How to Minimize the Cost of Probate
- Take control of your private affairs and family's future.
- Keep your documents up-to-date.
- Communicate your choices with your loved ones.
- Free attorney-client meeting with each document created.
- Document fees start at $300.
- With our affordable Individual and Couple Estate Packages, there is no reason to wait
Give yourself, and your loved ones, peace of mind and let's get started now...
Questions? Call us at 801-852-2333 or use our contact form.
What is the Purpose of Having a Will?
Wills and Trusts FAQ and Resources
Do I Need a Will?
As the video above explains, creating a Will is primarily about leaving peace of mind for family members.
A Will is also a financial planning tool. Your Will provides instructions concerning the division of your property. By leaving directions, you simplify the process. You can lower the cost of administering your property; and if your estate is large, you can reduce taxes. If there is no will, the estate will be distributed according to Utah's intestacy laws.
How do I know if the will is valid? A will must meet certain legal requirements to be considered valid, such as being signed by the deceased, witnessed and notarized.
Having a will can be fun. Watch our video about how to use a Personal Letter to leave sentimental items to friends and family members. It is very simple to use, and it doesn't require visiting an attorney to modify your Personal Letter.
Create a Will »
Using a Trust for Estate Planning
Why Do I Want a Trust?
A trust is a powerful legal tool. Lawyers who do their own estate planning virtually always include a trust.
We provide a standard Family Trust with a Pour-over Will as part of our basic estate-planning package. The Trust requires no management during your lifetime. Instead, the Trust is funded by the provisions of your Will after you pass away. The process minimizes the cost of probate and simplifies the administration of your estate for your family. Some assets can bypass probate if they are held in joint tenancy, have named beneficiaries, or are placed in a trust.
What is a pour-over will?
A pour-over will should always accompany a revocable trust.
Many people who create revocable trusts neglect to transfer all of their property to their revocable trust. And often, when they acquire new property, they neglect to take title in their names as trustees of their revocable trusts. The result is that they die owning property in their names, as individuals, rather than in their revocable trusts. Property that is held in the revocable trust will successfully avoid probate, but property that is not held in the revocable trust must pass through probate (unless it is held in joint tenancy or has a valid beneficiary designation).
At the end of the probate process, the executor of the estate must distribute the probated property somewhere. All of the provisions of the deceased person's estate plan that explain who is supposed to get what property are contained in the revocable trust. So, what is needed is a simple will that directs any property that had to pass through probate into the revocable trust. That is what a pour-over will does. It pours over into the revocable trust any property that had to pass through probate because the person neglected to put the property in the revocable trust while she was alive. The pour-over will just puts the property into the revocable trust, where it should have been in the first place. But it does so only after an unnecessary probate.
What is a Power of Attorney?
A power of attorney is a legal document that grants someone the authority to manage your financial affairs if you become incapacitated. If you have a revocable trust, the successor trustee will immediately take over the management of the assets within the trust, without needing court involvement.
However, if some of your assets are not transferred to the revocable trust, the successor trustee won't have authority over those assets. In this situation, a financial power of attorney allows your designated agent to manage the assets not held in the trust. Often, the agent can transfer these assets into the trust.
Without a power of attorney, any assets outside the revocable trust would require a court-supervised conservatorship, a costly and cumbersome process best avoided when possible.
What is a Health Care Directive?
A Health Care Directive is a legal document that comes into play if you become unable to make medical decisions for yourself. It serves two primary functions: first, it designates an agent who is authorized to make medical decisions on your behalf. Second, it offers guidance to this agent about your health care preferences.
Simplify Your Will with a Personal Letter
The EVN Law Advantage
We all know that cheap legal document creation companies and websites are available online. So should you shop by price, or are there other important factors? Consider this:
First, you need to be aware that legal documents are not "one size fits all". In even the simplest legal situation, your specific circumstances may require customization in ways that fully automated systems cannot address. It's more expensive and more painful to fix problems after the fact (when your children's lawyers are arguing in court, for example), than to get it right the first time. There is no safe substitute for an attorney with up-to-date knowledge and experience in the areas of law that are involved.
Second, you may need more than just a set of legal documents. When you discuss your situation with an experienced attorney, we can quickly spot holes that need to be filled and provide you with expert guidance.
Third, there is great value in relationships. Do you know an attorney who thinks of you when they learn things that could benefit you? At EVN Law, we like to share information and help our clients and friends succeed, even when we don't benefit directly. We believe in the value of strengthening our communities. And we know that successful clients are much more likely to bring us business, both for their own needs and through referrals.
That is why, with each legal document you create with us, EVN Law includes an in-person attorney-client meeting where we discuss your circumstances and make necessary customizations. We also take the time to get to know you so that we can find more ways to help you succeed. We start by having you fill out our Simple Estate Planning Questionnaire, and then go from there.
Even though you have your choice of legal document creation services, we hope you'll choose EVN Law, because we believe that we offer you far more value than you can get by shopping on price alone!
Pricing (includes 1-hour attorney consultation)
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$800 |
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$700 |
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$1,200 |
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$300 |
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Health Care POA & Medical DirectiveHealth Care POA & Medical Directive |
$500 |
Estate Plan Packages
Each complete package includes a will, living trust, general power of attorney, health care power of attorney, and medical directive. The couples package includes double documents. *full price packages come with a free NOKBOX
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$1,500 |
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$1,800 |
