Brooke Astor’s son and an estate planning attorney have been convicted in a New York state court of defrauding and stealing from her.  Both men face prison time.

The question is whether there are any lessons that estate planning attorneys should take away from this case.  I argue that the vast majority of estate planning attorneys operate at the highest ethical levels and always remember to put the best interest of their client as their first priority.

Hundreds of times I have been contacted by a child  of an individual indicating that his/her parent does not have a will or a trust and needs to prepare his/her estate planning documents.  I always ask the individual calling whether the person is competent.  When I hear “no” then I politely indicate that I will not be the attorney to prepare the documents. 

Sometimes I receive a response indicating that the individual is not sure if the person is competent.  Inevitably my reply is to ask whether they know who the president of the US is?; What day is it?  What month is Halloween?  If they cannot answer those questions, then I will not be the person preparing a will; or a trust; or an amendment to a trust; or a codicil to a will; or a power of attorney on their behalf.  Furthermore, they need to have an understanding of what they have; who their relatives are; and who is getting what.

Therefore, the lesson that I learned from the Brooke Astor case is to continue to do what I have been doing.  As long as I do that, the client will be well served and I will not have to defend myself that I prepared an estate planning document for an incompetent client.