Edgewood Estate Planning Lawyer

Life in Edgewood feels, on average, more easygoing than what you might find in the surrounding cityscapes. But that doesn’t mean you’re immune to unfortunate incidents that life can have in store for us. You may be thrown unexpectedly from a horse or hurt in a car accident along I-40. Suddenly, your loved ones may be wondering if you had plans in place for your medical care — or perhaps even for your estate and long-term plans.

It’s a tragic fact that life can change at the drop of a hat. With an estate plan ready, you can know that the people you trust most have documents and guiding instructions, just in case you are incapacitated or suddenly pass. An Edgewood estate planning lawyer can help you create a will, advance healthcare directive, durable financial power of attorney, or other plans so that your loved ones can be ready for scenarios like these, no matter what.

If you are ready to start on your estate plan or to bring an older one up to date, our law firm is here to help. Call New Mexico Financial & Estate Planning Attorneys (505) 503-1637 or contact us online at any time to schedule a no-obligation consultation and estate plan review. We’ll help you get your affairs in order so that you — and the people you care about most — don’t have to worry.

What Can an Edgewood Estate Planning Attorney Do for Me?

Estate planning means covering all of your bases, from a legal, financial, and strategic standpoint.

For some families, a simple will can take care of the majority of their concerns. Other arrangements, like account beneficiaries, can help handle the rest.

Other households have complex land, business, or financial holdings, meaning they may benefit from having a family trust or other, more complex arrangements in place.

The exact estate plan that could be perfect for you depends on your:

• Estate makeup — Assets and debts
• Inheritance plans — Who you want to receive your property
• Family dynamics — Minor children, adult dependents, blended families, and other factors that might impact what your optimal arrangements should look like
• Incapacitation concerns — What you want to happen to you when you are medically unable to communicate
• Overall goals — From passing on the family business to supporting future generations’ education goals, your ideal outcome determines whether a trust or another complex legal device may be preferable
• Legal, financial, and family concerns — You may, for example, want to prepare for possible will contests from certain family members or ensure that any inheritance isn’t squandered quickly
• Other relevant factors — Examples include estates that hold property in multiple states (or countries), those with high levels of debt, and those that want to avoid claims against their property or their heirs

A New Mexico estate planning attorney looks at all of these factors, along with anything else that could impact your estate after your death or incapacitation. After a thorough review, they can recommend the exact set of documents, strategies, plans, and arrangements that have the highest chance of helping you achieve all of your goals. They can then help you execute every needed document, following legal best practices, along with any relevant state or federal laws.

Services and Potential Benefits Offered by Working With an Edgewood Estate Planning Law Firm

Of course, experienced estate planning lawyers in New Mexico can do more than just recommend documents and help you complete them.

When you reach out to New Mexico Financial & Estate Planning Attorneys, you can also expect to receive the following services, all personalized to your specific needs:

• Explanations and answers to your questions regarding specific estate planning aspects, strategies, documents, or scenarios
• Comprehensive legal guidance for specific issues related to real estate, business ownership, contingency planning, incapacity planning, and more
• End-to-end assistance with every stage of your estate plan, including guidance on selecting the right personal representative (AKA your executor), witnesses to your will, and agents to take over in case of your incapacitation
• A thorough review of your entire estate plan to ensure that all of its components work consistently with one another towards common goals
• Advice for managing family expectations and preparing your POA agents, trustees, guardians, and personal representative for their eventual responsibilities
• Assistance and resources for tasks and stages of the process that might otherwise feel overwhelming
• Updates for your existing estate plan to keep it compliant with current state laws and recommended practices
• Coordination with other professionals, including a financial planner, real estate portfolio manager, tax accountant, or other service providers
• Possible representation or assistance to your estate, bolstered by the strategies and statements of intent you have disclosed, should you or a representative face litigation in connection with your estate plan

In short, our Edgewood estate planning law firm has the experience and comprehensive service approach to cover every single aspect of your strategic preparations — and then some. Come to our offices to work with a personable team you can trust and an attorney whose number one goal is to see your estate plan succeed.

How Does a Will Factor Into My Estate Plan?

Every estate plan needs a will. Even if you intend to handle the majority of your inheritances and transfers outside of probate (more on this, later), a will can act as a key “witness” document — and also a form of insurance in case your other plans don’t work out as intended.

Wills are a critical element of any estate plan because they are one of the few legally recognized ways to declare your wishes for giving property away. Without a will, other laws get to decide who inherits your property and your belongings. Courts refer to this as “dying intestate.”

The default arrangement is for your surviving spouse to inherit all of your community property and a quarter (¼) of your separate property. Your kids — or other surviving descendants — split the remaining three-quarters (¾) of the property between them.

