5 Questions to Ask an Estate Planning Lawyer

It's intimidating to walk into a lawyer's office to begin estate planning. Even if it's just a simple last will and testament, maybe you keep putting off a discussion with an estate planner. But knowing what you are getting into can prepare you for the experience. The more you understand the process, the more comfortable you should be about planning your estate.

Estate Planning Questions

The estate planning lawyer will undoubtedly have many questions for you. The attorney will want your financial and other personal information. They may give you an estate planning questionnaire to complete before your first meeting.

They may ask the following questions:

• Basic biographical information
• Real estate owned
• Debts and other liabilities
• Whether you want to be on life support
• Whether you have children from a prior marriage

The information request will likely cover those important questions — and everything between. Once an experienced estate planning attorney has collected basic information about your family and assets, they can get to work.

Estate Planning Tools

Your attorney will provide legal advice to give you the best estate planning tools for your needs. Ultimately, you should have a comprehensive estate plan at the end of this process.

The estate planning process can be simple or complex. This plan will provide all the legal documents you need. An estate plan may include these estate planning documents and planning tools:

• Wills and trusts
• Health care directives
• Living will
• Power of attorney
• Life insurance
• Tax planning strategies
• Retirement accounts
• Gifting
• Beneficiary designations

FindLaw provides a few questions below to get you started. This list is certainly not exhaustive. But it should lead to other questions to get the conversation going. Such questions can give you the confidence to move forward.

1. What Do I Need in My Estate Plan?

Your estate plan and estate planning documents should come from collaboration between:

• You
• A few trusted loved ones
• Your lawyer
• Your financial advisors

Most people have at least a will, general or durable power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and living will. But there are many other parts of an estate plan.

Before you start, you and your advisors must decide what's right for you. At the initial consultation, you discuss options that best serve you and your beneficiaries.

I'm Not Wealthy. Why Do I Even Need an Estate Plan?

Even without a fortune to distribute, a will gives you control over several things after your death, including:

• Who will be the guardian of your minor children?
• How will your property get distributed?
• Your wishes: Your surviving family members will have direction. This could minimize disputes after your death.
• Make sure that your property or money goes to the people you want to have it.

When you inventory your property, its worth may surprise you. As with most important decisions in life, have a plan.

2. How Does This Law Office Function?

You'll be discussing personal details with your estate planning team. It's critically important that you're confident that the office is right for you. Here are a few questions you can ask about the office itself and how it communicates.

• How much do you charge? Ask this question at the outset. Having the proper expectations will help both parties. The firm should be more than willing to discuss fees. It should break down the fee structures either by an hourly rate or by flat fee. The flat fee will be for each particular piece of estate planning. Or it may cover the entire estate plan. You should have this information going in.
• Does your office specialize in estate work? Another way of asking this question is: What percentage of your business is estate work? You want to ensure that the firm can handle all your needs. This includes the probate process. A firm with extensive experience should be better able to manage your personal situation.

One factor that may affect this topic is the size of the law firm and its location. In smaller cities and towns, lawyers often have a general practice. A general practice can involve many different areas of the law.

One lawyer or firm could practice domestic relations law, estate law, and criminal law. The larger the city, the more specialized a lawyer can be. Ask how many estates the firm has done in the last few years. This will give you a feel for how much expertise it has.

3. How Does this Office Communicate With Clients?

Good communication is an essential component of the lawyer-client relationship. Here are some questions to ask to get you off on the right foot:

How often will you communicate with me after the papers are signed? A law firm specializing in estate planning often charges an optional fee for periodic reviews. For a small fee, it will contact you every six to 12 months. This is a good idea. This allows the firm to keep you updated on changes to probate and estate law that may affect you.

These periodic check-ins allow the attorney to determine if your situation has changed. Some life changes may affect your estate plan. Smaller and solo firms may have difficulty doing this, so be mindful.

Who else do I communicate with in the firm other than my lawyer? There may be situations where you can't get hold of your attorney. For example, your attorney may go on an extended vacation, retire, or die. The firm should have a communication protocol that includes other attorneys, administrative assistants, paralegals, or support staff.

