Not having an estate plan leaves decisions about your family and property to others. If something happens to you, who will take care of your minor children? How will your family heirlooms be distributed? What financial support will your surviving loved ones have after you die? If the answers to these questions are important to you, then you need an estate plan.

Whether you need a simple will, or a more complicated estate plan to minimize income, estate, and gift taxes, Wheeler Upham’s estate planning attorneys can help you. We start by listening to you and learning as much as we can about you, your family and financial circumstances. We then explain to you the legal rules relevant to your circumstances and recommend the documents and procedures that will best provide for your loved ones and the management of your property during your lifetime and afterward. We'll prepare wills, trust agreements, durable powers of attorney, patient advocate designations as may be needed to help with health care decisions, and funeral designations to help make sure your last wishes are honored; more importantly, we'll make sure you understand what those documents mean and how to use them.

If a member of your family has special needs, we can assist you with setting up and maintaining a guardianship or a conservatorship or preparing and administering a trust to manage assets without court involvement. If you have a family business, our estate planning attorneys can help you with succession planning for that business. We have extensive expertise and experience in the administration of estates and trusts, with and without probate proceedings.

Wheeler Upham is committed to supplying you with the estate planning counsel and documents that are tailored to your unique needs and situation. We are also committed to making sure that you fully understand your estate plan. There is no need to procrastinate; we’ll guide you through the process and design the plan that will best achieve your estate planning goals.

Learn more about:

Wills

Prenuptial Agreements

Designating guardianship for minor children

Trusts

Powers of Attorney

Planning for a Second Marriage or Blended Family

Special Needs Trusts

Family Businesses and Succession planning

Probate Administration

Contested Probate Proceedings

Guardianships and Conservatorships

For more informtion please contact one of our experienced estate planning attorneys:
Michael J. TerBeek
James M. Shade
Shane A. Henry