ESTATE PLANNING
Our Estate Planning Services
By planning for tomorrow today, you can retain more of your assets, protect your estate and leave a lasting legacy for your family. Just about everyone can benefit from the development of an estate plan. Young or old, wealthy or middle class, an estate plan can reduce the taxes and expenses of an estate, simplify and speed up the transition of assets to your beneficiaries and ensure that beneficiaries are protected.
Estate Planning
We can help you with all the common elements of an Estate Plan:
- Preparing or updating a will
- Reviewing Power of Attorney requirements and beneficiary designations
- Evaluating insurance coverage
- Reviewing ownership structures
- Planning for taxes at death
- Evaluating advanced estate planning opportunities, including the use of trusts
- Considering charitable giving
- Making pre-planned funeral arrangements
Wills
The first and most important step in protecting those you love is to make a will. If you die without a will – also known as “dying intestate” – the government gets to decide who your beneficiaries are and how your assets will be divvied up. We can help you with this cornerstone of your estate plan.
For a will to be effective, it needs to clearly indicate your wishes, be readily found, and be easily verified by the courts. You must clearly state who will be your executor (the person responsible for carrying out your last wishes and for filing paperwork, including your last tax return), decide who gets your assets, and at what age the beneficiaries will receive their inheritance. It should also include instructions for your burial and funeral. Importantly, if you have dependent children, you should name a guardian.