Doing It Yourself

Today in some respects is a “do it yourself” age. However, when you keep in mind that what you plan for in this area is primarily mental incapacity and death it is easy to see that YOU WILL HAVE ONLY ONE CHANCE TO GET IT RIGHT. After you become mentally incapacitated or deceased, there is little hope for correcting your own planning errors. Unlike the porch, or the electrical system in your car which can later be replaced if you err, the goof in an estate plan can cost your estate a lot of money or can cost someone his or her inheritance. The stress level that can be created in families of botched planning is incredibly high.

Forms have no ability to adapt. They are not able to tell you when you have a problem situation and when you do not. They cannot tell you when you need a special approach. They can not understand your goals and objectives. They can not see the special family interactions and personal or relational problems that need to be addressed. They do not understand how your particular asset situation bears on your incapacity or death. They do not suggest alternatives. They can not tell you when you are right or wrong or whether things will work out the way you want them to.

Every time I worked with a situation where someone messed up a planning document, the document itself did not look erroneous until I got into the underlying asset or family situation. The laws regarding property are many, varied, complicated and popular understandings are often wrong. Money is not wasted seeking my help to plan your estate.

It is not so much the paper and ink that you pay for when you do your estate planning. It is the experience, resources and expertise that I bring to your situation. The ability to ask the right questions, to help you express what you want, to show you how to achieve your goals effectively, economically and with certainty is my business.

“Be pound wise, not penny foolish.”