According to national news reports, Osama Bin Laden has been killed at a compound in Pakistan, by US special operation forces a few days ago. The news just became public on Sunday. It is a great victory in the war on terror against al Quaeda. Do you think that bin Laden prepared a will and other documents in preparation of his death. Is there estate administration in Pakistan?
His adult son was killed in the coup also, which makes for a twist in estate law. If his son was named in the will, and they died at the same time, there should be a clause in the will that states where the son’s share goes. It is recommended that you draft contingency plans should a beneficiary die at the same time as you or within a short amount of time. Mr. Bin Laden, as we know, had much power, but did he have a lot of assets? The mansion he was living in, according to CNN wire staff, was worth over one million dollars.
Was the compound titled in his name? These are questions I would ask the Personal Representative. Since he is one of the most wanted, if not the most wanted man in the world, for the sake of his relatives, I would think that he had an estate plan. I would like the courts to allow the United States to file claims against his estate on behalf of all the individuals who perished in the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil on September 11, 2001. May they rest in peace.
There is a corny television show named Raising Hope. It is about a twenty- something young man named Jimmy who is raising his daughter Hope because her mother was executed for a crime she committed. I am embarrassed to say that I watch it on occasion because it follows Glee. That is a whole other story. Anyway, Jimmy lives with his mother, Virginia, father, Bert, grandmother and daughter Hope. They are a wacky family that marches to the beat of a different drummer. Jimmy works at a grocery store where he has a friend named Sabrina, who is a cashier. The subject comes up of who is going to raise Hope if he dies suddenly. His mind explores the various people in his life and what attributes they have to serve as surrogate parent for Hope. He quickly eliminates everyone he knows including his Mom, who can’t even get out of bed for work and his Dad, who can’t keep track of his pairs of shoes, flip flops, and socks. In one funny scene, Bert’s missing sock is stuck on his back with static cling, just out of his view.
Virginia, Bert, Jimmy, and Hope travel to the attorney’s office who meets them on a Saturday. How odd. I don’t know any attorney who meets clients on Saturdays. I certainly don’t. On the attorney’s desk is a time meter box with a bell on it that the attorney hits for every ten dollars of fees he earns. So Hope’s family talks quickly. Jimmy settles on Sabrina Collins as the best candidate as guardian for Hope. Later, Jim asks Sabrina but she says she has no experience and doesn’t want the job. When they leave the attorney’s office, they pile into the truck and the attorney comes out, with baby Hope in his arms, and says, “Aren’t you forgetting someone?”
Jimmy announces that none of them are fit to raise Hope, including himself. He shares his revelation to Sabrina who tells him that his family needs to teach each other to be independent and become capable people. They proceed to do just that. At the end of the show, they experience a near death experience together. They realize if it goes bad, there will be no one to raise Hope, but then get out of the dangerous situation with a big sigh of relief.
Will the show win a Golden Globe? Hardly, but the writers tackle an excellent topic of selecting a guardian for your children, should you die before they grow up. My law firm handles this type of planning and encourages clients to name guardians for their minor children in their Last Will and Testament. I know a lot of people with minor children who will not do any estate planning because they can’t decide who to name as guardian. This makes no sense.
I can’t think of any more important task as a parent than naming a guardian for your minor children in your will.
Hallie Zobel
Probate, Wills, Trusts, Planning
March 27th, 2011
Back in 1996 Hillary Rodham Clinton’s book, “It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us,” was published. No political figure can write anything without it stirring up partisan controversy, but this post isn’t being written for political purposes, so we’re going to set aside any conversation of her overt agenda in writing the book as well as any hidden agendas which might be imputed to her.
Suffice it to say for our purposes here that most people, when faced with a long-term, difficult task, would prefer not to face that task alone, but to do so with others, preferably well known and well trusted others. Call that a village or just call it a team, having others to rely upon can help make difficult tasks far less so.
