Living Trust Arizona

Personal estate planning

Our goal is for you to feel confident with your decisions and comfortable with both the planning process and the resulting documents. We are dedicated to taking the time needed to ensure a high level of satisfaction from our clients.

Every year we review both internally and from client feedback how to make the estate planning process easier for our clients. If at any point you have a question or recommendation, we encourage your input. Because of the feedback we have sought, received and implemented, we believe we offer great value to Arizona residents.

What is needed by Four Peaks Planning, Inc. to create your estate plan:

• First, middle and last names of those appointed in various roles (power of attorneys, beneficiaries, guardians, etc)
• If a home is being transferred into the trust, the month and year the home was purchased is needed to find the deed on the Maricopa County Recorder website. If you are outside Maricopa County, a copy of your deed's legal description may be required.

What is not needed by Four Peaks Planning, Inc. to create your estate plan:

• Birthdates
• Social security numbers
• A list of bank accounts and investments

A complete list of your assets and liabilities will need to be prepared - but not for us. Its purpose is helping both a surviving spouse (if applicable) and your successor trustees / financial power of attorneys manage your estate when you are no longer able.

Our philosophy is to treat you like family, which means taking time early to establish a relationship and explain things properly and, later, remain in contact over time to ensure your plan remains in-synch with your goals as your life changes.

Another reason to stay in touch: ensuring new assets acquired after signing your documents are properly added to your trust. It does not require a change in documents nor is there any cost from Four Peaks Planning, Inc. However, some assets require their title to reflect the trust's name in order to be placed in the trust. Our ongoing support will help avoid anything being inadvertently left outside your trust.

Lastly, we keep our plans affordable for most families in Arizona. To honor military veterans, firefighters, police and teachers we offer additional savings on estate plans. Our hope is you find value in our service, products and price worth sharing with your friends and family.

Our planning process

Most estate plans can be created over two face-to-face appointments and one phone verification.

1. The first meeting is complimentary and can be held in our Ahwatukee office, your insurance or financial advisor's office or at your home - whichever is most convenient for you.

2. In the first meeting, we start by answering your initial questions. Afterwards, we review a sample living trust, last will and testament, financial power of attorney (PoA), medical PoA, mental health PoA, living will, the trust funding instructions and a sample deed to transfer the home into the trust.

   Why take the time to review a sample estate plan with our clients?

   First, we want you to see how the trust and other parts of the estate plan work before asking you to begin nominating people to different roles in your plan. Second, by reviewing a sample estate plan, when it comes time to sign your documents, you will have a general idea what to expect and will likely have a higher level of understanding and recall months and years after signing the documents.

3. If you choose to proceed after reviewing the sample documents, all we collect are the names for the various roles in your plan.

4. When the trust is completed, we meet a second time to review, sign and notarize the documents. After this step begins the "funding" of the trust, which means transferring your assets into the trust. We help transfer some assets but other assets require steps that can only be done by you. We provide ongoing checks to see assets are properly placed in the trust and that changes in your life haven't affected your estate plan's effectiveness.

Begin planning now

Download in our free Arizona Estate Planning Kit.

The kit provides a general overview of the benefits of estate planning, a checklist of estate planning goals and a worksheet to help you begin identifying people who may be named in different roles of your estate plan.

To schedule a complimentary consultation or to ask a question, call (480) 229-6220.