Stout
HUNTINGTON -- A Huddleston Bolen lawyer has written and published a book about estate planning in West Virginia.
Bruce Stout said he decided to write his book "Estate Planning in West Virginia: Real Answers to Real Questions" when he realized that most similar books were overly slanted toward the extremely wealthy people.
"I noticed these books were focused on extremely wealthy people with large estates and were mostly about tax planning," he said. "The point of my book is that everybody needs to consider estate planning because we all have something we want to pass on."
Stout said his book is written so that the average person can understand it.
"I wanted it to make sense to everyone, so I had someone who was not familiar with legal terms come in and read it and see if they could understand it," he said.
The book is written in question and answer format, which Stout said was really the only rational way it could have been written. The questions come from his more than 20 years of experience in the subject.
"Every question in the book has been asked to me by a client," he said. "Instead of reading through a book and searching for what you are looking for, you can just look up the question and read the answer."
Stout said the purpose is to remove some of the mystery and intimidation people feel before coming to see an attorney bout writing their will.
The book is based on practical observations from Stout's more than 20 years of legal experience in estate planning. It provides guidance to those planning an estate and includes chapters covering topics such as, wills, beneficiaries, spouses, trusts and asset protection.
Stout recently started his second book, a treatise on wills and estates in West Virginia, and said he thinks he is going to write it also in question and answer form, which he said has never been done before for that type of book.
"The second book will be more for trust officers, lawyers, insurance agents and people like that," he said.
Stout's book is available at local bookstores in Huntington and online at www.huddlestonbolen.com/books. For more information, call 304-529-6181.
