Our firm, led by dedicated Estate Planning Attorney Waynesville has been a cornerstone of the Waynesville estate planning legal community. We assist clients with all the following:
Wills
The core objective of a will, under the guidance of a seasoned Estate Planning Attorney Waynesville is to meticulously direct the allocation of your assets once you have passed away. At our firm, our adept Estate Planning Attorney Waynesville experts not only listen intently to our client’s desires but also introduce novel considerations for their reflection.
We diligently lead them in formulating the most effective strategy to shield their assets and secure the prosperity of their beloved family members. In specific scenarios, this course of action might involve orchestrating the transfer of assets into a trust—an area of practice that our accomplished Estate Planning Attorney Waynesville professionals skillfully navigate. Through our comprehensive service, an Estate Planning Attorney Waynesville can help you craft a robust testamentary plan aligned with your intentions and circumstances.
Powers of Attorney
As people continue to experience extended and vibrant lifespans, the significance of authorizing designated individuals to make critical decisions on our behalf grows ever more crucial. This is particularly important for situations where we might be unable to make these decisions ourselves. Two primary types of powers of attorney exist:
The General Power of Attorney, which handles financial matters, and the Health Care Power of Attorney, which addresses healthcare-related decisions. With the guidance of skilled Estate Planning Attorney Waynesville completing these powers of attorney documents becomes an essential step. By doing so, you proactively reduce the likelihood of ever needing to undergo a guardianship proceeding.
Living Wills
When facing end-of-life decisions, a living will, expertly guided by an experienced Estate Planning Attorney Waynesville becomes your means of making well-informed choices. This instrument holds sway over circumstances such as terminal illnesses, irreversible comas, and advanced dementia. In the absence of a properly executed living will, medical practitioners often default to providing extensive care, potentially diverging from your desired course of action. Therefore, the counsel of an Estate Planning Attorney Waynesville is indispensable for creating a comprehensive living will tailored to your preferences and circumstances.
Revocable Trusts
We possess a deep understanding of the complexities involved in crafting revocable trusts that cater to the client’s needs both during their lifetime and, in some instances, extending well beyond their passing. Revocable trusts, as adeptly managed by our Estate Planning Attorney Waynesville offers remarkable flexibility as estate planning tools, serving a diverse array of purposes. For instance, they prove invaluable in minimizing probate fees upon the client’s demise, streamlining the probate process, ensuring asset privacy, and safeguarding against potential creditor claims from beneficiaries. The utility of a revocable trust, potentially even as a necessity, hinges on a multitude of factors that we are ready to analyze and discuss with you.
What is estate planning?
Having a comprehensive estate plan, will and trust aren’t just for the wealthiest families, in fact, it’s even more important in some situations for smaller estates. An experienced estate planning attorney like the experienced legal professionals at Griffin & Schaefer, P.A. Law Offices will provide you and your family with a plan specific to your needs that provides everything needed to protect your assets from the state and others.
- Why do I need an estate planning lawyer?
- Do you own a business?
- Do you have investments?
- Do you own real estate property?
- Do you have other possessions or assets to pass down?
- Who will take care of you if you become disabled or deceased?
- How will they manage your legal, financial and medical affairs?
Answering these questions is part of the estate planning process and the experienced attorneys at Griffin & Schaefer, P.A. Law OfficesGriffin & Schaefer, P.A. Law Offices will guide you through the process of making sure all of your affairs are in order and the necessary documents are filed to execute your wishes the way you want them executed in the event of your passing or incapacitation.
We understand how difficult it might be to think about these types of questions. That’s why having the right people to sit down with and create an all-inclusive plan, making sure that everything is documented in detail and titled correctly is imperative.
We don’t just write wills and document trusts we build trust with families to ease the process from the first consultation through the execution.
What is a revocable living trust?
Without a revocable living trust, you could incur unnecessary costs and probate court delays for years. Revocable living trusts allow you to designate your successor trustee who can handle the distribution of your assets outside of court and avoid the probate process altogether protecting the value of your estate, greatly easing the process.
Estate planning is more than just forms and filing.
An estate planning attorney is uniquely suited to make sure that your will, revocable living trust, estate planning documents and final instructions are carried out correctly.
Revocable trusts aren’t just for large estates, as stated before they can benefit smaller estates more than some wealthier ones in a lot of cases.
Issues with numerous beneficiaries and/or creditors can come up when it comes to smaller estates and if there is adequate planning those issues could be resolved outside of probate court avoiding unnecessary complications, costs, and delays. A smaller estate might not have the funds to cover these costs and delays or might not be able to pay for a probate attorney to resolve the complications correctly.
The bottom line is that a revocable trust may be required to keep your assets out of probate courts, protected from creditors and to allow the maximum benefits to be passed on to your loved ones as you see fit, solving a variety of potential estate planning problems like joint titling schemes, contested titles, inherited IRAs and more.
Why do I need a durable power of attorney and health care directive?
In the event that you become incapacitated to the point of not being able to speak for yourself in regards to matters of your medical care having a health care directive will take the guesswork out of the equation so loved ones and medical professionals will know exactly what your needs and wants are.
Similarly, a durable power of attorney will protect your finances and be able to make business decisions, provide legal guardianship level support and decision making power.
We’ll be an involved part of your estate plan management team providing maintenance, changes, and updates as your estate changes over time.
Once we’ve established the initial documents we can interact with you as frequently as needed to keep everything up to date and in good legal standing.
What types of estate planning documents do we provide?
There are many types of trusts, wills, and estate planning avenues to consider in addition to durable powers of attorney, health care directives, revocable living trusts and more. Griffin & Schaefer, P.A. Law Offices will walk you through the process carefully making sure you understand each part of the process and know exactly what you’re getting for each document, directive, form, and filing.
Wills
The main purpose of a will is to direct how your assets will pass upon your death. We listen carefully to what clients want, raise new questions for them to consider, and help them to figure out the best way to preserve their assets and provide for the loved ones they leave behind. In some cases, this might involve “pouring over” assets into a trust.
Power of attorney
As more people live longer and more active lives, it is becoming crucially important to authorize others to make important decisions on our behalves, especially if the day comes that we can’t make them ourselves. There are two kinds of powers of attorney: the General Power of Attorney, which addresses finances, and the Health Care Power of Attorney, which concerns health care decisions. By completing powers of attorney you can help to minimize the chance that you will ever have to become the subject of a guardianship proceeding.
Revocable Trusts
We are well-versed in the intricacies of preparing revocable trusts for the benefit of the client during his or her lifetime, and which can in some cases continue well past the client’s death. Revocable trusts are very flexible estate planning tools that can be used to accomplish a wide variety of aims. For example, they can help to minimize a client’s probate fees at his or her death, ensure that the client’s assets remain private, and protect against the creditors of eventual beneficiaries being able to make a claim on assets. The extent to which you would find a revocable trust beneficial, perhaps even essential, depends on many factors that we would be glad to analyze and discuss with you.
Living Wills
The living will allow you to make decisions about the care you receive at the end of your life in such situations as a terminal illness, an irreversible coma, and/or a case of advanced dementia. If you do not complete a living will, medical providers will likely tend toward providing maximum care in such situations, and this may not be what is actually desired.
Why choose Griffin and Schaeffer?
Griffin & Schaefer, P.A. Law Offices has long served as a cornerstone of the Waynesville estate planning legal community.
We keep your goals in mind and promise to explain everything thoroughly, we aren’t someone and done online providers, we offer customized, personal, hands-on legal advice and avoid suing confusing legal-ease, so you’ll always know what you are getting and that you are completely covered and taken care of.