It is important to plan for your estate early on in life. Planning for your estate should not be something that has to wait until one is too old. You can start planning your estate even in your twenties. If you are not familiar, your estate is the property that you own, and property that you would want to be inherited by family members after you perish. As such, you need to hire an estate planning lawyer so that it is clear how your property should be managed when you are deceased or mentally incapacitated. It does not matter how much property one has. The right thing to do is consult estate planning lawyer so that you can have your will drafted and validated, so it gives a clear direction on the future management of your estate. Contacting estate planning law firms such as Attorney Justin Blow will give you a better insight into how you should go about this issue.
Here are 4 tips to hiring an estate planning lawyer:
1. What do you need in an estate planning lawyer?
What exactly do you need from an estate planning lawyer? What is it that they do? When you know exactly what you require from these attorneys, or what they do, it will be easy for you to ask them the right questions. The estate attorney advises clients what to do so they can manage their affairs in the event that they deteriorate mentally on in case they die. They can draft wills; living trusts, as well as plans that can help you avoid taxes. As such, you want to work with a lawyer who deals in estate planning.
2. Their primary focus on estate planning
You want to be sure that this lawyer focuses primarily on estate planning. Power of the attorney, healthcare documents, and drafting a simple will can be done by a generalist. However, for the complex issues which have to do with taxable estate and estate planning should be handled by the right professionals. For this reason, you will want to know if these attorneys are specialists in estate planning. This can assure you of the best professional services.
3. Beware of hype, get a referral
You do not want anything that has to do with hype. You want to hire a serious and a professional real estate planner who can be of use to your needs. Consequently, you need to search for these kinds of lawyers in directories or from other sources such as bar association referrals. A good referral can also come from a financial advisor or another attorney that you trust. These cannot mislead you in this regard.
4. Malpractice insurance
You want to be indemnified from any legal mistakes that the estate planning lawyer may commit. You need to know if the lawyer carries malpractice insurance. If he does, this is a good sign that this lawyer is ready to take responsibility for any errors that may occur in your engagement with them. Therefore, you will be protected from any costly mistakes that could arise in the future. Malpractice insurance may not be a legal obligation of the lawyers; and therefore, always ask if the attorney has taken this kind of insurance coverage.
