Many people show up to their first estate planning meeting with good intentions and zero paperwork, you included. Then you watch your Arlington, Virginia attorney spend an hour asking questions that a single folder could have answered. You leave without a finished plan, which means your family stays unprotected a little longer.
2026 updates that can change your first meeting
Virginia House Bill 133 now allows you to sign certain estate planning documents electronically and have them notarized online. If you store most of your records on your computer or in the cloud, this makes the process easier. It also means your lawyer will likely ask more questions about your digital accounts, cryptocurrency and online assets during your first meeting.
A federal estate tax exemption also dropped in 2026, which means the government now taxes estates at a lower threshold than before. Virginia does not have its own estate tax, but if your assets are worth several million dollars, federal tax planning may become a bigger focus in your first appointment instead of just covering the basics. With these changes in place, coming prepared to your first meeting matters even more.
What to bring for faster answers
To keep the meeting efficient, information that often matters includes:
- Your family list and key contacts, including minor children and proposed guardians
- Your core asset list, including account statements, life insurance and retirement accounts
- How you titled major assets and designated current beneficiaries
- Your debts, such as mortgage, credit cards or business loans
- Prior wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives and divorce orders
- A digital asset inventory, such as password manager access, encrypted files, social media and cryptocurrency
- Recent valuations for Arlington real estate and business interests if you own a company
Without these details, your lawyer may need extra time to confirm ownership and map out the next steps.
When the details matter most
Estate planning can offer peace of mind for you and your family, but details drive the outcome. When you bring clear information, you give your lawyer a stronger starting point and reduce avoidable surprises later. Remember, most plans do not fail because of bad decisions, they fail because they were never even started.