Mother. Father. Both in their forties. She, a stay-at-home mom to two teenagers. He, the key talent at his small business. Before them sat Sarah Breiner: The Legal Mama™, who practices estate planning at her Minnetonka law office.
Sarah detailed what they needed. Wills. Insurance. Powers of attorney. Advanced healthcare directives. Business documents. The Guardian Guide™: a dossier of Sarah’s own design, assuring seamless transition of custody and assets as well as preservation of legacy. In essence, everything they should hope to have already put in place were either or both to perish.
“They decided not to move forward,” recounted Sarah. “They felt they weren’t ready to invest. That they had better uses for the money, and no time to get organized. That they could always do it later. I wished them the best, and that we might work together someday.”
Unfortunately, only half of Sarah’s wishes came true – and it did so only in part. She would begin representing the mother soon after her husband’s untimely passing.
“He had been the only employee who was qualified to perform his business’s service,” Sarah continued. “Without him, the family’s sole source of income vanished. It wouldn’t return until his business partner, who handled the administrative side of things, could hire his replacement. That new hire would have to be paid, of course. Whatever revenue was left over could not support the family’s previous lifestyle. Neither could life insurance, because there wasn’t any.
“To further compound matters, the business lacked any structure apart from its LLC. There was no keyman insurance, which could have kept operations afloat for a year and covered the departed’s buyout. Worse yet, his business partner claimed to have an interest in the business, despite there being no documents proving as much.
“His survivors have now spent two and a half years in limbo. They are still waiting for the probate court’s final determination. The mother had to rent out her house and move in with family in the meantime. Her children, now young adults, have no hope of returning from college to work at the family business. And her probate bill? It has grown around nine times larger than the fee I had initially quoted for my estate planning services. It is unfortunately unavoidable now.
“And it saddens me terribly. It really does. They had come to me at exactly the right moment – before all this happened – but couldn’t have known how dearly they’d wind up needing me.
“Had they chosen differently, then we would have assessed every conceivable risk and planned for it accordingly. We’d have put protections in place, such as a $1 million life insurance policy for as little as $100 per month. Legal Mama Life, my own insurance agency, would have made it incredibly easy, and the death benefit would have given the mother the freedom to grieve, reevaluate her life, and assess her next steps without worrying about keeping a roof over her children’s heads. She could have afforded education or training to reenter the workforce on better footing as well. And if she didn’t wish to return to the workforce, she wouldn’t have had to at all.
“We would have planned business succession, beginning with putting a keyman insurance and a business partnership in place. We’d have also decided what would become of the business in the event of its owner’s passing. Should the partner buy out the widow’s share? Or should shares of the business be distributed among surviving family members? By leaving nothing to doubt, we could have prevented the business from freezing in probate for so many months – and wasting tens of thousands of dollars in the process.
“I would have laid plans to protect the children in the event of both parents’ passing as well. Among other things, that Guardian Guide would dictate whose care the children would be placed into. No long, drawn-out custody battle. No temporary guardianship under a total stranger. No judge unknowingly assigning custody to the last family member the parents would have wanted to have it. Just rock-solid assurance that their children would be raised in accordance with their wishes and receive their inheritance safely.
“I’ve worked tooth and nail to secure the best possible outcome for that family in light of their circumstances. I expect them to reach it shortly. Even so, their situation could have been inestimably better had the parents confronted that bleak yet pressing truth earlier. You can die at any time; and if you do, your family will need you more than ever.”
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"You can die at any time; and if you do, your family will need you more than ever.”