Estate Planning Lawyer in Omaha, NE
Do You Need Assistance with Estate Planning in Omaha?
Your estate plan is a plan of how your wealth and assets will be transferred after your death. It is a blueprint for preserving and transferring your legacy and for the financial future of your beneficiaries. It allows you to specify where each of your assets will go upon your death, so all the work you’ve done throughout your life will not be lost or given to unintended beneficiaries. At Bottlinger Law L.L.C., our Omaha estate planning attorney will work with you to help determine exactly what you want to do with your legacy.
Wills and Trusts
At the center of almost every estate plan, there is a will, and often there is also a trust. Whether a will or trust is best for you depends on your personal situation and your goals.
Wills
Sometimes called a "Last Will and Testament," a will is a statement of your final wishes. Wills are written documents primarily designed to distribute your property following your death. However, a will can also be used to:
- Name a personal representative (also known as an executor) to carry out your wishes
- Determine how your debts and taxes will be paid
- Name guardians for your children and your children’s property
- Serve as a backup to your living trust
Property distributed by a will typically goes through probate, and the will often fulfills its purpose and ceases to control management and administration of your assets once everything is distributed. A will is typically not an effective vehicle to accomplish certain estate-planning purposes, such as:
- Reducing estate taxes
- Avoiding probate
- Leaving funeral instructions
- Making conditional gifts
- Leaving money for care of pets
- Arranging for care of a beneficiary with special needs
Bottlinger Law helped us through our wills and estate planning. Jason made the process simple and went over and above to make sure we were covered for near any future inevitability. Highly recommend him and his staff.”
–J.Z.
from Google
Trusts
If you want to include any specific instructions for how property should be utilized by your heirs, you may want to consider establishing a trust. Trusts are legal entities that hold property for your benefit and for the benefit of the people or entities you name as your beneficiaries. Trusts allow the settlor (the person making the trust) to leave instructions for the trustee on how to handle and distribute the property. These instructions can last for many years after death.
Another benefit of establishing a trust is the ability to build in various protections for your assets after your death. Examples include:
- Remarriage protections (in case your spouse remarries after you die) to protect your assets from the future influence of a third party;
- Marriage protections to ensure that you provide for both your current spouse and your children from a previous marriage;
- Creditor protections to help you protect your assets from your creditors and any creditors your beneficiaries may have in the future; and
- Benefit protections to help protect your beneficiaries from losing needs-based or asset-based government benefits, while still improving their quality of life.
One of the most important and often overlooked parts of a trust, however, is making sure that it is appropriately and timely funded. A trust is like a bucket that holds your assets for you and your beneficiaries’ benefit. If the property is not in the trust bucket, the trust cannot do its job, and your goals will be frustrated. Many people create wonderful trusts and then forget to fund them, or they put it off to a later date - and it never gets done. If the trust does not hold the property you wish for it to administer, the trust is null. We will help you every step of the way to assure that your trust is funded when and how you want it to be funded so that your goals are achieved.
What Do Estate Plans Look Like for Young Working Professionals?
With the tech industry boom across the Midwest, there is a flood of young working professionals and investments coming from both in-state and out-of-state sources. In 2017 alone, over $4 billion dollars in startup money was raised for tech companies in the Midwest by venture-capitalists.
If you are working in one of the blooming tech companies in Nebraska, it would be a good idea to consider setting up an estate plan and will. No one know what life has in store, and to have your affairs in order is the key to protecting the future of your loved ones and your legacy. Young professional should consider creating an estate plan because they can:
- Appoint guardians for children.
- Name who will be beneficiaries.
- Decide who will be an executor and trustee of the estate.
- Clarify the distribution of assets.
It is critical that whenever a major life change takes place (such as a promotion or raise) that the estate plan be revisited and revised as well. The legal team at Bottlinger Law L.L.C. is here to help protect what you have worked for, and to secure the financial safety and security of your family.
The Omaha Estate Planning Lawyers Who Can Help
At Bottlinger Law L.L.C. in Omaha, Nebraska, we take pride in making the estate-planning process easy for you. Whether you prefer a trust or only a will, we can help you create the estate plan of your choice. We deal in a wide variety of trusts to meet your and your beneficiaries’ specific needs, including revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, testamentary trusts, special needs trusts, and charitable trusts. We can ensure that all your property is correctly placed into the trust so that it accomplishes your goals.
Who Will Carry Out Your Estate Plan?
An important aspect of estate planning is to determine in advance who will carry out your wishes. We can help you identify likely fiduciaries to carry out different aspects of your estate plan.
Perhaps the most important decision is who will take care of your children, should anything happen to you. Our Omaha estate planning lawyer can help you choose the right people; those who have the same values, and who will provide the right kind of home for your children. If you have minor children, it is crucial to establish who will take care of them now, not later.
How Much Will Estate Planning Cost?
Our firm offers estate-planning legal services on a flat-fee basis. This gives you the advantage of knowing exactly how much it will cost to complete your estate plan, regardless of the number of calls, visits, or questions you may have for us. We never want you to hesitate before picking up the phone and giving us a call at (402) 505-8234. We want to hear from you! There is no such thing as a bad question when it comes to legal services, and especially estate planning. We design our fees so that you feel comfortable as we work through your design process.
Our goal is to give you total peace of mind: now, during the estate-planning process, and into the future. Proper estate planning can help ensure that you provide for and protect your loved ones, and that your legacy is transferred to the next generation exactly as you want it to be. No matter how big or how small, every estate needs a plan.
Additional Information
- Nursing Home Closures Rise in Nebraska
- Why You Need an Attorney for Estate Planning
- What Is Estate Planning and Why Should I Have It?
- GoFundMe Is Not an Insurance Plan for the Future
- The Young Professional’s Guide to Estate Planning
- Estate Planning for Your Children’s Future
Bottlinger Law
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Membership in this group is restricted only to attorneys who have won multi-millions dollar verdicts for their clients.
Jason Bottlinger has been named one of the Top 40 Lawyers under the age of 40 in the state by The National Trial Lawyers organization.
Our firm has a perfect A+ from the Better Business Bureau of Nebraska, which grades based on 13 different factors.