• Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
Call Us: (626) 355-4000
Cali Law
  • Home
  • Get Started Here
    • Estate Planning Basics
    • Single Parents
    • Married with Children
    • Life Partners with Children
    • Those Without Children
  • Who We Are
    • About Marc G. Garlett
    • How We Are Different
    • Meet Our Team
    • Our Office
    • Client Testimonials
  • Our Services
    • Estate Planning
    • Trust Administration
    • Probate Administration
    • Legacy Preservation
    • Community Outreach
  • Common Questions
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Menu
Estate Planning 91024

If You Have a Trust, Don’t Settle for a False Sense of Security – Part I

Estate Planning, Estate Planning Blog, Trusts

Estate Planning 91024It is estimated that more than 80 % of trusts fail at the trustor’s death. EIGHTY PERCENT! What a shameful statistic. Think about it. Out of every five people who put the time, effort, and money into creating a trust, only one of them actually protects and provides for their family as they intended. That means the vast majority of people with a trust have nothing more than a false sense of security while they are living and leave their family with a big mess to clean up after they die.

There are three equally important phases to trust-making. Neglect any of these phases and your trust is likely to fail. Phase 1 is the actual creation of your estate plan documents. This includes not only the trust, but many other critical documents as well (your will, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, HIPAA waiver, kids protection plan, etc.). Each of these documents should be customized to your own specific situation, goals, and assets. Remember, your family is unique and your estate plan should be, too.

The courts are filled with cases where simple, fill-in-the-blank, template wills or trusts, downloaded from the internet, led to family disputes, ugly probates, expensive litigation, and hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) in lost inheritance for intended beneficiaries. The recent family quarrel over an “E-Z Legal Form” estate plan serves as one such cautionary tale. But all one really has to do with such services is read the fine print, such as the Legalzoom disclaimer, to be very clear they’re just selling documents, without any legal guidance, advice, direction, or guarantee about what they mean or whether they’ll even work.

Unfortunately, people who get sold on saving a few thousand dollars now by doing it themselves, often force their families to hand over tens of thousands of dollars to lawyers later, to straighten out the mess they’ve left behind. Of course many times those messes cannot be straightened out at all. But it’s not just online legal services selling a false sense of security. I’ve also heard far too many stories of cut-rate, cheaper-than-anyone-else lawyers whose plans don’t work when they’re needed. And yet again, it’s families who are left holding the bag.

This should all be malpractice, if you ask me. Regrettably, it’s common practice instead. So what can you do to protect yourself – and more importantly, protect your family? Here’s how NOT to get sold a false sense of security:

  1. If the lawyer or service you’re using to prepare your estate plan doesn’t first spend some serious time asking you questions, getting to know you, your background, and your goals, they are much more interested in selling you a set of documents than a plan that will actually work. And if they quote you a fee before getting to know you first, that’s a good indication they are never going to invest their time in you.
  2. Ask the lawyer or service if they are available to provide guidance and answer questions throughout the process. If they answer is no, move on. If the answer is yes, ask them how much they charge for that. If it’s not included as part of a flat fee, they are clearly more concerned about selling documents than they are about providing good legal counsel.
  3. Determine if the plan fee is too good to be true. If the lawyer or service undersells everyone else, that’s a big red flag. It takes a lot of work and time to customize a plan for someone so it is guaranteed to perform as intended. Cut-rate firms and services work on a volume based business model. Their goal is to sell you a set of documents with the smallest time investment possible, then move on.

You can, and should, strive to do better than that. Don’t settle for a lawyer or service who’s just in the business of selling documents. There’s too much at stake and your family has too much to lose. The documents are critically important but they should not be the sole focus of the lawyer or service you work with. The documents alone won’t give you real security – the kind of security both you and your family deserve.

To your family’s health, wealth, and happiness,
Marc Garlett 91024

July 13, 2015/0 Comments/by CaliLaw
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Share by Mail
https://www.calilaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/img1.jpg 70 80 CaliLaw https://www.calilaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Cali-Law-Logo-A5-1-300x99.png CaliLaw2015-07-13 21:09:412015-07-13 21:09:41If You Have a Trust, Don't Settle for a False Sense of Security - Part I
0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Blog Categories

  • Asset Protection
  • Beneficiaries
  • Blended Family
  • Business Succession Planning
  • Common Mistakes
  • Dementia
  • Digital Estate Planning
  • Divorce
  • Education
  • Elderly
  • End of Life
  • Estate Planning
  • Estate Planning Blog
  • Family
  • Family Values
  • Financial Caregivers
  • Gifting
  • Healthcare
  • Inheritance
  • Insurance
  • Kids Protection Planning
  • Legacy Planning
  • Long-term Care
  • Marc's Personal Blog
  • Medicare
  • Naming Legal Guardians
  • News
  • Parents
  • Personal
  • Pets
  • Power of Attorney
  • Probate
  • Real Estate
  • Retirement
  • Same Sex Couples
  • Special Needs Children
  • Spendthrift Trusts
  • Taxes
  • Trusts
  • Uncategorized
  • Wills
  • Wills vs. Trusts

Get In Touch

Phone

(626) 355-4000

Address

100 West Lemon Avenue, Suite 202
Monrovia, California 91016

Schedule a Complimentary Consultation

Simply Fill Out This Form

2 + 2 = ?

That’s the funny thing about marriage … Marc, Cade, Ella, & Yan Marc, Cade, Ella, & Yan Congratulations San Francisco, you’ve ruined pizza!
Scroll to top