Читать книгу The Living Trust Advisor - Condon Jeffrey L. - Страница 6

Before I say something trite right now like “Let the big game begin!” I must first convey a few things you should know about my style of coaching in order to help you follow the instructions in this playbook.

Bringing You into My Personal Life

Throughout this book, I will pepper you with numerous examples that illustrate a key point or demonstrate how you can do something. While many of these examples may be drawn from experiences with clients, others may provide you with an occasional glimpse into my personal life. Whether I allude to my business history, divorce, girlfriend, or likes and dislikes, I use these personal anecdotes as a device to support certain issues or emphasize particular concepts that arise in this book.

While I understand the viewpoint that divulging one’s personal anecdotes and professional experiences may be unprofessional, I have always disagreed with it. I believe that providing examples and sharing details that have arisen in my personal life and law practice bring this nonfiction book about estate planning alive and make the advice offered applicable to your life, too.

Therefore, you are not getting a technical lecture filled with charts, graphs, and PowerPoint slides within this book. Instead, you are receiving the advice and opinions of one attorney based on his observations and experiences – both professional and personal. With such a subjective approach, it is near impossible to convey effective lessons by keeping the private life out of the process.

Making Sweeping Generalizations

I am fond of broad and superlative statements that appear to be intended to apply universally to every reader of this book. Of course, I know that for every person who embodies such an absolute, there is another person for whom that absolute does not apply. Nonetheless, in order to help convey information and emphasize a particular point, a statement must come across as somewhat dogmatic without reference to exceptions. Therefore, the sweeping generalization is a literary device I often employ in The Living Trust Advisor.

Using Everyday Language to Explain Technical Ideas

The Living Trust, family inheritance planning, and estate taxes involve complex personal and financial issues. But discussing these issues in a legal manner would ensure this book’s quick demise and bargain- basement status, as it would render the book a somewhat lackluster and uninteresting read. Moreover, if I used fancy legal jargon, I fear that many readers might not understand what I was saying. Therefore, I use nontechnical language to explain many technical concepts throughout this book. For example, the person whom you appoint to carry out your instructions after your death is called the successor trustee. In this book, I refer to that person as the after-death agent. Since your attorney might wonder what you are talking about if you mention appointing your after-death agent, I also supply the technical term.

Getting My Sense of Humor

At my seminars, there are two compliments that I can never get enough of. The first: “Gee, Mr. Condon, are you sure you’re a lawyer? I understood every word you said.” The second: “Mr. Condon, I never thought I would find myself laughing at a seminar on death and taxes. I was really entertained.”

I’m not using these comments to wow you into buying this book or attending my seminars. I’m just trying to show you that I have found success in using humor as the medicine to help folks digest this material more easily, and that this book follows suit with my usual comedic approach.

I have an absurd sense of humor, and this book is riddled with it. With a title like The Living Trust Advisor, you probably would not expect to find such a quality in an inheritance planning book. I am aware that some readers may not find it appropriate to address death-and-taxes-type matters with a comedic approach. However, I could not restrain myself, for two reasons. First, I just gotta be me. Second, approaching such a tedious subject as the Living Trust with humor simply makes that matter less tedious and, if I have my way, even entertaining.

Consulting Your Own Living Trust Lawyer

This book is designed to identify situations, problems, and conflicts that arise in the establishment, maintenance, and distribution of your Living Trust. However, because your set of circumstances may differ from the scenarios I describe, it is critical that you do not include any of my suggestions in your own Living Trust without first consulting your own Living Trust attorney.