Atty. James Jones: [00:00:00] your family leads you to do the responsible thing. You’re a responsible person, right?
Responsible people have their Estate Plans in order. Responsible people have their estate plans in place so that their families can rest easy. Okay.
So number one, I love my family so I’m going to do my Estate Plan. I wanna protect them, I wanna make sure that my wishes are known. I wanna make sure that my stuff goes where I want it to go to, or to whom I want it to go to, and I’m gonna create this legacy, this family love also is talks about special situations that might arise in your family.
Maybe you have a special needs child or someone that needs a little bit more direction. That love leads you to provide documents and trusts that can help a special needs child, in particular with a special needs trust, or maybe a child that has a spending problem with a spendthrift trust or something like that to help them guide, along that process, maybe with someone with a, a steadier hand so that all that money is protected for that child or that beneficiary down the road. So that’s number one. You love your family.
Narrator: You are listening to the legacy talk podcast [00:01:00] hosted by James A. Jones, attorney at law and founder of sound legacy law, PLLC in Tacoma. Attorney Jones is here to talk about how to best protect your family assets and well, pulling stories from his more than 20 years of helping families and business owners protect their assets, create their estate plans, preserve their wealth and plan for the future.
Nobody wants to think about estate planning, but life has a way of sneaking up on you. And at any moment, something unexpected could happen that will leave you regretting not having acted sooner. So join attorney James A. Jones in the Legacy Talk Podcast and together learn how to plan for your future today and have peace of mind tomorrow.
Atty. James Jones: Welcome to Legacy Talk. I’m your host, James Jones. I’m an Estate planning and probate attorney in Tacoma, Washington. I’ve been practicing over 20 years and my main practice areas are Estate Planning, probate and Estate [00:02:00] Administration. On Legacy Talk, we discuss topics surrounding families and Estates.
Estate planning is often a confusing and complicated topic, but with my goal with this podcast is to make it understandable and accessible to those who need it. So if this is something that interests you, I’d appreciate if you click the subscribe button and like this episode so that you can follow along as we break down the barriers to Estate Planning.
Today’s topic is five positive things about having an Estate plan, and we’re discussing this today because we’re positive people, and having an Estate plan in place is a positive thing.
So let’s get to it, so let’s face it, when you hear from Estate Planning Attorneys, you hear all of the bad things that could happen to you if you don’t have an Estate plan in place. What if you die without a will? What happens to the kids? Where does all my stuff go? This is the state’s gonna get everything.
If you’ve listened to this podcast before, I’ve myself have also said all of these bad things, that could happen and these horror [00:03:00] stories that come up when someone doesn’t have an Estate plan in place. And the reason why we as Estate Planners tell you about these things that could happen is because they’re true.
It is a mess, it is a disaster oftentimes, if there’s no Estate Plan, major problems happen. Terrible things can happen if you don’t have your Estate Plan in place. But it’s not all terrible, right? We’re positive people around here. So today we’re gonna stay away from the horror stories. There’s numerous positive things about having an estate plan in place without discussing the negatives of not having it.
So instead of emphasizing that potential hell, that is not having an estate plan in place. Today we’re going to only talk about positives because estate planning is cool, right? And all the cool kids are doing it. We’re going to go over five positive things today about having an Estate Plan.
So number one, you love your family, right? You want your family to be protected. You don’t want anything bad to happen to them. You want them [00:04:00] to continue to live their lives as similar as possible as they did when you were there. You want them to know your wishes with regard to what happens with your Estate.
You wanna create a legacy in your family of planning. You wanna set the tone for your kids and or your siblings or your friends say, I did my Estate Planning and it feels so good. And this love is because you know you have for your family leads you to do the responsible thing. You’re a responsible person, right?
Responsible people have their Estate Plans in order. Responsible people have their estate plans in place so that their families can rest easy. Okay, so number one, I love my family so I’m going to do my Estate Plan. I wanna protect them, I wanna make sure that my wishes are known. I wanna make sure that my stuff goes where I want it to go to, or to whom I want it to go to, and I’m gonna create this legacy, this family love also is talks about special situations that might arise in your family.
Maybe you have a special needs child or someone that needs a little bit [00:05:00] more direction, that love leads you to provide documents and trusts that can help a special needs child, in particular with a special needs trust, or maybe a child that has a spending problem with a spendthrift trust or something like that to help them guide along that process, maybe with someone with a steadier hand so that all that money is protected for that child or that beneficiary down the road.
So that’s number one, you love your family.
Number two, you are in control of your life. You decide what will happen, who’s in charge, and where your hard-earned money and assets go. You live with a proactive and not a reactive mindset. You don’t react, you don’t plan when something bad happens to you, right?