These intestate arrangements may not reflect what you would have wanted. But, without a will, your estate is required to follow them.

Wills Play an Important Role in Every Estate (Especially if Something Goes Wrong)

While there are ways to transfer property without a will, there’s a risk that you may need to lean on the will as a backup plan in case other preparations fall through. So, at the very least, you can list one or a few people in your will who get to inherit everything not handled through other methods.

You should also list a few backup “successor” or “contingent” beneficiaries in case the people you intend to inherit first aren’t able to, for whatever reason.

A will also declares your first choice of a personal representative (sometimes called an “executor” or “estate administrator”) and guardians for any dependents.

Of course, you’re welcome to use a will as the main element of your estate plan, too. You can get as complicated or simple as you want with your inheritance arrangements, but remember that someday your personal representative needs to interpret everything. As such, it’s best to be as clear and concise as possible with the wording of your will.

This is where an Edgewood estate planning lawyer can come in: they can put your wishes clearly into words and include all of the right language to give your will the highest chances of being used in the way you intended. Your attorney also helps you correctly complete your document, which means signing it, having it witnessed, and getting it notarized so that it can be recognized as valid when the time comes.

Other Ways to Transfer Property Outside of a Will (Or Probate)

Wills are the “last line of defense” for voluntarily transferring your property after your death, but they are far from the only method. Other methods can include:

• Naming an account beneficiary to receive a balance through transfer-on-death (TOD) or payable-on-death (POD) mechanisms
• Designating survivor beneficiaries to receive your retirement benefits, life insurance proceeds, pension payments, or other forms of financial support
• Transferring property to a trust during your lifetime (AKA forming a living trust) and naming beneficiaries to receive the property at a designated time, which can be immediately after your death or at another time/circumstance of your choosing
• Holding community property with a spouse, who maintains ownership over all of the property following your death
• Adding someone to a property deed, such as through a joint tenancy with rights of survivorship (JTWROS) title

All of these transfer methods occur without direct oversight from the probate court, as an added bonus. That means loved ones can receive transfers immediately, even while probate is still pending. These asset transfers can also make it more difficult (but not necessarily impossible) for creditors or adversarial claimants to go after the property directly.

In short, using these methods can simplify probate for your personal representative while providing extra privacy and financial security to your survivors. If reducing the size of your probated estate is one of your goals, be sure to discuss your options with an experienced estate planning lawyer in Edgewood.

What Is Incapacity Planning?

Incapacity planning is another major component of estate planning — one that can tend to get overlooked, in many cases.

Any time you are unable to communicate, understand basic concepts, or function at a basic adult level, you could be considered medically incapacitated. Your incapacitation could be the result of a serious accident, causing you to fall unconscious for an extended period. Incapacity could also result from your mental abilities declining, such as after a traumatic brain injury or the development of a medical condition like Alzheimer’s disease.

To prepare for these incidents, you can name someone (known as an “agent”) who can take over to handle your finances and coordinate medical care with your providers. A power of attorney document makes this arrangement official, giving your agent court-recognized permissions.

There are two main types of powers of attorney used in estate planning:

• Financial power of attorney, which gives your agent permission to access your accounts, transfer money, buy or sell assets, and interact with government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Healthcare power of attorney, which allows your agent to make care decisions on your behalf, consent to forms of treatment, read your private health information, and handle other business needed to coordinate your medical care

For a power of attorney to be effective even after you have been incapacitated, it must be “durable.”

You can also include instructions for your care along with a healthcare power of attorney. These are sometimes referred to as your “living will” because they record your wishes for the types of care you would want while you were alive but unable to communicate. Together with a primary doctor designation, these three documents make up an advance healthcare directive.

An Edgewood estate planning lawyer can go over all of your options for incapacity planning and help you decide on the best strategies to put in place. Your attorney will carefully review the permissions your agent(s) will receive. They can also advise you on what restrictions or guiding instructions to include, based on what you would want to happen in a situation where you are incapacitated.

Get It All Together With an Edgewood Estate Planning Lawyer’s Help

The team at New Mexico Financial & Estate Planning Attorneys is ready to assist you with all stages of your journey. If you’ve recently had a major change to your portfolio or living situation, such as a move, divorce, or change in your retirement plans, we can perform a thorough review and update everything, as needed. We can also explain to you how recent changes to state and federal laws might impact your plans as written, such as after an overhaul to the tax code.

We can even help people create the ideal set of estate planning documents from scratch when they only have an outline of a plan — or no plan at all. Work with an Edgewood estate planning attorney team that’s eager to help you get started or bring your preparations up to date. Call our offices at (505) 503-1637 or contact us online to schedule your no-obligation consultation and estate plan review today.