Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve got answers.

General Questions

How long will this take?

Here’s our guarantee: we will have a draft of your estate plan finished within five business days of you submitting the necessary information for us to complete our work, or you will receive $500 off.

From first meeting to signed plan, we’re talking as little as two weeks in the normal course of business. We can move as fast as you need us to – we’ve produced expedited plans in as little as 24 hours.

How much work will I need to do?

Very little: doing the work is our job.

Here’s the entirety of what we’ll ask you to do: fill out a short form before our Strategy Session so Owen gets smart before the meeting. Attend a Zoom meeting to discuss you and your family. (You don’t even have to get out of bed – we won’t tell!) At the end of that meeting, Owen will suggest a recommended plan and at least one alternative plan. You’ll fill out a short questionnaire and you’re done. All you’ll have to do then is get the documents notarized, and we can arrange for that too.

Can't I do this on LegalZoom?

Sure. Staples also sells will forms for $49.00 and you can find videos on YouTube showing you how to give yourself a root canal. 10 out of 10 would not recommend, as the kids say.

Here’s the truth: if you’re concerned about upfront cost or are interested in price shopping, Purely Estates likely isn’t a good fit for you. And that’s okay. Here are Purely Estates, we do only one thing and this is our promise: we make getting an exceptional estate plan, designed for you and your family, as easy, fast, and painless as humanly possible.

Our customers see the long-term benefit of having a seamless probate experience for their loved ones – or avoiding probate altogether. They recognize that a well-designed estate is a gift of love that they leave for their families and a proactive act they take to ensure they are cared for properly while still living. It’s a somewhat weird, but very real, flex you can throw down at neighborhood barbeques.

What’s better than knowing you did everything you could to take care of your family?

What happens if my circumstances change and I need to update?

Purely Estates offers free revisions and updates to your plan for 90 days and various levels of maintenance plans that will make updating your plan going forward easy.

We will automatically schedule check-ins at 90-days, one year, three years, and five years. We’re always available: as your life changes, so should your estate plan. We’ve got you covered.

Estate Planning Questions

What do I need to know in order to make good decisions here?

One of the reasons it’s often terrible to work with attorneys is they want to tell you everything they know to show you how smart they are. This is like when Owen was three and made his mother sit as he held out every permutation of three fingers he could think of, saying “I’m three…and three…and three…”

The last thing we want to do is throw a ton of mostly irrelevant information at you. If you look around, you’ll notice that we don’t have a lot of articles or explainers about estate planning. That’s because Owen’s the expert and he’ll let you know what he thinks is best, give you the information you need to intelligently make the decision, and not bog you down with a bunch of useless homework.

Here’s what he’ll provide to you:

    1. Information necessary to select what kind of plan you want; and
    2. What you need to know in order to ensure the piles of paper we provide to you do what you want them to.

Owen is a different kind of attorney. We promise he’ll give you exactly what you need, but nothing extraneous – or Audra will let him hear about it!

What goes into an estate plan?

Every estate plan we put together at Purely Estates has at least these component pieces:

    1. Will
    2. Financial Power of Attorney
    3. Medical Power of Attorney
    4. HIPAA Release
    5. Living Will

Trust-based plans will also have a Revocable Living Trust. Some advanced planning will include irrevocable trusts.

This is important: other than your will and/or trust, all of the documents in your estate plan are designed to protect you while you are still living.

I'm young and healthy, why do I need to do this?

Hi, it’s Owen. I’m not here to tell you that you have to do anything: you’re a grown man or woman and you make your own choices.

I’m just going to leave this here: I was a seemingly healthy young person too, when I nearly died and then was diagnosed with a serious illness that almost killed me again. Had I died on the operating table, as it looked like I would, I would have left my retirement to my ex-wife and a giant mess to clean up to my fiancee.

Let’s just say one of the first things I did when I got home from the hospital was put together an estate plan.

Besides, if you have kids,  please, for their sakes, get an estate plan. At the very least go here and get yourself free temporary guardianships for them.

I have a special needs family member; do I need to do something different?

Yes, it is imperative to set up a special needs trust for your loved one to ensure that he or she retains access to needed benefits. Establishing special needs trusts are the only stand-alone work that we do at Purely Estates.

It’s that important.

I have a blended family; a straightforward plan isn't going to work, is it?

Probably not, but that doesn’t mean we’ll need to put together a plan as long as War and Peace for you. There are a number of additional pitfalls blended families face when estate planning, but there’s little that can’t be planned for, and not a whole lot Owen hasn’t seen. So book a time and get started!