do it yourself approach best avoided for your estate plan

Upload: joseph-s-karp

Post on 30-May-2018

218 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

  • 8/14/2019 Do it Yourself approach best avoided for your estate plan

    1/1

    Do It Yourself Should Not Apply ToProfessional Legal Documents

    One of my neighbors is a dedicat-ed do it yourselfer. He has no spe-cial training but gamely undertakes

    projects like installing ceiling fans,repairing leaky faucets and replacingcracked floor tiles. If he gets in overhis head, he figures he can always callin a professional to fix his mistakes.I admire his approach to home repairs,but its an approach that doesnt trans-late into my field, estate

    planning. A leaky faucet isno great catastrophe, butan improperly drafted will,trust or power of attorneymight very well be. Theseare documents your fami-ly will rely on when youregone or disabled. Thesedocuments will be doingyour speaking for you. Ifwhat theyre saying isquestionable, you wont bearound to clear up the resulting con-fusion!

    One recent example: Several sib-lings recently asked me to examinetheir late fathers will. I saw that hed

    made modifications to his existingwill by crossing out some beneficiar-ies names and adding others, all inlonghand. Unfortunately, the modi-fied document had not been execut-ed as required by state law. The per-sonal representative was confused,and rightly so. Who were the true ben-

    eficiaries? What was each supposedto receive? In the end, the personalrepresentative had to go to court toask for guidance, and each of the ben-eficiariesthose who had been addedand those who had been deletedhadto hire their own lawyers to representthem. What a waste of everyones

    time, energy and money. And to thinkthat this mess could have been avoid-ed had their father simply consultedan attorney and created a legally validcodicil.

    I have also seen cases in whichpeople forego legal counsel andchange their trusts on their own. Justas a will should be modified by wayof a legally sound codicil, a trustshould only be modified with a prop-

    erly drafted amendment. One recentcase I handled involved a revocabletrust in which the grantor (the cre-

    ator of the trust), now deceased, hadadded names to his list of successortrustees, and failed to follow all thenecessary legal formalities. The re-sult: None of the potential successortrustees knew who was authorized toact. None of the financial institutions

    holding the decedents as-

    sets would honor the doc-ument. Ultimately one ofthe prospective trustees hadto file a lawsuit, requestingthe court determine whowas and wasnt the true suc-cessor trustee.

    Another source of ex-pense and unpleasantnessfor families can be tracedto the use of store-boughtpowers of attorney. I have

    seen many errors on these boilerplatedocuments, including the lack of ap-propriate witness signatures, and eventhe failure to name who should serveas agent! It is generally only after the

    person has become disabledand inall likelihood not competent to drafta new power of attorneythat theseproblems are discovered. Often, thefamily has no recourse but to go tocourt to establish a guardianship, anexpensive and time-consuming pro-cess.

    By all means, do it yourselfbutstick to projects where any mistakescan be easily rectified. This is not thecase with estate planning, where well-intended but misguided efforts to savemoney can backfire on your lovedones. Consult a qualified estate plan-ning/elder law attorney for these very

    important matters.Joseph S. Karp is a nationally certified

    and Florida Bar-certified elder law attorney(C.E.L.A.) specializing in the practice of Trusts,

    Estates and Elder Law. His offices are locat-ed at 2500 Quantum Lakes Drive, Boynton

    Beach; 2875 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gar-dens; and 1100 SW St. Lucie W. Blvd., PortSt. Lucie. Call him at 561-752-4550 (Boyn-ton); 561-625-1100 (Palm Beach Gardens);

    or 772-343-8411 (Port St. Lucie). Toll-freefrom anywhere: 800-893-9911. E-mail: [email protected]. or website www.karplaw.com

    Joseph S. Karp,C.E.L.A.