The Pace of Change: Embrace It!

If you want to know how fast things change these days just blink. Not only is change constant, the pace of change seems to keep accelerating. As a lawyer advising clients about estate planning and estate and trust matters, I can tell you that clients find this challenging.

The pace of change in our legal system is quickening. Just this year alone, from Colorado's new Civil Union  law to the federal Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 to the U.S. Supreme Court's consideration of DOMA, our entire legal landscape is not only changed, it is brand new.

This article is not to address these changes individually, but simply to draw your attention to your numerous blinks, each one resulting in significant change. Now that I have some of your attention, I want you to ask, "what do I do and how do I embrace all these changes?"

The answer to these questions has philosophical, emotional, quantum and physical elements. I'm going to take only one--the legal element. In the past three months the world of estate planning has been turned upside down. What was considered elemental last year is no longer. What was never considered possible is now the new normal.

In estate planning, there is one tried and true way to keep pace with the pace of change. Review, review, review. The only way to stay on top of changes is to periodically review your plan, with your estate planner in light of personal changes, legal changes and financial changes. Are you doing this? When was the last time you reviewed your planning.

Here is a good rule for 2013: if you last reviewed your plan prior to 2010, it is time for a review meeting NOW! The longer you wait, the more your plan will be out of synch. And there's one true thing about our legal system, it is not like fashion. You know fashion, just wait long enough and that "old" syle is back in fashion! Well, not so with our laws. As our society evolves and changes, our laws do as well. Unlike Alice, you can't click your heels and go back.

Yes, the pace of change is faster than ever and is not going to slow down. That is like getting in front of a train and trying to stop it. That would take a super hero with super powers. Instead, just keep pace with the pace of change and review, review, review.

Let me know your comments and join in our conversation. How do you feel about the pace of change?

Bernie Greenberg

Choosing Your Executor

Choosing the right decision makers is important in estate planning. Here is an interesting article that may help:

ESTATE PLANNING: Who will serve as personal representative? - nwitimes.com

Pressure Testing Your Estate Plan: How To Make Sure Your Plan Works

Pressure Testing Your Estate Plan: The Three Steps that Work

Your estate plan is something that you design now before it's needed, it will operate sometime in the future. So if the plan won't be used until the future, how can you make sure the plan will work? If you do what I call "pressure testing" your estate plan, you will go along way to making sure the plan will work and minimize disputes.

Here are the steps for pressure testing your estate plan:

1. Work with a specialist and estate planning expert.

It may seem like a simple thing, but nothing will torpedo your estate plan than having a DYI, fill-in-the-blank form or working with someone who does not focus exclusively on estate planning. As I have written before, if you have a problem with your kidneys, you don't go to the foot doctor.

2. Imagine future scenarios with your estate planning attorney.

In the design of all estate plans, we have our clients brain storm with us and imagine future scenarios. As we do this, we test each part of the estate plan and how it work under that imagined scenario. Does this work if that happens, how does client feel about it, how can they imagine how that provision will impact family or those involved? This is how to pressure test the design of each portion of the estate plan.



3. Review your plan periodically and re-test.

As time goes by, provisions that made sense years earlier in your plan may not make sense in the future. Things change, laws change, people change. These changes are always occurring and if ignored can also defeat your estate plan. The way to deal with changes is to review your plan periodically and re-test the provisions given all the changes. This is what we do with every client at every estate plan review meeting.

So there they are, the three steps to pressure your estate plan. Do you follow these steps? If not, it's time for an estate plan review if you have an estate plan. If you don't have a plan, these steps will guide you to creating a more effective estate plan.

Please let me know if you have questions about pressure testing your plan. Feel free to join in our conversation and leave a comment here or send me your thoughts via email, I look forward to hearing from you.

Bernie Greenberg

If you are seeking an estate planning attorney in Castle Rock, Douglas County, or for the South Denver Metro Area, contact Kokish & Goldmanis, P.C.