May 3, 2023 • 24 mins
Rudy D. Beck practices primarily in the areas of estate planning and elder law. He typically deals with Medicaid planning, asset protection planning, long-term care crisis planning, probate and trust administration, guardianships, the preparation of living trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, asset protection trusts, insurance trusts, and applications for VA Aid and Attendance Benefits and Medicaid Benefits.
Mr. Beck frequently presents seminars to other attorneys and to the general public concerning VA Aid & Attendance benefits and Medicaid Benefits, the use of trusts for asset protection planning purposes and the growing importance of elder Law.
Mr. Beck is a member of the Missouri Bar, the American Bar Association, the St. Charles Bar Association, and the National Academy of Elder law Attorneys (NAELA). Mr. Beck received his B.A. degree from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois in 1971 and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law in May of 1974. Upon recommendation of the School of Law, he was recognized in “Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges” in 1974.
After serving as a 1st Lieutenant in the United States Army, he began his private practice in St. Charles, Missouri in December of 1974. From April of 1975 to April of 1977, Mr. Beck was elected and served as City Attorney for the City of St. Charles, Missouri and at the same time, started to build his private practice.
Over the years, Mr. Beck has been actively engaged in his community. In the St. Charles Kiwanis Club, he remains a member, a former board member and former chair of its Scholarship Committee. He served for over 45 years as a board member, and two years as President of the Boys and Girls Club of St. Charles County – as charter board member of St. Charles Crime Stoppers – as President of the Alumni Association of the University of Missouri School of Law – as a former member of the Endowment Committee for Duchesne High School – served on the Governmental Affairs Committee of the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce – served as Chairman and as member of the Administrative Advisory Committee for the St. Louis Catholic Archdiocese and has been involved in numerous other community service projects. Mr. Beck was voted the Boys & Girls Club Man of the Year for 2002 and received the Champion of Older American Awards presented by SSM Healthcare System. In 2002 he was also elected to the Board of Directors for the Missouri chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and served as its Treasurer for the 2005-2006 year and president for 2008-2009 fiscal years. In April of 2005 Mr. Beck was selected for membership in the American Association of Trust, Estate and Elder Law Attorneys (AATEELA). Mr. Beck is the co-founder of two national organizations, Veterans Advocates Group of America (VAGA) and Elder Care USA and is co-author of the publication Don’t Go Broke in a Nursing Home. He served as a board member of the Emmaus Residents Trust Foundation (2014 to present), Enterprise Bank Advisory Board (1998-present) and is on the Board of Directors for the Sts. Joachim & Ann Care Service.
Mr. Beck frequently presents seminars to other attorneys and to the general public concerning VA Aid & Attendance benefits and Medicaid Benefits, the use of trusts for asset protection planning purposes and the growing importance of elder Law.
Mr. Beck is a member of the Missouri Bar, the American Bar Association, the St. Charles Bar Association, and the National Academy of Elder law Attorneys (NAELA). Mr. Beck received his B.A. degree from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois in 1971 and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law in May of 1974. Upon recommendation of the School of Law, he was recognized in “Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges” in 1974.
After serving as a 1st Lieutenant in the United States Army, he began his private practice in St. Charles, Missouri in December of 1974. From April of 1975 to April of 1977, Mr. Beck was elected and served as City Attorney for the City of St. Charles, Missouri and at the same time, started to build his private practice.
Over the years, Mr. Beck has been actively engaged in his community. In the St. Charles Kiwanis Club, he remains a member, a former board member and former chair of its Scholarship Committee. He served for over 45 years as a board member, and two years as President of the Boys and Girls Club of St. Charles County – as charter board member of St. Charles Crime Stoppers – as President of the Alumni Association of the University of Missouri School of Law – as a former member of the Endowment Committee for Duchesne High School – served on the Governmental Affairs Committee of the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce – served as Chairman and as member of the Administrative Advisory Committee for the St. Louis Catholic Archdiocese and has been involved in numerous other community service projects. Mr. Beck was voted the Boys & Girls Club Man of the Year for 2002 and received the Champion of Older American Awards presented by SSM Healthcare System. In 2002 he was also elected to the Board of Directors for the Missouri chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and served as its Treasurer for the 2005-2006 year and president for 2008-2009 fiscal years. In April of 2005 Mr. Beck was selected for membership in the American Association of Trust, Estate and Elder Law Attorneys (AATEELA). Mr. Beck is the co-founder of two national organizations, Veterans Advocates Group of America (VAGA) and Elder Care USA and is co-author of the publication Don’t Go Broke in a Nursing Home. He served as a board member of the Emmaus Residents Trust Foundation (2014 to present), Enterprise Bank Advisory Board (1998-present) and is on the Board of Directors for the Sts. Joachim & Ann Care Service.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey, here with Rudy Beck fromthe Beck and Lennox Law firm State Planning,
as well as Elder Law and misterBeck. You might have I call
you Lieutenant Beck. It's okay.I haven't been called that in about fifty
years, I know. Thank youfor your service. So you were a
first lieutenant in the US Army correctMilitary Police stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia.
