What's unique about estate planning in Colorado and what do you think matters?

In Colorado, probate takes a minimum of six months to complete. All wills have to go through probate in Colorado. The average time is nine months, although the minimum time is six months.

What do you like best about your community or the clients in Denver?

Clients in Denver are very intelligent. They ask a lot of good questions about Oath, me, and estate planning in general. While I believe that the clients are very intelligent, I also find Denver and Colorado as a whole to also be very casual. The interactions are pleasant.

What do clients in Denver ask the most questions about? What do people in Denver care the most about regarding estate planning?

They care the most about making it easy for their families after they pass away. It seems like every single client says something along the lines of, “I don't want to be a burden on my family after I pass away.”

The questions that I get most often are about ease of transfer and taxes. In Colorado, a trust keeps things very seamless. In regards to taxes, I let them know that when their beneficiaries inherit something, typically through a trust, they get what's called a stepped-up basis for capital gains tax which ultimately eliminates most, if not all, of capital gains on property for their kids or their beneficiaries.

Why is Oath right for your clients?

Oath is right for my clients because we're very straightforward in our process and our pricing, and the information that we give our clients. A lot of times, people have had bad experiences with attorneys in the past. Oath is a lot different because we make it easy for them to get their estate planning accomplished.

What story do you tell the most at your workshops?

I met a gentleman at one of my workshops whose family was going on almost five years in the probate process, partly because of COVID, but mostly because his family fought and no one could reach an agreement, so they were battling it out in court. Adjacent to that, I met a separate couple who went through probate for the wife’s sister. They spent almost $70,000 to probate her sister's estate. I share those two stories to let people know that probate can take a long time and it can cost a lot of money.

What do you estimate the longest possible probate is in Colorado?

The longest I have ever personally heard of was a probate that wasn’t even close to complete after almost five years.

How much do you think the most expensive probate might cost in Colorado?

On average, it's about $6,000. However, as I shared earlier, I have heard of it costing almost $70,000. It was unclear how long that process was for it to cost that much in their case, but depending on attorney's fees and other costs, it could get into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What are your three favorite communities that you visit on your workshop schedule?

Castle Rock, Golden, and Littleton.

What are vision meetings?

Vision meetings are the initial client intake meetings. We have a free workshop for people in the community. Anyone who attends that workshop is offered a free one-on-one breakout session with me as the attorney. That's where I learn a little bit more about them, what their goals are, what might work for them, and we get to know each other a little better.

What's the most impactful story you've heard from one of your clients?

The most impactful story I’ve heard was of a couple that didn't know that the husband was sick, and he died suddenly. Although she was grieving immensely at the sudden loss of her husband, the process ended up being extremely easy for her because she and her husband had set their estate plan up before his untimely passing. It was resolved within two weeks of the initial phone call she made to let us know that her husband had passed.