Law firm helps clients prepare for the golden years

Question: What do parachutes, fire extinguishers and living trusts have in common?

Answer: You won’t know whether they’ll work until it’s too late.

This joke is one of attorney Michael O’Loughlin’s favorites. His namesake law firm in Columbia focuses entirely on estate planning and elder law—usually no laughing matter.

“What really started me off was seeing the poor effects on families who don’t estate plan properly,” said O’Loughlin. “I’ve seen good families that now don’t even talk to each other.”

While attending the University of Missouri School of Law, from which he graduated in 2000, O’Loughlin worked in corporate law for Orscheln Management Company. In 2001, he started his own firm.

The estate planning services at the O’Loughlin Law Firm cover living trusts, wills, powers of attorney, living wills, irrevocable trusts, family limited partnerships and charitable giving.

“The more detail a plan has in it, the more it helps the family,” O’Loughlin said. “More problems occur when there’s more room for interpretation. This, combined with the grief of losing a parent or loved one, can cause some serious disputes among families.”

The O’Loughlin Web site, www.motrustlaw.com, provides an abundance of information regarding estate planning—everything from special reports and consumer polls to calculators and checklists. O’Loughlin said it’s now common in the profession for attorneys to focus on one or two areas of law. He believes that this has helped his business grow in the past few years because people like coming to a lawyer who has a specialty and is aware of trends.

“The world’s becoming a very complicated place where everything has to be spelled out,” O’Loughlin said. “General language doesn’t work anymore. We have a lot of banks call us with questions, and we see more and more of these banks unable to help families without proper documentation due to confidentiality laws.”

A primary goal of estate planning is to keep the administration of a person’s will or estate out of probate court—because the legal fees and other costs can be expensive and the process is complex.

“Traditionally people have trusts because of the great tax savings, but now people are doing it to keep families out of probate,” said O’Loughlin. “This also offers great divorce credit and protection for the children.”

O’Loughlin also credits the baby boomer generation, which is now approaching retirement age, for the influx of business.

“We’re dealing with a lot of retirement plans,” O’Loughlin said. “A lot of our clients have a good half of their assets tied up in retirement plans, which if not dealt with in an estate plan, can lead to children missing out on tax advantages.”

The O’Loughlin firm presents free estate planning seminars to the public with the dates posted on the Web site. Some time this summer, the firm will host a seminar on pet trust.

The firm also presents numerous free educational seminars to nonprofit organizations, employers, associations, special interest groups, support groups and financial advisers in the community.

“We pride ourselves on our service. We tell people upfront how much their estate plan will cost and when it will be ready, which I think has really helped grow the practice,” said O’Loughlin. “We also never charge for phone calls or client meetings. I’ve found that people like to know what to expect.”

The O’Loughlin Law Firm
3610 Buttonwood Drive, Ste 200 | 886-8969 | www.motrustlaw.com