tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62906413276522808592024-03-05T06:57:47.279-08:00Oregon Elder LawElder law, estate planning, and probate in plain language by Orrin R. Onken -- Elder Law Attorney
Orrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12054505641568279864noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-81353522533160775952020-07-19T20:07:00.002-07:002020-07-19T20:07:49.238-07:00I am Retiring and Have Shut Down my Web PageI am retiring. I will leave this blog up for a while so that people can refer to the articles when they are researching elder law. I have changed my website at <a href="http://orolaw.com">orolaw.com</a> so that it fowards to my site for <a href="salishpondspress.com" target="_blank">Salish Ponds Press</a>.<div><br /></div><div>I encourage you to go over to the Salish Ponds Press, or<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Orrin-Onken/e/B0030OO69E%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share"> Amazon</a> and buy my books. If you have enjoyed the way my blog posts are written, you will get more of the same, even better, in my books, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002YQ2K38/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2" target="_blank">The Duke of Morrison Street</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0859LW6M2/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1" target="_blank">The Holders of Helmut Street.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Both books feature Leopold Larson as the crime-fighting lawyer. Leo may talk a lot like me, but he is not me, and he is a lot more interesting.</div><div><br /></div><div>Practicing elder-law has been great, but frankly, for me the thrill is gone. It is time to close up and take it easy. I will be selecting a younger lawyer to suggest to my clients, but I haven't decided who that is yet.l</div>Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-28581149469391563702020-07-11T11:27:00.000-07:002020-07-11T11:27:11.605-07:00Leopold Larson’s Villainous Insider-Written Secret-Revealing Tell-All Guide to Hiring a Lawyer<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2001" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
THIS IS A GUEST COLUMN BY LEOPOLD LARSON. MR. LARSON IS THE FICTIONAL LAWYER AND NARRATOR IN MY MYSTERY SERIES. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED HERE ARE IS OWN.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2001" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
You can learn more about the Leopold Larson mysteries <a href="http://salishpondspress.com/">here.</a></div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2001" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">There are 1.35 million lawyers in the United States. A handful, like me, are </span><a class="cf ev lh li lj lk" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0859LW6M2/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(41, 41, 41, 1)\" /></svg>"); letter-spacing: -0.003em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">fictional</a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">. Most are not. I practice law in a two-room office on the east side of Portland, Oregon. I mostly help people fight over inheritances or put their demented relatives in care homes. Over a couple of decades of doing this, I met a lot of lawyers and a lot of clients. This is my guide to the uninitiated on how to hire a lawyer.</span></div>
</h3>
<h1 class="ll lm bi bh eb ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu lv lw lx ly lz ma mb mc dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="044a" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 40px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">
Understand Who Lawyers Are</h1>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fc6c" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Lawyers are everyday tradesmen who wear suits.</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8785" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
Lawyers in private practice include geniuses, idiots, saints, and psychopaths, but as a group, they are statistically average Joes and Josephines. The strategies that work for getting along with mechanics, retail clerks, accountants, programmers, cops, and the person behind the counter at Arby’s will work with lawyers. So read <em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">How to Win Friends and Influence People</em>, by Dale Carnegie, a book that has been rewritten by others a thousand times, and you are probably good to go when it comes to lawyers. But you won’t do that, so you get this article instead.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c044" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Like everybody else, lawyers want to think and talk about themselves most of the time. If you let them do that, they will love you and probably won’t even send you a bill. The fly in that ointment is that you are also an ordinary person. You want to talk about yourself and your stuff, and you think that if you are paying someone for legal advice you ought to get to burden that person with all your boring problems. And that is the tension from which the negotiation begins.</div>
</h3>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3691" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
The world does not have too many lawyers and the world is not too litigious.</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7448" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
Some people think there are too many lawyers, that society is too litigious, and there should be a better way of doing things. That is wrong. Human life is complicated and so are the rules we live by. Read <em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Leviticus</em>. The laws from three thousand years ago when all we had to do was herd goats and start religions are really really complicated.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e518" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Remember Moses? He is leading his flock across the desert after leaving Egypt. One day the elders come to him and say, “Moses, you are spending so much time resolving disputes among your followers that you don’t have time for all your important leadership stuff.” So they decide to appoint twelve judges to take over the job of resolving legal disputes <em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">among a bunch of people wandering in the desert. </em>If they needed twelve judges, you can imagine how many lawyers they needed.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7c4b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
The lesson is that lawyers are just another of the professionals we rely upon to make it through life. They are neither special nor despicable. You are not a victim because you need a lawyer any more than you are a victim because you have to hire a doctor, accountant, barber, or plumber.</div>
</h3>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6644" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Lawyers are Unhappy</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3551" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
Practicing law is a crappy job, and most lawyers are unhappy doing it. In those job satisfaction surveys the State Bar Associations put out to measure the happiness of their membership, lawyers report that they would rather be doing just about anything than the private practice of law.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0a07" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Most lawyers didn’t set out to be lawyers. There are a few who were inspired by a movie or a relative or some childhood interaction with the court system and who became lawyers because that’s what they always wanted to be. Those are few and far between and once those few have achieved their dream they are not any happier than the others. The majority of lawyers went into it because law looked like a way for someone with a middle-class background and a liberal arts degree to make some money and thereby stay in the middle class. It if wasn’t law school, Walmart loomed on the horizon.</div>
<figure class="jz ka kb kc kd ke ks mv eu mw mx my mz na ay cr nb nc nd ne bq paragraph-image" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); float: left; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; margin: 56px 30px 16px -150px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; width: 510px;"><div class="kf kg cc kh ai" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1) 0s; width: 506px; z-index: auto;">
<div class="dg dh jy" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 1920px;">
<div class="km r cc kn" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; box-sizing: inherit; margin: auto; position: relative;">
<div class="nf kp r" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: 0px; padding-bottom: 379.5px;">
<div class="cb ki s t u kj ai bu kk kl" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: 379.5px; left: 0px; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: translateZ(0px); transition: opacity 100ms ease 400ms; width: 506px; will-change: transform;">
<img alt="Image for post" class="s t u kj ai kq kr ap vc" height="1440" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/30/1*mZ6E1Qv7Y1DcTyzXiE3Pqw.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 379.5px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms ease 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 506px;" width="1920" /></div>
<img alt="Image for post" class="pm ue s t u kj ai ks" height="1440" sizes="500px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1920/1*mZ6E1Qv7Y1DcTyzXiE3Pqw.jpeg" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/276/1*mZ6E1Qv7Y1DcTyzXiE3Pqw.jpeg 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/500/1*mZ6E1Qv7Y1DcTyzXiE3Pqw.jpeg 500w" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; height: 379.5px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms ease 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 506px;" width="1920" /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</figure><div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5512" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Once these lost souls paid out thousands for law school and clawed their way into the profession, Walmart didn’t look so bad. On most days, the people at Walmart are fairly happy. In law offices, somebody is always mad at somebody else and afraid that something bad is going to happen. Fear and anger, day after day, takes its toll on everybody it touches.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9071" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
The seminars sponsored by the Bar to show people ways to use a law degree without having to practice law are always full. Happy lawyers are the ones who don’t practice law. When you see those legal commentators on television opining on legal issues, they seem happy. That is because they aren’t lawyers. They don’t have real clients or real cases. They are entertainers who get to put on makeup and discuss legal subjects without the pressure of having real clients with real cases to win. They are happy because they aren’t practicing law.</div>
</h3>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5636" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Lawyers are driven by fear.</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3563" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
A lot of my clients were afraid to meet me. My title “attorney-at-law” is threatening. But I am also afraid of them. Most of the time clients bring me problems that I cannot solve. It isn’t that I don’t have legal skills. It is that the law does not provide anything close to the solution the client thinks it does. I face having to give them the bad news and then try to get money out of them for doing it. Who wants to do that?</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2ca5" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Everybody who shows up at a lawyer’s office is a potential source of money, but also a potential Bar complaint or malpractice accusation. In my misbegotten youth, the Bar used to advise me, “if something about the client feels wrong, it is.” But when a spooky client, or even one just a little sketchy waived a fat check in front of me, I forgot all about what the Bar had told me and took the case. And every single time, I suffered for it. As I aged, I got better at it, but never perfect. That nice little old lady could easily turn out to be the one complaining to the Bar and papering the internet with horrible one-star reviews. Every lawyer lives with the fear that you are the one who will make it your life’s mission to destroy his practice.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2c32" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Lawyers fear losing cases even more than they fear their clients. Some cases settle with no clear winner or loser, but the true win-win solution mediators love to talk about is a rare bird. A lawyer who goes to court often is going to lose cases, and lawyers hate that. Clients don’t want to hear that court is a crapshoot and even the best case can go down the drain if a witness fails to show up, people freeze on the stand, or the judge is having a horrible awful day for reasons that have nothing to do with the case. A lot of lawyers are so afraid of losing cases that they give up going to court at all.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5814" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
This is a lot of fear. It is no secret that people who are afraid cover it up with bravado. Men are worse than women, but women in the legal profession who are trying to mimic male fear-based bravado — even though there is no need for it in the first place — do it badly and with greater ridiculousness than men. When your lawyer is scared he drops names of the powerful people he knows, mentions prestigious organizations of which he is a member, regales you with tales of past court victories, mentions his summer home or some other bauble that he owns (implying that he got it from his successful practice rather than inheriting it from his mother) and generally says whatever needs to be said to convince you he isn’t deathly afraid of showing up a work every morning.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0173" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
The thing to remember is that no matter how afraid you may feel walking into the lair of a lawyer, it is highly likely that the lawyer is more afraid of you than you are of it. If you see the bravado, you will know what I am saying is true, and you must treat the fear-filled lawyer as you would a frightened animal. That trembling lawyer has skills you need.</div>
</h3>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5f08" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Lawyers Make a Lot of Mistakes</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3d6b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
Law is complicated stuff and lawyers, being ordinary people, make a lot of mistakes. A lawyer who goes to court has the state and federal statutes to deal with, the rules of procedure, the local court rules for each venue in which he or she practices, cases to know, and court staff to keep happy. And all of this changes every time the legislature convenes, or the court administrators decide that things must improve. Mistakes are made. Lots of them</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2c66" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Lawyers know that mistakes are made. I used to tell my assistant that we didn’t have to be mistake-free — just make fewer errors than the other guy. However, lawyers are pressured to cover up their mistakes. I once wrote an article for a Bar publication in which I commented about all the mistakes I made — misunderstanding the facts, getting the parties mixed up with some other case, getting the law wrong, filing papers in the wrong court, the list could go on and on — and the people at the Bar swooped down on me saying that I couldn’t say that. It was a matter of liability, they said. I didn’t have to lie about the mistakes — just keep quiet.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8a2a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
I was trained in that tradition and it was hard to break. I remember the first time I gathered my courage and told a client straight out that my mistakes had screwed up his case. I thought I would die and that didn’t happen. I thought he would be furious, and that didn’t happen either. He laughed. He then said he never thought he would see the day when a lawyer admitted a mistake. After that it was easier to admit my errors, but not all that much. I was still a lawyer, we make mistakes but we don’t admit them. That is the way it is.</div>
</h3>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a9ac" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Lawyers are Not Rich</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9859" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
The median income for lawyers in 2018 was $120,000. Lawyers in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington DC — high cost-of-living areas tend toward the higher incomes. Lawyers in Idaho and Missouri, where the cost-of-living is less — tend toward the lower ones. Some lawyers make lots and lots of money. Some lawyers sell blood to pay their rent. But in the scheme of things the lawyer you go see probably works very hard at a job that he or she doesn’t like and doesn’t make a lot of money doing it. If you are talking to an older lawyer with an established practice, he or she may well be making more than the $120,000 median, but if you are talking to a younger lawyer still getting his or her feet wet, it is a pretty good bet that the lawyer is on the low side of the income curve and is also burdened with student loan debt.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8e40" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
I charge $300 an hour, but that doesn’t translate into a huge income. That hourly rate has to pay for my office, my assistant, all the expenses of maintaining a license, insurance, and the myriad of taxes and fees that fall upon a small business. If your lawyer is a salaried employee in a firm, the powers that be in that firm are not paying that associate any more than necessary to keep the associate from jumping to another firm. Just because your legal bill looks large to you does not mean it is making the lawyer rich.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9676" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of rich people with law degrees, but they ordinarily don’t practice law. Congress is filled with lawyers who are both rich and powerful, but they don’t have any cases. Judge Judy on afternoon television is reputed to be the richest television personality on the air. But she isn’t a real judge and those are not real litigants.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5873" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
The bottom line is that when you are dealing with your lawyer, keep in mind that he or she needs money. Your lawyer is not rolling in dough and cannot afford to pay court costs for you, lend you money, put you on a payment plan, or work for free. The fact that you have a really good case does not change any of this.</div>
</h3>
<h1 class="ll lm bi bh eb ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu lv lw lx ly lz ma mb mc dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d5d2" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 40px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">
So lawyers are ordinary, unhappy, fearful, mistake-prone, and in need of money? How does knowing that help me?</h1>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="06dd" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
The lawyer has skills that you need. Law is not the place for do-it-yourselfers. You need the lawyer to use those skills on your behalf. When you first meet the lawyer, don’t sit there like a rock waiting for the lawyer to sell his services; sell yourself to her, and then sell your case. Try to reduce the lawyer’s fear of you by assuring her that you are not a threat, that you do not expect perfection or miracles, and that you can pay for the services you need. The overriding strategy is to convince the lawyer that working on your case will not make her any more unhappy than she already is.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e760" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
When you first meet your prospective attorney, make a human connection before you get down the business. Find some interests you have in common — music, sports, origami, bondage — and talk about that for a few minutes. If you hire the lawyer, repeat this ritual every time you talk to her. Ask how she is doing. Make human contact before you talk business. Do this every time and don’t forget.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c5df" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Let your prospect know that you understand and sympathize with his financial need. I recall a client who told me in the process of coming to an agreement about a case that she wanted me to be well paid for my skill and expertise. It was flattering and reassuring all in one statement. It established from the outset that we were not going to be adversaries when it came to the money.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="db6b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Assure the lawyer that you are not the person who will be stalking him two years from now. There is a Scandinavian saying, “Act normal, that’s crazy enough.” Adopt it. Don’t bad-mouth your previous lawyer if you had one. Your lawyer will hear that and wonder what you will be saying about him six months from now. Don’t even bad-mouth the people on the other side of the case any more than the relevant facts of the case require.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c985" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Acknowledge openly your understanding that a lawyer cannot guarantee a certain result. Tell your prospect about your fears that the case might not go your way and ask for an honest assessment, even if the news is not what you want to hear. Be firm that you want honesty, even if the news may be bad.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b3d9" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
If your lawyer turns to bravado or grandiosity, stay calm and let him play himself out. Affirm the lawyer’s accomplishments, or contacts, or whatever it is he is throwing up to hide his fear. Grandiosity like this is a form of flight/fight and usually wears itself out. Assure your prospect that you do not expect infallibility or miracles, only that the two of you be able to work together to get the best result possible. Tell him that you understand that it could be a bumpy ride and that you can handle setbacks along the way. You are soothing a frightened animal. Be patient and calm.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7eb7" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Some clients used to try to hire me over the phone. I ordinarily declined and told the person I only work for clients I like. There are a million lawyers out there — 1.25 million to be precise — and clients should only hire one they like. We won’t know if we like each other until we meet. At the meeting, I learned whether I, an impecunious, fearful, mistake-making, legal technician could get along with the person who proposed to hire me. It wasn’t that the relationship would be more important to me than the money, it was that without the relationship the money thing was not going to work out anyway. As a client, you may think you don’t care about the relationship either. All you want is a successful resolution of your legal problem. However, if you skip the relationship step, the chances of getting a good result are greatly diminished.</div>
</h3>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="76ca" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Step 1: Don’t be a nightmare client.</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="dba1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
