You spend a lifetime working, saving, and building a life for the people you love. Yet research shows that an estimated 70% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation, and around 90% lose it by the third. 

That kind of loss usually is not just about bad investing. It is about something deeper: no shared purpose, no shared story, and no shared plan.

In this article, you learn:

• What a family mission statement is (and is not).
• How it works together with your legal planning to protect both money and relationships.
• Simple steps to start your own family mission statement, even if you are not ultra-wealthy.

Why Money Alone Won’t Hold Your Family Together

Most people believe that if you leave “enough” money and the right legal documents, your work is done. Unfortunately, real life doesn’t work that way.

Research on failed wealth transfers shows that most family wealth disappears because of breakdowns in communication, lack of trust, unspoken expectations, and heirs who are unprepared for responsibility. That’s the human side of planning – the part most people never talk about. Instead, we tend to focus on the documents – a will, trust, power of attorney, and health care proxy. We don’t stop to consider that there are humans involved.

But this is where conflict often begins. Adult children may have different interpretations of your intentions. A surviving spouse may feel overwhelmed without guidance. Siblings may not agree on how assets should be used or what “fair” really means. Even in loving families, grief can magnify old wounds, create misunderstandings, and lead to decisions made from fear rather than clarity.

A family mission statement cannot prevent every disagreement, but it gives your loved ones an anchor: a shared understanding of why your resources exist and how you hope they will be used. When you pair that shared purpose with an estate plan that keeps your loved ones out of court and out of conflict, you dramatically increase the likelihood that your wealth and your relationships stay intact for generations.

Turning Your Estate Plan into a Family Playbook

A family mission statement is a short written declaration of your family’s values, purpose, and goals around life, money, and legacy. It is not a legal document, and it does not replace your will or trust. Instead, it gives context and direction to the legal plan you create.

Think of it this way. Your legal documents say what happens to your assets. Your family mission statement explains why and how you hope those assets are used.

My estate planning process is built around this idea. The goal is not to merely create a set of documents. The goal is to create a plan that actually works for the people you love when you cannot be there. That includes:

• A complete inventory of what you own, so nothing is lost or forgotten.
• Clear instructions about who does what, and how to get help.
• Regular reviews so your plan keeps up with changes in your life, the law, and your assets.

Your family mission statement sits right alongside all of this. Here is how it can support your plan:

• For blended families, it can clarify your intention to care for children from prior relationships and a current spouse, so no one is left guessing.
• For young adult children, it can explain why their inheritance may be held in trust, or why distributions are tied to education or work, helping them feels supported rather than controlled.
• For all families, it offers a shared “north star” you can revisit at family meetings, during life and after a death or incapacity.

When clients work with me, I help them see what would happen to their assets and their loved ones if they become incapacitated and when they die, and then design a plan that reflects their values, goals, and family dynamics. The family mission statement becomes part of that conversation.

Once you understand how these pieces fit together, the next step is to put your mission on paper in a way that feels real and usable, not stiff and corporate.

Simple Steps to Create Your Own Family Mission Statement 

You do not need $50 million, a private banker, or a formal “family office” to benefit from a family mission statement. You only need a willingness to be honest about what you care about and a bit of time to talk.

Here is a simple way to start:

Identify your core values.

Set aside time and list the words that matter most to you: things like generosity, learning, faith, adventure, service, or stability. Ask yourself: If my children remembered three things about what I stood for, what would they be? 

Connect values to money.

For each value, write how you want money to support it. For example:

• If you value education, maybe you want resources set aside for school, training, or starting a business.
• If you value family time, perhaps you want to fund annual trips or reunions instead of more “stuff.”
• If you value generosity, maybe you want to support specific causes or encourage your children to give a percentage of their own income.

This is where your mission starts to shape how your trust, beneficiary designations, and overall plan are designed.

Write a rough draft.

Aim for three to six sentences. Use simple language. For example:

“In this family, life is a gift and relationships matter most. Money exists to support education, meaningful experiences, and generosity, not to create entitlement. We work hard, care for one another, and use what we have to make life better for the people we love and the communities we touch.”

Your statement will be your own, but it should feel truthful enough that you are willing to read it out loud to the people you love.

Share it in a family meeting.

The real power of a family mission statement is in the conversation, not just the words. Consider inviting your spouse, partner, and adult children to a simple “family meeting” over dinner or on a weekend afternoon. Share your draft, ask for their reactions, and invite their input. The goal is not to have a debate, but to create connection and understanding.

Tie it back to your legal plan.

Once you have a mission statement, create or update your estate plan. I can help you look at whether your current plan, or the plan you still need to create, actually reflects your mission. If your mission says “family comes first,” but your legal plan leaves your family to fight it out in court, something needs to change.

Over time, you can revisit your mission statement during regular family check-ins, or when you review your plan if you work with me. Regular reviews are so important because over time, your family will change and your mission will evolve. But by having it written down and connected to a plan that works when you and your loved ones need it to, you give your loved ones a roadmap they can follow long after you are gone.

How I Can Support You

You work too hard for your wealth to disappear within a generation, and you care too much about your family to leave them with confusion, conflict, or a court process they have to face alone.

A family mission statement is an excellent start, but it only reaches its full power when you pair it with a Legacy Vision Plan that keeps your family out of court and out of conflict, and gives your loved ones a trusted advisor to turn to when something happens.

If you are ready to align your money, your legal planning, and your deepest values, I invite you to schedule a 15-minute discovery call. During this complimentary call, you can ask questions, learn about my process and flat-fee options, and decide whether a Legacy Vision Plan is right for you and the people you love.

The post Why Your Family Needs a Mission Statement appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

This scenario plays out in homes across America every day. With an estimated $90 trillion in assets transferring from Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation to their heirs over the next two decades, families face not just financial inheritance but a staggering amount of physical possessions to sort, distribute, donate, or discard. Without guidance from you, your loved ones will spend months or even years trying to figure out what matters, what has value, and what you would have wanted them to do with it all.

Not only that, personal belongings are the number one source of conflict when someone dies. It’s not the bank account, the house or the insurance. It’s the “stuff.” The personal items that carry emotional or sentimental value matter the most to loved ones.

The good news? You can prevent this overwhelming situation through thoughtful planning today. In this article, you’ll learn how to organize your belongings, communicate your wishes, and create a plan that protects your family from drowning in stuff while preserving what truly matters.

