By Darlynn Morgan, Orange County Estate Planning Lawyer

The story is told of a farmer who decided to hire someone to help him care for his prosperous farm.  The only applicant was an older man with a limp.  The farmer, a little disappointed, reluctantly offered the man the job but expressed his concern that the older man couldn’t work as hard as someone younger and without physical limitations.

“Don’t worry,” said the older man.  ”You won’t be disappointed.  I can work as hard as someone half my age, and besides, I can sleep when the wind blows.”  The farmer was puzzled but didn’t say anything.

A few weeks later, the farmer woke in the middle of the night to the sound of a huge approaching storm.  He roused his son and told him to run and get the hired man so they could tend to the animals, the equipment, and the buildings before the storm hit with all its fury.

He rushed to the bans to see what he could do to protect his farm from the dangerous gale.  His son caught up to him shortly and reported he couldn’t wake the old timer.  This angered the farmer, and he swore he’d take care of that unreliable old man as soon as his farm was safe.

But as he and his son went from barn to barn and shed to shed, they found that all the animals were safely within their stalls and corrals.  All the tools and equipment were put away and locked up.  All the doors and gates were closed tight.  Everything was battened down; nothing was amiss.  There wasn’t a single thing they needed to do, except go back to bed.  The farm was safely sheltered from the storm.

Then it came to him in a flash.  He remembered – and finally understood – what the older man with the limp had said in the job interview:  ”I can sleep when the wind blows.”  He shook his head in amazement and went back to the house with his son.  He climbed back into bed, but he didn’t sleep.  All he could think about was a hired man, wise with years, who could sleep when the wind blew.

Can you sleep when the wind blows?

That’s my job as your neighborhood Orange County Estate Planning Lawyer…to make sure your children, assets and wishes stay protected when the winds of life blow.  Like the old farmer, I will help you protect your family and most cherished possessions so you can sleep soundly during the storm.

You can learn more about how I can help you put a rock solid hedge of protection around the things and people you love the most by coming in for a free Family Wealth Planning Session (normally $750) with the mention of this article. However, these appointments are limited to 10 per month, so call (949) 260-1400 to secure your spot today.

By: Darlynn Morgan, Orange County Estate Planning Attorney

In my travels last week, I noticed the stores were littered with backpacks, school supplies and adorable new outfits….which only means that back-to-school season is right around the corner again!

Fortunately, my little one is just learning to crawl so I won’t have to deal with the anguish of sending him to school for quite some time.   But, if you do have little ones going back to school this year (or even just to day-care!), take some time this week and think about your family’s emergency preparedness plan.

Here’s a brief checklist of critical things to consider:

* Have I legally documented short and long-term guardians to care for my kids if something happens to me and/or my spouse during school hours?

* Do the people I listed on my child’s school emergency card match those I’ve legally named as guardians? (If not, your emergency contacts will only have permission to pick your kids up if they are sick– not care for them if something happens to you).

* Have I provided my chosen guardians with the documentation they need and instructions on what to do if called upon in an emergency situation?

* Have I prepped the babysitter who watches my child either before school or after school on what to do if something happens to me so child services are not called in?

If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, now is the perfect time to get a plan in place before the hustle and bustle of school season starts.

To make things easy for you, I’m waiving my 10-per-month limit on no-charge Family Wealth Planning Sessions (normally $750) so anyone who wants to take me up on this offer can get in before school begins. However, this offer will expire on Monday, August 9th, so call me, your neighborhood Orange County Estate Planning Attorney at (949) 260-1400 to book your appointment today.

I am often asked: ‘Do I really need a lawyer or can I just do my estate planning myself’?

Putting my bias as an Orange County estate planning lawyer aside, the truth is that creating your own legal documents creates a false sense of security and serious problems that you won’t catch until it’s too late to do anything about.

Let me give you an example.   Say you’re pretty handy so you decide to build your family a new home over the summer months.  It doesn’t have to be anything fancy—just something to shed your family from the elements and save you a ton of money in the process.

So you grab your tools and take great care to follow the instructions you’ve found in DIY magazines and books.  However, unbeknownst to you, a key element of placing waterproof felt between the sheeting and the shingles is left out of the project.

Who would know that?  You just assumed the shingles went right over the wood!

To make matters worse, you didn’t find out you missed this important element until the third year when the sheeting starts to rot away and you now are getting rainwater in your brand new house!  By the time you figure what’s causing the leak and how to stop it, you realize the repairs will cost you thousands of dollars more than if you just hired a contractor in the first place.

The same holds true for DYI estate planning.

It seems really easy, and companies are making a fortune selling you the false belief that DIY, fill-in-the-blank estate planning forms will protect your family if the unthinkable happens.

But then a crisis comes, such as a lawsuit, hospitalization, or even worse a death – and your family will be scrambling after finding out that critical elements were missing from the plan.  And in most cases, the plan will ultimately fail because of a simple oversight that a lawyer would have caught.

And the cost of a failed estate plan?  Hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary tax bills, probate court costs, unforeseen custody placements of your kids (a la foster care), loss of assets and years of headaches.

Although to be fair, this same situation can happen even if you work with a lawyer and fail to update your plan as your life, and the law, changes through the years.   We have people that call us all the time who spent thousands of dollars on an estate plan and only to wind up in probate court anyway for this very reason.

Yet if you are still determined to draft your plan yourself rather than consult with an Orange County estate planning lawyer, here are my best recommendations:

1. Get everything you do reviewed by a lawyer. It’s better to know than to wonder.
2. Make sure you do the whole job, not just part of it.
3. If you have kids, make sure you have adequately provided for their care.

And of course if you already have a DIY estate plan and you’re now unsure whether it would hold water in court, I’d a like to extend you the opportunity to come in for a free Family Wealth Planning Session ($750 value) so you can get your documents personally reviewed by me.   These sessions are limited to 10 appointments per month so call 949-260-1400 and reserve your space today.