Law Matters, LLC
Estate Planning
Plan for the Future with Confidence and Clarity—Protect Your Assets, Your Family, and the Legacy You Leave Behind.
St. Louis Estate Planning Attorney for Families, Retirees, and Business Owners
Law Matters LLC
ESTATE PLANNING: there are two different aspects to the state planning: during your lifetime and at the time of your death. Both are important.
Lifetime
Powers of attorney: There may be a time during your life when because of your health, you are unable to take care of your financial affairs. That can result in a lot of difficulties – bills not getting paid (including your mortgage), utilities getting cut off, or taxes not getting filed or paid just to name a few. With a power of attorney, you can authorize a friend or family member to step in and take care of these things for you. While you can make it effective immediately, it can become effective only when a doctor certifies that you can’t handle things. This makes it a “springing” power. Under numerous circumstances, this can be very helpful.
Medical directives: In addition to taking care of financial matters when you are unable, there will probably be medical issues that come up. If you are in an accident or are unconscious, you need a friend or family member to be able to make medical decisions on your behalf. The kind of medical decisions we can cover include admission to a hospital, treatment and care, medicines, surgery, and rehabilitation just to name a few. With a medical directive, you can put a trusted person in charge to authorize care and treatment and also to monitor what the medical personnel are doing. This is usually springing, only coming into effect when necessary.
The medical directive is a two-part document. The first part is the medical power of attorney mentioned above; the second part is a living will. The living will allows you to say what procedures should be withheld if you are in a persistent vegetative state or have suffered significant, irreversible brain damage. The extraordinary procedures include, among other things, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery. You get to decide what procedures should be withheld.
At Death
Wills: The primary “time of death” the estate planning document people need to consider is a will. A will is basically a road map through probate (discussed elsewhere). It does not avoid probate. With a will, you get to decide who is going to handle your probate estate (your “personal representative”) and how it will be distributed. You can make things simple and inexpensive for your personal representative by allowing them to administer your estate without a lot of court involvement (independent administration) and waiving the bonding requirements. And probably most important for young families, you get to say who the guardians of your young children will be and provide for the administration of your estate when your kids are minors. If you die without a will, the state of Missouri has written a will for you (probably not what you want), and the probate court will decide who will be the guardians of your children.
All of this involves probate (discussed elsewhere) which costs money, delays things, and is a public (to some extent) exercise. Therefore, when clients chose a will-based plan, we will give them advice regarding beneficiary designations: pay on death (“POD”) and transfer on death (“TOD”) clauses to help avoid probate al.
Trusts: Trusts are often used to avoid probate (discussed elsewhere). By creating a trust and transferring your assets into your name(s) as trustee(s) you can save money, avoid delays, and maintain your privacy. That last point is becoming more and more important with the rise in identity theft, even with a decedent. You retain the right to amend or even revoke your trust. There is no need to involve a Trust Company necessarily: you can be your own trustee. With a revocable trust, you maintain management and control. If you become disabled, you can name a successor to step in and take care of things for you. On your death, the trust assets will be distributed as you designate without having to go through probate. Something we often do with trusts is we distribute the trust assets to the beneficiaries into their own trusts, and by doing so, the inherited assets are protected from lawsuits and divorce. The beneficiaries could be their own trustees. It’s a little asset protection device. So, with a trust, you retain control, you provide for disability, you avoid probate, and you can protect your children’s inheritance. Not a bad deal.
In addition to the revocable trusts just described, there are other specialized trusts such as tax favored Charitable Trusts and trusts for disabled children that won’t interfere with government benefits (special needs trusts).
Feel free to give me a call if any of this interests you
When it comes to estate planning, business law, and real estate law things can get complicated. You don’t need a cookie-cutter approach to law. You can get that online. You need a real person who can look at your situation from all angles, and know the big picture, as well as your specific goals. Plus, you need someone who has experience in all three areas. That’s why you need Law Matters LLC. Law matters to your unique circumstances and needs.
Meet Fred Vilbig
Fred L. Vilbig is an accomplished St. Louis Attorney with over 30 years of expertise in estate and business planning, corporate law, and real estate transactions. Residing in West St. Louis County, Fred actively contributes to his community by serving on civic and nonprofit boards. He brings a wealth of legal knowledge to the table as the Chairman of the Ellisville Board of Adjustment and President of the St. Thomas More Society, the St. Louis Catholic Lawyer’s Association.
Additionally, Fred is a sought-after speaker on legal matters, often lecturing at prestigious universities and delivering continuing education programs for fellow lawyers. His dedication to education extends to his clients, where he enlightens financial planners and CPAs on the implications of the law. Fred is licensed to practice law in Missouri and to present cases to the U.S. Supreme Court.