tcb: living trust signed and sealed

I've had a Living Trust ever since 2008.
Nope, that's incorrect.
I've had what I thought was a Living Trust since then, but I had never finished it.
I discovered that in December when I was actually reading through it.
It had been at least a decade since I'd done so and I was surprised to find unsigned pages.
Damn.
Plus there was one document that I'd marked through, unaware that had rendered the entire Trust null and void.
Damn.
So I'd saved up points on AARP.com to swap to them for the GoodTrust Estate+ Plan.

That was in January of this year.
Then I'd set about from scratch writing the important documents with that software: the Will, the Health Directive, the Power of Attorney, the Living Trust.
That's when I realized that what I needed was an update to the Living Trust I already had established years ago.
The funding for that Estate Plan of 2008 was already completed; starting anew with a new document seemed to be causing more trouble than good.
Damn.
So, back to SmithBarid I went, having a free consultation with Michael Smith after attending one of his webinars, lugging in my 5-inch thick Estate Plan from 2008, plus the documents I'd made using the GoodTrust Estate+ Plan.

That was in March.
That's when I found out that crossing items out and writing on the witnessed documents had rendered them useless.
Damn.
So, I signed a contract with SmithBarid for a "restatement" of my already-established Living Trust and all other needed documents.

That cost me $2500.

Damn.

In April, I met with Richard Barid, the original lawyer who had helped write the initial Living Trust some sixteen years ago.

We went over the information, changing things as needed, verifying that all names of Trustees and beneficiaries were correct, confirming the funding sources.

Why is that last part important?

The estate needs to be settled after death, with any items not already in the trust being transferred into it, so as to offset any call for probate.

I made sure to ask the lawyers what would be needed to settle my estate.

I was informed that fee was $1500.

Fine, the accounts for the Living Trust have that amount, plus a bit more.

After that meeting, I had to wait for the changes to be made in named Trustees and Beneficiaries, then I had to verify those changes were correct.

Reading legalese is certainly slow work, and dry, too.

Finally, the Signing Date arrived.

I spent almost exactly 90 minutes with Maddy Gough and Melanie, the two designated as witnesses for all the signatures that I made, and all my initialing of pages.

I think we were all surprised to find that much time had passed.

My phone had remained home, and the room had no clock, nor were any of us wearing watches or having our phones at hand.

Good.

Knowing that much time elapsed made me feel good about my review.

Good.

I had been told that Signing Day was typically a day of relief for the client.

Yes, I agree.

It is very much a relief to have my Estate Plan completed.

Yes, very much so.

Now, time for me to relax and to celebrate my birthday with my brothers.

(smile!)