About Us
We want to give you the peace of mind knowing your assets and wealth will be passed on according to your wishes
Hi, this is John. I want to help you with your estate planning.
When I started my estate planning practice many years ago, like a lot of lawyers, I would often work for free to get clients. My goal was to do an outstanding job for the clients so they would tell their friends about me.
Over time, I began to get more and more clients and word began to spread about how well we represented our clients. Ultimately, this led to me being appointed as a Magistrate Judge in Cobb County.
Our Services
Last Will and Testament
While there are many reasons to have an estate plan, there's no good reason to be without a Last Will and Testament.
Trust-based estate planning
For those looking for the fastest and easiest way to distribute their assets to their heirs with the least amount of government interference, a Trust-based estate plan may be for you.
Serving Families with
Care and Expertise
Former Magistrate Judge
I proudly served my community as a Magistrate Judge while also maintaining my practice, but as my practice began to grow and grow, I felt drawn to help families get their affairs in order so that their families could continue to flourish even after the passing of a loved one. So, I retired as a Magistrate Judge and continued to serve clients with their estate planning needs.
Estate Planning for the Modern Family
Meeting clients one-on-one, I realized many of my clients had the same questions. Questions like, is a handwritten will valid, what is a Revocable Trust, and what is the probate process. I would leave these meetings and write answers to the questions on my blog. One day, I realized I could take these answers and create a book, which I did, called Estate Planning for the Modern Family.
Ultimately, this made me even busier. I began to get calls and emails from people all over the world looking for estate planning and probate help. The most troubling calls and emails would come from those who recently lost a loved one who had no estate plan in place. I'll give you an example.
A young mother called me because her husband had recently passed away and the title to her home was frozen because her husband's name was on the title when he passed away. See, in Georgia, if the property isn't titled correctly, even if your spouse's name is on it, it may still have to go through probate. Because he didn't have a Will in place, after months and thousands of dollars going through the probate process, the home was split between her and their 8-year-old daughter. Now, if the mother wants to sell her home, she will have to hire a lawyer to represent the 8-year-old in the sale.
It doesn't take months and a
king's ransom to plan your estate.
Now, we can only sit back and reflect on what could have been for them had they come to see me before tragedy struck. If they had only put a simple Last Will and Testament in place (or better yet, put a Trust in place), the home could have been left to the young mother without having to split it with the 8-year-old. This would have saved countless months and thousands of dollars.
If you feel like you have all the time in the world to plan your estate, I'm going to let you in on a little secret:
Best of Cobb
The Farrell Law Firm, PC earned accolades from Cobb Life Magazine as a top-tier law firm, with Attorney John P. Farrell being celebrated as one of the top three lawyers in Cobb County, Georgia, for the past two consecutive years.
Does a will need to be notarized?
Over time, I began to explore other forms of communication with the community and established a YouTube page that offers explanations into common estate planning issues. My most popular video is about whether a Last Will and Testament in Georgia needs to be notarized. You can check it out here:
