Nashville Pour-Over Will Lawyer

Nashville Pour-Over Will Attorney

A pour-over will is an effective estate planning tool for making sure a decedent’s assets are distributed according to the terms of their trust, even if some assets were not transferred to the trust before death. If you have or are planning to set up a trust, you can hire a Nashville pour-over will lawyer to prepare the proper documents. That way, you can make sure your wishes are honored after your death.

At Emmack Probate and Estate Law Group, we value our client relationships. Our firm understands that estate planning is a deeply important and personal matter for many people. You’ve worked hard to build up your estate, and we can help protect your assets during your life and after your death. As a skilled Nashville Pour-Over Will Lawyer, Shanone Emmack and our team can help you create a comprehensive estate plan that ensures your assets are seamlessly transferred to your trust upon your passing, providing peace of mind for you and your loved ones.

Why Choose Emmack Probate and Estate Law Group?

When you choose our founding attorney to handle your estate planning needs, you are partnering with a seasoned professional who is deeply rooted in the community and highly experienced in estate planning and probate law. As an estate planning lawyer, our attorney has lived in Tennessee for well over a decade, so she understands the nuances of our state’s legal system. She is an active volunteer in the community and truly believes in the power of estate planning to provide peace and security to her clients.

Our law firm can tailor any of our services to meet your estate planning needs. By utilizing tools such as wills law, trusts law, and powers of attorney, our highly respected team can customize a comprehensive plan to meet your unique assets, needs, and goals.

What Is a Pour-Over Will?

A pour-over will is a safety net, of sorts, for your trust. It makes sure any assets you didn’t transfer to your trust during your lifetime automatically go into that trust when you pass away. The legal document works in conjunction with a trust.

A trust is a financial instrument that authorizes one party to hold assets on behalf of another. Trusts are often used in estate planning to automatically transfer property and other assets following the death of the trust’s creator.

While trusts can be very effective as a means of preventing much, if not most, of an estate from going through probate, it can be challenging to update the trust continually throughout the estate holder’s life.

This is where the pour-over will come in. This legal document is drafted and signed during the estate owner’s life, and it automatically “pours over” any assets the grantor hasn’t transferred into a trust prior to their death over to the trust upon their passing.

For a pour-over will to be considered legally valid by the courts, it must meet certain criteria. For example, the grantor must be of sound mind at the time of the will’s drafting, and the will must be signed in front of two competent witnesses.

Benefits of Hiring an Attorney to Draft a Pour-Over Will

There are numerous benefits to having an attorney draft a pour-over will. As with any part of estate planning, a pour-over will can be used by anyone, regardless of the size of their estate. One key benefit of using this type of legal document is that it can greatly reduce the burden your family has to bear when going through probate court.

When an estate has to go through probate, the duty falls on the decedent’s loved ones to hire attorneys, attend hearings, and complete the laborious work of settling an estate. The process can easily last several months and often takes well over a year to complete. The combination of a pour-over will and a trust can streamline and simplify the probate process.

A pour-over will can also make estate planning much easier since there are fewer worries about having to continually update the existing trust. In Nashville, anyone seeking a unified estate plan that consolidates most, if not all, of the estate’s assets into one trust, a pour-over will can be a very useful estate planning tool.

FAQs

What Happens If I Don’t Use a Pour-Over Will?

If you do not use a pour-over will, the assets that are assigned to a trust will automatically transfer to that trust, while all the other property and assets you own will not. This could mean that the probate process becomes significantly more complicated and financially burdensome for your family.

Do I Need a Lawyer for a Will in Tennessee?

You are not legally required to hire a lawyer to make a will, but having legal guidance can make sure the will is accepted by a probate court. There are strict laws that must be followed when drafting and executing a will. A lawyer can also make sure the will meets your estate planning goals, which may include other important legal documents and contracts.

What Is a Pour-Over Will in Tennessee?

A pour-over will in Tennessee is a legal document that automatically transfers any assets not belonging to an existing trust into that trust upon the death of the estate owner. For estate planning purposes, the document effectively works as a safety net to make sure the decedent’s loved ones are not overly burdened during the probate process.

What Is Included in a Pour-Over Will?

A pour-over will typically includes provisions to transfer any assets not already placed in a trust at the time of death into that trust. It may specify beneficiaries, outline how debts and taxes should be handled, and appoint an executor to manage the probate process, ensuring the distribution of all assets according to the trust’s terms. If you’re in Nashville, working with an experienced attorney can help ensure that your pour-over will is properly crafted to align with your overall estate plan.

Schedule Your Pour-Over Will Consultation Today

A pour-over will can greatly reduce the time your loved ones spend in probate court. This legal safety net can capture any assets that are not designated for a trust and automatically transfer those assets to an established trust.

One benefit of this estate planning tool is that you will not have to worry about forgetting to designate part of your estate for transfer to a trust. To begin the process of drafting a pour-over will, contact Emmack Probate and Estate Law Group to schedule a consultation.