ELECTRONIC PRACTICE LEVERAGE A TRUSTS AND ESTATES DESKTOP 2012

by Joseph G. Hodges Jr.

Attorney At Law Denver, Colorado

Addendum To Main Outline For Changes and Additions Mentioned in Presentation Don Kelley’s Trusts and Estates Tech Center & The Electronic Practice: (Pages 2 & 3, etc.) Throughout the outline you will see several references to Don Kelley’s Trusts & Estates Technology Center and the URL www.trustsandestates.com/techcenter. As of June of 2012 TrustsandEstates.com is now part of WealthManagement.com and the exact location of Don’s Technology Reviews on that site is currently in a state of flux. However, the following URL ought to get you close enough to them where you can do a search of the site for them by key words or their topics: http://wealthmanagement.com/technology. You will also see references to Don Kelley’s book, The Electronic Practice, that is currently in its Version 2.0 2010 edition. Don informed me as this Addendum was going to press that Version 3.0 2012 is in the works and should be available for download from Trusts and Estates by the end of July of 2012. The Living Client – Marketing Yourself: (Pages 6 & 7) Smart Phones: For an excellent and current summary of all the smart phones that are currently available, including a rating of those by carrier and in order of user satisfaction, see Consumer Reports, Cover Story Tech To Go – Smart Phones (PP. 40-41 August 2012) (www.consumerreports.org). In addition, Don Kelley has published a review of smart phones in his Trusts and Estates Technology Column. This particular article can be linked to from http://wealthmanagement.com/data-amp-tools/ipad-its-professional-too. (Page 7) One excellent way to market yourself and what you do is to send your clients to the ABA Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section’s Estate Planning FAQ that is now located at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/real_property_trust_estate/resources/ estate_planning/estate_planning_faq.html, as this resource will answer a lot of their questions and thus allow you to keep your client interview time to a minimum. This resource has been in existence for several years now and it is now kept up to date by members of the Section’s Communications Committee, such that it has remained one of the consistently most popular resources on the Section’s site since its inception.

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The Living Client – Asset Valuation: (Page 11) Appraise Software now also has a valuation Web site that is wholly online at www.appriasenj.com/ESI/homepage.html. (Page 11) Series EE Savings Bonds can also be valued at Savings Bonds.com at www.savingsbonds.com/savings-bond-calculator/savings-bond-calculator-tool.cfm. Stand Alone Graphics Tools: (Page 19) Smart Draw is now in Version 2012. Don Kelley’s review of that Version can be found at http://wealthmanagement.com/technology/smartdraw-0. Additional Financial, Tax and Retirement Calculators: (Page 28) Denver Tax Software (www.denvertax.com) offers several affordable software programs that estate planners might find useful, including IRS/State Interest & Penalty Calculations ($169), AT&T Divestiture Tracker ($119), Roth vs. Regular IRA Calculator ($149), C Corp. vs. S Corp. Analyzer ($149), Social Security Planner ($149), S Corp vs. Partnership/LLC/Sole Prop Analyzer ($149) and IRA vs. Pension Planning ($199). DTS is currently offering discounts on all of their programs if they are purchased before July 14, 2012. Call 800-326-6686. Additional Document Assembly Software: (Page 30 & 31) WealthCounsel has also recently released its newest document assembly product, ElderCounsel for the practice of Elder Law. Don Kelley is doing a review of this product for the July 2012 issue of Trusts and Estates, so stay tuned for more. (Page 32) Practical Planning Systems, LLC (formerly Estate Planning Systems) (www.practicalplanningsystem.com) offers a HotDocs based series of monthly dues payment estate planning system packages called Basic ($99 per month plus $99 setup), Standard ($199 per month plus $199 setup), and Advanced ($299 per month plus $299 setup) depending on the number of documents you want to have available to assemble. Thomas D. Begley Jr. Esq., who is a principal in this Company, is also a co-author of the Elder Law system that is currently being marketed by InterActive Legal Systems, the developers of the Wealth Transfer Planning document assembly engine. (Page 33) In addition to Pathagoras and TheFormTool Pro document assembly tools that are mentioned here, The Technology Lawyer has recently called attention to XpressDox (www.expressdox.com), a document assembly system that integrates with Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 and up and runs in Windows XP/Vista/7. Its claim to fame is that it offers a gradual learning curve that allows a user to start using it without any prior document assembly experience or technical ability. Pricing starts at $149 for a single user.

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(Page 33) National LawForms, Inc. dba LawForms (www.nationallawforms.com) had been in existence since 1967 and offers a series of automated legal forms that are compatible with Windows 7 and Vista. Included in the estate planning category are Estate Planning Pro ($229), Last Will and Testament ($99) and HIPPA Amendment ($99). They also sell estate planner kits for clients for $69 each. Legal Research Resources - Tax and Library Material Available on the Internet: (Page 43, E-3) GPO Access. This source no longer includes the estate and gift tax regulations at the indicated URL, but they are still available from the GPO at www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/ collectionCfr.action?selectedYearFrom=2012&page.go - drill down to Title 26. These regulations are also available at Tax Almanac at www.taxalmanac.org/index.php/ Tresury_Regulations. They are also available from the Cornell University Law School’s Legal Information Institute (LII) at www. http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26. (Page 44) Free Research - Pace University Law Library has a site that offers up free and low cost research resources for legal research that is quite comprehensive and useful. It is located at http://libraryguides.law.pace.edu/content.php?pid=36723&sid=270234. Prepared 7/9/12