How We Are Different

Explaining how The Roy Law Firm is different when it comes to estate-related matters requires an explanation of what the "traditional" experience with a lawyer is like. If you've had a lawyer prepare estate planning documents for you in the past or you've been involved in the administration of the estate of a loved one who has died, this will sound familiar.

The Traditional Model

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 that the lawyer is smart and seems to know what he's doing, so you'll nod and answer questions, as if you understand everything.

Your lawyer will know that the reason you are there is for "estate planning", because you want to do the right thing for your family, and you'll have the lawyer prepare documents that he or she thinks you want and you'll sign the documents, feeling relieved that you've got that "taken care of."

You'll take your planning documents home, stick them on a shelf or in a drawer, mark estate planning off on your checklist as DONE! and never think about it again.

You might remember that your lawyer said something about moving your bank accounts into your trust, but you're not really sure because he or she gave you so much information at that meeting. So you'll go to the bank, forget what you were supposed to do, call your lawyer's office, get voicemail, leave the bank, and wait for a call back (which takes several hours at least and sometimes days). By the time you speak to your lawyer, you'll have gotten busy with other things and may never get around to moving that bank account into your trust. It happens to most people in traditional estate planning.

A few weeks later, you'll get a bill in the mail for $50, $100 or more for the minutes your lawyer spent answering your brief questions. You'll make a mental note, "Don't call lawyer ever again unless it's an emergency!"

Several years later, maybe 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Your children will get older, making your guardianship choices outdated, but you don't want to call your lawyer because you know you'll get a bill in the mail two weeks later.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. Besides, you might have to dig through a box to find your trust documents so you could find your lawyer's name and find his contact information. Who has time for that?

Will Your Family's Plan Work When Needed?

It's not until you become incapacitated or die and your family finds those documents you signed that someone will realize that 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 that never made it into the trust.

How do I know all this? Because I spent three years working at another law firm where I saw how easily it could happen (and I worked with one of the better estate planning lawyers in the area).

Hospitals test their emergency generators on a regular basis. Warning sirens and radio emergency warning systems are tested monthly. We test our smoke alarms when we switch our clocks to Daylight Savings Time and back, too. Why? Because when those things are needed, they are REALLY needed and the possibility of failure carries too great a risk to bear. Why, I asked myself, aren't people doing the same with their family's plan for dealing with life's contingencies and transitions?

Unfortunately, what I discovered is that the traditional 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 older people who were preparing for death, soon.

We Found A Way To Help You Prepare For LIFE.

What makes our firm different is that we were built 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 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 children would be taken care of in the best way possible and will be prepared to receive your wealth if anything happens to you.

That is our focus as well. We're utilizing unique systems to give you the same access to a personal family lawyer as was previously only available to the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Sam Walton, so you can have the guidance you need to build and maintain a life of prosperity and wealth.

We Encourage Communication.

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 (or even a not so quick question). Everything we do is billed on a flat-fee basis, agreed to in advance, so there are never any surprises.

We Have A Team To Serve Our Clients.

We have a whole team in place to serve you. When you call our office to ask your quick question, you won't have to wait hours or days for a phone call back. You'll get your question answered, right away. And, if you need to schedule a more in-depth legal or strategic call with our personal 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 your time by leaving voicemail after voicemail back and forth.

We Follow Through With You.

And, we make sure the most important details of your planning are followed through on and work with you to make sure that your plan continues to work throughout your lifetime.

By working with us, you can be assured that your plan works throughout your lifetime and 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.

VIP Membership Programs

We've created VIP Membership Programs to keep your plan up to date year in and year out as well as give you access to our trusted team of legal experts for guidance on ANY legal or financial matter.

One day you or a member of your family will need a lawyer. I don't know why and I don't know when, but when you do, you will be grateful that you can call on us and we'll be there to advise you or get you out of a jam.

Passing On What's Most Precious

Lastly, we believe your Financial Wealth is only about a quarter of your overall "Family Wealth," which is made up of your far more valuable, Intellectual, Spiritual and Human assets - who you are and what's important to you.

Traditional estate plans only address the transfer of your Financial Wealth on to the next generation. Your much greater Intellectual, Spiritual, and Human wealth is intangible, which makes it more difficult to capture. Besides, if it is lost, there is no financial impact to be reported to anyone, so the traditional estate planning lawyer does not worry about it. As a result, those assets are usually irretrievably lost when someone passes away.

How much do you know about your grandparents values? What were their most prized personal possessions? How did they feel about you and your parents? What priceless lessons did they learn during their lifetimes? What would your grandchildren's answers be to those questions?

If you are like most people, you know very little about your grandparents. But, the wealthiest families make sure that they pass their Intellectual, Spiritual, and Human Wealth on to the next and succeeding generations just as they do their Financial Wealth. And, that's part of the reason the rich keep getting richer.

We've developed tools that allow us to help you pass on your whole family wealth, including your Intellectual, Spiritual, and Human Wealth. We won't go into all of the details here, but you will definitely wan to talk about this with Kevin when you meet with him at your Family Wealth Planning Session.

To read more about Our Process, click here.

To schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session today, fill out our contact form, or contact our office directly at (410) 655-1000.