(00:22):
When I got out, Oh,I'll be darned wow. And since
then it's been an exciting career inthe world of law. Correct. It
has. Fortunately for me, Iwas able to When I first came to
Saint Charles in December of seventy four, there were a couple of guys that
were planning to run for the officeof city attorney because the existing city attorney
(00:44):
didn't want to run again. Ifound out how busy he had gotten,
and so I went to these othertwo guys and said, you're not go
talk to him and find out.They came back and said, okay,
you can run for election, won'tWe won't oppose him. When I got
elected, for thing I did,I went to the police department and I
said, hey, look, I'mone of you. Have you had problems
(01:06):
getting convictions. Yeah, he didn'tlike to prosecute repeat offenders. I say,
well, I don't mind that,And besides that, I've got a
lot of time and so it helpedout tremendously, and that background enabled me
to fit right in and build aprivate practice at the same time. Wow,
bringing law in order to sayt Charles, Huh, I think we already
(01:29):
had pretty good law in order.And we're very lucky today because we've got
a community that supports its police inthe Sheriff's department, Yeah, Noda County
Police. And we also have awillingness on the part of the prosecutor's office
to prosecute offenders right right. Andyou're involved in a voyage, if in
civic pursuits, and you were involvedwith the archdiocese for a while there.
(01:52):
It's simple. My philosophy I gotfrom my dad has always been you don't
have the right to expect success fromyour community unless you're willing to give back
to your community with your time,treasure, and talent. And fortunately it's
been good for me, so I'vebeen able to give all three. Wow.
Amazing. Now, was your fatheran attorney too, No, he
(02:12):
was a car dealer. Oh wow. In Troy, Missouri, where I
grew up, a little ole countrytown of Troy. Yeah, we had
about eight eight hundred twenty people whenI graduate from high school. Well Troy
is still a little old, greatlittle community, isn't it. But it
doesn't look anything like it did alittle more rural. Oh yeah, totally
at that time. Well that's fantastic. And giving back the community is key
(02:34):
and helping people. You know,elder law is, as I told you
before we even went on here,elder law is a new frontier for me
before we even get this estate planning. So, my mom's ninety four years
old, and a lot of peoplehave aging parents, and now because people
are living longer, right, andso people are having to work through some
(02:54):
issues regarding some legal challenges or legalthings that have to be worked out with
your parents mostly absolutely, So whatwhat what is it about elder law?
It's so important. One of thefirst questions I would ask you or anyone
else with a ninety four year oldmother, was your dad in the service.
(03:15):
Yes, well she may well qualifyfor benefits from the Veterans Administration to
help pay for her care. Wow. Yeah, I didn't even I did
not know that most people don't andso as a veteran myself, it's a
lot of fun for me. It'svery gratifying for me to be able to
help families of veterans find money fromthe VA to help pay for long term
(03:37):
care. And like I said,most people don't even know about it.
I'll be daring. But for yourmom, she might be able to get
as much as I think it's fifteenhundred and son dollars a month as a
surviving spouse of a veteran to helpher get paid for long for the long
term care needs that she has.And those needs can be met by care
(03:58):
given at home if she goes toan independent living facility, but she needs
to have somebody come in a coupleof times a day to help her get
dressed, to help her take ashbath or a shower, things like that.
All of that can be available,I should say, would help qualify
her to get the money from theVA to help pay for long term care.
(04:19):
So there's another example though, ofpeople just don't know. And that's
why I don't know, Jamie.That's why I was eager to come down
here and do this podcast with you, because people need to know. And
one of my main goals right nowis I'm this is year number forty nine
for me in the business, andso I'm looking to pay it farvard as
(04:41):
much as i can. Yeah.Yeah, I'm spending a little less time
in the office and I look forwardto do things like this. We plan
on doing more podcasts with Family VisionMedia out in Saint Charles, simply because
we need to get the word outand the more we can help people understand
what they can do, the bettereverybody Else's better. Whole the whole society
will be because there will be lessof a burden on families and the money
(05:05):
is available. That's the thing peopleI've had people say, oh already,
I really don't want to take moneyaway from somebody who really needs it.
And I said, well, waita minute. You can't get out of
bed on your own, you can'tget dressed on your own, and you're
not safe taking a shower on yourown. Why do you think you don't
need it. Well, my mind'sstill good and I'm still pretty much independent.
(05:28):
And I said, yeah, youare, but the government has already
said you meet the guidelines, andif you meet the guidelines, there's more
than enough money to help pay forit. Right. So, the VA
is one area we have helped todate. It's somewhere between twenty seven hundred
and twenty eight hundred veterans or thesurviving spouses of veterans qualify for this benefit.
(05:48):
And that's just been in the lastthirteen years since we started. Yeah
here I am, I'm a veteran. Ye did I know about it?
Did the VA tell me about it? No? I found out about it
and I was attending a conference ofother lawyers specializing in elder law, and
one of the speakers happened to say, I'm going to talk to you about
(06:08):
VA benefits, and most of uswere sitting there looking at each other with
this dumb expression on her face.What's you going to tell us? Yeah?
Boy, did that open up anew world for us. But in
the area of Medicaid, which isthe other area of elder law that we
focus on, most people are underthe mistaken impression that they have to go
broke before they can qualify for Medicaidassistance, payment assistance in a nursing home
(06:34):
or in assisted living. That's absolutelynot true. If a married couple and
one of them needs to qualify formedicaid. They can't stay at home anymore.
They're simply to add off physically andor mentally well, if their affairs
have been arranged by us, whichwould be helpful in advance. We don't
(06:57):
have to do an awful lot exceptfile the application. Because the spouse may
keep up to one half, butnot more than one hundred and fifty some
thousand dollars today, So if youhad five hundred thousand, the spouse can
only keep The spouse who stays athome gets to keep about one hundred and
fifty. What do you do withthe other money. Well, if you
rely upon what the state has totell you, you got to spend it.
