SIMPLE AND EFFICIENT

Venola Rolle has practiced law and worked as an educator since becoming a lawyer in 1988. She began her professional legal experience clerking for a federal judge directly after finishing Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D. C., where she served as Topics Editor of The Tax Lawyer.

She further garnered experience in various areas of the law when she worked in private practice in Detroit, Michigan. While in Detroit, she worked for a medium-sized law firm as a supervising counsel coordinating warranty litigation for one of the three big car manufacturers. After leaving the firm, she started a law practice working for five years on civil, probate, estate planning, child abuse and neglect, and criminal cases as a solo-practitioner and as a court-appointed attorney in Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties .

Attorney Rolle closed her practice  to attend theology school at the Candler School of Theology in Atlanta Georgia, where she studied Biblical Literature and Languages. After Candler, she returned to Washington, D. C. and, after briefly practicing law, joined the cohort of the D. C. Teaching Fellows to devote her talents to teaching at the K-12 level in an earnest desire to impact the lives of our youth. She retired from teaching in June of 2023 to start her estate planning and special education law practice. She will launch her special education practice in early 2024.

Attorney Rolle also holds a Master of Arts in International Economics and Politics from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), a Master of Arts in Teaching from Trinity University in D. C., and a Doctor of Education in Education Leadership and Management with a concentration in International Education from Drexel University, in addition to her Juris Doctorate. She obtained her undergraduate degree in journalism from Howard University.

The Law Office of Venola M. Rolle is a boutique law practice headquartered in Washington, D. C. The primary focus is estate planning. However, Attorney Rolle retains her passion for serving our youth, especially those with exceptionalities and their parents. Therefore,  she maintains a practice representing those students and their families.

Attorney Rolle is licensed to practice in the District of Columbia, New York, and New Jersey, and she currently works with residents in those jurisdictions only. Her application for admission to Maryland is pending.

Our practice has a streamlined 4-step process—Peace of Mind Planning Session, Design Meeting, Document Review, and Signing Ceremony. It is designed to deliver your trust and other estate planning documents to you and signed in six to eight weeks. Below is a description of our process:

•  The first step is to attend your Peace of Mind Planning Session, which you will schedule on our firm’s online calendar. At this one-hour Zoom session, you’ll learn all about your options and our flat fees. If you decide to hire our firm, the $250.00 fee for the Peace of Mind Planning Session will be credited to the flat fee for your chosen Family Legacy Plan. If you do not hire me, our firm will send you an invoice for $250.00.
• HOWEVER, BEFORE THE MEETING, you MUST fill out initial basic information in the questionnaire attached to your confirmation email and submit it to our firm (preferably 48 hours ahead of the meeting) so that we could tailor our counsel to your unique needs and that of your family. You will receive a link to the questionnaire in a secure portal with your confirmation email.
•  After the Peace of Mind Planning Session, if you decide to move forward with hiring our firm, you will schedule an Estate Plan Design Session using my online calendar, preferably within a week to 10 days after the Peace of Mind Planning Session. Upon scheduling your Estate Plan Design Session:

• You will receive an Engagement Letter and invoice, both of which can be executed online. The fee must be paid in full, minus the $250.00 credit, prior to attending your Estate Plan Design Session. The fee is deposited into an IOLTA Trust Account and Attorney Rolle deducts her fees in accordance with the terms of the Engagement Letter. The invoice will reflect the price we discussed during the Peace of Mind Session, so there is no surprise. (The third-party vendor our practice uses for processing payments, Lawpay, offers a payment plan, which you may arrange with the vendor).
• Before Attending the Estate Plan Design Session, you must also complete the online questionnaire in its entirety in the secure portal using the same link you received to begin the questionnaire prior to the Peace of Mind Planning Session. You should complete the questionnaire preferably 48 hours before your Estate Plan Design Meeting, so we can make the best use of our time together.

At this 90-minute Zoom meeting we will get to work designing your trust and other estate planning documents, working from the information you provided in your Family Legacy Profile. After this session, I’ll draft your documents, and send copies for your review about two to three weeks later. 

• You will subsequently schedule a Document Review Meeting, where you will make corrections and changes to the documents. Before our firm delivers the documents, we will expect you to pay any outstanding balance.
• Once you are satisfied that the documents accurately reflect your wishes, you will schedule a Signing Ceremony on my online calendar. This event will take place at my office, though you may arrange to have the documents signed in the comfort of your home by making appropriate arrangements with us. Please note that we will not make any corrections, additions, or modifications to the documents at the Signing Ceremony.

An attorney who listens without interrupting and makes sure you fully understand your options before making any decisions! It’s very important to me that you feel heard and leave the meeting educated about the process. We’ll also review our process and our flat fees so you know exactly what is happening at each stage of the process, and what your investment will be.

