Frequently Asked Questions

A Will is a document that allows you to name beneficiaries of your estate assets after your death.  A Will is also a great instrument to use to name guardians for your minor children so that you can ensure your children are loved and cared for by the adults of your choosing in the event you are unable to take care of them yourself.

A Trust is a legal entity that can hold your assets while you are alive and dictate how you want your property distributed after your death. You name a Trustee, which can be you while you are alive, and you also name a contingent Trustee, who is given authority to act upon your incapacity or death. The Trustee has a duty to direct and manage the assets of the Trust according to your desires.  Placing your assets in a Trust while you are alive ensures your assets avoid expensive and time-consuming probate processes after you die. Trusts are also helpful when you have heirs that might not be able to responsibly manage their inheritance, for example, because they are minor children or are not good with money.  In these cases, your contingent Trustee can help distribute money to your heirs over a period of time instead of giving them a lump-sum distribution immediately after your death.

A Durable Power of Attorney is a document wherein you name an Agent who can act on your behalf regarding property, legal and financial matters. This document becomes important when you can no longer act for yourself in these matters, for example upon becoming incapacitated due to dementia, etc. When you give someone else authority to act as your agent, that person can sign on your behalf for banking transactions, pay your bills, talk to your insurance company, pay your taxes, and help sell your property.

In simple terms, probate is the legal process for distributing your property after you die. Often an attorney initiates the process with the probate court. The court then validates your will and ensures that all of the decedent’s property is inventoried, all debts of the estate are paid, and that the remaining assets are distributed according to your wishes. There are always probate fees, and, of course, the process can take anywhere from 2-12 months.

If you die without a will, you are said to have died intestate. When this happens, state law determines who will receive your assets. In South Carolina, if you die without a will and you have a spouse and children, your spouse receives one half of your estate and your children split the remaining half.  This may not be the ideal scenario, particularly if your children are minors.

A Trust is a legal entity that is created by the Trust maker, also known as the Grantor, to hold assets that a Trustee will manage and protect for the benefit of the beneficiaries. In a Revocable Living Trust, the Grantor transfers ownership of certain assets into the Trust during his lifetime.  Then the Grantor determines how the assets of the Trust will be distributed after his death. Because it is “revocable,” the Grantor has a lot of discretion to amend, and even to revoke the Trust during his lifetime.  Additionally, because the Trust is now the owner of the assets, these assets do not have to be reported to the probate court upon the death of the Grantor. This will save time and probate fees because the Trustee can immediately transfer the assets to the beneficiaries, if that is the desire of the Grantor, and thus bypass the court probate process.

A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is used to preserve your assets from being whittled away by the cost of long-term care. A Medicaid trust, if funded at least 5 years before you become eligible for Medicaid, can ensure that your hard-earned assets are not just used to pay for mounting medical bills, but that you are able to leave some form of an inheritance to your loved ones.

An estate, in simple terms, is everything you own when you pass away. Almost everyone has an estate: when you own a car, have a life insurance policy, clothing, jewelry, etc., you have an estate. Upon your death, your surviving family members will need to take care of all the assets in your estate through a process in the court known as probating your assets. Leaving a Will to direct the distribution of your property is a great gift to leave to those you love.

North Carolina Medicaid

North Carolina Secretary of State

South Carolina Medicaid

South Carolina Secretary of State

York County Council on Aging

Once you sign your estate plan documents with us, you have two options for ongoing support:

1. Standard Path: To all our clients we offer a 90-day Funding Guidance period to assist you, along with a complimentary review of your documents every three years.

2. Family Care Program: This optional program provides continuous benefits for you and your family, including a secure Vault to store your documents, discounts on additional documents, and even professional trust funding services. For more details, visit our Family Care Program page!

The Family Care Program is an additional membership program that is broken down into three levels, each with a different cost.

Essential: $500 annually or $50 monthly

Enhanced: $1000 annually or $100 monthly

Elite: $2000 annually or $200 monthly

Regardless of the level chosen, there is a $250 enrollment fee in addition to the level's cost. This enrolment fee is waived if you join the Family Care Program during your consultation or signing. If you would like more information visit our Family Care Program page!

As part of your membership, you can call us with any legal questions you have.  When you call, you will talk with our Family Care Advocate, who acts as our triage person, like in a hospital.  If your call is about something our Family Care Advocate can immediately help you with, they will do so. In the event additional legal work cannot be handled by our firm, we will do our best to connect you to a lawyer in our trusted referral network (their fees will apply).   

If your call requires legal analysis or consultation within our area of expertise, our Family Care Advocate will get a complete description of your concern and schedule time for you to talk by phone with one of our lawyers.  We schedule meetings ahead of time so we’re both prepared for the meeting, and we don’t play phone tag, which is just a waste of your time and frustrating for everyone. Quite often, this consultation can put your mind at ease and won’t require additional legal services. There will be no charge for any of this consultation or advice.

In the event the legal work can be handled by our firm that is outside the scope of our Family Care Program Engagement Agreement, we will quote you a fee (if applicable) to handle the additional work before beginning any such work. 

Different membership levels will receive additional complimentary services, but at a minimum, all FCP Members will receive an annual review of their legal documents and free basic document updates to swap out Agents or Fiduciaries.  All members will also receive ongoing access to their documents through our secure client vault, invitations to our member-only events, and free notary services. 

For an additional explanation of benefits, please see the FCP Membership Benefits list found on Schedule A of your FCP Engagement Agreement.

All levels of our FCP program include a free yearly review of your planning documents and free basic document updates to swap names for beneficiaries, executors, trustees, guardians, etc.  Enhanced and Elite Members receive special members-only pricing for more involved updates to their plan.   In the event that you want to change the structure of your plan or require other significant updates, we will quote a discounted fee before doing any work. 

Simple updates, such as adding a child or switching out one agent for another are complimentary. Recording fees for your Powers of Attorney may apply.

You may cancel your membership at any time. However, upon termination of your FCP membership, there will be no refunds given for any reason.  If you have opted to pay monthly for your membership fee, upon cancellation, you will no longer be charged once you have made a minimum of 12 monthly payments.  If you decide to re-enroll at a later date, the $250 re-enrollment fee will apply to join the FCP membership program again.   You may opt to continue with access ONLY to our Family Legacy Vault at a price of $129/per year.

You can join the FCP at any time. However, if you want to enroll after your Signing Meeting, there is an enrollment fee of $250.  If you join at or before your Signing Meeting, we will waive the enrollment fee.

Members of our Enhanced and Elite programs receive discounts on planning for immediate family, including spouse, children, parents, and siblings.   If they want to discuss their own planning, we would be honored to handle that and will offer them an estate planning consultation at no charge.* They will also receive 25% off of any estate planning  services with us, with total discounts to all immediate family members not to exceed a cumulative total of $2,000 per year. 

*Limitations apply. Your family members must complete their Estate Planning Questionnaire and get it back to us within 3 days of their estate planning session, and both partners must be present if they are planning together.