Estate Planning

Estate Planning with Peace.Legal

Yes, you do need an estate plan. The task of estate planning may seem daunting initially or not urgent compared with other priorities. At Peace.Legal, we’re confident that you will gain an immense sense of relief and satisfaction from organizing and preparing your affairs for your loved ones.

Once you have it done, you’ll be so glad that you did not delay even one more day.

Peace.Legal’s Approach to Estate Planning is to Ensure Your Peace of Mind.

At Peace.Legal, we walk you through each step of the estate planning process with compassion, without judgment and with the greatest of care and excellence. We serve individuals and business owners in Maryland (including Baltimore, Montgomery County, and the Eastern Shore) and the District of Columbia.

Our CEO and Managing Attorney, China Terrell is a member of the Baltimore Estate Planning Council and the Maryland State Bar, Estate and Trust section.  She conscientiously follows legal and tax developments in trust and estate law, reads journal articles to enhance her expertise in the field, and maintains a robust network with other estate planning professionals.

If estate planning is about anything, it is about teamwork.  At Peace.Legal, we’re eager to collaborate with your professional advisors.  If you need recommendations for professional advisors, we’re glad to recommend (without any financial benefit to us) tax advisory and financial advisory professionals as well as life-insurance brokers who would match with your needs.

Starting Your Estate Plan with Peace.Legal Is Simple.

Choosing to get started on your estate plan is the hard part, but once you’ve made that choice, Peace.Legal’s process is simple and straightforward.

Here are the basic steps for completing an estate plan with Peace.Legal:

Step #1: Have an initial complementary consultation with Peace.Legal either virtually or in-person.  Peace.Legal may require that the initial meetings or subsequent meeting be in person depending on the circumstances, the age of the client, and whether there are capacity concerns.

Step #2: Receive and sign an engagement letter with Peace.Legal, including paying a deposit.

Step #3: Complete Peace.Legal’s estate planning forms. Peace.Legal’s forms include:

A. Estate Planning Questionnaire: Basic Information
B. Assets: Real Property
C. Assets: Titled Personal Property
D. Assets: Financial Accounts
E. Assets: Business Interests
F.  Assets: Annuities, Life and Long Term Care Insurances
G. Assets: Specialty Personal Property, Collectibles
H. Assets: Debtors, Remaining Personal Property
I. Liabilities: Debts
J. Current Income Information
K. Management and Distribution of Property

Step #4: Meet with Peace.Legal to discuss your goals in estate planning and to discuss the recommend estate planning strategies that meet those goals. This stage and whether it occurs in one or more meetings may vary significantly depending on the complexity of your estate and your goals.

Step #5: Vet the estate planning strategy with other professional advisors, as needed.

Step #6: Peace.Legal prepares the estate planning documents and, if needed, establishes any legal entities.

Step #7: Vet the final estate planning documents with other professional advisors, as needed.

Step #8: Review the estate planning documents with Peace.Legal.

Step #9: Sign the estate planning documents.

Step #10: Work with Peace.Legal to fund the Trust(s), if required.

When estate planning, it’s okay to be unsure about how to distribute your assets or whom to appoint in key roles.

Feeling uncertain about how you should distribute your assets or who should serve in key roles is perfectly normal. You may talk about the options with Peace.Legal and receive examples of what often happens. There is no right or wrong answer.  You may distribute your assets however you decide is best for the people and causes you love. You may also make changes down the road as life evolves.

Peace.Legal keeps your estate planning data secure, including through encryptions and designations as protected health information, where appropriate.

Collecting your documents may feel tedious. You may be skeptical about sharing so much personal information with an attorney.  Receiving that personal information and keeping it confidential is our job, however. Our team is bound by a duty of confidentiality to keep your information and our discussions with you strictly between us.

Additionally, attorney-client privilege will apply to most of our discussions. This means that, with few exceptions, you have a legal right refuse to share and to stop our firm from sharing what we discuss.

At Peace.Legal, we also maintain cybersecurity insurance for the financial protection of both our firm and our clients—just in case an outsider tries to gain access to our information illegally.

Once you have started collecting your main documents, you are well on your way with much of the hardest part of estate planning behind you.

Watch this video from the American College of Estate Counsel to learn how to prepare for your initial estate planning meeting:

Plan Your Estate Today. Don’t Let Age-Old Excuses Stop You from Building the Future.

Some common misconceptions about estate planning hinder people from moving forward with what is necessary.

#1 I don’t need a trust, so I don’t need an estate plan.

In fact, you may not need a trust.  But trusts aren’t just for the wealthy.  Trusts can be just as useful for working-class and middle-class families, particularly those who own real property. Depending on your circumstances, the need for a trust is by no means a given.

