EP #97: Estate Planning Law Group of Georgia with Jim Miskell
May 14, 2024
When life throws you a curveball, do you know who'll be there to catch it? Jim Miskell of the Estate Planning Law Group of Georgia joins us to shed light on why estate planning is the safety net your family deserves. Transitioning from the tense courtroom dramas of criminal prosecution to the thoughtful strategy sessions of estate planning, Jim shares how his career evolution reflects a passion for safeguarding families from future legal woes. This episode peels back the layers of complexity surrounding estate planning, revealing how a carefully crafted plan is not just about assets, but about providing clarity and comfort during life's most trying moments.
Digging deeper, we confront the myths that cloud our judgment in preparing for the unforeseen. The episode tackles head-on the common misconception that spouses are automatic heirs, and explains how without a will, Georgia’s state law could script a family drama no one anticipated. Whether you're a soccer parent juggling a busy schedule or someone seeking to understand the intricacies of asset legacy, our conversation with Jim is an indispensable guide through the legal maze of protecting those you love.
When life throws you a curveball, do you know who'll be there to catch it? Jim Miskell of the Estate Planning Law Group of Georgia joins us to shed light on why estate planning is the safety net your family deserves. Transitioning from the tense courtroom dramas of criminal prosecution to the thoughtful strategy sessions of estate planning, Jim shares how his career evolution reflects a passion for safeguarding families from future legal woes. This episode peels back the layers of complexity surrounding estate planning, revealing how a carefully crafted plan is not just about assets, but about providing clarity and comfort during life's most trying moments.
Digging deeper, we confront the myths that cloud our judgment in preparing for the unforeseen. The episode tackles head-on the common misconception that spouses are automatic heirs, and explains how without a will, Georgia’s state law could script a family drama no one anticipated. Whether you're a soccer parent juggling a busy schedule or someone seeking to understand the intricacies of asset legacy, our conversation with Jim is an indispensable guide through the legal maze of protecting those you love.
Speaker 1:
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Stacey Risley.
Speaker 2:
Hello friends and neighbors, welcome to North Atlanta's Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we're here with Jim Miskell with the Estate Planning Law Group of Georgia. James M Miskell, pc. Hi, jim, how are you today?
Speaker 3:
Hey, stacey, great to be with you. I'm doing great. I hope you are.
Speaker 2:
I am. I'm so happy to have you on today. I will say I think you're our first estate planning law group that we've had on. So super glad to have you. And with that I will actually go ahead and have you tell our listeners a little bit about your business.
Speaker 3:
All right. Estate planning A lot of folks think it's all about who gets your stuff when you die, but it's really about making sure that your family has a roadmap when grief and crisis strikes. As we age, decisions get made they can be yours or somebody else's and estate planning is both making sure that those decisions are in place and you've got the right people appointed to make sure your decisions are enforced, and also distributing your stuff when you die.
Speaker 2:
Very nice. That was very concise and well put. I love it. Thorough explanation.
Speaker 3:
I think about it a lot.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I bet, considering it is your line of work. Tell our listeners a little bit about your journey. You want to tell them what led you down this road.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so I've been an attorney for 31 years this year and started out about 12 and a half years as a prosecutor. I was in Rockdale County and Gwinnett County and did everything from littering and bad checks really sophisticated stuff like that, all the way up through drug cases and murders, a lot of domestic violence, a lot of DUIs. Early on in my career I prosecuted crimes against children for about five and a half years and left the DA's office, left prosecution in 2005, opened a general practice. When folks leave prosecution and open a general practice, very often they do a lot of criminal defense. That's a natural because you're comfortable in the courtroom. There's family law or anti-family law is what I used to call it divorce law comfortable in the courtroom there and I did a little light business stuff.
Speaker 3:
But about the first six months some folks came in and had wills that were 16 years old and they said hey, jim, we've got these wills. They don't fit us anymore. Our kids needed guardians when we made them earlier, 16 years ago. Now our kids are grown up, they can be our successor agents. They're ready to take over. Can you help us? So I set about doing that work and I did pretty basic work for them. I interviewed them and I worked with the forms I was familiar with and crafted wills and powers of attorney health care directives for them. I interviewed them and I worked with the forms I was familiar with and crafted wills and powers of attorney healthcare directives for them.
Speaker 3:
They were the first of a series of folks I began helping and as I began doing that very basic estate planning, I noticed a few things. One was that those folks were being proactive instead of reactive. Most of my clients were in a terrible situation that they'd often worked very hard for many years to put themselves into and wanted me to fix it like that and that's very difficult to do the estate planning clients. They were more interested in making sure that a problem didn't happen in the future and that really appealed to me. I've got an engineering background before I went to law school and it appealed to me to be able to design something that would work so that they didn't have this big problem later. So I took the hint.
Speaker 3:
After about three years, about 2008, I decided that was really where I wanted to concentrate my practice. So I spent my time continuing legal education, joining the national associations and putting the word out. Hey, I wanted to do this kind of work. It got to about 2011,. 2012, 100% estate planning. I stopped being Jim Miskell, the general practitioner, and began being the estate planning law group of Georgia. It was me and an administrative person. Right now we're two attorneys and six staff and I haven't regretted the decision at all. We do the planning part and we do cleanup, probate that kind of thing. Planning's more fun, of course, than the cleanup, but we do both and it's been a great, great decision, but we do both.
