FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Call our office at 480-949-6500 to schedule your personal Family Wealth Planning Session and ask to speak our Client Services Director. Traice Akins will schedule the most convenient appointment time available for you with one of our expertly trained Personal Family Lawyers. We see clients on Monday – Friday and on Saturday by special request and availability to make planning as convenient for you as possible.

 

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.

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.

 

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.

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:

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

2. 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.

 

Once you and your lawyer have completed the design of your plan, our team gets right to work generating documents that
reflect the decisions you made during your meeting. During this time we encourage you to call if any decision you made is not sitting right with you as our team is happy to work with you to ensure you are comfortable and happy with your decisions.

After the documents are complete, our team will send you an outline for you to verify the decisions you have made. This outline is clear, concise, and straightforward. Once you have reviewed the estate plan outline, we will speak with you to ensure you have peace of mind with the decisions you made, and that all the information presented is true and correct for drafting.

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.

After you take your estate planning binder home with you, the maintenance phase of your plan will begin.

At no additional charge we will review your plan at least every three years and keep you informed about changes in the law and other issues that affect your family and your wealth.

We are always here for you and we do not charge you for phone calls or emails.

You’ll be amazed at how easy and painless the entire planning process will be for your family and we would love to meet with you for your Family Wealth Planning Session soon.

Estate planning is a series of decisions for your life, incapacitate and death. At Truest Law, we believe that an estate plan
includes much more than just your assets and money. While your assets and financial accounts are at the forefront of an estate plan, we include planning for medical decisions and preferences, family values, special wishes as well as offer special services for pets, child protection measures and more.

A Truest estate plan is far more than a set of documents, it’s a trusted team for life, peace of mind knowing your estate is up to date and funded, and a gift to those you love at the time of your incapacity or passing.

Probate is a lawsuit you file against yourself, with your own money, for the benefit of your creditors. Sounds awful doesn’t it? Most of the time it is. At Truest Law we don’t want any of our clients or their family to experience probate. Probate is a lengthy, expensive, and public process that is avoidable with a proper Estate Plan that is kept up to date and fully funded.

If you do find yourself in a Probate situation, we can help. Nobody deserves the additional stress of probate during a time of loss and grief. Truest Law can help guide you through your probate process and alleviate that unneeded stress and emotion of court.

Whether you want to avoid probate entirely, or need help going through it, contact Truest Law to schedule a consultation.
Funding a trust is the process of “moving” or retitling your assets into the name of your trust. For bank accounts, this means titling or renaming the account in the name of the trust. For real estate, this means transferring the deed to reflect that the home is titled in the name of the trust. For each asset, the process is a little bit different so call the whole process “funding”. Funding is ultimately what makes your trust financially effective.” At Truest Law, we can fund for you or we guide you through our self-funding process with the aid of our Self-Funding Toolkit. This Toolkit has guidance for several types of assets, even ones you may not own today but may acquire in the future
Truest Law is centered around the clients’ long term experience. With most firms, you are assigned a lawyer, they plan and prepare your documents at an hourly rate. The Lawyer then sends you on your way. If you ever want to speak with them, it costs more money. At Truest Law, your estate plan is prepared at an agreed-upon transparent, flat fee.

We are your lawyer for Life. We keep in touch with our clients over the years to ensure their estate plan is up to date and funded Amendments and restatements are handled at a discounted charge for our existing clients.

Additionally, Truest Law addresses your intangible gifts and Family Legacy. Many of our clients tell us that our Legacy Interview is the most important part of the process and the most valuable gift that they give their loved ones. The Legacy interview provides our client with a chance to record a video or series of videos that encompass their life, values, and memories. We encourage all clients to participate in the legacy interview, included in their plan.

Truest Law also offers a Family Meeting. This introduction allows loved ones to know who we are so when something happens to you, they can reach out for assistance in getting started with the Trust Administration for their family.

Truest Law also offers the Kids’ Protection Plan for families with minor children. Most parents understand they need to name guardians for their children in the event of a tragedy, but, are these guardians available within 20 minutes? Often, the answer is no, so we provide our clients with a Kids Protection Plan that provides instructions for emergency officials which will keep your children out of State custody if you are unable to provide for their immediate needs.. Contact us to learn more about these unique planning techniques we have to offer!”
How much does a Will Cost? How Much does a Trust cost? Our current planning packages range from $2,500-$9,500 depending on the complexity of the plan and the needs of the client. The client designs the plan that works best for their family and chooses the package/fee that is best for them. It is always our goal to provide the most value to the client at the best price we can, so your fee is thoroughly discussed and evaluated during our first session.
Online services are perfectly capable of producing state compliant documents, HOWEVER, estate planning is a very complex matter. Often, we see online estate plans fail for a variety of reasons; the documents fell out of date with the situation of the family, the documents did not accurately represent the wishes of the client, or the client did not produce the correct documents to cover themselves. If you use an online planning service, you cannot be sure that your plan will work for you and your family. You cannot be sure that your estate will not end up in court. It is always best to design your estate plan with professional guidance. We certainly would love to help you design your plan, but whether it is with Truest Law or another firm, we highly recommend seeking professional legal counsel for your estate plan.
It is never too early to design an estate plan that meets your needs. It can be too late, though. At your incapacity or death, you will no longer be able to provide for your loved ones the way that you want to.

Everyone should have an estate plan, no matter how simple or complex that plan may be. If you own a home, you mostly likely need a trust to protect your home from going through court/probate should you become incapacitated or die. In Arizona, all estates over $75,000 are subject to probate, and, in today’s market, it is very likely your property value is over that amount. That means, that in the case of your death or incapacitation, your estate will be sent to probate in the absence of an estate plan. If you are a new home owner, you might be eligible for our Truest Essentials program, which allows clients to receive all the benefits of an estate plan, at a lower cost. Contact us for qualification for this program.

Right now is the perfect time to start your estate planning. You will sleep better once you’ve made these decisions. Growing your estate without a plan is risky and unnecessary. Estate planning will protect your assets and legacy for you and your loved ones.

Contact us today to set up a free 15 minute call, to see if it’s the right time for you to design an Estate Plan.
No. A will is simply a way to tell the probate court how you would like your assets distributed. Even with a Will, probate might not be a “cut and dry” process depending on the circumstances. No matter what, your representative will first have to advertise for creditors! The only way to avoid probate is to establish a Living Trust that is compliant, up to date, and properly funded.
The death of a loved one is never an easy process. It can be both stressful, and highly emotional. We recommend that you identify and call the estate planning lawyer of your loved one. They should be able to help you through the death of a loved one and guide you on how to move forward with the estate or trust administration. We always welcome our clients’ loved ones and encourage them to call us at any time for help before or during the administration process.

How To Get Started?

By now you’ve seen that Truest 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. That’s why our clients love us so much.

You’ll note there that you can schedule a quick 15-minute phone call to learn more about us, or you can schedule a full Family Wealth Planning Session. Choose the option that’s best for you. If you do choose the Family Wealth Planning Session, please make sure you’ve read up on what we’ll do together in that meeting before you come in, so that you come in prepared to be educated, informed and make empowered decisions for the people you love.