Episode Transcript
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Hey, friends. So I say this a lot, but two most legally significant things you can do in life are get married and die. So I decided to bring on my friend Janelle Hansen. Janelle's an estate planning attorney, and we sat down to talk about the benefits of estate planning and how they go beyond what happens in death. She highlights the benefit of an estate plan whether you are a single individual or if you have a spouse or family. I love collaborating with colleagues who I learn from, and Janelle's definitely one of those people. Hope you enjoy.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Hi, Janelle.
[00:01:01] Speaker C: Hi. Thanks for having me. Yeah.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: How are you doing this afternoon?
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Doing good. Ready for the. Yes, yes.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Me too. Much needed. I feel like sometimes when we get to Friday, it feels like you are trying to do all the last minute things, but you're also just like, watching the clock so you can turn off for the weekend, right?
[00:01:21] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Well, I'm really excited to chat with you today, Janelle. As an estate planning attorney, I always feel like you, and maybe you have this, maybe you don't, but I feel like family law attorneys and estate planning attorneys, one, they get confused for the same thing. When you talk family law, people think that there's overlap, but also I think some people don't realize how much we sometimes need each other. Right. I talk to estate planning attorneys a lot because I do a lot of premarital planning. And part of that premarital planning is assigning assets, and then ultimately that document or that information can be used to help drive estate planning. And so I'm always thankful when I find somebody that I obviously not only enjoy speaking to, but trust. And you have such excellent credibility within our community. I'm so thankful to have been introduced to you. So I think it's going to be a good episode for our listeners to understand. One, the dynamic between family law attorneys and estate planning attorneys, but really focusing on maybe some things that people don't understand about estate planning in general and what estate planning attorneys can do for them. So I'm excited to chat.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: Yeah, no, there's a lot of crossover, and even my clients, they get confused when I'm like, I'm doing this piece, but I have to refer you out for this other piece.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Right?
[00:02:44] Speaker C: Yeah, it'll be good to break that down for people.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. That's like, when I do anything prenup related or even in divorce, I'm like, have you spoken to your estate planning attorney? And they're like, well, can't you help with that? And I go, no, I know just enough to be competent in what I do as doing premarital agreements and post nuptial agreements, because I have to be competent in those areas of the law. But other than that, I go, no, not my job. No, that's for your estate planning attorney. They're going to do a better job than me.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: So tell me a little bit about why you chose estate planning and why or how you decided to start your own firm.
[00:03:20] Speaker C: Yeah. So, in law school, I wasn't sure exactly what area of law I wanted to practice, so it just kind of became a process of elimination. And one of the classes that I took that was a prep for the bar was wills and trusts. It's one of the basics that's on the bar. And the professor I had was an estate planning attorney. He was practicing, and he just had such great stories to share, and you could tell he really loved his job, and he plugged it a lot. Just talking about the flexibility, how it's an area that you can practice and have a family, how different it is from a lot of the corporate law position. So it just sounded appealing, like, that's what I want to do. I want to actually help people.
I knew that I didn't want to do family law because I had done an internship before and was like, just realize that I don't think I had tough enough skin to deal with some of the issues that you guys can deal with, you'd have to deal with with family law. So I was like, this sounds like a happy medium of being able to help people and help their families and make a big impact, more so than just working for a corporation or something. So that's how I ended up choosing this field and then to start my business, I actually was working at a firm, and I had a really great relationship with them. But then Covid hit.
I had just had a baby during COVID and then I had a son who at the time was five. And it was just like schools were closing down the minute someone sneezed. So it just became really difficult to juggle the workload that the firm needed done and my role as a parent.
So I decided to take a step back and leave that firm. And then in trying to decide if I wanted to continue with being an attorney or maybe doing some kind of offshoot just out of the blue, I had five people contact me in a week, and I'm not even kidding. I had literally five people call me saying, janelle, we need an estate plan done. Can you help us? So I just realized, well, I guess this is my calling, and I have a lot of work to do. And so I immediately called one of my friends who, she started her own firm, and I said, what do I need to do to get started? And who are your vendors? How do I get my malpractice insurance and just really hit the ground running. And this march, it'll be so in a couple of weeks, it'll be two years. So it's gone by quickly, but it's been a really great experience, and I'm really grateful and glad that I took the leap of faith and did it.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
They don't teach you that in law school. Right. They don't really teach you how to run a law firm, and that's what so many lawyers end up doing. Yes.
