Most Estate Planning lawyers get asked, most days of their professional life, to prepare a “simple Will”. What the lawyers know, but struggle to communicate with the clients, is that there is nothing simple about Estates, because there is nothing simple about Death or Wills, and there is nothing simple about dealing with your assets after death.
estates are time consuming
The first problem is that most people believe it is a simple thing, that you put your assets and debts into it, then on your death your Executor uses it to give your assets (less the debts) to your family. Easy, right?
There are a few reasons that Estates are not this simple. First of all, there is a lot of stuff that is not actually covered by a Will, some of your assets are not covered, and some non asset problems are not covered. This is more complicated when you consider that some of the assets or debts are tied together, and then some of those combinations are partly inside and partly outside of the Will.
Each of these assets and debts requires it ‘s own set of paperwork, so if they are tied together then you probably cannot deal with that bundle until the last or slowest requirement has been taken care of. This will include following up the asset holder more than once to check their requirements, or to check their progress. At the same time your beneficiaries will be receiving adds promising to sort out Estates quickly and simply, leading them to believe there is something wrong with their matter.
Even in a “simple” Estate that doesn’t require Probate these things are going to take months to sort out, not weeks. Your beneficiaries may genuinely have a reason to need the money more urgently, but this means that instead of focusing on what needs to be done to move matters along the Executor is having to ask people for the same piece of information or signed piece of paper three times.
Snail Mail
One of the things that many people don’t realise is that large portions of the Estate have to be dealt with by old fashioned snail mail, many of the banks for instance refuse to give an email or fax number and if you manage to find an email or fax number then they refuse to respond to that communication, citing “legal requirements” or some other excuse. Not only do you have to wait for the documents to reach the bank by snail mail, it then sits in someone’s in tray for an undisclosed amount of time while the bank insists that the documents actually haven’t been received. This might not sound like a big deal but if this is what you are dealing with across most of the asset classes set out above, then these seemingly minor difficulties add up to a major problem. It is also just exhausting, signing documents and posting them to then wait to see if that is enough, or if the bank (or other asset holder) will ask for just one more thing.
How can I get started?
If you are interested in doing a complete Estate Plan with us, then you could find out more about the price here, or you could book yourself in for a free 15 minute Quick Chat with Janis about your Estate Plan here. You are also welcome to use the contact details below to send any questions.