ESTATE PLANNING  

 

Who needs it? Everyone, and they need it now, and it can be as simple as 1-2-3 and at our price of $600-$800.00 everyone can afford it: 1.Living Trust LIVING TRUST OVERVIEW TRUST SPECIAL TRUST QUESTIONNAIRE 2. A Pour-over will 3. A Power of Attorney (General & Medical) Even if you don't have much money or property now, you must have a plan in place 5 years ahead, because none of us know what will happen tomorrow. It's like trying to get fire insurance after the fire, it's simply too late! Estate Planning can be as simple as avoiding Probate. Probate not only involves your will or estate when you die, but also if you become incapacitated by accident or other medical reasons and need others to make medical and financial decisions for you, your spouse or take care of your children, in all aspects of their lives. You want to avoid probate because it is time-consuming, expensive and usually unnecessary, many people plan in advance to avoid it. It is my position that a will is a way for the attorneys and courts to charge you and your family unnecessary fees and costs. (Typically 15-20% of the estate, and a delay of 6 months to 1 year or more) Moreover, everyone thinks they can get a deal at the probate sale, and they usually can. With a trust, the successor trustee can act immediately without court intervention, and you don't even need an attorney! You also are prevented from making decisions in advance for your family, to protect them from themselves by making foolish decisions or against creditors or others. That is why I don't prepare wills without a trust for my clients! There are also a number of ways to pass property to your inheritors without probate, however, you don't have the protections, and other advantages of the living trust, and the living trust can be used with other asset protection strategies, such as the Family Limited Partnership, Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, etc. Scott B. Whitenack offers full service estate planning for our clients. The practice is committed to family wealth transfer planning, protection of clients' assets and serving clients' on-going estate planning needs. Practice areas include: *Basic estate planning, including simple trusts, bypass trusts, insurance trusts, probate avoidance planning, powers of attorney and title transfers. *Lawsuit & Asset Protection, including family partnerships, Limited Liability Companies, Corporations and gift trust agreements for minors. *Advanced estate planning, including qualified terminable interest property trusts, general power of appointment marital trusts, estate trusts. Generation-skipping trusts, irrevocable insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, and QDOT trusts are available for clients with specialized planning needs. *Charitable planning, including remainder uni-trusts and wealth replacement trusts. *Pre-retirement planning, including planning for maximum use of pension benefits, savings, and other assets and document preparation ensuring proper ownership of assets.