Estate Planning Lawyers in Manchester NH – Cohen & Winters
Estate planning means arranging the transfer of assets in anticipation of a person’s death. The goal of an estate plan is to preserve one’s wealth for the heirs or intended beneficiaries, with minimal losses. Essentially, estate planning includes making a plan with your lawyer, naming the individuals or organizations you want to leave your possessions to after you die. It’s important to make sure that plan is clear and easy to carry out when you’re gone. All the plans and documents can be revisited and updated according to any change of heart or circumstances, such as a death of a potential beneficiary, birth of a new heir, change in relationships, added asset, and so on.
Preparing an estate plan involves several goals. You should start with an inventory and copies of all important documents and paperwork, as well as accounts and passwords to important assets. It is advised to keep that information in a safety box in a bank, with a copy of the key in your lawyer’s possession. One of them is to make sure that the money and property are correctly assigned to future beneficiaries, with no potential for legal disputes. You wouldn’t want the distribution of assets to be problematic for your heirs after you’re gone. If you have underage children, it’s important to assign a legal guardian that you can trust.
A well-prepared estate plan also includes plans in the event of incapacity, providing instructions on what types of medical intervention the patient would consent to, and assigning the role of decision maker for those decisions.
If you want to set conditions for beneficiaries in order to give them access to certain assets, its important to know limitations on that. For example, you could not legally include a condition that determine things like marriage, divorce, or the change of the recipient’s religion in your will. A court will not enforce them.
Estate Planning usually includes
- Writing a will or trust.
- Signing a durable power of attorney.
- Naming designated beneficiaries.
- Letter of intent.
- Signing power of attorney for healthcare decisions
- Naming a designated guardian for children.
Consult a lawyer today
If you don’t have an estate plan or want to make changes in the existing one, call our estate planning lawyers in Manchester at Shaunna L. Browne, PLLC. We will walk you through the process, evaluate your individual needs and come up with an estate plan that fits all your requirements. Together we will create an estate plan that will make it easy for your wishes to be fulfilled in the event of your death or incapacitation.