Estate Planning

(Living Trust, Will, Power of Attorney, Advanced Health Care Directive, Final Disposition Instructions, HIPPA Waiver,

Trust Restatement/Amendments, and other documents)

DISCLAIMER:

I am not an attorney. I can only provide self help services at your specific direction.

I do not offer legal advice, discuss legal strategies, answer questions of a legal nature, select forms, interpret documents, or appear in court on the consumer’s behalf. Please contact an attorney for any legal questions.

What is Estate Planning

Estate Planning is about control. Estate Planning is the creation of a definite plan for managing your property and wealth while you are alive and distributing it after you are dead.

Property means real property, personal property, business interests, bank accounts, investments, insurances, and any assets of any value that you own. Property may be owned separately, or as community property with your spouse or domestic partner, or others in joint tenancy.

What happens to your property when you are incapacitated or die, depends on how you owned the property. You lose control and your intent/wishes may not be carried out. Estate Planning helps mitigate such issues and allows you to put together a definite plan when you are alive.

Why Estate Planning?

There are three main advantages of Estate Planning:

If you become legally incapacitated before you die, the probate court will appoint a "conservator" to take control of your assets and personal affairs. This entire process is expensive, time-consuming, stressful, and humiliating. With estate planning you can plan ahead when you are alive for you illness, and avoid court appointed conservatorships.
When you die, you cannot sign deeds or transfer your property. The probate court will take over the responsibility. Probate is expensive, time-consuming, and a public proceeding. Distribution of property is by law and may not be what you wished for. With estate planning, you can avoid probate. It also provides privacy.
When you die, your estate could be hit with inheritance taxes on everything you own over the IRS exemption limits. Estate planning can help reduce or eliminate estate taxes.

What can we do?

We can prepare common Estate Planning documents:

Living Trust, Will, Power of Attorney (POA) for financial decisions, Advanced Healthcare Directive (AHCD) for medical decisions, Final disposition instructions, HIPAA Waiver, and Trust Transfer Deeds.

Be mindful that once a living trust it created, it must be funded, assets must be transferred to trust, and the trust should be updated with important life changing events. We can prepare required documents and provide instructions for it.

So, contact us if you own or recently sold home or land, have a business, have assets of value, have minor children or adult with special needs, had a life changing event like a new spouse or job, or have concerns about probate or what happens to you when you are incapacitated, for your estate planning needs.