Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

Estate Planning Lawyer West Valley City Utah

Estate Planning Attorney West Valley City Utah

An estate planning lawyer is a person who understands the legal processes of getting financial affairs in order when you’re preparing for an incapacitating event or your eventual passing. They have years of mentoring, continuing legal education, and experience in estate and inheritance law. Estate planning doesn’t begin and end with a last will and testament. An attorney practicing in this field drafts living trusts and develops plans to mitigate or avoid estate taxes. They work to ensure that your life’s savings and assets are safe from beneficiaries’ creditors when you pass on. Certain types of trusts and clauses within them can protect your estate from creditors and other vultures that try to swoop in on an inheritance. Estate planning lawyers can prepare powers of attorney and health care directives that arrange for someone to take care of your affairs if you should ever become mentally incapacitated. Powers of attorney give someone you trust the ability to sign in your name if you become unable to. You can make a health care directive to assign an agent to conduct your health care wishes if you’re incapacitated. They can help you avoid guardianship or conservatorship issues if you need someone else to look after your affairs. You can appoint guardians (to handle personal issues for your kids) or conservators (to handle your kids’ finances) to look after your children and finances if you pass away before they reach an appropriate age be on their own and handle their inheritance.

Estate Planning Attorney Qualities

A general law practitioner may not have the experience and specialized knowledge to assist you with your unique family and financial situations. Look for an estate planning attorney who:
• Devotes their practice to estate planning\
• Makes you feel comfortable sharing intimate details of your life and concerns, so your estate plan doesn’t fall short of your expectations and needs.
• Is well-versed in and up-to-date with the laws of your state. Otherwise, your estate plan could be deemed invalid by the court.

Finding an Estate Planning Attorney

There are multiple ways to find an estate planning attorney you can comfortably work with and trust. Start by asking someone who already knows you, such as your financial adviser or accountant. Your local or state bar association is another source of reputable referrals. You can ask the local probate court and consult other attorneys as well. Before committing, it may be possible to interview a few briefly by phone to help determine your ability to communicate effectively with them. Be prepared to pay to have your estate plan created, maintained, and updated by someone specializing in this area of practice. You’re paying for the attorney’s expertise and knowledge of estate laws, and to have a plan that will hold up in court. Your estate might stand to lose far more money in the long run than it costs to pay a qualified attorney. A flat fee may cover the preparation of essential documents and initial consultation. If an attorney wants to charge you by the hour, try to negotiate a flat price for all the work you expect is needed. Some experienced attorneys will agree because they have a good sense of how much time goes into a specific task. If your estate incurs taxes that could have been avoided, or if a contentious probate process drags out after you pass on, your loved ones may wish that you had spent the money to plan instead. It is worth paying for the planning, so that you know things will go exactly as you intended because you had the help of an experienced estate planning attorney. Take the time to find and hire a professional and respected attorney in your area. In the long run, you and your family will be glad you did.

A professional estate planning lawyer will bring years of experience in managing estate planning matters in accordance with Taylorsville Utah estate law. Hiring the right attorney in Taylorsville Utah to plan your property and finances can ensure the safety of your finances so that your family will be able to take full advantage of them. Although estate planning lawyers can help you with a variety of issues, their main goal is to provide the best possible assistance in order to prepare your financial legacy. This way, you can have peace of mind knowing that you have prepared for your family and that they will not have to struggle with estate-related issues when you are gone. A reliable estate planning lawyer can help you to write your will and testament as well as set up a trust if required. They can also make sure that the estate and inheritance taxes are kept to a minimum by avoiding any delays in submitting documents. Even after your passing, your lawyer can continue to help by ensuring the executor of your last will transfers your assets to the correct beneficiaries.

An estate planning lawyer can also supervise the probate process to prevent any issues or mistakes. Planning an estate can be an emotionally stressful process, making it difficult to make logical decisions. Therefore, an estate planning lawyer must be responsible and trustworthy to help you with drawing up a living will, assigning the power of attorney, or preparing any type of advance directive. Your lawyer should be your legal guide to help ease the process and make you feel comfortable.

The Estate Planning Process

It is natural for many people to put off planning their estates. After all, no one wants to anticipate his or her own death. In addition, many people may believe that only the wealthy require estate planning or that all that is involved is tax planning, which can be done later. They may well be wrong on both counts. Your level of wealth and the ultimate tax consequences of your estate become secondary to the planning and care of your family and other heirs. A well-structured estate plan is invaluable. Through it, you can control the distribution of your assets and possessions, as well as name guardians for your children or plan care for other dependents. While the estate planning process can raise some difficult emotional and personal issues, your heirs will be glad you did it, and you will know that your wishes are assured. Your first step should be to assemble a competent, professional estate planning team. Your attorney, financial service professional, insurance agent, bank trust officer, and/or accountant are all possible members of your team, depending on the size and complexity of your estate. They can help you complete an analysis of your current estate by looking at your financial position as of today and helping you analyze your family’s needs for the future.