You plan in order to prevent something bad from happening, or if something bad happens, I know what’s gonna be the result because I’ve got my plan in place. You address issues before they become problems. That’s what Estate Planning is. We address issues [00:06:00] before they become problems, and that’s a positive thing, right?
When you know what you want to have happen, when you want and have this control of your life when you are proactive and not reactive, Estate Planning is a no-brainer. Having an Estate Planning in place checks that box. It’s that adult thing, it’s that responsible thing and those of us who are trying to be as efficient and work at the highest level possible, we all wanna be the best person we can be. right?
We want to continue to progress in life and get better at our trade. Right? Get better at our relationships, be more healthy, get in better shape, which I’m trying to do myself. We wanna be in control, and one of those elements of control is having that Estate Planning place and knowing where that stuff’s going, knowing who’s in charge and not worrying about it.
Fixing those issues before they become problems so they don’t become problems. So things flow the way they’re supposed to flow. So that’s number two. You are in control of your life.
Number three, [00:07:00] somebody has your back. If you’re incapacitated, you know that someone can help you with financial or medical decisions.
With a durable power of Attorney or a revocable living trust, you’ve selected that person as able and willing, and competent and responsible enough to manage those types of affairs.
Right. You know, If something happens to you, that person will spring into action. That person will meet you at the hospital.
That person, if you’re in the hospital or rehabilitation or some type after an accident, will pay your bills. They’ll feed your dog. They’ll make sure the cat doesn’t wander off to the neighbor. They’ll make sure that you’re a fair stay in order, and this person is someone that is hand-picked and ready to spring. And you don’t have to worry if something happens to me, who’s gonna talk to the doctors, right? Who’s gonna pay my bills? Was my files gonna get foreclosed because I didn’t pay the mortgage? Not when you have an Estate Plan in place, not when you have a durable power of Attorney set up, which named someone.
To help with those decisions and help with those processes. [00:08:00] Estate Planning really is like a system, it’s a system where you’re sort of putting the parameters down, you’re putting the people in charge, and if something happens, those people run the system. The Executor or the trustee runs the Estate.
The durable power of Attorney appointee called an agent or an Attorney in fact, he or she runs your affairs if you’re not able to, they run the machine while you’re out, you know, unable to do that. So that’s number three.
Number four, positive thing about Estate Planning. You wanna give back. You’ve got a history of charitable giving.
You want continue that history , historical precedent into the future, right? You wanna support organizations and causes that you like, you wanna demonstrate this legacy of giving to your family. You wanna make a difference in someone’s life. So during your lifetime, if you’re active in charitable giving and volunteering and things like that, you wanna make sure that this legacy, this giving continues.
Well all of the time, people without an estate plan, [00:09:00] there’s no charitable giving there, right? That money’s going to family according to the state, what the state says. And with the plan in place, you can set up private foundations, donor-revised funds, or you can just give outright distributions to organizations.
And causes the e-support So when you’re gone and you’re dealing with charitable giving, that’s just one less person to support that organization or those organizations that you really liked. And so that specific bequest of charitable giving or charitable bequest to those entities really makes a difference.
So that leads us to number five.
The fifth positive thing about Estate Planning is no more sleepless nights When you have your Estate Plan in place. There’s no need to stay up late thinking about what will happen if you pass away and you can go back to thinking about things like getting those Taylor Swift tickets or who’s gonna be the Seahawks offensive coordinator.
[00:10:00] You can get back to the frivolity, take those big worries off your mind. Go back to Taylor Swift and the Seahawks .
We’re a Washington-based podcast, so I’m saying Seahawks. Maybe it’s the Mariners I don’t know. There’s a lot of people staying up at night.
I think this off-season thinking about the Mariners, but that’s another topic, but no more sleepless nights, okay. And that’s the peace of mind that we’re looking for. My logo has a slogan under it, for Sound legacy Law is the name of my firm, and my slogan is “Planned today, peace of Mind tomorrow”.
And that’s really it, having that Estate Plan in place really does lead to peace of mind. It makes you feel good and that really is the goal. We don’t want to have to worry about that, it’s not healthy. It’s positive to have things done, to be proactive like we talked about and I tease this really at the beginning.
All the cool kids are doing it. It’s cool to do a Estate Plan, it’ll make you feel good and it’s true.
If you’re about my age, you probably [00:11:00] remember the anti-drug campaign that was around that basically used us, it’ll make you feel good, and it’s true. Estate Planning will make you feel good.
It will make sure that everything’s in order, that you really are in control. Those people that you want to have in charge are in charge, and those people and organizations that you want to have receive your assets, do receive your assets. And I can tell you this, lawyers aren’t allowed to guarantee things, but I can guarantee that this will not be an addictive process.
