Estate Planning

Provide yourself and your loved ones with protection and security by eliminating the uncertainties over your final wishes, maximizing the value of your estate and reducing taxes and other expenses.

Why Estate Planning Matters

Proper planning today helps avoid complications tomorrow. By preparing in advance, you can protect yourself and your loved ones, save time and expense, and ensure your wishes are honored.

Which Estate Plan is Right for Me?

Every family and person is different — your estate planning should be, too.
Estate Planning begins with a planning meeting, to determine your concerns and goals for handling periods of incapacity and how the estate should be distributed upon death. We prepare wills, revocable trusts, durable powers of attorney, and advance health care directives for each client, to address those concerns and accommodate those goals. We assist with funding the trust by preparing a certification of trust, trust transfer deeds to transfer real property to the trust, assignments of LLC membership interests to transfer LLC membership the trust, stock certificates to transfer corporate stock to the trust.
We give guidance on how clients will transfer their bank and brokerage accounts to the trust, and how they should complete beneficiary designations for retirement plans (IRA, 401(k)) and life insurance. In some cases we also create irrevocable trusts such as irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILIT), charitable remainder trusts (CRT), or gifting trusts. We advise clients on transferring assets to, and managing, the trusts.

Three Plans, Tailored to Your Needs

Foundational

Essential Protection

Straightforward estates designed for probate avoidance, incapacity planning, and essential asset coordination.

Comprehensive

Enhanced Protection

For families looking to protect a spouse, children, or others, with growing assets and enhanced coordination. Features estate-tax planning and asset protection.

Advanced Legacy

Maximum Protection

Protection for the spouse plus longer-term protection for children. Advanced estate tax planning and asset protection — ideal for higher net-worth families or business owners.

Plan Comparison at a Glance

Foundational Comprehensive Advanced Legacy
Counseling, plan design & selection
Probate avoidance
Incapacity planning
Distribution planning
Guardian nominations (minor children)
Trust funding instructions
Retirement & life insurance designations
For spouse or children:
For both spouse and children:
Asset protection planning
Separate-property planning
Distribution protection
Estate-tax planning
Legacy plan for spouse & children
Transfer documents
1 included
1 included
3 included

What Every Plan Includes

Every estate plan includes a Revocable Trust, Pour-Over Will, Durable Power of Attorney, Advance Health Care Directive, and Certification of Trust. All documents are organized in a document portfolio and digital copies are provided.

Counseling, Plan Design & Selection

Personalized guidance to evaluate your goals, family dynamics, and financial picture — helping you choose the plan that fits your needs.

Probate Avoidance

Assets in your trust bypass court-supervised probate — saving time and roughly $46,000+ in fees for the first $1M of estate value.

Incapacity Planning

Your trustees and agents manage financial, medical, and personal decisions if you become

Distribution Planning

Control who inherits, when, and under what conditions — rather than relying on default statutory rules.

Guardian Nominations

Nominate trusted guardians for minor children in the event of your incapacity or death.

Trust Funding

Certification of Trust, written funding instructions, form letters, beneficiary designation forms. Transfer documents can include trust transfer deeds and assignments of stock or other business interests.

Beneficiary Designations

Updated beneficiary designation forms for retirement accounts and life insurance, ensuring these assets pass according to your plan.

Advanced Planning Features

Available in Comprehensive and Advanced Legacy plans

Asset Protection Planning

Comprehensive Advanced
Structures designed to shield assets from creditors, lawsuits, and other claims — protecting wealth for your spouse, children, and future generations.

Separate-Property Planning

Comprehensive Advanced
Manage and distribute inherited or separate assets independently from marital or community property — for example, leaving separate property directly to children; or for children, keeping their inheritance separate from their marital assets.

Distribution Protection

Comprehensive Advanced
Ensures beneficiary identity cannot be changed after death. Assets left to a spouse will pass to your children upon their death — never to unintended beneficiaries. Assets left to children will not pass to inlaws or divorcing spouses.

Estate-Tax Planning

Comprehensive Advanced
For estates exceeding $15M per person or $30M per couple, provisions allow assets to pass in ways that defer, minimize, or avoid estate taxes.

GST-Tax Planning

Comprehensive Advanced
Generation-skipping transfer tax planning preserves more wealth across generations — ensuring assets reach grandchildren and beyond with minimal tax impact.

Legacy Plan for Spouse & Children

Advanced Legacy Only
All the advanced planning features apply to both spouse and children, for maximum protection of your family and legacy.

For further information about our services, availability, and fees, please