Services
Estate Planning
A proper estate plan will allow you and your loved ones to manage your affairs during your lifetime and ensure an orderly transition of your assets following your death. A proper estate plan should also not cost you, or your estate, exorbitant attorney’s fees, or be overly complicated. Frances will meet with you to determine your particular goals, and craft an estate plan to meet your individual needs.
Wills and Trusts
Wills and trusts both have what we call “dispositive” language – language that states where your assets will go after you pass away. But wills have to be probated in court if your assets meet a certain threshold. If you want your loved ones to stay out of court in order to inherit your assets or in the event of incapacity, you should consider having a revocable trust. Frances will work with you to determine whether you need a trust, and if so, what kind.
Advance Health Care Directives
Advance Health Care Directives, or AHCD, allow you to designate a person or persons to make health care decisions for you, should you not be able to make them yourself. They also allow you to indicate what type of life sustaining care you want administered. Should the need arise, your loved ones will take much comfort by knowing and understanding your wishes. Frances regularly prepares AHCDs for her clients.
Powers of attorney
If you should become unable to handle your financial affairs during your lifetime, a power of attorney can be a life saver for your loved ones, allowing them to handle your affairs for your benefit. Like an Advance Health Care Directive, everyone should have a power of attorney in place in case something happens. Frances regularly prepares Powers of Attorney for her clients.
Trust Administration
Even with a trust in place, your “successor trustee” may need help making sure that your trust’s terms are carried out fully and legally. Frances has a lot of experience working with trustees to manage the sometimes big job of administering a trust’s provisions from the date of death of the trust-maker to ultimate distribution of all assets to the named beneficiaries.
Probate Administration
One of the goals of estate planning is often the avoidance of court supervised probate. However, many people pass away with only a will or no documents in place, necessitating probate. Frances has worked with many different heirs and beneficiaries, taking them through the probate process from start to finish.
Law Office of Frances Fort 