In August of 2000, we attended the NC State Circle K kick-off meeting in the Talley Student Center on the suggestion of a long-time Kiwanis member who helped get our Kiwanis club started. His suggestion was to see how they ran their meetings and see what kinds of projects they were doing since the college students were closer in age to our members than most Kiwanis clubs were. And it definitely worked. They had a lot of hands-on projects that did not cost a lot of money, including a project called Operation Toybox which provided toys to children in disaster stricken parts of the world so the kids could have something related to being a child when everything else may have been taken from them.

It was at this project in early September that we met our friend Kristen Batten. We gathered a few Kiwanians together and went to help the Circle K club at Operation Toybox by sorting through donations to make sure they had all of the pieces, that stuffed animals that needed repair were sewn, etc. About 20 minutes into the sorting, Kristen, then a Freshman, came to the project and was frantic. Apparently, she was driving along NC State’s campus and a bicyclist blew through an intersection and hit Kristen’s car, flying over the handlebars and breaking a leg. She felt so bad about what happened, but from what she was saying it was not her fault at all. The bicyclist actually hit her car and not the other way around. Well, when she heard that I was an attorney and Kathleen worked in insurance claims, she unloaded everything. We were able calm her down, have her report the claim to her insurance company, and calmly explain why it was not her fault.

That was almost ten years ago. Since then, Kristen became the Carolinas Governor of Circle K, graduated college to become a teacher, and worked with special needs children in the Wake County public school system. She also joined our Kiwanis club. But a week and a half ago Kristen and her new husband bestowed a great honor on me. Most people don’t know that in addition to being an attorney and author that I am also a credentialed minister with the Universal Life Church. But Kristen did. Kristen and Adam asked me to officiate their wedding in Cary on August 21. The new Mrs. Kristen Batten Cook has moved in with her husband in Rocky Mount, and she has started work there as a teacher.

And now Kathy and I are looking ahead to a new year of working with youth leaders in Circle K, its “younger sibling” organization Key Club in high schools, and with leaders from Wake County GSA clubs to empower them to stop bullying and prejudice in their schools. The students are all different from the ones we worked with 10 years ago, but the needs and desire to do good in the world are the same. It’s going to be a great Fall season, and we’ll see what the next ten years hold.

Not very nice, but pretty accurate. I was speaking with someone yesterday regarding “Appointment Letters” and her request that I write them up for her. Apparently, her great aunt had passed on a few years ago and the attorney was just now getting in contact with her mother. The problem was that her father, deceased for a year and a half now, was a one-quarter beneficiary of the aunt’s estate. His three siblings were also to receive a quarter interest each. Unfortunately, two of the three siblings also passed on after the aunt’s death, and now the attorney was requesting “Letters of Appointment” for all three estates.

What the caller didn’t understand was Letters of Appointment in the State of New York where the aunt died meant setting up a probate proceeding in order for her father’s estate to inherit from the aunt. No, they can’t just give the inheritance to her mother. No, just giving the attorney a copy of her father’s Will would not be good enough. No, there was no easy way to do this “under the table” to bypass the court system. Letters of Appointment means probate. There is no choice. And since her father was a resident of New York when he passed on, probate has to commence in New York. “But that’s crazy!” she said. “Why should I have to do all of that?”

The answer was simple. She had no choice. The aunt didn’t have an effective plan that would bypass probate, and if there had been a revocable living trust and it were settled correctly and quickly (as they are supposed to be settled), it is entirely possible that none of these court procedures would have been necessary. Instead, there are now four probate proceedings required.

