Estate Planning and Probate Attorneys in Portland, Oregon
Although we expect that everyone will eventually pass away as they age, it is not something that many of us like to talk about, much less plan for and deal with. Not making arrangements surrounding the end of a person’s life can have a detrimental impact on the lives of surviving relatives. Quite often, families are torn apart by having to determine what property is left to each person after a loved one passes on. Instead of placing this unexpected burden on your loved ones, you can benefit immensely by taking the steps to establish a last will and testament and make arrangements for your property and prized possessions in the event of your demise.
The attorneys at Kivel & Howard strive to make the process of securing the future as easy as possible for our clients. For decades, our estate planning and probate attorneys in Portland, Oregon have helped clients with planning estates of all sizes. If you are interested in creating a will, establishing a conservatorship, designating a power of attorney, or making final arrangements, contact our estate planning attorneys in Portland, Oregon as soon as possible. Our team is available to meet with you at your earliest convenience to discuss various legal options available to ensure your home and prized possessions are well taken care of after your passing. Contact our law firm to schedule a consultation with our team to see how we can help you.
Services Kivel & Howard Provide for Our Clients
The estate planning attorneys at Kivel & Howard strive to help our clients make final arrangements in an easy-to-understand and stress-free manner. We are committed to helping our clients decide the best options available for them to ensure their final arrangements truly reflect their wishes and expectations. Our team provides an array of estate planning and probate services for our clients to ensure they are able to protect their legal rights. Some of the services our team provides for our clients in Portland, Oregon include the planning and drafting of various documents, including:
- Revocable living trust
- Power of attorney
- Last will and testament
- Conservatorships
- Guardianships
- Administration of trusts
- Administration of probate estates
Our team provides trust and estate litigation services for our clients to ensure they are in the best position possible to protect their legal rights. We work diligently to help our clients set aside their emotions and help educate them on their rights and options available to them. We strive to ensure our clients best understand what they need to do and we. Furthermore, our estate planning and probate attorneys in Portland, Oregon are dedicated to ensuring all documents meet the legal requirements in Oregon to ensure the demands requested in the documents are carried out for our clients. Contact our law firm today to see how we can help you.
Will Planning Services in Portland, Oregon
When a person passes away without having a written will, the state of Oregon follows intestate succession laws to determine who inherits what property and how much of it they get. In some cases, the court will appoint someone to represent the estate, usually an adult child or a surviving spouse. Without a will, the process of designating and distributing property after a death can be lengthy and expensive. For this reason, it is crucial that you take the steps necessary to protect your family by drafting a will that specifies who is to receive what property after you pass away.
There are various laws in place in the state of Oregon that pertain to last will and testaments. If the laws are not followed accordingly, courts may be reluctant to enforce your wishes and may throw out the documents entirely. Working with a skilled and knowledgeable estate planning attorney in Portland will ensure your legal documents are valid so your final wishes can be carried out after you pass away. Although no one likes to think about their demise, or what their family is going to do after they pass away, people who have homes and other valuable property can benefit significantly by drafting out a will. This is particularly true in cases where spouses and children as well as other parties who they want to receive their property. Our team at Kivel& Howard works diligently to ensure the legal rights and best interests of our clients are protected.
Our attorneys are committed to helping our clients by drafting wills that accurately secure the future for their loved ones and ensure entitled parties receive the property left to them without the need for costly and lengthy litigation. Our team works diligently to provide our clients with peace of mind and help them determine what happens to their valuables after they pass on. Contact our law firm today to see how our team can help you.
Revocable Living Trusts vs Wills in Oregon
Quite often, people use living trusts as a method for avoiding probate. Rather than going through the probate process and having courts determine who receives what property after you pass away, you can use a living trust to help avoid the court process. This tool can be used to designate property to specific beneficiaries after your passing. Like wills, living trusts are documents that are drafted and signed by trust makers. These documents are then notarized to ensure they are legal and valid upon a person’s passing.
Trusts are designed to include a list of all of a person’s property, designate a trustee to carry out the distribution process, and name what property each beneficiary will receive. The person designated as trustee will overlook the entire process to ensure all property is properly taken care of and to ensure the distribution process accurately reflects the wishes of the decedent. Unlike wills, the use of trusts enables people to avoid probate. These documents reduce the chances of disputes in court surrounding your estate after you pass on, can help to avoid conservatorship processes, and keep your documents private after your passing.
