What Happens If I Pass Away First: A Conversation About Special Needs Planning

When the issue of special needs planning arises, most people imagine parents protecting their children. Special needs children and adults may rely heavily on government funding and support. Parents with these precious children want to ensure they are provided for and protected when they can no longer do so themselves. This is why special needs planning is fundamental. Those who neglect estate planning have no say in Read More

Here’s Why You May Be Putting Off Estate Planning

Clients frequently tell us that they know they have to “get around” to making an estate plan. These are people who understand the importance of a plan and still don’t make one. Because we have been doing this for decades, no one empathizes more with your situation than we do. Death and dying are uncomfortable topics, and having to do the legwork to place your assets in a trust or to identify each one in a will is Read More

When You Become An Empty Nester

This term is used to describe people who have raised children who have since left to pursue college or a career—and it is one that we have personally and professionally experienced. Our motivation behind talking about empty nesters is very much tied to estate planning and elder law because of what they are experiencing during this stage of their lives. For many of these people, their attention is turning away from Read More

Increased Costs On A Fixed Budget & Other Concerns Associated With Nursing Homes

Facing the need for a nursing home is something that may surface in your lifetime. Estate planning pertains to what happens to your assets when you pass away, but elder law attorneys like J. Kevin Tharpe guide and support people who have to balance the need for long-term care with a limited or fixed budget. One of the points that people need to pay attention to is that people rarely go straight into a nursing home. Read More

Estate Planning & Presidents

How can these two be connected? The easiest answer to that (which you may have missed) is that estate planning is for everyone. Regardless of how many assets you possess or the power that you have, you can still benefit from diligent and deliberate estate planning. If you were to run a basic search right now, you would see a long list of celebrities who have not done any estate planning. This is somewhat surprising, Read More

Let’s Talk About Asset Protection

When we use the phrase “asset protection,” many people dismiss it because they don’t think it applies to them. They falsely assume this is for extremely wealthy individuals who may want to hide their money in off-shore accounts. Although that may be a form of asset protection (a very extreme form), it is not what we are referring to. Asset protection applies to everyone. Why? In our decades of practicing law, we have Read More

Estate Planning Basics: A Revocable Living Trust

There is a significant amount of confusion about what estate planning is, especially when it comes down to what a revocable living trust does (and doesn’t) do for you. Let’s get started right now by going over what it can do. The first thing you should know—and it is undoubtedly the most important—is that a revocable living trust protects your ownership. By having one, you can keep ownership as opposed to giving up Read More

The One Thing That Means Everything

In estate planning, there is one thing that means everything. In elder law, there’s one thing that means everything. Estate planning is about knowing what will happen to your assets (your estate) when you pass away. The reality is that everyone, at one point, will die, and we will do so with assets. Furthermore, most people have wishes regarding what will happen to those assets after their deaths. If you have never Read More

Choosing A Trust Instead Of A Will

Wills are an important estate-planning tool, but it is a mistake to assume you can use them interchangeably with trusts. In other words, if you have drafted a will, there are still significant benefits associated with creating a trust too. Ultimately, both of them allow you to pass your assets to your beneficiaries, but they do so in very different ways.  For example, when you pass away after only having a will, your Read More

Understanding Georgia’s Anti-Lapse Statutes

Before you can better appreciate Georgia’s anti-lapse statutes and how they can benefit you, you must first know what a “lapse” is. When you meet with your estate planning attorney and create a will or a specific type of trust, you do so for several reasons. Although estate planning can give you a significant amount of asset protection, it also enables you to pass your assets to your chosen beneficiaries.  For the Read More