Having the right plan in the right place at the right time can yield a world of difference in how an estate and peripheral matters are handled. The right plan provides choices, and the flexibility and elements are almost limitless. Here are some of the more interesting choices our clients have made over the years. (Please note that some of the facts have been altered slightly to protect the privacy of the clients involved):

• A client knew that her son was a wasteful spender, and any inheritance he received would be immediately spent. If the inheritance were retained in trust and he only received the income quarterly, it was more likely that the money would be put to good use. However, she could not bring herself to say that her son would never inherit all of the property. So instead we set the time for complete distribution when the son reached age 184.
• Regarding burial or cremation issues, one client’s main concern was that his body be cremated and the ashes incorporated into a “reef ball.” In researching this method of laying a body to rest I discovered that there is a company that will mix a person’s ashes with concrete concentric circles. Those spheres are then planted in the ocean so marine life, sponges, and other formations will come together to create a barrier reef where one is needed. That same month, another client decided to make his plan incorporate cremation and to have his ashes incorporated into a fireworks display to be set off at a memorial in his honor. Believe it or not, there are companies that do this. http://www.angels-flight.net/
• A couple loved their two sons and wanted them to have the best use of their estate after they were gone. Unfortunately, while they loved their two daughters-in-law, they didn’t trust their oldest son’s wife. Particularly, they didn’t trust her spending habits, and their son was too easy going. They knew if they let their oldest son have half of their wealth outright it would be gone in a few years and the only thing they would have to show for it would be a walk-in closet full of shoes and one of everything QVC offered the month after they died. So instead they used a Beneficiary Trust so nothing could come out of the trust without a co-trustee’s approval, who would be their youngest son… who despised his brother’s wife. The back up co-trustees? Their other daughter-in-law who also did not like her, and her back-up was a niece who felt the same way. Now their oldest son, and their grandchildren, would have anything the family needed. But the daughter-in-law’s walk-in closet would have more Macy’s and Target than Vera Wang and Manolo Blahnik. Sometimes making good choices means making sure others don’t make bad ones.

Estate planning offers a wide array of choices for those who wish to take the time to plan ahead. It can protect your loved ones from disasters, confusion, and bureaucratic messes. But not making a plan is also a choice. And that choice means you give up the right to have any choices at all and that you want the State to make the decisions for you.

The recent rulings regarding California’s ballot initiative that outlawed gay marriage in 2008 provided a rollercoaster ride up and down the state court system with the California Supreme Court finally affirming the ban in May of 2009 while recognizing and affirming the same-sex marriages performed before the ballot initiative passed. However, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled this past month that the ban violates the fundamental right to marry guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution and relevant cases. However, on August 17, 2010, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals squashed the possibility of marriages to resume immediately pending their examination of the case.

But despite the monumental rulings and the possibility of overturning the California’s marriage ban, and possibly all other state bans, the rights people normally associate with marriage remain readily available to domestic partners regardless of their state of residence. “While marriage equality has to come sooner or later, there is no need for partners to wait to gain many of the rights people believe comes with marriage,” said Jeffrey G. Marsocci, and attorney and author of Estate Planning for Domestic Partners and The Gay Marriage Alternative. “The federal court system now holds the fate of Proposition 8 and the right to marry in its hands, but partners have the ability to seize rights through good partner protection planning.”

With all of the hoopla surrounding gay marriage in the media, it is easy to think that all domestic partner planning problems would be solved if only marriage were available to them. However, state laws provide a very different reality. In most states, a marriage certificate does not come with full partner inheritance, the ability to access financial accounts, or the ability to direct healthcare decisions in another state. For example, most people associated being married with having automatic inheritance from their spouse, but Connecticut provides a spouse the first $50,000 of assets and then the rest is split evenly with the next closest relative, however remotely they are related. “In Massachusetts and Connecticut, a married partner may have to split an inheritance with their deceased partner’s fourth cousin whom they both never even met,” Mr. Marsocci said. “That is not what most partners and married couples want, but that is the law. So who wants to rely on the law when they can create their own plan and get exactly what they want?”

Some of typical domestic partner goals are as combining assets together as one family unit, empowering their partner to handle medical and financial decisions should one of them fall ill, and creating an automatic inheritance for their partner while avoiding the costs and delays of probate court. None of these rights come automatically with a marriage certificate. “While each couple has their own unique goals, most couples want at least many of the same things,” Mr. Marsocci said. “That is where a Partner AB-SECURE Trust and the accompanying documents can come in.”

