Navigator

Sitting in seat 15A of a jumbo jet's dimmed cabin, hovering somewhere above the Pacific Ocean doubt struck for a brief moment.  It was 1998 and I heard "Attention passengers, if there is a doctor on board would you please identify yourself."  With that 10 second announcement doubtful thoughts burrowed into my brain.  Heading from Honolulu to Madison via Seattle to begin a 3 year journey through law school, a process best described as going through boot camp while on Jeopardy, I realized I would never be on a plane and hear "Attention passengers, if there is a lawyer on board would you please identify yourself." At the core of my decision to submit myself to the law school process and subsequent career path through the legal field was a firmly rooted desire to help others.  Would I be able to do that if I opted to be an attorney? I did the best I could at the moment, transferring my doubtful thoughts to an entry in my journal and then closed my eyes and contin...

Final meetings with my clients end with me offering them water from the fridge in the waiting room and a Frango Mint (or two) that I keep in the waiting area.  Final meetings also end with a discussion of various housekeeping items, such as safekeeping of a will and the ever important question -- when should I update my will and estate planning documents? Most clients assume I will answer with a specific number of years; seven to ten years is the most anticipated answer.  But what I actually say is the most dreaded answer I lawyer can offer, it depends. When to update a will is fact dependent more than time dependent.  Take my life for example: In 2006 I got married, and my name went from a long name to a very long name and my middle name fell away; In 2008 our son was born; In 2009 my father died; In 2010 our daughter was born; and  In 2014 my mother died. All of those events mark a time when estate plans should have been reviewed and updated to ref...

Engine of a Space Shuttle.  Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, 2015 "Which is faster, a will or trust?  I just want my family taken care of as soon as possible."  After ten years of serving clients in the estate planning capacity, this is one query that tops of the list of client questions. My answer is often not expected. "Honestly, whether you use a will or a trust, it doesn't matter. What matters is how organized you are with your final affairs, and more importantly, how organized the person is who you appoint to handle things when you died.  If the person you appoint is crippled with grief, overwhelmed in their own personal life, or simply is an indecisive procrastinator -- then your estate will creep along at a snails pace, trust, will, whatever device you use just doesn't matter." Personally, I think trusts are a bit oversold.  Here in Wisconsin we have a low probate fee, 0.2 percent of the inventory value.  Other states can be as high as 8.0, 10...

Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, 2015 "Show of hands, who here does not have a will?"   A standard question I pose to audiences when asked to speak on the basics of estate planning.  Usually one-third to half of the audience raises his or her hand indicating that no, they do not have a will. A recent reported stated that while 69 percent of Americans have given serious consideration to setting up a will, only 34 percent actually have a valid will .  And of those that know it is important, but have not acted, 95 percent say it is because they lack the financial know-how, and not that that topic of death is too taboo. Even as an estate planner the 34 percent shocked me, I would have guessed about 48 to 49 percent of Americans have not created a will.  But I would disagree with the wording in the report that only 34 percent of Americans have a will.  Here is why: "Guess what, those of you with your hands up -- you do have a will.  One the State Legislatu...

Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, 2015 Back in July, as irises still bloomed in my garden, I sipped a coffee and glanced at our local free weekly paper The Isthmus .  A story on page 6 caught my attention -- America's longest-serving state legislator, Fred Risser , and his wife Nancy Risser, were profiled for creating an urban oasis in downtown Madison.  Over the years the couple worked to turn an apartment complex parking lot into a lush and welcoming garden.  Towards the end of the article a nugget of estate planning insight jumped off the page -- the bequest of perennials. Nancy is quoted as saying "A garden is a living thing" after she recounted transplanting iris bulbs from her late-grandmother's home in Texas to the garden here in Madison -- the transplant spurred by Nancy's father's death.  While the focus of this article was about creating and fostering natural beauty in an urban setting, the estate planner in me saw the often overlooked bequest -...

Counselor, another name for lawyers.  We counsel clients, we teach them, especially in the land of estate planning and probate.  Yet, clients teach me, the lawyer, as well.  Case in point, recently a client emailed.  Trilled to have finally found the draft documents that had gone missing in her personal papers at home.   "I found them" the client wrote, "filed under D, for Death!" .  My lesson -- clients filing systems vary from home to home, client to client. Her system got me thinking --what other filing option may lurk in the filing cabinets of clients. Where might there loved ones eventually find the paperwork we worked so hard to craft?  One huge assumption here - that the paperwork is in a recognizable filing system.  My own parents, gone now, had a preference of keeping important papers in the freezer "in case of a fire!" A for attorney B for Bequest C for Client Copy D for Death E for Estate Plan or End of Life F for Final pape...

Ask my husband and he likely to blame it on my profession, but he'd be wrong. The spark that ignited my recent flurry of estate planning paper work was not flamed by my role as an estate planning attorney.  But rather by our upcoming annual vacation. Just like so many of my clients, " update estate planning papers" makes it to the short list of vacation preparation. No, I am not kidding.  It is the #2 most popular reason clients call for an appointment. Day after day, week after week, month after month I sit at my little brown table with clients, reminding them to fill out their Wisconsin Authorization for Final Disposition .  Tucked into the left side pocket of their folder, the last form in the stack, it is the form I refer to as the "ever so cheery -- who is in charge when I die" form. In Wisconsin, the power of attorney for health care ends with the declarant's death.  Last breath and the power ends.  Which raises the question of who will be in c...

The story was secondhand, told to me by my husband. Overseeing the nightly bath vs. shower ritual of our children, ages 6 and 4, he was the parent on-duty.  It had been a long day of Spring Break play, inevitable growth spurts, and the competitive behavior of siblings.  Quickly the kids launched into an argument over who was going to use their shower/bath first: Daughter: I said it first, I get a bath....NOW!!!! Son: Not fair!  You take fooooooorrrrrrrevvvvvvver in the bath.  I want a quick shower! Daughter: [with a smirk spreading across her face], I know, let's do a coin toss!  For the reader, she has an uncanny ability to win these games of chance, something that has not gone unnoticed by our son. Son; Okay [said with a bit of distrust]. Up went the coin, supplied by dad.  It landed heads up, just as our daughter had predicted. Son: Fine, take your God Damn bath! He stomped off to our master bath for a shower on his own. At this point in ...

Over the past year I have grown accustomed to flipping through the mail at home and seeing at least one mailing addressed to my mother, at our home address rather than the 1121 Valley Stream Drive of my childhood.  She, my mother, left this earthly world February 16th of 2014, but her junk mail lives on.  Most of the time I mark the enveloped "deceased", leaving it for the carrier to cart off the next day, hoping the life insurance company or peddler of products to keep seniors in their homes will update their mailing lifts.  Sharon no longer needs their services. And then one day a mailing caught my attention, it was from a huge on-line bank.  Tearing it open the warning I issue to clients here in my legal office struck home - identity theft of the dead.   Sharon -- Welcome to [insert Bank Name here]!  Here are the account numbers for your new 29 savings accounts!   A whirlwind of emotions ensued.  Sadness for a mother who was gone from my li...