I’m an elder law attorney and do a lot of estate planning. I’ve adopted some of MB’s suggestions to make our wills, trusts, POAs, and other estate planning documents a little more legible, but wanted to see what others are doing in this space. Any suggestions for fonts, layout, headers/footers, etc. to create estate planning documents that are beautiful yet easy to read?
I have been meaning to respond to this post for the past couple of weeks but just didn’t have the time. Here is a short summary of my thoughts:
Form follows function. I prioritize readability over beauty. If my documents are readable that means they also look pretty good.
For wills and trusts I use Equity 11 point all around. In some ways I like the idea of a different font for headings, but I also like uniformity.
For ancillary documents, e.g., POAs, Concourse 11 point. I feel that a sans serif font scans a little better. Banks and hospitals are going to scan the POAs. I don’t want some yahoo at Goliath National Bank to say they can’t read the financial POA.
A different font for POAs also sets these documents apart from the will for a bit less confusion. I’ve actually considered using a different font for each type of document, but that may be insane.
Footers: [Document Name] of [Client Name] Page X of Y. Always. This has been a life saver if clients want to make changes at the signing.
This one is a bit of a pet peeve and probably a minor point, but I recall reading somewhere that this type of notary block:
STATE OF )
) ss.
COUNTY OF )
Is unnecessary and antiquated. In my state of Colorado, the notary rules allow the State and County to be listed without the goofy parenthesis and “ss.” like so:
STATE OF COLORADO
COUNTY OF ADAMS
Please, for the love of all that is good and pure, get rid of the parenthesis and ss. if your state allows it. We also don’t need a separate line for “My commission expires” because we are required to have our expiration dates on our notary stamps. Small details but it makes the document much cleaner. Yes, I’m insane.
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