Estate Planning
To protect your assets and provide for your family, it’s always prudent to think about your estate planning needs early – before life-changing events makes the need more urgent. However, planning ahead for those difficult moments, you may come to realize that the transfer of your estate is not so simple. Careful planning is needed to avoid probate and minimize any potential estate taxes. You also have to consider that the transfer of your business, money, property, and precious family heirlooms can lead to contentious issues within a family.
Drafting a Will and a living trust are only part of the solution. Planning for the future requires experienced, knowledgeable attorneys.
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Attorney Susan E. Hanson can help you plan ahead and avoid probate whenever possible. She will help you create an estate plan with the goal of distributing your assets according to your wishes and minimizing the applicable estate, gift, and income taxes. After a thorough review of your estate, she can prepare the Wills, living trusts, powers of attorney, and other documents needed to provide you with an affordable and effective estate plan.
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Securing Your Family’s Future
Don't wait until the last minute to plan for your family’s financial security. Speak with Susan today to arrange an orderly disposition of your assets. She will help you address the following four key areas in developing your estate plan:
1. Leaving your legacy without probate. Passing family assets to your heirs through a Wisconsin probate court is expensive, inconvenient, and time-consuming. We can devise trusts that can keep your estate from going through probate whenever possible.
2. Identifying who receives your assets. You have an estate plan even if you have done nothing! Without a written estate plan, Wisconsin law may establish one for you and determine to whom your assets and property are distributed. We can help you plan ahead to ensure your family’s future.
3. Establishing your healthcare directives. Don’t leave your health care decisions in the hands of medical personnel. We can prepare living wills, advance medical directives, or powers of attorney for health care to make sure that you and your family will decide what medical care your should receive in the event of a catastrophic illness. Don’t let decisions by strangers countermand your wishes and bankrupt your family with treatments you do not want.
4. Minimizing the impact of estate taxes. The laws and regulations concerning estate taxes and gifts are complex. There are many exemptions, deductions, and opportunities provided within the Internal Revenue Code to minimize the impact of estate and gift taxes on your estate. However, careful planning is required to take advantage of these opportunities.
We Know Probate
If the need arises, we can guide you through the complex issues of administering a probate estate through the Wisconsin probate courts. Contact us if you are from out-of-state and you are involved in a loved one’s probate matter in a Wisconsin court.
Susan E. Hanson has over 25 years of experience in cases involving probate administration, trust administration, guardianships, and probate litigation. We offer affordable, effective legal solutions for all of your probate matters. Read more about why HANSON & SANTAGÁ, S.C. is the right choice for your probate matters at H&S Philosophy.
We also can help you determine if a specialty trust is right for you, such as a trust for your children or grandchildren, a trust to benefit your favorite charity or a family foundation, and special needs trusts.
Contact Susan at HANSON & SANTAGÁ, S.C., today by e-mail or at (414) 302-0300 for effective, affordable legal solutions for all your estate planning and probate needs. Free initial consultation available.
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