Jeeves & the Estate Home: So What Exactly is an Estate Plan Anyway?

While out driving yesterday, I passed a sign put up by a builder seeking to sell “Estate Homes.”  Despite the fact that I deal with “Estate” matters every day, the builder has succeeded in conjuring up the image they wanted me to see by using the term “Estate”:

White pillar columns in the front of the home, family initials on a gated entrance, German Sheppard guard dogs guarding the perimeter and possibly a butler named Jeeves to greet me at the entrance.

For the most part, I stopped calling myself an Estate Planning Attorney unless I’m speaking with someone who is also an attorney or financial professional.  As someone who deals with the topic every day, I have to remind myself that not everybody realizes what Estate Planning entails.  Moreover, very few people know what it means to have an Estate.   Yet others are under the belief that estate planning is for those who have amassed or exceeded a certain level of wealth.