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December 8, 2024 • 41 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:27):
He served at the Pentagon as an army jack. He
graduated from Notre Dame and has two law degrees from
Boston University and Georgetown University. He's been practicing law for
over thirty years. He is your family's personal attorney. It's
time for the David Carrier Show.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hello, and welcome to the David Carrier Show.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney, and you have
found the place where we talk about his state planning,
elder law, real estate and business law. Give us a
call went out just six one six seven seven four
twenty four twenty four. That's six one six seven seven
four twenty four twenty four. Will get your question, comment

(01:10):
or concern on the air. It's all you have to
do is six one six seven seven four twenty four
twenty four.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Some people think that's the number to the office. It isn't.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
You want to get a hold of us, which we
which we would really like. Why not just go to
the website Davidcarrier Law dot com and at Davidcarrier Law
dot com. Use all kinds of information as a phone
numbers and different offices in Holland and where else do
we have offices anyway, Grand Rapids, yep, Grand Rapids also

(01:41):
Portage which, for those of you now familiar, it's just
south of Kalamazoo and then of course in the frozen
wastes of Norton Shores up there by Muskegan. So no
matter where you are, we get you covered. Love to
see at one of our three Secrets workshops. These are
workshops we do every single week or it brings and

(02:01):
twice on Sundays, but yeah, pretty much. And the whole
workshop idea is, oh, what is this stuff all about?
What are the secrets of estate planning? Or if you've
been listening to me for the last twenty years, right
here on see Wood radio is one hundred years old,
and I'm not sure. I don't really know if it's
eighteen years or twenty years, but something like that. It's

(02:23):
a long time, a long time. We've been doing the
yaka yak. Why not thousands of people, you know, making
sure that everything's secure.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Ooh ooh that's pretty good, isn't it? Making sure that
everything's secure? Man?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
I'll write that one down anyway. Six one six seven
seven four twenty four, twenty four. That's the number to
call now. Sometimes people say well, what's so different. What
do you guys do that's so that's so different? And
the answer is really three things, number one. Well maybe
more than three things, but at least three things. Most

(02:57):
of state planning is all about what do we do
with your stuff when you're dead? And it's important to
know where your stuff goes when you're dead, right, I mean,
the we're just I was just looking at something with
these ever see these bog people, you know, these people
they find in the bogs. They're amazingly preserved, like for
hundreds of years, thousands of years, whatever, Right, those people

(03:19):
had stuff, and sometimes the stuff is with them, and
sometimes it's somewhere, you know what I mean. But human
beings have been making stuff and leaving it after they
died for a very very long time, okay, And the
question is how do you do that? And we're in
a society now. I don't know if you've noticed this,
but we're in a time where transferring wealth, and by wealth,

(03:43):
I mean whatever you got from one generation to the
next really makes a difference, makes a difference in the
quality of life for that next generation.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Federal Reserve says that about.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Half half of all household savings net savings is either
inherited or gifted.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Think about that. You work your butt off.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Your saving, saving saving, saving saving, or spending spending spending, spending,
spending is bad and at the end of the day,
still half of what you've got came from the generation before. Now,
here's the problem as I see it. You know, your
mileage may vary, but here's the problems I see it,
and you think about it. In terms of farmers is

(04:24):
a very good example because there you've got quite a
bit of multi generational data, right, So you've got information
that goes back generations, and the question is what is
happening to the family farm? Why is the family farm
breaking up? Why are we not having done it? Well,
there's all kinds of reasons, right, Industrialization, Bill gates buying everything.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
I remember back in the day it.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Was the Japanese who were buying everything, supposedly, but anyway,
you got big buyers in there. But one of the
things that is an accelerating trend, just personalized reservation. I
don't have numbers, and I don't have Federal reserve numbers
on this one is that the family farm, which always

(05:07):
was it was always a pay it forward sort of endeavor, right,
because the people who worked it, they improved it all
the rest knowing that they were leaving it to the
next generation, next generation, the next generation. Just look at
centennial farms. That's that's the model, right. I'm personally aware
of several centennial farms which didn't make it, didn't continue

(05:31):
because the person farming it got Alzheimer's or some other
form of dementia needed long term care and the idea
of caring for someone at home that doesn't work anymore.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
And now you have.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
To sell off the farm ten acres at a time
to pay the bills. If you go up to like
a farm country and you ask a nursing home mystery,
that's what they will tell you. And the only reason
I know that is because that's what my clients told them.
You know, we asked them, how do we handle this,
and they said, well, do what everyone else does, which
is sell off the farm, you know, acres at a time.

