Estate Planning, Wills & Trusts

Do you need an estate planning lawyer?

There are many reasons why a person or couple should have a carefully thought out and well drafted estate plan.

As you go through life and accumulate wealth, you want to be sure that you take care of those who are dependent on you in the event that something unexpected takes you from them. You also want to be sure that as little as possible of your estate is consumed by attorneys, administrative fees and taxes so that your loved ones can receive the maximum amount of financial security from you.

An estate plan gives you an opportunity to give gifts to a favorite charity, to friends, or to more distant relatives. In addition, it lets you choose who is going to be responsible for administering the estate - getting the assets together, paying the debts, selling property if necessary, and making the distributions.

We can help you evaluate whether a will or trust is right for you. A trust can help you avoid a conservatorship because you can appoint a trustee to act if you become incapacitated. We also can prepare an advanced health care directive and durable power of attorney which can give a person of your choice the power to act on your behalf if you are no longer able to act for yourself.

A special needs trust is a trust that sets assets aside for a disabled person by giving a third party the discretion whether to use the assets for such person's benefit.

You also want to make sure that those who receive it receive it in the proportion and the manner that you feel is appropriate. For example, you may have a loved one with special needs who may need a disproportionately large share of your estate. And you may want this beneficiary’s share to be in a trust to protect the trust’s assets from the beneficiary’s creditors, or from the beneficiary himself.

An estate plan helps you avoid the costly and public probate process. While a probate proceeding can be beneficial and necessary under some circumstances, generally speaking, by passing your assets to your loved ones outside of probate, your assets are never disclosed in public probate documents and none of your estate is used to pay statutory administrator and attorneys’ fees.

To make sure that every one of your wishes is carried out after your death, you need an experienced attorney who can explain to you what all of your options are.

We will come and visit you at your home if you have mobility or health problems that prevent you from traveling to our offices. Please call us now for an inexpensive, confidential consultation.

When a person dies with a trust, the successor trustee has the duty to administer the trust and, eventually, distribute the assets held in it. There are specific steps that must be taken and we can help you efficiently administer a trust.

Sometimes trustees and beneficiaries disagree about how a trust is being administered, or a trustee does not properly or fairly administer the trust.

In those cases, we can help you force the trustee to do his or her duty and see that you get what the decedent intended for you to have from his or her estate. Sometimes this means we have to resort to litigation, but often we can resolve these disputes with careful oversight, and by settling the dispute through negotiation or mediation.