Downs Law Firm, P.C.

Estate Planning Attorney;

name a guardian

Why Your Beneficiary Designation Matters?

When you set up your estate plan it is important to coordinate the legal planning documents that you or you and your attorney create with the document provided by your retirement account custodian and/or your life insurance carrier called a ‘Designation of Beneficiary.’

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Medicaid Asset Protection Trust

Inheriting a House with a Mortgage?

Dealing with the loss of a loved one is never easy. When inheritances, homes, estates and mortgages are involved, tensions can run high within a family. It is easy to get lost in the paperwork and terms.

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protecting inheritance from divorce

Protecting Inheritance from Divorce

Your dad bequeathed you a generous sum of money on his passing. Those gifted and inherited assets, in many instances, will be considered ‘separate property,’ not marital property. That might mean that they might not be subject to division, if you divorce. However, perhaps you want to backstop that hoped for result to make the protection more likely to stick if your marriage doesn’t work out.

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create a pet trust

Why Create a Pet Trust?

While it’s never fun or pleasant to think about what will happen to them if the worst should happen to us, it’s very important to consider how we can ensure that they are well cared-for when and if we are no longer able to care for them ourselves.

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die without a will

What Happens If You Die with No Will?

It’s hard for a family to recuperate when the patriarchs and matriarchs have gone to glory, leaving a battle for who will carry the family’s leadership role and manage the family’s transition of wealth.

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no estate planning

Do I Need an Attorney for Probate?

A competent elder law or estate attorney can keep the estate process on track, and knows of provisions like family allowances, benefits to prepaying inheritance tax, even where the tax return is not yet complete and a listing of itemized deductions.

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