Financial planners provide clients with methods for protecting their assets, blueprints for achieving financial goals, and contact with recommended financial professionals. Our team at Cook Tillman Law Group often meets clients through their financial advisors at the beginning of their estate planning journey, a process that can produce many questions and cause anxiety. One of our top priorities is alleviating client stress, so we’ve assembled advice to help financial planners support their clients through this process.
Essential Documents To Bring To An Estate Planning Meeting
Balance Sheet: A proper understanding of a client’s financial condition is vital in an initial estate planning meeting. A current balance sheet is a great tool. This document should list the client's assets, how they are titled, and their approximate values. Such assets include:
Real Estate: Primary residence, second homes, and any investment property.
Business Interests: Corporations, LLCs, partnerships, and the like.
Life Insurance Policies: Permanent or term, death benefit value, expiration dates.
Retirement Accounts: 401(k)s, IRAs, 403(b)s, annuities.
Taxable Investment Accounts: Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs.
Alternative Investments. Cryptocurrency, precious metals, or significant art collection.
Estate Planning Documents: If the client has existing estate planning documents, we recommend bringing those to our initial meeting, even if the client intends to replace them. Generally, if the plan is over ten years old, there likely have been enough changes at the state and federal levels to warrant a review. Additionally, changes in family dynamics and financial conditions are reasons to revisit the current plan to ensure it continues to meet the family’s needs.
Decisions That Arise While Creating an Estate Plan
Once clients begin the estate planning process, they will make various decisions related to the appointment of fiduciaries to perform several functions, including making health care and financial decisions for the client if incapacitated, administering the client’s estate or trust at death, and caring for the client’s minor children if death comes earlier than expected.
Financial and Health Care Decisions: Clients will appoint individuals to make financial and health care decisions on their behalf should they become incapacitated. This is typically a spouse, but it’s wise to have a successor if there’s a situation in which the spouse is unavailable.
Administrator of the Estate: The estate administrator is appointed in the client’s planning documents and is responsible for accounting for the client’s assets at death, paying debts and expenses and distributing the net estate according to the dictates of the planning documents. This person is known as the executor or personal representative in the context of the probate estate, or the trustee when the client planned using a living trust.
Guardians: If a couple or individual has minor children, they should consider who they wish to be the children’s guardians in the event of their premature death. Guardians may serve singly or jointly and may or may not be the same person appointed to care for a minor child’s finances. When deciding who to appoint as guardian, consideration should be given to continuity of parenting style and values.
Understandably, the topics mentioned above can produce uncomfortable emotions, which is one of the reasons people often put off estate planning. Accordingly, keeping clients focused on the results of planning - security and peace of mind that a client's health, assets, and beneficiaries will be cared for as intended - will do much to help them through the process.
What To Expect From Estate Planning Consultations
Clients will find that an estate planning consultation is reasonably straightforward. An initial meeting typically lasts around an hour and a half, and the process usually contains the following points:
Gathering Information: To begin, we gather information about the client’s family, including their names, birth dates, and relationships, and review the client’s financial profile. Financial advisors often provide such information in advance or, if they join the client, bring it with them to the consultation.
Identifying Needs: We then work through clients' planning needs, identifying who they wish to benefit from their estate, any unique family dynamics, and whether they can benefit from tax planning or enhanced asset protection.
Assembling A Plan: Finally, we present planning options to suit the client’s needs. We quote a flat fee based on the project's complexity, deliver drafts to clients for review within two weeks and schedule an appointment shortly thereafter to answer final questions and execute the documents.
Additional Estate Planning Advice For Financial Advisors
Prioritizing Estate Planning for Clients: Our team considers estate planning an integral piece of a comprehensive financial plan. Families partner with financial advisors to build wealth, but neglecting protective elements like estate planning exposes accumulated wealth to preventable risk. While clients sometimes avoid estate planning because they believe it’s not urgent, we consider it the roof of the “financial house” - it protects their work and makes their resources last beyond their lifetime. Approaching estate planning in this way helps clients understand its importance.
Continuing Education: Estate planning law is ever-changing with new tax laws on the horizon, so it is essential for financial planners to stay up to speed in the field. We are happy to share our expertise by providing seminars for which certified financial planners may earn continuing education credits. Estate planning can be an emotional process for clients, but with the proper education and guidance, it does not have to be overly stressful. Confidently speaking to clients about estate planning can make them feel more at ease when these conversations arise.
Whether your clients have a specific vision for their estate plan or come to us with a blank slate, we are happy to help guide them through the estate planning process and create a plan that aligns with their values and goals. Our team at Cook Tillman Law Group can be reached through our website and by phone at (615) 370-2444. Don't hesitate to contact us with questions or concerns regarding estate planning matters.