Estate Planning & Probate

An estate plan is not primarily a document about death. It is a set of instructions about who decides, who receives, and how much friction your family has to absorb at the worst possible moment. A plan that is never finished leaves those decisions to Utah's default rules and to a judge who never met you.

ESQs Law PLLC drafts plans sized to the actual situation. A young family with a house and a retirement account does not need the same instrument as a blended family with a business interest and a child who receives needs-based benefits — and should not be sold one.

What this includes

• Wills, including pour-over wills paired with a trust
• Revocable living trusts and funding the trust so it actually works
• Financial powers of attorney and advance health care directives
• Special needs trusts that preserve Medicaid and SSI eligibility
• Guardianship and conservatorship petitions for minors and incapacitated adults
• Beneficiary and transfer-on-death designations, and correcting ones that conflict with the plan
• Probate administration — informal and formal — and small estate affidavits
• Trust administration and successor trustee guidance
• Will contests, undue influence claims, and disputed accountings

How an estate plan gets built

1. An intake conversation about family, assets, and what you are actually worried about.
2. A written recommendation identifying which instruments the situation calls for, and what each one costs.
3. Drafts for your review, with plain-language explanation of every operative provision.
4. A signing appointment with the witnesses and notary Utah law requires.
5. Funding instructions — deeds, beneficiary changes, and account retitling — because an unfunded trust accomplishes very little.