Estate Planning Law
At Kenlan, Schweibert, Facey & Goss, we can provide high-quality and responsive legal services tailored to your needs in the following areas:
- Special Needs Trusts
- Medicaid
- Advance directives
- Long-term care
- Long-term care insurance
- Home health care
- Hospice care
- Third Party Payor reimbursement and billing issues
- Health insurance litigation and employment matters
- Tax and non-tax issues
- Age discrimination
- Nursing home rights, abuse, neglect and exploitation
Your estate plan should memorialize your wishes and dispose of your property at death. To put it in context, imagine disposing of all of your property in one transaction. Now imagine that you are not around to make sure that it goes according to plan. An experienced planner can help you spot potential issues, explain your options, and prepare documents that accomplish your wishes.
The General Approach.
The first step is to make a list of your assets. Then you can decide who gets what, when they get it, whether they get it outright or in pieces, and whether they get an income interest or something more. Next, we put the various pieces of the puzzle together, often including a Will, joint tenancy property with rights of survivorship, one or more trusts or family entities, “in trust for” accounts, and designation of beneficiary forms for life insurance, annuities, pensions, and IRAs. A power of attorney and certain health care documents might also be appropriate. The result is an integrated plan that disposes of all of your assets according to your wishes, with a minimum of estate administration and taxes.
Business Succession Planning.
Estate planning often involves succession planning for your business. And like everything else, the simpler the better. But, succession planning always involves issues such as who owns the business, are they a good manager, will they continue the business or sell it, are there heirs who are not involved in the business, does the business make up the bulk of the estate, do you hope to equalize all bequests from your estate, and so on. These issues often involve more than just finance and taxes, they involve personal decisions and judgments. We can alert you to the issues, explain your options, and help devise a plan that makes sense for you.
Tax Issues. Estate
planning must be done with an eye toward taxes. Recent changes in the law have favored taxpayers, but estate, gift, and generation-skipping taxes can still be very onerous if they apply. Generally, your taxable estate includes everything that you own, including real estate, cash and investments, personal property, life insurance, pensions, IRAs, receivables, other assets, assets over which you have a power of appointment, and certain trusts established for your benefit. We provide counsel to individuals and family-owned entities whose assets range in value from $50,000 to $50 million. We can confirm whether taxes are an issue for your estate, and, if so, we can guide you through this complex area of the law and accomplish your goals while minimizing the tax.
Probate and Trust Administration.
We evaluate trusts and other documents for trustees and beneficiaries, and advise clients about their rights and fiduciary duties under the documents. We also handle probate proceedings, and can help minimize or settle any related probate disputes.
Long Term Care. Your
plan should include the possibility of long-term care. We can review your situation, explain your Medicaid options, and help you evaluate long-term care insurance that might be available from commercial providers.
Elder Law and Health Law are integral parts of any well-constructed estate plan.