Most estate planning is sold around death. The harder problem usually comes years earlier, when someone has to walk your documents into a bank and be believed.
I build Pennsylvania estate plans for that moment, and for the one after it.
Most people arrive with a situation rather than a document in mind. Start with the one that sounds like you.
You have property, retirement accounts, maybe a business, and nothing on paper that says where any of it goes. Start here.
No spouse. No children. The people you would name as agent are your own age, or further away than you would like. Pennsylvania makes this harder, and more expensive.
A parent is slipping, or a diagnosis just landed, and nobody has legal authority to act. There is a narrow window here and it closes.
Someone has died and the paperwork has landed on you. The Register of Wills, the inventory, the tax return, the beneficiaries asking questions.
Most estate planning content online was written for a different state. It describes a probate system with statutory fees calculated on the gross value of the estate, which is why so much of it reads like a warning. Pennsylvania does not work that way, and planning around the wrong problem costs you money in two directions at once.
Pennsylvania taxes what your beneficiaries receive based on their relationship to you, not the size of your estate, and there is no exemption threshold. It applies from the first dollar. A surviving spouse pays nothing. Children and other lineal heirs pay 4.5%. Siblings pay 12%. Everyone else pays 15% (72 P.S. § 9116).
This is the single most common thing Pennsylvania families get wrong, usually after watching a video made for someone in another state. Assets in a revocable trust remain part of your taxable estate for Pennsylvania inheritance tax purposes. A trust can do a great deal for you. That particular job is not one of them.
Since January 1, 2015, a Pennsylvania power of attorney must be signed, notarized, and witnessed by two adults, and your agent cannot be one of those witnesses (20 Pa.C.S. § 5601). Because most married couples name each other as agent, this quietly invalidated a signing practice that had been routine for decades.
The documents that decide who can act for you while you’re still here.
For clients with no spouse or children, where the usual advice does not apply.
The foundation. Built for Pennsylvania law, not a national template.
Guidance for executors, from the Register of Wills through the final return.
Reducing the 4.5%, 12%, or 15% your beneficiaries would otherwise owe.
Side by side, with the Pennsylvania rule that shapes each one.
We talk about your family, your assets, and what you’re actually worried about. No documents drafted yet.
I recommend a specific structure and tell you what it costs. You decide.
I draft. You review. We revise until it says what you mean.
We execute properly, with the right witnesses and notarization, and I make sure your agents know what they’re holding.
Life changes. So should the plan.
I quote a flat fee before any work begins. You will know the number before you commit, and it does not move because a matter took longer than I expected.
If your situation is simpler than that, I will tell you, and the fee will reflect it.
Depending on whether the plan needs a trust, how many beneficiaries are involved, and whether business interests or property in another state are in the picture.
A 12-point self-audit for documents you already have. Covers the witness and notary requirements, the statutory notice, the agent acknowledgment, and what to do when a bank refuses to accept it.
Free. No obligation. Written for Pennsylvania.
He explained our power of attorney in language we could repeat to our daughter. That had never happened with a lawyer before.
Diane R. · Mount Airy, Philadelphia
My father’s bank refused his POA. Joe sent one letter and it was accepted the following week.
Anthony C. · Montgomery County
I was named executor and had no idea where to start. I knew the fee before we began and it never changed.
Karen S. · Bucks County
Testimonials reflect the experience of individual clients and are not a guarantee of any particular result. Read more client experiences.
I watched a family I knew spend fourteen months and most of a modest inheritance in a guardianship proceeding, because a power of attorney had been signed with a spouse as the only witness. Everyone in that room had done what they thought was right. The document simply did not hold.
Thirty-five years later, that is still the work: making sure the paper holds when the family needs it, and explaining it in language you can repeat at your own kitchen table.
The first conversation is a conversation, not a sales pitch. Bring your questions and whatever documents you already have. If you don’t need what I sell, I’ll say so.