When you leave this world, you will leave a legacy behind. It is up to you what you want that legacy to be. You likely have loved ones you care about and causes that matter to you. If you work with Lee Law Office, you can take steps throughout your life to ensure that your legacy involves making life better for your family and supporting the charities and organizations that you believe in.
Lee Law Office provides legacy planning services to clients of all ages throughout Richmond, VA and surrounding areas. While it is often seniors who begin to think seriously about making plans for their legacy, even young people should work with an experienced attorney to determine what steps they can take to build wealth, protect their wealth and use their assets to do good.
Our legal team will create a personalized plan with you that accomplishes your goals and that is appropriate for your life stage, so give us a call today. You can also get answers to questions you have about the legacy planning process including:
- Why should I create a legacy plan?
- What should I include in my legacy plan?
- How can a Richmond legacy planning lawyer help me?
Why Should You Create a Legacy Plan?
When you work hard to build a legacy and to raise a family, you want to ensure that your memory lives on and that you make a positive difference in the lives of people you care about. You don’t want your assets to be lost to creditors, because of irresponsible heirs, due to estate tax or because of high costs of nursing home care incurred at the end of your life. You should work with an experienced attorney to make a plan to protect the wealth that you have been building from the primary sources of loss so you can use it to give to charity or to pass down to the next generation.
If you do not create a legacy plan, not only could your assets be lost because of taxes or mismanagement, but you could also give up control over what happens to the wealth you have built. Without some type of legal documents specifying what should happen to your property, intestacy law will apply. Although intestacy law does facilitate the transfer of wealth to close living relatives like spouses and children, the law will not necessarily ensure that your assets are passed on as you would prefer.
If you do not take control, you will simply leave the distribution of your assets to these default laws instead of having the chance to make your wishes known. The assets will also transfer during a lengthy probate process, so your heirs or beneficiaries could be without their inheritance for many months while the assets are managed by a person who the court appoints. That person may not have the know-how to manage assets in the way you see fit and may not be equipped to preserve and protect your wealth until it can pass on.
What Should You Include In Your Legacy Plan?
It is up to you what you want your legacy to be, and your desired goals for the mark that you want to leave on the world will determine the tools that you should use in your legacy plan. Lee Law Office will discuss your goals and plans for your wealth and will explain options for keeping asset safe and providing for family members and causes that matter.
We can help you to go far beyond a will to use tools like trusts to take more control over an inheritance and to use tools like pay-on-death accounts and joint ownership to facilitate a timely transfer of assets to chosen heirs or beneficiaries. We can also provide you with advice on creating a charitable foundation or a charitable remainder trust, using trusts and other tools to avoid estate tax, and facilitating the transfer of a family business or family farm to the next generation.
How Can a Richmond Legacy Planning Help You?
Your life’s work is too important to not protect and you owe it to yourself and the people who you care about to make a legacy plan. You should reach out to Lee Law Office when you are still young to get help understanding asset protection tools and to get help putting a plan in place that can evolve and change as your life changes. A Richmond, VA legacy planning lawyer at our firm will listen closely to your goals and desires for your legacy and will work with you to put a plan in place so you control exactly how you are remembered when you’re gone.