The Legal Registry for baptists in Missouri
To select an Attorney from the Registry, please select your region of the state.
The Legal Registry for Missouri Baptists lists attorneys who have agreed to be referred to Baptists throughout the state who seek counsel for estate planning. The registry is updated periodically as lawyers request inclusion.
The Criteria for Registry Inclusion
Your Responsibilities In Using The Legal Registry for Missouri Baptists
Criteria for registry inclusion:
- Knowledge of estate planning.
- Knowledge of charitable giving tools in estate planning.
- Willingness to accommodate the client’s desire for a reasonable document turn-around time.
- Willingness to share a basic schedule of fees a client might anticipate for services.
- Professional liability insurance of $100,000 per occurrence and $300,000 in the aggregate as a minimum.
ATTORNEYS: Click here to request inclusion on the registry.
Fee schedules provided are only estimates that are subject to change at each attorney’s discretion and only contain basic information. Clients should discuss fees for services required to meet a particular estate planning need with the attorney before employing him/her for those services. The provided fee information merely estimates potential costs.
Your Responsibilities In Using The Legal Registry for Missouri Baptists
Selecting an attorney to assist you in estate planning is an important decision. Although you may use the Legal Registry for Missouri Baptists to locate potential attorneys, you are responsible to question the attorneys you consider and trusted friends and advisors in determining the most appropriate lawyer. The Missouri Baptist Foundation is not responsible for the listed lawyers’ actions or lack of action, including, but not limited to, representations they have made to the Foundation regarding their qualifications and inclusion on the Legal Registry for Missouri Baptists.
The Missouri Baptist Foundation retains the right to change the criteria and to apply new criteria only to those who enroll after criteria are published. The Foundation makes no representations or warranties regarding the skills and abilities of the listed attorneys.
Before hiring an attorney, you want to answer two questions: Is the lawyer capable and in what areas of law does the attorney practice? For example, a good criminal lawyer may not be a good estate planning attorney.
The Foundation offers these search suggestions:
- Ask friends, clergy, bankers, CPAs, and others who might have contact with attorneys for references.
- Search legal directories at the local library or on the Internet for names, areas of practice and ratings of attorneys near you. Be aware that these directories may not list the names of all attorneys near you who would be able to assist.
- Check telephone listings. Many attorneys list their areas of expertise.
- Contact the Missouri Bar’s Lawyer Referral Service at (573) 636-3635 for help.
- Request the Missouri Baptist Foundation’s Legal Registry for Missouri Baptists.
After gathering names, reduce the initial list by calling each attorney for an appointment. Ask about fees, and consider limiting your search to lawyers who do not charge for the initial visit.
During your initial visit:
- Take all papers relating to the matter you want to discuss.
- Be prepared to describe desired services.
- Ask about the attorney’s experience in that area.
- Ask if the attorney carries professional liability insurance.
- Ask how much of the attorney’s practice is devoted to your matter of concern.
- Ask about fees and whether he/she has a written fee agreement.
- Ask about other expenses you could expect to incur.
- Ask how much time the attorney would expect to complete the matter and how often you would be informed of progress.
- Ask for a detailed description of what the attorney will do for you.
- Ask who will work on your case other than or in addition to that attorney.
- Ask any other questions that would make you comfortable with that attorney.
After completing the interview, ask yourself:
- Is the attorney friendly and easy to talk to?
- Is the attorney understandable and able to explain the laws clearly?
- Is the attorney someone you think you can trust?
Based upon the information you have gathered and your interviews, you should be able to select an attorney who will provide you with the legal services you desire and with whom you will enjoy a good professional relationship. A trusted family attorney can be invaluable when consultation is needed or when an estate must be settled.
(From an article by John M. Hardin, Secretary and General Counsel, Missouri Baptist Foundation).
“Is a living will enough” is an often-asked estate planning question. The answer is always “no.” In Missouri, state statutes created and govern a Living Will as a tool to enable termination of life-support measures in certain defined situations. The statutes contain terms that many find confusing and their mandatory statutory definitions may produce unexpected results. Living Will statutes require the individual to have an “incurable or irreversible condition which…is such that death will occur within a short time regardless of the application of medical procedures.” If the individual is in a vegetative state with no reasonable chance of significant recovery, such that he/she would regain meaningful, cognitive existence, but still would be expected to live an undetermined period of time, relatives and/or medical professionals cannot terminate life-support measures to allow the natural dying process to proceed.
However, a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, another tool created by Missouri Statutes, enables individuals to name people to decide health care issues for them should they later become unable to make such decisions themselves. Under a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, an individual can give others the power to decide to remove life-support measures, should they fall into a vegetative state. It also enables those appointed individuals to handle other health care decisions when he/she is unable to do so.
A Living Will and a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care are tools to be used in disability planning rather than in planning for distribution of your estate at death. Having a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is good disability planning. It assists a person in addressing health care matters but does not address other important matters.
One should also consider a General Durable Power of Attorney as a good disability planning tool. This enables an individual to name a person or people to make financial and other necessary decisions for him/her should he/she be unable to decide for him-/herself as a result of an accident or illness.
A Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and a General Durable Power of Attorney are designed to enable an individual to designate who and how named decision makers will manage the individual’s health care, financial and other personal affairs in the event he/she is unable to do so. However, individuals should consult a well-qualified estate planning attorney to determine which tools may best accomplish goals for the distribution of their estate at death. Wills, revocable living trusts, transfer on death provisions and beneficiary designations are among the most typically utilized tools.
If you would like to include your church, Baptist institutions or other Baptist causes in your estate, or would like to learn about tools to enable you to make lifetime gifts and to provide income during your lifetime, please contact any Missouri Baptist Foundation staffer at 1- 800-776-0747.
