Steve Worrall, Estate Planning and Probate Lawy...

FAQs

• What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?

  Estate planning with me is not a “one size fits all” for everyone. We offer 3 levels of planning to suit your varying needs. From starter plans primarily for families with young children and little in the way of financial wealth to more robust plans for well established families concerned with matters of asset protection, preservation and increased growth, we’ve got you covered. Generally, our fees range between $1,500 up to $8,000 or more on the high end for an extensive plan. It’s our opinion that if you are looking for less expensive planning, you may as well read up and do it yourself because you’ll get the same quality of planning online as you will with any lawyer charging fees that are less. Our plans are focused on ensuring your family has somewhere to turn if and when something happens to you, that your plan will work and you have real security, not the false security that comes with a cheap set of estate planning documents. Personalized Service We believe in personalized service for each and every client. Our approach is educational and proactive – we first determine your individual needs, desires and values, and then tailor your plan to best fulfill your dreams. We represent families throughout varying stages of life: traditional two parent families or single parents wishing to provide for and protect their children and themselves; unmarried couples who are either solidifying their relationship through proper planning or dissolving their relationship with the assistance of caring counsel, blended families negotiating the challenges of creating new relationships with varying expectations high net worth families seeking strategies for minimizing estate and income taxes family business owners seeking ways to protect and expand their companies and considering how and when to transition to the next generation of ownership estate executors and beneficiaries navigating the court process of probate administration family members or trustees carrying out the legacy left behind through a trust administration With each of our estate plans we include a no-charge 3 year review to ensure that as our clients’ lives change, so does their estate plan and ensure that all our clients’ assets are held properly for maximum protection. And, we have annual membership programs for clients that desire even more service. Whether you participate in one of our membership programs or not, we keep all of our clients updated about changes in the law and issues that might affect their lives. In addition, we advise clients regarding relationship prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, perform reviews of existing plans that may be out of date, and handle all aspects of administration after the death of a loved one. And, we keep our clients corporate records up to date so that they have the maximum protection from personal liability that a corporation can provide. We have annual membership programs to ensure your plan continues to work throughout your lifetime, your assets are always owned in the right way and you are able to feel confident calling us with any legal issue without ever worrying about receiving a bill in the mail for hourly fees. Whether you participate in one of our membership programs or not, we keep all of our clients updated about changes in the law and issues that might affect your life. We often serve the whole family and multiple generations of the same family. From free estate checkups for elderly parents to basic planning documents for young adult children, become part of our client family and feel how much we care. .

• What is your typical process for working with a new customer?

