{"id":4569,"date":"2017-04-07T16:32:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T20:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=4569"},"modified":"2017-04-07T16:32:05","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T20:32:05","slug":"tips-for-easier-drafting-from-forms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=4569","title":{"rendered":"Tips for Easier Drafting from Forms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The forms in use in a firm should be easy to edit, and it should be easy to copy and paste language from one document to another, so lawyers responsible for creating or maintaining will and trust (and other estate planning) forms should try to make the pieces of the wills and trusts as interchangeable as possible. Making the language, structure, and format of documents consistent will make it easier for lawyers, paralegals, and secretaries (or a computerized drafting system) to assemble different pieces into a coherent document.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some suggestions for easier document drafting:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Write revocable and irrevocable trusts in the first person (the settlor or grantor being \u201cI\u201d) rather than using third-person references to \u201cthe settlor\u201d or \u201cthe grantor.\u201d In that way, the same language can be used for similar provisions of both wills and trusts, such as trusts for the children of the settlor\/testator.<\/li>\n<li>Adopt standard document formatting for all forms of wills, trusts, and other estate planning forms. Maintaining similar styles for paragraph numbering, paragraph headers, page numbering, acknowledgments, jurats, signature lines, and other mechanical parts of the document will greatly simplify the design and the maintenance of forms, as well as cutting-and-pasting between forms.<\/li>\n<li>Eliminate differences in number and gender whenever possible. Consider these possible changes.\n<ul>\n<li>Use \u201cexecutors\u201d (or \u201ctrustees\u201d or \u201cagents\u201d) regardless of whether two fiduciaries are named to serve together initially, or only one fiduciary is named initially and others are named as successors. As long as possible successors exist, and the provisions of the document apply to both the initial appointees and the successors, references to \u201cthe executors\u201d or \u201cthe trustees\u201d can refer to all of the fiduciaries who might serve, will be grammatically and semantically correct, and will greatly simplify the choices in drafting and modifying the documents for different factual situations. For example, by using \u201cexecutors\u201d consistently, you can regularly use \u201cthey\u201d and \u201ctheir,\u201d as well as plural forms of verbs, without needing to make changes throughout a document based on the number of fiduciaries initially named.<\/li>\n<li>Use gender-neutral terms, such as \u201cchild\u201d or beneficiary,\u201d to refer to the beneficiaries of a trust, instead of \u201cson\u201d or \u201cdaughter.\u201d (However, do not use \u201cspouse\u201d instead of \u201chusband\u201d or \u201cwife.\u201d) (Question:\u00a0 What term should be used to apply to the spouse when the spouses are the same sex?\u00a0 Should the will of a man who is married to a man refer to the spouse as a \u201chusband,\u201d \u201cpartner,\u201d or \u201cspouse\u201d?)<\/li>\n<li>Eliminate personal pronouns wherever possible, substituting possessive forms when needed. For example, if trust provisions always refer to \u201cthe child\u201d and \u201cthe child\u2019s\u201d (instead of \u201chis or her\u201d), there is no need to worry about what to do when the client has four daughters and no sons. Similarly, use possessives to refer to the spouse, instead of \u201chis or her.\u201d If done correctly, the substitution of \u201chusband\u201d or \u201cwife\u201d for \u201cspouse\u201d will also change \u201cmy spouse\u2019s income\u201d to \u201cmy wife\u2019s income\u201d or \u201cmy husband\u2019s income.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Use \u201ctestator\u201d and \u201cexecutor\u201d to refer to both men and women. The Latin feminine forms (\u201ctestatrix\u201d and \u201cexecutrix\u201d) are archaic and rarely are seen outside of clumsy documents written by lawyers who are scared to change anything found in a form book. Statutes are almost always gender-neutral, and even judges rarely use the feminine Latin forms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The forms in use in a firm should be easy to edit, and it should be easy to copy and paste language from one document to another, so lawyers responsible for creating or maintaining will and trust (and other estate &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=4569\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[49,475],"class_list":["post-4569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips","tag-drafting","tag-trust-drafting","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4570,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569\/revisions\/4570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}