Estate Planning
Every individual and family has unique estate planning goals. Whether you want to protect your assets, provide for your loved ones, minimize probate, or ensure your healthcare and financial decisions are honored, a comprehensive estate plan can provide lasting peace of mind. At Jones, Green, & Tackett Law, PLLC, our experienced estate planning attorney helps clients throughout Tennessee create customized estate plans designed to protect their families, preserve their assets, and prepare for the future.
We offer a full range of estate planning services, including wills, trusts, powers of attorney, advance healthcare directives, and other essential legal documents. We offer free consultations, take the time to understand your goals, and develop an estate plan tailored to your specific needs.
Last Will and Testament
A Last Will and Testament is one of the most important estate planning documents you can have. A will allows you to determine how your assets and property will be distributed after your death, name beneficiaries, appoint an executor to administer your estate, and designate a guardian for your minor children.
Without a valid will, Tennessee intestacy laws determine who inherits your estate, which may not reflect your wishes. Creating a legally sound will helps protect your loved ones, reduce family disputes, simplify the probate process, and ensure your final wishes are carried out.
Powers of Attorney
A Power of Attorney authorizes a trusted individual to make decisions on your behalf if you become unable to manage your affairs due to illness, injury, or incapacity. These important estate planning documents can help your family avoid the time and expense of court-appointed conservatorship proceedings.
Our estate planning attorney prepares several types of powers of attorney, including:
Durable Financial (General) Power of Attorney – Authorizes someone you trust to manage financial matters, property, banking, investments, and other legal affairs.
Durable Healthcare Power of Attorney – Appoints someone to make medical decisions, communicate with healthcare providers, and access protected health information if you are unable to do so.
Having these documents in place ensures that your financial and medical affairs remain in trusted hands during unexpected circumstances.
Living Will (Advance Healthcare Directive)
A Living Will, also known as an Advance Healthcare Directive, allows you to document your wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment if you become terminally ill or permanently unconscious. Unlike a Last Will and Testament, a Living Will takes effect during your lifetime and provides guidance to your physicians and loved ones when you are unable to communicate your medical preferences.
Preparing a Living Will can ease difficult decisions for your family while ensuring your healthcare wishes are respected.
Trusts
A Trust is a powerful estate planning tool that allows assets to be managed by a trustee for the benefit of your chosen beneficiaries. Depending on your goals, a trust can help avoid probate, protect assets, maintain privacy, provide for minor children or loved ones with special needs, and simplify the transfer of wealth to future generations.
Our attorneys help clients determine whether a trust is appropriate for their estate planning needs and prepare trusts designed to meet their unique objectives. Common trust options include:
Revocable Living Trust
A Revocable Living Trust is one of the most effective and commonly used estate planning tools for protecting your assets and simplifying the transfer of property after your death. Unlike a Last Will and Testament, which only becomes effective after death and typically requires the probate process, a Revocable Living Trust is created during your lifetime and allows you to maintain control of your assets while you are alive. Because the trust is revocable, you can modify, amend, or revoke it at any time as your circumstances or estate planning goals change.
A properly funded Revocable Living Trust can help your loved ones avoid probate, allowing your successor trustee to manage and distribute your assets according to your instructions without the delays, costs, and public nature of probate court. In addition to helping streamline the administration of your estate, a Revocable Living Trust can provide greater privacy, ensure continuity in the management of your assets if you become incapacitated, and make the estate administration process more efficient for your family.
Testamentary Trust
A Testamentary Trust is a “mini-trust” created through your Last Will and Testament that becomes effective upon your death. Unlike a Revocable Living Trust, a Testamentary Trust does not take effect during your lifetime and is established as part of the probate process. This type of trust allows you to specify how and when your assets will be managed and distributed to your beneficiaries, providing greater control over your estate long after you are gone.
A Testamentary Trust is often used to protect inheritances for minor children, beneficiaries with special needs, or individuals who may not be prepared to manage a large inheritance. It can also help preserve family assets, provide for a surviving spouse, and distribute property according to conditions you establish. By appointing a trusted trustee to manage the assets, you can ensure your wishes are carried out while protecting your beneficiaries' financial future.
Irrevocable Trust
An Irrevocable Trust is an estate planning tool designed to protect assets and achieve specific financial or tax planning goals. Unlike a Revocable Living Trust, an Irrevocable Trust generally cannot be modified or revoked after it is created without the consent of the beneficiaries or a court order.
The person creating the trust gives up ownership and control of the assets placed inside it, which are typically managed by a third-party trustee for the benefit of others. Because assets transferred into an Irrevocable Trust are no longer considered part of your personal estate, this type of trust may provide significant benefits, including asset protection, estate tax planning, creditor protection, and long-term wealth preservation.
Supplemental Needs Trust (SNT)
A Special Needs Trust, also known as a Supplemental Needs Trust or “SNT” for short, allows you to provide financial support for a loved one with a disability while helping preserve their eligibility for important government benefits, such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid. Rather than distributing assets directly to the beneficiary, the trust holds and manages the assets for their benefit, allowing funds to be used for qualifying expenses that enhance their quality of life without jeopardizing public assistance.
A Special Needs Trust can help pay for expenses such as medical care not covered by insurance, therapies, education, transportation, recreation, personal care, adaptive equipment, and other supplemental needs. This type of trust provides long-term financial security while ensuring your loved one continues to receive the benefits and support they depend on.
Let Us Help
At Jones, Green, & Tackett Law, PLLC, our estate planning attorneys work closely with families to educate about the various options available to them and to create plans tailored to each family’s unique circumstances. Whether you need a simple will or a more complex trust-based plan, we are here to help you every step of the way.
Contact us today to schedule a consultation and start building a plan that fits your life.
