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My name is Angie Epting Morris, and I am the daughter of attorney Eugene A. Epting of Athens, Georgia. Even from my childhood, I can remember my father telling us stories around the dinner table about families who were fighting over the division of furniture and sometimes trivial items when dividing up an estate. He would often comment that “people sometimes throw away their lifelong relationships over things of such little value,” – and then he would usually go on to give us advice about ways that families could avoid such conflicts in these situations.
When both of my parents died in 1993, my siblings and I found ourselves faced with the task of settling their estate. By putting to use the advice of our father, (“Daddy” as we called him), we were able to accomplish this with remarkable success. We actually emerged from the process as better friends than we had ever been before, and we remain close still, many years later.
After ten years of giving out this information to many friends and acquaintances, and after receiving back countless stories of praise and gratitude for the enlightening advice, I began to realize that this was a message I should take to the world. Then when my mother-in-law passed away in 2003, my husband asked me to give copies of this information to his brothers and sister so they could use it to settle her estate. After this ultimate test and “vote of confidence” from those who knew me best, I finally concluded that this was indeed something that would help many people facing similar circumstances in years to come. My husband encouraged me to go forward with publishing.
It is my sincere hope that the information contained in this book will assist other families to achieve a peaceful estate settlement. By doing so, they can protect their family relationships and hopefully avoid the type of conflict that tears families apart at this emotionally charged time of life.
Angie graduated from the University of Georgia in 1968 with a B.S. Degree in geography and majored in cartography (i.e., map-making). This led to employment as a professional cartographer for the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., in 1969. There she had a blind date with Carter Morris, a young Naval Officer who was serving as a White House Military Social Aide.
After they were married in 1972, they made their home in Evans, Georgia, outside of Augusta, and raised two sons, Hunter and Taylor, now grown. Carter became a high school teacher and coach. Angie taught high school English and geography for three years before opening a retail travel agency in Augusta – Morris Travel, which they operated for many years there.
She also adapted a course of instruction and opened a state accredited travel school to train travel industry personnel, which she operated simultaneously with the agency. These experiences have added to her qualifications as a teacher – only now instead of English or Geography or Travel, she instructs others on the system for “How to Settle an Estate Peacefully and Fairly”. She has become recognized as an expert in this realm of expertise. Not only does she tell you what to do, but she also gives specific instructions on HOW with a step-by-step guide in her book called: The Settlement Game: How to Settle an Estate Peacefully and Fairly. It even contains all the forms needed for the settlement process, along with permission from the author to reprint them as needed.
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