Have you heard the story of Abraham Lincoln?
He's one of my all time heroes. I want to talk to you about a part of his story that you may not have heard.
I'm not talking about the part about what a great president he was ...
Or that he saved the Union ...
Not the good parts of the story ...
But the other part ...
The part where he left his family without provision when he died ...
The part where he didn't have any written papers to say how ownership of his property should pass to his family after he died ...
Surprised? Yeah, me too.
You remember he was a lawyer, right?
He left his family without any money at all for nearly two years and eight months.
Yes ... That's right ...
This brilliant man had his property tied up in probate court for two years and eight months. What did his wife and children live on during that time?
No planning ...
And why? Because he didn't expect to die right then ...
He thought he'd have time to get around to getting those papers in place.
He was wrong ...
And his family paid a steep price for that mistake ...
They paid that price for the more than two and a half years it took to get through probate ...
The impact of that lasted a lifetime.
Or what about the story of Elizabeth Taylor?
Did you know that Elizabeth Taylor, a movie and stage star whose life was played out in the newspapers, took control of her financial matters?
She was able to keep her financial matters private after her death. Out of the public eye.
With a few critical papers she was able to avoid public scrutiny and protect her family's privacy after her death because she had a trust.
Complete planning by Ms. Taylor.
Only her eighth husband talked to the media. No one else did.
And there are no public records for us to read.
No probate court file. There are no court records to verify his story.
How about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis?
A great lady who treasured her privacy and the privacy of her family during her life ...
She ducked the photographers. Over and over again ...
She protected her children from the public eye ...
But in death, she did not protect them ...
Her estate planning did not conceal her financial affairs ...
That's because her main estate planning document was a Last Will and Testament ...
You can Google her name...
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis ...
Check out the N.Y. Times article of December 21, 1996.
Didn't her lawyer tell her that a will was a public document?
Didn't her lawyer tell her that anyone could read her will after her will was filed with the probate court?
For a woman so careful about maintaining her privacy, in the end her privacy was lost ...
Sad.
Even years later, anyone with an internet connection can read how she passed her property.
Who got what ...
Those who want to know can discover to whom she gave a copy of President Kennedy's inaugural address that was signed by poet Robert Frost.
Do you want people to know to whom you give your precious property?
You don't need to be famous like the people described here to plan your estate.
Come on in. Read more about estate planning, trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and probate.
Let me take some of the confusion out of it for you.
Most people think they don't have enough to do estate planning.
And yet, everyone has something someone wants when they're gone.
Maybe it's a family keepsake. Maybe it's a family company. -Hood and Bouchard
You do not have to have a great deal of accumulated wealth or property to create an estate plan...
All you need is to care about how your loved ones will be provided for if you were to die or be stricken with an illness that would leave you unable to make decisions for yourself.