Does a family member have special needs or require medical attention? How much will an education cost when your children reach college age? How will your family’s overall cost-of-living requirements change? How will estate taxes affect your assets as they are currently held? The answers to these questions can help you develop an estate plan that will adequately provide for your family’s needs.

What Information Should Be Gathered?

A thorough estate analysis requires gathering any and all materials involving current or future income, property ownership, insurance, and legal arrangements already in place. This includes records of the following:
• Current income from employment and all investments
• Any expected deferred compensation
• All retirement benefits, from Social Security (including survivors’ benefits), IRAs, pensions, and profit-sharing plans
• Investment documents, certificates, passbooks, etc.
• Deeds to primary and vacation residences
• Personal property
• Life insurance policies of which you are the owner, the insured, or the beneficiary
• Trust agreements, if any
• Your will, if you have one

Current and expected debts and obligations, including mortgage and loan balances, real estate liens, taxes payable, consumer debts, and estimates of funeral costs and estate settlement expenses. Once assembled, a complete analysis can begin, giving you the basis for a solid estate plan.

Reasons You Need an Estate Plan

While there are a variety of reasons why people decide to meet with an estate planning attorney and create an estate plan, here are the most valuable reasons.
• Avoid Probate: A probate is the process of validating a deceased person’s will and placing a value on their assets, paying their final bills and taxes, and distributing the rest to their beneficiaries. Avoiding probate is by far the most common reason why people seek out the advice of an estate planning attorney. While many have never dealt with probate, they still know one thing: they want to avoid it at all costs. This stems from probate horror stories covered by the media or told by neighbors, friends, or business associates. For the vast majority of people, avoiding probate is a very good reason for creating an estate plan and can be easily achieved.
• Reduce Estate Taxes: The significant loss of one’s estate to the payment of state and federal estate taxes or state inheritance taxes is a great motivator for many people to put an estate plan together. Through the most basic planning, married couples can reduce or even possibly eliminate estate taxes altogether by setting up AB Trusts or ABC Trusts as part of their wills or revocable living trusts. Also, a variety of advanced estate planning techniques can be used by both married couples and individuals to make the estate or inheritance tax bill less burdensome or completely go away.
• Avoid a Mess: Many clients seek the advice of an estate planning attorney after personally experiencing or seeing a close friend or business associate experience a significant waste of time and money due to a loved one’s failure to make an estate plan. Choosing someone to be in charge if you become mentally incapacitated or die and deciding who will get what, when they will get it, and how they will get it will go a long way towards avoiding family fights and costly probate court proceedings.
• Protect Beneficiaries: There are generally two main reasons why people put together an estate plan to protect their beneficiaries: To protect minor beneficiaries, or to protect adult beneficiaries from bad decisions, outside influences, creditor problems, and divorcing spouses. If the beneficiary is a minor, all 50 states have laws that require a guardian or conservator to be appointed to oversee the minor’s needs and finances until the minor becomes a legal adult at age 18 or 21, depending on the laws of the state where the minor lives. You can prevent family discord and costly legal expenses by taking the time to designate a guardian and trustee for your minor beneficiaries. Or, if the beneficiary is already an adult that’s bad at managing money or has an overbearing spouse or partner who you fear will squander the beneficiary’s inheritance or take it in a divorce, you can create an estate plan that will protect the beneficiary.
• Protect Assets: Asset protection planning has become a significant reason why many people, including those who already have an estate plan, are meeting with their estate planning attorney. Once you know or suspect that a lawsuit is on the horizon, it’s too late to put a plan in place to protect your assets. Instead, you need to start with a sound financial plan and couple that with a comprehensive estate plan that will, in turn, protect your assets for the benefit of both you during your lifetime and your beneficiaries after your death.

Essential Estate Planning Documents

If your current family and financial situations do not warrant the need for a revocable living trust, then your foundational estate plan will include the following four important legal documents:
• Last Will and Testament
• Advance Medical Directive
• Living Will
• Financial Power of Attorney
If your current family and/or financial situations warrant the need for a more sophisticated estate plan, then your foundational estate plan will include the following important legal documents:
• Pour Over Will
• Revocable Living Trust
• Advance Medical Directive
• Living Will
• Financial Power of Attorney

Estate Law In Taylorsville Utah

Estate law is the body of law that concerns a person’s physical and personal property. Estate law involves planning for a person’s finances and property both during their lifetime and after. It’s a body of law that includes taking care of people and property. It can involve both transactional law and litigation. Estate law is all of the laws that impact how a person makes decisions and issues directives about their personal affairs.

