our services
Estate Planning
Protecting your loved ones from an uncertain future is the ultimate act of love. Regardless of the size of your estate, Willow Legal Group, can help you create a detailed plan designed to safeguard your family and give you peace of mind.
Our initial Discovery Session will help you determine if a Will or Trust is the best option for your family. We aim to help you make empowered decisions and make the estate planning process as easy as possible.
You’ve worked hard to build up your nest egg and have a the retirement of your dreams. But that wealth can quickly disappear with one unlucky moment. Imagine, losing all that you’ve worked for due to one bad decision or a bad decision by an employee.
Asset Protection Planning is the organization of your assets to protect them from any future liabilities. With the ultimate goal of reducing your risk of lawsuits while allowing you to maintain control of your assets.
Asset protection, when done correctly, can provide you security, privacy and peace of mind. With Asset protection planning you can set up a plan that will not only protect you by also your children and future generations from creditors, divorce and the IRS.
There are many different strategies to accomplish the protection of your assets while you are alive and after you are gone. To find out which strategies may be right for you, contact us for a Discovery Session.
If you are a parent of young children or a child with special needs a comprehensive estate plan is even more important. We specialize in working with families to make sure their children are well cared for in the event the unthinkable happens.
Without comprehensive legal planning for your children:
Your children could be placed into the care of Child Protective Services.
You won’t be able to choose who will care for your children in the short term or who will be their long term guardians.
- A court will choose who controls your child’s inheritance until they turn 18 at which time they will receive their full inheritance without any guidance or oversight.
As moms, these are some of the things that scare us the most. That’s why we offer our Kids Emergency Response System with every estate plan we do for families with young children.
Supporting First Responders and their families is one of our highest priorities. First Responders are at the forefront of incidents and disasters to ensure the safety and well-being of their community. This places them at a greater risk of being injured or killed in the line of duty, yet far too many First Responders do not have a plan in place, which can have a devastating effect on their loved ones.
At Willow Legal Group we proudly serve those who selflessly put themselves in harm’s way and the families who support them by offering comprehensive estate planning services with flexible payment options to ensure all First responders are able to create a plan that will support their families if something happens to them. Not only does our team make the estate planning process easy, we also offer guidance and support to loved ones should the unexpected occur.
Estate planning for a family with special needs children comes with additional financial, social, and medical issues that last long after a child’s 18th or 21st birthdays. The special needs planning attorneys with Willow Legal Group are dedicated helping you create a plan to ensure your child with special needs will cared for when you’re no longer able to serve as the primary caregiver.
One special consideration with estate planning with special needs children is how to provide money for the child’s care and support over their lifetime without risking their eligibility for government benefits. The attorneys with Willow Legal Group will help you create a plan that will provide for both. We can also work with parents and their children with the transition into adulthood, including appointing a legal guardian, ensuring the appropriate powers of attorney are in place, or helping create a supported decision making plan.
Estate Administration
When a loved one dies, the furthest thing from your mind is the legal and financial paperwork that needs to be done. The team at Willow Legal Group are here for you during this time.
Probate in Maryland is a court supervised process that identifies assets, debts and beneficiaries of a person who has passed away. During the probate process a personal representative will be named to distribute the decedent’s property. If the person who has passed away had a will, their will will direct the personal representative in how to distribute property. However, if they died without a will, Maryland law determines how assets are distributed.
We’re here for you and your family during this time to help you navigate this process with care and ease so that you can focus on your loved ones.
Typically someone creates a trust as part of their estate plan to avoid the probate process. However, they still name someone to ensure the trust terms are carried out, whether that is distributing assets or continuing to maintain the trust for children until they reach a certain age. This responsibility is known as trust administration.
Serving as a trustee has a number of legal and financial responsibilities, and individuals named as trustees often don’t have the necessary background to property administer the trust. The trust administration lawyers at Willow Legal Group work hand in hand with the trustee to ensure the trust is administered properly and to help the trustee carry out their duty with care and ease.
If you are a beneficiary of an estate or a trustee, contact us for support in handling the transition of your loved ones assets as easily as possible.
Elder Law
Nearly 70% of people will need some form of long-term care during their lifetime. This includes older adults as well as children with special needs. Long-term care can be provided at home with the assistance of caregivers that come to your home or in a assisted living facility but it’s not cheap – the cost of long-term care in Maryland averages between $10,000-$12,000 a month.
Families may struggle with the expense of long-term care and the potential of spending all the families assets on the care of only one spouse. There aren’t many families that can afford long-term care for a long period of time without additional planning. Long-term care & Medicaid planning provides a solution to help pay for nursing home, assisted living or in-home care.
Our attorneys will help evaluate your assets and long-term care needs and assist you with creating a plan that can help reduce the financial pressure of long-term care.
Elder law involves a number of issues that are intertwined with traditional estate planning. For example, it’s essential to have your durable power of attorney, will, living trusts, and advanced directives reviewed to ensure that they can address the specific issues you may face if you become incapacitated or disabled.
There are special provisions that need to be present in these documents that — if not included — can create unnecessary obstacles for your loved ones. We can provide the legal assistance you need to navigate this and other elder law issues.