New Jersey Wills, Trusts and Living Wills Lawyer

Wills, Trusts, and Living Wills

Estate planning is essential to protect your family's assets, minimize estate taxes, and to let family members and medical providers know what steps you want taken to prolong your life if you are terminally ill and unable to communicate your own wishes. At Barron, Baker & Posternock, our lawyers have a long history of assisting clients create personalized estate planning documents that reflect their needs and their wishes. We offer a free initial consultation by telephone.

Estate planning is highly personalized, and may involve a number a number of legal documents, including:

• A Will, which is the document you use to direct the final distribution of your assets after death. Parents with minor children may use wills to designate the legal guardian of their child in the event that both parents are deceased.
  
  
• A Trust, which is a means of holding assets so that the trust survives the death of the maker, thereby avoiding probate. In larger estates, revocable trusts are a major tool used to reduce or eliminate estate taxes.
  
  
• A Living Will (also called an Advanced Heath Care Directive), which informs any medical care givers that you do not want artificial, life-prolonging techniques or procedures such as feeding tubes, if you are in a terminal condition without hope of recovery.
  
  
• Health Care Power of Attorney (also called a Health Care Surrogate), which allows you to designate a trusted family member to make medical decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated.
  
  
• Financial Power of Attorney, which allows you to designate a trusted person to handle your financial affairs if you are not able to do so yourself.

Probate Services

If you are named as executor of a will or as administrator of a estate for a person who dies without a will, our law firm can help you obtain with court authorization to locate and gather the estate assets and liabilities, review and negotiate payment of creditor's claims and assist in distributing assets to heirs.