The Mompreneur Collective
The Mompreneur Collective shares real stories of women balancing the demands of motherhood and entrepreneurship. From startup struggles and mom guilt to breakthroughs and business wins, these are the stories behind all the hard work.
Hosted by ICF Certified Life & Business Coach Jamie Smith, each episode will offer insight, encouragement, and give you simple doable takeaways for building a business and a life you love; One that works for you and your family. Because success isn’t one size fits all, and neither is motherhood.
Whether you’re an established entrepreneur, just starting your journey, or dreaming about taking the leap, this podcast will leave you inspired, informed, and reminded that you're not alone. 💛
Here, we believe that motherhood and entrepreneurship can thrive together.✨
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The Mompreneur Collective
If Something Happened to You Tomorrow, Would Your Family be Prepared?: Estate Planning for Moms
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What would happen to your children, your money, your belongings, and even your business if something happened to you tomorrow?
In this episode of The Mompreneur Collective, I sit down with Attorney Eleanor Dolev, Owner of Dolev Law. She specializes in estates and trusts and talks to us about a part of planning for the future that so many of us put off: creating an estate plan.
Eleanor walks us through some of the basics parents and business owners should have in place, including wills, trusts, and power of attorney documents. We also dive into why your estate plan and your business plan need to be part of the same conversation. As entrepreneurs, we spend years building businesses we hope will create opportunity, freedom, and maybe even a legacy for our children. Protecting what we've built matters too.
We talk about the question every parent should consider: Do you want to leave your children with a burden or leave them with a gift?✨
We also discuss the false sense of security that can come from DIY legal documents, why one missing piece of language can have major consequences, and why an estate plan should be created around your unique family, goals, assets, and circumstances.
And because this is The Mompreneur Collective, we of course talk about balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship too. Eleanor shares how she's found ways to involve her children in her business, teach them responsibility and leadership, and create more opportunities to be together while continuing to build a career she loves.
If estate planning has been sitting on your "I'll get to it eventually" list, this episode may be the push you need to finally start the conversation.💛
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Welcome back to the Mompreneur Collective, where each episode an incredible mom, who's also an entrepreneur, shares her story with us. We get to hear about all of their struggles and what they've learned along the way, and we also get to hear about all their success, which shows each and every one of us with big dreams just what's possible. I'm your host and certified life and business coach, Jamie Smith, and today's guest is Eleanor Dolev, founder of Dolev Law. Eleanor's estate planning practice focuses on helping families and business owners enhance their lives today and secure their futures for tomorrow. She's basically out there empowering entrepreneurs with practical legal, which is what I know she's gonna do for us today in this conversation. And as a mother of three, Eleanor knows the importance of securing your future, which is why she chose to focus on the trusts and estates area. So without further ado, let's welcome her onto the show. Welcome to the Mompreneur Collective, Eleanor. I'm so happy to have you here with us today.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, of course. So a topic that I know that you're really passionate about is how your estate plan and your business plan should be the same conversation. So can you share about this? Because I think it's really important and it's something that we often forget about in the daily hustle of momming and running a business. And this is something that you brought up, you know, in the first conversation that we had. And I was like, gosh, you know, even personally for me, this is not something that I think about. So this is going to be a really great learning moment for me as well as hopefully all of the listeners today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, it really is a topic, first of all, it's it's an as an uneasy topic to talk about, right? Nobody likes to think about if anything, you know, happens to them and what would that look like for their family and business. But, you know, sometimes things do happen and these two things are really intertwined, right? So if we're establishing our business and, you know, we run the day-to-day and we have all these expenses, right? We pay rent and we pay utilities and we have employees and we need to pay those employees. Um, we have client and client commitments. And so if anything were to happen uh that is uh an emergency situation, we want the business that we kind of really worked hard to establish to continue to run, right? You're building so most people when they're building something, uh, when they're building their own business, their own brand, they want it to continue to kind of go beyond their existence, right? And so having some sort of structure around that uh and how would that look like in an emergency situation, I think it's it's really is important. And it really also ties to our family life, right? So we're really working super hard to build everything that we're building, right? We're buying that house, we're establishing our family, we're making that income. And we really want, at least based on my communication with people and doing this, what we most people really do want is whatever they're working really hard for, um, to be for the benefit of their family, to be for the benefit of their children, right? And so kind of working on both ends, on the personal side and on the business side, really we're doing all of this for our family and really for our loved ones. So it is one big conversation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. A really big conversation, it sounds like one that I don't think enough of us are having and more of us need to have that have our own businesses. Because, like you said, they are one in the same. Our our family is often our why for being in business in the first place. So it only makes sense that we get serious about protecting our business for the long term so that we can, in other words, I think what you were trying to say or what you were saying is that it's the legacy that we're leaving behind. And if we want there to be a legacy, we need to do our part to protect that asset. So yeah, such good stuff. So when we spoke on the phone, you mentioned to me that most families with young kids, they don't even have the basics in place, you said. So can you help us all understand what some of those basics are and why it's important for us to have these things in place?