What is “Family Wealth Planning?”

Hi, this is Marc Herbert, founder of Herbert Law Office with the Question of the Week, which is what is family wealth planning? Family planning is a process we’ve developed over the 26 years I’ve served as an attorney in the Antelope Valley. It’s something that you’ll hear me talk about a lot in my webinars and face to face when you come in for a consultation.

So when I became an attorney, I noticed that most attorneys tended to control the process and to steer their clients toward estate planning, which really focuses on the transfer of assets after somebody passes away. When I started my own office 20 years ago, we developed a process where we take care of transferring those assets. But we also have a component where you get to grow and enjoy those assets before they’re transferred when you pass.

And that’s really the core of family wealth planning. It’s a situation where we talk about your options. We allow you to look at the pros and the cons of each option as we’re building your family wealth plan together. So we talk about your current situation. We talk about different options to improve your situation, really focusing on avoiding probate court and unnecessary taxes.

And then you decide what you want to do. You make the choices that work best for your family structure and your assets structure, and that’s what we build together. So the family wealth plan is very customized. All your questions get answered as we go, and you end up with a simplified set of documents that have been fully explained to you before you ever sign it.

Then we have a maintenance program of your choice to make sure that things remain updated as life goes on every 3 to 5 years. You know something’s going to happen in terms of changes in your family, your assets or the tax laws. We want to make sure that the documents work for you and protect your family down the road.