Ryan Kelly On Family Law & Estate Planning During COVID-19
Ryan Kelly was recently featured in an interview with Super Lawyers. In the interview Ryan discusses the topic of estate planning, family law, and divorces during COVID-19. Ryan was asked to do this interview because of the unique accommodations herself and her family has been making for clients during this health crisis.
For example, the lawyers at Kelly & Kelly P.C. recently completed their first virtual estate plan for a client. The estate plan was completed via video consultation with Zoom.
Ryan participated in this interview to provide information to other attorneys on how to continue conducting business and meeting the legal needs of their clients.
Super Lawyers Interview With Ryan Kelly
The interview was conducted by Super Lawyers on April 22, 2020 and published in 2020 Michigan Super Lawyers Magazine. Here’s a link to the full interview below.
https://www.superlawyers.com/michigan/article/sorting-out-estate-plans-divorce-and-custody-under-covid-19/4ca6e926-4a06-4d42-8dd9-5b3a508ab0f2.html
Here’s a brief excerpt from the interview:
“So was Friday the first virtual estate plan you’ve done?
It was, yeah. It’s been really interesting because we started using Zoom pretty much as soon as things started to go awry. We were waiting for the governor to issue orders allowing for remote notarizations via video conferencing, which she did I think two days before. We’ve had some clients who were waiting to finalize their estate plans for that. We just did another one this morning and have two more on the way.
Are you finding a lot more people interested in doing them right now?
Definitely. It’s causing a lot of people to think about, ‘What would happen if I was incapacitated, or if I were to pass away?’ A pandemic has that effect on people. I normally don’t do any estate planning—my dad does that—but they’ve been humming along, so I’m helping out.
Is this something that’s possible for someone in a nursing home, locked down right now?
They would be able to. The hardest part is knowing the technology well enough to be comfortable with it, since family members can’t see them at this time. We’ve had a couple of elderly people who are homebound with their children or niece, and we’ve had them on the calls. One was almost ready to sign, and at the last minute she said, “No, I can’t get my head around the technology.” And I don’t blame her; she’s 87 years old. So I just told her, “That’s fine, we’ll wait. If anything changes, just let us know.”
We just did one with a couple today who are in their early 40s, and they’re both at home, with their kids there, and we made it work.”
(Super Lawyers, April 22, 2020, SORTING OUT ESTATE PLANS, DIVORCE AND CUSTODY UNDER COVID-19)
