Estate Planning

We draft wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives and other documents to care for you and your assets.  The most common documents are

• Will
• Durable Power of Attorney
• Health Care Directive

A Will leaves assets to a spouse, children, charities, or other beneficiaries.  We draft the wills you need and want, from simple to complex.  A will appoints a “personal representative” to carry out your wishes and may include a “testamentary trust” to distribute assets to beneficiaries over a number of years.

A Durable Power of Attorney appoints an attorney-in-fact as an agent to make decisions if one is incapacitated or unable to care for oneself.   Powers of attorney are powerful and must be drafted carefully; we tailor durable powers of attorney to your specific needs.

A Health Care Directive informs your doctor and other health care workers whether you would want to be kept alive if you were diagnosed to be terminally ill or in a vegetative coma.  A POLST is a physician’s order concerning life support treatment, and it should be harmonized with the health care directive and with other health related estate planning documents.

Trusts are used for many purposes.  We draft trusts to carry out your long terms or contingent wishes.  See our separate section on Trusts.

Medicaid planning is sometimes needed for a people with a certain level of assets as an asset protection strategy.

If you need any of these estate planning services, or have questions about them, contact us to schedule a consultation.  At the end of our discussion, we can tell you what our flat fee would be for various estate planning options.  If no estate planning documents are needed, we will tell you and there will be no fee.

Estate Planning Flat Fees.

Depending on the work to be done, we specify our flat fee at the end of your first estate planning appointment.