Sarah Caitlyn Aviles concentrates her practice in the areas of estate planning, trust and estate administration, fiduciary representations, guardianships and conservatorships, and civil litigation.
As an estate planning attorney, Sarah advises clients on planning for family financial needs, probate avoidance, and incapacity. She has prepared hundreds of estate plans, including revocable and irrevocable trusts, wills, financial powers of attorney, advance medical directives, living wills, appointments of standby guardian, and deeds. Sarah utilizes estate tax planning, small business planning, and special needs planning, as necessary, to craft an estate plan for each client’s unique financial and personal circumstances.
Sarah has also represented many fiduciaries through the complex post-death trust and estate administration process, from insolvent estates to multi-million dollar estates and trusts. Upon an individual’s death, she advises trustees and executors on various issues including Federal and state estate and inheritance tax laws and post-death personal and fiduciary income tax requirements. She has guided many trustees and executors through the process of properly settling a trust or estate and distributing diverse assets, such as business interests, real property, and retirement accounts.
Sarah has represented executors from the initial steps of probating a will with the Court through the complicated probate process, handling correspondence and filings with the Commissioner of Accounts, beneficiaries and financial institutions.
She also represents prospective guardians and conservators of incapacitated adults and minors through the Court appointment and qualification process.
Sarah concentrated part of her practice in civil litigation in the Federal and Circuit Courts. She has represented many fiduciaries before the Virginia Circuit Courts in matters such as probate-related proceedings, beneficiary disputes, augmented estate claim disputes, and will and trust contests.
She has also litigated civil cases in various areas of the law, such as business, employment, real estate, construction, adverse possession, and contract law. Sarah has experience arguing cases in arbitration, mediation, and court proceedings.
Sarah received her J.D. from the William & Mary School of Law in May 2013, and her B.A. from the College of William & Mary in May 2009. While at the William & Mary School of Law, She was a published member of the William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law, Editor-in-Chief of one of the law school newspapers, and worked in the William & Mary Elder Law Clinic.
Sarah is a member of the Fairfax Bar Association and a member of the Virginia chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. She is also a member of her church choir.
