Nicole Pavlik had been a paralegal for eight years before becoming an attorney. When she began practicing, she knew almost immediately that traditional litigation was not where she belonged. “I worked for a litigation attorney, which was just really super stressful,” Pavlik recalls. “Once I started law school, I knew that’s not what I wanted to practice.” She went to work at an estate planning and business planning firm instead, and in 2012, she opened Nicole Pavlik Law in Phoenix.
Fourteen years later, the firm handles estate planning, business planning, and probate for families, individuals, couples, and small business owners across the Phoenix area. What has changed most recently is who is walking through the door, or more precisely, who is logging on.
Like many professional service firms, Nicole Pavlik Law shifted to a largely virtual model in recent years, and the impact on the client base has been immediate. “I would see less of them,” Pavlik says of younger families, “but now I’m seeing more of them.” She attributes the shift to accessibility. Clients complete consultations and most of the process online, with just one in-office visit required to finalize documents. . For parents of young children, that distinction matters. “If they do have little kids, they’re not having to balance that and come driving 45 minutes into the office.”
The virtual model has also allowed Pavlik to keep her process straightforward and approachable. Before getting into the details of a client’s situation, she sends a focused questionnaire. “They don’t need to be pulling out all this paperwork and tax returns,” she says. “My scope is very narrow in what they need to focus on.” Her goal is to demystify a process that many people expect to be emotionally overwhelming or legally impenetrable. “I try to explain things in a way that allows my clients to really understand the process.”
The combination of estate planning, business planning, and probate under one roof is not accidental. Pavlik sees the three as deeply linked. Estate planning is the preparation. Probate is what happens when families skip it. “I see what happens when people don’t plan and it’s just a mess,” she says. “They don’t know where their family members have accounts. They’re like, I don’t know, does my mom have a life insurance policy.” Her estate planning clients benefit directly from her probate experience. “I educate my estate planning clients to avoid what happens with my probate clients.”
Business planning connects to estate planning in a similar way. Small business owners with one or two partners often need to address succession alongside their personal plans, particularly when a family member is already involved in the business and questions of ownership and continuity need to be settled in advance.
Nicole Pavlik Law explicitly markets to the LGBTQ+ community, and Pavlik is clear about her reasoning. “I want the community to know that I am an ally,” she says. She also wants to correct a misconception she encounters frequently since same-sex marriage became legal nationwide. “I think in their minds they’re like, oh, I don’t need to do any estate planning now, like I’m married, everything is taken care of, which is not true.” Her message for LGBTQ+ couples mirrors what she tells all married clients: “Even if we are married, we still need to take care of this.”
When asked what single piece of advice she would give to Phoenix-area families, Pavlik did not hesitate. “The biggest thing that gets people in trouble is assuming that everything automatically goes to their spouse.” In blended families especially, that assumption can have serious consequences. “If someone passes away and they have children from a prior marriage, those children could potentially inherit some of their estate too.” For many families, she says, that outcome comes as a complete surprise. For Pavlik, it is precisely the kind of situation that estate planning exists to prevent.
Nicole Pavlik Law offers consultations for estate planning, business planning, and probate clients. The firm operates virtually throughout the Phoenix area, with one in-person signing appointment required to complete the estate planning process.
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