An estate planning attorney plays a vital role in the probate court process and estate planning. They are competent in federal and state laws that affect your estate. These laws may determine how your estate is valued, inventoried, taxed, and dispersed once you die. An estate planning attorney will not only educate you on critical probate matters in estate planning but will also help you execute the following matters:
Creating a Will
A will is an essential document for anyone who hits 18 of age. It’s the blueprint for the distribution of your belongings and helps deter havoc between heirs. If you die without the document, you risk leaving your wishes undone. Moreover, heirs may spend additional time and money settling your affairs after passing on.
A Will also names pre-supposed guardians for young kids and designates them to assume parenthood for pets. You can also offer assets to charitable organizations using the power of a will.
Overall, a will can help you decide upfront who gets your assets, which one, and how much. Also, it helps keep those assets from the hands of nontargeted individuals.
Will are inexpensive legal documents to compose depending on your asset complexity and geographic location. As you plan the official delegation of your estate, the importance of having an attorney familiar with wills and estate management cannot be understated. The attorney plays a critical role by offering their long-term experience during will creation as you distill your wishes for the assets, which could be invaluable in the future.
An estate planning attorney can ensure your will conforms to legal requirements, accurately list down your disposable assets (not all property is will-worthy), build a complete will, ensure nothing significant is left out and help validate your will by ensuring they write it with a sound mind.
Designating Your Beneficiaries
Just like drafting a will, creating a beneficiary document is closely essential. The two terms (will and beneficiary) hold close relations but incorporate different aspects, and an estate planning attorney can efficiently help you create both.
A beneficiary designation depicts an individual to inherit a particular asset should you pass on. Each beneficiary holds a unique asset, which is managed and filed by the body that holds it. For example, suppose you buy an insurance policy. In that case, the insurance firm issues a beneficiary designation document, requiring your specification of the next inheritor for the policy should your death come early. The difference is that a will covers the entire assets, whereas the beneficiary’s document rides on a specified individual asset. When choosing and naming your beneficiaries, an estate planning attorney can help depict the designations that best suit your personalized estate plan. Also, you can override several beneficiaries designating issues and mistakes potentially involved by hiring assistance from an estate planning attorney. For instance, you might involve minor children that aren’t ready for distribution outright. Or some of your designation considerations might be loved ones with special needs.
Establishing power of Attorney
A power of attorney is a legal document that entitles another party (atone-in-fact or agent) to represent the principal(you) to execute matters on your behalf. Therefore, the named agent has the authority to make either large-scale or limited decisions. The two powers of attorney are financial power of attorney and healthcare power of attorney. These can be covered under a limited power of attorney, durable power of attorney, and general power of attorney.
You can craft power of attorney on your own, but the process can be tricky and confusing. An estate planning attorney can help you through the involved legal terms and protocols if you’re not competent in this field. They also help you draft the document in accordance with state law and cover the review part for accuracy.
Bypassing the Probate Court process
If you neglect proper estate planning, probate can become a time-consuming, expensive, and stressful endeavor for your heirs. As much as you pursue end-of-life documents like wills and advanced directives, you should strive enough to avoid probate.
Probate is a court-managed process of settling your affairs (estate) and distributing ownership to heirs. You should avoid probate because the payment process and the gathering of assets can be costly and time-consuming, and property distribution to loved ones can delay. In the deep end, a drawn-out case can take years, dipping into assets meant for distribution.
You can call upon an estate planning attorney for proper guidance in probate court if you are entitled to a power of attorney. In fact, if the attorney is good enough, they can help you avoid the probate process altogether.
