Estate Planning

The core objectives of our estate planning services are:

Core Objectives

• Preserve assets for family members and heirs (including life partners)

• Protect assets from claims of creditors and, where appropriate and desired, spouses of family members

• Provide for the management of a client’s health care and financial assets in the event of the client’s temporary or permanent disability

• Arrange for as smooth, quick, cost effective and discreet transfer of assets to family members and other heirs as is appropriate to each client’s family and financial circumstances upon a client’s death

Types of Documents we Prepare.

(partial listing)

Wills

Wills are traditional estate planning tools. A will is often necessary to ensure proper distribution of your property.

Trusts

In a Trust, you transfer property to another person or entity, known as the trustee, who now will legally own that property.

Durable Powers of Attorney

Durable Powers of Attorney are the traditional documents for incapacity planning.

Advance Medical Directives

An Advance Medical Directive, which in Virginia is the combination of both a living will and a health care power of attorney, is necessary when you are no longer able to make medical decisions on your own.

Tax Issues

Tax implications of a person’s estate often affect proper estate planning. Understanding the intricacies of applicable tax issues can be confusing. Our attorneys have the knowledge and experience to recognize and resolve these tax issues, setting us apart from other Prince William, Stafford and Fairfax estate planning law firms.

Carrying Out Your Goals

Our attorneys know how to listen. The most important element of estate planning is to ensure our client’s goals and interests are ultimately carried out. Tax and administrative considerations often conflict with the desires of the client concerning the disposition of property. A client’s comfort level is the key factor to ensure that these tax and administrative considerations do not override the need to carry out the client’s wishes.

What’s next?

To be able to properly assist in your estate planning needs, we first must assemble information about your family and financial assets. Further, we must meet with you to hear from you and listen to you about your specific concerns and goals to be incorporated into the documents that you may engage us to prepare for you. Until we have the opportunity to gather the necesssary family and financial information, as well as meet with you to discuss your goals and objectives, we obviously are in no position to be able to quote a fee to you for our services. For these reasons we are unable and unwilling to quote fees, or even ranges of fees over the phone.

Rather, if you are a new client to the office, please click this link which describes our protocol and process.

If you are a returning client, it remains essential for us to update the family and financial information used to create your current estate plan in order to advise you about changes that you should be considering. Returning clients should click this link, which describes the protocol and process we follow for returning clients.

For answers to common questions regarding wills and probate, Click Here