We’ve been getting calls recently about our Red Wagon Club, and people wanting to join. Some of these people aren’t even our legal clients, so I thought I would explain what the Red Wagon Club is.
Since estate planning issues are complicated, I like to teach these concepts with stories or analogies. We relate the little red wagon to the concept of using a trust. The Red Wagon Club is a community of our clients who know that estate planning is not a transaction. Instead, it is a process to be managed over time. If you go to most estate planning law firms, you’ll get a set of documents, which is often the end of your transaction with the law firm. This is not how estate planning should be done, because people’s desires change, their family dynamics change, the law changes and their financial position changes.
There Should be Level Playing Fields
For wealthier folks, who have more complex documents, they meet with their estate planning attorney annually. I believe that most middle class families have been largely neglected when it comes to estate planning. They should also have the opportunity to update their estate plan regularly. This is exactly why we created our Red Wagon Club. Our community of former clients who are Red Wagon Club members, get continued education while also keeping their documents updated, all for a small monthly fee. We also invite them to workshops, webinars and various fun events throughout the year.
Some clients think that all law firms do the same thing until they meet us. There are some good estate planning attorneys dealing primarily in high net worth clients. Their clients have upwards of $10 million, and focus more on taxation. If a middle class family goes to that law firm, the attorney will likely give them a simple Will-based plan, as they are not wealthy. When middle class families go to a general practice law firm that does traffic tickets, divorces, criminal court as well as writing wills, they will likely also just get a Will. This is because the firm does not focus on estate planning.
The Biggest Financial Threat is Long Term Care Costs
The biggest issue that middle class families face, is paying for long term care if they get sick. The cost of nursing homes is $170,000 per year, and there is no help to pay for long term care until families go broke. Only then are they eligible for Medicaid benefits. Middle class families are concerned about this issue as much as a wealthy families are concerned about federal estate tax. This is why it is important to do proper planning to protect assets if you need long term care.
This is where we at Sechler Law Firm can help you. We are an estate planning and elder law firm and most of our clients are in their 60s. They are either retired or nearing retirement, so they are not elderly, but they are concerned about would happen if they get sick in later years. They are worried about how they will afford to pay for care in a nursing home. Providing for their healthy spouse who also needs a home and money is a concern to them.
How We Do Estate Planning
We do our Estate Planning through a series of classes, much like estate planning University. You come to the first class known as our Three Secrets to Protect your Legacy Workshop. Most law firms charge you for those classes, but we offer them for free. We teach these estate planning concepts in groups because that allows us to keep our billable hours down, while saving you money. This also gives you the opportunity to do the best planning more affordably.
Our Red Wagon Club Membership
Once you have attended the Three Secrets Workshop, we offer you the more advanced class, The Blueprint Workshop. At the end of that, if you’d like to move forward and work with us, we will do your Estate Plan. There are six components to an effective estate plan, with the first being education. We then provide you with legal documents, and we give you another class on how to fund your trust, how to move accounts around, how to get the house deeds and get everything organised.
We don’t believe that estate planning is the same as death planning. It should answer more than the question of who gets your stuff when you pass away. We teach these concepts in the Three Secrets Workshop. The next step is for our social worker Megan, and our attorney who is also a nurse, Roxanne, to teach a class on health care decision making in retirement. This is known as our Life Care Workshop, where we explain the difference between independent living, personal care, assisted living, skilled care, and how to get care best suited for you.
The next step is that we teach you about preserving memories in our Securing Memories Workshop. We teach you how to record videos, and transfer the photos and videos from your phone for your kids to keep after you pass away. There are no family albums since nobody prints photos anymore, so having a record of your life stories and photos is important. Being able to pass these digital assets down to future generations is so valuable, and equally as important as leaving your assets to your family.
Work With Us
We don’t believe that giving your kid a copy of your estate planning documents will make them a trustee. This is because they will likely not understand the documents. This is why we like to teach your kids about what it means to be a trustee. We also explain what their responsibilities will be when the time comes. This also gives us an opportunity to form a relationship with them, so they know who they’re working with. We continue to support the Red Wagon Club members by providing education and helping them keep their documents updated. If this all sounds appealing to you, and you would like to join the Red Wagon Club, please visit sechlerlawfirm.com. We encourage you to come to one of our free workshops and we look forward to welcoming you onboard.
