As a wills and trusts attorney, I feel a strong obligation to keep my conversations lite. The topics of my practice are such that the conversations are necessarily serious, so I often try to counteract that with humor and banality. However, sometimes we are faced with reality in such a way that it is evident that the inevitable must be addressed.
My daughter and I were making an early afternoon shopping trip to Wal-Mart this past Saturday. As we were waiting at a red light we witnessed a pick up truck make an illegal left turn directly into the path of an oncoming dune buggy. Right in front of us we witnessed a T-bone collision with virtually no warning and therefore virtually no braking. The dune buggy slammed into the side of the pick up truck knocking it onto its side with the top of the pick up truck sliding uncomfortably close to my daughters door. I jumped out of the passenger side door and had my daughter pull her car off to the side of the road. Miraculously the two men in the dune buggy appeared unhurt, but there was a strong smell of gasoline and the pick up driver was trapped in his vehicle. After checking on all drivers and passengers, it was apparent that by some miracle no one was seriously injured.
Despite the somewhat innocuous conclusion to this event, it does bring me to mind how unpredictable life is. Despite perpetually preaching to my clients to keep their estate plans up to date, I too sometimes become complacent about this necessity. It is not necessary to be ever mindful of the status of your estate plan, but it is important to review it periodically. Witnessing this event has spurred me to review my own estate plan, and if you have not reviewed yours in the memorable past, I urge you to do the same. As my father is fond of saying “tomorrow is promised to no one.”
