Estate plan documents may include:

• Will and/or Trust
• Power of Attorney for Property
• Healthcare Power of Attorney
• Advanced Healthcare Directive
• HIPP Waiver
• Directions to set up Non-probate Transfer Designations

Moore Legacy Law invests in our clients significantly on the frontend to understand their concerns, goals, and assets. Some firms skip this strategic step altogether. They have a single template they use and they will fit you into it regardless of how well it actually works.

Moore Legacy Law creates custom plans to achieve each of our client’s specific objectives. We marry the following to recommend the best plan for each individual:

1. Maximize effectiveness: How completely does the plan meet the client’s needs/goals?
2. Control cost: How expensive is the plan to create, maintain, and administer?
3. Control complexity: How easily can a layperson understand and implement the plan?

Everyone needs an estate plan to ensure their assets are distributed according to their wishes upon death and to remove some of this burden from their loved ones.

Additionally, everyone needs to identify the people and the resources that will be used to take care of them if they can no longer take care of themselves (are incapacitated). Otherwise, this burden will also fall onto loved ones.

Finally, it is critical that parents have an estate plan in place to protect and support their children in the parents’ absences or incapacity.

A will does not avoid probate court. Probate court eats up a lot of time and money. To avoid your estate being probated upon your death, you need a trust-based estate plan.

•   Avoid probate – which eats up time and money, causing delays in distributing inheritances and smaller amounts to be distributed
•   Better control how their assets are distributed: Everything in a will goes “outright” to your beneficiaries – they get the whole amount (after probate fees) as soon as it’s available (after probate delays). With a trust, you can make stipulations. For example, you can detail when you’d like your minor children to receive payments and how much each should be. (And again, this is huge: you avoid probate fees and delays.)
•   Protect beneficiaries from their own creditors as well as yours
• Help minimize the Estate Tax

A revocable living trust will not allow you to exclude assets for purposes of qualifying for Medicaid. 

A revocable living trust will not protect you from an existing lawsuit.

Anyone who wants their estate to avoid probate should consider a revocable trust.

Legal fees vary by the value of the property being probated and the complexity of administration. Moore Legacy Law’s fees typically range from 2% to 7% of the value of the property being probated. The more valuable the estate is, the lower the costs are likely to be as a percentage of the estate. 

Moore Legacy Law is unique in that we invest in our clients upfront. We take the time to understand your case and provide an early estimate to avoid surprises down the line.

Other costs include court costs, filing fees, publication fees, settlement fees, and bond premiums. They vary by county but typically range from $500 to $1,000.

Finally, the Personal Representative is entitled to a fee for their services. In Missouri, that fee is calculated according to the following schedule:

On the first $5,000, 5 percent

On the next $20,000, 4 percent

On the next $75,000, 3 percent

On the next $300,000, 2 3/4 percent

On the next $600,000, 2 1/2 percent

On all over $1,000,000, 2 percent

There are some tools that allow you avoid probate upon your death. These include a trust-based estate plan and Non-probate transfer designations. Moore Legacy Law will help you assess your assets and determine which tools make the most sense to ensure that your assets are not subject to probate upon your death.