the Price of Estate Planning Services

The price was for setting up a conditional trust fund for our newborn grandson's education. The price included several long meetings with the financial planner, all laywer's fees, and the cost of getting all the paper work sorted.

The financial planner also offered a variety of services from investment planning for business or individual's retirements, through estate planning and assistance with bankruptcy proceedings.

Ever since we set them up for our kids and had them work out quite well, we figured it would be a good idea to . It went over well as a gift as it saved the new parents (our daughter and son-in-law) the cost of. We did, of course, put conditions on the money. The child can't touch the money until he either goes to college or has a business plan approved by the trust's guarantor. A separate portion of the trust provides for his health care above and beyond anything insurance covers.

Although it took a few hours to get straight with the financial planner what we wanted and sort out what we could legally do (this took the longest: making sure everything we wanted was legal)

A financial planner is like your accountant. Depending on your needs, you may see him only once or twice a year during tax season, or you may have to have monthly or even weekly meetings (at least at first) to make sure everything is going as planned. It all depends on the complexity of what you need done.

Some of these guys take commissions on how much money you put away in a specific investment. This doesn't mean the investments they suggest are unsound, but rather that you shouldn't let a financial planner make your decisions for you. They're there to help you plan, not plan this stuff for you.