Because we have experience in all these areas, we can handle almost anything that comes our way. We can draw up an initial estate plan that you might need as a young parent. With a commitment to service in time of need, we visit hospitals and those in hospice with less than 24-hours’ notice to execute emergencies wills and AMDs. We make home visits to disabled, ill, or elderly folks. 

We assist middle aged couples who are trying to sort out how to care for parents who may not be able to care for themselves. We represent children who are seeking guardianship and conservatorships for their parents, as well as parents who need the same for their disabled children. We advise on Medicaid spenddowns and Medicare regulations. We advise folks on how to go through the probate process, or we handle the entire inventory process for those who need additional assistance or face more complex estates. 

We design complex revocable trusts for both tax planning and probate avoidance. As country dwellers, we draw up gun trusts. As former big city lawyers, we can devise revocable trusts into which our clients need to place multiple properties and assets. To that list of what we can do is what we enjoy doing: getting to know families and helping them. 

Then we handle the other side of the transaction: which is when the estate plan itself goes wrong. When a parent or loved one passes, with or without a will, sometimes the children or the heirs cannot agree on how to divide assets. Or beneficiaries find reason to contest either a will or the actions of an executor or trustee.

We have litigated cases in the Shenandoah Valley and throughout the Commonwealth to contest wills, defend trustees from charges of misuse or civil conversion, and we also can help distraught or frustrated families avoid expensive litigation by means of negotiation. As far as litigation, we have filed and/or defended the following trusts and estates cases:

• Will contests
• Challenges to Trusts
• Negligence or misconduct by Executors or Trustees
• Breach of Fiduciary duty
• Actual fraud
• Constructive fraud
• Civil conversion (non-criminal cases that involve wrongful takings of property)
• Guardianships and conservatorships
• Failure to file proper accountings and/or inventories
• Interpretation of vague language
• Partition lawsuits
• Theft

Litigating cases in Circuit Courts helps us when we advise clients in the conference room. It helps us draw up estate plans carefully. We focus on understanding every word we put in the wills and trusts we draft, and we look for ambiguity that could lead to trouble. Then we draft concise and comprehensive estate plans with an eye toward fairly capturing the intentions of our clients, while ensuring that we don’t leave loopholes or gaps that could lead to conflict. 

Getting an estate plan right takes time. It also takes the wisdom that comes from being a daughter, a sister, and a mom, in addition to a counselor at law. We care about getting it right, and we care about the people who come through our door or who need us to arrive at their door to help them get their final wishes captured. Of all our practice areas, estate planning gives us the opportunity to serve, which is what our firm really values.