Estate Planning

Ryan & Coppola Law Firm, LLP provides estate planning, tax planning, and estate administration services to clients throughout the Washington, DC area.  Established in 1995 and representing over 3000 client families, we strive to provide the highest quality estate planning services at competitive rates.

Estate planning can seem daunting.  But it really comes down to a very simple idea: arranging a person’s assets and affairs to accomplish a few important goals.

Among those goals, there are two primary objectives in estate planning: 

1. Transferring assets to your beneficiaries in a simple, efficient, tax-smart way;
2. Protecting yourself in the event of an incapacitating illness or injury.
 
Unfortunately, our legal system is not structured to provide these ends automatically. 

Most of us own a collection of assets that will pass to our heirs by way of beneficiary designations, joint ownership, and through probate.   Probate is the court directed process by which an executor is appointed to pay your debts and taxes and transfer assets to your beneficiaries.  Anyone who has acted as an executor knows that the process can be very difficult and time consuming.  

Estate planning focuses on coordinating your assets so that the assets will pass to whom you want - the way you want - with as little complication as possible.  For most families, this involves the use of a trust.

Trusts are an integral tool in estate planning for families who want to make the estate settlement process easy for their loved ones.  Trusts can be used to avoid the probate of assets and offer almost unlimited flexibility in specifying not only to whom, but how  assets will be transferred.  For families with children who are minors, who have special needs, or who for some other reason require that an inheritance be protected, trusts can be used to offer benefits and protections that are otherwise unavailable.        

Estate planning also addresses a very important control issue: before you suffer an incapacitating illness or injury, who will make decisions regarding your health care and finances?  Through the use of powers of attorney, you decide who will make those very personal decisions.  Without them, you risk control over decisions regarding your care, your living arrangements, and the use of your money being given to a third party appointed by a court.  

The attorneys and staff at Ryan & Coppola Law Firm are committed to serving clients and address these issues in a professional atmosphere.  Call us to schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss your questions today.