Giving Straight Answers to Common Estate Planning Questions

By Tamara Cain, Attorney and Estate Planning Educator, Cain, Cain & Janik

Q: I want to make things as easy as possible for my children and other loved ones when my estate plan is eventually needed. How does good estate planning help me do that?

A: We hear this from prospective clients all the time. They aren’t necessarily coming to us with a complicated legal problem. Often, their motivation is much more personal: “I don’t want to leave a mess for my children.” They want to take care of things now so that when disability or death occurs, the people they love aren’t left trying to figure everything out during an already difficult time.
That’s one of the primary goals of our planning process at Estate Planners for Life™. We look at the entire picture, not just the legal documents, and identify ways to make things simpler and more organized. Over a lifetime, people accumulate bank and investment accounts, retirement plans, insurance policies, real estate, mineral interests and other assets. We help clients sort through what they own, how it’s owned and how it all fits into the estate plan.
As part of that process, we work with each client to prepare an Asset Review Report listing their assets, ownership and beneficiary designations. Combined with the estate plan itself, that report eventually provides the family with a roadmap. Instead of searching through filing cabinets, old statements and emails to reconstruct Mom and Dad’s financial life, they have an organized record to guide them. Just as importantly, they have an established relationship with our law firm with professionals who know the plan and can help them carry it out.
We also coordinate the assets with the estate plan. Even a properly drafted trust won’t accomplish everything intended if assets haven’t been properly funded into it or beneficiary designations and ownership arrangements work against the plan. That’s why funding is an important part of our planning process. The goal isn’t simply good documents. It’s making sure the documents and assets work together.
At Estate Planners for Life™, we also help clients prepare their people. Trustees, powers of attorney, health care agents and other helpers don’t need to become estate planning experts, but they should understand the roles they may someday be asked to perform. Many clients elect to have a Family Orientation Meeting, where we help introduce the plan to their adult children, explain roles and responsibilities, and make sure everyone knows where to turn when questions arise.
After 35 years of practicing law, I’ve learned that making things easier on your family doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a process: simplifying where possible, getting organized, coordinating the assets with the plan, and preparing the people who will someday carry it out.
Our clients don’t just want documents. They want a plan designed to make things easier for the people they love. One of the best things you can leave your family isn’t just an inheritance. It’s a clear, organized estate plan that makes it easier for them to carry out your wishes when the time comes.