Purposeful Planning

Almost every trust and estate lawyer has stories about trust fund beneficiaries who embody the traits of spoiled rich kids.  John Warnick’s story is what led him to reevaluate estate planning and realize it has been missing the human component.  “I said, ‘There has to be a better way to do planning so all this tax-efficient, elegant trust planning doesn’t hurt people,’” he said.  “I saw well-intentioned, technically precise plans reap negative unintended consequences.” 

After a decade of work, Mr. Warnick created the Purposeful Planning Institute.  Purposeful Planning’s goal is to get people who want to create a trust to think more deeply about the document’s language and how it binds trustees to make distributions now and into the future.  While the movement is fervent, there are only about 345 members.  The approach is also controversial and faces resistance from professionals who practice estate planning in more traditional ways.  “The attorneys who don’t like this don’t like it because it’s way outside the box.  And they have a very legitimate point.  They need documents that will stand up in court when they’re tested.” 

Purposeful planning is different from traditional planning approaches in that it ensures estate planning has a deeper purpose and meaning than just being driven by taxes.  “The challenge is to get those core planning disciplines—lawyers, C.P.A.s, wealth managers—to start with ‘why’ instead of immediately marching into ‘how.’” 

See Paul Sullivan, Focusing on the Human Element of Estate Planning, The New York Times, Nov. 7, 2014.