Estate Planning and Administration

Estate Planning

“The firm assists clients of various levels of wealth in planning for the orderly transfer, at their deaths, of their assets to be transferred as they intended. Included are numerous high net worth clients who found themselves faced with significant death-tax issues, but also those qualifying for pro bono assistance and referred to the firm by Legal Volunteers, who are equally concerned that their belongings be bequeathed as they see fit.

Because estate planning often involves much more than just a will, the firm advises its clients regarding the wide array of devices that can be used to accomplish their estate-planning goals, from simple wills to those involving the types of trusts necessary to maximize use of the exemptions available for federal estate and gift-tax purposes and thereby minimize or avoid death taxes; wills for parents in blended families; trusts ranging from those intended to finance grandkids’ college educations to those intended to provide for disabled children or others with special needs; formation of entities to be used as vehicles for management and gifting of assets in tax efficient ways; appropriate titling or transfers of property; lifetime gifting; powers of attorney; living wills and appointment of healthcare representatives.

The firm relies upon and works closely with qualified CPA’s and financial advisors in crafting estate plans for those needing specialized approaches.”

Estate Administration & Probate Law

In addition to estate planning for over 35 years, Mick Ward has also handled numerous estates for those whose wills or other estate-planning documents have “matured.” Lawyers that focus their practice on estate administration know that, when a person dies, it often involves something more, or something else, than just opening an estate. Sometimes assets can be transferred without a formal estate administration. Those dying with trusts need their trusts to be administered. Sometimes it’s a matter of doing the documentation necessary to establish that, at a person’s death, title to their assets vested in others as a matter of law. The firm determines which approach is most appropriate for the particular set of circumstances presented by each person’s death and pursues the one that is best suited to most effectively, efficiently, expeditiously and economically transfer the decedent’s assets to the decedent’s intended beneficiaries.