(06:08):
And and of course that that leads to what collapse
of the farm. It's not going to go it's not
going to go forward after that, Well that's a farm.
Well you don't have a farm, no, but you do
have some money that hopefully, or maybe it's a cottage,
or maybe it's your house, or maybe it's something that
you'd like to act as a step stool for that

(06:30):
next generation. Okay, you'd like that. Well, what if you
can't do that? What if that's not available to you anymore?
Because long term care is anywhere from three hundred dollars
a day, which is cheap, you can get it. I mean,
that's only what nine thousand dollars a month, cheap, cheap,
all the way up to six hundred dollars a day.

(06:52):
I say nine, Yeah, three hundred dollars a day, which
gets you to nine thousand a month, that's what I'm saying,
all the way up to five six hundred dollars a day.
Now you're talking eighteen thousand dollars a month, not unusual. Well,
how the heck are you gonna pay for that? The
answer is you're gonna spend whatever you have. And then
when you're broke, medicaid, Medicaid kicks in. Well what does

(07:13):
that do to the family farm? Well, kids, of goodbye, right,
because as long as you got all that acreage and
all that equipment and.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
All that whatever, all right, plus.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
You don't even know that medicaid's out there and is
available for it, or you feel bad about taking it,
or you know something like that.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
I get we get that too.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
You know, people feel bad about taking that which you
paid in, feel bad about taking your social security. It's
the same thing. But anyway, that's up to you. So
what are we focused on. We're focused on that situation.
We're focused on First, if you're gonna leave stuff like
the Neolithic people and I used to call them cavemen, right, well,

(07:51):
you know the neo people, the bout other people whatever.
You know, like there's people from bazillion years ago. Right,
If you're gonna leave something to the next generation, you're
gonna build have a reminder that you were around and
did good things. Right, If you're gonna do that, you
don't have to do that. Give it to the church, right,

(08:13):
go to Vegas. I bet you could get rid of
your life saving in Vegas and very short order.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
I bet you wouldn't be that hard, you know.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
And nowadays, of course you don't have to go to Vegas.
Could just go down one thirty one or out on
the highway, you know, and there's.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Plenty of.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
You don't want to leave it to the next generation.
There's plenty of places to get rid of it quick.
They'll even give you a steak Dinnerize what I understand.
You know if you invested in one of those one
of those places. Anyway, The point is that if you
are going to leave something to the next generation, you've
got to make sure that you don't leave it at
the long term care facility first. Or to pay for

(08:50):
your long term care at home. You know, it's a
quarter million bucks to have at home care, at home care,
quarter million dollars a year. That's what that's what was
it the I think it was the Wall Street Journal
came out that was over the summer. You know, we
can get your reprint if you want.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Anyway.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
The point is that if you don't plan ahead before
you die, right, ain't gonna be anything left when you die.
So now you don't have to worry about probate. Isn't
that great? Think all these people worried about praying, I'm
so worried about probate. Well, most folks wind up in
long term care, according to the federal government, seventy percent.

(09:26):
You know, when you're sixty five, you get a seventy
percent shot of long term care three years on average,
not nursing home.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Care necessarily, but care at home.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
And as you get older, that percent just goes up
because some people die already. Okay, so the older you get,
the more likely you are needed long term care more
like you are to die broke. That's the deal. That's
what we're focused on. That's exactly what we're focused on,
making sure you don't die broke.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Now.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
I don't care what you do with your stuff, right,
because here's the problem. If you're broke when you die
with that means is you relied one hundred percent on
the Medicaid and we don't want that. You didn't work
this hard so that you had to do that. You
worked as hard so you can supplement whatever they're willing
to pay. And by day I mean you, because you're

(10:15):
the taxpayer pays for it all. Anyway, we want to
supplement what's available, like you supplement your.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Social Security with your savings. It's that same idea. And
you get.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Medicare what do they call it supplement insurance because you're
going to supplement the program. Why Because you're not stupid,
That's why. Except when it comes to this long term care,
nobody talks about it.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Well, we talked about it here for I don't know,
at least six months or is it twenty years? I
don't know. It seems like a long time either way.
But that's what this is all about.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
This is all about making sure that your stuff lasts
as long as you do. And that's the one that's
the biggest shift here. If you listen to other folks
and oh, I had a stake and they gave me
a trust two hundred and fifty bucks, well you just
you just pay for your steak with your house and
your savings and every other damn thing, because the trust

