Two to four weeks, seven steps, one finished plan.

What to Expect When You Work with Simon Law Group

One of the most common reasons people delay estate planning is uncertainty about the process itself. They are not sure what is involved, how long it takes, or how much of their time it will require. So they wait, and the plan that would protect their family stays unwritten. At Simon Law Group, we have designed a process that removes that uncertainty: seven defined steps, a predictable timeline, and a flat fee quoted in writing before any work begins. Most estate plans are completed within two to four weeks from the initial consultation, depending on complexity. The pace is set largely by how quickly you return the questionnaire, not by how long we take to draft.

Below is a detailed overview of each step. Every step is designed to respect your time while ensuring that no detail is overlooked, because in estate planning the cost of a missed detail is not paid by you — it is paid by the people who survive you, at the worst possible moment. Our goal is a plan that is legally sound under New Jersey law, properly executed, and — where a trust is involved — fully funded before we consider our work complete. The right structure for any given family depends on the size and makeup of the estate, and we explain those choices in plain terms at the consultation rather than defaulting everyone to the same template.

Step 1: Initial Consultation (Day 1)

Every engagement begins with a consultation request, either by phone, video conference, or in person at one of our New Jersey offices. During this meeting, we will:

• Discuss your family structure, including children, grandchildren, and any dependents with special needs
• Review your assets at a high level, including real estate, retirement accounts, life insurance, and business interests
• Understand your goals, such as protecting your spouse, providing for children, minimizing taxes, or charitable giving
• Explain the documents you will need and how they work together
• Provide a clear, flat-fee quote based on the scope of work required — see our packages and pricing

The consultation typically lasts 30 to 45 minutes. There is no obligation to proceed, and you will leave with a clear understanding of what an estate plan would look like for your situation — including an honest read on whether a will-based plan is sufficient or whether a trust would serve you better. No preparation is needed — just bring your questions.

Will-Based or Trust-Based? Why the Structure Comes First

Before the steps below make sense, it helps to know what is being built. For many New Jersey adults, a will-based plan — a last will and testament, a durable financial power of attorney, and an advance healthcare directive — is a complete and appropriate plan. It names guardians for minor children, appoints an executor, directs who receives what, and authorizes someone to act for you in life and after death.

For other families, a revocable living trust is the better foundation, and the reason is practical rather than promotional. A trust is often the more suitable structure where the net estate is larger (frequently considered above roughly $250,000), where there is real estate — particularly property in more than one state — where the family is blended or a second marriage is involved, or where a beneficiary is a minor or has special needs and a direct inheritance would do more harm than good. A properly funded trust can keep the covered assets out of the public probate process, provide for management of those assets if you become incapacitated, and let you set the terms and timing of distributions rather than handing assets over outright. A will, by contrast, takes effect only at death and only after probate, and it cannot manage assets during a period of incapacity.

Neither structure is universally "better." The right one depends on the size and makeup of your estate and what you want to happen if you are alive but unable to act. We make that recommendation at the consultation, in plain terms, and the steps that follow are the same disciplined sequence either way.

Step 2: Information Gathering (Days 2-7)

After the consultation, if you decide to move forward, we will send you a comprehensive questionnaire. This document collects the specific information we need to draft your estate plan, including:

• Full legal names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers for you and your spouse
• Names and ages of all children and other beneficiaries
• Your choices for executor, trustee, guardian, power of attorney agent, and healthcare proxy
• A summary of your assets, debts, and account types
• Any specific wishes for asset distribution, charitable gifts, or special provisions
• Current beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance policies

We provide the questionnaire in digital format so you can complete it at your convenience. Most clients return it within a few days to a week. Having recent financial statements, insurance policy declarations, and deed information handy will make the process faster.

Step 3: Document Drafting (Days 8-14)

Once we receive your completed questionnaire, our attorneys draft your estate planning documents. Depending on the package, this may include a last will and testament, a revocable living trust, a durable financial power of attorney, an advance healthcare directive, and any additional documents such as a special needs trust or irrevocable trust.

