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While you are building

You are healthy, you are working, and you own things now that you did not own ten years ago.

If you have been meaning to do this for a while, this is your stage, and you are in ordinary company.

Start with a conversation

This is the stage almost everybody arrives in and the one nobody is in a hurry about. There is a house, probably a retirement account, maybe a business or a rental, and children who are either young enough to need a guardian named or old enough to inherit badly. Nothing is wrong. That is exactly what makes it easy to put off.

The work here is a living trust and the documents around it, so that nothing your family owns has to go through a court. Alongside it sits the question of exposure: what a lawsuit, a creditor, or a bad year could reach, and how to put it out of reach before anything happens rather than after.

What lives here

  • Estate Planning
  • Asset Protection
  • Advanced Tax Planning

The first meeting is a conversation about your family.
We get to the paperwork later.

“For years I knew I needed to take care of this important matter, but I didn't know who to 'trust' until I met Shadi.”

Dian G., client

“About two years ago I contacted APEL to inquire about a Living Trust/Will... I was inquiring for my aging father who has a disabled son (my brother) whom he cares for... They made the whole process very easy, but I got sidetracked and delayed the process. About a year later I reached out to them again, and again they whole process was a dream. Of course, I dropped the ball again, and delayed the process of finishing. Finally, after my father's health started to suddenly decline, I realized the gravity of situation for my brother. I am happy to say that I contacted APEL again, and this time I finished the really rather easy process of finalizing the Living Trust/Will. APEL was professional, kind, informative, and compassionate. I can't stress enough how patient they were with me.”

Michael M., teacher, client

“So I quit putting it off and I got around to doing it.”

Tom Gates, client, on Trust Talk Radio

What lives here, in plain words

  • Estate Planning

    A set of documents that decides who handles your affairs and who receives what, so that your family is not left guessing and a court is not asked to decide it for them.

  • Living Trust

    The document most of this is built around. It holds your house and your accounts during your life, under your control, so that when you die they pass to the people you named without going through court.

  • Asset Protection

    (ASSET PROTECTION DESCRIPTION, SHADI TO SUPPLY THE LEGAL WORDING)

  • Advanced Tax Planning

    Structuring larger or more complicated estates, businesses, and holdings so that the tax bill at the end is the one you chose rather than the one you defaulted into.

  • Power of Attorney and Advance Health Care Directive

    The two documents that say who speaks for you about money and about medical care if you cannot speak for yourself. They matter while you are alive, which is the thing people least expect and the reason they are worth signing early.

“Don't walk around legally naked.”

Shadi's own line, and the whole argument for this stage in five words.

“the title is, you know, why you need an estate plan. Don't walk around legally naked. That's what I call it.”

Shadi Ala’i Shaffer, naming her own estate planning CD on Trust Talk Radio

“You don't have to hire me, but you do need to get this done. And by the way, attorneys make 10 times the money when a property goes through probate.”

Shadi Ala’i Shaffer, on Probate Weekly

“I don't come from a family of money. I'm self-made, first in my family to go to college, first to go to law school. I get it, nobody wants to write that check. It's not an easy check to write. However, I'm here to tell you that it is worth every penny.”

Shadi Ala’i Shaffer, 2021
The whole lineMost people find us at one point on a very long line.Next on the lineWhile you are caring