How to Bring an Estate Plan to Completion

I have found that there are three obstacles to the closure of an estate plan. The first is the belief that death is not an immediate threat. The second is that most of us do not like to make decisions. And the last is that the estate planning process is time consuming, quirky, and frequently lacking an infrastructure that leads to closure.

If you are someone who does not have a current estate plan, and would like to complete the process, it may be helpful to address the obstacles as you begin.

Periodically, in our own lives or in the lives of others, we are reminded that life is far more fragile than acknowledged by our immediate day-to day reality. It is important to recognize this. The ebb and flow of our own sense of mortality may mean that we will be inconsistent in our desire to accomplish our goals.

Sooner or later, we decide to begin. Now we are faced with the second obstacle: decision making. I view decision making as two parts gathering of information and one part willingness to make decisions mixed with the ingredients of our own personalities.

The Meyers-Briggs personality test recognizes 16 personality types. Many like to see and understand the details in contrast to those who want to see the big picture, thus creating a challenge in communi-cation. Some of us like to keep our options open, and others like quick closure resulting in a fairly wide spectrum in the speed of decision making.

For the most part, it is probably a good thing that we have several personalities involved in the process: the client or clients, the attorney, maybe a trust officer and/or a life insurance agent. Some personalities will slow the process down and others will speed it up. A larger group may increase the possibility that one member will drive the process to closure.

If you are someone who likes to understand the details before you make a decision, the challenge is to understand information that is complex, bordering on the arcane, explained frequently by individuals who have not been trained as communicators. If taxes are a consideration, changing legislation compounds the problem. The most recent modification in the federal estate tax rates and exemptions still leave doubt as to what type of estate tax, if any, we will face in the future. Although many planners now feel that the tax will stay and the exemption will settle at 2 million, the future is unclear.(See Estate Tax Dilemma - Which Rates To Assume?)

The process itself is inconsistent at best. First you meet with the planner. If that is not your attorney, the next step is to meet with her or him. Once a plan is complete, the lawyer draws up the documents. Some lawyers, sensing less urgency then you do and with a need to make triage decisions in managing their own practice, may take months before they send you your first draft.

When you do receive the documents, they are frequently accompanied by a letter which attempts to explain the documents. If you are like most people, the documents don't make much sense. Neither does the explanatory letter. The instructions for your VCR appear positively simple in comparison. The temptation will be to put off proceeding further.

Your lawyer may not call you if you have not responded. If you take months to respond and there is a need for a second draft, your lawyer may assume a lack of urgency and take months to make even minor changes.

Once the documents are signed, you may be able to breathe a sigh of relief. Or perhaps not.

If one of your objectives is to avoid probate, most lawyers will leave it up to you to attend to the re-titling of your property. If you need to transfer real property to a trust, the lawyer will tend to that responsibility. More than likely, you are on your own regarding other assets; your stocks, bonds, mutual funds, life insurance, and retirement plans are all candidates for change in title or a new beneficiary designation. If you don't tend to the re-titling or beneficiary changes, or you do them incorrectly, you may ruin or damage your estate plan.

Sometimes I think it is a minor miracle that we are able to bring an estate plan to completion. Here are some suggestions if you are or will be struggling with this.

Suggestions:

• Implementing an estate plan is like building a house. So select a project manager for your plan. Ideally, this is someone who has both the personality and inclination to keep everyone on schedule. It could be the attorney, yourself, spouse, adult child, life insurance agent, or trust officer.
• Get a time schedule set in advance. It's the project manager's responsibility to make sure the contractors, subcontractors, and you, stay on schedule.
• Get clarification from your lawyer as to who will be responsible for the details of changing titles or beneficiary designations if necessary. Incorporate this responsibility into the project.
• Review the project on a regular basis. Even if you are way off schedule, your chances of completion will be significantly better if you know where you are in the process.

Recognize that your plan will never be perfect. If you can't seem to agree as to who will be the guardian of the children, consider going ahead without nominating one. I think we can all agree that a Will without a guardian is better than no Will at all, yet some of us will delay simply because we fear that once an estate plan is implemented we will not tend to this important task. Consequently, it is important that you keep a list of those items in your plan that you felt were less than ideal, and review this list at least yearly. Unlike building a house where you may encounter daily reminders of your decisions, an estate plan tends to fade quickly from sight.

I hope these suggestions are helpful. If you have some of your own please let us know.

Jack Davidson

Comments about this article? Please email Jack

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