Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 18, 2015

Mountain Views News Saturday, July 18, 2015 BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS14 Mountain Views News Saturday, July 18, 2015 BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS14 
FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett 

IF YOU HAVE A TRUST, 
DON’T SETTLE FOR 
A FALSE SENSE OF 
SECURITY – PART I 

It is estimated that more than 80 % of trusts fail 
at the trustor’s death. EIGHTY PERCENT! What 
a shameful statistic. Think about it. Out of every 
five people who put the time, effort, and money 
into creating a trust, only one of them actually 
protects and provides for their family as they 
intended. That means the vast majority of people 
with a trust have nothing more than a false sense 
of security while they are living and leave their 
family with a big mess to clean up after they die.
There are three equally important phases to trust-
making. Neglect any of these phases and your 
trust is likely to fail. Phase 1 is the actual creation 
of your estate plan documents. This includes not 
only the trust, but many other critical documents 
as well (your will, powers of attorney, healthcare 
directives, HIPAA waiver, kids protection 
plan, etc.). Each of these documents should be 
customized to your own specific situation, goals, 
and assets. Remember, your family is unique and 
your estate plan should be, too.
The courts are filled with cases where simple, 
fill-in-the-blank, template wills or trusts, 
downloaded from the internet, led to family 
disputes, ugly probates, expensive litigation, and 
hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) in 
lost inheritance for intended beneficiaries. The 
recent family quarrel over an “E-Z Legal Form” 
estate plan serves as one such cautionary tale. But 
all one really has to do with such services is read 
the fine print, such as the Legalzoom disclaimer, 
to be very clear they’re just selling documents, 
without any legal guidance, advice, direction, 
or guarantee about what they mean or whether 
they’ll even work.
Unfortunately, people who get sold on saving a 
few thousand dollars now by doing it themselves, 
often force their families to hand over tens of 
thousands of dollars to lawyers later, to straighten 

out the mess they’ve left behind. Of course many 
times those messes cannot be straightened out at 
all. But it’s not just online legal services selling 
a false sense of security. I’ve also heard far too 
many stories of cut-rate, cheaper-than-anyoneelse 
lawyers whose plans don’t work when they’re 
needed. And yet again, it’s families who are leftholding the bag.
This should all be malpractice, if you ask me. 
Regrettably, it’s common practice instead. So 
what can you do to protect yourself – and more 
importantly, protect your family? Here’s how 
NOT to get sold a false sense of security:
-If the lawyer or service you’re using to prepare 
your estate plan doesn’t first spend some serious 
time asking you questions, getting to know you, 
your background, and your goals, they are much 
more interested in selling you a set of documents 
than a plan that will actually work. And if they 
quote you a fee before getting to know you first, 
that’s a good indication they are never going to 
invest their time in you.

- Ask the lawyer or service if they are available 
to provide guidance and answer questions 
throughout the process. If they answer is no, 
move on. If the answer is yes, ask them how much 
they charge for that. If it’s not included as part of 
a flat fee, they are clearly more concerned about 
selling documents than they are about providing 
good legal counsel.
-Determine if the plan fee is too good to be true. 
If the lawyer or service undersells everyone else, 
that’s a big red flag. It takes a lot of work and 
time to customize a plan for someone so it is 
guaranteed to perform as intended. Cut-rate firms 
and services work on a volume based business 
model. Their goal is to sell you a set of documents 
with the smallest time investment possible, then 
move on. 
You can, and should, strive to do better than that. 
Don’t settle for a lawyer or service who’s just in 
the business of selling documents. There’s too 
much at stake and your family has too much to 
lose. The documents are critically important but 
they should not be the sole focus of the lawyer 
or service you work with. The documents alone 
won’t give you real security – the kind of security 
both you and your family deserve.
To your family’s health, wealth, and happiness, 
A local attorney, father, and CASA volunteer 
(Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children), 
Marc Garlett is on a mission to help parents 
protect what they love most. His office is located 
at 49 S. Baldwin Ave., Ste. G, Sierra Madre, CA 
91024. Schedule an appointment to sit down and 
talk about ensuring a legacy of love and financial 
security for your family by calling 626.355.4000 or 
visit www.GarlettLaw.com for more information. 

