Kara C. Fleming, L.L.C.

Trusts & EStates

The Law Office of

The Law Office of Kara C. Fleming, LLC offers experienced legal guidance in designing, drafting, implementing and administering comprehensive individualized estate plans. In our trusts and estates practice, we help clients design and implement comprehensive and flexible estate plans customized to address each client’s individual needs, goals and concerns. Our clients’ estate plans are usually multi-faceted and can include elements of disability management planning, disposition planning for spouses, children and grandchildren, charitable planning, asset protection, wealth preservation planning and planning to minimize the impact of income, estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes.

Our clients

We have a diverse client base. We represent clients throughout the State of Georgia and clients from other states and countries with property interests, business interests and family members located in Georgia. Our clients have varying family and financial profiles, including the following:

• Single, married or partnered persons
  
• Blended families
  
• Families with special needs children
  
• Families with substance abuse issues
  
• Persons with debilitating diseases
  
• U.S., non-U.S. and dual citizens Individuals with or without children
  
• Parents and grandparents
  
• Families with spendthrift children
  
• Business owners and professionals
  
• Persons with terminal illnesses
  
• Bereaved spouses and children
  

We also represent executors, personal representatives and administrators with the administration of decedents’ estates and trustees in connection with the administration of revocable trusts and irrevocable lifetime and testamentary trusts. With such clients, we strive to ensure that the fiduciary’s management, administration, investment and distribution of the estate or trust comports with the terms of the operative documents (i.e., will, trust, etc.) complies with applicable state and federal laws, minimizes disharmony or conflict among beneficiaries or heirs and protects the fiduciary from liability from beneficiaries, heirs and creditors.

Our process

Our estate planning process typically begins with a no-charge initial consultation during which a client’s specific objectives are identified and discussed. After the initial meeting, an individualized estate plan is developed for the client that comprehensively addresses the client’s specific financial situation, family dynamics, goals and concerns. From the simplest estate plan to the most complex, our attorneys provide the technical expertise, independent judgment, practical guidance and human compassion needed to help a client develop a goal-oriented plan. Our attorneys then draft the requisite documents, see to their proper execution and assist in the implementation of the plan while providing advice about asset titling, beneficiary designations, insurance coverage, tax minimization, asset protection and probate considerations. Process steps will include some or all of the following:

• No-charge initial consultation
  
• Formulation of planning goals
  
• Document drafting and execution
  
• Asset protection considerations
  
• Asset titling considerations
  
• Disability planning for clients
  
• Probate considerations
  
• Charitable planning
  
• IRA and retirement account planning
  
• International considerations
  
• Fixed and hourly fee structures
  
• Development of customized plans
  
• Development of explanatory materials
  
• Beneficiary designations
  
• Tax minimization planning
  
• Planning for special needs beneficiaries
  
• Family gifting strategies
  
• Vacation home planning
  
• Multi-state planning
  
• Business succession planning
  
• Trust & estate administration