Estate Planning

Your car, home, land, bank accounts, life insurance, furniture, art and personal possessions are all part of your estate.

Wouldn’t you like to control who takes your belongings after your death? How about deciding beforehand who will care for you and your personal property should you become incapacitated?

The experienced estate planners at the Smith Law Firm in Iowa make sure others will recognize your intent and carry out your last wishes when you’re unable to speak yourself. 
Estate planning is all about inventorying your property and drafting legal tools like Wills and Trusts that convey your assets to your loved ones the way you want with minimal tax assessment, fees, and court costs when your property enters probate.

An extensive estate plan may further include durable power of attorneys, a Living Will or alternative legal documents that express how others should tend to your financial and medical needs should you become unable to make decisions for yourself.

Our complete and comprehensive estate planning services offer you the following living and after death legal instruments to protect your legacy:

Will: Your estate plan begins with either a Last Will and Testament or a Living Trust. Your Will dictates who can and cannot receive assets from your estate upon your death. This instrument further designates a guardian for your minor children and nominates a personal representative to execute your Will after it enters probate.

Irrevocable Living Trust: Unlike a Will, a Trust bypasses probate and all the fees and taxes that accompany the proceedings. Your estate (and asset titles) will transfer to the Trustee named in your Trust Agreement immediately after you execute the document. The fiduciary will then manage your former property and disburse the profits from your estate to your named beneficiaries according to your wishes.

Revocable Living Trust: The assets in a Revocable Trust also avoid probate proceedings. You further control the trust property while you’re alive, and you may amend a revocable trust agreement as needed. Your creditors however may reach the trust's assets during your lifetime and you’ll have to pay taxes on any income gains you earn.

Living Will: An estate planning document that expresses your medical care wishes when you’re incapable of speaking for yourself.

Durable Power of Attorney: Fiduciary appointment of an individual who will make medical and/or financial decisions for you. This legal instrument springs into action the moment you become legally incapacitated.

Tax Planning: Our estate planning documents minimize state and federal tax assessments on probate assets. This service ensures that your loved ones will receive the maximum inheritance from your estate.

Letter of Intent: Wills and Trusts don’t always express everything you want to say. Leaving a separate letter to your beneficiaries or to the fiduciary in charge of executing/managing your estate may help resolve important family concerns after you’re gone. (i.e. funeral arrangements or non-disposal of property with sentimental value).

If you’re ready to protect your legacy with minimal tax consequences, we welcome you to speak with an attorney at the Smith Law Firm who can help you plan your estate like an expert.

As mentioned earlier, your estate will enter “intestate succession” if you don’t properly draft and execute your testamentary documents before passing away.

The Iowa probate courts thereafter will appoint someone to sell your assets and distribute your remaining wealth according to the state’s complicated intestate succession laws.

State rules disburse intestate assets similar to how an average person would have conveyed had the person had an estate plan in place—spouse, children, parents, siblings—intestate succession however may not be exactly how you’d like your property distributed among heirs.

In addition to a Will or Trust giving you the last say in who receives your belongings after death, effective estate planning also includes the following perks:

Asset Protection : Estate planning instruments can prevent creditors and unnamed third-party beneficiaries from reaching your legacy.

Minor Children Guardianship: You choose the person who will take care of your minor children’s needs and finances until when they become legal adults.

Tax Reduction: Trusts can mitigate or eliminate expensive federal and state inheritance tax assessments.

Executor/Trustee Assignment: You determine the right person to carry out your last wishes or manage your beneficiaries’ assets after you pass away.

Power of Attorney Assignment: You may likewise appoint a trusted relative or friend to deal with your medical and financial affairs should you become incapacitated.

Family Discord Relief: You choose the family members who will take from your estate or the individual who will control your family’s legacy after you’re gone. Once you’ve expressed your sound intent and last wishes, it leaves little room for relatives to fight over assets after your death.

Speak with a professional at the Smith Law Firm in Altoona today to learn more about how estate planning can work for your particular circumstances.

You may be considering drafting and executing an estate plan by yourself after encountering some do-it-yourself estate planning documents on the Internet.

The expert attorneys at the Smith Law Firm strongly recommend that you not compromise your family’s future by trying to handle complicated estate law practices on your own.

Your household is unique and those generic fill-in forms that you found most likely do not fully address the asset distribution challenges that accompany complex succession (i.e. joint tenancy, children from another marriage, business partners and charities).

You would also need to carry a complete understanding of estate law and Iowa tax code to draw up sound legal instruments that fully protect valuable assets from reaching the hands of tax agencies and creditors.

Finally, errors made in the drafting and execution of estate planning documents almost always provoke expensive estate dispute litigation against your heirs and their inheritances brought by interested parties.

Looking at do-it-yourself estate planning from this angle thus brings up the following valid question:

Is the few dollars you’ll save from drafting and executing self-help legal forms by yourself worth leaving your family home and life savings unprotected?

Probably not! Don’t risk your family’s future by trying to handle complicated estate planning issues on your own. Let the estate planning authorities at the Smith Law Firm in Iowa examine your property and assets and talk to you about the specific legal tools that will work best for your household.