If you live in Allentown and you are thinking about a will, a trust, or what happens to your home and savings, the practical questions are usually the same three: what do I actually need, what will Pennsylvania take, and who sorts it out when I am gone.
Leeson & Co. is on East Broad Street in Bethlehem, a short drive from Allentown, and we have advised Lehigh Valley families for decades.
What we do for Allentown families
- Wills — the document that decides who inherits, and who is in charge of making it happen.
- Trusts — revocable and irrevocable, where control, privacy or protection matter.
- Powers of attorney and healthcare directives — the documents that matter while you are alive, and the ones families most often wish they had.
- Asset protection — keeping what you have built where you intend it to go.
- Estate administration and probate — when a death has already happened and someone has to deal with it.
Where Allentown estates are filed
An Allentown estate is opened at the Lehigh County Register of Wills in central Allentown. What to bring, what it costs and what you leave with is set out in our guide to filing an estate at the Lehigh County Register of Wills.
The tax nobody warns you about
Pennsylvania is one of very few states that still charges an inheritance tax, and it applies from the first dollar regardless of the size of the estate. The rate depends on who inherits: nothing for a spouse, 4.5% for children and grandchildren, 12% for siblings and 15% for everyone else.
It is the single biggest reason generic online advice misleads Pennsylvania families. Our full explanation is here: Pennsylvania inheritance tax — who pays, what is taxed, and when it is due.
What this costs
We would rather tell you how our fees work than leave you guessing, because the not-knowing is what stops most people picking up the phone.
Straightforward estate planning starts with a written fee proposal before any work begins, so you know what you are committing to in advance rather than watching a clock. What sits inside that fee depends on what you actually need — a will alone is a different piece of work from a will with trusts, powers of attorney and healthcare directives.
What tends to move the figure: whether there is a business or a farm, whether property sits in more than one state, whether a beneficiary has a disability or needs protecting from themselves, and whether there is a blended family to plan around.
Estate administration is different again, because the work depends on what the estate holds. We will tell you at the first conversation which basis applies to you.
Why families here use us
Estate work sits on the line between law and tax. Joseph Leeson trained and practiced as a CPA in tax accounting before he practiced law, which tends to show up in the parts of this work where the tax treatment decides the answer.
Speak to an Allentown estate planning attorney
The first conversation is a straightforward one. You tell us what you have and who you want it to go to, and we tell you what that actually takes in Pennsylvania.
Joseph F. Leeson III trained and practiced as a CPA before he practiced law — four years in tax accounting at an international public accounting firm and a large financial corporation. He holds a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law and an MBA in accounting from DeSales University, and was named to MSN’s Legal Powerlist: 2026’s Most Respected Lawyers. He was born and raised in Bethlehem.
This page explains general principles of Pennsylvania law and is not legal advice for your situation. Please speak to us before acting on anything here.