How to eat an elephant...

Aah, it is the age old conundrum. How to eat an elephant? It is a much used description for the large and seemingly undoable challenges we all face. In our legal practice, it is often the best way to describe the challenge of estate planning. It’s not a simple fast foot dish to take on. Instead, estate planning is the proverbial “elephant” and the successful plan will address your estate plan much like the old “how to eat an elephant answer…….you take it one bite at a time.”

Estate planning is often viewed as the “elephant” challenge for many people. And as an attorney, it is my job to help turn the “elephant” into bite sized tasks. And advise on where to start and where to take the next bite. Since one of the most common comments from a client is, “I just don’t know where to start”, I knew we needed to talk about “eating the elephant.”

You know the old saying, “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time. Most people don’t know how to prepare the elephant (estate planning). After my discussion with Bill and Sally, they understood what it was to create a process where you can reduce the different elements of estate planning into bite sized pieces. This allowed them to take them on, one element at a time – dealing with those that were most pressing first. After they understood it was “one bite at a time,” you could feel a huge “sigh of relief” instantly hit the room.

Just like an elephant, it might take a while to eat it one bite at a time. But with the right plan and persistence, Bill and Sally eventually saw the successful (and less stressful) result. The key is to approach it with a bite sized view of the challenge rather than facing a daunting elephant-sized single project. There is a great article talking about the ways that businesses (as opposed to estate plans) use this approach to take on these types of elephant issues. The article is by E-Myth, and you’ll find it at this location, "How to Eat an Elephant" - might give you some interesting perspectives on applying the “elephant eating solution” to your other business situations. As for elephants, they really aren’t that hard to eat…

Top Areas of Focus - based on Client Needs

I am a longtime member of Wealth Counsel and they did a great job on completing this survey and I felt it was so relevant for my clients I wanted share it with you.

One of the benefits of being a Wealth Counsel member is that I get access to great information like this.

I mentioned in an earlier posting the Third Annual WealthCounsel Survey of Attorneys in Estate Planning and promised to share some of the more relevant nuggets with my readers. Here is another nugget...

Attorneys were asked what areas they were seeing as the highest growth areas for their clients over the next five years. Based on feedback from their clients and the increase in demand, here is a listing of the top areas most estate planning attorneys will most likely be focusing on in the next five years:

1. Business Entity Planning for Estate Planning Purposes
2. Beneficiary Inheritance Asset Protection Planning
3. Elder Law Planning
4. Post Mortem Administration
5. Business Succession Planning
6. Lifetime Planning
7. Tax Avoidance Strategies

Notice any patterns?  First, they are indicative of the aging population we will all be serving.  Second, there is a lot of "planning" that needs to take place.  Third, there are more "business" related issues than in the past.  Finally, and always on the list, how to I get to keep more of what I have and not pay as many taxes.

I'm seeing a very similar pattern in our geography as well and our clients are facing many of the same issues.  I guess the survey was pretty accurate.