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How I Work
Planning for the ones you love. Through a Life & Legacy Planning Session, we ensure your family stays out of court. Choose the right level of planning to protect your assets and leave a real legacy.
Planning for the ones you Love
Our process begins with a Life & Legacy Planning Session. Before the session, you will complete homework that will have you feeling more organized and put together than you have in a long time.
During the session, we will look at what would happen to all of your assets and everyone you love if anything were to happen to you. We will then determine a plan together to ensure everything goes the way you want it to so you are always in control. And so your family always knows just how much you care. We will present you with planning options that allow you to decide on your fee and the level of service that is right for you and your family.
Three Levels of Planning
Edris Law rejects a "one size fits all" approach by offering three levels of planning tailored to varying needs, ranging from starter plans for young families to robust strategies for asset protection, preservation, and increased growth. Their fees generally range from $2,000 to $6,750, positioned at the "intersection of affordability and effectiveness." The firm emphasizes that choosing "cheap" estate planning documents often results in false security, whereas their professional plans are designed to provide real security and keep families out of court.
The process centers on a Life & Legacy Planning Session, where clients are educated to make empowered, informed choices based on their budget and family priorities. Rather than just selling documents, the firm focuses on a proactive relationship to ensure that when something happens, the plan actually works. This methodology ensures that clients aren't simply choosing the cheapest option, but are instead focused on protecting their loved ones and securing their wealth against accidental loss to the State or the court process.
Personalized Service
We believe in personalized service for every client. Our approach is educational and proactive. We educate you based on the specifics of:
Your family situation
Your assets
Your individual needs, wants, desires and values
We then guide you to tell us what you want most, so we can create the plan (and the fee for that plan) that aligns with your objectives for your family and your assets.
We represent families throughout varying stages of life:
Traditional two-parent families or single parents wishing to provide for and protect their children and themselves.
Unmarried couples either solidifying their relationship through proper planning or dissolving their relationship with the assistance of caring counsel.
Blended families negotiating the challenges of creating new relationships with varying expectations.
Ensure your Plan is Current
We have annual membership programs to ensure your plan continues to work throughout your lifetime. Your assets are always owned in the right way, and you will be able to call us with any legal issue without ever worrying about receiving a bill in the mail for hourly fees. Whether you participate in one of our membership programs or not, we keep all of our clients updated about changes in the law and issues that might affect your life.
We often serve the whole family and multiple generations of the same family. From free estate checkups for elderly parents to basic planning documents for young adult children, become part of our client family and feel how much we care.
Your Family Lawyer for Life
At Edris Law, the signing of your estate planning documents is seen as just the beginning of our relationship with your family, setting the firm apart as your Family Lawyer for Life. Unlike traditional firms where the relationship ends at signing, this approach ensures your plan is properly updated to accommodate how your assets, family, and the law will change over time. Failing to keep a plan current can render documents worthless, often leading to costs that are far greater than the investment of keeping the plan active and effective.
Furthermore, the firm focuses on ensuring assets are owned in the right way throughout your lifetime to prevent them from being lost to State Unclaimed Property depots. By maintaining an up-to-date Family Wealth Inventory, Edris Law ensures that loved ones can always locate what you own and how you own it. This proactive management is designed to keep families out of court and make transitions as easy as possible, providing real security instead of the false certainty of outdated paperwork.
Three-Year Plan Review
With each of our estate plans, we include a no-charge three-year review. As your life changes, we ensure your estate plan is updated and confirm your assets are held properly for maximum protection. Coming soon to Edris Law will be our VIP membership plans. Some of the benefits provided under our membership plans will include:
Annual Plan Review with Unlimited Plan Amendments.
Annual Priceless Conversations transition your most important and most frequently lost family wealth- who you are and what’s most important to you.
Annual Membership in service, which provides 24/7 online access to health care and guardianship documents.
Substantial discount on our fees for advising your loved ones after you’re gone.
