Those who waited may find it hard to hire lawyers because trust creation is time-intensive, involving counseling on their goals and finances, and not just generating documents.
Edward Koren, a partner at Holland & Knight LLP in Tampa, Florida, said in a telephone interview that three people who he didn’t know called him last week.
“I turned them all down,” he said. “I have to tolerate a failure to act by ongoing clients but not someone who calls out of the blue.”
Robert Lawrence of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, said, “We’re looking for relationships. This isn’t a one-off thing. A private client is unique because the lawyer becomes a counselor to the family.”
Alphabet Soup
The work isn’t easy, involving choices from an “alphabet soup of trust techniques,” said David T. Leibell, a Wiggin and Dana LLP partner in Greenwich, Connecticut, who writes a monthly column for Trusts and Estates Magazine.
A client needs to identify a trustee, perhaps a family member or a trusted banker or lawyer, said Kalb of Greenberg Traurig. Decisions are needed on whether the trust will make distributions and at what stages. He said that in a time crunch such as this, the process could be completed in two weeks. It normally takes much longer.
“Many clients coming to us today, we’re advising them that unless it’s a simple plan we cannot implement it by year end,” Kalb said last week.
Even for the very affluent, wealth is often in the form of businesses, homes and artwork, the attorneys said. That means appraisals.
Calls from potential clients have skyrocketed, said Curtis Kimball, national director of wealth management valuations with the appraisal firm Willamette Management Associates in Atlanta.