Estate Planning
Law
Estate Planning offers numerous benefits both during your lifetime and beyond.
Decisions That Protect Legacies
Estate Planning involves organizing and managing your assets, making decisions about their distribution, and ensuring your wishes are carried out in the event of incapacity or death. From making decisions about who will oversee your estate, to determining how your assets will be distributed, estate planning encompasses a broad range of choices regarding yourself, your family, and your possessions.
There are many advantages to estate planning, including asset protection, minimizing expenses, reducing the time and complexity of estate settlement for your heirs, facilitating the transfer of assets to your beneficiaries, and providing peace of mind.
Estate Planning is relevant at every stage of life, as unforeseen events can occur at any time. Whether it’s nominating a guardian for your minor child or transitioning your business to the next generation, Modern Law is here to help you create a customized plan that meets your needs.
What's Included
Estate planning encompasses a variety of documents and strategies tailored to your unique needs. The core documents in estate planning are typically a will or trust, which outline how your assets will be distributed and who will manage your estate after your passing. These documents often include provisions for nominating a guardian over a minor child and tax planning.
In addition to Trusts and Wills, Modern Law offers a range of services to meet your specific needs, including:
- Power of Attorney for Finances & Healthcare
- Beneficiary Deed
- Personal Property Assignment
- LLC Assignment
- Farming Equipment Assignment
- Mineral Rights Assignment
- Boat Slip Assignment
Preview Our Services
Trusts are versatile tools that can be customized to fit various situations, offering benefits such as asset protection and ensuring your loved ones are cared for according to your wishes.
Modern Law offers a range of trust services tailored to meet your specific needs:
- Revocable Trusts: Also known as Living Trusts, these trusts are flexible and easily modified to fit changing circumstances. They offer asset protection, security, privacy, and help avoid probate.
- Irrevocable Trusts – Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts (MAPT): These trusts are used to protect assets, particularly real estate, from nursing home liens. They preserve the stepped-up tax basis for inheritance and shield assets from Medicaid.
- Special Needs Trusts: Designed for individuals with disabilities, these trusts ensure their financial stability and well-being while preserving eligibility for government benefits.
- Other Custom Trusts: Modern Law can create trusts tailored to your specific needs, addressing various estate planning considerations related to family, financial, or health concerns.
Wills are an essential part of any estate plan. Generally, Wills should be considered back-up plans. Wills are admitted through probate, which is a timely and costly court process. Even though Probate should be avoided, it is still important to have a Will as the backup plan. Even if a client decides to go with a Trust, they still get a Will!
When accompanied with a Trust, a Will is referred to as a Pour-Over Will. In this case, the Pour-Over Will and Trust work together to address any assets that may have gotten stuck in probate. The Pour-Over Will directs the probate court to place stick assets into your Trust.
At Modern Law, we understand the importance of creating a comprehensive will that reflects your unique circumstances and wishes. Our experienced advisors will work closely with you to ensure that your will meets all legal requirements and provides clarity and peace of mind for you and your loved ones.
A Power of Attorney (POA) is a legal document that grants someone else the authority to make decisions and act on your behalf regarding your finances, property, or healthcare if you become unable to do so yourself.
This appointed person, known as your agent or attorney-in-fact, can manage your affairs according to the powers specified in the document. POAs can be broad, granting wide-ranging powers, or limited to specific actions or time periods. Having a POA in place can provide peace of mind knowing that your financial and healthcare matters will be managed according to your wishes.
At Modern Law, our experienced team can help you create a Power of Attorney document tailored to your needs, ensuring that your affairs are handled by someone you trust in case of incapacity.
A Beneficiary Deed is a legal document used to transfer real property upon the owner’s death to a designated beneficiary without the need for probate. This type of deed allows the property to pass directly to the beneficiary, preserving the stepped-up basis of the property for tax purposes. By avoiding probate, beneficiaries can receive their inheritance more quickly and with fewer expenses.
Beneficiary Deeds are often used in conjunction with a Trust to ensure seamless transfer of property and efficient estate planning. When the property owner passes away, the beneficiary deed automatically transfers the property to the designated beneficiary, who then manages the property according to the terms of the Trust.
Property assignments are legal documents often used to transfer ownership of personal property, such as household items, clothing, jewelry, and more, to a designated person or trust upon your death. These assignments are part of estate planning and can help avoid disputes over property among heirs.
In addition to personal property, other types of assignments include stock assignments, LLC assignments, mineral rights assignments, boat slip assignments, and more. Each assignment serves to ensure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes and can be an important part of your overall estate plan.
Contact Us
Have questions about Estate Planning? Contact our experienced team to take the first step towards securing your future.