By Lloyd McDonald (he/him)
Ryan Peacock, a will and estate lawyer in Nashville, takes a holistic approach to ensure that someone’s estate and final wishes are completely protected. As she does this, she works with financial planners, tax planners/CPAs, and other professionals to ensure she has the whole picture of what is happening in a person’s life, and that it is protected in the best ways possible.
“There is a critical need for the type of work I do, and most people don’t understand how much they need to have specific directives in place to ensure their wishes are followed,” says Peacock.
“Prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage, the LGBTQ+ community had to come up with some creative solutions to ensure that partners could be included and/or legally allowed to make decisions involving healthcare, long-term care, and end-of-life decisions, and this was just while both partners were alive. Previously when one partner passed, it was common for more conservative families to relegate the surviving partner to a place of insignificance or completely exclude the partner from all decisions concerning funeral and memorial arrangements and for that partner to be completely disinherited from an estate or inheritance they were legally entitled to get,” she explains.
Peacock notes it’s critical that everyone puts some protections in place, and there are a variety of resources available online, many of which are free, that can help with some of the more basic things.
She also says, “It’s critically important that all forms are filled out completely and correctly as a small error or oversight could completely invalidate the entire directive.” Her services are best used when people want to ensure that there will not be technical errors, they have complex situations that require a little bit of planning, or when they have very specific things that they want to ensure are completely spelled out in a way that ensures that they will be done according to the person’s final wishes.
Prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage, Peacock said the LGBTQ+ community jumped through extra hoops to ensure their partners couldn’t be legally excluded from decisions like having one partner legally adopt the other. However, as gay marriage has become legalized, these creative solutions, like legal adoption, have given the people who chose these options additional hurdles because a parent cannot marry their child — even if there is no blood relation.
“The best way to ensure that someone’s wishes are honored is to create a trust and have all assets transfer into a trust at death,” says Peacock. By doing this, her clients are protected from having more conservative family members contesting a written and properly executed will, which can deplete an estate’s assets very quickly as the estate pays to defend the legal challenges against the will.”
While she has a lot of clients in the LGBTQ+ community, she said she has also gotten a surprising number of straight, cisgender clients who are looking to ensure their transgender children are protected and are raised in a way that is conducive to the children’s wellbeing and how the parents want the children to be raised.
To carry out these steps completely and thoroughly, Peacock works with her clients over a minimum of three visits. When booking the first appointment, she gives her clients homework to complete which will be discussed at their initial visit. The first session includes education on the products that are available and what the processes will look like. Then she allows her clients to make an educated and informed choice on which options are best for their situation.
During the second visit, all paperwork is signed and finalized. On the third visit, a videographer comes in and allows the client to record a personalized memo to each person for whom they want to leave a message. This final step is critical as it is a way to completely eliminate any guesswork about a person’s intentions or final wishes.
Peacock also advises that everyone should revisit their documents every three years. She says, “Things change over time and what is important today may be completely irrelevant in three years.”
There are a few important takeaways that Peacock wants everyone to know. First, wills must go through probate. Probate is a public process where anyone can bring a claim against the estate — even claims that may be completely invalid — and the estate has to defend the claim if they don’t think the disbursement is appropriate.
With probate, a judge’s discretion also comes into play. The judge who probably hears dozens of cases a day will be making permanent and lasting decisions, most likely from the bench. As much as we like to think that this doesn’t happen, your outcome may be subject to their whims of the day.
Whereas trusts are private contracts that take the interpretation almost completely out of a judge’s hands which allows for expedience and a much more calm and cool interpretation of final wishes.
If you’d like more information about Ryan Peacock, Peacock Law, or to schedule a consultation, you can call 615.219.9710 or visit PeacockLawTN.com.
