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Do You Need An Estate Plan?

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Do you need an Estate Plan? The short answer is “Yes, if you are age 18 or older, you need an estate plan.” It doesn’t matter if you are old or young, if you have built up considerable wealth or if you are just entering adulthood —you need a written plan to keep you in control and to protect yourself and those you love.

  • It is important that every adult, regardless of age or wealth, have both a lifetime plan and an after-death estate plan.
  • Planning for incapacity will keep you in control and let your trusted loved ones care for you without court interference – and without the loss of control and expense of a guardianship or conservatorship proceeding.
  • Every adult needs up-to-date health care directives.
  • It is important to leave written instructions to make sure you are the one who selects who’s in charge of when and how your assets will be distributed.

What is an Estate Plan?

Your estate is comprised of the assets you own, including your car, home, bank accounts, investments, furniture and personal belongings. No matter how large or how small your estate, you can’t take it with you when you die, and you probably want certain people to have certain things you own.

To make sure that happens, you need to provide written instructions stating who you want to receive your assets and belongings, what you want them to receive, and when they are to receive it—that is the essence of an estate plan. If you have young children, you will need to name someone to raise them in your place and to manage their inheritance.

Without an estate plan, state law will govern who your assets will go to and how your estate is handled, and this can often lead to a surprising and undesirable result for your loved ones.
A properly prepared estate plan also will have instructions for your care (and the management of your assets) if you become incapacitated, even for a short time, due to illness or injury. Without the proper documents in place, your family will have to ask the court for permission to use your assets to take care of you and to oversee your care. That process is out of your control and it takes time and costs money, making an already difficult situation even more difficult for your family.

Having a plan in place is very important even for families of modest means because 1) they can least afford to pay unnecessary court costs and legal fees and 2) state laws, which take over in the absence of planning, often distribute assets in an undesirable way.

It is important to have the counseling and assistance of an experienced estate planning attorney who knows the laws in your state and has the expertise to guide you in making difficult decisions such as who will raise your children and who will look after your care at incapacity. Contact the attorneys at Wilson Ratledge to discuss any estate planning questions that you may have.

Estate Planning in North Carolina and How It Affects Your Family

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No one likes to think about leaving our loved ones. Unfortunately, dying is an inevitable part of life. Preparing for this day will not only give you peace of mind but will ensure that your assets are divided as you wish. If you have minor children, it also ensures that they are taken care of.

Estate plan basics

An estate plan is a plan to be used in the event of your death. It basically consists of everything you own. This includes bank accounts, homes, automobiles and your personal belongings. Any insurance policies are also included.

There are many details that are specific under an estate plan. Your wording can make the difference in how your estate is handled. An estate planning lawyer can help you create a plan to ease your mind.

What estate plans cover

An estate plan covers different topics that are important to you and your family. One such topic is to appoint a guardian for your children. This means the person you choose will be able to make decisions on your children’s behalf for things like financial or health decisions. Inheritance protection is also included to protect the children’s inheritance from individuals like creditors.

An estate plan also covers disability, legacy, tax and insurance planning. You will be able to dictate what will happen to you in the event you become permanently disabled. You also will be able to figure taxes and know what will come out of your estate to cover these when the time comes.

Another great feature of having an estate plan in place is deciding who will take care of your pets after you are gone. Your pets are family, and you want to ensure that someone you trust will take care of them.

North Carolina laws on estate plans

In the state of North Carolina, it is best to have an estate plan in place before you die. If not, intestate laws fall into place. This means your assets will automatically be passed to your heirs regardless of who you wish to receive them.

For instance, any minor children who are to receive assets or money will be controlled by the court system until they are 18 years old unless you have an appointed guardian for them. In other words, the courts determine how the money is spent and where your children will reside after you are gone.

If you have a spouse and no children, the spouse receives everything. If there is no spouse but there are children, the children receive everything. If there are both, the assets will be divided.

Let an estate planning lawyer help you

It is best to have an experienced estate planning lawyer sit down and work out the details of your estate. It’s never to early to get your plan in place because you never know what tomorrow holds. Give us a call, and we will create a plan specifically for you and your family.

What You Can Do To Minimize The Likelihood Of Someone Contesting Your Will

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Estate planning is a serious undertaking that, in most cases, requires a professional to make sure you and your family get the best result. Since death is inevitable and the likelihood of unfortunate situations like mental incapacitation cannot be ruled out in life, it is only prudent to have a trustworthy estate planning attorney at your side. Contrary to the belief of many, estate planning does not only begin and end with a last will and testament you want to make. A lawyer in this field assists you in avoiding estate taxes, drafting living trusts, or even developing a tax mitigation plan. Moreover, they work to ensure that both your assets and savings get to the intended beneficiaries after your demise.

