About Wilson Legal, Estate Planning in Cumming, GA

Michelle Wilson is an attorney and native of Cumming, Georgia. She has specialized in estate planning, eldercare, probate and special needs since 2008. She loves coming to work every day because she spends each day making wishes come true and helping people live their best lives. Living your best life doesn’t happen by accident; it happens when you decide what your best life looks like, design a plan to have that life, and intentionally take deliberate steps to have that life.

At Wilson Legal, we are the firm that really listens. After we listen, we are the firm that works to improve the life of each person who crosses our threshold whether a person becomes a client or we connect them with one of our vetted Team 100 providers. When people see the solution, they feel peace and a sense of calm and sometimes that spark of joy comes back into their eyes. This commitment to service above all else is felt by those who call and ask for help. Michelle has become a trusted advisor – someone people keep in their phone directory because she’s the one they call when things happen and when they need help. At Wilson Legal, we believe the best life is lived intentionally and by design. Want to live your best life and need help with the first steps? Call or send us a message in the form on this page. We’d be glad to listen.

Michelle’s Story:

I’d like to tell you a story. This is story about a little girl named Alice. Alice was six years old when I met her and she wanted to be a cowgirl. I had volunteered to be a side walker for an equestrian therapy nonprofit and I was a junior in high school. Alice had cerebral palsy and it affected her right arm and leg. Her right leg was in a brace from under her foot up to her hip. When she came, she would drag her leg along with each step and she wouldn’t use her right arm or hand.

A horse’s walk is three dimensional like a human’s walk. When a disabled person rides a horse it helps to strengthen the pelvic muscles we use when we walk. At the time, this type of therapy was pretty new and there wasn’t much research confirming it would be successful. Alice’s father hoped that the therapy exercises done while riding around a ring would improve Alice’s ability to use her right arm and leg, but we weren’t sure it would work.

My job as a side walker was to walk beside the horse with my forearm across Alice’s leg and my fingers curled around the front of the saddle to keep her from sliding off the horse. You see Alice’s legs weren’t strong enough to hold onto the horse by herself. Alice and I hit it off from the start. She decided she liked me better than the therapist so the therapist gave me the exercises to do with her. Alice learned how to squeeze the horse to make him go and how to pull back on the reins to make him stop. She practiced holding a ball with both hands and I taught her how to stand up in the saddle and swing a lasso. I taught her how to yell: YeeHaw!

About Michelle

Michelle grew up in Forsyth County and is the only lawyer in her family. With a business undergraduate degree and a creative engineering mindset, she enjoys crafting unique solutions for families in need. Michelle Wilson understands the fear may people have of calling attorneys – believing they will be charged the moment an attorney picks up the phone. That’s why she will give each potential client a free ten-minute consultation*. Why? Because she wants to be sure she can help the caller before they pay for services. What does that mean for callers? It means that she frequently gives potential clients simple solutions that do not require her help.

Michelle’s practice is not just about the dollar sign on the bottom line; it’s about helping families in her community eliminate unnecessary conflict, loss, and worry. That’s why the law firm of Wilson Legal is where “Preparation Meets Peace of Mind”. As a member of the Rotary Club of South Forsyth, Michelle works to live by the Rotarian motto of Service above Self. She is a past board member of the Bald Ridge Boys Lodge and a frequent speaker at the local library and local churches explaining the basics of probate filings and planning basics for powers of attorney and healthcare powers. She is a member of the Cumming First United Methodist Church and a frequent volunteer and supporter of local charities. When she’s not working hard for her clients, you might find Michelle singing the “A Tooty Ta” song with her nine-year-old, Zelda, kayaking, or hiking.

My Philosophy

My philosophy begins with planning in advance, which helps to discourage and eliminate conflicts and hardships in providing care for aging loved ones and administering their estates. In Dr. Seuss’, “Oh The Places You’ll Go”, he talks about how someone should go through life. In that book, he says: “And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.” In reality, most people do not want to face up to their problems. Most folks would rather not talk about what happens if they are sick or disabled and they definitely don’t want to talk about dying and what happens after they die. But facing what will happen if and when you are sick or disabled and looking at your options helps you to understand the steps that your caregivers and family can take to ensure you are happy, healthy and living with dignity no matter what the future holds. Isn’t that what we all want? To live happy and healthy for as long as we can in the location of our choosing and with all the advantages of modern medicine we can afford. Yes, of course, that’s what we want. Then let’s not wait until a crisis to plan for our future.

We are living much longer than past generations. There is a greater chance you and I will face an illness which is terminal and chronic such as cancer or some type of dementia than a physical illness that claims your life. Healthcare is expensive and many people do not have long-term care insurance or alternatively sufficient savings or family to provide the care they need without some planning. Sometimes the planning required is simple and need not be complex. Each person and each family should have some plan for their children, for themselves as they age, and for their estate after their death.

I often tell my clients that I am paid much more by representing family members in disputes litigated in courts. But a family is already broken by the time attorney’s are needed to represent a side in a lawsuit. My goal is to preserve families. If I and my employees and associates can help the families in my community and my neighboring communities to prepare in advance for themselves and their children, then, at the end of our lives, we will have left the world a little bit better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best in his point about a successful life.

“To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.”

We succeed every day when we help one individual or family live a little better, worry a little less, and laugh little more.