The Partner AB-SECURE Trust was designed by Mr. Marsocci specifically for domestic partners and unmarried couples, and it is available through his firm in North Carolina and also to the other 49 states through a company called The Estate Plan. “Rather than attempt to create a company to distribute this specialized trust directly to attorneys, we instead licensed the trust to The Estate Plan,” Mr. Marsocci said. “They already have other quality life and estate planning documents it nationally produced for attorneys, so why not help get the trust out more quickly to the public? Now couples in California, North Carolina, and the other 48 states can take hold of the rights they want, right now, and not in some time in the distant future.”

“Partners who truly want to protect each other and provide full inheritance rights and empower their partner to handle medical and financial matters during a time of crisis can not depend on a marriage license to protect them,” Mr. Marsocci said. “That can only happen by having the right documents, in the right place, and at the right time.”

Jeffrey G. Marsocci, Esq. is the founder of The National Institute for Domestic Partner Estate Planning, and he has written several books on life and estate planning available on Amazon.com. For more information partner protection planning and estate planning for domestic partners, please go to www.livingtrustlawfirm.com.

It is pretty well established that 75% of the people in the U.S. have no written estate plan whatsoever. While it may seem like online Will services are helping get part of the 75% to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do, my experience as an attorney has shown that about 75% of the estate problems that end up in court are there because someone tried to do it themselves.

Getting the language wrong
While the online services are probably asking the right questions, it is not necessarily easy for the client to give the answer they really mean without an experienced attorney being able to seek clarification, use examples, and follow up. On more than a few occasions I have reviewed a Will or, God forbid, Revocable Living Trust, and seen a few items that are not typical. Then I ask “Did you mean to cut out inheritance for the children of a deceased child, meaning your grandchildren?” Then I explain that the text of their document states that if their son dies then his sister, their daughter, gets everything even though their son has two children.

I’m usually greeted with open mouths of confusion and “that’s not what we meant,” or I get “well, his sister will take care of his children.” I then have to explain that 1) their daughter is under no legal obligation to take care of her nieces and nephews, and 2) she is limited in the amount she can provide for each niece and nephew to $13,000 per year or the current gift tax limit in the year she is giving the money away. Then it’s more blank stares usually followed by a general cursing of attorneys (as if it were my fault for screwing up their document and not the people running the online Will service.)

Here are some mistakes I’ve seen from using an online Will service:

• The spouse was completely cut out as a beneficiary under the Will and everything went directly to the children, which was not intended;
• An ex was named not just as guardian for minor children but was also given control of the money, which was not intended;
• A child with autism receiving program benefits through Medicaid was given a direct gift of $50,000 which would have disqualified them from continuing to receive benefits, which certainly was not intended; and
• Children as young as 18 were given several hundreds of thousands of dollars in an inheritance when it was desired that the money be held in trust until they were much older than 18.

How much would the spouse have to pay an attorney to fight for her inheritance? How much would the grandparents have to spend to fight their former daughter-in-law gaining control of the money when their son only meant to give guardianship? How much would the guardian of the special needs child have to spend to fight Medicaid disqualification or spend to have Medicaid reinstated? And how much money would be wasted by 18 year olds being given control of several hundreds of thousands of dollars? A lot more than $99.

Getting the signing wrong
While getting the provisions wrong is common enough, it is fairly common that the documents are not even signed right in the first place. In North Carolina and most other states, a Last Will and Testament has to be signed by the person whose Will it is, witnessed by two unrelated and independent witnesses, and then notarized. A few other states have different requirements or three witnesses required. It is shocking how many bright, intelligent people get the signing of their do-it-yourself Wills wrong, which means that they effectively have no Will at all. The worst part of this is that the online Will services are probably protected because they gave correct (if possibly confusing) instructions on how the document is to be signed.

More than a few years ago, I was reviewing the Wills of a pair of PhDs. After reviewing their Wills and asking a series of questions about the terms and “is this really what you wanted?”(And in many cases it was not what they wanted.) I then got to the signing page and told them something that shocked them. “Well, it appears that you have nothing to worry about with the defective provisions since this is not a valid Will.” Apparently they signed their own Wills, acted as one of the two witnesses on each other’s Will, left the second witness space blank, and did not notarize the document. Of course, they started to get upset with me (again, as if it were my fault they used the online Will service). “Well, I guess what we intended means absolutely nothing!”

