North Reading Estate Planning Lawyer

ESTATE PLANNING - PERSONALIZED ESTATE PLANNING FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY

For more than thirty 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 starting a new family, establishing or managing your own business, marrying for the second time, or planning for retirement, Roberta can help you establish an estate plan that is appropriate for you and your family.

Roberta takes a comprehensive approach to estate planning, working with her clients' accountants and financial advisors. She asks questions and listens carefully, to determine what her clients' goals are, for themselves, their children and grandchildren, their business, or for charitable organizations in which they are involved. When appropriate, she includes the clients' children and other family members in the decision making process. With the use of questionnaires, she gathers all relevant information and then recommends an estate plan to carry out her clients' goals. Before the documents are finalized, she reviews them with her clients to make sure that the documents are accurate and the plan is appropriate. The estate planning process does not end with the signing of documents. If there is a Trust, Roberta makes sure that it is funded and administered properly. For those clients who are planning to minimize estate taxes, who have an ongoing gifting program, or who own a family business, she meets with them periodically, to make sure that the original plan is being carried out correctly and to determine if changes are needed. Roberta stays in touch with her clients with her online newsletter and by mailing a quarterly newsletter. When tax laws change, she does her best to notify all clients who may be affected by the changes, so that their documents can be updated if necessary. Her business has grown by client referrals, so it is not unusual for her to represent two or three generations of a family and extended family members and friends.

Whatever the size of your estate, Roberta has the experience to recommend and implement an estate plan that will carry out your goals, including the preparation and implementation of the following documents:

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

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 public Guardianship proceedings in Probate Court. The Living Will expresses your wishes about dying with dignity, specifically addressing the use or suspension of artificial life support systems, and ensures that your wishes will be carried out when 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 Co-Trustee or Successor Trustee. Your Trust also contains instructions about the management and distribution of trust property for the benefit of your spouse, children, grandchildren, charities, and other beneficiaries after your death. The Trust may continue after your death for the benefit of your spouse, children, and/or grandchildren, or it may terminate after your death when the assets are distributed to the Trust beneficiaries. 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 administering your estate through the Probate Court. A Revocable Trust can also be structured to minimize or eliminate liability for estate taxes, enabling you to pass on more of your assets to future generations. If you are a member of a "Blended Family", your Trust can include provisions to ensure that your current spouse will be supported after your death, and your children by your current marriage and/or a prior marriage will receive their inheritance after you and your spouse are deceased.

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 more information about basic estate planning documents, see the Wills, Trusts, and Estate and Gift Taxes pages. Look under Articles for more detailed information about planning for blended families and different types of specialized Trusts. For an initial consultation with Roberta and a recommendation for an estate plan tailored to meet your needs, please contact us.