WILLS, TRUSTS & ESTATE PLANNING AND PROBATE

We provide extensive estate planning services to assist you in designing plans to meet your specific wishes for the management and transfer of wealth during life and after death. Our goal is to create a comprehensive estate plan for you, whether your estate is small or extensive, addressing your individual family relationships and financial issues. We will design a plan that accounts for both state and federal estate taxes. We can prepare both basic and sophisticated services for estate planning and wealth preservation including:

  • Drafting and implementing of:
    1. – Wills
    2. – Trust Agreements (Testamentary and Lifetime)
    3. – Powers-of-attorneys
    4. – Advance medical directives
  • Estate planning, both before and after death
  • Administration of wills, trusts, and estates
  • Fiduciary litigation, representing both individuals and corporate fiduciaries and beneficiaries
  • Providing advice to fiduciaries and beneficiaries
  • Tax planning

We also maintain an active probate practice that includes assisting families and individuals with probate and administration of the estate. We represent executors and administrators of decedent’s estates and trustees of trusts who are managing the transfer of personal and business assets.

We will assist fiduciaries with estate tax returns and all court filings for a smooth administration. We also represent you in guardianships for minors and conservatorships for incapacitated adults, and we provide legal representation of fiduciaries and beneficiaries in will contests.

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EXPERIENCED ATTORNEYS

James E. Wagner

Attorney

Matthew A. Grossman

Attorney

Kevin A. Dean

Attorney

Richard T. Scrugham, Jr.

Attorney

Sharon H. Kim

Attorney

Related Blogs

Estate Planning: It’s for the Children (of all kinds)

In Tennessee, a person can leave his estate pretty much to whoever he wants.* Of course, when a person dies without a will, the State of Tennessee provides for how property is divided. See the blog article entitled, “When Aunt Becky Had No Will.” If a person has no will, there are differences in how […]

Disinheritance in Tennessee

An occasional question that comes up in drafting a will, is whether the person making a will can disinherit a child. The simple answer is that in Tennessee, parents can disinherit a son or daughter. No reason needs to be stated in the will. Some think they must leave a child a dollar. That is […]

What are the Duties of a Conservator?

In Tennessee, a Court may appoint a Conservator for a person who lacks mental capacity to handle his / her own affairs. But what exactly does a Conservator DO and what are the responsibilities of the job? There are two types of authority which the Court will normally grant to a Conservator: 1. Conservator of […]

What is a Conservatorship?

All adults in Tennessee are legally considered to be competent and to have the ability (or capacity) to make their own decisions – about their finances and their own medical issues. However, sometimes an adult can suffer disability through a tragic injury, disease, or (in many cases) through the aging process and the deterioration of […]

Potential Legal Traps for Executors Distributing Firearms from an Estate

In Tennessee, like most states, estates frequently include the decedent’s firearms. There are legal concerns for the executor1 concerning distributing the firearms to beneficiaries or heirs of an estate. These can involve a beneficiary who is disqualified from possessing a firearm, or too young to take possession. There may even be concerns about the legality […]

Estate Planning Update 2017

No one can predict the future, but it appears likely that we’ll see some major changes the federal estate tax law following President-elect Trump’s inauguration on January 20th. A repeal of the federal estate tax has been discussed, along with what I’ll call an alternative system whereby certain unrealized capital gains are taxed at death. […]

Better Safe Than Sorry…Always a Good Idea to File Form 706

No one has a crystal ball, but that does not mean we should not keep our eyes and ears open. Given the drama surrounding the 2016 presidential election, there is one certainty…there could be some MAJOR changes in the federal estate tax regardless of who wins the election. Mr. Trump’s plan proposes to nearly eliminate […]

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