Welcome to JD Beard Law PLLC
Consider the always uncertain future.
What changes lie beyond the horizon? How will those changes affect the people you love? What can you do today to help Shape the Future for their benefit?
Life throws curve balls. Illness, disability, accidents, and loss are inescapable parts of the human condition. Proactive Estate Planning helps families make thoughtful decisions instead of waiting for a crisis to force them to scramble.
Estate Planning lawyers help their clients think about tough questions, make careful values-based decisions, and create legal documents to protect those wishes. At its core, Estate Planning is a gift from you to the people who you love.
I am James “JD” Beard, Attorney and Counselor at Law. I help families across Virginia plan for an always uncertain future, and Shape the Future for the people they love.
As the parent of a child with disabilities and complex medical needs, I understand how frightening it can be to contemplate an uncertain future, especially when a loved one has a disability. Whenever I take on Special Needs Estate Planning cases, my goal is to empower other special needs parents to confront the future with open eyes. If I can make the future a bit less frightening for you, that would be enormously gratifying for me.
I strive to make estate planning accessible and understandable, offering customized solutions that provide lasting peace of mind for individuals and families alike. My services include drafting Last Wills and Testaments, Revocable Living Trusts, Durable General Powers of Attorney, Advance Medical Directives, and Special Needs Trusts / Supplemental Needs Trusts tailored to safeguard the future for your disabled loved ones, while preserving their eligibility to receive crucial governmental benefits, like Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
The Estate Planning Process
After a client (or a client couple) hires me, I send them a Confidential Questionnaire to gather information from them about their families, their finances, and their values. After I review their responses, we schedule a Design Meeting during which we walk through their responses together and begin shaping an estate plan that fits their family and their priorities.
I’m usually able to deliver the first drafts of the primary estate planning documents (Revocable Living Trusts, Last Wills and Testaments, Durable General Powers of Attorney, and Advance Medical Directives) within a week of the Design Meeting. The remaining ancillary documents (Third-Party Supplemental Needs Trusts, Funeral and Remains Designations, Personal Property Assignments, Real Estate Deeds, Certifications of Trust, and Trust Manuals including Funding Instructions) take a bit longer.
My clients and I then send edits back and forth until the clients are satisfied that the draft documents reflect their values and their priorities. We then schedule a Signing Ceremony to make those documents legally binding. I frequently make house calls, and conduct signing ceremonies while sitting around kitchen tables.
After the signing ceremony, I take the executed documents back to my office, scan them, and bind them in a secure and durable Estate Planning Portfolio. I share the scanned copies, and usually hand deliver the Portfolio within two or three days.
Flat Rate and Sliding Scale Pricing
To make Proactive and Comprehensive Estate Planning Services more affordable for all families, I offer my services at a Flat Rate based on a Sliding Scale fee structure, determined by your household’s annual income (the Adjusted Gross Income on your most recent federal income tax return, IRS Form 1040, Line 11). I am always happy to create estate plans for individual clients whether or not they are married, but if you are married then it will cost you less to hire me to create an estate plan for you and your spouse simultaneously, than it would to hire me to prepare estate plans for each of you separately and individually.
Also please note that the listed prices require that we conduct the signing ceremony to execute your final documents at a location to be determined within Charlottesville or Albemarle County. I represent families all across Virginia, and I’m happy to conduct signing ceremonies outside of the Charlottesville area, but if that is what you request then the fee that I quote you will be somewhat higher than the fees listed below.
These fees are effective January 1, 2026, and I do not intend to adjust them until January of 2027.
Household income above $225,000
Married Couples: $6,500
Individuals: $4,400
Household income between $160,000 and $225,000
Married Couples: $5,800
Individuals: $3,900
Household income between $80,000 and $160,000
Married Couples: $4,100
Individuals: $2,800
Household income between $50,000 and $80,000
Married Couples: $3,300
Individuals: $2,200
For household income below $50,000, please contact me and we will figure out a customized rate that you can afford. Please do not put off planning for the future just because it seems like an expense you cannot afford right now. At its core, Estate Planning is a gift from you to the people who you love. And I want to help you Shape the Future for their benefit.
Ready to Get Started?
Estate planning is most effective when it’s done before a crisis occurs.
Schedule a consultation to discuss your goals, your family, and the planning tools that may help protect the people you love.
Contact JD Beard
If you are ready to begin planning or if you would like to discuss the details of how I can help secure your family’s future, please click here to contact me, or reach out to me using the contact information below. We will set up a Free 30 Minute Consultation over telephone or videoconference, we will talk about your family’s needs, I will quote you a price, and then you can decide whether you want to hire me. I look forward to supporting you through this important process.
James D. Beard
JD Beard Law PLLC
435 Merchant Walk Square, Suite 300-77
Charlottesville, VA 22902-6514
Phone: 434-218-5364
Email: [email protected]
A note on terminology: The disability community is not a monolith, and different components of the community have conflicting ideas about the proper wording to use when referring to people who have disabilities / disabled people. For example, some people advocate for person-first language (“child with a disability”) in order to emphasize personhood. Other’s advocate for identity-first language (“disabled child”) because they view disability as a core component of identity, much like gender or race. I am someone who uses person-first and identity-first language interchangeably, and I mean no offense when I do so. If you have a language preference, please let me know when you contact me, and I will endeavor to use your preferred terminology in all of our dealings.