Estate Planning

Estate Planning for Coloradans

Basic to complex estate planning services for diverse Colorado clientelle

Cost-Effective Estate Planning Solutions in Colorado

Ritsick Law LLC provides basic and complex estate planning services for clients of varying net worth and income levels. The firm provides cost-effective assistance to individuals who are only beginning to accumulate assets and offers more sophisticated tax-driven strategies for high net-worth individuals. In an estate plan, an individual sets forth his or her intentions with respect to disposition of the individual’s assets after death. For many clients, planning for minor children through appointments of guardians by written instrument and other beneficiaries with special needs also constitutes an important part of the estate plan. Ritsick Law LLC will discuss the various issues that an individual should consider when crafting an estate plan and assist the client with the preparation and execution of the appropriate documents to reflect the client’s individual circumstances and decisions.

Plan Your Estate

Wills: at the Core of any Estate Plan

A will is often considered the core document of a client’s estate plan. In a will, an individual nominates a personal representative or personal representatives (referred to as “executor(s)” or “administrator(s)” in many states) to carry out the administration of the individual’s estate after death and, if the will creates a testamentary trust, appoints a trustee or trustees. The will sets forth an individual’s wishes with respect to disposition of the individual’s probate assets, which includes only those assets titled an individual’s name at death as opposed to assets passing pursuant to a beneficiary designation or right of survivorship.

Discuss Your Will

Revocable Trusts vs. Wills in Colorado

If an individual uses a revocable trust as the primary dispositive document of his or her estate plan, then the individual’s will is typically drafted as a “pourover” will providing that the individual’s probate assets, if any, pass to the revocable trust on the individual’s death. An individual might use a revocable trust with a pourover will in the following situations:

the individual owns real property in states other than the state of residence and transfers title to the out of state real property to the trust to avoid ancillary probate;
the individual desires greater privacy with respect to his or her estate than is afforded during the probate process;
the individual needs a revocable trust for incapacity planning purposes. Because Colorado has a relatively efficient and inexpensive probate process, most Colorado residents do not use fully funded revocable trusts for the sole purpose of avoiding probate.

Colorado's Estate Planning Professionals!

Meet Ritsick Law LLC

Minimizing Tax Transfer With Estate Planning

To minimize transfer taxes and to achieve other goals, an estate plan may incorporate other trust instruments, such as irrevocable life insurance trusts, charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, and intentionally defective grantor trusts.

Marital and Cohabitation Agreements for Property Rights

A client’s estate plan may also include a marital agreement or cohabitation agreement. A marital agreement is used to define the property rights of married individuals during the marriage and in the event of death or divorce. A cohabitation agreement similarly defines property rights in these situations for unmarried individuals.

Navigate Your Estate

Final Arrangements

In addition to making arrangements for minor children or other dependent beneficiaries and planning for disposition of assets after death, an individual may execute a declaration of disposition of last remains as part of his or her estate plan in which he or she sets forth his or her wishes with respect to disposition of the individual’s remains following death (and following organ donations, if any) and the individual’s wishes with respect to ceremonies following death.