If you are like many Americans, you do not have a will or trust in place – or it has been a while since you last updated it. The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a stark warning about what can happen suddenly without any warning. To keep you safe and protect your legal rights during this scary time, Lana Hawkins is currently offering online estate planning during COVID-19. Here is the information you need to know about this process.

Online Consultation
Online consultation is just like an in-person estate planning consultation except it occurs over videoconferencing software so that you can safely remain at home. During this consultation, your estate planning attorney will get to know you and help you consider important questions, such as:

• What are your estate planning goals?
• What is the structure of your family?
• Who do you want to inherit from you and what do you want them to get?
• What assets do you own and are there any death designations on them?
• Who do you want to appoint to important roles for your estate plan?
• What would you want to have happened in the event you become incapacitated or ill with COVID-19 or another illness?
• What types of end-of-life treatment would you want to receive?

Attorney Hawkins will work closely with you to answer these questions and any others that come up within the scope of representation.

Review Documents
Attorney Hawkins will draft your documents to ensure that they fulfill your estate planning objectives.
The online estate planning process goes a step further by allowing you to review the documents as they are created. We can prepare documents based on your needs, including:

• Wills – This important estate planning document nominates a guardian for your minor children, appoints an executor, and describes how your property should be distributed after your death.
• Trusts – You can plan for Medicaid, protect assets, and avoid the probate process with a trust.
• Advance healthcare directives – You can indicate the type of medical treatments you want – and do not want – in certain situations and appoint a person to make important medical decisions if you are unable to do so yourself.
• Powers of attorney – These documents give the person your name, your agent, the right to handle your financial affairs.

You can review your documents in the safety of your home over email to ensure that all of your wishes are communicated.

Remote Online Notarization
According to an executive order by the governor, remote online notarization is currently being permitted during the pendency of the public health emergency. Typically, you would sign a will and other estate planning documents in front of two witnesses and a notary public. However, in the interest of public health and safety, the governor is allowing these practices to be completed over teleconferencing. This allows you to carry out the legal requirements to execute your documents without putting your health in danger.

Learn More
If you would like to learn more about how to make an estate plan or the role of powers of attorney, trusts, wills, or advance healthcare directives, visit https://www.hawkinslawllc.com/.

Lana Hawkins
https://www.hawkinslawllc.com/