Estate Planning

Knowledgeable Estate Planning Attorney in North Reading

For more than twenty-five years, Roberta A. Schreiber has provided personalized estate planning for individuals, families, and small business owners at all stages of their lives. Whether you are just starting a new family, marrying for the second time, or planning for retirement, Roberta and her experienced staff can help you establish an estate plan that is appropriate for you. The law firm offers traditional Estate Planning for estates of all sizes, including preparation of the following documents:

• Wills
• Revocable Trusts
• Powers of Attorney
• Health Care Proxies and Living Wills
• Homestead Declarations
• Deeds with Life Estates
• Pre-Nuptial and Domestic Partnership Agreements
• Irrevocable Insurance Trusts
• Special Needs Trusts

Estate planning is about more than just deciding what happens to your property after your death. A good estate plan deals with what the future may bring — good or bad. It starts with planning for yourself. With a Power of Attorney and Health Care Proxy, you can give a trusted family member or friend the ability to deal with financial matters and make medical decisions on your behalf during a medical emergency.

If you become permanently incapacitated, these documents will allow your representative to continue dealing with all legal, financial, and tax matters on your behalf and making decisions about your living arrangements and medical care on a permanent basis, without having to go through the ordeal and expense of Guardianship proceedings in Probate Court. The Living Will expresses your wishes about dying with dignity and insures that your wishes will be carried out even if you can no longer speak for yourself.

Establishing and funding a Revocable Trust can accomplish a number of objectives. With the Revocable Trust, you continue to manage your assets for as long as you are able to do so. If you become incapacitated, the trust property will be managed for your benefit by the person named by you to act as successor Trustee. Your Trust will also contain instructions about the management and distribution of trust property for the benefit of your spouse, children, grandchildren, charities, and other beneficiaries after your death.

With a properly funded Revocable Trust, there will be no need to probate your Will. Your family will be able to avoid the costly, slow, and very public process of administrating your estate through the Probate Court. A Revocable Trust can also be structured to minimize liability for estate taxes, enabling you to pass on more of your assets to future generations.

In addition to these basic documents, other specialized documents, such as a Pre-Nuptial Agreement, a Special Needs Trust for a disabled child, or an Irrevocable Trust to protect your assets or hold life insurance proceeds, may be appropriate for you. For an initial consultation with Massachusetts lawyer Roberta A. Schreiber and a recommendation for an estate plan tailored to meet your needs, please contact us.