No matter how uncomfortable it may be, proper planning today can help save your family considerable amounts of difficulty, time, and expense if something unexpected were to happen to you tomorrow. Having a comprehensive estate plan in place will allow your family to follow your wishes (without getting the courts involved!) should you become incapacitated and will also ensure that your wishes are followed if you were to pass away.
What If I Do Nothing?
If you were to become incapacitated without creating these documents your family may have to have a conservator named. While this is not usually a difficult process, it will take some time and your family would need to go to court to be appointed--the person who is appointed might not be the person you would have wanted in that position.
If you were to pass away without an estate plan in place, the state has a backup plan (called the intestacy statute) in place that will decide how your assets are distributed. While their plan may work well in some cases, it certainly doesn’t work well in all cases and probably not even in most cases. Regardless, it means that your estate will may have to be submitted to probate--which is expensive, time consuming, and can take up to a year or more to complete in some cases. All of this is usually unnecessary if you have a comprehensive estate plan in place.
Estate Planning Services
My goal is to make the estate planning process as easy for you as possible. I create custom estate plans designed to help you make your wishes known in the event of your death or incapacity and prevent paying estate taxes whenever possible. The following links are offered as general information about some of the estate planning options that are available.
This information is not to be construed as legal advice; you should consult an attorney about your specific issue before relying on anything discussed on this website. If you are looking for advice about your specific legal issue, I offer all prospective clients a free initial consultation and my services are available on either an hourly or flat-rate basis and at reasonable prices. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions--my contact information is available here.
This web site is designed to provide general information about the services offered by the Law Office of Neal E. Bartlett ("the law office") and constitutes attorney advertising under the California Rules of Professional Conduct. The information presented at this site should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor does it form the basis of a lawyer/client relationship. No lawyer/client relationship is formed until you and the law office sign (either in writing or electronically) a retainer agreement stating the nature of the legal services that the law office will provide to you and the actual or estimated costs of those services. Any information provided to the law office that does not result in a retainer agreement between you and the law office will be kept confidential but may be subject to disclosure pursuant to court order or the applicable ethical rules.
IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, please be advised that any U.S. tax advice contained within this website, or any other communication from the law office, is not intended or written to be used or relied upon, and cannot be used or relied upon, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.
No matter how uncomfortable it may be, proper planning today can help save your family considerable amounts of difficulty, time, and expense if something unexpected were to happen to you tomorrow. Having a comprehensive estate plan in place will allow your family to follow your wishes (without getting the courts involved!) should you become incapacitated and will also ensure that your wishes are followed if you were to pass away.
