Consultations by appointment. An appointment is required for all consultations, which can be scheduled between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Call (702) 255-4552 to schedule an appointment for an office visit, a video conference, or a telephone conference.

Initial Consultation. Ask about the consultation fee when you schedule your appointment.

Out-of-office Consultations. Out-of-office consultations are billable, including round-trip travel time. For an initial consultation that is out of the office, the estimated cost of the consultation must be paid in advance, and the length of the meeting will be limited to the time paid for.

Making a Consultation More Effective.  Many office consultations are longer -- and therefore more expensive -- than they need to be. Please consider taking one or more of these steps to reduce the time needed to discuss the issues that concern you.

• Prepare a written agenda.  Make a "bullet-point" list of the items to be discussed. If appropriate, include a list of any specific questions that you want answered. It is helpful if we are given a copy well before the meeting.

• Provide us information in advance.  Make sure that we have the information we need to answer deal with your issues, such as copies of relevant legal documents, copies of correspondence, or information about financial issues. If you have been provided a questionnaire, please fill it in as completely as you can.

• Provide the documents to be discussed.  If documents that we did not prepare are to be discussed, please provide us a full copy of the documents before the meeting. If changes are to be discussed, it is appropriate to provide us a copy that has been flagged and marked so that the provisions that need to be discussed are easily found. If we prepared the documents, you can provide only marked-up pages or a written list of the changes you are considering.

• Review Our Educational Web Site.  Review Layne T. Rushforth's Estate Planning Enchiridion, which contains memos written by estate-planning and probate attorney Layne Rushforth. That site also includes useful forms and questionnaires.

Review of Documents Prepared Elsewhere. In lieu of an initial consultation, we can review existing estate-planning documents to discuss possible changes, such as updating to conform documents to changes in laws or a change of residence. If you are interested in this, please send an e-mail message to office@rushforthfirm.com or send a fax to (702) 255-4677 listing the documents you would like us to review and what you want us to be looking for. We will then contact you to let you know what we can do and what charges might apply. For many clients, we review their existing estate plans and prepare a brief memo for the $100 that would otherwise be charged for an initial consultation.

Estate-Planning Update. If we prepared your estate plan, and you wish to update it or review it, you can call to schedule a 15-minute telephone conference (no charge) or a regular office consultation (billable). The need for an office consultation can sometimes be eliminated or the billable time needed for an office consultation can sometimes be reduced if you send us a letter, e-mail message (office@rushforthfirm.com), or fax (702-255-4677) that describes the changes needed and any questions that need to be answered. Once we know what changes need to be made and any other issues that need to be addressed, we can provide an estimate of the charges for the work that needs to be done, and you can let us know whether or not you want us to proceed to do the work.