Estate Planning

Estate planning is about more than deciding who receives your property after you die. A well-designed estate plan can help protect you during your lifetime, provide for the people you care about, simplify the administration of your affairs, and make sure your wishes are clearly documented.

At Carlin Law, we work with individuals and families to develop estate plans based on their particular circumstances and goals. Some clients need a straightforward will and powers of attorney. Others may benefit from a revocable living trust, planning for minor or disabled beneficiaries, business succession planning, or more comprehensive asset and long-term care planning.

There is no single estate plan that is right for everyone. We help you understand your options and determine what makes sense for you and your family.

What Should an Estate Plan Accomplish?

A good estate plan should address more than the distribution of property. Depending on your circumstances, your plan may help you:

• Determine who will receive your property
• Choose who will manage your affairs if you become incapacitated
• Nominate guardians for minor children
• Provide for children or other beneficiaries over time rather than through an outright inheritance
• Plan for a beneficiary with a disability or special needs
• Protect assets for your family
• Address the needs of a blended family
• Reduce the likelihood of disputes among family members
• Coordinate beneficiary designations and other non-probate assets
• Avoid or simplify probate when appropriate
• Plan for the succession of a family business
• Provide for charitable gifts
• Prepare for potential long-term care needs

Our goal is not simply to prepare documents. We want the documents, beneficiary designations, property ownership, and overall plan to work together.

Wills and Revocable Living Trusts

A Last Will and Testament allows you to direct how probate property will be distributed, nominate a personal representative to administer your estate, nominate guardians for minor children, and establish trusts or other provisions for beneficiaries when appropriate.

A Revocable Living Trust can provide additional flexibility. When properly created and funded, a trust can provide for management of assets during incapacity, establish detailed instructions for beneficiaries, and allow trust assets to pass without probate.

A trust is not automatically better than a will. For some clients, a will-based estate plan is entirely appropriate. For others, the additional flexibility and probate-avoidance features of a trust are valuable.

We help clients evaluate the advantages and disadvantages rather than starting with the assumption that everyone needs the same documents.

Planning for Incapacity

Estate planning is not only about what happens after death.

A comprehensive plan should also address what happens if an illness, injury, or other circumstance leaves you unable to manage your own affairs.

Depending on your needs, an estate plan may include a financial power of attorney, health care power of attorney, authorization for access to medical information, and provisions within a trust addressing incapacity.

Having these documents in place can allow people you trust to make financial and health care decisions when you cannot and may reduce the need for court involvement.

Planning for Children and Other Beneficiaries

Leaving property to someone is only part of the decision. You should also consider how and when they should receive it.

An outright inheritance may not be appropriate for a minor child, a young adult, a beneficiary with a disability, or someone who may have difficulty managing a significant inheritance.

Trust provisions can allow you to establish who will manage the property, what it may be used for, and when or under what circumstances it will ultimately be distributed.

We can also help with planning for blended families, beneficiaries with special needs, and other circumstances where a simple division of assets may not accomplish what you intend.

Avoiding Probate

Many clients come to us because they want to avoid probate. 

Probate avoidance, however, should not be the only goal of an estate plan. The appropriate strategy depends on the type of property you own, your family circumstances, and what you want to accomplish.

We can help determine whether avoiding probate makes sense for you and, if so, how your assets should be structured to accomplish that goal.

Estate Planning and Long-Term Care

Estate planning and long-term care planning frequently overlap, but they are not the same thing.

For clients concerned about future nursing-home or long-term care costs, traditional estate planning may need to be coordinated with Medicaid planning. The appropriate strategy can be very different depending on whether long-term care is only a future concern or someone is already receiving nursing-home care.

We handle both advance and crisis Medicaid planning and can coordinate that planning with your broader estate plan.

When Should I Review My Estate Plan?

An estate plan should not necessarily sit untouched for the rest of your life. It is worth reviewing after significant changes such as marriage or divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, the death or disability of a beneficiary or fiduciary, substantial changes in assets, acquiring real estate, starting or selling a business, or significant changes in your long-term care concerns.

Even without a major life event, periodically reviewing your plan can help ensure that the documents and beneficiary designations still reflect what you want.

Start With a Conversation

You do not need to know whether you need a will, trust, or another particular document before meeting with us. That is part of the estate-planning process.

We will discuss your family, property, concerns, and goals; explain the available options; and help you develop an estate plan appropriate for your circumstances.

Contact Carlin Law to schedule an estate planning consultation.