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Page 1: theretirementincomestore.com · Web viewSo, wills and probate. Now, we’ve talked a lot about probate, but I never defined probate, so let me now define probate. The word “probate”

Estate Planning Seminar Script

Good evening/afternoon, everybody. Today we’re going to talk extensively about how to save money on your auto insurance, your home owners insurance, and also your umbrella liability policy. (PAUSE) Just kidding! No, what we’ll really be talking about today, of course, is estate planning. Really, three things in particular: First of all, you’ll learn some of the common mistakes folks make when doing estate planning and how to avoid them. Second, the most important components to consider in an estate plan, and third, specific steps you can take to ensure you have a well-thought out estate plan that not only protects your assets and your loved ones, but also ensures your final wishes will be honored.

Before we get rolling, I would like to give out my disclaimer: I am not an attorney. This is an educational workshop and is not intended to give specific advice or legal determination for participants. Any legal work will be referred to a licensed attorney and any tax advice will be referred to a licensed tax accountant.

OK, now that we have that out of the way, let’s get started. Who can give me a good, clear definition of what estate planning is?

(Allow guests to respond)

Actually, the definition of estate planning is accumulating, preserving, and ultimately distributing your assets. So when you think of estate planning, you think about wills, trusts and where the money goes when you die, but actually, it’s much broader than that because it includes other things that you might not be thinking about, so today we’re going to cover those things too.

Now, some of you might know me, some of you don’t. For the benefit of those of you who don’t know me, I’d like to take a minute to have you reach into your folders and on the left side is a biography of yours truly. My name is (your name) and I’m here representing (your company). You’ll see that I am not an estate planning attorney, but I am a (whatever credentials or licenses you have). So, I’m more like your primary care doctor, who knows a little bit about cardiac issues, gastrointestinal issues, oncology issues and so on, yet you wouldn’t want your primary care physician to do open heart surgery or treat you for cancer. That specialist, in my analogy, would be an estate planning attorney. I am able to provide you with basic information on estate planning, but I cannot provide any legal advice or tax advice related to your personal situation.

DISCLAIMER: THIS SCRIPT IS A REFERENCE TO USE FOR YOUR WORKSHOP. IT HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED WITH THE SECURE ACT INFORMATION OR CURRENT TAX INFORMATION FOR 2021.

Page 2: theretirementincomestore.com · Web viewSo, wills and probate. Now, we’ve talked a lot about probate, but I never defined probate, so let me now define probate. The word “probate”

My goal tonight is to educate you on the basics of estate planning and offer you a complimentary meeting, where you can take this textbook knowledge that you’re getting this evening and apply it to your own real world situation. We’ll show you some of the different aspects of estate planning that may help you understand what might be appropriate for you, eliminate things that are not appropriate for you, and if your situation warrants it, refer you to a local, qualified estate planning attorney to actually provide legal advice and write the required documents for you. And you’ll be happy to know that they will usually give you a discount because of my relationship with them and because much of the time they would normally have to spend up front educating you, would already be done in the meeting we have.

Speaker has blue sheet in hand for next section

Now, if you’ll look in your folder again, I’d like to ask you to take out the blue sheet, please. This blue sheet is actually a very important tool for all of you and for me. It’s an important tool for me because there are some questions in here that I would appreciate you taking a few minutes later on to answer, which helps me improve these events. The reason the blue sheet is an important tool for you is because down here on this lower section, is where you get an opportunity to pick your time slot for the one-on-one complimentary meeting I’m offering each of you, where I can help you take all this text book knowledge and apply it to your specific situation.

Presenter returns blue sheet to table and gets a copy of the white program pamphlet

So I’ll give you some time later on to fill out these blue sheets, but for now, let’s go ahead and take out the big white sheet with the drawing on the front of it and we’ll delve into the important information that you’re here for this evening. Let’s flip past the first page for a minute and go to the second page where it says on the top, “Why Good Estate Planning is So Important."

