Estate Planning       Estate planning involves taking an inventory of your assets and how they are titled, and developing a plan to ensure that your ultimate wishes are carried out while minimizing taxes and complications typically associated with probate. Too often, individuals do not plan, or worse yet, hire an attorney that is not experienced with estate planning principles. We create individual solutions to fit your specific need, whether you have a traditional family with no special limitations or a non-traditional family with complications. Our firm uses simple and complex wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney, advance medical directives, real property agreements and family agreements to carry out every imaginable estate plan. Each client has individual needs and goals and each solution is crafted accordingly. Many of our estate planning involve the use of a trust. When a client passes away, if a trust has been created, then probate can be avoided and any estate taxes minimized or eliminated altogether. Having a trust may also protect the beneficiaries of the estate against creditors. Another advantage to creating a trust is the protection of disabled beneficiaries. If a client has a beneficiary with a disability, then we can assist with protecting any government benefits to which the disabled beneficiary is entitled. We can create special needs trusts to protect beneficiaries that may be receiving needs-based government assistance such as SSI and Medicaid. A special needs trust can be designed to give a beneficiary the inheritance without jeopardizing public benefits. Special needs trusts may allow a beneficiary that would otherwise lose public assistance to maintain both SSI and Medicaid. Our firm has paralegals who focus on the preparation and completion of all Estate Planning documents. Paralegals Jenna Fahrer and Deborah Boukhalfa assist with meeting a client's individual estate needs.