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FEATURE STORY
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Settlement Counsel
Here's
an easy way to organize the data in an estate and to direct the estate
administration process
By Donald H. Kelley
Kelley Rating (one asterisk = lowest, to five asterisks = highest):
Ease of navigation, design of interface and learning curve ****
Instructional documentation and help system ** (incomplete)
Carries out the goal of the product as advertised ****
Overall usefulness ****
SettlementCounsel provides a
fully automated guided solution for settling estates throughout the
post-mortem planning process. This software organizes all the
estate’s data and produces the documents needed for its
administration. It’s designed for attorneys and legal support
staff.
Competitive Products
There are a number of general case management software programs that
users can—with significant effort—customize to function as estate
settlement systems. Among the general programs are Abacus Law, Amicus Attorney and ProLaw.
Programs dedicated to estate management include:
•West-Cowles
TrusTerminator—state-specific software that generates letters and
documents, from an asset database, related specifically to the
termination of a revocable trust;
• EstateWorks—which is
dedicated to both to estate management and settlement, with the
inclusion of state-specific tasks and forms; and
• Connect2A —which undertakes
both the management of an estate planning practice and administration of
an estate after death.
What’s It All About?
SettlementCounsel provides case management for estate administration and
settlement as well as post-mortem estate planning. It consists of
templates based on Hot Docs 2007 or later and requires the installation
of that program.
SettlementCounsel is designed to coordinate the
activities of all the attorneys and staff working on an estate’s
administration. The program encourages and facilitates contact with the
heirs; it prompts for post-mortem intergenerational estate
planning.
Indeed, SettlementCounsel is so helpful, it not only serves the needs of
experienced practitioners but also can be used to teach attorneys or
staff who are new to the estate administration practice. It generates
an administration checklist as well as a multitude of letters, memoranda
and other documents needed in estate administration.
SettlementCounsel is not yet state-specific, but you may inject
state-specific language in the forms and correspondence that it
generates.
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How Does It Work?
The program begins with a template for a letter that confirms the
attendees and the information to be gathered at an initial estate
meeting. This template guides you through a master interview by
presenting a series of dialogs that ask for specific entries, including
information about the decedent as well as contact information for the
individuals interested in the estate (such as the heirs), plus the
attorneys, accountants, financial professionals, state health
department, probate court and institutions involved (noting the areas of
the estate with which the institutions are associated).
The dialog then prompts the user to enter specific estate assets and
liabilities in detail, including the owner and the proposed owners at
the end of the estate administration.
A dialog and spreadsheet asks for estate checking account information.
Another dialog then appears that asks for payments, deposits and
fiduciary accounting categories.
As the interview continues, you have the option to generate a
confirmation letter, a checklist for the estate, and/or memoranda for
the interested parties. The documents will be generated in rtf format
and appear in your word processor.
In generating the document, the program will prompt you as to any
unanswered questions in the previous dialogs and automatically take you
through them. A contents pane appears on the left hand side that enables
you to go directly to any dialog that you desire to work on.
After the estate data has been entered, you may generate the documents
that will be needed at each stage of the estate administration,
including:
• Making the initial visit–fee agreement, conflict agreement,
critical date checklist, information and forms for the
trustee(s);
• Creating trustee authority–certificates, resignations, notices and
letters;
• Analyzing and testing–memoranda and agendas for each meeting of
the professionals and other interested parties working on the
estate;
• Presenting the preliminary plan–documents detailing the
distribution plan for the estate and related trusts;
• Building the plan–memoranda and agendas for meetings regarding the
plan and documents implementing the estate administration and
distribution plan; and
• Implementing–memoranda relating to organizing the agenda and
conduct of the meeting to implement the estate administration and
distribution plan.
The program generates lists of the questions asked and answers obtained.
It also creates previews of the selected documents. After the data is
entered, the template includes what the program calls
“SettlementCounsel Process.” This facility lists each of the steps
in the process and the extent to which they have been completed. A
document is generated covering the tasks to do during administration of
an estate and who needs to be involved in the various tasks.
There are a set of administration process binders furnished with the
program software that includes a review of the estate administration
process and sample documents illustrating the materials that the
software generates. A second binder serves as a model to use as a client
binder to store estate documents and information.
SettlementCounsel uses asset and liability categories that correspond
with other WealthCounsel products. It will integrate with the GEMS estate and gift tax
return and fiduciary accounting software by means of an “Interview”
through which the user verifies the asset and liability data, identifies
issues specific to GEMS and creates a data file. GEMS then imports data
from this file into its fiduciary accounting module from which it may be
utilized by the GEMS estate tax return module.
SettlementCounsel includes a spreadsheet that takes all assets and
liabilities entered into the system and puts in them a format for making
funding calculations, including fractional distributions and marital
deduction funding. It does not provide an estate administration
scheduling facility.
A universal asset transfer template is included in SettlementCounsel
which can be used to help facilitate the transfer or distribution of the
estate assets. The publisher’s WealthDocs Asset Transfer System that
is presently available only to WealthCounsel
membership includes a number of educational benefits and is required
of purchasers of the WealthDocs drafting system) can also be used to
facilitate the asset transfer and distribution process.
The publisher indicates that this system will be packaged for sale to
non-members later this summer under the name of “FundingCounsel.”
SettlementCounsel will fully integrate with the FundingCounsel
system.
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What About Help and Support?
A SettlementCounsel webpage will be added to the WealthCounsel website
on April 15, 2008 with information about the system, pricing and
purchase. A 30-day trial version will be available.
Delivery of this product is through a site license that includes all use
in one office and requires a separate license for other offices of a
firm. The price is $2,999 for the initial subscription and $720 for
renewal in each year after the first year. WealthCounsel, WealthCounsel
Advisor’s Forum and ElderCounsel members receive a $500 discount off
the initial subscription.
To obtain information about the system or purchase it, email rachel.giblin@wealthcounsel.com.
The official release date is April 15, 2008. The publisher is taking
preorders now with and the product will be officially shipped by the end
of April.
The publisher may be contacted at:
WealthCounsel, LLC
P.O. Box 44403
Madison, WI 53744-4403
Bottom Line
SettlementCounsel organizes and expedites the entire process of the
administration of a decedent’s estate, including the assembling of
data that may be exported for other uses. Using the familiar HotDocs
interface, it walks you through entry of the needed information and
organization and delegation of the estate administration tasks.
Trusts & Estates magazine is pleased to present the monthly
Technology Review by Donald H. Kelley—a respected connoisseur of
the software and Internet resources wealth management advisors use to
further their practices.
Kelley is a lawyer living in Highlands Ranch, Colo. and is of counsel
to the law firm of Kelley, Scritsmier & Byrne, P.C. of North Platte,
Neb. He is the co-author of the Intuitive Estate Planner
Software, (Thomson-West 2004). He has served on the governing boards
of the American Bar Association Real Property Probate and Trust Section
and the American College of Tax Counsel. He is a past regent and past
chair of the Committee on Technology in the Practice of the American
College of Trust and Estate Counsel.
Trusts & Estates has asked Kelley to provide his unvarnished opinions
on the tech resources available in the practice today. His columns are
edited for readability only. Send feedback and suggestions for articles
directly to him at dhkelley@qwestoffice.net.
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Act Now To Be Included In The 2008 Guide To Charitable Giving
Each year, Trusts & Estates publishes a special guide on the
current state of charitable giving. If you're a charity, philanthropic
advisory firm or insurance or annuity company, don't miss this
opportunity to reach advisors to the affluent for an entire year. For
more information, contact Adam Strominger at adam.strominger@penton.com
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