I then calmly explained that a court does care what they intend, but the court takes the position that if you REALLY intended for something to be a valid Last Will and Testament, then it would have been signed, witnessed correctly, and notarized. Here are some things I’ve seen with documents being incorrectly signed or witnessed:

• Places where initials were required to chose one item over another were both blank (meaning no choice was made) or both initialed (meaning they approved contradictory statements);
• The witnesses signing where the person whose document it is should have signed; and
• The notary also acting as a witness (which is not legal in most states)

How much money is spent arguing with a court what the person really intended? How much money is spent trying to get people to testify about what they witnessed even if they did not sign in the right place? How much money is spent just trying to get a retired notary to come to court to act as a witness to a person’s intentions? And in the end, how much of this money is truly wasted because it changed nothing? A lot more than $99.

The Reputation of ALL Attorneys Suffer
I recently read an article from an attorney in Oregon who went back and forth in analyzing whether or not LeaglZoom.com was really her competition or not. She analyzed how the company targets customers, how she works with her clients, and in going back and forth discussed how people who try to do-it-themselves end up having a false sense of peace of mind. She even linked to a testimonial from a person who complained that her friend died without a Will and his assets went to probate, so that’s what pushed her to get a Will done… as if having a Will would avoid probate. The fact is she has peace of mind, but it is a false one if she believes having a Will avoids probate. It doesn’t.

What the other attorney did not address is that whether or not she considers LegalZoom her competition or not, people who will go cheap will do-it-themselves, and then their families suffer the consequences of prolonged court battles and legal fees. But the families are not going to end up cursing LegalZoom. They’re not going to end up cursing their dead relative. They’ll end up cursing attorneys for the legal disaster. How much is it going to cost attorneys to lose some drafting business to $99 Wills? Some. What will be the boon in legal fees for estate litigation attorneys? A lot. And what about the cost to the reputation of the legal community, of which most people consider LegalZoom and other online services (…a company formed by attorneys…)? Beyond measure. So before you think of using $99 online Will services, or before attorneys lightly dismiss online Will and document services, think of the real cost—it’s a lot more than $99.

“More than any other lobbying group, HRC has had a tremendous impact on federal equality legislation,” Kathleen Marsocci said. “While there is a still a long way to go and HRC doesn’t always get 100% of what they push for, we are pleased to help the organization make the 2011 Gala Dinner the best possible.”

According to research, this is the first instance of a hetero married couple being co-chairs of a Gala dinner, leading some people to ask why a hetero married couple would devote so much time and effort for a predominately LGBT event. “There were many important lessons my grandfathers taught me,” Mr. Marsocci said. “Always be polite, even in the face terrible insults. Work hard and work smart and you’ll be successful. And probably most importantly, what’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong, and you stand up for what is right and oppose what is wrong. We’ve gained valuable organizational experience with volunteer groups during our lives. How can we not help?”

The HRC North Carolina Gala dinner is still in the planning stages, but information for the dinner can be found at http://www.hrccarolina.org/.

“Most states have something called a Rule Against Perpetuities which cuts off a trust after a certain period of time.” Jeffrey G. Marsocci said. “Most states limit a trust to somewhere around 100 years, and some have expanded them further. However, North Carolina has eliminated these time restrictions on wealth, so now a family can pass down wealth to all of their descendants in perpetuity. “

The core of the strategy is The NC Perpetual Family Legacy Trust™ where assets can be transferred during life and upon death for the first two generations, and then the financial assets can provide for the grandchildren and all of their descendants. “With the right combination of financial assets and tax exemptions, the wealth in The NC Perpetual Family Legacy Trust™ can take on a life of its own and provide financial support and security to a family forever” Mr. Marsocci said. “It is a complex strategy, but for the right people, this can be their opportunity to leave a legacy not just to their children and grandchildren, but to their descendants forever.”

