Planning for what will happen to your estate after your death is a necessary part of life. Making legal arrangements that express your wishes for your finances and your dependents protects your family from hardship. At Reddy & Feldhake, P.C., we help individuals and families craft personalized and effective estate plans using wills & trusts as well as Advance Health Care Directives (living wills) and Powers of Attorney. We also help clients through the estate administration and probate process after a loved one has died. The experienced attorneys at Reddy & Feldhake, P.C. understand the sensitivity of the estate planning process in Tulsa and offer clients professionalism and compassion throughout.
Benefits of Estate Planning
Estate planning is the drafting of legal documents that organize and optimize your finances and your wishes for your descendants and loved ones. Estate planning has numerous benefits including:
- Easing your conscious about knowing that your family, and especially any minor children, will be taken care of when you are gone.
- Letting your family know what your true intentions really are.
- Ensuring that your legal rights are fully protected.
Probate Help and Management
Probate is a legal, court-guided process by which the details of an estate are administered after the death of the estate owner. The probate process is initiated by the executor, who may often be a family member or close friend of the deceased. Our probate attorneys work closely with the executor, administrator, and any estate trustees to help facilitate the activities associated with probate administration.
Having a comprehensive estate plan may bypass the probate process, but in some cases, the presence of properly drafted estate plan documents helps probate run more efficiently. Probate can be an overwhelming process to deal with after the death of a loved one. In Oklahoma, if a decedent dies without proper estate planning the estate must be administered through the probate court. The probate process includes verifying the validity of any existing will, inventorying assets, satisfying all creditors and dividing the remaining assets among heirs. Our probate attorneys can manage to open the estate and to administer the assets to prevent any personal liability on the part of the family, heirs and the executor. Having the counsel of an experienced probate attorney can help avoid contested wills, arguments among heirs and lengthy proceedings.
If you need help with a probate litigation matter, contact our probate attorneys to set up a free initial consultation at (918) 947-8102.