At McCulloch & Miller, many of the clients we sit down with are meeting with an estate planning attorney for the first time. If you are looking to meet with an estate planning or probate attorney to discuss your long-term needs and don’t quite know what to expect, this guide will help you anticipate your first meeting as well as the process ahead.
Importantly, the estate planning attorney will likely start by setting up an initial meeting with you to understand your goals and provide you with options for how to achieve them. Before you have this initial meeting, it can be helpful to think about what, if any, preparation you could do beforehand.
Typically, when you call an estate planning attorney and set up a meeting, the attorney will send you a basic questionnaire for you to fill out before that meeting. The more information you can fill out on this questionnaire, the better, since it will save you time in the meeting itself if your attorney is already familiar with your family and financial information.