When a person dies and leaves behind a written "Last Will and Testament" and their assets exceed a relatively low dollar amount, the written Will and its assets (along with certain unwilled assets) are usually required BY STATE LAW to undergo the costly, public, frequently prolonged, and complex court process called PROBATE. It is overseen by lawyers regardless of information and advice they, as a family's trusted advisor, may have given to the contrary, before or after helping to create written Wills (family documents destined for probate). A study by AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) found that the average cost of probate was 10% of the gross estate - (from Modern Maturity magazine August-September 1991 issue). The consumer advocate, Ralph Nader, a lawyer himself, referred to PROBATE as "THE SCREWING OF THE AVERAGE CORPSE". Lawyers have a legal monopoly on performing probate. They typically earn over $1,000 per hour for this service. Says David Hapgood in The Screwing of the Average Man: "Most of the money spent on probate goes, by widespread agreement, to support expert make-work." Judge William Haworth of Oklahoma, interviewed on the CBS television program "Sixty Minutes", estimated that 90 percent of probate legal work is unnecessary. He added, that what work had to be done could usually be done better as well as more cheaply by a legal secretary. [From: The Economic Rape of America, Chapter Ten] A 25 BILLION DOLLAR RACKET? You be the judge. THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF HAVING PREPARED A REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST IS TO AVOID PROBATE. There are several additional benefits in the management of situations often faced by families. We will not advise you to get a Revocable Living Trust, nor will we discuss with you legal details about Wills and Living Trusts, regardless of how much we know. Are you beginning to catch on? (remember UPL) Shortly after moving to Sarasota, Florida in 1986, I decided that the time had come to do some personal estate planning. Not knowing as much as I do today, I met a local attorney who agreed to provide me with a Revocable Living Trust for which I paid him $2200. I ran a copy which I gave to my son together with advice to use it, with the help of an attorney, should I happen to die. A year or so later, I read The Living Trust by Henry Abts (a book known as the "Bible" of the estate planning profession). Without going into detail, in plain terms my trust document wasn't worth the paper it was written on. Surprise! Probate! I would not have been around to complain, "But I thought that you said"... I telephoned Henry Abts (a man disliked by many probate attorneys). After discussing with him my own background, I mentioned that thousands of retired persons on Florida's west coast had probably never been given full information regarding living trusts and probate. Henry put me in touch with a licensed estate-planning attorney in Sarasota who, after reading The Living Trust, obtained legal documents from Henry's company for his clients. Even if you insist on the preparation of a Living Trust, you have no way of determining the quality of the legal documents prepared. If a Trust is not executed and funded properly it becomes invalid and survivors wind up in probate court. In doing your own research, I insist that my own clients, rather than only going online, read a small (70 page) book, Estate Planning Basics by Jeffrey G. Marsocci, Esq., who refers to himself as "The Plain English Speaking Attorney(TM)". We provide copies that are also available from Amazon. Jeff is an affiliated network attorney, licensed in North Carolina. According to Attorney Marsocci, roughly half of the trusts belonging to persons who move into North Carolina are improperly funded or contain other legal deficiencies. They are potentially subject to attorney fees for probate as well as fees for trust administration! A word of caution with regard to "do-it-yourself" trust websites: One size does not fit all. No two people or families are alike. Your family's needs, dynamics, personalities, and values are unique. If you use a form kit, you are asking for problems. Even LegalZoom.com reveals that 80% of people who fill in blank forms to create legal documents do so incorrectly. If the Trust is not executed and funded properly, it becomes invalid. The only estate plan to rely on should be one prepared by a knowledgable honorable estate-planning attorney. I am proud to work with a group nationally that has hundreds of affiliated attorneys "fine-tuning" Living Trusts containing state-specific ancillary legal documents, assisting other estate-planning attorneys and their clients throughout the nation for more than thirty years. We strive to protect our fellow Americans from what has been called "the agony of probate", including the legal fees involved, by recruiting and setting up the training for reputable, knowledgeable, and experienced attorneys, providing them with the most comprehensive and up-to-date estate-planning documents, tailored to the personal situation of each client, to be placed in their clients' PERSONAL ESTATE PRESERVATION PROGRAM binder. If you are a licensed Florida attorney interested in broadening your practice and desirous of ethically servicing additional clients, give me a call. If you reside in Florida: Call (941) 545-3600 - You might want to replace an existing written Last Will and Testament to avoid an inevitable probate, especially if there are significant assets involved. If you have an existing RLT, you might want to have it reviewed. Get information concerning retaining a Florida-licensed affiliated estate-planning attorney including the services and fees involved. If you reside in a state other than Florida: Call (800) 998-2523 (number unavailable from area code 941) and leave your name, your state, and your city or town, along with the best phone number at which to contact you. Nationally, over 150 estate-planning attorneys are actively working with this group. I will do my best to locate those licensed in your state and provide you their contact information at no charge or obligation. The attorney's fee for a Revocable Living Trust may be somewhat greater in the states of South Carolina, Illinois, and Iowa. Those states require an attorney to be physically present at the time that Revocable Living Trust documents are executed (signed by the affiliated attorney's clients and notarized).

I am not a lawyer. This material is not intended to be legal advice and should not be considered to be legal advice. It does not constitute the recommendation of any legal document for any specific client. It is educational material summarized from books that are widely available in public libraries and in books and other publications that are sold in every state through retail outlets. Expanded information about Wills, Trusts, and Probate Stewart Ogilby