Wills, trusts & probate
Estate planning, probate, and trust administration for families in Anytown and the surrounding county. Estates and trusts of every size, handled carefully and explained in plain English.
Credentials
Areas of practice
Most families meet us at one of three moments: planning ahead, settling an estate after a death, or taking on the duties of a trustee. The firm handles all three.
Estate planning
Every plan is built around the client, but most include a will or revocable trust, durable powers of attorney, a health care directive, a living will, and beneficiary designations that match the rest of the plan.
Start a plan →Probate
Collecting what the person owned, paying debts and taxes, and passing what remains to the right people under the will or state law. We guide executors through every step, and represent beneficiaries when questions or disputes come up along the way.
When probate is required →Trust administration
A trustee’s duties come partly from the trust document and partly from state law. We help trustees understand what is required, keep proper records, and communicate with beneficiaries, and we advise beneficiaries who have concerns about how a trust is run.
Discuss a trust →
Attorney profile
Jane has practiced estate planning, probate, and trust law for twenty years. After earning a J.D. and an LL.M. in estate planning, Jane spent nearly a decade at a regional firm advising families, business owners, and trustees, then founded this practice in 2015 to work with clients more directly.
Clients work with Jane from the first conversation to the final signature, and hear what the work will cost before it begins. Outside the office, Jane volunteers with local nonprofits and serves on the board of a community foundation.
A good plan should make sense to your family, not just to a court.
Common questions
Any adult can make an estate plan, and most adults should have at least a basic one. Whether you need more has less to do with how much you own than with who depends on you and what you want to happen. A plan is how those wishes become enforceable.
No. It depends mostly on how the assets are titled, whether beneficiary designations are current, what debts remain, and whether the plan accounts for the protections state law gives surviving family members.
Reviewing those four things is usually the first work we do after a death.
A will directs who receives your assets and takes effect through the probate court after death. A revocable trust holds assets during your lifetime and can pass them to beneficiaries without probate, but only for the assets actually transferred into it, which is why funding the trust matters as much as signing it.
It depends on the trust. While a trust can still be revoked, the trustee generally answers only to the person who created it. Once it is irrevocable, the trustee owes duties to every beneficiary, including those who will only receive something later.
Those duties come from both the trust document and state law, and state law can override the document. A trustee who fails to meet them can be held personally liable.
Get in touch
Call during office hours, or send a note and we will get back to you. Evening appointments are available on request.