You know, I could probably write a book about all the sad stories I’ve heard from financial advisors over the years about the mistakes people have made with their estate planning. Many people think of estate planning as reducing estate taxes, saving probate fees, etcetera, but there’s a lot more to it than that. About saving probate fees or reducing estate taxes: A lot of attorneys will tell you that you can avoid probate fees, but the truth is, you can't avoid probate fees, even if you don’t owe estate taxes.

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As you may know, the federal government raised the estate tax threshold to be charged on estates over $5.3 million for individuals or above $10.6 million for married persons. Now, I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that there probably aren’t too many of you here tonight with estates over $10.6 million, which might mean you’re thinking, “We’re below that threshold, so who cares about estate planning? We don’t need to worry.”

Well, some of the most important reasons for estate planning are not just legal fees and taxes; they’re family things. I had a client, years ago, who had a business and he was stuck with a dilemma. He had three children and one of them was really helping him in the business, but his other two children weren’t. His biggest asset was his business. So what does he do? When he dies, do all three kids own the business equally, even though only one actually worked in the business? He wondered if this was fair.

Well, there is no one answer. What’s fair for you and your family might be different from what’s fair for another, but those are the types of decisions that people have to consider that oftentimes can be very difficult. In this gentleman’s case, estate planning was the key to helping him solve the dilemma. What he didn’t want to have happen was for his kids to be resentful or not talking to each other or fighting amongst themselves after he passed on, simply because he never made a decision or spelled things out. And by the way, he’s still alive and doing well.

Think about it. Let’s assume you have a home by the water, a vacation cottage, or another valuable piece of real estate and you have three children. One of your children says to you one day, “You know what mom? Don’t sell the cottage. We all love that cottage and we’re going to keep it. We’ll keep it in the family and your grandchildren can have when we’re gone.” It’s a heart-warming thought, but what if the other two kids don’t really care about keeping it? If you bought that cottage back in the ‘70s, it could be a proportionally large part of your estate. So even though you may want to keep it in the family too, you realize, "Wait a minute; my two children who don’t care about it might not want to pay their share of the real estate tax or might want to sell it.” So, what do you do? How do you word your will so everyone’s happy? Do you give it to the one child and disinherit the others?

I know of another situation where two siblings were trying to get an estate settled and there were some items that the will failed to clearly spell out regarding who should get what. They tried to resolve it between them, but they couldn’t agree. Well, from there, they ended up fighting and it got so bad, they ended up communicating entirely through attorneys. The whole thing got blown out of proportion, dragged on for years, and the attorney’s fees went up and up the whole time. These are both examples of what can happen when you don’t spell out your wishes ahead of time.

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So, the real purpose of estate planning is to make sure you look at everything and that everybody gets along in the end. Think about it: Where is most of the emotional attachment in situations like these? Is it on the financial assets or is it on the personal items, such as mom’s jewelry? I’ve seen situations where two daughters didn’t speak to each for years other over claims on different pieces of mom's jewelry. Who’s supposed to get what? Now, do me a favor. Raise your hand if all of your children agree with each other 100 percent of the time.

(Allow for Response)

That’s a good reason for estate planning right there. Another question: who here has lost a spouse?

(Allow for Response)

When you lose your spouse, you’re told not to make any major decisions for how long? One year? Sometimes even 2 or 3, right? Why is that? Because, you’re not in a good frame of mind to make decisions, right? You’re not in the right emotional place to make good decisions and that’s another purpose of estate planning – to make it easier for you and your loved ones. So, have your wishes and instructions spelled out ahead of time. This way, the decisions are already made, which will reduce the possibility of any ‘family feuds’ from arising.

NOTE: Please review your state’s laws regarding passing away “intestate”, a legal term used when someone passes away without a will and amend accordingly before presenting

Now, what if you die without a will? If this happens, you would be considered dying “intestate”, which is a legal term meaning you died without a will. If this happens, and you’re married with children, the way that basically works is, your spouse gets the first (whatever $$ your state law dictates), and whatever you have over that amount, your spouse gets (percentage your state law dictates) and your kids get (percentage your state law dictates). Now, maybe that’s exactly the way you want it, but maybe not. And, if both you and your spouse pass away at the same time, your estate could be tied up in probate for months – even years – so I highly suggest if you don’t have a will, you look into getting one ASAP. When your wishes are spelled out succinctly, by definition, it’s likely probate will take less time because now the courts don’t have to decide what the right thing to do is.

