When you hear the word “estate,” you might conjure up images of sprawling mansions, acres of well-manicured lawns, swimming pools, and all the other rich amenities.

In reality, anyone who owns any type of property, be it a car, house, or boat, has an estate. You can also have an estate if you rent a house and have a savings account. Once you embrace the concept of being an estate owner, you should think about estate planning.

Regardless of the assets or the amount of savings, your estate is a legacy you are leaving behind for your family, and you need to protect it. Fortifying your estate with an experienced Lanham estate planning lawyer is the best way to protect your legacy.

The Role of an Estate Planning Attorney

As the title implies, an estate planning attorney is a legal professional who specializes in all aspects of the management and transfer of assets accumulated over a lifetime. These plans would come into effect in the event of the owner of the state becoming incapacitated or passing away.

Here are the various roles an estate agent planning attorney takes on:

Drafts Legal Documents

An estate planning attorney prepares the following documents related to your estate:

• Last Wills and Testaments
• Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts
• Durable Powers of Attorney
• Advance Healthcare Directives

Estate Tax and Asset Protection

An estate planner is extremely familiar with all the current laws and codes that can help reduce or eliminate estate, gift, and income taxes. They will also help protect your assets from creditors or potential mismanagement when the estate becomes active.

Avoiding Probate

One of the primary benefits of an estate planner is structuring assets so they pass directly to beneficiaries rather than go through a protracted and costly probate court process.

Planning for Incapacity

Your estate planner will also create directives that designate whom you assign as a trusted individual to make financial or medical decisions in case you become unable to do so yourself.

Guidance on Minor Children

An estate planner also helps with the appointment of guardians for minor children. They can also establish a special needs trust for dependents who require long-term care.

Business Succession Planning

If you own a business, you and your estate planning attorney will create a plan to ensure a seamless transition of ownership and management.

Signs You Need Professional Estate Planning Help

As much as you try, life rarely goes according to plan. In addition to the acquired assets, you could be dealing with a blended family or minor children. There could also be major life changes, such as divorce, marriage, or relocation, that become major factors in your estate planning.

These are all core reasons why you need to sign with a professional estate planning attorney.

You might think that you can do some of your planning on your own. However, there could be a lot of issues that might be out of reach, starting with all the changes in the current tax laws. There could also be concerns if you own property in multiple states or if your designated beneficiaries are outdated.

Protecting Your Assets from Maryland Probate

Probate is the process that every estate goes through, which is part of the transfer process. When someone passes, the estate goes into probate as the legal transition matters are resolved. In other words, the assets that are in the estate can be accessed by the beneficiaries until the probate is closed.

The Maryland probate process can last anywhere from 9 to 18 months. That is a long time to wait.

A qualified estate planning attorney can implement strategies before probate that can shorten the process. These strategies can include the following:

• Revocable Living Trusts: This allows you to transfer assets into a trust, which lets them pass directly to beneficiaries without court involvement. That offers a certain level of privacy.
• Joint Ownership: If a property is held as “joint tenants with right of survivorship” (JTWROS), it automatically transfers to the surviving owner upon the other’s death, without going through a lengthy probate process.
• Beneficiary Designations: It is also crucial to designate beneficiaries who have direct access to the relevant accounts. When you assign someone with Accounts with Payable-on-Death (POD) or Transfer-on-Death (TOD) designations, then bank accounts, retirement accounts, and life insurance policies can all bypass the probate process.
• Lifetime Gifting: Your attorney can also advise you to give away certain assets while you’re still alive. That will reduce the size of the probate estate and help streamline the overall process.

Planning for Incapacity and Healthcare Decisions

Your estate planning involves more than deciding who gets what. It is also about deciding who should be in charge of the estate in the event that you can no longer make decisions.

It’s important to formalize who you want to make those decisions through an Advance Health Care Directive (AHCD), which is a living will and healthcare proxy. You can also set up a Durable Power of Attorney for your finances. That will designate trusted individuals to make medical and financial decisions on your behalf if you become unable to do so.

If these agreements aren’t in place, the court will step in and set up a conservatorship with a designate that you might not necessarily want to be in charge of your estate.

Your attorney can also set up a living will, which specifies your desires for end-of-life care. This covers such important decisions as whether you need to be resuscitated in a medical crisis or if you want to have feeding tubes to sustain your life.

You can also set up a healthcare proxy or Medical Power of Attorney, who will make medical decisions when you cannot communicate.

How to Choose the Right Attorney in Lanham

You will put a lot of trust in your choice of estate planning attorney. This is the person who will bring years of legal expertise to your planning needs. Managing your estate involves complex legal considerations that must be applied alongside Maryland probate laws, inheritance tax rules, revocable living trusts, and beneficiary designations.

The Lanham estate planning attorney you’ll find at GDH Law not only understands how to draft documents but will also help you set up a comprehensive protection plan tailored to your specific needs.

We pride ourselves on providing clear communication and guidance that will cover all aspects of your estate planning.

The best way to decide if you need the support of an estate attorney is to talk to one. You can schedule a free consultation with GDH Law to get all your questions answered. Don’t put off getting your estate in order.