There’s no physical addiction that will come from Estate Planning, despite the good feeling, other things that didn’t make the top five. Estate Planning protects your assets. You can protect your assets through Estate Planning. You can avoid probate, that terrible word dealing with the courts, you can avoid taxes.
Nobody likes to pay taxes, some people do and you could do that too with your Estate Plan. But the vast majority of people wanna make sure that they’re minimizing their tax burden and paying less and less to the government if possible. Some people want to give more to the government and that’s also a thing, so [00:12:00] you can do that too.
Another thing that I almost put in this top five was you don’t like your family and you don’t want them to get anything. So that’s more common than you think, I have a lot of clients that don’t want their family to get anything. They’ve moved on with their lives. There are different people now, and so they wanna make sure that their people get it, their organizations get it not family that they’re estranged from or don’t need it or don’t want it. And so that’s it, peace of mind. Really, no more sleepless nights.
Finally the story time for this episode. I’ve got a few different, a couple different scenarios here.
I recently met with a couple, did an Estate Plan for a couple whose aunt died within the last couple years. And since we’re only talking about positive things today. I am going to only say about her Estate Administration is that it was a negative thing. We won’t go into detail as to what happened, but it was a negative thing, and that’s all we’ll say.
And so that made them realize that they needed to put [00:13:00] their estate plan in order. And they’ve got, second marriage for both of ’em. They both have separate kids. They have a business that they run. So they’ve asked us to protect and they have things to sort of consider in their Estate Plan.
And so we put everything in place, we had a few meetings to get this done, fill out some paperwork, sign some documents. I’ve done this over 20 years and the physical relief that they exhibited. When they finished this Estate Plan was, significant and it’s more significant than I’ve recall lately.
Despite the fact that you get this relief feeling they got that relief and the tense shoulders when they’re getting in and then the shoulders relax, and they asked, is this effective now? When is this effective, James? I said yeah, it’s effective now.
And so that was it, like leaning back in their chair. They’re done, right? They did it. They checked the box. They get that peace of mind, they get that relief and it’s not nothing, . Okay. The second story I wanted to tell [00:14:00] you this time is I just did an Estate Plan for a couple married couple with kids.
And the reason that we did it, one of the main reasons is the husband has an opportunity to go on this like once-of-a-lifetime trip to an exotic country, he is never been to. He is always wanted to go and it’s not a place that you get to go to very often. You don’t often have the opportunity to go to this place.
And it was a work opportunity that he gets to go with a work group or people that he works with and visit this country that is significant to him. It’s like a bucket list kind of a trip for him, but because it’s a work opportunity, he’s not able to take his family with him. And so they’re gonna be here and he is gonna be on the other side of the world, and he wanted to make sure that his affairs were in order a hundred percent so that he could fully relax.
Fully embrace this trip and that his wife and kids wouldn’t have to worry about the physical, the legal stuff if something happened to him. Okay. Not that happens. It’s very unlikely. I’ve never really had a client die right after they do their Estate [00:15:00] Plan on a trip or something like that.
So, we’ll knock on wood and make sure that’s continues on, but it really allows him and it will allow him to relax, right. Enjoy this experience, sort of take it in and know that if something negative happens, he’s protected and his family’s protected ’cause he did something positive.
He did something proactive and not reactive. He did something to get peace of mind and relief to his wife and children that otherwise couldn’t have been obtained, through any other kind of means really in this scenario. So that was a positive for him, and he was ready, he was so excited to have this done, and now he can focus.
And so that’s it really, it’s validating as an Estate Planning Attorney when clients say, how much of relief and how good they feel. When they get their Estate Plan order, how good it feels to check that box, to do that adult thing, and [00:16:00] so, it makes my job worth it.
As an Estate Planning Attorney. And you get those opportunities once in a while and I know that this is important, but you don’t often see it as you did with my first story and in a situation where there’s this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And we’re gonna make sure that he enjoys it to the fullest extent possible.
And so that’s it for today’s episode, I hope you enjoyed it. I hope that it helped you to see the positives about estate planning without having to dwell on the negative. Hopefully we did that. Go back to thinking about Taylor Swift’s and football, sports, baseball, basketball. I don’t know. What do you like?
I don’t know, maybe like tennis or golf. A lot of people like golf. It’s interesting. Anyway, thanks for listening to today’s episode of Legacy Talk. If you like today’s episode and would like to learn more, please like and subscribe for more great content. I’ve been your host, James Jones, to your legacy.
Narrator: Thank you for listening to the Legacy Talk podcast by attorney James A. Jones. If you found today’s [00:17:00] episode helpful, we ask that you like and follow us on all major platforms so you don’t miss out on the latest episode. If you have questions for Attorney Jones, reach out at info@joneslegacylaw.com or visit our website at JonesLegacyLaw.com
join us again next week for another episode of the Legacy Talk podcast.
