Our Process
Our process is built on three elements:
- A no-obligation no-fee initial consult. For an hour or so, we meet with prospective clients to learn about their family or business, to answer their questions (and ask some of our own when they are done) and most importantly to assess their goals and aspirations for their planning (whether for a family or a business).
- During that consult, we seek to know you and your family. We start with no pre-conceived notions of what plan is best for you or what we will do. Our first goal is to listen well…that’s what we’re here for–to learn your desires for your family or your business.
- Most of our work is set fee, not hourly fees. Sometimes, we cannot avoid hourly fees because of the nature of the engagement (for example, contract drafting when another party is contracting with our client, probate fees). But 80+% of the time, we can quote you a flat fee and hold to it. In a set fee engagement, if it takes more time to complete the work, that risk is to us, not to you. We stand by our original fee quote. We encourage you to read about our commitment to excellence.
Estate Planning
Includes trusts of all types, corporations, family limited partnerships, and family limited liability companies.
Business Planning
Includes exit planning for small to mid-sized business worth $300,000 – $100,000,000, (including small, closely-held family businesses). We use a time-tested planning process to build professional teams to devise and implement exit plans for our clients’ businesses, whether the business is being sold to family members, partners, key employees, or an outside third party. We team with the top experts in business valuation and accounting to maximize the net profit on the sale of clients’ businesses under all scenarios.
Tax Planning
Includes strategies by which small, closely-held businesses can legitimately and legally decrease their tax burden.
Corporate Planning and Counsel
Includes all types of agreements implementing clients’ business objectives. When asked to form new entities, we evaluate the appropriate business entity for every client’s specific business, including where the business should be formed (whether in Colorado or in another state) in order to maximize clients’ asset protection.
Charitable Planning
Includes counseling clients on how to maximize gifts to meet clients’ legacy planning goals. Some of the tools we commonly use include: charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, and public or private foundations.
Ongoing Client Services
- Prevent Estate Planning Problems (PEPP) Plan
Some clients desire to meet with us every year to discuss estate planning and legal updates, and to review their estate plan every year to insure that it remains in keeping with the client’s present goals and objectives. One client couple travels from Washington State to participate in PEPP. We charge a set fee that is significantly below our hourly rate, dependent upon client needs. For example, if this fee was $1000 a year, the work to prepare for the client meeting and then conduct the client meeting will be approximately five hours. That means that the client got John Buckley for significantly less than his hourly fee during that time. For some clients, they desire this personalized attention.
- Business Protection (BP) Plan
Some business clients desire to meet with us every year to discuss their legal business needs, including conducting annual meetings and discussing legal needs for the upcoming year. This too is set fee, and the client will (again) pay significantly less than they would if John Buckley was billing hourly.
Articles
“Portability” of the Federal Estate Tax Exemption – What does it Mean?
With the political and economic climate as it is in the summer of 2008, we are not likely to see total repeal of the federal estate tax in the foreseeable future. However, both Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates support estate tax reform. Realistically,...
