Estate Planning & Asset Protection
-
WE ASSIST OVER 600 ESTATE PLANNING CLIENTS EACH YEAR
-
IN TOTAL, WE HAVE HELPED OVER 4,000 CLIENTS WITH THEIR ESTATE PLANNING NEEDS
-
OUR CLIENTS' NET WORTHS RANGE FROM THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO OVER ONE BILLION
-
WE OFFER STREAMLINED AND CUSTOMIZED PLANS FOR EVERY BUDGET
Estate Planning
Transparent, Flat Fee Pricing
Basic estate planning services, whereby we have an initial consultation with you, prepare all of your documents, review questions and changes prior to a signing, and then meet with you to sign, are generally handled on a flat fee basis. Those fees typically range from:
$800 to $1600 for an unmarried individual
$1200 to 2200 for a married couple
Basic Estate Planning
There’s a saying that everyone has an estate plan—it’s either the plan you create on your own or the one forced upon you by the government. No offense to the government, but the best plan for you and your family will be the one you create with the help of an experienced estate planning attorney.
Over the course of many years helping thousands of clients, we have developed and fine-tuned the five phases of our estate planning process—(1) the introductory phase, where we talk with you and gather information about you and your family, (2) the design phase, where we review your concerns and objectives and prepare drafts of your legal documents (typically a Will, durable/financial power of attorney, and healthcare power of attorney, plus, on occasion, a revocable trust and/or living will—we know it’s a lot, but we’ll go through the purpose of each document), (3) the execution phase, where we meet to sign documents, (4) the implementation phase, where we talk you through beneficiary designations and titling of assets, as well as other necessary post-signing steps, and (5) the maintenance phase, where we meet or talk as needed to make sure your plan continues to reflect your wishes and is being properly implemented.
If you have a simple situation and don’t really care to meet with us, we have an online estate planning service called Plan in Place that allows you to cut right to the chase—you complete the estate planning questionnaire, we provide you with a plan, and you sign on your own. It allows clients to complete their estate plan in a matter of days at a lower expense, all without having to leave their house.
Whether we’re serving you under a traditional engagement or through Plan in Place, we have spent our careers making sure clients receive thorough and top quality legal assistance in an expedient and cost-effective manner, and finding that balance has been what really sets our firm apart.
Asset Protection
The world is a litigious place, especially for professionals and business owners. We can help you determine whether any steps are warranted to protect your assets, and then help you understand and implement appropriate techniques, such as limited liability companies (LLCs) and domestic asset protection trusts (DAPTs), or Ohio legacy trusts.
As our clients know, a few simple steps can go a long way.
High Net Worth Planning
When we work with our high net worth clients and ultra high net worth clients, the objective is not automatically to save every penny we can in taxes—it’s to help you define your legacy, and then determine how we can best preserve wealth and guarantee that your legacy is carried out.
While it is certainly true that, as part of the process, we advise clients on a wide variety of acronyms (SLATs, GRATs, ILITs, SCINs, QPRTs, IDGTs, CLATs, CRTs, and FLPs, to name a few), the true skill we offer, and have honed through experience, is knowing how and when to make use of all these tools.
Private Foundations & Nonprofits
One of the most rewarding parts of practicing law is being the architect of a client's philanthropic plans. By that, we mean being able to help them see possibilities they didn't even realize existed, and then help plan and create a meaningful and lasting legacy.
In terms of the nuts and bolts, we help create tax-exempt organizations, whether they be public charities or private foundations, and we also help clients weigh the various planning options to determine what path might be most appropriate. Once the organizations are established, we can also assist with tax returns and other required annual filings.
Meet Our Estate Planning Attorney
MATTHEW GIBSON
Matt has practiced law since 2006, and has worked with thousands of clients during that period. He gravitated towards estate planning as soon as he graduated from law school, as he saw the practice area as an opportunity to engage in his two greatest passions—meeting with and getting to know people, and writing. He is not kidding when he says that he thinks about estate planning, and the estate planning process, incessantly, and that he is always looking for ways to improve our services and better help clients. He is fortunate and grateful to have been recognized by his peers as a Top Lawyer through Columbus CEO magazine and as AV-Rated through Martindale-Hubbell.