Early in my financial services career, I received some training on the best methods for selling life insurance. With bold enthusiasm the instructor declared at the start of the training: "No one wakes up in the morning and says to themselves, 'Today I need to buy life insurance!'" I have come to realize the same sentiments apply to estate planning. During my time working as a financial planner, not a single person came to me and said, "You know Jay, I just woke up this morning and decided I need to update my will!"
I've asked myself many times, why it seems so difficult for people to get started on updating their estate plan? My conclusion is, updating your will involves many things people generally want to avoid. Things such as confusing legal documents, strange vocabulary, and contemplating their own death. People don't like to imagine this world without them in it!
The truth is updating your estate plan is rather simple. Here are 3 reason why I think updating your will is easier than you might think.
1. 2nd Step Momentum: The old saying, "The first step is the hardest." is spot on with this topic. Have you ever had to help someone push their disabled car off the street? You have to really get down, bend your knees, grab onto the bumper with a firm grip and push hard to get the car moving. Once the car is rolling, it is much easier to push. In this case all it takes is one communication. One phone call to your financial planner. One email to your attorney. Just do it! Decide on a day, put it on your calendar or move it to the top of your daily agenda. Make the call or send the email. After that, the car is rolling and the following steps are much easier.
2. Professionals Love to Help You: As a financial planner, I enjoy digging into the complexity of financial details. You may think I have a strange illness, but it is fun for someone like me. Financial professionals will be ready and willing to help you. We love it when someone expresses interest in updating their estate plan. Why? Because we know how important it is and we want you and your family to be served well with a thoughtfully executed estate plan.
3. There Are Only 4 Steps: All that language you read in legal documents is confusing. The vocabulary for wills and trusts is strange and there are multiple words that refer to the same thing. Updating your will may sound like a long, arduous project that will take months to complete. There are only 4 steps to this process. They are: Call, Discuss, Draft, Sign. That's it! Let's break this out:
- Call: This is you initiating the process. A phone call or an email to a financial professional such as a financial advisor or attorney. This is the fastest, but most difficult part of the process. Here, you are overcoming inertia, you're pushing the disabled car from being stopped to rolling forward. But all it takes is 5 minutes and the hard part is over.
- Discuss: Here you discuss your current situation with your advisor and/or attorney and tell them your wishes. They may ask you to fill out some paperwork to gather some information about what you own, how you own it, and how you would like your estate to pass to your heirs. While this does take time, you'll be surprised how smoothly it goes now that you have the process underway. You have also engaged a professional and they will help you stay accountable and keep the process moving forward.
- Draft: This is the work your attorney does. Your attorney will put together draft documents for you to review. You may have a little back and forth after reviewing the documents to correct any errors, or fine tune how the documents need to read. This is quite easy since you have already made the necessary decisions. You are just reading through everything and confirming the attorney heard you correctly. Your financial advisor should also read the document as a second set of eyes to minimize errors.
- Sign: The easy part. The documents are finished and all you do is show up at your attorney's office with a pen. The attorney will probably have another employee of the firm join the meeting to witness your signatures. It only takes 10-15 minutes and you're done!
I encourage you to make the call today. If you don't have a financial advisor or attorney, our team in the Planned Giving office of One Mission Society is ready and willing to help. Just give us a call and we will walk you through all 4 steps. Call us today, we are happy to step in beside you and start pushing the car to get it moving!
Also, if you have included One Mission Society in your will or trust, please let us know! We'd like to include you in the One Mission Legacy Society to thank you for your generosity in remembering OMS in your estate plan. We'll also send you a free gift of a leather bound prayer journal as a thank you!
Remember, the first step is the hardest, after that everything becomes much easier.
Call us today to get rolling!