What To Expect

What to expect when arriving at the O’Fallon, MO Office

Please drive up and around to the back and park in visitor parking. This is actually the first floor, as the lower floor is the ground floor. If you park in visitor parking on the ground floor, you will have to take the elevator or stairs up one floor. Come in the public access door. Suite 111 will be to the right. Please let the receptionist know that you are here for a meeting with Markell Estate Planning & Elder Law. Typically, a first meeting with us does not take over an hour.

What to expect when meeting with us for Estate Planning

We will discuss your estate planning needs and tailor a plan that is fit for you. Before the meeting is over, we will show you, in writing, what our flat fee will be. Typically, we ask for half of the payment due before we begin services. It is a good idea to bring a credit card or checkbook with you in the event that you elect to use our services.

One final note: it is a good idea to bring along all of the decisionmakers. If you have a son or daughter that you want to appoint as your power of attorney or executor of a will, please invite them. Involving them in the process early leads to a much better result.

What to bring when meeting us for Estate Planning

As part of our process, we ask our clients to bring the following with them:

The name, address, and loan ID number for your mortgage company (if any)
The name, address, and policy number for your homeowner’s insurance company
The name, address, and account number(s) for any financial accounts you want to transfer into your trust or that you need to update payable on death designations on. Including:
- Checking
- Savings
- CDs
- Money Market
- Annuities
- 401ks
- IRAs
- Life insurance policies
- Brokerage Accounts

If hired as your estate planning firm, we will prepare letters from you addressed to these account holders requesting that the ownership be changed, or the beneficiaries be updated. It is important to note that, to protect your confidentiality, we are not allowed to speak with your financial firm(s) unless we have a financial power of attorney on file with them. Thus, while we can give some general guidance, we cannot ensure that all accounts will be titled correctly. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to follow through and ensure this occurs.

Name, address, SSN, and date of birth of any beneficiaries you want added to a will or trust.
Vehicle titles if you wish us to help title the vehicles into a trust.
Copies of deeds for any properties you wish us to transfer ownership into a trust.
Copies of existing estate planning documents (wills, trusts, powers of attorney, etc.)

what to expect

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Markell Estate Planning And Elder Law

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