At McKillop Law Firm, our estate planning work goes beyond wills and trusts. First, we learn about your values, your wishes, and your family. Then we build a plan designed to protect your assets, account for taxes, and provide for your loved ones. Every family should have an estate plan. In fact, waiting until it’s urgent often makes the process harder.
Life is precious and so is protecting your legacy.
We take a custom approach
In estate planning, you make the decisions. So our job is to put your wishes into legally binding documents. Specifically, you decide:
- Where your assets will go and how they will be managed.
- Who will be in charge of your estate.
- Who will take care of your dependents.
Estate planning services we handle:
Legacy Planning
No one enjoys thinking about the end of life. But preparing for it is an act of love for your family. That’s why we walk you through the process with patience and care. Because every family is different, we build each plan around your family’s circumstances.
This part of your estate plan can include:
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- Revocable trust
- Last will and testament
Asset Protection
Protecting the assets you’ve worked for is important. In particular, planning can protect you from your own potential creditors. It can also protect an inheritance from your heirs’ creditors. So we work with you to set your asset protection goals and plan around them.
Specifically, this area of planning can include:
- LLC formation and management
- Special trust provisions
- Irrevocable trust
Care of Dependents
Caring for dependents is a serious responsibility, and we help you make informed decisions about their future. For example, your dependents may be minor children, aging parents, or family members with special needs. Together, we build a plan around their needs.
In addition, your plan names who will take responsibility for your dependents and their assets. It can also include special needs trust planning.
If You Can’t Care for Yourself
Incapacity planning means preparing now for a time when you can’t speak for yourself. For example, you choose who will make your financial and health care decisions if you can’t make them. These documents include:
- Durable power of attorney
- Health care surrogate
- Living will
Core Estate Planning Documents
Medical Advance Directives
These documents state your wishes for medical care. They also name who will make medical decisions for you if you can’t make them yourself. For example, this category includes the Designation of Health Care Surrogate, Living Will, and HIPAA Authorization.
Durable Power of Attorney
This document covers financial management during your lifetime. In it, you name an agent to manage your assets for you. For example, your agent can pay your bills and manage your bank accounts.
Guardian for Minor
This document names who will care for your minor children if you can’t care for them yourself. In Florida, the main document for this is the Declaration Nominating Preneed Guardian for Minor.
Last Will and Testament
Your Last Will and Testament is your instruction manual for the probate of your estate. However, the goal is often to reduce probate or avoid it completely. So a good estate plan also structures your assets so they pass outside of probate.
Revocable Trust
A revocable trust lets you structure the inheritance of your assets, so you keep control even after you’re gone. For example, trusts work well for estate plans that include minor children or beneficiaries who aren’t making good life choices. They’re also useful for avoiding probate and handling complicated assets. That said, not every estate plan needs a trust. But when circumstances call for one, a trust is a useful tool.
Getting Started
We guide you through each of these decisions. Usually, the process takes four steps.
When you work with McKillop Law Firm, we get to know you first. Then we learn about your family and finances. Next, we talk through your estate planning goals. After that, we explain the strategies that can help you meet them.
In the Design Meeting, you choose the people who will carry out your plan. For example, you name your trustee, who manages the trust. You also name your health care surrogate, who makes medical decisions for you if you can’t. Because these choices can be hard, we walk you through the options.
For trust-based plans, we also go over how the trust is set up and how its assets will pass to your beneficiaries.
Usually, the Design Meeting happens during the Initial Meeting. However, for some estates, we schedule it separately.
During this meeting, we go over your documents with you and fine-tune your estate plan together. We also explain what each document does, so you understand it before you sign. Then we answer any questions you have. Afterward, we make any final revisions and prepare your documents for signing.
By this point, you’ve already reviewed your documents and had your questions answered. So the signing meeting is the simplest step. You sign your documents, and your estate plan is complete.
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