FOR FINANCIAL ADVISORS AND CPAs

Your client needs an estate plan. Don't risk the relationship on the wrong one.

You have spent years earning your client's trust. The estate plan either protects that relationship or quietly puts it at risk. We are experienced California estate planning attorneys, working directly with your client from the first call to the signing, on a flat fee, anywhere in California. We keep you in the loop the whole way, and we make you look good.

Refer a Client or Schedule a Call

64% of Americans have never discussed estate planning with their financial advisor.

Nationwide Financial 2021 Gallup data

20% Only about 1 in 5 heirs keep their parents' advisor after they inherit

Cerulli Associates, 2025

$124 trillion $124 trillion is expected to transfer between generations through 2048.

Cerulli Associates, 2024

Protect the relationship.

Without a funded, effective estate plan, the family faces the cost, delay, and hassle of probate. Will you be the hero who made sure the family had a plan that works, or the scapegoat when probate hits because it didn't?

Deepen the relationship.

Bringing up estate planning shows you're about more than assets under management. It shows them that you see who the money is really for, and that makes you the family's trusted advisor for the next generation, not just this one.

Keep the relationship.

Most children leave their parents' advisor after they inherit. A coordinated plan, where you and the attorney work together through the trust administration, can lock you in with the next generation.

Grow the relationship.

An estate plan that works becomes the reason the children call you. "You were my parents' advisor. You grew what they built, you made sure they had a plan that actually worked, and when they passed, the handoff was smooth. Why would I go anywhere else?"

ABOUT THAT SOFTWARE

Should you generate your client's estate plan yourself?

You have probably seen the pitch. A handful of well-funded platforms now market estate planning software straight to financial advisors. Generate the trust and the will in-house for no cost to the client, so the pitch goes, and your client gets stickier, the assets stay under management, and you capture the next generation when the money moves.

The platforms are not reckless. They build guardrails to keep the advisor on the education side of the line, and they keep an attorney network on call.

But the guardrails protect the platform. They do not make you a lawyer.

The closer you get to telling a specific client which document or which provision fits their situation, the closer you get to practicing law without a license, and your errors and omissions policy generally will not cover that.

The platform network attorney glancing at a software-generated California document is not the same as a California estate planning attorney who builds the plan, stands behind it, and answers the phone five years from now when the family's situation changes.

The platform pitch doesn't tell you that when an estate plan fails, it fails years later, after the client has died. The children find out, years later, that the trust was poorly drafted, that it set up a bypass trust the family never needed, causing a capital gains problem, that it ignored Proposition 19, and that it was never fully funded, so the estate landed partially in probate and had a difficult trust administration. Will they sue the advisor who wrote the estate plan? Maybe, maybe not. But they certainly won't keep their inherited assets with the advisor who created the problem.

There is an easy way to be the hero and not the scapegoat. Bring the idea, coordinate the plan, stay in the loop, and let an estate planning attorney do the legal work. The client gets a plan that works. The family is taken care of. You get the credit, the relationship, and the next generation, with none of the exposure.

Proposition 19 reassessment

Did the parents want their home to stay in the family so one of the kids could make it their home? Can the trust be built to avoid Prop 19 reassessment?

Disclaimer option

Does the trust give the surviving spouse the option to take the deceased spouse's share in the survivor's trust or disclaim some or all of it to a bypass trust?

Divorce protection for inheritance

Does the trust create asset protection trusts for the childrens' inheritance to significantly protect it from divorce and lawsuits?

Blended families

Does the trust include provisions to balance the new spouse's needs without disappearing the prior-marriage childrens' inheritance?

Avoid conservatorship and probate

Does the estate plan include an enforceable durable power of attorney that coordinates with the trust to avoid conservatorship, and have the probate assets been transferred to the trust?

Step 1

You introduce us.

Send your client's information through our website contact form or call us. One of our attorneys reaches out to you and your client right away. You decide how involved you want to be, from a quick handoff to sitting in on the meetings, in-person or Zoom.

Step 2

We do the legal work.

Two attorney planning meetings with your client, in person at our El Dorado Hills or Roseville offices or by Zoom from anywhere in California. The same attorney handles the whole plan. We design it, draft it, review it with them and handle the signing. Most plans are finished in about three weeks.

Step 3

We keep you in the loop.

We can send you scans of the signed documents, help coordinate trust funding and beneficiary designations with the accounts you manage, and meet with you and your client for reviews. Your client stays your client. You just look better for having brought us in.

WHY ADVISORS REFER TO US

A bad referral costs you the relationship. We make it better.

Estate planning and trust administration are the only things we do. Not a side practice between real estate closings, not a loss leader for litigation. Thousands of California plans, every attorney working in estate planning and trust administration, and nothing else.

Your client works directly with the same experienced attorney from the first call through the signing. No handoff to a paralegal or case manager.

We work throughout California, in person at our El Dorado Hills and Roseville offices or by Zoom from anywhere in the state, on a flat fee.

We treat your clients the way you would want them treated, and we keep you front and center the whole way.

Will I lose my client if I refer them to you?

No. That is the whole point of how we work. Your client stays your client. We do the legal work, keep you in the loop, send you document scans, and help coordinate funding and beneficiary designations with the accounts you manage. We are the estate planning piece of the team you lead.

Why not just use one of the advisor estate planning platforms and do it myself?

Because the plan reflects on you, and so does the risk. The platforms keep you on the education side of the line, but they do not make you a lawyer, and your errors and omissions coverage generally will not cover the unauthorized practice of law. If the advisor DIY plan fails years later, the children will know, and they won't be happy. Bringing in a real estate planning attorney gets you the relationship without the exposure.

How involved can I be in the process?

As involved as you want. Some advisors hand off and ask for a scan of the signed documents. Others sit in on the planning meetings. We follow your lead.

Do you help with trust funding and beneficiary designations?

Yes. Funding is where most plans quietly fail. We record the deed that transfers the California home into the trust, and we coordinate with you on retitling accounts and naming beneficiaries so the plan actually works.

What does it cost my client?

Our flat fee for most California families is $3,000 for a single person and $4,000 for a married couple for a complete living trust estate plan. More involved plans run higher, and we quote the flat fee before any work begins. See our pricing page for what is included.

Do you work with clients outside the Sacramento area?

Yes. We work with California families statewide by Zoom, and in person at our El Dorado Hills and Roseville offices. Same approach, same documents, same flat fee, wherever your client lives in California.

How long does it take?

Most estate plans are finished in about three weeks, from the design meeting to signing. More involved plans run a little longer. Estate planning is the only thing we do, which is why we are faster than firms that treat it as a sideline.

Do you do trust administrations?

Yes. Trust administration is a core part of our practice. The best ones are a team effort, the financial advisor, the accountant, and our attorneys working together. That is also where you earn the trust of your client's children to keep them as clients.

How to Reach Us

Call, email, or send us a note. One of our attorneys will get back to you right away.

Call Us +1 (800) 394-1988
Email hello@clarkallison.com
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Headquarters 4944 Windplay Drive, Suite 117, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762