Goosmann Law Firm: 0:01

Do complex legal issues hold you back? Let's get energized and bring clarity to your top legal questions. This is Law Talk with the Flock by Goosmann Law Firm.

Jeana Goosmann : 0:29

Hello, I'm your host, Jeana Goosmann, a CEO, lawyer, author, and woman business owner here to help navigate you through the law, your business and life as a leader. For today's episode, I have with me, Nick Montague, Nick is an Omaha estate planning attorney and partner with our Trust Law Counsel group. He leads our estate planning practice area. And today, Nick and I are going to talk to you about your end of year estate planning and what you need to do to plan for the end of 2020 so that we can rock into 2021. Welcome Nick morning,

Nick Montague: 1:03

Hi Jeana, how are you? It's a beautiful fall day. So, you know, it's a, it's a great morning. Nice and crisp out there. I'm excited to join you this morning. So thanks for having me on today.

Jeana Goosmann : 1:15

Excited to have you on the podcast, Nick, and to talk about estate planning, one of our favorite topics.

Nick Montague: 1:22

Love it.

Jeana Goosmann : 1:22

And why do you love it? Nick?

Nick Montague: 1:24

You know, estate planning is about relationships. It's about people. It's about helping someone tell their story. And we love getting into that. We love being involved with people and really helping them express what their, what their wishes are at the end of the day.

Jeana Goosmann : 1:35

And we're coming into the end of 2020, which I think a lot of people are happy about. And so something near the end of this year, let's talk about how we might be able to help folks as they should look at their estate planning. And why should someone be considering updating or getting their state plan started, uh, at this time of year?

Nick Montague: 1:55

Yeah, it's so interesting. This year has been, you know, quite a year. But I think it's really brought to the forefront, the unpredictable nature of life. I mean, it truly has. Um, and I know I'm guilty of it. I know others are too, we just get so focused in the, in the day, the moment, the task that you know, with no real guarantee of tomorrow. And so working on your estate plan, the purpose of it is to alleviate some of that unpredictability, to understand that it's a point in time, you do go your loved ones, people you care about charities, whatever it is, whatever's really important to you, whatever you want to be impactful with the point in time, you go is taken care of not only the point in time you go, but if you're ever disabled, something else is happening in your life, you understand that, you know, that you're going to be taken care of because you've taken steps to work on your estate plan. So, you know, I always tell folks, never too early to plan can be too late. And so this year has really kind of put that in the front of our minds of wow, you know, we just don't know what tomorrow brings. So it's so important to be proactive with your planning.

Jeana Goosmann : 2:54

And we kind of have a focus on estate planning right now, too. Cause at the end of October, it is estate planning week. And I think that whoever ignited this week as estate planning week, they did so intentionally because there's still enough time to plan before the end of the year, isn't there, Nick?

Nick Montague: 3:08

There certainly is. There's, that's absolutely right. There certainly is time to plan before the end of the year still, um, you know, lots of things think about, we've got an election looming, we've got potential tax law changes that are coming next year, depending on what happens in Washington. So a lot of things to talk through with clients, but again, at the end of the day estate planning is about the relationship and what you truly want to pass on at the end of the day. And so, um, you know, tax laws aside life changes aside is really about looking at that whole picture what's really going on in your world. And how can we help you take care of what it is you want to take care of? What's really, really important to you at the end of it all.

Jeana Goosmann : 3:43

When should someone that has a plan look to update that plan?

Nick Montague: 3:47

That's a great question. So a lot of times it's a life event changes, right? We've got a new child or grandchild, right? We've had a death in the family. We've had some realization that, you know, maybe that's not the person. I want to take care of my stuff when I pass away or, or maybe if I'm in capacity that I don't necessarily want them to the looking over my healthcare needs. Those are sort of the big ones every about two years there is reason to a least sit down and say, well, we did this plan a couple years ago. Let's make sure that's still what we want, has anything changed? Maybe it has, maybe it hasn't, but important to think through what your planning is and how it actually functions and operates.

Jeana Goosmann : 4:24

You bet because people change and relationships change and those dynamics can impact someone that you selected to be a power of attorney before. Maybe you don't want them in that role today.

