When one child brings parent to the estate planning consultation

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

So, sometimes I'm sitting there, and I get a new client. And the new client is accompanied by their daughter or their son. So, one of the kids brings the client to the meeting and this can be a problem. Hello everybody, my name is Robert Mansour and I'm an estate planning lawyer in the Los Angeles area. And I want to talk to you today briefly, about the situation when one of several siblings brings the parent in for a meeting. Usually I get a call and it's like, "Hi, I'm Johnny. I want to bring my mom in to visit with you to review her estate planning documents, or whatever the case may be. I want to bring my dad in. I have to be careful because if Johnny is one of several siblings, I have to ask myself, number one, why is Johnny bringing mom or dad in? Is Johnny maybe trying to change some things in the trust to benefit Johnny. Is Johnny influencing mom or dad and bringing them into my office and making them do something that maybe they don't want to do.

It's not like I will decline these clients, but I have to be very careful. So, when Johnny brings his mother or father into the meeting and we have a discussion, I have to find out whether or not he changes that they want to implement, or whatever plan that they are implementing is actually what the mother or father wants. So, my protocol - and I think any good lawyer's protocol - would be to excuse the sibling or the child from the room and speak privately for a while with the parent, and make sure that this is exactly what the parent wants to do. And it has happened to me in the past where I excuse the child to the room, and the parent tells me, "No, that's not what I want." Or I want some of that but not quite all of that, and I want to make some other changes So, I need to make sure that whatever I'm doing is for my client, which is the parent or the mother or the father, or whoever they're bringing in, and I also have to be very careful to see if Johnny is negotiating things so that everything goes to him, or he gets the majority of the inheritance. I have to be careful when things like that occur.

So, the warning sign that I'm looking for is when one child from several children brings the parent in for a consultation. It's often a red flag. Sometimes there's nothing harmful about it, it's a good kid trying to help mom and dad out. There's nothing mysterious about it, no monkey business going on. But it's just something that I have to be aware of.  Thank you very much for joining me on this, brief video, and I appreciate it very much. Again my name is Robert Mansour and if you need to reach me you can go to Mansourlaw.com or call my office at 661-414-7100. Thanks again for watching.