Our Services
Proper Estate Planning is about more than merely having a Will or Trust. You need a comprehensive plan that eliminates probate, minimizes estate taxes, and protects your assets for your loved ones.
Our team of trustworthy and experienced trust and estate planning experts will work closely with you, your family members, and advisors every step of the way to seamlessly transfer assets, minimize costs, and ensure your wishes are honored.
Estate Planning Services
We offer complete Estate Planning Services and specialize in Revocable Living Trusts, Generational Planning, and Dynasty Trusts. We have over Twenty Five years’ experience in Wills, Trusts, and Estates. We offer complete services to our clients, from initial meetings, to document drafting, to review and signing, to the annual review of documents, and examination of law changes and how they may affect our clients. We also have relationships with Financial Advisors and Insurance Professionals who can offer advice to you regarding your Estate Plan. Our approach is Family-Centered, and we assist clients of all ages and financial backgrounds in creating an estate plan that will assist our clients and protect their heirs.
Estate Administration Services
Taken together, your Trust, Will, Powers of Attorney, and personal directives allow you to determine in advance what happens to you and your estate in the event of death or disability. When your estate representatives and trust fiduciaries have to take on their responsibilities, we provide knowledgeable and responsive assistance in the process of estate and trust administration. We can help guide them through the intricate requirements of tax compliance, accounting, and closure. We also can serve as Trustee or Administrator for those who do not wish to administer the decedent’s estate or Trust.
Wills
A Will is a simple instrument to pass your assets to your heirs after you die. It is the document where you choose the guardianship for your minor children if you should pass away before your children reach the age of majority.
Trusts
A Trust is a fiduciary arrangement that allows a third party, or Trustee, to hold assets on behalf of a beneficiary or beneficiaries. Trusts can be arranged in many ways and can specify exactly how and when the assets pass to the beneficiaries. Assets in a Trust are able to pass outside of probate, saving time, court fees, and potentially reducing estate taxes as well. A Living Trust is typically revocable. They are created and go into effect while you’re living. An irrevocable trust is used to protect the Grantor’s assets or to lessen estate taxes. The most significant difference between them involves who can manage the trust's assets and whether the trust's terms can ever be changed.
Revocable Living Trust
A Revocable Living Trust is a tool to pass your assets to your heirs in a “protective shell”. The inheritance that your heirs receive will be available to them, but will not be available to their creditors, or ex-spouses.
Powers of Attorney
A health care power of attorney and a living will are legal documents that provide you with options for expressing medical care preferences and instructions, should you become incapacitated or otherwise unable to make or communicate decisions. Through a living will, you can state your medical care wishes while you're mentally able to do so, to avoid unwanted treatments and disputes between family members over your care. A health care power of attorney allows you to grant a trusted person, known as an agent, the authority to make medical and end-of-life care decisions on your behalf. A financial power of attorney is needed to assist you in a variety of ways regarding various financial matters.
Asset Protection
Asset protection planning is a method used to shield assets that would otherwise be susceptible to legal judgments or claims by creditors or former spouses. A number of legal devices exist to ensure that both personal and business assets remain in the possession of the asset-holder.
Probate Avoidance
When an asset passes to others through a Will, it has to go through the probate process. Probate can be both time-consuming and expensive. In addition to being expensive, probate can be disruptive to the management of your assets and leave beneficiaries uncertain when their inheritances will be received and how much they’ll receive. When you own assets in more than one state, your estate might have probate procedures in each of the states. Fortunately, we have estate planning tools that help people avoid probate such as the Living Trust.