You can work for a firm, but you're working for a lawyer who also had to learn how to open a law firm. Right. It's not like there's special degrees or special training for lawyers who just operate law firms. That's not how it works. And so it's a really difficult skill. I wish they would focus on that more in law school. I think they're starting to get that they have to do that and offer more support that way. But in June, it'll be six years for us, and that feels like a lifetime of owning your own law firm. But I always loved the early years because you're really finding your style, you're finding the types of clients that you want to serve and kind of being able to navigate on top of that, how you structure your firm and your schedule and the flexibility that you were just talking about.
It's like the best part of owning your own business. But there's also a lot of stressors and downsides that we won't get into. But you should be so proud. I mean, I think that not enough lawyers understand that they're so capable of doing it. So that's really excellent. I love to hear that.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I think something that a lot of people might not understand is really what is defined as estate planning. Right. What is kind of under the umbrella of an estate plan? What can it look like? But maybe what are some of the high level documents and or assistance that you give with people on a regular day or a regular basis?
[00:08:00] Speaker C: Yeah. So I think when most people think of an estate plan, their mind just goes automatically to a will.
But really, what estate planning is, a will is a piece of the estate plan, but there's really a host of documents that go into creating an estate plan just on a basic level, an estate plan is the plan for your estate. Right. And so there's many pieces to that. There's the financial pieces, there's also the personal pieces, like, who's going to make decisions for you if you have Alzheimer's, dementia, or you're in a coma. Right. Medical decisions, also, when you pass away, who's going to be making decisions for a funeral or a memorial service or things like that. So an estate plan has all of those pieces in it, and it can be very simple, or it can be very complex, just depending on the amount of assets you have and what your goals are for your family.
Also, it takes a team of people sometimes to put together a really comprehensive estate plan.
But just at the basic level, an estate plan usually involves a trust or a will, sometimes both. But those are the two main documents that really say who things go to when you pass away. There's also the piece, know when you're alive, but you lack capacity. So there are financial powers of attorney. And also in California, we call it an advanced health care directive. In other states, they refer to it as a power of attorney for health, but it's everything to do with your person. So medical decisions, things like that, and then they are also along. If you have a trust, there are other documents that go hand in hand with that to make sure that your assets are titled properly to the trust and that really show your intention. Things are supposed to be in the trust, but I would say those are the four basic documents that you'll typically see. Trust, will, financial power of attorney, and a healthcare directive, or healthcare power of attorney.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: And knowing that dynamic, what do you think is a benefit of having maybe just a will or having a trust that maybe people don't quite understand?
[00:10:28] Speaker C: Yeah. So before I explain that, I have to just do a general overview of the process. So if a person passes away and they have nothing in place, usually their family or friends would have to go through the probate court. That's just a department in the court, just, like, know small claims. Right. People think of, like, Judge Judy or whatever.
There's family law court, there's criminal court, right? So there's the probate division, and that handles everything with people's estates. So if someone dies, they don't have anything in writing about how their assets should go.
Their family or friends would have to go to the probate court, and they would have to follow California rules. So every state has their own rules on how an estate gets divided. There are some rules that are overlapping or very basic, but then every state can have different nuances. So whenever I'm talking about things today, it's going to be pertaining more to California law. There might be some basics that cross over, but every state makes up its own rules, so you might not like what those rules have to say. So usually what happens know, first, everything goes to a spouse.
If there's a blended family, meaning there's a spouse, and then there are children from prior marriage on either side, there's different rules on, like, well, the spouse gets this much, and then maybe the kids from the blended family get, like, this much.
Sometimes if you don't have that immediate family, like a spouse or children, then you start looking at nieces, nephews, and maybe some cousins you've never met. So an estate plan is really nice because you get to decide exactly who things are going to and have a say.
And then in terms of choosing a will or a trust, that also varies state by state.
In California, in many of the counties, there's a huge backlog in the court. And so I prefer to draft trusts for my clients. In other states. It's not a big deal. So what would happen? Like, if you have a will, even though it says exactly who's supposed to be managing your estate, who things are going to, it still has to go through the court, and the court oversees the process all the way through. So if you say John Smith is my executor, the court still has to approve it and give an order saying John Smith is the executor. Well, just to get that hearing, to have John Smith approved, that can take about three months. So, like, if I filed today, I probably wouldn't even get a hearing until May.