Thinking of how special needs children will be taken care of after their parents are gone can be a frightening prospect. Unfortunately, this is one of those situations where the old adage, “Failure to plan is planning to fail,” is very true. The problems faced by special needs individuals are very real and they won’t go away when ignored. A properly drafted and properly maintained special needs trust is a great vehicle to meet the needs of special needs individuals, but one of the key points of a March 14, 2011 article in the Wall Street Journal by Veronica Dagher is that you need a team, she calls it a network, including a guardian, a trustee, a financial planner, an attorney, an accountant, advocacy groups, friends and family in order to make sure the special needs individual is properly cared for and public benefits are preserved. Follow the link below to read this concise but very informative article.
David Pilcher
Probate, Wills, Trust, Planning
March 16th, 2011
Smell invokes memory unlike any other sense. The treacly-sweet aroma of Florida springtime clobbers me with grief every March. Enveloped in the cloying perfume of citrus in bloom, I flash to my senior year of high school when Megan McCabe died. Megan was thoughtful and smart and funny and pretty, and a member of the Crew team with me. A group of rowing friends went to the beach on a gorgeous Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day. One of the cars didn’t make it back. Megan died in the accident; others were badly injured.
It was the middle of Crew season. We practiced on Lake Howell, which (back then) was surrounded by orange groves. We rowed and ran for several miles every afternoon. I remember slogging through the blooming citrus trees, overwhelmed with heat and humidity, sand and sun, tears and loss.
Every high school class suffers a similar tragedy. Patricia Auwerda, another kind, adorable, brainy, and witty childhood friend of mine, died in a different accident weeks after Megan’s death.
Devastated families cry, “Will anyone remember my child?” To the McCabe and Auwerda families, know this. Still, after all of these years, I remember Megan and Patty often and fondly, and honor them every spring when I smell orange blossoms.
Merrell Bailey
Probate, Wills, Trusts, Planning
March 13th, 2011
Congratulations! You’ve been asked to present with a group of experts on a webinar that will have people from across the country listening? Here are some helpful hints that I learned from my recent experience.
I was invited by WealthCounsel™ to be a panelist with Lew Dymond, Peter Parenti, and Paul Bernstein to discuss the new tax laws that Congress passed on December 17, 2010. The audience would include attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors throughout the U.S. The webinars were scheduled for December 28, 2010 and January 3, 2011.
First, I hyperventilated about being included with such esteemed colleagues. Second, we quickly had to learn the new law well enough to present it to a really bright group of listeners. Third, we had to work up presentation materials for WealthCounsel™ to disseminate. Finally, we had to actually present the webinars. Thank heavens, a lot of this was happening over the holidays, because I was having a crash course in public speaking over the internet.
Webinar speaking is different than public speaking. A big lesson for me was how different speaking on a webinar is compared to speaking in front of a live audience. I do a lot of public speaking. I’m comfortable in front of crowds, and really enjoy it. If you are high energy and have a big voice (as I do), your personality has space to dissipate when you are a room with other people. However, all of that perkiness directed down one tiny phone line and across the internet may be a weensy-bit overwhelming to your audience.
This does not mean that you should stop being yourself, however. You were asked to present for a reason. Just keep in mind that your audience cannot see you. Basically, you are having a one-way telephone conversation. Remember the old adage that the person on the other end of the phone with you can tell if you have a smile on your face? This applies ten-fold to presenting a webinar. A cheerful personality is welcome in a web presenter. Be careful not to veer into manic lunacy.
Recognize and complement the speaking styles of your co-presenters. Are you a calm, quiet, logical presenter? Is another panelist higher energy? You may have to pump up your style, and your co-presenter may have to tone it down some. If you don’t try to find a cohesive mean, your audience may get whiplash from the difference.
Use a script. An in-person audience does not want you to read a script to them. And no audience, either in-person, or on the web, wants you to read the slides to them. However, you may use a script when you are presenting a webinar. If you write it properly and practice it effectively, you will sound fresh, yet be thorough without having to memorize.
Learn how to drive the webinar software. You’ve attended a thousand presentations on the web. You know how to sign in, and access the chat function and the Q&A function on the toolbar. Now, though, you are a panelist or organizer; your access to the webinar software is different, and the options on the toolbar are expanded. Make sure you log in using the correct instructions as a panelist. Undock the Q&A from the control panel. Enlarge it so you may read the questions in full. On December 23, 2010, I was asked to help cover the Q&A only on a WealthCounsel™ presentation that had been previously recorded by Lew Dymond and CPA Robert Keebler. While Lew was available to answer questions live, Bob Keebler had a scheduling conflict; I was asked to step in to assist Lew.
