How to Select an Estate Planning Attorney

Selecting an estate planning attorney is a very important task. This attorney will be the person helping you to determine and ensure your wishes are carried out once you are no longer able to make decisions regarding your estate. While most people think estate planning simply means drafting a will, estate planning involves drafting a living will, financial planning, and seeing that your wishes can be carried out after you have passed away.

When you are ready to start planning your estate, be sure to meet with several attorneys who specialize in estate planning. Meet with all of them before signing any agreements or contracts to have them handle your estate.

When you are meeting with each attorney, ask them about their educational background. To become an attorney they must have gone to 4 years of undergraduate school, followed by 3 years of law school to earn a Juris Doctorate (JD) degree. The law school they attend must be an American Bar Association accredited law school. Once they have complete all of the educational requirements to graduate school, an attorney must pass the bar examination for the state in which they practice law.

When you are satisfied with the educational background of the estate planning attorney, as who in the office is going to be spending the most time working on your file. Because attorneys can charge more than $150.00 an hour for their services, they will often give the file to a paralegal or legal assistant to handle. This is because a paralegal or legal assistant is often less than half the cost of an attorney per hour. A paralegal or legal assistant still must be supervised by the attorney, and their work checked over by the attorney.