Wilmington and the surrounding area, including Pender County, New Hanover County, Brunswick County, and Duplin County
Estate Administration
If you have lost a family member or close friend and require an individual to represent you as the Executor of a Will or the Administrator of an Estate, Chip can help.
In certain circumstances, Chip may be willing to serve as the Administrator or Executor personally if the circumstances warrant.
Guardianships
This firm is able to work through every phase of a Guardianship for a child or an incompetent adult, including but not limited to:
Filing the relevant documents with the Court and properly serving them on all interested Parties;
Collecting Medial Records;
Requesting Multiple Disciplinary Evaluations to have your loved one’s capacity evaluated by a licensed professional who will report his/her findings to the Court;
Applying for Interim Guardians if an emergency exists;
Attending all necessary hearings;
Assisting with the administration of the guardianship estate itself (Applying for Letters, submitting Inventories and Accountings, and the appropriate distribution of the proceeds.
Wills and Estate Planning
Chip can draft Wills, Trusts and other Estate Planning documents such as Living Wills, HIPAA Releases, Heath Care and Durable Powers of Attorney for individuals in our local area.
He is almost always able to quote a FLAT FEE for these services.
Real Property Title Clearing and Seller Representation
In many instances, closing attorneys will find ‘fatal’ flaws in their title searches. Often times, these flaws require more than just the filing of a few documents on the public record, but sometimes, there are very simple fixes.
However, maters do arise where the legal owners of the property are not identifiable with certainty. For example, a Grandfather may pass away leaving a second wife, but with both parties having children of their own, and children together, some of whom are deceased.
This creates a multitude of issues requiring an in depth understanding of a host of different areas of the practice of law.
When utilizing the Court system to fix these title problems, such matters are often called Quiet Title or Declaratory Judgment actions. These special lawsuits require coordination with and the appointment of a Guardian ad litem, extensive searches of family histories, and the novel ‘service’ issues that arise when following the procedural due process requirements when dealing with ‘Unknown Parties.’
It also helps when the attorney handling this type of litigation has close ties to the title insurance industry, whom Chip works with closely to make sure that all the relevant procedures are followed, not only for the benefit of the Court, but for the benefit of the title insurance companies.
Don't Lose Your Sale Unnecessarily!
Frequently, when these circumstances arise, no local attorneys familiar with these procedures exist, or if they do, they are too overwhelmed to address these matters promptly, causing unnecessary losses of contracts and the consequential return of due diligence money (already given to the sellers). In many cases, an immediate call from Chip can put the buyers and their attorney at ease that the problem is being addressed as quickly as possible and with as much certainty as possible.