Why?

When I was working in the District Attorney’s office, my parents called me to meet with their estate planning attorney. My parents were planning their estate and they thought I knew something about estate planning. I knew nothing about estate planning as I was a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office putting bad people in jail. After several meetings with their attorney, my parents signed their estate plan. We thought everything was in order.

Several years went by. My father retired from his advertising business and my parents took off on a trip to Africa. They were both killed in a plane crash in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977. 583 people died. This was the deadliest crash in aviation history.

Suddenly I was confronted with settling their estate. I thought everything was in order, but it was not. I discovered that I would have to spend three years in probate and lose hundreds of thousands of dollars unnecessarily between probate and death taxes. All of which could have been avoided had my parents hired an attorney who specialized in estate tax planning rather than a general practice attorney.

From my parents tragedy I learned that they had the wrong type of estate plan. I was forced to go to probate and I had to pay their death tax before receiving my inheritance. Probate and taxes could have been avoided. I later learned that we can plan our estate in such a way to totally eliminate the voluntary death tax of 40% and we can completely avoid probate. We all have an opportunity to leave our estate to our children and

grandchildren in ongoing trusts that protect our children and eliminate the need to go to probate and eliminate the death tax.

From my parents’ tragedy I decided to concentrate on estate tax planning. I became a “trust doctor” (not a medical doctor) so no family would have to experience the time delay and unnecessary taxes in receiving their inheritance. I wanted to “fix trusts” so other families would not have to go through the agony of my experience. I would be honored to have the opportunity to represent you and your family in becoming your “trust doctor.”

W. Bailey Smith has offices in both Irvine and Long Beach. For more information you can reach him at (949) 833-8891 or check out his website at www.yourtrustdr.com.