When a loved one passes away, the process of settling their estate is too often fraught with disagreements or even outright legal action among family members. Since you naturally want to avoid discord that could permanently alter relationships among your family members, you may want to consult an estate planning attorney from San Angelo to help you establish guidelines for your estate that will minimize disputes. Here are three ways this attorney can assist you.
An estate planning attorney from San Angelo can help you include all assets and heirlooms from your estate.
Property and financial accounts are obvious items to include in estate planning. However, there are other assets, such as family heirlooms, that, while maybe not as financially valuable, can have significant sentimental value. These items should also be included in estate planning in order to prevent arguments over where they go after your death.
Your estate planning attorney from San Angelo can help you to locate all important assets, including family heirlooms, and include them in your estate planning. Whether they are addressed in your final will and testament, listed separately, or given away beforehand, handling these items can prevent arguments during the settlement of your estate.
An estate planning attorney from San Angelo can help you draft documents other than your will.
Your final will and testament may describe what happens to your assets after you die, but are you also clarifying how your burial will go, or what will happen if you end up needing a ventilator? Other documents are part of estate planning, and drafting them now can prevent arguments within your family over important issues like your end-of-life care.
Your estate planning attorney from San Angelo can help you draft these documents. They include advanced healthcare directives to clarify your decisions on end-of-life care, as well as burial directives for celebrating your life and interring your remains in the manner that you wish. These documents can create the clarity your family needs to care for you without disputes at the end of your life and after you die.
An estate planning attorney from San Angelo can help you write your final will and testament.
The final will and testament, of course, is the most well-known document involved in estate planning. Creating one that is clear and legally binding can make it much simpler, and less contentious, for your family to carry out your wishes after you die.
An estate planning attorney from San Angelo can help you take your wishes and translate them into a clear and understandable final will and testament. The more comprehensive the will is, the less likely it is to cause confusion among your family. The attorney can help guide and advise you as you craft a will that is ironclad.
An estate planning attorney from San Angelo can help your family navigate disputes after you die. However, a better approach will be to use them as a resource for avoiding these disputes in the first place. They can help you deal clearly with all important assets, create advanced healthcare directives and burial instructions, and craft a clear and comprehensive will to ensure that your wishes are honored.
If you need help with any aspect of estate planning, do not hesitate to reach out to the Law Offices of David M. White for a free consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney from San Angelo or our probate attorney.