Why Your Possessions Need a Plan Too

Most people think estate planning only covers financial assets like bank accounts, retirement funds, and real estate. But your estate includes everything you own, from your grandmother’s engagement ring to that collection of vintage records in the basement. Without clear direction about your personal property, you’re setting up your family for confusion, conflict, and countless hours of difficult decisions during an already painful time.

Consider the emotional weight your loved ones will carry. They’ll open every drawer wondering if they’re throwing away something important. They’ll argue over who gets mom’s jewelry or dad’s tools. Family relationships can fracture over items that have more emotional significance than monetary value, simply because no one knew what you wanted.
Sorting through a lifetime of possessions typically takes three to six months of intensive work. Your family will need to take time off work, travel back and forth if they live out of town, and make hundreds of decisions about items they may have never seen before.

Beyond the time and emotional toll, there’s real financial risk. Without proper guidance, valuable items might end up in donation bins. Collections built over decades could be sold for pennies on the dollar because no one knows their true worth.

What about you? Have you walked through your home recently and imagined your children or other heirs trying to sort through everything? Have you considered which items hold stories they don’t know?

With proper planning now, you can spare your family this overwhelming burden and ensure your possessions become meaningful gifts rather than sources of stress and conflict.

Start the Conversation Before It’s Too Late

The best time to address your belongings is while you’re healthy and can actively participate in meaningful conversations about your possessions. Waiting until a health crisis or until you’re gone removes your voice from the process entirely.

Begin by identifying items with special significance. Walk through your home room by room and note anything with emotional value, financial worth, or family history. That china set might have been your great-grandmother’s wedding gift. Those tools might have belonged to your father. Document these stories now, while you remember them.

Next, have honest conversations with your family about what they actually want. Many people assume their children will treasure certain items, only to discover they have different lifestyles and preferences. Your formal dining room set might not fit in their smaller home. Rather than making assumptions, ask directly what holds meaning for them.

Consider creating a personal property memorandum as part of your estate plan. This document, which can be updated without redoing your entire will, lists specific items and who should receive them. Unlike trying to divide everything in your will, which becomes difficult to change, a personal property memorandum remains flexible as your possessions and relationships evolve.

These conversations may feel uncomfortable at first, but they’re essential for preventing future conflict and ensuring your wishes are honored.

Make It Easier By Doing the Work Now

Start with the items you’ve been saving. Those beautiful dishes in the cabinet deserve to be used and enjoyed, not preserved behind glass. Wear the jewelry, use the silver, display the artwork. Create memories with your possessions instead of relegating them to storage.

Sort systematically by creating four categories: keep and use, give away now, designate for specific people, and dispose of. The “give away now” category is particularly powerful because you can see the joy your possessions bring to others during your lifetime.

For items with potential value, get proper appraisals. Collections of coins, stamps, antiques, or art should be professionally evaluated. Document the appraisal and include it with your estate planning documents so your family knows what they have and can make informed decisions.

Create an inventory of your items with stories or significance. A simple spreadsheet or notebook listing important items, their history, and their intended recipients can save your family countless hours of uncertainty.

Taking these steps now transforms what could be an overwhelming burden into a manageable process for your loved ones.

How Comprehensive Estate Planning Protects Your Family From the Burden

Traditional estate planning often overlooks personal property entirely, focusing on documents that address only financial assets and real estate. But your possessions deserve the same careful attention.

Real protection for your family goes far beyond having a set of documents in place. Your loved ones need a comprehensive plan that considers both the legal aspects of transferring assets and the practical realities they’ll face after you’re gone. They need clear instructions about where to find important documents, how to access accounts, and what steps to take first. Most importantly, they need guidance about what to do with your possessions while they’re grieving and facing the legal process of settling your estate. Should they hold an estate sale? Donate to specific charities? Keep certain items together as a collection? These decisions are so much easier when you’ve provided direction in your plan rather than leaving your family to guess.

You can also document the stories behind your possessions in your estate plan, explaining why certain items matter, sharing the history behind collections, and passing along the memories associated with your belongings. When your family inherits your grandmother’s ring, they’ll also inherit the story of how she wore it every day and what it meant to your family. These stories transform possessions from “stuff” into cherished connections to your memory.

Finally, review and update your plan regularly as your life and assets change. This ensures your plan will work over time and won’t fail your loved ones when they need it most.

How I Can Support You

Your possessions represent your life story, but without proper planning, they can become an overwhelming weight for your family. The choices you make now and the conversations you have today will make all the difference in how your family experiences your legacy.

I help you create a comprehensive Life & Legacy Plan so that your loved ones stay out of court and conflict and have a plan that works when they need it. Once you’ve created your plan, you can rest easy knowing your wishes will be honored, your loved ones cared for, and your assets protected. I’ll also touch base regularly to ensure your plan stays updated over time, taking the burden off your shoulders to make changes to your plan when needed. After all, you have enough to worry about each day.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Click here to schedule a complimentary 15-minute discovery call.

The post What Happens to All Your Stuff When You Die? (And Why Your Family Is Dreading It) appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

This week, I’m covering two more reasons why every LGBTQ+ family needs custom estate planning. 

And if you missed last week’s blog, make sure to read it here to get the full scoop.

Let’s get started!

03 | Most Traditional Lawyers Aren’t Well Equipped to Serve LGBTQ+ Families

Although same-gender and LGBTQ+ relationships are more publicly recognized now than ever, creating effective estate plans for LGBTQ+ clients is still new territory for many traditional lawyers. 

Some lawyers simply lack experience serving LGBTQ+ families because these families didn’t have the same rights as cisgender couples until just eight years ago – and while that’s nearly a decade, it’s only a fraction of most lawyers’ practicing careers. For traditional lawyers who are in their 30th year of practice, new developments in LGBTQ+ planning are still fairly foreign.

The same is true for many LGBTQ+ families. In addition to same-gender marriage being relatively new, many LGBTQ+ families haven’t pursued estate planning due to a lack of knowledge about its importance or its availability to them. After all, only 30% of American adults have an estate plan, (yikes!), and only a small portion of that 30% are in a LGBTQ+ relationship.

For lawyers who create cookie-cutter plans for their clients (which is more lawyers than you’d like to think), the amount of custom estate planning language necessary to make an effective plan for an LGBTQ+ family is more than many lawyers know how to do or want to do. 

That leaves a shocking number of traditional attorneys who simply aren’t prepared or experienced enough to serve LGBTQ+ families in a way that creates effective plans and also honors their family and their legacy.

