Estate & Legacy Planning

A Note on Wills and Revocable Trusts

Our office provides guidance on wills and revocable trusts – two of our services that often have the strongest impact on your family’s future. Your final wishes are more than just wishes to us; they’re expectations that deserve to be set in stone.

Whether you need a new will, or want to review and update older documents, we can provide the professional insight to grant you peace of mind.

Wills, Trusts, Legacy
& Estate Planning

Wade Cupcheck is our in-house estate planning attorney who can design a legal strategy that protects your loved ones, your wealth, and your legacy.

A well-crafted estate plan can minimize taxes and court fees, preserve family harmony, and ensure that the resources you’ve built over your lifetime are used wisely. 

From Wills and Powers of Attorney to more complex trust planning, Wade will help ensure your estate is properly structured to accomplish your family’s goals.

Legal Services Include:

  • Wills & Living Wills
  • Revocable Living Trusts
  • Irrevocable Trusts
  • Charitable Trusts
  • Pet Trusts
  • Asset Protection Strategies
  • Beneficiary Designations
  • Healthcare Powers of Attorney
  • Durable Powers of Attorney
  • Special Needs Trusts


Recent (and high-impact) changes to the SECURE Act could have created critical vulnerabilities in your legacy plan.

These major weaknesses could cause you to unknowingly unravel the detailed estate plan you currently have in place.

The result?

You could be:

  • Unknowingly disinheriting your spouse
  • Paying more taxes 
  • Forcing your heirs to liquidate their inheritance to pay a massive tax bill (because IRA rules changed)

Key Estate Planning Concerns

The right estate strategy gives your loved ones a meticulously detailed picture of your intentions.

All the while, paying Uncle Sam as little as possible.

We realize it’s easy to put this off. It doesn’t feel urgent.

You may have created your legacy plan ages ago (or even quite recently) and assume your estate is already well protected.

Recent changes introduced by the SECURE Act may have left your estate plan (and your loved ones) vulnerable.

These specific changes are complicated and confusing.

And to make things more complicated, you only have a limited window of opportunity (just until Dec. 31, 2025, or maybe sooner if laws change under the new administration) to take advantage of the opportunities in current tax laws before they disappear.

You can protect your family by booking your FREE Legacy Review to clean up your estate plan (so it’s exactly as you intended) AND take advantage of current favorable tax laws…

OR

You can leave your legacy the way it is and risk causing some critical (and irreversible) pitfalls for your loved ones.

Are you interested in your FREE 1-on-1 Legacy Review? Meet with the NorthStar Financial, Estate, and Tax Planning team by calling (864) 297-0762.

Carefully taking care of you.

Retirement can bring unexpected tax and legal challenges if you’ve not updated your wills and trusts for several years or if you don’t have these documents at all. 

We’ll ensure your assets are properly secured to ensure peace of mind and comfort for you, your family, beneficiaries, and future generations. 

Call us today for a complimentary consultation.

NorthStar Financial & Retirement Planning (864) 297-0762

Investment Management

Investment management is a crucial piece to most individuals’ financial plan. However, few take the time to weigh their options and a lack of understanding can lead to reduced income for the rest of their lives. Our goal is to maintain a reasonable rate of return while protecting your assets during market downturns.
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Income Planning

We customize each retirement strategy according to our clients' needs so that they can spend with confidence without fear of outliving their money.
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Tax Planning Strategies

We strive to build a tax strategy that will bring our clients as close to a zero percent tax bracket as possible. Our CPA, Travis Smith, focuses on tax reduction strategies. Less taxes = more to spend in retirement!
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Long-Term Care Planning

Long-Term Care Planning requires taking the time to understand how long-term care affects each of us and finding the right solutions to protect what we have worked so hard for. We'll also help you weigh the decision between staying home and moving to a retirement community.
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Healthcare & Insurance Planning

Insurance, Medicare, Medicare Supplements and Advantage plans must be part of the conversation when building a comprehensive retirement plan. In order to help prepare for medical costs in retirement, we can help you file for Medicare, figure out which plans are right for you, and prepare for any costs that Medicare doesn’t cover.
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Legal, Estate & Legacy Planning

We understand how important family is to our clients, and we want to help them provide for their loved ones through proper estate and legacy planning. We focus on strategies like multi-generational IRAs. We also use tax mapping, so our clients can leave a greater legacy to their family. Our estate planning attorney can assist with designing your will and/or trust.
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Guide to retirement

Contact us for your
Free 5-Step Retirement Guide.

Our 5-STEP RETIREMENT GUIDE will show you what information is needed to understand the risks associated with retirement so that you can make smart retirement planning decisions.

How can we help?

It can be difficult to decide where to go for financial advice. At NorthStar, we believe in the Golden Rule: treat others the way you would like to be treated. We understand that people can be apprehensive when asking for information and assistance.

Our promise to you is that we will be respectful of your time and there will be no pressure or obligation to do business with us. We want you to be comfortable from the minute we meet!

- George

George Fossing RICP® | CLTC®, President, CEO