Granada Hills Estate Planning Attorney

Granada Hills Estate Planning Attorneys Take a Multifaceted Approach to Craft Comprehensive Estate Plans

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While most people might believe that a will or trust is sufficient to ensure the orderly distribution of assets after death, in most cases a much more individualized estate planning strategy will be required to avoid probate and ensure that your wishes are carried out. In reality, a multitude of factors must be considered in developing an estate planning strategy that not only takes these two primary considerations into account but also works to minimize taxes, protect beneficiaries and provide for future generations. The exact elements of your estate plan will depend upon your specific circumstances and goals.

At the Law Offices of Darrell C. Harriman, I have decades’ worth of experience in successfully crafting comprehensive estate plans for my Granada Hills clients. My experience has taught me the often difficult and overlooked questions that must be asked in order to formulate the best possible plan for each individual client.

I know that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to estate planning, which is why I take the time to get to know all of my clients personally in order to make sure that each clients’ goals are met. Remember that there is no estate too small to require an estate plan—a successful estate plan encompasses much more than ensuring simple asset protection and distribution.

Elements of a Successful Estate Planning Strategy in Granada Hills, CA

Every client’s estate will have its own set of issues that can require much more than a simple trust document designed to shield estate assets from probate administration. At the Law Offices of Darrell C. Harriman, I evaluate each client’s estate to determine whether any of the following documents may be required:

• Living trusts,
• Revocable living trusts,
• Wills or pour-over wills,
• Powers of attorney,
• Advance health care directives or living wills,
• Revocable or irrevocable trusts,

• Credit shelter or asset protection trusts,
• Special needs trusts,
• Spendthrift trusts,
• Community property agreements,
• Marital trusts, qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trusts, or qualified domestic trusts (QDTs or QDOTs),

In most cases, some type of trust structure will be required in order to protect the client’s assets both from a tax perspective and from the expense of probate administration. Clients will also require a will that will specify how assets will be distributed upon their death, as well as an advance health care directive that will provide detailed instructions as to end-of-life care and the client’s medical wishes.

Experienced Attorneys at the Law Offices of Darrell C. Harriman Offer Granada Hills Clients Four Decades of Estate Planning Knowledge

While almost any estate planning lawyer can draft the basic documents that every client should have in their estate plan, the experienced lawyer at the Law Offices of Darrell C. Harriman is proud to offer legal services that go far beyond the basic. Any number of scenarios can exist to complicate an individual’s estate planning needs, including:

• Concern for a beneficiary’s ability to responsibly handle an inheritance can spur the need for a spendthrift trust that limits the beneficiary’s access to that trust,
• QTIP trusts can be used to provide a surviving spouse in a second marriage with income protection for life, while simultaneously ensuring that the decedent’s children from a former marriage eventually receive the underlying trust assets,
• QDOTs can help in situations where the surviving spouse who inherits the assets is not a U.S. citizen.

In addition to the various specialized needs of the modern family, I understand the need for digital estate planning in today’s society, and can help clients craft a plan that allows beneficiaries to access digital accounts and files, as well as provide instructions as to what should be done with those assets.