Attorneys Help Plan Emergency Workers’ Estates

The following kudos to estate planning attorneys is found in David Unze, Attorneys lend a hand to heroes, USA Today, April 22, 2008:

In the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Anthony Hayes was like many Americans: He had a desire to do something to help.

Hayes, a South Carolina attorney who worked at 4 World Trade Center before attending Tulane University Law School, acted on that desire.

He called the fire chief in Columbia, S.C., to ask what he might do for emergency first responders. A brainstorming session followed with a group of 15 firefighters, during which Hayes asked whether they regularly updated their wills and powers of attorney.

Only one raised a hand.

“I was dumbstruck, and then I became agitated,” Hayes said. “How is it possible that a community does not provide basic trust and estate planning when your job is to risk your life to save me? That was counterintuitive.”

Two months later, Hayes started the “Wills for Heroes” program. He returned to the Columbia Fire Department in November 2001 to offer free wills, powers of attorney and health care declarations for first responders.

Hayes says the program has expanded to 11 states: Georgia, Minnesota, California, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Utah, where lawyers prepared 41 estate plans at the state’s first Wills for Heroes event in March.

Several other states, including Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, Connecticut and Michigan, are planning to come on board later this year, Hayes says. He estimates the program has helped 10,000 first responders since it began.

The services provided would otherwise cost $800-$1,500 depending on the law firm you choose, said Susan Link, a Twin Cities attorney who volunteers for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area Wills for Heroes program.