Estate Planning Attorney
Express Estate Planning: Medical Powers of Attorney, Trusts, Wills & Health Care Directives
Estate Planning Made Easy
Please watch the videos below:
At some point, every person will need and use their estate planning documents.
Express Estate Planning has very little to do with wealth. If you own real estate or you are purchasing real estate, then you need our Express Estate Planning Package. Proper Estate Planning allows you to control what happens in order to protect you and your family.
Estate Planning is about providing you Peace of Mind knowing that you have taken care of the legal documents necessary to control the events that occur in everyone’s lifetime.
It is simple to get started. We are here to accomplish your goals and give you Peace of Mind starting today.
Please watch the videos and read the rest of this page for Free Information.
You can click this link to send Chris a question.
Or Call (602) 892-4682
Christopher A. Benson is licensed to practice law in Arizona, Oregon and Washington. We can handle your estate needs regardless of where you are located in the State. That is why we offer the option to take care of everything over the telephone or video conference using Skype and Apple Face Time. We then have your documents delivered to you via Federal Express. Of course, the estate planning documents I prepare for you need to be signed in front of a Notary Public and two witnesses who are not family members. We can assist with arranging for a Notary Public to meet with you in your home.
At the Law Offices of Christopher A. Benson, we take care of preparation of all the legal documents you need to achieve Peace of Mind and put your estate plan together. Usually, all that is needed is a 30 to 45 minute consultation with you to discuss your current situation, your concerns and goals.
We will prepare the documents to transfer of any real estate that you may own in Arizona, Oregon and Washington into your trust. We provide you detailed instructions going forward on how to handle the transfer of titled property such as vehicles and financial accounts.
We set you up for long term success and long term Peace of Mind for You and Your family.
Express Estate Planning
By The Law Offices of Christopher A. Benson, PLLC
We prepare your new living trust, your Will, power of attorney, medical power of attorney, Directive to Physicians, designation of guardianship, and your real estate transfer documents. If you have minor children, we will prepare the designation of guardian for your minor children as well.
After we have completed your estate plan, we will express mail the documents to you.
Let me show you how it works by watching the video below:
Description- A revocable living trust is a contract that you make with yourself. Typically, you serve in 3 different roles:
1. The Settlor/Trustor: that is the person that creates the trust.
2. The Trustee: That is the person that manages the trust assets.
3. The Beneficiary: That is the people that entitled to receive gifts or distributions from the trust owned assets.
You control the trust and you have the benefit of the trust owned assets while your are alive.
A trust is actually quite simple. Essentially, you can put everything you own into a trust (with some limited exceptions like retirement plans such as IRA’s and 401K plans). In the case of a living trust, you will typically name yourself as trustee and name the heirs or beneficiaries of your choosing as the successor trustee. Upon your death, the successor trustee can distribute the property as you specified in the trust without the need to go through the probate process.
For example: John Doe owns a house and a car. John Doe creates a living trust and transfers ownership of the house and car into the trust during his life. The house and car are then owned by the John Doe Trust and John Doe is the trustee. John Doe has one daughter, Jane Doe, who he names as the successor trustee. Upon John Doe’s death, Jane Doe takes over as the successor trustee and distributes the house and the car to herself as John Doe directed in the trust.
Advantages-
The Law Offices of Christopher A. Benson takes care of preparation of a complete plan for you that is effective now and takes care of issues that may come up during your life as well in the event of your passing. A trust is simple to set up and we take care of preparing all the documents for your to create the trust and put a Peace of Mind Planning package together for you. A revocable living trust is cheaper in the long run because it can completely avoid the need for the probate process (assuming all creditors are known). In addition, trusts are very difficult to contest and prevent unintentional disinheriting along with other problems associated with joint ownership. If you own property in a different state, a living trust eliminates the need for probate in that state.
A living trust can be instantly transferred to another trustee should anything happen to you (see example above). A living trust is private; it is confidential and is not displayed in public records. A living trust allows you to appoint someone to maintain the trust property for young beneficiaries and minors. There is no need to hire a lawyer again when you want to distribute your estate. Living trusts also provide significant tax benefits.
Disadvantages-
Setting up the trust requires a fair amount of initial paperwork.
However, our firm handles all the documents to prepare it for you.
The initial consultation only takes about 30 to 45 minutes for most people. Its simple and fast for you.
Setting up the trust also requires a transfer of ownership for all property you want to have in the trust (called “funding”). This sometimes includes titles for real estate, financial accounts etc. However, our firm takes care of the preparation of the deed to transfer your Arizona real estate into your trust.
We also provide you with direction for transferring title to financial accounts as well. The only real drawback to a trust is that there is no cut-off date for creditors to bring claims against your trust and that you cannot designate a guardian for any minors through a living trust (However, this can be done quite easily in a “pour-over” will that is added to your trust).
How Express Estate Planning Works:
First from the website, simply send me an email requesting the Express Estate Planning Questionnaire.
Next, fill out the form online or print it out and fax it to me.
After I receive and review your information, we will set up a free initial conference to discuss your goals. We can hold the conference either by telephone or video conference by using Skype or Apple Face Time.
During that conference we will put together an estate plan to accomplish your goals.
After the conference, we will mail a Welcome Letter to you along with attorney agreement to retain our firm.
Once we receive your signed attorney agreement back along with copies of any real estate deeds for property that you want to transfer into your new trust, we will set up another conference to go over everything once again and finalize the plan.
After the second conference, we will draft all of your estate planning documents and then send them to you via Express Delivery.
You need to sign all of your estate planning documents in front of a Notary Public and 2 witnesses who are not family members. You can arrange for a Notary to come to your house or we have a package available where we help you make the arrangements.
When we deliver the documents to you, we provide a detailed instruction letter giving you step by step guidance on everything you need to do such as recording the real estate deeds, transferring your bank account to your trust as well as any titled property like cars, manufactured homes and boats.
To get started today, all you have to do is send an email requesting the Questionnaire and then you have taken the first step in taking control of your future.
Law Offices of Christopher A. Benson, PLLC
60 E. Rio Salado Parkway, Suite 900 – Tempe, AZ 85281
(602) 892-4682 | Map | Reviews
