One Little Experiment and One Big Thankyou!

It’s around 9pm, Thursday, February 1, and I’m under the pump. I’m also at a local boozer having dinner with PJ, a colleague of mine.

Outwardly, I’m as calm as. Inwardly, the last thing I feel like is a beer and a chicken parma. I’m pre-occupied with an intractable situation regarding an estate and I’m hoping like hell the pennies drop soon. Very soon. As in, before close of business the next day.

The situation looks like this…

A client of mine has already been in and out of hospital a few times in recent months but now the prognosis is dire. No doubt about it.

The reason I’m feeling a tad anxious is because he doesn’t have a Lasting (Enduring) Power of Attorney in place and if he drifts out of consciousness again, I’m tipping there’ll be no coming back and then it will be too late to tie up some loose ends.

He delayed having a Will written for as long as possible because of a complicated family matter. And even though his estate planning includes a Testamentary Trust for tax and asset protection purposes, I know those who survive him are still vulnerable, and so does he. Which is giving him no end of headaches.

I’ve seen this movie before and it rarely ends well. It’s the worst blood sport of all.

After my client divorced he decided not to get back into the Sydney property market straight away because he thought it was overpriced, so he opted to rent for a while. Consequently, he had a lot of money sitting in cash plus some invested in the stock market.

Importantly, his children were non-dependents.

By 1.30am I’ve been back at my desk for over three hours and dinner with PJ is now a faint memory.

Worst of all, I’m no closer to a solution, so I decide to pull up stumps.

And then, just as I get out of my chair, ka-ching! The pennies fall that hard it’s almost deafening.

The answer seems so obvious I immediately think I’ve overlooked something. Not surprisingly, I spend the next hour combing my notes, going backwards and forwards looking for any holes and why the idea might not work.

At around 3am I fire off an email to my client and his solicitor and then fall into bed exhausted.

The Solution
By the time I emerge from my slumber, my client has sent me a reply, “Please Proceed!”

World War III has just been averted and I’m doing cart-wheels. (Figuratively speaking)

(I’ve also promised myself a quiet little sip after work).

In the meantime, the recommendation to my client looked like this…

“Liquidate all assets and gift proceeds to children immediately. I.e before you pass away”.

In a perverse sort of way, I think this gave him something to live for.

Literally, one week later he sat his children down together and explained what his intentions were before he gifted them the money.

The meeting was convened in his solicitor’s office where it could be fully recorded. I suggested this to help mitigate any possible recourse after his passing because one of the agitators causing most of the problems was a spouse.

(If you want to destroy a relationship as fast as possible, get a third party involved. It never fails).

By the time my client passed away, there was next to nothing to pass onto his estate and no grounds for a contest. It was one of the fastest probates ever.

Yes, there was a little bit in super but because super is a non-will asset, it didn’t matter so much. Plus, by the time the super was split up, everyone was familiar with the process.

Best of all, there wasn’t a peep from the spouse.

The Little Experiment
Since I began writing the Moowsletter, I was determined not to use it as a platform to sell stuff. I read a lot of posts and I cannot stand blogs that masquerade as sales letters. Its deceptive and deceitful.

However, and here comes the ‘but’, I recently had a client ask if we do estate planning and I immediately thought of that long summers night in early February.

It isn’t the first time, we get requests from subscribers like that all the time about different services.

So, what I thought I’d do between now and Christmas is share one ‘case study’ per month about different client scenarios to show subscribers what we do at Suncow without hard selling them.

It will look exactly like todays ‘case study’. Factual and honest and I promise it won’t be boring.

But if in your opinion the Moowsletter starts reading like a sales letter and loses its integrity, you have our express permission to complain and unsubscribe, immediately.

On the other hand, if the idea of a monthly ‘case study’ appeals to you, please let us know if there are any topics you would like us to cover.

Have a great weekend!

Adam

Back paddock – I just wanted to say a very big thank you to all those people who have recently shared some of our Moowsletters. Some of the shares have been to newspapers as well as other bloggers right across Australia.

Also, thank you for the feedback from our last Moowsletter – Haymaker. It was just a simple idea but the response blew me away. Thankyou!