Estate Planning, Wills & Trusts

The process of estate planning can be stressful, daunting, and confusing. At Southwest Portland Law Group, our goal is to eliminate the unknown and alleviate the uneasiness that comes with planning your will. We provide comprehensive estate planning solutions, with a straight-forward explanation of the options at your disposal – to help inform your decision making, and efficiently design the right plan for you.

Plan Your Legacy

Estate planning is the process of proactively ensuring your wishes are in place so they can be carried out seamlessly when the time comes. Without a clear and detailed estate plan, family members risk spending time and money in court to settle the allocation of assets. By establishing a comprehensive estate plan, confusion over asset allocation can be eliminated, guardianship for children is unquestionable, and taxes and court fees are minimized.

Estate Planning Essentials

Last Will and Testament
Within your will it’s possible to provide detailed instructions for disposition of personal and real property upon death. In addition to creating clear instructions, we provide guidance on selecting an executor of the estate, waive the bond requirement, establish compensation for the executor, and include specific guidelines for disposition of remains, as well as last wishes.

Durable Power of Attorney
Power of attorney makes it possible to appoint an agent to act on your behalf for financial purposes. An agent can handle banking, pay bills, deal with contracts, buy and sell a property, and more. With power of attorney, clients have the option of providing an agent with immediate control, or creating a document to specify that the power becomes effective upon incapacity.

Advance Directive
In Oregon, the advance directive is a statutory document that combines the traditional living will, and the healthcare power of attorney. The living will portion of an estate plan allows you to give directions with regard to medical care in the event of incapacity, while the healthcare power of attorney names an agent who can make healthcare decisions on your behalf. Without the advance directive document, those caring for an incapacitated person are forced to seek appointment as a guardian in order to make healthcare decisions. Guardianship is a separate court proceeding, which can be expensive and time-consuming.

Revocable Living Trust
Trusts are incredibly powerful estate planning tools. A revocable living trust ensures full control over property as though it is your own, and upon incapacity or death, controls transfers to the successor trustee – allowing for seamless transition of power over your property. The primary benefit of creating a trust, is that the ownership exists within the trust rather than the individual. As a result, the need for probate is eliminated, due to ownership of the substantial assets being associated with the trust rather than a single person.

The successor trustee has the ability to manage the assets and distribute them, free of any formal court proceeding. With a properly drafted trust, property can be transferred within a month or two, at a significantly lower cost due to the elimination of probate. Additionally, through more complex trust provisions, tax exposure can be better managed and minimized. More about Living Trusts

Estate Planning Costs

Our pricing approach for estate planning is to ensure clients know what to expect from the start. We charge a flat fee on most estate planning services to eliminate surprises in billing and fees upon project completion and to allow free flow of communication with our clients without fear of a paywall.

Our most basic estate plan for individuals includes a will, power of attorney, and advance directive. Our basic estate plan starts at $1,250 for an individual, and $2,000 for a couple. Throughout our consultation and evaluation phase our team may recommend that your estate plan include a trust. If you choose to include a trust as part of your estate plan, your fees could range from $2,200 to $6,700 for most standard plans. Your actual fee will be dependent upon the complexity and features you choose.

Additional services, such as amending an existing estate plan, creating a specialty trust, re-titling properties, or amending business documents to conform to your new estate plan, are billed on an hourly basis.

Give us a call to get a fee estimate on your estate plan.

Phone

503-206-6401

Email

info@swpdxlaw.com

Location

8455 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy, Portland, Oregon 97225

Hours

Monday - Friday: 9:00am - 5:00pm

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