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No, and we would rather say so here than after you have driven over. The first call, where the office works out whether we are the right firm for what you are carrying, costs nothing. The consultation itself is a scheduled meeting with an attorney, billed at that attorney's hourly rate with a one hour minimum, and the office tells you the figure when it books the time. If you engage us on a fixed fee within thirty days of that meeting, we credit the consultation fee once against the fixed fee, for the scope described in our written proposal.

Most messages get a reply the same business day. All of them get one within two. The office is open Monday through Thursday, 9am to 5pm Mountain Standard Time, so anything that arrives on Friday or over the weekend is answered on Monday. The clock at the top of this page shows whether anyone is there right now.

Not yet, and we would rather be plain than reassuring. No attorney-client relationship exists until we have run a conflicts check, sent you an engagement letter, and you have signed it and any required fee has cleared. Until that happens what you send is not privileged. Send us enough to understand the situation and hold back account numbers, Social Security numbers and anything you would not want read by a firm that is not yet your firm. If the detail is sensitive, write one line saying so and we will call you. We never sell, rent or trade what you send us.

Mountain Standard Time, and Arizona does not observe daylight saving, so we never move. From March to November we keep the same hour as Los Angeles; the rest of the year we keep the same hour as Denver. If you are calling from the east coast, we are three hours behind you in summer and two in winter. The dial at the top of this page reads our clock, live.

No. We meet at the office by appointment, at your home, or by secure video, and the choice is yours. In-home appointments run across the Valley, including Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Cave Creek, Carefree and Fountain Hills, and across Northern Arizona, including Prescott, Prescott Valley, Clarkdale, Jerome and Sedona. Signing usually needs a notary and witnesses, and we arrange that around wherever you are. Tell us which you would prefer and we will set it up.

Often, yes. Many of the people we act for winter here, own Arizona property, or have moved and need a plan that follows them rather than one that stayed behind. Our attorneys are admitted in Arizona and before the United States Tax Court, and one of our partners is also admitted in Colorado and Missouri. Tell us where you live and where the assets sit, and we will tell you honestly whether you need us, local counsel where you are, or both working together.

Yes, and it usually saves everybody a step. Most of the people we serve already have a planner, a CPA, an investment advisor, an insurance agent and sometimes a family office manager, and we work alongside them deliberately so the estate plan and the financial structure end up as one plan rather than two that have never met. If you are the adviser, call the office and the attorney on the matter will speak with you directly.

A rough balance sheet: what you own, roughly what each piece is worth, and how it is titled. Any will, trust or beneficiary designation already in place, even an old one, and especially an old one. The names of anyone you would want as trustee, executor or agent. If you own a business, its operating agreement or bylaws and any buy-sell arrangement. None of it has to be tidy. Once the consultation is booked we send a planning questionnaire by private invitation, which walks you through all of it in order.

Both, and the work either side of them. We do estate planning, trust planning and modification, trust administration when a trust becomes operative, estate and probate administration after a death, business and corporate counsel, business succession, and tax controversy when the IRS is already involved. If what you need falls outside those, we will tell you in the first conversation rather than the third. You can see the whole list on our services page.

Call the office instead and ask for your attorney's assistant. Your matter is already open, they can see it, and you will get an answer faster. Use this form only if you are starting something new. To pay an invoice, use the Make a Payment page.

The intake desk first, then an attorney. We are a small firm on purpose, so the partner who takes your consultation is the partner who works on the matter. You can read about them on the attorneys page, and about the credentials we do not lead with on quiet credentials.