How do you communicate with my financial and other advisors? More complex estate plans are a team effort among a set of advisors. In these situations, you need to set up formal lines of communication. All relevant advisors should have input before you finalize the initial plan. The lawyer will always want the final say. It's ultimately up to you to make decisions, though.

4. How Can I Distribute My Property?

Much of your estate plan will distribute your property to your beneficiaries. Here are some basic questions to ask about property distribution.

What Happens to Jointly-Owned Property?

Many people own property jointly. These joint property situations usually arise when you own property or have accounts with your spouse or other family members. Common examples of joint property include:

• Homes
• Businesses
• Investment properties
• Cars
• Bank accounts

For the most part, ownership documents will determine what happens to the decedent's share of that property after death. The decedent can transfer ownership interests through the will if that decedent, subject to several potential encumbrances, owns that part of the property.

These encumbrances include liens on that property and "Payable on Death" and "Transfer on Death" restrictions. A lawyer can review your ownership interests. They can help determine how your ownership interests should get transferred after death.

Should I Have a Revocable Living Trust?

A living trust, if properly constructed, is a way to avoid probate court. It can prevent you from having to probate the estate when you die. A will gets probated through a process of public record. This is the case even if there is no taxation or it is a zero-asset estate.

A living trust transfers ownership of your property into a trust. You keep control over a revocable living trust during your lifetime. It is a complex part of estate planning. A living trust may not be in your best interests or that of your beneficiaries. Whether you need a trust in your plan should be a conversation with your lawyer.

5. What Do I Have to Know About Estate Taxes?

The question of estate taxes hinges on where you live and the value of your estate. Your attorney and financial advisors will guide you through tax planning for your estate.

Federal Estate Taxes

You don't have to worry about federal estate taxes unless you are wealthy. The IRS assesses federal estate taxes on estates worth less than $12.920 million until 2026. In 2026, the threshold will decrease to $5.6 million.

If you have that kind of money, you likely have financial advisors. They've probably already guided you through federal estate taxation. If not, you should find one.

State Estate and Inheritance Taxes

Some states and the District of Columbia have estate or inheritance taxes (or both). If you live in one of these jurisdictions, speak with your attorney. They can tell you how these taxes affect your estate plan.

Gift Taxes

A part of estate planning can include lifetime gifting. You may gift to a beneficiary before you die. If you do this to avoid probate, you may run into gift taxes. The giver may have to pay gift taxes. The receiver of the gift does not pay them.

As of 2023, the federal gift tax exclusion amount is $17,000 annually. This means you can give anybody a gift worth up to that amount each year with no federal tax consequences. Any more than that, and you must pay a gift tax.

Only a few states levy a gift tax. Ask your lawyer if you live in one of them.

More Questions? A Lawyer Can Help

Estate planning can be a very complex topic. Except for just writing a simple will, it requires the guidance, input, and professional skills of an estate-planning attorney and other financial professionals. The more complex the estate, the more you will need their help.

I'm not wealthy. Why do I even need an estate plan?

A full estate plan includes a will, but also other documents like powers of attorney and a living will. But even without a fortune to distribute, a will gives you control over a number of things after your death, including:

• Who will be the guardian of your minor children.
• How your property will be distributed, even if it is just a few pieces of jewelry, furniture, art, etc. When you actually do an inventory of all of your property, you may be surprised at what it is all worth.
• Clear up confusion about your wishes, so that your surviving family members are not under pressure to try to figure out what you would have wanted, or don't get into a fight about it.
• Make sure that your property or money goes to the people you want to have it.

2. How Does This Law Office Function?

One of the most important aspects of engaging a law office to create your estate plan is having confidence that that office is the right one for you. Here are a few questions you can ask about the office itself and how it communicates.

• How much do you charge? Don't be afraid to ask this question near the beginning of the first meeting, or even before that. They should break down their fee structures either by an hourly rate or by flat fee. The flat fee will be tied to each particular piece of estate planning or may cover the entire estate plan. You should have this information going in.

