Over my many years practicing law I have become a niche lawyer concentrating on estate planning. A growing part of my estate planning practice involves administration of trusts and estates. An inevitable part of trust or estate administration is resolving contested matters. Unhappily, a large number of those disputes become litigated matters instead of models of dispute resolution. Worse yet, if the patriarch or matriarch is still alive they are often heartbroken when their children cannot agree about basic issues facing the family.
As I enter my 32nd year of practicing law, I realize my clients value my common sense experience just as much as my legal technical expertise.
As a result I no longer tell people I “prepare wills and trusts” because I realize the will, trust, or power of attorney is only a tool. I seldom see disputes or problems with documents, but I often see disputes or problems because assets are not properly titled, beneficiary designations are not up to date, or the chosen role players are not adequately equipped. A better answer when I am asked what I do is to say that I am a problem solver; I am a family lawyer, I am an estate lawyer focusing on the affordable and efficient transition of wealth and values in an environment that protects loved ones from the problems that come with inheriting money.
I have become a bore to many of my clients, financial planners, and others because of my obsession of putting my clients’ financial affairs in order before they reach the point in time when they can no longer do it themselves because of death or diminished capacity or ability. It is not a simple task and I force everyone connected to the plan to stop making assumptions and actually prove to me that everything is in order.
I have banished from my office the idea that anyone can take an action that gets work off their desk without being able to explain how the step taken moves a problem one step closer to resolution. Each day, I tackle the most unpleasant problem on my desk first to be sure I can clear my head. Seldom is the least pleasant also the most difficult or most important; often it is the longest neglected or the most time critical.
To me, these thoughts have become the logical basis of my philosophy of helping clients. Taking to heart my 2 favorite mottos – “begin with the end in mind” (from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) and my favorite Eisenhower quote – “plans are useless but planning is indispensable,” I clearly see the mission I must accomplish for my clients.
If you have not been in to see us for awhile, call us today to ensure that your family affairs are in order. We will work together until we have a high degree of confidence that your estate plan will work as intended in as many different scenarios as we can reasonably envision. If you are not yet a client and you would like to see this planning in action, call me and I will send a “Welcome Kit” to start you on our journey together.