Estate planning is one of the most important things you can do for your family. It can also feel overwhelming, which is why we stopped leaving it to chance and built a route through it. We call it the Monteforte Law Path to a Plan, and it has four steps.
Behind those four steps is how we actually work: you plan it, you establish it, and you protect it. Plan, Establish, Protect — PEP. Most firms stop after the documents and skip the last two. You can read more about what makes us different, but the short version is that the signing is the middle of the job, not the end of it.
Step 1: Book Your Session
Everything starts with your Strategic Planning Session. There are two ways to get there, and neither is better than the other — pick the one that suits how you like to make decisions.
Some people start with a free planning consult: a short conversation with a trained member of our team to clarify your goals, explain how planning works, walk through the planning levels, and work out whether we are a fit. Others prefer to learn first and attend a webinar, where we cover wills versus trusts, how probate actually works in Massachusetts, and the mistakes that cost families the most. Either route ends in the same place.
Before your Session, we spend over an hour preparing your Family Protection Report from the information you give us, and we hand it to you at the Session. It is a document about your family, not a brochure, and it is yours to keep whether or not you hire us. It shows you:
- Whether your family would land in probate
- Whether your home is exposed to nursing home costs
- Every gap in how your assets are titled
- What your family would owe in Massachusetts estate tax, calculated with a plan and without one
- A specific recommended plan at a flat price, and what to address first
Step 2: Plan It
At your Session we map what you own and what you are exposed to, then set the strategy — before a single document is drafted. That includes the long-term care, MassHealth and tax planning most firms skip entirely, because those are the things that decide whether a plan holds up.
This is where the Monteforte Law Wealth Preservation System, designed by Attorney Michael Monteforte Jr., does its work: matching the right plan to your situation rather than reaching for a template.
Step 3: Establish It
This is the step almost everybody else leaves out, and it is the reason most estate plans quietly fail.
We draft and sign the documents — and then we retitle the assets, fund the trust, and prepare and record the deeds. We review your beneficiary designations and coordinate your retirement accounts, because a beneficiary form overrides a will or a trust every time.
An unfunded trust is like building a house and never turning the water on. It looks finished from the curb, but your family cannot actually live in it. A plan that is never established is just paper, so we do not consider your plan delivered when the signing is over.
Step 4: Protect It
Laws change. Families change. What you own changes. That is why Advanced Plan clients get 3-Year Check-Ups for life: every three years we sit down with you, review the documents, and make sure the plan still fits the life you are actually living.
It is why we call ourselves your Estate Planner For Life®. Watch for a reminder when your check-up is due, or get in touch sooner if something in your life has changed.
Our Guarantee
In our experience, it is unusual for a law firm to guarantee anything. Here is ours: complete your intake, and you leave your Strategic Planning Session with your Family Protection Report and clear next steps for your family — yours to keep, whether or not you work with us. If we do not deliver that, we refund every dollar of your session fee.
We can promise it because we are guaranteeing the work, not the outcome. No honest lawyer can promise you a result in court or a number on a tax return. We can promise that you will walk out with a written analysis of your own situation and a clear recommendation, because that is entirely within our control.
Ready to Take the First Step?
Start wherever you are most comfortable: register for a webinar if you want to learn first, or book a free planning consult if you would rather just talk it through. Or call us at (978) 389-3777.
