Estate Planning: What does it take to get your Attention?

 Estate planning isn’t for everyone. If you have less than $150,000 of gross aggregate assets in your name, alone, a will may suffice. If you don’t care about future cost to your beneficiaries, the prospect of a probate proceeding when you die may not trouble you now.
If, however, you want to be sure that your assets go to your chosen beneficiaries without undue expenditure of time, effort and money, or unnecessary dilution by attorneys, accountants, taxes, and courts, then estate planning deserves your time and attention.
What does it take to get your attention? A death in the family? Some clients say that they faced an unpleasant, expensive probate when a senior relative died, and they don’t want their own children to have that experience. Some people realize they’d better attend to this business before taking a major trip, or before having major surgery.
Yet some folks just don’t get the message. One lady told me, “My husband has cancer, so this year we’re focusing on his treatment.” (Pardon, but don’t some major, life-threatening illnesses lead to, like, death?) One older gentleman said, “This season, we’re focusing on financial planning.” (Isn’t an exit strategy a part of financial planning for senior citizens, or has this gent figured out how to outlive both his fortune and his relatives?)
Recently, I had the painfully frustrating experience of visiting an elderly gentleman on his deathbed. He had been ill for the past year. For months, his doctors had advised him that his condition was irreversible and would continue to deteriorate. He wanted to provide for his children, with whom he was close. Believing that he might only have a few weeks left, he summoned me to take notes and prepare an estate plan for him. Within hours of his call, I was at his home. He was weak and not very alert. He died that night, before anything could even be prepared for his signature.
What had he been thinking? What should it have taken to get his attention sooner – a week or a month previously, or when his wife had died three years earlier, if not during his children’s minority?
If you think you need and want estate planning, then do it, while you can.  Jerry Kessler practices law in Santa Clarita. You may contact him at 661-255-1001 for a confidential consultation.