(11:08):
is no damn good.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
You know that. You gotta know that.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
How can anybody get a two hundred and fifty dollars
trust with the steak and not know that it's it ain't.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
I hope you enjoyed the potato. You've been listening to
the David Carrier Show on David Carrier. Your family's personal attorney.
Now the time give us a call.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Six point six seven seven four twenty four, twenty four.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
This hour of the David Carrier Show is promot so
call it now at seven seven four twenty four. This
is the David Carrier Show screen.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Wellcome back to the David Carrier Show on David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
I know you'd rather listen to Karen Carpeter than me.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
I don't blame you for that, because this is very
well known as the radio show where the bumper music
is almost always better than the show itself. Easy to observe,
hard to admit. But we must be honest, we must
be true. And yeah, I know you'd rather listen to
Karen and all the rest of the gang. But sorry,

(12:34):
mister speaker, I paid for this microphone. Now, who said that?
All right, there's a prize for the first person who
calls in and tell me who said that? Anyway, long
story short, The first thing we do, why are we different?

Speaker 2 (12:46):
That's what I'm talking about. Why are we different? What's
so wonderful about you guys? All right?

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Well here, the first thing that's wonderful about us is
we don't let you die broke because we understand that
the big problem with you dying broke is long term care. Right,
The biggest problem with you living a shorter life with
killing your spouse, making or take care of you.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
And it's generally women but it's not all time.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
About forty percent of the time. Corning the New York Times,
get this. New York Times admits that forty three percent
of the time it's a male caregiver.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
How about that. Didn't see that one coming.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Well, two thirds of Alzheimer's victims are women, so I
guess it's not crazy that guys would be stepping up
and doing the righteous thing. So the point is, how
do we avoid impoverishing your spouse during the long term care?
How we impoverishing you do? I need to convince you
that having money is a good thing, That money is choices.

(13:41):
If you have money, you get to make choices. If
you don't have money, you don't have choices. If you
don't have money, though, you can still call because it's
free to call in six one six seven of them
four twenty four twenty four. That's sixty one six seven
of them four twenty four twenty four. If you have
a question, comment, or concern. Now here's the thing. How
do we avoid the biggest expense? You look at all

(14:02):
these charts. You know there's a lot of people, there's
a lot of reporting out there on how much of
your care right the medical expense that relates to you,
takes place in the last part of your life, last year.
They do it different ways, you know, when you're in
your eighties, when your last year life, et cetera. But
it's all back and loaded. Okay, it's all back and loaded.

(14:24):
And that's why it kind of makes sense why certain
states in the United States, certain countries around the world,
can in the Netherlands, et cetera, are pushing this, Hey,
if you're old, you should be dead kind of ethos. Well, fine,
if that's good for you, that's good for you. I
guess I say, screw that. I've been here for a while.

(14:45):
I've been here for a while. You know, you got
to put up with me till the Good Lord takes me.
And I don't mean the guy with the hypodermic needle,
so I mean, I mean, I think it's one of
the abominations, Franklin, one of the real betrayals Western civilization,
the idea that we would kill off our old people
because they're too expensive or inconvenient or something like that.

(15:08):
But you got to be aware that that's the that
there is definitely a push there. Just look like I said,
look at Canna, look at the Netherlands. I don't have
any special insight on this stuff. I just read the
news and it seems pretty clear to me. Anyway, how
do we make sure that what you've lived, what you've
done during your lifetime right provides that nice you know,

(15:29):
glide path out.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
Well, we make sure that you get what you've earned.
We get what for you, what you have paid for.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
And it's not just social Security, it's not just Medicare.
It is those things, of course, of course, but it's
also the long term care.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Aspect of it.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
And the key is that when you have an early intervention,
when we get involved early on and we get the
government benefits that you've paid for, well, I don't have
to keep saying that, but I do, and I'm fine,
fine anyway, you.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Get what you've already paid for.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
Most of our folks stay at home, right, we're not
giving you the bums rush to the nursing home. But
what happens is people put it off and put it
off and put it off, and then the last then
you have to go to you know, a residential care facility.
Because you kill your spouse with kind you know, they
grow them, you know, forty percent of the time fifty

(16:21):
percent of the time, the caregiver dies. First, Why do
you suppose that happens. Why do you suppose that happened?
Why is it the caregiver? Okay, because they're given so
much care. That's why they're isolated. And there's no socialization,
there's no assistance, it's too expensive.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's horrible, pressure bay, terrible. Okay.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
And like the Alzheimer's Association other organizations, they do a
lot of work trying to get people socialized into support
groups and all the rest of this. And that's great,
that's super wonderful, all right, to help out. But but
they're not going to come in the house and they're
not going to give your spouse a bath, and they're
not going to do therect But the various programs that

