What is a Probate Lawyer?
Since we can’t take it with us, as the saying goes, a probate lawyer’s job is to make sure your assets are distributed as you wish after you are gone. Proper execution means developing an effective estate plan, creating your will or living trust, and helping your executor pay the debts and distribute your assets to your beneficiaries.
When creating their will, an individual has the option to distribute assets to whomever they choose.
As we know, testators do not always elect to assign their assets in conventional ways. For example, one may choose to leave their wealth with an animal welfare society or other charity or to a close friend rather than to their children.
Sometimes the execution of a will does not go as smoothly as the deceased person and, most likely, the executor would have hoped. At times, a relative or someone close to the decedent may contest a will believing that their share of assets stipulated by the will must be wrong.
When a parent passes, the executor and the children of the deceased may face several challenges while liquidating the assets of the estate. While some aspects can be somewhat perplexing, an experienced estate attorney will help to smooth the way.
Power of attorney is a legal concept with which most of us are familiar, but may never fully understand until it is needed.
In its many forms, a power of attorney (POA) is a written document by which one person, the principal, authorizes another, a competent adult, to act as an agent to perform specified functions on the principal’s behalf. The extent of the agent or “attorney-in-fact” authority to act is defined by the type of POA agreement.
As we grow older, perhaps retired from working and raising families, the need for assistance with elder legal matters, estate planning, will and trust administration, and elder rights begin to come into sharper focus.
Parents of children with special needs are appropriately concerned about dying or no longer being able to care adequately for their dependent offspring. While in most instances, estates divide evenly among all children of the deceased, special needs children may require a larger share of the assets for their proper care in a stable and supportive environment.
When considering the various components of your will, tax considerations should be an important element to discuss with your professional estate planner. After all, leaving your heirs with substantially less because of an unintended tax bite is likely not your intent.
When you were just starting out and beginning to accumulate assets, thoughts of caring for your growing family’s future if you were suddenly gone likely developed. While in your twenties or thirties, you began to save, invest, and maybe even purchased a life insurance policy to protect your family’s financial future in the event of unfortunate circumstances.
Executors of the will of a relative or other loved one have an important obligation. That person has been bestowed the job of ensuring that all assets are distributed properly, according to their wishes, to all designated heirs. The task does not end until any probate court proceedings have been concluded, a final tax return filed, and the assets fully dispersed.