Speaker 2:
And it's been a great, great decision. Well, I can't imagine how refreshing of a change that is. You mentioned that you had been used to previously trying to clean up someone's mess that they had worked to create for a long time, for a long time. And then when you were saying you know you were a prosecutor before that, with you know children's, you know crimes against children and various things, that that's just got to be so taxing on your just your overall outlook towards law, and what a refreshing change that not only then changed into being your own you know general practice, but then to kind of shift gears into estate planning, like you said, to protect what someone has worked so hard for, instead of trying to get them out of a mess. I would imagine that's much more enjoyable.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, you put your finger right on it, and what's become apparent is there's only one reason anybody's ever sitting across the table from me, and that's that they love their family. And so how great is that All my clients come to see me because they want to make things better for the family.
Speaker 2:
It's great, I mean, I love my clients, I love what I do. That is wonderful. It's a great feeling to be doing something that you know is helping families and these people that have worked really hard for what they have. So, yeah, I love it. Well, are there any myths or misconceptions about your industry? Estate planning more specifically, rather than just general law, of course, but that you may want to clear up with our listeners today.
Speaker 3:
Sure, a lot of folks think they have a really good idea about what the law is, and a lot of folks are about 80%, half right, and so one example that I hear a lot of times is if you don't have any planning in place let's say a young couple with kids I'll hear this a lot of times a husband will say we really need to get wills. I know, but if something happens to me, I know that my wife's going to inherit everything and she can just use it to raise the kids. No problem, I know that's what state laws. That's not state law in Georgia. State law in Georgia is that the kids and the spouse get equal shares.
Speaker 3:
So every couple of years we end up unwinding some situation where there's a widow or widower that owns, let's say, a house with two minor kids Right, and we have to unwind that because that's not really what anybody has in mind. So it's important to keep in mind that, although there's a way in the code I say that a lot you may think you don't have an estate plan, you actually do. It's the Georgia plan, it's the Georgia code, it's all the statutes there is a way to make every decision that needs to be made. The problem is the code doesn't know you doesn't know, your family doesn't know what your preferences are, and so just yeah, just sort of throwing it to the wind and giving it up. You're going to get a result, but it's very unlikely it'll be just the result that is right for your family. So I would say, relying on what you've picked up on Google or what you've heard other people say is a dangerous way to proceed. You know, you get one shot at it.
Speaker 2:
Well, and just in the example that you just shared, you know thinking that if you're married and everything goes to the spouse and then the spouse takes care of the kids, and that not being the case, you know that that's not the case at all and I I think the vast majority of people probably have that misconception.
Speaker 1:
So I.
Speaker 2:
I thought that actually well, it's natural.
Speaker 3:
That's what you would expect, you know, unless you read the code, and in some states it is that way, but the Georgia code is not so fast. I think you know there was an impulse to make sure that kids didn't get disinherited. I don't know what all went into it, but that's what we're, that's the landscape we're working with, so so that's just one. I think you know there are a lot. It's just not knowing the laws can be risky.
Speaker 2:
Well, and I think a lot of people, like you said, think they know the law, and I love what you said 80%, half right.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, that's right Something like that.
Speaker 2:
That was great, by the way. I love it. First time I've heard that. But I think people do make assumptions. I mean all the way down from you know speeding tickets and what. What is a super speeder? You know I've had heard literally debates on people that think that a super speeder is a certain fine specific to you know. I mean just like they're just confident in their answers and they're not necessarily right, you know. So when we're talking about one speeding ticket and the importance of that, I mean versus their entire estate and what they have, you know, worked for for so, so long, not knowing the law in that situation is not just dangerous for you but for your entire family, you know, and and and for all of the hard work that you've put in through your life.
Speaker 2:
So very, very happy to have that that cleared up. Well, shifting gears, Jim, if you don't mind. Uh, what do you do for fun outside of work, when you're not working?
Speaker 3:
I've got uh, I'm a soccer dad largely right now. I've got a junior in high school, uh, my daughter's uh playing soccer club and for the high school. So we do a lot of uh of going to soccer games. The spring seemed like, went a, I had a soccer games in the rain, um and uh, but you know that's the way it goes. And uh just traveling. We, you know, tied up mostly my wife and I with with parenting, doing all that stuff. Maybe we'll get back to hobbies and things like that when everybody gets gets, gets launched. I've got two older uh boys college age and then my daughter, yep, uh boys college age and then a daughter.
Speaker 2:
Yep, well, it's funny how your life really does revolve around your kids and their activities.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, until then I don't regret it, mary kate, if you're listening. I don't regret it, I'm not complaining.
Speaker 2:
He's not complaining at all. The question was what are you doing for fun? That's right, he really enjoys it I do do Especially when she's, if she's the last one in the nest, you know it does. It's a little little extra special then. Well, so shifting gears a little bit instead of fun. Can you describe a life challenge or a hardship that you have been through that you can now say, for having been through that experience, that you are better or stronger for that today?
