Savannah, Georgia Estate Planning, Elder Law and Special Needs Attorneys

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Smith Barid, LLC

Estate Planning, Elder Law and Special Needs
Attorneys at Law

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A Collaborative Plan

The typical legal consultation begins with an attorney sitting down with a potential client, yellow legal pad in hand. This is what we refer to as the blank slate approach. This approach runs the risk of leaving out critical information that can cause mistakes in the planning.Rather than beginning with a blank slate, we believe in utilizing a well-developed process that we have honed and refined over our thirty plus years of combined experience to help you make decisions about what type of planning is appropriate for your situation and your family. We further believe that a collaborative approach brings the best results for our clients. We work closely with our clients, their family members, their financial advisors and their accountants to create plans that will address the client’s unique and specific estate planning and elder law needs both now and in the future.

Team Based Planning

Every client has a different situation and creating the right plan requires the collaboration of all of a client’s advisors. Because the legal landscape is constantly changing, we build each plan with as much flexibility as we can. In this way, we ensure that the plan will address our client’s needs now and can adapt to changing circumstances as they arise. We also want to serve clients who want a lasting relationship with their legal advisors. Unlike most estate planning attorneys who view the estate plan as a one time transaction, we meet with clients regularly to review their plans and make sure that the plan we created years ago adequately meets their current needs. Click below to learn more about our process in each of our specific practice areas.

Estate Planning | Elder Law | Special Needs

Estate Planning

As Savannah estate planning attorneys, we have learned that when you fail to do proper estate planning, those left behind can be devastated. Fortunately, we have the knowledge and experience to put the proper plan in place for your family. The planning advice of family and friends often does more harm than good as each person's estate, and therefore their estate planning needs, are different.  As you may have read,  a majority of Americans do not have a meaningful estate plan in place.  Some surveys suggest that as many as 70% of American adults have no estate plan at all.  Without at least a will in place, the ultimate decisions about how your estate will be distributed will be made by the government.  Yet, with the proper estate plan in place, you can control how the estate is distributed and even avoid probate.  We have placed solutions right here on this website for your estate planning problems.  Free resources, blog posts and free telephone consultation if needed are all available to you now.  You can learn more about the basic estate planning tools wills here and trusts here. You can begin planning to protect your family … More about Estate Planning Attorneys in Savannah

Elder Law

A qualified elder law attorney can help you and your family find peace of mind about the staggering costs of long term care.  We help seniors and their families with legal issues specific to those age 65 and older. One of the most serious challenges facing seniors today is how to pay for the costs of medical care.  If you fail to plan for long term medical expenses, you can have your life's savings wiped out.  Qualifying for Medicaid or other government benefits potentially available to you like Veterans Aid and Attendance can mean the difference between losing your life's savings and living comfortably through your golden years.  The elder law attorneys at Smith Barid, LLC focus on helping older Americans plan for their long term care.  Through our knowledge of government benefit programs like Medicaid and VA Aid & Attendance and our experience in helping other families plan, we can help you and your family come up with a plan to pay for your medical needs and protect your life's … More about Elder Law Attorneys in Savannah

Special Needs

If you are a caregiver for a child or loved one with special needs (such as mental or physical disabilities), you probably have worried about what may happen when you can no longer provide and care for them.While you can certainly provide that they receive money and assets, such a bequest may prevent them from qualifying for essential benefits under the Supplemental Security Income(SSI) and Medicaid programs. Often, Medicaid is the only health insurance that a person with special needs can qualify for. Government benefits only provide for the bare necessities such as food, housing and clothing. As you can imagine, these limited benefits will not provide those loved ones with the resources that would allow them to enjoy a richer quality of life. But if parents leave any assets to their child who is receiving public benefits, they run the risk of disqualifying the child from receiving these benefits. Fortunately, the government has established rules allowing assets to be held in a … More about Special Needs Attorneys

What our Clients Have to Say About Us

"You listened to me to make sure that you knew why I wanted to set up this living trust and gave me confidence that you knew exactly how to accomplish my goals. Y'all have been attentive and helpful."

"Left no questions unanswered. Wonderful staff."

"The entire team allowed my Mom to feel, accepted, safe and taken care of professionally."

"Very professional place of business who understood my needs and wants and met them. Also, the process was fairly quick."

Mike and Richard_65Smith Barid, LLC are Savannah attorneys who help clients with wills and trusts, tax planning, business planning, elder law and special needs planning.  We serve clients in Chatham, Effingham, Bryan, Bulloch, Liberty, Long, Evans, Tattnall, Glynn and Camden counties and elsewhere throughout Georgia.
We work collaboratively with clients and their advisors to create plans that will truly make it easier for your family when you pass away or suffer disability.  It’s important to get your team “on the same page” when creating a plan so that your wills and trusts integrate properly with everything your financial planner and CPA or accountant have done. We like to bring together the different members of the team early in the process and keep everyone important to the process of creating your estate plan informed.

 

If you have a well-drafted trust or will along with the other documents (like a power of attorney and living wills) that are a part of a complete plan, you’ll ensure that your estate passes to whom you want, when you want, and is carried out in the manner you’ve chosen.  We founded this firm based on our belief that putting together the best plan now will make it easier on you and your family down the road. We focus our practice on estate planning and business planning and we bring together creative strategies and great advice to make sure that your family, your assets and your business are protected. If you have a well-drafted trust or will along with the other documents (power of attorney, living wills, healthcare power of attorney) that are a part of a complete plan, you’ll ensure that your estate passes to whom you want, when you want, and is carried out in the manner you’ve chosen.

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