Sadly, some traditional lawyers don’t feel comfortable serving LGBTQ+ families and don’t even accept them as clients! 

Because of this, it’s crucial to work with an attorney who isn’t just comfortable working with LGBTQ+ families, but is passionate about getting to know your family on a personal level and creating a plan that celebrates all that you’ve done and all that you hope for your family in the future.

04 | Keep Your Kids with the Ones They Love

If you’re in an LGBTQ+ relationship, you know that family isn’t just about bloodlines – it’s also about your chosen family and the bond and love you share for each other. 

And if you have children, you know that ensuring their well-being and protection is of the utmost importance. 

In the event that something happens to you, it’s crucial to have a plan in place that addresses who will be your children’s legal guardian, and this is especially true if the children in your family aren’t biologically related to one of the parents, such as step-children or children born to same-sex parents who aren’t married.

Not only can these situations create some unique legal planning, but LGBTQ+ parents may also face resistance from family members who may not support children living with a biologically unrelated guardian or an LGBTQ+ guardian, whether you and your partner were married or not.

Similarly, if your family is resistant to certain lifestyle or parenting choices you have made – such as gender fluidity in how you raise your child or the topics you discuss within your family – it’s incredibly important to name guardians who align with your beliefs and who will honor your wishes for how you want your children to be raised.

Legal Guardians Are Even More Important for LGBTQ+ Families

To avoid potential disputes and ensure the continuity of care for your children, it’s essential to designate legal guardians for your children explicitly in your estate plan. By doing so, you can legally establish who you want to care for your children in your absence regardless of the guardian’s relationship to your children or their sexual orientation.

By documenting who you would want to raise your children clearly and legally, you help ensure that your children will always be raised by the people you choose and the people your children love. 

Otherwise, you leave space for relatives who do not agree with your beliefs to try to take over the position of guardian and raise your children in a way you would not agree with – possibly even keeping them away from the other parent figures in their life.

Choose a Lawyer Who Understands and Honors Your Unique Family

Finding a lawyer who truly understands your unique situation is crucial in making sure your loved ones are taken care of by people who love and respect them, regardless of biology or sexual orientation. You deserve a plan that celebrates your love, family, and future.

This Pride Month, celebrate all that you are by protecting everything you love. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, I understand the unique challenges that LGBTQ+ families face. That’s why I don’t practice law in the traditional way.

Instead, I put heart at the center of my practice – making sure to truly get to know you, your loved ones, and your needs so you can not only protect your family and document your wishes but create a legacy and a story for your loved ones that they’ll cherish for years to come.

To learn more about how I serve LGBTQ+ families differently, schedule a free 15-minute discovery call at the link below.

Happy Pride Month!

The post The Importance of Customized Estate Planning for LGBTQ+ Relationships (Part 2) appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

Estate planning laws are still written for hetero, cisgender individuals, and many lawyers aren’t well equipped to customize their estate plans to account for the unique family dynamics and wishes of LGBTQ+ clients. Sadly, if you have LGBTQ+ family members or are in a non-traditional family dynamic of any kind and don’t have a custom estate plan, the people you love most could find themselves accidentally disinherited from your estate or stuck in a lengthy and expensive court battle.

To make sure your family is well-cared for no matter how the law defines you, keep reading to learn why customized estate planning is so crucial for LGBTQ+ and all non-traditional humans.

01 | Care for Your Family as You Define It

The concept of family has expanded far beyond the confines of the traditional “nuclear family.” Gratefully, we now celebrate the beautiful diversity of family structures, encompassing same-gender couples, unmarried partners, civil unions, polyamorous relationships, and an array of other unique family dynamics. However, when it comes to death or incapacity, the law still lags behind, often failing to accommodate non-traditional family units in ways that you would choose.

If you die without an estate plan in place, the law will apply the state’s default estate plan to your unique situation. Under the law’s default plan, your possessions and money will pass to your next closest relatives by blood or marriage. If you aren’t legally married to your partner or partners, the people you love will be automatically disinherited in the event of your death.

Likewise, if you have children that are unrelated to you genetically who you haven’t formally adopted, like a partner’s child or stepchild, those children will not receive anything from your estate after you die. Even if you’re married to the child’s parent, the law does not recognize a stepchild as a direct descendant and therefore doesn’t include them in its default plan.

To make sure the people you love — your chosen family – are taken care of, no matter how the law labels your family, it’s important to create a custom estate plan that ensures your assets are distributed according to your wishes and that your partners, children, and chosen family members are protected and cared for if something happens to you, even if may not be recognized under default inheritance laws.

02 | Protect Your Financial and Health Care Rights

If you ever wondered who would take care of you and your things if you become ill or incapacitated, your first thought is probably your partner. Right? After all, it seems like common sense that your partner of ten years (or 2 years, or 5 years, or 20!) should be the one to make healthcare decisions for you or pay your bills.

But unfortunately, the law doesn’t operate based on what might seem like common sense when we look at our everyday lives and relationships. The law doesn’t assume that you’d want any particular person making decisions for you if you become incapacitated. Instead, your family members will need to go through a stressful court guardianship procedure to be granted decision-making power by a judge.

If your family members can’t come to an agreement on who should be your decision-maker, the court may assign a professional guardian – a complete stranger – to make decisions for you instead!

To avoid court involvement altogether, it’s vital to name your chosen decision-makers – your Powers of Attorney –  long in advance of ever needing them. This is especially important if you want to choose a decision-maker who isn’t related to you by blood or if you want to make sure that any certain lifestyle choices or beliefs such as a special diet, style of dress, or hormone therapy are still carried out if you’re incapacitated. 

If you don’t put these wishes on paper and name someone you trust to uphold them, it’s likely a judge won’t appoint your chosen decision-maker. In this case, the person the judge chooses can make whatever decisions for you they feel is best, even if that means ignoring your chosen gender expression or identity.

No one expects to become incapacitated due to an illness or injury, but sadly, it happens. Legally naming a decision maker in advance and talking about your wishes with them and your extended family helps safeguard your rights and ensures that your wishes for how you are cared for are honored while avoiding family conflict as much as possible.

Work With a Lawyer Who Understands You

Protecting your family and your wishes as an LGBTQ+ individual requires the guidance and expertise of a lawyer who understands your unique circumstances and desires for your family. That’s where we come in.

While the law may still fall short in accommodating the diverse family structures and dynamics that exist today, we understand that every family is different, and we know how to craft a custom plan that not only protects your loved ones and ensures your wishes are honored, but also embodies the values, beliefs, and stories that make your family unique.

