ESTATE PLANNING: WILLS & TRUSTS
Do You Really Know?
Do you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what would happen legally and financially to you, your loved ones, your money and everything else you care about if something unexpected happened to you?
Do you have a personalized plan in place? Have you taken the time to plan for the people you love, and understand how all of your assets will be distributed should something happen to you?
If you have an estate plan and it is out of date, you may have new assets, your assets may have grown or been sold, or they could be lost and require court intervention to remedy.
If you do not have an estate plan, then your state has a plan for you, and it may not be exactly what you want.
Here’s the bottom line: If you do not know exactly what would happen to everyone you love and everything you own, then the first step is to find out exactly what would happen legally and financially so that you can decide if the current state of your affairs is okay with you.
How Do I Help You With Estate Planning?
First, before we meet for your two-hour Life & Legacy Planning session, I’ll have you complete some “homework,” – including answering some questions about you, your family, and your assets. This helps you to get organized and to begin thinking about your priorities in your planning.
Next, we will meet for your Life & Legacy Planning session. As your estate planning attorney and counselor, it is my job to get to know you, your concerns, your goals and issues. I’m here to patiently and thoroughly answer questions so that you will be able to make educated decisions regarding preparing an estate plan that reflects you and your values. I’ll be there to guide you through these decisions, and we will work together to design an estate plan specifically for you that will keep your loved ones out of court and out of conflict.
Lastly, you will have the opportunity to review plan choices you made and other design decisions, and we will proceed to signing the plan and delivering it to you. Before you know it, you will have your completed estate plan and have the peace of mind in knowing your loved ones will be cared for moving forward.
But even after completing, signing, and delivering your detailed estate plan, our relationship continues. Since life brings changes, your estate plan should reflect your life – and we will review your plan with you at least every three years. Our firm will always be available to help you with any changing circumstances – or even to just answer questions or provide clarification on plan decisions.
