VIDEO: Brad Micklin Discusses Forgotten Estate Planning

Video Transcript

Charles Payne: You might scratch your head if I told you that Aretha Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Kurt Cobain and so many others have one thing in common, aside of course from being American icons. All three of them died without wills written at the time of their death, and they are far from being alone. In 2016, Gallup Poll, it showed that 44% of Americans have a will prepared. That means the rest don’t.

Joining me now, Brad Micklin, he is a family attorney, and Carol Raltz is back with us as well. Now Brad you do this on a more personal face-to-face level. What are the impediments? In other words, when someone finally comes to see you and you say, “What took you so long?”, what do they tell you?

Brad Micklin: Well, they have a lot of different excuses. We see, even with the long list of people that you named … Because don’t forget we have Prince also whose litigation is still ongoing regarding his estate. So we have Prince, we have the Queen of Soul, it’s like the royal family of music and nobody’s giving good advice.

I think the main reason for these kinds of people, the people in their inner circle like to stay in their inner circle. Nobody likes to talk about death. So if you have a high-profile client who doesn’t like to talk about death, you’re not going to do it. But what you’re doing is you’re leaving their friends, their family and even yourselF with these little problems, tax and legal problems, that they’re going to have to deal with.

Charles Payne: When these are publicized, do you see at least a temporary bump in people, your phone? Does your phone ring a little bit more often? Or do you see an increase of people coming to your office?

Brad Micklin: Maybe. It’s hard to say. I mean, there’s certain times of the year that people get more litigious and more concerned. Holidays are always a big time, summer’s a big time. But I don’t think these kinds of issues really prompt people to get over their fear of talking about death.

Charles Payne: And the final words of wisdom?

Brad Micklin: Final words of wisdom is during this commercial break, I want to make sure that you have a will.

Charles Payne: Okay. You bring a kit for me?

Speaker 3: And a future file system.

Charles Payne: Well, you know what, it is a very serious issue and it rips up families. It’s unnecessary, but it happens far too often. Thank you both very much. Really appreciate it.

Brad Micklin: Thanks for having us, Charles.

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