A child can spend a lifetime loving their dad and still be told they have no inheritance rights when he dies without a will. That’s the reality North Carolina probate lawyers have faced for years when legitimation was never completed through a formal court process. We sit down for a quick elder law update on a new North Carolina statute that changes the conversation about heirship, legitimation, and intestate succession, especially for children born outside marriage. We explain what’s ...

A long-term care crisis can erase decades of savings in a shockingly short time, and most families do not realize it until they are already in the middle of it. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Anthony Robreno, a new attorney in our Charlotte office, and talk about what proactive elder law and estate planning actually look like when you’re trying to protect a home, property, and the future you built. Anthony shares his path from South Florida and his Cuban heritage to Wake Forest Univer...

A wrongful death can leave families grieving and furious, but the legal system has rules that can stop a claim before it even starts. We break down one of the most misunderstood parts of a North Carolina wrongful death lawsuit: you usually cannot file just because you’re related to the person who died. Legal standing belongs to the estate, which means the case must be brought by a court-appointed personal representative through the probate process. We talk through the common traps people fal...

You can order a custom gift online in minutes, but trusting an online marketplace with your will is a very different kind of purchase. Greg McIntyre and Haley Matson get blunt about the rising trend of Etsy-style wills and other DIY estate planning documents, and why “I can buy it” is not the same as “I should use it.” We dig into what people miss when they treat a last will and testament like a simple note. Wills have strict legal requirements, and when those requirements are not met, a cou...

A calm lawyer can change the outcome of a family’s hardest season, and that’s why we’re excited to introduce Anthony Figueroa, our newest attorney in the Shelby, North Carolina office. Anthony brings an uncommon background to estate planning and elder law: nearly nine years in the US Army, including psychological operations, plus the lived discipline of working high-stakes problems where details matter and emotions can’t run the show. We talk about what pushed him toward law in the first pla...

Your estate plan is only as strong as your ability to find it on the worst day. Greg McIntyre sits down with law partner Brenton Begley to talk about a problem almost every family eventually faces: important legal documents that are perfectly drafted but impossible to locate when a hospital, bank, or courthouse asks for proof. We break down our two track approach to document storage. First, we deliver a durable estate planning binder with protected originals, including wills, trusts, financi...

The scariest sentence we hear from families facing a spouse’s nursing home placement is simple: “We’re going to lose everything.” That fear is understandable, but it often ignores the spousal protections built into long-term care Medicaid rules. We sit down to map the real picture of how benefits can work when one spouse becomes the “applicant spouse” and the other remains the “community spouse” trying to keep the household afloat. We start with the foundation that makes every plan possible:...

A quiet revolution just reshaped estate planning in North Carolina: a properly certified, attorney‑stored electronic copy of your will can now be probated like the original. We unpack what that means in real life—fewer frantic searches for paper, fewer hearings over missing originals, and a smoother path for families when they need clarity most. With all 100 counties live on e‑courts, the shift from pen and ink to secure digital storage isn’t a trend; it’s the new backbone of reliable probate...