Transcript:
Hi. My name is Jordan Flake. I'm an attorney with Clear Counsel Law Group, and I practice in estate planning. Today I want to address a question that we get about whether or not it's important to have a Nevada attorney, who is at a law firm in Nevada, prepare your estate planning documents.
What we have, sometimes, is there are out of state law firms that will do legal services. Sometimes people will go to a different state to get their wills drafted, or the power of attorney, or their trust documents drafted.
There are a lot of reasons why it's important to come see a Nevada attorney whose main office is here in Nevada and who is familiar with Nevada laws.
In the entire arena of estate planning there is a lot of overlap between the different states. There really is, and that's fine.
A house in California or Iowa needs to have certain designations that would help it pass, upon your passing. Whether you're in any state Iowa, California, Nevada there's certain concepts that apply across the board.
Because of that we have a situation where sometimes residents of one state will obtain estate planning documents from a firm that may only have a small outpost here, or they may go to a different state and get those documents.
You Need a Nevada Attorney to Update Your Estate Plan
However, I think that by doing that you'd be missing out on a big opportunity. With estate planning it's important to go with an estate planning attorney that is where you are.
I would encourage Nevada residents to come to an estate planning attorney here, locally.
Here's why, estate planning often isn't just a one-shot situation.
At least good estate planning is a situation where every three to five years your estate planning attorney should follow up with you and say, "Hey, has anything changed in your life?" Is there a different marriage, maybe a different job, maybe you've sold houses or purchased a house. Maybe one of your siblings had or one of the people you had designated as a personal representative had passed away.
You want somebody who's close to you geographically, and who's close to you from a professional standpoint, who will be able to ask these questions and get these answers from you. That's one advantage of having someone local. It's going to be easier to have the type of relationship where you have more constant contact.
As a Nevada Attorney, I Understand the Nuances of Nevada Law
Second to that, also, is there are differences in the law. Even there aren't big difference in the law, there easily can be differences in the law when the Nevada legislature changes the law.
You're going to want somebody who is tied in enough to Nevada's revised statutes, that when there is a big change in the law something triggers in our mind that says, "Hey we should reach out to all of our estate planning clientele and let them know that this thing has changed."
That's another reason why you wouldn't want to go with an attorney who merely has a Nevada license, or has a license in another state but isn't really tied into the state. They're not going to be aware of changes in the law that might effect your estate planning situation.
The Clear Counsel Difference
Clear Counsel, in contrast, if there is a change in the law we're equipped to determine which clientele are going to be affected by that. We'll send out a newsletter, or a letter, to all of our clients saying, "Hey, these are some changes in the law. Please contact us if you feel like this might apply to you." That's just another advantage of going with someone here locally.
That actually can be extrapolated into a more general sense of, we're tied into the community.
For example, I'm an appointee on the senior citizens advisory commission for City of Henderson's senior citizens. I know a lot about different resources in the community that are intended to benefit seniors.
I'm sitting here with a senior citizen from Henderson. Of course we're talking about estate planning. Other things come up to.
We have somebody maybe move here from Michigan and they wonder what service opportunities are available. I know those types of things because I am locally tied into the community.
I can tell you, "Hey, it just so happens that the senior community center down here offers all of these different programs. Here's somebody who you can get in touch with."
That's the type of overall generalized advantage that you can get from dealing with a local Nevada attorney who's plugged into the community. Who's aware of the laws, and who's geographically available to talk about any changes that might happen with your estate plan.
If you're here in Nevada, please reach out to us, Clear Counsel Law Group. We'll meet with you. For a consultation we don't charge at all. In the future you'll be happy that you had somebody here locally who can help you out with different changing situations. Whether in the law, or in your own life.
Give us a call. I'm attorney Jordan Flake. You can reach us at (702) 476-5900.
Thank you.
