Estate Planning & Probate Blog

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...

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...

Have you met your locate Probate Judge? Most people have not, but that could be the person who decides who raises your minor children if you do not put a plan in place to appoint a guardian for your children should you pass away too soon.
I was working with a woman recently who had two minor...

“Do I need to file the Will?” This is an interesting question I get all the time. Typically, the person will tell me they are the surviving spouse and everything is passing to them. Other times, it may be an adult child who tells me that mom or dad had very little or that everything...