(07:21):
We would tell you, no,no, you don't. There are
certain types of annuity products and evena promisory note that we can prepare that
will allow the spouse at home tokeep that other three hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. The family home is exempt, and two cars are exempt. Again,
most people don't know that. They'resimply afraid. When they walk in
(07:45):
and they're told they need a nursinghome. The first thought that flashes through
their mind, I won't have anythingleft after I pay for my husband's or
my wife's care. We relieve thatburden. Yeah, we take that away.
And we've had the good fortune ofdoing somewhere between thirty three and thirty
five hundred now applications for Medicaid inthe last twenty one twenty two years.
(08:07):
I did the first one and aftermy mom had gotten really bad off in
April of two thousand and one,so I guess it's twenty twenty two years.
Yeah, yeah, Well, youknow it's interesting too. And we're
talking with Rudy Beck, who isthe partner with and CEO. You should
know with Beck and Lennox, estateplanning in elder law is their specialty.
(08:28):
And now one of the things thatyou point out here is there are a
lot of people who will try todo this stuff on their own, or
they'll go to the internet or dowhatever. And man, especially dealing with
the VA. No offense to theVA, but or with the government,
there's there. It's complicated, andyou have to have somebody who can kind
of take the shortcuts or cut throughthe through the red tape. I have
(08:52):
told people more than mots back oftenI tell people I believe that the application
for the VA process has been designedby the CIA to intentionally make people fail.
Yeah, and it's the same waywith Missouri medicaid. Don't try to
do this stuff on your own.And with all due respect for some nursing
(09:13):
homes who think they should fill outa form for somebody, don't let them
do it. We had I won'tname the nursing home, but there was
a nursing home that filled out theform for medicaid application. The woman didn't
have much cash at all, butshe had a villa unit and her daughter
had been living in that villa unitfor three years with her. The last
(09:35):
two and a half prevented Mom fromhaving to go to a nursing home.
Finally, the daughter had to taketwo jobs. She couldn't take care of
Mom anymore. Mom went to anursing home. The nursing home applied for
Medicaid. They didn't ask about thehouse because they didn't know to ask about
the villa. Had they properly askedthe questions, they would have said,
(09:56):
oh, oh, you can conveythat villa unit to your daughter, because
the law says if a child hasbeen living with you for two years or
more, and because they lived withyou, they prevented you from having to
go to an institutional care. Thathouse may be transferred to the child with
no penalty. As it was.Mom died about a year and a half
(10:20):
later, and the state of Missouricame knocking on the daughter's door. She
was paying the mortgage too, bythe way, knocked on her door and
said, oh, there's equity hereand we want to be reimbursed for the
care that we provided to your mother. She lost the villa. Wow.
Now that's the problem that comes aboutby not going to someone who does this.
(10:43):
And by the way, whether it'selder law or estate planning, we
don't charge for that first consultation oneto know why people shouldn't have to pay
us to find out if we canhelp them, right simple, It's simple.
Yeah, that's been my philosopee allof our practice life. Some lawyers
want to charge and then say,well, if you hire us, we'll
(11:05):
credit that toward the feed that we'regoing to charge you. We don't do
that because I don't want to havepeople feel in any way threatened to come
to us and find out if wecan help right right. Yeah, that's
great. And with elder law,it's not only cutting through the red tape.
But as you just indicate, it'salso providing a protective screen for people
(11:28):
who are out there in the wildernesslooking for things. And that's that's important
too, not only shepherding people throughit, but also protecting them at the
same time, Jamie, we don'tknow what we don't know. I mean,
I hire experts to help me outin areas that I don't know enough
about. I know enough to bedangerous. Yeah, but I'm not going
(11:48):
to go into something if I havea financial advisor, why, Well,
I understand the stock market, Iunderstand mutual funds. But do I understand
everything well enough to properly take careof my own affairs? No, So
I go to somebody who can help. Yeah, I had oral surgery done.
Well, you wouldn't try to dothat for yourself, right, exactly,
(12:09):
had a shoulder replacement done thirteen weeksago. Yeah, Yeah, you
go to experts who know what they'redoing and can give you a good result.
Right, And we can do thatin the areas of estate planning and
in the areas of elder law,dealing with medicaid and with VA benefits.
Are those are our practice areas.That's what we do that's all we do.
By the way, we don't tryto pretend to do anything else.
(12:31):
We don't do traffic tickets, wedon't do personal injury cases, we don't
do landlord and tenant cases. Wejust do a state planning an elder law.
Yeah, as it relates to astate planning, then that too is
a complicated arena. And everybody thinksthey're an expert, and they'll just look
something up on the internet, youknow, easiest state planning dot com,
and they just need it, needsbetter help. One of the biggest I
(12:56):
would say fictions that people believe isthat they have a will, everything's fine,
they don't have to worry about probate. They don't Everything's going to go
according to the will. Here's thetruth. The wake up call is that
a will is a one way ticketto probate court. It's not even considered
valid unless the probate court has approvedit as the final, less will and
(13:18):
testament of the person who died.Unfortunately, a will still is the only
way in Missouri that a young coupleare a couple with minor children can designate
who should be the guardian for thosechildren. So a will will serve that
purpose. But from our standpoint,that's the only purpose that should serve because
the property is going to be givenaway with a living trust. While living
(13:43):
trust, well, it looks likea will, reads like a will,
but it avoids probate. And whenyou avoid probate, three things happen.
