Estate Planning - Wills, Trusts, and More
Estate Planning
Most people come to see attorneys like us because they think they need a will--a legal document that establishes what happens to your belongings when you pass away. But a will is just one tool that estate planning specialists use. There are many different tools that can either work independently or in concert with one another to protect your assets, reduce your taxes, and achieve your goals of protecting your legacy and your loved ones.
Also, you shouldn't have to do the research on what document you need before you see a lawyer. It is our job to listen to you, learn what your situation is, and then craft the best solution for you--the best estate plan--by considering each and every tool in our arsenal and working with you to develop the legal documents that will achieve your goals.
Wills and Trusts
As we mentioned, a will allows you to direct how your assets will be distributed when you pass away. You get to choose the person who will be in charge of this process, and they become your estate's personal representative or executor (the terms are interchangeable).
A will may not be an all-in-one solution for you, however. It can only direct distribution of assets that are titled solely in your name. It also doesn't avoid probate--a court process for winding up a person's assets, described in more detail below.
A trust, on the other hand, is a document that allows you to place assets under the legal title of somebody else for your benefit or someone else's. A trust may help you to avoid probate because, technically, the assets in the trust are not yours when you pass. Yet you can direct what happens to trust assets when you die.
A trust can also be revocable, also known as a living trust, because you can place property in the trust but continue to enjoy the benefit of the trust while you are alive. You can also revoke the trust, meaning you can take back full control of those assets.
Controlling your legacy is the goal
Wills and Trusts are just some of the tools at our disposal to ensure that you get to designate where and how your assets are distributed upon your death. When you come in to talk to us, we'll get to know you and your situation first. Then we'll work with you to develop the best plan for you going forward.
"Living Wills" and Related Documents
Planning for Your Own Care
Estate planning isn't just about deciding who gets what. It's also about ensuring that your wishes are followed should you become incapacitated, and that your loved ones have the ability to make decisions for you when you no longer can. To that end, there are tools that can ensure your goals are met even if you find yourself unable to achieve them on your own.
The three key documents critical for planning for the future
- Health Care Surrogate - This document appoints another person to make health care decisions for you if you become unable to make those decisions for yourself.
- Advance Directive - This document does more than what you see in the movies. An advance directive is a comprehensive chart that details possible conditions and situations in which you indicate your wishes should you ever be facing that situation. It allows you to make decisions now to avoid your family having to make those decisions for you later.
- Durable Power of Attorney - This document grants power to a person that you have designated, allowing them to complete certain acts that you designate, like paying bills or making decisions about personal or real property.
Making these decisions now will make things far easier for you and your family later
Many people wish to avoid having to burden their family members with making decisions about their health care later on. These documents, to an extent, allow you to do that. And they empower those who will receive those responsibilities without forcing them to go through avoidable litigation and bureaucracy.
Trust Administration
What is a trust?
A trust is a legal arrangement in which one person (a grantor) appoints a trustee to hold and manage assets for the benefit of a third party (a beneficiary). The trustee is often somebody with little or no personal relationship with the grantor or the beneficiary. The trustee's job is to ensure the assets are used or transferred as the trust documents require.
A person can create a trust while they are alive, or they can have a trust created upon their death by including the appropriate language in their will. Depending on their purpose, a trust may be irrevocable (permanent), or revocable (allowing the grantor to cancel the trust and regain possession of the property that they had originally placed in trust).
What are trusts used for?
- Estate planning: A person may create a trust so that when they pass, their heirs can obtain their inheritance without the necessity for extensive court processes.
- Special needs: Trusts can be used to ensure continuing care for dependents with disabilities no matter what happens to their caretaker.
- Asset Protection: Trusts can be used to protect a person from losing their property or wealth should they be sued or get divorced.
- Tax Efficiency: Trusts are sometimes the best way to avoid or reduce estate taxes that come due when a person passes away.
- Charitable Giving: Trusts are one way to provide a continuous or ongoing stream of financial support for charitable causes, either during or after a person's lifetime, or both.
We help you navigate the legal requirements so that the trust accomplishes what it was intended.
As you might imagine, there are a number of very specific legal requirements one must consider when setting up a trust. Further, once the trust is in place, the trustee must continue to follow all laws and regulations regarding how the trust must be administered. Sound legal advice and assistance is often a must.
In trust administration, we help a trustee administer the trust during its existence. We work with trustees and beneficiaries to ensure that the goal of the trust is carried out and legally sound.
Probate Administration
What is Probate?
What does the probate process look like?
What does the probate process look like?
Most of us have assets and debts. When we pass away, a number of legal processes exist to determine what happens to those assets and debts and make sure they are handled appropriately.
One of those processes is probate. Probate is a general term for a court-supervised process to resolve all the assets and debts a person leaves when they
Most of us have assets and debts. When we pass away, a number of legal processes exist to determine what happens to those assets and debts and make sure they are handled appropriately.
One of those processes is probate. Probate is a general term for a court-supervised process to resolve all the assets and debts a person leaves when they pass. A lawyer is often involved to facilitate making the probate process as seamless and simple as possible, or to attend to the more complicated situations that can arise.
What does the probate process look like?
What does the probate process look like?
What does the probate process look like?
Probate can be a short, quick check-in with the court or a long and involved process depending on a number of factors. For some, the use of estate planning tools during a person's lifetime (such as those mentioned elsewhere on this page) may allow most assets to pass on to others automatically upon a person's death. Or a person may have
Probate can be a short, quick check-in with the court or a long and involved process depending on a number of factors. For some, the use of estate planning tools during a person's lifetime (such as those mentioned elsewhere on this page) may allow most assets to pass on to others automatically upon a person's death. Or a person may have very little in assets that will require only a "summary administration" rather than the lengthier "formal administration" of probate. If a person has a will, probate may only encompass the process by which the will is "proved"--or confirmed to be legally effective--and then the will can simply be followed with minimal court oversight.
Let us handle this for you.
What does the probate process look like?
Let us handle this for you.
We know that resolving the legal issues arising from a loved one's passing is the last thing you want to think about during trying times. Moreover, probate can be scary for anybody because it is so foreign to most.
That's how we can help in probate administration. We know the process, the options, the courts. And we know families. We w
We know that resolving the legal issues arising from a loved one's passing is the last thing you want to think about during trying times. Moreover, probate can be scary for anybody because it is so foreign to most.
That's how we can help in probate administration. We know the process, the options, the courts. And we know families. We will walk you through all the steps and make sure that everything is resolved expeditiously and with your best interests in mind.