205F Fall 2026 Estate Planning Basics

The instructors will share their experience with estate planning and retirement living with seniors and their families. Their purpose is to educate seniors about ways to become proactive in planning their estates: 1) An overview of estate planning: a look at the taxes, laws, and issues that surround estates and how the documents we use help us to prepare for incapacity and death; 2) Trusts: we will look at what trusts are and how they serve us, both before and after death; 3) Funding your living trust: this session will be about the process for transferring ("funding") various types of assets into a living trust; 4) Medical decision making and advance health care directives: a look at preparing for a time when we are unable to make our own medical decisions. 

Dina Shaar is an attorney who brings a decade of experience to her work in estate planning. A graduate of George Mason University, she earned her undergraduate degree in Criminology, Law, and Society in 2021, followed by her Juris Doctor from Mason Law School in 2024. 

Sarah Parks is an attorney who limits her practice to estate planning. She founded Custom Estate Planning, which she has been operating since 1995. She has a JD degree from the Mason School of Law and an LLM from the Georgetown University Law Center.