No one really likes to think about what will happen when they finally pass away. However, a little bit of planning and preparation can help your family out immensely. One of the ways to make that inevitable day easier on your loved ones is to set up an estate plan. But, estate planning may seem daunting and bring up a lot of questions. What is estate planning exactly? What if I don’t have anything to give to my family? How is my family supposed to know what my final wishes and arrangements are? How will minors in my family be treated? What will happen to my prized collection of Kansas City Chiefs memorabilia? The questions can seem endless. […]

Going to have an attorney create an estate plan for you and your family can be hard.  There are psychological barriers, financial barriers, time constraint barriers, and leg work barriers.  Looking at all the things that make it difficult to go from “I really need to get an estate plan in place” to “Look at my shiny new estate plan” I understand why I talk to so many responsible people who have never found the time or motivation to come and talk to me about their estate planning needs.  That being said, I will likely never understand who folks who have succeeded in the original process, fail in the upkeep tasks to ensure that the plan they have created and paid for does what they need it to do.

I can’t tell you how many times I have a conversation where I relay that I am an estate planning attorney, and the other person tells me, “I am so glad I had my estate plan done, it’s such a relief knowing that those things are taken care of”.  I hear those words and I am instantly overtaken with conflict.  On the one hand, I want to tell them that they have […]