Fredericks Wealth Management Masterclass Series: Estate Planning

Estate Planning

Presented by:

Joshua E. Hummer, ESQ. | Attorney at Law

Plenty of people sign estate planning documents once, file them somewhere sensible, and never look at them again. Years pass, accounts change, families change, and the paperwork quietly stops matching the situation it was written for.

In this session, a local attorney explains what each estate planning document is designed to do, where the common gaps show up, and how the documents connect to the accounts and beneficiary forms that sit outside them.

What this session covers:

  • What a will does and does not control, and which assets pass outside of it
  • How revocable and irrevocable trusts differ, and the situations where a trust earns its keep
  • Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, and why they override what a will says
  • Durable power of attorney and advance medical directives, and the role each plays while you are living
  • How probate works in Virginia, roughly how long it takes, and what it costs
  • Titling and ownership choices, including joint ownership and transfer on death arrangements
  • Life events that call for an estate planning review, such as a marriage, a divorce, a death, a move to another state, or the sale of a business

Estate planning sits at the intersection of the legal documents and the financial plan, and the two are frequently built in separate rooms. A trust that was never funded, a beneficiary form still naming a former spouse, or an account titled in a way that undoes the will are all common findings, and all fixable once someone looks.

This session is meant to help you recognize those gaps in your own paperwork so you can raise them with your attorney.

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