Nothing divides a family faster than a non-existent will.

That is what Perry Trott has learnt after decades working as a lawyer at Trott & Duncan, the legal firm he helped to found.

“When someone dies in this country, particularly without a will, that is when the drama begins,” he said. “That is when families begin to fight among themselves as to who is entitled to the assets that the parent or matriarch, in a lot of cases, has left.”

Sometimes one person in the family has been the primary caregiver and expects to be remembered in the will. Sometimes they have lived in the family home their whole lives, and are then shocked when they have to vacate so the family can sell the home to evenly divide the inheritance.

Often families are fighting before he even walks in the room.

“When someone dies is often when you find out how your siblings really feel about you,” he said.

To help educate people about the importance of estate planning, and facilitate dialogue, he has just released a book And the Drama Begins! A Practical Guide to Estate Planning.

Tongue in cheek, he said his inspiration for the book was triggered by his fear of elevators. He was trapped in one twice, once for over an hour.

Now, every time he is called to the hospital to help someone draw up a last minute will, or sort out a power of attorney, he takes the stairs.

“The steps at the old hospital were not so bad, but the ones in the new hospital are something else,” he said. “There is so much red tape to see a client, and I have to go up stairs and through all these back ways to see them.”

He thought there must be a better way to get people to plan ahead for their demise.

“My father always said there is always a solution, although you may not like it,” Mr Trott said.

He started doing presentations on estate planning in 2016.

“I wanted to inform people why a tight estate plan is so important,” he said. “I wanted them to know why it is important to have a power of attorney in place, and also a living will in the event that you are mentally or physically incapacitated.”

He started writing And the Drama Begins! two and a half years ago, wanting to reach even more people.

In the book he tried to anticipate the questions readers might have, such as do I have to pay legal fees on stamp duty and voluntary conveyance. Short answer yes.

For example, one of the questions looks at who can apply for a primary homestead certificate? The short answer is any Bermudian who owns a local residence.

He illustrated his books with 21 stories based on his own experiences.

“Some of the stories are funny and some are heartbreaking,” he said.

Knowing that many of his clients are senior citizens, he designed the book with older readers in mind, with a hardback format, and large, bold type.

Mr Trott gives 30 reasons why people fail to plan for their deaths, but the main one is superstitiousness.

It took him 2½ years to write And The Drama Begins! It wasn’t easy.

“The first draft I wrote sounded too much like a lawyer wrote it,” he said. “I doubt if anyone but lawyers could understand what I was trying to say. I had to take a deep breath and write it so the ordinary person could understand it.”

He wants the community to have more conversations about planning for death.

Mr Trott said if you leave your money or property to some of your children, but not all of them, it is always going to hurt them, and potentially cause problems between the children and their families for generations to come.

“I have been doing this for long enough now, that I am starting to work with multiple generations,” he said. “I can see the problems being passed down.”

Mr Perry recalled one client who remembered two of her children in her will, but not the third. The woman felt she had already spent a great deal of money on the third child, only for them to squander it. He urged the client to write a letter that could be put in the will, explaining why she was leaving the one child out. She did what he suggested, and he believes it helped.

And The Drama Begins! is dedicated to his sister Tonia Minors who died in 2006.

He tells his sister’s story in a piece about planning an obituary and funeral programme, ahead of time.

In the book he wrote: “Tonia became aware that the end was near. During one of my visits, she suggested it was time to create an outline of her obituary and programme. Although I found it somewhat morbid, I understood the importance of embracing the concept of dying with dignity. It took us approximately two weeks to finalise her wishes.

His sister’s death caused him to re-evaluate his own life.

“I was listening to a speaker who said 80 per cent of people in the world are living to die,” he said. “They wake up every morning and do the exact same thing, every day. Twenty per cent of people are dying to live. They eat up what life has to offer. They realise they do not have much time left on the Earth.”

He described himself as a gym buff, going four times a week.

“You should keep moving for as long as you can,” he said. “It is when you stop that problems arise.”

The book sells for $50, at Trott & Duncan at 17A Brunswick Street in Hamilton or at www.perrytrott.com. Details of future book signing events will be on the website.