Estate Planning and Estate Administration

Pennsylvania Estate Planning Lawyers

Estate planning is the practice of ensuring that the assets and wealth that you develop throughout your lifetime are disposed of and handled in accordance with your wishes after you die. Part of the estate plan is to do this with the least amount of tax burden on your family.

No one wants to see their life’s work wasted either during or after their lifetime. Proper estate planning with the qualified estate planning lawyers at Caputo & Mariotti will allow you to enjoy your later years and the fruits of your labor knowing that your family, loved ones and assets will be properly taken care of.

The orderly transfer of your assets to your beneficiaries will provide security and protection to your spouse, children, family and any loved one as well as reducing the tax burden on them.

There are many techniques used in accomplishing these objectives. Some of those techniques are wills and trusts, life insurance, life insurance trusts, grantor trusts, powers of attorney, living wills/ health care directives, and guardianships all of which will help you, your family and your agents make the appropriate health and financial decisions to meet your objectives.

Often times, an estate plan will require the implementation of planning for the elderly to avoid governmental interference with an acquisition of a family’s assets and allow for the family to remain in control of those assets.

Every professional estate plan requires the appropriate legal documents and an analysis of the entire family situation and the implementation of the best estate planning strategy based on each family’s particular needs. This requires a combined creative comprehensive plan between the lawyers and the client, designed to meet the client’s objectives.

Even in the absence of a will, if a person dies with significant assets, the estate administration team at Caputo & Mariotti is available to guide the heirs, beneficiaries and next of kin through the process of an orderly distribution of the deceased loved one’s estate. A common misconception in this area is that if a person does not have a will that the state takes over and takes the assets. This is simply not the case but state law will then dictate how and to whom the assets are distributed without the deceased person's wishes being considered.

After a person dies, their assets go into a court process called probate and estate administration. The estate administration lawyers at Caputo & Mariotti assist families, executors, administrators, trustees, and beneficiaries with the complicated and detailed tasks of probating and distributing the estate. The estate administration lawyers at Caputo & Mariotti will work closely with administrators and executors in order to minimize the risks associated with managing and distributing assets.

The sophisticated attorneys at Caputo & Mariotti will also assist the executors and administrators with determining what creditors and bills are to be paid or not paid, along with determining what taxes should be paid. Too often, Heirs pay bills which they are not obligated to pay, and the Attorneys at Caputo & Mariotti have an impeccable record of directing their clients on preserving their inherited assets.

The lawyers at Caputo & Mariotti are familiar with the complicated probate and taxation laws that govern estates and are familiar with how much taxes will be paid, notification to heirs, distributing assets to beneficiaries, paying creditors as well as defending will contests or claims by parties who think they are entitled to a portion of the estate.

Caputo and Mariotti work closely with family to ensure the timely and orderly distribution of your family’s assets and minimize tax, creditor and other financial burdens.

In a recent case, the lawyers at Caputo & Mariotti were able to litigate a claim against a family’s inheritance and reduce the claim against the estate resulting in a savings to the family of $160,000.00.