I was at my client’s house; he had put off planning. He was 94 and on hospice as his congestive heart failure was now in the end stages. He had lived a good life, and his family was all there. He told me, “I never wanted to do a Will before because I was afraid if I did, I would die,” and now they tell me I’m not going to be here much longer. My retort was, “You can’t die now, I don’t want that to be true.” He was joking a lot. He had done well in his life—saved a lot, bought a nice home, and two duplexes near Cal State Fullerton.
I explained to him that I had prepared a Living Trust for him, so we could avoid probate. I also explained how expensive probate could be (4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next, 2% to a million, and 1% of the next several million). He said, “I bet you wish I had waited longer. My estate is about $3.5 million, and your fee would have been $48,000 or more.” I replied, “Yeah, but your kids would have been mad at you.”
His wife had passed the year before, so I made sure her name was off everything, the deeds putting all three properties were in the Trust, we checked the beneficiaries on his IRA and life insurance, changing them from his wife to his kids. (I had asked them to get the forms.) His son, who would be Trustee, went online and completed the paperwork sent by his financial planner to put his brokerage accounts in the Trust. He would go to the bank the next day.
It was a bittersweet meeting. I could see the weight lifting as he finally had gotten his Trust done, and the joy he had that his kids were all there that day. But it wasn’t going to be long before I got the call. I knew, though, that his son would be happy to hear there isn’t much left to do—the hard part was already over.
Unless you are on hospice like my 94-year-old client, you won’t die right after you finish your estate planning. So don’t wait—you could wait too long and make me happy, but your family mad because you didn’t plan. Give me a call.