Annual Review of Your Assets and Update of Your Asset Spreadsheet.
And much more, including valuable membership enrollment bonuses.
For more information about our unique comprehensive planning packages, please schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session. Let’s review what you own, who you love, and what would happen under your current plan or the State’s plan for you.
More Than Just Your Money: Leaving A Real Legacy
Who you are and what’s important to you, how we guide you to leave a legacy that’s about much more than just your money. After you are gone, your loved ones will miss you deeply. They will long for your words of counsel and concern. Hearing your voice again would be a tremendous gift. Through our unique legacy process, you can give your loved ones the most precious gift, a lasting expression of your love. What could be more valuable?
At Edris Law, we believe estate planning is not just about transferring your financial assets and personal belongings. It’s also about capturing and transferring your valuable intangible gifts: who you are and what's important to you – your values, insights, stories, and experience.
Let Me Tell You a Story
Several years ago, both of my parents passed away. Being able to hear their voice, read their thoughts, look at their momentos is such a gift. However, I have few items left with their voices, handwriting, and thoughts on life. I have one piece of paper with my mom’s handwriting and one with my dad’s. Dealing with their love and light loss would have been so much easier if I had more of those items.
You Could Make a Recording, But Who Has Time?
I’m sure many people would like to record a message for their loved ones and put it in a safe place or simply write notes to their children letting them know how they felt about them. But so few people ever actually do it. We just get so caught up with the day-to-day of our lives that focusing on leaving a legacy seems to take a back seat.
We realized we’d have to build this into our planning process and not make it just another thing you’ll get done someday. That’s why at Edris Law, we make it part of our planning for every client to help you capture and pass on more than just your money: your intellectual, spiritual, and human assets, who you are, and what’s important to you.
Get more information about how we help you pass on your most valuable assets, your values, insights, stories, and experiences to your loved ones, or about our resources for leaving your family with a true legacy. Please schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session with us.
Planning For Your Children
Having a will alone does not ensure the care of your kids if the unthinkable happens to you! If you are a parent of minor children (or those with special needs) who is counting on you, your estate plan must begin with ensuring your children would always be taken care of by the people you want, in the way you want, no matter what happens.
At Edris Law, one of our areas of greatest expertise is in planning for the well-being and care of the children you love. Without advance legal planning for the care of your children, if the unthinkable happens to you, here’s what could happen:
Your children could be placed into the care of Child Protective Services (yes, even if you have a will in place and even if you have a living trust) and, yes, it would very likely only be temporary, but trust us, you never want your children in the arms of strangers. Not even for a minute.
Your children could be put into the custody and care of someone you would never want, like that one family member who has good intentions, but you’d never want to raise your kids.
A judge who doesn’t know you, or your family, will decide who will raise your kids, even if it’s the last person you would ever want.
Your family could get into a long, drawn-out custody fight, or there could be a challenge to the guardians you have designated.
Up to 5% of the value of your assets could be lost to court costs and other unnecessary fees through the probate process, a court process that can tie up your assets for years and deprive your kids of the resources they need to live comfortably, which can be avoided with advance legal planning.
When your kids turn 18, they get a check for whatever assets are left.
There are unscrupulous people out there who make it their business to look at the public records to find out when 18-year-olds are getting that inheritance check.
Most estate planning attorneys do not address these issues and do not plan from a parent’s perspective.
What is a Kids Protection Plan®?
A Kids Protection Plan® is a set of instructions, legal documents, and even an ID card for your wallet, which you need to have if you have kids at home who count on you for their well-being and care.
If you are in an accident, your Kids Protection Plan® will ensure your children are never taken into the custody of Child Protective Services, strangers, or the care of anyone you wouldn’t want because the authorities don't have clear instructions from you. And your Kids Protection Plan® will ensure your children are raised by people you choose, not someone chosen by a Judge who doesn’t know you.
To get started with your Kids Protection Plan®, contact us.
