The contents of this website provides general information, is not advice and should not be treated as such.\u00a0 Do not rely on the information on this website as an alternative to legal advice from an attorney and, if you have any specific questions about any legal matter, you should consult your attorney.<\/p>\n
Now is a great time to update estate plans<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
What big changes happened to your family in 2014? Did you gain a new baby or grandbaby? Did an elderly parent pass away? Did you finally unload a money pit of an \u201cinvestment property?\u201d<\/p>\n
These are the sort of questions wise advisors are asking their clients right now. A new year has begun, and it\u2019s a great time to ask clients if they\u2019ve experienced big changes that affect their estate plans.<\/p>\n
As a marketing opportunity for advisors, the turning of the year is pure gold. You can ask clients to consider these questions in newsletters, emails and phone calls. Basically, you\u2019re asking clients to consider whether any of these events might require a change in their estate or retirement planning.<\/p>\n
Getting clients to seriously review the past 12 months and the changes it brought to their lives is a big marketing win on your part as an advisor. But perhaps even more importantly, a review can elicit even bigger cost- and stress-saving wins for your clients and their families.<\/p>\n
Accountability is key<\/b><\/p>\n
If grandma passed away last year, then your clients might not need to be concerned with the cost of grandma\u2019s medical care anymore, but what about planning for their own? Have they considered buying long term care insurance or whether they\u2019ll need to qualify for Medicaid?<\/p>\n
Did your clients get married? If they took title to a house before they got married, as is often the case these days since many couples choose to live together before marriage, they may need to re-deed a property to themselves. This makes it clear they hold the property as tenants by the entireties with all the legal benefits that entails.<\/p>\n
Did a client get divorced? If so, then it\u2019s definitely time to update those estate planning documents.<\/p>\n
And, the beachside condo your clients bought for family vacations in Florida might need to be protected inside a trust.<\/p>\n
Clients often don\u2019t realize that family additions and losses often require a change in their planning. They also don\u2019t realize how crucial it is to update their planning documents whenever they buy or sell a valuable asset.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why many estate planning attorneys offer annual estate plan reviews or maintenance programs to help keep clients\u2019 records up-to-date. It\u2019s all about accountability \u2013 and your clients will thank you for it.<\/p>\n
A call to action<\/b><\/p>\n
Consider that your first newsletter of the year (or blog post) should be about this issue. How would you frame these questions with a call to action that will motivate your clients that experienced big changes to make an appointment with you and their estate planner?<\/p>\n
I recommend using example stories or scenarios or creating simple illustrations to indicate to clients what sort of changes might require updates to documents. These stories and drawings should also include depictions of what can happen if a significant life change occurs and a client does NOT<\/b> update his or her planning documents. Critics might call that a scare tactic, but it\u2019s not. We\u2019re actually educating clients when we show them the harsh results of poor planning.<\/p>\n
We hope this information was useful to you and helps your clients and their families. If you have a specific case or a question, don\u2019t hesitate to call our office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The contents of this website provides general information, is not advice and should not be treated as such.\u00a0 Do not rely on the information on this website as an alternative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-daily-plan-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcdlawyers.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}