I did not know that undocking and enlarging the Q&A was an option. As a result, I could see only one line of one question on my screen. When the Q&A went live, instead of answering questions effectively, I spent several minutes barking, “Uh, Uh, Uh,” like a trained seal while I frantically worked in the background with the presentation organizer to figure out how to access the full text of the questions. It was not my finest moment.
Live questions are an adrenaline rush. Undock the Q&A from the control panel early, and read the questions asked in advance so you may prepare your answers. I realized when I was answering questions after the Bob Keebler/Lew Dymond presentation on 12/23/2010 that I spend an awful lot of time having conversations in my head. I ponder things. I don’t react to them. You cannot do that and answer Q&A live. You have to react. Be prepared to jump in the deep water and swim.
Budget time to answer questions from attendees after the event. You spent time learning the subject matter. You spent time preparing the presentation materials. You spent time on the webinar itself, plus answering the live questions. Your job is not done! Expect attendees to e-mail you questions after the event. Don’t forget to allocate time to answer their questions promptly, thoroughly, and cheerfully.
Have fun! Participating in the webinars was a wonderful experience for me. I can’t wait to do it again. Please shine in your presentation by learning from my mistakes. Recordings of the webinars are available for free using the hyperlinks, above. Please download them and critique my performance.
Recently, I watched the season premiere of “Brothers and Sisters”. You know the show, the strong matriarch, Sally Fields, at the head of the whiny family known as the Walkers.
It takes place one year after the horrible automobile accident that occurred at the cliffhanger last May.
It was packed with legal issues, pertinent to the type law I practice.
Last season left us with a multiple car pileup, on the expressway, in California. Brother Justin, who conveniently has paramedic training from the military, is crawling to brother in law, Senator Robert McCallister(played by Rob Lowe), to render aid, but Robert, with blood trickling down his beautiful face, tells Justin to move on to Holly and he will wait for the ambulance. Justin then leaves Robert and goes to his mother in law, Holly, to give her first aid. It doesn’t look good for Robert.
As the show starts, we learn that one year has passed, and Robert has been lying in a coma for this last year, since the accident, being kept alive by medical machines, that are probably breathing for him. It is quite tragic and his wife, Kitty, played by Calista Flockhart, has been by his bedside, hoping for a miracle that he will awaken. The physicians have given her little hope, and she is grounding her hope on case studies she has read, where similar coma patients have woken up and resumed a somewhat normal life. Apparently, no family member is able to speak to Kitty about Robert’s situation and her decision to “pull the plug.” During this episode, she rages at her brother, screaming, “It is a hard decision what you are asking me to do!”. Well, the family has agonized for one year about Robert lying in limbo, and not really “living”.
These end of life decisions should not have to be Kitty’s decisions, it can be Robert’s. It comes as a surprise to me that he does not have his estate planning completed, and does not have a living will. A living will is a document that specifies whether life sustaining measures should be undertaken to preserve life when one is not expected to recover. Sometimes it is called “pull the plug” document. It is a document that you sign, prior to the end of your life, that signifies your wishes, taking the pressure off of spouses, children or other family members. The majority of my clients want this document for several reasons, to avoid the large medical expense of keeping them alive and to keep their loved ones from going through the emotional agony. We discuss these very issues with clients in my Central Florida law firm and encourage them to execute this advance directive, along with the other documents such as a trust, will, durable power of attorney, and health care surrogate. I am wondering if Robert did not have a will either? Well, it is television land and it makes for much better viewing for him to be without legal documents.
By the end of the episode, Kitty realized that it was not her husband lying in the hospital bed, but a body and she made the decision to disconnect the life support. The episode ends, as usual, with the Walker clan drinking and raising their wine glasses for a toast to Robert. I would rather toast to advance planning he did to save his family the turmoil of the last year.
Hallie Zobel
Probate, Wills, Trusts, Planning
