Estate Planning & Probate Blog

High-net worth Georgia families, high-liability professionals and Georgia business owners face some significant challenges when it comes to protecting their assets from creditors, lawsuits and estate taxes.
What’s their secret?
How do some families extend their fortunes for...

There’s no question everyone should have a will, but the AARP reports that 42 percent of Baby Boomers still haven’t taken this important, basic step.
If you don’t have a will, do you know what happens to your hard-earned assets when you die?
They are subject to your...

Do you have an estate plan lined up for your family’s future? If not, you certainly aren’t alone. As many as 50% of all Georgia residents have yet to prepare a Last Will and Testament.
Some find the idea of doing a detailed asset inventory daunting. Others simply don’t want...

When you pass away, your family may need to visit a probate court in order to claim their inheritance. This can happen if you own property (like a house, car, bank account, investment account, or other asset) in only your name. Although having a will is a good basic form of planning, a will does...

So you’ve done the hard work of establishing an estate plan. Good on you, as they say across the Pond. However, you still have serious work to do to ensure that the strategy you’ve selected will maximize your peace of mind and protect your legacy.
Estate plans are living,...

August is National Make a Will Month. There are so many reasons you should have an Estate Plan, but there is no good reason you should be without a Will. So much so that the entire month of August has been set aside to remind people to make a Will. Consider this:
Are you becoming...

I’ve written in the past about the importance of having an estate plan and I encourage you to look back through some of my blog posts. For some families, a Last Will and Testament will work. For other families, it is smarter to have a Trust that disposes of their property following their...

Every day of the week, families will seek my help with probating a loved one’s Will. More times than not, there are issues with probating the Will that requires experienced legal counsel. They’ve run into something unanticipated or they feel overwhelmed. Equally, I often run into...

Whether I’m in the Marietta office or the Chattanooga office, clients will ask me during the final signing meeting if they should sign their Trust or Will using their full name. Their real concern is whether this formal document requires an equally formal signature. My advice is always to...

Last week, I described the two instances where you should have your estate planning documents reviewed or updated. In thirty days, one of those instances will be upon us. It is usually a good idea to have your estate planning documents reviewed when there has been a change in the law. Earlier this...