Fill and Sign the Letter with Client Form

Date (Name) (Address) (City, State, Zip) Re: Estate Planning of ______________________________ Dear Mr. and Mrs. ______________________________ : It was a pleasure meeting with you to discuss your estate planning (including tax and other related matters). The purpose of this letter is to give both you and the firm a permanent, written record of the agreement which we have reached to provide legal services to you in connection with these matters. We have found from experience that a written record of the arrangements made between attorney and client serves both the client and attorney should questions later arise with respect to any of the services which we have agreed to perform. Although we can not answer all of your questions in it, this letter will reflect the general terms of our engagement and serve as a point of reference should questions arise at a later date. Naturally, we encourage you to raise questions at any time they occur to you relating to the cost or nature of the services rendered. 1. Services Which We Will Perform. You have engaged us to provide the following legal services in connection with your estate plan, and we have agreed to provide these services in as cost-effective and productive a manner as possible. Our services will include: (a) Compilation of pertinent data relating to your personal and family status, your assets and liabilities, and your estate planning needs and intentions; (b) Review and analysis of all documents and other information which you provide us relating to your estate plan, including your current Wills, trusts, real property deeds, insurance policies, agreements relating to any businesses owned by you, pre- or postnuptial property agreements, agreements incident to a prior divorce and any other information which you or your other professional advisors may provide for us; (c) Research and analysis of legal questions which are with respect to the proposed estate plan; (d) Analysis of the impact of state and federal gift and death taxes (including the generation-skipping transfer tax), debts and other expenses of estate or trust administration upon the desired disposition of your estate; (e) Preparation of all legal documents necessary to implement your estate plan, as conveyed to us, including one or more of the following: Wills, revocable trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, real property deeds, stock and bond assignments, letters of instruction, and any other documents which you ask us to prepare and which we agree to provide for you in connection with the foregoing; (f) Explanation of the material tax and other legal ramifications of each of the documents which we have prepared for you; and (g) Supervision of the execution of all original documents, conforming of copies, and the distribution and safekeeping of all documents, as well as the fling of real property deeds or other documents requiring fling in the public records. Unless otherwise agreed, we will not be responsible for preparing or fling income tax or gift tax returns on your behalf but we will be happy to work with your accountant or tax return preparer to assist in the preparation of such returns to the extent they relate to the estate planning services which we will be doing for you. 2. Services Not Included. As you no doubt appreciate, estate planning can be a complicated process, and your needs and desires may change as we go forward. However, except with your advance approval, we will not undertake any services outside the scope of the services discussed in this letter unless you ask us and we agree to do so. 3. Charges for Legal Services and Out-of-Pocket Costs. (a) Hourly Rates. Our charges for the estate planning services which we have agreed to render for you are generally based on the amount of time spent by our attorneys and paralegals/legal assistants in producing your estate plan. What this means is that we customarily charge at our basic hourly rates as determined and adjusted by the firm periodically. Presently, the hourly rates of the personnel who may be asked to assist with your estate plan range from $ __________ per hour for partners' time to $ __________ an hour for associates' time and $ __________ an hour for legal assistants' time. As noted, these rates are subject to review and change by the firm on a periodic basis. However, you will be given 15 days advance notice of any such changes. Following such notice you may ask us to terminate our work for you before the changes come into effect. Should we not hear from you, then we will be entitled to assume that you concur in the rates as revised. Of course, we will handle our work for you in such a way as to provide the most cost-effective representation possible consistent with our ethical and legal responsibilities to you, our clients. At all times our services will be supervised by a partner in the firm, but matters that can be handled more efficiently by personnel who charge at lower hourly rates will be delegated to such personnel. For example, we have found it very cost-effective to have our associates and legal assistants prepare many of the documents involved in the estate planning process as well as compiling personal and financial data. Of course, all work product produced by the firm will be reviewed and approved by the partner ultimately responsible for your representation. (b) Fee Estimate. Although it is difficult at the outset of any matter to estimate accurately how much time will be required to perform the agreed upon services, we have discussed what we expect the fees for your estate planning will ultimately cost. We have estimated that the fee for your estate plan will be $ _______________ of course, the estimate of charges is merely that, an estimate, and it is possible that the fees finally charged will exceed the estimate. If, during the course of our representation, you request us to provide services in addition to those checked on the attached form, we will charge for such services accordingly. At any stage of the work, however, we will be happy to give you an estimate of the fees which you can expect to incur for additional work. (c) Cost Disbursements. We