What Exactly is Probate?
This week’s blog is about probate – often, our clients have little experience or knowledge about what probate actually is. Probate, often regarded as a complex and daunting process, is a legal process that occurs after someone passes away (the person who has passed away is referred to as “the decedent.”) It involves validating a deceased person's will, inventorying their assets, settling outstanding debts, and distributing assets to the decedent’s beneficiaries. When someone is grieving, it’s extremely difficult to handle and wade through the intricacies and obstacles that arise in probate. With our clients, we always discuss the process, educate clients about strategies, and implement processes to mitigate or avoid the probate process altogether.
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FAQ: Should Your Trust be the Beneficiary for Your Accounts?
In the realm of estate planning, individuals often overlook the significance of designating beneficiaries or “pay on death” designees for their financial accounts such as retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and bank accounts. While many opt for the simplicity of naming family members directly, there can be significant benefits in naming your trust as the beneficiary for these accounts instead of naming your living individual beneficiaries. At Wakefield Law, we often advise clients through complicated subjects like potential beneficiaries predeceasing them, protecting beneficiary’s assets while they are too young to handle funds, and protecting beneficiary’s assets from creditors and from divorce. Let’s dive right in to these topics.
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Why You Need a Carefully Written Contract as a Business Owner
At Wakefield Law, we work with businesses every day. Whether we are focused on a specific issue or making sure legal processes are put in place on a larger scale for the business, we talk about contracts at every turn. In the fast-paced business environment, where the growth and volume of your business, alongside your business’s reputation, are paramount, making sure you have a well-written contract can often fall by the wayside. While handshake deals may seem convenient and friendly at first glance, they often lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, and legal disputes down the line. In this blog post, we'll delve into the crucial role that contracts play in business operations, emphasizing why they are essential for ensuring clarity, avoiding conflicts, and providing a structured framework for enforcing agreements.
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Four Vital Ways a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help with your Car Accident Case
At Wakefield Law, we have been helping clients with personal injury claims arising out of car accidents since the early 1990s. Car accidents can be devastating, leaving behind physical injuries, emotional distress, and financial burdens. When navigating the aftermath of such an event, seeking the guidance of a personal injury attorney can make a world of difference. While many people are aware that attorneys can assist with legal proceedings and negotiations, there are several lesser-known ways in which these professionals can support individuals in their car accident cases.
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Inheritance Planning
At Wakefield Law, many of our clients are parents. Other than parents, we often represent individuals who want to gift their assets to younger beneficiaries like nieces, nephews, godchildren, or beloved family friends. Whether we are working with clients who have minor children, or whether we are working with clients who have “adult” children (who may have some maturing left to do or need some financial experience), the concept of protecting the beneficiaries from too much money too soon is a common subject we focus on. Inheritance planning is not merely about passing on assets to your children or younger beneficiaries; it's about ensuring they receive these assets in the most responsible manner. While the instinct may be to leave everything to your loved ones outright, doing so can potentially harm their development and financial stability, or even squander the assets you have accumulated through hard work throughout your lifetime. This article delves into the importance of responsible inheritance planning and offers strategies to safeguard the financial future and development of your beneficiaries.
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The Risks of DIY Estate Planning Online
Estate planning is complicated. Clients walk through our doors every day for estate planning, and many of them say the same things about their familial or financial situations: Everything is simple and all I need is a simple plan. However, even when there aren’t complications necessitating a profoundly complex estate plan, there are still many details and considerations that must be dealt with to make sure an estate plan will work and will work well. This is not a low-impact issue – we’re discussing financial management that ensures your assets are distributed according to your wishes and that your loved ones are provided for in the event of your passing and the provision for family and loved ones potentially long after you’re gone. While there are various low-cost online tools and software available that claim to simplify the process of creating essential documents such as a Will, Power of Attorney, Advance Medical Directive, and Trust, it is essential to recognize the potential risks associated with using these tools without the guidance of a qualified lawyer.
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The Importance of Agreements in Writing
If it wasn’t in writing, it didn’t happen! In the business world, deals are often sealed with a handshake and a verbal commitment. This can feel like the straight-forward, traditional way to make deals with others, but actually, failing to memorialize deals and agreements in writing is bad for everyone involved. While a handshake deal may seem like a convenient and friendly approach, relying solely on oral agreements can lead to significant risks for our potential clients. In this blog, we will explore the pitfalls of oral agreements and emphasize the critical importance of formalizing business transactions and detailed agreements through writing to protect your legal rights.
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The Power of Attorney and Advance Medical Directive
Often, when people think about working on an estate plan, they think about putting a Will together to list where all their assets will go. People can think estate planning is only for the older generations or for the supremely wealthy. However, something that really isn’t talked about is how important the creation of a Power of Attorney (POA) and Advance Medical Directive (AMD) is, regardless or age or economic status. Putting a plan together and making sure you are protected should you ever be in a position where you need help is irrespective of age or financial status. Having these legal documents in place is crucial for every individual. This blog post aims to shed light on the significance of a Power of Attorney and Advance Medical Directive, emphasizing that these documents are essential tools for ensuring that your wishes are respected, no matter your circumstances.
