The Comprehensive DGVE law Estate Planning Process

Scroll down for a visual overview of the Comprehensive DGVE law Estate Planning Process.  

Our process generally involves 3 Meetings with you. Those are your:

1. Peace of Mind Planning Session
2. Signing Ceremony
3. Plan Presentation Meeting

Occasionally, an additional Plan Presentation Meeting is required when we do not complete your estate plan design with all the detailed information we will need to begin drafting your legal documents.

Generally, from the moment you first reach out to connect with us, we are available for your Free Informational and Intake Call immediately, the same day, or within no more than a few weekend days.

From there, depending on your schedule and ours, we can usually meet for your Peace of Mind Planning Session within a couple weeks.

Please let us know if you have any urgency, such as an upcoming medical procedure or major travel, that requires completing your estate planning ahead of our normal schedule. Note that rush fees may apply.

If yours is not yet an urgent matter, please don’t delay scheduling until it becomes one! Although we always want to help, we may not always be able to help on a rush basis.

Occasionally, our calendar fills up several weeks ahead for Attorney consultations. If you would like to schedule one, please reach out for your Free Informational and Intake Call now to get started as it may take awhile after that!

Once you: complete your Estate Plan Design, sign your Engagement Agreement, & pay the first half of your flat fee, it’s generally about 2 weeks later that we are sitting together at your Signing Ceremony to review all of your legal documents before you sign them into effect & you’re covered by DGVE law! #coveredbydgvelaw

After your estate planning legal documents are all signed, we will initially retain them to scan and organize them into a completed presentation portfolio for you at your Plan Presentation Meeting which is usually about 2 weeks after your Signing Ceremony.

The sooner we meet for your Plan Presentation Meeting, the sooner you will:

• have your emergency medical card in your wallet with access to your health care agents’ contact information and all your medical legal documents no matter where you are or what happens; 
• have all your completed legal documents as well as a simple summary, plan diagram, and practical tools to help you share all the most important information your health care agents, financial agents, or children’s legal guardians will need to know to manage things for you if you ever can’t do it all yourself 
• be able to work on your asset alignment or trust funding, updating your beneficiary designations and working on any necessary account retitling or re-registrations to make sure your estate plan works when tested in the real world

We recommend you check in with us for your Review Meeting at least every 3 years thereafter to make sure your estate plan stays fresh and doesn’t become stale and fail when you and your loved ones need it to work as intended. 

• By staying on top of changes to your assets and making minor updates to your estate plan periodically, you can avoid serious unintended and otherwise avoidable negative consequences like:
  • having the wrong people still named to take care of your children, express your health care wishes, or manage all of your money and other assets
  • accidentally benefitting someone you do not want to benefit
  • neglecting to properly designate beneficiaries or retitle financial accounts in a way that makes them have to go through the Probate Court process, wasting both time and money and causing your loved ones unnecessary stress
  • changes in the law that will result in your estate having to pay Massachusetts estate taxes or federal estate taxes