What Ifs-the Right Questions for Your Estate Plan
A lot of folks view the process of estate planning as something only the wealthy need to bother themselves with. Common sentiments surrounding the process include the “I don’t have an estate” belief, or the “what, me worry?” Alfred E. Neuman philosophical approach to life. But if you’ve been reading my pieces with any consistency, you know that is the furthest thing from the truth. Everyone has an estate. And everyone needs someone to administer it if we become incapacitated during our lifetime, and certainly at our death. The only question is who gets to make the rules for you – yourself or the government.
What is an estate planning attorney good for after all? Why use them when I can ‘do my own research’ or ask the Google oracle? Why can’t my financial advisor double as an estate planner? The answer is the same reason why I don’t perform brain surgery or car mechanics – because I am neither a brain surgeon nor a car mechanic. And like both of those well-trained vocations, “good enough” shouldn’t be the measure of the work they do for you.
A good estate planning attorney spends the time, asks the right questions, and listens well. I spend time with my clients and I ask questions – a lot of questions. I don’t do it to pass the time or to appear congenial. While I do have an agreeable personality, I am probing to find out what a client’s situation is now, and to, believe it or not, forecast what might come to pass in the future. Thinking about the ‘what-ifs is my job. And it can be a complicated, multi-layered matrix of possible outcomes depending on so many different variables including, but not limited to: your assets, your type of assets, the location of your assets, your business, your investments or retirement, your current and your past marital situation, your children, other people’s children, the lack of children, your medical history and your current health, your family and relationships, and the list goes on. Trust me.
There is an intricate overlay of all of these aspects to your life and a good estate planner has to take into account the ‘what happens if’ A, B, or C scenarios come to pass. An estate planning attorney is snapshot expert – taking a snapshot of your present and the future at various points along life’s way. But more than thinking of it in a linear way, she has to think of the A, B, and C (and sometimes D-Z) scenarios that could possibly happen as the unfolding of one situation impacts the trajectory of another dependent condition as a result. So instead of a straight line, the analysis of your situation takes on the look of logical calculus problem with all its branches of possibility in trying to determine potential outcomes. This is not neuroscience or auto mechanics, this is its own beast.
Good estate planning is nothing that can be replaced by a really good Google search, and I can assure you that Bing doesn’t use ‘what-ifs’ in its algorithm. You need a trained human for that. I wouldn’t rely on your auto mechanic or your brain surgeon to help you out in this situation either. And would you like to know the sign of a good financial planner, while we’re talking about trained professionals? She’s one who tells you that a financial plan necessarily includes an estate plan and directs you to a trusted estate planning attorney. Estate planning is financial planning, in large part.
One of the things in my practice that always brings a bit of an “A-ha” moment for my clients is when, after they’ve shared their story, where they are in life, and the certainty with which they believe life will unfold, I insert my “what-if” overlay to the whole scenario and we start to see the list of possible outcomes grow and grow.
I often hear “my goodness, I never thought of that” or the outcome of that, as a result. The branches and tributaries of possible outcomes start to emerge and the delta grows larger and larger. But good news! There’s someone keenly trained to help you through the mire. Someone to ask the right questions to get your ever closer to the best plan for you and your family. Why, it’s your friendly estate planning attorney and she’s here to wade through that tangle and muddle with you. And as an aside, she has excellent recommendations for a car mechanic, financial planners, and a top-notch brain surgeon, to boot.
