Estate Planning

Estate Planning

An estate plan is a roadmap that guides you and your family through major life events. It determines how you and your loved ones will be taken care of if you are incapacitated, where your property will go at your death, and who will carry out your wishes.

The documents included in an estate plan usually include a will and/or trust, Financial Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, and Living Will. Click on any of the foregoing to see additional details about each document.

To initiate the estate planning process, we will schedule you for a free initial consultation and send you an Estate Planning Guide. The guide will help you to start thinking about the important decisions you will make in your estate plan. You can also download the guide here.

At the initial consultation, we will review the type and extent of your assets, discuss how you want your property to be distributed, and designate the people who will ensure your directions are followed. We will review deeds for any real estate, discuss taxes, beneficiary designations, and detail how the process would actually play out on your incapacity or death. A recommendation will be provided with a flat fee estimate so that you know your costs before proceeding. If you ask us to prepare the plan, we will set a signing date, usually within two weeks. We can accelerate the signing if desired in cases of emergency such as upcoming surgery or travel.

Prior to your signing date, we will send draft documents for your review. At the signing, we will go through your documents in detail to make sure that you understand the plan that you are putting in place.

Our attorneys have prepared thousands of estate plans and would be happy to guide you through the process.