Thanks to everyone who took the time over the last few weeks to vote in my poll about what you like to read about on this blog. I'm going to use the results of the poll to ensure that I post more items about the topics that received the most votes. Since all of the topics received at least a few votes, I'm not going to eliminate any of them entirely. The poll does give a pretty good idea of content balance though.
The two runaway favourite topics are "executor how-to" and "estates gone wrong". This result certainly corresponds with the questions and comments I receive from readers. I notice though that most of my questions about executors are actually from beneficiaries and not from the executors themselves.
The middle of the pack, but still with plenty of votes are "answers to letters from readers", "will planning" and "tax". The letters from readers cover every kind of topic of course, and I usually try to feature letters that have issues that many readers will find useful. It's good to know that this is a popular feature, as this is the first time I've had any feedback about it.
Will planning is another pretty broad topic. To me it includes naming an executor, choosing beneficiaries, designations on assets, joint property and a dozen other sub-topics that together make up this complex topic. So I'll continue to post about all of those things.
And tax - boy did I hate my 8:00 am Friday tax class in law school! - but now it's something that I try very hard to stay current and share important knowledge. I'm glad to talk about this topic simply because so many people get caught out by not knowing simple tax rules.
Further down the results is the next group of topics, those being "seniors/elder abuse", "charitable giving" and "celebrity or unusual estates". As I said, these topics didn't get as many votes as some others, but did still get votes, so I will continue to look for and provide good information on these, particularly the first two. I was a bit surprised about the lack of votes for "celebrity or unusual estates" as those posts often get three or four times as many views as other topics posted around the same time. I suspect though that those views may be casual viewers as opposed to the regular readers who come here for usable information.
The least popular topic of all was "business succession planning". Again, this was a bit of a surprise for me, though perhaps it shouldn't have been since not all estates have businesses in them. My book about business succession planning continues to be popular. Go figure.
So again, thanks for your very valuable feedback. I'll keep all of it in mind during the next year as I try to continue to make this the best blog that I can.
I also appreciate the many comments and questions you send me. I know I don't answer them all, but I certainly do my best. With some exceptions of course. I don't answer or post the ones where people flirt with me or ask me on dates. Sorry! I tend just to delete the ones that start off with their general hate of all lawyers and the legal system and Canadian law. I can't fix any of that. I don't post ones where people take hours to type me their life history but basically are just venting their frustrations. Venting is good, but after the fact you probably don't really want that stuff out there on the internet!
Here's to another good year together... thanks so much for reading.
Lynne
