Our Practice Areas

Fortenberry Law Group represents clients in estate planning and uncontested probate matters throughout South/Central Mississippi, South Alabama, and the entire State of Florida.

Estate Planning

Our trust and estate lawyer can help you create and implement a comprehensive plan to manage your affairs during your lifetime and dispose of your assets in the manner that you desire after your death.  Our estate planning practice is client-centered, with a focus on helping you achieve your goals during lifetime and at death in a tax-efficient manner.

We do not push pre-packaged kits or “one-size-fits all” plans onto our clients.  Each estate plan is customized to take into account your unique asset profile and goals.  Our trust and estate lawyer represents clients from all walks of life, from wealthy individuals who need estate tax planning to young families trying to provide for their children to baby boomers approaching retirement to seniors concerned with planning for the possibility of incapacity.  Some of our clients have modest estates, others are very wealthy.  No matter what your situation, we can help you with:

• Preparation of a customized estate plan to provide for the disposition of your estate at death, including the preparation of a Last Will and Testament.  If necessary, we can also prepare any trust documents needed to accomplish your goals, including a Revocable Living Trust, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust, Testamentary Trust, Credit Shelter Trust, Marital Trust, Children’s’ Trust, Charitable Trust, or Personal Residence Trust.
• Integrated estate planning to help you plan for lifetime issues such as incapacity planning and asset protection, including the preparation of Revocable Living Trusts, Durable Powers of Attorney, Advance Health Care Directives/Living Wills, and related documents.
• Gift and estate tax planning designed to allow you to save taxes and pass the maximum amount of your assets to your intended beneficiaries instead of the United States Treasury.
• Real estate planning (including deed preparation) and asset review to be sure that your property is titled in a manner that will work with your estate plan.

Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida Probate Services

Our estate lawyer assists clients with Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama probate and estate administration issues.  Our clients have included individuals, heirs, beneficiaries, and family members from across the United States, as well as bank trust companies and other corporate fiduciaries.  Our probate clients typically contact us after a friend or loved one has died for assistance with probating the deceased person’s estate.

Our estate lawyer can help you determine whether probate is necessary and explore alternative avenues to accomplish your goals.  If probate is necessary, we can help you evaluate the various alternatives, which may include Intestate Succession, Common Form Probate, Ancillary Probate, or Formal and Summary Probate Administration.

Our goal is to guide you through the process as quickly and cost-efficiently as possible.  Our estate lawyer provides assistance with all probate matters, including obtaining letters testamentary, notifying creditors and disposing of creditor claims, rights of beneficiaries, postmortem planning, and asset distribution.

While many of our probate clients are local, a significant number are from out-of-state.  Our estate lawyer is well-versed in the mechanics of representing out-of-state clients in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida probate proceedings.  In almost all cases, the probate proceeding can be managed from your home state, with no need for you to travel from out-of-state or appear in person at any court proceeding.

Our estate lawyer can provide probate services in the following counties:

Contact our estate lawyer today for a phone consultation or to set up an appointment.  We are open from 8:00 until 5:00 central time, Monday through Friday.  We also make home and facility visits in designated areas.