Burton Law LLC

Due to the highly personalized nature of estate planning, tax, and medicaid planning matters, and the regulatory fees and burdens imposed on my be each state's licensing authority for lawyers, I am required to expend significant resources in both time and money in order to provide effective and quality legal advice during an initial consultation.

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In order to make sure the initial consultation is as productive as possible, it helps me immensely if you can complete my firm's Estate Planning or LLC Formation Questionnaire to the best of your ability before the initial consultation. You can contact my by email to request a questionnaire or you can download the appropriate questionnaire for your situation below:

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Estate Planning Questionnaire--Married Couple 

 

Estate Planning Questionnaire--Single Person

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LLC Formation Questionnaire

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If you have any questions about completing the questionnaire, please contact me and I will be happy to provide help and guidance. We will also go over all of the questions at the initial consultation. Consultations are scheduled in the order of completed questionnaires received, so the sooner you fill this out and return it to my office, the sooner you will be able to book the first available appointment.

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My office typically charges $250 for most initial consultations or $300 for a Medicaid planning consultation (1 hour long). This fee is due at the beginning of the consultation and is non-refundable due to the time I spend meeting with you, providing advice and answering your legal questions. That means if you or I decide not to proceed further after the initial consultation, the fee will not be returned to you. You may pay this fee by check at the initial consultation and you will owe nothing further.

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However, if we mutually decide to move forward with a representation, the amounts paid for the initial consultation will be credited towards the future costs of the representation. Because I strive to use flat fees whenever possible, if you decide to move forward with your estate planning, the cost of the initial consultation will be included in your flat fee estate planning package. I find that this method and fee structure provides clarity to clients, efficient use of time, and peace of mind about what the costs of representation will entail. If you decide to move forward with a flat fee estate planning package, 1/2 of the total flat fee will be due at the time you sign the fee agreement, and the remaining 1/2 of the flat fee will be due on the date you sign your estate planning documents and receive your final plan. For a  more complete overview, you can view my firm's Explanation of Fees and Costs; Office Policies.

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If you would like an estimate of what I think my services will cost in order to help you, you may send me an email and briefly describe your situation, and I will do my best to provide an estimate of fees based on your particular situation. For most common estate planning situation I have a flat fee estate planning packages that I can provide to you. For more complex estate planning matters I can attempt to estimate the fees based on my current hourly rate. My goal is always to provide you with a clear estimate of the fees involved, so that you can make an informed decision about what option is best suited for your needs and budget. You can now also schedule a phone consultation with me by using the Book Online page on my website. This options allows you to schedule and pay for your consultation in advance for a flat fee rate.

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Note: I have implemented the above policy after experimenting with other methods and out of a desire to provide fair and efficient services to all clients. In order to keep my fees affordable, I am required to focus my time on clients who are serious about their intentions and able and willing to pay for good advice tailored to their situation. Because of this, I find it is unfair to offer "free" advice to certain clients, who use time that could be spent on other revenue producing activities, but then do not move forward with the representation. Therefore if you can help me by completing the estate planning questionnaire and coming to the initial consultation prepared with your questions and ideas, I will seek to do my best to help you in the most efficient way possible. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

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You can find answers to many of your most common questions on my blog where I have multiple videos and blog posts (you can see a preview of these posts below) that seek to provide helpful legal advice and answers to various estate planning, real estate, and business law questions in an informative and user friendly manner. You can also submit a question for consideration as a question for a future video blog post.

 

I look forward to talking with you.