Welcome to the Good Steward Law and Wealth Podcast with your host, Ledly Jennings. Estate planning isn’t just about documents—it’s about relationships. In today’s episode, we’ll explore why estate planning is relational, not transactional, and the importance of educating clients on their options for a comprehensive and effective plan. We’ll also delve into the Good Steward Maintenance Program, a unique approach to keeping your estate plans updated and aligned with your goals, ensuring your legacy is preserved with care. Stay tuned as we share insights on creating wealth strategies that make you money rather than costing you money!

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [0:31] Estate planning is relational, not transactional
• [1:57] Educating clients on what is needed for their estate planning
• [5:07] The Good Steward Maintenance Program and what it accomplishes
• [7:08] Funding your trust, maintaining a relationship, and understanding the details
• [13:50] What sets L. Jenning’s Law apart from other firms

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Effective estate planning goes beyond drafting documents. It involves building and maintaining a relationship with clients, educating them on their options, and ensuring their plans align with their evolving needs and goals.
• Many clients misunderstand the purpose of estate planning documents. For example, a living will actually relates to healthcare decisions, not asset distribution. Educating clients on the distinct roles of wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents ensures clarity and effectiveness.
• Estate plans require regular updates to reflect asset changes, family dynamics, and legal considerations. The "Good Steward Maintenance Program" ensures that plans remain effective and minimize beneficiary complications.

RESOURCES:

L. Jennings Law - Website

L. Jennings Law - Facebook

Ledly Jennings - LinkedIn

L. Jennings - Instagram

L. Jennings Law - YouTube

ABOUT THE HOST: 

Attorney Ledly Jennings, founder of L. Jennings Law, specializes in protecting legacies and ensuring smooth transitions of personal and business assets. With offices in Arkansas, his firm offers expertise in estate planning, elder law, probate, and business planning. With a J.D. and MBA, plus valuable experience at Stephens, Inc., the state's largest investment bank, Ledly serves high-net-worth clients and family businesses statewide.

to the Good Steward Law Wealth Podcast, where host Ledley Jennings explores law and finance to help listeners become better stewards of their wealth. Each episode covers the latest trends and strategies in estate planning, elder law, investment, and wealth management. Tune in for the knowledge and tools for financial success and security.

Ledly Jennings: Welcome back to the Good Steward Law Wealth Podcast. I am your host, Ledley Jennings. And today I'm excited to talk about the relational aspect of estate planning and how the process is more than just a transaction. That's what I really want to convey today. Uh, this has been brought to light through several client interactions lately.

I would bet that most people think a will. So if you think I have an estate plan, I have a will. But, The fact is, if we are using your will or you leave an interaction with me and all you walk away with is a will, then I did not do my job of educating you on what you actually need. And you can listen to the other episodes where we talked about all the elements of an estate plan, but typically a will is not a will.

You know, all you need within an estate plan. So clients come to me and think they, it's a transaction. They say, well, I need a wheel. I need you to draft it. Let's do that. Let's sign it. And we're done. But that is not the most effective way because to have an effective estate plan, you need to see the full picture and understand what documents you need to prepare for any situation.

I'll give this example. Just last week, I had a client come in. They booked a meeting. They sat down, um, They said, I need you to draft me a living will. I need a living will. And I said, well, I agree with you. You do need a living will, but I'm curious. What are your reasons behind why you think you need a living will?

And then they're kind of taken back like, well, I thought a will, a living will, it said where my stuff goes. And I have to tell them, no, a living will is a healthcare document that lets someone make end of life decisions for you. Now, a last will and Testament does say where your assets go after you're gone.

And then they say, well, all right, that's what I need. That's what I meant. I need a living will. Last will and Testament. And I'll say, yeah, you might need that. It could tell where your assets go, but is that the best way? Do you know what happens with the wheel? And then we go on to talk about all the things that happen with the wheel.

You can listen to our previous episode about explaining what a trust does, but essentially a will mandates that you go to court. Uh, because a will does tell where your assets go, but who does it tell that to? It's telling it to the court and the judge who then distribute your assets according to your will.

That's not what I want. So then we start talking about all the elements of a good estate plan. You know, what, what it consists of, uh, what they actually need. And usually we go into the base, uh, estate planning document that I start with is a revocable trust for clients. So it takes a lot of education just to get there, just to even get to the, uh, Batter's box on what you actually need with your estate plan.

The end goal that I always tell clients is I say, when you pass away and I'm sitting at this conference room table with your spouse or your kids, you know, whoever survived you, I can confidently say, this is what they own. And this is what we do now and take all the headache off of your heirs and your beneficiaries when it comes to knowing what to do with your assets and how to manage them.

And that is my goal. So, um, for those of you watching, we'll put up a picture of our process wheel that we follow here, uh, at my law firm, which you can see it on our website as well. It's our estate planning process wheel, where basically. Where we start is a asset organizer phase. So we gather all of your assets.

And then the advice may not be any good. Cause we don't know what you actually have. So that's where we start with all of our clients. Then we meet with families, talk about their goals, um, get an idea for what is your end goal with all your wealth? And what do you want? How do you want to manage that while you're living, but also when you're gone.