are likely to incur out-of-pocket costs and other charges on your behalf which the firm will advance subject to reimbursement. These costs include, but are not necessarily limited to: long distance telephone charges, postage, telefax, fling fees, recording fees, and delivery costs. We will not incur any major costs without discussing them in advance with you. 4. Termination of our Relationship. You may at any time terminate our relationship upon written notice, and we will immediately cease performing services after receiving such notice. Of course, you will be obligated to pay the fees due for any services rendered and costs incurred before such termination. We will promptly return all of your papers upon termination but will retain our own files. If you wish copies of our files, we can make arrangements to copy them for you at your expense. We may terminate our engagement for any reason permitted under the Rules of Professional Conduct of this state, which reasons include the failure to pay bills promptly or any other acts or circumstances which in our judgment impair or adversely affect the attorney and client relationship between us or conflict with our professional responsibilities. 5. Cooperation and Confidentiality. Of course, all matters which you discuss with us are personal and confidential and will not be shared with any individuals outside the firm absent your consent. Since we must have detailed information about your personal and financial affairs, we appreciate the importance of maintaining absolute confidentiality with respect to the information you provide. At the same time, we are not in a position to fulfill our obligations to you and to do the best possible job on your estate plan unless you give us all of the relevant facts pertaining to your family and financial affairs. Therefore, we trust we may look forward to your complete cooperation and you may be assured of our complete cooperation, and understanding that materials which you give us are both sensitive and confidential. Of course, with your permission, we will discuss matters pertaining to your family and financial affairs with your other advisors, agents, stockbrokers, etc., but only as appropriate and as specifically authorized by you. Since both of you have retained us to prepare your estate plans, each of you is our client. This means that matters which one of you might otherwise tell us in confidence are not protected by the attorney/client privilege from disclosure to the other of you. It is possible that during the course of our estate planning work for both of you that conflicts may arise between you with respect to, for example, the ownership of your property, its desired disposition, proposed gifts, beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement plans, and other issues. If a present conflict of interest arises between you, we will so advise you and recommend that you retain independent counsel to avoid the possibility that our advice to one of you will be influenced by our representation of the other. At this time, however, with a full understanding of your respective rights to and the advantages of retaining independent counsel, you have requested us to represent both of you in all of the above matters. You have also agreed that there maybe complete disclosure and exchange of all information and communications that we receive from either or both of you in the course of our representation (in other words, such information will not be confidential even if we receive it in private conferences with only one of you). If conflict arise between you such that it is impossible in our judgment for the firm to perform its obligations to each of you in accordance with the terms of this letter, we will withdraw from all further dual representation at that time and advise one or both of you to obtain independent counsel. 6. Conclusion. I apologize for the length and detail of this letter. However, clients and lawyers are better served by having these matters agreed and understood in advance. We trust you will not hesitate to call us at any time if you have questions or comments relating to our representation. It remains our aim to give you competent and cost-effective representation. We appreciate the trust and confidence you have expressed in our firm, and we will do everything we can to warrant them. Sincerely yours, ______________________________ By: ________________________________ ______________________________ We have read the foregoing agreement and accept the arrangements as stated. ______________________________ ______________________________ Exhibit A to Engagement Letter The legal services which we agree to perform and the documents which we agree to prepare for your review and execution are those of the following items which have an X in the box beside them:* 1. Overall review of your estate planning needs and objectives: 2. Analysis of existing life insurance program and recommendations relating thereto: 3. Analysis of your estate tax situation, including: (a) marital deduction; (b) available exemption equivalent; (c) generation-skipping transfer tax issues: 4. Preparation of revocable funded living trust: 5. Preparation of "simple" (no trust) wills: 6. Preparation of wills with trust provisions: 7. Preparation of wills with tax-related trust provisions: 8. Preparation of pour-over wills: 9. Analysis and recommendations relating to gift-giving program: (a) outright: (b) in trust (together with preparation of trust) as follows: (I) life insurance trust: (II) charitable trust: (III) 2503(c) trust: (IV) trust equivalent (e.g., custodianship) 10. Preparation of appropriate transfer documents, consisting of: (a) real property deeds: (b) stock and bond assignments: (c) Other (specify):             11. Additional services as follows: (a)       (b)       (c)       *Type "Not Applicable" or "N/A" on lines not checked. The total estimated fees for the services to be rendered, as checked above, are $ __________________ to $ ___________________ . Date: ______________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________ We understand and agree to the above. ______________________________ ______________________________