Estate Planning

If you want to protect the assets which you have worked long and hard for, have minor children that you want to see protected, are planning for retirement, or all of the above, the first step is to decide to create an estate plan.

Kenneth M. Wasche, P.C. has helped many clients with that first step, and guided them through the estate planning process. We have helped many different clients including owners of family businesses, elderly couples in retirement, single people in their early 20s. Whatever stage you are at in life, it’s a good idea to stop and evaluate your position then create an estate plan that meets your goals.

Kenneth M. Wasche, P.C. can give you guidance on lifetime planning tools including setting up a Power of Attorney, Health Care Directive, Will, Living Trust, and possible gifts. Such advance planning ensures that your future goes the way you intend, that you minimize taxes and legal costs, and that your wishes are carried out in the event of your death.

In the case of incapacity of a loved one, we can help you through the court process of establishing a guardianship and/or conservatorship. We also assist in establishing and administering contingent trusts for minor children and special needs trusts or supplemental needs trusts for a person with a disability.

If you find yourself responsible for handling the estate of a loved one who has passed away and you need guidance on how to proceed, we can help guide you through. If someone doesn’t have a Will before passing away, or maybe they simply have an abundance of assets at the time of passing, probate may be necessary in order to distribute their estate. We can help you file your probate case with the county, and help you through the process to make it as simple as possible.

We strive to give clients and their families peace of mind during difficult times. We help our clients attain their goals during their lifetime and their pursuit of a good and rewarding life.

Contact us today for your estate planning needs:

• Trusts: A trust is a fiduciary agreement that allows a third party, or trustee, to hold assets on behalf of a beneficiary or beneficiaries. Trusts are generally made to avoid probate. Use of a trust generally allows beneficiaries to gain access to the assets more quickly than by use of a standard will. We can help you determine if a trust is beneficial to you, and if so, what type of trust, and how best to set it up.
• Wills: A will is a legal document in which a person expresses his or her wishes on how property is to be distributed at his or her death. Having a will is an important step to estate planning, and one that is never too early to have drafted. We can help you draft your will and make sure your affairs are in order.
• Health Care Directives: A health care directive is a document that lays out your wishes about receiving health care and can name a person to make decisions if you cannot. If you are unable to speak for yourself, the health care agent that you appoint in your health care directive will make sure that the wishes stated in your health care directive are followed or any decisions not covered are decided in your best interests. A health care directive can also specify what is to happen with your remains at your time of death, i.e. burial, cremation, etc. Your health care directive can be as specific or vague as you like, but it is nonetheless another integral part of the estate planning process.
• Power of Attorney: A power of attorney is a document granting power(s) to an individual(s) to act on your behalf. A power of attorney can give powers to handle real property transactions, personal property transactions, banking transactions, etc. It’s your power of attorney, you determine who has the power, and specifically how much power you want that person to have.