Plan your Legacy

At Pennant Law Offices, PLLC, we understand that planning for your future is a significant decision. You and your family are unique, so your estate planning documents should reflect that. Our estate planning lawyer Dwayne Pennant will help you prepare for your future by creating customized estate plans that fit your needs. We believe that the more informed you are, the better you can plan, and there has never been a more critical time to prepare than the present. Our estate planning attorney Dwayne Pennant offers experienced advice in all aspects of estate planning to clients throughout North Carolina and Massachusetts. Here are some estate planning documents that may fit your unique needs.

Estate Planning Documents

• Wills for Single Persons and Married Couples
• Revocable Trust or Irrevocable Trust
• Charitable Trusts, Life Insurance Trusts, or Special Needs Trusts, Gun Trusts
• Living Wills/Advanced Healthcare Directive
• Power of Attorney (Durable Power of Attorney or Healthcare Power of Attorney)
• Children’s Protection Planning and Guardianship
  

Will vs. Trust

A will is a written document or oral declaration stating who should own the deceased person’s property outright after they die. However, this does not happen automatically. The decedent’s will must be presented to the appropriate courthouse to be verified and probated before the new owners may receive the deceased person’s property. A trust is a legal document created by the settlor (also known as donor or grantor) of property. The settlor chooses a trustee who manages the property in the trust on behalf of the trust beneficiaries.

Trust Benefits

There are many benefits to creating a trust. A pivotal use of a trust is that it avoids the time, delay, and cost associated with probating a decedent’s will. Another key benefit is that it allows the settlor to maintain control over your property and legacy. For example, you can manage when and how your property gets distributed through a trust. However, under a will, once the probate process is complete, there is an outright transfer of the decedent’s property.

Types of Trust

The settlor can create a living trust while they are alive or delay the time of creation until their death by making a testamentary trust through a will. A living trust gets created during the settlor’s lifetime. In contrast, a testamentary trust gets created upon the settlor’s death.

If you have not yet created an estate plan or need to change to your existing plan, our Charlotte estate planning lawyer Dwayne Pennant can assist you with your estate planning needs. The best time to make life-altering plans is before a life tragedy happens.