You save time. A probate processhas got a built in time delay,
so creditors can file their notices,they can come in for people who feel
like they should have gotten more outof an estate or should have gotten something,
(14:05):
can file a claim against the estateand to resolve those disputes. That's
the probate. That's really the functionof the probate process. And if on
the contrary, on the other sideof that, if you have a trust,
well now you don't have to goto probate court. You don't have
a mandatory six month waiting period toallow creditors to file claims. You don't
(14:31):
have to get approval of the probatejudge before you can do certain things with
the assets. So you save time. You keep it private. Probate is
a totally public process. And Idon't want to ask you what your mom
does or doesn't have, Jamie,but if she died with a will,
and all of her assets were passingthrough the will to you. And you
(14:54):
have siblings, Yes they do.I'm the youngest of six. Oh okay,
Well, anybody who wanted to knowcould find out what Jamie's mom was
passing to the six children in probatecourt. If we've got a living trust.
On the other hand, nobody findsout. The lawyer knows, the
trustee knows. In your case,it would probably be one of the one
(15:15):
or more of the children as trustee, and the beneficiaries. Now that's it.
Nobody else finds out. So wesave time, we keep in private,
and we save money because we flatlytell people, Look, if we
had to administer all of these assetsin probate court, state law says we're
entitled to receive X, and it'sa formula set up by the state of
(15:35):
Missouri. On the other hand,we look at that and say, well,
we don't have to do as much. So a family ought to be
able to save money because of whatwe do with a living trust. So
we tell people usually the fee wouldbe one third of what it would have
been had it gone through probate,maybe as much as one half of that
amount if we have problems with certainbeneficiaries who want to complain, and we
(16:02):
do from time to time, ofcourse we do. But that's what we
do. So we save time,we save money, and we keep things
private by having a living trust.There are also trust you can do in
advance to protect your assets so thatif later you need help or assistance from
the Veterans Administration or from the Medicaidagency. Here in Missouri, that's already
(16:26):
done. We've taken care of itin advance. Yeah. And a few
years ago, about twelve thirteen yearsago, Missouri passed a law. Let
me ask you a question. Solet's say your mother left you your inheritance
and a trust, and you namedand named you as your own trustee,
(16:48):
and you had full discretion to takethe income and the principle out at any
time you wanted. Should your creditorsbe able to get at that? I
would say, no, Well,that's they can't. But in some states
they don't have that additional protection,even though they have a similar law to
this. But in Missouri went furtherand said even though you, Jamie,
(17:11):
would have full discretion to take themoney out of that trust anytime you felt
like take the principle out anytime youfelt like and spend it, use it
for anything. Your creditors cannot takeyou to court and ask a judge to
put a lean or to invade attachthe assets in that trust. So Missouri
law says it's not subject to thecourt may not recognize it as a property
(17:36):
right or a property interest. Andthat particular type of trust we call it
the heritage trust. A friend andI, Christy Barton in Columbia, Missouri,
we got this basic format of atrust from our friends in Texas.
But they said, well, youguys have a better law than we do,
(17:56):
because your law went further and saidit's totally free and clear of any
creditor claim whatsoever. So we havefound most people will want to take advantage
of that. Yeah, and particularlytwo. Let's talk about that for a
minute. Yeah, Let's say JimSmith is loved and adored by his mom,
(18:18):
but his mom does does not carefor Jim's wife at all, and
she has said repeatedly, I donot want ever Jimmy's wife to have any
control over the assets. If somethinghappens to Jimmy while the kids are still
young, we can do that.We can easily take care of that,
(18:42):
and the blame folds back on mombecause the trust says this, yeah,
right, right. So whatever thesituation is, we're usually able to draft
a solution for it. And that'swhy people said, oh, well,
you're just filling the blanks on aforum and you spit this thing out of
your computer. No, we don't. We ask a lot of questions because
(19:02):
the more we find out about afamily, the better we're able to give
that family, which is our primarymission, peace of mind. I was
about to say, it's about knowingyour rights and peace of mind. I
tell people when they first come into see me, Jamie. If you
came in, I would say,okay, Jamie before we get any further.
One of the things that I expectyou to be able to tell me
(19:23):
when we're finished is to look atme and kind of go, thank you.
Yeah, I really feel good aboutwhat we've done. Peace of mind.
And if you don't have that,we failed in our job. And
I will ask you permission without chargingyour additional fee. Let's see if we
(19:44):
can rework this to make sure weget it exactly like you needed to be,
because that's what we're here for.Yeah, Yeah, don't try to
go it alone. I mean,that's just is fraught with trouble, especially
when you have multiple people involved.And also don't worry about out tapping into
benefits that are there. Heaven knows, you've paid into them the system,
(20:07):
whether it be the veteran system ormedicaid or whatever happens to be. And
so people should just you know,know their rights, peace of mind,
and don't be shy about taking advantageof the things. Well, and remember,
I'll say it again, we keepthe door wide open because we don't
charge anybody to come and find outwhat we can do to help them out.
(20:27):
And knowing that people are easily ableto come in, we sat down,
we have a conversation sometimes an hourand a half and say well,
okay, I just want to thinkabout it. That happens occasionally and they'll
say, well what do we oweyou? Okay nothing? Yeah, really,
I said, well, we meantwhat we said. Yeah, you
(20:48):
can come see us with no charge. So we're here for everybody who have
needs in the areas of estate planningand medicaid and VA benefit. And you
said to know a little bit aboutwhat some things are, but you don't
have to bring a file cabinet withyou. It's you know, you just
used to ask some questions. Well, actually, Jamie, we give people,
we send them a information format urnpacket really, and we want basic
(21:14):
information. We want to know theirnames and addresses, the names of their
children, the address and ages oftheir children, how many grandchildren they have,
and basically, how much do youhave in the bank, how much
do you have invested with a stockbrokeror somebody. How many cars do you
have, do you own a house, do you own a rental property?
