Here are a few sample documents from the estate plan of an elderly gentleman:
The Testator resided in California and his son, the Trustee was a resident of Oregon, thus the Oregon Notary acknowledgment forms on these documents.
Establishing a revocable trust for each and every client is not warranted. But for many clients, revocable trusts do offer some distinct benefits over a will and will be appropriate. Here are a few to consider:
Avoids Probate. Save costs and fees. Less of an issue in states with streamlined probate procedure.
Out of State Property. Avoids ancillary probate if settlor owns property in more than one state.
Privacy. But less privacy than previously with notice requirements of Probate Code Sec. 16100.
Incapacity Planning. At incapacity, the trust will provide for the orderly succession of the trustee position without the requirement of a court proceeding , e.g., guardianship or conservatorship.
Asset Management. Provides orderly management of a settlor’s financial affairs.
Ease of Management. Assets can be managed and invested by another person for settlor’s beneficiaries.
Certainty. Provides certainty in administration for client owning property in several states (e., can specify that California law applies).
Retention of Community Property Benefits. May retains CP character of marital assets if owner moves to non- community property state.
Separate Property. Can be useful to segregate separate property assets of spouses (i.e., before 2nd marriage).
Hope this is useful –
Tom
Clients coming to you for estate planning who are recently divorced should be aware of some landmines to insure that their estate plans end up in the hands of intended beneficiaries.
Be very careful if your client has not finished the divorce process. There are automatic restraining orders that become effective for all divorcing parties and include prohibitions on revoking or modifying estate plans until the divorce is final. The intent with Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders (“ARTOS”) is to maintain the status quo of assets and ownership interests until the division of assets is complete.
Hope this helps!
Tom
Here is sample engagement letter for a husband and wife which was offered as a supplemental handout by Rob Harrison, one of our instructors. He is an excellent estate planning attorney who is based in in San Rafael, California.
I like the format, the sample fee schedule attached and the conflict of interest waiver provision.
Rob teaches the Preliminary Matters class in Bay Area Revocable Trust Course.
Check it out – Appendix B Engagement Letter
Tom
Many Mentor Legal Drafting courses have been offered since 2009. In that time I have had the opportunity to meet many students who are new to estate planning, some attorneys who are transitioning from other areas of the law and others who may be recently admitted to practice. We have all been their once.
In the course of a 20 hour CLE class many questions surface unrelated to the technical components of estate planning law. The questions usually relate to what a person needs to do to gain mastery of the subject, become competent and start building a practice.
So here goes – here are six ingredients that I think are key.
Hope this was worthwhile – anybody out there??
Whoa!! – 11:35 pm and I have to work tomorrow at 7! Over and out.
Tom
As I writes this post it is pouring rain outside. Buckets!! Wow – do we need it, but all I can think of is that I definitely must get up to Tahoe! The skiing must be amazing!
Here’s some useful information for you. This was a handout from Jennifer Cunneen when she taught the marital planning class in 2012 in San Jose. Jennifer is a very experienced estate planner from San Jose. She also includes some dual representation language which is absolutely necessary when drafting a trust for a husband and wife.
Many attorneys like to send questionnaires to clients before an initial meeting to save everyone’s time and make the process more efficient. I think this works for some clients but not all. Some clients feel overwhelmed when they get these questionnaires and may need some hand holding to go through them. I usually tell clients finish as much as you can before you come into to meet with me and we can go over the rest in our initial meeting. This at least gets the procrastinators in your door which is necessary to get the whole process going.
Enjoy!
Tom
Client Questionnaire & Dual Representation
In our live classes, we like to show good trust drafting examples and bad trust drafting examples. It’s good to see what the elements are for a well drafted trust. Here are examples of both extremes.
As can be seen from these examples, format and alignment matter. Before you read through the badly drafted trust, the expectations that the trust will not be well written is high! It looks so sloppy! Not to say that the language of the trust is not important – far from it! But remember, take some time to make the trust look like presentable. When the client(s) has passed, someone will be picking up the trust to figure out how to administer it. Make it easy on them!
Check these out!.
Tom
In the last live course in Newport Beach, many questions came up regarding beneficiary designations. This is not a riveting area of estate planning, but it is so so important.
Think about it. What a bummer to have a beautifully drafted trust for your clients and frustrate part or all of the estate plan because the beneficiary designations are incomplete or inaccurate.
Take a look at the designations!! When it comes to the point in the client interview when the client says – “oh, don’t you worry about it, our designations are already done”, – don’t believe them!! Get a copy and review them yourself.
Here are a few things you may discover:
Remember!! Don’t rely on the client’s representations here! Check yourself!
Tom
Here is an excellent article for estate planning attorneys new to the practice. It was put together in August, 2009 by Lawyers Mutual, a North Carolina Insurance Company. It highlights common areas of estate planning malpractice:
Sample engagement and disengagement letters are attached as examples.
Good stuff!
Tom