It's Not What You Have, It's What It Does

FINANCIAL PLANNERS – Where does Estate Planning fit in your Financial Planning Process?

There’s normally three potential answers to this question…

1. ‘It’s fully integrated.’
2. ‘At the end, once we’ve finished the Financial Plan.’
3. ‘Oh, that’s not my job, I just send them to a solicitor if they mention it.’

Hopefully, you’re doing option 1.

But, even if you think you have fully integrated it into your process, I’d challenge whether you truly have?

Ask yourself this question…

During your Discovery process, do you get a copy of every Estate Planning document that your client already has?

I don’t mean, do you ask them whether they have an existing Will, Lasting Power of Attorney or a Trust.

I mean, if they say they do, do you get a copy of it and review it for suitability, ensuring it aligns with their Financial Plan—just as you would with a pension?

Because if you asked your client if they had a pension or investment and they said ‘Yes’, you wouldn’t just leave it at that, would you?

Nope, you’d pull out a Letter of Authority and gather all the information from the provider so you can investigate all the nooks, crannies, terms, and charges.

You’d then compare it against the Financial Plan to ensure it’s in line with, and supports, the desired outcomes. If it didn’t, you’d make the necessary changes.

So, do you do the same when a client says, ‘Yes, I have a Will’?

Do you review the document to ensure it aligns with the Financial Plan?

• Are the beneficiaries correct and aligned with the plan?
• Are the executors still willing, able, and alive?
• Does it include an integrated Life Interest Trust for the property?
• Are all current assets accounted for?
• Could it create unintended tax complications?
• Is there a hidden 10% “Probate Charge” due to a “free will” arrangement with their bank?

I could go on.

A Will, or Trust or LPA is a critical document and it’s certainly going to be pivotal to the potential success or failure of the long term (AD) financial plan.

Hence, we shouldn’t be asking binary questions such as, ‘Do you have a Will?’

We should be asking open and investigative questions such as ‘What does it say?’, ‘Why does it say it?’ and ‘Does it still do what you want it to do?’

When doing discovery or coaching, it’s better not to mention specific document names, as that usually just gets you a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer—like ‘Yes, I have one’ or ‘No, I don’t.’

Instead, throughout the Financial Planning process, focus on bigger, more meaningful questions about how someone wants things to look if they’re in care, incapacitated, or gone (especially for their family).

For example, asking, ‘How do you want your estate to support your family after you’re gone?’ will get a much more thoughtful response than just asking, ‘Do you have a Will?’

‘Which assets are you happy to be used to fund your care fees?’ will generate more debate than ‘Do you have a Property Trust.’

Estate Planning isn’t about which legal documents you have, just like Financial Planning isn’t just about whether or not you have a pension.

It is about whether what you have (or don’t have), supports (or doesn’t support) your Financial Plan.

It’s less about what the client has, and more about what it does.

Or doesn’t.