Estate Planning Lawyer in St George, Utah
No one plans for their death, but you can plan for what happens after. In the event of your demise, what happens to the people you care about? To the savings and investments, you worked hard for? Our skilled St George estate planning lawyer can ensure that your loved ones are cared for by giving your property to the right people when you pass away.
Our St George Utah attorneys at Boyack Christiansen Legal Solutions are here to help. Call us today at 435-674-2564 to get started with your estate plan today.
What is an Estate Plan?
An estate plan allows you to prepare in the event of your incapacitation or death. Through an estate plan, you can express how you want your assets to be managed and distributed, as well as the settling of estate taxes. Our experienced estate planning lawyer can assist in setting up an estate plan that reflects your wishes and protects your assets.
Estate planning involves determining how an individual’s assets will be preserved, managed, and distributed after death. It also takes into account the management of an individual’s properties and financial obligations in the event that they become incapacitated.
If you have any questions about how estate planning works, call our experienced St George Utah estate planning lawyer today.
Do You Need An Estate Plan?
Avoiding Probate
There are many reasons why you’re better off getting an estate plan. The first is to avoid probate. Probate is the legal process where the court checks the authenticity of your last will and testament. If you have a beneficiary, they have to wait until the probate is over before they get their inheritance. Probate also opens up the possibility of your estate going to someone else other than the intended beneficiaries.
If you have an estate plan, you can prevent your heirs from wasting time and money getting what is rightfully theirs. Our experienced St George estate planning lawyer can ensure that your loved ones get their inheritance as soon as legally possible. Call our estate planning law offices now!
Guardianship
Another reason is to take care of your kids. Should you die early, you’d want to make sure that the minor children are cared for.
When a person has minor children, it’s important to have a last will and testament, at the very least. An estate plan involves guardianship, letting you name a trusted person to take care of your kids before they turn 18. Otherwise, it will be up to a judge to determine who raises their children in the unfortunate event that they pass away before their children are raised.
The lack of estate planning has resulted in protracted battles between family members. In other cases, it’s the heart-breaking circumstance of no one stepping forward and being willing to raise the children.
In our area, we are blessed with excellent judges. However, they may not choose a family member to raise the children whose values are similar to those of the parents. So if you would like a say in which family member or friend raises your children, you should see an estate planning lawyer to get help in drafting a will.
At the Boyack Christiansen Legal Solutions, we understand that children are treasures. We’ll craft an estate plan that will have your kids’ best interests, making sure they’re cared for even after you’re deceased.
Make Transferring Assets Easier
Another reason for estate planning is to smoothen the transition and transfer of assets after your passing. From the examples given above, if assets are not dealt with through an estate plan, there can be great expense and difficulty in getting those assets to the persons you desire.
Most, if not all, of the worst-case scenarios mentioned above could have been prevented had these individuals contacted an estate attorney before they took the actions they took. We all want our loved ones to be cared for even in our passing. This is why it’s best to talk to our St George Utah estate planning attorney!
Call our law office now at 435-674-2564 to have a skilled estate planning lawyer review your estate plan.
Why You Should Have An Estate Plan in Utah
Whether you’re an “invincible” healthy young woman in her mid-20’s or a 50- something-year-old entrepreneur on your third big venture, you probably don’t relish the thought of taking time out of your busy life to contemplate what will happen to you when you become unwell and when you die.
This is normal – it’s human nature to want to avoid these kinds of conversations.
That said, since you’re reading this, you already understand (to a degree) that you need such plans in place. However, you may not fully appreciate the full purpose of estate planning.
Here’s a perspective you might not have considered. The late General (and President) Dwight D. Eisenhower once offered the following Yoda-like observation: “plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
What Eisenhower meant by that strange statement is that the plans you make today – before you go to battle or get sick – will change as circumstances change. You can never figure out what an enemy will do in a war or how new tax laws will evolve or how the stock market will flow.
However, the act of planning in and of itself organizes you to meet the surprises of the future more nimbly.
As an example, Holly had a solid estate plan that reflected her priorities. She got sick with leukemia and had to spend months in the hospital. But she managed her business and finances because she had done the spadework when she was well.
The farm analogy rings true. You sew the field in good weather, so you can reap the harvest and eat in bad weather.
Preparation helps your family. Rodrigo suddenly died in a car accident, leaving his two small children and spouse faced with possible bills, creditors, and tax headaches. Although grieving, his family was relieved that he had done his due diligence, obtained the right insurance, and established trusts. Rodrigo shielded his loved ones from creditors, helped his estate bypass problematic taxation, and gave his wife money (through the insurance) to raise the family.
Consult An Estate Planning Lawyer Today!
Imagine if your trust is not properly constructed: your loved one won’t get your hard-earned assets, the government and attorneys get a sizable portion of your estate. If you don’t want that to happen, then we recommend talking to an estate planning lawyer from Boyack Christiansen Legal Solutions!
When it comes to doing estate planning, it is always critical that you talk with an estate planning attorney to make a good trust choice. We know that there are a lot of online resources that you can use. However,if you do not do it correctly and execute documents the way they should be executed your trust could be worthless.
Call our St George Utah law firm for a consultation and get started on planning your estate!
