How we score Charlotte estate planning attorneys

Charlotte Estate Planning Attorney Guide is published by Great Work Research, an independent directory of estate planning firms. This page explains how every business in the directory gets its score, what the score can and cannot tell you, and who stands behind it. Right now we score 138 Charlotte businesses.

How the score works

Each business gets a composite score from 0 to 100. It is built from five measured signals, each with a fixed weight. Nothing else goes in.

Signal	Weight	What it measures
Sentiment	28%	A synthesis of recent review themes: praise versus complaints
Rating	26%	The Google aggregate star rating
Volume	20%	How many reviews a business has, log-scaled
Completeness	16%	Whether phone, website, hours and address are listed
Recency	10%	How recently customers have reviewed

Why each signal matters

Sentiment (28%)

This carries the most weight because a star average hides patterns. Two firms can both show 4.6 stars, yet one collects repeated complaints about the same thing, such as slow replies, unclear fees or documents that took months to finish. Reading what recent reviews actually say is the only way to catch that. When you are choosing someone to handle wills, trusts and powers of attorney, a repeated complaint about communication matters more than a decimal point of rating.

Rating (26%)

The Google star rating is still the quickest read on overall satisfaction, and it is the one number most people already know. We use it as a strong signal, just not the strongest.

Volume (20%)

A 5.0 from six reviews is not the same as a 4.8 from several hundred. We scale review count logarithmically, so going from 5 to 50 reviews helps a lot, while going from 500 to 545 barely moves the score. A handful of reviews never equals hundreds.

Recency (10%)

Firms change. Attorneys leave, staffing shifts and service quality moves. Recent reviews tell you how a firm is doing now, not five years ago.

Completeness (16%)

We check that a phone number, website, hours and address are all listed. Families need to reach a firm and confirm where it is and when it is open. A missing detail is a practical obstacle, so it costs points.

Honest limits

• Low-confidence scores. A business with few recent reviews gets a score we label as low confidence. The number is still shown, but treat it as a rough guide.
• We synthesise, not republish. We summarise review themes in our own words rather than copying reviews. Each listing links out to Google so you can read the source yourself.
• Reviews are not legal quality. Reviews capture client experience: responsiveness, clarity, fees, courtesy. They cannot judge whether a trust was drafted correctly. Check credentials and talk to the firm before you hire.

Scores are earned, never edited

Scores come from this rubric and this data only. We do not edit them by hand. Paid placement, when it exists, is always labelled and never changes a score. If a list's picks or order were reviewed by an editor, that is disclosed on the page itself.

Who is behind the rankings

Great Work Research is led by Rod Burnett, a notary public and notary trust delivery agent. His background in estate planning showed him how hard it is for families to compare firms when the decisions matter most. Rod Burnett, Managing editor, maintains the rankings and oversees them editorially. The directory ranks firms using published review data and a transparent method, never paid placement.

How often it is updated

Data is refreshed monthly. Listings are built from public information, and every listing carries a "last verified" stamp so you can see when it was last checked. Firms can request a correction at any time.

Contact

To request a correction, ask a question or flag a problem, email info@reallygreatwork.com. To start browsing, go to the home page.