Alternatively, the use of a will enables you to designate a specific party to act as a guardian, name an appointee who will manage the property of your children, name a party to act as executor of the will, and allow you to specify how debts and taxes will be handled once you pass on. Working with a knowledgeable estate planning and probate attorney at Kivel & Howard in Portland can help you determine what option is best for you.
How an Estate Planning Attorney in Portland Can Help You
There are many instances where people are interested in performing their own estate planning processes through the use of a will kit. These kits often lack critical information that helps to ensure your will is legal and best reflects your end of life wishes. Even the latest and most comprehensive will planning software is unable to see potential problems, circumstances, and situations that can arise. These programs are unable to determine how to best distribute various property types to designated parties. As a result, many people miss out by trying to undertake this complex process alone. Some of the most common problems reported during the will planning process include:
The inability to keep the estate plan up to date: There are numerous changes that can impact a person throughout their lifetime. As a result, it is crucial to update wills routinely to best reflect the changes in your state of affairs. Marriages, divorces, deaths, and the birth of others can all impact how your property will be distributed. When people draft their own wills at home, they often forget to make changes that appropriately reflect changes in their life. This can have a detrimental impact on property distribution in the end.
Creating a will that only determines what will happen with your belongings: Although it is imperative that anyone over the age of 18 has a will due to their extreme importance, it is crucial to recognize that there is a lot more to the process than simply establishing a will. Working with a trusted and competent estate planning attorney in Portland, Oregon can provide you with valuable insight regarding what else is needed to have a thorough estate plan in place.
Failing to protect your assets: When it comes to the process of planning an estate, it is crucial that you take various factors into consideration. A lot of people are simply unequipped with the knowledge surrounding inheritance, tax laws, and various other aspects. Working with an attorney can greatly help you understand various laws and how to avoid overpaying taxes and facing unexpected tax bills.
Insufficient witness statements on estate plans: Online wills often require some type of authentication and signatures to verify that what you include in a will accurately reflects your hopes and desires. These wills often require witness signatures to verify that the information in your will is true. When it comes to verifying the signatures within electronically signed documents, it can be challenging. Working with an attorney can help you bypass challenges to witnesses by ensuring that the witnesses are actually present to sign the documents in person. In some cases, attorneys can provide insight as to how to select witnesses to ensure no conflicts arise in the future.
Poor wording and grammatical errors: It is imperative that wills are correctly worded and drafted in a manner that is easy to understand. Working with a skilled and knowledgeable estate planning attorney can help to ensure that your will is comprehendible so your wishes are carried out as intended.
It is imperative that everyone has an estate plan in place that reflects their hopes and desires. Working with a skilled and knowledgeable legal team is a crucial part of ensuring your final plans represent your wishes. Contact Kivel& Howard as soon as possible to discuss estate planning with our team at your earliest convenience.
Trust and Estate Litigation in Portland, Oregon
Our attorneys at Kivel & Howard have extensive experience helping clients protect their legal rights and best interests when it comes to estate planning and probate in the state of Oregon. We understand the importance of helping our clients prevail during trust and estate litigation. Our extensive knowledge of estate laws in Oregon, coupled with meticulous preparation and the presentation of compelling arguments helps to ensure our clients are able to obtain the outcome they expect while working with us. Our clients can expect an array of services from our team, including effective litigation techniques that:
- Are creative and effective when it comes to problem-solving.
- Efficiently manage cases to ensure our clients achieve the best outcome for their litigation needs.
- Cut to the core of the matter faster and more effectively than expected.
- Help navigate the legal system while dealing with even some of the most complex cases.
The Portland, Oregon estate planning attorneys at Kivel & Howard strive to help our clients protect their legal rights every step of the way.
Kivel & Howard Can Help You
Not knowing how to deal with end of life arrangements effectively and efficiently can be frustrating. Not having sound instruction in place can have overwhelming consequences for your loved ones and their ability to secure property and inheritance from you upon your passing. For this reason, it is crucial that you reach out to a knowledgeable estate planning attorney in Portland as soon as possible.
Our team at Kivel & Howard has decades of combined experience helping our clients ensure the expenses and frustrations surrounding the navigation of probate court are avoided. Our attorneys provide insight and education to help our clients understand options available to them so they can make choices that best reflect their interests and wishes. If you are interested in estate planning or probate needs, contact our team by calling (503) 796-0909 or (503) 802-4800 at your earliest convenience to see how we can help you.