If you want to make sure your LGBTQ+ family will be cared for and supported no matter what the future holds, schedule a free 15-minute discovery call with us to learn more about how I serve LGBTQ+ families differently than other lawyers. Then, check back in two weeks when I cover part two of this blog.

The post The Importance of Customized Estate Planning for LGBTQ+ Relationships (Part 1) appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

Without the proper estate planning, just locating and accessing your digital assets can be a major headache—or even impossible—for your loved ones following your incapacity or death. And even if your loved ones can access your digital property, in some cases, doing so may violate privacy laws or the terms of service governing your accounts. Plus, you may also have certain digital assets that you don’t want your loved ones to inherit, so you’ll need to take steps to restrict or limit access to those assets.

There are a number of special considerations you should be aware of when including digital assets in your estate plan, and this series addresses each one. Last week in part one, we discussed some of the most common types of digital assets and the current legal landscape governing what happens to those assets upon your death or incapacity. Here, we offer some practical tips to ensure all of your digital assets are properly included in your estate plan, so these assets can provide the most benefit for your loved ones for generations to come.

5 Steps For Including Digital Assets In Your Estate Plan

If you’re like most people, you most likely own numerous digital assets, some of which may have significant monetary value and some which have purely sentimental value. You may also own digital assets which hold no value for anyone other than yourself or have certain digital property that you’d prefer your family and friends not access or inherit when you pass away.

To ensure all of your digital assets are properly accounted for, managed, and passed on exactly the way you want, take the following five steps:

01 | Create A Detailed Inventory With Access Instructions

Start by creating a list of all the digital assets you currently own. Then, for each asset on your list, provide detailed information about where the asset is stored online and how it can be accessed, including all of the relevant login information and passwords. If you have a lot of different accounts, password management apps, such as LastPass, can help simplify this effort.

If you own cryptocurrency, prepare detailed instructions about how to access your cryptocurrency, and ensure that one or more people you trust know that you have a cryptocurrency and how to find your instructions. Because accessing cryptocurrency requires correct usernames and private keys, as well as knowledge of wallets, digital exchanges, and other storage devices, leaving a detailed “How To” guide may be essential to ensure your loved ones can access these assets.

After you’ve created your inventory and access instructions, store these documents in a secure location with your other estate planning documents, and ensure your fiduciary (executor or trustee) and your lawyer (if you have an ongoing relationship with a trusted lawyer), knows how to access these documents in the event something happens to you. Back up any digital assets stored in the cloud to a computer, flash drive, or other physical storage devices to make them easier to manage. And remember to update your digital-asset inventory regularly to account for any new digital property you acquire or accounts you close.

02 | Add Your Digital Assets To Your Estate Plan

Once you’ve created your inventory of digital assets, you’ll need to add those assets to your estate plan. As with any other asset you own, you’ll typically pass your digital assets to your loved ones through either a will or a revocable living trust. Consult with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® about which strategy is best suited for your particular situation.

From there, specify in your will or trust the person, or persons, you want to inherit each asset and include detailed instructions for how you’d like the asset to be managed in the future if that’s an option. Additionally, some assets might be of no value to your family or be something you don’t want them to inherit or even access, so you should specify that those accounts and files be closed or deleted by your fiduciary.

Do NOT provide the specific account info, logins, or passwords in your estate planning documents, which can be easily read by others. This is especially true for wills, which become public records upon your death. Keep this information stored in a secure place, and let your fiduciary know how to find and use it. Consider using a digital asset management service, such as Directive Communication Systems, to support you with securing and managing all of your digital assets.

It’s also a good idea to include terms in your estate plan allowing your fiduciary to hire an IT consultant if necessary, especially if your fiduciary doesn’t have a lot of technical knowledge. This will help them manage and troubleshoot any technical challenges that come up, particularly with highly complex assets like cryptocurrency.

Alternatively, if your fiduciary isn’t particularly tech-savvy, you can designate a separate co-fiduciary just to manage your digital assets, known as a digital executor. A digital executor is someone who’s specifically tasked with accessing and managing your digital assets upon your death, and this might be a smart move if you have a lot of digital property or you own highly encrypted digital assets like Bitcoin.

Meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to help decide if you should have a digital executor or would be better off using a different arrangement to manage your digital assets.

03 | Limit Access

In your estate plan, you also need to include instructions for your fiduciary about what level of access you want him or her to have. For example, do you want your executor or trustee to be able to read all of your emails, texts, and social media posts before deleting them or passing them on to your loved ones? If there are any assets you want to limit and/or restrict access to, we can help you include the necessary terms in your estate plan to ensure your privacy is fully honored.

04 | Include Relevant Hardware

Your estate plan should also include provisions for any physical devices—smartphones, computers, tablets, flash drives—on which the digital assets are stored. Having quick access to this equipment will make it much easier for your fiduciary to access, manage, and transfer the online assets. And since the data can be wiped clean, you can even leave these devices to someone other than the person who inherits the digital property stored on it.

05 | Check Service Provider’s Access-Authorization Tools

Review the terms and conditions for each of your online accounts. Some service providers like Google, Facebook, and Instagram have tools that allow you to easily designate access to others in the event of your death. If such a function is offered, use it to document who you want to access and manage these accounts when you pass on.

Just make certain the people you named to inherit your digital assets using the providers’ access-authorization tools match those you’ve named in your estate plan. If not, the provider will probably give priority access to the person named with its tool, not your estate plan.

Don’t Neglect Your Digital Assets In Your Estate Plan

As technology continues to evolve and our lives become increasingly digitized, it’s vital that you adapt your estate planning strategies to keep pace with these changes. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we can assist you in updating your estate plan to include not only your traditional wealth and property but all of your digital assets as well.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we are keenly aware of just how valuable your digital property can be, and our estate planning strategies are designed to ensure your digital assets are preserved and passed on seamlessly to your loved ones in the event of your death or incapacity. Furthermore, we can accomplish all of this while ensuring you have the maximum level of privacy, and you stay in full compliance with the latest laws and regulations governing the ever-changing digital universe. Contact us today to get started.

The post Everything You Need To Know About Including Digital Assets In Your Estate Plan (Part 2) appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

Without the proper estate planning, just locating and accessing your digital assets can be a major headache—or even impossible—for your loved ones following your incapacity or death. And even if your loved ones can access your digital assets, in some cases, doing so may violate privacy laws or the terms of service governing your accounts. Plus, you may also have certain digital assets that you don’t want your loved ones to inherit, so you’ll need to take steps to restrict or limit access to those assets.

