A client should understand the legal documents that they are signing

Attorney Tom Olen: said at Olsen Law Group our goal is that when you walk out of here and we've done work for you, whether it's estate planning or buying a home or protecting your life savings from a nursing home, that you fully understand what you have done.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Exactly.

Attorney Tom Olen: That includes drafting documents that a layman can read and understand those documents.

Attorney Holley Knapik: I love our documents. I've had the pleasure now of reviewing a lot of other estate planning documents from a lot of other law offices and various online [laughs] resources. I will say there've been days I've been a little confused. [laughs]

Attorney Tom Olen: Well, we regularly make fun of trust that were prepared by other lawyers and they're 40, 60, 80 pages long. Even if they're 60 pages long, if they're well-drafted, you and me as lawyers could quickly find in there what we're looking for.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Absolutely.

Attorney Tom Olen: Even if they're well, and sometimes they're not well-drafted so I got to turn it page by page, by page, by page to find what I'm looking at. That is so frustrating.

Attorney Holley Knapik: It is.

Attorney Tom Olen: It's not always like that, but sometimes.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Sometimes it is.

Attorney Tom Olen: Even if it's a well-drafted 60-page lawyer trust or a 40-page trust, there is no way a layman is going to understand that. A layman's going to look at that 40-page trust and close a book and put it back in the drawer.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Oh yes, and put it back in the drawer and hope for the best.

Attorney Tom Olen: Hope for the best. I love those words. Chris and I often use words when we talk about people that had their trust done somewhere else is that they have a false sense of security. Why? Because they paid thousands of dollars for these trust documents. The trust document is 60 pages long. It must be good, but folks that is not necessarily true.

Attorney Holley Knapik: No, because often it's never been funded. The trust owns nothing.

Attorney Tom Olen: What we're saying is that when you sign a trust it is as though you have built an empty vault or an empty safe, and you must then fill it up with your assets. People have a trust. One of the main reasons is to avoid probate and in order to avoid probate, it requires two things. Number one, you've got to trust. Number two, your trust owns your assets.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Two-step process, absolutely every time.

Attorney Tom Olen: If you spend thousands of dollars on a trust and it doesn't own your assets you've wasted your time and money.

Attorney Holley Knapik: You have.

Attorney Tom Olen: When somebody brings that old trust to us that was done somewhere else, one of the first things that we do is we go on the property appraisers website and we take a look and see who owns their home. Generally, we're going to find that the home is still owned in the client's name, not in the name of the trust.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Not in the name of the trust.

Attorney Tom Olen: I say, you know what that means? It's going through probate.

Attorney Holley Knapik: It's going through probate.

Attorney Tom Olen: "Tom, I've got a trust." Well, guess what you want to avoid probate, you got to have the trust that got to own your home. Folks, what we're saying is that if you've got an existing will or got an existing trust, we offer a free initial consultation to talk about your-- Review your existing will or trust, so bring it down here. Doesn't cost you anything. We're going to be checking these things to make sure that what you have out is working for you and is still appropriate.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Exactly. Absolutely. We're not going to tell you something that's not the truth. If you need to update your documents, we're honest about that, but if everything looks good and works, we're honest about that as well.

Attorney Tom Olen: Exactly. Remember when you have a trust package you got six or seven or eight documents, we might say, "Hey, three of them are good, five of them need to be redone."

Attorney Holley Knapik: Absolutely.

Attorney Tom Olen: Hey folks, we're the Olsen Law Group in Orlando. You can find out more about us at our website, olsenlawgroup.com. From there you'll find a lawyer for each page with three big red buttons. One is call, one is text, one is e-mail, very easy to reach us. By the way when you call us, that phone rings directly at our desk. Folks, you don't need to go through the front desk or you can always call us directly and anytime and leave a message. If nobody picks up at olsenlawgroup.com or 407-423-5561.