Estate Planning FAQs

Plan ahead. Protect what matters. Get clear answers to your estate planning questions.
1. What is estate planning?

Estate planning is the process of deciding what should happen to your property and who should act for you if you become incapacitated or die. 

A comprehensive Utah estate plan may include a Will, revocable living trust, financial power of attorney, advance health care directive, beneficiary designations, deeds, and other planning documents depending on your circumstances. 

Good estate planning is about more than deciding who receives your property. It can also identify who will manage your finances if you cannot, who will make medical decisions for you, who should care for minor children, and how an inheritance should be managed for beneficiaries. 

Yes. Estate planning is not just for wealthy families. 

If you own a home, have retirement or investment accounts, have children, own a business, want specific people to inherit your property, or simply want someone you trust to make financial or health care decisions if you become incapacitated, an estate plan can be valuable. 

For many families, avoiding unnecessary expense and confusion is more important than sophisticated tax planning. 

An experienced Utah estate planning attorney can help create a plan that is appropriate for the assets you actually have rather than making the plan more complicated than necessary. 

A Will generally directs how probate property will be distributed after death, nominates a personal representative, and can nominate guardians for minor children. 

A revocable living trust can hold property during your lifetime and provide for management and distribution of trust assets if you become incapacitated or die. Property properly transferred into a trust can generally be administered without probate. 

A trust does not eliminate the need for a Will. Trust-based estate plans usually include a pour-over Will to address property that was not transferred to the trust and to handle matters such as guardianship nominations. 

The better choice depends on your family, assets, and goals. 

Not everyone needs a trust. 

For some people, a properly drafted Will together with beneficiary designations and other planning may be sufficient. For others, a revocable living trust can provide significant advantages. 

A trust may be particularly useful when you own real estate, want to avoid probate, own property in more than one state, have minor or financially inexperienced beneficiaries, have a blended family, want more control over how an inheritance is distributed, or want a smoother transition if you become incapacitated. 

At Westwood Law, we evaluate whether a trust actually provides enough benefit to justify the additional planning rather than automatically recommending one to every client. 

A properly created and properly funded revocable living trust can help avoid probate for assets owned by the trust. 

The words “properly funded” are critical. 

Creating a trust document but leaving your house, bank accounts, or other probate assets outside the trust may result in those assets still requiring probate after your death. 

Estate planning should therefore include not only drafting the trust but also reviewing how important assets are titled and coordinating beneficiary designations. 

A trust is most effective when the legal documents and the ownership of your property work together. 

If you die without a valid Will or other applicable estate-planning arrangements, Utah law determines who receives property that passes through your probate estate. 

This is known as dying intestate. 

Utah’s statutory distribution may or may not match what you would have chosen. The result can become particularly important in blended families, second marriages, situations involving unmarried partners, or families in which one beneficiary has special circumstances. 

Without appropriate incapacity documents, your family may also have fewer options if you become unable to manage your financial or health care decisions during your lifetime. 

Estate planning allows you—not state law—to make many of those decisions in advance. 

A financial power of attorney allows you to appoint another person, called an agent, to handle specified financial and legal matters on your behalf. 

Depending on how the document is written, that authority may include dealing with bank accounts, real estate, taxes, insurance, government benefits, contracts, and other financial matters. 

A properly drafted power of attorney can be especially important if illness or an accident leaves you unable to manage your own affairs. Utah Courts note that a well-written power of attorney may help avoid more complicated arrangements such as a court-appointed guardian or conservator. 

A financial power of attorney does not itself authorize the agent to make health care decisions. 

A Utah Advance Health Care Directive allows you to name someone to make health care decisions for you if you cannot make or communicate those decisions yourself. It can also contain instructions regarding your health care wishes. 

This document is different from the financial power of attorney. 

Having an advance directive can reduce uncertainty for family members and medical providers during a serious illness or emergency. 

Estate planning should address both sides of incapacity: who will manage your financial affairs and who will make health care decisions if you are unable to act for yourself. 

There is no single probate-avoidance technique that is right for everyone. 