Nick Montague: 4:35

Absolutely. Right. And you know, even goes beyond that in terms of, you know, you've got the plan in place, it's all set up as nice and crisp and good, but have we thought through further than that, have we thought through what happens in a disability where you're not only who's going to take care of us and who's going to, you know, make decisions for us. But if we had to go to assisted living, have we gone in and toured those facilities? Do we know what's available to us regionally? Do we want people coming into the home to help take care of us there? You know, having those conversations beyond just having a document it's so vitally important, not only between yourself and your attorney, but the next generation, right? The people that are going to help you, uh, what do you, what do your kids feel about those things? What are the people you love? What do they care? What do they think about those decisions you're making to that communication is so key, for estate planning.

Jeana Goosmann : 5:20

Absolutely. I know in my family, we recently looked at the cemetery plots and how many are there and do we need to buy some more for the family?

Nick Montague: 5:28

So again, vitally important, the more we can preplan, the easier it truly is at the end of the day for that next generation or for those people you care about.

Jeana Goosmann : 5:37

And I'm not that old. I don't take Nick, but we were planning already. My husband thought that was a little crazy, but I said, well, this is the work that we're in and this is what we do.

Nick Montague: 5:47

That's exactly right. It's being proactive. That's what it's all about at the end of the day is being proactive. And you know, not everybody needs the same plan, right. Everybody needs a plan. Right. It really depends on what stage you're at in life, you know, young or just out of college. Stuff's going young kids, all that sort of stuff. A plan looks different then than it does as you get into your career and you advance and you retire and all the rest of it. So, uh, again, estate planning comes back to relationships at the end of the day and what do you really want to accomplish? And how do we get that done?

Jeana Goosmann : 6:14

So let's talk about how do we get that done, Nick, and, and how do you lead people through this process?

Nick Montague: 6:20

Yeah. So first and foremost, it's about getting to know, getting to know you. So, we have meetings with people, a lot of zoom meetings are going on right now, as we know in this world or we're in. So just like this, we get on the computer and really dig down deep and ask the right questions and learn about dynamics, learn about family, learn about what your goals are. So typically a meeting, it's four quarters. I call it. The first is diving in and understanding those dynamics between, you know, kids in-laws, Outlaws, right? A ll those, are people we care about, are they on the right path that we want them to, t o go down to those sort of things happening? What's the relationship look like their grandkids. A nd w e are going to try to provide for grandkids, talking through the assets and really wrapping our arms around, Hey, what's out there? That's kind of our stage two. That's our second quarter. C ause you know, you can have the best estate planning in the world, right. But if we're not coordinating beneficiaries on accounts and ownership of property, it's not worth the paper it's written on a lot of times. And so digging down and making sure we're identifying those accounts and things and assets that are out there and then talking through what your goals are. I mean, just, you know, at the end of the day, y ou k now, how are we g oing t o move the assets? How are we going to take care of those that we love and care about? That's our, that's our third quarter of it is talking through those goals through with what the clients want at the end of the day. And then.

Jeana Goosmann : 7:37

This is the fourth quarter.

Nick Montague: 7:40

That's right. And say, how do we do, how do we accomplish it? Right. We've talked through it. We understand, we see the picture. How do we get that done? And so that's where we really dig down on this is the legal strategy to do exactly, to accomplish what it is you're telling me you want to do. And a lot of times that'll involve the next step of getting other professionals involved, right? Building that team around the clients, because, you know, you can get the best expert in the world in front of you, but they're not an expert in everything. Right? And so it's so important to collaborate with others. And that's what we pride ourselves here on is working with advisors and CPAs and insurance professionals and business coaches and all those people that really make an impact on your life and your planning. It's so important to, to be a part of that group around the table.

Jeana Goosmann : 8:19

Now, if someone wants to set up that initial discussion. How did they do that?

Nick Montague: 8:24

Pretty easy, just phone call in, right? It's just a phone call. We get on the calendar, we set it up. We have multiple different platforms for the online, whether it's a, you know, Microsoft Teams or Zoom or whatever platform or client is or perspective individuals comfortable on, we are able to get on those different platforms. And we set a time typically an hour to an hour and a half to two hours. So you're going to spend some time really talking about life. So, it's one of those getting a comfortable chair and we'll have pretty good conversation. And, you know, you keep it as light as you can. These are heavy topics, but we really have to dig down and get through them. So it's really just a conversation at the end of the day to begin with. And then based on what we hear and based on strategies that we talked through, we move to the next step.

