Estate Planning
Estate planning is one of the most important things we can do for the people we love most, and it is never too early to start planning how to provide for your family once you are gone. At the Shaheen Law Firm, we believe everyone should have a comprehensive estate plan. Our attorneys can help you through this process by creating the instruments necessary to carry out your wishes after incapacity or death. By carefully assessing our clients’ wishes and circumstances, we are able to draft estate documents specifically tailored to our clients’ needs and are able to explain the documents in a way that is easy to understand.
Nobody should have to agonize over what might happen in the event of their incapacity or death. Estate planning should be approachable and affordable. This is why we offer free consultations and cost-effective, flat-fee solutions. No retainers or hidden fees.
We take great pride in helping our clients find the best estate plan for their family. During a consultation with our experienced attorneys, we will advise you on how each plan differs and help determine which is right for you. For your convenience, we offer a trust-based estate plan that avoids the unnecessary stress of probate, retains your privacy through private disbursement, and provides additional flexibility for asset distribution or a will-based estate plan if these are not concerns. We also offer any of the documents individually if requested.
Contact us today to schedule a FREE estate planning consultation
Will-based Estate Plan, includes:
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A Last Will and Testament is a very traditional estate planning tool. It simply indicates who will inherit from your estate, upon death. Importantly, the Last Will and Testament only applies to the administration of assets after death. It has no bearing on assets during your lifetime. A Last Will and Testament can also designate guardians for any underage children.
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A General Durable Power of Attorney allows you to designate an agent to make financial decisions on your behalf, in the event you have been deemed incapacitated. The General Durable Power of Attorney allows you to designate an agent now, so your loved ones do not have to go through a costly and time-consuming Conservatorship process with the courts, which can easily take 3-4 months and cost $3,000-$4,000, if uncontested. (Contested Conservatorship cases can take much longer and be far more expensive.)
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Also known as a Healthcare Power of Attorney, an Advanced Medical Directive allows you to designate an agent to make medical decisions on your behalf, in the event you have been deemed incapacitated. The Advanced Medical Directive allows you to designate an agent now, so your loved ones do not have to go through a costly and time-consuming Guardianship process with the courts, which can easily take 3-4 months and cost $3,000-$4,000, if uncontested. (Contested Guardianship cases can take much longer and be far more expensive.)
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A Living Will is the infamous “pull the plug” document, in the event of a permanent and irreversible vegetative state. The Living Will allows you to make the decision when/whether to remove life support, so your loved ones don’t have to agonize over the decision if the time comes. You’ve already made the decision in advance.
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A Personal Property Memorandum works in conjunction with the Last Will and Testament, to make specific gifts of tangible personal property (vehicles, furniture, artwork, collectibles, etc.).
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Memorial Instructions allow you to leave specific instructions for how you want your final ceremony conducted, ensuring your loved ones know exactly what you want done. This is also where you can indicate any preplanning you’ve undertaken (cremation packages, burial plots, etc.).
Trust-based Estate Plan, includes:
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Also known as a Revocable Trust or a Revocable Living Trust, a Living Trust is effective during your lifetime and continues to exist after death. Assets can be placed into the trust immediately, rather than waiting until death and there are no restrictions on how you use the assets during your lifetime. Instructions can also be included for how the assets are managed, in the event you are incapacitated and unable to manage the assets yourself.
Living Trusts provide remarkable flexibility for how assets pass to your beneficiaries upon your death, rather than your beneficiaries receiving outright distributions. (See below for more information on the drawbacks of outright distributions.)
Living Trusts also help protect your privacy and avoid probate. Probate is a long and costly process by which the locality oversees the distribution of your estate. (See below for more information on the probate process.)
For these reasons, Living Trusts have become extremely common over the past decade and are one of our most popular estate planning tools.
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A Certificate of Trust is a very short document (usually two pages) that helps preserve your privacy. It can be presented to a financial institution, or anyone else who needs proof of your Living Trust, without providing the entire Living Trust document.