And if somebody has a mortgage or something on a house, that could be the difference between foreclosure and not because you just have accounts and things just sitting, because they're locked up, because the person's passed and there's no access versus a trust that does not have to go through court. Sometimes if there are issues or Od dynamics at play, that you do have to go through court, but assuming everything is all set, nobody's fighting all that. The trustees, those are the names of the managers of the trust. All that the trustee needs is the trust document and a death certificate, and they can start to take actions on behalf of the estate.
Not to bash wills or anything. I mean, wills are important, and there are sometimes where, even in California, I do recommend a will over a trust for a client. So it really just depends. And even if you have a trust, you have to have a pour over will, because inevitably someone's going to have an asset hanging out there that they didn't name in their trust. Right.
So that would fall under the will. And the will says, give it to the trustees and follow the trust that way. So wills are an important piece of an estate plan and required, but sometimes they're just not the best vehicle to have be like the main document that's making the decisions on how to divide or distribute your assets.
Yeah.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: And I think you highlight an important point that I bring up a lot with some of my clients is, well, can't we just let it play out after the fact? I'm dead. Who cares? Right. I get that from a lot of people. Who cares what happens with my stuff? I'm gone. And if you don't have kids or a spouse, sure. I guess if that investment is not important to you, but you're leaving a problem for other people. Right. Because it still has to be handled with. Somebody's got to take it over, somebody's got to help it go through.
And so it's always the after the fact problem. And so some people will say, well, I don't want to spend the money now because it doesn't really.
No big deal. I'm gone. Make it everyone else's problem. But the cost benefit to me for an estate plan, I think is huge. I have a trust. It's so comforting to know that something happens. There's a plan for how my child's going to be taken care of, and then my family is not burdened with having to figure it out from scratch. They have our contacts for lawyers. They have a copy of our trust. It's all set. That just gives me a lot of peace of mind. I say the same thing with prenups. Right. It's like, well, you can pay for it now or you can pay for it later, and in that situation, you're still living, so you really are paying for it. Right. But it's the same thing. It's all about planning for something that lots of people get uncomfortable for, comfortable thinking about. Right. Death or divorce, and then also associated with the cost. So I think that highlights, like, a really great example of choosing your difficult. Right. You're either choosing to do a little now, spend a little money now so that it's not difficult or stressful process in the future, or not do anything and just leave it to chance, kind of.
That's not a way I operate. I know lots of people. That's what's worked for them. And so I appreciate kind of giving that example of what it can look like, the delay in courts, because a lot of people just think it's much more simple than it is.
[00:16:44] Speaker C: Yeah. And there's, there's a lot more, even with that. I mean, there is a cost factor, because another thing with going through probate, regardless of if you have a will or if you don't have any kind of plan in place, there are fees set by California law, and it's based on percentage of the estate. And so actually, it can be more cost effective to do a trust as long as everything was in order when you passed. And again, as long as family dynamics aren't dicey, it can be much cheaper to do a trust, which means more money going to your beneficiaries, whoever that might be, family, friend, charity, whoever.
So there is a cost piece to that. But more than that, even if someone says, well, I don't really have much, I mean, something you can offer your family is peace of mind because your kids or your friends, they're not going to feel comfortable having to make a decision. Like, well, did they want to be cremated or did they want a mass?
Did they want to have ashes scattered at sea, or do they want to be buried in this plot? Whatever. Or like the very difficult decision of do you resuscitate or not? That's a huge one. By having a health care directive in place, you take the burden off of your family.
Same thing like with your financial assets, having a trust or a will, having a power of attorney, designating who's going to take over it can remove a lot of the fighting. Right? Because then people start to say, well, I'm more responsible, or why do you get to do it? Why can't I? It removes a lot of that. Everybody knows what they need to do. Your wishes are clearly spelled out and your family is already grieving. So just imagine that, like your loved ones and your family, they're not mentally in the best place. And then now you're going to make them go through all the red tape of the court and navigating all these rules and all the stress of trying to find out where your assets are. Instead of just having everything in one place or a list of, go talk to these people. They know exactly what to do and how to guide you. That's just a gift you can give from the grave.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
I am a huge advocate for estate planning, and I also think it brings up a lot of good conversations to have with yourself and your family or your significant other that can spark other conversations. So that kind of takes me to my next thought, which is some people think, oh, I'm single, I don't have a family. I'm a little younger. Yeah, I have some things. Why do I need a trust? So I'd love to hear from you about some of the benefits maybe a single person could have from having their estate plan in place early.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: Yeah. So for me, it's funny, when I talk to single people, I'm like, you're the one who needs an estate plan the most. Because especially with California being community property state, there is a lot that the death of a first spouse that the surviving spouse can do, and they just need a death certificate. There's not a lot that's needed to get things transferred into their name. So you can kind of get by without having an estate plan. I don't recommend it for other reasons, but they can kind of make do. But for a single person, you're an adult, and so if there's no spouse or someone that you're on title jointly with someone, nobody can speak about your assets to anyone without having proper court documents, an order, something in place, because that can lead to a lot of fraud. That opens companies up to liability. Right.
