Wills and Estates Attorney in Portsmouth, VA

Planning for the future, whether that means deciding who inherits your property or making sure your wishes are followed if you become unable to speak for yourself, is one of the most important things you can do for your family. Levin & Levin, P.C. helps individuals and families throughout Portsmouth and the Hampton Roads area put estate planning documents in place that reflect their actual wishes and hold up under Virginia law.

A valid will in Virginia must be in writing and signed by the testator, or by someone else in the testator’s presence and at their direction, and generally must be signed in the presence of at least two competent witnesses who also sign the will. You must be at least 18 years old, or an emancipated minor, and of sound mind to make a valid will. A will handwritten entirely in the testator’s own hand can be valid without witnesses present at signing, but proving it later requires the testimony of two disinterested witnesses who can confirm the handwriting, which makes a properly witnessed will the more reliable option in almost every case.

Without a valid will, Virginia’s intestate succession laws determine who inherits your property, which may not reflect what you would have wanted, and a court, rather than you, will decide who administers your estate and, if you have minor children, who may serve as their guardian.

Estate planning goes beyond a will alone. A complete plan typically considers how your assets are titled, whether certain property should pass through a trust rather than solely through a will, how retirement accounts and life insurance beneficiary designations coordinate with your other documents, and how to minimize complications for your family during the probate process. The right combination of documents depends on your specific family situation, assets, and goals.

A durable power of attorney allows you to appoint someone you trust, called an agent, to manage your financial and business affairs if you become unable to handle them yourself. In Virginia, this document is signed and acknowledged before a notary rather than witnessed, and it remains effective, or durable, even if you later become incapacitated, which is the entire point of having one in place before it’s needed.

Because Virginia didn’t adopt a standard fill-in-the-blank statutory form for this document, a durable power of attorney needs to be drafted to clearly grant your agent the specific authority they may need, whether that’s handling banking and property matters, making gifts, or dealing with retirement accounts. A power of attorney for finances is entirely separate from, and cannot be used to make, medical decisions on your behalf.

A medical power of attorney lets you name a healthcare agent to make medical decisions on your behalf if you’re unable to make or communicate those decisions yourself. In Virginia, this document is typically combined with a living will into a single advance medical directive, and it must be signed in the presence of two witnesses to be valid. Your healthcare agent can generally make any medical decision you could have made yourself, subject to any specific limitations you include in the document.

A living will lets you state your own wishes about end-of-life medical treatment directly, including decisions about life-sustaining measures like mechanical ventilation, CPR, and artificial nutrition and hydration, in case you’re unable to communicate those wishes yourself. As with a medical power of attorney, Virginia law generally combines the living will and medical power of attorney into one advance medical directive, signed in the presence of two witnesses, so your documented wishes and your chosen healthcare agent work from the same document.

Beyond the legal documents themselves, end of life planning often involves thinking through and discussing your wishes with the family members and healthcare agents who may eventually need to act on them. A living will and medical power of attorney only work as intended if the people involved understand your wishes and know the documents exist when they’re needed, which is why we encourage clients to have these conversations with their families, not just sign the paperwork.

Our attorneys bring more than 60 years of combined courtroom experience and decades of practice throughout Portsmouth and Hampton Roads to estate planning matters. We take the time to understand your specific family situation and goals, rather than handing you a generic template, so the documents we prepare actually reflect what you want.

Levin & Levin, P.C. represents clients throughout Portsmouth, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, and the wider Hampton Roads region in wills, estate planning, powers of attorney, and advance medical directives. Contact our office today to start planning for your family’s future.