You've Got to Read
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Basically, there are only two ways for you to take in knowledge
and information, through the ear and through the eye. I am
well aware, and happily acknowledge, that not everyone learns
best in the same way. If you want to learn more about this
subject I recommend you read Tom West's book "In the Mind's
Eye" (Prometheus Books, 1991, ISBN 0-87975-646-2); you
will find it illuminating.
That having been said, however,
I also believe that certain types of information have to be
imparted in ways that are intrinsically well suited to the
information, although perhaps not best suited to the tastes,
preferences and learning patterns of the recipient.
I guess, given the title of this section, it will not come
as a surprise that I think reading is essential. What
follows is why I think that and what you can do about it.
1. A Guide to Independent Reading.
Estate and business planning, and collateral subjects relating
to them, can be relatively intimidating topics, especially for
those who are not already somewhat familiar with them.
Notwithstanding, you will be doing both yourself and your
professional advisors a great favor if you can be persuaded to
do some independent reading on the chosen subject.
To aid you in doing so, I have compiled, and presented on
this Site, a form of Bibliography
which I hope you will find useful. The Bibliography is
arranged by subject matter and is a relatively comprehensive
guide to available, authoritative and well-written materials relating
to the respective topics covered by them.
There may be other useful materials available as well, but
you should be warned that there is a substantial amount of
inaccurate and misleading information in print on many of
these subjects, and caution is indicated if you look beyond the
materials which are listed in the Bibliography.
I have indicated which of the materials I find to be particularly
stylish or reliable, and hope that guidance is useful.
Although price is not an absolute indication of a book's focus
(or of its value either, come to that), a rough but useful
rule-of-thumb is that if a particular volume costs less than
about forty dollars, it is a "consumer-grade"
publication, e.g. one which is aimed toward the general
public rather than the estate or business planning professional.
Often, the client's needs for information can be quite
adequately met at or below that price level.
There will be times, however, when no inexpensive publication
is available, or the subject is so specialized that the client
needs a deeper treatment of the subject, in which event it may
be necessary to purchase a more expensive item.
In undertaking any study of estate or business planning, you must
realize that, with the exception of federal tax matters, the law
governing the subject is somewhat "state specific" and,
accordingly, these materials, which are necessarily generic in
nature (so as to be saleable in all fifty states) will be
chiefly useful in providing you with a conceptual framework and as
a basis for acquainting you generally with some of the many
choices which are realistically available to you.
They are not intended to be, and cannot safely be used as, guides
for "do-it-yourself" estate or business planning.
A special word of caution is in order regarding books on
"living trusts" and "living wills". There
seems to be a tendency (compulsion might be closer to the mark)
for these books to be less than completely objective. The
proponents of living trusts, I suppose like proponents of
anything, spend a great deal more time on the good news than
they do on the bad news, and, accordingly, have to be taken
with a grain (or more) of salt. The commentators on living
wills, in like fashion, sometimes have their own biases, usually
ethically or religiously based, and should be read with that
possibility in mind.
There is nothing wrong with bias, so
long as the author either openly acknowledges it or gives
the reader facts from which its existence can clearly be
inferred, but on these subjects it is often less than obvious,
hence this cautionary remark.
Very few lay persons will require information or insights which
are not reflected, or alluded to, in one or the other of the
volumes listed in the Bibliography. Some of them, particularly
the less specialized ones, may be available to you through your
local public library or through inter-library loan. Others may
have to be purchased through your bookseller.
Even the most expensive of them will cost only a small fraction
of the cost of an estate or business planning exercise; you
could actually assemble quite a library for less than your
lawyer is going to charge you for three or four hours of his
time. Not to put too fine a point on it --- educating yourself
is good business. Be prepared, however, to invest a bit of
effort; none of these books reads like a popular novel.
2. Seminars - An Alternative?
At this point in my diatribe, I know that many of you are
casting desperately around for an alternative solution, thinking
to yourselves - why don't I just sidestep all this bothersome
reading and go to a seminar.
Why not indeed. Seminars, and other forms of oral presentation,
have always been around (since Demosthenese, at least), and
since they are near-ubiquitous at this point, I guess the
question requires an answer.
It may not be the one you want to hear, but here it is. In
my opinion, seminars, by whatever name called, have serious
shortcomings as a method of imparting useful information on
estate and business planning and related subjects. Those
shortcomings are:
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A.The seminars
offered to the lay public, which are typically sponsored
by some business or charitable organization, usually have
a commercial motive.
The goal is not simply to transmit knowledge for
knowledge's sake, but to importune the attendee into
taking some action which will be beneficial to the
sponsor.
Sometimes the sponsor is a commercial entity in the
business of supplying some financial service or product
--- sometimes it is a charity hoping for largesse ---
sometimes it is a lawyer/accountant/financial planner
simply looking for paying customers. In any event,
the existence of a commercial motive necessarily
raises questions about the objectivity of the
presentation.
B. Not always, but
far too often for comfort, the seminar will have what
I call a "magic bullet" theme. The speaker
would have you adopt a particular recommended course
of action and all your problems will miraculously be
solved. This raises serious questions of intellectual
honesty, as do all persons who tout easy answers to
hard questions.