Here is the nightmare client. He shows up and says he wants to hire me because he started the case representing himself but the judge who looked at his papers was prejudiced against him. He hired two other lawyers but they both turned out to be incompetent so he fired them and made Bar complaints against them. His case is actually very easy and it is so clear that he should win that wrapping it up will be easy for me — so easy that I can get paid by collecting attorney fees from the other side after we win. Oh, and by the way, there is a hearing scheduled for the following afternoon to dismiss his case and I need to be there.<em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> Don’t be this guy.</em></div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="95a7" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Let’s unpack this and set some rules.</div>
<ul class="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f28a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 2em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Don’t practice law</em>. Don’t go off representing yourself, mess it up, and then go to a lawyer asking her to fix it. Lawyers spend enough time fixing their own mistakes. They hate trying to fix yours. If you take up law as a hobby, follow through and live with the results.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4a44" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Don’t tell your lawyer how bad your other lawyers were</em>. Most lawyers within a particular specialty have the same set of skills. The idea that the quality or price of your lawyer makes a lot of difference in the final result is television stuff, not real life. When you spend a lot of time insulting other lawyers, or other people generally, all you do is convince your listener that you are an ass.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="99f0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Don’t evaluate your own case</em>. You came to the lawyer because you thought you had a good case or the person suing you had a bad one. You are subject to confirmation bias — giving great weight to the facts that support your point of view and discounting the facts that don’t. This is a huge problem in law, and it will infect your lawyer as well. Don’t let it control you from the outset. You came to a lawyer for an expert opinion on what to do with your legal problem. Don’t tell him what the end result has to be.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="82a2" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Don’t assess how easy or hard a legal task will be</em>. The lawyer does this stuff for a living. You sound like a moron telling him how easy or hard the job will be.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f1f4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Don’t come in with no money. </em>Have a realistic plan for paying the lawyer. Remember, your lawyer is not rich and simply cannot afford to do a bunch of work for you without getting paid. If you are seeing a lawyer for a personal injury case you may want a contingency fee, but you can at least show up with enough money to pay court costs and related expenses. I used to make clients in probate cases put up a retainer even though I knew I probably wouldn’t need it. The money showed that the client was willing to put some skin in the game. The worst and most demanding clients are the ones who think their legal services are free. Don’t be one of those.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="30be" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Don’t ask your lawyer to un-lose the case</em>. I have had this happen fairly often. A client went to court unrepresented or with another lawyer, and lost. The client didn’t like that. Guess what, nobody likes losing but half the people who start a trial lose. The client wants a do-over with a different lawyer. It can seldom be done and every lawyer wants a fighting chance to win a case. When you show up with a case you already lost and want the lawyer to make that loss go away, you have worried about this too much.. Take your lumps, accept the loss, and carry on down the road.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6cbc" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Be honest about the weaknesses in your case or position.</em> Every case has weaknesses. If your case, as far as you are concerned, doesn’t have any, you are deluded. Tell your lawyer, “I would tell you about the weaknesses in my case, but I am too enmeshed in the drama to be able to see them.”</li>
</ul>
</h3>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e348" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Step 2 — Don’t hire a nightmare lawyer</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1832" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
The United States is filled with lawyers. Every year some of them go to jail or get committed to mental institutions. Some declare bankruptcy. Some just disappear. Some commit crimes and get away with it. Some do incredible acts of kindness and are never recognizedt. It is a crapshoot out there, but you can increase the odds of a good lawyer-client relationship by doing the following:</div>
<ul class="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="66e3" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 2em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Check Disciplinary History with the Bar</em>. I am a trusting person. I trust people to act in the future the way they have acted in the past. Bar Associations will allow you to look at how many times a lawyer has been disciplined by the Bar for ethical violations. If a lawyer has been disciplined a lot, you might want to steer clear. Be careful, however, some ethical violations are technical and don’t really hurt any clients. On most days I am just a stone’s throw away from being disbarred, but I am a fictional lawyer so my misdeeds don’t hurt anybody. Additionally, the people at the Bar who monitor lawyers are often pretentious prigs. Look at what your prospect did and consider it in the overall picture.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b15d" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Check Online Reviews.</em> Take a look at Google and Yelp and Avvo for reviews. Take these with a grain of salt, because a lawyer who is willing to take risks will lose cases, and clients who lose cases can be vengeful.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="86ca" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Weed out the Drunks and Drug Addicts. </em>About ten percent of lawyers are impaired by drug and alcohol use. They are hard to pick out because they hide it, but if you pick up that the lawyer is an active alcoholic, run away. Like most fictional lawyers, I am an alcoholic, but I don’t drink anymore, and thus I behave somewhat like a normal person. I have had clients say they won’t hire me because they hate alcoholics, even ones who don’t drink. I have other clients, also in recovery from addiction, who hire me <em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">because </em>I am a recovering alcoholic. You should get the lawyer you want.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="739a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Avoid “Busy” Lawyers</em>. The legal profession has a fair number of Type A lawyers who secretly think that the word “workaholic” is a compliment. These guys are dangerous nutballs. They are “busy” all the time and your work will not get done because they are always busy. Your phone calls will go unanswered and your emails will disappear into the void. How do you know if you have happened upon a busy lawyer? He will tell you. He will tell you over and over again. If your lawyer ever mentions how busy he is, stop the conversation right there and ask directly, “Are you so busy that you will not be able to give my case your full and careful attention?” If he waivers, run like hell.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ad5a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dump Braggarts, Blowhards, and Show Offs. </em>These guys will not be capable of delivering bad news. If things start to go south they will lie to you, disappear and end up blaming you. These guys should not be practicing law — they should be in politics.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d9f3" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pick Someone Who Practices in a Place that Makes You Comfortable</em>. Some lawyers practice in a skyscraper where the receptionist brings you a cappuccino while you await your appointment. This sort of opulence scares some clients. Other lawyers practice out of the den in their house while tending to children and dogs. Some clients are not comfortable with this level of informality. Find a lawyer who practices in a place and in a manner that makes you feel at ease.</li>
<li class="kt ku bi kv b ij sa kx im sb kz la sc ir lc sd iu le se ix lg rx ry rz dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="73c4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;"><em class="mu" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pick someone you like</em>. This is the most important one. Did I mention that there are over a million lawyers out there to choose from? You can get one you like and you are entitled to one you like. Once you have that, the battle is half over.</li>
</ul>
</h3>
<h1 class="ll lm bi bh eb ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu lv lw lx ly lz ma mb mc dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6b71" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 40px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">
What kind of firm fits you — Big Firm, Small Firm, or Sole Practitioner?</h1>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ae37" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Big Firms.</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="afac" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
If you decide to hire a big firm for your legal needs you will get high-quality representation. You are likely to also get a great view from the offices, well-brewed coffee while you wait to speak to your lawyer, and posh conference rooms. Your lawyer will have a bevy of receptionists, paralegals, assistants and baristas at his beck and call to assist with your case. As you might expect all this skill, professionalism and opulence comes at a cost — a huge cost. Be prepared to pay and pay and pay some more.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2c91" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
I don’t know if the big-firm lawyers are the most unhappy of all lawyers but they are certainly in the running. The big-firm lawyers are recruited out of the top schools and can earn a lot of money from the very first day. In return, they often have to work 80–90 hours a week so they can bill enough to pay that big salary. They compete against other associates for a very few partnership spots and work under the supervision of partners who survived in that system and relish the chance to dish it out the way they had it dished out to them. When they are not working they are expected to be out hob-nobbing with politicians and businessmen so they can keep the firm in the public eye and bring in more big-firm business. Big firm lawyers are under extra pressure to win if they are going against a small firm lawyer or sole practitioner because they are, after all, expensive big-firm lawyers. What is the client paying all the money for if their big-firm lawyer can’t demolish some lawyer practicing out of his van? The problem is that judges don’t care about any of that, and although you will always get consistent quality out of your big firm lawyer, good lawyering does not always translate into winning cases.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e9c8" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Your big-firm lawyer is likely to have good social skills, but be as unhappy and terrified beneath the veneer as any lawyer you are likely to encounter. If you manage to get a partner for your lawyer, he or she may be more at ease or may have permanently adapted to the frenetic fear-based culture of the big firm. Chances are, if you are a big firm type of client, you already know it. Go with a lawyer from a big firm and be happy.</div>
</h3>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="136c" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Small and Medium Firms</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="08e4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
Most lawyers practice in small and medium firms. Some of these are collections of like-minded lawyers who pool their skills for the betterment of all and create a supportive and kindly atmosphere for everyone who works there. Others are collections of mean desperate people who hate their co-workers as much as they hate their jobs and their clients. These firms resemble a madhouse more than a business. Most small firms fall somewhere in the middle.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="efd8" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Small firms differ in the way they attract business. Some have one or two rainmakers — lawyers who, through reputation or contacts, bring in the clients. The remainder of the lawyers do the work. Sometimes the rainmaker is a skilled lawyer. More often the rainmaker doesn’t practice much law at all. He spends his time attending events and kissing up to rich people so that they will think of him when they need legal services. If you go to one of these firms and find yourself talking to someone whose name is not on the letterhead, don’t let it concern you. The people with their names on the letterhead may not actually practice law anymore if they ever did. Remember that actually practicing law sucks. You want an in-the-trenches lawyer working for you, not someone who is good at Rotary Club speeches.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9743" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Watch out for a firm that only has one name on the letterhead but has a lot of lawyers. Steer clear of “Joe Schmoe and Associates,” or “Joe Schmoe Law.” These firms tend to be owned by an egocentric psychopath who runs the office as a business by hiring out-of-work desperate lawyers to work for slave wages until they have enough experience to jump ship to a better place. The rank and file at these law shops are the unhappiest of unhappy lawyers and their misery may well leak into the work they do for you.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="af27" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Some firms are not really firms at all. They may have names on the letterhead but if you peek under the hood, it is several lawyers sharing offices and overhead under the same name. In these firms, each lawyer markets himself and collects fees from the clients he brings in and serves. The lawyers may refer clients back and forth to each other, but if Betty does your legal work, when you pay the bill, Betty will get the money. She won’t be sharing it other than through her contribution to the shared costs of office space, phones and reception. The lawyers in these firms are really sole practitioners who share overhead. For sole practitioners, see below.</div>
</h3>
<h2 class="md lm bi bh eb me mf kx mg mh kz mi mj ir mk ml iu mm mn ix mo dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3775" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">
Sole Practitioners</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b078" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
Sole practitioners run the gamut from lawyers practicing with a team of assistants in downtown skyscrapers to lawyers practicing alone out of their vans in the parking lot behind a convenience store. Some of them are great lawyers who don’t want their practices limited by bosses or partners. Others are sole practitioners because nobody in their right mind wants to be associated with them. A lot of them practice sharing offices with other sole practitioners and these folks can look like a firm. If you can’t tell, look the lawyer up on the web with the State Bar Association. The listing will tell you if that lawyer is part of a firm or a partnership.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a532" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
The worry with sole practitioners is that the lawyer won’t have the office infrastructure to handle your case. The guy practicing out of his garage may give you a great hourly rate compared to the guy in the corner office of a firm, but if the guy in the garage is charging you that hourly rate while he walks your demand letter down to the post office, you are not saving any money. Those assistants and paralegals do a lot of work for a lower rate than your lawyer. I once got hired by an out-of-state lawyer who told me straight up, “This is the last time I want to talk to you. Your assistant can do everything I need and do it at a much lower rate than you can.” He turned out to be right and when I saw his final bill it pissed me off.</div>
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij kw kx im ky kz la lb ir lc ld iu le lf ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e231" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
The upside of sole practitioners is that on the average, they charge less. Be careful though. Some of the most ridiculous legal bills I have ever seen have come from sole practitioners who didn’t have enough work and spent all their time working on and billing the one case they had.</div>
</h3>
<h1 class="ll lm bi bh eb ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu lv lw lx ly lz ma mb mc dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="adbd" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 40px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">
Make a Friend</h1>
<h3 style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 13pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -7pt 0pt;">
<div class="kt ku bi kv b ij mp kx im mq kz la mr ir lc ms iu le mt ix lg gh dz" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e072" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 0.86em; word-break: break-word;">
If you follow my directions for hiring a lawyer, you not only increase the chances of getting a good solution to your legal problem, you will have a friend who is a lawyer. The lawyer may not be the kind of friend who takes you camping or out for a drink, but friend enough that the next time you have a legal problem you can give that person a call, and the call goes right through. You can refer in general conversations with your other friends to “my lawyer” and actually have one.</div>
</h3>
Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-91694030341957651652020-04-06T18:10:00.001-07:002020-04-07T08:28:25.776-07:00A Free Will for Oregon Residents in a Time of Social Distancing<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "Libre Franklin", "Helvetica Neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
The Coronavirus pandemic caused me to close my law office. I closed the estate planning part of my practice because I couldn’t meet with clients and couldn’t bring together the people necessary to have documents witnessed and notarized. Yet, some people really need to have a will done.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "Libre Franklin", "Helvetica Neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
I have used Google docs to put together an automated system that will generate an Oregon will for those in need who cannot get to a lawyer or collect the witnesses needed for an estate plan. This will contains clauses specifically identifying the COVID-19 emergency and it relies on laws specific to Oregon. It is a temporary fix and is not an all-purpose estate plan. It is offered to those who need a temporary estate plan until the pandemic is over.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "Libre Franklin", "Helvetica Neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
Follow the link below and fill out the form. Your answers will generate a will that will be sent to your email address as a .pdf file. I will look at it briefly. I will not give a consultation or customize the will for you. There is no charge, and I will do this as long as I can or until I get in trouble for doing it.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "Libre Franklin", "Helvetica Neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
When you receive your will, carefully follow the directions that accompany it, and, when the pandemic is over, make an appointment with a lawyer to get a permanent replacement.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "Libre Franklin", "Helvetica Neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
If you like this and want to show appreciation, buy a book published by <a href="https://salishpondspress.com/" target="_blank">Salish Ponds Press</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "Libre Franklin", "Helvetica Neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
To go to the will form click <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScc7vmFLQSm9NzlFHOD-bjBT_cx68LDM5-4E1oV2kiwPLPHnw/viewform?usp=sf_link">here.</a></div>
Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-38374390995242550602019-09-03T11:26:00.000-07:002019-09-03T13:41:07.522-07:00Things to know if you are being investigated by Oregon Adult Protective Services<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is a knock at the door. You answer and find yourself confronted by a representative of Oregon Adult Protective Services (APS). The APS investigator asks if he or she can come in and talk to you about an elder you know. You invite the agent in and you quickly realize that someone has made a complaint to Adult Protective Services accusing you of the financial exploitation of an elder.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this post, I walk you through what is going on when you are investigated by APS and give some hints as to how to deal with the agency and the investigation.</span></span></div>
