Estate Planning Attorney

A good estate planning lawyer helps you not only create an estate plan, but coaches you on financial matters and refers you to other professionals as needed.

Estate Planning Lawyer Helps You Gain Peace of Mind

The attorney will help you create an estate plan to protect you, your family, and your money during your lifetime and beyond. They also help protect your privacy. When you finish your plan, you will gain a new peace of mind you didn’t have before.

What Do They Do?

An estate planning attorney coaches and drafts documents.

The documents they may draft for you include:

• Last Will and Testament
• Revocable Living Trust
• Supplemental Needs Trust
• Irrevocable Trust
• Life Insurance Trusts
• Durable Power of Attorney
• Healthcare Power of Attorney
• Advance Directive (Living Will – Not to be confused with a Last Will and Testament)
• HIPAA Waiver (Protected Healthcare Information Release)

In addition to drafting documents, they can and should coach you on the following:

• Payable on Death for accounts at the bank
• Beneficiary designations for life insurance, retirement accounts, and investment accounts
• Transfer on Death for automobile titles
• Beneficiary Deeds
• and more…

What Happens if I Don’t Plan?

If you don’t write an estate plan, the state has written one for you. It is your default estate plan. Under that plan, you don’t get many choices.

If you become unable to manage your affairs (incapacitated), hopefully somebody you wanted and trust will step up and go to court to get a guardianship. With a guardianship, and under a Judge’s supervision, they can manage your basic financial, legal, and healthcare decisions. However, there are some things, like selling real estate, that require the Judge’s permission. And, if nobody steps up, Adult Protective Services may step in and take over, putting you under full government control.

After you pass, your final estate is subject to the State’s default distribution plan. Most people don’t like the terms and conditions of that plan. Again, it has to be under a Judge’s strict scrutiny.

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