Parker Estate Planning Attorney

Parker Estate Planning Lawyer

Estate planning can be an intimidating prospect, especially when you have a complex set of assets. It can be difficult to understand how you should handle all of them and how you should prepare your estate. Fortunately, the right Parker estate planning attorney can help you understand your options and suggest routes you may use to approach your situation.

At Burr Law, we take a customized approach to estate planning. We seek a strong understanding of our client’s goals and objectives, then make sure we craft a plan that meets these objectives. It’s important to remember that good estate planning can be critical to easing the stress and burden on your family during what is sure to already be a difficult time for them. We can help you develop a plan that may ease some of the stress following your death.

What Is Estate Planning?

In short, estate planning is preparing for how your estate will be handled when you’re gone or incapacitated. Broadly speaking, your estate involves all your assets. This will include things like property, investments, debts, business interests, and other elements of financial value, but a thorough estate plan can also include other elements such as your minor children, special needs dependents, and so on.

The tools of estate planning generally focus not only on what will happen when you’re gone but also on what will happen if you are incapacitated in some manner. Some of these tools include:

• • Wills. One of the most basic, though still powerful, tools of estate planning is a will. Without having at least a will, your estate will need to go through probate. This means your estate will be entirely subject to the laws governing that process, and you will have no influence on how the estate is handled. A will, though, can be somewhat limited in its ability to avoid certain financial impacts, such as taxes, on your estate.
  • Trusts. Although they tend to be more expensive and complicated to initiate than wills, trusts are often a much more powerful tool in estate planning. Assets that are placed into a trust are no longer subject to the probate process. This can protect them from financial exposure and, as probate is a public process, can keep your estate private.

When assets are placed into a trust, they are owned by the trust but can still be managed, used, and even sold by the trustee. When you die, you can arrange for a successor as trustee, who will need to manage the trust according to the requirements that you define.

• • Powers of Attorney. It’s important to have a plan in place for your estate that includes not just if you were to die but also if you were to become incapacitated, either temporarily or permanently. Powers of attorney are an important tool that, under certain conditions, give another person the opportunity to make critical decisions regarding your finances and healthcare.

These can provide specific instructions regarding how the power of attorney is to be used and which aspects they will have control over. These are a critical component of a thorough estate plan, as they allow a trusted person to preserve and manage your estate at a time when you may not be able to.

• Advanced Directives. Many people have specific wishes regarding an end-of-life situation and do not want to leave things purely up to the judgment of healthcare providers and family members. Advance directives are a tool that describes your preferences regarding end-of-life care, the treatment you would like to receive, and what you would like done in certain situations.

What Are the Objectives of Estate Planning?

Estate planning can have different objectives depending on the person and their circumstances. There are, however, some broad categories that the issues will generally fall into. They include:

• Asset Protection Planning. Throughout the course of their life, many people will build wealth through gathering assets. This can include things like real estate, personal property, investments, and other forms of value. It’s critical that you develop a plan to protect these assets, in both life, where a creditor, lawsuit, or divorce could put them at risk, and death, when you will want to be able to determine where those assets end up.
• Tax Planning. People who have acquired wealth want to be able to decide where that wealth ends up when they pass, whether it be to beneficiaries or charitable giving. Taxes, though, could significantly reduce the wealth that is available to be passed on and distributed. A good estate plan can be designed to minimize the impact of taxation so that more of your wealth can be directed where you would like it to go.
• Kids Protection Planning. Sadly, not every parent is able to see their children grow up. A good estate plan, though, will make clear the wishes of the parent with regard to whom their children should be raised. This helps guarantee they are raised according to your values and wishes.
• Special Needs Planning. For those caring for a special needs individual, an estate plan can describe the care for that individual once those responsible for them have died.

We Can Help Simplify Estate Planning

There are a lot of options available to someone planning how their estate will be handled after their death. The more complicated and vast the estate, the more complex the choices available. When deciding on what you need in your estate plan, it’s important that you have a strong understanding of what you want. Your choices will need to align with your objectives, and a Parker estate planning attorney can help make that happen.

At Burr Law, we believe that every estate plan should be custom designed to fit the precise needs of our clients. We understand how to make use of tools like wills and trusts to achieve different objectives. Taking the time to get a firm understanding of your goals and objectives with your estate plan is a critical part of what we do. If you are ready to discuss what you need from your estate plan, contact us today.