Estate Planning Basics
Estate planning is a process designed to help you manage your affairs when you become incapacitated or die. It includes seeing to the proper handling of your personal care and finances in a manner that reflects your wishes and achieves important goals.
Living Trusts
Much like a will, a living trust will describe what happens to your property in the event of your death. Upon your incapacity or death, your trust provides a mechanism for handling your affairs, without the need for probate proceedings.
Retirement Plan Trusts
A specially designed trust may be designated as the beneficiary of your IRA or other qualified retirement plans. This cutting-edge planning tool may provide you and your loved ones with numerous, considerable benefits.
Irrevocable Trusts
Sophisticated estate planning often employs irrevocable trusts, which may be used for a variety of purposes, including minimizing transfer taxes, protecting assets, and preserving eligibility for public benefits. Irrevocable trusts include the following: Special needs trusts. The principal purpose of a special needs trust is to preserve government benefits for a disabled or aged beneficiary. […]
Wills
A will is a legal document, drafted and executed in accordance with state law, which becomes irrevocable at your death. A will enables you to designate the beneficiaries who will receive your assets, to nominate a guardian for a minor child, and to name an executor to administer your estate. A will is typically administered […]
Trust Administration
A trust is legal document created by a person (the trustor) so that property is managed by another person or entity (the trustee) for the benefit of certain persons (the beneficiaries). Trusts are increasingly popular as a way to avoid probate court involvement in the event of incapacity (which might otherwise require conservatorship proceedings) and […]
Probate Estates
Estates in Probate Probate is the court-supervised process that transfers legal title of property from a decedent’s estate to his or her beneficiaries. Absent prior arrangements for “non-probate” transfer of property after death, estates over a certain size must be transferred through probate. These proceedings include, but are not limited to, steps to: prove that […]
Conservatorships
A conservatorship is a probate court proceeding for the care of the person and/or property of someone who is unable to care for themselves. In such a proceeding, a petitioner seeks court appointment of a “conservator” with authority to care for a proposed “conservatee“. If someone close to you is unable to care for him/herself […]
Disputed Trusts & Estates
Disputes over trusts, estates, and the affairs of elder persons are increasingly common in our aging society and community. We have substantial experience in such disputes, and in probate litigation and trials involving trusts, decedent’s estates, and conservatorships.