I was on a Zoom meeting recently with another attorney, and that attorney mentioned that she likes to write blog posts because it gives her more of a chance to do legal writing.  I listened to what she meant by that and she talked about how a blog post gives her a chance to write something to explain one aspect of the law, or another, and that she enjoys being able to explain things that can be complex in an easy to understand manner.  I thought that was a nice way to think about writing a blog, and I understand what she was saying, as writing an estate plan can be very different than writing a blog, or writing a motion or a brief for a court, both of which could also be considered legal writing.

I don’t go to court all that often, and when I do, it is usually to testify that the estate plan was written when someone was mentally competent and that they really did mean what they said in the estate plan.  I don’t represent people in court, but I can defend what I wrote into an estate plan, as I write estate plans within the confines of the law.  Writing an estate plan is not an exercise in explaining the law, or trying to show off how much you or I know about the law.  Rather, writing an estate plan is an exercise in getting your asset to go where you want, and doing so in the proper manner.

 

Yes, an Estate Plan Needs to Be Set Up Properly

To me, it seems like the most basic of requirements that an estate plan be set up in a manner that complies with the law, specifically Colorado law in my case, since I am only licensed in Colorado.  There are some basic requirements for a will, like naming a personal representative to carry out the instructions of a will and naming beneficiaries to receive assets through the will.

Dictating who gets what and who will be in charge of distributing the assets seems like a simple thing to put into the will, but sometimes it ends up not being so simple.  Every once in a while, I encounter a potential client who wants to just name a person who will be in charge of distributing assets, but not name beneficiaries to receive assets in the will.  They want to leave the distribution to the discretion of the designated representative to distribute assets.  I let them know that such an arrangement doesn’t fit the legal requirements for a will.

Sometimes I can get these indecisive people to actually name their beneficiaries in the will (woohoo!), but every once in a while we just end up naming the personal representative of the will as the only beneficiary.  This means that everything goes to the personal representative, and then the personal representative can distribute assets as they please.  Such distributions are then at the discretion and pleasure of the personal representative.  Distributions to anyone other than the personal representative are not legally enforceable since the will only says to give assets to the personal representative, and not anyone else.  To ensure transfer to the right people, they need to be named in the will or trust as beneficiaries.

 

Writing an Estate Plan Isn’t About Showing Off, It is About Communicating Clearly

In letting a potential client know they need to pick beneficiaries to make an estate plan be legal, I am not trying to show off how much I know about the law, I am just trying to make the estate plan work for what the client wants.  I know that I need to have a firm grasp on the law, so that we can create an estate plan within the law.  I am just trying to make the law work for you in your estate plan, which means I listen to you and what you want to do as much, if not more so, than I explain the law.  Writing an estate plan is an exercise in collaboration between me – I bring knowledge of the law – and you – you bring knowledge of who you want to give assets to upon your demise, and who you want in charge of the process.  The estate planning process is a fusion of those two attributes and approaches.  Estate planning works best when we both work together to combine our knowledge and work together to set up your estate plan.

 

An Estate Plan isn’t A Treatise on the Law

In writing an estate plan, I am not trying to write a detailed explanation of the law, or to prepare some sort of document that explains all of the relevant statutes, cases, or other sources of the law.  I did have a client recently who wanted me to print out all of the statutes and cases that were referenced in a Financial Power of Attorney that I wrote.  I let the client know that they could search the statutes online and even the cases online, and they were welcome to print everything out on their own, but I was just giving the relevant statute citation to show the source of the legal rule we were applying for their benefit.

Printing out all of the referenced source materials would not be super helpful, as the source materials could be accessed at any time they were needed.  To me, it was a little bit like having someone require all of the sources cited in an academic paper to be printed out and attached to the paper.  When I wrote such papers in college, I frequently would cite one or two paragraphs of a 20 – 30 page publication from a scholarly article or source.  My professors didn’t want all of the articles printed and attached to my paper, they just wanted to read what I wrote.

In an estate plan, we want your desires and wishes to be easy to find and carry out, not get everyone bogged down in sorting through all the statutes and cases upon which the estate plan was created.  The estate planning documents themselves are created within the law, but we are trying to make it clear and easy to understand what you want to have happen, not hide your intent in a mountain of paper!

 

Making Your Estate Plan Work for You and Your Heirs Is What You Want

I had a friend once who told me I just needed to tell people how smart I was and then they would want to hire me.  I don’t think that is really how it works.  Rather, I want to know about you and your life, so that your estate plan reflects what you want.  I am not trying to wow anyone with my knowledge of the law or brilliant arguments concerning the law.  I am just trying to help you get your wishes ready to be carried out.  Basically, I want to help you, but in order to do so, I need you to be ready to help me help you.

We need to work together so your estate plan is as clear and precise as it needs to be to get your assets where they need to go.  Estate planning itself can be complicated by the rules and requirements of the law, or by complex distribution patterns, but expressing what you want needs to be understandable to whomever is carrying out the plans.  I do my best to make things as straightforward as possible, but I do use the proper legal terms and proper legal methodology to carry out your wishes.  If you would like to work with me to get your wishes clearly set out, please click the button below to make an appointment.