West Des Moines Estate Planning:
Build a Plan That Works for Your Family
“Skilled West Des Moines estate planning provides clarity, control, and the ability to support the people you love most even when you’re gone.”
Take control of your legacy when you request a consultation with Pearson Bollman Law, the West Des Moines estate planning law firm people trust.
When it comes to estate planning, many people feel overwhelmed by legal language and uncertainty.
That’s why Pearson Bollman Law is dedicated to helping West Des Moines families understand their options in plain English and build estate plans that truly reflect what matters to them.
Whether you’re planning for your children, preparing for retirement, or just want peace of mind, we’ll walk with you every step of the way. Our goal is to ensure your legacy is protected and your loved ones are cared for, explaining every step of the way with plain language. With Pearson Bollman Law, you get confidence in the future, not complicated legal jargon.
What Should I Include in My Estate Plan?
Estate planning is crucial for protecting what matters most: your family, your values, your future, and your legacy.
A solid estate plan often includes:
- Last Will and Testament, to provide the foundation for a lasting legacy.
- Revocable Living Trust that helps your family avoid court delays and keep your plan private.
- Powers of Attorney to place your finances in the hands of someone you trust.
- Advance Health Care Directives enshrine your medical care preferences when you can’t speak for yourself.
- Guardianship plans assign the care of minor children to someone you can count on.
We create customized plans that match your goals.
Wills vs. Trusts: What’s Best for You?
A will is essential; it allows you to name how your assets are divided and who will care for your children. However, it typically requires going through probate, which can be a slow and public process.
A revocable living trust can help you avoid probate, maintain privacy, and provide more control when you’re unable to act on your own behalf. Trusts are beneficial if you own property or want to make distribution conditional or structured over time.
We’ll help you decide which combination works best for your situation, whether it’s a will and a trust, or just a will.
Planning for Incapacity
Estate planning isn’t only about what happens after passing. It is just as important to plan for what happens if you can’t make decisions.
- A Durable Financial Power of Attorney lets someone you trust pay bills and manage finances on your behalf.
- An Advance Healthcare Directive spells out your medical preferences.
- A Healthcare Agent is someone you name to speak for you if you can’t speak for yourself.
These documents prevent your loved ones from having to go to court to help you.
Avoid Dispute and Conflict
When estate plans are unclear or missing, even the closest families can fall apart. We help plan to avoid conflict by:
- Explaining your options in simple terms
- Helping you discuss your plan with your loved ones
- Creating documents that clearly express your wishes
If disputes arise over a will or trust, we can also assist with estate disputes, guiding families toward fair and practical solutions without the drama.
Why Work With Us?
At Pearson Bollman Law, we take pride in being:
- Practically helpful, not pompous or confusing
- Clear communicators, you’ll never feel dumb asking a question
- Your experienced ally protecting your family’s future for decades to come
We know estate planning can feel overwhelming. But once your plan is in place, it brings clarity, protection, and peace of mind. With our help, you can tailor a plan to your family’s unique needs and values. Pearson Bollman Law is here to guide you; simply book a consultation.
8 Common Estate Planning Mistakes
Avoiding common mistakes while creating an estate plan is essential. Ensure that you create a plan that is free of errors and protects your loved ones instead of creating stress for them.
Below are some of the most common estate planning errors:
Doing it yourself. You can prepare your will yourself, but an attorney from our firm will not simply prepare documents. Our estate planning lawyers will determine your objectives, advise on what documents you need to meet them, we’ll draft the documents to meet those objectives, and coordinate the titling of your assets.
Believing that you don’t need an estate plan. Parents with young children often have little extra cash but have life insurance and pension plans. The old saying of being “worth more dead than alive” applies to them. In the unlikely event that both parents die before their children reach age 18, without proper planning, a court-administered conservatorship will have to be established for each child. Each child will receive his or her share upon reaching age 18, to spend as he or she wishes.
Believing that having a will means that you will avoid probate. A will actually contains the instructions for the Court for the probate process, naming who you want as an executor, that you want your bills and taxes paid, and any specific bequests and who is to receive the residue of your estate.
Believing that your assets are going to pass under the terms of your will or trust. Simply because your will or trusts says who is going to receive your assets does not mean that is what will happen. Many assets pass outside the Will or Trust. Examples are life insurance, IRAs, annuities and other assets that have named beneficiaries.
Not updating your estate plan. Heath Ledger, who made his millions in movies (Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight), died at age 28. He had a will which left his assets equally to his parents and his siblings, but left nothing to his infant daughter. Remember the 5 D’s of when you should update your estate plan: Divorce, Dependent, Disability, Death and Decade.
Not planning for incompetence. Living wills, durable powers of attorney for health care decisions and durable power of attorney for financial decisions are a part of estate planning. Guardianship (over the body) and conservatorship (over the finances) proceedings are burdensome and expensive but are required for a people who do not have those documents and their decision-making capacity is so impaired that they are unable to make, communicate, or carry out important decisions concerning their own care and their financial affairs.
Failing to update beneficiary designations. Your retirement plan, life insurance policy and more have beneficiary designation forms. It is important to not only keep the primary beneficiaries updated, but you should have secondary or contingent beneficiaries named in the event that the primary beneficiary has died. Since these forms were often completed years prior when an account was opened or a policy purchased, it’s an easy task to overlook.
Not having enough ready cash to pay for the funeral and other final expenses. For example, having cash in accounts that are “payable on death” cannot be accessed without the death certificate which may take several weeks to get. As one of my clients said, after her husband died suddenly, leaving her with a mess, “I’d kill him, if he wasn’t already dead.” This is not the legacy you want to leave your family. You want a well-thought out plan that you have developed with the help of an estate planning attorney in Iowa or Kansas.
Feel confident in your future
Let’s create an estate plan that makes sense for your family.