Christopher Wilms

Attorney & Counselor at Law

I serve as one of the Managing Partners of Hopler, Wilms, & Hanna, PLLC, located in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Region of North Carolina, near Research Triangle Park. The firm focuses on helping businesses and people with legal issues involving opportunity and legacy. As a firm, we work hard to exceed the expectations of our clients in multiple practice areas, including Estate Planning, Probate, Adult Guardianship, Elder Law, and Business Law.

I focus my practice on planning for incapacity and death, transitioning assets and dealing with finalizing affairs of those that have passed, protection of the vulnerable from exploitation, calling nefarious wrongdoers to account for their actions when there is exploitation, and proactively planning for the continuity of care and transition of assets in a way that limits the opportunity for exploiting children, the disabled, and the elderly. 

I routinely work on complex estates that are highly contested, have hundreds of potential heirs, and have debilitating creditor claims. I have served as an Expert Witness at trial in my field and have taught courses to other professionals on such topics. I am also entrusted by local Courts as a Public Official that receives court appointments to handle estates of deceased and incapacitated individuals that had previously been subject to mismanagement by others or have no one connected to the matter that is suitable to serve. For many years, I have also served as an Attorney Guardian ad Litem, which is a position that permits me to routinely advocate on behalf of minors, legally incompetent adults, and unknown/unlocatable heirs and beneficiaries.