Indeed, there are several special considerations you should be aware of when including digital assets in your estate plan. Here we’ll discuss the most common types of digital assets, along with the current laws governing them, and then we’ll offer some practical tips to ensure your digital property is properly accounted for, managed, and passed on in the event of your incapacity or death.

Types of Digital Assets

Digital assets include a wide array of digital files and records that you have stored in the cloud, on smartphones and mobile devices, or on your computer. When it comes to estate planning, your digital assets will generally fall into two categories: those with financial value and those with sentimental value, which could mean far more to the people you love (and your future generations) than the assets with financial value.

Digital assets with financial value include cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum, online payment accounts like PayPal or Venmo, loyalty program benefits like frequent flyer miles or credit card reward points, domain names, websites and blogs generating revenue, as well as other intellectual property like photos, videos, music, and writing that generate royalties. Such assets have real financial worth for your loved ones, not only in the immediate aftermath of your death or incapacity, but potentially for years to come.

Digital assets with sentimental value include email accounts, photos, video, music, publications, social media accounts, apps, and websites or blogs with no revenue potential. This type of property typically won’t be of any monetary value, but it can offer real sentimental value and comfort for your family following your death and inform future generations in ways you may not have considered.

As an example, I cherish an image of one of my ancestors from the 1920s, and I only wish I knew more about him to inform my own understanding of life. Imagine if your future generations can use your digital assets to learn from your experiences as a direct result of how you handle those assets in your estate plan.

Do you Own or License the Asset?

Although you might not know it, you don’t own many of your digital assets at all. For example, you do own assets like cryptocurrency and PayPal accounts, so you can transfer ownership of these items in a will or trust. But when you purchase some digital property, such as Kindle e-books and iTunes music files, all you really own is a license to use it. And in many cases, that license is only for your personal use and is non-transferable.

Whether or not you can transfer this licensed property depends almost entirely on the account’s Terms of Service Agreements (TOSA) to which you agreed (or more likely, simply clicked a box without reading) upon opening the account. While many TOSA restricts access to accounts only to the original user, some allow access by heirs or executors in certain situations, while others say nothing at all about transferability.

Review the TOSA of your online accounts to see whether you own the asset itself or just a license to use it. If the TOSA states the asset is licensed, not owned, and offers no method for transferring your license, you’ll likely have no way to pass the asset to anyone else, even if it’s included in your estate plan.

To make matters even more complicated, though your loved ones may be able to access your digital assets if you’ve provided them with your account login and passwords, doing so may violate the TOSA and/or privacy laws. To legally access such accounts, your heirs will have to prove they have the legal authority to access them, a process which up until recently was a huge legal grey area.

The good news is most states have adopted laws that help clarify how your digital assets can be accessed and disposed of in the event of your death or incapacity.

The Law of the Digital Land

Until very recently, there were no laws governing who could access your digital assets in the event of your incapacity or death. As a result, if you died without leaving your loved ones your usernames or passwords, the tech companies who controlled the platforms housing the assets would often delete the accounts or leave them sitting in a state of online limbo, inaccessible to your family and friends.

This gaping hole in the legal landscape caused considerable heartbreak for families looking to collect their loved one’s digital history, and it caused major frustration for the executors and trustees charged with cleaning up the estate—it also led to the loss of an untold amount of both tangible and intangible wealth. The federal government finally stepped in to find a solution for this problem starting in 2012, and by 2014, the Uniform Law Commission passed the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Access Act (UFADAA).

A revised version of this law, the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) was passed in 2015, and as of March 2021, it has been adopted in all but four states. The law lays out specific guidelines under which fiduciaries, such as executors and trustees, can access your digital assets. The Act allows you to grant a fiduciary access to your digital accounts upon your death or incapacity, either by opting them in with an online tool furnished by the service provider or through your estate plan.The Act offers three-tiers for prioritizing access. The first tier gives priority to the online provider’s access-authorization tool for handling accounts of a decedent. For example, Google’s “inactive account manager” tool lets you choose who can access and manage your account after you pass away. Facebook has a similar tool that allows you to designate someone as a “Legacy Contact” to manage your personal profile.

If an online tool is not available or if the decedent did not use it, the law’s second tier gives priority to directions given by the decedent in a will, trust, power of attorney, or other means. If no such instructions are provided, then the third tier stipulates the provider’s TOSA will govern access.

The bottom line: If you use the provider’s online tool—if one is available—and/or include instructions in your estate plan, your digital assets should be accessible per your wishes in most every state under this law. However, it’s important that you leave your fiduciary detailed instructions about how to access your accounts, including usernames and passwords, because without such information, your executor or trustee won’t be able to even access, much less manage, your digital assets if something happens to you.

Make a Plan for your Digital Assets

Given that leaving detailed instructions is the best way to ensure your digital assets are managed in exactly the way you want when you die or if you become incapacitated, in the second part of this series, we’ll offer practical steps for properly including your digital assets in your estate plan. Meanwhile, contact us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®, if you have any questions about your digital property or how to include it in your estate plan.

Next time, we’ll continue with part two in this series, discussing the best ways to protect and preserve your digital assets using your estate plan.

We, the Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher, are here to help you with your estate plan. Click the button below to book a FREE 15-minute consultation.

The post Everything You Need To Know About Including Digital Assets In Your Estate Plan (Part 1) appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

Two Types Of Trusts

There are two primary types of trusts — revocable living trusts and irrevocable trusts — and each one comes with different tax consequences.

Revocable Living Trust

A revocable living trust, also known simply as a living trust, is by far the most commonly used form of trust in estate planning. And as long as you are living, there is absolutely no tax impact of creating a living trust. 

A living trust uses your Social Security Number as its tax identifier, and this type of trust is not a separate entity from you for tax purposes. However, a living trust is a separate entity from you for the purpose of avoiding the court process called probate, and this is where the confusion regarding taxes often comes from. But before we explain the tax implications of a living trust, let’s first describe how a living trust works. 

A living trust is simply an agreement between a person known as the grantor, who gives assets to a person or entity known as a trustee, to hold those assets for the benefit of a beneficiary(s). In the case of a revocable living trust, the reason there are no tax consequences is because you can revoke the trust agreement or take the assets back from the trustee at any time, for any reason. In fact, as long as you are living, you can change the terms of the trust, change the trustee, change the beneficiaries, or terminate the trust altogether.

