Some think estate planning is little more than deciding who gets what after they die. Regrettably, some lawyers reinforce this misunderstanding by recycling boilerplate documents for each client, a one-size-fits-all plan.

Jennifer provides individualized, holistic service. She believes a client's estate plan is about more than just the fate of their possessions at the end of their life, it is a blueprint for preserving and protecting the life that they love, in all its uniqueness. For this reason, she takes the time to discuss clients' personal goals for their lives and their legacy after their death.

Clients' individual estate plans should match these goals. To help map those out, here are a few things she's likely to discuss:

• What clients should discuss with the proposed guardian of their children or pets.
• Their health care wishes in different scenarios and how to communicate them to those who need to know.
• Mechanisms to safeguard the financial well-being of their spouse, life partner or children.
• Protecting their assets for your own use, pre- or  post-retirement, or in preparation for a period of incapacity or illness.
• Ensuring that the person they choose receives their property and possessions.
• Designing a plan for a disabled loved one to maximize government assistance.
• Making things easier for their loved ones after they pass.

In the end, Jennifer believes her job is not just to give clients a stack of documents, but to enable their wishes and ensure their peace of mind.

Jennifer provides a range of services including estate plan creation, review and updating of existing plans, assisting in the administration of trusts and estates, and working step-by-step through the probate process. Her clients, with whom she often builds close relationships, include people and families from all walks of life, with estates of all sizes.

Common Planning Solutions

Jennifer helps clients plan for disability and death; protect assets through life and for future generations; and, if applicable, minimize negative tax consequences through careful plan structuring. Proper estate planning ensures clients can choose who speaks for them in the event of an unexpected disability and that their assets go to their chosen recipients upon their passing.

She guides clients through a decision-making process to preserve their assets for their chosen family members, loved ones and organizations, partnering financial and investment advisors, accountants and insurance representatives to ensure an integrated approach.

Jennifer designs customized estate plans, structured to suit individuals’ specific financial and medical circumstances and those of their intended beneficiaries to anticipate potentially harmful tax implications and to avoid those implications.

Advanced Planning Solutions

Many individuals, couples and families entering into the estate planning process have nuanced circumstances that may require advanced planning solutions that, individually or in combination, can help ensure accurate disposition of assets while limiting potential tax burdens.

Specialized Trusts

Clients in a second marriage can utilize a bypass trust or marital trust (QTIP) to provide for their spouse and children from the previous marriage. These trusts provide lifetime access to the surviving spouse, while guaranteeing that any remaining assets go to the deceased spouse’s children. Parents can use trusts to protect their children from themselves — making an inheritance available but putting a trusted adult in a position to manage the money and how it is spent. Custom strategies like these protect high net worth clients’ assets against estate taxes that may be imposed upon future generations. They also preserve the inherited assets from potential creditors, but also as separate property in the event of marital problems. In addition, Jennifer regularly assists clients in forming irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), an option for sheltering life insurance proceeds from estate taxes and creditors.

To incorporate lifetime wealth transfers into the estate plan, she also assists with the formation of external entities such as:

• family limited partnerships
• limited liability companies
• charitable trusts
• grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs)
• grantor retained income trusts (GRITs)
• qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs)
• Other Grantor Trust options

For clients caring for a loved one with special needs, Jennifer is able to create special-needs trusts to protect their assets for the future benefit of their disabled or special-needs loved one, while ensuring he or she will still be eligible for government benefits.

Asset Protection

Jennifer works with her clients to develop estate plans that allow them to grow their assets while minimizing tax exposure or creditors’ claims. She structures estates to protect clients’ wishes for the distribution of their assets — during life and after death.

She also provides advice on titling assets and designating appropriate beneficiaries, listening to our clients and recommending the best approach to sustaining wealth for future generations while protecting the current generation.

Estate and Trust Administration

Jennifer is an experienced advisor and advocate in the process of estate and trust administration, processes known jointly as “probate.” When a loved one dies with only a will, or no estate plan at all, his or her family is required to put the estate through court-managed probate. While she helps clients set up their estates through living trusts to avoid this, most estates do go through probate, which can be confusing, frustrating and arduous. Jennifer assists grieving families by completing the complex probate administration process, minimizing conflicts and delays. This includes lodging the will, notifying heirs and transferring assets to the intended beneficiaries.