clogged with people who figured they could procrastinate on their planning only to find that life has a different idea. We call this, “The Do Nothing Plan.” The Do Nothing Plan works. There’s a system designed to handle it--it’s called the probate system--which is a court-supervised disposition or management of someone’s estate, that caters first to one’s creditors, and only after to their family. By failing to plan, we assure that at some point, someone will have to be in front of a judge. It’s that simple. There are far too many mistakes to include here. But here are a few: Trying to DIY an estate plan. DIYing might work for a few people (though I don’t know any). It’s kind of like trying to perform an appendectomy on yourself. People who DIY either spend precious time and energy researching something they can’t possibly become an expert in, which leaves their families at risk all the while; or they actually do it themselves with forms they find in the office store or online. I have yet to read any online forms that are very good. Passable, maybe, and rarely that. And the DIY plan certainly does not come with the expertise a strong planner can offer. Not having a revocable living trust when your assets reach a modestly successful level. I believe some people are simply mistrustful when an attorney says they should have a revocable living trust. In my experience, there is no more powerful way to maintain governance over one’s own life than a revocable living trust. Many families would be well served by living trusts. Not everyone, but many.
Believing when someone says “probate in this state is easy.” This is pure fiction. No court proceeding is easy unless you’re an attorney and you know the ropes. Why some lawyers are fond of saying this is probably because they heard it somewhere and are parroting it. Or…they are probate attorneys who will benefit more when they can charge their hourly rate for taking an estate through probate. Wealthy families rarely allow their estates to go through probate. Families of moderate means should not either. Families are better served by keeping their affairs privately managed by carefully chosen successors using mindful planning techniques. Letting our estates go through probate is leaving a mess for someone to clean up later. It’s sloppy. Waiting until it’s too late. We often get panicked calls from spouses saying they need a power of attorney because an injury or illness has landed their spouse in the hospital. Or from an adult child with a mother or father who is mentally slipping and can’t manage their own affairs and they need an estate plan pronto. I’m sorry to tell you, there is no emergency estate plan like this. Estate plans are preventive only. Once a problem has started, it’s very difficult and sometimes impossible to stop that problem from entering the court system. Failing to transfer wealth in a thoughtful and intentional way. If you search for Marilyn Monroe’s or James Dean’s estates online, you’ll read how failure to plan thoughtfully lead to their wealth being lost in most unsettling ways. Most of us aren’t famous, but we still need to use a long
LEGACY ARTS May 2016 www.paragonroad.com 19