However, upon your death, a revocable living trust becomes irrevocable, and this is when tax consequences come into play. Following your death, the trustee you’ve named will step in and take over the management of the trust assets, and one of the first things that your trustee will do is to apply for a tax ID number for the trust. At this point, the trust becomes a taxable entity, and any income earned inside of the trust that is not distributed in that year would be subject to income taxes, at the taxable rates of the trust (or at the tax rates of the beneficiaries, if income is distributed to the beneficiaries). 

Irrevocable Trusts

An irrevocable trust is created when you make a gift to a trustee to hold assets for the benefit of the beneficiary, and you cannot take back the gift you’ve made to that individual.

When you create an irrevocable trust, either during your lifetime, or at death through a testamentary trust (a trust that arises at the time of your death through your will), or through a revocable living trust creating during your lifetime, the trust is a separate tax-paying entity, and it is either subject to income tax on the earnings of the trust at the rates of the trust or at the rates of the beneficiaries.

Unlike a revocable living trust, an irrevocable trust is (as the name implies) irrevocable. This means that the trust’s terms cannot be changed, and the trust cannot be terminated once it’s been executed. When you transfer assets into an irrevocable trust, you relinquish all ownership of those assets, and your chosen trustee takes total control of the assets transferred into the name of the trust. Because you no longer own the assets held by the trust, those assets are no longer considered part of your estate, and as long as the trust has been properly maintained, the assets held by the trust are also protected from lawsuits, creditors, divorce, serious illness and accidents, and even bankruptcy. 

However, as mentioned earlier, irrevocable trusts also come with tax consequences. As of 2024, the income earned by an irrevocable trust is taxed at the highest individual tax bracket of 37% as soon as the undistributed taxable income reaches more than $13,450. To avoid this high tax rate, in some cases, an irrevocable trust can be prepared so that the tax consequences pass through to the beneficiary and are taxed at his or her rates, which are typically much lower. 

We often set up a trust in this way when creating a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust for a beneficiary. When set up like this, the trust can provide the beneficiary with protection from common life events, such as serious debt, divorce, debilitating illness, crippling accidents, lawsuits, and bankruptcy, without being taxed at such a high rate on such little income.

If you have a trust set up, and would like us to review its income tax consequences for your loved ones upon your death, meet with us, your local Personal Family Lawyer®.

The Estate Tax: What It Is & Who Pays It

The estate tax is a tax on the value of a person’s assets at the time of their death. Upon your death, if the total value of your estate is above a certain threshold amount, known as the federal estate tax exemption, the IRS requires your estate to pay a tax, known as the estate tax, before any assets can be passed to your beneficiaries.

As of 2024 federal estate tax exemption is 13.61 million per individual and 27.22 million for a married couple. Simply put, if you die in 2024, and your assets are worth $13.61 million or less, your estate won’t owe any federal estate tax. However, if your estate is worth more than $13.61 million, the amount of your assets that are greater than $13.61 million will be taxed at a whopping 40% tax rate. 

You can reduce your estate tax liability—or even eliminate it all together—by using various estate planning strategies. Most of these strategies are fairly complex and involve the use of irrevocable trusts, but such strategies are without question worth it, if you can save your family such a massive tax bill. To learn how to save your family from such a major tax burden, meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to discuss your options.

And please note, we are only speaking about the federal estate tax here. Currently, 12 states have their own estate tax, which are separate from the federal estate tax. We’ll cover the specifics of what happens in our state regarding your estate tax, when we have a Family Wealth Planning Session. Give us a call to schedule yours, if you have not yet had a Planning Session with us.

The Future Estate Tax

The current $13.61 million estate tax exemption is set to expire on Jan. 1, 2026, and return to its previous level of $5 million, which when adjusted for inflation is expected to be around $6.03 million. Here’s one thing we know for sure: We don’t know what the estate tax exemption will be at the time of your death, and we also don’t know what the value of your assets will be at the time of your death. Because of this, when you plan with us, we will ensure that we put in place planning strategies to protect your estate from estate taxes, regardless of the amount of the estate tax exemption or the size of your assets.

We’re Here For You

If you are trying to decide whether a revocable living trust, irrevocable trust, Lifetime Asset Protection Trust, or some other estate planning vehicle is the right solution for you and your family, meet with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®. We will support you in making that decision, so your estate can provide the maximum benefit for the people you love most, while paying the least amount of taxes possible. Call us today to schedule your visit.

The post Trusts & Taxes: What You Need To Know appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

These are just a few reasons why it is important for you to know the following about estate planning:

A will and a living trust are both essential estate planning tools, and although both can be used to transfer assets upon death, they serve separate purposes. A living trust can take effect while you are alive or after death. It allows you to hold assets for your benefit during your life, which may prove useful if you become incapacitated in the future. A living will can also be beneficial if you own real estate in another state. A will only takes effect upon death, and is used to appoint guardians for minor children, cover assets that are not part of a living trust and create trusts that kick in after death.

Women need to execute financial and healthcare durable powers of attorney and consider choosing a member of the family if that person is willing to assume the responsibility of making financial and/or medical decisions on their behalf in case of incapacity. And, if you are married or partnered, make sure your spouse or partner does the same because you’ll be the one who is handling things if anything happens to your spouse/partner and you want it to be as easy as possible.

Make sure your partner/spouse has life insurance to support you for as long as you will need support and that there’s enough to last your whole lifetime, unless you will have your own savings.

Don’t own your own life insurance policy as the proceeds will be subject to estate tax after you die. Instead, if your life insurance is designed to pay estate taxes, designate a spouse or other family member as owner or set up an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT), which buys the policy and holds the proceeds for beneficiaries. And again, if you have a taxable estate, make sure the same is set up for your spouse’s life insurance.

Keep beneficiary forms for retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.) up to date, as they determine who receives the assets of each one of your accounts.

Make sure there is enough cash held in a joint account to handle any immediate expenses if your spouse dies suddenly. You may not be able to access a deceased spouse’s separate bank account right away.

Surviving spouses are allowed to add the unused portion of a deceased spouse’s estate tax exclusion to their own. However, this exclusion transfer must be claimed by the deceased spouse’s executor filing an estate tax return. There’s other critical items that must happen when your spouse dies that can easily be overlooked. Contact an estate planning attorney within a few weeks of your spouse’s death whether you have a sizable estate or not.

