Estate Planning

When you hire our firm to help you with your estate planning, we review your financial concerns, taxes, family dynamics, and your desired legacy with you. Then, we draft a comprehensive set of documents, including a revocable living trust, health and financial powers of attorney, and other documents.

Why plan your estate?

Estate planning is a way to plan for who will have control of and benefit from your assets while you are 1) alive, 2) alive, but incapacitated, and 3) when you are deceased.  When you leave our office after executing all of your estate planning documents, you will be confident that your loved ones have a clear statement of your wishes and you have provided them with a plan-of-action in the event you are not able to manage your affairs.

Why a trust and not just a will?

A trust prevents court control in the event of incapacity, gathers all of your assets into a single structure of control, maximizes your family’s privacy, reduces or eliminates estate taxes, prevents court control of gifts to minors, and increases the speed of administration.  When you pass without a trust (whether or not you have will), your loved ones must undergo a long and expensive process of securing court permission to gather your assets, pay your debts, and eventually distribute your assets. Most importantly, trust administration is private and does not require court approval.

Sophisticated estate planning also involves asset protection, tax planning, real estate transactions, insurances, annuities, and family business planning.