Estate Planning

My primary aim is to provide each of our clients with the information and resources they need to be successful with their estate plans. I believe that the most important estate planning objectives are protecting what you have earned, and planning to provide for your loved ones. It is important to ensure that your estate plan accurately reflects your desires and also protects your assets.

Differences between Trusts and Wills

If you hold your property in a living trust, your survivors won't have to go through probate court, a time-consuming and expensive process.  A revocable living trust allows you to revoke or change it at any time, and as often as you like.  There is nothing complicated about a revocable living trust, it is basically just like your will, but it is handled differently upon your death.  While you are living, you have the freedom to do whatever you want with your assets.  The major difference is that a will passes all of your property immediately upon your death, while a trust allows you to protect the assets for the benefit of your children and allows you to determine when and how much of your assets you want your children to have access to.

With a living trust, it is important that your trust be "funded" with all of your property in order to avoid probate.  If an asset is not properly titled, it may have to be probated by your heirs, thereby defeating one of the big reasons for creating a trust.  Trusts avoid the expenses associated with probate.  Some of your retirement assets should not be in the trust due to taxes .

Purpose of  a power of attorney

With a durable power of attorney, you can give a trusted person the ability to handle your finances and make medical decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated and unable to handle your own affairs.  This avoids the necessity of someone having to go to court to create a conservatorship.