Estate Planning

At Talis Law, we provide a flat-fee estate planning package for most clients. This package includes wills, durable powers of attorney for finances and for health care, health care directives, and burial instructions. We can also prepare an estate planning package using a revocable trust (also known as a “living trust”), rather than a will if you choose.

For an individual client, the package fee is $2,500, and for married couples it is $3,500.  If you choose to plan with a revocable trust, there is an additional charge of $500.

Wills

Your will sets out how you want your property to be distributed upon your passing. A will can be used to leave bequests to family members, friends, or charities.

Along with leaving property directly to a beneficiary, your will can also create a trust for them for personal or for tax reasons. Unlike other trusts, which may come into effect during your lifetime, a trust you create in your will does not come into effect until your death. These trusts can benefit your spouse, children, parents, and even your pets. You can also establish a special needs trust for someone who is either receiving needs-based government benefits, such as Medicaid, or who may need to qualify for those programs in the future.

Power of Attorney

When a person (the “principal”) executes a durable power of attorney, he or she is appointing an agent (the “attorney in fact”) to act on his or her behalf. A durable power of attorney does NOT take away the principal’s rights to act for him or herself. It simply appoints an agent to act for the principal.

There are two types of durable powers of attorney: property and health care. A durable power of attorney for property grants the attorney in fact the power to help manage the principal’s assets, including bank and stock account transactions, buying and selling property, paying bills, etc.

A durable power of attorney for health care authorizes the attorney in fact to make health care decisions for the principal if he or she cannot do so. It also allows the attorney in fact to to access the principal’s health care records and to discuss the principal’s health care with his or her doctors or other health care providers.

Having a power of attorney is important because it avoids an expensive court proceeding (a guardianship) if you become incapacitated and cannot make these decisions yourself.

Trusts

Unlike a will, which sets out how you would like your property to be distributed upon your death, a trust sets out a plan to manage your assets both during your life and after your death.

To use a trust for estate planning, a person (the “trustor”) establishes the trust and then transfers property into that trust. Those assets are managed by a person designated in the trust agreement (the “trustee”). The trustee can make distributions of trust assets for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries. Quite often, the trustor is also the trustee well as a beneficiary of the trust. This type of trust is generally referred to as a “revocable trust” or a “living trust,” and may be used to avoid probate (or probate in multiple jurisdictions), provide privacy, and manage assets when the trustor is no longer capable of doing so.

The trust agreement sets out the rules the trustee must follow when making distributions to the beneficiaries, which may include the allowable purposes, amounts, and timing of those distributions.

If the trustor has chosen to also be the trustee, upon the trustor’s death, a successor trustee takes over to manage the trust assets. Depending on the trust provisions, the trustee either distributes the trust assets to the remainder beneficiaries named in the trust, or if the trust creates continuing trusts for some or all of the beneficiaries. As with the probate process, the administration of a trust upon the trustor’s death will require that the trustee ascertain and protect the trust assets, prepare all necessary tax reporting, pay or arrange for payment of the trustor’s valid debts, pay administration costs, and, ultimately, deliver the trust assets in the manner provided in the trust instrument.

Health Care Directives

A health care directive (also known as a “living will”) sets out your instructions to your doctors about withholding (or not withholding) medical treatment intended to prolong your life if you are in a terminal state and death is imminent, or if you in a permanent unconscious state. The document comes into effect only if you are unable to make your wishes known at that time.

Probate

Probate is the court process through which a person’s estate is administered after his or her death. That estate may be distributed under the provisions of that person’s will (a “testate estate” administered by an executor) or, if that person did not have a will, the estate is distributed as specified in state statutes (an “intestate estate” administered by an administrator). We use the term “personal representative” to refer to both executors and administrators.

A probate is started by the personal representative petitioning the court to open the probate and by summitting the decedent’s original will, assuming they left one. Once the probate has been opened and the personal representative is confirmed, the personal representative has the duty to inventory and safeguard the decedent’s property, determine the decedent’s debts, prepare any necessary tax reports, and to pay the estate’s administration costs (e.g., attorney and accountant fees, appraisal costs, etc.). Once the debts, costs, and taxes have been addressed, the personal representative has the duty to distribute the remaining assets in the manner directed in the decedent’s will or, if decedent did not leave a will, to the decedent’s heirs at law (i.e., the individuals specified under state law to receive those assets).