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No matter how modest you believe your estate to be, it is worth protecting. You have worked for an entire lifetime to accumulate your assets and possessions, and you should decide how and to whom they are given when you pass on.
At Moore Law, LLC, we offer highly experienced estate planning services as part of our larger elder law practice. When you work with our firm, you can be sure that your estate plan will be comprehensive, legally sound and a reflection of your wishes. In most situations we even can plan a cost effective plan that avoids the unnecessary costs of probate while also minimizing any expenses to the client now.
While a will is not the only estate planning tool you’ll need, it is certainly the cornerstone of your estate plan. Therefore, it is critical for this document to be accurate and thorough.
Many people try to save money by writing the will themselves, often using forms they found online. This is usually a mistake that could end up costing you more money than hiring an attorney would have. A will is only useful if it is deemed valid, and mistakes or omissions could easily invalidate a will.
If a will is created by an unskilled person, it could result in your assets not being distributed according to your wishes and often results in unnecessary fees and expenses. You have saved your entire life to provide a legacy to your heirs. You should work with a skilled elder law attorney to ensure that your wishes and legacy are properly preserved. The attorneys at Moore Law, LLC focus on created the best plan for their clients and take all steps necessary to ensure all of our client’s wishes and concerns are properly addressed and planned for through a legally executed Last Will and Testament.
When we meet with you, we will also discuss other elements of your estate plan, including:
Power of attorney: If you ever become mentally incapacitated (due to a major medical event, dementia, Alzheimer’s, coma, etc.), you will be unable to tend to your own affairs. Someone will need to make financial and legal decisions on your behalf. Therefore, it should be someone you trust and have personally chosen to represent you. It is also easier and cheaper to designate someone now than to have a lawyer establish guardianship once incapacity has already occurred.
A living will: Late-life medical care has become very advanced, but it comes with some difficult and expensive trade-offs. Quantity of life isn’t the same as quality of life. By creating a living will, you can communicate ahead of time about your wishes for treatment and end-of-life care. You can also designate a health care decision-maker to make decisions on your behalf in any scenario that has not been covered in the living will.
A basic revocable living trust: These legal instruments offer a lot of flexibility when it comes to passing along assets to your named beneficiaries.
An irrevocable trust: This legal document is used to try and help preserve assets for Medicaid planning purposes. Many people think that a revocable trust serves the purpose of protecting assets for Medicaid planning. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Only a properly structured trust will work to protect assets.
We believe that good estate planning can save you money both at the time they are creating you estate plan but also after your death. This is achieved by eliminating the need for probate and advising clients of the low cost (or often free) steps they can take to achieve their estate planning goals. We also know that not every legal tool is needed or even appropriate for every client. We try to be as cost-effective as possible by choosing the right tools and strategies to maximize results and minimize the possibility of problems later on.
Although avoiding probate is a primary goal of estate planning, there are times when it cannot be avoided. In cases where probate is necessary, it is in your best interests to hire an experienced lawyer. Our firm works with our clients and focuses on taking as much stress and responsibility off of them as possible. We work to give heirs and beneficiaries all the information they need about their rights and responsibilities.
We may also be able to save time and money through probate alternatives. For instance, if the estate’s assets are less than $50,000 in value, we can often distribute estate property by using a small estate affidavit or small estate transfer. These options are faster and cheaper than the full probate process.
Moore Law, LLC, is based in Batesville. We serve clients throughout southeastern Indiana and the rest of the state. To get case-specific advice from a lawyer in an initial consultation, call us at 812-932-1227 or send us an email.
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