So we get a goal, we design the plan, and then we develop that plan, um, into a full estate plan that we execute for our clients. So we, we get an estate plan that meets their exact goals and, uh, accomplishes, um, you know, avoiding probate court, paying as little taxes as possible and asset protection for their kids.

So the next process in our wheel is called the asset alignment phase. So once we have the documents in place, you have to align your assets with your estate plan, meaning. Get your bank accounts, your investment accounts, all that retitled in the trust or beneficiaries, how you want them. You get real estate retitled in the trust, and this is called funding the trust.

So you have to actually get your assets in the trust and that's the setup process. So that's a pretty common, most attorneys will walk you through that process. Some take it a another step further than the others. Um, but a lot of, uh, law firms, once you set up the trust, advise clients, how to fund it. And when I first started practicing, that was kind of how I did the process.

And then stand behind the product that I offer because I know it's going to work when they need it to work because it's updated and maintained. So that's when we introduced the good steward maintenance program. And it's been top of mind for me, uh, lately because I've had my law firm open for a couple of years now, but the maintenance program is just hitting its peak.

So we're having a lot of our annual review calls with clients and, you know, seeing that maintenance program, make it a full year and clients in it, get the full benefit. And it came up where clients were telling me, you know, you need to talk about this more. This is a lot, uh, really valuable that we found that none, none of our friends or family members who also have a state plans, they have the same, uh, benefit and program.

When we meet with clients, we have an annual call where we check in. And make sure assets got where they needed to go. And then in future years, we still check in with about assets. Did their family change, you know, anything like that? Uh, because the fact is throughout your life, your assets grow, you buy, you sell.

Things change. But also your family dynamics change. You, um, introduce new family members, family members may pass away. Um, their status in the world changes. Maybe when you set up your estate plan, your kids were young and then down the road, they become well, um, good citizens in the world and you know, they're 30, 40 years old.

Who's responsible and was it done? So when we have that annual review call, I run through that list. Say, did this get in the trust? Like we intended, did this get done? Did this get done? And it seems like almost every time clients say, uh, I did all this, but I forgot this one asset. So then we circle back and make sure it gets done.

And the end result is by the end of that, uh, phone call and that annual meeting, I know that their estate plan got set up properly. Um, and we can walk away confident with that. So I know. You know, down the road, when I'm sitting there with their kids, I can pull out the spreadsheet and say, I just met with your parents on this last year.

It shows who's in charge, where, um, where, how the assets are divided and how they inherit them and what assets go where. So then we run through that flow chart in our annual call and say, Hey, uh, do, is this still how you want it? Do you still want the house to go to your daughter? And the form to go to your son, you know, how is your son, um, still in med school or as he graduated, you know, what, what has changed and how we want to pass things on.

So it seems as people are passing away, I'm inheriting trust that I did not draft and I have to administer. Um, so every trust is different. So when you, when I inherit a new trust and I, I've never seen it before, um, first time I'm looking at it. Typically, I have no idea how to understand it or how to follow it.

Now I went to law school and I can learn and I can catch up pretty quick, but it's like a foreign language to me. And then not only that is we don't know what it owns. You don't know what a trust actually owns until you see the asset itself and how it's titled. Just because in your trust that you listed, uh, on bank accounts and various things.

Be quick and easy. They're going to know what's in there. They're going to know what it says. They're going to know the best way to do it. They're going to know everyone's intention when they set this up and they can follow that. Now, that always can't be the case because sometimes your attorney maybe is the same age as you or retires, passes away, something like that.

But you always need to have an attorney That you have a relationship with that is familiar with your estate plan up until the day you pass away. You want to keep that relationship because that's how an effective estate plan is administered. So I just wanted to bring that up that there's a lot of value in the relationship.

And we kind of go beyond that. Um, our maintenance programs only one year old. So a lot of this is aspirational and future plans, but there's other benefits, you know, other than our annual meeting. clients get discounts on other legal fees that they need done from us. Um, and we update their power of attorneys every five years because that is what banks and larger financial institutions tend to tell us they want.

They want updated power of attorneys. So we do that for clients. Um, clients get priority access to attorneys. Um, when they need to meet with me, uh, they're first in line. So if it ever comes down to it, we, we get pretty busy during certain times of the year. And I've said multiple times this year, we can't take on any other probates.

So we want to help clients, you know, manage their assets while they're living in the most tax of Finch efficient manner. Um, so part of our maintenance program is. I'm up to date on your assets. I know what you have. I know what your family looks like. So I can spot issues and see things that I'm seeing with other clients, where they may be benefit from having this certain CPA or this financial advisor or investing in this certain type of account.

And that's what our maintenance program is. That's how an effective plan can be done. So if you're interested in this, if you have an existing estate plan and you want us to look at it, we will do that. But if you're just interested in becoming part of our program, where you have an ongoing relationship with your attorney, that is our goal.

And that's what we think makes us different as a law firm. So I just wanted to emphasize the importance of a process. And maintaining your estate plan. It needs to be updated regularly and it needs to be monitored and ensured it was set up right. And that's it for the good steward law and wealth podcast, where we think everything we have is a gift and it's our job as good stewards to manage what we've been given to the best of our ability.

And thank you for listening.