WHEN GOOD ESTATE PLANS GO BAD

Think of your life as a trip. To get where you are going with less effort, let's say you purchase a car. You spend a lot of time figuring out the make and model. Then you buy it and drive it off the lot and forget about it… right?

Nope. To get the best results out of your car, a major purpose, you change your car's oil every 3000 – 5000 miles. You also invest in maintenance and preventative care throughout the life of your vehicle. If you do not do this you are likely to suffer catastrophic failure at an inconvenient time, or worse.

An estate plan is analogous to your car, since it transports people and causes you care about powered by a lifetime of dreams, work, and assets. Great plans, like great cars, should come with warranties and a dedicated service staff to provide diagnostics and service before they are needed urgently, seems to me.

So what does your attorney, CPA, financial planner offer in terms of a warranty for your planning? Hope you call some day? Wait for the phone to ring?

Ask yourself, how do you know that your plan is current? Does it create Success On Purpose? Do you Sleep Well at Night? A glaring example of this uncertainty is that this year, with the sunset of EGTRRA (Economic Growth and Tax Recovery Act) in 2011, and the current tax code in 2010, many families and spouses face potential estate planning disaster.

Our firm developed CLIENTCARE as the best estate plan warranty you can buy, provided by our top estate planning team. Our clients may select an appropriate maintenance level with consideration of their budget. Our annual maintenance program includes "tune-up" services, like reviews and updates on estate planning documents. Even better, our CLIENTCARE members are entitled to call a paralegal or attorney into our office for that "one quick question" for free depending on which level they subscribe for. For some clients, questions needing research or even a meeting might be covered too.

Each year we provide complimentary seminars, workshops and newsletters to help maintain an estate plan, educate fiduciaries, and ensure that everything is simple and easy for those you love when the time comes for them to put the estate plan into action.

Another way that we continue to protect our members through CLIENTCARE is with the DocuBank card. Members are enrolled you in this electronic registry which stores healthcare legal documents such as living wills, durable powers for health care, burial and funeral instructions, privacy waivers and the like that are then available day or night to your health care providers worldwide. We renew DocuBank membership as part of CLIENTCARE -- to make sure our clients are still protected.

So, participation in our CLIENTCARE program has one purpose - to create peace of mind. A plan is kept up to date, and our clients won't leave unfinished business for loved ones with the confidence that we are here for them as their estate planning firm whenever needed. Always.

Now you know what we do for our clients. Our ClientCare Coordinator is Maggie Allen, and she is ready, willing and able to sign any of our clients up or to discuss benefits at any time. Call her at 425-803-9500 or email her at maggie.allen@brislawnlofton.com to sign up.