Friday, September 12, 2014

Nominating a New Estate Planning Term - Goat Rodeo

So, you’re telling me I am better off just managing this Goat Rodeo?  A rhetorical question posed by a client some months ago in follow-up to our one hour discussion about the ins and outs of the 1986 trust the client's parents had created.  Yes, that is one way to put it. This may go down as my most humorous and enjoyable client meeting of 2014. Goat Rodeo -- what a perfect way to summarize the state of affairs.


If you are an adult child, chances are one day you may manage the "Goat Rodeo" of your parents’ estate.  There may be a trust, a will, nothing at all.  Documents may have been written 25 years earlier, designed and mandated to follow outdated tax codes.  No will?  No worries, a distribution plan is embedded in the state statutes where your parents lived/died.  You will quickly learns the ins and outs of this plan.  If you have sibling, prepare yourself for a flash back to the fights you had as tweens (was that even a word when you were a tween, most likely not).  Bottom line -- accept today that you will one day manage a "Goat Rodeo", and then go on about your life.  Your parents’ estate plan is their estate plan.  It is not yours to create, change, tweak -- just manage it, Goat Rodeo or not. For now, enjoy the time you have with your parents - time passes quickly.

Image taken by author at a petting zoo, not a Goat Rodeo