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What I Learned During My Summer COVID-19 Vacation

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An estate-planning wake-up call

That vacation was actually nine months and continuing. For estate planners, the vacation was spelled “24-7.” 

We know about the professionals on the front line: health care workers, food dispensers and caretakers. We’re not as focused on the less obvious ones, including local governmental employees, postal service deliverers and therapists. Lawyers were (aren’t they always?) regarded as dispensable. Except when one needs them.

And in 2020, the need, and the future understanding of the need, for estate planners, was palpable. That understanding isn’t going away.

This presents a paradox for the planning community: We’re now appreciated, and the importance of estate planning is understood and in demand. But, “in demand” means being “on call,” like physicians, so our 24-7 week continues, with urgency, to be a 24-7 week. The speed, thoughtfulness and efficiency by which we’re asked to attend to and complete projects continue to increase.

Wake-Up Call

The pandemic has focused our society to understand that life actually is accompanied by mortality. Strange reality: It’s awesome that I will die, because that means I was born. (Think of the millions of swimmers that didn’t reach their destination; bad for them; good for you and me.) But pre-COVID-19, we know that people shied away from the mortality concept. That caused them to shy away from their planners. And, estate plans withered on the planning vine (some never being harvested until too late), didn’t receive appropriate attention or just weren’t fully thought out by our clients. Hey all, this wasn’t our fault. Exclamation point. Going forward, there’s no client shyness anymore to complete estate plans.

Second, those who had estate plans in process now want to (or did in 2020) move them forward towards completion. Excellent estate plans are truly never completed. They just keep getting better as the plan gets closer to, shall we say, maturity.

Third, those who didn’t think about estate planning pre-2020 are now thinking about it. Thinking includes a focus on business succession, trusteeship, estate taxes, protection of Generation 2 assets from in-laws, creditor planning, correctly considering and funding living trusts, review of beneficiary designations, distributions of assets, investments, powers of attorney and the reality that the Grim COVID-19 Reaper (who goes by other names as well) is lurking out there in their vicinity.

Fourth, dare I state the unfortunate? Post-mortem administration has increased.

Estate planning has always been important, just not fun for our clients to engage in. That planning tends to be about 10 degrees south of the desire to go to the dentist for a root canal. But, no longer. COVID-19 was an estate-planning wake up call, not soon to be forgotten.

Planners’ Role

As family advisors, planners will continue to have a critical role to play with their client/families. Relying on the experience we have in advising families, we’ll continue to focus on the importance of creating trusts: (1) for protection (estate tax, spousal, tort and otherwise), (2) to encourage productivity among future generations, and (3) to have the right committee of trustees determining investments, distributions and, in a sense, values. We’ll continue to discuss family goals, complete estate planning and estate-planning projects, emphasize charitable goals, elevate the importance of understanding health care powers and what they mean and, most important, act as thoughtful advisors to our clients.

It’s our wisdom, judgment, compassion and caring about those with whom we work that elevates us, like George Martin, into the position of being the Fifth Beatle (or family member) for our clients.


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