Meet the Estate Planning and Probate Lawyers Attorney in Menlo Park, California
What one piece of advice do you repeatedly give to your clients?
What one piece of advice do you repeatedly give to your clients?
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I give my clients a lot of advice but
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the one piece of device I give a lot is
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to become engaged in the process of
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estate planning when especially a
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husband and wife come in we’re
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representing the couple and usually one
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is very vocal and the other is quite
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quiet and it’s important that I draw
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both of the couple into the conversation
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and it’s hard for people to imagine the
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situation when they’re incapacitated or
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dead and I’m doing trust planning that’s
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implemented at a time when they can’t
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act the ability of me to give them a
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beautiful document that works in the
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circumstances and will continue on for
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decades after they’re gone I can’t do it
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without their involvement and so I want
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them to ask questions I want them to go
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home and think about issues that I asked
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them to discuss who is going to be the
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trustee who’s going to be the Guardian
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to raise your children what advice would
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you give that guardian or trustee all
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these things can may and up in the
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document but at the very least they can
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be in letters or instructions so that
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when the client is not around or able to
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function their wishes are carried out
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and the more the client gets engaged the
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better the document is you know the
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trust really they help when a client’s
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gone to protect the assets and to give
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guidance to the assets and when we’re
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not there as people that are creating
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trusts our words are there and what we
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want is there and that document is
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living on as a representation of the
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person I know that beneficiaries put
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weight into the documents they think
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that the client really meant a lot of
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the stuff in there when really it’s just
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a preference of a lawyer about what they
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what they usually put in a model
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document so it’s important if the
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beneficiaries are gonna think it’s what
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you want that you get engaged in it and
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you call the lawyer on things the
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lawyers put in there why is that there
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shouldn’t it be this and and then it
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becomes a fun process and then when it’s
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done you feel very comfortable about it
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because it’s not a mystery
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cumin you know what’s in there and it
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also makes it more rewarding for me
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[Music]
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you
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Menlo Park, CA estates and probate lawyer Mary White shares her most common advice given to clients.
