FAQs

Simply put, an estate plan is a set of instructions. These instructions provide for the care of the individual creating the plan and for the management of his/her property during a period of disability. The instructions also address the management and distribution of property following the death of the individual for whom the estate plan was created.

Your personal estate plan is tailored to fit your specific needs. This customization helps ensure your particular wants and desires are accomplished. Without such a plan, you and your family may find yourselves entangled in the court during one of the most difficult and trying times of your lives. It takes very little to imagine an injury, an illness or a disease causing a disability, incompetence, or even death. Absent proper documents and appropriate instructions, it may be necessary to take the matter to court and allow a Judge to decide for you and your family what will happen and who has the authority to act. This will take time, it will cost money, and it may produce results that are different from those desired by you and your family.

A medical power of attorney is a document that allows you to express your desires as they relate to the administration of your health care during any period you are incapacitated and unable to speak for yourself. This document designates another individual to speak on your behalf and permits a doctor and/or hospital to act in accordance with your stated desires. Such a document not only reduces the risk of court proceedings to determine your wishes and who may speak on your behalf, it also helps eliminate the delays and expenses that accompany such proceedings.

While generally thought of in connection with the death of an individual, probate can, and oftentimes does, involve court proceedings for individual's who are alive but, for one reason or another, are either thought to be or deemed to be incapable of making decisions on their own behalf. Such proceedings typically include the appointment of a guardian, while the proceedings following the death of an individual usually include the appointment of an executor and the administration of an estate. Any court proceeding can be time consuming and costly. It may also produce results that are contrary to those desired.

Yes, there are a number of ways to avoid probate. One of the more common tools used to accomplish this is the Living Trust, also known as the Revocable Trust or Revocable Living Trust. Like a Will, a Living Trust provides instructions regarding the distribution of property following death and it designates who will act in carrying out those instructions. Unlike a Will, however, a Living Trust does not require probate proceedings to carry out the instructions contained within the Trust.