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Now, let’s get to some of the other reasons why estate planning is important, such as avoiding unnecessary legal processes and costs. One of the benefits we’ll talk about is having a living trust because it’s harder for somebody to contest a living trust than it is a will. In probate court, if somebody does contest a will, it will raise legal costs.

How about avoiding additional taxes? When I say taxes, I’m talking about estate taxes, so let me show you what the tax rules look like today for estate planning.

(Move to your white board or drawing easel – be prepared to write what is in blue)

As I mentioned before, estate taxes, on the federal side, start on anything above $5.3 million in assets for individuals. If you’re married, and both of you pass away at the same time, you get a combined $10.6 million exemption, with no estate tax. Those limits were established on January 1, 2013, and there are now fewer people who have to pay federal estate taxes upon their death. When you get over that threshold, the tax burden is 40% on the amount above the exemption.

NOTE: for the next section, please research your state’s estate rules for thresholds, tax brackets and additional bylaws and amend this section accordingly.

Now, unfortunately, the state of (your state) didn’t bring up their threshold like the federal government did. The state of (your state) has a (whatever $$ your state threshold is) threshold for individuals and a (whatever $$ your state threshold is) threshold for couples. Oh, and by the way, even if you are under the state threshold for couples, you might still have to use some legal maneuvering with certain assets to stay under it; it varies by situation. I don’t want to spend a ton of time on this because most of us, if not all of us, in this room most likely aren’t over the thresholds. But if you are, it would be wise to take us up on the one-on-one meeting and attorney referral.

So, with that in mind, let’s flip to Page 4 and discuss what a “clear disposition of assets” means.

It’s very important to have a “clear disposition of assets” that spells out where you want everything to go and there are different ways to do that. Again, if there’s any doubt at all, the court has to get involved. So here are some of the things that you need to be careful of:

First and foremost are your beneficiaries. You’ve got to identify your primary, as well as secondary or contingent beneficiaries. Now, what types of accounts can you put beneficiaries on? This is important because the accounts you put a beneficiary on can overrule what you say in your will. If you have a

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beneficiary on your IRA that says everything goes to your daughter, but your will says it goes 50/50 to your son and daughter, where does your IRA go? To your daughter.

So, remember, always check to see that the beneficiaries named on your IRAs or other retirement accounts match what your will says. For non-retirement accounts, the equivalent to naming beneficiaries is called TOD, which stands for transfer on death, or POD, payable on death. A TOD or POD allows you to say, “This is who’s going to get this account when I'm gone.”

Now, as far as Life insurance and Annuities are concerned, again, you have primary and contingent beneficiaries. All these, have one thing in common: if you name beneficiaries, they avoid probate court.

The reason it’s important to name all your beneficiaries is, let’s say you name your spouse as the primary beneficiary of your account and that’s it. Then, the unthinkable happens and you’re both killed in a car accident at the same time. If you don’t have contingent beneficiaries, your estate is dealt back to probate. Even if your child is named a primary beneficiary, it’s possible that you encounter an accident with your child. Or think of what happens if your child predeceases you, the worst thing that could possibly happen. Are you going to be in the frame of mind to pick up the phone and call your financial advisor and say, “I need to change my beneficiary”? Probably not, so it’s best to name the contingent beneficiaries ahead of time.

Now, let’s just say that you have one son and one daughter. Your son and daughter each also have a son and a daughter. Let’s say, again, the unthinkable happens and your son predeceases you. Now, who do you want to get your son’s share of the estate when you pass? Do you want it all to go to your daughter, or do you want his share to go to your son’s son and daughter, your grandkids? The answer will be different for everyone, but that’s where you have to understand the difference between what’s called per capita and per stirpes beneficiary designations.

