Ethical issues abound in the practice of estate planning law. Trust and estate lawyers routinely represent both spouses in a married couple. As the relationship matures, the planning lawyer may be asked to prepare documents for clients’ children or grandchildren. In some engagements, the client will ask for legal help with a family business or a set of intergenerational family trusts. The lawyer may eventually be asked for advice when a client’s capacity diminishes. When a lawyer becomes the family’s general counsel, it is a sign of the deep trust that the family has in them—but it is also a professional responsibility minefield.

In this webinar, long-time trust and estate practitioners Dan L. Daniels and Michael T. Clear will discuss the many thorny questions surrounding estate planning engagements, including joint representations of spouses, representation of multiple generations in the same family, avoiding “scope creep,” and other issues that often occur in complex estate planning projects. Dan and Michael will also show how you can avoid many of these problems through a well-constructed engagement letter. Topics addressed include the following:

• The importance of precise descriptions of the scope of the engagement
• Balancing confidentiality and conflicts of interest
• Avoiding accidental clients
• Fee arrangements
• Termination of the engagement