The Collaborative team can help set up financial arrangements which directly reimburse or reward one of the heirs for providing caregiving help or for helping manage legal or financial affairs as a separate provision of the estate plan. The traditional approach is to let the chips fall where they may and hope everyone understands a party’s intentions.… Read More

The Collaborative lawyer mediator, financial specialist, and communication specialist will help work through the ramifications and potential response to decisions. They can work to find creative solutions to provide heirs individualized bequests which best suit their needs. It is not always “fair” to simply divide up assets evenly. One heir may need monetary help; one may prize heirlooms or property; another may have an emotional attachment to cherished photos or jewelry. The team can also help explain decisions to the family.… Read More

The Collaborative lawyer mediator, financial specialist, and communication specialist can create a Special Needs trust for children in these circumstances. A party can discuss this to the extent able with the children and find out who they believe should be in charge of their money and other aspects of decision-making in their lives when a party isn’t able to be there, to the extent of the child’s abilities to understand and communicate their desires.… Read More

Led by the Communication specialist or coach, the Collaborative team can facilitate these difficult conversations. Through open and respectful discussion, parties can make their wishes known and understood to lessen hurt feelings due to surprises after death.  Under the traditional model, a party makes decisions about the trustee, executor or agent. If a party passes over a child who expects to play this role, he or she is likely to resent the person appointed to act in this capacity, whether a sibling or a stranger. He or she may express resentment by pushing back or even resorting to litigation.… Read More

The Collaborative lawyer mediator, financial specialist, and communication specialist can assist a party as a parent to discuss these concerns with their children. The team can create a protective estate distribution arrangement that does not put the assets at risk when the children do not have adequate money management skills, sometimes by assigning a professional to help the children manage their inheritance.… Read More

All family members or unrelated heirs invited into the estate planning process will participate in a discussion about a party’s intentions and decisions, guided by the Collaborative team as neutral facilitators. All conversations are kept confidential with the family and the involved professionals.… Read More

The Collaborative team led by the Communication Specialist can bring all extended family members together to discuss the estate plan in advance, and allow them to express their expectations. By addressing these issues in advance, hard feelings will be avoided after death.… Read More

There should be no unfortunate surprises using the Collaborative process for estate planning, as heirs will participate in a discussion about the details of the will or trust. With the traditional estate planning model, the will and trust are private documents and nobody may know about them. After death, they are lodged with the court and become public documents. Anyone has access to them, including beneficiaries and heirs.… Read More

With the Collaborative Practice model, all affected family members are informed about estate planning ahead of time. This gives the family the opportunity to resolve any differences or hurt feelings while a party is living, instead of creating dissention and resentments after death. This improves the quality of relationships and quality of life. It reduces the likelihood of litigation to resolve unexpected conflicts. Frequently, probate and trust battles are fought in court over what mom or dad “really” intended to do with their estate. When an estate plan is discussed in an open, respectful forum where one can directly express intent, it will be difficult for any family members to claim a different intention.… Read More

If there is litigation over an estate, it can take a year or more from the first filing of a document until there is a trial. Some cases take several years to resolve pending appeals. A family is at the mercy of the court’s crowded schedule, the availability of the attorneys, and any other involved parties. Much of the delay involves waiting for responses, a judge’s decisions on small issues, or coordinating everyone’s schedules to find a time for the case to move forward. In adversarial litigation, neither side has control over the other, and one side may be dragging their feet with no way to force them to respond.

The Collaborative Process can save time. Being solution focused produces a more efficient process where meetings focus on gaining understanding and reaching agreements. Progress is not dependent on a court schedule or a formal legal process. Meeting schedules can be … Read More