Estate planning for non-Phoenix area residents.  Richard Keyt prepares estate plans for Arizona residents who reside anywhere in Arizona.  We can design your plan over the phone & have a notary come to you to oversee the signing of your documents.  Call 602-424-4159 for information.

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Richard Keyt's Arizona Estate Plan Preparation Service

An Explanation of What is Included in an Estate Plan and the Costs

by Richard Keyt, Arizona estate planning attorney

What is Your Most Valuable Asset?

I lecture frequently on estate planning and asset protection.  I always ask the audience to name their most valuable asset.  People usually name something tangible like a home.  Sometimes they say its stock or an investment.  Rarely do people name what is truly their most valuable asset - their family and loved ones. 

A lot of my law practice includes asset protection advice about how to protect tangible and intangible assets.  Asset protection is why we buy insurance and form entities.  This type of asset protection is important, but we cannot forget we must also protect our families and loved ones from our death or incapacity.  Most people fail to protect their most valuable asset, their families and loved ones, with a comprehensive estate plan.  Unfortunately over 70% of the people in the United States do not have an estate plan (a Will, a Trust and ancillary documents). 

Many people will spend $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 or more for big screen plasma or LCD TV.  Most of these people, however, aren't willing to spend the same amount on an estate plan to protect their family and loved ones.  I have seen far too many situations where a surviving spouse and/or children suffer dire consequences following the death or incapacity of a bread winner who failed to protect his or her family.  Don't leave your family unprotected if something were to happen to you.  Protect your family now with a comprehensive estate plan before it is too late.  With our installment payment plan, you can spread the cost over six or twelve months.

The Foundation:  The Family Protection Plan - $1,500

Our Family Protection Plan for Arizona residents consists of the following documents and services:

1. Initial conference with Arizona estate planning attorney Richard Keyt to answer your questions about Wills, Trusts and estate planning, go over your Estate Plan Questionnaire and design your estate plan.

2. A copy of Richard Keyt's book called the ABCs of Arizona Estate Planning, a Study Guide.

3. Preparation of a Will to dispose of your probate assets to the heirs you name in the Will.  If you have minor children, your Will is the document where you name one or more people to be the guardian(s) of your children if something happens to you.

4. Preparation of a Personal Property Memorandum to dispose of certain tangible assets without modifying your Will or seeing an attorney.

5. Preparation of a Durable General Power of Attorney that authorizes somebody to handle your financial affairs if you are incapacitated.

6. Preparation of a Living Will that authorizes a doctor to pull the plug if you are being kept alive by a machine.

7. Preparation of a Healthcare Power of Attorney that authorizes somebody you designate to make healthcare decisions for you if you are incapacitated.

8. Preparation of a Healthcare Power of Attorney for Minors.  This is an important document for parents of children under age 18 because the parent(s) designate another family member or friend to make healthcare decisions for an injured minor child if both parents are incapacitated or deceased.

9. Preparation of a HIPAA Authorization, which is a document that authorizes your healthcare providers to give information about your health and medical condition and treatment to your designated agent.

10. Preparation of a Mental Healthcare Power of Attorney that authorizes somebody you designate to make healthcare decisions for you about your mental health if you are incapacitated.

11. Preparation of an Organ Donation Declaration (if you want to donate any of your organs).

12. We purchase a one year membership you and your spouse  in DocuBank^® which holds your Living Will, Healthcare Power of Attorney, HIPAA Authorization and optional Organ Donation Declaration and makes them available 24/7/365 to doctors and healthcare providers.  DocuBank^® gives each of you a plastic membership card to carry in your wallet.  This is a $45 value for a single person and a $90 value for a married couple.  The card contains your emergency contact information, allergies and medical alerts and notifies doctors and hospitals how they can obtain your healthcare documents online or via fax in a matter of minutes.

13. Pet Emergency Care Giver Notification card.  Carry this card in your wallet or purse to inform people that you have a pet and the name and phone number of your emergency pet care giver.

14. Delivery of a detailed 12 page fill in the blanks Post Mortem Wishes document that you can use to tell your family how you want to be remembered.

15. Delivery of a detailed 8 page fill in the blanks List of Important Documents that you can use to tell your family about the existence and location of your important documents, including life insurance information.

16. Phone calls or office conferences to answer questions about your estate planning documents and make any desired changes before signing.

