Estate Planning Attorney in Vineland, NJ

Drafting Comprehensive Estate Plans for Clients

If thinking about your family’s financial circumstances in the future causes you to worry, you should start planning now with the help of an attorney. An experienced estate planning lawyer can ensure you have the right legal tools in place to protect your family and honor your wishes when it comes to distributing your hard-earned assets after your death.

When you hire Bratton Law Firm for your legal needs, you’ll get assistance from a Vineland, New Jersey estate planning lawyer with extensive experience setting up wills, trusts, and other tools for clients ready to plan for their future. Call our Vineland estate planning firm today for an initial consultation with a caring legal team.

Who Should Make an Estate Plan?

While some people assume estate planning is only for high-net-worth individuals and business owners, the reality is that most adults can benefit from creating an estate plan. In particular, you should consider doing so if you have:

• A spouse whose financial interests you need to protect
• A home, bank account, retirement account, or other assets that you want to pass to others upon your death
• Health conditions that could make it difficult or impossible to communicate your healthcare preferences to your medical team
• Minor children who will need a guardian if both parents pass away
• A business with partners, employees, or clients you wish to protect long-term

In short, if you’re an adult with any assets, strong healthcare preferences, or family members who could benefit from inheriting your property, you should create an estate plan as soon as possible. Our attorneys would be happy to guide you through the estate planning process, so call us for an initial consultation.

What Should Your Estate Plan Include?

Your estate plan should be unique to your needs, but there are certain estate planning tools that are considered helpful for most people. They include:

• Last Will and Testament
• Irrevocable trusts
• Revocable living trusts
• Powers of attorney
• Living wills
• Beneficiary designations
• Funeral and burial instructions

Your attorney will review your circumstances with you before recommending the estate planning documents that would best meet your needs. Some details they’ll consider include the assets you own, whether you have minor children, and the impact certain estate planning options would have on your tax liability. Call our New Jersey firm to start making a comprehensive estate plan.

What’s the Difference Between a Last Will and a Living Will?

As you begin the legal process of making an estate plan, you’ll likely have questions about what sets certain options apart from others. After all, some of them sound similar, such as the last will and the living will. These two popular estate planning documents have distinct purposes.

A last will is a document that provides clarity on how your assets should be distributed to your loved ones after your death. You can also use this document to appoint a guardian for your minor children and designate a person you can trust to guide your estate through the probate process.

On the other hand, a living will focuses on the healthcare decisions that must be made during your life. This is because there may come a time when you’re too sick to communicate your healthcare wishes to your doctor. If this occurs, they can review this document, which should state your views on ventilation, blood transfusions, resuscitation, and other treatment options. You can also appoint a trusted person to make healthcare decisions for you if you’re incapacitated.

Attorneys often recommend that clients include both types of wills in their estate plan. If you want to find out if this is the case for you, schedule a consultation with our team today. We’ll help draft a plan that accurately reflects your unique estate planning needs, allowing you to feel prepared for anything that may happen in the future.

How Can an Estate Planning Attorney in Vineland, NJ Assist You?

Our attorneys have been serving clients across numerous practice areas for years, so you can count on us to help with everything from estate planning and estate administration to the probate process and estate plan disputes. We understand how intimidating it can be to take the first step toward planning for your future, so we’ll be here to guide you from the start.

Regardless of the practice areas you need help with, the caring attorneys at Bratton Law Group are eager to handle your legal needs. Contact us at (856) 644-4283 to schedule your initial consultation.