How We're Different
Estate planning shouldn't feel impersonal or confusing. Here's how Schroer Legacy Law breaks the mold.
We are not your traditional estate planning law firm.
To better understand what that means, let’s walk through the “traditional” experience.
During the traditional experience, you’ll go in and meet with a lawyer who will oftentimes make things seem very complicated and confusing.
You’ll have a good idea your lawyer is smart and seems to know what they are doing, so you’ll nod and answer questions, as if you understand everything. Because you want to do the right thing for your family, you’ll have the lawyer prepare documents for you and you’ll sign the documents, feeling relieved you got that taken care of.
You’ll take your fancy estate planning binder full of documents home, stick it on a shelf or in a drawer, mark estate planning off your checklist as DONE, feel good and never think about it again.
You might remember your lawyer said something about moving your bank accounts into your trust, so you’ll go to the bank, forget what you were supposed to do, call your lawyer’s office, get a voicemail, have to leave the bank and wait for a call back (which takes several hours at least and sometimes days), and by that time, you’ll have gotten busy with other things and may never get around to moving that bank account.
A few weeks later, you’ll get a bill in the mail for $75.00 for 15 minutes of your lawyer’s time for answering a couple of questions. You’ll make a mental note – don’t call the lawyer ever again.
Several years later, you’ll refinance your house or sell it and buy a new one and forget that you were supposed to let your lawyer know or make sure you kept the title in the name of the trust.
Your children will get older, making your guardianship choices outdated, but you don’t want to call your lawyer because you know you’ll get a bill in the mail two weeks later.
You’ll hear something about a change in the tax law, but you figure you’d surely get a letter in the mail from your lawyer if it was something that affected you, so you don’t worry about it. And, you’d have to dig through boxes to find your trust documents so you could remember your lawyer’s name and find her contact information. Who has time for that?
It’s not until you become incapacitated or die that your family finds the binder you stuck up on a shelf several years before and never looked at again.
It is that moment when your family realizes your plan is so outdated that it has nothing to do with your life, your assets, or the law.
Your family is at a loss.
They don’t know where to turn or what to do, so they contact the same lawyer you used to prepare the documents, who is as happy as can be to probate your assets, which never made it into the trust.
How Do I Know All of This?
Because not too long ago, it happened to my family, and I swore it would never happen to my clients when I created my own firm. And since then, I’ve met countless people who have had this exact experience.
Unfortunately, what I discovered is that the estate planning industry was not designed to serve growing families who experience lots of change on their way to success. It was designed to serve people in their 70s and 80s who were preparing for death.
Our approach is different because it’s not “one and done.” We partner with you through all life’s changes to ensure that your plan stays up to date and works when your family needs it most.
Our Firm Prepares You For Life
We built our firm with the needs of growing families in mind. We understand you are BUSY, you are growing, you are planning for a life of prosperity, and you value ease, convenience, and efficiency.
You are raising children and caring for elderly parents, while also working hard to build your own nest egg for a lifetime of support. You want to know you’ve made the best decisions for your family and that your plan will work when your loved ones need it most.
You want to make sure your minor children would be raised by the people you choose, and never by anyone you wouldn’t want, and that your teens and adult children are properly prepared to care for you and what you leave behind.
You want to feel confident that you’ve made the right choices and handled everything so that you aren’t leaving behind a mess when something happens.That is our focus as well.
We’ve developed unique systems to give you the same access to a Personal Family Lawyer® as was previously only available to the super-wealthy, so you can have the guidance you need to build and maintain a life of prosperity and wealth. And, to keep your family out of court and out of conflict, which is the greatest risk to the people you love and all you have created, even if you’ve already worked with a traditional lawyer or created DIY documents online
We Are Here For You
We encourage communication with our clients. In fact, we’ve thrown out the time clocks so you never have to be afraid to call with a quick question. Everything we do is billed on a flat-fee basis, agreed to in advance, so there are never any surprises.
When you call our office to ask your quick question, you won’t have to wait days for a phone call back. You’ll get your question answered promptly. And, if you need to schedule a more in-depth legal or strategic call with your Personal Family Lawyer®, a call will be scheduled when you're both available and ready for the call so we can make the very best use of your time and not waste it by leaving voicemail after voicemail back and forth.
And, we follow through on the most important details of your plan so that it continues to work throughout your lifetime.
We have developed processes to ensure that your assets are owned the right way throughout your lifetime and that none of your assets will end up going through a long, expensive court process or being lost to the state because they were missed after your death.
We have created unique maintenance programs to keep your plan up-to-date year after year and to give you access to our trusted Personal Family Lawyer® for guidance on any estate planning matter.
We Help You Transfer Your “Family Wealth”
Lastly, we know that your financial wealth is only a small part of your overall “Family Wealth.”
Your “Family Wealth” is made up of assets that are far more valuable than money – and are most often lost upon incapacity or death – your intellectual, spiritual and human assets.
These assets are what make you who you are and sum up what’s most important to you.
And, according to a survey of inheritors, they care more about inheriting these intangible assets than they do about inheriting money.
Most estate plans only focus on the transfer of your financial wealth to the next generation. Most people have such great intentions of passing on the intangible, but very few ever get around to it.
It’s just not a priority, until it’s too late. How much do you know about your grandparents’ values? Their most prized personal possessions? How they felt about you? What they learned during their lifetimes?
If you are like most people, you know very little.
That’s why we design estate plans that capture these most valuable assets and pass them on to the people you love.
Not only will we help you pass on your money, but also your values, your insights, your stories, and your experiences – the truly valuable assets your loved ones care about the most.
I can’t go into all of the details here, but we’ll definitely talk about it when you come in for your Family Wealth Planning Session.
We look forward to seeing you and caring for your family soon!
- Mike
Let's Start a Conversation
I'd love to learn about your family and help you create a plan that protects your legacy. Schedule a free consultation today.