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I have often written that probate in Georgia is not the terrible ordeal that people fear in other states. However settling the affairs of a deceased person is real work.

A divorce is almost always an emotionally traumatic experience and often the concluding event to troubled times. Worrying about estate planning after struggling through the legal system to obtain the divorce may seem like adding insult to injury.

Today people are still selling books, and even seminars, which avowedly solve the problem presented by using a last will and testament to wind up the affairs of a deceased person.

In today's America the "traditional family" of a husband, wife and their children is becoming a statistical minority of all households.

There is a hardly a financial planner on the radio, or in the print media, who does not push the idea that every person's estate plan needs a trust.

In Shakespeare's great play, KING LEAR, the title character discovered the danger of judging the love of his daughters by a willingness to make protestations of love in exchange for the advancement of their inheritance.

An estate plan matches a person's economic reality to the legal arrangements to dispose of their wealth in the event of death. It's designed to implement their wishes and minimize exposure to taxes.

In many respects it is very difficult to prepare for death. However the planning needed to avoid creating chaos for one's survivors is not difficult.

Only a small percentage of people have wills. The most commonly cited statistic states that one-third of the adult population have prepared wills. But is a will enough?

I am going to write this month about the rather predictable situation of someone who is permanently disabled because of a medical condition from childhood, or because of a medical condition at an advanced age.