Estate Planning and Trusts

What do Presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield have in common with Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, and Prince?

They all died without wills!

Everybody needs an estate plan, even you! Death is a medical certainty, even for presidents, artists, millionaires, and rock stars. We live in an age of anxiety, but you can, to some extent, plan for your own death.

What Are the Steps for
Making and Estate Plan?

Identify your assets, their nature and value, and how each could be transferred before or after your death. This search is comprehensive: from real estate to pension funds, vehicles, accounts, stocks and bonds, mutual funds, insurance, family business, intellectual property, jewelry, guns, and heirlooms.
Designate beneficiaries at death for all financial accounts and insurance policies. Those in the financial industry will be glad to help you check your accounts for beneficiaries at death and change them if you so request.
Determine who shall be the executor under your will to pay all bills and debts, sell and give away assets, and distribute the net proceeds of your estate to your chosen heirs. These choices are formalized in your Last Will and Testament.
Appoint someone you really trust to handle money and property with Durable Power of Attorney. Be careful: more estates are plundered by those with power of attorney while someone is alive than by the executor of the estate of someone who is dead.
Appoint someone you really trust to handle money and property with Durable Power of Attorney. Be careful: more estates are plundered by those with power of attorney while someone is alive than by the executor of the estate of someone who is dead.
Consider whether you need a trust. Trusts can be a very good vehicle for the transfer of assets and to avoid the need to probate your will. A Revocable Living Trust is often the choice today. Trusts can also be vehicles for tax avoidance. Consult a qualified attorney. A trust is not a toy.

What do you believe
about death and dying?

A young Florida woman named Terri Schiavo went into cardiac arrest in 1990 and was left comatose for years, resulting in a dreadful legal battle over “pulling the plug” between her husband and her parents, which involved more than a dozen appeals and acts of both the Florida legislature and the U.S. Congress; she died in 2005. She had no advance directive for healthcare.

If you are in a serious accident, the hospital staff is in charge unless and until a family member can lawfully appear and take charge. By the time your family arrives at the emergency room, it is likely that you would already have a respirator in place as well as a feeding tube. My clients do not want their families to be told what to do by hospital staff while they are in dire straits. Somebody in your family needs to have an official document- a advance directive for healthcare, a.k.a. healthcare proxy, properly drafted, signed by you, and witnessed- setting forth these powers and wishes- or your wishes will remain unknown or ignored.

Likewise, if you have specific beliefs and instructions regarding your funeral and burial, it is likely best to write them into the funeral and burial contracts as well as your will. The more specific your written plans are in the funeral home contract, the cemetery contract, and your will, the easier it is on your family. I also give my clients a “Letter of Instruction” to fill out, which has answers to questions that come up during emergencies or death.

Why Have a Revocable
Trust?

Since the Covid lockdown, my clients have less taste than ever for bureaucracies, courts, lawyers, and administrative agencies. Many of my clients’ children and heirs live out of state. More and more of my clients want their heirs to avoid probating a will and administering it, if possible.

Through a trust, you could, in many cases, pass all your property to your beloved heirs without probating your will. Creating a revocable trust is usually cheaper and less of a hassle than probating your estate through the courts. Trusts are tricky, and a poorly written trust can cause serious trouble, so call an experienced lawyer to learn more.

More Services

Probating of Wills and Estate
Administration

Few things are more difficult than losing a close relative or friend. I buried my own mother in 2011 and my father in 2018. I have been married now for more than thirty years, and I cannot imagine life without my wife.

Real Estate and Property Law

With decades of experience in sales, transfers, title issues, zoning, permits, timber, trespass, nuisance, and environmental law, James Griffin is the property lawyer for you.