Cheshire Estate Planning Attorney

Cheshire is a beautiful community situated in the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region in New Haven County, about midway between Hartford and New Haven. The median household income in the area is relatively high, and residents of this affluent suburban community need to know the value of estate planning. An experienced Cheshire estate planning lawyer can help you understand your options for preparing your estate plan on behalf of your family.
Experienced Estate Planning Attorneys in Cheshire, CT
The team at Burns Thomas, LLC, provides client-focused legal counsel for all aspects of estate planning. While you may have specific preferences and goals when it comes to your estate plan, it’s important to hire an estate planning lawyer who can implement those details into a functional and legally enforceable plan. Every individual situation is unique, and we take time to learn as much as we can about our client to ensure completely personalized counsel.
Estate planning is a challenging subject for many Americans. It’s common for people to find it difficult to think about death, but the reality is that a properly configured estate plan can be a tremendous benefit to your family that helps them resolve the legal aftermath of an emotionally straining situation.
Estate planning declined about 6% in the US between 2023 and 2024, and as of 2024, only about 32% of Americans have an estate plan in place. About 40% of those surveyed who did not have an estate plan said they believed they did not own enough assets, while another 43% cited procrastination. About 13% believe it’s too expensive to write one, and about 43% said they would wait until there is a health crisis to write one.
Ultimately, it is never too early to explore estate planning. A skilled Cheshire estate planning lawyer at Burns Thomas, LLC can assist you with every aspect of estate plan creation. Our team will help you understand the elements your estate plan should include and your options for configuring your plan. Our goal is to help you approach the planning process with confidence and to create a plan that offers peace of mind.
Building Your Estate Plan in Cheshire
In Cheshire, an estate plan can be much more than a Last Will and Testament. While a will is crucial for helping streamline the probate process after a person’s death, it is possible for disputes to arise or for various technicalities to render a will unenforceable. Additionally, there are estate planning options that can help a family avoid probate and enjoy certain tax advantages.
Probate can be costly and difficult, and other options for estate planning, such as a trust, can potentially allow your family to avoid probate proceedings, or at the very least, minimize the time that must be spent on them. An estate plan can effectively guide probate and reduce the time it takes to complete, but it is also possible to create a plan that allows your family to avoid it entirely.
Your Cheshire estate planning lawyer at Burns Thomas, LLC, will explain the potential benefits and possible drawbacks of every option you have to customize your estate plan. Some estate plans can also be modified over time as your circumstances evolve. Whether you are building a new plan from scratch or wish to amend an existing plan, reach out to our team and learn how a skilled Cheshire estate planning lawyer can help.
Whether the best option for you is a comprehensive will, the establishment of trusts or other estate planning solutions, we will find a solution that fits your needs.
FAQs
An estate plan should include, at a minimum, a Last Will and Testament that will name an executor or personal representative and include all beneficiary designations for distributing the contents of the estate. It’s also possible for an estate plan to include a Durable Power of Attorney that allows a trusted representative to make financial decisions on your behalf, and an Advanced Care Directive that allows someone else to make medical decisions on your behalf.
The “five by five” rule for trusts pertains to a beneficiary withdrawing funds from a trust with the goal of preventing early depletion of the trust. This rule usually allows the beneficiary to withdraw the greater of $5,000 or 5% of the trust’s fair market value each year. This helps ensure the trust’s contents last as long as possible while also providing the beneficiary with flexibility in withdrawing funds and potential tax advantages.
Probate is the legal process of estate administration that unfolds according to the state’s intestate succession laws. When a person dies without a will, their estate enters probate, and the probate court will resolve their outstanding debts and then distribute the contents of their estate to their beneficiaries. When a person dies with a will, probate will involve review of the will and distributing the estate contents according to the decedent’s wishes.
You should hire an estate planning lawyer in Cheshire to ensure your estate plan not only accomplishes your intended goals but is also legally enforceable. While it’s possible to create the framework of your estate plan on your own, you need to have an experienced Cheshire estate planning lawyer formalize it into a legally enforceable document. Your attorney may also uncover options you did not know were available to you.
The cost of estate planning in Cheshire depends on the scope and detail of the estate planning services you require. Most estate planning lawyers in Connecticut charge an hourly rate, meaning the cost of estate planning generally depends on the estate’s complexity and how long they must spend working on it. Make sure you fully understand your attorney’s billing policy so there are no surprises about the cost of their legal services.
The team at Burns Thomas, LLC has successfully helped many clients in Cheshire and the surrounding Connecticut communities with estate planning, and we are confident we can provide the detail-oriented and responsive legal counsel you need for this process. If you’re ready to learn more about your options for estate planning, contact us today and schedule a consultation with an experienced Cheshire estate planning lawyer.
Contact our firm today to learn more about how our
New Haven County estate planning lawyers can help you.