Best Consumer Protection Lawyers in Manchester, NH

Most people will benefit from a properly drafted estate plan. Even if a person has modest assets, the other documents created in the estate planning process, such as the durable power of attorney for financial matters, and the durable power of attorney for health care, are of great benefit in assisting a person's family in administering his or her affairs should he or she become ill or incapacitated. Beyond that, a will, or in many cases, a trust, is very helpful in creating an orderly way for assets to pass when someone dies.

Yes. We are aware that there are a variety of circumstances that may make a visit to our office impossible. We are usually able to accommodate these situations with visits by our attorneys, to a client's home or bedside.

Generally not. While we welcome clients who wish to consult with us on estate planning or elder law issues and do not wish to engage our services, we will generally charge a fee for the time expended.

The Curtin Law Office makes a practice of offering our clients the choice of a fixed fee or hourly engagement. While there may be particular situations where a flat fee would not be appropriate, in most instances if a client wishes to know up front the total cost of services, we are able to oblige. However, even when working with clients on a flat fee basis, that fee is based on an estimate of the hours that will be involved in completing that particular matter. We would be happy to discuss this issue further with interested potential clients.

In terms of avoiding probate, it is true that there are other methods (see the previous question). The advantage of a revocable trust for probate avoidance is that, when it is established and properly funded, it ensures a consistent estate plan. Too often, when people rely on designated beneficiaries and joint ownership, the result is a plan that is skewed unintentionally toward one or another beneficiary. The reason for this is that if you have multiple beneficiary designations, and you change one but forgot to change the others, you may create a different distribution than the one you had in mind. By contrast, with a revocable trust, the change can be made once (by means of an amendment to the trust) and this will affect all assets.