One sized fits all does not always fit all.
Transcript:
Colin: Yeah. There it goes.
Shreya Lay: Hey, I’m Shreya.
Colin: I’m Colin of LayRoots.
Shreya Lay: Yeah. This is the Lawyer Human Daily.
Colin: Yeah. We’re trying to feed in some music there. How about that? Getting all fancy today.
Shreya Lay: Yeah. So fancy.
Colin: And speaking of not being fancy. Interesting thing I read today, Shreya Lay.
Shreya Lay: Okay.
Colin: They have a law firm now inside of Walmart stores.
Shreya Lay: A law firm?
Colin: Yeah.
Shreya Lay: Okay.
Colin: It’s some law firm who’s in a bunch of Walmarts in Missouri and some other state. Oh! Texas.
Shreya Lay: Oh! Well, you know, I have to say it sounds kind of ingenious, if that’s your target market.
Colin: Yeah! that’s exactly what I thought. And it reminded me-
Shreya Lay: Yes.
Colin: … of … Well, I mean, so basically, that’s going to be what we call a document factory.
Shreya Lay: Yes.
Colin: Cranking out kind of cheap, high-volume estate plans.
Shreya Lay: Sure.
Colin: That’s the one thing they do.
Shreya Lay: Maybe other documents also.
Colin: Yeah, I think they’re efficient mostly for personal injury and disability and bankruptcy. And-
Shreya Lay: Maybe one day they will be replaced by a robot.
Colin: Maybe so. But it reminded me of a conversation I had the other day-
Shreya Lay: Okay.
Colin: … with a new client. And she had done some estate planning before-
Shreya Lay: Okay.
Colin: … five or six years ago at one of these kind of drive-in, pop-in document shops-
Shreya Lay: Okay.
Colin: … for estate planning.
Shreya Lay: Awesome. How did that turn out for her?
Colin: Well, I’m glad you asked, Shreya. It didn’t work out very well. So, when I took a look at the document, I said, “Okay, so …” blah blah blah. “This is what happens if, basically, your grandkids would get cut out of receiving anything if this circumstance happened. Is that what you wanted?”
Shreya Lay: And she’s like, “Yeah, I hate those grandkids. They’re terrible.”
Colin: No! She didn’t. She didn’t want them to be cut out. But, you know, that was the thing she got. And so, I think I wrote in the comment there, one size fits all does not always fit all.
Shreya Lay: Yes.
Colin: Yeah. And what’s strange is I don’t think that would be the normal one size fits all. I think-
Shreya Lay: Right.
Colin: … one size fits all is your grandkids don’t get cut out.
Shreya Lay: Yeah, I would think that would be the default is that your grandkids [crosstalk 00:02:41].
Colin: So this was like reverse one size fits all.
Shreya Lay: Yeah.
Colin: So, let me look at the … We’re gonna look at the board here.
Shreya Lay: Those ingrates.
Colin: Yeah. Anyway, so it wasn’t what she wanted. And it just reminds me of this point that I keep wailing on-
Shreya Lay: Yeah.
Colin: … harping on, grinding on?
Shreya Lay: Sure.
Colin: … is that … Do you know what it is? What is it? What’s the thing I always rail about?
Shreya Lay: Is that you don’t know if it’s gonna work when you do it that way until it’s too late?
Colin: That is one of the things. It’s that estate planning is not just about the document.
Shreya Lay: Right.
Colin: That’s … I feel like with all of our technology that … and the Internet … I blame you, Internet. That estate planning is now just considered the documents, and how easy it could be to get the documents. Go online, fill out some forms-
Shreya Lay: Well, I think that’s-
Colin: … and you get documents.
Shreya Lay: … all that people … Especially if they’ve never hired an attorney, that’s all that they know about is document.
Colin: But the thing you always see on TV, and the movies, you know, somebody gets their terminal illness diagnosis?
Shreya Lay: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Colin: And they say, “You better get your affairs in order.”
Shreya Lay: Yes.
Colin: And I feel like that was the more traditional approach of estate planning was, “Get your affairs in order.”
Shreya Lay: Okay, but I think people don’t realize what that means. And they’re like, “What does that mean? That sounds so overwhelming. Oh, it must just be this document, power of attorney thing.”
Colin: Right.
Shreya Lay: Because they just don’t know any better. And we’re here educating them, Colin.
Colin: That’s what we’re doing right now.
Shreya Lay: Yeah.
Colin: So let me tell you, it’s not just about the documents. It’s about planning on getting organized so that when … when something happens to you, your family will know what to do, they’ll know where your stuff is, they’ll know where you own things, they’ll know where, and who, to turn to?
Shreya Lay: Yeah.
Colin: … to make their lives easy. ‘Cause if all you’ve got is a stack of-
Shreya Lay: And you’re giving them some guidance on who can make decisions and-
Colin: Exactly. And so, just the stack of documents doesn’t do that for you. They need to know what to do, and where to go.
Shreya Lay: Yeah. And then, sometimes, it’s memorialized in a document. But what those document factories don’t do is delve into those conversations with the person of like, “Who do you really want to make these decisions? And this is the impact of making this decision,” and explaining that sort of stuff.
Colin: Yeah, that’s true. That can avoid some arguments as well.
Shreya Lay: Yes.
Colin: Some inter-family fighting. Yeah. But, you know, beyond the documents, you want to get organized with your online accounts-
Shreya Lay: Yeah.
Colin: … your offline accounts, know where your money is-
Shreya Lay: Who takes over your Facebook. Facebook.
Colin: Yeah. Who takes over your Facebook, how to get into the safety deposit box.
Shreya Lay: Yeah.
Colin: All those things. So, knowing where all those things are, and how to get access to them, that can make an estate plan really sail.
Shreya Lay: Yeah. Well, thanks Colin.
Colin: So let’s sail off into the rest of our day. And I hope you have a great day. Thanks for watching and-
Shreya Lay: Peace out.
Colin: Yes. Oh, I’ll do some outro music. There we go. I had to find the button. That’s better. That’s …
