Maryland Estate Planning Lawyer
You work hard for your security and your family’s security. You need a plan that protects your hard work, your business interests, and the needs of your beneficiaries. A Maryland estate planning lawyer can help you create solutions that protect your assets now and in the future. To learn more about what an estate plan can do for you and your family, consult with a Maryland trusts and estates lawyer today. En Español.
How a Maryland Estate Planning Lawyer Can Help You
In its broadest sense, estate planning is simply a plan for your property and assets after your death. However, planning the management and disbursement of your assets can also include your plans for the estate during your lifetime in the event that you become incapacitated or can no longer manage the estate.
Your legacy is important, and you have several options for protecting that legacy, maintaining its integrity, and passing it on to your intended beneficiaries.
A Maryland estate planning attorney can explain options including wills, living trusts, and inter vivo gifts that can protect the privacy of the estate, guard assets from creditors, avoid the dissipation of your estate, and minimize the tax burden.
An estate planning lawyer can help you create legal solutions that protect your assets and secure the future of your estate:
You built your estate with a plan. Do not fail to plan for its future as well. Learn more about what often-used terms mean in the process, the nuanced dynamics of planning, and find an estate planning lawyer in the area who can help you make the best decisions for the management of your estate now and in the future.
Estate Planning Solutions
In a perfect world, everyone would be able to effortlessly and seamlessly transition their estate to the beneficiaries and heirs, who would then manage the estate responsibly, making wise fiscal decisions that w, in turn, protect the security of their beneficiaries and heirs.
Unfortunately, we know that a hard-earned and well-established estate can quickly be dissipated through taxation; claims from creditors, beneficiary disagreements, and beneficiaries who are unprepared to manage the assets bequeathed to them.
Careful estate planning can help you and your beneficiaries avoid these pitfalls. By preparing for the current and future administration of your estate, you can create the estate plan necessary for the protection, management, and transfer of your property and assets.
A Maryland estate planning lawyer can help you plan for your retirement, develop strategies for the management of your estate if you become incapacitated, and create the legal structures that provide for your beneficiaries while preserving the integrity of your estate.
Determining a Personal Representative for an Estate
A Personal Representative is someone who is over the age of 18. An individual can nominate a Personal Representative in their Last Will and Testament, giving that person priority to serve on behalf of the estate.
General characteristics of a good choice for Personal Representative would include somebody that is physically responsible that a client or individual could trust to handle their affairs pursuant to their wishes after death. Someone who has not committed a serious crime, someone who can be bonded and in many cases has not filed for bankruptcy or had other issues, and somebody that is detail-oriented would be a good fit for Personal Representative.
Role of a Personal Representative
An estate and trust attorney can assist with advising a Personal Representative of their duties with the preparation on all of the necessary pleadings to open the estate. The filing of any of the required court reporting, and they can assist with making an inventory of the estate assets, preparing any estate tax returns that are due, and then preparing a plan of distribution when the estate is ready to terminate.
The general duties of a Personal Representative in the administration of the estate include marshaling all of the assets of the estate, valuing those assets as of the date of death, evaluating and paying any legally enforceable debts, making sure all necessary or required tax returns are filed and all required taxes have been paid, and in making distribution pursuant to the laws of intestacy or pursuant to the decedent’s Last Will and Testament.
Find an Estate Planning Attorney in Maryland
Protect yourself, your loved ones, and your assets through customized, strategic planning for your estate. Call to speak with a Maryland estate planning attorney who can discuss with you your options, including wills, trusts, tax shelters, gifts and inheritance, business planning, and the future security of your loved ones. Hiring an attorney is a big decision and can take time; start now.