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I would absolutely love to do that. So think about it this way when we have um no type of plan for what to happen in the event of an emergency, something happens to uh a parent or maybe both parents. Um, maybe there is a passing, maybe you know, somebody is in the hospital, there's an emergency situation. If we don't have those legal documents in place, I'm gonna talk about the basics in a minute. Um, specific legal documents in place really the default is of what would happen would be based on whatever state law says. That's going to be different for every single state. But in most states, really the gist is the same, right? So if a person, God forbid, dies, they own a business or they have, you know, a family, the person that would inherit uh that business or or whatever that they own personally would really just depend on uh what type of law, what what does the law say? You right? I mean, and it could be that it will be the spouse, it could be that even though that you have a spouse, it will be partly the spouse, partly the kids. Um, and so really most people when they're uh learning about what would be the state default, they don't really like what that means for them. Most of that, right? Um and so the good news is in most states really uh the default can be bypassed. So we really get to opt out for whatever the state has the say the default is. We can only do that when we're establishing those very basics, right? So what are those basics and what that looks like, right? Um some basics would that could be uh really just a will, right? To just say, hey, you know, if I'm gone, I want my spouse to get everything, or I want this person to get everything, right? So instead of the the law tells everything, instead of the law um dictates who is getting those assets or who's getting our business or who's getting our things, we can we have the autonomy to decide where it's being navigated to, right? Right. A will is really one of the most simplest ways to just make sure, ensure that the beneficiaries that we're listing will be the people that would end up getting it. Now, one of the other tools that we can use um is I I consider those one of those basics, especially when we have uh family with younger children, um, a revocable living trust is is is always a good option. So just to kind of explain the differences between the two, a will and a trust, a will would say who would get everything. And I mean a trust also does that. But the difference between the two is really the way the path that that beneficiary would get. Okay. So if we're looking at a situation where we have a minor child at home, but that's our only beneficiary, they can be named in the will. And it was it will certainly get to them. But the processes of them ending up getting that inheritance will have to be, will have to info include, unfortunately, uh layers of legal proceedings, right? And so instead of going or not going through, but you're not the one that's gonna go through that, but having the person that you love having to go through that, um, you can opt for to create a trust, and they're still gonna be the beneficiary if that's what you want. But the pathway for them to get it would not include that court involvement. And so when we have minor children home, myself include it, right? I have three kids and two of them are minors. Um, really, it does not matter what type of asset you have, whether you do own a home, whether you do own a business yes or no. You want to have this vessel, you want to have this uh this process where if anything were to happen to you, your kids have direct access to any funds available to them. And that those that funds are managed by the person that you're choosing, right? Again, you have the autonomy, you have the freedom to dictate that. And so this is really right what it's all about. And so when we have minor kids at home, that is one of the biggest pieces. And of course, the other big piece is who would actually get to take care of our kids. That is the other big part, right? We want to have some legal document that spells out Yeah, I want this person to do it. I don't want that person to do it. That is also big a big part of that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Instead of that just being what probably happens a lot of the time, and it's just a a nonchalant conversation with a family member that's just like, hey, if anything ever happens, you're getting my kid. And there's maybe a handshake and a fist bump, but it's like, what's what is the real um, you know, what what's the real system or you know, what's the real system? Yeah, what's the real system that's gonna support that actually being what happens um legally? Because if there's not one, it could happen much differently and it could end up a way that you don't want it to end up. I actually had a family member just recently who lost a parent and is dealing with everything that you're talking about right now. Just, I mean, arguing with other family members, stressing out over how they're gonna handle all of this, dealing with the possibility of going to court, having different people that, you know, they're having to divide things up between because of what you were referring to earlier, with just the difference in state laws and how things work. So it is um, it is something that I can very much relate to in real time with somebody I love in my family right now. And I'm sure there are a lot of people listening that can probably recall a time where they also remember something happening to someone that they know that's having to do with all of this. And so, you know, I think that a lot of us think we don't need a will until we're older. And it's not something that most people think about until they get older because that's when we get closer to death, I guess. But it really is something that you should think about as soon as you have kids, as soon as you have a business. These are two ginormous um pieces of your life that need protecting. What happens to those people, those things, if something happens to you? And that is a huge question that we all need to be asking ourselves.
