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Will Safekeeping Your Compass Series By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi February 22, 2021 Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, 2021 Creating an estate plan is one thing, maintaining one is a completely different issue. Recent news stories indicate that fewer than 35% of Americans have an estate plan.  Entering this group deserves a pat on the back, well done!  If you can, muster the focus and energy to go further and to maintain your plan.  An estate plan that is out of date or cannot be found is not much of an estate plan. From that concept grew my new series, Your Compass , where I will explore what it means to manage your estate plan once the ink is dry. Where is the dang will?  After fifteen years of working with estate planning and probate clients I can tell you a fact.  People lose their wills: accidentally shredded; misfiled and found years after it was needed; dementia takes the memory of where it was kept; it was packed with "important stuff" prior to the move, bu...

  At the Heart of Estate Planning: Where can you do the greatest good if tragedy strikes By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi February 5, 2021 Lawyers ask a lot of questions when counseling clients.  In my estate planning practice a typical sequence of questions when developing an estate plan sounds like this: Me:  When you die, where do you want your probate assets to go? Client:   To my spouse. Me:  And what if your spouse has predeceased you? Client:  Oh, well to my children equally. Me:  And if a child had predeceased you, would his/her share go to any child(ren) he or she may have had. Client.  Umm, well....yes, yes that makes sense. Me:  Okay, this is the last one, but if the unthinkable happened and you had no surviving children or grandchildren, what would happen then? Client:  Wow, I never thought of that before. One of my favorite things about working with clients is when they surprise me and give me tools to use with other client...