17. Conference to sign your estate plan documents.

18. High quality Estate Planning Portfolio that contains all of your estate plan documents.

19. A CD that contains a digital version of all of your signed estate plan documents in Adobe .PDF format.  We will make up to five CDs for you at no additional charge if you want to give them to family members, your accountant, financial planner or others.

Arizona attorney Richard Keyt prepares all of the above-referenced custom documents and provides the specified services for a fixed fee of $1,500.  The fee includes unlimited phone calls to Richard Keyt for answers to your Arizona estate planning questions.

No Charge for Changes Within First Three Months

We do not charge any legal fees for any changes you want to make to your estate planning documents, including a trust, within the first three months after our signing conference.  We give you a lot of paper, but we want you to be able to review everything you sign at your leisure so you can be sure everything is correct.  If, within the first three months after signing your documents, you find a problem with your estate plan or want to change any document we prepare, let us know and we will revise the documents as necessary at no additional cost to you.

Living Trusts

The heart of an estate plan is the revocable Living Trust (RLT).  We believe that almost everyone with substantial assets should have an RLT.  The primary reasons people create an RLT are:

1. To provide for the management of their property if they are incapacitated.

2. To avoid probate of assets after death.

3. To keep their financial affairs confidential (probate court documents are open to the public).

4. To provide for the disposition of their assets after death to their designated beneficiaries either: (i) outright, (ii) over a period of time or (iii) for the life of one or more beneficiaries.  The latter choice is best for maximum asset protection for the beneficiary.

5. It can be one of the best asset protection methods for your beneficiaries if the Trust is drafted properly.  For example, if the Trust is properly drafted and assets are held in Trust and not distributed unnecessarily to a beneficiary, the beneficiary's creditors (including a bankruptcy court) and predators (ex-spouses, con-men and con-women) can never get the assets.  If you have children or loved ones that you want to protect and if they may inherit a lot of money or property, asset protection may be the most important reason to create an RLT.

6. To save as much as $900,000 in federal estate taxes - for married people with joint estates that exceed $4,000,000.  Beginning in 2011, the estate tax exemption amount will be $1,000,000, which means that if a person who dies after 2010 with an estate of more than $1,000,000 including life insurance, the estate tax will be 55% of the excess over $1,000,000.  A properly drafted trust can save as much as $550,000 in estate taxes for a married couple after 2010.

Revocable Living Trust + Family Protection Plan: $2,500 or $3,500 For a Couple with a Taxable Estate (over $1,000,000)

IRA Inheritance Trust

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust to Avoid Estate Tax on Life Insurance Proceeds

Pet Trust to Care for Pets After You are Gone

Funding Your Trust

If you have an RLT, it is critically important your assets be transferred / retitled into the trust.  This process of transferring assets to your trust is called "funding."  Assets you own outside the trust at your death may have to go through probate, which frustrates one of the important reasons to create a trust.  We offer our trust clients three funding choices:

Funding Method #1:  Do It Yourself

We give you detailed funding instructions called "Funding Your Trust A to Z," which is very comprehensive.  It explains generally what you have to do to transfer ownership of many types of commonly owned assets.  Funding is not hard, but it does require effort and diligence.  However, you should only fund your trust yourself if you are good at dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s.  If you are not, we do not recommend that you use one of the other two options.

Funding Method #2:   Starting Pitcher / Relief Pitcher

This funding method requires that you will enter into a written funding agreement with KEYTLaw, LLC, after you sign your estate plan documents that provides as follows:

1. You complete our funding questionnaire in which you answer questions about your assets and describe them to us.

2. We input your information into our asset funding database and give you a funding status report that lists all of your assets and shows the assets that have been transferred to the trust and the assets that remain outside the trust.

3. During the four month period after signing your trust, it is your responsibility to transfer all of your assets to your trust.  Each time you transfer an asset, you send us a copy of the document that evidences the transfer.  We then update your asset funding database and send you an updated funding status report.

4. After four months, we will be responsible for transferring to your trust any assets that you fail to transfer during the four month period.  We will charge you a transfer fee of $200 for each asset that you fail to transfer.