An estate plan may consist of only: (1) a will; (2) an advanced directive for future health care decisions, plus a HIPAA medical records release; and (3) a durable financial power of attorney in case of incapacity.  At Peace.Legal, this is known as our Will Package. A Will Package may also include a review of your accounts to ensure your beneficiary designations are in place and up to date.  As you build wealth, you have a framework from which to begin. And you no longer fear the process of keeping your estate plan up to date.

#2 I haven’t done my estate plan because I don’t want to think about passing.

At Peace.Legal, we are sensitive in our language and approach to estate planning, so that, as much as possible, the focus is on the many ways you may want to bless others.

Yes, sometimes it can feel uncomfortable to think about one’s passing or even not being healthy enough to make decisions for oneself.  An estate plan is your unique opportunity, however, to help build the future of those you care about most.  Please let us know about your sensitivities and we will do our best to respect them.

#3 I don’t want estate planning to create family conflict.

Unfortunately, one of the surest ways to ensure there will be family conflict is to pass without an estate plan or to become ill and risk capacity issues without an estate plan.

When preparing an estate plan, you don’t necessarily have to get approval from your family members on how you decide to distribute your assets. It is helpful to share with the appropriate persons that (1) you have completed an estate plan; (2) where the estate plan is and how to access it; and (3) and what their roles may be. You do not, however, have to share what’s in your estate plan, especially if you believe your estate plan could change or could potentially create conflict.

At Peace.Legal, you have the option to keep an original set of your estate plan with us.  We additionally use custom watermarked pages to deter fraud—such as someone taking out a page and reinserting a different page as an original.

We also include certain services as part of our standard package to help discourage contests of the estate plan.  This includes a family legacy video recording.  You may choose to use some of your attorney-meeting time for a carefully planned meeting with the trustees and/or future executor of your estate plan to help explain what should happen in the future.

Our Fees for Estate Planning Are Transparent.

At Peace.Legal, we will provide you with our standard pricing sheets at the initial complimentary consultation.  To give you a sense of our costs:

A Simple Will Package costs $1500.

1. 1. Will (1)
   2. Financial Power of Attorney (2, if married)
   3. Advance Directive for Health Care (2, if married)
   4. HIPAA Medical Records Release (2, if married)

A Standard Estate Planning Package with a trust, including full-service trust funding for up to three properties, costs $5100.

1. 1. ATTORNEY MEETINGS (Up to three hours of attorney meeting time)
   2. LEGAL DOCUMENTS
      • Living Trust: Outright Distributions and Same Distributions for Spouses
        —Certification of Trust
        —Declaration of Trust
        —Assignment of Personal Property
        —Pourover Will
      • Durable Financial Power(s) of Attorney
      • Advance Directive(s) for Health Care or Health Care Power(s) of Attorney, as the jurisdiction allows
      • HIPAA Medical Records Release(s)
   3. TRUST FUNDING PROCESS:
      • Full Service (minimal client involvement)
        —Real Estate Transfer Deeds: Up to three included
        —Transfer on Death (or similar designation) for up to two vehicles
   4. BINDER
      • Estate Plan Owner’s Manual, including:
        —Hard Copies of Fully-Executed Estate Plan Documents
        —Document Locator
        —Declaration Regarding Final Arrangements
        —Trust Funding Toolkit
        —Fiduciary Letters Explaining Role and Responsibilities
        —Successor Trustee Manual
   5. DIGITAL MEDIA
      • Family Legacy Interview – Video recording (up to 30 minutes)
      • Electronic Copy of Fully-Executed Estate Plan Documents
   6. FOLLOW-UP
      • Trust Maintenance Survey (Once Every Three-Years)

The minimum cost for an estate plan with a living trust could be $3200.

1. 1. 1. This minimum cost depends on the type of trust chosen. A living trust with outright distributions and same distributions for spouses is at this price point.
      2. A minimum trust package would include only the attorney meeting time and the Legal Documents for a Basic Trust (Certification of Trust, Declaration of Trust, Assignment of Personal Property, Pourover Will, Advanced Health Care Directives on Maryland’s standard forms, if needed). Other items may be added to this package a la carte.
      3. A minimum trust package does not include full-service trust funding and certain other items in the Standard Estate Planning Package

Peace.Legal Offers Advanced Trusts for Estate Planning.

Additional Advanced Trusts are available. Reviewing your estate and understanding your goals are essential for Peace.Legal to recommend the best paths forward to help secure the future for your loved ones.

Costs for Advanced Trusts may range from $3200 to $15,000 depending on the complexity of the assets, the recommended estate plan, and the additional engagement of tax advisors. Trusts are sometimes combined. Trusts are always uniquely crafted to meet your unique circumstances. Additional fees may be necessary if court appearances are required.