CONTENT CURATION 


You don’t always have to come up with originalcontent for your email marketing and social media.
You can probably find plenty of third party contentthat relates to your business, product or servicesthat you can share but… you need to follow a fewrules: 

Attribute the Creator. Give credit where credit 
is due (to the author, photographer, publication,
website etc.)

Add Commentary: Explain why the content isrelevant and why you are sharing it.
Provide a link back to the original source.

For example… Let’s say you sell dog products. 

You send out a weekly Constant Contact emailfull of helpful tips for dog owners. You find a greatarticle about dog training on ZDogTrainer’s website. Your copy might look something like this:

“This article on ZdogTrainer’s website (add link)
features great information about the fundamentalsof dog training. These helpful tips are encouragingto the dog owner who struggles with leash anxietyand squirrel chasing.” This attributes the creator, 
has commentary and links to the source.

If you’re not quite sure if something is okay toshare, it’s always best to err on the side of caution;
ask a lawyer or ask the creator for permission. 

HEALTHY LIFESTYLES 
THE JOY OF YOGA 
PRACTICE ON VACATION? 
EAT BLUEBERRIES FOR A LONGER LIFE 


Traveling is so 

much fun, but it 

can be hard the 

body. We often 
feel we need a vacation after our vacation! The 
internal systems get out of wack; sleep is not right 
and our digestive system is disrupted. Unless it’s 
a super active vacation, our exercise routine can 
be neglected.

There are a few ways that our practice can 
support us when we’re away. First, bring your yoga 
mat with you! If you don’t have a travel mat, invest 
in one. They fold up super easy and it’s available 
when you need it. Many people need their yoga 
daily to relieve back pain, joint stiffness and to 
treat other chronic conditions. Try not to take 
time off this care you give yourself. It’s important 
that you not only take care of your health, but you 
feel good enough to have fun on vacation! 

Don’t forget those periods of relaxation and 

meditation. This time can serve as a period to 
stablize and re-access your energy. There’s a lovely 
feeling of spontaneity while on vacation, but you 
need some stabilizers in place to balance that out. 
If your energy is balanced and stable, going with 
the flow is a piece of cake and the experience will 
be light and easy. 

Choose wisely with food and be kind to 
yourself. Maybe you do need a little ice cream on 
vacation, but how about just one bowl? Take the 
quality approach rather than quantity, and eat 
food that is fresh and easy to digest. Finally, enjoy 
the beauty of wherever it is you are! 

Happy travels and see you in class when you’re 
home. 

Namaste, 
Keely Totten 

If you haven’t noticed, tisthe season for blueberries 
in California! Blueberries 
are both delicious and 
nutritious. I’m sure youheard the term superfood… which is any foodpacked full of health 
benefits. Blueberries are 
rank high as a super food.
While blueberries are 
sweet, they are also low insugar making them lowon the glycemic index.
Dr. Tina is a traditional This means they will notnaturopath and nutri-cause blood sugar levels tospike. They are full of fiber

tionist at Vibrant Living

which improves digestion

Wellness Center

and aids in weight loss

if you are trying to shed 
some pounds. They are also incredibly rich in vitamins,
minerals and have powerful antioxidant properties.

It is blueberries strong antioxidant property that help 

them to reduce the risk of DNA damage and improvethe chances of avoiding many chronic diseases that canshorten life. New studies show that eating blueberries canactually prevent some DNA damage from occurring in thefirst place. This means that our chances of developing life-
shortening diseases are also reduced.

DNA is our genetic material that is contained in everycell of our body. Many things can damage our DNA suchas exposure to toxins, illnesses, and even the aging processitself. Our bodies are usually great at repairing our DNA butas we age, that becomes more of a challenge. DNA that is 
damaged or malfunctioning can lead to problems/diseasesthat greatly shorten life expectancy. Blueberries have so 
many health benefits that they may even promote a longerlife span.

Blueberry plants are hardy plants. They have evolvedto be able to adapt to different environmental stresseslike drought, high or low temperatures and other thingsthat can threaten them. When we eat blueberries, we can 
take advantage of some of their beneficial compounds.
Ultimately blueberries do not just aid in a longer life butmore importantly, what we are all looking for, an increasein the quality of life. 

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com