What Does it Take to Be an Estate Planner?

Video Transcript

"So, what does it take to be an estate planner? Well, an estate planner is a very broad subject, and a lot of people call themselves estate planners, that have absolutely no business, calling themselves estate planners. I'm an estate planning attorney. Now in my state, we have something called Board Certification, and in a number of states there is that, but not all states board certified lawyers, like they board certified doctors, so there are lawyers that do estate planning.If you're looking for a lawyer, I do the old word of mouth. You can certainly check on the internet. Find somebody who appears to do the majority of the work in estate planning, because frankly, this is complex as heck, stuff. Financial advisers may call themselves estate planners. Now, there not going to draw legal documents. What they're going to do, is talk about investing your assets in a way, to grow your estate. Maybe talk to you about some things you can do to prevent estate taxes, like maybe purchase insurance, or something like that, so that brings another category. Insurance agents are sometimes calling themselves estate planners, because they help people create estates. Sometimes insurance is an important piece of an estate plan. Sometimes we buy insurance, to pay estate taxes with. CPA's sometimes call themselves estate planners. They know a lot about tax law. They may know enough about tax law, to help a family analyze a legal situation, or a tax situation. Whatever it comes down to, there's going to need to be a lawyer, who actually draws up what the plan is. It needs to be drawn up correctly. It needs to be drawn up timely."