You need to plan for you and your family’s future now because you never know what life may throw at you tomorrow, next month, or next year. Once a major life event occurs, such as a stroke or heart attack, it may be too late to take steps to plan and protect. While many situations in life are complex, estate planning does not need to be complex, stressful, and costly if you have the right Kettering estate planning attorney guiding you through the process.
The goal of the attorneys of Lovett & House is to help you takes steps to “plan and protect.” You need to plan for your future while protecting yourself, your family, and your assets. A comprehensive estate plan can help you accomplish all your goals. Call our office today at (937) 429-7730 to learn more about how we can help you gain peace of mind about your future.
Is Estate Planning the Same for Everyone?
For some Kettering residents, estate planning may be a simple as signing a will and a power of attorney. However, for another person, an estate plan may include several types of trusts and a comprehensive Medicaid and nursing home plan.
The best thing about using an experienced estate planning attorney is that you are able to obtain an estate plan that is tailored to your needs and desires and the needs of your loved ones. When you work with a probate attorney, you should expect, and you deserve individualized planning services — our Kettering attorneys understand this and strive to provide you with a plan that is based on your personal goals, desires, and situation.
What Does Estate Planning Encompass?
In the end, estate planning is about controlling an aspect of something that you cannot control — death. Because death is inevitable and the chance of developing a disability that renders us incapable of managing our own affairs increases with age, we can only control what will happen after our death or incapacitation. Estate planning allows us to put into place a plan that controls our health care decisions and our assets while we are still of sound mind to make these decisions for ourselves.
By having an estate plan in place before it is needed, we have a solid plan for the future, and we have mechanisms in place to protect assets and family members. Even more, we retain a say in how things are handled. We retain the power over our decisions instead of allowing the state of Ohio to make those decisions for our family and us.
As part of the process of determining what documents you need to accomplish your goals and wishes, our attorneys may discuss the following legal instruments and situations:
- Choosing trustees and administrators
- Last Will and Testament
- Medicaid and Nursing Home Planning
- Powers of Attorney including durable, medical, and limited
- Living Will or Healthcare Directive
- HIPPA Designations
- Trust Agreements including revocable, irrevocable, charity, pet, annuity, special needs, spendthrift, life insurance, and dynasty
- Appointment of guardians, conservators, and trustees for children
- Beneficiary Designations
- Business Succession Plan
- Estate Tax Planning
Not all the above issues or documents apply in every case. The key is to hire an estate attorney in Kettering who understands how to use the available estate documents combined with the current tax and probate laws to develop an estate plan that does not overreach with documents and instruments you don’t need but that fully protects you and ensures your wishes are carried out.
What are the Benefits of Estate Planning?
The biggest benefit of estate planning is control. You remain in control of your choices and situation. However, estate planning also offers a variety of benefits that are not available in an intestate probate case.
- You select the administer of your estate, not the probate judge
- You are in charge of selecting a guardian, trustee, and conservator for your child, again not the probate judge
- Protect a child’s inheritance by selecting a trustee to prevent your 18-year old high school senior or 20-year old college sophomore from inheriting hundreds of thousands of dollars without restrictions
- Set up trusts for special need individuals
- Make healthcare choices now about end of life treatment and other medical procedures
- Decide whether to close your business or leave it in the hands of others
- Reduce or eliminate estate and gift taxes
- Avoid disputes between family members by reducing your wishes to writing
There are so many more benefits to estate planning that are situation specific that it is impossible to discuss them all here. We urge you to call our office to meet with an attorney who can provide more information about our estate planning and probate services.
Call a Kettering Estate Planning Attorney for more Information
If you are ready to take the next step, contact Lovett & House by calling (937) 429-7730 to speak with a probate and estate planning attorney.
