About our Practice...
- Mr. Purcell has been in the practice of law for 19 years (after five and one-half years with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office as an Assistant County Prosecutor). As mentioned, his practice is counseling based, and thus his first meeting with clients is complimentary. Since he employs a strong "counseling model," this first meeting can take a few hours, and it provides a basis to develop with you an estate plan that best suits your unique needs as the client.
And there is a lot to consider:
Asset Protection Planning...
Mr. Purcell believes proper planning should utilize techniques to protect your loved ones from lawsuits, bad marriages (including divorces) and other financial problems. (See our web page entitled Why Use a Trust.) Though often overlooked, this "asset protection" aspect of an estate plan often is the most important reason for creating one!
Protecting your Hard-earned Assets from Nursing Home Costs...
Elder law is an emerging field in the area of estate planning. Mr. Purcell has extensive experience in elder law issues and will explore with you, when appropriate, "quality of care" issues, as well as legal strategies to protect your assets for your loved ones in the event you suffer a catastrophic illness.
Estate planning basics...
For more straight-forward plans, often times a simple will coupled with a Health Care Power of Attorney, Living Will, Durable Power of Attorney and (the often overlooked) HIPAA Authorization can provide all the necessary protection you need for you and your family.
Designing the "basic" trust based plan...
Trust-based plans, which comprise the majority of our planning work, will likely (but not always) include the following features:
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Customized Living Trust-Based Estate Plan created by a document creation system with over several million combinations!
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Professional-grade Portfolio for storing all of your estate planning documents in one place so that your loved ones have a single source to have control of the settlement of your affairs.Detailed summary of your Trust in plain English
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"Pour Over" Will
- Reference list for your loved ones of "key people" in your estate plan, including fiduciaries (Trustees, agents of various Powers of Attorneys, etc.), beneficiaries, and their relationships
- Detailed funding instructions for every type of major asset to be funded
- Customized Springing Durable Power of Attorney in compliance with Ohio law, with, if appropriate, customized gifting provisions
- Certificate of Trust and Privacy Affidavit of Trustee to facilitate the funding process
- Package of Health Care documents including a "Living Will" and Health Care Power of Attorney. To facilitate their use by health care professionals, the version of these documents we use have been approved by the Ohio State Bar Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Osteopathic Association, and the Ohio Hospice & Palliative Care Organization. (Why would one use any other version of these important documents? You want them to be recognized by the medical providers to whom you submit them!) We also include an Authorization for Release under Federal HIPAA law.
- Memorial Instructions (There is no place in any standard estate planning document to set forth your wishes concerning your funeral and related arrangements. We have provided a separate form and section devoted to this important issue).
- A Memorandum of Personal Property to bequeath items of tangible property (household furnishings, jewelry, etc.) without the necessity of amending your living trust.
- An Assignment of Personal Property to transfer all of your personalty that is not titled (household furnishings, for example, versus an automobile) with a document to prevent such personalty from requiring a probate proceeding.
- A Portfolio Section to place written proof that each asset you own is in your Trust, or, if appropriate, has as its beneficiary your trust. Securing these written proofs is very important to assure that your trust is funded properly, and is a task with which our office is willing to assist at reasonable rates, if you so choose. We recommend that you keep this section of your Portfolio current even after our services to you are complete.
- Trust Funding Cards: We will provide you with laminated, pocket-sized cards that provide the name of your trust so that you can be assured your assets are being titled correctly when you, for instance, purchase a home, open a brokerage account, etc.
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When appropriate, we also provide Special Needs Trusts for the one out of eight families that have a disabled child, as well as our very popular IRA Trust, supported by customized software illustrations, which can literally turn a modest IRA into millions of dollars of cash flow over the life of a grandchild, son or daughter!
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ETC!!!
Advanced estate planning techniques...
For more affluent clients and clients who own their own businesses, Mr. Purcell uses the most cutting-edge estate planning strategies, such as out-of-state Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) (as Ohio may not be the best state to set up such an entity), Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITS), Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs), Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATS), charitable planning techniques such as Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs), Special Needs Trusts for disabled loved ones and "Self-settled Asset Protection Trusts".
How Will You Know which Plan is Right for You?
Do you need a sophisticated plan to deal with estate and gift tax issues, or will a more cost-effective and simpler plan meet your needs? Will a plan that does not use a trust at all be sufficient? How do we know which features of an estate plan are right for you? We listen! The counseling process discussed at the beginning of this article is the key to a successful an appropriate estate plan....
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