Who is an estate plan for?
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This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Want to know more about Estate Planning, schedule a free consultation with us.

​This is a really interesting question because an attorney is trying to figure out not only who the client is, but who they are trying to benefit and how they can benefit them. The reality of an estate plan is that the most benefit that an attorney can provide is not to the person who is sitting in the office, it is to their loved ones and other family members.
The estate plan really is helping those people along the way.
Having an estate plan in place can make the process easier and reduce conflict. That is just one piece of it, that it really helps the people that you leave behind.

As a client, you are not going to get to see how your estate plan plays out because you are not going to be around anymore. However, you can have that sigh of relief knowing that you have done everything you can and that you are leaving everything in the best shape that you possibly can.

If you would like to know more about the topic, just reach out for a Free Consultation. We can help.

Can you have an estate plan as an unmarried couple?
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This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Want to know more about Estate Planning, schedule a free consultation with us.

If you want to learn more about this check our short article here.
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If you are in a committed relationship and you are not married, it is actually very important to have done some thinking about an estate plan.
​One of the reasons for this is because under state law, if you are married, there are some protections that you have as a spouse that people will transfer to you automatically. As a spouse you have some legal rights about things such as medical information. If you are not a married couple, then under the law you are a stranger.

With an estate plan you can establish that this person that you are with has some legal rights not only to receive property if you pass away, but also to make decisions for you if you are in the hospital and to have access to information. There are times where we have created an estate plan that functionally mimics all of the legal protections that a married couple has without requiring that they go through the legal process of being married.
Not only is it perfectly possible to do estate planning as an unmarried couple, it is really a good idea to do.

​If you would like to know more about the topic, just reach out for a Free Consultation. We can help.

Watch our video and get your question answered in less than a minute!
This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Want to know more about Estate Planning, schedule a free consultation with us.

In our opinion, everyone can benefit from an estate plan. That does not mean that you need to hire a lawyer to put documents into place, because an estate plan is more of a strategy. As long as you have a coherent thought out strategy on what would happen if something happens to you, then you have got a plan. Maybe this includes legal documents or maybe involves just having beneficiary designations, but everyone should at least have spent some time thinking about this.
There are some people where this is more important for them. If you have children that are minors, then it is important to figure out who should take care of them when you are gone. One of the worst case scenarios would be if something happened to you and having your remaining family fight over who is going to take care of your small children. That can create bad blood and tensions that you can avoid if you make proper plans for it during your lifetime.
The other piece of it is if something happens to you and you are in a hospital and someone needs to make medical decisions for you, if you have planned for that ahead of time and have the right documents in place, then that is a fight that does not have to happen and can help people step in when they would need to without unnecessary complications. 

​Contact an attorney for more information. Book a Free Consultation here.

Watch our video and get your question answered in less than a minute!
This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Contact an attorney for more information. Book a Free Consultation here.

You're wondering if a will is enough for you? Generally speaking our advice to clients is that no, a will is not enough. 
A will is not going to accomplish what you want it to accomplish. A will is a set of instructions to a court about things that are going to go through the court process. They are really easy techniques that you can use to stay out of court.

Going to court is time consuming and bothersome, however doable. It is not the worst thing that can happen, but we can avoid it and if we can, why wouldn't we? If you are going to rely on just a will, then you have to be prepared to go through court. A lot of times, people who are relying just on a will have actually done other things like beneficiary designations or joint ownership that take things out of court already. It's already not going to be dealt with when dealing with the will. Generally speaking, if you think that having just a will by itself is a complete strategy, usually it's not.

Learn more about Wills here, or book a Free Consultation today.

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Generally speaking, an estate plan is a strategy.
There are a lot of different components to it. Part of it is legal documents, while the other part of it is pieces outside of the legal documents that can include things like a will or a trust. However it is more than that. It also considers powers of attorney for health care and finances, includes beneficiary designations at a bank, joint ownership of who is even on the account and whose name is on the deed.
It also can include if you are married, especially if you are coming from a previous relationship, it can include marital property agreements and figuring out not only where your things are going to go, but also what is considered 'your things'. When you boil it down, an estate plan is simply just a strategy. See more information about Estate Plans.

This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Want to know more about it, schedule a free consultation with us.

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A will is a piece of an estate plan and an estate plan is an overall strategy whereas a will is a portion of that strategy. Generally speaking, when you do an estate plan you want to have a comprehensive idea that's going to deal with all of your assets, not only after you pass away but also while you're alive.

​A will only comes into effect after you're gone, and it only deals with some assets that haven't already been figured out.  If you've got a bank account that has a beneficiary designation, a will is never going to touch that.
Also, if you go into the hospital and you have a coma or another medical situation, the will does not go into effect yet. An estate plan deals with more holistic, comprehensive planning than a will does. 

This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Contact an attorney for more information. Book a Free Consultation here.

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​There are a number of different strategies to avoid probate.
The basic concept is that any asset that does not have an automatic trigger to transfer to a new person is considered a probate asset.
For example, if you have a house that is in your name and that is all you have done, that house becomes a probate asset.
There are a number of techniques and tactics that you can use to have those assets automatically transfer.
A combination of those are usually what constitutes an Estate Plan that once you come up with a strategy on how you want to make those transfers, going through the process that makes that all of your assets do transfer without going through probate.
Whether that is a beneficiary designation, joint ownership, or putting the assets into a trust, figuring out the method and technique that works best for you and your assets as well as your family on how those assets should transfer so that they do not have to go through the probate process. 

​This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Want to know more about it, schedule a free consultation with us.