I’ve seen a trend in the legal profession that has worried me for years.
An attorney who may have never practiced probate law or estate planning gets an email or a letter from a national estate planning company that offers to transform their practice into a million-dollar per year firm.
They sign up for the seminar and exit with a newfangled certificate stating they are a member of “the xx estate planning or asset management company” that gives them a paid subscription to a software program that allows them to create cookie cutter wills and powers of attorney and trusts along with marketing tips on how to solicit clients with that new-found program.
They go out and start recruiting clients.
I know. I get them weekly. Each time I see them, they go straight to the trash bin.
“Just come to our seminar and we will give you everything you need to transform your firm into a million dollar estate planning firm.”
Here’s my concern. They could be using software created by a company that is several states away from our regional legal practices, from our chancery court judges, from our local banks and local companies.
These and many other factors affect how assets are handled after a person dies.
If your estate planning attorney has never stood on the firing line of guiding a probate case through state and local laws and procedures or defended their probate paperwork in front of a local chancery court judge, there is a risk that they could miss a key factor that will require probate after you pass away.
Estate planning is not a simple process.
It is a legal minefield that can cause major issues if not done correctly.
As I say in all of my estate planning seminars: I use every one of my 9 years of probate practice to work to avoid court when my clients pass away.
I learn something new every day I’m in chancery court.
Before you hire an attorney to create documents—the main goal of which is to avoid court and to protect your assets from claims after you pass away—ask your potential estate planning attorney this question:
“How many local probate cases have you handled in your practice?”
A will, powers of attorney, and trusts are documents that any attorney can write.
An estate plan that protects your assets and ensures your wishes are covered and which take into account local practices and court case law trends…takes experience.
When it comes to estate planning…experience matters.
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