Most places default with per capita. Under per capita, if you named your son and daughter as primary beneficiaries, with 50% to each, and your son passes away and you make no changes, your daughter would receive 100% of the assets when you die because she is the only surviving primary beneficiary. Under per stirpes, your son’s 50% share would be divided equally amongst his children. If they were minors, under age 18 (check your state law - some states the age is 21), it would go to a custodian until they were of age. So it’s important to specify per capita or per stirpes in your will, so that your wishes are carried out the way you want them.

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It’s important to note that designating a beneficiary is not the same as putting assets in a child’s name, which is not a good idea. Although they’d have to “knock you off” to get the money, that’s not the reason it’s a bad idea. You should never, ever put your kids’ names on your assets because if that child gets divorced, half of it could go to their spouse. Or, if your child is sued for some reason, these assets are subject to collection. It happens all the time. Good people can make a mistake and get sued. That’s why you don’t want to do that.

So, wills and probate. Now, we’ve talked a lot about probate, but I never defined probate, so let me now define probate. The word “probate” comes from the Latin word, probatum, which means ‘something proved’. The process of going through probate is to prove the legitimacy of the will that’s being presented. How do the courts do this? Well, what the courts do is they make available to the public a listing of all of your assets, and since your assets are public information, anybody who wants to go to probate court can say, “Let me see what these assets are” and they can ‘contest’ your will. And even if you have a will, if they think they’ve got a claim to any of the assets, they can go to the court and say, “I’ve got a claim.” Now, a judge has to figure out, “Okay. The will says the money’s supposed to go here, but this guy says he has a claim, so is it a valid claim?”

Now, in the real world, if the will’s structured properly, it most likely won’t be contested, but one way it might get contested would be if you left somebody out of it. Let’s say you have four children and you sort of disowned one of them and it's all left to the other three. The fourth child will probably come in and try to contest that. If you don’t pay an outstanding debt to someone or an entity, or have an outstanding judgment against you (that would most likely cause your will to be contested), but as long as there is nothing funky like that, it’s likely it wouldn’t be contested. I just wanted to make you aware there is always a chance and that’s what probate is there for.

So, other than fees, the biggest concern with probate is the fact that it ties the money up and delays your heir’s receipt of the assets. That’s the biggest concern people have about probate. Yes, an estate can be settled in a matter of months if it goes to probate, but it can also drag on for many years.

Now, let’s talk about trusts. First, there are two basic types of trusts: living trusts and testamentary trusts. A testamentary trust is set up in a will and is established only after your death. The more common type is a living trust, so I’m going to focus on that. The two primary types of living trusts I want to go over today are revocable and irrevocable. The first thing I want to stress is, not everyone needs a living trust. There are some estate attorneys who’ll tell you every single human being needs to have a living trust. Not true. So, first, what is a revocable trust? It’s called revocable because you haven’t lost any control over it. You can put assets in, you can take them out.

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You are the ‘trustee’ of your own trust. What you do in this case is name a successor to take over after your death, as the trustee. This successor then makes decisions as to how those assets are distributed. So, why would you have a living trust at all? Well, the primary reasons for any trust are that you want to manage your assets from the grave and to avoid unnecessary taxes. For example, you have a child that’s irresponsible and you want to ensure that after your death, someone doles out the money at certain times or under certain circumstances for their needs. That’d be a reason to have a living trust.

Another reason to have a living trust is if you don’t want your assets to be public knowledge. Another is that, typically, the distribution of the assets is a little quicker. Also, as I mentioned before, it’s much harder when you have a living trust for anyone to contest it. In fact, you could make it impossible to contest by putting in a “no-contest” clause that says, “If anyone contests this trust, they will be treated as if they died before me and therefore be ineligible for any of the assets.” So literally, if you contest it, you’re out. That’s perfectly legal, but in most states, unless the court feels the challenge is brought without probable cause, they will still hear the argument.

