Estate Planning

The Documents: A typical estate plan includes the following documents:

  • Will
  • Revocable Living Trust (if probate is a concern)
  • Documents transferring assets to the Revocable Living Trust, if applicable
  • General Durable Power of Attorney (a financial power of attorney)
  • Health Care Power of Attorney
  • HIPPA Authorization
  • Living Will (advance directive)

These documents appoint who will help you with financial and health care matters during life, if needed, and the distribution of assets at your death.

Click here for a detailed discussion of these documents.

The Steps:

  • Estate Planning Questionnaire. If you have time before we meet, please complete our estate planning questionnaire.
  • Initial Meeting. In our initial meeting, we discuss your family, your assets, different options for distributing assets at death, who can best make financial and health care decisions on your behalf and any applicable tax issues.
  • Draft Documents. Within a couple weeks of our initial meeting, I will email or mail draft documents for your review.
  • Answer Questions & Input Changes. We will discuss any questions you have and make any changes to the documents to get them operating in accordance with your wishes.
  • Sign Documents. Once the drafts are finalized, you can sign the documents and breathe a sigh of relief. We give you all original documents and email a pdf version of the signed documents.

 

Other Trusts

Beyond the typical estate plan, we also prepare life insurance trusts (ILITs), land trusts, supplemental or special needs trusts and other irrevocable trusts for asset protection.

 

Estate and Trust Administration

We assist clients with all steps of administering Wills, Trusts and intestate estates (when someone dies without a Will). Click below for a discussion of probate assets and the probate process in North Carolina.

Probate Process in North Carolina

Small Businesses

We work primarily with small businesses, forming entities and preparing and negotiating the following types of agreements:

  • Agreements between business owners (limited liability company operating agreements, partnership agreements and corporate buy-sell agreements and bylaws)
  • Agreements between businesses and their vendors, customers and contractors
  • Agreements to sell business assets or ownership interests

 

Tax Issues and Negotiation

We assist clients with federal and North Carolina tax issues, tax audits and the settlement of tax liabilities.