Estate Planning FAQ

Estate planning is the process of deciding what should happen if you become unable to make decisions for yourself, and what should happen to your property when you die.

A good estate plan does more than say who inherits your assets. It identifies who can make financial and medical decisions for you, who will care for minor children, how and when beneficiaries receive an inheritance, and how your assets should be handled when the time comes.

Yes. Estate planning is not just for wealthy families.

If you own property, have financial accounts, have children, are married or partnered, or simply want to choose who can act for you if you become incapacitated, an estate plan can be important.

The complexity of the plan should fit the complexity of your life.

Once you are an adult, there are benefits to having at least basic incapacity documents in place.

Estate planning becomes especially important when you marry, have children, buy a home, accumulate significant assets, start a business, have someone who depends on you, or simply want to make things easier for the people you love.

Most estate plans include a will, a financial power of attorney, and an advance medical directive. Depending on your circumstances and goals, your plan may also include a revocable living trust, deeds, beneficiary-planning instructions, documents for minor children, or other specialized trusts and planning documents.

The right plan is not determined by how many documents you have. It is determined by whether the documents and your assets work together to accomplish what you want.

You should review your plan whenever something important changes in your family, finances, health, or wishes.

Common reasons to revisit a plan include marriage, divorce, births, deaths, a significant change in assets, the purchase or sale of real estate, a move to another state, a change in relationships with the people you named, or changes in the law.

Even without a major event, we recommend periodically reviewing your plan to make sure it still reflects your life.

In most cases, yes.

Wills and revocable living trusts are designed to be changed as your life changes. Powers of attorney and medical directives can also generally be replaced.

The important thing is to make changes formally, with your attorney, rather than writing notes on your documents or assuming your family will know what you wanted.

Your existing documents do not necessarily become invalid just because you move, but moving is a good reason to have the plan reviewed.

State laws differ, particularly in areas involving probate, powers of attorney, medical directives, property ownership, and taxes. An attorney in your new state can determine whether any changes would make the plan work more effectively there.

It depends on your assets, family, goals, and how much you want your family to handle after your death.

A will-based plan can work for some people. A revocable living trust may make more sense when avoiding probate is important, when you own real estate, when privacy or incapacity planning is a concern, or when you want greater control over how assets are managed.

We do not start with the assumption that everyone needs a trust. We look at your situation first and recommend the level of planning that fits.

No.

A will tells the court how probate assets should be distributed and who you want to be in charge, but assets passing under the will generally still go through the probate process.

Some assets may avoid probate because of how they are titled, because they have beneficiary designations, or because they are held in a properly funded trust.

Probate is the legal process used to administer certain assets after a person dies.

Depending on the circumstances, the process may involve validating a will, appointing a personal representative, identifying assets and debts, handling creditor claims, filing required documents and tax returns, and ultimately distributing property to beneficiaries.

Not every asset necessarily goes through probate.

Assets may pass outside probate when they have a valid beneficiary designation, are owned jointly in a way that provides survivorship rights, or are properly titled in a trust.

Examples may include certain retirement accounts, life insurance, payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts, jointly owned assets, and property held in a revocable living trust.

Whether a particular asset avoids probate depends on how it is owned and what beneficiary arrangements are in place.

When someone dies without a valid will, state law determines who receives probate assets.

Those rules are based primarily on family relationships and may or may not match what the person would have chosen. The court may also have a greater role in determining who administers the estate.

Virginia and Maryland each have their own intestacy laws, so the result depends on the state involved.

It is possible to prepare your own will, but the greater question is whether the document will accomplish what you intend.

Estate planning involves more than filling in names and percentages. Problems can arise from signing requirements, unclear language, outdated provisions, beneficiary designations that conflict with the will, tax issues, or assets that do not pass under the will at all.

The more important the result is to you, the more valuable it can be to have the plan prepared by an attorney.

A pour-over will is commonly used together with a revocable living trust.

It directs probate assets that were not already transferred to the trust to pass into the trust after death. Those assets may still need to go through probate before they reach the trust, which is one reason funding the trust during life matters.

A revocable living trust is a legal arrangement created during your lifetime to hold and manage assets.

While you are alive and able to manage your affairs, you remain in control of the trust and can change or revoke it. If you become incapacitated, a successor trustee can step in to manage trust assets. After your death, the trustee follows your instructions for distributing or continuing to manage the property.

For federal income-tax purposes, a typical revocable living trust is generally treated as a grantor trust during the creator’s lifetime.

The difference is much as it sounds. A revocable living trust can be amended or completely revoked while you are alive. An irrevocable trust generally cannot be modified.

The great majority of trusts are revocable. Irrevocable trusts are typically used for particular circumstances, and we draft them where the planning calls for it — most often as part of estate tax or legacy planning.

