Asked at nearly every first meeting.

Because the number-one reason people avoid estate planning is fear of an unknowable bill, and we would rather remove the fear than profit from it. Publishing the schedule keeps us honest, saves everyone an awkward first conversation, and, candidly, brings us clients other firms lose in the lobby. It has been on the website since 2015 and no engagement has ever been billed above its quote.

Thirty minutes by telephone or in person. You describe your situation in ordinary words; we tell you which documents fit, what the flat fee would be, and whether you need a lawyer at all — some callers need an hour of guidance or a beneficiary form, not an engagement, and we say so. No pressure, no follow-up sequence, no 'do you have a moment to decide today.'

Virginia's intestacy statutes decide for you. Married with children from your current marriage only: everything to your spouse. Children from a prior relationship: your spouse takes one-third, your children two-thirds: a result that surprises nearly everyone it happens to. An administrator must qualify with a bond, no guardian nomination exists for minor children, and the Commissioner of Accounts process runs at full formality. The statute is a plan; it is simply nobody's plan.

If the trust is funded, yes, for everything the trust holds, and 'if' is the operative word. A trust only avoids probate for assets actually retitled into it, which is why our trust fee includes the deed, the retitling, and written confirmation of every designation. A beautiful unfunded trust is the most common expensive failure in this field. Ours are funded before we close the file.

A will or trust package typically runs three to five weeks from design meeting to signing, faster when there is a diagnosis or a departure date driving it, and we triage genuine urgency without a rush fee. Probate administration runs on the court's clock: usually twelve to eighteen months for a straightforward Virginia estate.

Routinely: Bon Air porches, Powhatan farm kitchens, hospital rooms when it cannot wait. Mobility should never be the reason a plan goes unsigned. Video meetings cover most design work for clients who prefer them; Virginia execution formalities we handle in person, wherever your table is.

Ours to arrange, yours to decide. For elder-law and family-land matters we usually encourage it; plans announced in life cause fewer wars than plans discovered at death. Your documents remain your decisions; children in the room are witnesses to your reasoning, not voters. We are experienced referees when the conversation needs one.

Virginia's distinctive probate auditor: an attorney appointed by each Circuit Court to review every executor's inventory and accountings. The Commissioner checks the math, questions the vague entries, and approves — or rejects — the filings. Executors who arrive with clean, reconciled accountings sail through; executors who arrive with a shoebox do not. We are in the clean-accounting business.

Attorney-client privilege applies from the first call, engaged or not. Files live in an encrypted document system, originals in a fire-rated safe at the office, and nothing about your affairs is discussed with children, siblings, or anyone else without your written direction: a line we hold even when family members press, which they do.