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Estate Planning

The Baer Firm provides comprehensive estate planning and probate administration services to clients located in Shelby County.  The firm’s attorneys provide individually tailored estate planning documents, including wills, revocable living trusts, health and financial powers of attorney, living wills and other advance directives.  In addition, the firm’s attorneys provide a wealth of ancillary legal services attendant to estate planning and probate matters, including an analysis of the use of probate avoidance techniques, proper titling and funding of assets into revocable trusts, and carefully crafting estate, gift, and income-tax saving strategies.

Clients frequently seek the advice of the firm’s attorneys after experiencing a change in their lifestyle.  For example, our attorneys are often contacted by parents after the birth of a child to provide advice on naming a guardian, create trusts for children, and discuss life insurance as a possible component of the overall estate plan.  The firm is also frequently brought into the planning process when a client is planning to retire from a family-owned business and wants to explore their options for passing their interest in the business to the next generation.  Our estate planning attorneys provide guidance on how to effectuate a sale or transfer of the business while minimizing the potential tax implications of such a sale or transfer.

The firm is also consulted when a client is confronting issues involving incapacity due to advanced age, illness, or dementia.  A comprehensive estate plan takes into consideration the possibility of subsequent incapacity and provides a plan for the management of the client’s personal and financial affairs.  By implementing an estate plan while the client has sufficient capacity, the client avoids the need for a costly and cumbersome conservatorship proceeding.  A conservatorship is the process by which the court appoints someone to manage the affairs of an incapacitated person. Conservatorships are generally viewed as being a last resort, when there are no viable alternatives to the conservatorship, when a person lacks the capacity to create a valid estate plan.

The attorneys at the Baer Firm also represent clients in probate administration.  Probate refers to the process where a court oversees the administration of a deceased person’s estate.  Probate may occur even if there is no will; if the decedent died without a will, the decedent is said to have died “intestate”, and the decedent’s estate will be distributed to the decedent’s heirs as defined under Title 31, Chapter 2 of the Tennessee Code.

Our attorneys have a client-centered approach toward estate planning that focuses on accomplishing our clients’ goals and objectives.  The firm takes pride in providing the highest quality legal services while making our clients completely comfortable with the entire estate planning process.  To schedule a consultation with the Baer Firm, contact the firm by e-mail or call (901) 525-7316.

Our Office
  • Memphis Office
    200 Jefferson Avenue
    Suite 725
    Memphis, Tennessee 38103
    Phone: 901-525-7316