Keeping It Private

A safe way of keeping cases of will contesting at bay is keeping the content of your will or trusts to yourself and your estate planning attorney only. As a result, in the event of changing your mind, no one will know your previous estate provisions. To keep the whole process in the light and open to your family, all you need to do is to give them our firm’s details and your attorney’s contact information and details of where your estate planning documents are located. However, certain circumstances may necessitate that you provide a notice of your estate plan provisions, for instance, designation of the guardians of your dependents, especially children with disabilities.

Furthermore, if you are seeking to change your will, our estate planning attorneys can help you in drafting another will and an entire restatement of your trust. All this is done at a reduced cost, with minimal additional expenses. In turn, it extends you an essential protection such that after your death, no one will gain knowledge of your previous will or trust.

Creation Of A Revocable Living Trust

One of the first steps in most estate planning situations is to help you create a revocable living trust. It becomes a tall order contesting it if it has been in play for quite a long time. It is difficult to prove that cases of duress, fraud, or undue influence have been taking place over all these years or that there was lack of testamentary capacity for all these years.

Activate The ‘No Contest Clause’

Not every beneficiary of a will is left happy with its testament. Upon the realization of this, the law has provided for a ‘no contest clause’ for every will and trust. This provision states that anyone who dares to contest your will or the heirs will get nothing if they challenge what your estate plan commands. However, despite being an excellent preventive measure, someone with little or nothing to lose, maybe one who has been disinherited or another who is determined to get more than outlined in the will can contest it.

Fairness

Showing discontent in the case of unfair treatment is human. Children will expect to receive the same inheritance without looking at their current financial position. To avoid instances of a will contest, we recommend that you hold a joint family meeting irrespective of your relationships and agree or else consult our estate planning lawyers for the various options at your disposal to avoid unfairness.

Seek The Service Of An Experienced Estate Planning Attorney

In estate planning, one wrong word or a missing signature can alter the entire intent of a will or trust. Utilizing the services of one of our estate planning attorneys ensures that drafting and execution mistakes are eliminated.

Our estate planning attorneys have gone through years of mentoring, education, and building experience, and they understand how to handle and advise clients on matters concerning wills and trusts. In addition, they make it clear to you from the very beginning that estate plans rarely go unchallenged, but they work to ensure that the chances of its happening are minimized. More importantly, our lawyers break down the process and make it worthwhile for anyone with estate planning issues.

North Carolina’s Response to the Opioid Crisis Continues to Build Steam

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As the nation struggles to deal with the staggering human and economic costs associated with the crises of opioid addiction and misuse, North Carolina is on the vanguard of the response.

The centerpiece of this effort is the Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention Act, more commonly referred to as the STOP Act.  Passed unanimously by both houses of the General Assembly on June 28, 2017 and signed into law by Governor Cooper on June 29, 2017, the STOP Act limits first time prescriptions for most opioids to no more than 5 days for acute pain, and 7 days for post-surgical pain.  It will require medical providers to check North Carolina’s Controlled Substance Reporting System database (CSRS) to confirm that the patient is not receiving inappropriate medications from other sources, and will require electronic prescriptions for such drugs by 2020.  The STOP Act also strengthens the CSRS, including provisions requiring pharmacies to report opioid transactions more quickly, and expands the availability of the opioid antagonist naloxone, in an effort to reduce the harm from opioid overdose.  But, recognizing the value of opioids in the correct settings, the STOP Act does not apply to medications administered in an inpatient setting, nor does it prevent follow up prescriptions for longer terms when medically appropriate.

In concert with the STOP Act, other efforts to confront the opioid crisis include the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Prescription Drug Abuse Advisory Committee, and the North Carolina Industrial Commission’s Opioid Task Force, which seeks to recommend rules and guidelines addressing the use of opioids in the context of workers’ compensation claims.

For more information on how North Carolina is addressing the opioid crisis, you may want to review the state’s Opioid Action Plan:  https://www.ncdhhs.gov/opioids

Select NC Industrial Commission Filings Now Require An Attorney

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As of Monday, September 18, 2017 the North Carolina Industrial Commission will no longer allow adjusters to file or respond to the below documents, as the North Carolina State Bar has determined that it constitutes the unlicensed practice of law.  Therefore, if you wish to file or respond to any of the below documents, an attorney will have to be retained in order to do so:

  • Form 24 Application to Terminate or Suspend Benefits
  • Motion to Compel Cooperation with Medical Treatment or Vocational Rehabilitation
  • Response to Form 23 Application to Reinstate Benefits
  • Response to Form 18M, Form 28U
  • Response to any Motions filed by Plaintiff or Plaintiff’s Attorney, including a Motion to Compel Medical Treatment, Motion to Compel Rule 607 or Discovery Responses, Motion to Compel Second Opinion.

Please contact any of our workers’ compensation attorneys if you have any questions.