We want to know the basics.Basics, Yeah, because if we don't
have a general idea of what theyhave, we can't give them the best
(21:38):
advice possible, even at that firstmeeting. Yeah. Yeah, So Rudy
Beck, how do people get aholdof you guys? And does it seems
absolutely simple as it seems you makethis whole process absolutely simple. Well,
our telephone number in Saint Charles issix thirty six nine four six seven eight
(22:00):
nine nine. You can also lookus up on the web. I did
it this morning just to see whatour website looked like. I thought,
Okay, I hadn't looked at itin about a year. Yea as a
chief, I kind of like it. But we also have what we call
book a call, So you cango on our website or you can call
the office Beck and Lenox Estate Planningand just google that and it'll take it
(22:25):
to our website and then we havean opportunity for somebody to book a call.
So even before you come to theoffice, one of us, usually
it'll be either Beja or Caroline,will schedule the time to talk to somebody
on the phone, and that wayno time's wasted. If it's determined we
can help, come on in andsee us. There's still no charge for
(22:48):
that first consultation, but we wantto make it as easy for people to
come in and know that we canhelp or not even before they walk in
our door, right right, yeah, okay, so it's Beck and Lenox
dot com and very I'm sorry BeckElderlaw dot com. Yeah, beck Elderlaw
dot com. But but you'll findit if you just do just google Beck
and let it just stay planning andit pops right up, perfect, perfect,
(23:11):
well, really great, Thank you. What a learning experience. I'm
gonna have to go and talk tomy mom real quick here, so I
like that to go back and lether know I the VA benefit. I
mean, I would be happy totalk to you about that. And yeah,
and again you get to find outwhat we can do and what she
could do, and it doesn't costyou a time to find out, right
(23:33):
right. That's great. Well,Rudy Beck. It's a privilege knowing you.
Thank you for your service not onlyto the United States of America in
terms of the army, but alsoto the community as you have been for
so long. So it's good toknow you. Thank you, Jamie.
Yeah, I appreciate a bit,very very much from being here with you.
Yes, sir, good luck witheverything, and maybe I'll be contacting
(23:55):
you soon. I think everybody shouldif they're concerned about their future. Thank
you you, bet, I appreciateit.
Hey, here with Rudy Beck fromthe Beck and Lennox Law firm State Planning,
as well as Elder Law and misterBeck. You might have I call
you Lieutenant Beck. It's okay.I haven't been called that in about fifty
years, I know. Thank youfor your service. So you were a
first lieutenant in the US Army correctMilitary Police stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia.
(00:22):
When I got out, Oh,I'll be darned wow. And since
then it's been an exciting career inthe world of law. Correct. It
has. Fortunately for me, Iwas able to When I first came to
Saint Charles in December of seventy four, there were a couple of guys that
were planning to run for the officeof city attorney because the existing city attorney
(00:44):
didn't want to run again. Ifound out how busy he had gotten,
and so I went to these othertwo guys and said, you're not go
talk to him and find out.They came back and said, okay,
you can run for election, won'tWe won't oppose him. When I got
elected, for thing I did,I went to the police department and I
said, hey, look, I'mone of you. Have you had problems
(01:06):
getting convictions. Yeah, he didn'tlike to prosecute repeat offenders. I say,
well, I don't mind that,And besides that, I've got a
lot of time and so it helpedout tremendously, and that background enabled me
to fit right in and build aprivate practice at the same time. Wow,
bringing law in order to sayt Charles, Huh, I think we already
(01:29):
had pretty good law in order.And we're very lucky today because we've got
a community that supports its police inthe Sheriff's department, Yeah, Noda County
Police. And we also have awillingness on the part of the prosecutor's office
to prosecute offenders right right. Andyou're involved in a voyage, if in
civic pursuits, and you were involvedwith the archdiocese for a while there.
(01:52):
It's simple. My philosophy I gotfrom my dad has always been you don't
have the right to expect success fromyour community unless you're willing to give back
to your community with your time,treasure, and talent. And fortunately it's
been good for me, so I'vebeen able to give all three. Wow.
Amazing. Now, was your fatheran attorney too, No, he
(02:12):
was a car dealer. Oh wow. In Troy, Missouri, where I
grew up, a little ole countrytown of Troy. Yeah, we had
about eight eight hundred twenty people whenI graduate from high school. Well Troy
is still a little old, greatlittle community, isn't it. But it
doesn't look anything like it did alittle more rural. Oh yeah, totally
at that time. Well that's fantastic. And giving back the community is key
(02:34):
and helping people. You know,elder law is, as I told you
before we even went on here,elder law is a new frontier for me
before we even get this estate planning. So, my mom's ninety four years
old, and a lot of peoplehave aging parents, and now because people
are living longer, right, andso people are having to work through some
(02:54):
issues regarding some legal challenges or legalthings that have to be worked out with
your parents mostly absolutely, So whatwhat what is it about elder law?
It's so important. One of thefirst questions I would ask you or anyone
else with a ninety four year oldmother, was your dad in the service.
(03:15):
Yes, well she may well qualifyfor benefits from the Veterans Administration to
help pay for her care. Wow. Yeah, I didn't even I did
not know that most people don't andso as a veteran myself, it's a
lot of fun for me. It'svery gratifying for me to be able to
help families of veterans find money fromthe VA to help pay for long term
(03:37):
care. And like I said,most people don't even know about it.