Yes.

With a typical revocable living trust, the person creating the trust often serves as the initial trustee and continues managing the assets just as before.

The trust also names one or more successor trustees who can act if you become incapacitated or after your death.

Not especially. We do the work of designing and drafting the trust.

There is an additional step afterward: your assets generally need to be aligned with the trust, which often means retitling them or updating beneficiary designations. If that step is not completed, the trust is not funded — and an unfunded trust cannot do its job.

Generally, a standard revocable living trust is not designed to protect your own assets from your creditors while you are alive.

Its primary purposes are typically probate avoidance, incapacity planning, organization, privacy, and control over how assets are handled after death.

Different types of irrevocable or specialized trusts may provide different protections in appropriate circumstances.

Generally, no. While you are alive, the assets in a typical revocable living trust are taxed to the grantor — the person who created the trust — as part of that person’s personal return.

It can be. Trust planning is not only for married couples.

A single person may particularly value avoiding probate, planning for incapacity without court involvement, and keeping affairs private. Whether a trust is the right structure depends on your assets and goals, and we will tell you if a simpler plan is all you need.

A trust controls only the assets that are actually connected to it, whether now or upon your death.

If assets that were intended to be held in the trust remain outside it, they may still have to go through probate, or may pass according to beneficiary designations or ownership rules instead.

Creating the trust is therefore only part of the process. Making sure your assets are properly aligned with the plan is equally important.

Yes.

We believe a trust should be more than a signed document sitting in a binder. Our trust-planning process includes guidance on how your assets should be coordinated with your trust, and we offer different levels of assistance depending on how much of the implementation you want us to handle.

Yes. Assets with valid beneficiary designations pass to the named beneficiaries rather than according to the terms of your will.

That is why beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and certain financial accounts should be reviewed as part of the estate-planning process.

A well-drafted will cannot fix a beneficiary designation that sends an asset somewhere you did not intend.

Sometimes, but not automatically.

Retirement accounts have their own tax and distribution rules, and naming a trust as beneficiary can have tax consequences. The best beneficiary structure depends on who is inheriting, your goals for the inheritance, and the type of trust involved.

We coordinate retirement-account beneficiary planning with the rest of the estate plan rather than treating it as a separate decision.

It depends on how the property is titled.

Some forms of joint ownership include survivorship rights, which may allow the property to pass directly to the surviving owner. Other forms do not.

Real estate, bank accounts, and investment accounts should be reviewed individually, because the ownership language matters.

Usually yes, if the goal is for the trust to own the home.

Simply signing a trust does not automatically transfer real estate into it. A new deed may need to be prepared and recorded.

Whether a transfer is appropriate depends on the property, the trust, financing, insurance, tax considerations, and your overall planning goals.

There is no perfect choice, and parents often delay planning because this decision feels difficult.

Start by asking who would provide the kind of home, care, stability, and values you want for your children. Geography, age, finances, and family relationships matter, but they do not necessarily have to control the decision.

Your estate plan can nominate the person you want a court to consider if a guardian is ever needed.

Minor children generally cannot simply receive and independently manage a significant inheritance.

An estate plan can specify who will manage the assets and how they may be used for the child. A trust can also allow you to decide when the child receives control, rather than having everything distributed at the first legally available age.

Yes.

A trust can hold an inheritance beyond your death and specify when and how funds are available.

Some parents choose age-based distributions. Others prefer to keep assets in trust longer while allowing the beneficiary to use the funds for education, housing, health, support, or other purposes. There is no single right structure for every family.

Potentially.

Instead of distributing an inheritance outright, assets can sometimes remain in a properly structured trust for the beneficiary. Depending on the structure and circumstances, that may provide additional protection from divorce, creditor claims, lawsuits, or other risks.

The level of protection depends heavily on how the trust is drafted and administered, so this is an area where individualized planning matters.

An inheritance can affect eligibility for certain means-tested government benefits.

A properly designed special needs trust may allow assets to be used for the beneficiary while helping preserve eligibility for appropriate public benefits.

Planning should be coordinated carefully, because the right structure depends on the beneficiary’s circumstances, the source of the assets, and the benefits involved.

Yes.

Estate plans do not have to divide property equally among children. Families sometimes choose different distributions because of prior gifts, different financial circumstances, special needs, family businesses, caregiving arrangements, or other considerations.

When distributions are unequal, careful drafting and communication can also help reduce the potential for misunderstanding or conflict.

Blended families often need more deliberate planning.

For example, you may want to provide for a surviving spouse while also making sure assets eventually pass to children from a prior relationship. Simply leaving everything outright to a spouse may not accomplish both goals.

