partners. As a result, we must secure your appointment time so that if something comes up and you can't attend your appointment, we will have enough advance notice to open the slot to a waiting family.

What to Do Prior to Your Family Wealth Planning Session

After scheduling your appointment, you will receive your Family Wealth Inventory & Assessment and other important information that you will want to review prior to your personal Family Wealth Planning Session. We must have your Family Wealth Inventory & Assessment returned to our office 3 days prior to your Session or we will need to reschedule your Session. Feel free to call the office at any time if you need assistance completing your Assessment or have any questions at all.

If you have existing estate planning documents, please make sure that we have your existing documents in our office at least a week before your meeting so that we can review them prior to meeting with you.

What to Expect the Day of Your Family Wealth Planning Session

On the day of your meeting, please expect to spend up to 2 hours with your attorney. The initial meeting with your attorney has two purposes:

• To identify whether there is a good fit between you and our attorney who will become your Personal Family Lawyer® and...

• To educate you about the law and what would happen if you died with your current (or no) plan in place.

By looking at what would happen under your current plan, you can identify what you would want to happen differently and then together with your Personal Family Lawyer's guidance make the decisions that are necessary (including choosing your own fee) to give you the peace of mind of knowing your family would out of Court, and out of conflict, when something happens to you.

Assuming that you and your attorney determine that there is a good fit between our firm and your family AND that you identify specific ways you would want things to happen that are different than what would currently happen if something happened to you, you and your Personal Family Lawyer®can design a plan for your family right away.

What Happens Next?

Once you and your Personal Family Lawyer® have completed the design of your plan, you will meet with our plan coordinator who will review your assets for the purpose of ensuring that everything you own will be titled for maximum protection and then schedule a meeting for you to sign your planning documents approximately 4 weeks later.

We have a process of reviewing your documents with you that makes your plan so easy to understand that you will know for certain that we understood exactly the way you want things to happen when something happens to you and that your loved ones will be in excellent hands with our firm. Once you sign your planning documents, your assets and your family are protected as discussed during your design meeting.

We see that as only the beginning of our relationship. You may make changes to your planning documents at no charge for up to 90 days after you sign your documents.

At our final meeting during the planning stage of our relationship, we verify that all of your asset transfers are moving forward on track whether we are taking the lead or you are taking the lead with our guidance. We review your asset spreadsheet with you and ensure all of your questions are answered. Of course, if they aren't or they become cloudy later on, we are always available to answer your questions at any time in the future. And, there's no charge for that.

What Happens After I Sign My Estate Planning Documents and Take Them Home?

After the planning phase is complete, the maintenance phase of your plan will begin. At no additional charge, we review your plan at least every three years and keep you informed about changes in the law and about other issues that affect your family and your wealth. And, if you participate in one of our Family Wealth VIP Membership programs, you will have an opportunity to review your plan on an annual basis, and we will provide your family with a number of other valuable services.

Finally, we are always here for you and we don't charge you for phone calls, faxes, or emails. We welcome your communications!

You'll be amazed at how easy and painless the entire planning process will be for your family.