Practice Areas – Finance

It is a fancy word to describe your “stuff.” You don’t have to be rich to have an estate. Everyone has one. A person’s estate consists of what they own. They include “stuff” like: real property, such as your house, land or buildings you might own; personal property like your vehicles, household furnishings, clothes, jewelry; money, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, businesses…

So what happens to a person’s estate when they die? It depends…on what planning strategies that person took advantage of (or didn’t) while they were alive.

Estate planning encompasses much more than wills and trusts. A well-developed estate plan can greatly benefit the family of the deceased at a difficult time. The estate planning attorneys at Lehman Johnson, Attorneys at Law, PLC in Clarksville create estate plans designed to achieve your goals and benefit your family and beneficiaries. It is a priority for us to make certain that you understand your options, the impact of decisions, and the purpose of every legal instrument in your estate plan.

We provide a wide range of services to help you meet your personal and financial goals. Eric and William at Lehman Johnson, Attorneys at Law, PLC would welcome the opportunity to sit down to discuss all aspects of your estate with you and determine a plan for your estate that addresses your particular needs and wishes. Our services in this area include the following:

• Wills and Trust
• Probate
• Trust and Estate Administration
• Trust Disputes
• Durable Power of Attorney
• Health Care Power of Attorney
• Advanced Care Directives

A will can be as simple as a husband and wife leaving each other all their possessions, or so complicated that an Estate plan is necessary. Sometimes a Trust is required in order to ensure the ongoing care of a minor or other person in need of financial oversight. Regardless of how detailed the will, it is vitally important that everyone have in place a plan for their final expenses and the disposition of their property. We would be happy to discuss your particular needs in this area and formulate the best plan possible so that you can feel satisfied that your friends and loved ones are aware of your wishes when the time comes.

When it comes to making sure that your property is taken care of, or distributed, like you want it done – preparation is the key. There are numerous ways to protect your property and be certain it is divided and dispersed following your death, like you would want it to be done. Those options include creating documents, such as a Will or a Trust, in which your desires for how to distribute your estate are expressed by you and recorded in these types of documents.

Without a prepared will after death, Tennessee’s Intestacy Law takes effect, leaving your property to your closest relatives, beginning with your spouse and children. This list continues with increasingly distant relatives, causing situations to get messy and expensive. Although this can all be avoided, statistics are still high in the state for those that leave their property to the mercy of this law. Avoid being one of these statistics and let Eric and William at Lehman Johnson, Attorneys at Law, PLC in Clarksville sit down with you to discuss all the aspects of your estate and determine a plan that addresses your particular needs and wishes.

This can all seem overwhelming and sometimes even uncomfortable. Eric and William at Lehman Johnson, Attorneys at Law, PLC would welcome the opportunity to sit down to discuss all aspects of your estate with you and determine a plan for your will that addresses your particular needs and wishes.

It’s never too late, nor too early to put your financial affairs in order. Below are a few tips to get you started.

1. Make an inventory of your assets (bank accounts, investments, properties, jewelry, valuables and other personal items).
2. Select or review whom you’ve named as beneficiaries of your life insurance, retirement funds or investment accounts. (An ex-spouse, for example, may inherit if these forms haven’t been updated.)
3. If you’ve already drafted a plan, look it over every few years to make sure the executors are still the people you trust and are up to the task.