• Does your office specialize in estate work? Another way of asking this question is: What percentage of your business is estate work? The reason you ask these kinds of questions is to make sure the lawyers in the office have enough experience with the probate process to handle every one of your needs. The more experience they have, the better they should be able to deal with your personal situation.

One factor that may affect this topic is the size of both the law firm and the city the firm is in. In smaller cities and towns, lawyers often have a general practice that involves many different areas of the law. One lawyer or firm could practice domestic relations law, estate law, criminal law, etc. The larger the city, the more specialized a lawyer usually is. Ask how many estates the firm has done in the last five years to get a feel for how much expertise they have.

3. Lawyer-Client Communications

The most important part of your relationship with your lawyer is the process of communication that is set up between you and the lawyer's office. Know what that is before you leave the law office after the first meeting. Here are some questions to ask:

How often will you communicate with me after the papers are signed? A law firm that specializes in estate planning will often charge an optional, small ongoing fee to contact you every 6-12 months to both keep you updated on changes to probate and estate law that may affect you, and also to check in to see if your situation has changed in ways that may affect your estate plan. It is a good idea to do this. Smaller/solo law firms may have a difficult time doing this, so take that into consideration.

Who else do I communicate with in the firm other than my lawyer? There may be situations where you will not be able to get hold of your attorney (if she is on vacation, retires, dies, etc.). The firm should have a communication protocol that includes other attorneys, administrative assistants, paralegals, secretaries, etc.

How do you communicate with my financial and other advisors? More complex estate plans are a team effort among a set of advisors, and formal lines of communication need to be set up among all of those people before the estate plan is drawn up. The lawyer will always want the final say, but it will ultimately be up to you to make decisions.

4. Questions About Property Distribution

Much of your estate plan will distribute your property to your beneficiaries. Here are some basic questions to ask about that property distribution.

What happens to jointly-owned property?

Many people own property jointly with another person or other people. These joint property situations usually arise when you own property or have accounts with your spouse or other family members. Common examples of joint property include homes, businesses, investment properties, cars, and bank accounts.

For the most part, ownership documents will determine what happens to the decedent's share of that property after death. The decedent can transfer ownership interests through the will if that part of the property is owned by that decedent, subject to several potential encumbrances. These encumbrances include liens on that property, as well as “Payable on Death" and “Transfer on Death" restrictions.

A lawyer can look at all of those documents and determine how those ownership interests should be transferred after death.

Should I have a revocable living trust?

A living trust, if properly constructed, is a way to avoid probate court or probating the estate when you die. This is opposed to a will, which is probated, even if there is no taxation or it is a zero-asset estate.

A living trust transfers ownership of your property into a trust which you control. It is a complex part of estate planning which may or may not be in the best interests of you or your beneficiaries, and should be a topic of conversation with your lawyer.

5. What do I have to know about estate taxes?

The question of estate taxes hinges on where you live and how much your estate is worth. Your attorney and financial advisors will give you the right tax advice.

Federal Estate Taxes

Unless you are a wealthy person, you really do not have to worry about estate taxes. There are no federal estate taxes on estates worth less than $11.2 million until 2026, when the threshold decreases to $5.6 million. If you have that kind of money, you probably have financial advisors who can guide you through the intricacies of federal estate taxation. If not, you should find one.

State Estate and Inheritance Taxes

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have estate or inheritance taxes (or both). If you live in one of these jurisdictions, you will need to talk about these taxes with your attorney.

Gift Taxes

A part of estate planning can include giving parts of the estate to a beneficiary before you die. If you do this to avoid probate, you may run into gift taxes. Gift taxes may have to be paid by the giver. They are not paid by the receiver of the gift.

The federal gift tax exclusion amount is $15,000 per year. This means that you can give anybody a gift worth up to that amount each year with no federal tax consequences. Any more than that, and you are required to pay a gift tax.

Only a few states levy a gift tax. Ask your lawyer if you live in one of them.

More Questions? A Lawyer Can Help

Estate planning can be a very complex topic. Except for just writing a simple will, it requires the guidance, input, and professional skills of an estate-planning attorney and other financial professionals. The more complex the estate, the more you will need the help of these professionals.