Our Estate Planning Services
Your initial estate planning session is our opportunity to get to know your goals and to inform you about estate planning from beginning to end. We want to understand your long-term goals and talk about how you can achieve them. I want you to feel empowered by your new knowledge and to understand that we do care about achieving your goals.
A Last Will and Testament is a document that describes how property you hold in your name on the date of your death will be distributed through the local court in the county of your residence at the time of your death. Your wishes about a variety of subjects following your death can be addressed in the Will, including the distribution of your property, care of minor children, and burial wishes.
A Trust is an estate planning tool that can potentially minimize estate costs and distribute property to beneficiaries outside of probate court, as a private transaction. Under Trust distributions of property, a third party, called a Trustee, holds assets for beneficiaries. The Trustee is responsible for distributing assets to the beneficiaries according to the directions in the trust.
Hiring an estate planning attorney requires research, understanding, and sometimes some luck to find the right fit. We strongly encourage that the selection process includes a preliminary telephone interview with the prospective firm or attorney. During that interview, we suggest asking questions that really help you understand their process and their services.
Asset Protection planning requires a global review and plan for risk. It should take into consideration protecting, to the extent possible, the type of an individual’s assets and choosing a type of ownership over the asset that will protect those assets from creditors. It should also consider claims on profits due to income tax or, in large estates, claims on the property on death due to estate tax.
Other Practice Areas
When a person dies, the process of collecting, managing, and distributing their estate can, for a variety of reasons, become a complex endeavor. I can help answer questions about probate and the litigation process should concerns or conflicts among the parties or beneficiaries arise.