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Navigating the Statute of Limitations in Virginia: A Closer Look at Breach of Contract
Contracts are the backbone of business relationships, providing a framework for parties to define their rights and obligations. However, when these agreements are violated, our clients have asked themselves what options they have and how quickly they need to move to protect their rights. In Virginia, understanding the Statute of Limitations for breach of contract is crucial. This legal time limit dictates how long a party has to initiate legal proceedings following a breach. In this article, we'll delve into the intricacies of Virginia's Statute of Limitations, explore the nuances between oral and written contracts, and examine how certain actions can toll the limitations period.
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On Estate Planning – Three Important but Often Underexplained Topics
Estate planning is a critical subject for all individuals and families. It’s not just the very wealthy that need to make sure they have advance planning documents in order. Whether you are 18 years old or 100 years old, and whether you have accumulated substantial assets or are just getting started, there are concepts within the umbrella of estate planning that are profoundly important.
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Give Thanks to Your Loved Ones by Setting Up Your Estate to Avoid Probate
The thought of planning for one's passing can be a sensitive and emotional topic, but taking steps to ensure a smooth transition of assets can be a profound gift to your family. In this article, we'll explore how using revocable living trusts, beneficiary designations on financial accounts, joint accounts with the right of survivorship, and Transfer on Death Deeds can alleviate the burden of an expensive, time-consuming, and stressful probate process for your loved ones.
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Understanding the Importance of a Well-Written Contract
Whether you are a business owner, a contractor, or anyone who has been presented with a contract, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new opportunity or become overwhelmed from legal jargon. Whether it's a job offer, a business partnership, or any written agreement, the eagerness to seal the deal and move on can sometimes overshadow the need for caution. However, even if you don’t read a contract, you are bound to its terms. If the terms are vague or can be construed in a way that is not in your interest, you can find yourself in hot water quickly. At Wakefield Law, we make sure your contract is strong, fair, and won’t lead to unwelcome surprises.
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How an Attorney Can Help You Navigate a Personal Injury Case and Ease Your Recovery Journey
As we all know, life can take an unexpected turn in the blink of an eye. Often, accidents can occur at the worst time and when they lead to injury, rehabilitation necessity, unpaid bills mounting, missing work, and stress, the last thing people want to deal with is an insurance adjuster and making sure you are protecting your rights. We always say to clients that after an accident, your top priority should be to focus on your healing and recovery. Problem is, reality can sometimes get in the way of focusing on recovery and when faced with all the fallout after an accident, it’s often way too overwhelming. That's where an experienced personal injury attorney can step in, shouldering the legal burdens and allowing you to concentrate on your health and well-being. At Wakefield Law, we understand the importance of this support during difficult times, and in this article, we'll explore how an attorney can be your greatest ally in a personal injury case.
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Safeguarding Your Family's Future: The Importance of Wills and Trusts in Virginia
In the realm of estate planning, Virginia residents often overlook the significance of wills and trusts. It's understandable, given that discussions about end-of-life matters can be uncomfortable. Also, the subject of estate planning isn’t taught or discussed in a traditional schooling environment. Usually, hard experience and discomfort going through a challenging process after a loved one passes away is the only education our potential clients have had. At Wakefield Law, we educate our clients about how having a well-structured estate plan is crucial for ensuring that your hard-earned assets are distributed as you intend and that your loved ones are protected.
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Tips in Estate Planning for New Parents: Don’t Get Overwhelmed!
If you are a new parent or expecting your first child, estate planning may be the furthest thing from your mind. However, becoming a parent is when estate planning becomes essential.
As a parent (or grandparent!), there are a thousand things to worry about. Having children in your life creates responsibility, and one of those responsibilities is ensuring that you have provided for their care if you are ever unable to provide it yourself. Please consider taking just a few minutes to read our top tips on what every parent needs to know about estate planning.
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What to do about Probate?
How do we avoid or mitigate the process of probate? That’s where we come in. When working with clients, we are focused on probate avoidance. Even if we are not doing a trust, we still advise clients regarding how to avoid or simplify the probate process for their heirs. The first tool we’ll talk about is beneficiary designation:
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Collection of Debts – How Does Contingency Basis Work?
Whether you have a small business with a few select clients, or you run a large business with dealings all over the state or country, it is very often that our clients have to deal with an unpaid invoice. Most frequently, the owing party just isn’t responding anymore. Whether it was financial difficulty, a dispute that went unresolved, or some other communication issue, our client is sitting there with a contract (oral or written), an invoice, but no payment.
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Personal Injury FAQs – Hear from Charles Wakefield, personal injury attorney with over thirty years of experience:
At Wakefield Law, we have been representing individuals who were injured in vehicle and premise accidents throughout Northern Virginia for over 30 years. In that time, we have assisted clients to move smoothly through the process of taking care of their own health, resolving issues around missing work and repairing a damaged vehicle, negotiating with insurance companies, and getting paid fair compensation to make up for losses, inconvenience, and pain. We have also seen clients come to us after months of trying to resolve the impacts of a car accident on their own. Although we are still able to help, we can’t undo the months of worry, stress, pain, and other suffering that our clients have been through before hiring a professional to help guide them through this process. That’s why we are so passionate about making sure that everyone who is injured in an accident through no fault of their own is represented.
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The “Life” Side of Estate Planning
So often, when we think about estate planning, we think about the dying process – not a very comfortable subject to face. While death and making sure you have a plan in place for what happens to your assets after you pass away is very important, it’s not the only subject we handle throughout the estate planning process. The “life” side of estate planning is just as important when we are drafting your comprehensive plan. Setting aside wills and trusts, the “life” side of estate planning generally focuses on a careful drafting of the following documents:
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