What Documents Will You Need for Proper Estate Planning?
The documents you’ll need to meet your estate planning objectives depends on what your needs are. It’s possible you may need a very comprehensive estate plan, or it is possible you may need very few documents. At Lee Kiefer & Park, we thoroughly discuss with our clients their estate planning wants and needs to develop the right plan for them. This blog covers some of the basic estate planning documents and the benefits they provide.
If you are considering creating an estate plan or changing existing estate planning documents, Lee Kiefer & Park’s Las Vegas estate planning attorneys Jordanna Evans and Greg J. Carlson can answer your questions to help you make the right decisions. Call us at 702-333-1711 today to learn more.
Lee Kiefer & Park practices solely in trust and estate law. We are not a Swiss army knife law firm. Because of our narrow focus, we have invaluable experience and proficiency with trusts and estate planning.
Customized Legal Documents That Fit Your Needs
Fill-in-the-blank estate planning forms (such as the ones you can find on the internet) may do more harm than good. Your needs are unique, and so your estate planning documents should reflect your unique situation. Your documents should be customized, consistent, and cohesive. Documents contradicting each other will confuse those administering your plan and, depending on the situation, could result in your appointed representatives and beneficiaries going to court to clarify your intent.
Here are some documents that estate planning attorneys at Lee Kiefer & Park may prepare for you.
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Will
With a will, you can state what you want to happen with your property after you pass away, after your estate pays the necessary debts, fees, and taxes. You can leave your assets to family members, friends, charities, or whomever you want (your “beneficiaries”). Through your will, you could also fund a testamentary trust established upon your death to benefit others. If you have minor children or an older child who’s severely disabled, you can nominate who you want to be named as their guardian (the court makes the final decision). Without a will, your assets will be divided among your next of kin pursuant to state law. If you’re married, community property laws will come into play when determining what happens to your assets upon your death.
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Trusts
Through a trust, you can give control of property to a trustee who will manage and distribute the property for the trust beneficiaries you designate, pursuant to the terms and conditions you specify. Beneficiaries can be family, friends, charities, religious organizations, and during your lifetime, you can be the beneficiary of your own trust. A trust can become operative before or after your death. A trust is most often used to avoid the lengthy probate process upon your death, and/or to appoint a trustee to manage assets on behalf of a beneficiary that may be unable to so do for himself or herself due to age or physical or psychological disability.
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Beneficiary Designations
Certain types of assets can pass directly to beneficiaries upon your death without the need for a will or a trust. Such types of assets typically include life insurance policies and retirement accounts. These assets can be passed to others without going through the probate process. All you need to do is designate your desired beneficiaries for those assets on a beneficiary designation form directly with the institution administering the policy or account.
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Powers of Attorney
You can have your agent (who acts on your behalf) make financial or healthcare decisions for you through a power of attorney. These types of documents are good to have in place, so when the time comes when you are unwilling or unable to make financial or healthcare choices on your own, a trusted person you designate can do so for you. Powers of attorney can be “durable” (they go into effect when you sign them) or “springing” (they go into effect if and when you become incapable of making decisions for yourself).
You often get what you pay for when it comes to estate planning documents. By working with one of our estate planning lawyers, you can be confident that your estate planning documents are adequate to meet your needs. The more you rely on do-it-yourself documents or get documents from an attorney who practices in many other areas (other than estate planning), the greater the risk your documents will not meet your needs, and/or cause legal problems down the road. A well-thought-out and crafted estate planning document will be difficult to challenge.
Contact an Estate Planning Attorney in Las Vegas
Estate planning documents accomplish many different objectives. After a consultation with a Lee Kiefer & Park estate planning lawyer, we can create the documents that meet your wants and needs. If you or someone you know needs estate planning in Nevada, whether in Las Vegas or Henderson, contact our estate planners for a free consultation using our online contact form. Or call 702-333-1711 to speak to a Las Vegas, Nevada estate planning attorney.
Attorney Kennedy Lee practices in all aspects of trust and estate law. He views all legal issues from multiple angles (e.g. from litigation to administration point of view) to provide a higher quality of service to our client.