1. He will want you to candidly disclose and discuss a wide range of personal matters, such as the strengths and weaknesses of, and your relationship with, your spouse, your children, your business associates and any others who look to you for economic or emotional support or who are natural objects of your bounty. The planning process is a very personal one, and should reflect, to the extent reasonably possible, your views and preferences on a host of relevant personal matters. 2. He will want you to furnish, insofar as you are able to do so, accurate and complete information regarding your assets and liabilities, so that your advisors will have full knowledge of the financial dimensions of the project. Assets do not have to be valued with great precision, because they will change in value from day to day, but realistic value estimates should be provided for all assets, or information as to how such valuations could be obtained. Materially overstating or understating your financial position can badly damage the planning process and, in some cases, result in the adoption of a harmfully unsuitable, and possibly uncorrectable, plan. 3. He will want you to be mindful that the decisions you will be making during the planning process will probably have a greater effect on others than they will upon you, and accordingly, to make a conscious attempt to view those decisions from their perspective as well as from your own. 4. He will want you to tolerate, graciously if possible, a degree of artificiality in your financial arrangements, and various planning documents of greater length and complexity than you may be initially comfortable with. Some technical portions of the documents may be sufficiently complex that you have to accept them on faith, but you will find that the greater portion will be understandable and susceptible of your critical evaluation, albeit perhaps with a bit of effort, and he will want you to make that effort. 5. He will want you to display a willingness to become informed, to examine the alternatives presented to you, and to consider new ideas, all with a view to becoming a real participant in the planning process. He realizes, and wants you to share his view, that the best results will be achieved if you take an active role, and do not merely "rubber-stamp" his recommendations. 6. He will want you to be well organized regarding the process, to create and maintain an orderly file, to take notes during conferences and during your reading of all documents, and to ask questions whenever you are unsure of something. He knows that it doesn't do the process any good, and it may well do it harm, for you to try to appear more knowledgeable or sure of yourself than you really are. 7. He will want you to exhibit a sense of balance and proportion, weighing the inevitable complications of tax planning against the anticipated benefits to be derived from it, so that you do not tilt overmuch in the direction of simplicity at the expense of substantial tax savings, or subject yourself or your family to great complexity in a quest for minimal or speculative savings. 8. Finally, but very importantly, he will want you to be responsive. To be responsive to requests for information, for consideration of alternative strategies, and for review of proposed documents. It's not that he wants to deny you the time you need for mature deliberation, or that he simply wants to complete the work and get on to other projects. It's because he knows from experience that if the project is unduly delayed, memories dim and will have to be continually refreshed, opportunities for effective action may be lost through changes in the law or in your circumstances, and/or you may dissipate the energy, the interest and the concern which caused you to undertake the process in the first place. All of this will surely result in a less than optimum outcome, and as a responsible professional he hopes to keep this from happening.

While this list is rather long, there is little in it which you should find surprising. It is all just common sense, but it may be helpful for you to focus on these requirements at the beginning of the process so that, hopefully, the pieces will fall into place more quickly and more effectively than might otherwise be the case.