Jeana Goosmann : 9:07

Got it. And when you moved to the next step, what are some of those potential options?

Nick Montague: 9:12

Yeah. So there's a lot of different planning options in particular, whether we're talking simplified, no powers of attorney, who's going to make a decision, will planning where's stuff, going updating beneficiaries to make sure it's mirroring our plan, or we get into more advanced trust planning. And, you know, we get into trust planning for a load of different reasons, whether that's, we're trying to protect a beneficiary from themselves, we're trying to protect a beneficiary from others. We're concerned about tax laws. We've got to a special need child or, or beneficiary. Again, the reasons for moving into that, uh, level of planning are innumerable. So, we talked through strategies based on the conversation that's had. So any of those strategies are things that we can incorporate based on what's happening in life. And once decisions have been made things move pretty quick. Once we've talked through strategy and client says, Hey, that sounds great. That's where we're going to go. We pride ourselves on keeping up the pace of business. So generally you see a turnaround of 30 to 45 days from engagement to get it done. We don't like kicking the can down the road anymore than anybody likes sitting on the other side of the table. And be six months from the time you first met with an attorney getting something done, we don't like to do that. And so, especially given this year, right, given the circumstances, given what's happening, it's so important to keep up that pace of business. And so, you know, again, from the word go, depending on what the plan looks like, it's information, it's, you know, your full name and your date of birth and, information on the beneficiaries and statements from financial institutions and deeds the property for updating those sorts of things. And in that in between, between the time you engaged us in time, we sign, we're busy, we're getting everything in place and the way it needs to be, and then giving you drafts of what's going on, right? So you're not walking in blind and signing things. So you can actually review those things and see what's going on. And then we spend about an hour, hour and a half in meeting talking through again, this is how it functions. This is how it operates, verifying, birth dates and spellings. And these are your wishes. And, and then doing some autographing and continuing on from there, depending on your planning, you know, there's maintenance options. Again, it all depends on the structure of the actual estate plan and when we need to update. And when we sit down and look at things, um, so yeah.

Jeana Goosmann : 11:19

So Nick, tell me about the team and where all we practice.

Nick Montague: 11:25

Yeah. All over the place. We've got a very, a very broad, Midwest area. So we cover as Trust Law Counsel, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Montana, the Dakotas a little bit in Colorado. Um, so quite a few States really, you know, our goal is to be the firm of choice in the Midwest. And so that's what we aim to do. And so we work a lot of folks and a lot of different places and really help them set up based on where they are, where they're going and what they want to accomplish at the end of the day. So we had the capability, not only through these type of meetings, but actually traveling, right. We can get out of this chair and we travel a lot and meet people where they are, because that's where folks are comfortable. And so yeah, we cover, we cover a broad swath of land in the Midwest here and had the capability to work with anybody in those individual states.

Jeana Goosmann : 12:15

Get some Minnesota thrown in there too. I'll add that.

Nick Montague: 12:18

That's right. Yup. Yup.

Jeana Goosmann : 12:21

Very good. So lots of folks that we can help, but as a team did make it happen too, right? Nick, it's not just you and I and the team. We've got other folks that are at the firm to help support that process as well.

Nick Montague: 12:32

That's right. Not only do we have, multiple attorneys and staff inside of Trust Law Counsel, but at Goosmann in general, we have such a deep bench that, you know, a lot of times estate planning can lead into a different conversation of, you know, well, we're thinking about this type of business, what should we do? Or we have this contract dispute, what should we do or this other issue is going on? What should we do? Well, guess what? We've got people up and down the firm that are able to handle those situations. So it's so nice to not have to understand Goosmann's not the Trust Law Counsel. Our focus is going to be that estate that's succession planning, but we've got people up and down the halls that can deal with other issues as they come up. So being the law firm of choice, not only throughout the Midwest, but for individual business owners and folks and families and people that know that we're a part of their team, I think is very encouraging to people.

Jeana Goosmann : 13:18

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Nick, for sharing your insight with everyone today, have a great day everyone and go make it worth it.

Goosmann Law Firm: 13:25

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