Other components of the Perpetual Family Legacy Strategy™ include:

• A Revocable Living Trust for the parents, also called the Founders of the strategy;
• A Beneficiary Trust that allows the children to inherit money from their parents but to specifically pass along a good amount of these finances while incorporating some of their tax exemptions; and
• An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) to provide funds to support the Beneficiary Trust

“By incorporating the right documents, in the right place and at the right time, The Perpetual Family Legacy Strategy™ will do what some visionary families have always dreamed of but were previously told they could not do,” Mr. Marsocci said.

To read more about the strategy and the components, Mr. Marsocci’s book The Perpetual Family Legacy can be purchased at www.livingtrustlawfirm.com/legacy. Financial advisors, attorneys and accountants who wish to provide this strategy to their clients should speak to Mr. Marsocci directly by calling his law office at 919-844-7993.

Henry had a simple but powerful vision. And as often occurs, it was a vision born of turmoil in his own life. He saw what happened when his father passed on, when the agonies of probate poured salt on the wounds of a family already grieving over the loss of a loved one. How probate attorneys descended on the estates of everyone they could, pecking away at their assets until the frustrating and expensive process ran its long course. Henry questioned how affluent families were able to avoid the probate process and found a solution: a good revocable living trust. He then developed his vision to bring these otherwise expensive solutions to everyone in an affordable way, and he set forth on his mission to find allies and bring this solution to all who would listen.

I first heard Henry’s message and vision when I read his book “The Living Trust” when I was a first year law student, more years ago than I care to think about. At the time, my grandfather’s estate was going through probate and I wanted to see how this administrative disaster and my grandmother’s aggravation could have been avoided. I knew there just had to be a way, but I was not being taught in law school how to avoid a court process. I wanted to make sure my future clients’ families wouldn’t suffer as my grandmother did. When I read “The Living Trust,” I knew the direction I wanted to take my law practice. I can credit Henry with my own happiness in practicing law the way I wanted to, by preventing problems from occurring during a time of crisis rather than being paid for cleaning up a bureaucratic mess that could have been avoided.

Henry didn’t think much of probate attorneys. Actually, he thought quite a bit about probate attorneys, but what he thought was very negative and deservedly so. Most of the probate attorneys were bent on following the system’s directive of pushing Wills which would eventually lead to lucrative probate work. A story of a farmer and salesman comes to mind. A salesman was traveling down a dirt road and he sees a large puddle in the middle of the road. Thinking nothing of it he drives over it not realizing that it is actually a deep pit filled with water, and his car gets stuck. The farmer agrees to help him get his car out of the road, but he says he has to charge him $100 to get the car out. “Cars are always driving along, seeing the water and driving right into this hole, and I end up having to spend all day getting them out” the farmer said. After the salesman has his car out of the hole and pays the farmer the $100, he asks to the farmer, “Gosh, if you have to spend all day helping get cars out of the hole, when do you have time to farm? At night?” The farmer calmly replied, “No, night is when I fill the hole up with water.” And so we have the probate attorneys filling up the hole with water by pushing Wills on their clients and paying to get their families out of a mess. But Henry did much more than offer an alternative to probate to his own clients. He became that visionary leader, helping thousands of professionals keep their clients from driving unknowingly into the ditch of probate.

A few hours before hearing of Henry’s death, I was reading an article about George Wythe. Most Americans have not heard of him, but George Wythe was a critical Founding Father who pioneered law in Virginia and throughout the colonies. He became the first professor of law at William and Mary College, and he taught law to the likes of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Henry Clay, and even the first U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Marshall. They all had their own accomplishments in the early days of our nation, but their vision of a nation of laws and their sense of justice was forged in large part by this one man, George Wythe.