Speaker 3:
I don't have a lot to complain about. Both my parents passed, and my dad 2002, my mom in 2017. My mom's oldest sister died in spring of 2018. She lived up in Indiana and I was her executor. I was her power of attorney agent. I was her health care agent, I was her executor. I was her power of attorney agent, I was her health care agent, I was her executor. And so, as her health declined and she ended up living to be 101.
Speaker 3:
Oh wow, yeah, yeah. But as her health declined and then when she, when she died, I ended up really walking in the shoes of my clients in a more significant way than I had. She didn't have kids of her own. There were six nieces and nephews. It was out of state, and a lot of the issues that my clients grapple with I sort of had to deal with firsthand. I had a fantastic attorney helping me in Indiana but I felt like that really I wouldn't necessarily call it a terrible, horrible hardship, but it was a challenge that in running my business I was going through what my clients are and I feel like that's enriched my ability to empathize with them and understand what they're going through. Every situation is a little bit different and every situation teaches you something. I learned a couple of things going through that. So if I had to pick one thing, that would be it.
Speaker 3:
Covid, of course, affected all businesses, but the the business of estate planning and probate did not stop. You know, we had a lot of clients pass away and need probate. We had several folks where the cause of death with COVID, you know, and we couldn't shut our office and found ways to work around it. We do a vast majority of our meetings, of course, then were remote Zoom meetings, that kind of thing. We did signings in the parking lot. It looked like Sonic, you'd come in, we'd sign a plan, and so we got through it and it really broadened our ability to cater to clients that aren't necessarily local. We can do all our meetings virtual, except for the signing meeting. So it's opened us up. We do a larger geographical area. My office is in Johns Creek but we have clients in Marietta and Woodstock and over to Loganville and Lawrenceville and Lilburn. I think we're a little bit in Gainesville and I mean, anyway, I could start naming a bunch of towns.
Speaker 2:
Well, the title of your law group, you know, the state planning law group of Georgia. You really can serve anyone in the whole state.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, we pretty much can. We can figure out a way.
Speaker 2:
That's wonderful. Well, I love. I want to tie back and jump back, just, or circle back to when you said that that you had been through this with your aunt who lived to 101, you know, and then learning things as her executor, as her power of attorney and all of those things, that you were able to take that knowledge back and really you know, be in the shoes of your clients. You know I think that's important in any industry. You know in any, in any profession, and especially when, when you are, a lot of times I think you know dealing with the, the nitty gritty of it. You know when you really get in there and and are experiencing it and and and living it and being able to take that knowledge that you gain from that experience. That could be viewed as negative. You know a hardship or a challenge, but it really does make you better. Especially, you know when you're able to bring that back to your profession.
Speaker 2:
So thanks for sharing that with us. I think, oh yeah, thanks for asking. You're welcome. Well, speaking of, is there anything else you would like our listeners to know about your business, jim?
Speaker 3:
Just that you don't need a mansion to do estate planning. Estate planning is making sure you've got a good health care directive in place, a good power of attorney in place. You need a goodwill or a living trust and your family's going to hold you accountable If you don't get it done. Decisions are going to get made. They may not be happy with it and they'll always remember why didn't, why didn't she do this, why didn't he do this, could have done it, and so it's easy to put off. Everybody puts it off. Let me make everybody feel better.
Speaker 3:
More than half of people don't have a will. More than half of people have been thinking about it for a long time. So there's nothing better than getting some momentum and do it. We do a lot of educational programs to help people get some momentum. We do live workshops, we do virtual workshops just to get people's get their feet wet so they can start thinking about it and get some momentum toward getting it done. So I guess that's it. It's not some big overwhelm. It doesn't need to be some big overwhelming thing. I try and break everything down into really bite sized pieces, one decision at a time, because it can be overwhelming and folks don't like to think about it, so I guess, just just it's. If you're thinking about it and you think you need to get it done, you're right. Yeah, your family will thank you for it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and this is the last thing anyone wants to to have to deal with when they're grieving, you know, after losing a parent, or losing, you know, a loved one, is is are those decisions that could have been, you know, made when they were still healthy.
Speaker 3:
So yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. You know, made when they were still healthy. So yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, if listeners want to reach out, what is the best way for them to get in touch with you.
Speaker 3:
Well, the uh, our URL, uh, our website, sort of, is the motto of our practice. Let's talk about estate planningcom. It's L E T S, t, a, l, k E S T A T E, pp-l-a-n-n-i-n-gcom, letstalkestateplanningcom. Our office is right here in Johns Creek and our phone number is 770-822-2723. 770-822-2723.
Speaker 2:
Well, thank you so much for being here, Jim. It has been a pleasure getting to know you.
Speaker 3:
Stacey. Thank you, I appreciate the opportunity. It's really nice to meet you and I enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2:
Me too. That's all for today's episode, Atlanta. I'm Stacey Risley with the Good Neighbor Podcast. Thanks for listening and for supporting the local businesses and nonprofits of our great community.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast North Atlanta. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnp north atlantacom. That's gnp north atlantacom, or call 470-946-7007.