5. As we finish transferring the assets, we will send you an undated funding status report.

The goal of this method is to give you a BIG monetary incentive to do all the funding yourself.  The incentive is that will save a lot of money if you transfer the assets yourself.  This is the preferred method because you will learn how to transfer assets yourself so you will not have to rely on somebody else to do it for you the rest of your life.

Funding Method #3:   The Whole Enchilada - We Do It All

This funding method requires that you will enter into a written funding agreement with KEYTLaw, LLC, after you sign your estate plan documents that provides as follows:

1. You complete our funding questionnaire in which you answer questions about your assets and describe them to us.

2. We input your information into our asset funding database and give you a funding status report that lists all of your assets and shows the assets that have been transferred to the trust and the assets that remain outside the trust.

3. We will prepare the documents necessary to transfer all of your assets to the trust and contact third parties as necessary to transfer the assets.  From time to time, we will send you an updated funding status report and copies of transfer documents to put in your estate planning binder behind the "Trust Assets" tab.

4. You pay us $2,000 regardless of how many assets you have up to 30.

For general information about Arizona estate planning and related issues, see my article entitled "Arizona Estate Planning FAQ."

Stop Procrastinating - Take the Next Step to Protect Your Family with an Estate Plan

If you have procrastinated up to now and do not have an estate plan and if you do not take the next step right now to make an appointment with Richard Keyt to design your estate plan, the sad reality is that you will most likely continue to procrastinate for many years to come and probably will die without protecting your family.  That's ok if you want the State of Arizona to decide who inherits your property and if you don't care about the problems and expense your family may suffer if you die without an estate plan in place.

Isn't your family your most valuable asset?  Don't you want your family to have the protection that a good estate plan can provide?  If the cost is preventing you from making an appointment, compare the cost of an estate plan against money you have spent on things for yourself such as a flat screen TV, furniture, swimming pool, computer system, hi-fi system, car or SUV, boat, country club membership, jewelry, art and other "toys" or expensive items.  Don't spend more on "stuff" than you do to protect your family if something happens to you.

Make an Appointment Now to Design Your Estate Plan

Our EP Questionnaire

To hire Arizona estate planning attorney Richard Keyt to assist you in designing your estate plan and to prepare your estate plan documents, complete the appropriate online Estate Planning Questionnaire for a single person or a married couple and email, fax or mail it to Rick. 

How to Make an Appointment

To make an appointment for an initial consultation to answer your questions and design your custom estate plan, call Rick at 602-906-4953, ext. 3 or Rick's secretary Milena at 602-906-4953, ext. 2.

How to Hire Richard Keyt to Prepare Your Estate Plan

To hire Richard Keyt to assist you in designing your estate plan and to prepare your estate plan documents, do the following:

1.  Single Person Questionnaire

2.  Married Couple Questionnaire

Richard Keyt

3001 East Camelback, Suite 130

Phoenix, Arizona 85016

If you have any questions about Arizona estate planning, the process, fees or anything else, call Rick at 602-906-4953, ext. 3.  There is no charge for inquiries about preparing estate planning documents.

Pay for Your Estate Plan on the Installment Payment Plan

If you make a down payment of 1/3 of the cost of your estate plan, you may also pay the balance with your Visa or MasterCard over six or twelve months if you pay interest of $25 a month.  If you select the installment payment plan, we will charge your Visa or MasterCard every month for six or twelve months, depending on which payment period you chose.  Payments under our installment payment plans are:

Arizona Estate Planning Attorney

Free Wills & Trust Class

Attend a free 1.5 hour mini-course called EP 101 to learn about Arizona wills, trusts and estate planning and why you need a comprehensive estate plan to protect your family.  EP 101 graduates can save $500 off the cost of an estate plan.  Classes limited to 12 people are held the 1st Tuesday of every month at 7 pm in the KEYTLaw offices in central Phoenix.  See EP 101 and the flyer for more information.

Our EP Questionnaire

To hire Arizona estate planning attorney Richard Keyt to assist you in designing your estate plan and to prepare your estate plan documents, complete the appropriate online Estate Planning Questionnaire for a single person or a married couple and email, fax or mail it to Rick. 

How to Make an Appointment

To make an appointment for an initial consultation to answer your questions and design your custom estate plan, call Rick at 602-906-4953, ext. 3 or Rick's secretary Milena at 602-906-4953, ext. 2.

This page was last modified on December 12, 2009.

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