The main problem with the living trust is that in some ways, it’s kind of a pain in the butt because for it to be effective, for it to avoid probate, you have to retitle all of your assets based on the trust. So, if you have real estate, you’re going to have to retitle it all so it’s in the living trust for John Smith and John Smith trustee. Savings accounts, checking accounts, you have to put them into the trustee’s name. How about things that aren’t titled, such as jewelry? You don’t title jewelry. You must actually specify in the will, “This piece of jewelry goes to this person and this piece of jewelry goes to this person and so on.” That takes the stress off the beneficiaries because you spelled it out. Now daughter one and daughter two can’t get into an argument over this great piece of heirloom jewelry, because it’s right there in black and white: “This is the person who I want to have it.” So, I can’t stress enough that, in my opinion, the biggest reason for a well-executed estate plan is to keep the family together because people tend to fight about the craziest, silliest things when they’re under emotional stress. It happens. And the more children you have, the more that could be a problem.

So, the great thing about a revocable living trust is that you’re still in control. The problem is it costs money. The good news is, with my relationships, I can typically get you a topnotch attorney to do the work at a price that's a little bit under market price because of my relationship, and the fact that we get you a little further along in the process before you see the attorney, which saves them time.

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So let’s compare: A will versus a living trust. With the will, you have an executor who’s in charge of making sure it gets settled. With a trust, you have a successor/trustee. Again, why is it a successor/trustee? It’s a successor/trustee because you’re still primary trustee while you’re living. And as the primary trustee of your own trust, you have complete flexibility to take money out of the trust and give it back to yourself. The successor/trustee doesn’t kick in until you die.

Now, let’s talk about the differences between revocable and irrevocable trusts.

Revocable trusts are more flexible. If you’re willing to pay an attorney’s fee, they’re easy decisions because they are revocable. If you put money in a revocable trust, you can get it back. The problem with an irrevocable trust is that it has to be a firm decision because it is, well, irrevocable. Now, you have some flexibility with an irrevocable trust. An example would be a real estate irrevocable trust where you can have the property inside a trust, but maintain life use of the property. It must stay in the trust, but you can still use it. You can also put an investment account inside your irrevocable trust and structure the trust so that you can take the interest, but the principle stays in the trust. So why would you do an irrevocable trust?

There are advantages to you not having access to the assets. For example, people who have primary residences that are worth a lot of money. Although this is less of a problem today with the estate tax thresholds being so high, some people don’t want to take a chance that either the value increases over time and exceeds the estate tax thresholds set when they die, or that they get sick and lose it to the state to pay for nursing home fees. So what some people do is put the house into an irrevocable trust called a QPRT, Qualified Personal Residence Trust, and by putting the house in there, you can get the use of it while you’re alive. An attorney helps you figure out what period of time is appropriate for it to completely get into the trust. So, let’s say it takes 15 years with the current gift tax laws. After 15 years, the trust officially owns it and if you are still living there, you might have to pay rent to the trust. Now, you might be thinking that’s a bad thing, but hold on a minute. Let’s say your children or grandchildren are the beneficiaries of the trust. Because the house is out of your estate, there is no estate tax on it when you die, and because you’re paying the rent, that rent will be in the trust also – so now you can give more money to your kids or grandkids.

So, that’s an example where an irrevocable trust might work. Another example is if you’re trying to protect an asset against a health care catastrophe.

NOTE: Check the average cost of nursing home care in your state before delivering the following.

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I spoke to a client recently whose husband’s Alzheimer’s has gotten to the point where he just recognizes her as being the nice lady who takes care of him every day. It’s not going to be long before she has to send him to a nursing home.

In the state of (your State), nursing home costs are over ($$$,$$$) a year. So, another common consideration you need to work into your estate planning is the possibility of long-term care expenses because again, it’s not just about how your assets are distributed after you die; it’s how you manage those assets long-term, even when you’re alive.

The idea is, if you don’t have access to the trust, then it’s not your money, so if something happened to you and you were forced to file title 19 or Medicaid spend down, for instance, the state can’t take all your assets. Now, (your state) has a (whatever your state’s look back period is) look back period, so if you’re doing this, you have to set it up with that in mind and although certain assets are exempt from the look back period, most are not.

