We are able to serve you better than online legal form providers.
Unlike legal form providers, we do not charge for the documents utilized in our extensive library; we charge for our time and expertise. By doing so, we create a custom plan to fit your needs. We have found from our experience that the utilization of forms on the Internet tends to cost twice as much, as they create misunderstanding and conflict then require correcting.
Here are some examples of problems we have helped fix:
- A son alienated his mother by having all of her husband’s assets go to him and attempted to disinherit her. When the mother objected to her treatment and contested the will, we helped the mother and son reconcile and recognize that state law would not recognize a will which was witnessed by the son and left the widow penniless.
-
A father wanted to draw his own will by laying out how he wanted to divide his land. The problem arose after his death when his drawing was not consistent with the will. It took three hearings to straighten out the issues, including a trip to the property by the attorneys, chancery judge, and surveyor.
-
A professor and his wife both had handwritten wills, which were not properly witnessed and contained inconsistent language. The children and grandchildren had to guess in order to agree on what needed to happen to resolve the estate.
-
A father wanted to avoid legal costs for him and his wife. Instead, the will become invalid due to an inconsistent deed created by non-lawyers. Their heirs disagreed on what they believed their parents had told them, so the estate was decided based upon the state laws of intestate succession.
-
Three heirs insisted on managing the assets of an estate before our firm was involved and paid out twice the amount they should have to the decedent’s children and grandchildren. Their attempt to save legal fees ended up costing them four times as much money.
-
Freeland Martz restores the inheritance to a wife and son after the daughter who had served as executor attempted to keep the Estate for herself. “A successful entrepreneur was diagnosed with cancer and died years ago. His daughter who worked with him opened his Estate which was supposed to go to the deceased husband’s wife, son, and daughter since the husband left with no will. Rather than carry out the order closing her Father’s estate, the daughter got her mother, who had lost capacity, and she signed over all their property to the daughter. The daughter cut timber on the property and “drained” equity in the business the Family was supposed to own together. After discovering what had occurred, the brother sought the help of the chancery court. Through a settlement a few days before trial, restored the inheritances which should have gone to the three husbands. Fortunately, there were sufficient assets, pressure from the court and counsel to accomplish the resolution coupled with a desire of the Family members to end the conflict and reconcile.”