Estate planning & probate.
From a pour-over will and revocable trust to a contested probate, the right attorney depends on whether you're planning, administering, or fighting an estate — and on what assets actually flow through probate vs. by beneficiary designation. We match you to a Utah, Idaho, or Wyoming attorney whose case history fits your situation.
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Sub-specialties within this area.
Estate planning
The typical combo is a revocable living trust + pour-over will + financial power of attorney + advance healthcare directive. The trust holds your assets so they avoid probate at death; the pour-over catches anything that wasn't titled into the trust. Updating after marriage, divorce, a child, a business sale, or any move across state lines is critical.
Probate administration
Opening the estate, qualifying the personal representative, publishing creditor notice, marshalling and valuing assets, paying valid claims, filing the final accounting, and distributing. Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming all follow versions of the Uniform Probate Code, with informal (simpler) and formal (judicially supervised) tracks. Creditor-claim bar dates run from publication — Utah 3 months, Idaho 4 months, Wyoming 3 months.
Small-estate alternatives
If the estate falls under each state's thresholds, you can skip full probate. Utah allows a small-estate affidavit for personal property up to $100,000 (plus a $5,000 real-property exemption); Idaho also uses $100,000; Wyoming uses $200,000 but real property usually still needs summary administration. These options save months and meaningful fees.
Will & trust contests
Challenges to a will or trust on grounds of undue influence, lack of capacity, fraud, or improper execution — and the defense of those instruments. Utah's challenge windows under the UPC depend on whether the probate was informal or formal. Trust-accounting disputes have separate statutory response windows.
Adult guardianship & conservatorship
Petitions when an adult can no longer make safe medical or financial decisions — and the contest of those petitions when family disagrees. These are probate-court matters distinct from elder-law planning. A capacity assessment and a least-restrictive-alternative analysis are typically required.
Special-needs trusts
First-party (self-settled) SNTs funded with the beneficiary's own assets and third-party SNTs funded by someone else, designed to preserve SSI and Medicaid eligibility for a disabled beneficiary. Drafting errors here can disqualify benefits — this is a sub-specialty.
Estate-tax planning
For high-net-worth estates — ILITs, GRATs, dynasty trusts, gift-tax strategy, generation-skipping transfer planning. Federal estate-tax exposure currently begins above roughly $13M per individual but the post-2025 sunset is real and changes the calculus. Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming have no state estate tax, but assets in other states may be exposed.
Three steps to the right specialist.
Tell us what's needed
A careful AI conversation walks through the facts. Whether you're planning your own estate or dealing with someone else's, whether a will or trust exists, the decedent's state of domicile, approximate estate value, family map, and any property in other states. For contests and guardianships, the trigger event and any deadlines that may already be running.
We identify the sub-specialty
Not just "estate planning" — basic planning, probate administration, small-estate affidavit, will or trust contest, adult guardianship, special-needs trust, estate-tax planning. A planning attorney and a contest litigator are different fits.
Warm introduction to the right firm
We match you to the firm whose case history fits your sub-type. You're introduced, not handed off. The firm knows about your matter before they call — and they know any creditor-claim bar or contest deadline that's already running.
What we'll ask about.
- Whether there's a will or trust, and whether the original is located — not just a copy. A missing original creates a legal presumption the document was revoked.
- For probate matters: the decedent's name, date of death, state of domicile at death, and the states where any assets are located. Out-of-state real property usually triggers an ancillary probate.
- Probate vs. non-probate assets — beneficiary-designated accounts (401(k), IRA, life insurance), JTWROS property, and POD/TOD accounts pass outside probate. Knowing which assets are which determines whether probate is even needed.
- Family map — surviving spouse, children (and from which marriage), parents if no children, intentionally-omitted heirs, half-blood or stepchildren. Intestate succession differs by state, and prior marriages add complexity.
- Any prior estate plan more than 5 years old, or signed before a major life event — marriage, divorce, child, sale of a business, move to a new state. Stale documents are often the root of contests.
- Special-needs beneficiaries, business interests, digital assets and crypto, and any Medicaid five-year-lookback exposure. Each adds a planning layer most generalists miss.
Deadlines to know.
Probate has hard deadlines that run from publication or notice, not from death. Creditor-claim bar dates run roughly 3 months in Utah and Wyoming and 4 months in Idaho from publication of notice — and once they pass, late creditors are usually barred. Will-contest windows depend on whether the probate is informal or formal; the safe rule is that any challenge needs to be filed within 12 months of death or the start of probate, whichever is later, but specific facts can change that. Trust-accounting disputes have separate statutory windows tied to the accounting itself. Real-property sales pending in an estate can't close until probate clears title; if a closing is on the calendar, the probate work is urgent. A Medicaid Estate Recovery notice carries its own response window. Adult guardianship is urgent when an elder is being financially exploited or is about to sign a major irreversible decision — once it's signed, undoing it is much harder.
What people ask.
Most estate-planning attorneys quote flat fees by package. A basic will-based plan typically runs $500–$1,500. A revocable-trust-based plan (trust + pour-over will + POAs + advance directive) typically runs $2,000–$4,500 in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, with high-net-worth planning higher. There's no fee for talking to us or for the introduction.
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