In the arena of modern estate planning, we have lost our own Founding Father. We have lost a man who had a vibrant vision and dream of reducing the financial, legal, and personal agonies placed on all families through a burdensome probate system by bringing them good, cost-effective planning alternatives. Henry had a life filled with greatness in personally helping countless others. But his passing does not mean the end of his dream. It is only the beginning, It is now the calling and destiny of all of us who believe in Henry’s dream to take what he has taught us and continue. And not just to maintain the dream, but to improve it, and expand it, and spread it as far as we can. Henry has showed us the path through the wilderness, but it is now our responsibility, together, to build a road through it.

Henry was a friend, a mentor, and a teacher to me. He also showed me how to be successful in an estate planning practice while bringing the best, highest quality legal documents to my clients in an affordable way. And so I will do all that I can to continue to help my clients help their families by planning for the worst. And I ask all attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors alike to commit themselves alongside me in keeping Henry’s dream alive and, in Henry’s words, “carry the message to all who will listen.”

In order for an attorney to flourish in the life and estate planning field, they either have to also be able to sell financial products such as life insurance or manage stock accounts for a fee, or they have to spend a lot of time marketing their practice to gain a volume of work. In the latter situation, if you want to keep your services competitively priced, then it makes financial sense to either outsource as much as possible or hire employees to handle the work. In a lot of cases, preventative legal services such as estate planning fluctuate so much with seasons and the market that it makes hiring staff to assist in the creation of documents cost-prohibitive. And this is why many attorneys are looking to outsourcing some of the non-legal aspects of life and estate planning.

What are the “non-legal” areas of estate planning?
• Gathering of personal information from the clients, such as dates of birth, names of children, and a list of financial assets and their approximate worth.
• The printing, binding, and organization of the documents for signing
• The creation and transmission of educational materials

For many attorneys, these areas may have been ingrained into their training as non-delegable functions of being an attorney. This is simply not true. The fact is that the attorney remains responsible for all of these functions, but the actual execution of these tasks can be handled by non-attorneys if the attorneys check the work. Let’s take the functions one by one.

Working with a Financial Advisor

Gathering Information
In the estate planning process, the gathering of information from the client or clients may yield opportunities to explore the situation further, and so some attorneys are reluctant to pass this function off to anyone else. The other extreme is simply providing a questionnaire for the clients to fill out, which may also be acceptable. In the case of “outsourcing” the function of gathering information about the clients, it may be as simple as working with, or even paying, a financial advisor to compile the information they have already gathered. This is particularly true if they can provide a comprehensive financial analysis that enables the attorney to avoid spending several hours on re-creating the information a financial advisor has already generated.

The other consideration is that just because an attorney has outsourced the initial gathering and compilation of personal and financial information does not mean that they will not explore things further with the client. In working with a financial advisor to gather personal information for your mutual client, there is no reason to stop with what the advisor has provided. In fact, the attorney would be remiss in not following up after reviewing the information. But reviewing, checking, and discussing information takes a lot less time for a good estate planning attorney than taking a few hours to gather and compile the data to begin with.

The Legis estate planning binder

Printing, binding, and organizing documents
Probably the biggest opportunity to streamline an estate planning practice is the outsourcing of printing, binding, and organizing trust documents. This is especially the case if the documents the company uses are well-researched, applicable in all 50 states, and have all of the terms you would put into your own documents. Because of the combination of services just mentioned, Legis, Inc. (www.legisinc.com) may provide a good option for an estate planning law firm.

[In the interest of full disclosure, you need to know that I am the president of the Legis, Inc., but I did not become the president and then started dealing with the outsourcing of legal documents for my firm. I have been using the same outsourcing system and documents for years. It was only afterwards that I was asked to work to grow Legis, Inc., primarily through the estate planning educational materials I have created and by teaching estate planning techniques to attorneys. I came to the decision to outsource most estate planning documents long before becoming the president of Legis, Inc.]

The printing and binding of documents takes away valuable staff time, including an attorney’s time, in making sure that the documents are printed correctly, there are no printer jams or half-pages, and everything is correctly stapled and organized. While this seems like a relatively inexpensive process, having the best documents available in a complete plan takes a lot more time than using a 20-30 page trust and a few 2-3 page ancillary documents. In all, the Legis trust system we use has about 400-500 pages printed on average. To organize all of that takes away from time my staff could be using to organize seminars, plan client appreciation events, and keeping the office moving in the right direction. Not to mention talking with clients to keep them happy.

