Shelley Thompson

Shelley Thompson was hired to help my 84-year old mother to update her estate planning documents. At an initial consultation, preliminary decisions were discussed. However, upon further reflection, my mother desired material changes. Per my mother's request, I asked Shelley to incorporate these ch...anges into the first-draft plan. Shelley sent a first draft of the estate plan completely that ignored my mother's requested changes. Instead, Shelly scheduled a signing meeting. My mother requested my presence at the signing meeting to help her understand things that were very complex and overwhelming to her and to help ensure her desires were reflected in the plan. In the signing meeting, Shelly attempted to make changes to the plan to reflect my mother's desires. However, my mother was at times overwhelmed and confused and still unclear about some key decision points. Points of uncertainty for my mother included material decisions including who to choose as Trustee and Durable Power of Attorney. To my surprise, instead of encouraging us to take the time to be very clear about very important life decisions, Shelley strongly pressured my mother to sign on that day. Shelley had a strong opinion about how certain parts of the plan should look, and at times discouraged open discussion about alternatives. Instead of offering counsel on how to gain clarity on key decisions, and contrary to my advice to avoid rushing, Shelley pushed my mother to make final decisions in the meeting and to sign the documents immediately, Shelley seemed to me to be more interested in getting something signed hastily than ensuring that my mother and her family were clear and confident. Knowing that I (as her son and attorney-in-fact) had very strong reservations, Shelly nonetheless pressed forward and got my mother to sign documents in the meeting. When voicing my concerns with my mother during the meeting in an attempt to make sure she understood what she was signing with crystal clarity, Shelley became defensive and insisted she knew best without asking clarifying questions. She did a terrible job of presenting options and seemed to do the bare minimum based on things my mom knew to ask--instead of helping her understand what needed to be in place. In my opinion, this is a cookie cutter service designed to get people in and out without taking individual care for the people involved. This was a radically different and exceptionally disappointing experience compared to the firm I recently used to obtain my own estate docs.