Schedule a Planning Session

The first step for getting started is to schedule a Planning Session. We warmly invite you to schedule by calling our friendly Client Services Director, Bonnie Johnson at 949.718.0420, or by emailing us at [email protected]

We typically can meet with you Monday through Friday between 9am and 5pm at our beautiful offices in Newport Beach, or through Facetime or Skype if that is more convenient. If you need other meeting availability, or need a member of our team to come your way, please check with Bonnie to see if this is possible.

When you schedule your Planning Session, we reserve 90 minutes on our calendar, so we can focus entirely on you and your family during this time. During our time together, we will gently discuss what would happen to your loved ones and assets if something were to happen to you. And then, we will look at what you wish to happen instead, and help you create a personalized design to get your plan in place. Clients routinely say “wow, if we had known how easy this would be, we would have done this years ago.”

Our Planning Session is normally $750 and if we create a comprehensive plan for you, that planning fee gets applied toward the fee for your lifetime estate plan. In some circumstances, we will waive the planning session fee and instead you can secure your planning session with a credit card number. If you keep your appointment, nothing will be charged on your card. If you need cancel or reschedule your session, there will be no charge to your card if you cancel at least 3 days in advance of your session or if you reschedule a new session that is within 30 days from your original session. If you cannot keep your appointment and you choose not to reschedule, your credit card will be charged $250 as a cancellation fee. This amount may be credited toward any future planning with us.

We understand that this policy of securing your appointment with a credit card may seem unique. So is our law firm. We provide our very best service to those families who are looking for a long-term relationship with their trusted advisor. We expend most of our energy providing an exceedingly high degree of service to our existing clients and limit the number of new clients we see each week. We only take referrals from trusted colleagues and clients. As a result, we must secure your appointment time so that if something comes up and you can’t attend your planning session, we will have enough advance notice to open the slot to a waiting family.

We know our Planning Session is a tremendous value to the families we serve and our clients agree!

“The Planning Session with Meier Law Firm was the best hour we spent on determining what type of estate planning our family needed.”—Dr. S. Strom, Irvine CA

What To Do Prior To Your Planning Session

Upon scheduling your Planning Session, our friendly Client Serviced Director will send you our Client Questionnaire and other important information that you will want to review prior to attending your session. We must receive your Client Questionnaire back at least 3 days before your Session or we may need to reschedule your Planning Session. Because our Planning Session is completely customized to you, we need this important information to make our time together valuable. Feel free to call the office at any time if you need assistance completing your questionnaire or have any questions at all.

If you have existing estate planning documents, please make sure that you provide us your existing documents at least 3 days in advance to the Planning Session so we can evaluate them prior to meeting with you.

What You Can Expect During Your Planning Session

On the day of your Planning Session, please expect to spend up to 90 minutes with a member of our team. The initial meeting with us has two purposes:

• To identify whether there is a good fit between you and our Firm; and
• To educate you about the law and what would happen if you died with your current (or no) plan in place.

By looking at what would happen under your current plan, you can identify what you would want to happen differently and then together with your Family Trust Attorney’s guidance make the decisions that are necessary to give you the peace of mind of knowing your family would be taken care of in the way you want if something happened to you.

Assuming that you and our team determine that there is a good fit between us AND that you identify specific ways you would want things to happen that are different than what would happen if something happened to you, we can design a plan for your family at the Planning Session.

Creating Your Plan

Our Firm has an easy four step process for helping you get your planning in place. Once your estate plan design is completed, we will schedule a signing meeting approximately 3 weeks from the date you design. In the interim, we will send you a Family Wealth Inventory Spreadsheet, so you can begin listing your assets. This helps us understand what assets exist, so we can determine how they need to be connected to your plan. We will also email you a confirmation of names and roles, and ask you to confirm spelling and provide full contact information for each key person in your plan.

We have a process of reviewing your documents with you that makes your plan so easy to understand that you will know for certain that we understood exactly the way you want things to happen when something happens to you and that your loved ones will be in excellent hands with our firm. Once you sign your planning documents, your assets and your family are protected as discussed during your design meeting.

We see the planning phase as only the beginning of our relationship. You may make changes to your planning documents at no charge for up to 90 days after you sign your documents. We have an outstanding process in place that allows you to make future changes to your plan for a nominal fee.

At our final meeting during the planning stage of our relationship, we verify that all your asset transfers are moving forward on track whether we are taking the lead, or you are taking the lead with our guidance. We review your asset spreadsheet with you and ensure your questions are answered. Of course, if they aren’t or they become cloudy later, we are always available to answer your questions at any time in the future. And, there’s no charge for that.

What Happens After You Sign Your Estate Planning Documents and Take Them Home

After the planning phase is complete, the maintenance phase of your plan will begin. At no additional charge, we review your plan at least every three years and keep you informed about changes in the law and about other issues that affect your family and your wealth. We are always here for you and we don’t charge you for phone calls, meetings, or emails. We welcome your communications!

You’ll be amazed at how easy and painless the entire planning process will be for your family. We warmly invite you to call our friendly Client Services Director, Bonnie Johnson at (949) 718-0420 to schedule a session, or discuss any questions you may have about our process.