<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">What is Going On</span></span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Adult protective services is a division of the Oregon Department of Human Services. When a complaint is called in alleging the financial or physical abuse of an elder or person with disabilities, APS is </span><a href="https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/viewSingleRule.action?ruleVrsnRsn=254471" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">obligated to investigate</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The agents talk to the elder, if possible, witnesses and the alleged perpetrator. The investigation, once commenced, must be completed within 120 days. At the end of the investigation, the investigator finds that the allegations are "substantiated," "not substantiated" or "inconclusive." </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If the allegations of wrongdoing are "substantiated," the report is passed to the district attorney in the county in which the wrongdoing allegedly took place. The district attorney evaluates the case on the basis of whether there is sufficient evidence and injury to warrant criminal prosecution. If the district attorney decides to prosecute, the accused faces prison time and needs a criminal law lawyer. I am not one of those and do not defend in criminal cases.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In real life, almost none of the substantiated elder abuse reports delivered to the district attorney go any farther than the desk of an assistant DA. To prevail in a criminal case the DA must prove the exploitation beyond a reasonable doubt and the damage needs to be of sufficient magnitude to warrant expenditure of public resources on the case. I can't predict what district attorneys do. They are a mystery to me, but after working in this field for a long time I know that almost none of the substantiated elder abuse findings turn into a criminal prosecution.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If the district attorney does not prosecute then the report by the investigator goes into the super-secret APS file cabinet where nobody can see it unless you go through a whole bunch of complicated legal hoops. I can handle those hoops and get access to the report if it is important enough, but the process is so expensive that I seldom do it.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>So Why Should I Care?</b></span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you are being investigated and you know that you will probably not be prosecuted criminally and the report will disappear into the secret cabinet, you might well ask, why do I care? Perhaps you shouldn't, or at least you should not be as upset as the investigator probably made you. There are, however, more troubles that can arise.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every APS office has a cozy relationship with a couple of lawyers (or professional fiduciaries) in the neighborhood who practice elder law. If The APS is intent upon going after the suspected bad guy the worker can contact the lawyer, give the lawyer the facts of the case, and suggest that the lawyer go after the perpetrator in civil court. The lawyer will file to have a guardian and/or conservator appointed for the allegedly abused elder on the grounds that the elder is being financially abused and is incapable of protecting him or herself. Even though neither the lawyer nor the fiduciary has a prior connection to the family, the courts generally allow this in the interests of protecting elders. The lawyer will nominate his or her</span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2015/06/types-of-professional-fiduciaries-in.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> favorite professional fiduciary</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and when the court appoints a conservator, the conservator will then sue the perpetrator for financial elder abuse. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The lawyer evaluates these cases on the basis of whether he can make any money from it. The APS investigator is protecting elders and going after bad guys. The civil lawyer who gets the case from the APS investigator is doing it for the money.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When the financial elder abuse case is filed and served, you are in trouble. Although elder financial abuse and financial exploitation are not identical in the law, they are very close. In an elder abuse civil case the plaintiff is allowed to seek triple damages -- triple the amount taken from the elder -- plus attorney fees. The accused, however, must pay his or her own fees no matter what the outcome. Being sued for elder financial abuse is no fun and defending the case is not for amateurs.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Even if you are not sued for elder abuse, the substantiated report in the secret cabinet can cause you a problem if you want to work in elder care or social services. Your background check will bring up the report and you will have some uncomfortable explaining to do.</span></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">How does APS operate and what powers does it have?</span></span></h3>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">APS investigators operated largely on bluff and chutzpa?. You have no obligation to speak to an APS investigator and the investigators have no right to enter your home or request documents from you. Under certain circumstances, APS can obtain bank and financial records related to the case, but if you are under investigation you have no obligation to provide the investigator anything. They can, however, be aggressive and persistent, subtly implying that they have powers and legal tools that they, in reality, do not have.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Often when I represent the object of an APS investigation, I contact the APS investigator and make my client available for an interview in my office. In only one out of five cases, is APS willing to come to my office for the interview? I also request that the APS investigator not attempt to talk to my client without me present. Sometimes they agree to this, but they are not required to, and I have had APS workers with police appear at my client's home repeatedly, even after being asked not to do that. The rules that apply to lawyers when it comes to represented parties do not apply to APS.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although APS can refer a case for criminal prosecution and it can slip the case to its favorite elder law lawyer, APS does not get restraining orders, does not itself file elder abuse civil cases, and rarely pays to have a guardian or conservator appointed. Those are the tools I have. APS does not.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Do you need a lawyer?</b></span></span></h3>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although the APS investigator has a bank of Oregon Department of Justice lawyers backing him or her, the investigator often tells you in all sincerity that you don't need a lawyer. He or she may even intimate that getting a lawyer amounts to a lack of cooperation and makes it more likely the investigation will go against you. Being a lawyer, APS loves me when I am on their side, and hates me when I do defense. The agency is not a big fan of playing fair and evening the odds.</span></span></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Suggestions for Dealing with APS</span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It tends to be pretty easy to figure out if you are the alleged perpetrator in the elder abuse complaint. The APS investigator may not say it directly, but you will be able to tell from the tenor and nature of the questions. If it looks like the agency is coming after you, I would suggest the following:</span></span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lawyer up. I am not averse to having my clients talk to the APS investigator. I simply think that things go better for the alleged perpetrator if the interview takes place in my office.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Don't talk to the APS investigator without your lawyer, in the evening or in your home. </span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ask for a written statement of the results of the investigation. APS doesn't have to give you a written determination unless you ask for it.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Don't believe that APS can settle a potential civil case or somehow clear you. APS cannot give you a release, settle a case that has not been filed, or agree to make a certain finding if you do certain things. </span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">And No Matter What, APS is always right</span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My wife was a social worker before she retired. One morning at breakfast, I opined that social workers were poor sports. She asked, "Why is that?" </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I went on to explain that with other lawyers I litigate the case -- win it or lose it, forget about it -- and go on to the next one. But with the social workers, if they don't win, they remain mad about it for a long time. They seem like poor losers.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My wife looked up from her breakfast and told me, "That's because we are always right."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She nailed it. I have gone through a full trial after which the court ruled that APS got it wrong. The investigator's only response to the ruling was that the court system screwed up again. Once APS makes up its mind about you, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary, the agency will never admit a mistake or change its mind. Live with it.</span></span></div>
Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-1125526243256416602018-06-11T21:02:00.000-07:002018-06-11T21:02:15.510-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The latest of my YouTube videos deals with what happens to property when you die if you own the property with another person. It addresses real estate and jointly owned bank and financial accounts.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1go2OltmzH0/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1go2OltmzH0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-29758057586537169042018-05-20T09:03:00.001-07:002018-05-20T09:06:04.642-07:00What happens to Personal Property When You Die<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am continuing to make YouTube videos about elder law and estate planning issues. This one is about what happens to personal property when someone dies. It does not have good news for those of you who have lists of where you want your stuff to go.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p_RR-4bO8CM/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p_RR-4bO8CM?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-53223252343738175462018-03-24T11:18:00.001-07:002018-03-24T11:18:38.435-07:00I do a YouTube on Powers of Attorney<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Folks:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am going high tech. I recently did a Youtube video which provides more than you ever wanted to know about powers of attorney.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4GtjzTXqoWU/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4GtjzTXqoWU?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-2212362284107827972017-11-22T10:18:00.000-08:002017-11-22T10:18:36.199-08:00Repost of "The Anatomy of an Oregon Will"<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.93348991824314" style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.93348991824314" style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The old <a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2009/12/why-its-called-estate-plan.html">estate planners</a> used to say to me, "no matter how much the clients want it, there is no such thing as a simple will." I didn't believe it. I figured it was just one of those things people say to make what they do for a living seem a little harder and more complicated than it really is. Reluctantly, as the years go by, I am coming around to their point of view. </span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There may be no such thing as a simple will, but there is such a thing as a short will. My average will for a middle class older couple with adult children is two pages long. The will is written in English and has no clauses that a high school graduate couldn't understand. Nevertheless, it is not simple. Each sentence, each paragraph, has a distinct purpose. I explain these purposes over and over again in my office, so I thought I would do so here.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<h3 dir="ltr">
<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">For whom is the will written?</span></span></h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is widely misunderstood. Every written document, whether a newspaper of a business contract, is written for an audience. The audience for will is not the relatives of the deceased, it is the probate judge who will oversee the wills administration. A remarkable number of people do not understand that a will is not self-executing. The power to administer the will comes from the court. You may be nominated in the will to be the executor of your mother's estate. The nomination is a request that the court appoint you. The court will try to honor your mother's request, but it may also decline to do so. You have no power or authority until the nomination in the will is affirmed by a court order. The will may leave you your mother's collection of antique hockey sticks, but you don't get your grubby hands on them until a judge says it's okay.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Allow me to say this again. A will has no power or authority until it is filed with the court and a judge appoints an executor.</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once a will is filed with the court it becomes a public record and any person wandering into the <a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2009/12/what-is-probate-and-should-i-fear-it.html">probate</a> department is entitled to look at it and copy it. Therefore, once the person who wrote the will has died, there is never any reason to keep the contents of the will secret. Often I see a relative or group of relatives hoarding a will--refusing to let the other relatives know what is in it. This is crazy. If the will is going to be effective, it is going to end up as a publicly available document. There is no reason to keep the contents secret.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The first sentence.</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first sentence of a will declares the document to be a will, says who is writing it, and revokes all previous wills. The best practice is to have old superseded wills revoked by a written document that has just as many witnesses as the will itself. The first sentence of the will takes care of that.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<h3 dir="ltr">
<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The listing of family.</span></span></h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next part of the will generally tells whether the writer is married and lists his or her immediate family. This part of the will helps the court and the lawyers understand who is related to who and who is entitled to notice that the will is being administered. All persons who receive something and all natural heirs of a dead person are entitled to notice when a will is being administered. Just because a person is listed in the family section doesn't mean that person gets something, but if the familial tie is close the person is probably entitled to written notice of the probate.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<h3 dir="ltr">
<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Appointment of a personal representative.</span></span></h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next section of a will often appoints a personal representative. This is the person who--if she isn't a notorious embezzler--will be appointed to be the executor of the estate. A personal representative and executor are the same thing. No matter what he or she is called, the person who has to gather up all the dead person's property, pay all the bills, and eventually distribute the money to the people named in the will, all under the eagle-eye supervision of the court staff. Naming your favorite son as your personal representative is not doing him a favor. Being personal representative is an annoying and nasty job. Nobody likes doing it. If you get the urge to spread the pain by naming a couple of your children as co-personal representatives, don't. Judges hate it, lawyers hate it, and it costs twice as much when--as always happens--the co-personal representatives don't get along and each asks for his or her own lawyer. </span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last sentence in the paragraph appointing a personal representative allows the person you chose to serve without <a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2009/12/what-is-bond-and-why-do-i-have-to-post.html">bond</a>. The bond protects the heirs from a personal representative who decides to abscond with the money in the estate. Waiving the bond safes the estate money, unless of course you chose an executor who steals all the estate property. In that case, waiving the bond was not such a good idea.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<h3 dir="ltr">
<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Specific Gifts</span></span></h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this part of the will we get down to giving stuff away. Giving things away is done in two stages. The first stage is specific gifts. A specific gift is to say "I give my baseball card collection to my cousin, Homer." Then you hope that the baseball card collection is still there twenty-five years later when you die. The most common specific gift is to give all your personal property to your spouse or your children. This is a specific gift of your stuff--your couch and your plates and your bust of Elvis that you got on that trip to Graceland. Lawyers and judges want the family quietly to divide this stuff so everyone is happy. Nobody except the family cares about this crap. If you choose to get in a pissing match with your relatives about it, the legal professionals will make fun of you behind your back. You need to make enough peace with your family to divide the personal property without going to court.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some people have long lists of who they want to get what. My advice is to give the stuff away when you are alive. Once you are dead, by the time someone responsible gets around to inventorying your personal things, most of it will be gone anyway. Safes will be empty and safe deposit boxes will be filled with scrap paper. It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens a lot. If you want to be sure, give it away when you are alive.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gifts of cash are specific gifts. If you give cousin Homer $25,000 instead of the baseball cards, that amount comes off the top. These kinds of specific gifts can get you in trouble. To see how, continue reading.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<h3 dir="ltr">
<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Residue</span></span></h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Residue," is a legal word for "everything else." It is the part of the will where the money is -- or at least should be. The residue is a legal container that expands or contracts to hold whatever you own at the moment of your death. If you are an average Joe or Josephine, the container holds your house, that rental you bought a while back, your stock account at Edward Jones, and what's left in your bank account. If you sell your house and use up your stocks paying for long term care, the residue of your estate will be small. If you win the lottery or get a big inheritance two days before you die, your residue will be big. When lawyers look at a will the first thing they look at is the residue clause. There are two reasons for this. One, the recipients of the residue are normally the people who get the biggest chunk of the estate. Two, the residue contains the funds that will pay the lawyer.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A typical residue clause uses fractions or percentages. "I give the residue of my estate to my three children in equal shares." Each child gets one third. Fractions (or percentages) allow the legal container to get bigger or grow smaller without changing how the whole of it will be distributed. Whether it be big or small, the children each get a third. </span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The residue also pays the costs of administering the will. The lawyer and the personal representative get paid from the residue. Income taxes get paid from the residue. Costs of keeping and selling real estate come from the residue. If you are fortunate enough to have to pay estate taxes, payment may have to come from the residue. These costs come out of the residue, and what remains is distributed to the people named in the will to receive it. </span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your best bet is to leave all your major assets in the residue. If you are an average person and you give everything away as specific gifts--your house to Able, your stocks to Cain, and your bank accounts to Seth--you may well have given everything away. There will be no residue and your personal representative will have a lot harder time of it. It will get done, mind you, but it will be more complicated and more expensive.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The worst cases of emptying the residue with specific gifts come from giving gifts of set dollar amounts. More than one elder has dribbled out generous cash gifts to distant relatives--ten thousand here, twenty thousand there. The elder then spent most of her money on long term care so that when she finally dies, the distant relatives take it all and the children named to receive the residue, get little or nothing.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The residue is designed to hold the bulk of the estate. Wills work best when you use the residue clause for the purpose for which it was designed..</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<h3 dir="ltr">
<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The other stuff.</span></span></h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After giving away what you own, most wills go on with a lot of other stuff. You might have a trust to hold money in case some of your estate goes to a child. You might make some tax provisions. You might set the rules for who gets the money if someone named in the will dies before you do. As you move farther and farther away from the clauses that give stuff away the smaller the chance that anybody will actually ever read what it says. Some lawyers will tell you that the other stuff is really important. They might be right. Others will admit its there because it has always been in the <a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2011/03/oregon-will-trust-and-estate-planning.html">form</a> they use, and if it is in the form, there must be a good reason..</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<h3 dir="ltr">
<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The signing</span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="color: black; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The will must be signed by the person making it. The signature must be witnessed by two people, and the witnesses must sign as witnesses before the person making the will dies. You cannot get around this requirement by hand writing your will or any other way. If you don't have the signatures of two witnesses, the thing is no good.</span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lawyers add a document called a self-proving affidavit that is not required but makes the getting the will admitted to probate a lot easier. If you go to a lawyer, let him or her take care of that. If you are trying this on your own, don't worry about it. You have enough to not screw up without worrying about the affidavit.</span></span></div>
Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-1513209324681984312017-11-17T14:41:00.001-08:002017-11-20T08:38:24.167-08:00My one day a week retirement<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When I turned sixty-six in August of this year the Social Security Administration sent me a letter offering to send me money every month. All I had to do was apply. I didn't take them up in it, but it did get me thinking about retirement, and, as of September, I have retired .... on Fridays.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nellie, my legal assistant, and I will still practice probate and elder law Monday through Thursday. We will write wills and trusts. We will cause guardians and conservators to be appointed and we will probate wills. We will even file elder abuse cases and will contests. We will not, however, do any of that on Fridays.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I want to remind people that I have been writing this blog for a long time. If you want to find a particular subject you can use the search box on the right or click on the list of labels below the search box. You should be able to find what you want. If you want simple explanations of basic estate planning documents you can look at my posts by date and click on the earlier years of this blog for many of those answers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you like paper better than a blog, I give away my Oregon Elder Law to anyone who wants it. Call <a href="http://orolaw.com/" target="_blank">my office</a> at 503-661-2540 or email me at <a href="mailto:oronken@orolaw.com">oronken@orolaw.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgggI3wQpKLvB25D5GeVftxeuV1VIJ6fupnqFwxFZ3BQ-FGdSQkJFGk6Oxy2F9aCTg16OMHRKxwfDwCwDrJXuyzZOMlU57UqW1cVHkS2nfQYpb-DGKezkkFf5OCobV0j2mr-PIfIeJkEUJk/s1600/BookCoverPreview.do.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="386" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgggI3wQpKLvB25D5GeVftxeuV1VIJ6fupnqFwxFZ3BQ-FGdSQkJFGk6Oxy2F9aCTg16OMHRKxwfDwCwDrJXuyzZOMlU57UqW1cVHkS2nfQYpb-DGKezkkFf5OCobV0j2mr-PIfIeJkEUJk/s320/BookCoverPreview.do.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The book is an edited version of my early blog posts and covers all the basics. If you are shy about calling Nellie and having her send you a copy, you can get it on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Oregon-Elder-Law-planning-language/dp/0982456425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510953864&sr=8-1&keywords=oregon+elder+law&dpID=41NuVX3qUoL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch">Amazon</a>.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you want to read my other books, which have nothing to do with law, you can get them <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Duke-Morrison-Street-Orrin-Onken-ebook/dp/B002YQ2K38/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510958109&sr=8-1&keywords=Orrin+Onken&dpID=51%252BNN9Q545L&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Malady-Manor-Orrin-Onken-ebook/dp/B0033AGQ8Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1510958109&sr=8-3&keywords=Orrin+Onken&dpID=31UGj2OZ4UL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you do want to call in for the book, be sure to do it between Monday and Thursday, because if you call on Friday we won't be there.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-35344592569249605622017-10-26T08:17:00.000-07:002017-11-17T13:41:09.621-08:00Elder Abuse by Bureaucracy (and Strategies to Combat it) - Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Employees in complex bureaucracies are also victims of the system they administer. So when organizational gatekeepers are invoking bureaucratic rules that prevent you from obtaining care, you may need to needle them with the bureaucratic structures governing them. In short, you complain to someone else in the organizational structure so that the pressure on the person or department you want to move to action comes from someone other than you. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-796fd305-593f-d35a-51be-90c96c975c6c" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The first step, as in any legal maneuver, is to establish an achievable goal. If you are seeking to talk to a doctor or obtain a certain treatment, be clear about what it is you want. Sometimes the bureaucracy can be so annoying that you want to inflict the kind of pain on the people within it that the system has inflicted on you. This is not an achievable legal goal. Working in a large bureaucracy is its own punishment and the people who work there already know that. Figure out exactly what you want, stick to it, and stop when you get it.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The next step is to use the grievance procedure established by the bureaucracy itself. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of the Americans who read this elder law blog receive Medicare. Providers who accept Medicare are governed by many of rules. </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/42/482.13" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of those rules</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> requires the hospitals to have a grievance procedure. That procedure must include the following:</span></span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A contact person to receive a grievance</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A grievance committee to resolve grievances</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A clear procedure for submitting a grievance</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Set time frames for review of a grievance</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Written notice of the decision that contains the name of a contact person, the steps taken to investigate the grievance, the results of the process, and the date of completion.</span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Every medical provider that accepts Medicare must satisfy this rule.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">My Medicare Advantage policy at Kaiser states:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">As a plan member, you have the right to get appointments and covered services from our network of providers within a reasonable amount of time. This includes the right to get timely services from specialists when you need that care. You also have the right to get your prescriptions filled or refilled at any of our network pharmacies without long delays.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">If I am denied timely service due to an overly complex and incomprehensible scheduling system, I am being denied timely services. My complaint would be that I am being denied timely services for whatever condition I can't seem to have addressed. Kaiser accepts complaints by phone, online or in writing. I would suggest writing. Bureaucracies love writing. Kaiser sends me so much mail, I have to assume that it prefers mail. The address is: </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Member Services</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">500 NE Multnomah St, Suite 100</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Portland, Oregon 67232-2099</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Kaiser's internal rules require that they must respond in thirty days (but they can get an extension of another fourteen days.) This is the process to use if you feel that you are being denied, through undue bureaucratic hurdles, care for conditions that are clearly covered. If the dispute is about whether your policy covers a certain treatment, the process is different and far more complex. I suggest wording the complaint in a form that suggests you are being denied timely care due to bureaucratic delay.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Providence Hospital has a </span><a href="https://www.thehospitalsofprovidence.com/for-patients/your-visit/your-patient-rights" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">long statement of rights</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which includes "The right to voice complaints about the care, and to have those complaints reviewed and when possible, resolved." The website further states that "a formal grievance may be filed at the hospital’s quality management department office."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Adventist Hospital take complaints ("grievances" if you like the legaleze) at</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Adventist Health Compliance Hotline</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Adventist Health</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">2100 Douglas Blvd.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Roseville, CA 95661</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">888-366-3833</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It is unrealistic for me to give the contact information for each hospital, but the idea is the same. The hospital takes Medicare, thus it has to have a formal grievance procedure. Begin by using it. This sets in motion mandatory bureaucratic processes that take up time and energy. With a little luck someone will determine that giving you what you want is less work than doing all the procedural steps necessary to fully comply with the Medicare grievance procedures. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">If this does not work, it may be time to make your complaint to outside agencies. My next post will provide a framework for how to do that.</span></span></div>
Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-87501515125208606032017-10-18T13:51:00.000-07:002018-08-11T08:30:12.000-07:00Elder Abuse by Bureaucracy (and Some Strategies to Combat it) - Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have often told people that my job as an elder law lawyer is to maneuver within complex bureaucracies. The complex bureaucracy I deal with most often is the court system. However, I also work with with title companies, life insurance companies, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Administration, and stock transfer agents. Each of these worlds has its own rules and traditions. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-45fccff0-3140-6c93-41d0-46c3dc3bab7b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To my mind, however, the deepest and most impenetrable bureaucracies surround healthcare. The rules and procedures that govern interactions with hospitals and large health care providers are some of the most frustrating of any I have ever encountered. I read complex legal documents for a living. Nevertheless, I am still today incapable of understanding a medical "explanation of benefits." I once got a bill from a dentist that was so cryptic that I had to write the office to ask how much I was supposed to pay. For my elderly clients, I have come to believe that the deep entrenched bureaucracies surrounding health care may have become so impenetrable as to constitute elder abuse. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With this in mind, I reviewed the Oregon elder abuse statutes. There wasn't much help. The statutes didn't clearly apply to abuse by red tape, but even if they did, health care facilities are exempt from Oregon's elder abuse statutes.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am technologically skilled, educated, and generally considered a high functioning American. Nevertheless, I am regularly stymied when trying to obtain health care. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will pick on Kaiser Permanente here because that is where I go. Last month I needed a refill for a prescription I have taken for years so I could take the medicine on vacation. I began on Monday with a call the pharmacist. By Friday, many telephone calls later, I had the folks at Kaiser swearing they had delivered the renewal to the pharmacy. The pharmacy swore they had received no such thing. Using the flexible phone system in my office, I called both and patched them together on the same phone call so that they could speak to each other. I was promptly informed that Kaiser could not speak to the pharmacy if the conversation was on the patient's phone.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of my clients had back pain. She cried hard enough over the phone about the pain that she was allowed an MRI to see what was wrong. She had the MRI and was eagerly awaiting a message from her doctor as to the results. Instead, she got a call from the office of a surgeon attempting to schedule a surgery she knew nothing about. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So what to do? Not much. I do, however, have a couple of suggestions. When a large bureaucracy is giving you problems, it is often useful to change the method of communication of the angle of approach.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If phone calls are not working, try email. Sometimes just a change in the communication channel produces results. It is odd, but it is a true. Write a letter. Some folks will be impressed that you took time to write in this technological age, but it may work. Have an agent, friend or lawyer call on your behalf. You will have to provide a release to allow them access to records, but an assertive friend may have success where you did not.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Try to talk to someone else. My studies in organizational theory suggest that organizations employ gatekeepers to protect the "us" who belong to the organization from the "them," who don't. If you bump into a particularly tough gatekeeper, try to find a different one. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If these don't work, you may need to take a more aggressive stance. Most commonly these approaches will be taking advantage of the fact that the people who work within large bureaucracies are also victims of bureaucratic complexity. There are another set of rules and expected behaviors that vex them, just as much as the ones they enforce vex you. In my next post, I will address some strategies that use this aspect of living and thriving in a highly bureaucratic society.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="height: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">x</span><br />
</div>
Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-5958141043330421942017-03-07T14:59:00.000-08:002017-03-07T14:59:04.846-08:00Inheritance, rights and expectancy in Oregon - Did you have something to lose?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A tax lawyer once told me that an inheritance is the largest tax-free lump sum of money most people ever receive. Most wealthy Americans got their wealth because they inherited it. Parents most often leave their assets to their children, and children expect that they will inherit when their parents die. Children have an "expectation" that they will receive the wealth of the parents when the parents die. Googling the definition of “expectation” brings up the following:</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-8d1275fd-aafd-1dee-f0a6-dc6c4930b8bb" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the state of thinking or hoping that something, especially something pleasant, will happen or be the case.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In my office I see families in which the children are not only hoping that they will receive their parent's money, they are making life decisions based upon that hope. They are depending upon it. Sometimes they even jump the gun and begin taking and spending the money before the parents are gone.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In law, an "expectancy" is something you might get, but which you have no legal claim to. You expect your parents to leave you their money, but they don't have to. They can cut you out and leave it all to your siblings or cut everybody out and leave it to charity. They could leave you in the will but give or spend all the money before they die so you get nothing anyway. They might have named you as a beneficiary on a life insurance policy or a retirement account. You "expect" that they won't change the beneficiary, but you have no legal claim to the money until they die with your name still on the policy. If they do, you may feel like you have lost out, but in the eyes o the law you had nothing to lose.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some expectancies are highly likely to materialize. If grandma named you in her will and she has now lost the cognitive ability to write a new will, that money is highly likely to be coming your way sooner or later. (The law assumes she can recover capacity and write a new will, so no matter how bad she is, it is still an expectancy.) Some vested legal claims are very unlikely to produce anything for you. If you buy a lottery ticket you have a legal right to the payout if your number is picked, but don't go taking out a loan on the hope it will pay off. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The difference between an expectancy and a vested right becomes important when something you hoped would happen does not. If I hoped to get some cash when grandma died, and it didn't happen, whether I can successfully sue someone may depend on whether my hope was based upon an expectancy or a right. If it is a right, I will have a document to hang my hat on. If it is an expectancy, the road may be tougher.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But it does get confusing.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If grandma named me in her will, but made a new will just before her death because my sister held a gun to her head, the second will is invalid. I have a vested right after grandma's death so long as I can prove that the second will was invalid. If grandma named me in her will, but just before her death she gave all her property to my sister because my sister held a gun to her head, I can sue my sister on behalf of my grandma's estate to recover the property wrongfully taken. In both cases I have a better claim to the money than the person who got it. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If, however, grandma changes her will or her beneficiary designations while capable and not subject to </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2011/02/how-to-challenge-will-undue-influence.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">undue influence</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I am out of luck. If she spends all her money on her new boyfriend or appoints an agent under a </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2011/06/some-basics-about-oregon-powers-of.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">power of attorney</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who spends my inheritance on her care, I am similarly out of luck. If she or her agent takes all the money out of the account on which I am a beneficiary and puts it in an account for which I am not a beneficiary, I am out of luck. In these cases the change in the estate plan was not caused by wrongful behavior and the person who has the best right to the money is the person with their name on the last document signed by grandma. My expectancy is defeated.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hate writing blog posts that end in my telling the reader he needs to consult an experienced probate attorney -- preferably the writer of this post -- but in this case it is true. If you feel wronged and are not sure whether your claim was an expectancy or a right, and whether there might be a benefit for you to take a trip the courthouse, talk to your local probate litigator.</span></span></div>
Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-42822966955275889442016-09-17T19:27:00.000-07:002016-09-17T19:27:18.844-07:00When Beneficiary Designations and Powers of Attorney Don't Play Well Together<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When a person dies, property passes to the heirs in one of three ways. The first way is through joint ownership with a right of survivorship. This most often happens when real property is owned by husband wife. The second way is by beneficiary designations. Beneficiary designations control life insurance, most annuities and most individual retirement plans. The third way is the will of the decedent. Anything that doesn't pass to heirs through joint ownership or beneficiary designation, passes according to the terms of the will (or </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2010/03/how-to-use-trust-to-avoid-probate.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">probate-avoidance trust</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). In a coherent </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2009/12/why-its-called-estate-plan.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">estate plan</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, all three ways work together to carry out the wishes of the deceased.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More and more, I see people putting beneficiary designations at the center of their estate plan. In these estate plans, all the major assets pass through survivorship or beneficiary designations. Some people like the simplicity of it. Others are encouraged by bankers or brokers to use beneficiary designations because it "</span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2009/12/what-is-probate-and-should-i-fear-it.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">avoids probate</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">". </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most people, in addition to an estate plan, have a </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2011/06/some-basics-about-oregon-powers-of.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">power of attorney</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The power of attorney is a document that anticipates disability rather than death, and a power of attorney becomes scrap paper the moment the person who created it dies. Death and disability are closely related, however, and people tend to plan for them both at the same time. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Powers of attorney and beneficiary designations do not always play well together.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A beneficiary designation is designed to determine who gets your money when you die. A power of attorney is designed to allow an agent to help you with money management while you are alive. The power of attorney I write for my clients does not allow the agent to change beneficiary designations. My reasoning is twofold: (1) I have a hard time seeing how a change in who gets money when you die protects you while you are alive; and (2) changing beneficiary designations by use of a power of attorney </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2013/10/powers-of-attorney-and-changes-in.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">invites litigation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not everybody agrees with me about using a power of attorney to change beneficiary designations. I got a call one day from a brokerage who had used my opinion on the issue, as expressed somewhere in this blog, as reason not to allow a change in beneficiary designation by the agent named in a power of attorney. My opinion, however, is more of a good idea than a statement of law and that case proceeded to litigation.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When an estate plan is relying heavily on beneficiary designation, an agent under a power of attorney can significantly change the plan without changing the beneficiary designation.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It works like this. Uncle Scrooge has his money with the Imprudential Fund and a personal investment advisor is managing the money by investing it in the </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2016/09/why-oregon-conservators-should-be-using.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">investments that bring the advisor the largest commissions</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The beneficiary designation on file at the Imprudential Fund names Scrooge's favorite nephew, Huey, to receive the money when he dies. Louie is named as Scrooge's agent in a power of attorney, and Uncle Scrooge's will leaves everything to Huey, Louie, and Dewey in equal shares.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Louie doesn't like seeing Uncle pay all those broker commissions, so when Uncle becomes incapacitated, Louie moves the money in the Imprudential Fund to the Walletguard Fund, a broadly </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2016/07/using-index-funds-to-save-costs-some.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">based index fund</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. No beneficiary designation is made for the Walletguard fund. This means that at Uncle's death the money will pass by will to all three nephews.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When Scrooge dies, Huey, Uncle’s favorite, sues Louie for changing the investment subject to beneficiary designation to one that was not subject to the same designation. Louie defends with the fact that he was only doing what was best for Uncle Scrooge </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">while he was alive</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and the benefit to Louie and Dewey was incidental to protecting Scrooge. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This problem can arise in a variety of fact patterns. What if, instead of moving Scrooge's accounts, Louie has simply paid for all of Scrooge's long term care needs from that account (rather than from other accounts) so that when Scrooge died, there was nothing left. Could Louie still be sued because he did not pay the long term care costs from Scrooge's assets in approximate proportion to the heirs expectancy interest in the eventual estate? It can get complicated.