And then for health reasons, it's like you're an adult. There are HIPAA laws where you can't share medical information, right? So unless you're next of kin or whatever that is. But even then, you have to go get special orders. You might have to go to court to open up a really expensive conservatorship, which is a really tedious and expensive process when you could have just had a simple power of attorney in place. So it's really important for people who are single to create an estate plan, number one, so they can think about who they would want to handle their things and give those individuals a heads up, right? So that way they, you know, Jim has passed away, or Jim is alive, he's in a coma, and this is where his stuff is at. Right? Like, that's just good to have that plan in place.
And then number mean, now your family is cared for, or if you don't care anything about your family, but maybe you're really involved in a charity now things are going to the charity of your choice, but again, it's really about peace of mind for loved ones. So if you're a single person and now your parents are the ones administering your estate, they've just lost a child. So wouldn't it be so much easier if there was a very clear, straightforward plan in place instead of them trying to dig around your stuff and go through court to figure out what to do.
So that's just something to consider. And I definitely recommend estate plans for single people.
[00:22:16] Speaker B: Yeah, that's kind of a perfect example. That's what I think about is the after effect is you're leaving your life and the impact of your death, not only for people to grieve and process, but now they have to step in and kind of put the pieces together in a legal way without any guidance. Start from scratch, go through the process. It's time consuming and draining. I'm dealing with some issues with my family in Arizona, and Arizona is a little unique. They have, like, a small probate transfer or small estate transfer process, which for anybody with small estates allows you to kind of avoid probate and just file some documents. It's interesting. I'm learning about it, but it's still, like, scrambling. Right. Trying to find all the accounts, get access to, I don't know, emails so we can figure it out, submit documents to different authorities, transfer title of cars.
It's very messy, it's very time consuming, and it's not something. Having gone through this experience, I would want to have to impose on anyone else, especially without that comfort of a spouse kind of having that ease of transfer. I guess in our state, there's some things that are at ease of transfer, but some things that aren't, like you highlighted. So I really think that's important for people who are single to understand. Right, yeah.
[00:23:52] Speaker C: And also, what I mean by single is anyone 18 or over. So something that people don't think about, you have an 18 year old kid going off to college.
They probably don't need a trust and a will and all of that because they really don't have assets. California also has rules on small estates. So the magic number in California is if everything you own is under $184,500, you don't have to go through a probate.
But it's still just time consuming just to gather everything and figure out, do they even have under that number or is it more than that number? Right, but going back. So a child who is 18 going to college, if something happens and there is no health care directive in place or power of attorney in place, something happens to your child, the school will not talk to you because that's an adult.
There is a sad case that I had heard of where child was at college, went on an outing with friends to the beach, got swept away in waves, and it took a while before they could determine if child was living or not. Right. They presumed he was gone because there wasn't a body found or whatever, but in that time, they wanted to go to the dorm, collect his things. They couldn't, and there was nothing in place pronouncing he was passed away. So they couldn't really open a probate and they couldn't get access to their child's things or close out accounts or do whatever they needed to do to start to grieve and move on.
And so it would have been really helpful if they had healthcare directive and power of attorney in place because he was still technically alive, and so the power of attorney would have worked. So it's things like that of 18 years old. You really should have some basic power of attorney and healthcare directive in the very least in place.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: I didn't ever really consider that, and so it's really interesting that you bring that up, because I've not heard anybody even I'm trying to experience or think back to me going to college. Right. It wouldn't have ever occurred to me, and I don't think it occurred to my parents, and I don't know any friends that that would have occurred to. So I feel like that should be in the college admissions pamphlet. Right.
[00:26:23] Speaker C: I know. And I do think that schools, they have something to that effect now where they'll have a limited thing of your parents. You have to have your parents sign off on stuff or like, can we talk to this person about billing and things like that?
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: They don't really have a designated person you can talk to, kind of a form.
