Serving clients in Salem and the surrounding areas

The Estate Planning Team at Collier Law

At Collier Law, we work closely with other professional advisors, including Certified Financial Planner™ Practitioners, investment advisors, financial consultants, insurance professionals, Certified Public Accountants, and tax advisors as part of the estate planning team. We believe the team approach provides our mutual clients with the most comprehensive, realistic, and effective estate plan.

Our Approach

Our approach is to provide our clients with a short worksheet to begin organizing information in advance of our meeting. We ask our clients to fill out this questionnaire and send it to us before the first consultation. This not only facilitates a more productive first meeting but helps our clients focus on the issues and decisions they must make to develop the most effective plan to meet their goals. If we determine that a client’s worksheet indicates a complex situation, we may reschedule for a different date or time to allow us a bit longer to discuss those issues.

At the initial consultation, we provide the client with our general recommendations and a free quote for the services we will be providing. They will be provided with a written agreement that they may sign at the meeting, or take with them for review and signature.

During the implementation phase, there is ongoing communication with the client, which may involve obtaining additional documentation, clarifying goals and information, and discussing options and trade-offs. We use all appropriate avenues of communication: phone, email, and in-person meetings. We firmly believe that ongoing communication is an essential element of developing an effective plan and building a life-long relationship with our clients.

We also believe that no client should sign any document without a comprehensive understanding of its content and the ramifications thereof. To that end, we dedicate time to the in-person review and discussion of the documents before signing. It allows us to explain each section of the plan, and answer any questions that have come up in the process.

Once documents are signed, we work directly with our clients, or with you, or both, to ensure funding is completed. We also keep our clients informed regularly through our workshops and newsletters. Through these regular touchpoints, we keep clients informed about changes in the law that might affect them and remind them to monitor their plans concerning major life events.

Your Approach

Every professional organization has different processes and different methods for interacting with clients. We are happy to work within your processes or blend our respective methodologies. Our primary goal is to serve the needs of clients and we welcome the opportunity to serve them within the team environment.

Resources

Joint Marketing

  • Client Education
    Please visit our Blog for an online library of articles on issues related to estate planning. We have posted several articles suitable for use as client education.
  • Joint Marketing
    We are happy to work with you to speak to your clients or prospects on estate planning issues, including basic estate planning, retirement plan trusts, charitable giving strategies, generation-skipping, and other advanced topics, business succession, or asset protection. Please call the office if you would like to plan a workshop or a “Client Appreciation Event.”
  • Estate Planning E-Newsletter
    We produce an electronic newsletter on estate planning issues for professional advisors like yourself. You may subscribe online and we will add you to our email list.