Estate Planning Attorneys

A solid estate plan is essential for safeguarding your legacy and ensuring your loved ones are taken care of not only after your passing but also during your lifetime. At PLG Law, we preserve your wishes, from creating wills and trusts to advance directives for healthcare and finances.

Protecting Your Legacy and Loved Ones

Estate planning for peace of mind

It is imperative to have a solid, comprehensive estate plan to provide comfort to those we love upon our death. Your estate plan is essential for determining not only what will happen to your property after you are gone, but also how your health care and financial affairs will be managed during your lifetime.

Creating an effective estate plan for a client is a cost effective way to ensure your wishes are kept. At PLG Law, we strive to create efficient estate plans that will not only adhere to your wishes but will do so in the most cost-effective manner. For example, PLG Law can execute a legal document that can convey your home to your intended heirs outside of the probate process. The cost of such a legal document is negligible compared to the costs your estate will incur to do this same conveyance during the probate process.

What's a comprehensive estate plan cover and is it right for me?

At PLG Law, we will help you create a comprehensive estate plan that takes every estate planning matter into account. This process includes sitting down with you to discuss your wishes and future needs, and drafting wills, trusts, advance directives and other necessary documents to accomplish your goals.

Wills – The will is the foundational document of any estate plan. It directs how your possessions will be distributed to family, friends, and religious, charitable or educational institutions as you see fit. The will can also name an executor for your estate, appoint a guardian for your minor children, and leave a personal legacy that expresses your wishes. We make sure your will is validly executed, covers your entire estate, and accurately reflects your intentions.
Trusts – Trusts are one of many ways to distribute money, property or possessions outside of a will. By creating a revocable living trust, you avoid probate for the items in the trust, getting more money to your beneficiaries in a faster process. Trusts are also confidential documents, so their contents need not be disclosed to the public. Other types of trusts can help reduce the tax burden of your estate, or help with Medicaid planning and asset protection, further ensuring that you are taken care of throughout your lifetime, while still retaining as much of your wealth as possible to pass on to future generations.
Advance Directives – Towards the end of your life or at any time, you could become temporarily disabled and unable to care for yourself or manage your financial affairs, from paying bills to managing investments and filing tax returns in a timely manner. Documents such as living wills, health care surrogates, and durable powers of attorney can help ensure that decisions regarding your healthcare and finances are made by people you trust, in accordance with the guidance you have provided in these legal documents.

What's the cost of estate planning?

At PLG Law, we have the skills, education and training to help your protect your assets, plan for your needs and leave a lasting legacy to future generations according to your wishes.

For a nominal fixed cost, we can provide you with a complete will package which contains 4 critically important documents to implement an effective estate plan. Our commitment to you and your family does not end with the creation of your estate plan. We will meet with you periodically to review your plan and make adjustments as your estate evolves. We will be there to assist your family during the difficult times after your passing.

Ongoing support for your family

Our commitment to you and your family doesn’t end with the creation of your Estate Plan. We will meet with you periodically to review your plan; making adjustments as your estate evolves. We will be there to assist your family during the difficult times after your passing. Our services to your family continue with counseling and, if necessary, performing the following additional services after your death:

Implementing your Estate Plan including distribution of your estate and/or trusts.
Probating your Estate if necessary, to protect your family against creditor or other claims, pay your debts, and comply with the law in regard to the need to probate.
Administering any trusts you have created as part of your Estate Plan.
Advising your Personal Representative and/or Trustee as to their fiduciary duties and powers.
Managing any ancillary probate necessary in other states where you may have property not previously transferred to your trust.
Assisting in the identification of your assets and the transfer of those assets in accordance with your wishes expressed in your Estate Plan.
Claiming assets that each may be entitled to as a result of your beneficiary designation.
Creating their Estate Plans to continue the preservation of wealth and comfort for their families.

We strive to create a relationship with your family during your life so they are comfortable with us and learn to trust our professional and personal service.

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Contact Our Lawyers

Contact PLG Law today to speak with a knowledgeable and experienced attorney.

Estate Plans Location

Oldsmar, Florida

3684 Tampa Rd. Suite 2 Oldsmar, FL 34677
(727) 781-5357
reception@plglawyer.com

Charlotte, North Carolina

223 East Blvd. Suite 4 Charlotte, NC 28203
(704) 405-3956
reception@plglawyer.com

Asheville, North Carolina

Client Testimonials

Catherine Band

William Rambaum and his staff were very helpful with my affairs by offering many options and scenarios to consider. He did a thorough job on their estate planning and I am returning for services at PLG Law regarding my estate planning. He is experienced and wise about how to handle challenging and difficult issues.

Gail Hamilton

Knowledgable, very helpful and friendly. PLG Law knew exactly what we needed for our estate planning. Will recommend their services to friends and family.

Wendy Todd

My husband and I worked with PLG Law setting up our Trust, Wills, Powers of Attorney etc. My husband passed away recently necessitating an amendment to the Trust. They explained everything to us very clearly and made the amendment process as painless as possible for me.

PLG Law FAQs

Frequently asked questions

We've compiled answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about our legal services and our firm. If you can't find the information you're looking for, feel free to contact us directly for more personalized assistance.

Is property placed in a revocable trust a countable asset for Medicaid qualification?

Many clients come to PLG Law and tell us that they were told that if they put their assets in their trust, their revocable trust, they will not be countable for eligibility for Medicaid. That’s not a true statement. Certain assets in the trust will be exempt anyway, whether they’re in a trust or not, such as your house, a car, a few other items. But putting assets that would otherwise be countable into a revocable trust, does not make them exempt. They will still be countable. It doesn’t help you at all.

What is a Lady Bird Deed?

Lady Bird deeds have become very popular in the last few years. They are used extensively and PLG Law use them extensively. Basically, you can create a deed whereby you transfer property to a child, for example, and you retain a life estate, and the child gets the remainder interest. That’s a typical life estate deed. However, if you apply for Medicaid and you did one of those deeds, it’s going to create a period of ineligibility because it was considered a gift.

A Lady Bird deed is basically the same thing except that in addition to the parent reserving a life estate, they also reserve the right to sell or mortgage the property, keep the money and terminate the remainder interest in the child. Because of that provision, Medicaid does not consider it a completed gift, therefore it doesn’t create any period of ineligibility. It also means that at death that property is immediately owned by the child without any delay, no probate, no legal process at all.

Who can benefit from a trust?

Trusts are often overused. There’s a lot of situations where you don’t need a trust, because you could use beneficiary designations for example, or a lady bird deed for a house. Those are much quicker, much cheaper, much easier to arrange and to carry out your wishes. We think trusts are important if you have certain situations, multiple parcels of real estate for example, property in other states, minor children, disabled children, or you want to make distributions over a long period of time. Those are some of the examples where we think a trust is really necessary. In other instances, we like to look for alternatives.

At PLG Law, our goal is to make sure that we understand your needs, provide you with superior legal advice and personalize our approach to devise an effective plan for you