A lot of people ask me what the difference is between using us or an internet company to do their estate planning. My answer is that I make a lot of money fixing the mistakes made on those sites, as you really won't know the plan isn't quite right until it's too late. You can do quite a bit of research on the internet, but that research can't match the knowledge that an experienced attorney has.
My award for the "close, but not close enough" research this week goes to NBC News anchor Ann Curry, who gave the commencement address to this year's graduating class at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. She began the address by congratulating them on some of their famous alumni, including evangelist Billy Graham, horror movie king Wes Craven and 9/11 hero Todd Beamer. The problem is that they're distinguished alumni of the other Wheaton College, in Illinois. D'oh! That might explain the quizzical looks she got. She did at least get 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl right. If Curry didn't do the research herself, I hope she fired the person who did. Apparently the Massachusetts Wheaton has some other notable alumni too, like Oscar nominee Catherine Keener and former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman.
As a graduate of the Illinois Wheaton College, and as one who followed in Wes Craven's footsteps as the editor of the college's newspaper, I think our alumni beat their alumni. In fact, I support fellow alum Dave Vanderveen (of XS energy drink fame) in his efforts to promote a Wheaton vs. Wheaton Alumni Battle.
To bring it back to estate planning, though, Ann Curry thought she was prepared for the speech, and she did indeed have some background facts on famous Wheaton alumni, but she was still wrong and didn't discover it until it was too late, and the "mortified" Curry had to issue an apology. Having a good team behind you, whether in research or estate planning ensures no "oops" moments.
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