A no-pressure conversation with attorney Ryan Duffy about your family, your goals, and the right estate plan for your situation. Available virtually across North Carolina and South Carolina.
Book Your ConsultationA focused, honest conversation designed to give you clarity — not a sales pitch.
Ryan reviews your family situation, assets, and concerns so you understand exactly where you stand today.
You’ll know whether a will-based plan or a trust-based plan fits your needs — and why.
The total cost of your plan in writing, before any commitment. No hourly billing, no surprises.
You won’t be routed to a paralegal, a sales rep, or a junior associate. The 30-minute call is with the attorney who will write your plan.
Ryan P. Duffy is the founding attorney of Estate Planning of the Carolinas, a virtual estate planning law firm built around flat-fee pricing, plain-language documents, and remote online signing. He is admitted to practice law in both states the firm serves:
Ryan earned his Juris Doctor degree and built a practice focused exclusively on estate planning, probate, and trust administration — not a general practice that dabbles in wills on the side. Every consultation, every document, and every signing is handled personally by Ryan.
The firm is based in Belmont, North Carolina, in the Charlotte metro area, but serves clients across both Carolinas through secure video meetings and remote online notarization. There’s no need to drive to an office to get a high-quality estate plan.
Recent clients have included families in Charlotte, Raleigh, Asheville, Greensboro, Wilmington, and Durham in NC; and in Greenville, Charleston, Columbia, Myrtle Beach, and Bluffton in SC. As long as you’re a resident of NC or SC, the same flat fee applies.
Tell us a bit about you and Ryan will reach out to confirm your Zoom appointment.
A practical, structured 30 minutes — agenda below so there are no surprises.
You’ll know the total cost of your estate plan before you commit. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices.
The 30-minute consultation is free. There is no charge, no card on file, and no obligation. Most people walk away with enough clarity to decide whether they need a plan at all — and many take weeks before booking the next step. That’s fine.
If you decide to move forward, everything is flat-fee priced. You’ll get the total cost in writing before signing an engagement letter. Rough ranges for current packages:
Final pricing depends on your specific situation. The whole point of the free consultation is to give you a real number, not a brochure number.
A simple path from your first call to a written quote — on your timeline.
You’ll receive a calendar invite with a Zoom link, usually within an hour of booking.
Ryan walks through your situation, answers your questions, and recommends the right approach.
A flat-fee proposal in your inbox the next business day. No pressure, no obligation.
If you decide to move forward after the free consultation, here’s the typical timeline from start to fully-executed documents.
30-minute Zoom consultation. You leave with a written, flat-fee quote in your inbox by the next business day.
Engagement letter signed and intake completed. Ryan personally drafts your documents and sends them for review.
A second Zoom call to walk through every document, answer questions, and make changes before signing.
Remote online notarization session. You sign, witnesses and notary appear by video, and you receive final PDFs.
The questions we get most often before someone books the call.
Ryan opens by asking about your family, your assets, and what’s prompting you to look at estate planning right now. He’ll spend most of the 30 minutes listening so the recommendation actually fits your situation. The last few minutes are for his recommendation — will-based plan, trust-based plan, or something narrower like a stand-alone power of attorney — and a clear next step.
You’ll leave the call with a plain-English summary of what Ryan thinks you need and why. A written flat-fee quote arrives by email the next business day.
Nothing is required. If you want to make the call more productive, jot down a rough list of your assets: home, retirement accounts, life insurance, brokerage, business interests, and any out-of-state property. A list of who you’d want as executor, healthcare agent, and guardian for minor children (if applicable) is also useful.
If you already have a will, trust, or power of attorney, you don’t need to send it ahead of time — we can review it on a follow-up call if you decide to move forward.
Ryan is licensed only in North Carolina and South Carolina, so estate plans are limited to residents of those two states. If you’re moving to NC or SC soon, we can still talk — we’ll just wait to draft documents until you’ve established residency.
If you’re in another state, we’re happy to point you toward a flat-fee estate planning firm in your state. We don’t take engagements we’re not licensed for, even when asked.
Yes. The 30-minute consultation is genuinely free — no card on file, no “consultation fee credited toward your retainer,” and no obligation to hire the firm. You can use it to decide whether you need an estate plan at all.
If you do decide to move forward, everything else is flat-fee priced, with the total cost in writing before you sign an engagement letter.
Yes — in fact, we strongly recommend it. Estate planning decisions for a married couple work best when both spouses are part of the conversation from the start. You’ll need to align on executors, guardians for minor children, and how to handle blended-family or second-marriage issues, and it’s much faster to do that in real time than over email.
Both spouses can join the same Zoom link from the same screen or from two devices. There’s no extra charge for a joint consultation.
Most people aren’t ready to commit on the first call, and that’s expected. Estate planning is a significant decision — you’re naming who handles your money, your children, and your medical decisions if something happens to you. We’d rather you take the time to think it through than rush a decision you’ll regret.
After the call, you’ll receive a written quote and a short summary of Ryan’s recommendation. Many clients take days or weeks before booking the next step. There’s no follow-up pressure and no automated drip sequence.
If you’re ready to move forward after the consultation, drafting typically starts the same week. The full timeline from the free call to a signed, notarized plan is typically 2–3 weeks: Week 1 free consultation and drafting, Week 2 review call, Week 3 remote online notarization signing.
If you have a deadline — an upcoming surgery, a trip overseas, a new baby — let Ryan know on the call. We can usually compress the timeline when needed.
The consultation is a good moment to find out whether your existing plan is still doing what you need. Common red flags include: documents older than 5–7 years, an out-of-state move since signing, a divorce or remarriage, the death of a named executor or trustee, or major changes in assets (selling a business, inheriting property, retiring).
If your existing plan is solid, Ryan will say so — even if that means there’s nothing to hire him for. If it needs a will-vs-trust rethink, updated beneficiaries, or a clean rewrite, you’ll get a flat-fee quote for the work.
Book your free 30-minute consultation. No pressure, no obligation — just a clear answer.
Book Your Consultation