Estate Planning & Administration

Estate and Trust Administration Services: Take Control, Be Prepared

The thought of planning for your future can be an overwhelming concept. And contrary to what you may believe, it’s an important aspect of life regardless of where you fall on the financial spectrum. Life can change at any moment, and the purpose of estate planning is to help you take care of yourself and your responsibilities while simultaneously planning for others in ways you may not have anticipated.

Here’s a snapshot of what estate planning entails:

• Preparing critical legal documents like a will or establishing a trust
• Appointing a Durable Power of Attorney or a health care proxy
• Developing a plan for the future care of your spouse and children if you become ill, injured or deceased

Again, no matter what your financial status is, it’s important to have a plan in place to protect your family in the event of the unthinkable. I’m here to have those heavy conversations with you, to provide you with sound advice, to execute estate and trust administration services that uniquely match your needs, and to offer a listening ear throughout this delicate and sensitive process.

By learning more about you, your family, your goals and your personal situation, we will work together to share ideas and thoughts that will identify exactly what you need and inform a plan that fulfills your wishes.

The end result? A clear and comprehensible estate plan that legally achieves your desires and addresses your responsibilities.

Wills: Organize Your Affairs to Make Life Easier for Those You Leave Behind

We owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to neatly button up our loose ends before we depart from this life. Yes, money and property are important and necessary elements to address, but the true value of a will is to make life easier for the loved ones you leave behind.

Wills are easy to implement and offer an efficient way for you to not only organize your affairs, but also designate an executor. The purpose of a will is about much more than simply addressing inheritance; it’s intended to mitigate and reduce any potential strain or animosity among family members. Our goal is to leave no stone unturned when it comes to sensitive financial and family matters, including:

• Identifying who will have access to bank account information
• Designating an individual who will be responsible for out-standing bill payment
• Appointing an individual who will oversee any property matters
• And, most importantly, deciding who will take care of your children as well as how they’ll be cared for in your absence

Wills are not as complicated as you may believe, but creating one does require the expertise of an experienced attorney. I’m here to guide you through the process of developing and drafting a will, and vow to produce a strong legal document that will address and enforce your final desires.

Trusts: An Alternate Inheritance and Planning Method

Simply put, a trust is an alternative planning method to a will. It can be viewed as a legal relationship where the legal title to property is bequeathed to a person or legal entity with a fiduciary, or entrusted, duty to hold and use it for another’s benefit. Although I do strongly urge you to have a will created, this document typically only becomes relevant once your life has ended and often requires court approval and involvement for seemingly simple matters.

A trust, however, offers an alternate inheritance and planning method. When you place assets like money and property into a trust, court involvement is NOT required in order to execute your instructions. With my assistance and expertise, we can easily create a trust and transfer your valuable assets, like money and property, into it, stress-free. This means that you don’t lose control over these assets.

Here’s a closer look at the approach:

• We name you as the trustee
• You designate other successors to take over your trust when you’re no longer alive or unable to manage your personal affairs
• Within the trust, we’ll detail how you’d like your money/property to be used for you or for specific family members and entities in your absence
• If you’re incapacitated due to injury or illness, your successors will be able to fulfill duties like paying your bills, managing personal and financial affairs, and taking an active role in relevant decision-making

Once you’ve passed on, your property will remain assets of the trust. We will work together to ensure that anything placed within the trust will not require a probate court filing process; this means that you will avoid expenses, public disclosure, and time involved in the probate process.

Durable Power of Attorney: Invested in a Trusted Advisor

Do you ever worry about how your personal affairs will be managed if you become incapacitated by illness or injury? As the Principal of creating a Durable Power of Attorney, a powerful legal document, you can rest-assured that your finances will be in order even if you’re no longer able to handle them.

Here is a glimpse into what a Power of Attorney can be used for:

• It can give another person the right to sell a home, car or another piece of property in place of the Principal
• It can be used to allow another person to sign a contract, perform financial transactions, and make health care decisions in place of the Principal
• It can enable another person to pay your bills, deposit your checks and file your tax returns

Basically, if/when you lose the ability to do something for yourself, then a Power of Attorney enables a trusted individual (friend or relative) to accomplish such tasks for you.

I will work closely with you to create an effective Power of Attorney that provides trusted advisors with the legal authority to act on your behalf in necessary situations.

Health Care Proxy: Don’t Let Fate Determine Your Medical Decisions

There may come a time when you’re unable to make serious health and medical decisions for yourself. Enter: health care proxy. This document enables you, the patient, to appoint an agent (or a proxy) to legally make these critical decisions for you, when you’ve become incapable of making and executing your healthcare decisions set forth in the proxy.

If you have not appointed a health care proxy, then your family members or the medical institution will have to go to court to have someone appointed as guardian and in extreme cases, get specific court authority for certain medical procedures.

With my help, we will:

• Identify, outline and establish what your health care proxy is allowed to or required to do in various situations
• Legally give your health care agent the authority to make those decisions for you by way of specific directions to your doctors and your health care agent as to what needs to be done in the event of a worst case, life-ending scenario

I understand that this can be a difficult reality to face. But I want you to know that a healthcare proxy is a simple, affordable way to ensure that a person appointed by you will make an informed medical decision, in consideration of and in compliance with your wishes.