What is Estate Planning?

What does "estate planning" mean? Why should I care? Not knowing the answer to these 2 important questions cost my family dearly. If you don't know what it is, why would you bother doing anything about it? Many people think they know what estate planning is: "oh yeah I have a Will or a Power of Attorney or a Trust" but they have no clue what these documents do. They simply know they have some type of document. If you are looking for a document, download it off the internet and save yourself the time expense of using an attorney. However, beware of the consequences to your family. If you don't know what your document does, how can you expect your family to have any clue? People are better consumers when buying a high definition tv as opposed to when they are trying to set up their estate plan. Your estate plan directly impacts your family and all the wealth you have created. It might be a good idea to do your due diligence here. A good first step would be to try to imagine what life would look likefor your family members if you were disabled or if you passed away. I could think of a 1000 better ways to spend my time but if you don't take the time to think about this topic critically, then, in my experience, you will cause considerable emotional and financial damage to your family.

So where would I start? I would define what estate planning means to me. Here is my best definition of estate planning that I use on a daily basis:

I want to control my propery while I am alive and well;
A plan for me and my loved ones if I become disabled;
Then I want to give what I have, to whom I want, when I want, in the way that I want;
All while assuring my wisdom is transferred along with the rest of my wealth.

If one understand this definition and feels comfortable with how their plan works, then I believe you are going in the right direction to protect your wealth and your family. In my next post I will go into this definition of estate planning into more detail and what it means to me. . .

As always, this blog is not intended to be used as legal, tax, and or financial advice. It is simply my perceptions regarding the events that occur in my daily personal life.

Questions the Attorney Should Be Asking. . .

In my recent posts, I have been reflecting on the death of my father and how his estate planning could have been structured to avoid the disaster our family encountered when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He (and our family) lived with the disease for 12 years. If I had the opportunity to rewind the clock and if I was the attorney handling my father's estate plan, here are some of the questions I would have asked him that were NOT asked:

Attorney: Mr. Feisee, as your attorney I need to prepare a plan that will address your needs immediately. Let's call it "Next Month" Planning. In this regard, I would like to explore some different scenarios with you and get your thoughts.

Dad: Okay, what would you like to ask.

Attorney: If we were to do nothing as far as planning and you were to have a stroke next month, or be diagnosed with Alzheimer's or some other catastrophic illness, can you describe how life would look like for your wife?

Dad: Well, since I own my own business, we would lose all that income. I guess my wife would have the burden of paying 2 mortgages with half the income. As far as my care, I guess she would be responsible for taking care of me as well. I guess she would be put in a very stressful position. Life would be tough, I am not sure how she would get by.

Attorney: Let's fast forward 10 years and say that your wife managed to make ends meet for 1o years while taking care of you. Let's say you pass away at this point. Can you describe how life would look for her at that point?

Dad: Well if she had to take care of me for 10 years, while working and paying all the bills including my medical care, I would say that she would be in a difficult financial position. She would probably have to work another 10 years at least and probably work until the day she died.
After going through 10 years of dealing with my care, I am guessing she would just want a break and take it easy since she is in her 70s. Life would look pretty bleak for her too.

Attorney: Let's look at the other side of the coin and say that we did do some planning and that the plan included things like long term care insurance, diability insurance, and life insurance that would fill the liquidity needs of your spouse and family if these events were to occur. How might life look like then?

Dad: Well if there was money coming in to take care of me, that would lighten the load tremendously. If we could replace my income that would be a tremendous relief to my wife. As far as the life insurance, although I am not a big believer in, I see how it could be the ultimate gift I could give to my wife. I never looked at it this way.

Attorney: Maybe we should explore some options and talk to your advisors about how we can make this work with your budget.

Dad: Good idea.

This conversation could have saved our family over $600,000 in long term care expenses and hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income and mortgage expenses. Maybe my dad would not have implemented all the ideas, but I think he may have done 1 or 2. Those 1 or 2 items could have changed our family members' lives life tremendously. My mom currently works 8-10 hours a day and she is in her mid 70s. There is no vacation in sight. . .


As always, this blog is not intended for financial, legal, and/or tax advice. It is simply a place where I reflect on my personal life experiences. I am not selling any financial or insurance product; talk to your own professionals for any specific advice.