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Holistic Estate Planning and Integrating Mediation
In the Planning Process
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2. Estate Planning In the 21st Century
The estate planning field is undergoing inevitable change as the primary client base shifts from people born before the Second World War to those the born after the War. The highly educated baby-boomer generationis better acquainted with social and psychological dynamics than their parents, making them more inclined to use a holistic approach to estate planning, in the same way that they embrace a more holistic approach to medicine.3
In medicine, the discovery of micro-organisms over a century ago led to a belief by the medical profession that the etiology of every disease could be tied to a specific virus or bacterium and cured by a frontal attack on the pathogen. The success of that strategy revolutionized the treatment of countless diseases. Over time, however, the limitations of the disease model and the tendency of physicians to focus narrowly on symptoms, immediate causes, and the fastest high-tech cures became apparent.4
This narrow focus caused many people to feel that physicians had lost sight of their humanity and wholeness. To resolve the limitations, people gravitated toward more holistic therapies that rendered people whole again, conceptualizing body, mind, and spirit as components of the whole person. Through the lens of holistic medicine, many people and physicians now see the physical body as one facet of the total person.
If physicians are the guardians of our corporal assets, estate planners are the guardians of our financial and familial assets. While estate planners certainly serve their clients well by fulfilling their testamentary interests, they might contribute even more to their clients’ welfare by following the lead of physicians who have adopted a broader view of their mandate. Because estate planning involves more than avoiding taxes and transferring assets, a holistic approach to estate planning enables attorneys to focus more effectively on the whole family in material, emotional, and social terms.
Appreciating the major life transition older parents enter as they begin estate planning is easier when viewed in the context of the whole family.The estate planning process is the closest thing our society has to a rite of passage to the final stage of life. Many people who are beginning to deal with their own mortality need assistance preparing for the transfer of their tangible assets upon death. They also may need help in defining the terms of the rest of their own lives and encouragement in taking steps to enhance their personal relationships with the people they love. Parents need to believe they can improve the likelihood that their children will have better—not worse—relationships as a result of their estate plans. By advocating a broader, holistic approach, estate planners may make significant contributions to their clients’ welfare in all these areas, as well asimprove the effectiveness of the financial and legal strategies they recommend.
Holistic estate planning, like holistic medicine, looks beyond the narrow view and sees the full picture of the person’s life. The process involves all principal players in planning the transition, including both benefactors and adult beneficiaries. Holistic estate planning uses an expanded definition of wealth that includes intangible personal and family assets, as well as tangible ones.5
3
Recent studies show that nearly half of all Americans report using some type of alternative or complementary medicine. See Melissa Dittmann, Alternative Health CareGains Steam, MONITOR ON PSYCH., Aug. 2004.
4
The extensive public and professional interest in holistic medicine was clearly evidenced by the creation of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine(“NCCAM”) in 1998 at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The report of a conference sponsored by NCCAM and the Royal College of Physicians in London in January 2001 on the question “Can Alternative Medicine Be Integrated into Mainstream Care?” provides perspectives on the diverse and growing role of holistic medicine. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Report: Can Alternative Medicine Be Integratedinto Mainstream Care?, at http://nccam.nih.gov/news/pastmeetings/012301/index.htm (lastvisited Nov. 12, 2004).
5
James E. Hughes, Jr. has long asserted that a family’s most important assets are its individual members. He was a pioneer in describing the three types of capital that exist in families other than financial capital: human, intellectual and social capital. See generally JAMES E. HUGHES, FAMILY WEALTH: KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY (Bloomberg Press 2004).
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