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Step-by-step instructions for exactly how to move your assets into your Living Trust.
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A Pour-over Will works in conjunction with the Living Trust, to ensure all assets pass into your Living Trust upon your death. Think of the Pour-over Will as a safety net, which catches any assets that were not in the Living Trust at the time of death. It can also designate guardians for any underage children.
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A General Durable Power of Attorney allows you to designate an agent to make financial decisions on your behalf, in the event you have been deemed incapacitated. The General Durable Power of Attorney allows you to designate an agent now, so your loved ones do not have to go through a costly and time-consuming Conservatorship process with the courts, which can easily take 3-4 months and cost $3,000-$4,000, if uncontested. (Contested Conservatorship cases can take much longer and be far more expensive.)
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Also known as a Healthcare Power of Attorney, an Advanced Medical Directive allows you to designate an agent to make medical decisions on your behalf, in the event you have been deemed incapacitated. The Advanced Medical Directive allows you to designate an agent now, so your loved ones do not have to go through a costly and time-consuming Guardianship process with the courts, which can easily take 3-4 months and cost $3,000-$4,000, if uncontested. (Contested Guardianship cases can take much longer and be far more expensive.)
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A Living Will is the infamous “pull the plug” document, in the event of a permanent and irreversible vegetative state. The Living Will allows you to make the decision when/whether to remove life support, so your loved ones don’t have to agonize over the decision if the time comes. You’ve already made the decision in advance.
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A Personal Property Memorandum works in conjunction with the Living Trust, to make specific gifts of tangible personal property (vehicles, furniture, artwork, collectibles, etc.).
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Memorial Instructions allow you to leave specific instructions for how you want your final ceremony conducted, ensuring your loved ones know exactly what you want done. This is also where you can indicate any preplanning you’ve undertaken (cremation packages, burial plots, etc.).
Other Key Terms:
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Probate is the process by which your assets are moved from your name (or the name of your estate) into the name of your beneficiaries. While this might sound relatively straightforward, probate can be incredibly costly and time-consuming. Probate typically takes a minimum of one year to resolve and can easily last two or more years. It can also cost several thousand dollars in commissioner fees, posting a bond, taxes, attorney fees, etc. In fact, many of our clients come to us after having gone through the probate process for a loved one, and wanting to avoid the process for their own estate.
Probate goes through the court system. This means your estate planning documents become public record for anyone to see, including potential creditors.
Living Trusts avoid probate because your assets are not actually in your name. Rather, they are in the name of the Living Trust. And the Living Trust continues to exist after the death of the trust-maker. No probate required.
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Many of our clients worry about how their beneficiaries might spend their inheritance, if they were to receive it all at once. Perhaps their beneficiaries are minors, have special needs, struggle with substance abuse, or are going through a divorce. Or maybe they just aren’t very good with handing finances.
When a beneficiary receives an outright distribution, they receive their entire inheritance all at once, with no conditions or restrictions. If the beneficiary is a minor, the inheritance is held in an account, generally until they reach age 18.
Living Trusts can avoid outright distributions by allowing the trust-maker to indicate the terms under which the beneficiary receives their inheritance, including the creation of Special Needs Trusts, designating specific ages for distributions, or indicating the type of expenses for which the inheritance can be used.
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Testamentary Trusts are an attempt to avoid outright distributions by using a Last Will and Testament to create a trust, rather than using a Living Trust. We heavily discourage the use of Testamentary Trusts at the Shaheen Law Firm, due to their overly burdensome administration process.
In Virginia, Testamentary Trusts are not private documents and they are overseen by the court system. Essentially, Testamentary Trusts have all the drawbacks of probate, which are amplified by the many years over which Testamentary Trusts are typically administered.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a last will and testament drafted?
What is durable power of attorney?
What is a living will or advance medical directive?
Call Shaheen Law Firm today to set up your free consultation with one of our estate planning attorneys and discuss which of these tools are best for your family.