Our Services.
Estate Planning.
Estate planning involves the preparation of documents with two key elements in mind: 1) the possibility of incapacity and 2) the inevitability of death.
Accordingly, all estate plans typically include Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives naming someone to act on your behalf to make financial or health care decisions during your lifetime. In the event that you face some sort of incapacity, your attorney-in-fact or health care agent can step in without the necessity of seeking a conservatorship or guardianship with the court. While there are some situations where a court would still need to be involved, the goal is to avoid the costly and public nature of petitioning the court.
Living trusts can also be helpful as part of incapacity planning since a successor trustee can step in to manage assets when the grantor and primary trustee is no longer able to act. This is a benefit of a Trust over a Will which is only effective after your death.
In addition to incapacity planning, all estate plans include instructions for distributing your assets after your death. This is most often accomplished through either a Will or a trust in addition to beneficiary designations, joint ownership of assets, and transfer on death designations.
Once retained, our role as your estate planning attorney is to review your various assets as well as your goals in terms of incapacity planning and distribution of your assets upon your death. We then recommend the documents necessary to accomplish this (Will, Trust, Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives, etc.). We also recommend other strategies for transferring assets including updating beneficiary designations, gifting assets during your lifetime, adding or removing joint ownership on assets or accounts, and updating or preparing transfer on death designations for accounts or real estate.
By far the majority of our estate planning work is done at flat rates. That is, as opposed to billing by the hour, after your complimentary initial consultation, we will provide you with a flat rate that encompasses the full preparation of your estate plan.
Please contact us to schedule an initial complimentary consultation.
Probate/Estate Administration.
Following the death of a loved one, it’s the role of the personal representative to collect assets, pay expenses, taxes and creditors, and distribute the decedent’s assets to those entitled to receive them.
Our first course of action when working with a personal representative is to decide whether a probate administration with the court is necessary. In some cases, beneficiary designations, joint ownership of accounts, and transfer on death designations can eliminate the need for a probate court proceeding.
If a probate administration with the court is necessary, we file the required documents with the court. Once filed, we work with the personal representative and court throughout the process including:
the initial appointment of the personal representative;
preparing and filing an inventory of the estate’s assets;
satisfying creditor’s claims;
making distributions to heirs/devisees and obtaining receipts;
and, if necessary, preparing and filing a final accounting and closing petition.
A personal representative is a fiduciary acting on behalf of the heirs or devisees of the estate. As such, the personal representative has personal liability when it comes to the proper distribution of the estate’s assets. Once retained, it is our job as legal counsel for the personal representative to be sure that the estate’s assets are correctly distributed.
During a probate administration, we are typically involved initially to review the assets of the estate, the process for distributing them and opening the administration with the court. Once the estate is opened with the court and the personal representative has been appointed, the personal representative performs a majority of the work in collecting assets, preparing real estate for sale, etc.
Midway through this process, we assist with the preparation of an inventory of the estate’s assets. Also, if real estate needs to be sold, we typically work with the closing agent to prepare the sale documents.
And, finally, we are involved in advising the personal representative as to paying creditor’s claims and making distributions of the estate’s assets.
When opening a probate administration with the court is not required, we work with the family to prepare any documents necessary to transfer joint ownership (for real estate, for example) and provide any other advice or documents necessary to distribute or collect assets outside of the probate process.
The cost of an estate administration varies greatly due to the types of assets involved, the family situation, the amounts and types of creditor claims, etc. Accordingly, estate administrations are billed by the hour. That said, we have significant experience with the administration process and, for efficiency and cost savings, have streamlined the various forms and documents needed throughout the process.
Trust Administration.
A trust administration is very similar to a probate administration, the key difference being that there is typically no court involvement. That said, the overall steps of collecting assets, paying expenses, taxes and creditors, and distributing the decedent’s assets to those entitled to receive them are essentially the same.
Our work on a typical trust administration begins with reviewing the trust document and any amendments or other ancillary trust documents. The trust document is the “governing instrument” providing the directions that the trustee must follow. As such, we carefully review the trust in order to form a plan for the administration process as well as to look for any problems that may arise.
Next, we assist the trustee by preparing documents demonstrating that they are nominated to serve as successor trustee and have accepted that role. We assist in obtaining a new tax ID number for the trust and provide general advice regarding interpreting the trust document, collecting assets, paying creditors and expenses, preparing the necessary tax returns, and other administrative duties.
Early in the trust administration process we work with the trustee to determine whether assets are properly titled in the name of the trust or have beneficiary designations directing the asset or account to the trust. We typically perform property searches for any real estate to determine whether the property has been correctly titled in the name of the trust.
It is important to determine whether assets are correctly titled in the name of the trust since assets or property that are not titled in the name of the trust may be probate assets. That is, if an asset or property is not titled in the name of the trust and does not have a beneficiary or other transfer on death designation, then it may necessitate the need for opening a probate administration with the court. This is why it is very important to properly fund a trust during the trust grantor’s lifetime.
If there are assets that are not correctly titled in the name of the trust, we assist the trustee with collecting those assets either through small estate affidavits, if possible, or by opening a probate administration with the court.
Once assets have been collected, we advise the trustee as to the payment of creditors, expenses, and taxes. Once all expenses have been paid, we assist with the preparation of a trust accounting and proposal for distribution. The accounting and proposal are sent to the beneficiaries for approval along with consents. And, finally, once everyone consents, distribution checks are sent along with receipts.