Episode 6: COVID’s Impact on Legal Documents!

Isaac Wright: Well, welcome back to Wright Money Tips. This is going to be a nice conversation for a lot of you today. We had some crazy times here in 2020, and I think you can argue that we’ve had some in 2021. A lot of it has to do with unfortunately some big problems: disability, death, and hospitalizations. Today on the program, is really what I want to talk to all of you about. We have a guest speaker who has been a good friend of mine for over 10 years, who is an estate and elder planning attorney, Jean Reynolds.
Jean, I’m really happy to have you here on the podcast and on the show, kind of feeling like we’re going back in old times. You and I have used to spend a lot of time together doing presentations around some of the pitfalls when it comes to estate planning documents. But welcome to Wright Money Tips.
Jean Reynolds: Thanks so much for having me.
Isaac Wright: This will be a really good hard-hitting show in terms of some of the things I know we talked about before we even came on air. Some of the things we’ve talked about in the past, maybe before we go into some of those things when it comes to estate planning, documents, and some of the things that we’ve seen that’s caused some issues.
Talk maybe a little bit about your background and what brought you into estate planning so that the listeners and viewers can get a chance to get to know you a little bit better.
Jean Reynolds: Great! Law is actually my second career. I worked for my mom in the finance business for 10 years and went back to law school and graduated in 2003.
And when I did that, I came to Richmond and went to work at a boutique firm that did only estate planning and business planning kind of legal work. And, so I got my expertise there and then branched out on my own around 2009 and have had my own practice since then.
Isaac Wright: Well, I think it’s good for everybody to hear that because you and I really started to tag team in about 2009 and 10, and it’s great to see your practice and how well it’s grown and just personally to see how well you’ve grown.
We’ve seen so many issues here in 2020. So really, let’s jump in a little bit in terms of, let’s say powers of attorney, wills and trusts. I’ll let you have kind of carte blanche over what you want to talk about here. But to me, I think it’s important to say at least through 2020 and where we’re at today.
I think a lot of people have realized the importance of having legal documents. I think we can just start there because you know with people being hospitalized people are not able to accomplish certain goals if they are unable to.
What’s probably been the biggest thing that you saw in 2020, maybe one or two things that really were problematic and hopefully remedied for a lot of the people that are listening today.
Jean Reynolds: Well, I think you hit the nail on the head. You and I have spent years being passionate about people getting ready for times like this, expected or unexpected. And 2020 sort of forced people in a position that they had to think about it. Whether they were at home, not able to go out and do anything, it started their checklist or whether they got themselves, unfortunately, in a situation that without documents, their hands were literally illegally tied. Both have been issues and as a result, have kept my business very busy for the last 12 months.
Isaac Wright: When you legal documents, what are we talking about here? What’s probably been the biggest document people have questions around and with all that’s been going on?
Jean Reynolds: With folks that have become unfortunately hospitalized, the biggest problem I’ve seen are medical powers of attorney and business powers of attorney. And of course, as you can imagine, when people are hospitalized in 2020, they can’t have anybody come see them. And so things would be a little bit different, even with spouses, if you had your spouse in the hospital with you, then doctors could discuss things with your spouse, et cetera.
But without those medical documents and with the HIPAA rules, it’s been almost impossible for people to communicate about their health situations and their financial situations as well.
Isaac Wright: Let me step back here, because even here at our firm, we’ve had a lot of people that have had life-changing events that do not have a power of attorney.
There are some specifics around that to the type that you want to have a medical directive is another big issue, which Jean just covered. Let’s say Jean, with the fact that sometimes people don’t have those documents in order, what happens if you don’t? If you can kind of speak to that a little bit, sometimes we get that question, “Well, what are they going to do, just turn me away?”
I’m talking about everything from the bank all the way to the hospital. What’s been your perspective on that?
Jean Reynolds: Well, without a business powers of attorney, I refer to them as durable general powers of attorney and people’s hands literally have been tied.
