I went to a seminar they put on in the local area and in hindsight (my opinion) they were selling on the basis of FEAR. A meeting was set up at my residence as they have no office. That in itself should have been a "red flag" that when I needed help I would probably have trouble getting it. They promised a follow-up meeting to make sure all was good and did explain that THEIR choice of lawyers would create legal documents to service my needs. Also they explained that I would get annual reviews so it could be determined if changes were in order.
That was in 2014 and in 2015 my personal attorney studied the paperwork and said it was legal - but in his opinion the process that they used to place my personal residence into a trust was cumbersome and complex. In 2017 when I needed a copy of that trust neither CLA Estate Services nor their chosen attorney was of ANY help and did not even let me know how and where to get a copy. It ended up to be a fairly simple task but I was on my own to find out how. I believe that any company that causes a trust to be formed should be able to tell the client how to get a copy of the document.
It is now four years later and I still have had no "annual review" as promised and when I called their representative she even told me I lived at an address different than mine - which is the house THEY had placed in the trust.
I am a regular retired person and not an estate expert or attorney and hired CLA to guide me and help the situations which will occur at my death. It seems to me that once the check was written to them, CLA and their service representative (which they stress are not legal attorneys - not even paralegals - however they are in charge of havng legal documents created) were gone and not interested. In my opinion CLA should label their "service representatives" as salesmen or showmen. As P T Barnum is credited as saying "There's one born every minute" and it would appear that I was the one for that minute.
CLA Estate Services Reviews
I went to a seminar they put on in the local area and in hindsight (my opinion) they were selling on the basis of FEAR. A meeting was set up at my residence as they have no office. That in itself should have been a "red flag" that when I needed help I would probably have trouble getting it. They promised a follow-up meeting to make sure all was good and did explain that THEIR choice of lawyers would create legal documents to service my needs. Also they explained that I would get annual reviews so it could be determined if changes were in order.
That was in 2014 and in 2015 my personal attorney studied the paperwork and said it was legal - but in his opinion the process that they used to place my personal residence into a trust was cumbersome and complex. In 2017 when I needed a copy of that trust neither CLA Estate Services nor their chosen attorney was of ANY help and did not even let me know how and where to get a copy. It ended up to be a fairly simple task but I was on my own to find out how. I believe that any company that causes a trust to be formed should be able to tell the client how to get a copy of the document.
It is now four years later and I still have had no "annual review" as promised and when I called their representative she even told me I lived at an address different than mine - which is the house THEY had placed in the trust.
I am a regular retired person and not an estate expert or attorney and hired CLA to guide me and help the situations which will occur at my death. It seems to me that once the check was written to them, CLA and their service representative (which they stress are not legal attorneys - not even paralegals - however they are in charge of havng legal documents created) were gone and not interested. In my opinion CLA should label their "service representatives" as salesmen or showmen. As P T Barnum is credited as saying "There's one born every minute" and it would appear that I was the one for that minute.