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Estate Planning
 Our estate planning practice and law firm have been designed with the needs of growing families and businesses in mind. We understand that you are extremely busy as you are growing and planning for a life of prosperity. We know that you value comfort, ease, and efficiency when taking care of your estate planning and kids’ guardianship plans. Our goal is for you to be assured that you have made the best decisions possible for your family and that your plan will work exactly how you want it to when your loved ones need it to the most. You want to make sure your plan takes care of your children in the best way possible and your kids are protected and provided for if anything happens to you. As a mother of three boys, I know that this is of utmost importance!
Haymes Law Group offers Four Levels of Estate Planning:
Level 1 — Will Plan
For The Family Who… Doesn’t have assets that would have to go through the court process called probate, but does want to guarantee their minor children are well cared for no matter what, their health care wishes are turned into directives, and their loved ones are able to access their assets using a durable power of attorney if one becomes incapacitated.
Your Will Plan Includes:
- Kristina’s advice and counsel to create a custom-tailored plan that reflects your values, desires, dreams, and avoids your fears;
- A will naming those who will receive your assets;
- Complete Kids Protection Plan so that you can have the peace of knowing your kids will be raised by who you want, in the way you want, and will not be taken out of your home by the authorities;
- Advance Health Care Directives and Powers of Attorney so you know that you are taken care of if anything happens; and
- One priceless conversation where you can record your values, stories, and intangible assets for future generations.
Level 2 – Trust Plan
For The Family Who… Wants total assurance and peace of mind knowing the kids are protected and family wealth will be transferred to heirs with the most ease and convenience possible in the privacy of our office without court involvement. You will control your assets during your lifetime.
The Trust Plan is ideal for most families that own a home, have minor children, and don’t have significant additional assets.
Your Trust Plan Includes Everything in the Will Plan, Plus:
- Kristina’s advice and counsel to create a custom-tailored Revocable Living Trust that reflects your values, desires, dreams, avoid your fears, and protects your assets from probate;
- Clients can choose whether to include one irrevocable trust for added control from outside sources that may diminish assets.
Level 3 – Wealth Plan
For The Family Who… Wants everything in the Trust Plan plus wants to make sure that what they leave for loved ones will be protected from future divorce and creditors. Also for the family who wants to allow loved ones to enjoy government benefits and/or owns a business and needs simple business succession planning.
Your Wealth Plan Includes Everything in the Trust Plan, Plus:
- Kristina’s advice and counsel to create custom-tailored Irrevocable Trusts (Asset Protection, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust, and/or Lifetime Asset Protection for Beneficiaries, etc.) that reflect your values, desires, dreams, avoid your fears, and protects your assets from probate and potential threats to assets such as Estate Taxes, creditors, and spouses;
- Fee is determined by complexity of plan, number of trusts and sub-trusts and any complicating factors (non-citizens, second or third marriages, pre-nuptial agreements, special needs trusts etc.) and whether client owns business and needs business succession planning.
Level 4 – Legacy Plan
For The Family Who… Wants to maximize their financial legacy to grandchildren and beyond and who has a sizeable estate and needs advanced estate planning techniques, including wealth preservation, asset protection during lifetime, advanced business planning and Medicaid planning.
Your Wealth Plan Includes Everything in the Wealth Plan, Plus far more
(including Guardianship and Inheritance Protection)
- Kristina’s advice and counsel to create advanced plan that may include business entities (such as Limited Liability Partnerships), Irrevocable Trusts, and extensive and detailed directives for distribution and stewardship of your financial assets and family values. Your family will receive a dramatically larger inheritance through generation skipping-transfer tax planning and charitable planning; and
- Lifetime gifts to children or grandchildren are leveraged into asset-protected legal safety nets.
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Trust Administration
Trust Administration is the process of doing what needs to be done when someone dies and he or she had a living trust or other types of trusts (such as irrevocable trusts).
Trust adminstration is much easier, faster, and less expensive than the probate court process (and loved ones of those who did not have an estate plan, or merely had a will have to suffer through the probate process). We estimate probate costs 5% of a decedent’s assets (which unfortunately for you includes the fair market value of the home).
