I recently had to buy a screwdriver. I did not set out that Saturday morning to add a new screwdriver to my toolbox. I have plenty. My wife wanted to paint our shutters. The screws attaching the shutters to the house had star heads. I didn’t have the right size star head screwdriver. At first, I tried to use a pair of pliers to take out the screws. That didn’t work. So I went to the hardware store and bought a new screwdriver.
Theodore Levitt, a Harvard business school professor, once said “People don’t want to buy a ¼” drill. They want a ¼” hole.” I think he meant to refer to a ¼” bit instead of drill. He might not have used a drill very often. But you get the point. I didn’t need a screwdriver. I needed my shutters painted.
I couldn’t use just any screwdriver. I needed a specific screwdriver. It wasn’t just a star head. It was a specific size star head. Because I bought the right screwdriver, I was able to take the shutters off, paint them and put them back on. I checked it off my list. The shutters changed colors. And I had the peace of mind that this job was taken care of.
You don’t need a will, a trust, a deed, or a power of attorney. They are just screwdrivers. Or drill bits. You need the right tool to accomplish your job. You need the peace of mind that when you are no longer here everything will be taken care of. You can’t get that when you try to use pliers to do the job of a screwdriver.
You may not be able to articulate your planning goals. You may not understand how each of your assets fits into your plan. You may not understand the tax implications of the different planning tools. You may not understand the risks that you or your beneficiaries face or the ways to mitigate those risks. You may not know if you need a screwdriver or a drill bit. You just know that somewhere on your list of things to do is “update will.”
Our job is to help you identify what you wish to accomplish and choose the best tools for the job.