Estate Planning Part 2: Wills, Trusts, and Picking the Right Attorney

Estate Planning Part 2: Wills, Trusts, LGBTQ Families, and Picking the Right Attorney (with Zach Anderson)

Joy and Claire welcome back Zach Anderson for a Part 2 focused on listener questions. He explains how to “fire” an attorney, how attorneys may withdraw from clients, and what to look for in a divorce lawyer—especially communication, proactivity, and balancing negotiation with litigation costs. The conversation covers confirmatory/stepparent adoptions in reciprocal IVF situations, legal barriers for trans birth-certificate sex changes requiring surgery in Nebraska, and how legal change often comes through private practice. Zach defines guardianships and conservatorships, stressing planning to avoid burdening others. They compare wills, trusts, and transfer-on-death deeds, emphasize updating beneficiaries, and offer ways to start estate-planning conversations with parents.

00:00 Welcome Back Zach

02:02 Quadplex With Friends

04:00 Neutral Third Parties

05:25 Firing Your Attorney

09:09 Divorcing An Attorney

10:37 Choosing Divorce Counsel

16:10 Reciprocal IVF Adoption

19:47 Trans Name Change Barriers

24:15 Changing Law From Within

25:56 Doing Good Doing Well

26:57 When Cases Escalate

27:27 Costs and Client Counseling

30:32 Guardianships Explained

31:34 Moral vs Legal Duty

36:02 Wills Trusts and TOD Deeds

37:36 Beneficiaries and Special Needs

40:55 Custom Plans Not Templates

42:59 Unequal Inheritances Talk It Out

45:31 How to Talk to Parents

47:19 Messy Now or Messier Later

51:36 Wrap Up and Where to Follow