  How We Are Different Explaining to you how we’re different requires an explanation of what the “traditional” experience with a lawyer is like. If you’ve worked with a lawyer to prepare estate planning documents for you in the past, this will sound familiar. During the traditional experience, you’ll go in and meet with a lawyer who will oftentimes make things seem very complicated and confusing. You’ll have a good idea that the lawyer is smart and seems to know what they are doing, so you’ll nod and answer questions, as if you understand everything. Because you want to do the right thing for your family, you’ll have the lawyer prepare documents for you and you’ll sign the documents, feeling relieved that you’ve got that taken care of. You’ll take your fancy planning binder home, stick it on a shelf or in a drawer, mark estate planning off on your checklist as DONE and never think about it again. You might remember your lawyer said something about moving your bank accounts into the trust. So you’ll go to the bank, forget what you were supposed to do, call your lawyer’s office, get a voicemail, have to leave the bank and wait for a call back, (which takes several hours at least and sometimes days) and by that time, you’ll have gotten busy with other things and never get around to moving that bank account. A few weeks later, you’ll get a bill in the mail for $67.50 for 15 minutes of your lawyer’s time for answering a couple of questions. You’ll make a mental note– don’t call lawyer ever again. Several years later, you’ll refinance your house or sell it and buy a new one and forget that you were supposed to let your lawyer know or make sure you kept the title in the name of the trust. Your children will get older, making your guardianship choices outdated, but you don’t want to call your lawyer because you know you’ll get a bill in the mail two weeks later. You’ll hear something about a change in the tax law, but you figure you’d surely get a letter in the mail from your lawyer if it was something that affected you, so you don’t worry about it. And, you’d have to dig through boxes to find your trust documents so you could remember your lawyer’s name and find her contact information. Who has time for that? It’s not until you become incapacitated or die and your family finds the binder you stuck up on a shelf several years before and never looked at again, that they’ll realize your plan is so outdated that it has nothing to do with your life, your assets and the law. Your family is at a loss. They don’t know where to turn or what to do, so they contact the same lawyer you used to prepare the documents, who is as happy as can be to probate your assets, which never made it into the trust. How do I know all this? Because I have seen countless clients come in to see me who have had this exact experience. Unfortunately, what I discovered is the estate planning industry was not designed to serve growing families who experience lots of change on their way to success. It was designed to serve 70 and 80 year olds who were preparing for death. Our Firm Helps You Prepare for Life What makes our firm different is that we were built with the needs of growing families in mind. We understand you are BUSY, you are growing, you are planning for a life of prosperity and you value ease, convenience and efficiency. You want to know you’ve made the best decisions for your family and that your plan will work when your loved ones need it most. You want to make sure your children would be taken care of in the best way possible and will be prepared to receive your wealth if anything happens to you. That is our focus as well. We’ve developed unique systems to give you the same access to your very own family lawyer as was previously only available to the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Sam Walton so you can have the guidance you need to build and maintain a life of prosperity and wealth. We encourage communication with our clients. In fact, we’ve thrown out the time clocks so you never have to be afraid to call with a quick question. Everything we do is billed on a flat-fee basis, agreed to in advance, so there are never any surprises. We have a whole team to serve you. When you call our office to ask your quick question, you won’t have to wait hours or days for a phone call back. You’ll get your question answered, right away. And, if you need to schedule a more in-depth legal or strategic call with Your Family’s Lawyer™, a call will be scheduled when you’re both available and ready for the call so we can make the very best use of your time and not waste your time by leaving voicemail after voicemail back and forth. And, we ensure the most important details of your planning are followed through on and your plan continues to work throughout your lifetime. We have a “funding coordinator” to ensure your assets are protected throughout your lifetime and none of your assets will end up going through a long, expensive court process or being lost to the state because they were missed after your death. We’ve created unique membership programs to keep your plan up to date year in and year out as well as give you access to our Trusted Team of Legal Experts for guidance on ANY legal or financial matter. One day you will need a lawyer. I don’t know why and I don’t know when, but when you do, you will be grateful you can call on us and we’ll be here to advise you or get you out of a jam. Lastly, we believe your financial wealth is only a small part of your overall “Family Treasures” which is made up of your far more valuable, Intellectual, Spiritual and Human assets – who you are and what’s important to you. Most estate plans are only able to transfer your financial wealth onto the next generation. The intangible nature of your much greater wealth has made it difficult to capture and it is most often lost when someone passes. How much do you know about your grandparents values? Their most prized personal possessions? How they felt about you? What they had learned during their lifetime? If you are like most people, you know very little. But, the wealthiest families capture these assets and pass them along right with their financial wealth. And, that’s part of the reason the rich keep getting richer. We’ve developed a tool that allows us to pass on your whole family wealth, including your Intellectual, Spiritual and Human assets. I can’t go into all of the details here, but we’ll definitely talk about when you come into meet with your Your Family’s Lifetime Lawyer™. We look forward to seeing you and caring for your family soon! Steve Worrall PS – if you think this all sounds expensive, well, you are right and you’re wrong. I can guarantee you that if you qualify to meet with us and have us become Your Family’s Lifetime Lawyer™, that planning is substantially less costly than it would be for your family if you died with a plan that didn’t work or if you didn’t have a plan in place at all. And, I’ve never had a single family who believed in this kind of planning and wanted to put it in place for their loved ones leave my office because they couldn’t afford it. We’ve made creative financing available to our clients because we know that this planning is the foundation for a life of success!

• What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?