Now, another situation where an irrevocable trust might be useful is life insurance. When we talked about the estate tax thresholds of (whatever the $$ thresholds are in your state) for the state, as well as the $5.3 Million and $10.6 Million federal estate tax, that includes life insurance death benefits. So, even if you’re under these thresholds on assets, life insurance proceeds could put you over. In a case like this, what you might do is set up an irrevocable trust and put the life insurance into the trust. This is known as an ILIT, which stands for Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust. Now, with an ILIT, you can’t take out the cash value, but the death benefit will not be included as part of your estate when the thresholds are considered. Now, there are certain rules that you have to follow to make it fly, but that’s another reason why one would have an irrevocable trust.

Another type of trust I would like to briefly discuss is called a ‘special needs trust’. A special needs trust would apply if you have a beneficiary that’s physically or mentally disabled, and you want to ensure they’re taken care of after you’re gone. One of the biggest pitfalls to this is if you die and they get a chunk of money and they are on some kind of government assistance, they might lose that government assistance. So what you might do is set up a ‘special needs trust’ so that the money isn’t the property of the special needs person. You would name a trustee that would be responsible for disbursing funds from the trust to meet the basic needs of that disabled person. It’s important that the language of this type of trust is very specific, so it is a good idea to see an attorney that specializes in this area.

Just to make you aware, there are other variations of trusts, such as Credit Shelter Trusts, Generation Skipping Trusts, etc. – if any of these fits your situation, the attorney can assist you.

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Let’s turn the page one more time to page 6 and talk about the purpose of a Durable Power of Attorney.

The Durable Power of Attorney is the better alternative to putting your children’s names on an asset. The Durable Power of Attorney is the thing that says, “If I’m disabled, this person can make financial decisions for me.” Now, the reason it's durable is that the standard or ‘Immediate Power of Attorney’ ends if you become incapacitated. So you must have a ‘Durable Power of Attorney’ so that it continues to empower this person to make decisions on your behalf if you become disabled. Even spouses could be affected without this. Think about it: you may have a lot of your accounts tied to your spouse and think, “Well, I can access that with a normal power of attorney if something happens”. Well, what happens if your spouse is disabled and they’re in a coma, and now you have to get a distribution out of their IRA? Now you’re stuck. So you need a Durable Power of Attorney even for spouses and successor power of attorney in case both you and your spouse are disabled.

There are variations on Power of Attorney other than Immediate Power of Attorney and Durable Power of Attorney, such as ‘Springing Power of Attorney,’ which doesn’t become effective until a doctor signs off and says, “You are no longer able to make financial decisions.”

In addition to the Springing Power of Attorney, there is a Health Care Power of Attorney and an Advance Health Care Directive, which are completely different. For instance, if you have an Advance Healthcare Directive, it acts more like a living will. This type does not give the power of decisions on your healthcare to someone else; it spells out what your wishes are beforehand. An example of this might be the heartbreaking situation where a father is on life support and his son tells the doctor, “I know my dad wouldn’t want to have his life extended this way. He would want you to pull the plug.” But, the doctor cannot do this because of the legal ramifications. However, if the son were able to pull out the ‘Advance Health Care Directive’ and it stipulated the circumstances under which his father did not want his life artificially extended, then the doctor could go ahead and do it in accordance with his father’s wishes.

The Durable Power of Attorney can sometimes also be written to include a Healthcare Power of Attorney. This does appoint someone to make healthcare decisions for you, including end of life decisions. You may have one of your children be your Durable Power of Attorney for the financial matters, and another one of your children to handle the healthcare part because they’re more emotionally able to do it. For instance, a child who would just keep spending thousands of dollars to keep elderly pet alive might not be the one you want to make decisions on extending your life through artificial means – or maybe they are. Look, I’m not saying extending your life wouldn’t be worth the money and I’m certainly not comparing your life to a pet.

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I’m simply saying that a child who can’t rationally analyze the situation and make the hard decisions because they’re too emotional might not be best suited for that situation. For these situations, it’s probably better to go with an Advance Health Care Directive, so the decision is taken out of their hands.

