Most things in life pale in comparison to the legacy that people leave behind. People spend incredible amounts of effort and even money making sure that their legacy is well cared for. That is one of the reasons that the market for estate lawyers and attorneys in the United States alone is worth more than $16 billion every single year!

Many people understand how important it can be to find a great estate planning lawyer. At the same time, they are unfamiliar with the process. Not everybody fully understands what an estate planning lawyer even does.

So what exactly do you need to know when it comes to hiring an estate planning lawyer? Read on to learn all about the most important things to understand as you go through this process!

What Is an Estate Planning Lawyer?

The law can be complicated. But estate planning law in particular has some confusing pieces. At the same time, the results of proper estate planning are extremely important.

For this reason, many people turn to the experts to make sure that their estate planning goes as well as possible. That is what estate planning lawyers are for.

There are a number of things that estate planning lawyers help people to do. Among other things, they help people to prepare their wills. Done correctly, a will make sure that your property goes where you want it to.

However, there are often difficult disputes around wills. As a result, it is important to work with a quality lawyer who can help you write a will in such a way that the court will know exactly how to execute it properly.

On top of that, you can hire the same estate planning lawyer to make sure that your will is executed the way that you want it to be.

When you are deciding where your property goes, you have to account for some of it going to the government. There are a lot of taxes that can diminish your financial legacy. However, you do not necessarily have to pay all of those taxes.

There are a number of financial tools you can apply to the legal system to lower your legal tax liability. A great estate planning attorney can help you to lower your total tax costs.

Depending on exactly what you want to happen with your property, you might need more than just a usual will. You might need to supplement it with trusts and other legal tools. That is another thing that a great attorney can help you with.

How Can I Find the Best Estate Planning Lawyer?

One of the first things to do when you are picking an estate planning lawyer is consider your options. There are a huge number of candidates to choose between.

You first want to generate a list of candidates that you should seriously consider. You might ask family, friends, and acquaintances for any recommendations. You can also reach out to any connections you have in the legal field for other recommendations.

You can also fill out your list by looking for some of the attorneys with an online presence. Most attorneys out there will have a lot of ratings and reviews. If you want, you can decide that you want to investigate some of the attorneys with the highest ratings.

However, you should not stop with simply the overall rating that each attorney has achieved. Instead, you should proceed to read the written reviews as well. Those written reviews will provide a lot of extra context that may change your decision.

For example, a lawyer might have an extremely high rating because of the work they do as a criminal lawyer. However, their competence as a criminal lawyer may not be especially relevant to you. You will want to pay attention only to reviews and ratings that result from competence as an estate planning lawyer.

Of course, you may also want to choose to work with a lawyer who works exclusively on estate planning. They are more likely to have a greater degree of expertise than a lawyer who splits their time between estate planning and other facets of law.

Who Exactly Needs an Estate Planning Attorney?

There are a couple of simple rules that help people decide if they need an estate planning attorney or not. First of all, the larger the value of your estate is, the more likely you are to benefit from legal counsel. Additionally, the more complicated your estate is, the more likely you are to need an attorney.

Note that there is more to the story than simple net worth. Somebody with $50 million in cash sitting in the bank may not need an estate planning attorney. On the other hand, somebody with $10 million spread throughout various properties and an active business might need an estate planning attorney.

Additionally, you might need an estate planning attorney if you are concerned about things like child custody. The same applies if you want to set up more complex legal tools like trusts.

It can also be a good idea to hire an estate planning attorney if you think that people might contest your will.

Understand Everything You Need to Know About Hiring an Estate Planning Lawyer

We hope that some of the ideas in this brief article about the most important things to keep in mind when you are hiring an estate planning lawyer have been helpful for you. Most people do not get a lot of fun out of shopping around for a lawyer. At the same time, it is sometimes worth putting in a little extra effort.

There are not very many things as important as managing your legacy. Finding the right estate planning lawyer can make a difference that will echo for generations. To learn more about the importance of working with a great estate planning lawyer and where you can find one, feel free to reach out and get in touch with us here at any time!