We are happy to work with tax advisors, financial advisors, life insurance brokers and others with whom you have existing relationships. Otherwise, our firm maintains a standing relationship with Cohn Reznick for tax advisory services in estate planning. We can also make recommendations in other disciplines as well.

Certain trusts listed below may be used more or less due to changes in estate planning and/or tax laws or due to current economic conditions. The trusts are listed here for your benefit to understand the full range of services Peace.Legal performs. Peace.Legal also serves non-US citizens and non-US citizen spouses.

• • • AB Trust
    • Charitable Trust (Remainder or Lead)
    • Educational Trust
    • First Party Special Needs Trust
    • Generation Skipping Trust
    • Grantor Retained Interest Trusts: GRATs GRUTs, and GRITs
    • Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT)
    • Irrevocable Medicaid Planning Trust
    • Marital Deduction Trust
    • Marital Property Control Trust
    • QDOT Trust (Qualified Domestic Trust)
    • QTIP Trust (Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trust)
    • Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT)
    • Retirement Inheritance Trust (IRA Trust)
    • Spendthrift Trust
    • Sprinkling Trust
    • Third Party Special Needs Trust
    • All other Trusts (case by case)

Peace.Legal Offers Additional Estate Planning Services.

Estate Planning Amendments

• • • Complete Amendment and Restatement
    • Substitution of Fiduciary
    • Fiduciary Substitution Package
    • Distribution Change
    • Trust Review

Other Services

• • • Funding Trust with Additional Deeds
    • Funding Existing Trust (not prepared by Peace.Legal) with up to two Additional Deeds
    • Disclaimers
    • Representation in Guardianship Proceedings (for Interested Persons or Petitioner; Contested or Uncontested)
    • High Net Worth Family Office (Call for Consultation)

Peace.Legal Offers You Numerous Options for Data Collection in Estate Planning.

Peace.Legal offers various methods of data collection to assist you in overcoming the hurdle of gathering your documents and planning for the future of your loved ones. Secure electronic submission is included complementary with all services.

—Electronic

Electronic completion of online forms. You may upload supporting documentation as needed. All sensitive data, including account numbers, are encrypted or appropriately coded as protected health information. Electronic submission is included with all services.

—Handwritten

Handwritten completion of forms. you may deliver asset documents in hard copy to our office. There is a modest data entry fee for this method.

—Recorded Interview

Up to three hours of audio-recorded interview time with the attorney. You may deliver asset documents in hard copy to our office. Under this method, you will review and sign a transcript of the interview. There is an additional fee for this method.

Estate Planning is for the responsible, regardless of wealth — not the Rich & Famous.

Consider all the rich and famous people who died without any estate planning—from Abraham Lincoln to Prince! One of our favorite examples here is Aretha Franklin, because, reportedly, her lawyer repeatedly asked her to do her estate planning, but she was procrastinating.  Our other favorite example is Billie Holiday because, reportedly, she had about $1000 to her name when she died but her estate today is worth tens of millions. You just never know.

Start your estate planning with Peace.Legal today by calling 410.989.1607 to book a free consultation.

• • Sonny Bono, 62 — Estate worth about $1.7 million estate
  • Chadwick Boseman, 43 — Estate worth about $3.5 million
  • Kurt Cobain, 27 — Estate worth about $50 million
  • Sam Cooke, 33 — Estate worth about $2 million that has grown to $100 million
  • James Dean, 24 — Estate worth about $100,000
  • John Denver, 53 — Estate worth about $19 million
  • Aretha Franklin, 76 — Estate worth up to $80 million. Franklin’s lawyer says he “constantly” asked Ms. Franklin to create a trust, “but she never got around to it.”
  • Jimi Hendrix, 27 — Estate worth about $20,000 in 1979 that has since grown to about $175 million
  • Billie Holiday, 44 — Estate worth less than $1,000 that today values between $1 million and $14 million.
  • Tony Hseih, 46 — Estate worth about $840 million
  • Howard Hughes, 70 — Estate worth about $2.5 billion
  • Martin Luther King, Jr., 39 — Estate worth about $250,000
  • Stieg Larsson, 50 — Estate worth between $20 million and $50 million
  • Stanley “Stan Lee” Lieber, 95 — Estate was worth $50 million
  • Abraham Lincoln, 56 — Estate worth about $110,296
  • Bob Marley, 36 — Estate worth about $11.5 million estate at the time
  • Steve McNair, 36 — Estate worth about $19.6 million
  • Prince Rogers Nelson, 57 — Estate worth about $156 million
  • Pablo Picasso, 91 — Estate worth between $100 million and $250 million
  • Amy Winehouse, 27 — Estate worth about $4.66 million estate

To reach us, the easiest way is by phone:

(410) 989-1607 

(202) 550-1707

To contact us electronically,
please email Terrell@Peace.Legal
or complete the form below and
we’ll respond promptly.