- Legacy and Estate Planning
- Trust and Probate Administration
- Special Needs Planning
- Business Succession Planning
- Planned Giving
Legacy and Estate Planning is about protecting yourself and your family should you become disabled, and after you die. Who do you want to be in charge of your finances and assets if you become disabled? How do you want your assets to be distributed when you die? How do you wish to be remembered by your loved ones by what you did for them? These are the questions to be asked and answered.
Such planning is a process and begins with you completing a questionnaire and a meeting with Dennis A. Fordham to discuss your goals. We explore the available options and tailor your estate planning solution. Mr. Fordham drafts documents based on information provided at the meeting and in the questionnaire. These documents typically are a single living trust together with pour over will, powers of attorney for finance, and an advance health care directive for each client. After you have reviewed the drafts, a second meeting is held to answer questions and resolve outstanding drafting issues to your satisfaction. Any changes are incorporated and final documents prepared for signing. The signing ceremony usually takes place at our law office, but can, if need be, occur at someone’s home or other location.
Trust and Probate Administration:
When a person dies their estate needs to be settled in an orderly and effective fashion. How it is settled depends on the type of planning that the decedent implemented while alive, the type of assets involved, and how title to the assets was held at the time of death. Either way competent legal guidance is needed.
If a trust is involved, the successor trustee needs competent legal assistance and guidance to implement the steps involved in trust administration. We provide comprehensive trust administration legal services. We draft administration documents; we contact creditors, appraisers, beneficiaries, heirs and governmental agencies; we answer legal and tax issues; and we distribute assets properly.
If a probate is involved, such as with administering a will, then a court becomes involved. We assist from beginning to end in the court supervised process: petitioning the court to initiate the probate; helping to inventory, appraise, and safeguarding assets; contacting and paying creditors of the estate; preparing an accounting and report of the probate administration for review by the court and beneficiaries; and petitioning the court to authorize distribution of assets to beneficiaries.
Special Needs Planning:
Lifetime gifts and inheritances intended for persons with special needs – such as developmental disabilities, dementia and psychiatric disorders – who receive, or will receive, needs based government assistance – such as Medi-Cal and SSI – often involve Special Needs Trust (SNT’s). SNT’s help preserve eligibility to receive continued government benefits while the trustee uses the assets in the SNT to supplement (and not to replace) the needed government assistance. SNT’s must be drafted carefully to satisfy stringent Medi-Cal and/or SSI limitation requirements. A SNT will help the assets last longer in order to provide for the comforts of life that are not provided by welfare benefits which are relied to pay for the essentials of life.
Business Succession Planning is about planning an orderly transfer of management and ownership of your business as a going-concern in a manner that preserves the value of your business and provides for your retirement needs and other estate planning objectives. This work combines expertise in the areas of estate planning, business entities and tax planning.
Planned Giving integrates your vision of philanthropic giving with your financial and estate planning goals. The total package allows you to enjoy tax and financial advantages and give to charity – a win-win. Begin the process by meeting with a qualified advisor – a qualified attorney, financial advisor and/or accountant, or a combination thereof – to discuss your personal financial and estate planning goals for you and your family. Once your priorities are established, we can explore your charitable wishes and assist you to evaluate possible gifts to charity that may be financially advantageous because they create a current stream of income and/or immediate income tax advantages.
Planned Giving can be structured in a various ways. Some a simple as an outright gift now or at death. Charitable gifts can create income tax deductions and income streams for you. More involved structures include installment sales and charitable trusts. We can assist you with establishing the desired structure to meet your goals.