Estate Planning Attorney in Las Vegas, Nevada

Estate Planning

Estate planning involves much more than the simple creation of a will and a trust. Goodsell & Olsen has the expertise to handle all aspects of estate planning. The result is the tailoring of an estate plan that is customized to your particular circumstances, where each document plays an important role in achieving your overall objectives and implementing strategies that will enable you to transfer assets to your chosen beneficiaries while minimizing tax consequences and estate administration expenses. Some of our services include:  

• Wills  

• Trusts 

• Durable Powers of Attorney 

• Asset Protection Planning 

Wills

A will or testament is a legal document and declaration by which a person, names one or more persons to manage his or her estate and by which he or she provides for the transfer of his or her property at death to named beneficiaries and/or a trust.

A will alone may or may not be enough to accomplish your estate planning goals. Furthermore, wills are governed by Nevada law and must conform with the law in order to be valid and operate as you intend upon your death. A free consultation with one of our attorneys can help you determine if additional planning is needed for your circumstances. Furthermore, we can assist you in creating your will and estate plan in order to ensure that there are no mistakes in execution that would cause your will to be rendered invalid.  

Trusts

A trust is an arrangement whereby property is managed by one or more persons or organizations for the benefit of another. A settlor creates a trust and, by doing so, entrusts some or all of his property to people of his choice (the trustees). The trustees hold legal title to the property held in the trust; however, the trustees are obliged to hold the property for the benefit of one or more individuals or organizations (the beneficiaries), typically specified by the settlor. Furthermore, the trustees owe a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries, who are the "beneficial" owners of the trust property and who hold the equitable title thereto. 

The trust document governs the trust and is subject to Nevada law. A trust can, and should, be customized to fit a settlor’s unique situation.  We can assist you in determining the proper trust arrangement for your estate from the following:  

• Revocable living trusts 

• Irrevocable trusts 

• Irrevocable life insurance trusts 

• Special needs trusts (third-party and self-settled) 

• Residence trusts 

• Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs) 

• Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trusts (QTIP Trusts) 

• Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs) 

• Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs) 

Durable Powers of Attorney

A power of attorney is an authorization allowing one individual (the agent or attorney-in-fact) to act on behalf of another (the principal or grantor) in legal or business matters. This power may be a general one or it may be limited to only allow the agent to act in regards to specific matters (i.e. with regards to a particular business transaction like the sale of the property).

Under common law, upon the grantor’s incapacity (i.e. mental illness, comatose state, etc) a power of attorney becomes ineffective unless it is a durable power of attorney. Only a durable power of attorney remains effective even when the grantor becomes incapacitated.  

Asset Protection Planning

Asset protection planning is an involved process that includes determining what lawful series of techniques available in Nevada should be applied to protect your assets from potential claims of future creditors and applying the same. These techniques are designed to deter, prevent and frustrate potential creditors from going after you by making it difficult, if not impossible, for creditors to get at your hard-earned assets or to collect legal judgments against you. 

Where large sums are involved, this planning may be so involved as to include setting up a series of trusts, partnerships, or offshore entities to hold legal title to your assets; thereby, raising a flag to future creditors that it would be unreasonably difficult to collect on any judgment they may obtain against you and, often, deter the commencement of any such action or persuade the creditor to settle for pennies on the dollar.  

You should be aware that there is a thin line between “legal” asset protection planning and criminal actions to defraud creditors. For this reason, it is vital to have an attorney guide and advise you through the asset protection planning process. We can assist you in taking advantage of Nevada’s favorable and effective laws governing asset protection planning.