Timeline for Legacy Planning

• Initial Discovery Phase: The process typically begins with conversations around your goals, current planning, family priorities, personal financial picture, estate considerations, charitable intentions, liquidity needs, and long-term priorities.
• Foundational Analysis: The first 4–6 weeks are generally focused on assessment work, including financial independence analysis, capital needs analysis, estate planning review, tax considerations, insurance planning, and identifying key planning opportunities or areas of risk.
• Early Strategy Development: Over the following 2–3 months, the focus shifts toward building the broader planning framework and addressing wealth management, estate efficiency, family stewardship, charitable planning, liquidity, risk management, and long-term financial continuity.
• Implementation Begins Alongside Planning: Rather than waiting until the end, implementation often begins while the strategy is still being refined and adjusted over time.
• Typical Overall Timeline: Most engagements unfold over approximately 4–6 months depending on complexity, responsiveness, and meeting cadence.
• Meeting Structure: Many people maintain a standing 60–90 minute meeting every few weeks throughout the process. More frequent meetings can often accelerate the timeline.
• Designed as an Ongoing Relationship: While the initial planning process follows a defined framework, many people continue working with Erben Associates long afterward as family circumstances, tax laws, market conditions, estate planning needs, and personal priorities evolve.

Legacy by Design is also intended to be a collaborative process. While Erben Associates helps guide the planning and provide perspective throughout the process, the plan itself is ultimately built around your goals, priorities, and long-term vision for your family and future.

• Discovery & Assessment: Reviewing family priorities, existing estate structures, advisory relationships, personal wealth, liquidity needs, charitable goals, insurance strategies, and long-term financial objectives.
• Identifying Gaps & Areas of Risk: Evaluating where planning may be incomplete, outdated, or lacking coordination across the broader personal financial and estate planning picture.
• Clarifying Long-Term Objectives: Defining what financial independence, family stewardship, estate efficiency, charitable impact, and long-term legacy should look like over time.
• Developing a Coordinated Strategy: Aligning estate planning, wealth transfer considerations, governance structures, tax strategy, insurance planning, liquidity planning, investment considerations, and family priorities into a cohesive framework.
• Preparing Future Generations: Addressing family communication, financial education, wealth stewardship, expectations, charitable priorities, and continuity considerations where appropriate.
• Implementation & Ongoing Guidance: Working alongside attorneys, CPAs, and other advisors to help move planning into action while continuing to refine the strategy as circumstances evolve.

While the process follows a structured framework, no two engagements look exactly alike. Some people focus heavily on next-generation preparation and family governance, while others are more focused on estate efficiency, tax-aware planning, liquidity, charitable goals, or creating greater clarity around how their wealth should support their family over time. Throughout the engagement, our role remains consistent: helping people navigate complex decisions with structure, perspective, and a clear understanding of how each decision impacts the broader picture.