Planning for the end of our life or for our potential disability is often unpleasant and many seek to avoid it. However, finding the courage to face that reality can be a powerful and spiritual experience, for when we acknowledge the inevitability of death, we learn not to fear it.
Estate planning is useful in this process because it provides many tools for framing our lives in a way that helps us clarify what our lives have meant to ourselves, our family, friends, colleagues and the communities we’ve served. Furthermore, it helps care for those we leave behind by memorializing our wishes, so that our next of kin isn’t burdened with doing that work for us.
I divide these services into two broad categories: Estate planning and Estate Administration. Simply put, estate planning occurs during the life of the testator(rix), while estate administration occurs after his or her death. Trust planning, of course, occurs during the life of the grantor, but trust administration can occur both during and after his or her death.
Trust and Estate Planning
I draft, execute and continue to develop my skills concerning the following legal documents:
- Wills
- Powers of Attorney
- Statutory Gift Riders
- Living Wills
- Guardianship
- Testamentary Trusts
- Living or Revocable Trusts
- Irrevocable Trusts, including Irrevocable Medicaid Trusts.
- Special Needs Trusts
Trust and Estate Administration
An Executor(rix) or Trustee’s job is not an easy one. In fact, I like to call it a job, because it feels like one. It takes a lot of work and some degree of skill, because both jobs carry what lawyers refer to as fiduciary duties. That means they have responsibilities to the beneficiaries of the estate or trust and can even be sued by the beneficiaries if those duties are breached.
I walk alongside clients of mine in these roles while they discharge them and am available for consultation regularly. I map out the process for them from beginning to end. I isolate and explain decisions requiring their judgment, so they can focus on them and properly prepare to make them. For certain clients, my assistant and I even do a lot of the leg work involved in administering an estate or trust to make the job as easy as possible for the executor(rix) or trustee.
» Contact us today so that we can discuss your Trusts
and Estates situation.
