Wills and Estate Practice in Nashville

What is a will? A will is a document where you say who gets what and who is in charge of making that happen. Someone named in a will to receive your assets is called an heir or beneficiary, and the person put in charge of making that happen is called a personal representative or an executor. It’s important to note though that wills do not apply to assets where you have a surviving joint owner of that asset or to assets where you have a living beneficiary designated. For example, on retirement accounts and life insurance, if you have a spouse named and then your children, then that asset will be payable directly to the living beneficiary whose name is separate from that a will says. If you have a will, and a will is really critical for your estate plan, you need to make sure that it’s in sync with everything owned jointly and also everything where you have a beneficiary named to make sure it all is working together according to your wishes. 

Also, for any property passing under the will, it’s important to note that that will has to be filed with a probate court and reviewed and approved before anyone named in the will, the personal representative can act on your behalf, gather your assets, pay any creditors who might be owed money, and then ultimately distribute the assets to your heirs. A will is a document that does have to go through probate, which is actually a common myth that we run across. People think that a will is a magical document that covers every estate planning scenario, but it doesn’t. It’s critical and you need it, but you need to make sure that you understand it goes through probate before it is effective, and that is a will. 

What is a trust? So think of a trust as a will-substitute. A will says who gets what, under what circumstances, and who’s in charge of making that happen. A trust does the same thing. 

The critical difference between a will and a trust is that a will has to be filed with a probate court and reviewed and approved before anyone can act under it or receive any assets from your estate. So everything filed in the probate court, including the will, becomes a public record, and, as you might imagine, it takes time to go through a public court proceeding. 

A trust, on the other hand, is a completely private document. No one’s entitled to see it except those who are named in it, and the successor trustee named in your trust can act immediately, without having to go to court, file anything, or get permission first. So a trust is a totally private document that can be more immediate and efficient upon someone’s passing, whereas a will is a public document once it’s filed with the court, and the court has to review and approve it before anyone can act under it.

So a will and a trust are similar in terms of what they’re trying to achieve, but they just go through a different process down the road when someone actually needs to act. A trust is more efficient and private, a will takes a little bit longer and is public. 

How much does an estate plan cost? So this can really differ from attorney to attorney and it is one of those areas where you get where you pay for. For example, if you do it yourself online and all you pay is $20, which is quite cheap for an estate plan, you’re going to get an estate plan that’s only worth about that and that might actually cause your family a lot of headache and heartache down the road. So you do want to find an attorney that can draft you excellent legal documents in accordance with the state laws that encapsulates everything that you want to see about how your assets go to your loved ones under what circumstances, who’s in charge. But you also wanna make sure that your attorney will keep in touch with you as life changes. Your life is definitely to change, the law will change, your estate planning should stay up to date to reflect that so you want an attorney who values a relationship over a transaction and who will keep in touch with you as things change. 

I also recommend that you find an attorney who quotes on a flat fee basis versus hourly because if it’s hourly you know the hourly rates but you may have no clue how much time your attorney would end up spending and so you really don’t know what you’re agreeing to. So everything that we do is flat fee agreed to in advance. And so when it comes to which estate plan package might be right for you, maybe the will plan is or maybe the trust plan is and we help you figure out what’s right for you at your first appointment and also our free talks and webinars that we do. Our will plan starts at 2000 and our trust plans start at $4000. When you’re thinking about those fees and maybe comparing them to other attorneys who might charge a lot less, I would encourage you to really try to compare apples to apples and make sure the attorney who’s charging less would actually do everything a Personal Family Lawyer would do.

For example, to a Personal Family Lawyer, an estate plan is not just about the legal document. Your legal documents are not gonna do you any good if you stuff them away somewhere on a shelf or in a cabinet and nobody knows that they’re there and exist and therefore nobody can act on your behalf when they need you to.

Also, it’s not just about the legal documents. Even if someone does know that you have a plan where to find it. It’s about the legacy piece, it’s about who you are as a parent, as a person, values, insight and your stories and experiences that would be forever lost if you don’t somehow capture that whether through a video or a letter or some way of having conversations with your family and loved ones over time to make sure that they really know who you are ’cause that’s what your family’s gonna care most about. The legal documents will help them get through that transition time and we need those to be really solid, which we do for you but they’re really gonna care about photographs or a voicemail or a letter or a video.

So as part of a Life & Legacy Plan, we include a Legacy Interview, which you can do in the form of a video, a voice recording, and even letters. This is valuable because passing on your legacy is not about the documents we draft, it’s about who you are as a person and your values and stories that might otherwise go completely missing and lost if that’s not incorporated as part of your planning. So we’re happy to share more with you about our fee schedule, just give us a call.