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We often say in the law biz, that the agent steps into the shoes of the principal, and can do whatever principal could do. Uncle Scrooge certainly could have moved his accounts or paid all of his long term care from a single account without regard to how it affected any of his nephews. So why can't his agent do the same? Well, because the agent risks being sued and losing. It seems that the agent cannot safely change the principal's estate plan nor be indifferent to it.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The question for the litigation-averse agent in a power of attorney is whether he must refrain from moving an account subject to a beneficiary designation, even it is in the principal's best interest while he is alive. And if he does, can he put a similar beneficiary designation on the new account without getting in trouble with the people who take under the will. Can he combine two accounts if they have different beneficiaries. Must he consider the expectancy interest of the beneficiaries when paying care costs or paying for a trip for old Scrooge to Disneyland. These are all unresolved questions and resolving them -- through litigation -- is going to be expensive for somebody.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have changed my own power of attorney to authorize my agent to engage in transactions without regard to the effect it may have on those who are in line to receive my money when I am dead. This clause, combined with a prohibition on changing any beneficiary designations I have, seems to honor my estate plan while encouraging my agent to think more about my well being than that of the people who will benefit from my death.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-26158924419551853082016-09-09T11:12:00.000-07:002017-03-08T16:00:25.876-08:00Why Oregon conservators should be using fee-only financial advisers.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have gotten some pushback from professional fiduciaries about </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2016/07/using-index-funds-to-save-costs-some.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my advocacy of index funds</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> when investing money belonging to the disabled. The complaint is that the professional fiduciaries have too much to do already. They can't be expected to understand the intricacies of investment, diversification, risk, and the prudent investor rule. Thus, they should be allowed to contract out that aspect of the job to experts. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-396076c4-1025-b0e9-1422-437e6f0c34ba" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is a good point, but not a great point. I don't think the job is that difficult these days if one was a </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Down-Wall-Street-ebook/dp/B00QH9NTSI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1472922661&sr=1-1&keywords=random+walk+down+wall+street" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rudimentary understanding of money and math</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but I am a nerd and it may be unfair to expect others to share my interests. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, professional fiduciaries who hire financial advisers to help manage the money of the disabled are required each year to disclose the amount paid to these advisers. No professional fiduciary wants to have that disclosure be an embarrassment.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Disclosing how much is paid to most commission-based financial adviser is not easy. The fee is not listed anywhere in those thick quarterly statements that many brokerages send their clients. In dealing with one national brokerage I have had to write a separate form for the agent to fill in the amount of his firm's fees. I was always shocked by how high it was.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think the solution to both the disclosure problem and the excessive fee problem lies in Oregon conservators hiring </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_adviser#Compensation" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"fee only" financial advisers</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who charge either by the hour or the project. (Avoid paying a percentage of the assets managed unless this works out to rate under $200 per hour). These guys and gals get paid directly by the person who is hiring them. The money comes from the client, not from the manager of the product they recommend. They are not influenced by the commission associated with the product because there is no commission. Because the fiduciary will be writing the check for the fee, it will be easy to make that disclosure at the end of the year. And in most cases, the fee itself is going to be lower than the fee paid to commissioned agents.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fee only financial advisers often advertise at the </span><a href="http://www.feeonlynetwork.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fee Only Network</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> website. Portland fee only advisers can be found </span><a href="http://portlandfinancialadvisorsnetwork.com/#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By selecting a fee only adviser, Oregon conservators can assure that their clients investments are not being skewered by the commission associated with the investment and that they will have a comprehensible statement of fees to present to the court.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, I happen to think that a fee only adviser will often suggest the safety and predictability of index funds for disabled clients. If, however, I am wrong and the independent adviser suggests a fund with a three percent cost ratio, at the very least the conservator has the safety of being able to tell the court that the investment advice was not influenced the commission the adviser got from the sale.</span></span></div>
<br />Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-73258622123675768532016-07-21T14:25:00.000-07:002016-07-21T14:25:46.563-07:00Using Index Funds to Save Costs: Some Suggestions for Oregon Conservators<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you are an Oregon court appointed fiduciary the writing is on the wall. The days of hiring stock brokers to manage money for the disabled are coming to an end. The Department of Labor has proposed a fiduciary standard for investment advisors dealing with retirement funds. Elizabeth Warren is tweeting, and a new law in Oregon requires court appointed conservators to disclose every year the full fees paid for asset managment. Paying full-service commissioned financial advisors from the funds of the helpless may not yet be unethical, but the day is not far off when it will be. </span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-bcbcc987-0f46-f7d8-b5b1-693cb3b447c2" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Index funds--funds invested across a market and managed by a computer--have the potential to do to retail stock brokers what the internet did to travel agencies. The only question for an Oregon fiduciary is whether she will dive into index funds or be dragged in. This post if for those who would rather make the move voluntarily.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(For my post on index funds and conservatorships generally, go </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2015/08/the-new-disclosure-requirements-for.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> An Oregon trustee or conservator is bound by the Prudent Investor Rule. The rule is common sense. It requires the fiduciary to match the risk in the investment to the risk tolerance of the beneficiary and potential heirs. At its very basic this means diversification. Mutual funds by their nature are diversified and an investment account containing different kinds of mutual funds is doubly so. <a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2015/08/the-new-disclosure-requirements-for.html">Index funds</a> are a type of mutual fund in which the money is invested across a market and managed by a computer instead of individuals. The management fees for index funds are smaller than those charged by actively managed funds. The biggest vendor of index funds is </span><a href="https://investor.vanguard.com/corporate-portal/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vanguard</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I will use the company in this post, but index funds from other vendors work equally well.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let's say a conservator has an eighty-six year old disabled male with care costs of $2,000 a month more than his monthly income. He has $150,000 to manage, and a </span><a href="https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/population/longevity.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">life expectancy</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of 5.7 years. If he dies on schedule he will need nearly every penny he has to pay care costs and related expenses. He has little if any tolerance for risk.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So Google a conservative index investment at Vanguard. Let's say you like the </span><a href="https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0027&FundIntExt=INT" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wellesley Income Fund</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It is safe and diversified (mostly bonds, some stocks). It tends to produce 2.62%, and the charge for management is 0.23% of the principal. On $150,000 that is $3,930 a year of income for $345 in fees. Even more conservative is the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Government Bond Index which collects government bonds. It has an estimated return of 1.33% and an expense of .1%. The income it $1,843 on expenses of $151. (You can check these at the </span><a href="http://apps.finra.org/fundanalyzer/1/fa.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FINRA Fund Analyzer</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">).</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course a fiduciary could park the money in a Wells Fargo Money Market account at .03% and make a whopping $45. Or the fiduciary could send the money to Fidelity Advisor Asset Manager® 20% Fund Class A (</span><a href="http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/FATWX/quote.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FTAWX</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), a randomly chosen managed fund with a ten year history of return at 3.8% and a front end load. The fiduciary would have fees and sales charges of $6,484 for a first year loss of $1,006. You can go to the FINRA site and do the math.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even with no-load funds, the costs of management don't pan out. A Thrivent Conservative Asset Allocation Fund (TCAIX) with no load and a return of 3% has charges of $1062 (.7%) while the Vanguard Wellesley fund has Charges of $395 (.23%). Over the short life of our example, that is a $5,000 difference, just from management costs. </span><a href="https://www.thrivent.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thrivent</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> advertises on television that its funds are not managed by robots. I wonder if they also manually add up large numbers because they just can't trust those new fangled calculators.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The investment choices, even in mutual funds, are daunting, and can scare a fiduciary into simply paying the freight and having a commissioned money manager make the choices for him. The person who suffers from this timidity, however, it the disabled beneficiary. The professional management comes at such a hefty cost that it wipes out the benefit of the expertise. Additionally, there are online tools at Vanguard and other places that make the process fairly easy. Simply plug in the factors that contribute to risk tolerance and let the computers do the work. If you want online help with selecting index funds you can look at </span><a href="https://www.betterment.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Betterment</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or </span><a href="https://www.wealthfront.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wealthfront</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, although neither are really necessary.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another hurdle to using index funds is having to actually open an account without a hand-holding and socially skilled financial </span><span style="line-height: 33.12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">adviser</span><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to do it for you. For a Vanguard account, the process starts with this </span></span><a href="https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/agap.pdf?2210105611" style="line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">form</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The form is largely self explanatory, but I can offer these tips.</span></span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On page one, check the box indicating that the application is by a guardian.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On page 4 enter the information for the protected person using the address of the conservator.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On page 5 enter the information for the conservator. You do have to enter the conservator's tax ID number. This is for identification only and transactions will not affect the personal finances of the conservator.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When sending the paperwork include a certified copy of the letters of conservatorship that are less than 90 days old and a letter explaining that Oregon courts (like California and other states) do not use a raised seal.</span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The form has areas to fill in the index funds you want to buy and instructions for funding the account from an existing bank account. This will probably be the conservatorship account.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the protected person's money is already at with a commissioned </span><span style="line-height: 33.12px; white-space: pre-wrap;">adviser</span><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and invested heavily in managed funds, you may be able to get the broker to sell and reinvest in index funds. If the broker balks at this, as she probably will, you can move the securities from the existing broker to a Vanguard brokerage using this</span></span><a href="http://www.vanguard.com/pdf/v412.pdf" style="line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> form</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Once the form is filled out, your signature must be guaranteed with a Medallion Stamp. I have written about Medallion Stamps</span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2016/07/a-guide-to-medallion-guarantees-for.html" style="line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Once moved, it is a simple matter to sell the managed funds and replace them with appropriate index funds using the Vanguard web page.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Index funds chosen after consideration of the risk tolerance of the protected person (almost always very low) provide as close to a safe haven for a conservator as one could find. The investments are diversified because they are mutual funds. Unless the conservator made a huge mistake in evaluating risk tolerance, the investments will easily meet the requirements of the prudent investor rule. The protected person is protected and the professional conservator who has to report all management fees will not have to wince when he or she reports to the court how much of the protected person's money went to the brokerage house.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-54303639064392700692016-07-20T15:54:00.000-07:002016-07-20T15:54:24.302-07:00A Guide to Medallion Guarantees for Transfers of Stock by Oregon Conservators and Executors<b id="docs-internal-guid-ba66f66d-0a81-62b8-896f-4009447293b0" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oregon fiduciaries--conservators and executors, and even agents under a power of attorney--often have stocks that must be sold to pay the needs of a protected person or to close an estate. When trying to sell or transfer stock the fiduciary will be faced with having to get a Medallion stamp on the form that requests the stock transfer. This post is my attempt to explain what is going on with stock transfers and Medallion Guarantees.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's assume that the protected person or decedent owned stock in Big Farma, Inc. Big Farma is too busy with its big farms to keep track of the millions of people who hold its stock so it has hired a transfer agent to keep track of them. The transfer agent issues and cancels stock certificates to reflect changes in ownership. The transfer agent may also pay out dividends, handle lost certificates, and do other things related to helping stockholders maintain their accounts. Most transfer agents are also banks, brokerages, or trust companies.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Transfer agents are are allowed to (and generally do) demand a guarantee that a person requesting a change of ownership has the authority to do so. Signature guarantees are covered by the Uniform Commercial Code. (</span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/8/8-306" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UCC 8-306</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> if you want to read it) When a bank for other financial institution guarantees a signature on an instruction to transfer stock the bank making the guarantee is guaranteeing that (1) the signature is genuine; (2) the person making the signature has the authority to issue the instruction; and (3) the person has capacity to sign. If the bank making the guarantee is wrong about one of these things, and the transfer agent suffers a loss because of it, the bank that made the guarantee is liable for the loss.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(A notary, on the other hand, certifies only that the signer signed the document voluntarily, signed the document in the presence of the notary and provided proof of identity. There is no agreement to pay damages to anyone who relies on the notary stamp.)</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Banks guarantee signatures to the satisfaction of transfer agents by associating with the </span><a href="http://www.stai.org/stamp.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Securities Transfer Agents Medallion Program, Inc.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, (STAMP, Inc) a not-for-profit corporation. STAMP, Inc. uses a company called </span><a href="http://www.kemarkfinancial.com/index.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kenmark Financial Services</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to administer the Medallion Guarantee program. The bank or brokerage house that wants to issue Medallion Guarantees must meet certain financial standards and purchase a bond to cover liability for any mistakes. The amount of the bond determines the liability limit of the bank, and banks will not guarantee a signature if the transaction has a value that exceeds the amount of its bond.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Once the bank has qualified to make Medallion Guarantees it can offer the guarantees as a service to its customers. It is not required to provide the service and you cannot force a bank to do so. Therefore, the first step for an Oregon conservator or personal representative in search of a Medallion Guarantee is to find a friendly banker. Most banks limit the service to their customers. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of the three things that a Medallion Guarantee guarantees, the first two are easy. The bank must guarantee that the signature is not a forgery. Personally appearing with good identification usually covers this hurdle. The second it that the signer has the capacity to sign. This means that the signer is over eighteen years of age and is not obviously crazy or demented. This, again, is seldom difficult.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The third element of the guarantee is that the signer is the appropriate person to sign the transfer instruction. When the signer is a fiduciary--a conservator, personal representative, or an agent pursuant to a power of attorney--the signer must prove his or her authority to engage in the proposed transaction.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a personal representative or conservator, proof of authority is normally in the form of certified copies of the letters testamentary or letters of conservatorship. Many banks will require that the letters be less than sixty days old. If the conservator has old letters, she might consider getting a new set prior to approaching the bank. If the person seeking the Medallion Guarantee is the personal representative of an estate the bank will also want to see a certified copy of the death certificate. Every bank has its own internal procedures and requirements. You can read sample procedures promulgated by the American Banking Association </span><a href="https://www.aba.com/aba/documents/securities/Medallion_procedures.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The tricky case is where the fiduciary seeking a Medallion Guarantee is an agent under a power of attorney. The banker is required to read and interpret the power of attorney to determine if the power of attorney permits the transaction that the agent wants to complete. Thus, if the agent wanted to transfer the stock to himself, the banker might search the power of attorney for the power to make gifts. In this situation, obtaining of a Medallion Guarantee depends on the ability of a retail banker to interpret a power of attorney. This sort of interpretation is difficult enough for experienced elder law lawyers. Your results in a bank are guaranteed to vary.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Transfer agents are form-driven bureaucracies and the forms are not always the easiest to understand.. When you, as a fiduciary, need to make stock transfers, get the forms from the transfer agent. Make sure that the forms show the value of the transaction (so the Medallion stamp holder knows whether it is within his or her authorization). Then cross your fingers and go to the bank for the for a Medallion Guarantee</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://www.computershare.com/us" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Computershare</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is one of the big transfer agents in the U.S. It's forms are as confusing as any and it is not unusual to get odd decisions out of them. Recently I submitted a transfer request--with a Medallion stamp--and Computershare responded with a statement that the company believed my client to be dead. Proving through documentary evidence that someone is alive is fairly difficult. I invented a "life certificate" to do this, but I suspect Computershare came around when I pointed out that the Medallion stamp guarantees capacity. One of the elements of capacity is life. Computershare bought the argument and allowed the transfer. In most cases, getting the Medallion Stamp is only an annoying hassle. In that case, the Medallion Guarantee actually helped the fiduciary.</span></span></div>
Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-74794693522950531562015-11-23T16:12:00.000-08:002015-11-23T16:12:26.611-08:00A useful tool for Oregon conservators, executors and personal representatives<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A court appointed conservator for a disabled person or personal representative (executor) in an estate faces a lot of bookkeeping. All income and expenses have to be reported to the court with supporting documentation. In Multnomah County and some other counties, court appointed fiduciaries are required to take a class from </span><a href="http://www.guardian-partners.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guardian Partners</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in order to get them started on the right path with the court requirements.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-00685a7b-36d3-8ffa-d837-014ce692246d" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A fiduciary reporting to the court is required to report income and expenses on separate charts. The court rule refers to income as "receipts" and expenses as "disbursements," and I will do the same in this post. A fiduciary must provide the court with a chart of receipts and disbursements for every account owned by the estate or the protected person. The accounts have to be reconciled in a particular manner. The "ending balance" on the disbursements page must match the ending balance on the corresponding bank statement and the total from the receipts sheet must equal the total on the disbursements sheet. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The accounting method required by the court is neither intuitive nor is it what people are used to. Regular folks use a check register style of accounting in which deposits and payments are recorded on the same document with a running balance kept on the far right of the register.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have made an attempt at bridging the two styles by creating spreadsheets that have a check register as the first page, a court-style receipts account on the second sheet and a court-style disbursements sheet on the third. With my documents, the fiduciary can keep a check register for each account and, when it is time to report to the court, quickly move the information from the register to the court approved forms.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, spreadsheet programs do not always play well together and people tend to be very loyal to their favorite office software. So let me start with the best.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have signed up for Gmail or Google apps, you can use Google Sheets. Using a function available in Google sheets, I have developed a spreadsheet that populates the forms required by the court </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you enter numbers in the check register. This means that the charts of receipts and disbursements are ready to submit at any time. (Of course the ending balance must match the bank statement, but the spreadsheet itself is always ready for submission). You can copy this template to your computer (or Google Drive folder) </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OQrGr6OIj0AiIMrZE7SaJhk-3l8Z4CZXRX181Jpucs4" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Once you have it, fill in the case and account information at the top of the sheet and you are ready to start entering numbers. As you do so, the numbers will be automatically be entered on the receipts and disbursements charts.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are not a Google user things will not be quite as easy. In the spreadsheet programs of OpenOffice and Microsoft Office I cannot get the receipts and disbursements sheets to populate with data as the check register is filled out, but I can make it easy to transfer numbers from one to the other. I use OpenOffice in my practice because the word processor connects painlessly to the database. My OpenOffice spreadsheet is </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3iBKsSJl10hWGJWc05oTDFoUVU" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. You need to download it to an appropriate place on your computer and use it as a template for your case. You fill out the case and account information and then enter your receipts and disbursements in the check register. (</span><a href="http://www.openoffice.org/download/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OpenOffice</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is free and if you want to try using it.). When it is time to report to the court, you will have to cut, paste, and sort the information from the check register onto the receipts and disbursement sheets. It is not automatic, but it eliminates the need to manually transfer individual entries from one form to another.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many people use Microsoft Office's Excel. The Excel check register works exactly as in OpenOffice. You will need to cut, paste and sort when you want to submit to the court. The Excel version is </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3iBKsSJl10hbjhpa1N2aHVZa1k" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. You need to download, copy, rename, and use it for as many accounts as you want.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No matter which one you choose to use, you will need to make a separate sheet for each account held by the estate or conservatorship, enter the account name and number, and thereafter enter deposits and payments in the check register as they occur. In Google, the form required by the court will be ready at any time. In OpenOffice and Microsoft Office, you or your lawyer will need to do some cutting and pasting, but the creation of the court approved form should take no more than a few minutes.</span></span></div>
<br />Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-37265502764934768192015-08-30T11:07:00.000-07:002015-08-30T11:08:58.627-07:00The New Disclosure Requirements for Oregon Conservators and Why they should be Putting the Money they Manage in Index Funds<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><br />The Oregon legislature recently changed what professional fiduciaries must disclose when they ask to be appointed conservator for an incapacitated adult, and what they must include in the annual accounts to the court. Once the law goes into effect, professional fiduciaries, in addition to the long list of disclosures already required, must disclose details about their money management skills, their fees, and the fees of those they will hire to manage the money of the protected person. In annual accounts they will have to disclose the fees paid from conservatorship funds to brokers and money managers. The new law focuses on the murky relationship between conservators, money managers, the prudent investment rule, and appropriateness of paying brokers to manage money for protected persons. <br /><br />For a long time informed retail investors have known that actively managed funds do not and probably cannot outperform investments managed by a computer. Investment managers are not worth what they get paid and their fees can easily turn profitable investments into money losers. The new law forces professional fiduciaries to ask themselves why they are giving professional money managers a cut of the protected person's money. </span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The New Rule </span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Under the new rule a proposed conservator must now disclose the following: </span><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<li>The professional experience, investment credentials and licensing under ORS Chapter 59 of the fiduciary or person acting on behalf of the professional fiduciary. </li>
<li>Any revenue sharing agreement between the fiduciary and another person and the manner in which those fees will be computed </li>
<li>An acknowledgment that the fiduciary will invest money of the protected person according to the <a href="http://www.uniformlaws.org/shared/docs/prudent%20investor/upia_final_94.pdf">prudent investor rule</a> (which is in the <a href="https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors130.html">trust code</a>) </li>
</span></ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
The new law then requires that conservators, in their annual accountings, disclose to the court any fees taken from the funds of the protected person by brokers or money managers. That means conservators are going to have to ferret out and reveal how much Edward Jones is charging the protected person for its sage advice and include that amount in the accounting. This has not always been done in the past and is not easy to do. </span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What problem does this new law solve?</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The more cynical in Oregon’s elder law community see the new law as an effort by <a href="http://www.allentrust.com/">Allan Trust</a>, our biggest home-grown trust company, to squeeze the competition. Businesses that have done the legwork and put together the capital to become trust companies (or banks) can serve as trustees of trusts without court appointment and can serve as conservators for incapacitated people without posting a bond. Non-trust company fiduciaries (I have written about them <a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2015/06/types-of-professional-fiduciaries-in.html">here</a> and <a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2012/07/how-to-get-rid-of-predatory.html">here</a> and <a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2010/07/guardianhips-and-conservatorships-in_25.html">here</a>) can only serve as trustees if they are court appointed and must post a bond in conservatorship cases. <br /><br />Most non-trust company professional fiduciaries are social workers at heart who manage the protected person’s money as a sideline. Under the new law these social worker types will have to disclose their lack of experience in money management and tell who they intend to use for that purpose. I have never heard of fee-sharing between a non-trust company conservator and a brokerage house, but if it is going on it is going to have to be disclosed. Compliance with the new disclosure requirements will not be difficult and I don’t think it will have much effect. The new disclosures will be buried in the pages of disclosures a professional fiduciary must already make. I doubt that many clients considering a professional fiduciary have been fooled into thinking that their chosen fiduciary with a masters in social work it also a hedge fund manager.<br /><br />In addition to disclosing their experience in investing, professional fiduciaries will be required to swear allegiance to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Prudent_Investor_Act">prudent investor rule</a>. The rule comes from the trust code and conservators have always had an obligation to follow it. They now must swear under penalty of perjury that they will. The prudent investor rule has been around for a long time and simply requires that trustees invest prudently, diversify, and consider a variety of economic factors when investing. It is a commonsense rule that guides most reasonable investors whether or not they are professional fiduciaries. You can read it <a href="http://www.uniformlaws.org/shared/docs/prudent%20investor/upia_final_94.pdf">here</a>. <br /><br />Finally, conservators will have to disclose in their annual accounts the money taken from the funds of the protected person to pay brokers and money managers. This could be a problem for a lot of conservators and brokers, but requiring it is a good thing. <br /><br />I have looked at a lot of brokerage statements when writing final accounts for a protected person. There is no line on these multi-page forms where the brokerage tells you how much it received for managing the funds. I survived college, law school, and a fair amount of post-doctoral work. I have practiced law for decades. Even with all this education, the statements sent to me by most brokerages are incomprehensible. I know from the practicing law that simplicity of expression requires intelligence and hard work. I could therefore conclude that the complexity of brokerage statements is because stock brokers are both dumb and lazy. I really don’t think that is the case. I think there is an intentional effort to disguise what is going on and how much is being charged. With the new requirement that has to change. <br /><br />I have often listed the opening and closing balances of a brokerage statement and then passed on brokerage the statement to the court. The annual accounts I have submitted like this have been approved. That is fine for the dead and disabled, but when it comes to my own money, I have no intention of paying the high fees for active money management. I let computers do the work. </span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Prudent Investor Rule, Conservatorship Funds, and Actively Managed Funds</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The prudent investor rule comes from the trust code and requires that a trustee invest funds using a set of common sense guidelines. I apply these same guidelines to my own investments. Being that I don’t want to pay brokerage fees, I could take the time buy stocks and bonds on my own based upon my risk tolerance and my financial goals. But I don't. Managing money is boring to me compared to the practice of law. I don’t want to do it and don’t want to pay high prices to have it done for me. So I invest in index funds. <br /><br />Index funds are computer managed and track a market. The biggest provider of index is <a href="https://investor.vanguard.com/corporate-portal/">Vanguard</a>. I bring it up by name only because it is the largest of the index fund providers. I have one fund that tracks the Standard and Poors 500. When the market goes up I make money. When the market goes down, I lose. I have other funds in a fund that mixes income, asset growth, and risk avoidance so that I can retire at a target date. The fee for having my funds managed is less than half a percent of the amount invested. There is no load (fee) for putting money into the fund and I do not incur capital gains because some bozo is buying and selling stocks in my account trying to beat the market. With little effort and little expense I meet my personal needs and, incidentally, the requirements of the prudent investment rule. <br /><br />It has been a poorly kept secret for decades that money managers cannot outperform the market. There are two reasons to believe that professional money management cannot be worth its cost. One is empirical: the other is logical. </span><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<li>The Empirical Argument: Professionally managed funds available to retail investors have never beaten the market as a whole over any significant period of time. </li>
<li>The Logical Argument: If the market is efficient, the price of an asset in the marketplace is its value. Thus, if your brilliant broker can buy an asset at a price below its value and sell at a price above its value, then either the market or the broker is corrupt. </li>
</span></ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
The proponents of managed funds depend upon tall tales and superstition. With millions of fund managers playing the market it is impossible that some of them will not beat the market for a period of time before returning to the mean. These stories of success are always trotted out to distract potential customers from things like math. Someone wins the lottery too. We do not, however, pay past lottery winners to pick our numbers for future lotteries. <br /><br /> The empirical evidence and economic theory are consistent. If the market is fair it will reflect the true value of an asset. If a stock picker can produce returns better than the market, it is either because the market is flawed or the picker has the kind of inside information that should put him in jail. When a decent return on investment in the market is three percent, the stock picker charging two percent for his efforts is taking almost all the return for himself. Managed money for average people in the modern world of big data is an elaborate scam. <br /><br />The downside of managed money can be seen <a href="http://apps.finra.org/fundanalyzer/1/fa.aspx">here</a>. The web page is run by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Sign in and find the fund that your broker recommends and look up the costs. Then take a look at returns. Look up the Vanguard funds, or other index funds. Managed funds are simply not worth the money. Conservator’s have used and kept retail brokerage accounts for years because it was accepted and brokers advertise on television. We used to get our plane tickets from travel agents. It is time to change. With conservators now required to report and justify the high money management costs, perhaps the time to change is now.</span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Complying with the Prudent Investor Rule with Index Funds</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a nutshell the prudent investor rule requires the conservator to maximize net income while minimizing risk. Individual situations may require different balances of income and capital appreciation. Some conservatorships may have particular financial goals, and conservators will always struggle when they have come into possession of unusual assets. Many times, however, a conservator obtains possession of existing investments held by the protected person and is charged only with making sure that the funds are invested pursuant to the rule so that adequate resources are available for the protected person’s long term care.<br /><br />Within a short time after being appointed, a conservator will be able to estimate the life expectancy of the protected person and care costs. If funds will exceed the cost of care, the conservator will have to consider the protected person’s estate plan and the interests of heirs. Other income, tax status, other assets and special goals will play a part in the investment decisions, but even non-trust company fiduciaries are familiar with balancing these factors. <br /><br />With the considerations in hand, the conservator can browse the various funds at a company like Vanguard that offers a smorgasbord of funds with asset mixes designed to meet particular needs. As I mentioned, my own asset mix is aimed at retirement. The asset mix for a particular protected person might be quite different from mine, but with a reasonable amount of attention the conservator could quickly have an investment mix that meets the rule. </span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Conclusion </span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The new Oregon disclosure statute may be a blessing, but not for the reasons the legislature had in mind. The disclosures themselves will be buried among the long list of disclosures professional fiduciaries must already make. I doubt anyone will be choosing their professional fiduciary based upon the fiduciary's commitment to the prudent investor rule. However, if fiduciaries start to take their obligations seriously and begin seriously looking at index funds as a way to satisfy the rule and reduce costs to the protected person, everyone in the system--with the exception of stock brokers--is likely to benefit. </span>Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-41186744183905636422015-08-26T13:51:00.000-07:002015-09-02T17:58:50.722-07:00Mediation, Mediators and Mediation Styles in Multnomah County Probate Mediation<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />The parties to disputes in Multnomah County protective proceedings (guardianships and conservatorships), estate administrations and trust cases are required to go through mediation before they can proceed to a court hearing. The requirement has been in effect for a couple of years now and Multnomah County’s probate judge assures me that it has been a success. A previous post on the Multnomah County mediation program can be found<a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2010/01/mediation-comes-to-multnomah-county.html"> here</a>.<br /><br />I am approved as a probate mediator by the Multnomah County probate court. I took a forty hour course in mediation at Portland State. I took the shorter course in probate mediation and I did nearly two years of twice-a-month supervised mediation in the Multnomah County small claims department. These credentials qualify me to be on the <a href="http://courts.oregon.gov/Multnomah/docs/civilcourt/probate_annexed/allprobate.pdf">list of approved probate mediators</a>. I maintain my educational requirement by going to the annual two-day conference of the <a href="http://www.omediate.org/">Oregon Mediation Association</a>. I mediate cases and I represent clients who are having cases mediated by others. Thus, I offer you, dear reader, a brief guide to mediators and mediation styles in Multnomah County probate cases. </span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The lawyer who is a part time mediator.</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is me. I pay my mortgage being a probate lawyer and do mediation on the side. A lot of lawyers want someone like me to do mediation because, as a lawyer, I understand the law and the requirements of the local courts. If possible, I will move the parties quickly toward an agreement that can easily be turned into a court order. <br /><br />I was trained in facilitative mediation. In that arm of mediation the mediator is to be non-directive and is there to assist the parties to the mediation in negotiating effectively. In a perfect mediation world, the parties will resolve their differences and leave the room hand in hand to live happily ever after. In this type of mediation, the parties are in the same room and face each other across the table. It is intense and difficult. Most part time lawyer-mediators quickly give up on it and move to the easier separate room/settlement conference style of mediation often used by judges. (More on that below.) <br /><br />Several Multnomah County probate lawyers have taken the forty hour course and the shorter probate course in order to get work as a mediator. Not so many of them have done the supervised practice required for inclusion on the list of mediators approved by the court, but it is not required that you be on the list to be selected as a mediator. The parties to the dispute can choose any mediator they want. If the person making the choice is a Multnomah County probate lawyer, he or she is likely to prefer someone familiar. That will be another Multnomah County probate lawyer. In my cases, I am more often selected to mediate a case because of who I know rather than what I know. <br /><br />The knock on lawyer/part-time-mediators is that they can’t take the pressure of same room mediation, all they care about is getting an enforceable judgment, and they manipulate rather than facilitate. For this reason they are mostly absent when the Oregon Mediation has its meetings and probably never finished the regimen of supervised mediation required for inclusion on the approved list of Multnomah County probate mediators. The advantage of having one of these mediators is that the mediation process will be shorter, less stressful, and more likely to result in a solution that is pleasing to the lawyers. </span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Retired Judges (and lawyers who thought they should have been judges)</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In many courts today the parties to the case are required to go to a settlement conference as a condition of going to trial. The settlement conference is conducted by a judge. The lawyers go into chambers and a judge listens to the evidence that may be presented at trial and opines thereafter about what he thinks the outcome will be. With this input, the lawyers are encouraged to have their clients settle the case along the lines of what the judge thinks the ultimate outcome will be. Many judges like this process and, when retired, offer themselves up to help settle case just the way they did it when they were settlement judges. Sometimes, they are not judges, but experienced litigators who have given up the courtroom. In either case the experience is the same. <br /><br />These mediators do evaluative mediation. They evaluate the strength of each side’s case using their own expertise and advise the parties on a settlement that approximates what might happen in court. They almost always separate the parties into different rooms and move back and forth between rooms nudging the litigants toward an acceptable settlement. <br /><br />The personality characteristic that make a person want to be a