Estate Planning

Estate Planning is for everyone. Everyone is going to die. If it is important to you to direct the ownership of your property after your death, efficiently and without disputes or controversies, then you want an Estate Plan.

Planning your estate is planning your legacy. It includes decisions about how you want to be remembered and what impact you want to leave on your family and community. Creating your Estate Plan is an opportunity to shape and preserve your legacy, plan for a potential disability, protect your assets for your loved ones, and for business succession planning. With your goals at the center of your plan, some of the legal tools in estate planning include Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorney and Living Wills.

A good Estate Plan is like a road map, getting you to your chosen destination. Like any good plan, it will adapt to changes along the way. Often people have documents created and fail to properly fund and maintain their estate plan, causing unforeseen personal or legal issues; resulting in extra time, court proceedings and difficult legal requirements for your loved ones to carry out. With our Family Legacy Legal Services™ we help you avoid these mistakes.

We ensure your plan includes who you authorize to legally manage your finances and healthcare decisions if you can’t.

We help you build protections into your plan to ensure your assets go to the people you want.

We help ensure your property is passed on the way you want and provide the opportunity for you to outline why certain items are meaningful.

We help you with the right strategy to avoid probate, reduce the complexity and minimize the cost of settlement for your loved ones.

We help you outline and plan for a smooth transition of your business for your successor.

Give to a charity or protect inheritance for a dependent with special needs, a beneficiary receiving government benefits, or for pets. Or perhaps you may want to set up a gun trust to pass on a firearms collection, legally.

Simple

Legal jargon can be confusing. We use plain language, stories and illustrations to make complex legal concepts more understandable.

Unique

You are uniquely you. Therefore, your estate plan should be tailored to your goals and specific needs.

Collaborative

Partnership is key. We take the time to work with you, your family, and your financial professionals to ensure your Estate Plan is successful during your lifetime and after death.

During the Orientation to Empowered Estate Planning session, you’ll understand important initial concepts of estate planning so the next step of the process is meaningful. Then, during the Discovery Dialogue & Commitment Conversation, we learn about you, your goals and your assets so we can determine the right estate planning strategy for you. You learn about our process and receive an exact fee quote.

Once we are engaged, you work with an experienced Estate Planning attorney to co-create your Estate Plan blueprint that is unique to you. Your legal documents are reviewed, your questions are answered, and your plan documents are signed, witnessed and notarized.

The strategy for properly titling your assets and beneficiary designations is discussed, and then documents are signed for us to help you with this process. Clients who enroll in our Family Legacy Legal Services™ Maintenance Program, have their funding completed and verified, and their Estate Plan continues to adapt to any legal or personal changes.