074: Best Advice if you already have an estate plan

Best Advice if you already have an estate plan

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Cortes Law Firm

5801 Broadway Extension Hwy Suite 110

Oklahoma City, OK, 73118

405-213-0856

Transcript

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What is the best advice that I can give to somebody who already has an estate plan? Keep it up to date. That's the most important thing. You have to keep your estate plan up to date. Like I've said in all of my videos, a revocable living trust centered estate plan or even an estate plan centered over a last will and testament is only as good as the day that it was actually crafted. You have to make sure that your estate plan is up to date. We have seen estate plans. No joke that we're from the seventies where somebody executed their last will and testament in the mid seventies. Everybody I mean, everybody who they designated as their personal representative or their executor had passed away. There was no one left in their last will and testament to serve as their executor or personal representative of their estate. Now, luckily, they had already had their children and they had said exactly how they wanted their estate to be distributed equally between their children. But we had to find somebody and we had to talk to the judge about who was going to be the personal representative because there was nobody left in their estate plan to serve in that capacity. So we found somebody, but it may not be who that mom or father actually wanted to serve as their executor of their estate. We don't know the answer to that. But we did the best that we could together with the judge and with our client, to pick somebody who everybody felt would do the best job in the situation. That is really the best advice is keep your estate plan up to date. You need to meet with your estate planning attorney at least once a year just to go over what's in it. Most estate planning attorneys love it when their clients come to visit. I know that. I do. It's extremely important for you just to come in. Let's have a cup of coffee. Come in in the mornings, and we'll sit around the conference table and enjoy the weather, whatever time of the year it is. Looking outside the window and we'll talk about what's going on in your life because a lot of times things that you don't think are very important. As estate planning attorneys, we hear them and we're like, hold on, we need to make an adjustment to your estate plan. So it's very important to keep your estate plan up to date. The next thing is talk to your family about your estate plan. And I know guys I know there's a lot of a lot of you out there who, for whatever reason, maybe you don't want to hurt their feelings or it's just not a subject that we all like to talk about. I get it. I've been doing this for over 22 years, and I just did my estate plan four years ago. I get that this is kind of a touchy subject in our society, but it's so important that not only you keep your estate plan up to date, but you talk to your family on exactly what your estate plan is about. But it's so important that you talk to your family about your estate plan. You don't have to give them all the details. They just need to know that there is an estate plan out there. However, if you do have a revocable living trust, or maybe you did the last will and Testament, it's really important that you do talk to the persons who you have given the fiduciary duty to administer your estate, like your successor trustee or your personal representative. Talk to them. Let them know what's in your estate plan and how you want it to be distributed and what your wishes were that you we have memorialized in writing so that they are not surprised. And it's also important for you to talk to them so they know what to do if you become incapacitated. I cannot tell you how many times a family member will call us when their loved one is on their deathbed. And I understand that there's a lot of emotions going on at that time because you're seeing your loved one suffer and you don't know what to do. And you call us and you want answers. And a lot of times, unfortunately, we can't give you all of the answers because we don't know what's going on in the mind of your loved one. Right. Even if they got their estate plan through us. All we can really do is give you copies of it and show you what is in there and who is in charge. If you're the successor trustee or the or the power of attorney, you have to have authorization to see the documents. It's really important because we don't necessarily know if your loved one changed their mind if they didn't keep it up to date. Like I said in the beginning and we don't know what conversations I've had with you. A lot of times when somebody is extremely sick or even on their deathbed, their sons or daughters or whoever the beneficiaries are, don't know what to do. And things are very tense and they don't understand the process. All of a sudden, they're getting thrown into the situation because that's who you put in charge. Right. And it can be a very difficult situation for them. Even though you've provided a game plan. They're trying to process the fact that you might be dying on top of what they need to do to pay the mortgage, to pay credit cards, to make sure there's money in the bank to collect rent from somebody. All of this is extremely important and can become overwhelming to the person if they're just all of a sudden thrust into it. Right. So the key to all of this, the best advice I can give is keep your estate plan up to date and talk to your family, more specifically, your successor trustees and your PA and your personal representative or executors and tell them what is in your estate plan and how you want things to be administered according to the game plan that you have established. So they are not surprised at a time when they're grieving and emotions are extremely high and with other brothers and sisters, it's just not a good time for them to learn all of a sudden what they are supposed to be doing. So have those conversations ahead of time. Keep your estate plan up to date and talk to your family. I know I've thrown a lot at you today, so that's why we've prepared our free guide on estate planning. I'll put a link to it in the description below and in the comment section below that so that you can download it and get started in the right direction and to help you out even more. Watch this video up here and this video up here. If you enjoyed this video, then guys, please smash that subscribe button and click on the like button and also click on that little bell so you'll get notified every time we post a new video. Have a great day and an awesome week. And as always, thanks for watching.