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Sweaters in the Suitcase – and your living trust document
Drafting thorough living trusts requires planning for contingencies and flexibility.
Category: Getting the Job Done
Contain Yourself: Fool Proof Solution to Getting Organized
By David Edwards on Jun 26, 2010 in Asset Organization, Funding and Asset Titling, Getting the Job Done, What a Will Doesn't, Wills and Trusts
Why is getting organized so much fun? Well, I should rephrase that. Getting organized is a lot of work. But BEING organized is fun. A while back Michelle and I went to the Container Store in St. Louis. Who would think there is a store with nothing but containers for storing things? And it’s fun [...]
Walls coming down at Edwards Group
By David Edwards on Jun 25, 2010 in Dave's personal stuff
What has been going on at Edwards Group LLC? With the addition of Joshua Becker and Laura Peffley, we ran out of space. So what to do? Knock down walls.
After (or I should probably say “during”)
Before
Dave’s office – before and after
Now a glimpse of my new office.
Estate Planning: What’s in your tool box?
By David Edwards on Jun 24, 2009 in Counseling, not Documents, Leave a Legacy, Why use a Living Trust?, Wills and Trusts
What tools do you want to use?
Is this the first question that your contractor asks you when you decide to
hire him to build a house?
Or, if you’re car stops running and you take it to the mechanic
to be fixed, do you quiz him on which tools he plans to use in
repairing it?
When you need surgery [...]
How to pick an estate attorney – 4 questions to ask
Here are the questions I want any client to ask before they hire Edwards Group LLC to complete their estate plan.
Will your estate attorney outlive you?
Interesting article in State Journal-Register yesterday. Percentage of attorneys in Illinois who are are between 50-74 years old went from 22% in 1993 to 39% in 2008.
http://www.sj-r.com/homepage/x2085729714/Number-of-lawyers-over-age-50-climbs?view=print
Fairly often, I hear new clients tell me they were looking for someone “younger than they are” to be around to handle their estate and help the family after [...]
Transitions in Life
By David Edwards on May 16, 2009 in Dave's personal stuff, How to Choose an Attorney, Wills and Trusts
BAILEY’S “NEW SCHOOL”
At our house, we are in the middle of a transition. 2 1/2 year old Bailey is switching to a new daycare. For the last couple of years, Bailey has gone 2-3 days a week to her “school” (Memorial Childcare) when Michelle is working as a nurse at Memorial Medical Center [...]
What is your job, what is the attorney’s job
Boring is defined as “so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness.”
Well, hopefully this post is not really boring, but I wanted to make a point. I have a theory that most of the estate planning information being said or written by attorneys out there is BORING.
And by boring, I don’t [...]
Am I Your Type?
By David Edwards on Apr 23, 2009 in Counseling, not Documents, Getting the Job Done, How to Choose an Attorney, Wills and Trusts
There are 4 types of estate planning:
Do nothing. Let others sort it out later.
Do it yourself. Get a form and fill in the blanks. How hard can it be?
Use a document-driven attorney. Pay lots of money for a fancier form that someone else fills out for you.
Use a counseling-oriented attorney. Build a lifelong relationship [...]
What are you proud of?
Do you ever feel pretty proud of yourself? Kind of interesting the stuff that we get proud of. Here are some of the things I have been proud of lately:
1. stopped drinking diet soda. Used to drink it all the time, for years, but my mom kept telling me it would give me cancer eventually. [...]
I come from a people who…
I am sitting here at Springfield Clinic getting a bunch of allergy shots. 27 shots, 3 at a time, every 15 minutes (and on my birthday, even). What better time to post to my blog?
Who do you act like? In my work with estate clients, I get to hear about the legacy that came before [...]
Can you speak the language?
Part of feeling connected to a family, school, part of the country, etc. is the language we use.
When things get messed up
By David Edwards on Mar 02, 2009 in Dave's personal stuff
This afternoon, I hosted a roomful of financial professionals for a webinar. Where we all face forward, listening to a voice through speakers sitting in some other state and looking at a screen with a powerpoint presentation. And it was really great. Great content and a great group of professionals I respect.
Then [...]