Elder Law

When a parent begins having trouble managing money, making medical decisions, or handling everyday affairs, families often worry that guardianship is the only answer. It usually is not the first answer. Virginia law recognizes the importance of using less restrictive options whenever possible. Planning ahead can allow your parent to choose who will help, explain what that person may do, and preserve as much independence as possible. The key is starting the conversation while your parent still understands the nature and consequences of the decisions being made. Once your parent no longer has the legal capacity to sign planning documents, ...

Watching a parent struggle with everyday decisions can be painful. You may notice small changes at first: unopened mail, missed appointments, or a home that no longer looks like it used to. Then one day, you find yourself asking a much harder question: Does my parent need more help than our family can provide informally? In Virginia, guardianship may be appropriate when an adult cannot make or communicate important personal decisions and cannot meet essential needs for health, care, safety, or treatment without assistance and protection. But guardianship is a serious legal step. It can affect a person’s rights and ...

Handling an estate is difficult enough without wondering whether an old bill, disputed debt, or unexpected creditor will appear after assets have been distributed. Beginning July 1, 2026, Virginia law gives executors and administrators a new tool for addressing that uncertainty. Under Virginia Code § 64.2-508.1, a personal representative may provide formal notice to creditors, establish a deadline for presenting claims, and obtain important protection from personal liability for certain late-presented claims. This process is optional, and it does not eliminate the other responsibilities involved in administering a Virginia estate. But for some families, it may provide a more predictable ...

Most families have an estate plan for their home, bank accounts, and personal belongings. Fewer have a plan for what happens to their email, online photos, social media accounts, subscriptions, and cryptocurrency. That can create real problems. A loved one may need access to important family photographs stored in the cloud. An executor may need to locate online financial accounts. Someone may need to close social media profiles, pay digital subscriptions, or identify cryptocurrency holdings. If no one knows where to begin, valuable information can be lost: or private information can be exposed unnecessarily. For Virginia families, digital estate planning ...

Military life asks families to prepare for situations most people would rather avoid thinking about. Deployments, training schedules, permanent changes of station, overseas assignments, and the possibility of a service-related injury can all affect how your family handles money, property, and important decisions. That is why estate planning matters so much for military families stationed in Virginia or calling the Commonwealth home. A strong plan usually involves more than a will. It should coordinate your Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) beneficiary designation, a properly prepared power of attorney, and a revocable living trust: what we like to describe as a ...

Planning for a child with special needs involves more than deciding who receives an inheritance. You also have to think about housing, medical care, therapies, transportation, daily support, and the government benefits your child may rely on. That can make estate planning feel overwhelming. As a parent of a child with special needs, Don Shaw understands that this is not just an abstract legal exercise. It is about protecting your child’s quality of life and creating a plan your family can rely on when you are no longer able to handle everything yourself. For many Virginia families, a properly drafted ...

If you’ve ever sat down to look at a draft of a Will or a Trust, you’ve probably felt like you were reading a different language. Between the "heretofore"s and the "witnesseth"s, there are a few Latin phrases that usually make people stop and scratch their heads. One of the most common: and most important: is per stirpes. It sounds like a complicated medical condition, doesn't it? But in reality, per stirpes is a simple concept that determines how your hard-earned assets travel down through your family tree if one of your children passes away before you do. In our ...

If you are a parent in Virginia, your "to-do" list is probably miles long. Between soccer practices, school plays, and trying to remember if it’s library book day, estate planning often ends up on the back burner. We get it. Thinking about what happens if you aren’t around is heavy. It’s much easier to focus on the next grocery run. But here is the reality we see every day at Don Shaw Law: estate planning isn't actually about you. It’s about them. It’s about making sure that if the unthinkable happens, your kids are cared for by the people you ...

You did it. You sat down, talked through the hard stuff, and signed your estate planning documents. You finally have a Revocable Living Trust (RLT) in place to protect your family and keep your private affairs out of the Virginia probate courts. You probably feel a huge sense of relief, and you should! But here’s the thing we often see at Don Shaw Law: a trust is only as good as the work you do after you sign it. We like to think of a Revocable Living Trust as a “box with no lid.” It’s a wonderful container designed to ...

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve recently experienced one of those "oh man, I’m an adult now" moments. Maybe you just bought your first home in Northern Virginia, or perhaps you’re currently surviving on caffeine and three hours of sleep because a new baby just joined the family. First off, congratulations! Those are the best parts of life. But with those big milestones comes a nagging feeling in the back of your mind: What happens if I’m not here? We know, we know. Estate planning is about as fun as a root canal. Most young families think ...