Estate Planning & Probate

Estate planning is critical to ensure assets are protected and that clients’ final wishes are followed. Unfortunately, creating an estate plan is often delayed or overlooked.

Estate planning documents such as living trusts, wills, revocable and irrevocable tax advantaged trusts, and cost-effective charitable trusts, can provide assurance that valuable assets are protected, minors and other heirs are provided for, fewer taxes are paid, and probate is avoided.

Additional planning documents such as a living will and a financial or healthcare power of attorney can resolve questions while a person is still alive.

The estate planning attorneys at Gabriel Berry Weston & Wells create estate plans that facilitate the handling of taxes, wills, insurance, property and trusts. Our attorneys possess significant knowledge regarding probate court and complex tax law and provide important tax-saving advice that ensures estates are administered at the lowest tax cost possible.

Effective estate administration requires a great deal of Probate Court knowledge and tax expertise, in both estate tax and income tax laws. We provide valuable tax-saving advice focused on reducing taxes on estates. We represent clients in U.S. Tax Court and handle state and federal tax audits.

Our estate administration responsibilities often include attending probate court proceedings, liquidating assets, satisfying debts, assuring proper distribution of assets, completing appropriate tax returns, and defending and/or prosecuting will contests alleging invalidity or misinterpretation.

The firm’s services include:

Estate Planning
Wills
Living wills
Revocable and irrevocable trusts
Living trusts
Powers of attorney
Estate administration
Trust administration
Probate
Charitable gift planning
Advice on elder law issues
Estate tax planning
Tax audits
Will challenges
Partition proceedings

The firm’s estate planning matters are handled by: