Summerville Estate Planning Lawyer
Estate planning is a must for everyone. Estate planning protects, ensures, provides and allows you to properly take care of yourself during your lifetime, as well as seeing to it that your loved ones will be looked after when you are gone. Without estate planning, the government decides who gets your property, who takes charge of your minor children, and who makes medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to make them. Don’t leave these important decisions in the hands of people who may not decide the way you would want them to. Create your own custom estate plan by calling the Shelbourne Law in Summerville estate planning lawyers. We take the time to sit down with you to learn your goals and desires, and then we carefully craft the right combination of wills, trusts and advance directives to meet your needs.
Provide for Your Family’s Future with a Will
Your Last Will and Testament is traditionally the central document of your estate plan. The will allows you to appoint a personal representative of your choosing to carry out the required estate administration, and you can also nominate a guardian to care for your minor children if necessary. Without making these provisions in a will, the government will decide who administers your estate and who cares for your children. As far as your property goes, the will allows you to make very specific gifts of personal items to cherished loved ones, as well as large gifts of property to relatives, charities, or educational institutions. Through the will, you craft your legacy for future generations.
Avoid or Minimize Probate with Trusts
With a living trust, you can transfer assets outside of probate, where beneficiaries typically receive their property sooner and with less expense to the estate. Another benefit of trusts is that they do not become public records as wills do when they are admitted to probate. If you wish to keep the contents and distribution of your estate confidential, you may want to consider a trust.
When you create a revocable living trust, you retain the ability to access and benefit from your property and investments during your lifetime, while still providing for your loved ones after you are gone. Other types of trusts can be used to minimize taxes, provide for an individual’s special needs, shelter and protect assets, and accomplish many other specific goals. At Shelbourne Law, we can advise you on the right kinds of trusts to meet your unique needs.
Plan for Incapacity with Advance Directives
Estate planning is about more than distributing your estate after you are gone; it is also a critical tool for making sure you are properly cared for if you are incapacitated due to an illness, accident, disease or just the normal process of aging. If you can no longer care for yourself or direct others on how to care for you or manage your affairs, the court will appoint a guardian or conservator over your person and your finances. This person may not be someone who knows you well or knows what decisions you would make. You can control your destiny by signing directives in advance that designate someone you know and trust to make decisions on your behalf. Our experienced estate planning attorneys can draft a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, a Durable Power of Attorney for Financial Affairs, and a Living Will so that you and your estate are properly managed during any period of incapacity you may experience, whether temporary or long-term.
Sound Advice and Professional Assistance from Summerville Estate Planning Lawyers
Get the peace of mind knowing that your wishes will be followed regarding your own healthcare and financial affairs during your lifetime, as well as the disposition of your property after you are gone. Contact Shelbourne Law in Summerville to talk with experienced South Carolina estate planning attorneys serving Charleston, Dorchester, Colleton and Berkeley counties and beyond.