ESTATE PLANNING COUNCIL OF BIRMINGHAM, INC.

L. Paul Hood, Jr., JD, LL.M. 

Title: The Human Side of Estate Planning/Psychology of Estate Planning

Description: In this session, Paul will discuss the psychological factors at play for both clients/donors and estate planners/development professionals alike. He will introduce three psychological phenomena (transference, countertransference and triangles) at work in every day estate/charitable planning encounters. He will discuss death anxiety, mortality salience (fear of talking about death) and the 12 distinct fears that clients/donors and estate planners can have about estate/charitable planning and that Paul discovered in part through interdisciplinary research. He will introduce motivational interviewing and appreciative inquiry, which are tools that can assist clients/donors in the planning process.

This will be a practical applied session where Paul will address the following issues and questions:

• In this session, he'll introduce you to a significant part of estate planning: psychology.  [Paul used to describe his practice as practicing psychotherapy without a license.] 
• Clients typically avoid death discussion (called mortality salience).
• An introduction to the therapeutic and anti-therapeutic aspects of estate planning.
• The impact of death of a colleague or loved one on the estate planning process.
• How death anxiety can adversely impact the quality of an estate plan unless it is addressed.
• The role that terror management theory plays in estate planning.
• The impact of separation anxiety on the estate planning and administration process.
• What clients really think about when they engage in estate planning.
• What really goes through the minds of the estate planner and the client during the initial client interview.
• The true role of the estate planner in the estate planning process-guide, exhibitionist or rescuer?
• Have you ever wondered why people act the way they do in estate planning?