SPEAKER_00What you just said about your friend dealing with that, for me, that is actually the most important aspect of planning, right? I mean, we could talk about the numbers all day, why it makes sense that we have a trust, not having to go through those legal proceedings that actually cost money. And you're the one that's paying, your estate is the one that's paying the bill. We could talk about that all day. These are important, but what you had just said is the most important piece of that. What kind of experience or feeling are you leaving behind? Like if you're something were to happen to you and the implications of it, you're leaving a loved one with all that. Deal with all of it. Are you leaving a burden? Yeah, are you leaving a gift? I think in that situation and and how they are having to deal with grief, and like you were saying, dealing with all those things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because you're not only dealing with the fact that you just lost somebody that you loved, but now you're having to deal with all of the consequences of them not preparing for their death, essentially preparing their loved ones on on how they're going to deal with all of what's what remains. Um, yeah. So what you just said almost gave me goosebumps, but it's like, are you leaving your children with a burden or are you leaving them with a gift? And I know that everyone listening would like to leave a gift more than they'd like to leave a burden.
SPEAKER_00And sure. I that is my underlying assumption when it comes to people, especially when people come in at my door. That is why you're doing this. Yes, there is another aspect to right and capacity planning. There is another aspect to that. But the first thing that comes to mind when people are walking into my door, they're thinking about the people that we love. You you want to make that easy for them. And that is kind of sharing from my perspective as not just as an attorney, really just as a human being by my dad's house in January of 2024. Sorry, take your past. Thank you. It is still painful. My parents have a plan in place. My mom is still alive, so um, so that's why I say have. And you truly do understand that it is a gift. So I was able to really just focus on me. I focused on grieving, I focused on healing. I took about a couple of months because it was a really difficult time for me. I had the luxury, however, not to not deal with what your friend is dealing with. Was me. I didn't have to deal with going to court, I didn't have to deal with fighting with anybody. That is the gift that I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Yep. Okay. Well, I'm switching gears just a little bit on us. But a lot of entrepreneurs today are using online templates for doing things inside of their business. But can you please share with our listeners why DIY legal tools are a false sense of security?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I do believe it's exactly that. It is a false sense of security. You have this kind of concept in mind. Oh, I have those legal documents in place, but you don't know until the day that you need it what is wrong with that. And then most do-it-yourself solutions, not that one is better than the other or one is worse than the other, just because we are dealing with templates in our lives or businesses, we are not templates. We have other things, we have different things going on, right? We have different family dynamics, we have values that are different, we have goals that are different. But most of us don't fit into those templates. So you really don't understand the magnitude of the issue until the day arises. And you're kind of coming across with that issue. Okay, to give you an example, I I have a client that had so she has her parents, and her parents kind of use some sort of do-it-yourself tool. I'm not gonna use the name. Uh, it was about probably a decade ago. And when she came in, she was kind of wanted to get established her trust and kind of weak in. And um, she kind of brought in her parents' uh documents. She she asked, you know, do you mind reviewing that? I was like, Yeah, absolutely, because her mom just kind of went through some health scare, and that caused her to be um really essentially incapacitated at that point in time. And so I look at the documents and just briefly review. There is there were a lot of things wrong with that. But the major issue that we're now kind of trying to deal with, where we're trying to kind of see if we could bypass it in any way, is that one of the powers of attorney that the mom signed, it had expired because the language, there is some specific language that you can have in a power of attorney that when you play when you're signing it, it essentially says, even if I later on become incapacitated, that power attorney won't expire. It would continue to be in effect. So the the person that is representing me can continue to uh to be able to act on my behalf. And unfortunately, that language is was not on there. And that will be applicable to any, every every single state that we have, which essentially caused that power attorney to expire. So now we're in a situation where we have a person that is mentally incapacitated. We don't have a power attorney in place. Now what? Um, so it's that's just one example of some sort of just sort of glitch in the system.
SPEAKER_01Like just a it's just and and it's you can't trust something that is um, like you said, it's a template. We are not templates. Like, first of all, you need, I feel like this is something serious enough that needs a human touch to review it, to have their eyeballs all over it to catch the error that can be made with computers. So um, I mean, both humans and computers can make errors for sure. But I think with something like this, it definitely makes sense, at least in my brain, to involve an attorney, somebody that can actually um that actually knows what is going on in today's world and what is relevant to today in terms of what's necessary for a legal document to um have longevity or or just be able to do its job when the time comes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you know, I've had, I want to say one person every couple of months kind of reaching out to me and saying, hey, you know, we're using this online solution. We're gonna pay you for your time. Can you review that? Tell you what you think. And you know what? I tell I I reply to those, I and I say, you know what? I am not gonna waste your time and money. I can charge you, right? By the R just review that tells you what it is, but I'm gonna save your time and money and I'm gonna tell you what it is. I'm gonna read it, and I'm not gonna like it. So either, you know, if you're moving forward with that solution, yeah, go ahead, but you're not, you know, I'm not gonna take your money to just end up saying, yeah, I'm not going to like it. I already know. I already know because I've seen it. I know it's gonna be a problem.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay. So DIY legal tools is a no-go. So we need real, real human interaction helping us with this. This is something that is important enough to hire a real person to help you with. That is that is what we are concluding here.
