Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Estate planning attorney in Tuscaloosa.
Wills, trusts, and the documents that let someone act for you, built for Tuscaloosa families by a lawyer who grew up here. Explained in plain English, and priced before the work starts.
Downtown on Greensboro Avenue · Flat fees quoted up front · Serving all of Alabama
The short answer
A local firm that will tell you what you actually need, and what it costs.
Dogwood Estate Planning is an estate planning law firm in downtown Tuscaloosa, at 601 Greensboro Ave #290. We build wills, revocable living trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, and guardian nominations for families in Tuscaloosa County and across Alabama.
The founder, Luke Barry, is from here and still lives here. That matters more than it sounds like it should, because estate planning is the rare kind of law where the work is not finished on signing day. Somebody has to still be around when the plan is needed.
Fees are flat and quoted before anything is drafted. The first step is a free 15-minute phone call, and nobody is going to sell you anything on it.
How it works
Four steps, and you can stop after any of them
A free 15-minute call
You tell us what is going on, in your own words. We tell you whether you need a plan at all, which kind, and what the next step would be. If the honest answer is that you need less than you expected, that is the answer you get.
The Estate Planning Session
A ninety-minute working meeting. Before it, you complete an Estate Inventory, so for the first time everything you own and everyone you are providing for is written down in one place. In the room we go through what you own, how each piece is titled, and what would actually happen to it. The session is $750, and if you go on to plan with us it is credited in full toward your plan.
We build the plan, and make it true
We draft the documents, walk you through every page in language you can use, and sign them properly. Then we do the work most plans never get: retitling assets, checking beneficiary forms against the plan, and putting the documents where your family can find them.
We are still here afterward
The fee is flat and covers the questions that come later. When your life changes, a house sold, a child born, a business started, you call, and we tell you plainly whether anything needs to move.
The session and how its fee works are set out in full on the session page.
Who this is for
The families who usually call us
- Parents in Tuscaloosa County who have never named, in a document that works, who would raise their children.
- Anyone who owns a home or land here, including family land that has never quite been retitled since a parent died.
- Blended families, where what each spouse assumes will happen is not what Alabama law would do.
- People with a plan drawn up years ago by another lawyer, who have no idea whether it still describes their life.
- Adult children helping a parent in Tuscaloosa get their affairs in order before a health decision forces the issue.
- Business owners who need the family plan and the company documents to stop contradicting each other.
From our clients
“When I called around to attorneys in the area, Luke returned my call, spoke nicely, and assisted me in determining what I needed. We set up an appointment for our estate planning session, met with Luke and he handled the rest. We are pleased with our experience. We would recommend Luke for estate planning needs.”
Tif W., from their Google review
Read what clients say · Every review on Google
This review describes one client’s experience. It is not a promise or prediction about your matter.
Where we are
Downtown, on Greensboro Avenue.
The office is in the middle of downtown Tuscaloosa, on the street that has been the middle of this town for a century. Luke Barry founded the firm and handles the planning work. Lane Jones is Of Counsel for the business side.
- Office
- Dogwood Estate Planning
601 Greensboro Ave #290
Tuscaloosa, AL 35401 - Call
- (205) 469-8715
- Serving
- Tuscaloosa County, the counties around it, and all of Alabama.
Common questions
What people in Tuscaloosa ask us first
Does it matter that you are in Tuscaloosa? Any Alabama lawyer can draft a will.
Any lawyer licensed in Alabama can draft the documents, and plenty do it by mail. What a local firm gives you is the part around the documents: signing in a room with the witnesses and notary arranged for you, a deed that gets recorded here rather than mailed around, and a lawyer who will still be on Greensboro Avenue in fifteen years when the plan is needed and you are not there to explain it.
Will my family still have to go through probate in Tuscaloosa County?
It depends on how your property is titled, not on how much of it there is. A will alone still goes through the Tuscaloosa County Probate Court. A revocable living trust, funded properly, generally does not. Which one your situation calls for is exactly what the session works out, and we will tell you when the cheaper answer is the right one.
What does it cost?
The fee is flat and quoted before any drafting begins, so you are never watching a meter while you ask a question. The Estate Planning Session is $750, credited in full toward your plan if you go on to plan with us. The plan fee itself depends on what you own and what you want to happen, and no honest lawyer can quote it before asking. Our pricing page sets out the tiers and what sits in each of them.
I already have a will. Is it worth having someone look at it?
If it has not been touched in several years, yes. We will read what you have, tell you what still works, and tell you what has gone stale. Sometimes the answer is that your plan is fine and you should go enjoy your afternoon. You get that answer just as plainly as any other.
Do you only work with families in Tuscaloosa?
No. Most of our clients are in Tuscaloosa County and the counties around it, because that is where we are, and we work with families across Alabama. The law is the same statewide. What changes is how easy it is to sit down together, which matters more at the signing than anywhere else.
More on how we plan, and why, on the estate planning page.
Keep reading
Guides on this subject
Why Shopping for the Cheapest Estate Plan Backfires
Price is the only number you are given and it tells you the least. What actually decides whether a plan works, and the questions worth asking any firm.
Naming a Guardian for Your Children in Alabama
How a parent appoints a guardian in Alabama, the condition that surprises everyone, the gap it leaves in the first hours, and how to actually make the decision.
How Money Reaches Your Children If You Are Not There
In Alabama a child inherits outright at 19. What that means, what a court-supervised conservatorship costs, and what a trust does instead.
Start with a phone call.
Fifteen minutes with a Tuscaloosa lawyer, no charge, and no obligation to book anything afterward.