Olsen Law Group creates an 'Action Plan' for every estate planning client

Atty. Tom Olsen: When we meet with clients to do their estate planning, together with the clients, we come up with what we call the action plan, what it is that Olsen Law Groups can do for them, and what their homework is, all with the goal of avoiding probate, making things simple, easy, inexpensive for the clients' children when they pass away. When I meet with the people in person, they leave with the action plan. When I do the initial consult and start the process with them over the phone, then I say, look, we're going to hang up, we're done now, but in a few minutes, I'm going to email you your action plan. Either way, I really love our action plans because the estate planning, we do it all day, every day. We fully understand it from A to Z, top to bottom. Always got to remember, it's always new for the clients. As always, when they walk out of our office, we want them to 99% understand exactly what we just told them and what they're going to do, but hey, just like us, they'll go home and go, what did he say? What are we doing? What did we get? That's the beauty of the written action plan is right at the top, it talks about what we're going to do for them, and right at the bottom, it talks about what their homework is.

Atty. Chris Merrill: Exactly.

Atty. Olsen: People may say, Tom, homework? I'm not in school anymore. What would be my homework? Well, it's really quite simple folks. Remember our goal is to avoid probate, and so what part of your homework is written right there, for most of our clients, it is to go to your banks and make your bank accounts POD, payable on death to your children. It is a tool to avoid probate on your bank accounts, checking, savings, CD, money market, investment, non-IRA accounts. If you will make your bank accounts POD for your kids and you pass away, the only thing they will need to do is to show the bank or credit union or investment company your death certificate, and they'll turn the money over to your kids. No probate required.

Atty. Merrill: It's about making it simple for your loved ones, and that's what we want to help you do. We want to help you give you a peace of mind and make things simple for your loved ones if you were temporarily incapacitated or if you passed away.

Atty. Olsen: Now, people might say, what else is on that action plan, Tom? Well, here's another simple one, and that is this, that if you have an IRA, retirement account, 401K, make sure that you have named a primary and a contingent beneficiary. If you're married, then it's going to be your spouse as your primary, your children are going to be contingent, but all situations, make sure you've got primary and contingent beneficiaries on IRAs. Make sure that they don't go through probate.