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Efficient, Affordable, Convenient Family Law And Estate Planning Legal Services

Aurora, CO Estate Planning Attorney

Planning your estate can be challenging and often confusing without legal help. Working with a firm that understands your needs and helps plan your future can ensure your assets are protected for the future.

Estate planning is much more than creating a sound will. There are a number of other ways our lawyer can help. For example, it is usually a good idea to explore how trusts can protect your assets from expensive legal processes and taxes. You can also designate someone to make decisions on your behalf if you are incapacitated. With these tools, your family members will get the most of what you intend them to have. Our attorney can help you determine how you want your assets to be dispersed and how they should be used.

Call YouLaw Colorado at (720) 815-4421 to receive a free case assessment with our estate planning attorney.

How Our Estate Planning Attorney Can Help Your Case in Aurora, CO

After a lifetime of working and building for your family’s future, you will naturally want to safeguard that future for when you pass. Estate planning offers people an opportunity to make important decisions about their assets and designate trusted individuals to handle their affairs after they pass. It is much more than just creating a will.

Our estate planning attorney offers a wide range of services that focus on lowering the costs to you while maximizing your control over your estate. Much of the work can be done remotely and online, saving you time and money over traditional law firms. We can also meet in one of our Aurora offices to discuss matters that are too important to cover online. The following are the ways our lawyer can help plan your estate in Aurora:

Planning Wills

Drafting a will is what many people think of when planning for their family’s future after they are gone. A will is a legally binding document that details how your assets should be distributed and who they should be distributed to when you pass. A will could be brief or highly complex, depending on the circumstances. For instance, if you are concerned about what will happen to your minor children, you can designate a guardian in your will.

You can also specify how your funeral should be conducted in your will. Our lawyer can help you draft a legally sound will to distribute your assets to the people you intend.

Without a will, your assets will be distributed according to state intestacy laws, which might not be what you want. With intestacy laws, your assets could be given to family members you did not intend to have a part in your estate.

Planning Trusts

Trusts are another important tool to help plan your estate well in advance. Trusts are used to manage assets while you are alive and after death. When you set up a trust, you will designate a trustee to administer the assets for the beneficiaries. Some trusts can be set up for educational purposes or charity and can be revoked. These are known as revocable trusts. Our attorney can also help you set up irrevocable trusts and those involving special needs.

You can benefit in several ways by establishing a trust. Avoiding probate is a major advantage, which can be an expensive and time-consuming legal process that determines how to disperse assets. A trust will get your beneficiaries their assets faster and can also help minimize the taxes that must be paid on the estate. It will also add a layer of protection for your loved ones from creditors and future lawsuits.

Determining Assets and Designating Beneficiaries

Our lawyer can also help with one of the most important aspects of your estate: which beneficiaries to designate and how the assets will be divided. The first step is assessing all the assets that will be a part of your estate. This typically includes real property like homes you own, as well as your bank accounts and personal property. However, you might have life insurance and retirement accounts that need to be distributed. With our attorney’s help, you can make sure your assets go to who you intend without being subject to probate.

Drafting Power of Attorney and Living Wills

In case you are incapacitated by a serious accident or illness, you will want someone chosen to make decisions about your legal and financial affairs. Our skilled attorney can help you do this by drafting a “durable” power of attorney. This can help unburden family members from making difficult decisions in a time of crisis.

Our attorney can also help you draft an advance directive, also known as a “living will.” This document will detail your wishes if you are incapacitated and receiving end-of-life care. For instance, you might wish to be taken off care if you are in a vegetative state or end care if you are terminally ill. An advance directive would clearly communicate your decisions so that they are honored.  You can also appoint a “medical” power of attorney and discuss your wishes with them. This way, you know the person who will be making the choices you elected for in your advance directive or living will.

Drafting Letters of Intent

Sometimes, you might only require a letter of intent to offer guidance on how your estate executor should handle your assets and trusts. These documents work much like wills, except that they are not legally binding. They are most often used to instruct how to disperse personal items not usually covered by the will, like sentimental heirlooms.

Designating Guardianship

It can be difficult to contemplate who will care for your minor children in the event of your passing, but designating a guardian in your estate plan can give you peace of mind for the future. A guardianship plan will communicate your preferences if both of the child’s parents cannot provide care. You can also use one of the tools above, like a trust, to provide economic support for the child and detail how the funds should be used, such as future educational expenses.

Planning Your Business Succession

If you own a business, you have likely spent years working for its success. Our lawyer can help you plan the succession of your business when reviewing your estate. A business succession plan can describe how ownership will be transferred and which successors should manage the business.

Planning the transfer of your business is smart, even if you are in good health. This way, you can focus on running your business, knowing that the disruption will be minimal if the unthinkable should occur.

Our Aurora, CO Estate Planning Attorney is Here to Help

For a free case review with an experienced estate planning lawyer, contact YouLaw Colorado at (720) 815-4421.

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