Planning Your estate plan should address many of the following family maintenance and protection issues:

• Who could best serve as the “back-up parents” for minor children, providing the necessary care, love and nurturing environment;
• How could “continuing trusts” be utilized to safeguard inheritances for minor beneficiaries or other beneficiaries who lack the ability to manage their inheritances;
• How can inheritances for adult beneficiaries be placed in trust so as to protect them from potential future divorces, lawsuits, creditors and predators;
• What types of activities, life styles, work ethics, etc. do you desire to support?
• How can you minimize the potential risk of “affluence” or “sudden wealth syndrome” for beneficiaries who are going to receive sizeable inheritances;
• What if the intended beneficiaries have (or may develop) “special needs” or disabilities. Planning for Death Taxes No matter how overtaxed you think you are during life, Uncle Sam will want to review your estate at death to ensure you don’t owe him that one final tax: the federal estate tax. Whether there will be any tax to pay depends on the size of your estate and how your estate plan works.

If you become incapacitated, you won’t be able to manage your own financial affairs. Without proper planning in place a “black hole” or “control vacuum” appears. In these cases, court invention (i.e., conservatorship and/or guardianship) is a virtual certainty. This process can be time consuming, expensive, and stressful. Proper incapacity planning operates to fill this “control vacuum” without court intervention. It enables you to hand-pick trusted individuals, and empower them to act on your behalf. Moreover, it binds your appointed individuals to follow a specific set of instructions designed to meet your stated goals and objectives.

We assist clients in preparing the right documents that enable them to retain a lifetime control without court intervention. Through the use of trusts, powers of attorney, and health care directives, our clients are able to:

• maintain control over financial, legal and property matters;
• maintain control over personal health care and medical matters; and
• control over the care and nurturing of minor children and other dependents.

While you’re living and healthy, you take for granted your ability to make your own decisions about your finances, property, health care, and raising your children. When you die or become incapacitated, you’ll need others to handle these matters. Estate planning helps to ensure that they are people you trust and that they will handle things according to your wishes. A skillful attorney can walk you through the process of a choosing effective Agents and drafting estate plans that can be carried out smoothly, diminishing the possibility of inheritance disputes, or will and trust challenges. It’s easy to be lured by legal product providers like Legalzoom, or do-it-yourself software programs, but only qualified attorneys can properly interpret the laws that bear on property rights, taxes, wills, probate, and trusts. A qualified attorney can make sure that your estate documents comply with the laws of your state, maximize your legal advantages, and take care of your wishes and your family’s well-being.

If you die without a will in Utah, state law will determine who inherits your estate. In Utah, 100% will go a surviving spouse, unless there are children from a previous marriage. If there is no surviving spouse, it goes to children and grandchildren, and if no children it goes to the decedents parents, and then to relatives outside of the immediate family. This is a plan that works for many, but may not reflect your wishes. With a will you can designate exactly who gets what. There are other functions of a will. Designating the person you want to care for your minor children, who will settle your affairs, and provide for others who are not directly related, or give to charity.