Drafting typically takes five to seven business days. We then send you the draft documents for review. You can review them at your own pace and share them with your financial advisor or accountant if you wish. We encourage questions and will schedule a follow-up call or meeting to walk through any provisions you want to discuss.

Step 4: Revisions and Finalization (Days 15-21)

After you have reviewed the drafts, we incorporate reasonable changes within the agreed scope. This is the stage where the plan stops being a template and becomes yours: a clause about who serves as guardian if your first choice cannot, a distribution that holds a child's share in trust until a chosen age rather than handing it over at eighteen, a specific gift to a sibling or a charity. Most clients need one round of revisions; estate-planning packages include up to three reasonable drafting-revision rounds before finalization. A material scope change — for example, adding trust planning to a will-only engagement — is quoted before additional work proceeds, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

Step 5: Document Signing (Days 22-28)

Once the documents are finalized, we schedule signing and execution at our office. Where appropriate, we can also coordinate remote execution support by video with a mobile notary dispatched to your location in New Jersey. During signing and execution:

• We review each document with you one final time before you sign
• Wills are executed with two witnesses and a notarized self-proving affidavit as required by N.J.S.A. 3B:3-2source and 3B:3-4source
• Powers of attorney are notarized in compliance with N.J.S.A. 46:2B-8.1source et seq.
• Advance directives are executed in accordance with the NJ Advance Directives for Health Care Act (N.J.S.A. 26:2H-53source et seq.)
• Trust documents are executed and ready for funding

The signing meeting typically takes 30 to 45 minutes. You will receive a complete set of original documents and we retain copies in our secure file system.

Step 6: Trust Funding (Begins Immediately After Signing)

If your plan includes a revocable living trust, the trust must be funded to do its job. Funding a trust means transferring ownership of your assets from your individual name to the name of your trust. This is arguably the most important step in the process, and the one most often overlooked by firms that treat estate planning as a document-assembly exercise. The reason matters: a trust controls only the assets that have actually been retitled into it. Assets left in your individual name are generally not governed by the trust and ordinarily pass through probate at death regardless of what the trust document says — which is precisely the outcome the trust was meant to avoid. Funding is what converts the document into the protection you paid for.

Simon Law Group provides detailed funding instructions and assists you with:

• Retitling real estate by preparing and recording a new deed
• Updating bank and brokerage account registrations
• Changing beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance policies
• Transferring ownership of vehicles, business interests, and other titled property

We follow up to confirm that funding is complete. We do not consider your estate plan finished until your assets are properly titled.

This is why we treat funding as part of the engagement rather than a homework assignment handed to you at signing. A trust that exists only on paper is a common and avoidable failure, and it is one we close out before we call the work done.

Step 7: Ongoing Review

Estate plans are not static documents. The plan you sign reflects your family and your assets as they are today; both change. A guardian you named may no longer be the right choice, an executor may move away or predecease you, a beneficiary designation may quietly drift out of step with your will, and a child born after signing needs to be added. New Jersey and federal estate-tax thresholds also shift over time, and a plan built around one set of numbers can need adjusting under another. For these reasons we recommend reviewing your plan at least once per year and whenever a significant life event occurs — the birth or adoption of a child, a marriage, a divorce, a death in the family, a major change in assets, or a change in tax law. Simon Law Group offers an annual review service so the plan keeps pace with the life it was written to protect.

Frequently asked questions

Related estate planning resources

• Estate Planning Overview
• Packages & Pricing
• Get Started — submit a consultation request
• Annual Review
• Estate Planning Glossary

Get started

The hardest part of estate planning is starting. Everything after the first call is a defined sequence with a known timeline and a flat fee quoted in writing — consultation, questionnaire, drafting, review, signing, and, where a trust is involved, funding. Call (800) 709-1131 or complete the questionnaire to schedule a consultation. Your request is confidential, and someone from the firm will follow up promptly.