What a crazy week it was. Perhaps it was too much turkey. Maybe it is the end of the year and the holiday frenzy or blues. I don’t know, but clients seem to be exhibiting behaviors which are at times predictable and at other times buying into the frenzy.
Mrs. X who first visited my office about two months ago called in a panic. She and her husband had moved to Grand Junction about 8-10 years ago. We visited about updating their estate plan to conform to Colorado law as well the changes in their life involving their heirs. One child had died. Two others were suffering from disability and they did not feel they could leave their estate to them outright for fear their current governmental benefits would be terminated. Yes, they did need to make some changes.
Our office gets the call from Mrs. X on Thursday (60 plus days after we talked about needing to update their documents) in a frenzy. Her husband was having surgery the following Tuesday and could I please draft a financial power of attorney for them to come in and sign today. Their crisis was now my crisis. I was able to move other client priorties to help them and they plan to come by the office on Monday (Mr. X won’t be able to get out of the car and actually come in to the office due to his health condition) to sign the document. I don’t understand the thinking about being proactive in your estate plan. None of us like to talk about yet alone dwell on our own mortality, but we do like to be prepared. We do like to have our ducks in order. I have pleaded with clients over the years to stay on top of their planning and don’t procrastinate, but I am getting hoarse.
Other clients are quite concerned about the economy. In one estate we negotiated a deed in lieu of foreclosure (in effect selling the property back to the bank) for an estate which owned property out of state. The banks are really in an upheaval and trying to get them to respond is very very difficult. Many clients are in a panic. For some the down turn has presented real problems with their retirement planning, cash flow, etc. Legal services are said to be discretionary spending and I believe this to be the case. Many clients are planning just to get them by, hoping in the future, they can do the planning they really want to do.
Other clients, such as a couple I visited with this last week, are looking at the depressed values as a planning opportunity to transfer assets to their heirs. They are considering gifting of assets at reduced values. The lower values combined with lower interest rates provide real planning opportunities which may not be seen for some time in the future. Freezing the estate values (currently low) and gifting or selling the assets to your heirs can be a great technique to maximize the amount you can pass to your children. Some of the techniques being considered by clients include self-cancelling notes, sales to intentionally defective trusts and grantor retained annuity trusts. Although sophisticated and complex the results can be very rewarding.
And last but not least there is the family who cannot understand why a sibling and daughter would have left a handwritten will (yes, those are legal in Colorado) leaving her estate to an ex-boyfriend instead of to her family. Apparently, she had broken up with the boyfriend some 10 years ago, but never changed the handwritten will. Leaving an old will lying around without changing or revoking it can have unintended consequences. Although the family claims there was a later will it has dissappeared. Hmmm. Something smells kind of fishy, but there just is not much which can be done.
All in all a pretty exciting week, with a lot of activity. Most is predictable, but a lot is not. With only 3 1/2 weeks to go until the end of the year, the pace seems to be picking up. With a new Congress seeking ways to give out money (and hopefully finding ways to pay for it) one can expect lots of exciting law changes this next year to be watching. Many of them will impact the readers of this blog.
