Core Estate Planning

If you are at a milestone in your life or in the life of your business, or if you simply long for the peace of mind of knowing that the tough decisions have been made, now is the time to begin the planning process. 

If you are ready to begin the process, please download the appropriate client questionnaire and start gathering the requested information.

       Client Questionnaire for Individual
       Client Questionnaire for Couple

Through the core planning process, you will gain a better understanding of what is ultimately important to you, and good planning will help you provide for:

Health Care Decision-Making

Most people would prefer to keep their medical decision-making out of the court system and handle them privately in their own family or circle of confidence. With custom planning, you can not only appoint someone to make health care decisions for you in the event of your own incapacity, but leave a detailed set of instructions and preferences for the person you appoint. Our process includes a detailed interview about how you would want to be cared for in the event you are not able to communicate your preferences in the future. Extensive questions are asked, many that you may have never considered, to determine your preferences. The process allows you to take control over the unknown and create peace of mind that your health care decisions will be guided by your own desires. The resulting documents may include an Advance Health Care Directive and Living Will, among others.

Financial Decision-Making

A Conservator is a person appointed by a court to look after someone's financial affairs. By arranging your affairs and creating a comprehensive plan to manage your finances, you can effectively create what I refer to as a "private conservatorship" and keep this process out of the courts and in the hands of people you trust. Financial decision-making often goes beyond paying bills and cashing checks, and can include managing expenditures that are important to you, such as providing for your loved ones and pets, gifting to charities and allocating funds to alternative or experimental medical treatments.

Care and Raising of Children

Choosing a guardian is one of the most difficult, and rewarding, decisions a parent can make. Making this decision may be tough for you, but leaving a plan for their care and raising is one more way to show your children how much you love them if you are not there to tell them. The plan should address not only who will care for your children, but how and what values, principals and goals should be instilled. It will also include guidance on how to provide for your children financially - whether you want your assets used liberally for their benefit, or more conservatively, and what sorts of extraordinary expenditures you would make for your children, if you had been there to make that decision.

It is especially critical that families with special needs children adequately plan for life's contingencies. While no one could replace the parents of a special needs child, proper planning, including a Special Needs Trust, can ensure that the next-best person is in line to care for the special individual and manage finances for their benefit.

Avoiding Court Proceedings

Court proceedings on incapacity and death can be costly, time-consuming, embarrassing. Most people would choose to avoid the courts when a life event occurs. With proper planning, your personal affairs can remain in private hands. This saves you money, time and publicity.

Unmarried and Same-Sex Couples

Gay and lesbian couples, as well as unmarried heterosexual couples, face unique challenges in protecting jointly owned property or in dividing assets in case the relationship ends. If you have not stated your wishes in a valid legal document, you risk your right to choose who you want to make vital decisions about your health care and finances. Your partner may have no right to inherit your property, raise your children (unless you are both the biological/legal parents), and may not even have the right to visit you in the hospital. Proper planning for these non-traditional couples is essential.