A Unique Look at How We View Our Role
All clients have a story – a present, a past, a family, a fact pattern that no one else has. They have questions that no one else has. There’s always a point where I say, “Wow, no one has ever asked this question before,” or, “No one has presented this situation – this problem – before!”
Clients don’t have all the answers or they wouldn’t need me. Although I don’t have all the answers, I may have solutions that I feel are an excellent fit for them. Together we can combine our knowledge, effort, and input into a plan that works. Their input is factual, emotional, and deeply personal, while mine is objective, based in experience and the law.
A plan that works is really only an experiment…a clinical trial.
The plan we come up with, together, “should” work, but it is really an ongoing experiment. Yes, an experiment.
To illustrate my point, let me make an analogy to the medical field. Oncologist Kevin Jones (Why Curiosity Is the Key to Science and Medicine) has opined that it is an experiment to see whether or not we can kill or cure a cancer. Jones says that, contrary to popular belief, medicine and science are not exact, not foolproof, and not 100% certain. For him and his patients, every case is a unique study, trial, or experiment. That could be disconcerting for the cancer patient, except for the fact that Dr. Jones prepares his patients and their families for the fact that treating cancer requires ongoing work.
While we are not seeking a medical cure, we are treating another condition, one that is terminal. Left unattended, estates (our clients’ unique bag of assets, characters, health, and circumstances) is in a natural state of decay and disarray. The estate is “sick” and will get sicker if not cured. What is the cure? To make conditions easier to bear, less costly, and less devastating to the family.
Changes in health and wealth, ways of thinking about these things, and changes in environments (family, children’s circumstances, not to mention laws and taxes) will affect an estate. Like the medical treatment, it is an ongoing experiment to see whether or not we can achieve a better experience of getting old, a better final illness, and a less stressful experience in death.
Something insidious is approaching: inevitable death, and with it, all the issues that can kill plans along the way. But we are not discouraged by this, because together we will seek the cure.
Year in and year out, we check our clients’ estate “condition” and combine our best efforts with our clients and their helpers (their children and others who are there for them) to make the experience as bearable as possible, or better yet, a cause for celebration.
A brief conversation can go a long way to gauge the health of your estate. If you have concerns or want to discuss your situation, feel free to set up an introductory call with our paralegal, Paula.
Curious to know what some typical circumstances are that can cause an estate to become unhealthy? Read our blog, Seven Life Events That Can Undermine Your Trust.