So, to sum up, a basic package for estate planning is to have a will, a living trust, and some form of Durable Power of Attorney for making financial and or healthcare decisions. Everybody in this room should have these three and you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get them. I can direct you to a really good attorney who, for as little as (whatever the attorney you recommend charges), can help you set up a good, solid estate plan. And, for those of you who are thinking of going online for free legal advice, downloading documents, and trying to fill them out and file them yourselves, my advice to you is use an attorney. This is too important to make a mistake. I say this because if you do it online and make a mistake, you can’t exactly tell anyone you made a mistake when you’re six feet under, right? You can’t go back and say, “Whoops, sorry, that’s not what I wanted, so please change it.” You can always meet with them and at least then you’ll be able to say, “I went, I listened, and this is what they recommended and I decided to do this and not that.” It’s also nice to have the attorney as an objective third party. That’s another important and valuable thing you will get for your (whatever attorney’s fee you used above).

Now, I’ll be the first to admit, not all attorneys are created equal. My apologies if any of you here are attorneys or have one in the family, but I don’t think it’s any big surprise that the public has a little mistrust with attorneys in general. I’m sure all of us have heard at least one story about someone who was charged an exorbitant price for a will or trust and that’s an issue. For your information, living trusts are typically more expensive than other trusts and wills because they’re a little more complicated. They’re usually more detailed so they cost a little more.

So, today, I’ve tried to help you understand some of the estate planning issues you’ll want to think about that relate to your personal situation. As I mentioned earlier, by taking advantage of the complimentary meeting I’m offering you, we can review your particular situation, decide what it is you want to accomplish and then, only if you need it, I’ll refer you to a reliable, reasonably priced attorney that I have experience with. Then, you can discuss with the attorney which documents are necessary for your situation and exactly how much it will cost you. But, by us meeting first and doing the upfront fact finding, the attorney will likely charge you less. Fair enough?

Speaker has blue sheet for next section in hand

Page 13: theretirementincomestore.com · Web viewSo, wills and probate. Now, we’ve talked a lot about probate, but I never defined probate, so let me now define probate. The word “probate”

So, if you want to take advantage of that, I’d like to ask you at this time to please take out the blue sheet in your folder, and let’s take a few minutes to fill it out. I would like to ask a favor: I’d like to get a blue sheet back from every family in the room, so if you’re here with your spouse, one blue sheet is good for two. The first section is your vitals, name, rank serial number. Next, there’s a section of brief questions because I’d love to have any feedback, good or bad, on how we can improve these workshops in any way. And finally, and most importantly, the bottom section, where you can choose a day and time that you think might work for you to take us up on the complimentary meeting, where we can address your specific needs and questions and then, if necessary, refer you to a local attorney to work with you on the legal documents. Now, folks, I know many of you may not know your schedules, but if I may make a suggestion? If, as you’re sitting here right now, you think you might benefit in any way from a meeting with me, why don’t you just pick a day and time that you think might work and if you get home and realize it doesn’t, simply give us a call and we’ll reschedule.

Pause at this point and walk around the room for about a minute to allow everyone to fill out the blue sheets

Folks, I want to mention that when you come in for the complimentary meeting to talk about estate planning, if there are other topics that you want to cover, you’re welcome to do that. Perhaps income taxes, Social Security, RMDs, a second opinion on your investments – whatever financial topic might be on your mind. It would also be helpful if you bring in your current wills and trusts, as well as your investment statements, or at the least, a summary of your assets. Most people find it easier to just bring copies of all their investments statements and things like that, but at least bring the summary. So, we’ll review your situation and based upon the quantitative data, as well as your family dynamic, to figure out which areas of estate planning you might want to consider and which don’t apply to your situation. And, with many of these decisions settled, when you go to the attorney and the meter starts, the process is already far along. Any questions about the complimentary meeting?

All right, let’s wrap this show up. We’ll be coming around to collect the blue sheets now and I’ll be around for a few minutes if any of you have questions.

Collect the blue sheets

After you turn in your blue sheet, if you have no questions, please feel free to leave and I want to thank all of you for coming.