Our History

In the beginning…

This company began as a corporation called The Estate Plan founded by Henry Abts, III. He came up with the idea to help others out of his own personal suffering through the unforeseen process of probate that his mother had to bear. It was such a traumatic experience that he figured there had to be an alternative, something that he and others could do to avoid it. During this time he was pursuing a career in financial and personal estate planning and discovered the Living Trust was the key to avoiding probate. The beginning of The Estate Plan thus was created, a business model that had two objectives; educate the public about alternatives to probate; and second, supply clients with the solution of a proper estate planning program. It then grew into creating a set of living trust documents designed to cover the majority of circumstances in the general public but with the ability to tailor to each person’s individual needs. These documents could be used by attorneys very easily in their practice by assessing the client’s needs and applying them to the ready-made living trust. It was a win-win with the attorneys providing a quality trust and Henry peace of mind that the people are being served well.

The Living Trust book was created

After he met with more than a thousand clients from coast to coast he decided to write a book. The Living Trust book was created in 1989 and has since sold over 1 million copies and is considered the “bible of the industry.” The Estate Plan was now the only nationwide Living Trust Company whose trust documents were valid in all 50 states and has produced over 60,000 trusts.

The Institute for Estate Preservation was formed

Approximately 10 years ago Henry decided he wanted to train those who used the Living Trust documents (attorneys) not only to create a consistency and understanding of the documents throughout the company but in his high quality standards and ethics.  What he created is still being practiced today, The Institute for Estate Preservation in both basic and advanced levels. These institutes are typically viewed as just another training institute by those who’ve never attended; however, they are quite the contrary. There is rarely someone who attends that says it was not helpful or that they did not learn something new. Both The Estate Plan staff and Henry himself taught at the Institutes, he was always very passionate about his idea of reaching out to everyone who would listen.

Transitioning into the digital age

Unfortunately, in July of 2010 Henry passed away in his sleep at his home in Incline Village, Lake Tahoe. Although Henry was in his 80′s he was still very passionate about “Taking the Message to All Who Will Listen” his infamous quote amongst his community. He left this for us to carry forward which we are excited to not only carry forward but expand in new and better ways.

We are now in a digital age where it’s essentially “out with the old and in with the new.” What used to work is now obsolete regarding so many aspects in this industry. We are working diligently to transition by first, creating this robust website which hosts a wealth of estate planning information, knowledge, tools and tips and second, re-writing our current proprietary software into a cloud solution allowing our estate planning back office document model to be accessible online as well as including all new features to satisfy the end user in a way never thought possible. We are certain with both in place; we will be well beyond all of our competitors and will have created an entirely new way of doing business in this industry.