Common estate-planning tools may include a revocable living trust, beneficiary designations, payable-on-death or transfer-on-death arrangements, certain forms of joint ownership, and other methods of transferring property outside probate. 

The important issue is coordination. 

For example, creating an excellent trust will not avoid probate for an asset that should have been transferred to the trust but never was. 

A Utah estate planning lawyer can review your home, financial accounts, retirement assets, life insurance, businesses, and other property and develop a coordinated probate-avoidance strategy. 

There is no universal expiration date for a Will or trust, but your estate plan should be reviewed periodically and after important changes in your life. 

Common reasons to review an estate plan include marriage, divorce, the death of a spouse or beneficiary, birth or adoption of children or grandchildren, a significant change in assets, buying property in another state, selling a business, changes in family relationships, or the death or incapacity of a person you named as trustee, personal representative, or agent. 

Even if nothing major has changed, reviewing your documents every few years can help ensure that the plan still reflects your wishes. 

Choose someone who is trustworthy, responsible, organized, and capable of dealing fairly with family members and beneficiaries. 

The best choice is not necessarily the oldest child or the person who lives closest to you. 

A trustee may need to manage investments, real estate, taxes, beneficiary distributions, and records over a long period. A personal representative administers the probate estate after death. 

It is also wise to name one or more successors in case your first choice cannot serve. 

For complicated estates, professional or institutional fiduciaries may sometimes be appropriate, but many families are well served by a responsible family member or trusted individual. 

Parents of minor children should consider both who will care for the children and who will manage the children’s inheritance. 

A Will can nominate the individuals you want considered as guardians if both parents die while a child is still a minor. 

You should also decide how inherited property will be managed. Giving a significant inheritance outright at the youngest permissible age may not be what you want. 

A trust can allow a responsible trustee to use money for a child’s health, education, support, and other needs while delaying outright control of the remaining inheritance until an age or ages you choose. 

Blended families often require more careful planning than traditional estate plans anticipate. 

For example, leaving everything outright to a surviving spouse may unintentionally result in children from a prior relationship receiving little or nothing later. On the other hand, restricting the surviving spouse too severely can create hardship or unnecessary conflict. 

Trust planning can often balance these competing goals by providing for a surviving spouse during his or her lifetime while preserving designated property for children or other beneficiaries after the spouse’s death. 

Beneficiary designations, jointly owned property, retirement accounts, and existing divorce obligations should also be coordinated with the overall estate plan. 

Often, yes. 

Instead of requiring an inheritance to be distributed outright, a trust can continue holding property for a beneficiary under terms you establish. 

This can be useful when a beneficiary is young, financially inexperienced, dealing with creditor problems, struggling with addiction, involved in a difficult marriage, or otherwise not prepared to manage a large inheritance. 

Planning for a beneficiary who receives needs-based government benefits requires particular care because an improperly structured inheritance can affect eligibility for those programs. 

A special needs trust or other specialized planning may be appropriate in those circumstances. 

Online documents can appear inexpensive and convenient, but the document itself is only one part of estate planning. 

The harder questions are often deciding what the document should say, coordinating beneficiary designations, properly titling assets, planning for incapacity, addressing real estate and business interests, selecting fiduciaries, dealing with blended-family issues, and making sure the documents are properly executed under Utah law. 

A form cannot identify a problem it was never told about. 

An experienced Utah estate planning attorney can help determine which documents you actually need and make sure the pieces of the estate plan work together. 

Serving Families Throughout Utah

Although Westwood Law is proudly located in Cedar City, we represent individuals and families throughout the entire State of Utah. Whether you are searching for an experienced Estate Planning Attorney Utah, need guidance regarding Probate Utah, or want assistance creating a customized estate plan, we are here to help.

At Westwood Law, P.C., we believe that proactive planning today creates security for tomorrow. Our mission is to help Utah families protect their loved ones, preserve their assets, and navigate important legal decisions with confidence. If you are looking for a trusted Estate Planning Lawyer in Utah or an experienced probate attorney, we invite you to contact Westwood Law today and discover how personalized legal guidance can provide lasting peace of mind.