A lawyer asks the client's children to wait in lobby while discussing the client's estate planning.

Attorney Tom Olsen: It's just one of those often situations where what parents want is sometimes different [crosstalk] than want children want. Guess what? The parents are our client. I don't represent the kids.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Yes, and we make that clear, especially in that situation. I would imagine that I represent your mom, your dad, your mom and dad, not your interest.

Tom: If that client ever comes back to me-- I've made notes about this-- I will not let the daughter back in my office. Flat out won't do it. Over the years, when kids have come into the estate planning consult with Mom and Dad and I, after just a few minutes, recognize this is not going to work with the child sitting there, I say, "Well, you got to go sit outside. I got to talk to your mom alone. I got to talk to your dad alone." Oh my God, have I gotten the stinkeye from those kids.

Holley: I'm sure you have.

Tom: Oh my God. It is like daggers.

Holley: Yes, and it's unfortunate.

Tom: Well, they had a grand plan. "I'm going with Mom to do her estate planning because Mom and I have been talking about how Mom wants to leave me everything when Mom passes away. I'm going to go, I'm going to drive Mom down to the appointment. I'm going to sit in the appointment with the lawyer. We're going to make sure that that's the plan Mom comes up with."

When I say, "You've got to go"--

Holley: [crosstalk] They meet you.

Tom: [chuckles] They meet me. Then so I will, once Mom is alone, I'll go "Look, tell me, why do you want to leave everything to just your daughter? Why do you not want to leave everything to all your other kids?" Sometimes she'll give me a legitimate reason. Of course, we're always making notes in our database. Why? Okay. Sometimes she will not give me a-- for the reason, "Oh, I'm just going to leave it all to my daughter. She'll split it up with all the other kids." I go, "No, that's not going to work. That's not going to work."

We get back to it. We get back to the basics, and that is, Mom leaves everything equally to the kids. Chrissy, my wife and law partner, laugh about how often, how many times children have inherited from their mom and dad that but for attorney Tom Olsen, they wouldn't have gotten anything. They don't even know how close they came to getting nothing from Mom and Dad. They don't even know. I, Tom Olsen, stepped in and made sure the right thing was done.

Holley: Was done, yes. As you say in your workshop, money makes people funny.

Tom: Yes, money is funny. Makes them do things that they would not otherwise do. Now, if Mom says, "Oh, you know what, I've got a son and I've given him a lot of money during my lifetime to buy a new house and buy a new car. I got another daughter that I loaned her money and she never paid me back. This daughter that's out now out in the lobby, she's taken care of me forever. She's been a good girl. She's got my best interests at heart. She's lives with me. She's going to continue to take care with me." I go "Those are some very some reasons-

Holley: Compelling reasons.

Tom: - to leave everything to just your daughter. I agree with you. Do you want to bring your daughter back in?" "Yes, let's bring her back in."

Holley: Exactly.

Tom: I'm good in those situations.

Tech: One minute.

Tom: Now, the reason we make notes in our database is, if Mom leaves it all to just daughter and Mom passes away, and now the other kids are suing, their lawyer's going to call me up and say, "Tom, why did you do a will just leaving it to one of the children? Why didn't you do it to all the kids?", I copy and paste my notes and send them to the lawyer. We shut them down very quickly.

Holley: Yes. This is why.

Tom: Hey, folks, my name is Tom Olsen. The name of the show is Olsen on Law.

[00:03:39] [END OF AUDIO]