Further, while probate is a public process, trust administration is a completely private process that takes place in the comfort of your lawyer’s office. Nonetheless, despite the many benefits of trust administration, there is still some work to be done.
Was the person who has died was single or married?
Trust administration is very important when the person who has died was married and had a joint revocable trust with his or her spouse. Trust administration for a single person is also important, however, it is often a simpler process.
What type of trust design did the deceased have?
Was it a disclaimer trust? Was it a Clayton Election? Did the Trust have a formula (pecuniary formula) or a fractional share formula? Fortunately, a review of the Trust (or the trust declaration) will reveal the type of trust.
Marshall all the assets
Our clients, especially those on our membership program, will know their assets because we keep up-to-date family wealth inventories. Those clients who are not on membership, will keep their own family wealth inventory up-to-date. That way, if someone were to die, it makes it very easy to marshall the assets and create a trust administration asset inventory.
Depending upon the trust design, there may be disclaimers to be made (which must be made within 9 months of the date of death), there may be elections to be made—funding various subtrusts. These steps are critical to preserve estate tax exemptions (but not this year). This year, the issue is capital gains tax. So, if someone dies in 2010, funding subtrusts is still important. And, for those who may have a trust that was drafted several years ago they may have a formula trust, e.g. at the death of the first spouse, there is a formula (which is usually tied to the estate tax) about how the credit shelter (family bypass) trust is funded and whether a QTIP or marital trust is funded.
Bad news for you if someone dies this year with a formula trust design and they have assets that have significant appreciation. Why? because there is a very high chance (it depends on the precise wording used) that all assets will either go to the credit shelter trust, or, to the revocable survivor’s trust. The bad news is that neither one of these trusts allow a surviving spouse to take up to $3 million in appreciated assets without paying capital gains tax. The solution is to update your trust before that happens to you.
Now, if this is all too complicated and doesn’t make any sense to you… fear not. We are here to help you. We will walk you through this process, explain it to you every step of the way and make sure that your Trust Administration is handled properly with grace and ease. The reality is that if your loved one or spouse has died, you are going through a very difficult time and our goal is to make this process as easy for you as possible.
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Membership Program
I also offer a unique Membership Program so that you can call me or my staff on an ongoing basis to answer questions, address concerns, review contracts, explain legal jargon, or provide referrals without fear of incurring further expenses. Most importantly, we will regularly review and update your plan so that your plan will work even if your family, your assets, or the law changes! The families and businesses that I serve love to know they have developed a lasting relationship with their personal lawyer who they can turn to for objective, trusted guidance before making important family, business, or financial decisions.
Benefit Highlights:
Bonus
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Description
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Free estate Check Up for Parents Over 65
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Free Estate Check Up For Parents Over 65 Who Have Less Than $4mm if Married or Less Than $2mm if Single
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50% Off Plan for Parents
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50% Off Plan for Parents
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Free Health Care Directive and Durable Power of Attorney
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Free Health Care Directive and Durable Power of Attorney for Adult Children Up to the Age of 25 and Parents Over the Age of 65 Who Do Not Have Probatable Assets
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Free Insurance Review
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Free Comprehensive, Objective and Easy Insurance Review to Ensure Your Family is Properly Protected and
You Are Not Spending More Than You Need to
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No VIP Membership Enrollment Fee
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Clients enrolling at the time of their Plan Presentation and Priceless Conversation meeting do not pay a VIP Membership Program enrollment fee. Clients enrolling later will pay a set up fee equal to one year of membership. Clients who cancel their membership and want to re-enroll later will be required to pay the set up fee at the time of re-enrollment plus an updating fee.
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Mediation & Conflict Resolution
Finally, while we work hard to anticipate problems and avoid them, sometimes conflict is inevitable and you need someone to turn to assist in conflict resolution. For your intractable conflicts, please ask about my mediation and conflict resolution services.
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Yes! I/We want to meet with you for a:
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