A Simple, Plain-English Client Flyer
for Estate Administration
Estate planning attorney, E. Lawrence Brock, has put together a very straightforward, easy-to-use flyer for clients that walk through what he calls, “The 9 Phases of an Estate Administration”.
This chart will be a useful tool to help you properly navigate your clients through the estate administration process, helping explain the various stages and manage client expectations.
How Mr. Brock Came Up with This Chart
At 5:30pm on April 13th, 2005, I received a call from my daughter-in-law who informed me that my son, Ryan, had been shot. She told me what hospital he was in and I immediately left the house to meet her at the hospital. It was about an hour away from my home, but when I finally arrived at the emergency room, I checked in and they informed me that someone would be out to talk to me momentarily. Someone came out to speak with me, but to my surprise, it wasn’t the doctor. It was a chaplain. He informed me that Ryan had passed away. My daughter-in-law was 5 months pregnant and I assisted in taking care of his estate following his passing. His total assets included a bank account of about $10,000 and a note receivable of about $20,000.
Shortly after that, I was asked to assist in the administration of another small estate that had just a few assets and debts that had to be paid.
After both of those estates were settled, the long-time owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner, passed away leaving an estate of over $1.4 billion!
It was at that moment that I realized that the Steinbrenner’s estate would go through the exact same nine phases to settle it that I just went through with my own son’s estate and the small estate I had just settled. It was then that I created this chart to make it easier to explain why Administration was necessary, the process to clients and show them the work that was involved in properly assisting them in the settlement of their estate.
They understood the value of my services as an attorney that I would be removing much of the heavy load off their shoulders. I found it much easier at that point to retain trust administration clients and charge a reasonable fee to help them. Generally, I was able to charge based on a modified flat fee for example: the greater of 1% of the gross value of the estate or $5,000.00.
You can immediately download Mr. Brock’s “9 Phases of an Estate Administration” Flyer as a PDF for just $29 or, if you would like the ability to customize, brand and modify the flyer and make it your own, you can download the PowerPoint files that were used to design this flyer for a one-time licensing fee of just $49.