Estate, elder law, tax, and fiduciary work for Pennsylvania families
Six connected areas of practice. Most matters touch more than one, and the first conversation is usually about identifying which decision comes first.
Estate and Trust Planning
An effective estate plan answers several practical questions: Who can act if you cannot? Who should receive your property? When and how should beneficiaries receive it? How will the plan work when someone must carry it out?
Wills, powers of attorney, and health-care documents
Beneficiary designations and asset ownership
High-net-worth and tax-sensitive planning
Revocable, testamentary, and irrevocable trusts
Business, real-estate, and succession planning
Protection for beneficiaries who should not inherit outright
Before moving or retitling assets
Before making gifts, changing title, returning transferred property, or purchasing a financial product, obtain advice about the effect on eligibility, taxes, control, fiduciary duties, and the estate plan.
Elder Law, Medicaid Applications, and Long-Term Care Planning
Long-term care problems often arrive with deadlines. A spouse may be entering a nursing home, a rehabilitation discharge may be approaching, private-pay costs may be mounting, or a Medicaid application may require years of records and explanations.
Advance long-term care planning
Medicaid application representation
Spousal protections, the home, and other assets
Crisis planning after care becomes necessary
The five-year lookback and prior transactions
Powers of attorney and authority to act
Probate and Estate Administration
Being named executor is both an honor and a legal responsibility. The work can involve court filings, property, creditors, taxes, beneficiaries, recordkeeping, and decisions the fiduciary has never had to make before.
We handle straightforward administrations as well as estates involving businesses, real estate, significant investments, tax issues, out-of-state fiduciaries, or difficult family relationships.
First steps after a death and opening the estate
Real estate, businesses, and complex assets
Distributions, accountings, and closing
Pennsylvania inheritance tax and fiduciary tax returns
Trust administration and trustee guidance
Out-of-state executors and beneficiaries
Professional Fiduciary Services
Some clients do not have a relative or friend who is willing and suitable to serve. Others want to avoid placing a complex or conflict-prone responsibility on family. Erik is available to serve in appropriate Pennsylvania matters as executor, administrator, trustee, agent under a power of attorney, or guardian.
Professional executor or administrator
Professional trustee, original or successor
Agent under a power of attorney
Professional guardian of the person or estate
Acceptance is not automatic. Erik reviews the governing document or court order, assets, parties, potential conflicts, records, expected duration, geographic demands, risk, and compensation before accepting a role.
Guardianships and Special Needs Planning
Some families need legal authority to protect an adult now. Others need a long-term plan that preserves independence, public benefits, and family resources for a person with a disability.
Adult guardianship petitions and hearings
Less restrictive alternatives
Guardian duties, reports, and accountings
ABLE accounts and benefit coordination
Third-party and first-party special needs trusts
Planning around age 18
Will Contests and Estate Litigation
Estate disputes are rarely just about a document. They often involve family history, control, money, and decisions made when someone was vulnerable. A beneficiary may suspect undue influence. An executor may face allegations of delay or self-dealing. A family may discover unexplained lifetime transfers.
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Not every disappointing outcome is a valid claim, and not every valid claim should be litigated without considering evidence, deadlines, cost, value, family consequences, and the practical remedy.
Will challenges and defenses
Executor, administrator, and trustee disputes
Power-of-attorney abuse and lifetime transfers
Orphans' Court proceedings and mediation
Trust disputes and contested accountings
Family settlement agreements
Most matters touch more than one area
A Medicaid application depends on the power of attorney. An estate administration turns on inheritance tax. A guardianship raises the question of who should serve long term. The first conversation identifies the real decision and the order in which the work should happen.
Planning today
Documents, trusts, tax structure, and the people who will carry the plan out.
Care is needed now
Nursing home admission, Medicaid eligibility, spousal protections, and the authority available under an existing power of attorney.
Someone has died
Probate, executor duties, inheritance tax, complex assets, accountings, distributions, and closing the estate.
Something is contested
A disputed will, a fiduciary under scrutiny, unexplained transfers, or an accounting that does not add up.
