According to the Oxford dictionary, a plan is “a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something” or “an intention or decision about what one is going to do.” When everything is going well and we’re sailing along with no worries, planning can feel unnecessarily burdensome or like a waste of time which could be better spent enjoying life. In the midst of busy and full lives, it can be hard to slow down enough to think strategically about the future.
Here at Family Estate Planning Law Group, we believe in planning. It’s in our name, and it’s in our DNA. We can learn a lot, and we can know a lot, but we will never know the future or be able to predict what is coming next. As we all know and have experienced, life has a way of throwing unexpected things at us. Just when we think we have a concrete five-year plan, something changes; when we feel like we are in a certain spot, something shifts. That’s where a plan comes in. It is “an intention or decision about what one is going to do.” It means taking the time to be intentional about how we will deal with the unexpected, so when it happens, we know what we’re going to do.
When people hear the term “estate planning,” they tend to think about documents like wills and trusts; however, estate planning is really about making decisions for how to handle the unexpected, so the ones you love will be taken care of when it happens. We might use documents to do that, but it’s not about the documents. It is about having a plan and being prepared for the unexpected.
Recently we have been hearing a lot about coronavirus on the news. This certainly qualifies as one of those unexpected moments in life. Like everyone else, we do not know quite how this will play out. We can’t predict the future. What we can do is follow our mission and rely on our plan to take care of families.
As our clients know, over the course of the past year we have been wading through a substantial technology transition. Through the excellent work and determination of Megan, our Chief Operating Officer, and the involvement of the whole team, our firm has now moved from server-based systems to an almost entirely cloud-based solution, which means we can take care of our families from anywhere. While our team likes to be in the office and to experience the community and creativity of working together and meeting face-to-face with our families, we are not dependent on our physical space to carry on with helping you take care of your family and loved ones.
During this time of uncertainly, Family Estate Planning Law Group has continued to develop our plan for the unexpected. We made and implemented plans to reduce the possible spread of disease in our office, everything from ensuring employees can work from home and encouraging this practice if there is even the slightest concern of infection, to sanitizing all surfaces, even our pens, between each client meeting. Our mission is to take care of families, and we have been planning to make sure we carry on with that mission, even in the midst of the unexpected.
For the moment, we think we can best take care of families by continuing to meet in our office space and provide for you and your loved ones in this way; however, should that change, we will not hesitate to communicate that to all of our families, and to switch to caring for our families virtually. Either way, we are prepared to be available and to take care of families, whether we do it in our physical space or through phone calls and virtual meetings.
We hope you have been planning for the unexpected too, and that you have been intentional about making decisions for how to care for your family and loved ones if something unexpected happens; however we know the swirl of life sometimes gets in the way of that. If you are feeling unprepared, or you just have a few questions about your plan, we here at Family Estate Planning Law Group would love to talk to you about making or updating a plan. To learn more about how we can help you plan for life’s unexpected, visit our website, explore our blog, and schedule your complimentary consultation today!
We will also be holding a special webinar (Estate Planning Update in Light of the Uncertainty Caused by Coronavirus) on Friday, March 20, 2020 @ 12:00 p.m. and would love for you to attend. You can register here. By registering, you will automatically receive a recording of the webinar even if you are unable to attend at that time.