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely.
unknownAbsolutely.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, I am just so curious um to know what led you to this work. I feel like it's a really specific niche. So, what got you here?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, like I was saying at the very beginning, everything for me starts and ends with my family. Um, and so my background is natural litigation and business law, which is something I love doing for a big chunk of my life, really over a decade. But there was something that kind of happened on my on the personal side and my family side that kind of had me and my husband sit down and have a real conversation as to how would we want things to look like if anything were to happen to one of us or both of us, right? And it's like I was saying, I have three kids at the time all minors, right? I right now I have an adult with two minors. And so, really, a big part, a natural part of that conversation is really to have an estate plan done, looking into who will make those financial decisions for me, who would actually raise those kids for me, who will make medical decisions for me, right? So it was a big part of that conversation. So um I took it upon myself to look into having an estate plan done. And unfortunately, the the way, well, that my experience in kind of uh looking into that is realizing that really the traditional way is not really meant to keep people out of the court system and out of conflict. And me experiencing litigation in my background, really viewing how that had made an impact on people's lives, right? A negative impact. I'm saying nobody wants to waste their time in a courtroom. And so it kind of comes, it came down to that. I really trusted myself. I knew that if there is going to be a plan for my family, I'm gonna I'm gonna create it, I'm gonna create the best one. And my family was my own first estate planning client. So that's how I got this startled. I love that. And obviously, you know, I've served hundreds of families ever since. But my family was my first one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's special. I love that. And so they really are the thing that's motivated you from the very beginning and and to this day is still what keeps you going and makes you want to just support other families in this way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I treat every person that walks into my door as though I would draft my document. That is where I'm comfortable. I I see that with with a huge sense of responsibility. I I don't think that lightly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I am curious about this too. I I feel like any um attorney I've ever spoken to, they are always just, you know, they're like workaholics. They just work, work, work, and they, you know, they don't do anything else. And so I'm curious, like, what does that life actually look like for you? What's the hardest part about being this like busy, busy attorney, but you're also a mama, you know, and you've got your own law firm. It's not, you know, just that you're an attorney working for another law firm, but it's yours. So what's the hardest part for you about it all?
SPEAKER_00The I I am a workaholic, full disclosure. Um, but yeah, I I also love spending time with my kids. It was it's a struggle. And it's a day, it's still a struggle, but what I started doing over the past year and a half, couple of years ago, is just having them be incorporated in the business. So every single one of them has a job in the business. Various roles, right? So my 13-year-old has simple stuff like shredding, and we, you know, we have seminars every couple of weeks, so he will be the one that's there setting everything up. It's like, you know, so everybody has a job, and so that gives us the opportunity so me still having the ability to feel like I'm really, you know, um doing what I love, but also incorporate every single one of my kids, right? Yeah, my oldest is in college, so I mean it works differently.
SPEAKER_01Um, all three of them were I feel like the real life of it is just that we're kind of forced into that sometimes, you know. I feel like it starts with just the like, hey, well, I'm working, they're here, I gotta make it work somehow with both. And so it just kind of turns into this. Well, wait, like maybe, maybe they could have some fun doing something, or maybe I could actually give them some responsibility in this. I can't tell you how many other Mompreneurs I've talked to that have shared, you know, with me even on this podcast that they also include their kids in their business or that they were, you know, divvied up some responsibility to them. The last uh mom I had on this show, she said she her kid wanted to be her business manager. And she said, Well, you can't be the manager, but I can make you the snack manager. And she took that role very seriously to keep the snack stocked for um the employees that worked there. So anyway, I think that that is just beautiful. I think that it is a great way for us as moms that are also entrepreneurs to spend time with them. Like you said, it's like we have this business, and we a lot of us as entrepreneurs, not just attorneys, but just entrepreneurs, tend to be workaholics. And so we have to figure out how do we feed this need to just go, go, go all the time, but also be present with our kids. And obviously, while we're working and you know, we're not fully present with them while we are working, but it is better than them just being somewhere else. At least they are with you, at least they are learning from you, they are being inspired by you. You're hopefully leaving some positive impact on them in the process versus leaving them with a babysitter or somewhere else, you know, that that they just have to separated from mom. Mom's at work, she's doing no, you're involving them in what you do. And I think that is so much better.
