Bailey & Galyen Attorney Talks About Importance of Legal Counsel
Attorney Keith Spencer, a partner at Bailey & Galyen and host of The Legal Hour, recently sat down with estate planning lawyer J.C. Bailey to talk about the importance of working with legal counsel when putting together an estate plan. Bailey acknowledged that, with the ready availability of estate planning forms today, many individuals attempt to do their own estate plan. It’s a strategy that Bailey considers fraught with danger.
While talking with Spencer at The Legal Café, Bailey noted that many of the forms necessary to put together an effective estate plan contain language or terms that are foreign to most lay people. That can often result in incomplete or ineffective estate planning efforts.
As an example, Bailey referenced an affidavit that’s typically part of the estate planning process. Often, because they don’t understand what it is and why it’s important, individuals completing their own estate planning forms will ignore the affidavit or choose not to complete it. In almost every instance, though, that will make things more difficult, as the affidavit is what’s known as self-proving. When it’s included, it serves to establish the validity of the will. When it’s not, the will must be validated through other means, which can be quite complicated. As a result, it will take longer and cost more to settle the estate.
Bailey also stressed that the forms cannot take the unique circumstances of each situation into account. For example, a form won’t give you any input into who is best equipped to serve as executor, whereas an estate planning attorney can provide insight into what’s required of an executor and help you determine who’s best able to meet your needs.
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