I'll be daring. But for yourmom, she might be able to get
as much as I think it's fifteenhundred and son dollars a month as a
surviving spouse of a veteran to helpher get paid for long for the long
term care needs that she has.And those needs can be met by care
(03:58):
given at home if she goes toan independent living facility, but she needs
to have somebody come in a coupleof times a day to help her get
dressed, to help her take ashbath or a shower, things like that.
All of that can be available,I should say, would help qualify
her to get the money from theVA to help pay for long term care.
(04:19):
So there's another example though, ofpeople just don't know. And that's
why I don't know, Jamie.That's why I was eager to come down
here and do this podcast with you, because people need to know. And
one of my main goals right nowis I'm this is year number forty nine
for me in the business, andso I'm looking to pay it farvard as
(04:41):
much as i can. Yeah.Yeah, I'm spending a little less time
in the office and I look forwardto do things like this. We plan
on doing more podcasts with Family VisionMedia out in Saint Charles, simply because
we need to get the word outand the more we can help people understand
what they can do, the bettereverybody Else's better. Whole the whole society
will be because there will be lessof a burden on families and the money
(05:05):
is available. That's the thing peopleI've had people say, oh already,
I really don't want to take moneyaway from somebody who really needs it.
And I said, well, waita minute. You can't get out of
bed on your own, you can'tget dressed on your own, and you're
not safe taking a shower on yourown. Why do you think you don't
need it. Well, my mind'sstill good and I'm still pretty much independent.
(05:28):
And I said, yeah, youare, but the government has already
said you meet the guidelines, andif you meet the guidelines, there's more
than enough money to help pay forit. Right. So, the VA
is one area we have helped todate. It's somewhere between twenty seven hundred
and twenty eight hundred veterans or thesurviving spouses of veterans qualify for this benefit.
(05:48):
And that's just been in the lastthirteen years since we started. Yeah
here I am, I'm a veteran. Ye did I know about it?
Did the VA tell me about it? No? I found out about it
and I was attending a conference ofother lawyers specializing in elder law, and
one of the speakers happened to say, I'm going to talk to you about
(06:08):
VA benefits, and most of uswere sitting there looking at each other with
this dumb expression on her face.What's you going to tell us? Yeah?
Boy, did that open up anew world for us. But in
the area of Medicaid, which isthe other area of elder law that we
focus on, most people are underthe mistaken impression that they have to go
broke before they can qualify for Medicaidassistance, payment assistance in a nursing home
(06:34):
or in assisted living. That's absolutelynot true. If a married couple and
one of them needs to qualify formedicaid. They can't stay at home anymore.
They're simply to add off physically andor mentally well, if their affairs
have been arranged by us, whichwould be helpful in advance. We don't
(06:57):
have to do an awful lot exceptfile the application. Because the spouse may
keep up to one half, butnot more than one hundred and fifty some
thousand dollars today, So if youhad five hundred thousand, the spouse can
only keep The spouse who stays athome gets to keep about one hundred and
fifty. What do you do withthe other money. Well, if you
rely upon what the state has totell you, you got to spend it.
(07:21):
We would tell you, no,no, you don't. There are
certain types of annuity products and evena promisory note that we can prepare that
will allow the spouse at home tokeep that other three hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. The family home is exempt, and two cars are exempt. Again,
most people don't know that. They'resimply afraid. When they walk in
(07:45):
and they're told they need a nursinghome. The first thought that flashes through
their mind, I won't have anythingleft after I pay for my husband's or
my wife's care. We relieve thatburden. Yeah, we take that away.
And we've had the good fortune ofdoing somewhere between thirty three and thirty
five hundred now applications for Medicaid inthe last twenty one twenty two years.
(08:07):
I did the first one and aftermy mom had gotten really bad off in
April of two thousand and one,so I guess it's twenty twenty two years.
Yeah, yeah, Well, youknow it's interesting too. And we're
talking with Rudy Beck, who isthe partner with and CEO. You should
know with Beck and Lennox, estateplanning in elder law is their specialty.
(08:28):
And now one of the things thatyou point out here is there are a
lot of people who will try todo this stuff on their own, or
they'll go to the internet or dowhatever. And man, especially dealing with
the VA. No offense to theVA, but or with the government,
there's there. It's complicated, andyou have to have somebody who can kind
of take the shortcuts or cut throughthe through the red tape. I have
(08:52):
told people more than mots back oftenI tell people I believe that the application
for the VA process has been designedby the CIA to intentionally make people fail.
Yeah, and it's the same waywith Missouri medicaid. Don't try to
do this stuff on your own.And with all due respect for some nursing
(09:13):
homes who think they should fill outa form for somebody, don't let them
do it. We had I won'tname the nursing home, but there was
a nursing home that filled out theform for medicaid application. The woman didn't
have much cash at all, butshe had a villa unit and her daughter
had been living in that villa unitfor three years with her. The last
(09:35):
two and a half prevented Mom fromhaving to go to a nursing home.
Finally, the daughter had to taketwo jobs. She couldn't take care of
Mom anymore. Mom went to anursing home. The nursing home applied for
Medicaid. They didn't ask about thehouse because they didn't know to ask about
the villa. Had they properly askedthe questions, they would have said,
(09:56):
oh, oh, you can conveythat villa unit to your daughter, because
the law says if a child hasbeen living with you for two years or
more, and because they lived withyou, they prevented you from having to
go to an institutional care. Thathouse may be transferred to the child with
no penalty. As it was.Mom died about a year and a half
(10:20):
later, and the state of Missouricame knocking on the daughter's door. She
was paying the mortgage too, bythe way, knocked on her door and
said, oh, there's equity hereand we want to be reimbursed for the
care that we provided to your mother. She lost the villa. Wow.