SPEAKER_00I agree a hundred percent. I think it's so much better, even if they're coming to the office, doing some work, getting a little bit bored, that's fine, right? I do think the long-term impact would be much better than just having them with a big involve them in some way, even if it's like you're a stand manager, that's genius. And a six-year-old could do it. Um I do think longer term, so when they grow up and kind of reflected back and you know, really appreciating the experience that they got, but also seeing their mom in a position where managing a business, managing all those people, standing up and kind of uh doing the seminar in front of all these, I do think it makes an impact.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, being a leader in front of them and showing them what leadership is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So good, so good. Okay. So my next question for you as we start to wrap up this podcast episode is if someone is not in your area to be able to work with you and where are you, please share that with our listeners. Where do you where do you serve?
SPEAKER_00So I am physically located in Oregon. I am licensed both in Oregon and in Washington state at the moment. I am working on expanding on a couple more states, but details to come. So I am not uh gonna be able to kind of share a little bit more than that. Um so with respect to other states, um, you know, if if there is a specific meeting in one state or the other, um, sometimes I find a really trusted colleague. I'm not gonna transfer you to anybody that I don't trust, but if I there's a trusted colleague in that state, I'm always happy to kind of share contact information. But you really are in Washington at the moment.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's awesome. So if they're not in Washington or in an area where you can serve them and somebody wants to, you know, go out there and get a will made, get a trust made, have an estate plan made, all these things that we're talking about today, because hopefully they are inspired. You know, that our list, I I hope that our listeners are inspired to take action around this because it's not something we think about often, like we've said, but it's absolutely something that um really matters a lot to most of us and is something that we should be thinking about. So, so yeah, where or what should they be, who should they be looking for? What can they search for? You know, if they're like, I want somebody like Eleanor to help me.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So what I typically recommend, and that is a recommendation I have for people that are coming from my area as well. Um, when you're starting to think about that, go attend uh an estate planning seminar. Look for something in your area. It's a really good way, it's a really good segue to just get started listening in, absorb some information. Nobody's saying, you know, you have to sign your will, you're trust a day after or a week after you're just starting to learn about it. Right. So hopefully this conversation would inspire you to just take a look at it. Um in the and the colleagues that I have in different states, they do similar kind of structure to what I do. So they hold seminars, educational events for the community. Um so definitely be on the lookout for that in your area. Go ahead and listen, see if you connect with the attorney, right? Um, you want to find somebody that you feel comfortable with and that you trust because you're gonna be having emotional conversations, right?
SPEAKER_01I mean, you want it like you said, you want it to be somebody you're comfortable with, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and and and yeah, absolutely. Emotional conversations is what I do every day, all day, because these are emotional topics. Yeah, dealing with the people that we love most should be emotional. If it's not, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so where can people go to connect with you? Where can they find you?
SPEAKER_00Uh definitely on my website, uh dollovlaw.com, uh Instagram as well. We're on there as well. Um, yeah, that that will be the fastest, easiest. And then with the website, you can always there is an email on there, uh, our contact information, and then there's always always somebody that replies on there. So if you're looking for local information, Oregon and Washington, we have seminars, really two to three times a month in that those areas. And anything else, any other state, uh still feel free to reach out to me. I I'm I'm gonna do my best to find you uh a trusted colleague, hopefully. And like I said, I have one in most states.
SPEAKER_01That's really sweet of you to um be willing to offer up some referrals for those that can't work with you. I wish they could all work with you, though. You seem really great. I wish I could work with you personally. I would if I could. But um thank you so much for this conversation today. I really think that it's gonna open a lot of eyes and ears to some important topics for us as moms and business owners, and and hopefully, like I said, inspire us to take some action around this. So just thanks again for being here. And um, I can't cheers with you for real, for real. Normally I have a glass of champagne if somebody's in person with me here in my office, but cheers to you hypothetically. Hypothetical cheers to raising humans and building something meaningful.
SPEAKER_00Yes, raising humans. That is the best part.
SPEAKER_01Yes, ma'am. All right, well, we'll talk soon. Hey mama, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, share it with another mompreneur who needs to hear it. Your support sharing the show means the world to me. If you'd like to connect with or work with Eleanor, check out the links in this episode's show notes. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty inspired to find a local attorney to help me with the things we talked about today, and hopefully I can find someone as amazing as Eleanor. Until next time, y'all.