Estate Planning

A will outlines how your assets should be distributed and who will carry out your wishes after your death, including guardianship and final arrangements.

While online templates exist, they often fail to meet North Carolina requirements or reflect your unique family situation.

At Village Law Group, we take the time to understand your family dynamics, priorities, and long-term goals to help us create wills tailored to your family, your goals, and the people you want to protect.

A trust allows you to manage and transfer assets while often keeping your affairs out of the public probate process.

Trusts can support privacy, incapacity planning, and long-term care for loved ones, but they must be properly funded and maintained to work as intended.

At Village Law Group, we help you determine if a trust fits your goals and ensure it is fully integrated into your estate plan from day one.

A Financial Power of Attorney allows someone you trust to handle financial and legal decisions if you are unable to do so.

These powers can be broad or limited depending on your needs, but choosing the right person is essential.

At Village Law Group, we help you thoughtfully structure these documents so the right person has the right authority at the right time.

A Healthcare Power of Attorney allows someone you trust to make medical decisions if you are unable to communicate your wishes.

Because these decisions are deeply personal, it’s important to choose someone who understands your values and can advocate for you under pressure.

At Village Law Group, we help you create clear, values-based directives, so your wishes are honored when it matters most.

Yes. In fact, before your baby arrives is an ideal time to put your estate plan in place.

Estate planning for new parents isn't just about what happens if you die. Some of the most important protections are designed for emergencies that could happen during pregnancy, labor and delivery, or the newborn period.

Before you head to the hospital, you can make sure you have documents in place identifying who can make healthcare decisions for you, receive protected medical information, and handle financial matters if you become incapacitated.

It also gives you an opportunity to plan for your new child, and to make sure both parents are legally protected.

A Health Care Power of Attorney allows you to designate the person you want to make healthcare decisions if you cannot make or communicate those decisions yourself.

HIPAA authorizations and other advance planning documents can help ensure that the person you trust has access to the medical information needed to advocate for you.

And this planning shouldn't be one-sided. Both partners should have documents in place authorizing the other (or another trusted person) to act in an emergency.

Absolutely not. Once you have minor children, estate planning becomes even more important.

Your plan can address questions like:

• Who can consent to healthcare for your children if you are unavailable?
• Who can step in as a temporary caregiver during an emergency?
• Who would you want to raise your children if neither parent could?
• Who is your alternate guardian if your first choice cannot serve?
• Who should manage an inheritance for your children while they are young?
• What will happen to any frozen sperm, eggs, or embryos in the event of your death?

Not necessarily. Most estate planning documents are written to account for future children, so you typically won't need to make major changes when your baby arrives. Documents that do name a child specifically, such as guardianship provisions, may need a quick update after birth to make sure everything reflects your family's current circumstances.

Yes. For LGBTQ+ families, parentage protection should be a separate part of the planning conversation.

A birth certificate is important, but we do not recommend relying on a birth certificate alone to protect a non-genetic parent's legal relationship with their child.

For our North Carolina families, we strongly recommend a confirmatory adoption for a non-genetic parent when appropriate, even when the parents are married and both parents are listed on the child's birth certificate.

A court-issued adoption decree provides an additional, powerful layer of legal protection for the parent-child relationship.

We can discuss parentage protection while you are expecting and help you prepare for the confirmatory adoption process after your baby is born.

Learn More About Confirmatory Adoption →

This is one of the most important decisions parents make in their estate plan.

The common approach is to include your guardian choices in your will. This can cause delays while your will is located. Instead, your Designation for Standby Guardian can document who you want to serve as guardian of your minor children if neither parent can care for them.

But naming one person isn't enough. We help families think through first-choice and alternate guardians, so your plan still works if your first choice is unable or unwilling to serve when the time comes. We also help families update this document if their guardian choices change over the years.

Your planning can include appropriate authorization for one another, as well as for another trusted adult, to obtain or consent to healthcare for your minor children when you cannot.

That can matter during an emergency, but it can also be useful in everyday life when children are being cared for by grandparents or other trusted adults.

Every family's plan is different, but planning may include:

Wills • Trusts • Guardian and Alternate Guardian Nominations • Health Care Powers of Attorney • HIPAA Authorizations • Financial Powers of Attorney • Minor Health Care Authorizations • Beneficiary Designation Review • Parentage Planning • Confirmatory Adoption

The goal isn't simply to sign a stack of documents. It's to make sure all of these pieces work together to protect your family.

Because some of these protections matter before and during the birth itself.

And, practically speaking, once your baby arrives, you will have approximately 4,000 things competing for your attention, most of them louder than your estate-planning attorney.

Planning now means you can head to the hospital knowing:

• We have protected each other.
• We have protected our children.
• We know who will step in if something happens.
• We have a plan to protect both parents' legal relationship with our baby.

Your family is already a family. Our job is to make sure your legal protections reflect that reality.

Schedule Your Family Protection Planning Meeting →
Learn More About Confirmatory Adoption →