Estate Planning

Estate Planning deals with the control of an individual's property while they are living and after they die. The basic documents of estate planning include wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives and living wills.

Each of these documents provides control to the principal. What is controlled and when it is controlled are personal criteria that require the documents to be individually prepared to obtain their most effective use for the individual.

Two documents that every person needs, regardless of age, are 1) a durable power of attorney; and 2) a health care directive. These documents allow the principal the right to choose who will make decisions for them, financially and medically, should they be unable to make the decisions themselves. Without these documents, it is possible that the only way someone will gain the legal right to make decisions for the principal is through a court order, which is costly and time consuming.

Orderly transfer of the estate can be another common desire of the individual undertaking estate planning. The most common ways of accomplishing the orderly transfer are by will or revocable living trust. The two significant differences involve when the document becomes effective and how much control can the principal maintain over their estate. Both wills and revocable living trusts have their place in the estate planning arsenal but their application, to maximize their effect, needs to be done at an individual level.

Living Wills are good documents to express the principal’s wishes concerning their own personal care at the last stages of life. They only provide direction at the end point of life and are thus ineffective as a substitute for a health care directive, which can provide an agent the power to make health care decisions prior to the end stage of life. The same types of end of life direction can be accomplished in a well-drafted health care directive, which I believe is the preferable method because it covers both situations in one document.

There are other specialized estate planning tools for special individual circumstances:

• Asset protection plans
• Special Needs Trusts
• Pooled Trusts
• Government Benefit protection

Officed out of Anoka, I serve those in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area as well as greater Minnesota. I will work to protect your rights, your assets and help you to set up the best scenario for your specific situation.

I will be your sounding board and information resource to your legal options, call me at 763-213-0714