But by far the biggest savings in terms of time and quality is that outsourcing document production to the right company can save a lot of time in making sure the documents are the best available for all 50 states. As an attorney in North Carolina, I keep on top of the various laws regarding trusts and estates in my state, and I do pass along information to Legis about new laws and developments. In a mobile society, though, the chance that my clients under 50 years old will remain in North Carolina is only about 50%. I would like for the trust system I provide to translate well to the 49 other states should they move so they will not have to start the process over in their new home state. By outsourcing document production, I don’t have to research the other 49 states because it is being done for me.

I do want to be clear on the outsourcing of documents in general. You should examine the standard documents for yourself before committing to work with a document production company. I have reviewed several companies that approached me, and in all of those cases I found my own documents to be superior in most aspects. But when I reviewed the Legis documents and found them to be better than my own documents, I knew I had a company to work with. Unless you review the standard documents yourself and find them to your standards, then outsourcing the documents to that company is not for your practice.

The Creation and Transmission of Educational Materials
While I tend to write a lot of my own educational materials, I have also shared them with Legis as part of the offerings they provide to attorneys. I currently have six books available on amazon.com, but I have created specific versions for Legis, Inc. at greatly discounted rates that are designed to be used as handouts for attorneys to give their clients. I have also developed seminars and, in a few cases, podcasts that can be used by attorneys to provide information to their clients. They are all available to attorneys as part of the outsourcing process. Rather than discussing the benefits and processes of an IRA Trust individually with each client, it is probably more time-effective (and therefore cost-effective) to give them the book The IRA Trust and then review the concepts later. It is certainly more time-effective than writing a book on this topic yourself when one is available inexpensively.

While I am extremely proud of the books I have written, I would be naïve to think that I am the only author or that mine were the only books you would consider providing to your clients as information and education pieces. In fact, the best and most complete book I have read on revocable living trusts is still the same book that got me into the field of life and estate planning back in law school, which is The Living Trust by Henry W. Abts III. However, it is large and a little intimidating for some of my clients as an introduction to revocable living trusts. But for some of my clients, I keep a few copies around in case they are interested in learning a lot more.

Again, it is critical to note that outsourced educational materials are conversation starters for your clients, and not substitutes for the conversation itself. A book can not replace an attorney’s good advice. But having the basics on paper can convey a lot of information that you can later summarize and work through specific questions with your client. In practices that are primarily focused on estate planning, saving some time in the general estate planning education of clients can allow you to spend more time on the specifics with your clients as well as finding new clients.

Summary
As legal fields of practice become more focused and specialized, it is more important than ever for small firms that practice preventative care like estate planning to manage their time effectively. Being able to outsource certain non-legal aspects of the life and estate planning process makes good business sense, provided it is only the non-legal functions that are delegated to non-attorneys.

Jeffrey G. Marsocci is a life and estate planning attorney licensed in North Carolina as well as being the president of Legis, Inc. He is also the author of several books available on Amazon.com, including The Anti-Probate Revolution, Estate Planning for Domestic Partners, and The IRA Trust. Mr. Marsocci can be reached through his law office at 919-844-7993 and more information is available on his firm’s website at www.livingtrustlawfirm.com.

A few frogs, the lazier and less bright ones, told the frog to go to the left since there were a few puddles on the road to the left, but no pond at the end of the road. “But why should you work so hard?” one sleepy frog said. “Just go to the left and there are guaranteed to be some mud and water soon, and there may be a few flies there, too. At least that’s what I’ve heard.”

The frog sat there, confused. What if the road to the left was the better one? It certainly sounded easier. But the road to the right was considered a better road by everyone the frog respected, and that large pond sounded nice. But what if they were wrong? What if being lazy and going to the left was better?

The frog sat there for hours looking to the left and the right, when, without warning, it was run over by a kid on a bike. The moral of the story? If you can only go right or left, standing in the middle of the road makes no sense.

