Estate planning is the process of anticipating and arranging for the disposal of an estate. Estate planning typically attempts to eliminate uncertainties over the administration of a probate and maximize the value of the estate by reducing taxes and other expenses. Estate planning attorneys advise clients on their options for disposition of real and personal property after death, and create any number of necessary documents pertaining to the estate and finances of the client -- including wills and trusts. Estate planning law attorneys also assist clients in setting out their end-of-life health care wishes through living wills and health care powers of attorney.
Ballentine is an unincorporated community in Richland County, South Carolina, United States. It is part of the Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town was recently in the planning stages of being incorporated. Ballentine would be the seventh incorporated community in Richland County if it were to be incorporated. It would be the first created in the area since Arcadia Lakes was formed in 1959, according to the Municipal Association of South Carolina. The town would have had a population of about 2,500 people, however, the recent vote for incorporation was not successful.. The town's desire to incorporate was partially driven by the encroachment of nearby Irmo, South Carolina. Ballentine is located on Lake Murray, a large reservoir formed in the 1930s by the Dreher Shoals Dam, which at the time was the largest earthen dam in the world. Ballentine refers to itself on the signs leading into town as "The Gateway To Lake Murray". The community experienced much growth during the late twentieth century, sparked by the combination of its lakefront location and its proximity to the city of Columbia. In the twenty-first century, Ballentine has been transformed by the addition of two large, new, middle-class subdivisions and by some new commercial development as well as a new elementary school. It is now an affluent suburb of Columbia although it maintains something of a rural feel in many areas.