O.T., Keep it Legal

• IACS

Merry Christmas
SDE

Scott in SF

I do a fair amount of estate work n its so sad to see how families break up n feud when mom or dad dies

John T

However I must say Ive found what you say to be true in many situations. For example, I have clients come to me concerned about things such as a Power of Attorney or Healthcare Representative Appointments or Wills or Living Wills etc for their aging parents. I tell them heres the deal. IFFFFF FF their parent is fully functioning and mentally competent AND MOST OF ALL wants and is willing to execute such documents and assign certain powers NOW the cost is very reasonable and can save heartaches and hard feelings later down the road. HOWEVER if they wait till they are incompetent they then lack the capacity to do the same which means very expensive Guardianship proceedeings n doctors n lawyers n expensive expert witnesses and family fights etc. etc. I do some probate work n it seems it NEVER FAILS, Mary lives next door to mom n works like a slave carin for her for years then mom dies GUESS WHAT big shot brother from California who never came to see mom or help now wants to run the show n dicate to the family what to do grrrrr rrr. When people need medical advice they go to the Dr. n if he says an organ is bad they take his advice n say rip it out or if the car is bad they do like the mechanic said or same for plumbing n other skilled professional help n never question it but let a legal question arise (where the lawyer might save them thousands) then they take the advice of their brotehr in law lol n wonder why they get sued later n have to run up one enormous legal fee to get em out of a mess which good advice up front may have saved them from.

Oh well enough soap box for now, Im sooooo o glad I retired as an electrical enginner n had a real life in that n farming long before I became Law Man cuz Id hate to have to scrap n fight n dig n cut throats n engage in allll that nasty hard dirty fighting to make a living whewwwww

Yall take care n God Bless

John T Retired engineer now Country Lawyer in Indiana

To add to NEsota's wisdom, here's some I heard recently:

"A good lawyer and a good accoutant are free."

And from what I've seen in my personal and professional life, it's very true. If you've got any sort of business going on, or even if you're just faced with the possibility of family arguemnts over money, a good lawyer and/or a good accountant are worth every penny.