Clarity Legal Group

Bonnie Blundell is a native of New Orleans, having transplanted to the Raleigh-Durham area after Hurricane Katrina. She loves helping clients get organized with their assets. She has the knowledge, patience, and persistence needed to successfully work with financial institutions to make sure trust the correct account ownership and beneficiary designations properly complete the estate plan.

As an elder law and estate planning attorney, Jonathan D. Williams enjoys educating his clients about the law so that they can have the peace of mind of knowing that the planning they undertake now will reduce the burdens of time, effort, and expense that often fall upon family members when proper planning is left incomplete or inadequate. Jonathan has worked with hundreds of North Carolinians and their families, helping his clients manage their legacies through estate planning, long-term care planning (including Medicaid and Veterans’ benefits), estate and trust administration, special needs planning, tax planning, guardianships, and other related areas.

Margaret Costley has nearly thirty years’ experience in representing both individual and business clients in the preservation of assets, negotiation of contracts and loan documentation, asset planning and charitable planning. Her practice focuses primarily on assisting clients in the administration of trusts and estates and providing counseling regarding planned charitable gifts. Because the death of a loved one can create significant stress for those left behind, Margaret’s focus is on making this transition as easy as possible by providing the level of support that each individual client needs.

In addition to representing clients in private practice, Margaret spent more than ten years working with major universities as an advisor in complex charitable giving, having worked for Duke University as Associate Director of Planned Giving and also for the University of North Carolina Arts and Sciences Foundation. She has extensive knowledge of the law related to charitable gifts, both as to current gifts from individuals and gifts made through complex estate planning instruments, including charitable trusts, and understands the tax advantages of this type of charitable gift. She has been a featured speaker on the subjects of asset protection, charitable gift planning tools, and estate administration for professionals and charitable organizations. Margaret enjoys developing relationships with clients that enable her to provide the best possible service based upon trust and an understanding of the client’s goals and needs.

With more than 30 years’ experience in private practice, Mark Costley has helped hundreds of North Carolinians with estate planning, living trusts, financial law, probate, and trust administration. Mark’s work involves elements of teaching, strategic analysis and planning, documentation, and assisting clients in implementing their plans. He is devoted to providing the best in planning, efficiency, administration, and asset protection.

Mark was drawn to estate planning and trust law by a passion for helping clients and their families avoid problems and helping them have the necessary tools to preserve their wealth, avoid disputes, prepare for the future, and deal with problems when they do arise. Mark’s practice is built around the needs of clients to deal with their family business matters and personal affairs. He has organized Clarity Legal Group to focus on giving you not only effective legal assistance, but peace of mind that you have taken care of some of the most important risks that you and your family might face. Mark and his team strive to have strong relationships not only with clients, but also with their families and other professional advisors, to be of the greatest assistance possible when legal counsel is needed.

Mark’s areas of practice include estate planning, trust and estate administration, elder law, planning for children and adults with special needs, business succession planning and estate related business transactions, counseling regarding social entrepreneurship, representation of non-profit organizations, family charitable and philanthropic counseling, and counselling and support regarding fiduciary liability.