Process

How a matter moves.

Four steps, in the same order, for every estate plan, formation and contract. You always know which one you are in and how long it takes.

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Two hands in suit cuffs exchanging a folder across a dark table, faces out of frame

The four steps

Intake, strategy, drafting, signing.

A typical estate plan takes four to six weeks from the first call to the signing table. A formation takes one to two weeks. A contract review takes two business days. The steps are the same, the clock is different.

  1. 01 30 minutes, week 1

    Intake

    You call or send the form. Jonah books a 30 minute consult within two business days, by phone, video or in Suite 200. An attorney listens, asks the five or six questions that matter, and tells you three things: whether you need a lawyer at all, which of us it should be, and the flat fee. The engagement letter with that fee arrives the same afternoon. Nothing is billed for this step.

    • Time: 30 minutes plus a short email
    • Cost: none
    • You get: a written fee and a plan

  2. 02 60 to 90 minutes, week 2

    Strategy

    One working meeting. For an estate plan it is the family decisions: who inherits, in what shares, who manages money for a child, who speaks to the doctors. For a formation it is the decision table with your CPA on speaker. For a contract it is the hour where you tell us how the work actually goes wrong. We send a short decision memo afterward so nothing lives only in memory.

    • Time: one meeting, one memo to read
    • Cost: first half of the flat fee is due here
    • You get: every decision written down

  3. 03 7 to 14 days, weeks 3 and 4

    Drafting

    We write. You receive the full draft with a one page cover memo in plain English, then a 30 minute review call to walk it and change anything. Two rounds of edits are inside the fee, and in fourteen years we have not needed a third. Drafts go out through a secure portal, not email attachments, and you can mark them up on your phone.

    • Time: a draft to read, one call, your edits
    • Cost: inside the flat fee
    • You get: a document you understand

  4. 04 45 minutes, week 5 or 6

    Signing

    One appointment at the long table in Suite 200 with a notary and two witnesses we supply. You leave with a bound original, a digital copy in the portal, and the deed and account letters already in motion. For a formation, signing is the day the Articles come back from Sacramento and the bank account can open. The second half of the fee is due at this table, never before.

    • Time: 45 minutes
    • Cost: second half of the flat fee
    • You get: the finished, funded plan

After signing

The plan is done. The relationship is not.

Every estate plan client gets a check-in email from Jonah every two years asking four questions: moved, married or divorced, new child or grandchild, bought or sold property. If any answer is yes, the attorney calls. Amendments to a plan we wrote are $350 to $750. If nothing has changed, the email is the whole conversation.

Business clients get a compliance reminder before the Statement of Information and the franchise tax are due. Trust administration and probate clients get a closing letter with every recorded document and a copy of the final accounting, because the question you will have in five years is where that paper went.

Ready to start step one? Book the consult. Want to see the numbers first? The fee sheet is posted.

Questions we hear most

Asked at nearly every consult.

Short answers here. Long answers at the consult, where they can be about you.

Do I really need a trust if I have a will?

If you own a home in California or have more than $184,500 outside retirement accounts, yes. A will does not avoid probate. It is the instruction manual for probate. A revocable living trust holds the assets so the court never gets involved, which saves your family nine to eighteen months and a statutory fee that runs $28,000 on a $1.5 million estate.

How long does an estate plan take?

Four to six weeks from the first call to signing, if you return the questionnaire within a week. We have done it in ten days before a surgery or a long trip. Tell us the deadline at intake and we build the calendar around it.

What does the flat fee not include?

Government fees, which we pass through at cost: county recording fees for deeds, Secretary of State filing fees, the $800 franchise tax. Litigation of any kind, which is hourly with a written estimate. And a third round of edits, which has never come up. Everything else, including the review call, the signing appointment, the notary and the witnesses, is inside the number.

Can we meet by video?

Yes. Intake, strategy and the draft review all work by video, and plenty of clients do the whole first month from their kitchen table. Signing itself needs wet ink, a notary and two witnesses in the same room for the will, so that one is in person. We can send a mobile notary to you for an added $150.

Do you offer payment plans?

Three or four monthly payments on any flat fee over $3,000, with no interest. Jonah can approve it when he sends the engagement letter, so ask him directly. For trust administration and probate, the fee is paid from the trust or estate, not from your pocket.

What should I bring to the first consult?

Bring the short version. An estate plan needs a rough list of what you own and who you are picturing. A business needs your CPA's number. A contract needs the contract. Gaps are normal, because the consult is where we work out what is missing.

Will I work with the attorney I meet at the consult?

Yes, and it stays that way. We are a two attorney firm on purpose, so the lawyer on your intake call is the lawyer on your draft and at your signing. Priya and Jonah run the calendar and the paperwork around that, and you will have spoken to both of them before the matter closes.