When you are ready to move forward, whether at your Peace of Mind Planning Session, or later, let me know by sending me an email. We’ll send you an Engagement Letter via DocuSign, an invoice via our secure online payment provider, LawPay, and the link to the questionnaire which you must complete before we meet. Once these housekeeping items are taken care of, you’ll schedule your Estate Plan Design Session on my online calendar.

If you have clarifying questions before committing to a Peace of Mind Planning Session or an Estate Plan Design meeting, you may schedule a brief 15-minute call with me on my online calendar to seek clarity. Attorney Rolle will NOT discuss the firm’s fees during this brief call.

Let’s start with what we do NOT need! We do NOT need account statements, social security numbers, or tax returns. We DO need information on what kind of assets you own (house, retirement account, life insurance, automobiles, etc.), their relative value, and how they are titled (jointly, individually, etc.) Beyond that, we simply need answers to questions about your personal estate planning preferences, including:

* Who you would want raising your minor children if something happened to you and your spouse or partner.

* Who you want to be in charge of your children’s money until they are old enough to manage it themselves.

* Who you want making medical and financial decisions for you in the event of your incapacity.

Don’t worry if you don’t have the answers to these questions right away! You’ll have plenty of time to think things over throughout the process.

Estate planning is the process of getting legal documents in place so that your chosen individuals are appointed to take care of you, your children, your assets, and your finances in the event of your death or incapacity. The process also involves naming the people you want to inherit your assets when you are gone. An “estate plan” is a bundle of all the documents needed to accomplish these objectives.

If you don’t currently have a will or trust, you may think you don’t have an estate plan….but you do. It’s just that the District of Columbia, New York and New Jersey, or any other state you reside in, has written it for you! All states have a default plan for your family and assets in the event of your incapacity or death. That’s the plan you have now. Estate planning is “opting out” of the default plan and putting your own preferences in place

It depends! Estate planning is not one size fits all, so it’s hard for us to give you a quote without knowing more about you. Even if you believe your situation is relatively simple, there are likely nuances you are not considering. 

We discuss our fees and process at length in the Peace of Mind Planning Session, after we have counseled you on all your options. We do not discuss our fees outside the Peace of Mind Planning Session.

We understand that cost is an important factor in choosing an attorney, and that estate planning is a significant investment. We intend to be as transparent and as fair as possible. For that reason, we offer flat fees–our Family Legacy Plans–as opposed to billing by the hour, so you know exactly what your investment will be.

Finally, we will only recommend planning with us if the amount you would save by creating an estate plan is greater than our fee.

Our process is designed to have your estate planning documents signed within 4-6 weeks of your Peace of Mind Planning Session, assuming you schedule your Estate Plan Design Session promptly. It depends in part on your schedule and how long it takes for you to review your draft documents.

No. Wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents need to be signed with very specific formalities or they will not be considered legally valid. That means signing in person, in front of two (2) witnesses. The witnesses are there to confirm you are lucid and not under duress. Any changes you make to your documents in the future will need to be executed with the same legal formalities.

Our flat fee includes a notary service at the signing plus two witnesses. Let us know if you will bring your own witnesses so we could provide a discount.  Our notary service can also conduct the signings in your own home if you would prefer. We could discuss all of these options at the Document Review Session. 

We take on a limited clientele each month so we can offer a high level of service to each individual or family. We work with people who value our advice and are seeking a long-term working relationship.

If you are looking for the cheapest attorney you can find, do not want to devote time to learning about and understanding your options, or do not feel comfortable completing the Family Legacy Profile before our sessions, we are not the right law firm for you, and would be happy to refer you to a lawyer who may be a better fit.

You have two options with your estate planning: a will-based plan, or a living trust-based plan. A living trust is a document where you appoint a chosen individual to manage your assets should you become incapacitated, and distribute them according to your wishes specified in the trust at your death. It is almost always preferable to a will because it is designed to avoid the time, expense, and publicity of probate, which a will cannot avoid.

Many are surprised that wills do not avoid probate court…they guarantee it! Attorney Rolle will go over the difference between a will and a Revocable Living Trust in depth during the Peace of Mind Planning Session and you can then decide what is best for you if you are single, or if you are planning as a family. 

Probate is a court-supervised process of administering your estate upon your death. If you die without a will, your estate must go through probate before all your money can be distributed to your heirs. And if you die WITH a will…your estate still has to go through probate. One sure way to avoid probate is with a Revocable Living Trust.

What’s so bad about probate? Even a very simple probate matter can take a year or more to complete.  Even a very small estate with no challenges and an experienced executor may be settled for $4000.00 to $6000.00, depending on the state where you reside. It’s also a public proceeding that makes your will available to anybody who wants to look at it.

While a will is subject to the probate process, a Revocable Living Trust is designed to bypass it.