On our nation's 250th birthday, I'd like to share a story.
In the late 18th century, my ancestors accepted an offer from Catherine the Great to relocate from Germany to settle and farm the Volga River region of Russia in return for certain freedoms. Russia received immigrants to populate and make a vacant region productive. In return, the German immigrants received land, the right to farm their land, and self-rule - the freedom to set up their own communities, schools, and churches, a mix of Protestant and Catholic.
It was a win-win. Mother Russia benefited from the presence and production of the German farmers, and the Germans became landowners - the means of their hard-working production - and they created law-abiding, peaceful, and thriving communities.
The offer from Catherine the Great worked, until it didn’t.
And the revolution was upon them.
My grandfather George was born in the early years of the 20th century. When he was a teenager, his father, my great-grandfather, sensed a change was coming, and they embarked on a scouting trip to America. They took the train across Europe, crossed the sea, passed through the immigration checkpoints, and found that the young country had opportunity and promise that was slipping away from their adopted homeland.
They returned to Russia and made their contingency plan. If the rumblings of revolution became real, they would leave and immigrate again, this time to America.
After several years, the future became clear, as the Bolsheviks began seizing land and imprisoning dissenters. It was time.
George and his extended family sold their farmland for pennies on the dollar, but for enough to pay for passage out. It wasn't the Von Trapp family mid-concert getaway. After all, they were farmers, not musicians. But it was similar in spirit and, in many ways, more treacherous. They evaded the revolutionary authorities, made it out of Russia, and eventually to a refugee camp in Germany. But at a cost. Many family members died along the way, including my grandparents' newborn son.
George and his family eventually made it across the Atlantic, were processed through the immigration checkpoint at Ellis Island, and settled in California. It was a struggle, but George and his wife, my grandmother, worked any job they could find, and eventually saved enough money to buy a small farm where my mom and her two sisters were raised among their extended family.
America lived up to George and his father's earlier scouting report. It was the land of the free, and the land of opportunity where hard work was rewarded.
I did not set out to write an estate planning post today. But the longer I sat with this story, the more I realized it is the same story I hear from clients every week, just told at a different scale and a different speed.
My grandfather saw a change coming and made a plan while there was still time. By the time the Bolsheviks started seizing land, the planning was already done. That is the purpose of estate planning. Not predicting the exact date something will happen, but planning in advance, while things are calm, for what can and will happen.
My grandfather George arrived in California with almost nothing, and he and my grandmother spent years rebuilding their lives and their family's future. Most of our clients are not fleeing a revolution. But they have spent decades building a home, a retirement account, a life for their kids and grandkids, and the question before them is not that dissimilar to the question George had to answer for his own family: what can I do to protect them when the inevitable happens?
A California living trust estate plan answers that question. It names who takes over if you cannot. It keeps your family out of a California probate court that can take a year or more while depleting your assets with attorney fees and costs, and it makes sure the people you worked and built your estate for are the people who actually receive it on the terms that will protect them.
We've been helping California families answer that question since 1996. You work with an experienced attorney from your first conversation through your final signing, not a rotating cast of paralegals or case managers. Estate plans are completed on a flat fee, finished in about three weeks, whether you meet us at our El Dorado Hills or Roseville offices or by Zoom from anywhere in the state.
My family got a second chance in America because two generations made a plan. You don't need a revolution to be the reason you make yours.
On our country's 250th anniversary, I, like so many of us, am thankful for the freedom and opportunity of America. My family's experience is not unique. It merely echoes the experiences of millions of other Americans, whose stories have built the foundation of what America is. While certainly not without its problems, America still holds the promise of freedom like no other country in the world.
If you're ready to create your estate plan to make sure your family is protected, we're happy to help. Get Started.