The High Cost of Doing Nothing 

I answer countless questions on estate planning every day. Without a doubt the most asked question concerns cost. What does it cost to prepare a will or a trust?  All too often I know the comparison being made is between the cost of preparing a plan and zero, which many assume is the cost of not planning.

No one ever asks what it will cost them to do nothing.  They fail to consider the consequences of doing nothing.  Yet all around us are vivid examples of consequences for doing nothing:

  • Leave the finest car or the most expensive piece of machinery exposed to the elements and just ignore it, what happens to it over time? The tires rot, metal rusts, and precision moving parts become frozen in place. 
  • Drop food on the ground? It won’t be there long.
  • Sit in your chair at your home or office, and fail to exercise enough? There are serious health consequences to doing nothing, and high costs to pay to address them. Many times higher than the cost of a gym membership or a treadmill.

What is the cost of doing nothing? Here is just one example among dozens we could share.

“After 35 years dedicated to helping people plan, I’ve learned that the cost of doing nothing is usually many times greater than the investment in a proper estate plan.“

JOE BRESHEARS
Estate and Trust Counsel

The Heartbreak of Unrealized Expectations

The caller was a grieving daughter. Her father had just passed away and she didn’t know where to turn or what to do next. When her father became ill, this loving daughter cared for him alone, with no support from others. After he passed away she searched his home, but did not find anything to guide her.

Perhaps her father assumed that he didn’t need a plan. After all, the caller was his only daughter. Surely his only living heir would automatically inherit his modest amount of property.

At his memorial service a young lady appeared – a stranger to everyone – and claimed to be a daughter of the deceased. The stranger alleged that she had documents to prove her claim.

In this case, as in every case, since her father wanted the only daughter he recognized to inherit from him, he should have said so in a Will. Because he didn’t, if the claims of this stranger prove to be true, she will inherit half of her father’s property; the same amount that my caller would receive.

What was the cost of this father’s decision to do nothing? More than $150,000, not to mention the emotional pain and hurt she was suffering.

But you are here now, on a website dedicated to helping people learn how to take action, to take control, and to invest some of their time and resources to ensure that their will is made known; to avoid the far higher cost of doing nothing.  Perhaps you are here because you want to:

  • maintain control over your property and be a good steward of those resources
  • be a blessing, not a burden, to your family 
  • ensure that your loved ones – and only your loved ones – will benefit from your life savings
  • know that your nest egg will not be wasted on the skyrocketing cost of long-term care, on unnecessary taxes, or on lawyers, judges, or creditors

If you share any of those concerns, our team exists to help you act on what is important to you; to address your concerns and help you exercise the control you want and deserve over yourself, your property, and your greatest treasure – your family.

“The best way to predict the future, is to create it.”

– ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The future is more predictable than you think. 

The state of Texas has a plan for your future. The legislature decided under state law who will care for you if you can’t care for yourself; who will inherit from you, when they will inherit, and how they will inherit. That’s all been decided for you. By politicians. Their laws, their will, and their choices are in place. All you have to do to surrender your control to them . . .  is  nothing. If you stay silent and you don’t substitute your will for theirs, the state’s laws will determine the course of your family’s future the instant you leave this earth. In an instant, your loved ones will be locked into the state’s plans for them. 

If you want to take back the power to decide for yourself and your loved ones how your hard-earned life savings will be used, you simply must put your decisions in writing.  We call those written documents wills and trusts. We use them to assert your will over that of the state; to take back the discretion you deserve to determine who, when, and how to use your resources.  It’s up to you.  Will your future be governed by the state’s rules, or your rules?  

We would love to help you take back every last bit of power to decide for yourself:

  • CONTROL Who is in charge
  • ACCESS Who can benefit, and
  • TIMING When and how they benefit

The answers to those three questions, looking at every stage of your life, is the essence of estate planning. Control, access, and timing. It’s as simple as that.  It isn’t free, but then again, the cost of doing nothing … is much higher.