We talk, all the time, about how important it is for baby boomers to have an estate plan. Rod is not only a financial advisor, but he is an estate planning attorney. And this is in his wheelhouse.
So Forbes is now saying that it is more true that you should have an estate plan during this pandemic, so what is the danger for someone who keeps putting that estate plan off?
Oh man, where do I start?
We got time, Rod. That's why I started with that one.
Yeah. Well, I mean, imagine yourself in the hospital, or worse, in the lobby waiting for a hospital bed, waiting for a ventilator, and you don't have any estate plan. And your family is calling up to the hospital, trying to figure out how they can help. And the hospital is trying to figure out who they can talk to. And imagine the chaos, imagine the stress, imagine the pain that your family would go through. All of that can be put aside very easily with a simple bit of planning that's part of an estate plan called an advanced directive or a health care directive. So that's one of the risks. Of course there are many more.
So we're all going to pass away one day, right? Hopefully, we all live for a lot longer, and hopefully we have a very fruitful life ahead of us. But, we are all going to pass away. So that's something we all just have to accept. So eventually you will pass away, and when you do, all the things that you've worked so hard for, all the things that you have saved, they're going to be at risk. So if you don't have a plan, before you know it the government is involved. Before you know it your family's at each other's throats, trying to figure out who gets what and when, and who's in control and how. And you're tied up in court, and there's court costs and attorney's fees and all sorts of probate fees. And imagine the stress, imagine the confusion. Your family will be left wondering how much easier it could have been if you would have taken a little bit of time to plan and done the right thing.
Well, I mean, and we talk about this almost every show about how people just don't want to talk about all these things. But the pandemic, I think, the fear that has been, or at least initially, I think now maybe people are settling into their health because if you've been isolated this long then you're clear. But I think initially that core fear, because there's very few times I'm thinking in my life that I have been that unsettled and afraid. I think 9/11 was one of those times, one of those days. And I think this has sparked that again.
So it's really made people look at mortality, and it seems like there's still a population of people that turn away from it. Like you said, you don't want to be in this situation, but it is a very dangerous thing. It's almost like walking a tight rope without a net.
Absolutely. And you end up paying a big price for it. I mean, you might not recognize that on a day to day basis, but subconsciously you are unsettled. And I know that because I see clients, and whenever we finally finish their plan, and it doesn't take too long, but whenever we get it done I can see that wave of relief just wash over them. And you can see how much more settled they are. They'll say, "I'm so glad I got this done. I've been meaning to do this for so long."
And you are right that people are more aware, or at least they are more willing to recognize, today the need for them to have a will or a trust or a very basic plan at least. I know that because our phone is ringing off the hook. I mean, people are calling us every single day saying, "How do I get this done?" They don't want to leave their house, which I understand. I wouldn't want to leave my house either right now, if I didn't come to the office, and it's just me here with one other attorney and we have a quarantine pack we've taken together, but people are calling.
And the great thing about Oath is we are very technologically savvy. So we've got people on the team who are way smarter than me and they've figured out how to get documents emailed to a person, and how those documents can then be signed, and we can notarize it online. And in some cases we've driven to clients' houses, and dropped their documents off on their doorstep and watched them sign. In some cases, clients have driven to our offices, and we've done some drive in signings. So we've made it easy for clients to get this done in a short timeframe, so just a week or two. And we've got your plan in place, and you can sign it right there from your house, and we get everything coordinated. And whenever all this quarantine lifts, well then, you can certainly come over to the office and we'll have a nice event to celebrate everybody getting this important work done. We make it.
All right. So you make it easy for people. People don't have to leave their house. If you're someone who didn't do it yourself, like Rod's saying, the other guys in the office who were able to get their technology up to speed, if your son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter put your computer together, brought in his team at Oath Planning, we'll walk you through it. And I'm saying it and reiterating it because you just cannot put this off, because it is something that is so important. Now, Rod, I hate to give worst case scenarios, but if you don't mind, I mean, can you share maybe a story that you've seen where somebody who did not have this in place suffered because of it?
Absolutely. I had a client who her mother had passed away. Didn't have any will, didn't have any trust. Her mom had remarried late in life, and everything that her mom had really worked for and everything that her mom had saved got tied up in a relationship that she was in, and she had only been in for about six months. And the terrible thing about that relationship is it was a predatory situation where mom got remarried to someone she met on a chat room over the internet. And this guy drove in from Michigan, lived with her for about six months, and ended up taking off, crossed the border, because he was a convicted felon, with a whole bunch of money right out of mom's pocket. So that's a real, I guess, unlikely scenario, but whenever you do this as many times as I've done it, you see everything.
Well, and then you have the best case scenarios where people, it just allows you not to have to worry about that part of it. I mean, people right now are so emotionally thin, thinned out, that if the worst case happened with anybody, for whatever reason, whether it's the virus other circumstances, I mean, this is not the time that you have to add something else onto your emotional plate because I don't think people could really handle it. And again, I don't mean to speak in morbid terms, but I mean, we're talking about something that is highly important. Whether it's soon or whether it's decades down the road, but we all are headed down the same path. And so, why not just face it and do something about it, and that way you don't have to dread it or don't have to feel bad about it.
You end up living a lot better life when you recognize that life is short. The coronavirus situation is helpful in that it's helping us prioritize what really matters. So we can't leave our house, so what do we have to do? Well, take care of ourselves. I've got a lot of clients who are starting up home exercise routines, and some who are planting gardens.
You can make the best of the time that you have. You just have to take that first step.