I wish they would, because even medical places, they'll have some basic forms where it's not anything to the extent of an advanced healthcare directive that really spells out everything that could happen. But it'll be like a designated, like, we can talk to these people, right?
Yeah. I wish that there was something. I know I didn't have anything in place.
I did my parents estate plan.
My parents didn't have anything in place to even think about those issues either.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: But no, it is important.
So talk to me a little bit about if you're married or even in committed relationship, and maybe talk a little bit about having an estate plan with somebody who's not your spouse, if you can. And what are the benefits of an estate plan for a couple or a partnership.
[00:27:38] Speaker C: Yeah. So same rules apply. If you're not married, it doesn't matter that you've been partners and living together for 15, 2025 years. Under the law, you're single. Right. So because of that, all the rules apply to you that apply to a single person. So if you have been sharing your life with someone for a long time, it's really important you have an estate plan because they would not be the next in line to receive anything from you. It would go to parents or nieces or nephews. It might all be going to minor children. So you might have a home that's owned with someone and half is in the spouse's name and half is in a guardianship for your kids, which is kind of weird to think about, but that's what would happen. So for people who are not married, you can name each other in your documents. Definitely.
And again, it's just really important because when you're not married, you're not given the benefit of a married couple, where things would just automatically transfer to a spouse.
And then for married couples, I think it's just good because first of all, if an estate is more complex, because right now I've just been kind of operating under the assumption of there's an estate that's well under any kind of estate tax limit. So the estate is not going to own any tax.
But that's another reason why estate planning can be important, is if you do have a good amount of wealth, you can minimize or even negate owing any estate taxes, which is more money to your beneficiaries. So if you're married, you definitely should be doing that planning. Also, there is so often where married couples, there's one person who kind of takes on finances and the other person just goes with the flow. So this is a point in time where it really brings them together so they can both know what's going on and be on the same page.
And there's been a lot of times, too, where I've met with spouses for things like the healthcare directive, and you're going through the questionnaire and they're literally turning to each other saying, I didn't know you would want that.
They don't have discussions, so if something happened in that scenario, even though, yes, wife or husband could make decisions, they would be sitting there like, I don't know what they wanted. We never talked about this. So it just really helps strengthen that communication and what's going to happen.
And then definitely if there are children from previous relationships or maybe estranged children, it's really important for a married couple to be really specific of these are my children, and this is who I want included in my estate, or this is who might, under the law, be entitled to my estate, but I don't want them to inherit because of XYZ.
Also, anytime you have minor children, that is something that must go through probate. The probate court has to make sure that the children are going to a safe place, so they have to do their own independent investigations, things like that. So part of the estate plan, even if you have a trust in that pour over will, that's where we name the guardians for minor children.
So that's something really important to plan for. Right? Like, if you can't pick up your kids at 03:00 p.m. Because you got in a car accident, is your child just sitting at a school or who knows what they're going to be doing? Who knows that they're the ones to go and pick up the child, right. Who knows that they're the one who's going to be making medical decisions or providing care.
You need to make sure you have all of that lined up and give notice to those people and have conversations so that your child is taken care of.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
I think that what's interesting to me is I'm always a worst case scenario kind of person. I want to plan for the worst case scenario. Not in every aspect of my life, that would be exhausting, but in the ways in which there's already kind of a set plan and mechanism in place to guide that, like an estate plan or a premarital agreement or post marital agreement, things that just help avoid, as much as possible the conflict and or unknowns. Right. In the future. And so when you're highlighting the fact that when you have couples in blended families or when you have couples who have chosen not to get legally married, maybe they hold themselves out as husband and wife, right? But it's not going to just work itself out like you might think, right? It's not, oh, the kids are fine. They'll get along, or even in the situation where you have several kids from that same relationship, but they're all different personalities, they're going to want different things. Having a mechanism to avoid conflict for those people is a huge gift that you can give them during, I think we kind of already talked about it during that difficult time. And so it really gives you a lot of flexibility, too, about how things get handled. Some people, I mean, and maybe you can answer this, right? Some people say, okay, they designate an executor, and that person just can handle it however they want with some limitations. Maybe if there's a kid, but they just are in charge, and then some people get super detailed, I'm assuming, too, like, no, there's very strict requirements or maybe the grandkids get x amount, but then the siblings get this much. And you can get really detailed, from what I understand, about how things actually play out and almost take away some of the control even from the executor, or you can leave it open ended. Right?
