Once a month, I share with 904 other Millennials a brief newsletter highlighting the best tips about money I've read.

Hi, I'm Kevin.

Once a month, I share with 904 other Millennials a brief newsletter highlighting the best tips about money I've read.

Opt for the Difficult Estate Plan

Financially Well

November 15, 2024

On April 16, 2019, French president Emmanuel Macron needed to act. But he faced a delicate set of choices.

The previous afternoon, flames had engulfed Notre-Dame de Paris. The cathedral’s 750-ton spire had “snapped like a matchstick and crashed through the roof.” Soon after, the roof’s wooden frame also yielded to the fire.

Notre Dame dates back to 1163, when the bishop of Paris first laid the cornerstone. Construction then continued for nearly two centuries after. How should the country proceed now?

Macron and his appointees opted for the more challenging – but also most inimitable – path.

Many of us need to act on estate planning documents for our family. But these choices feel delicate to us, right?

Without an estate plan, you may leave your family financially vulnerable. Without an estate plan, the probate court process can restrict your family’s access to money.

Probate, for example, can tie up your money for anywhere from three months to five years. And the cost of probate court can range from 0.5% to 4% of your asset value.

So how should you proceed?

Estate planning isn’t enjoyable. The choices we face can arouse strong emotions. Even so, we’re best off when we embrace the more challenging – but also most inimitable – path.

In many ways, building construction and estate planning are easier than ever.

Technology has streamlined the process, often leading to faster results. Materials and services are available widely, often at much lower costs.

In theory, then, Macron could have proceeded after the fire without hesitancy. And in theory, our estate plan – even if only a free, online will – should take shape without delay.

The benefits of modernity come with tradeoffs, though. We embrace ease, speed, and low cost. But we often sacrifice uniqueness.

French architects and engineers have long referred to Notre Dame’s roof frame as “the forest.”

Journalist Joshua Hammer describes why la forêt was unique:

“…It was an ingenious assemblage of triangular-shaped trusses, each one consisting of horizontal and vertical beams and diagonal rafters designed to support the heavy roof cover and distribute the weight over the walls beneath it. Built from thousands of pieces of wood and assembled without nails, it was a singular achievement, one of the oldest surviving all-wood structures in the world.”

Why, in the 21st century, would France try to reproduce the forest?

Some people argued that France should rebuild Notre Dame differently. This time, “modern, fire-resistant materials” should define the roof structure.

And this argument had precedent. After World War I, France reconstructed a similar Gothic cathedral in Reims. To do so, they used reinforced concrete.

But the forest exemplifies why Notre Dame is unique. Without such details, Notre Dame might no longer reflect French identity so perfectly.

Macron’s team eventually concluded that rebuilding the forest was worth the effort.

Part of that effort meant finding unique trees for the wooden roof frame. Hammer writes:

“That August, they started identifying potential trees. …An agricultural engineer traveled to forest reserves across Normandy and the Loire Valley to locate suitable timber. Sawyers chopped down 1,200 oaks — most of them 80 to 150 years old and some 60 feet tall — including rare, irregularly shaped trees needed for the nave and choir. “We had to find the perfect wood with the perfect curve, similar to those of the original frame,” Bidet explained.

Next, they needed to find unique carpenters who know how to use hand tools to manually square the lumber. Then, the workers needed to assemble each of the nave’s 60 trusses off site.

On the lawn of a castle near Normandy, France demonstrated that Notre Dame could – and would – thrive for years to come.

Similarly, a professionally-drafted estate plan is worth the effort.

An online will may give you a decent result. But you shouldn’t settle for decent. Your family is too valuable to you.

An estate planning attorney will draft your will, trust, and medical directives to fit your unique circumstances. They will reflect you.

For example, what would you want to happen if you died before your kids reached adulthood? You may not want them to receive all your assets when they become legal adults, at age 18.

A personalized estate plan can reflect this preference.

Unlike probate, a revocable living trust keeps your family circumstances private. And the trust empowers you to specify the ages at which young heirs receive your assets.

These trusts are a “flexible and powerful tool.” They can “allow your family faster access to assets and [are] generally harder to challenge than a will.”

Notre Dame’s reconstruction finished on schedule. Journalist Joshua Hammer recently toured the site with project leaders. Here’s what he noticed:

“I saw marks on the wood left by the axes. Instead of the smoothness of timber squared in sawmills, the beams had a rough, undulating quality. Each imperfection reflected the vagaries of the grain, the shape of the axe, and the hewing style. ‘These axe-hewn frames are more beautiful, more interesting, and deeper, because the human work leaves its traces,’ Philippe Jost, by then project manager of Rebâtir Notre-Dame, told me…. The reconstructed charpente, he said, reflected both the savoir-faire and the dedication of the hundreds of artisans who had built it. ‘It has a soul,’ he said.”

Rebuilding Notre Dame wasn’t easy. But the result preserves the cathedral’s soul.

When we draft a professional, customized estate plan, we do the same thing for our loved ones. We ensure that we leave a financial legacy with a soul.