The Planning Process

You and Your Goals.

You are the most important part of the estate planning process. Proper estate planning requires effective and thorough education and counseling to allow you to make the decisions that are right for you. Working with you and your key financial advisors, the Law Office of Linda Sommers Green can quickly and comfortably establish and maintain an estate plan to give you confidence, security, and a complete understanding of the process. Your goals and desires are addressed to ensure your overall well-being and that of your family.

The Key Step.

Estate planning can be a daunting process. It involves thinking about circumstances we would rather not contemplate. In addition, excellent estate planning requires that you devote time to information gathering, education, decision making, and follow-through. All of this can make it difficult to get started. Therefore, we believe that the key to successful planning is commitment. Once you are committed to doing high-quality estate planning, our organized LifePlan™ Process will help to assure that you accomplish your goals efficiently .

The LifePlan™Process.

Whether you are contemplating will planning, trust planning, business planning or a combination of planning strategies, there are four basic steps to our LifePlan™Process:

• Education and Discovery

• Plan Design

• Plan Implementation

• Updating and Maintenance

Education and Discovery. In this phase of the planning, clients can attend our class or meet with Linda.  The client prepares an Estate Planning Design Worksheet (PDF file) and meet with Linda to assure that we have all of the important information we need.  We are very thorough in the information gathering phase of the planning.  During this phase we will also begin to identify the client’s vision and goals.  In complex cases, education and discovery may also include one or more meetings with Linda to assure that all of the important family information has been gathered and the visions and goals are clearly articulated

Design. The design phase of planning at the Law Office of Linda Sommers Green is often a single appointment with Linda, which usually lasts between one and three hours. Tools and strategies are discussed and selected.  After thoroughly discussing your particular concerns and desires, we will customize your estate plan. 

Implementation. Once a plan has been designed, the strategies and tools selected are implemented by our office with the assistance of the client. This phase includes document drafting, document review and execution and the re-titling or “funding” of assets in a way that is consistent with the plan.  Implementation usually involves two appointments: one with Linda to review and finalize planning documents, and one to receive the estate LifePlan™Binder and to review the funding for re-titling assets and make appropriate changes to beneficiary designations.

Updating and Maintenance. The only constant in life is change. Families change with births, deaths and marriages. Goals change with time and experience. Laws change with the politics of the times. What you own changes as well. These changes cause the best estate plans to become obsolete over time. To assure that you estate plan is always current and will work the way that you intend, we recommend that our clients commit to regular updating and maintenance of their plan. Clients who have done their planning through the Law Office of Linda Sommers Green have the opportunity to participate in the LifePlan™Maintenance program to help assure that their planning will always meet their needs.