Wealth Transfer Planning -- Status

[Franklin, Joel]

I present to you a bit of evidence in favor of source code availability,
open source software, and free software. Skip straight to the
"-----------------------" below if you don't want the background.

I work for a largish law firm. One of the services they provide is estate
planning. Clients who have lots of give the law firm some of it, and the law
firm sets up wills, trust finds, and generally plans for the disposal and
distribution of the clients' money after the clients' death. This can be a
complicated business. Fortunately, there is software (Windows-based, of
course) that can be used to automate document creation and alteration. Once
a will is created, if a client decides (for instance) remove someone from
their will, the attorney can draft a new will a few mouse clicks. 

The software vendor provides two services: they provide a software engine
that drives document creation, and they provide the content that is used to
populate the document. A (much) simplified example of the engine would be an
application that allows you to pick a paragraph from column A, a paragraph
from column B, and a paragraph from column C and use those paragraphs to
produce a new document. The paragraphs themselves would be the content.

The application we use for estate planning is called Wealth Transfer
Planning (WTP). It is (was) produced by The Technology Group. We needed more
licenses and called to obtain some. No one answered the phone. Further calls
revealed that there was no answer at the fax number. This is bad, as this
would require someone to physically remove the fax machine. Eventually, one
of the users tracked down a WTP trainer's email address and asked what was
up. Her personal response is below; the bit that begins with "To WTP
customers" appears to be a bit of boilerplate she is appending to all her
emails.

Note that this situation is only a problem for us because their software is
in every manner proprietary. I don't necessarily fault them for this, as
it's the way business is done these days, but I long for a better day...

Additional detail available upon request.

Joel Franklin
-----------------------

Dear (deleted),
I understand there's been a lot of discussion and rumor about the status of 
Wealth Transfer Planning and The Technology Group.  Let me confirm that, as 
of September 1, the company ceased operations.  As you can imagine, this was

devastating to all of us who believed so strongly in this product. While
this 
was most unfortunate, the creditors' committee is actively looking for a 
suitable buyer.  Over the past few months, I have kept in close contact with

both Jonathan Blattmachr and Mike Graham in the hope that something could be

worked out.  One positive sign is that the committee continues to maintain 
the LawOnTheWeb site, which is up and running.  In the meantime, Mr. 
Blattmachr has been flooded with pleas for help from loyal customers.  Both 
he and co-author Mike Graham have encouraged me to go into the consulting
bus
iness and provide WTP customers with consultive and custom development 
services.  

Please let me know if I can be of assistance to you.  Also, feel free to
pass 
along the information below to anyone else who may be interested. I am 
reachable at the following numbers [deleted] if you want to chat sometime.

To WTP Customers:
I am no longer employed by The Technology Group, developer of Wealth
Transfer 
Planning, which has ceased operations until the assets are transferred to a 
suitable buyer.  The creditors' committee continues to maintain the
company's 
LawOnTheWeb.com site, which is up and running.  

I am writing to inform you that I am available to WTP customers on a 
consultive basis.  While I cannot do anything to cure fundamental platform 
software bugs, I can analyze and help resolve certain technical problems 
involving installation.  I can also analyze and repair problems within the 
forms and Q&As.  I am also willing to provide help with usability issues and

training.  For these services, I typically charge an hourly fee.

In addition, I am available to do custom development work, which could 
include customizing the existing WTP forms to add your language,
reorganizing 
or removing text, creating custom style sheets and even adding new questions

to the Q&A.  I can also automate any proprietary forms your T&E group uses, 
incorporating them seamlessly into the WTP product. This may provide you
with 
an acceptable alternative to shopping for a new system, which can be so 
disruptive and costly. In the event the creditors do find a suitable buyer
to 
take over the product's development, all custom work would be preserved.  
Typically, cost for such work can be priced as a fixed fee, depending on the

scope and complexity.

Please let me know if you are interested.  I'd be happy to answer any 
questions you may have.