Married couples can participate in “gift splitting” during life. We recommend you transfer as much as possible during life for many reasons. Ask us about it.

The best way to learn about protecting yourself and your family is to talk with us about a Legacy Vision Planning Session, where we can identify the best strategies for you to provide for and protect the financial security of your loved ones.

Register for our Proactive Planning for Women (PPW) Workshop and Webinar on March 25 & 26, respectively!

The post What Women Need To Know About Estate Planning appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

For plenty of folks, it’s easy to know what to do when it comes to home organization, but the idea of legal and financial ordering can be complex and confusing. This article will give you a few places to start:

01 | Review Your Beneficiary Designations

Request updated beneficiary designation forms from your life insurance account and retirement account custodians. Look at the form and identify whether you have a minor designated as either a primary or contingent beneficiary. If you do, those assets will be tied up in Court, unnecessarily, and may not be available to the people you’ve named to care for your children.

Consider designating your life insurance and retirement accounts to be distributed to a trust for the benefit of your heirs, providing Court and creditor protection, and ensuring your children do not inherit money before they are properly prepared.

02 | Update Your Family Wealth Inventory

Your Family Wealth Inventory is where we document the assets that you own, so that in the event you become incapacitated or when you die, your family will know how to find what you own.

Without an updated Family Wealth Inventory, your assets could be lost to the State Department of Unclaimed Property. There are millions of dollars of assets in our state department of unclaimed property because most people do not leave a clear record of their assets at the time of their incapacity or death.

03 | Consider If You Need To Name Guardians (Long Or Short-Term)

Review your guardian nomination designations. Have you named guardians for both the short-term (local) and the long-term (people you would trust to raise your kids fully)? If so, do they need to change? Is there anyone you would wish to exclude? Does the ID card for your wallet need to be updated? This is the time to check.

04 | Check Out The Title Of Your House

Get a copy of the deed to your house and make sure that your trust is listed as the owner on the deed, if you want your house to stay out of court in the event of your incapacity or death. If you see your personal name on the deed, and there is not a trust listed, you can be sure that would result in your house having to go through the court process of probate in the event of your death. If you don’t want that, now is the perfect time to spruce up your planning.

05 | Come In And Meet With Us For A Legacy Vision Planning Session

Last, but far from least, this is the perfect time of year to come in and meet with us for a Legacy Vision Planning Session, whether you’ve done planning in the past or not. We will have a two-hour working meeting that will get you more financially organized than you’ve likely ever been before (unless you’ve already done planning with us) and give you the confidence of knowing you’ve made the most empowered, informed and educated legal and financial decisions for the people you love.

The post Spring Cleaning For Your Legal And Financial Affairs appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

From LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer to TrustandWill.com and FreeWill.com, these DIY legal documents may seem like a cheap and easy way to finally cross estate planning off your to-do list—and do so without having to pay a lawyer big bucks to assist you. After all, you’ve been able to prepare and file your taxes online for years, is estate planning really that much different? And aren’t lawyers using the very same forms you find on these DIY document websites?

An Inconvenient Truth

This kind of thinking is exactly what DIY and online estate planning services would like you to believe, but it’s far from true. In fact, relying on DIY or online estate planning documents can be one of the costliest mistakes you can make for your loved ones.

Keep in mind, just because you created “legal” estate planning documents that doesn’t mean they will actually work when you—or most importantly, the people you love—need them. Without a thorough understanding of your family dynamics, the nature of your assets, and how the legal process works upon your death or incapacity, you are likely to make serious mistakes when creating a DIY or online estate plan.

Even worse, these mistakes won’t be discovered until it’s too late—and the loved ones you were trying to protect will be the very ones forced to clean up your mess or get stuck in a costly and traumatic court process that can drag out for months or even years.

In the end, relying on DIY or online estate planning documents can actually be worse than having no estate plan at all—and here’s why:

A False Sense of Security

Creating your estate plan using online document services can give you a false sense of security—you think you’ve got estate planning covered, when you most likely do not. DIY plans may even lead you to believe that you no longer need to worry about estate planning, causing you to put it off creating a proper plan off until it’s too late.

In this way, relying on DIY estate planning documents is one of the most dangerous choices you can make. In the end, such generic forms could end up costing your family even more money and heartache than if you’d never gotten around to doing any planning at all.

At least with no plan at all, estate planning would likely remain at the front of your mind, where it rightfully belongs until it’s been handled by you and trusted counsel to guide you.

Planning to Fail

The primary purpose of estate planning is to keep your family out of court and out of conflict in the event of your death or incapacity. Yet, as cheap online document services become more and more popular, millions of people are learning—or will soon learn—that taking the DIY route can not only fail to achieve this purpose, it can make things even more complex and costly for the people you love.

Most people assume that estate planning is all about filling out the right legal documents. But in reality, the true value of estate planning is not about the documents themselves—it’s the planning aspect that’s most important, not the documents. Documents are the byproducts of the plan and the outcome of counseling and decisions that require thought, consideration, and a true understanding of all the options and their potential consequences.

Without proper planning and consideration, the documents themselves—wills, trusts, health care directives, and powers of attorney—aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. And by proper planning, we mean having a trusted advisor who can help you anticipate all of the potential problem areas and conflicts—as well as potential opportunities—that could impact your plan, and then help you adapt your plan accordingly and create documents to ensure the maximum benefit (and minimum heartache) for your loved ones.

When done right, the value of this kind of estate planning is truly priceless because it results in the right plan for your family at the right budget for you, and it leaves your loved ones with not just a set of documents, but with a trusted advisor who will be there for them when you cannot be. This is exactly what the Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher provides every client we serve through our Life & Legacy Planning Process.

One Size Does Not Fit All

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but PLANNING is indispensable.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower, Former U.S. President and Commander of Allied Forces during WWII

A typical set of documents that you get from an online DIY estate planning service (and even many estate plans created by lawyers) will usually include three to five basic legal documents: a will, a financial power of attorney, a healthcare directive, possibly a trust, and a legal guardian nomination, if you have minor children. By now, it’s fairly common knowledge that these are the legal documents needed in case you become incapacitated or when you die.

But what isn’t common knowledge and what isn’t adequately covered by any online legal document service or even by many lawyers is what needs to go into those documents, and what’s needed to ensure those documents actually work for the people you love when they need them.

