The Old Paradigm of Estate Planning Lulls People Into Incorrectly Believing It’s All Been Taken Care Of When Oftentimes it Hasn’t.

Most estate planning attorneys focus almost entirely on the preparation of documents - wills, living trusts, health care directives, and powers of attorney.  That's why so many call themselves wills and trusts lawyers.  And, while it is true that every adult individual should have some or all of these documents prepared, the document preparation itself isn't really the critical part of the planning process.  The documents are the result of the relationship, not the value of the relationship.

If you've ever met with an estate planning lawyer, this story will probably sound familiar to you.  The person or couple meets with the attorney, they spend some time together discussing options for the documents, the attorney prepares form documents and then sends them out to the client for review, the client may or may not review them and almost certainly doesn't really understand what's in them and then signs the documents praying that the attorney really understood the client's objectives and prepared the documents correctly.  And, in most cases, that's usually the end of the relationship.

If the client wants to ask questions about their plan or how to properly title their assets under their new plan for maximum protection, they will receive a bill in the mail for the time spent answering questions or attending to details of the plan. The attorney's time will be billed in 6 minute increments.  As you can imagine, after receiving the first bill, the client is reluctant to ask questions again.

And, the only time the attorney communicates with the client once the documents have been signed is if the client initiates the contact or if the attorney sees an opportunity to sell the clients an additional product or service.  For the most part, the attorney does not communicate at all with his existing clients because he must be constantly focused on bringing in new clients to continue to support the revenue model of the firm.  And, of course the client doesn't review her estate plan on a regular basis because in her mind, it's taken care of.  And the attorney doesn't suggest reviewing the plan regulary because he has no process to do so and his revenue model doesn't support regular reviews.  So, as the client's personal situation changes - their children change, their assets change, the people in their life change - and the laws change, the plan stays the same and no longer fulfills the objectives of the client.

This old paradigm is the paradigm of almost every estate planning lawyer and law firm in the United States today who is planning for the average or even above average American family.  Of course that's not the case for the wealthiest families who have close personal relationships with their family attorneys.  Why do you think they are so wealthy?  Because they keep more of their wealth than they give away to the government, lawsuits, and other unintended beneficiaries.  And, they keep more of their wealth because they get great advice from great advisors.  Advisors who don't just focus on preparing one size fits all documents, but instead who guide the families they serve to preserve and protect their family wealth over a lifetime.

If all you want is a set of documents, you may want to consider an alternative that is much less expensive than a lawyer.  There are many resources on the internet or in bookstores that can be helpful in helping you to prepare documents for yourself.  Of course, you won't have the peace of mind of knowing that the documents have been prepared correctly or that you've done everything you can to protect your family.