  I bring 30 years of experience, integrity, honesty and compassion to everything I do for you. I graduated with honors from he University of Georgia School of Law. My work history is listed below: Senior Estate Planning Probate and Adoption Lawyer The Manely Firm, P.C. 2015 - Present Principal GeorgiaFamilyLaw : Worrall Law LLC 2009 - Present Partner GeorgiaFamilyLaw.com, The Law Firm of Mullin & Worrall, LLC 2001 - 2009 Sole Member Stephen M. Worrall, LLC 1995 - 2000 Associate Ellis Funk Goldberg Labovitz and Dokson 1991 - 1995 Associate Barwick Bentley Karesh and Seacrest 1983 - 1991 I am or have been a member of these organizations: Collaborative Law Institute of Georgia Board of Directors 2013 - 2015 Charles Longstreet Weltner Family Law American Inn of Court Master 2012 - Present WealthCounsel Member 2012 - Present Estate Planning Council of North GA Member 2011 - Present National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys Member 2008 - 2012 Cobb County Chamber of Commerce Member 2007 - Present Collaborative Law Institute of Georgia Attorney Member 2005 - Present Cobb County Bar Association Family Law Section President 2001 - 2002 Charles Longstreet Weltner Family Law Inn of Court Barrister 2000 - 2012 Cobb County Bar Association Member 1995 - Present State Bar of Georgia Member 1983 - Present Atlanta Bar Association Member 1983 - Present I have the following publications: Current Accounts (Georgia Society of CPA's) Your Final Log Off: Estate Planning for Your Digital Assets 2015 Georgia Family Law website and blog Georgia Family Law website and blog posts 2015 LinkedIn A Parent Sanity Kit For Georgia Parents of Graduating Seniors 2015 LinkedIn Facebook’s Legacy Contact Feature: Name an ‘Heir’ Of Your Account 2015 Seven Steps To Handling Your Loved One’s Estate Seven Steps To Handling Your Loved One’s Estate 2013 AroundAbout Walton Magazine July Is National Sandwich Generation Month: 5 Ways To Help Aging Parents Plan For The Future 2012 Surviving The Sandwiched Years Surviving The Sandwiched Years 2012 Cobb County Bar Association - Bar News Editor of Newsletter 2004-2005 2004 I am a frequent speaker on family law and estate planning topics: WealthCounsel Georgia Forum Trust adminstration 2016 Ryan Cameron Morning Show with Wanda Smith Wills, probate and other estate planning issues 2015 Establishing Education Trusts for Tax Savings, Drafting Education Provisions in Revocable Trusts, and Incorporating 529 Plans Estate Planning With Education Trusts and 529 Plans 2015 Drex Cassiday and Tingle Morning Show Georgia Divorce Lawyer Steve Worrall Interviewed on STAR 94 2015 Atlanta Legal Experts Radio Smart Divorce Solutions: Estate Planning and Divorce 2015 Smyrna Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) 6 Common Mistakes Made by Parents in Planning for Their Children and the Unthinkable 2014 Cobb County Bar Association Family Law Section Lunch Technology and the law / legal practice 2014 DivorceTown Help & Hope Fair Estate Planning – Why You Should Wear Clean Underwear in case the Unthinkable Happens: What You Need to Know to Gain Peace of Mind and Provide a Hopeful Future for Your Loved Ones…and Prevent Your Ex from Inheriting Your Assets! 2013 BusinessRadioX Interview Estate Planning Issues in Divorce Cases 2013 Determining Type and Duration, Defining Income, Anticipating Modification and Ensuring Enforceability Spousal Maintenance Strategies 2012 MODERN TIMES, MODERN CHALLENGES: LAWYERING IN THE 21ST CENTURY FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN, TWITTER, BLOGS AND LAWYERS: MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA WORK FOR YOU, NOT AGAINST YOU 2011 Legal Strategies Navigating Capacity, Power of Attorney, Jurisdiction, Protective Placement and Other Issues Adult Guardianship, Limited Guardianship and Conservatorship 2011 Law and Society Program Atlanta Estate Planning Attorney Interviewed About Planning For The Sandwich Generation 2011 Business Bootcamp for Wonder Women When do you actually need to hire a lawyer? 2011 BlogTalkRadio Interview Co-Parents, Are Your Kids Protected…If the Unthinkable Happened to You? 2011 Better Mornings Atlanta Adding Estate Planning to Your List of Resolutions for the New Year 2011 Barkworld Expo 2011 Legal Beagles, Fat Cats & Lucky Dogs: The Law, Your Pets & Your Blogs 2011 Small Biz Bar Camp Atlanta What Small Business Owners Need to Know About Estate Planning 2010 Parents Without Partners, Marietta Chapter Step By Step Process of Calculating Child Support in Georgia 2007 Georgia Association of School Psychologists and Georgia Psychological Association, Division G, Joint Conference Legal and Ethical Issues in Working With Changing Families (Divorce 101) 2007 Teacher's Day in Court The First Amendment and Religious Issues in Child Custody Cases 2001 Family Law Seminar Family Law 2001 Teacher's Day in Court Family Violence 2000 Georgia Fatherhood Foundation Seminar Parental Alienation Syndrome: Coping with an Interfering Parent after Divorce: From the Attorney’s Perspective 2000 Family Law Seminar Parental Alienation Syndrome: Coping with an Interfering Parent after Divorce: From the Attorney’s Perspective 2000