Now that's the problem that comes aboutby not going to someone who does this.
(10:43):
And by the way, whether it'selder law or estate planning, we
don't charge for that first consultation oneto know why people shouldn't have to pay
us to find out if we canhelp them, right simple, It's simple.
Yeah, that's been my philosopee allof our practice life. Some lawyers
want to charge and then say,well, if you hire us, we'll
(11:05):
credit that toward the feed that we'regoing to charge you. We don't do
that because I don't want to havepeople feel in any way threatened to come
to us and find out if wecan help right right. Yeah, that's
great. And with elder law,it's not only cutting through the red tape.
But as you just indicate, it'salso providing a protective screen for people
(11:28):
who are out there in the wildernesslooking for things. And that's that's important
too, not only shepherding people throughit, but also protecting them at the
same time, Jamie, we don'tknow what we don't know. I mean,
I hire experts to help me outin areas that I don't know enough
about. I know enough to bedangerous. Yeah, but I'm not going
(11:48):
to go into something if I havea financial advisor, why, Well,
I understand the stock market, Iunderstand mutual funds. But do I understand
everything well enough to properly take careof my own affairs? No, So
I go to somebody who can help. Yeah, I had oral surgery done.
Well, you wouldn't try to dothat for yourself, right, exactly,
(12:09):
had a shoulder replacement done thirteen weeksago. Yeah, Yeah, you
go to experts who know what they'redoing and can give you a good result.
Right, And we can do thatin the areas of estate planning and
in the areas of elder law,dealing with medicaid and with VA benefits.
Are those are our practice areas.That's what we do that's all we do.
By the way, we don't tryto pretend to do anything else.
(12:31):
We don't do traffic tickets, wedon't do personal injury cases, we don't
do landlord and tenant cases. Wejust do a state planning an elder law.
Yeah, as it relates to astate planning, then that too is
a complicated arena. And everybody thinksthey're an expert, and they'll just look
something up on the internet, youknow, easiest state planning dot com,
and they just need it, needsbetter help. One of the biggest I
(12:56):
would say fictions that people believe isthat they have a will, everything's fine,
they don't have to worry about probate. They don't Everything's going to go
according to the will. Here's thetruth. The wake up call is that
a will is a one way ticketto probate court. It's not even considered
valid unless the probate court has approvedit as the final, less will and
(13:18):
testament of the person who died.Unfortunately, a will still is the only
way in Missouri that a young coupleare a couple with minor children can designate
who should be the guardian for thosechildren. So a will will serve that
purpose. But from our standpoint,that's the only purpose that should serve because
the property is going to be givenaway with a living trust. While living
(13:43):
trust, well, it looks likea will, reads like a will,
but it avoids probate. And whenyou avoid probate, three things happen.
You save time. A probate processhas got a built in time delay,
so creditors can file their notices,they can come in for people who feel
like they should have gotten more outof an estate or should have gotten something,
(14:05):
can file a claim against the estateand to resolve those disputes. That's
the probate. That's really the functionof the probate process. And if on
the contrary, on the other sideof that, if you have a trust,
well now you don't have to goto probate court. You don't have
a mandatory six month waiting period toallow creditors to file claims. You don't
(14:31):
have to get approval of the probatejudge before you can do certain things with
the assets. So you save time. You keep it private. Probate is
a totally public process. And Idon't want to ask you what your mom
does or doesn't have, Jamie,but if she died with a will,
and all of her assets were passingthrough the will to you. And you
(14:54):
have siblings, Yes they do.I'm the youngest of six. Oh okay,
Well, anybody who wanted to knowcould find out what Jamie's mom was
passing to the six children in probatecourt. If we've got a living trust.
On the other hand, nobody findsout. The lawyer knows, the
trustee knows. In your case,it would probably be one of the one
(15:15):
or more of the children as trustee, and the beneficiaries. Now that's it.
Nobody else finds out. So wesave time, we keep in private,
and we save money because we flatlytell people, Look, if we
had to administer all of these assetsin probate court, state law says we're
entitled to receive X, and it'sa formula set up by the state of
(15:35):
Missouri. On the other hand,we look at that and say, well,
we don't have to do as much. So a family ought to be
able to save money because of whatwe do with a living trust. So
we tell people usually the fee wouldbe one third of what it would have
been had it gone through probate,maybe as much as one half of that
amount if we have problems with certainbeneficiaries who want to complain, and we
(16:02):
do from time to time, ofcourse we do. But that's what we
do. So we save time,we save money, and we keep things
private by having a living trust.There are also trust you can do in
advance to protect your assets so thatif later you need help or assistance from
the Veterans Administration or from the Medicaidagency. Here in Missouri, that's already
(16:26):
done. We've taken care of itin advance. Yeah. And a few
years ago, about twelve thirteen yearsago, Missouri passed a law. Let
me ask you a question. Solet's say your mother left you your inheritance
and a trust, and you namedand named you as your own trustee,
(16:48):
and you had full discretion to takethe income and the principle out at any
time you wanted. Should your creditorsbe able to get at that? I
would say, no, Well,that's they can't. But in some states
they don't have that additional protection,even though they have a similar law to
this. But in Missouri went furtherand said even though you, Jamie,
(17:11):
would have full discretion to take themoney out of that trust anytime you felt
like take the principle out anytime youfelt like and spend it, use it
for anything. Your creditors cannot takeyou to court and ask a judge to
put a lean or to invade attachthe assets in that trust. So Missouri
law says it's not subject to thecourt may not recognize it as a property
(17:36):
right or a property interest. Andthat particular type of trust we call it
the heritage trust. A friend andI, Christy Barton in Columbia, Missouri,
we got this basic format of atrust from our friends in Texas.