I don’t think we would say a hospital would turn them away, but anytime a family member goes to try to handle any financial affairs for someone that is hospitalized, without that important piece of paper and without them being on that account, it’s impossible for them to act on behalf of that patient.
So the only solution to that is to go to court and get a guardianship and conservatorship over that person, which is not only expensive, but time consuming. And a lot of times, time is of the essence and we don’t have a lot of time to make those decisions.
Isaac Wright: You know, probably another question that I know we’ve heard from people that just don’t know a lot about documents or think that they can go online and grab a quick document.
I think it’s important to probably have documents that spell out specifically what you want and probably have an attorney that has your back in case something does go sideways. And I’ve told people that for years and then I’ve sent them over to see you and other attorneys; the fact that it’s nice to have somebody that knows who you are and that has your back.
Interestingly enough, as we’re sitting here talking about this, I just thought about this as we’re sitting here talking about making sure that you have your powers of attorney in good order, a medical directive. So, somebody that you trust can have your back to take care of your affairs and maybe in conjunction with that, at least having an attorney that specializes in estate planning documents, and Jean does a great job.
To me, what I also find interesting is this, and like to get your perspective on. When actually a lot of people just like you and I are on Zoom right now, we’d like to get these documents completed, but they can’t. They could come to your office or for whatever purposes and reasons virtually speaking. How have you gone about being able to help the people that need or would like to reevaluate their legal documents?
And I’m talking everything from wills, trusts, powers of attorney, medical directives. Tell me a little bit about how that’s been for you.
Jean Reynolds: As you can imagine, 2020 may change that whole perspective as well. Just like I’m working from home, people that are working, a lot of them worked from home and then I deal with a lot of older folks.
So that puts a whole other perspective on this virtual situation. I do have a lot of older folks that are savvy and I can invite to a Zoom meeting and we can do our meetings virtually. And then on the flip side of that, I have some older and that doesn’t really work for them. And for those folks, we have sort of cobbled together a way to accomplish their goals, whether it be by phone call, whether we have a phone call with one of the children, if it’s a single elderly person, just to try to clarify what it is they want to do.
And of course interestingly enough, for several years now, the legislature has been talking about making it so that you can e-sign and you can e-sign notarized documents. And so, it’ll be interesting what 2020 brings up as far as legislation down the road about whether we’ll be able to virtually sign wills and things like that electronically.
Isaac Wright: I wasn’t even sure myself. It was kind of a question that I wanted to know. Good to know that obviously progress is being made, knock on wood, as we all hope that we can get back to a little bit more of a normal way of being able to have some face-to-face conversations and the return to normal. I think we all would like to see.
Before we wrap up here, Jean, anything that you want to say leading through 2021 as a thought? Maybe a couple of thoughts about, what not necessarily problems, but let’s call solutions, things that you see on the horizon?
Jean Reynolds: I think that it’s going to be more and more important for people to get their literal affairs in order, not only because of the pandemic, but because of the nature of the way things are happening. Financial institutions are getting more and more strict about what they’ll accept as far as powers of attorney and what they’ll allow them to do. Doctors and hospitals are as well. I think it’s so important that people, and during this whole time, I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve had call me to make sure that the documents they have will suffice in the event they need them during the pandemic or down the road.
The other thing, a little unrelated, but certainly important is that because we’re having a change of the guard in the presidency, I think that we’ll have to look at the estate tax business again. And I think it’s important for people to do a re-evaluation about their estates as to what kind of planning suits their needs best.
Isaac Wright: Excellent points, Jean. And just another thing real quick again, I’ve known Jean for over 10 years, she’s willing to come to our office.
She’s one of our key strategic partners when it comes to creating a comprehensive plan. You can reach out here or if you would like to, you can talk to Jean Reynolds directly. I’m going to have Jean Reynolds information coming up here on the screen right now, email and phone number.
Jean, I want to say this, I think that you and I will continue to have future conversations in the not too distant future, just because of the amount of change that’s likely to take place on some of the things that we’ve covered today. But I really appreciate you jumping on the program today just to kind of fill everybody in.
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