Trust planning can often balance those competing priorities.

If you are unable to manage your financial affairs and have not authorized someone to act for you, your family may have to seek court involvement to obtain authority to handle certain matters.

A properly prepared power of attorney allows you to choose in advance who should act, and what authority that person should have.

A durable financial power of attorney allows someone you choose — called your agent — to handle financial and legal matters for you.

Depending on the document, that authority may include dealing with financial institutions, managing property, signing documents, handling taxes, or taking other authorized actions.

“Durable” generally means the authority is designed to continue even if you later become incapacitated.

A living will states your wishes about certain medical treatment, particularly in serious end-of-life situations.

A medical power of attorney names the person you want to make health-care decisions for you when you cannot make those decisions yourself.

In Virginia, these concepts are commonly addressed together in an Advance Medical Directive.

You should provide the document to your doctor to keep on file.

You should also give a copy to your family and to the person you name as your medical agent, so that person can provide it to a treating physician when it is needed.

Choose someone you trust to make careful decisions and follow your wishes, even when those decisions may be difficult.

The best person is not necessarily the oldest child, the closest relative, or the person who lives nearby. Consider judgment, reliability, communication skills, willingness to serve, and the person’s ability to work with other family members and professionals.

You can also name backups in case your first choice cannot serve.

The cost depends on the type of plan and the complexity of your family and assets.

Mathews Law uses flat fees for estate planning rather than billing clients by the hour. We explain the recommended plan and the fee before you decide whether to move forward, so you know the cost before the work begins.

You do not need to know before you contact us.

Our job is to learn about your family, assets, concerns, and goals, and then explain the planning options that make sense. We will tell you when we think a trust is appropriate — and also when a simpler plan is enough.

Your Life & Legacy Planning Session is a working meeting with an estate planning attorney.

We talk about your family, your assets, what concerns you, and what you want your plan to accomplish. We then explain your options and recommend an approach.

The goal is for you to leave understanding both what we recommend and why.

We will send you a questionnaire beforehand so your attorney can understand your family and get a general picture of your assets.

You do not need perfect numbers, or every document you have ever signed. Reasonable estimates and the information you currently have are enough to start.

It is also helpful to think about the people you trust to make decisions for you, and any questions or concerns you want to discuss.

For married couples planning together, we require both spouses to participate.

Estate planning involves decisions about shared assets, beneficiaries, decision-makers, and what should happen after the first spouse dies. Having both people involved allows the attorney to understand everyone’s goals and explain the plan directly to both spouses.

Yes. Your planning is attorney-led. You meet with an attorney to design your estate plan, and your attorney remains involved throughout the planning and review process.

Our paralegal, client service, signing, and operations teams support the process, so you also have people available to help keep everything organized and moving.

It varies depending on the complexity of the plan and how quickly decisions and information are provided.

We use a defined planning process that takes you from your initial planning meeting through design, drafting, review, signing, and implementation. At each stage, our team lets you know what comes next and what we need from you.

Yes. Many estate-planning meetings can be held by secure video conference, depending on the stage of the process and your circumstances.

Some parts of the process, particularly document execution, may have additional requirements. We will let you know what is appropriate for your plan.

Signing is not the end of the process.

Depending on your plan, assets may need to be retitled, beneficiary designations reviewed, trusts funded, and information shared with the people you have named.

We also believe estate plans should be reviewed over time. Families, assets, and laws change, and your plan should be able to change with them.

Yes. Our goal is to build an ongoing relationship rather than hand you documents and send you on your way.

Every estate-planning client receives ongoing access to the firm, and we also offer enhanced Client Care options for clients who want more proactive reviews, updates, asset-alignment assistance, and coordination over time.

Business ownership should be coordinated with your personal estate plan.

Your planning may need to address who can manage the business if you become incapacitated, what happens to your ownership interest at death, whether there are operating or buy-sell agreements to consider, and how the business interest should pass to family members or other owners.

Owning property in more than one state can make estate administration more complicated.

Depending on how the property is titled, a separate probate proceeding may be required in the state where the property is located. Trust planning or other ownership strategies can help avoid that result in appropriate cases.

Planning can be especially important for unmarried couples, because many rights that arise automatically through marriage may not apply.

An estate plan can address inheritance, medical and financial decision-making, housing, shared property, and what should happen if either partner becomes incapacitated or dies.

Advanced planning may be appropriate when there are significant assets, estate-tax concerns, a business, charitable goals, blended-family issues, special-needs beneficiaries, long-term-care concerns, or a desire for greater asset protection.

You do not need to determine that on your own. If your situation calls for something beyond standard estate planning, we will explain why and walk you through the available options. See Advanced and Specialized Planning.