GUIDE ESTATE PLANNING

CREATE A LEGACY THATSPARKS THE CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS 3 PROGRAM OVERVIEWS FOR ESTATE PLANNING PROFESSIONALS

90% OF PEOPLE THINK IT’S VERY IMPORTANT TOHAVE END OF LIFE CONVERSATIONS WITH THEIRLOVED ONES.BUT FEWER THAN 30% OF US DO.We don’t have to tell you how important it is for people tohave end-of-life conversations. As a professional in the end oflife space, you see the consequences of avoiding theseconversations and much-needed planning. Why is this? Why issomething we consider so important something very few of usactually do?Well, few want to even think about death, much less talkabout and plan for it. Death is presented in our culture assomething to avoid at all costs - in healthcare, where death isconsidered failure… in funeral homes, where the atmosphere ismorose and depressing… even in tech, where promises ofextending life beyond its natural limits and into potentialimmortality continue to fuel our collective imaginations.Then there’s the emotional and time investment: it can beoverwhelming to start creating a legacy, compiling life stories,photos, and memories, documents, policies, and bankaccounts. It’s a lot of work with little guidance - where doesone begin?And then getting all the legal work done - that costs money.Wills and estate plans, powers of attorney, advance directives- again, overwhelming.But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, starting withcrafting a legacy is a warm and welcoming gateway towardgetting all our end-of-life matters handled, as long as it’sapproached the right way.Legacy work isn't about death and dying; it's about life andliving. With a few tools and a little guidance, you can helpyour clients craft a legacy, tackle the tough questions, and getall their healthcare and estate planning affairs in order.Read on for tips on running a legacy workshop at your business!

1. DISCUSSION BASEDOverview: Discussion legacy building programs are simple toimplement and can be organized a variety of ways. One-on-onediscussions can be done between a client and staff member orfamily member, and simply requires some leading or promptedquestions and an open listening ear. A printed worksheet orjust general ideas floating around in your head can lead to afruitful, beneficial discussion that clients tend to respond wellto. Group legacy discussions follow similar guidelines, but canbe done among a whole family and a facilitator. We suggesthaving a proposed topic for the discussion, but to allow thetalk to flow freely once people get comfortable and the chatsget rolling.Suggested Materials: Nothing! These discussions require noadditional materials. However, in many people’s experience,recording these conversations can be quite a beautiful thing tolook back on and share with family members. This would onlyrequire a simple recorder or an audio app on a smartphone. Budget: Free!

2.HANDS ON PROGRAMS Overview: Hands-on Legacy building activities can take a more classic scrapbooking approach, where scrapbook materials can either be supplied by your clients themselves or your company. Set yourself apart and create a legacy building workshop, run by a designated staff member. This could be a weekly or monthly workshop with one day of the week covering a different aspect of the scrapbook. The end product is a completed legacy and life story scrapbook. Suggested weekly topics include: childhood, favorite things, recipes, letter writing, lives of their children, family traditions etc. This also ends up prompting many great discussions among families. Suggested Materials: Ask families to bring in photos and letters. You can provide scrapbooks, paper, stickers, writing templates, glue/tape, and writing utensils. Budget: $50 - $200 depending on how many participants there are.

3.TECHNOLOGY BASED Looking to introduce a new, innovative program in your business?OVERVIEWTechnological legacy programs can bring benefits in two ways - the legacy program benefitsthemselves, as well as the added benefit of introducing and improving many seniors’technological savviness. There are many different websites devoted to building people’s onlinee-legacies, which is nice because they can easily be shared with anyone and they lastindefinitely. On the other hand, online legacies can simple be created in a simple worddocument or on a personal web domain. To prepare and organize this type of legacy program,workshop goers should be advised to gather a collection of photos and brainstorm or fill out aworksheet with prompts to guide their online activity in the workshop setting. This can be amulti-day workshop or just an hour or so, as it takes much less time to construct the onlinelegacy compared to a scrapbook. Many legacy websites allow for audio or video recordingswhich can be done in the workshop or can be uploaded from existing content they have.SUGGESTED MATERIALS This approach will require some type of iPad, laptop or computer for your clients. The subscription to the legacy websites will also need to be accounted for if this is the chosen tech choice. Also a simple recorder or video/audio application on a smartphone is suggested. . BUDGET Varies depending on the existing resources among your business and clients as well as the legacy approach you take. Some legacy websites offer bundled subscriptions for a discount, whereas creating  a website or word doc would be free! 

At the most basic level, legacy building can be ameaningful and entertaining way to spend anafternoon. At its best, legacy work provides a rareopportunity to reflect on a life well-lived and processthrough the events, people, and moments that shapedit, while still planning for the future. It can be acompelling coping tool not only for your residents, butfor everyone involved in the process - near and far.Interested in a tool that can help your clients build alegacy, ask and answer the tough questions, and createall their healthcare and end of life documents - all inthe span of one afternoon, and for less than the priceof their monthly cable bill?Reach out directly to our CEO Sue Kemple [email protected]. We’re happy to help.