We provide estate planning that ranges from preparation of simple documents to sophisticated trust arrangements. Every estate plan is different and designed with you and your unique circumstances in mind. We will assist you through the entire planning process in a heartfelt manner. We value and prioritize the importance of this process for both you and your family.
Our services include all facets of estate planning, including revocable living trusts, wills, guardianship and other caretaking provisions for minor children, special needs planning, durable powers of attorney, and health care proxies. In addition, we provide additional services such as an annual membership that includes a comprehensive annual review of your plan and unlimited changes to your plan as well as discounts on new documents should they be needed, encrypted digital asset storage drives, and legacy interviews. While not an exhaustive list, here are some of the most common estate planning documents you may consider in your planning:
Living Trusts
Trust Planning can be used to protect your assets, minimize taxes, avoid or reduce probate costs and challenges, and ensure you protect what you have earned whether from creditors or beneficiaries not ready for an outright inheritance.. Like a will, a living trust lets you distribute most of your assets and possessions to people and organizations you name as beneficiaries after you die. In essence a living trust “owns” the property you put into it such as property, stocks, bank accounts, and much more. You however, can still maintain control over those assets in your lifetime. Unlike a will, which is a public document that only comes into effect after you die, can be easily contested, and must go through probate before distribution to your beneficiaries, a living trust avoids sometimes lengthy and expensive public processes, can be managed and distributed in life, and are more difficult to contest.
There are two predominant types of living trusts, revocable and irrevocable. A revocable trust is what most people think of when they think of a living trust. As the person making the trust (the grantor), you can change or cancel your trust anytime when you are living. You can add and remove assets, amend your trust, and sell trust property. When you die, this trust becomes irrevocable and your successor trustee will be responsible to follow the instructions in the Declaration of Trust to distribute your trusts assets.
An irrevocable trust is one you cannot cancel or modify. You transfer assets to this trust in much the same way as you would to a revocable trust, but once those assets are in trust, you do not have the same liberties to change beneficiaries, update instructions, or sell property. While less common than revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts can be a useful tool to avoid estate taxes and to protect assets from being depleted when long term nursing care may become a reality.
Last Will and Testament
This is basically a set of instructions that sets forth how you wish for your property to be distributed after your death. It also allows you to leave instructions pertaining to who you wish to care for physically and financially for minor children. Even when you have a trust in place, a last will and testament is an important catch all for anything that may fall outside of your trust after you pass. A simple will can be used when an estate has few assets of modest value. A complex will include some trust language and provisions for beneficiaries who are minors or dependents. A pour over will work in conjunction with a revocable trust and provides instructions to transfer residual assets not in a trust to that trust.
Health Care Proxy
A health care proxy is similar to a durable power of attorney, but it involves granting a person you trust with the ability to make medical and healthcare decisions on your behalf should you be unable to do so.
Durable Power of Attorney
If you become disabled or are unable to make decisions for yourself, or for some other reason need some assistance in managing financial affairs, a durable power of attorney gives you the ability to name a person to make financial decisions for you. It can be granted in full or with limits. These are helpful if you lose the ability or circumstances prohibit you from making decisions or managing your affairs during your lifetime. There are two types of Power of Attorney.
Living Will
A living will provides advance directives to guide your Health Care Proxy and/or doctrs and caregivers if you are incapacitated, seriously ill or injured, in a coma, in later stages of dementia, or near the end of your life. These are legal written instructions that outline your preferences.