judge, almost completely foreclose that person from doing facilitative mediation. Judge’s want to judge and direct because they believe they know, in the final analysis, the best outcome. These mediators, whether judges or litigators, never belong to the Oregon Mediation Association. They are most comfortable around lawyers and they advertise in the Oregon State Bar Journal. Lawyers like these kinds of mediators because they do something familiar. <br /><br />The knock on the retired judge is that he is expensive and overly directive. You pay a premium price for the experience the judge brings to the mediation. And like the lawyer/part time mediator, a judge tends to see the solution as a court order that everyone can live with. It is a low bar with a high cost. If you are involved in a high emotion family dispute, you are allowed to set your goals a little higher than this. </span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Real Mediators</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I call them “real mediators” because these folks mediate full time and make their livelihood doing it. They do not do it part time while their real income is from practicing law. They do not do it part time while collecting retirement pay from their career as a judge or a litigator. They mediate and only mediate. They are active in the Oregon Mediation Association and they spend a lot of time on the touchy-feely aspects of mediation. They go to courses on mindfulness. <br /><br />These are the real facilitative mediators. They do not direct the parties or predict what the outcome may be in court. Instead, they facilitate the litigants in a search for a solution that works for them. It is tough and stressful business in which of the parties to the dispute face each other, say what they have to say, and hear what need to be heard. The theory is that the disputing parties then approach a solution that will be one of their own making and not one based upon a legal framework that has been imposed upon them. <br /><br />These mediators are idealistic and hopeful. They don’t think much of lawyers and at the OMA conferences tend to belittle the very mindset of lawyers. Those who have practiced law in the past are inclined to introduce themselves as “recovering lawyers.” In mediation they put the parties to the dispute in the same room and expect the lawyers to keep quiet. The lawyers’ job, as they see it, comes at the end and consists of translating the settlement into a form acceptable to the court. <br /><br />The knock on real mediators is that they fail too often. I don’t mean they fail to get a settlement agreement. Through tenacity alone they tend to get more agreements than the other types of mediators. Often, however, those agreements are not truly facilitated agreements, but rather the same one you might have gotten from a retired judge or a practicing lawyer. Facilitative mediation can be long and stressful. It is simply not worth it if the result is no better than one could have gotten at a judicial settlement conference. <br /><br />There are a whole lot of good things about having a real mediator. Being a hopeful guy, I am usually willing to go for the gold. In mediation that means a solution designed by the parties with little, if any, attention paid to the law, lawyers and judges. Mediators are cheap. They charge a lot less than either lawyers or judges and tend to bring far greater mediation skills to the table. Unless, you have a good reason not to, I suggest going with the real thing. </span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Conclusion</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you are involved in a Multnomah County probate dispute, the chances are you are going to mediation. In my experience, the local lawyers are still not all that comfortable with the requirement. They try to get it waived and if forced to mediate would rather hire a buddy to do the mediation than spend the time finding the best mediator for the case. My suggestion is to give it some serious thought and quiz your lawyer as to what considerations are going into the choice of mediator. If the lawyer is recommending against a “real” full-time mediator, make sure the reasons are clear and that the lawyer is not simply choosing the path that is easiest for the lawyer. <br /><br /> <br /><br /> </span>Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-83474409935917437942015-06-24T15:22:00.000-07:002015-06-24T15:22:48.500-07:00Types of Professional Fiduciaries in Oregon Guardianship and Conservatorship Cases<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Family battles over inheritances are the stuff of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bleak-Penguin-Classics-Charles-Dickens/dp/0141439726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435012337&sr=8-1&keywords=bleak+house&pebp=1435012337820&perid=1FEP3043Q9CVM66QV3CS">great novels.</a> In the courts, however, the family battles over the appointment of a guardian or conservator can be as contentious and difficult as any will contest. The cases arise because there is an elder who is alleged to need help in managing care or money. Sometimes the battle arises because the elder has lawyered up and opposes the appointment of anyone to take charge of his or her affairs. More commonly, however, these conflicts end up in the courtroom because the children of the elder are battling each other for position and control within the family. Whenever squabbling siblings are at the center of the dispute someone will propose that a professional fiduciary be appointed. (A fiduciary is someone who works for the benefit of another, and I use the term here to mean the person nominated to serve as a guardian or conservator.) Court visitors are fond of this option, and judges—who often want quiet as much as they want justice—often prefer appointing a professional to sorting out the conflicting accusations of the elder’s children. <br /><br />Professional fiduciaries come in a variety of shapes and sizes. At one end of the spectrum are the trust departments of large financial institutions. Most bank and investment houses have a trust department that will serve as fiduciary for grandma if the money is right. The banks are neither uniform nor transparent about how much they charge for these services, but you should not expect a financial institution to accept your case unless grandma has at least half a million. Each year, these fiduciaries charge a percentage of the amount being managed. A common charge is two percent of the value of the trust per year. Thus, if you put in the minimum amount of $500,000, the bank will charge at least $10,000 for managing grandma’s money. They may charge additional fees for financial management and investment advice. Bank trust departments and dedicated trust companies claim great skill in managing money and bringing in large returns. These claims had more weight prior to the recent recession. In any case, they employ professional money managers and produce long incomprehensible quarterly statements of profit and loss. <br /><br />There is some question these days whether actively managed investments can ever return more than computer managed index funds, particularly when the manager is scraping off at least two percent every year for his efforts, but that is a subject for another post. <br /><br />Banks have special exemption that allows them to be serve as a trustee of trusts without a court order or court oversight. Thus, the banks and investment houses occupy the world of large trusts, more so than the world of guardians and conservators. <br /><br />The next candidates for the job of professional fiduciary are fiduciary firms. These are small businesses, usually partnerships or sole proprietorships, made up of social workers with a head for bookkeeping. They can serve as guardian, conservator, or both. The firms consist of one or more certified professional fiduciaries and a staff of case workers, bookkeepers, and office professionals. These folks are always appointed by a court, and specialize in attempting to both protect the elder and stabilize the battling family. They manage money by stopping the bleed out to greedy relatives and attempting not to lose it thereafter. They are more likely to leave the elder’s money with the people who are currently managing it than to take up active management of investments. What they do well is protect the elder’s physical well being and make sure the elder’s money does not disappear. <br /><br />This group of professional fiduciaries gets paid by the hour rather than by commission. The partners tend to charge about a hundred dollars an hour with case workers and office staff charging substantially less. Their charges must be court approved. <br /><br />The last rung on the ladder of professional fiduciaries consist of sole practitioners. These folks are certified professional fiduciaries who practice out of their homes or out of small offices. They may contract with case workers and even have a small office staff, but when you get one of these you are depending on the skill of the person appointed to serve, not on a functioning bureaucracy. They are not money managers and don’t pretend to be. They are social workers willing to protect the elder's money. These people are the most “hands on” of the bunch and are likely to have the most interaction with the families. This intimacy is good if you get along with the fiduciary and not so good if the relationship goes sour. <br /><br />Every professional fiduciary comes with a lawyer. Professional fiduciaries develop relationships among elder law lawyers and use the same two or three lawyers whenever the can. They refer work to their favorite lawyers and those lawyers refer work to them. Lawyers and law firms have personalities. Some firms are grumpy; some are friendly; some are humble; and some are pompous. If you are considering inviting a professional fiduciary into your family, it is worthwhile inquiring who will be doing the legal work. <br /><br />Professional fiduciaries also have reputations for being good at certain kinds of cases. Some work hard to bring fighting families together; others are known for being tough and whipping misbehaving families into line. Some are great at forensic accounting, and others are good at locating publicly funded social services. It can be hard to tell what kind you are getting. Online reviews are useless, because no matter how skilled and compassionate the fiduciary is, at least half of his or her clients are going to hate her. The haters write the online reviews. The best bet is to have an elder law lawyer you trust recommend someone. Your lawyer is likely to recommend someone he or she likes, but because the lawyer knows several different fiduciaries, this biased recommendation is better than none at all. <br /><br />Once a professional fiduciary has come into your family, you might as well accept that the fiduciary will be there until the elder dies. Courts who find a family so dysfunctional that a professional is warranted almost never turn around and rule that the professional is no longer needed. If you truly need to get rid of a professional, consult the article I wrote on the subject <a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2012/07/how-to-get-rid-of-predatory.html">here</a>. <br /><br />Another concern about professional fiduciaries is that they tend to favor the party that selected them. When I am trying to recruit a professional fiduciary for a case, I sell my case in the same way that clients sell their cases to me. I explain how this is an easy case with plenty of assets to pay their fees. If the fiduciary likes the case, and thinks I may well bring more just like it in the future, the fiduciary is going to make close call decisions that favor my side. That is a fact of life. The fiduciary is going to answer my calls a lot faster than the calls from the lawyer who opposed his or her appointment. If you have a choice, it is better to be from the side of the family that supported the appointment of the fiduciary than from the side that opposed it. <br /><br />Having a professional fiduciary managing the care of grandma can be a blessing or a curse. I have seen a relationship between a mother and children destroyed because the children were put in charge of her money, and then repaired when the children turned the job over to a professional. On the other side, I have seen fiduciaries trample family feelings and run roughshod over existing family systems in pursuit of some mythical “best interests” of the elder. There is a saying the social service world that a “barely adequate” family member produces better results when it comes to care taking than does a well trained professional outsider. Professionalism has its advantages and its dark side. When considering a professional fiduciary a family must balance risk and reward; not an easy thing to do when enmeshed in the high emotions of a protective proceedings. <br /></span><br /> Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-20121692152914879662015-06-07T17:31:00.000-07:002015-06-07T17:31:38.287-07:00Pointers for Evaluating Your Case in Oregon Will and Trust Contests<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Being a probate litigator, or litigator of any stripe, for that matter presents the lawyer with a conflict of interest. His job is to advocate for his client and argue in favor of the client’s position. Were a trial a football game, the lawyer would be both the coach—designing the game plan, and the quarterback—charged with leading the team to victory. Simultaneously, the lawyer is expected to be giving the client smart, unbiased advice on the client’s chances of winning or losing the case. He is not just the coach and the quarterback, he is also the bookie—expected to handicap the case and give his client the best information possible about the potential outcomes. This allows the client to make intelligent decisions about settlement and trial. In this post I will pass over the lawyer as the coach and quarterback. I want to concentrate on the lawyer as bookie.<br /><br />Predicting is hard. In the second election of Barack Obama major polling organizations, with all their computers and highly paid actuaries, failed miserably in predicting Obama’s easy victory. Predicting the outcomes of civil trials is more difficult than predicting the outcome of elections, and the lawyers who must do the predicting are not as skilled, informed, or as objective as the statisticians at the Gallup company. <br /><br />Most of the mistakes made by lawyers and clients in predicting the outcome of civil trial arise out of confirmation bias ("the tendency to search for, interpret, or recall information in a way that confirms one's beliefs or hypothesis). The lawyers and parties give more emphasis and credibility to the evidence that supports their side than they do to the evidence that supports the other side. We interpret the world around us in a manner that supports or beliefs about it, and discount those facts that don’t support that view. <br /><br />Trial work takes massive preparation—probably five to ten hours of lawyer time for every hour of court time. There is an old saying that the lawyer who wins a lot of cases spends as much time preparing his opponent’s case as he does his own. The wisdom in this legal aphorism is that the lawyer must understand and appreciated the case the other side will be making in order to competently oppose it. He must avoid confirmation bias in all its insidious forms so that he can make intelligent decisions while at the same time being a cheerleader for his team. It is a difficult job. <br /><br />In my years practicing law, my clients and I have learned some hard lessons about confirmation bias and many other errors in prediction. I have some suggestions. </span><h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You Have a One in Four Chance of Losing Any Case that Goes to Trial</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A prominent Portland litigator suggested to me that no case that goes to trial has a better than eighty percent chance of winning. That means the chances of losing are one in five. I think he overestimates. When the odds of losing get greater than seventy-five percent, the defendants move to Paraguay or declare bankruptcy. If you have a trial date in a civil case and settlement negotiations have broken down, you have at least a one in four chance of losing. <br /><br />If you are a client and think that you can’t lose, you are wrong. Confirmation bias has probably so fogged your mind that you cannot see the truth. If your lawyer tells you there is no chance of your losing, then that lawyer has let the role of coach and quarterback impair his ability to accurately handicap the case. The courtroom is an unpredictable place. Witnesses fail to show up or testify as expected. Judges can be grumpy or prejudiced.<br /><br />The same lawyer who gave me the eighty percent rule also observed that trial strategies conducted in the months before seldom last longer than the first witness. Yogi Berra said, “Prediction is hard, particularly about the future.” If you find it easy and it is about the future of your case, you are doing it wrong. </span><h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Witnesses Count and Count Your Witnesses</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Judges (we don’t have juries in probate cases) want to hear from witnesses who were present and paying attention when the important events in the case took place. A good witness has four qualities: He or she was present when the crucial events occurred, will testify truthfully no matter what the question, doesn’t have an axe to grind, and shows respect toward all the people in the courtroom. A single quality witness can carry a case and overpower several witnesses who do not pass the four part test. When the witnesses for both sides are of equal quality, more is better. <br /><br />Lawyers and clients should count witnesses before they even file the case. The lawyer must ask who will testify for him and how convincing will they be. How many people will testify for him and how many will testify against him. I am often approached by potential clients who tell me that his or her grandmother was unduly influenced to give the family home or some other large asset to a family member who is not them. I ask how it is that they know the gift was the result of undue influence. The response is that grandma never would have done it without there having been undue influence. I ask if my potential client saw anything else or knew of any witnessed to the undue influence. The client responds that she didn’t actually see it because she was out of state and hadn’t seen grandma in years and that all her relatives who might have been witnesses are aligned against her. So I add up the witnesses. I have one—my client who was out of state the whole time, didn’t see or hear anything, and is estranged from the entire family. Grandma may well have been subject to undue influence, but the witnesses are not there. Which brings me to a related rule. </span><h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Other Side is not Going to Produce the Evidence You Need to Win</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In civil cases lawyers get to do what is called “discovery.” That means that the lawyers can make the other side produce documents related to the case and question the witnesses for the other side in sworn depositions. My clients are often quite certain that the other side will produce incriminating documents that will allow me to win. Trust me, that never happens. <br /><br />Depositions are generally more useful than requests for documents, because depositions let me know whether the person will qualify as a “good witness” according the four tests I set out in the paragraph above about witnesses. The witnesses for the other side never give me in deposition the evidence I need to win: they simply let me know how strong the evidence against me will be.<br /><br />Cases that go to trial are won or lost on the quality of the evidence that the parties can produce on that day, in that room, before that judge. As lawyer and client, we have to find that evidence and make sure it appears on the day of trial. The other side is not going to do it. So, if lawyer and client are proceeding on the theory that their version of events is the truth, and the truth will magically appear at trial because they are the good guys, the good guys may end up going home losers. <br /><br />Clients need to understand that they need to bring to court both a legal theory upon which the court might award them some money and some evidence to prove that the events that make the other side responsible actually happened. Suspicion, rumor, and hunches will not suffice. </span><h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> You Will Not Win By Calling the Other Side Names.</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Will and trust cases are emotional. The parties don't like each other and there is a tendency to want to make the character of the participants the issue. The reasoning is loosely as follows: the will should be overturned because Joe gets all the money and Joe is a bad person. Unfortunately, inheritances, like sunshine, fall on saints and sinners alike. The issue is not who deserves it, but who the decedent wanted to have it. <br /><br />This is not to say that character plays no role. The courts mirror society in general. Good looking people are treated better than ugly ones. Polite people fare better than rude ones and people of good character do better than swindlers. On the other hand, if you point Joe's bad character once, you may be doing the court a favor. If you point out Joe's bad character another time, you are being emphatic. However, if you do it a third time, you are being an ass, and people think you are the person with bad character.<br /><br />The lawyers have a list of things they must prove in order to win the case. The judge has the same list in front of him or her up on the bench. The evidence is supposed to be about something on the list, not the character of the parties. If you veer too far from the list trying to show that the other side is made up of slime balls you can end up looking like a slime ball yourself. <br /><br />When calling the other side names, keep it short, sweet and to the point. Then move on to the real evidence. </span>Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-90950632931841255022015-02-23T15:26:00.000-08:002015-02-23T15:26:35.173-08:00Being Mortal<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am not by nature a big picture/policy king of guy. I get quite enough satisfaction reading the law and trying my best to get the details right. When clients complain to me about the unfairness of this or that law, I seldom have anything to say about it. "Write your congressman," I suggest. "As your lawyer I deal with the way the law works today in the county where you live."</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-6d087c0d-b8c1-580f-4fe5-13c9798c59d1" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the other hand, I do try to stay current on new popular literature that deals with aging and end of life issues. Most of the new books dealing with aging and death are not that great. One of the exceptions is, Atul Gawande's, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Being-Mortal-Medicine-What-Matters-ebook/dp/B00JCW0BCY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1424469914&sr=1-1&keywords=being+mortal" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being Mortal</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The book contains the author's reflections as both a doctor and a son on the ways in which we die and the ways we have been doing it wrong.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In certain respects, Being Mortal, reiterates the themes addressed in Sherwin Nuland's, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Die-Reflections-Chapter/dp/0679742441" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How We Die.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Nuland's book is a masterpiece and deserves the Pulitizer it received. I enjoyed </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How We Die</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> immensely, but I like </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being Mortal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> even better.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gawande's reflections on death and dying are less technical than Nuland's. Missing are the detailed biological mechanisms by which the major causes of death take us out. In its place are many wise and nuanced observations about the decisions the dying and their families face. Two of the things he discussed were of particular interest to me.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, he talks about the change in values that appears as we get old. We become less competitive, less acquisitive, and more attached to family. In my gerontology classes this was explained as a developmental stage of adult development, but that is not really an explanation. Gawande reports studies showing that everyone's values--expressed as life goals--change when the time is short. Young people, for whom the future seems like an eternity stretching before them, would rather meet new people than spend time with family and old friends. Old people, who know that their time on this earth will not be long, opt for time with family. However, when young people are told that the end is near--their lives will soon be completely disrupted--they do opt for the family and friends. The change in values is a matter of perspective. Making a career and saving for old age is no longer a value when old age is already upon you.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second, Gawande finally made clear to me how hospice works. It is not a substitute for treatment. When I go to the hospital I give up my quality of life temporarily so that I will have a great quality of life when I get out. The short term stint of bad quality life is made worth it by the amount of good quality life I will have thereafter. As we age, however, and our bodies begin to fail, the stints of bad quality life in the hospital become longer and the times of good quality life thereafter become shorter and more unsure. The tragedy it the person gives up everything in hope of a full and active life once he or she is out of the hospital only to die in the hospital bed after months of being kept alive by experts and machines. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hospice is the choice to have quality of life today. He points out that with some fatal disease people on the average live longer in hospice than they do in the hospital. It is not so much that they are killed by the cure, but rather that quality of life gives them a reason to live. And that, maybe is Gwande's point. Doctors, nurses and social workers need to play a role in giving their patients a reason to live, for without that all the high tech medical procedures will be of no avail.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The book is thoughtful, intelligent and and often poignant. I recommend it to anybody who is mortal.</span></span></div>
Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-33029088791530395362015-02-20T11:14:00.000-08:002015-02-20T11:14:24.362-08:00SAVO and the Training of Non-Professional Guardians and Conservators in Multnomah County.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I deal with a lot of fiduciaries. A fiduciary is someone who acts for the benefit of another. In the world of probate, the fiduciaries are </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2009/12/what-is-guardianship-for-adult.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">guardians</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2009/12/what-is-conservatorship-in-oregon.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">conservators</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2010/01/what-is-trust.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">trustees</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2009/12/what-is-probate-and-should-i-fear-it.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">personal representatives</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Guardians and conservators look after incapacitated people. Trustees look after the beneficiaries of trusts, and personal representatives administer the estates of people who have died. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some fiduciaries do it for a living. They are the </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2010/07/guardianhips-and-conservatorships-in_25.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">professional fiduciaries.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Most fiduciaries are volunteers who do it for family. These are the non-professionals. Each group presents a unique set of problems, but it is the non-professionals that have gotten recent attention.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some of the movers and shakers in the world of elder law and probate got together and created SAVO -- </span><a href="http://savooregon.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Special Advocates for Vulnerable Oregonians</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The organization is designed to shore up some of the weaknesses in the system. One of its activities is to recruit and train people to check up on guardians to ensure that guardians are actually guarding. Another is to give non-professional fiduciaries training on how to do the job that the court has appointed them to do.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a good thing.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When it comes to guardianships and conservatorship, I copy the notice from the SAVO website below:</span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Effective July 15, 2014, all non-professional* guardians and conservators appointed by the Multnomah County Circuit Court must, within 15 days of their appointment date, register for a class that meets the curriculum requirements of the Multnomah County Non-Professional Fiduciary Education & Training Program. SAVO’s “Oregon Fiduciary 101” meets these requirements. Multnomah County registrants should select the date of their session keeping in mind that they must complete Oregon Fiduciary 101 within 60 days of their appointment date.<br /><br />The cost of the course may be treated as a cost of administration of the proceeding.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The notice for trustees and personal representatives is very similar.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Effective February 2, 2015, non-professional* trustees and personal representatives appointed by the Multnomah County Circuit Court must, within 15 days of their appointment date, register for a class that meets the curriculum requirements of the Multnomah County Non-Professional Fiduciary Education & Training Program. SAVO’s “Oregon Fiduciary 102” meets these requirements for trustees and personal representatives. Multnomah County registrants should select the date of their session keeping in mind that they must complete Oregon Fiduciary 102 within 60 days of their appointment date.<br /><br />The cost of the course may be treated as a cost of administration of the proceeding.</span><br /><br />The result is that if you want the court to appoint you as a guardian, a conservator, a trustee or a personal representative you must be ready to take a class. The class can be taken online but currently the court is strongly encouraging in-person attendance.<br /><br />So far I have only had one non-professional fiduciary take the class. She was a guardian and conservator for an elder relative, and my impression is that the class gave her a leg up on handling the job in an efficient and competent manner. <br /><br />Handling money that is not yours can be difficult. When dealing with my own money I can skip a lot of safeguards, decide certain record keeping isn't worth the trouble, and carry access to my funds in my hip pocket. Managing money for someone else should never be like that, and if I am managing money by court appointment, it never is like that. We lawyers often have a hard time convincing people of the importance of the difference. The class presented by SAVO may help.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><br />Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-83173928726024000932014-10-10T13:46:00.000-07:002014-10-10T13:46:19.961-07:00Strategies that don't work in Oregon will contests<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-7961a73b-fbbd-b81b-f80c-78d729afa0ab" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The nice thing about being the lawyer in </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2011/02/how-to-challenge-will-undue-influence.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will contests</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is that the parties to the contest are arguing about money that fell from the sky. The money belonged to the dead person. Nobody involved in the </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2011/05/oregon-will-contests-intent-of-testator.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will contest</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> earned it and nobody involved in the contest is going to leave with any less money than they had when they came to the case. Somebody in the </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2010/11/how-to-contest-will-part-1.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will contest </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is going to get a bunch of money without having to earn it, and somebody else isn't. In the big scheme of things will contests are not that serious. Lawyers I know have clients who will go prison if the case is lost. If my clients lose, they only lose the opportunity to spend somebody else's money.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the other hand, an inheritance from family is for most people the largest single lump of unearned, untaxed money most people will ever receive. An inheritance can make a huge change in the life of the one who receives it and I perfectly understand why people are willing to fight tooth and nail to get </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2014/08/the-cruel-economics-of-will-contests-in.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the security that an inheritance can guarantee</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I don't have any inheritances coming, so I get up every morning and go to work. I do it to get money. My wife suggests that I also do it because I love the practice and want to see justice done. She is wrong. I do it for the money. If I had a chance to get some money via an inheritance I would do that too.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In will contests the parties very seldom emphasize how much they want and need the dead person's money. They don't want to seem greedy so they devise other reasons for carrying on the fight. The other reasons tend to put the case on a moral plain, pitting good versus evil. There is an aspect of this to any legal case--that's why they call it "courtroom drama"-- but not everybody does it well. This article is about some of the moralizing in will contests that doesn't work.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The most common of the approaches that does not work is the, "</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am pursuing this case solely to make sure that grandma's wishes are honored." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you truly believe that the only way to honor your dead grandma is to fight to the bitter end against your relatives over her money, keep quiet about it. It may be the truth and your motives may be pure--you just want to see grandma's wishes carried out. If, however, your battle to honor grandma also means you get a big pile of grandma's money, nobody is going to believe you. Enjoy your pure motives in silence. Will contests destroy families. No one believes that family-destroying litigation honors grandma Probate lawyers have heard the "it's what she wanted" chant so often they are immune and simply don't care. The dead person is dead. He or she no longer has any wishes. Everybody involved is going to feel more kindly toward you if you simply say that you are continuing the litigation because you think you have a winnable case. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next approach that doesn't work comes from the person who says, "</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Grandma was strong-willed and opinionated so her will could not have been the result of undue influence." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is often the first thing out of the mouth of someone accused of undue influence. I have written about </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2011/02/how-to-challenge-will-undue-influence.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">undue influence</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> elsewhere, so read up on it if the concept is new to you, The fact is that among elders, and maybe the population at large, strong-willed and opinionated people are easier to influence for selfish purposes than those who are more reserved and accepting. The laconic grandma who figures to just leave everything to her children--just like everybody else does--because she will be dead anyway is much harder to influence than the angry elder who dashes about changing her estate plan at every slight by a family member.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Elders often have money and need care. Little old ladies complain that elder men are looking for a nurse rather than a wife. A younger woman (in my world that means a woman in her fifties) willing to be a nurse can wrap a gruff and opinionated old man around her little finger in a matter of weeks. An elder is allowed to trade his money for care and, if he wants, he can leave everything to the person who brought him comfort in his last days. That is his right. If, however, the motives of the caregiver are selfish and the reward wildly out of proportion to the value of the care given, the recipient of this largess can expect a will contest. In the case where a distant cousin flies in from out of town--and who never made more than $30,000 a year in her life--suddenly gets a million dollars for the care given in the elder's last year, I think the cousin deserves all the agony that a will contest entails.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the tried and true methods of defeating an estate plan is to induce the elder to give away his major assets while still alive. That way the will is still good, but all the property is gone. A lot of my litigation involves unwinding gifts so that if the gift was a result of dementia or undue influence the property goes to the heirs rather than the recipient of the gift. In these cases I always hear, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"She forced me to accept those gifts."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The "forced me to accept" approach is similar to the "she is strong-willed and opinionated" tactic. The recipient of the gift--often the elder's house--claims that he tried to refuse the gift but the little old lady would not take no for an answer. (But now that she is dead the recipient is, of course, morally obligated to keep the property.) Probate and elder abuse law is structured in a way that creates, in certain circumstances, an </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2010/10/elder-financial-abuse-in-oregon-and.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">obligation to say no to gifts</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> from old people (unless arranged by the old person's lawyer). If you are not strong enough to stand up to old men and women and say no, then don't expect to keep the property. If you are too weak to say no and do expect to keep the gift, then you should get your gift in cash rather than real estate. You will need the cash to pay your lawyer when you are named as the defendant in a financial elder abuse civil suit. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The final unsuccessful approach I want to discuss is the one that can be summed up as, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"My opponent is a dirty, rotten, scoundrel." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is approach comes in a variety of flavors and tends to be part of every civil case. Parties like to use this approach. Lawyers put up with it because in the courtroom, as in life, good looking, honest, hardworking, and likeable people do better than ugly, dishonest, lazy and dislikeable people. Judge's have prejudices, and they like to see the benefits of life, including inheritances, go to good people. The problem with this approach is twofold. The first is that inheritance, like sunlight, falls on saints and sinners in equal portion. Parents usually leave their estates to their children no matter how despicable the rest of the world considers those children. Judge's know this and are only willing to let evidence of character, whether good or bad, sway them so much.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second problem with this approach is that you can only say two bad things about another person without bringing condemnation down upon yourself. If you say three bad things, then you start to look like the scoundrel. Denigrating others is a dangerous tactic that backfires easily. People on God's list of good people spend very little time disparaging other people. If you are spending a lot of your energy doing that, you risk being removed from the list. In the courtroom, if you say three bad things about the person on the other side, the judge is more likely to consider the testimony to be evidence of your poor character than evidence of the other persons. You cannot beat people up and still be the good guy.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Witnesses in will contests are more likely to discredit their own testimony than to have it discredited by others. There are no juries to influence and judges have seen a lot. If the judge senses that a witness is covering up a simmering cauldron and hate for the other side, the judge may well take over the questioning, uncover that cauldron and by doing so let the witness destroy his own credibility. </span></div>
<br /><br /><br />Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290641327652280859.post-71965724266416128282014-09-08T14:10:00.001-07:002014-09-08T14:10:58.627-07:00The difficulties of truth-telling in Oregon will contests and elder abuse cases.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is hard to tell the truth. The more stressful the situation, the more difficult it is. </span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-a611dea2-5717-17e2-95bd-1f0b17f9eba1" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do probate and elder law litigation in Oregon. One of the things lawyers do in </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2010/11/how-to-contest-will-part-1.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will contests</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="http://blog.orolaw.com/2010/10/elder-financial-abuse-in-oregon-and.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">financial elder abuse</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> cases is take depositions. The lawyers in the case put the witnesses in front of a court reporter, make them swear to tell truth, and then ask what happened. In this way the lawyers find out what the witnesses on the other side of the case will say at trial.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To prepare my client for deposition I give some hints about how to respond to the other lawyer's questions, but most of my emphasis goes into the importance of telling the truth. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Having my client tell the truth is crucial to my case, because a client who gives one untruthful answer out of twenty casts doubt on all twenty. My clients tell me that they will tell the truth. They may even understand the importance of it to the case, but more often than not they are simply incapable of it.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In litigation the lawyers each develop a story. The challenger of the will has a story whereby the will was a result of undue influence. The proponent of the will has a story in which the will truly represents the last wishes of the person who wrote it. The judge will listen to the evidence and either accept one of the stories, or construct from what he hears a story of his own. The witnesses in deposition and trial know what story their lawyer is trying to tell and they want to help. Often, in their zeal to help, witnesses hurt their own cases.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If all the facts supported the same story, nobody would be going to court. Cases are litigated because there is a dispute as to what happened. That means some of the facts point toward the challenger's story and some of them point to the proponent. Witnesses know this and when testifying they filter their answers through the lense of how the answer fits the story their lawyer is trying to tell. When asked a question with a straightforward answer that does not fit the witnesses story, even people who are generally truthful become evasive and defensive. Evasive and defensive witnesses are bad witnesses.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Stories and real life are not the same. When we go to the movies we don't see everything every character does every minute of the day. Facts are indifferent to the stories we tell, so authors and the editors cut out anything that doesn't contribute to the story. A different author or editor would pick out different things and create a different story. In real life heros sometimes do bad things, and villains can be philanthropic. In depositions the witness may well be asked about facts that don't fit the story the witness wants to tell. Nevertheless, it is better for the case if the witness bites the bullet and tells it the way real life presented it. I tell witnesses this all the time, but for some people the story--the narrative--has become real life, and they are unable to say anything that doesn't fit. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Litigants must accept that their lawyer cannot hide the facts that don't support the case. His job is to present the facts in a way that make his client's story more likely than the one presented by the other side. When the litigants attempt to hide facts that don't support their case, they appear from the outside to be unconvinced of the story they are propounding. Secure people accept their imperfections, and secure witnesses accept that there are flaws in the story they are presenting to the court. If the witness is truthful about the weaknesses in his case, his testimony is credible on the facts that support his case. If the witness is untruthful and evase about the flaws in the case, the suspicion is that he is also untruthful and biased about the strengths of his case</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is my job as a lawyer in a will contest or elder financial abuse case to put the facts in context and perspective. My clients want to help me, but they help the most by providing me with the most accurate information possible. The same client who complains about all the work involved in obtaining and compiling medical or financial records, is often the first one to be manipulative of the few pieces of factual evidence I have to work with. In doing so this client--the one who has stood in the way of getting the information I need--devalues the little bit of factual information I have. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a will contest the fight is always over someone else's money. The litigants didn't earn it and haven't lost it. The best witness is the one who recognizes that he or she has no moral right to the money and is willing to simply lay out the bare facts so that a judge can decided who gets it. The moment the witness decides to help by shading his testimony, he reduces the chance that the judge will decide in his favor.</span></span></div>
<br />Orrin Onkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496187978074044482noreply@blogger.com0