You see, standard documents simply cannot address the real-life complexities of your family dynamics, your assets, and the ever-changing circumstances of your life. Contrary to what the DIY services would like you to believe, estate planning is not a one-size-fits-all, once-and-done kind of deal. Even if you think your particular assets and family situation are simple, that turns out to almost never be the case, and you are likely to face one of the following issues that can leave your loved ones at risk.

5 Ways Your DIY Plan Can Fail

1 | Thinking a Will is Enough

One of the ironic things about estate planning is that the one legal document everyone thinks they need most is the one legal document that actually accomplishes the least. Yes, you know you need a will, but a will alone doesn’t do much.

A will can ensure the people you choose are the ones who handle your affairs and who ensure your assets go where you want them to go in the event of your death. But a will does not keep your family out of court. In fact, relying on a will alone ensures your family and friends have to go to court when you die. Plus, a will doesn’t even come into play if you are incapacitated. And if you have minor children, relying on a will alone to designate their legal guardians could leave your kids vulnerable to being taken out of your home and into the care of strangers.

2 | Improper Execution

You could have the best documents in the world, but if you fail to sign them, or sign them improperly, they will fail. It may seem silly, but it’s true. We’ve seen family after family who brought us an estate plan after the death or incapacity of a loved one that we were not able to support them and act upon because the documents were either not signed, or were signed improperly.

To be considered legally valid, certain estate planning documents like wills must be executed (i.e. signed, witnessed, and/or notarized) following very strict legal procedures. For example, many states require that you and every witness to your will must sign it in the presence of one another. If your DIY will doesn’t mention that condition (or you don’t read the fine print) and you fail to follow this procedure, the document can end up worthless.

If you have created or started a DIY estate plan and wish to have it reviewed, contact us to see how you can get a Family Wealth Planning Session at no cost to you. During this 2-hour session, we will review what would happen to your family and your assets with your current plan and discuss the best next steps for protecting your family.

3 | Choosing The Wrong Executors or Trustees

State laws are also very specific about who can serve in certain roles like executor, trustee, or financial power of attorney. In some states, for instance, the executor of your will must either be a family member or an in-law, and if not, the person must live in your state. If your chosen executor doesn’t meet those requirements, he or she cannot serve.

Furthermore, some states require the person you name as your executor to get a bond, which is like an insurance policy, before he or she can serve. Such bonds can be difficult to get for someone who has a less-than-stellar credit score. If your executor cannot get a bond, it would be up to the court to appoint your executor, which could end up being someone you would never want managing your assets or a third-party professional, who could drain your estate with costly fees.

4 | Lost and Unclaimed Assets

Unless your family knows exactly what assets you own and how to locate and access those assets, that property is as good as gone when you die—and your online will won’t be of any use to your family. In fact, there’s currently more than $50 billion worth of unclaimed property sitting in the different state Departments of Unclaimed Property across the U.S. because a family member died and their loved ones lost track of their assets.

To ensure that none of your assets end up in our state’s Department of Unclaimed Property, and your family will know exactly what you have and how to find everything if something happens to you, it’s essential that you keep a regularly updated inventory of all your assets. The Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher will not only help you create a comprehensive asset inventory but also make sure it stays regularly updated throughout your lifetime.

5 | Unforeseen Conflict Between Family Members

Family dynamics are—to put it lightly—quite complex. This is particularly true for blended families, where spouses have children from previous relationships. A DIY service cannot help you consider all the potential areas where conflict might arise among your family members and help you plan ahead of time to avoid such disputes. Even the best set of documents will be unable to anticipate and navigate these complex emotional matters—but we can.

Every day we see families ripped apart due to poor estate planning. Yet, we also see families brought closer together as a result of handling these matters the right way. When done right, the estate planning process is actually a huge opportunity to build new connections within your family, and we are specifically trained to help you with that.

In fact, preventing family conflict with proactive estate planning is our special sauce and one of the primary reasons to work with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer, rather than relying on DIY planning documents.

The Kind of Planning Your Family Deserves

When it comes to estate planning, the documents you use are only as good as the understanding your lawyer has about your family dynamics, the nature of your assets, and how the law will apply to your situation upon your death or incapacity. And in most cases, you will need far more than just a few fill-in-the blank documents to properly address all of those complexities.

If you truly want things to be as simple as possible for the people you love when something happens to you, you want a trusted counsel who can prepare an estate plan that will achieve your desired objectives with a minimum amount of stress and conflict for the loved ones you are leaving behind, not just someone who has the best documents. This is where we come in.

If, as a result of this process, we determine that you really do have a very simple situation, and you want to create your own planning documents yourself online, we will support you to do that. However, if as a result of the process, you decide you would like us to draft a plan for you, we’ll support you to find the optimal level of planning for a price that’s right for you.

As part of our planning process, we will inventory all of your assets and ensure they are titled in a way that will keep your family out of court and out of conflict no matter what happens to you. Moreover, we take the time to get to know your family members and include them in the planning process, so everyone affected by your plan is well-aware of what your latest planning strategies are and why you made the choices you did, along with knowing exactly what they need to do if something happens to you. And if you are the parent of minor children, we will put safeguards in place to ensure that your kids are never placed into the care of strangers, even temporarily.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, our Life & Legacy Planning process will ensure that it’s not just your money and tangible assets that get preserved and passed on, but also your family’s intangible legacy, which includes your family’s most treasured values, insights, stories, and mementos. We capture and record your family’s legacy using a unique process known as a Family Wealth Legacy Interview, which is included with every estate plan we create.

Life & Legacy Planning

Ultimately, we’ve discovered that estate planning is about far more than planning for your death and passing on your “estate” to your loved ones—it’s about planning for a life you love and a legacy worth leaving by the choices you make today—and this is why we call our services Life & Legacy Planning.

As your Personal Family Lawyer, we are specifically trained to educate, empower, and support you to make the right decisions for the people you love, and get to know what really matters most to you. Furthermore, because your plan is designed to protect and provide for your loved ones in the event of your death or incapacity, we aren’t just here to serve you—we’re here to serve your entire family.

In the end, as your Personal Family Lawyer, our Life & Legacy Planning services go far beyond simply creating documents and then never seeing you again. We will develop a relationship with you and your family that lasts not only for your lifetime but for the lifetime of your children and their children if that’s your wish.

While the DIY approach might be a good idea if you’re looking to build a new deck for your backyard, when it comes to estate planning, it’s one of the worst choices you can make. Are you really willing to put your family’s well-being and wealth at risk just to save a few bucks? If you want to truly do right by those you love, contact us, to get your Life & Legacy Plan started today.

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