MY ESTATE PLANNING AND PROBATE PRACTICE

Everyone engages in estate planning, whether or not you take on an active role. But, if you don't, you allow the government -- your local jurisdiction and the IRS -- to dictate the results for you.

In my practice, I give a lot of personal attention to clients, as they decide who should get what and when, and how different holdings should dovetail, including a review of the titles and ownership of the various accounts and properties. This follow-up is essential to ensure that things work out the way you want and expect them to. It is an orderly process, and once accomplished, updating should be relatively straightforward. And, at least as important, planning for possible incapacity, and identifying one's basic financial information so that helpers can immediately get to the important things, are integral parts of this process.

We all know that it is a good idea for people who have had time to put together some assets, typically pension plan accounts and homes with considerable built-up equity. There also may be investments that have grown over the years, large life insurance policies, or business interests including stock options as well as "one-shot" occurrences such as inheritances, insurance proceeds or settlements.

A contemplated transition to retirement or a part-time consultancy position, or a planned re-marriage with a blended family, may represent new financial considerations. Divorce almost always requires a thorough review of prior planning.

Less obviously, young people in junior-level jobs are also good estate-planning candidates. They may only have a bank account, a car and maybe a condo with a low down-payment, but they probably also have some life insurance and other benefits through work, maybe an interest in a family enterprise (or not even know their parents are making gifts to them) or a potential inheritance. Parents may urge them to do their planning in order to protect the parents' legacy for their children and grandchildren.

Couples, whether or not married, have special considerations, both beneficial and not. Having young children entails a responsibility to plan for their future if you are absent. Single people should want to direct their assets and entrust their care to persons or organizations that are meaningful to them, not just automatically the closest relative (usually parents). Anyone with close relatives or friends with special needs, has an opportunity to set up structures to care for them without reducing their public benefits.

In preparing documents and choosing options, clients need to understand what they are signing and how it actually works. I also keep in mind how it will work in the future, whether going through probate or trust distributions or utilizing other methods. The goal is to minimize the costs and burden of administration of loved ones, while obtaining the benefits of the process (such as cutting off unknown creditors and creating a record). In probate cases of estates of people I didn't represent earlier, I also seek to keep costs down and coach the participants in the applicable rules, effective preparation and necessary follow-through. If there is a contentious situation, I look to the principles of collaborative law to achieve a reasonable outcome without litigation.

                            MY FAMILY LAW PRACTICE

My family law practice is a corollary of my estate planning practice.

Many couples contemplating marriage these days, no matter their ages, may already own or expect to inherit homes, business interests, retirement accounts and other financial assets. They may want to retain autonomy over certain of these possessions while sharing other property and income with their new marriage partners. The antenuptial (or post-nuptial) agreement can accomplish that, whether it is a limited version that carves out specific items (such as family property or inheritances), or one that establishes comprehensive financial arrangements for the couple, or many other variations. Entering into this type of agreement after thoughtful deliberation is also a way to offer reassurance to grown children of a previous marriage or parents who are leaving substantial legacies.

People who are not marrying or cannot marry, such as same-sex couples, do not have the legal benefits of spouses and must codify their preferred arrangements through domestic partnership or cohabitation agreements or various types of trusts. These can range from relatively simple house purchase and financing arrangements to long-range planning of all important financial matters and contemplation of children and other family responsibilities.

The purpose-driven trust and dynasty trust have family law as well as estate-planning law aspects, as do various charitable trust arrangements that provide benefits to family members as well.

I also take separation and divorce matters for clients, but my focus is on those cases that are likely to be resolved on an uncontested basis by cooperative efforts of the parties. A formalized version of this approach is the collaborative law agreement.

Even though the great majority of divorce matters eventually settle, there often is a great waste of time and money on adversarial posturing instead of using those resources to arrive at financially beneficial and tax-advantaged solutions for both spouses. I am tremendously sympathetic to the emotional and psychological turmoil suffered by the breakup of such a union, but I believe strongly that the best interests of clients are served by preserving their valuable assets and, with my banking and financial background, helping them to enter the next phase of their lives in as solvent and well-organized a fashion as possible. I also limit this caseload by not taking child custody or child support cases (other than in the collaborative law context).