But they said, well, youguys have a better law than we do,
(17:56):
because your law went further and saidit's totally free and clear of any
creditor claim whatsoever. So we havefound most people will want to take advantage
of that. Yeah, and particularlytwo. Let's talk about that for a
minute. Yeah, Let's say JimSmith is loved and adored by his mom,
(18:18):
but his mom does does not carefor Jim's wife at all, and
she has said repeatedly, I donot want ever Jimmy's wife to have any
control over the assets. If somethinghappens to Jimmy while the kids are still
young, we can do that.We can easily take care of that,
(18:42):
and the blame folds back on mombecause the trust says this, yeah,
right, right. So whatever thesituation is, we're usually able to draft
a solution for it. And that'swhy people said, oh, well,
you're just filling the blanks on aforum and you spit this thing out of
your computer. No, we don't. We ask a lot of questions because
(19:02):
the more we find out about afamily, the better we're able to give
that family, which is our primarymission, peace of mind. I was
about to say, it's about knowingyour rights and peace of mind. I
tell people when they first come into see me, Jamie. If you
came in, I would say,okay, Jamie before we get any further.
One of the things that I expectyou to be able to tell me
(19:23):
when we're finished is to look atme and kind of go, thank you.
Yeah, I really feel good aboutwhat we've done. Peace of mind.
And if you don't have that,we failed in our job. And
I will ask you permission without chargingyour additional fee. Let's see if we
(19:44):
can rework this to make sure weget it exactly like you needed to be,
because that's what we're here for.Yeah, Yeah, don't try to
go it alone. I mean,that's just is fraught with trouble, especially
when you have multiple people involved.And also don't worry about out tapping into
benefits that are there. Heaven knows, you've paid into them the system,
(20:07):
whether it be the veteran system ormedicaid or whatever happens to be. And
so people should just you know,know their rights, peace of mind,
and don't be shy about taking advantageof the things. Well, and remember,
I'll say it again, we keepthe door wide open because we don't
charge anybody to come and find outwhat we can do to help them out.
(20:27):
And knowing that people are easily ableto come in, we sat down,
we have a conversation sometimes an hourand a half and say well,
okay, I just want to thinkabout it. That happens occasionally and they'll
say, well what do we oweyou? Okay nothing? Yeah, really,
I said, well, we meantwhat we said. Yeah, you
(20:48):
can come see us with no charge. So we're here for everybody who have
needs in the areas of estate planningand medicaid and VA benefit. And you
said to know a little bit aboutwhat some things are, but you don't
have to bring a file cabinet withyou. It's you know, you just
used to ask some questions. Well, actually, Jamie, we give people,
we send them a information format urnpacket really, and we want basic
(21:14):
information. We want to know theirnames and addresses, the names of their
children, the address and ages oftheir children, how many grandchildren they have,
and basically, how much do youhave in the bank, how much
do you have invested with a stockbrokeror somebody. How many cars do you
have, do you own a house, do you own a rental property?
We want to know the basics.Basics, Yeah, because if we don't
have a general idea of what theyhave, we can't give them the best
(21:38):
advice possible, even at that firstmeeting. Yeah. Yeah, So Rudy
Beck, how do people get aholdof you guys? And does it seems
absolutely simple as it seems you makethis whole process absolutely simple. Well,
our telephone number in Saint Charles issix thirty six nine four six seven eight
(22:00):
nine nine. You can also lookus up on the web. I did
it this morning just to see whatour website looked like. I thought,
Okay, I hadn't looked at itin about a year. Yea as a
chief, I kind of like it. But we also have what we call
book a call, So you cango on our website or you can call
the office Beck and Lenox Estate Planningand just google that and it'll take it
(22:25):
to our website and then we havean opportunity for somebody to book a call.
So even before you come to theoffice, one of us, usually
it'll be either Beja or Caroline,will schedule the time to talk to somebody
on the phone, and that wayno time's wasted. If it's determined we
can help, come on in andsee us. There's still no charge for
(22:48):
that first consultation, but we wantto make it as easy for people to
come in and know that we canhelp or not even before they walk in
our door, right right, yeah, okay, so it's Beck and Lenox
dot com and very I'm sorry BeckElderlaw dot com. Yeah, beck Elderlaw
dot com. But but you'll findit if you just do just google Beck
and let it just stay planning andit pops right up, perfect, perfect,
(23:11):
well, really great, Thank you. What a learning experience. I'm
gonna have to go and talk tomy mom real quick here, so I
like that to go back and lether know I the VA benefit. I
mean, I would be happy totalk to you about that. And yeah,
and again you get to find outwhat we can do and what she
could do, and it doesn't costyou a time to find out, right
(23:33):
right. That's great. Well,Rudy Beck. It's a privilege knowing you.
Thank you for your service not onlyto the United States of America in
terms of the army, but alsoto the community as you have been for
so long. So it's good toknow you. Thank you, Jamie.
Yeah, I appreciate a bit,very very much from being here with you.
Yes, sir, good luck witheverything, and maybe I'll be contacting
(23:55):
you soon. I think everybody shouldif they're concerned about their future. Thank
you you, bet, I appreciateit.
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