You’ve worked hard to build a life worth protecting.
Our customized estate plans help families throughout Cornelius and Lake Norman safeguard their legacy, avoid probate, and pass assets smoothly, without court interference.
North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. People are buying homes, starting businesses, building retirement accounts, and raising families from the mountains to the coast. And most of them have never signed a will, let alone developed an entire estate plan.
Under N.C.G.S. § 29-14, if you die without an estate plan, the state distributes everything according to a fixed formula. Your unmarried partner gets nothing. Your children from a previous relationship may inherit assets that your current spouse depended on. A business you built from scratch gets treated like a savings account. The clerk of the court in your county oversees the process, and it takes longer and costs more than most people can expect. Working with an estate planning attorney in North Carolina is the most certain way to make sure that formula never applies to your family.
Names guardians for your minor children, directs your assets where you want them, and removes the state's default formula entirely. North Carolina requires two witnesses, and we make sure every execution is airtight.
Transfers your assets to your family without going through the county probate process at all. Especially valuable if you own property in multiple counties or another state. We draft and fund the trust—the step most firms leave to the client and the reason most trusts fail.
Gives someone legal authority over your finances if you're incapacitated. Under N.C.G.S. § 32C-1-105, authority over real estate, retirement accounts, and gifts must be explicitly granted, or it simply doesn't exist. We never leave those gaps.
Names your healthcare agent, documents your end-of-life wishes, and grants the HIPAA access your medical team needs. Governed by N.C.G.S. § 90-321. Without one, a judge steps in—not your family.
Your IRA, 401(k), and life insurance pass entirely outside your will. An outdated beneficiary designation overrides everything else in your plan. We review every account so nothing conflicts.
These tools are the foundation of a good plan, and we’ll walk you through each one step by step.
Christine Robbins spent 18 years as a trust and estate litigator before she drafted her first estate plan. That’s nearly two decades in North Carolina courtrooms pulling plans apart—finding the clause that was too vague, the power of attorney that didn’t meet requirements under N.C.G.S. § 32C-1-105, the healthcare directive that failed because a witness had an interest in the estate.
Those cases built the standard we apply at Robbins Law Firm. Every document is drafted the way a litigator reads it—pressure-tested before your family ever needs it. That’s what a real estate planning attorney in North Carolina should deliver.
No. North Carolina does not recognize common law marriage under any circumstances. An unmarried partner has zero automatic inheritance rights under N.C.G.S. § 29-14, regardless of how long you’ve been together. A will or trust is the only way to change that.
Your will may be recognized under N.C.G.S. § 31-3.5 if it was validly executed where you signed it. But your power of attorney and healthcare directive likely need updating, and any property you bought here after moving may not be covered by an out-of-state trust. We review relocated plans regularly.
Without a trust, your family may need to open probate proceedings in each county where you own real estate. A properly funded revocable trust eliminates that problem entirely.
Robbins Law Firm serves families across North Carolina: the Lake Norman area, Charlotte, the Triad, the Triangle, the mountains, and the coast. As your estate planning attorney in North Carolina, we’ll listen to your situation, tell you exactly what we’d recommend, and give you a flat price before you decide anything.
