--- title: "Estate Planning Attorney in NY, NJ & OH | Legacy Counsel" url: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/estate-planning description: "Wills, trusts and estate planning for families and business owners in NY, NJ and OH. Fixed fees for a defined scope, agreed in writing." lang: en --- Estate planning # An estate plan built around the people who depend on you. Decide who can act for you, how your assets pass, and what support your family will have. We help turn those decisions into a coordinated plan. Talk through your plans: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/book-consultation Fees & engagement: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/pricing ## Where most clients start ### You are putting a plan in place A will, a nomination of guardians where minor children are involved, and documents naming who can handle finances and health-care decisions if you cannot. Planning for families (https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/estate-planning/families). ### Your family or assets have become more complex A trust where it fits your goals, a review of how property is titled and who your beneficiary designations name, and clearer incapacity planning. Revocable living trusts (https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/trusts/revocable-living). ### Your business needs a succession plan Who can run the company, who inherits your interest, what your transfer restrictions already require, and how the business documents line up with your estate documents. Planning for business owners (https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/estate-planning/business-owners). ## Documents are only part of the plan We start by identifying the decisions and the people: who inherits, who can act for you, and who steps in if a first choice cannot serve. Drafting and review follow from those decisions. Then comes the part plans most often fail on — signing correctly under your state's requirements, and following through on ownership and beneficiary designations so the documents actually control the assets you meant them to. Which of those steps we handle, and which stay with you or your other advisors, is specified in the engagement agreement along with the fixed fee. One clarification worth making early: a revocable living trust may help avoid probate for assets that are properly transferred into it, but it generally does not protect the person who created it from their own creditors. Some states allow certain irrevocable trusts with different creditor rules, and those rules vary by state and by the terms of the specific trust. Sources: Ohio Revised Code § 5805.06 (https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-5805.06) and New York EPTL § 7-3.1 (https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/EPT/7-3.1). These provisions address creditor claims against certain revocable and self-settled trusts; they do not state a uniform rule for every trust. ## Questions we get first Do I need a will or a trust? A will directs who inherits and who administers your estate, and it takes effect through the probate court. A revocable living trust can hold assets during your life and pass them to the people you name without probate, but only for the assets actually transferred into it. Most plans use a will either way; whether a trust is worth adding depends on what you own, where it is located, and whether privacy or avoiding probate in a particular state matters to you. I already have documents. Is a review worth doing? Often, yes. Documents drafted before a move, a marriage or divorce, a new child, or a change in ownership can name people who are no longer the right choice, or miss assets you have acquired since. A review looks at the documents, the way your assets are titled, and your beneficiary designations together, because those three things have to agree for the plan to work. How do fees work? We quote a fixed fee in writing for a defined scope after a scoping conversation, so the number is settled before work begins. The engagement agreement lists the documents included, the jurisdictions covered, and what would be treated as additional work. See Fees & engagement for how scope is defined. By jurisdiction - New Jersey estate planning: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/estate-planning/new-jersey - New York estate planning: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/estate-planning/new-york - Ohio estate planning: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/estate-planning/ohio - Probate & trust administration: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/probate-trust-administration - Guides & resources: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/resources ## Start with a conversation. Begin with a complimentary fit-and-intake call with Jamee, or book a paid strategy session with Drew. Schedule a call: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/book-consultation Prefer to write? Send an inquiry: https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/get-started ## Structured data ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "LegalService", "@id": "https://jacobslegacycounsel.com/#legalservice", "name": "Jacobs Legacy Counsel", "alternateName": [ "Legacy Counsel by Jacobs Counsel", "Jacobs Legacy" ], "url": "https://jacobslegacycounsel.com", "description": "Fixed-fee estate planning for high-net-worth families, founders, executives, and professional athletes. 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