Are you looking for an estate planning lawyer in Ogden, UT?
At Felt Family Law and Mediation, we are trusted estate planning lawyers serving clients across Ogden and the surrounding area.
If you are drafting a will, funding a trust, or settling a parent’s estate in Ogden, an attorney can assemble the documents and manage the filings that bring the matter to a close. Our Ogden, UT estate planning lawyer prepares plans that hold together when they are used and represents personal representatives through Weber County probate. Felt Family Law and Mediation opened its doors in 2016 and has worked with northern Utah families ever since. Schedule a consultation to review what your situation requires.
Estate Planning Lawyer Ogden, UT
Estate planning is the process of putting legal documents in place that direct who manages your property, who receives it, and who speaks for you on medical and financial questions if you are unable to speak for yourself. A plan usually pairs a will or a trust with powers of attorney, a health care directive, and current beneficiary designations. Those documents are drafted to operate together as one set of instructions rather than as separate forms.
Census figures put the owner-occupied housing rate in Ogden at 60.9 percent, with a median home value of $311,300. Residential property is the asset most likely to bring an Ogden household into probate, and it is also the asset that advance planning addresses most directly.
Types of Estate Planning Cases We Handle
Felt Family Law and Mediation drafts the documents that make up a plan and handles the court work that follows when someone dies or loses capacity. Some matters are resolved in a single meeting, while others remain before the Weber County courthouse for the better part of a year.
- Wills. A will names who inherits your property, who serves as personal representative, and who raises your minor children. We draft around blended families, property held in more than one state, and specific gifts that tend to cause disagreement later. The signing and witnessing requirements must be satisfied precisely, because a defect in execution gives a disappointed heir grounds to contest the document.
- Family trusts. A revocable trust holds title to your property during your lifetime and passes it to your beneficiaries outside of court. We draft the instrument, prepare the deeds and assignments that fund it, and identify what still has to be retitled. A trust that is never funded controls no property at all, and correcting that omission makes up a substantial share of the trust work we handle.
- Powers of attorney. A financial power of attorney allows a person you choose to pay bills, manage accounts, and deal with property when you are unable to do so yourself. We draft durable documents in a form that banks and title companies will accept, and we narrow the authority when a client wants it narrowed.
- Advance health care directives. This document names a health care agent and records your treatment preferences in writing. Hospitals and care facilities ask for it when a patient cannot communicate. We prepare it alongside the financial documents so that the two do not contradict each other.
- Guardianship. When an adult can no longer make safe decisions and no power of attorney exists, the question goes before a judge. We prepare the petition, gather the medical support, arrange the required notice, and handle the hearing.
- Conservatorship. A conservator manages money and property for a protected person. The obligations continue for years, and we guide conservators through the inventories and annual accountings the court expects.
- Probate administration. After a death, someone must be appointed to collect the assets, pay valid creditors, and distribute what remains. We represent personal representatives in both informal and formal proceedings, including estates in which the heirs disagree. Most Weber County estates proceed on the informal track, which is faster and considerably less expensive when no one contests the will.
- Trust administration. A successor trustee owes duties to every beneficiary and faces a series of deadlines from the first month forward. We advise trustees on distributions, accountings, and the notices that cut off later claims.
Why Choose Felt Family Law and Mediation as my Estate Planning Lawyer?
Founded in Ogden and Practicing Here Since 2016
Jonathan L. Felt founded Felt Family Law and Mediation in 2016 and has been admitted in Utah since 2015. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Hamline University School of Law. He is also a Master Mediator, and that background carries directly into guardianship petitions and contested estates, where the disagreement often concerns care and money at the same time. He serves as a Guardian ad Litem in highly contested cases as well.
Recognition From the Utah and American Bar Associations
The American Bar Association named Jonathan Felt among its Top 40 On the Rise Young Lawyers in 2021. He received the Utah Pro Bono Publico Young Lawyer of the Year Award in 2017 and was selected for the Utah Bar Leadership Academy in 2019. His memberships include the Weber County Bar Association, the American Inns of Court Northern Utah Chapter, and the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. Our firm has represented Utah families for a decade, and our client reviews describe that work. We confirm the scope of every engagement in writing before drafting begins.
What Is Important To Understand About Estate Planning Cases?
Key Estate Planning Documents and What They Do
Most Utah plans are assembled from a short list of estate planning documents, each of which performs a single function.
- Will. This document directs distribution of property that passes through probate and names guardians for minor children.
- Revocable living trust. This instrument holds title during life and distributes property after death. A funded trust is the primary tool Utah families use to avoid probate.
- Financial power of attorney. This grant of authority covers money and property during incapacity.
- Advance health care directive. This document names a medical agent and states treatment preferences.
- Beneficiary designations. These forms control retirement accounts and life insurance regardless of what the will provides.
What Is The Estate Planning Case Timeline?
Preparing a plan generally takes a matter of weeks, while administering an estate after a death takes months.
- Consultation and asset inventory, usually one meeting.
- Draft review and revisions, generally two to three weeks.
- Signing, witnessing, and notarization at our office.
- Funding the trust and recording any deeds with the county.
- Probate or trust administration after a death, which commonly runs six months to a year.
Smaller estates sometimes qualify for a small estate affidavit, which avoids a full case entirely. Larger ones proceed through informal probate, where the reporting and creditor work produces most of the challenges executors face.
What Are Important Aspects of an Estate Planning Case?
Most plans fail for practical reasons rather than legal ones. Documents are drafted but never signed, deeds are prepared but never recorded, and a beneficiary form from a job someone left in 2009 still names a former spouse. That form controls the account no matter how carefully the will was written. We see the consequences of these gaps during administration, when the family no longer has any ability to correct them. Updating a plan after a divorce, a death in the family, or a move to another state is standard estate planning advice that people postpone for years.
- Fund the trust, because it controls only the property titled in its name.
- Review beneficiary designations whenever a significant life event occurs.
- Choose a personal representative who is willing and able to serve.
- Store the original documents where your family can locate them, which is one of the estate planning tips that matters most in practice.
What Should You Bring to Your Estate Planning Consultation?
You do not need a complete file for the first meeting. Bring the following records if you are able to locate them.
- A list of real property, with addresses and how title is currently held
- Account statements for bank, retirement, and brokerage accounts
- Life insurance policies and current beneficiary forms
- Any existing will, trust, or power of attorney
- Names and contact information for your intended representatives and beneficiaries
The first meeting covers what you own, what you want to happen, and which documents accomplish it. You will leave with a clear understanding of what your situation calls for and what the drafting process involves.
Weber County Probate Court and Local Resources
Probate and guardianship matters for Ogden residents are filed in the Second District Court at 2525 Grant Avenue. The same courthouse handles conservatorships and trust disputes for Weber County. Deeds that transfer real property into a trust are recorded with the Weber County Recorder, and the recording requirements there are specific enough that a rejected document can delay funding by several weeks. Free public access terminals for court records are available at the Weber County Law Library on Jefferson Avenue. Ogden residents who own property in a second Utah county should expect an additional recording step there, and we handle those filings as part of funding the trust.
Reach Out to Felt Family Law and Mediation to Schedule a Consultation
An Ogden, UT estate planning attorney can review your existing documents and tell you whether they still accomplish what you intended. Contact us to schedule a consultation with an estate planning attorney in Ogden. We schedule new consultations promptly, and that meeting covers your assets, your intentions, and the documents your circumstances call for.
