Sarah S. Shepard
Sarah S. Shepard was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 2012.
Sarah is a graduate of:
University of Alabama School of Law, 2012
Alabama Law Review, Senior Editor
Order of the Samaritan
University of Miami, 2009
Summa Cum Laude
Phi Beta Kappa
Estate planning for families and business owners in Huntsville and North Alabama.
Your estate plan needs to fit your family and the way you own your property. That can mean providing for children from an earlier marriage, planning for a family business or deciding who should manage an inheritance for a beneficiary who needs protection.
I am an estate planning attorney at Sparkman, Shepard & Shepard, LLC in downtown Huntsville, and I design and review each plan myself. I work with families, professionals and business owners in Huntsville and North Alabama on wills, revocable living trusts, powers of attorney and health care directives.
Wills and Trusts Built Around Your Family
I look at your documents and your beneficiary designations together, so one does not undo the other. A plan may also need to name a guardian for minor children or hold a child's inheritance in trust instead of leaving it outright.
A closely held business interest needs attention alongside your home, retirement accounts and life insurance. My work includes business-succession planning as part of an estate plan, trust funding and beneficiary-designation review. I also review existing wills and revocable trusts when a move, marriage, divorce, new child or death changes what a family needs.
As a mother and a business owner, I know the weight of thinking about your family's future. My goal is to understand the people and property behind your plan and reduce avoidable uncertainty.
How We Work Together
You work with me from the first call through the signing. We agree on the work and the fee before you engage the firm. I prepare your documents and go through them with you, including who you are naming and what you are asking each person to do. Most of the planning can happen by phone, email or video. You usually sign at our Huntsville office, where we provide the witnesses and notary your documents require.
Funding is what makes a trust work, so I also explain the steps your plan still needs, such as a deed moving your home into your trust, retitling accounts or updating beneficiary designations. Your engagement states which of those steps the firm handles.
Planning Informed by Probate
Ty Shepard handles the firm's probate and trust administration, and that work shapes the questions I ask when we plan: whether the people you name can carry out your instructions, and whether your accounts and documents point the same way.
Contact our office to set up a call with me about your plan, or read more about our Huntsville estate planning work.