How Healthy and Happy Families Approach Estate Planning with Jen Gumbel

Today, Ed is joined by Jen Gumbel, an estate planning and probate attorney based in Minnesota. She established Organized (after)Life to change how people think about estate planning and legacy.

Jen loves getting into the family dynamics around estate planning, her superpower being her ability to help people walk through legal issues or reduce the legal to-do list they’ll leave for their loved ones.

As she puts it, “I share the tools and information that all of us in ‘death law’ wish every client knew coming in and show people when and why working with an attorney is important.”

Listen in as Jen explains the difference between “legacy” and “wealth” and how our perspective on mortality shapes the decisions we make concerning our assets.

She also encourages beneficiaries to treat their family business as a real business, and to avoid banking one’s financial future on an inheritance to avoid disappointment down the road if the process does not go as smoothly as imagined.

Jen also lists the dos and don’ts of communicating with older clients about the importance of estate planning. In a similar vein, she addresses common mental and emotional roadblocks that often come with facilitating discussions between family members unaccustomed to talking about their finances with each other.

Key Topics:

• About Jen and family dynamics around estate planning and probate (01:25)
• Examining common perceptions of death (06:45)
• How the legal process can facilitate a more flexible holding of the family business (08:19)
• Going beyond the handshake (10:58)
• Facilitating communication between family members (13:35)
• Applying the Swedish mindset to estate planning (17:33)
• Why Jen decide to get into estate planning and probate (24:05)
• How financial anxiety stops people from absorbing advice (27:54)
• The “reverse sex talk” (30:10)
• Taking over your parents’ medical debts (40:17)
• How Jen fills the typical knowledge gap around estate planning (45:04)

Resources:

• OrganizedAfterLife.com

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