I have an appointment with an elder law attorney for next Thursday. I was thinking this would be a consultation until I got a letter in the mail. First of all the initial consultion is $175.00 for the first 1/2 hour and $87.50 for each 15 minutes after the 1/2 hour. She also wants me to take copies of ALL our assets, bank accounts, deed to the condo, car, life insurance, in fact anything we own.
I don't mind the consultation charge as much as I do taking all the information on our assets. How do I know I want her for our lawyeer? Is this normal procedure? If anyone has been through an elser attorney please let me know of you experience. We are in South Carolina.
I don't know if this is normal or not. I used to work for a family practice lawyer years ago and he did not do that. I also went to a family practice lawyer to get our paperwork done in January (didn't know elder care lawyers existed at the time but I might have gone there anyway). He didn't ask for money until we had agreed on what he was going to do and at that point he told me what the paperwork I wanted (two full sets of wills, patient advocacy docs and POAs) was going to cost.
I'm also a little confused because although your situation might require the full asset disclosure at some point, I'd expect that first you need to find out if you've got the basic documents in place. It all might be perfectly normal, but I'm feeling as confused as you are about how this is going.
I'm sure you will get lots of opinions but let me just say that in the past year I have been through this. I can appreciate that you might feel odd bringing everything financial but if one of your goal's is to maximize the time you have with any attorney , then it is helpful if you have the paper work there. Depending what your assets are and how they are divided, the information you get might be different. It would be difficult for an attorney to advise you on what steps to take if they don't know where you stand.
I did take my paperwork for my fist visit and listened to what he had to say. I did not feel obligated nor was I obligated to take his advice but at least I felt his advice was based on my situation. As it turned out I did use the attorney for AD, POA and Wills.
Although initially I was somewhat concerned of cost, I found that by providing the information I cut down on the time with the attorney and my costs were not too bad.
Funny, when I first spoke to the office they let me know it was $190. per hour ( I'm in Southside Virginia, so that seemed high to me) and they seemed very money interested.I expected I would have to pay as I went. Once I went in and spoke with him, the mention of money never came up again and the bill was less than I expected.
I would certainly have the material there with me but if you end up feeling uncomfortable just ask for it back and find some one else. I know for myself it was an enormous relief to finally have someone I could discuss money issues with.
I can only tell you my experience . And hope it helps
Our initial consultation was free, but the reason she wants all the paperwork is so she can advise you what type of estate planning you will need. If they don't know what you have and what you want to do, they can't advise you. Once the decision is made as to how complicated the legal work will be, then she will be able to give you a price for doing everything. Then you can decide whether to go further and use that lawyer or find someone else if you are not comfortable with her personally, professionally, or with her price.
if you have concerns you should call that atty back and say you are only wanting consultation the first visit and that should be free. most dont charge to hear your case. second if you then decide you would like to proceed with his services then you would need to bring all the financial assets for review or they would not know how to proceed in your particular case, going over all the paperwork requires time and many times things will be changed for your protection. maybe asking you to bring it upfront is assuming you are ready to agree to use his services. call another one just to ask about the first free consultation. if this one wont agree do discuss first then you should look elsewhere. divvi
I have a unique and good situation. My very long term financial adviser and my attorney are in the same building. I have given permission for them to share information. This made drawing up the revocable trusts and all the other paper work easy-but still expensive. At least it is all done.
I already have the DPOA for medical and financial, also a Living Will. I appreciate everyone's comments. I am going to run off copies of everything and if I decide to go with her she can keep the copies. The charge for them to copy everything is the first 20 free and then 55cents for each copy. I have to get everything together first and then go run off copies. Thanks again folks.
Jean, remember you get what you pay for -- I personally am more comfortable paying a fee up front with a reputable attorney for an appointment, showing them what I have, listen to them tell me what I need, and how much it will cost, and then make my decision as to whether to hire them or take what I learned and go to another attorney.
Having worked for a family law attorney for many years, we had several clients come to us after getting a "free consultation" elsewhere, where those attorneys trying to charge them for every little thing, which added up to more than our hourly rate for consultation and one cost for the completed documents that they would need. They were so grateful and said that they wished that they had come to our firm first.
I think your decision to take her the copies for her to keep is a wise one. Also, write down your questions, and have a list of your assets and your debts. This will enable the attorney to know what needs to be done to protect those assets and will take up less time with the attorney as well. Good attorneys do cost, but they are worth it if they save your assets.
First, it should have been made crystal clear to you at the time you made the appointment that you would be expected to pay for the consultation, and how much they would charge. Not to have done so was deliberately misleading.
