Estate Planning

What Do We Do?

By Administrator

Attorney E.J. Hong from Palo Alto, California provided a succinct answer to what we do as individual attorneys: "I'm an estate planning attorney, I do wills, trusts and probate law."

E.J. also provided this additional commentary as to what estate planning attorneys are all about. I read this in one of her email responses from one of the American Bar Association's email lists for attorneys. E.J. graciously agreed to give us permission to share what she wrote:

1.  Estate planning is a happy place.  It beats handling probate or conservatorship or leaving turmoil for your family.  It certainly beats having to fight out a guardianship proceeding because the parents did not have a Will.  It beats your family members having to guess at your medical decisions. It's a happy place because you are in control now. You're alive, you're healthy, you have assets, you have people you love and people who love you. 

2.  Another way to think about estate planning is asset protection. Your assets are you, your children, your business, your properties, all the stuff that you've worked hard for.  Asset protection is protection from probate, conservatorships, taxes, and turmoil.  The federal government may be your favorite charity, but maybe not.

3.  Estate planning is an act of love  - it protects you and your loved ones.  It's like having an insurance policy.  You may not need it right away, but when you do need it, your family will be very pleased that you cared enough to plan ahead.  You also might discover, as my clients have, that making an estate plan actually decreases your anxiety and leaves you with peace of mind. 

-- E. J. Hong

Full post as published by Estate Planning Practice Blog on September 02, 2008 (boomark / email).