Estate Planning - Wills, Trusts, and Powers of Attorney in Rocky River, Ohio

A large part of our practice is devoted to Estate Planning.  Estate Planning concerns arranging your affairs for both during your life, and upon your death.

Death will strike us all.  With all the advances of medical science, our life expectancy has increased markedly.  But nevertheless, a time will come when we die.  

While we recognize that we will die one day, we must also consider disability.  Unfortunately, over 1/3 of the US population will suffer some sort of disability during their lifetimes, regardless of their age or their wealth. 

As death is a certainty and disability a distinct possibility, it is important to plan for these events, regardless of our age or our station in life.  With proper planning, you can make things easier for those who are trying to help you during a period of disability, or upon your death.  

Closely coupled with making things easier, proper planning can help to avoid unnecessary expenses.

• Having a General Power of Attorney may avoid the need for a guardianship.  Setting up a guardianship incurs courts costs, perhaps a bond, regular reporting to the court, and likely, attorneys’ fees.
• If you have probate assets, having a Will may avoid the cost of a bond, and if real estate is involved, perhaps even a land sale proceeding.  In the extreme, it would avoid an additional court action of determining who the heirs of the estate are.

We have several goals in planning for death. One of the goals is to efficiently transfer your property to the persons you want.  Another goal is to minimize the tax impact of your gifts, as your estate may be subject to estate tax, and for some assets, there also may be an income tax impact. The tools we use include Wills and Trusts.  We can also look at ways of avoiding probate by properly titling assets and using beneficiary designations.

Lifetime Planning includes planning for potential disability.  Tools we use for Lifetime Planning include General Powers of Attorney, Health Care Powers of Attorney, and perhaps as a transition, Living Wills.

There is a lot of material on our website.  Please feel free to explore the site.  If there is something we can help you with, please contact us.