Des Moines Estate Planning Lawyer
Letsch Law Firm | Des Moines Estate Planning Lawyer
Estate planning is a tool that can be used to protect your assets and needs during your lifetime and ensure your wishes are followed when you’re no longer here. A Des Moines estate planning lawyer from Letsch Law Firm can explain your estate planning options before taking steps to prepare wills, trusts, and powers of attorney tailored to meet your goals. With careful planning, you can reduce stress for loved ones, avoid probate delays, and preserve your legacy.
When your family’s future is on the line, there’s no room for error. The team at Letsch Law Firm represents clients in and around Des Moines and is dedicated to protecting their futures. Our founding attorney holds nearly 30 years of experience successfully executing estate planning tools that protect assets, preserve personal wishes, and aid family members.
Our focus on customer care and comprehensive legal and estate planning experience sets us apart from our competitors. When you work with our team of caring and compassionate estate planning attorneys, you can benefit from our collective years of experience, vast knowledge, and insight into local Des Moines courts.
Estate planning plays an important role in protecting families across Des Moines. Yet, only 33% of Americans have an estate plan in place, and just 20% of those plans include a trust that may help avoid probate later on. This shows that many Iowa residents remain unprepared for how their assets will be handled in the future.
With approximately 73,129 millionaire households across the state, it’s clear that countless Iowa families need an estate plan in place to protect their properties and loved ones. Proper planning ensures those assets are distributed how you want and that your personal wishes are followed, rather than having probate courts make those decisions.
Whether you live in Beaverdale, Sherman Hill, or South of Grand, careful estate planning can ensure your property, savings, and personal wishes are honored. With the right tools, you can reduce conflict, streamline the probate process, and safeguard your family’s future.
A Last Will and Testament (Will) is a document that determines who will inherit your property (both personal and real) after you die. If you have young children, your Will may also express to the court whom you want to finish raising your children, as well as who will handle any money your children may have inherited (such as life insurance or personal injury proceeds following an accident.) This is often accomplished by including a trust for the children as part of your Will.
Trusts are a very flexible vehicle for transferring assets to future generations and charities while avoiding the court system and protecting the privacy of your beneficiaries. There are several different types of trusts: testamentary trust (a trust embedded inside your Will that controls money after you die such as for minor children or persons with disabilities, or saves assets for a second or third generation); inter-vivos trusts (trust set up and funded with assets while you are living).
Inter-vivos trust may be either revocable or irrevocable. Revocable living trusts are primarily used to avoid the probate process. Typically, the trust-maker is the trustee and retains the right to make changes to or cancel the trust at any time and dictates who the successor trustees will be. Assets can be transferred to the trust or out of the trust and beneficiaries can be changed at any time, until the trust-maker has died. At that time the trust becomes irrevocable, and no one can make changes to it.
Just like a Will, the trust states who gets your assets after you have died. A revocable living trust takes the place of your Will. However, we sometimes do a pour over Will, just as a back-up, in case there is a probate asset that did not get transferred to the trust before you died.
Irrevocable trusts are used to protect assets for future generations and avoid certain taxes. This trust varies from a revocable trust, as you might imagine. Once the trust is signed and funded, there is very limited opportunity to change the terms of the trust, revoke the trust, or take assets out of the trust. Because they are so inflexible, we only recommend these trusts when we are very certain they are the correct planning tool to help you reach your goals.
A very special version of trust, pun intended, is a Special Needs trust. A special needs trust is used when the beneficiary has a disability and is receiving or may receive government benefits. Putting assets in a special needs trust for the use of the person with a disability makes the funds available to enhance the quality of life of the individual, but does not interfere with other benefits. A special needs trust may be either a testamentary trust or an inter-vivos trust. Also, it may be a revocable or irrevocable trust. The trust may be funded with money the disabled person has received (1st party trust) or with gifts by a 3rd party, such as an inheritance (3rd party trust). These two types of special needs trust differ in many respects.
It is important to understand which type of trusts can be used to meet your estate planning goals.
