We know that your estate is a
reflection of years of hard work, sacrifice, careful planning and good-decision
making. That's why we are committed to helping you develop an estate plan that
is tailored to meet your unique needs and will get the right property to the
right people at the right time so that your lifetime wishes can best be
accomplished.
We are committed to providing our
clients with practical solutions to estate planning and asset protection
concerns and understand that every estate, regardless of size, is an important
one.
Ms. Pizzolato handles all aspects
of estate planning, including wills, trusts, succession planning, asset
protection, wealth preservation, planning for incapacity and/or disability, and
minimizing or eliminating federal and state tax liability.
For clients who wish to avoid
probate and protect against incapacity, a revocable living trust is available to
hold legal title to the client’s assets during the client’s lifetime. Upon the
client’s death, the trustee of the trust simply continues to handle those assets
without pause and distribute the assets to the client’s loved ones without the
costs, delays and publicity associated with probate proceedings.
We are committed to assisting you
in effectively transferring your assets and maximizing available tax planning
using a variety of additional methods including:
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making use of the federal and state gift, estate, and
generation-skipping tax exclusion to transfer assets
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trust agreements
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family limited partnerships
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charitable remainder trusts
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living trusts and life estates
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business succession and liquidity planning
What Is Estate
Planning?
Estate Planning is the
process whereby a person develops a plan and prepares documents to conserve,
protect, and distribute estate assets before and after death for the benefit of
loved ones and, possibly, charities.
Estate Planning allows you
to take into consideration the effect of state and federal tax and
administrative laws and regulations on the ultimate disposition of your assets.
Estate Planning can also
involve assuring that your assets are available for your care if you become
unable to manage your affairs yourself during your lifetime.
Do I have an Estate?
If you own a home, have some savings, or own any goods
such as a car or furniture, then, yes, you have an estate.
You should have an estate plan if:
-
you care who inherits your property;
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you want to gift your assets prior to your death;
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you want remain in control of your health care decisions;
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you have minor or disabled children; and/or
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you want to avoid the public proceedings of a guardianship
and/or probate proceeding.
Business Succession
Planning:
In addition to estate planning services, we offer business
owners the following specific services:
-
Planning for management succession and asset conservation
through multiple generations at a minimum tax cost
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Assisting business owners in allocating benefits among their
children regardless of their involvement in the business
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Counseling on the short- and long-term estate implications of
selling a business or restructuring it
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Counseling on recapitalizations, gift programs and other
techniques for shifting value during an owner's lifetime or separating
control from value
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Developing and implementing exit strategies from the business
for inactive family members
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Planning for liquidity in the event of an owner's death
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Preparing buy/sell, restrictive stock and employment
agreements
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Structuring life insurance and benefit programs to minimize
tax costs
There are many alternatives and we will explain each
relevant alternative to you.
How do you begin?
Five
steps to Creating Your Estate Plan
Step One:
Client delivers to our office a completed Confidential Estate
Planning Questionnaire. (to request this form simply call our office
at 239-225-7911 or send an email by filling out the information to
the left of this page, immediately upon receiving your request, our
office will send you either a hard copy form or the more
popular adobe form which can be saved to your computer and completed
as you gather the information)
Once completed
the form may be submitted personally or by regular mail. This firm
must obtain an original executed copy of this document before any
review of the document by this firm will begin.
Presenting this
firm with your completed questionnaire does not in any way establish
an attorney client relationship, it only secures that your
information is to be held in strict confidence by this firm. A
retainer agreement can be provided to you upon request prior to
submitting this form or at the conclusion of your first meeting with
Ms. Pizzolato.
Step Two:
Our office will contact client to arrange for a meeting or telephone
conference with Ms. Pizzolato to discuss her recommendations based
on a comprehensive review of your assets, general situation, and
personal goals as indicated in your questionnaire.
During this
meeting, Ms. Pizzolato will help you define your estate planning
objectives and discuss with you what she considers to be the most
effective means of achieving those objectives. At the conclusion of
this meeting Ms. Pizzolato will provide you with this firm’s
schedule of fees outlining what fees would apply for the creation
of your estate documents.
Step Three:
Following the Initial Conference you will be contacted by our office
to review any questions we may have concerning your estate. Once we
are comfortable that all necessary information has been collected,
you will receive drafts of your estate plan documents. At this time,
we will have a telephone conference, email communication or a
meeting with you to review your documents in detail, explaining each
document.
Step Four:
You will then be contacted to make an appointment to return to our
office to have your “Signing Ceremony.” Once your estate documents
are executed, we will provide you with an “Estate Planning
Portfolio”. This portfolio not only contains a copy of all of your
estate plan documents which we prepared for you, but also vital,
important information for you and your family’s use of the
documents.
Step Five:
Relax, your estate plan is now in place and your estate will
transfer to your heirs as you wished.
Of course it is
of equal importance to regularly review your estate plan and asset
protection strategies to account for changes in law or the
acquisition or disposition of assets.
The costs of failing to update your
estate documents are typically greater than the costs of keeping
your estate plan and asset protection strategies current.
Don't delay planning for your future
and the future of your family.
Please feel
free to
contact our office if you or a family member
are interested in retaining this firm to assist you in creating a will, trust or other estate planning
document tailored to your needs, or simply follow these five steps and begin the
process of developing your estate plan.
Our Fort Myers law office is conveniently located in the Financial
Center on College Parkway, which proves to be easily accessible to
our Florida estate planning clients located in the surrounding areas
of Estero, Bonita Springs, Fort Myers Beach, North Fort Myers, Cape
Coral, Naples and the balance of Lee County and Collier County.
