Here’s what I mean…

First of all, everything is billed on an hourly basis. And, as you can imagine, at more than $400/hour, my clients wanted me to do everything as quickly as possible with as little communication as possible. They didn’t want to talk about their kids, and my kids were afraid to call when they had changes in their life because they didn’t know how much that call would cost them and whether it was worth it.

As a result, often, they would have life changes, such as a new baby, a divorce, a new property purchase, or a new business started. Still, I wouldn’t hear about it because they didn’t want to pay to tell me. And that meant their plan would fail when their family needed it most because it would be outdated after we created it.

When they did call, I could not be responsive because we needed a whole team of people to support us. It was just Hector and me. I was the paralegal, the legal secretary, and the file clerk too, which was great from a learning perspective but not significant from the standpoint of being able to serve my clients.  

When Hector was diagnosed with his brain tumor, we spent thousands of dollars on an estate plan. It wouldn’t have done anything to support us if something had happened to Hector or me. The person we had named to wrap up our affairs was in jail. The guardian we named for our two boys was now a registered sex offender, and I didn’t know we even had a trust or if the lawyer knew Hector was alive. 

I thought for sure our lawyer must have committed malpractice, but then after speaking with other estate planning attorneys, they did it the same way, and most firms do. What I found out is that it wasn’t malpractice at all. It is common practice.

The typical estate planning experience had become merely writing documents. The client would come in, and lawyers would prepare some documents for them. They’d sign the documents (most often not having a clear sense of what they were signing) and then take the documents, stick them in a drawer and not look at them again. 

That’s just what the typical estate planning experience had become. And I knew my clients’ plans would fail if I followed suit.

Nothing abnormal about it, but it didn’t feel right to me. We needed a process for following up with our clients, ensuring their assets were appropriately titled or that we were communicating regularly to ensure their plans continued to work throughout their life.

So, I thought long and hard about how I could do better. Hector and I teamed up and created de Jesus Law Group on the idea of bringing bedside manner and love of relationship to the law. 

Initial planning is just the beginning of the relationship. We’re focused on creating a plan we know will work for you and the people you love.  

So, here are some of the things we do differently based on my experience with the traditional model of estate planning:

1.  Nothing we do is billed on an hourly basis. Everything we do is a flat fee, agreed to in advance, so there are no surprises. You’ll know what it will cost to work with us after we’ve clarified what you want, and you’ll even be able to choose your fee.
2. We have a team of people here to support you. You’ll be able to speak to someone to get your questions answered right away. And, if you need to talk with me about something my team cannot answer, we’ll schedule a call so we don’t waste your time playing phone tag.
3. We see planning as just the beginning of the relationship. In contrast, the plan is typically viewed as a one-time transactional event in the past.