Practice Areas

Leatherman Law Group is a small and intimate law firm offering personalized, affordable estate planning services. Glenda Leatherman believes in focusing solely on the preparation of a plan unique to you for administering your legal affairs during life, including both financial matters and emergency medical care, and the disposition of your estate upon death.

Wills

Your will is the linchpin of your overall estate plan. If you were to die without a will, you have left no direction as to how and to whom your assets are to be distributed. This is called“dying intestate," and it results in state law determining how and to whom your assets are distributed.

If you have an estate without significant assets and also do not have any children, a will, along with a financial power or attorney and an advance health care directive, is probably sufficient for your needs.

A will:

• Has legal authority only upon your death. A will cannot help manage your affairs for you if you are incapacitated.

• Does not help an estate avoid probate. A will is the legal document submitted to the probate court, so it is a trigger to the probate process and exhorbitant fees.

• Is the perfect vehicle to nominate the guardians of your minor children if they are orphaned. If you leave this to chance, your children could end up with guardians that you do not approve of.

Trusts

There are many kinds of trusts. They can be simple or complex, and serve a variety of legal, personal, investment or tax planning purposes.

A trust has at least three parties: the person who makes the trust (trustor), the trust manager (trustee), and the trust beneficiary. In some instances, all three parties are represented by one person or a married couple. In the case of a revocable living trust, for example, a person may create a trust and name themselves the current trustee who manages the trust assets for their own benefit.

A major advantage to establishing a trust is to avoid the time-consuming and costly probate process. In most cases, assets owned in a revocable living trust will pass to the trust beneficiaries immediately on the death of the trustor without probate. Certain living trusts may result in tax advantages both for the trustor and the beneficiary. They also may be used to provide for someone else to manage and invest defined property for the trustor(s) and the named beneficiaries. If well drafted, another advantage of living trusts is their continuing effectiveness even if the trustor dies or becomes incapacitated.

Some of the more common trusts are revocable, irrevocable, living, testamentary, generation skipping, Q-Tip, and spendthrift. In addition, trusts can be created for the sole purpose of caring for a special needs child or your family pets after your death.