Second, I am (unhappily) involved with nine (dear god, count 'em, nine) attorneys at this point, for a variety of different reasons, and I have consulted several others. Not a single one charged for the initial consultation. Not one. A few gave me half an hour, some more than an hour. And some of these were real hotshots, highly paid and at very prestigious firms with credentials out the ying-yang and enviable track records. I offered to pay a couple of them for the initial meeting, because they had given me valuable advice and much more time than I expected, and they were positively insulted.
In my opinion, an initial consultation (free) is needed to be sure that you and the attorney both agree that you want to work together; and that YOU understand exactly how much work may be involved and what the costs might be. Even if the attorney is highly qualified, you need one who can communicate clearly with you, and who inspires your trust -- and the two may not go hand-in-hand. And you should be under no obligation whatsoever to retain an attorney about whom you have the slightest qualm.
Also, while it may be useful to have a general description of your assets with you for the consultation, so that you can explore the various options that you should consider, I see no point in taking copies of everything.
I would be leery of any attorney who tries to coerce you into retaining her this way.
When we went to an elder care attorney three years ago, I had put all the information in a spreadsheet with just the values. This included assets (cars, property, stocks, IRA's etc.) and liabilities. I also included a list of insurances and their values. It was all on one page and very easy to read. I had the back-up information with me, but with everything on one page it made the discussion very easy. The good part about the spreadsheet is that I am now maintaining it on an annual basis and it helps me keep track of everything.
Copies of wills, DPOA, etc are also good. You may find that you want to make some adjustments to the living will considering how this disease affects them.
A list of questions (and a copy for you to write their answers) will help both of you keep to topic.
I'm set to go to an elderlaw att'y next week. I had heard her talk at an AZ local chapter meeting and she seemed to know how to help me set things up, so I called to make an appointment. Her assistant made it very clear that the consultation would be $200/hr when I said I needed to get direct advice, and that I had heard her talk (which of course had been free). SHe's not near me so I'll be happy to take everything (copies, of course), and lay it out for her. I have also made a simple spreadsheet that shows his, mine, ours, and a list of questions for her.
In connection with a land trust I work with, we had dealings with an attorney, including phone conferences. We were billed $275/hr. I rather objected to this to someone else, a high-powered business consultant, saying I didn't get paid that much for making websites. He laughed and said, oh, I get $400 an hour. So I guess $200's par for the course. We're in the wrong business, friends!
Jean 21, Under no conditions would I even start with an attorney that wanted all information up front. I would want and initial consultation to first see if I even liked the Attorney, if you do not like them it is hard to work with them. I had that happen to a friend of mine, when she went in the Attorney just took over her life, she had taken all the paper work etc. and found she hated the Attorney.
A good Attorney will let you get acquainted first and that is what I would go with. You should not be charged for that. An Attorney is somewhat like a Doctor, you either want to stay with them all the way or NOT at all.
divvi is not considering Medicaid and that is why she was ok with the revocable trust but do not let an Attorney lead you that way unless you are not applying for Medicaid. In the End with a revocable trust if you have any control whatsoever over the trust then it is considered countable.
I had an appt. with and Elder Law attorney this morning, and feel it was a positive meeting. He was recommended by several people..friends and professionals, so I felt good about the choice. No clue how much it cost, but he was very informative, direct, and obviously knows his business. The only immediate thing was to have a new POA drawn up as our existing ones don't include the gifting and transfer provision...must say I feel better getting ducks lined up. He was well acquainted with our former attorney who recently retired, so knew that our wills, etc. other than the POA were properly done.
We got our attorney's name from the Bar Assn Referral Service. That cost $30. The attorney's first 1/2 hour was free. I took in our wills and other documents and left them with him. We told him what we wanted to do during that 1/2 hour. About 10 days later, we went back in and signed everything. He was very careful with DH to make sure he understood what he was signing. All of that work plus notarizing our signatures, etc. cost another $275. I thought he was quite reasonable and am satisfied with the cost.
We had all of the legal things a few years ago including trusts, etc. I thought some minor changes should be made and the old lawyer is retired so I took the things to a new lawyer 2 years ago, who specializes in elder saw but not very accomidating with explaining so husband could understand. (Heck, I hardly understand either) Husband could not understand how trusts work and he was afraid he was losing his assets.
The lawyer turned to me and said he couldn't finish the changes on husbands because he did not understand but he could on mine. He said it wasn't a big deal to worry as changes were minor. Our changes were just for change of administrator as our son has moved out of state and I thought it better to have daughter living here. I still had to pay him $300. for the work he did.