Estate Planning and Wills for New Families

Once you start your family, it's time to take basic steps to ensure that you, your partner, and your children will be protected throughout your lives, even if something happens to you.

While many people associate estate planning with seniors or people with large property holdings, it is also an important way for new families to secure their futures.

Bouneff, Chally & Koh specializes in estate planning for new families and LGBTQ+ couples. We help you prepare a simple will, which identifies a guardian for your children and plans for distribution of your property if both you and your partner die. We prepare a power of attorney to empower you and your partner to make decisions and take actions on each other’s behalf if you are incapacitated. Finally, we prepare an advance directive to state your medical wishes and to enable you and your partner to make medical decisions for each other.

Same-sex couples and unmarried straight couples particularly benefit from estate planning, as their rights as partners are not always honored without specific legal protections.

For these families, in addition to ensuring the above rights, we also prepare a document for the disposition of remains and appointment of conservator and guardian. These ensure that if one partner falls ill or dies, the other can be appointed as guardian and conservator and will have the right to claim the body and make final decisions.

While no one likes to think about their own or their partner’s illness or death, new family estate planning gives you the peace of mind that you are legally protected no matter what the future holds.

Who will be helping you:

Tabitha Koh has been an attorney with Bouneff, Chally & Koh since 2009. While experienced in many areas of law, she specializes in second parent adoptions and new family estate planning. As a lesbian woman with a wife and two young children herself, Tabitha knows how critical legal protections are for gay and lesbian families, and provides compassionate and understanding legal care.

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