There are several different types of law that make up estate law. These types of law often intertwine. Estate law may involve any of the following types of law:

Wills

A will is a document that states what a person wants to happen to their property when they die. Each person has the right to decide who to give their property to when they pass away. They must deduct their debts from the value of their estate before they can total up their remaining assets to give to the people they choose. The state law where the person lives says what the rules are for creating a will. When a person dies without a will it’s called dying intestate. Each state has rules for what happens when a person dies without a will. An estate lawyer may help their client handle the estate or contest the distribution of an estate when a person dies without estate planning.

Trust

A trust is a legal instrument that allows someone to hold property that someone else owns for the other person’s benefit. A client might use a trust in order to minimize estate taxes and minimize the hassles that can go along with estate distribution. In other cases, a trust is helpful to manage assets for a minor or a person with disabilities. Attorneys help their clients determine if a trust is the right vehicle for them to reach their estate planning goals.

Free Initial Consultation with Lawyer

It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Legal problems come to everyone. Whether it’s your son who gets in a car wreck, your uncle who loses his job and needs to file for bankruptcy, your sister’s brother who’s getting divorced, or a grandparent that passes away without a will -all of us have legal issues and questions that arise. So when you have a law question, call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you!

Michael R. Anderson, JD

Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews


Recent Posts

Probate Lawyers Taylorsville Utah

Probate Lawyer West Valley City Utah

Family Law Attorney West Valley City Utah

Business Lawyers

Estate Planning Lawyer

Divorce Lawyer and Family Law Attorneys

Ascent Law St. George Utah Office

Ascent Law Ogden Utah Office

 

West Valley City, Utah

 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
West Valley City, Utah
City of West Valley City
The Maverik Center in West Valley City, home of the Utah Grizzlies ice hockey team.
The Maverik Center in West Valley City, home of the Utah Grizzlies ice hockey team.
Official seal of West Valley City, Utah
Motto: 
“Progress as promised.”[1]
Location within Salt Lake County
Location within Salt Lake County
West Valley City is located in Utah
West Valley City
West Valley City
Location within Utah

Coordinates: 40°41′21″N 111°59′38″WCoordinates40°41′21″N 111°59′38″W
Country  United States
State  Utah
County Salt Lake
Settled 1847
Incorporated 1980
Government
 
 • Mayor Karen Lang [2]
Area
 • Total 35.88 sq mi (92.92 km2)
 • Land 35.83 sq mi (92.79 km2)
 • Water 0.05 sq mi (0.14 km2)
Elevation
 
4,304 ft (1,312 m)
Population
 • Total 140,230
 • Density 3,913.76/sq mi (1,511.11/km2)
Time zone UTC−7 (Mountain (MST))
 • Summer (DST) UTC−6 (MDT)
Area code(s) 385, 801
FIPS code 49-83470[5]
GNIS feature ID 1437843[6]
Website www.wvc-ut.gov

West Valley City is a city in Salt Lake County and a suburb of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 140,230 at the 2020 census,[4] making it the second-largest city in Utah. The city incorporated in 1980 from a large, quickly growing unincorporated area, combining the four communities of Granger, Hunter, Chesterfield, and Redwood. It is home to the Maverik Center and USANA Amphitheatre.

[geocentric_weather id=”02b3d746-3bff-4387-9149-f206cfe1d375″]

[geocentric_about id=”02b3d746-3bff-4387-9149-f206cfe1d375″]

[geocentric_neighborhoods id=”02b3d746-3bff-4387-9149-f206cfe1d375″]

[geocentric_thingstodo id=”02b3d746-3bff-4387-9149-f206cfe1d375″]

[geocentric_busstops id=”02b3d746-3bff-4387-9149-f206cfe1d375″]

[geocentric_mapembed id=”02b3d746-3bff-4387-9149-f206cfe1d375″]

[geocentric_drivingdirections id=”02b3d746-3bff-4387-9149-f206cfe1d375″]

[geocentric_reviews id=”02b3d746-3bff-4387-9149-f206cfe1d375″]

author avatar
Michael Anderson
People who want a lot of Bull go to a Butcher. People who want results navigating a complex legal field go to a Lawyer that they can trust. That’s where I come in. I am Michael Anderson, an Attorney in the Salt Lake area focusing on the needs of the Average Joe wanting a better life for him and his family. I’m the Lawyer you can trust. I grew up in Utah and love it here. I am a Father to three, a Husband to one, and an Entrepreneur. I understand the feelings of joy each of those roles bring, and I understand the feeling of disappointment, fear, and regret when things go wrong. I attended the University of Utah where I received a B.A. degree in 2010 and a J.D. in 2014. I have focused my practice in Wills, Trusts, Real Estate, and Business Law. I love the thrill of helping clients secure their future, leaving a real legacy to their children. Unfortunately when problems arise with families. I also practice Family Law, with a focus on keeping relationships between the soon to be Ex’s civil for the benefit of their children and allowing both to walk away quickly with their heads held high. Before you worry too much about losing everything that you have worked for, before you permit yourself to be bullied by your soon to be ex, before you shed one more tear in silence, call me. I’m the Lawyer you can trust.