What is estate planning?
Estate planning is the process by which you plan for the end of your life. Estate planning covers a variety of issues including how your remains will be handled, how your assets will be collected, from where and to whom they will be given, how your debts will be paid and who will make all of these things happen. It also includes directives concerning what medical treatment you may or may not want if you become seriously ill or otherwise unable to act on your own.
What is estate administration?
Estate administration, often referred to as probate is the name of the process through which a deceased person’s debts are paid and their assets are distributed under Court supervision. The Probate process can be rather complicated and can take months or even years to complete. It includes two different kinds of informal or expedited estate administration procedures, namely summary administration and collection by affidavit, as well as formal probate.
What can the firm offer?
We approach estate planning by planning with the end in mind, i.e. the administration of the estate, with an emphasis on how to avoid assets being passed through the estate, to make wrapping up your affairs less burdensome for your family. In addition, a comprehensive estate plan also answers questions about your final wishes concerning medical treatment and the disposition of your remains.
We begin estate administration consultations by determining if there is any need to open a formal estate at all. We understand that having to spend months jumping through administrative hoops and submitting paperwork to the courts is the last thing that loved ones want to undergo after someone passes away. We are here to guide you through the process with as little or as much assistance as you request.
Please fill out the form below to commence the process of securing this firm to represent you in estate administration/probate matters.
How are we different from our competitors?
The Humphries Law Firm is not a mill that processes hundreds of these cases at a time. Rather we are careful to limit the number of estates that we represent at any given time to avoid the problems associated with working large numbers of these files, namely delays and a lack of personalized service. In other words, we are not so busy trying to serve other clients that we forget to serve you as efficiently as possible.