There are two common forms of powers of attorney: General Durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Power of Attorney. For most people, we strongly recommend putting both powers of attorney in place. If you have these in place before there is a need, it can help avoid the necessity to go to the court to get a guardianship and/or conservatorship once decision-making capacity has been compromised.
Additionally, specialized powers of attorney can be used for specific purposes and then terminated. For example, you can grant someone a limited power of attorney to sign a document for you, if you are unavailable to attend a signing event. All powers of attorney cease to be effective when the maker dies. A power of attorney cannot be used as a substitute for a Last Will and Testament.
Take the first step in managing your legal affairs by contacting us today.
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A Living Will (also known as an advance directive) allows you to put into effect your wishes for care near the end of your life. This is the document that specifies whether or not, or under what circumstances, you want to be kept on life support, should you be in an incurable condition where death is imminent. A Living Will is often combined with a Health Care Power of Attorney, but it may also be a stand-alone document.
To learn about guardianships and conservatorships, visit our Elder Law page.
Whether your estate planning needs guidance from the ground up, or you just need to make a few revisions, please contact our experienced estate planning attorneys to make an appointment.
If you are preparing to protect your Des Moines estate during your lifetime and ensure that your assets are transferred to beneficiaries and heirs after your death according to your wishes, your first step should be to hire an estate planning lawyer who understands the state’s unique estate planning laws. This way, you can get the support you need to efficiently and effectively navigate complex estate planning tools.
At Letsch Law Firm, our Des Moines estate planning attorneys can work with you throughout your life to ensure that your estate plan grows and changes, just like your needs do. By overseeing the drafting and execution of important estate planning tools like wills, trusts, and special needs trusts, our team can ensure that your wishes are followed during and after your life.
An estate planning attorney can be a valuable advisor during your lifetime, providing the advice you need to make important decisions that could affect the well-being of loved ones for decades to come. With the right estate plan in place, you can enjoy peace of mind, knowing that your wishes will be followed and your loved ones will not have to be burdened by the probate process after your death.
A: Durable General power of attorney is commonly used in Iowa estate planning because it allows a chosen agent to handle financial or legal matters if the principal becomes incapacitated. Durable general power of attorney remains effective even after incapacitation. Adding a durable general power of attorney ensures important decisions are managed promptly without the need for court involvement.
A: In Iowa, executors are generally expected to settle an estate within two years of the opening date, though complex estates may take longer to finalize. The timeline depends on factors such as court requirements, asset liquidation, tax filings, and potential disputes. An estate planning attorney can help executors stay on track, meet filing deadlines, and resolve obstacles that might otherwise delay distribution of assets.
A: The cost of hiring a lawyer to settle an estate in Iowa varies with the size of the estate, the complexity of assets, and whether disputes arise. For estates of $200,000 or more, attorneys typically charge 2% of the gross value of the estate, which includes retirement accounts and investments even if the account has a named beneficiary. For small estates (gross value less than $200,000)
Lawyers may charge hourly rates or flat fees depending on the work required. By consulting an experienced estate planning attorney early, families can gain a clear understanding of potential costs and avoid unexpected financial burdens during probate.
A: A will is a single document that directs how property is distributed in Iowa, while an estate plan is a broader plan that can include wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives. For most families in Iowa, a comprehensive estate plan offers stronger protection, ensures your wishes are honored seamlessly, and provides guidance for both financial and medical decisions. If you are unsure about which direction to take, an estate planning attorney can help.
Estate planning allows you to give the gift of financial stability and certainty to your loved ones after your death. At Letsch Law Firm, we help families prepare for the future by creating wills, establishing trusts, and preparing powers of attorney that protect assets while ensuring your wishes are honored.
At every step, we aim to streamline the estate planning process while taking the time to educate you on which estate planning tools are ideally suited to help you meet your goals. Our law firm is headed by a Certified Medicaid Planner who holds nearly 30 years of experience. Contact our Des Moines office today to learn how we can provide trusted estate planning guidance.
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