Estate Law
NJ Estate Planning and Probate Law Attorneys
Starting the process of planning your estate can be an uncomfortable time, but at Garrett & Batastini, we make the process as simple as possible. It’s important to have a comprehensive will and/or estate plan in place to ensure that your estate is properly distributed to your loved ones upon your death. If this is not in place, items and property will be granted to loved ones per what the law sees fit through a probate hearing which can leave things out of you and your family’s control.
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Need to begin the process of estate planning? The attorneys at Garrett & Batastini handle all legal matters categorized under Estate Law. This means anything concerning a person’s physical and personal property. These include: wills, trusts, estate planning, probate and inheritance matter, and estate litigation such as will contests.
Estate Planning
A person’s estate is the overarching term consisting of a person’s net worth. This includes personal items, personal property, real estate, bank accounts, life insurance, and business interests. We help navigate this difficult process by working with you directly to arrange what will happen to all of your property and money when you pass away. In our initial consultation, we can discuss wills, trusts, beneficiary designations, powers of attorney and more.
Wills
Wills are legal documents that more than 50% of people have over the age of 53 and more than 80% have over age 72. A will is prepared to make note of what a person wants to happen to their estate when they pass away. It is important for not only you, but your loved ones that you take the time to arrange your assets and have a legal document drafted. Assigning a power of attorney will grant that person the responsibility to fulfill the items detailed in the will, as well as, pay any debts that may be necessary.
Trusts
Trusts are different from wills in that they are used to allow someone to hold property that someone else owns for the other person’s benefit. Trusts are put into effect as soon as they’re created, unlike a will which only goes into an effect after the person dies. A trust works to protect assets as well as typically lowering estate taxes.
Probate and Inheritance Matters
When a person dies, their estate is transferred to their beneficiaries and that process is known as probate. If the deceased had a will, many times probate court proceedings are not necessary, or can be done in a more simple, streamlined way. The executor is named in the will and is responsible to handle the wishes outlined in that will. However, if a person dies without a will or owns assets in his or her name alone, this may be cause for a probate hearing to help decide what assets go to whom. The court proceedings would take place through the municipality the person had died in. We help to navigate this time for a family, in an effort to add ease to the process in any way we can.