Lifetime Protection Plan®

Farr Law Firm’s Lifetime Protection Plan® – Regular Maintenance For Your Legal Needs

Just as you need regular health maintenance by having annual physicals and regular dental visits, so too does your estate plan need regular care and maintenance. Your estate planning documents may need to be updated from time to time for any number of reasons, such as changes to the law and significant events in your life that alter the way that you want to distribute assets or change the persons you want to be in charge of making decisions if you’re not able to. The only way to ensure that your estate plan reflects your current wishes, who you trust, what you care about, and what you have, is to have your documents reviewed and updated as needed.

If you are already a member, click here to log in to your Lifetime Protection Plan® portal to modify billing preferences, email address, payment method, subscription options, etc.

Please note that if you are an existing client, the Lifetime Protection Plan® is provided to you at no cost for the first year after you retain us.

Around one year after you retain us, and every year thereafter for so long as you maintain your LPP Membership, we will:

• Send you an email reminder (we can only send this to one email address, so be sure to give us the email address you check most often) to review your Estate Planning Particulars (located at the front of your Estate Planning binder) and to review your beneficiary designations. Your review should give primary attention to the people or entities you have named to handle your affairs, and the people or entities you have chosen to receive your assets. You should pay particular attention if there has been a change in your family structure (e.g., a marriage, divorce, birth, adoption, or death), a substantial change in your financial circumstances, or a change in your health.
• Along with the email reminder, we will send you an Annual LPP Checklist to help you determine whether substantive changes should be made to any of your estate planning documents. You must return this Checklist to us once completed if you believe any changes may be needed.

When and Why Are Updates to Your Estate Plan Needed?

Sometimes it is due to changes in the law. Have there been any changes in your family structure, financial circumstances, or health? The list below pinpoints certain examples of events that could have a significant impact on your estate.

• You get married or divorced
• Your spouse dies or becomes incapacitated
• You become ill or disabled
• You have a new child
• Your child marries or divorces
• Your child becomes ill or disabled
• You have a new grandchild
• One of your beneficiaries shows signs of being financially irresponsible
• One of your beneficiaries develops a drug or alcohol problem
• The value of your assets has significantly increased or decreased
• You retire or change employment
• You acquire property in a different state
• You move to a different state
• There have been changes in the law that may affect the language of your documents.

Your Obligations Under the Farr Law Firm’s Lifetime Protection Plan®

Your main obligations under the Farr Law Firm’s Lifetime Protection Plan® are:

(1) to stay subscribed to and read our newsletters, because that is how we announce that there have been changes to the law that may require you to update your documents; and

(2) pay the LPP renewal fee (we have convenient plans to pay monthly, quarterly, or annually).

Even if no changes to your documents are necessary, we recommend you regularly (every year or two) sign updated Powers of Attorney. Some financial institutions won’t accept a Power of Attorney more than a year old. Similarly, the older an Advance Medical Directive is, the less likely it is that it will be honored by a doctor or hospital.

Don’t let too much time pass between reviews of your plan. The cost of our Lifetime Protection Plan® is minimal, but the cost to your family if you neglect your plan could be disastrous. If any of these changes have happened to you or if you haven’t updated your estate plan in the last few years, the time is now.

Where to begin

You should begin the review process by locating the originals (or copies) of your estate planning documents. (If changes are necessary, please do not make notations on any original document, although it is fine to mark up a copy.)

• Review the Estate Planning Summary (a one-page list, located at the front of the binder). Verify that the people you originally named to handle your affairs upon your death or disability are still the people you want to take on these important tasks.
• Review the Article in your Trust (and/or your Will) which lists your Beneficiaries. Are these still the people who should receive your assets upon your death?

Benefits of the Farr Law Firm’s Lifetime Protection Plan®

The Farr Law Firm’s Lifetime Protection Plan® ensures that your documents are properly reviewed and updated as needed, so that they will have maximum effect at law.

Your plan may need to be updated for any of the reasons listed above. Some changes (such as changing one fiduciary for another) can be made without a consultation. Other changes may require an additional consultation, but as a member of our Lifetime Protection Plan®, the consultation with an attorney or paralegal will be at no additional charge.

In addition to ensuring that your Powers of Attorney are recent (and therefore more likely to be accepted), there are other benefits to Lifetime Protection Plan® membership, including:

• Free Document Updates

  • Lifetime Protection Plan Members will get updated documents at no charge if your completed LPP Checklist indicates that you wish to make changes or if we believe that changes are needed because of changes in the law. If we have questions or concerns after reviewing your Checklist, an estate planning paralegal or attorney will contact you to discuss these changes. If in our opinion the changes you request require a consultation, this consultation will be scheduled with one of our estate planning paralegals or attorneys at no additional charge.

• Upgrade Discount

  • If you have remained a Lifetime Protection Plan member, and you decide to upgrade your Level of Planning (for example from Level 2 to Level 3, or from Level 3 to Level 4) we will apply your initial retainer fee (and in our discretion, any annual retainer fees if you haven’t used any the benefits of the annual retainer plan) towards our then-current fee for the higher Level of Planning.