[00:33:36] Speaker C: Yeah, no, there's a lot. I definitely have clients who are like, I don't care. Everything split. They have three kids, everything's split three ways, and they can all just do whatever they want. And then I have had people where they're like, this thing is staying in trust until this person's like 40 or 50 or their life. And there's very specific instructions on when the trustee can do a distribution. Like, I remember there was a client I had where they wanted the education to be paid for, but they were really specific of the trustee can't even begin to think about giving a distribution unless the child can show. They tried to apply for grants or they tried to apply for a scholarship. And there were just these requirements in terms of what kind of a school they could go to and grades and things like that.
They wanted to teach some responsibility, I guess, from the grave. Right. And that the kids not thinking this is their purse and piggyback and they just drain it all, but that it's really meant to be there to aid them in their journey to becoming a responsible adult who's contributing to society.
So there's a lot that can be done. So it's really important.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Is there anything else regarding estate planning that you feel like you want people to understand?
[00:35:03] Speaker C: Yeah. So one piece with estate planning, we're planning for when you lack capacity, meaning you can't think for yourself anymore, you can't take care of yourself anymore or when you pass away.
And so that's different from family law in terms of you're planning for people who are alive and what's happening if they get a divorce. So, like an estate plan, if you have an estate plan in place, that's not going to dictate what happens in a divorce. And actually, you'll need to update your estate plan once you are separated or going through a divorce, because you might, depending on the circumstances, you probably don't want everything going to your ex, which is usually how things set up.
Right. It goes spouse first.
So that's just something I want people to consider.
But the other thing is just regardless of what assets you own, you should go talk to an estate planning attorney just to see what is needed, because there are so often that people say, well, I just have one account and a house. And so I don't really need anything, right? And it's like, no, you probably do. Like, does your house have a reverse mortgage? Does your house have a mortgage?
Do you have children?
Who's going to handle the mortgage? Who's going to handle selling your home? You have a bank account. Is someone named. Do people know where the bank account is?
It doesn't matter how simple the assets are. You just need to have something in place. And then, like I said, even if you don't have enough financial assets, so to speak, having powers of attorney and Healthcare directives in place are just so crucial so that if you're alive and family has to help make decisions or help you pay bills, whatever, they have that authority now.
I have clients, too. Everybody gets along and it's like, well, everyone gets along until they don't.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:37:12] Speaker C: I've grown up the same way. My mom always said, and my grandma, they would always say, you plan for the worst and you pray for the best. Right? So you just have to assume when people are grieving and when money is involved, people can lose their whole minds and they might not be thinking clearly. You get a lot of hurt, emotions or some wrong that was done, some trauma when they were a child, that they feel a certain way.
All of that stuff can come up when someone passes away. You also don't realize you might be the glue of your family. So everything's getting along now because you're the glue. But what happens when the glue goes away? Like, it's all going to fall apart.
So just making sure you have plans and have discussions so there's no surprises and so that your family can really just say, well, this is what mom wanted. This is what dad wanted. Brother, sister, whoever. Right.
It's just really important to have something in know, even something basic in place.
[00:38:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing all that detail. For anybody who is looking for an estate plan in California, where can they find you?
[00:38:33] Speaker C: Yes. So I have a website. It's JH, like my name, janelle Hansen. So jhtrustlaw.com.
So they have some faqs on there about basics with estate planning, some of the things we talked about today. And there's a page for a contact form so people can contact me on there. I'm also on LinkedIn. My name is Janelle Hansen. I don't know if you have like, show notes or something, but, yep, I'll.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: Put them in the show notes.
[00:39:03] Speaker C: You can do that. But those are the two main places you can contact me at perfect.
[00:39:10] Speaker B: Well, Janelle, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate.
[00:39:14] Speaker C: Thank you. No, I'm always grateful when I can share these little bits of knowledge with people, because you don't know what you don't know.
Somebody can hear this and think, oh, if they've been on the fence about getting something in place, hopefully this will be the nudge to push them over the hump and get it done.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I always tell people that the two most legally significant things you can do in life are get married and die. And so I feel like this is a nice kind of collaboration for people to listen to because it really is very important to understand the law in the state that you live in, not only in the event of marriage, but in the event of divorce and in the event of death, and utilize the things that are available to make those things less stressful. And estate planning, however it is that you choose to define that, as far as what you choose to do is such a crucial tool. So I really appreciate your time.
[00:40:17] Speaker C: No problem. Thanks for having me.
[00:40:19] Speaker B: All right.