C. The time
allotted for most seminars is far too brief for the
speaker to do justice to a subject that is even
middling complicated. In order to accomplish
the mission, the speaker is forced to paint with a very
broad brush, which may not be a bad thing if the
audience are not capable of receiving complex information,
but it is clearly limiting.
Additionally, voice is not a particularly apt medium
for imparting "nuanced" information --- ideas
have to be presented in black and white. There is just
not enough time to deal with the gray elements of the
subject, which necessarily gives the listener a distorted
and simplistic view.
D. Unless the audience
is remarkably homogenous, the speaker's pace will be too
fast for some and too slow for others and/or the
complexity of the content will be too great or not great
enough. The speaker is obliged to assume a uniform level
of comprehension, with result that some listeners will be
restless and bored and others will be overwhelmed and lost.
E. The attendees will
not have taken notes (note-taking is a dead art) and so
will preserve no record of what was said and will have to
rely purely on memory.
From experience of talking to them after the fact, I have
developed a very low estimation of attendees' ability to
recall any useful amounts of accurate information.
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There may be other pedagogical limitations as well; these are just
a few that have occurred to me, but they are serious ones and I
believe, in the aggregate, cast conspicuous doubt on the ability
of seminars or other oral presentations to adequately educate you
regarding these complex issues.
However, to be scrupulously fair about it, a seminar can be good
for one thing --- it can serve to "jump start" the
learning process. If the speaker is sufficiently charismatic
and knows how to arouse the listener's curiosity, the encounter
may well lead the listener to further and more focused and
more profitable study.
But to expect complete and useful results from seminar attendance
alone is just not realistic. Continuing the "starter"
analogy, I believe that relying on a seminar alone would be like
relying on your automobile's starter to take you on a trip ---
you won't go fast and you won't get far. You need the car's
engine (in this analogy --- books) to get you where you need
to go.
3. What Use Graphics? It has
become somewhat common for estate and business planners to use
elaborate graphics presentations (flow charts, bar graphs, etc.)
to "illustrate" their recommendations.
I see nothing at all wrong with this technique, so long as
the graphics portion of the presentation provides a part of your
understanding and not all of it. My fear is that some of the
planners who use extensive graphics presentations are doing
so to pander to the client's perceived unwillingness to read. Sort
of a figurative pat on the head.
This is patronizing, at best, and deceptive, at worst. Clearly
a part of the "dumbing down" phenomenon that is
mentioned elsewhere on this Site. While I would not suggest
that you reject information presented in graphical form, I think
you should reflect a bit on the uses of graphics, as compared
to the written word.
I am not an educational psychologist, but the following ideas
occur to me:
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A. Graphics are apt
methods of presenting gross concepts, sort of a
"bare bones" outline. Words, on the other
hand, are needed in order to convey subtleties of meaning.
B. Graphics are
effective at inciting to action, but do not encourage
reflection. Words are best suited to examining criteria,
weighing alternatives, expressing choices.
C. Graphics are most
useful in presenting quantitative data. Words, on the
other hand, are essential to express qualitative ideas.
D. Graphics are
particularly effective at illustrating standard or
normative characteristics. Words are often essential
to define exceptions to or variations from the norm.
E. Graphics tend to
be more memorable, but this may be more a consequence
of their simplicity than of any innate superiority at
conveying information.
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Finally, I come to my most serious concern, which is that
a graphical presentation may give you the illusion of learning,
whereas words are needed to give you the real thing.
In an ideal world, both words and images would be used to
convey that type of information which they most aptly express,
but if your advisors believe you are not interested in words
(or, god forbid, not capable of dealing with any subtleties of
the discussion), you are going to get only some pretty pictures.
If that is the case, simply be warned that you are only getting
a part of the story.
4. In Closing. In deciding
upon the approach you are going to take regarding your education
on estate and business planning matters, may I offer you the
following observations:
- An educated client is more likely to adopt and
implement a suitable plan.
- An educated client may require less professional
assistance and thus be able to save somewhat on fees.
- An educated client is apt to engender greater
responsiveness and creativity from the professionals
who are working for him.
- An educated client retains greater personal autonomy
and does not simply surrender important decisions to others.
- An educated client is better able to discharge his
responsibilities to his family or other objects of
his concern.
Perhaps what I am trying to say to you can be framed a bit
more amusingly (but equally tendentiously) in the form of a
humorous story, which I confess to have stolen from P.J. O'Rourke.
It goes like this:
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A Southern politician was out campaigning one afternoon and stopped
to talk to a constituent. "My word", he said to the
man, "you have a fine family - eighteen boys I'm told.
All good Democrats, I suppose?"
"Well", the man said in reply, "I tried to
bring 'em up right, and they're all good Christians, and
all of 'em but Sam is a Democrat --- but Sam's an ornery
cuss, he got to readin'."
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How about it, you be a Sam too --- get to readin'. I hope
you will derive some pleasure and satisfaction from your
studies; I have no doubt that you will profit from them.
Remember, the cost of knowing is absolutely nothing when
compared to the cost of not knowing.
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Law Offices of Thomas J. Keating IV
Centreville, Maryland, USA
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Copyright © 1998-2002, Thomas J. Keating IV
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