• Additional Services Discount

  • Lifetime Protection Plan Members enjoy a 20% discount on any additional legal services our firm provides.

• Family Discount

  • We are family-friendly — we give family members of LPP clients a 10% discount for any legal services we provide.

• Access to Attorneys and Staff

  • The members of our team will be available to answer your questions about your existing estate plan or funding instruments, whether by video conference, phone, email, or in person, as part of the LPP. Up to 1 hour of consultation time per year is included for Level 1 Clients; up to 2 hours of consultation time per year is included for Level 2 Clients; up to 3 hours of consultation time per year is included for Level 3 Clients; up to 4 hours of consultation time per year is included for Level 4 Clients.

• Free Financial Plan

  • If you don’t already have a trusted investment advisor or want a second opinion, we can get most of our clients a free financial plan through the Registered Investment Advisory firm that Evan Farr is affiliated with, Protection Point Advisors. Please click here to get started with your free financial plan if you’re interested.

• Free Tax Consultation

  • If you don’t already have a trusted CPA, we have a CPA affiliated with our firm who can offer you an initial consultation to discuss doing the specialized tax returns for your irrevocable trust (if you have one) and other tax returns that often are difficult for individuals to do on their own.

• Free Medicare Advice, Plan Sign Up, and Plan Monitoring

  • Through Evan Farr’s affiliation with Retirement and Medicare Together, we can assist you at no charge with signing up for Medicare when you are about to turn 65 or changing plans if you have recently moved, retired, lost coverage, or entered a nursing home, which makes you likely eligible for a new Medicare Supplement Plan or a new Medicare Advantage plan based on a “qualifying life event” that creates a Special Enrollment Period. If you use Retirement and Medicare Together to obtain a Medicare Supplement Plan or a new Medicare Advantage plan, Retirement and Medicare Together will monitor your Medicare Supplement plan and prescription drug plan every year to make sure you get the best coverage possible.

• Family – Advisor Meeting

  • If you already have a trusted investment advisor and/or trusted CPA, then at your request, you can schedule a free meeting with an attorney of the Farr Law Firm, family members you wish to invite, and your financial and tax advisors, in order to help ensure that your plan is fully implemented and so that we can answer any questions that your financial and/or tax advisor and/or family members may have, and explain how your plan works.

• Coordination with Advisors

  • Our attorneys and staff will be available to consult with your financial advisors, accountants, insurance professional, and geriatric care managers. They will also provide copies of your documents should you so request.

• Free DocuBank Renewal

  • If you agree to allow us to include your Advance Medical Directive in the DocuBank electronic registry, then we will continue to pay your annual enrollment fee. This ensures that doctors and hospitals will be able to immediately download your most recent Advance Medical Directive (and its important medical information) in an emergency.

• Free Electronic Document Storage and Distribution

  • Your signed Will, Trust, Powers of Attorney, and other Estate Planning documents have been scanned into our electronic database (backed up daily by two redundant methods) and will be stored there for your future access as necessary. At your request, we can upload these documents to our password-protected Dropbox, so that you can retrieve copies and store them for yourself. With your permission, we can also provide access to electronic copies to anyone who might need such access.

• Free Contract Review

  • Whether you’re buying a new house, fixing up your house, about to sell your house and sign a listing agreement, signing a new lease, or some other contract for your family or small business, we will review it for free. Just call the office to make arrangements for the review.

• Free 15-Minute Phone Consultation on Any Legal Matter

  • Any time you feel the need to speak to an attorney, just give us a call and we’ll help you figure out if it’s something you need a lawyer for. If it is, and we can handle it, we’ll give you a quote for what it would cost. If we can’t handle it, we will refer you to an attorney who can.

• Free Notary Service

  • Need something notarized or witnessed? Just drop by our Fairfax Office any time from 8:30 to 5:30 — there’s always a Notary or two in the office. If you’re in the Fredericksburg area, please call first to make sure someone will be at the office when you come. If it’s a document that you want to have us review first, please call the office first to make arrangements for the review.

• Free Seminars and Newsletters

  • Receive our free newsletters and attend our free webinars to remind you to maintain your estate plan and help educate your family members and other loved ones about it.

• Peace of Mind

  • Continued enrollment ensures that your planning is up to date, and you aren’t leaving unfinished business for your loved ones.

• Priority Service

  • As you know, our law firm stays extremely busy, servicing an average of 400-500 new clients per year, and it is often difficult to get an appointment as quickly as you’d like given the high demand for our services; as part of your continued LPP Membership, you will always get priority service and receive our highest level of attention.

• Confidence

  • You’ll know that you have your own personal family lawyer “on retainer,” just like the rich and famous and large corporations.

We hope you decide to enroll or re-enroll in our Lifetime Protection Plan®. For more information about details, including pricing, please call Jeannie Farr at 703-691-1888 or contact us via our contact page.