There is a difference between having an estate plan and understanding it. Clients sometimes tell me, "Oh yes, we have an estate plan," or "We have a living trust," or "We have powers of attorney and health care documents." Then I ask questions about those documents and they have no idea what I am talking about.
- What does your estate plan say? "I don't know."
- What kind of living trust do you have, and what features does it have? "We don't know."
- When is your power of attorney effective? "We don't know."
That is not very good. Having an estate plan is great, but it is not very helpful if you do not know how to use it. The same goes for your family: if your trustees do not know where it is and your health care agents would not know the first thing to do, the plan does not help much.
What I do about it
I try to help my clients understand not only that they have an estate plan but what it actually says. What does the living trust really say? What happens when someone passes away? When are the documents effective, and under what circumstances should they be used?
In most cases I ask clients to bring their trustees, agents and executors to the final meeting. I brief the whole family on what the plan says, what it does and how it is used, and I answer questions. It is nice to have everybody on the team there.
So ask yourself: if I have an estate plan, do I even know what it says? And shouldn't I?
If you want to understand what your estate plan says, or you want to get an estate plan and really understand the legal tools you are creating, give my office a call at 661-414-7100 and we will do our best to help you.