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What I've been reading..... My decision to read  Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End  by  Atul Gawande  was driven by recommendations from both friends and clients. For the past few weeks I've been reading at a sluggish pace, unable to be swept away by a compelling narrative. My reading drought ended with Being Mortal, a nonfiction look at the end-of-life questions we should all be contemplating no matter our age or stage in life. As Gwande writes, "we only die once" -- let's get it right. Gwande writes from the perspective of a physician, educator, and son helping his aging relatives on their final journey. Stories from his life and his patient's lives blend expertly with anthropological views on dying to modern statistics to an examination of what independence means to Americans.  Only one element was missing from this book in my opinion; the book was missing a nice neat list of questions a patient could pose to his or her doctor when fa...

It was a Tuesday evening.  Talk radio voices floated through the kitchen air while I prepared dinner. Host: Welcome Randy from New York, what's your question? Caller:  Hey, glad I got through.  I've got a question for you.  My aunt died and I'm taking care of her affairs.  She had a retirement account, and a car with a loan on it.  How do I sell the car and pay the loan? Host: Well, looks like you'll be doing a probate.  Not much there, one retirement account, one car, and a loan you gotta pay before you distribute anything.  Now I'm no lawyer, but seems like you'll have to open a probate.....geesh, unless there is someway around it, but how are you gonna sell the car and sign the title.  Maybe you need a lawyer.... Caller:  Thanks, I'll see what I can do. Why I thought they'd hear me, I do not know. One, this was radio, and two, it was an archived show. But that didn't stop me: YOU NEED A SMALL ESTATE AFFIDAVIT. STATES HAV...

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 -...