eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
“My papers are in order, and I pray for an order in terms of the draft”, this is the recital that I was taught when I was being prepared to go to the “motion roll” in my very early years of legal practice.
This statement is new to many people who are not in the legal profession.
The motion roll also called the unopposed roll, simply deals with matters that are not opposed. The assignment of the attending party is to have their papers in “order”, so that they can appropriately pray for an “order” in terms of the draft. The key word in all this is “order”. The question that I want to ask you today is, “Is your house in order.”
Rude awakening for one King
“In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” (Isaiah 38:1ff).
Three other translations say;
Hezekiah was one of the most respected kings of Judah but when the time came for him to die there was a certain aspect of his life which was exposed, his house. There was no order in his own house. This means you can have order in your office and career yet your own house lacks order. There are lots of people who have excellent offices, businesses whilst their own families are not in order.
Reality check
I never thought that I would be writing this article in the early days of the year, but the truth is that people are dying. People are dying, and this time people that you know are dying. In my profession, we have lost quite a number of colleagues. It is sad, but unfortunately that is also life.
If you were to drop dead NOW, how will life be for your survivors and dependants? This is the question that many of us are not applying our minds to yet it is the reality of avoiding it that often plagues the survivors. Whatever you are doing I want you to stop for a minute and seriously think about it, and ask yourself these questions;
Are you sure your family, and business is strong enough to continue life without you? Are you positive that your family is well covered and well prepared for life after you?
The greatest gift you can give to your children, family and firm is to prepare them for your absence.
You do not have tomorrow
Who told you that you will see tomorrow? I am not being negative. I am being practical. Have you ever had the experience of seeing a person and after some hours you are told that they are dead. If you have, you are not alone. I have had several such experiences this year alone. Healthy people lose their lives in our faces. There are several people who are critically ill, who are predeceased by many people who appear “healthy”. That’s why we often ask, “What happened?” every time a person dies. The mere fact that you are not sick is not a guarantee that you will sleep on your bed tomorrow. We should learn from this and properly align of our affairs.
Death is inevitable
No matter how you live your life, you will die. Steve Jobs towards the end of his life left us some provocative thoughts on death, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”
You may want to cry about it, you will die. We will all die, whether poor, or rich, powerful or weak, slow or fast. We will all die. In reality, no one wants to die.
Steve Jobs later on said, “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.” If you have attended a funeral or so you will realise this reality.
Plan your estate
Interestingly, lawyers make money from drafting “complex wills” for clients yet they die without even writing a simple will for themselves. I know of several. They make money in estate matters with heavy fights, yet find no wisdom is planning their own estates. There are two possible scenarios, which might explain people are not planning their estates. It’s either you are too busy to sit and down and do your estate or there is no estate to plan. In the first scenario my advice is simple Do not be too busy to sit down and plan your estate.
Inheritance fights can be seriously nasty and times they can even bloody. The people who win in inheritance fights are lawyers. Never be fooled for once. There are people who will never look for you during your lifetime, but they will only feature when you die to claim their “share”.
Did you know?
There is a list of some celebrities who died intestate i.e. without leaving a will or any testamentary disposition. Prominent examples, include the famous musician Prince who died in 2016, and left behind an estate estimated to be around $300 million. He had no will with all his wealth. The estate is yet to be finalised.
There are even more examples of people who died intestate, Amy Winehouse is one of them. Bob Marley also died intestate, and 30 years later after his death, his family members were still suing each other arising from estate disputes. What this shows you is that their houses were not in order.
You need a will that will ensure that your executor has clarity of instructions on how your estate will be distributed. You also need to pay attention to tax implications when drafting and preparing your will. Protect your loved ones through proper estate planning.
In the coming weeks I will be taking you through the finer details of Estate Planning and some of the things you can do to plan your estate. I will do follow up articles on how to write your Will and set up a Trust as part of your Estate Planning. Do not miss out the follow up to this article.
Arthur Marara is a corporate and family law attorney. As an attorney, he has worked over the years preparing and arranging for execution of wills including living wills, and Family Trusts. Follow him on social media (Facebook Attorney Arthur Marara), or WhatsApp him on +263718867255 or email [email protected]