All too often this is the case with life and estate planning. People know that they have to do something to put a plan together, but some people freeze over making decisions because they are unsure of which course to take. Who should be trustee and handle money for underage beneficiaries? Who should make healthcare decisions if you can’t? What age should beneficiaries be when they take control of their inheritance? How much should go to a spouse or children? Unfortunately, if you do not make your own choices, then all of these decisions are made by the government… and you probably won’t like the outcome.

Trustees and Executors
If you don’t make a decision on who you want as your executors, or the trustees overseeing assets until children reach age 18, then your closest living relatives are put to the front of the list. Then it is up to a court to decide whether or not those relatives are able to handle the job. So your brother whom you don’t trust but who can balance a checkbook? He might get control of your assets. The eighteen year old child who will use the money for their own benefit rather than equally among all of the children? They get power over the checkbook.

“That’s not right!” you may be saying. “People know I would never name my brother or my 18 year old child as executor!” It doesn’t matter. Courts do not care what you might have wanted if you had executed the documents in the correct legal format. You didn’t take the time to make your own choices, in writing and in the proper legal format, so now the law and the courts choose your executors.

Healthcare Decisions
More frightening than what happens to your money and assets after you are gone is who would make life and death decisions for you if you were not able. If you don’t make your own choices for healthcare agents ahead of time, then your “next of kin” or closest living relative makes those decisions for you. It doesn’t matter if you have a best friend who is a doctor, or if your cousin is a nurse, it is your children or siblings who may have no medical knowledge whatsoever who would be put in charge of your life. While it doesn’t make individual sense, the law assumes that the people you are most closely related to will care enough to make the best medical decisions if you don’t choose to put alternative wishes in writing. It rarely works perfectly, but, other than creating a healthcare power of attorney and choosing the agents you feel best, it’s probably the best of the alternatives.

Ages of Beneficiaries
Except for a very few things in life, like consuming alcohol and renting a car, being an adult comes at age 18. There is no requirement that being an adult for inheritance under the law means being 18 AND responsible. And so when someone fails to use age limitations in life and estate planning documents, or they fail to use any legal documents at all, then the age of inheritance in most, if not all, states is 18. A beneficiary may not be responsible, but they still get control of their inheritance at 18. (Question: when was the last time you saw an average 18 year old get even $10,000 in cash and put all of the money away to save for the future?)

You should also be aware that naming your minor children as beneficiaries on a bank account or life insurance policy ensures that they inherit at age 18… even if your Will or Trust says they inherit at a later age. Having a pay on death or transfer upon death beneficiary designation means it bypasses probate, bypasses the Will’s age restrictions, and bypasses a trust completely. Having age limits in the right legal documents in combination with the correct beneficiary designations means that you can choose later ages such as, 25, 30 or even 60 if you feel that is appropriate. Leaving these decisions to “the law” means that your right to choose the ages you feel are appropriate for inheritance are meaningless.

Beneficiaries
Aside from a few rules disallowing the disinheriting of a spouse, you can choose to leave your assets to whomever you choose. Do you want your niece to get a dining room set? No problem. Do you want to make sure that your oldest son gets your extensive fishing and camping gear? No problem. Do you want to leave $10,000 to your church or a charity? No problem. Do you expect for all of this to happen just because a few people were told that’s what you wanted, or you assume that the law just “takes care of it”? Big problem.

The law doesn’t always do what we expect. If you are married and have children in the State of North Carolina, and many other states, then your spouse does not automatically inherit everything. In fact, with two or more children a surviving spouse only gets about 1/3. No children? The spouse only gets half if you have one or more parents living and the inheritance is split with them. And what if you haven’t spoken to a child in 20 years… they can still end up with an inheritance if you fail to plan ahead using the right documents.

There are incredible opportunities to leave behind a legacy of your choosing, whether it is family members, friends, charities, or some combination of all of them. But choosing not to make any choices is a decision to leave the choosing up to the State and the Courts. Why not take advantage of your right to make these decisions?

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