Potential Client Resources

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To help you receive the greatest benefit from your relationship with our law firm, please complete and review the following steps before your first meeting.  Please contact us with any questions, which we welcome.  We hope to work with and serve you (and your family and/or other beneficiaries) well.

1. Please contact us ("Contact Us") to schedule an initial meeting and ask to receive a private link to our current fee schedule.  This first meeting is either billed on an hourly basis or included in the total fixed (or "flat") fee discussed below.

2. Before your first meeting, if you are inquiring about estate planning services or handling a probate/trust administration, please download the appropriate questionnaire (provided in two formats) below, print it, and complete it to the best of your ability.  If you are unable to do so, please contact us and we will gladly mail a hard copy to you.  Please contact us if you are inquiring about another legal matter.

3. Before your first meeting, please submit your completed, confidential questionnaire to our office via facsimile, email, or mail.  Please note that sending confidential documents via email might pose risks.  If you are not comfortable with those risks, please fax or mail your completed questionnaire (or contact us if you prefer to drop off at our office).

4. Before your first meeting, please arrange to bring or deliver any other related documents to us.  Please refer to the appropriate questionnaire or contact us if you are uncertain about this step.  In essence, our firm needs any documents or related information in order to assist effectively with any legal matter.

5. Please prepare, including creation of your own notes and/or list of questions, to discuss your situation with our firm.  One of our lawyers will assess your particular situation, with a focus on your goals, and will then furnish recommendations to you, along with the appropriate fee for those services.  Our firm typically sends these recommendations in writing within one to two weeks of the initial meeting.

6. Please anticipate an engagement (or "retainer") letter enumerating those recommendations that you and we have agreed to implement, along with the appropriate fee for those services.  Our firm generally handles all matters on a fixed fee basis and requires a non-refundable retainer of half (1/2) of the total fee.

7. Please submit or, if preferred, deliver (a) a signed engagement letter and (b) the required retainer payment.  Please note that our firm requires receipt of both of those items (and any other items outlined in the engagement letter) prior to commencing work on any legal matter.  In other words, those items are required to establish a client-lawyer relationship with our firm and to begin any work on your legal matter.

Client Questionnaires (Back to Top)

• Estate planning questionnaire:

  • Click here for Microsoft® Word™ format
    (click here for free Word™ Viewer available if you do not own Microsoft® Word™)

  • Click here for Adobe® Acrobat® format
    (click here free Adobe® Reader® available if you do not own full Adobe® Acrobat® application)

• Probate administration questionnaire:

  • Click here for Microsoft® Word™ format
    (click here for free Word™ Viewer available if you do not own Microsoft® Word™)

  • Click here for Adobe® Acrobat® format
    (click here free Adobe® Reader® available if you do not own full Adobe® Acrobat® application)

Select Presentations and Publications (Back to Top)

• Click here for our summary chart/matrix comparing the estate planning, asset protection, and state-level tax laws of four Southeastern jurisdictions (AL, GA, and TN, which often "feed" into Destin, along with FL) (current as of January 21, 2010)

• Click here for our presentation to the WealthCounsel 11th Annual Estate Planning Conference on charitable estate planning for clients who desire, among other things, to eliminate estate taxes and provide for charitable and non-charitable beneficiaries (click here for alternate summary flowchart) (June 13, 2008)

• Click here for our presentation to the Middle Tennessee Estate Planning Council on planning for clients who own assets in other states and/or who are migrating to another state (Florida emphasis) (November 5, 2007)

• Click here for our presentation to the Nashville Planned Giving Council on donor advised funds (DAFs) (October 10, 2007) (case study: click here)

• Click here for our summary of Tennessee's domestic asset protection trust (known as a "Tennessee investment services trust" (TIST)) (current as of May 16, 2007)

• Click here for our presentation to the 3rd Annual Siesta Key Gathering of the The Advanced Wealth Studies Institute on "A Forest with Falling Trees: Charitable Planning Update" (May 5, 2007)

• Click here for our presentation to the Knoxville Estate Planning Council on "Electrifying Your Performance: Technology in an Estate Planning Practice" (March 15, 2007) (slide show: click here)

• Click here for our presentation to Vanderbilt University School of Law on "Ethical Issues in Estate Planning: Warren Buffet to Anna Nicole Smith to the Cleaver Family" (March 16, 2006)

• Click here for our presentation to Saint Simon’s on the Sound Episcopal Church on "A Sample of the Estate Planning Vocabulary of the Holy Scriptures" (May 12, 2005)