#85: Wills, Probate and Automobiles

Here's What Happens At A Free Estate Seminar

If there’s one thing I enjoy talking about, it’s what will happen when I die.

I don’t expect the world will stop. Hopefully there shall be the appropriate amount of tears and gnashing of teeth, but life will go on. C’est la vie.

Where our stuff will go on, however, is of some importance to my wife and I. That’s why we created our first will & testament more than 20 years ago, after the birth of our first child.

[Note: We used an actual lawyer for that, who was only marginally amused at my insistence that we include a clause that required, in the case of a dispute of ownership by potential heirs on certain items, that the final decision be based on the outcome of a game of H-O-R-S-E on a basketball court, standard rules.]

About 15 years after that, it struck us that while we now had two children we had never updated that initial will & testament. So we made some updates.

That was almost 10 years ago. Quite a few things have changed through those years, in ways that impact that existing will. Plus, we now have, by some standards, a meaningful enough estate that it requires additional measures to ensure our last wishes are followed.

So we decided to have another go at it. Given we now lived in a different state, I was curious how estate planning worked in Georgia, and whether advancing technology offered us options that weren’t available a decade ago.

We started with lawyers. Apparently COVID inflation has, as with everything else, increased the cost of estate planning lawyers. The quotes we received for our will, powers of attorney, a revocable trust and separate health care directives for each member of our family ranged from $4,000 to $10,000 – at least twice what we had paid for our previous, simpler will.

[Note: I am not an attorney and nothing I write here is intended as guidance nor even as passably accurate. It’s my story, which I hope you enjoy and do not view, in any meaningful way, as advice.]

Then I looked at software. Will & Trust came recommended by our financial advisor, so I gave it a try. While it adequately provided basic will documents, it was unable to handle specific directives to each of our children. A text exchange with the Will & Trust folks online confirmed that their software was not that complex.

Plus, to be honest, I felt a bit uncertain at the concept of us posthumously pointing others to an online software URL for the latest copy of our estate documents.

Stymied from pursuing either lawyers or software, I then did what most Americans do when it comes to estate planning: Nothing.

After creating a well-ordered paper file and labeling the enclosing manila folder, I moved it around from time to time, periodically commenting that “I really need to get on with this.”

That went on for almost 2 years.

Then in the mail came notice of a potential solution: A local “wealth advisor” firm invited me to a free seminar on wills and estate planning, at the local recreation center.

Say no more.

Now, I’m no rube. I view free seminars from local “wealth advisers” in a similar light as time share presentations that offer a ticket to a free buffet.

But I was pretty sure the “wealth advisors” were aware of that pejorative perspective. I was curious what techniques they would use to try to overcome it.

Also? Listening to someone else speak on the topic might put me in the frame of mind to take action myself.

So last week, off I went.

After being waved on by an incurious rec center attendant, I entered a rectangular meeting room already occupied by about 10 or so people at two, long tables – all couples, and all older than me (so I assumed, the truth is I often think people who are my age are older than me, so who knows).

The junior member of the two-person “wealth advisor” team greeted me and handed me a 2-page questionnaire. The senior member (each of them were well under 40, possibly under 35) remarked that he liked my hat, which that night happened to sport the Atlanta Braves logo. He added no other comment.

By the time we got started, I counted 22 attendees. Instincts honed by decades of corporate meetings had led me to choose a freestanding metal chair in the back of the room near the exit. Others could sit at the convenient tables, I wanted more personal space and the ability to depart quickly and quietly.

A glance at the handout revealed one of their techniques. Given the way the earlier, mailed flyer had described their company, I had assumed the firm hosting this seminar was actually a financial advising business. The advertised topic of will and estate planning was likely simply a way to get people in the door to make inroads to managing their investments.

The handout upon entering the meeting room was the first proof of the night confirming that assumption. Under the heading “What are your financial concerns?” the questionnaire listed 14 factors – and only 2 of them had any connection to wills and estate planning. The rest all had to do with managing investments, having enough money for retirement and concerns about market risk.

I was immune to this approach. For more than two decades I have worked with Babcock Financial (affiliated with Northwestern Mutual) on my retirement planning. I left Ball at age 58. Nearly four years later, I have a larger investment portfolio now than I did when I left Ball.

Thank you, Glen Babcock.

[Note: BTW, if any of you are in need of an excellent financial advisor, let me know and I will connect you with Glen and his team. I think I get brownie points.]

Then the presentation got underway. One of the first things the senior guy shared with us were the estate planning horror stories of Prince and Michael Jackson, one of whom had no will and other of whom had an estate plan but his advisors had neglected to legally put anything he owned within the plan.

The lesson: Don’t be like Mike. The technique? Fear.

Then he walked us through the tragedy of probate (the legal process affecting your belongings if you die with no will). Did you know that every Georgia county has exactly one probate judge? Probate takes a while. If your spouse or children need immediate support from your estate and it goes into probate, well, good luck.

Did you also know that anything valued at $50 or more must be included in your estate? That’s what he told us. I wanted to ask if you could get around that by strategically hiding bundles of cash in separate, $49 increments, but he had said he would not take questions during the presentation and I didn’t want to be rude.

[Note: Speaking of, a late-arriving woman had sat in the chair to my right. During the seminar, I glanced at the clearly refilled crinkly plastic water bottle at her feet, which she would uncap and sip from now and then. The water in it looked like it had marinated a rusty nail or two for 24 hours – it was a very light shade of rust brown. I missed a bit of the presentation while wondering at the source of her refreshment, and whether she noticed its hue. Also, she should have bought cans.]

When the 60-minutes-on-the-dot presentation ended, we were enjoined to turn in our completed questionnaires – which included a question about whether we would like a complimentary review of our existing will and estate documents.

The only choices provided were boxes for “yes” or for “no.” I drew a third box, wrote “maybe” and checked it. I continue to wait anxiously for the result of their deliberations.

Did I learn anything? Yes, as I had hoped, the presenter provided a number of details about the Georgia probate system. As a transplant, I appreciated that.

Otherwise, it was an overview of probate, the legal impact of a will and the need for a will plus revocable trust and power of attorney as well as related health care directives. That wasn’t new to me, but I appreciated the refresher.

Also, I liked seeing these young guys out hustling. I have no idea if their firm is good at what it does – everyone shown in the office photo in the presentation looked 40 or under. They can’t have been doing this for that long. But I love seeing people create their own professional path.

I would have enjoyed a free buffet, though.