Services

  • Estate Planning
  • Estate and Trust Administration
  • Pre-Marital Agreements
  • Charitable Planning and Entities
  • General Corporate and Tax Law
  • Business Succession Planning

Let’s Get Started

Dear Potential Client:

If you would like to proceed with your estate planning, please print the Confidential Data form found on this website that requests information important in the planning of your estate.  This form and the information provided will assist me in helping you to fulfill one of the primary goals of estate planning, which is to provide for the disposition of your assets in accordance with your wishes, with a minimum of administration expenses.  If specific dates and similar data are unknown, please provide to the best of your knowledge the approximate information.  Please complete and have the form available for us to review during our initial conference or return the form to me via email attachment or regular mail.  

In anticipation of our first conference, please gather the following documents relating to your estate:  a current balance sheet or short listing of your assets and liabilities; any present Wills and Codicils; pre-marital agreements or separation agreements; any prior divorce proceedings and decrees; partnership agreements in which you are either a limited or general partner; operating agreements of limited liability companies in which you are a member; corporate shareholders' agreements or buy-sell agreements in which you are a party; trust agreements to which you are a party or of which you are a beneficiary; suit papers with respect to any significant lawsuit to which you are a party; contracts, mortgages, notes, releases, settlement agreements or other similar documents substantially affecting your estate; and all gift tax returns filed by you.  We will review these documents together during our initial meeting.

Many times questions are raised during the estate planning process that require considerable discussion.  If these questions are considered in advance of the conference, time will be saved and the likelihood of reaching a satisfactory conclusion enhanced.  Please give consideration to the following questions:

  1. Whom do you wish to name as your personal representative (the person or corporate trust department who would administer your estate)?  Whom do you wish to name as an alternate personal representative in the event the original personal representative is unable to serve in that capacity?
  2. If you desire to create a trust, what person or corporate trust department do you wish to act as Trustee?  If you desire to designate an individual Trustee, what person or corporate trust department do you wish to act as a successor Trustee to that person in the event he or she is unable to serve in that capacity?
  3. During the administration of a trust, at what age or ages would you want a beneficiary to receive substantial financial assets from the trust (as opposed to distributions for the beneficiary's health, education and general welfare)?
  4. If you have children, whom do you want to name as guardian of any child who is a minor at the time of the death of the latter of you to die?  Whom do you want to name as an alternate guardian?
  5. Are there any specific items of real property or personal property which you wish to give to a particular person?  If so, do you wish to give the property free of any lien?
  6. If all the members of your immediate family die in a common disaster, to whom do you wish to give your property?
  7. Do you wish to make any charitable contributions upon your death?  If so, in what amount and to what organizations?
  8. Do you wish to make a gift of your vital organs?
  9. Whom do you wish to name as your attorney-in-fact under a General Power of Attorney?  The attorney-in-fact is authorized to make financial decisions on your behalf in the event you are unable to make these decisions for yourself.  Whom would you want to serve as a successor attorney-in-fact in the event the original attorney-in-fact is unable to serve in this capacity?
  10. Whom do you wish to name as your health care agent under a Health Care Power of Attorney?  The health care agent is authorized to make health care decisions on your behalf in the event you are unable to make these decisions for yourself.  Whom would you want to serve as a successor health care agent in the event the original health care agent is unable to serve in this capacity?
  11. Do you wish to document a desire that your life not be continued by artificial means in the event your condition is incurable or irreversible, you are unconscious and are unlikely to regain consciousness or you suffer advanced dementia?  If so, do you want nutrition and hydration administered or withheld?


When you are ready to proceed, please contact me via email or phone to schedule a conference.  Without charging for my travel time, I will meet you at your home (I make "house calls"), at your local bank branch, or at the local office of your brokerage firm.  Other arrangements may be made for your convenience.

In the meantime, please review the disclaimer section of this website.

I look forward to working with you in the development of a customized estate plan.  In the event you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

With best regards.

Sincerely,
Meg D. Goldstein


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