(17:03):
are available, which you're already paid for, you don't have
to pay for them again, these programs which are available
to keep your spouse at home, to keep the loved
one at home, okay, because most people, many people, whatever
the number is, don't need the long term care in
a residential setting.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
They can be cared for at home. And guess what,
I hope Elon Musk is listening to this.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
It's cheaper. It's a lot cheaper. Talk to anyone in
one of the programs for all inclusive care for the elderly,
the PACE programs. Okay, they brag on it all the time.
You know, it's sixty percent cheaper to have someone enrolled
in PACE than it is to provide residential care.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Why we'll figure it out. Okay.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
When they set up a senior center and they got
some buses and they come pick you up and they
give the senior center, right, what are they not paying for? Well,
they're not paying for laundry, okay, they're not paying for
a bunch of beds, they're not paying for twenty four
to seven, they're not paying weekend rates, they're not paying
for There's an awful lot of stuff that they're not

(18:08):
paying for, okay, and don't need to pay for because
your spouse, your kids, your loved ones, right, will provide
that care for you at home. They're not paying the
heating bill all the time. You are, well, yeah, you're
living at home. Why not you see? So if we

(18:30):
focus on this stuff, right, if we focus on this
on you while you're alive, okay, so that you have
the very best experience.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
That you have earned that you have earned. How did
you earn it? I don't know.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
You're the one who went on the job. You're the
one that took the overtime. You're the one who built
up the four to one k. That's what I mean
by earning. Okay, you've earned it. Take advantage of it.
You don't have to go broke. You don't have to
spend everything you have. You do have to plan ahead.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
You do have to plan.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
It's not like so security or medicare that way, right,
Even though with those things there's still things you got
to do. But if you want the long term care,
if you don't want to go broke at the end,
all right, then there are things that need to be done.
But still that's the biggest in my opinion, that's the
most important thing that we do, is we make sure
that regular folks like you, regular people who've paid off

(19:25):
the house, who've got some savings, maybe a cottage, maybe
something else, maybe some stocks about it, maybe some maturance.
All right, maybe you don't have that, Maybe all you
have is the house. Well, you want to give your
house away? How does that make any sense? Don't get it?
So anyway, anyone who's actually worked and saved. Now, if
you live your life on a credit card, if you've
gone bankrupt three times and you know, you know, you

(19:48):
don't have a pot to piss in or a window
to throw it at it, I can't help you. I
can't actually and we have, but we can't help you
with this aspect of it anyway. But but it's the
folks who work and save and do all the good
things take care of business. That's the people who really
need to take care of themselves because you're not doing it.

(20:10):
And the evidence of that is you go, bro when
you don't need to. You've been listening to The David
Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your famili's personal attorney.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Little well, intsy.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
Hanger, fancy.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
David's got the how to you're looking for. Just call.
This is the David Carrier Show.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Welcome back to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. Now we're talking today one, two, three?
What are the three big differences between what we do
and what everybody else does? And I say everybody else,
I don't know. There might be somebody else doing this
kind of thing. I know some people in other states
that are because I'm working with.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Them, That's all I know.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
But anyway, here's number one, refocus. It ain't about how
you leave your stuff to the next generation, whether you're
a bog person or a neolithic shaman or whatever the
hell you are, you know, leaving stuff to the next generation,
it's wonderful, it's good.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
It's all those things more important.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Now, I think than ever, right, and more difficult to
do than ever, because the fact of the matter is
that that last measure of care that most people need,
the vast majority of people need, is not available unless
you're broke, you know, And that's just that's just react.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Oh the house is protected, Yeah, how you can pay
the taxes on the house? Whoops?

Speaker 3 (21:51):
How about the insurance? Oh oh, how about the how
about the utilities? No, no, none of that's protected.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
You don't get to pay for any of that.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
So I hope your kids show up and do it
and don't leave the house full of black mold as
we have seen, or go back to the to the
local taxing authority. You know nowadays, you know, Michigan's not
supposed to be able to the local taxing authorities should
be able to get your house right, even if you're
twenty five bucks, they could get your whole house and forfeited.
Now they're supposed to pay you back the extra money

(22:22):
if you're in long term care. Who do you think
gets the extra money? One guess that you're right. So
that's number one Number one. How do we make sure
that your stuff serves you? That's number one? Number two?
How do we avoid probate? How do we make that
transition in a way where you have complete control? Right,

(22:43):
you have complete control until we've died, right, and then
we don't get involved in probate and a whole mess there. Well,
here's the thing that's the easiest thing there is to
do in the world. The very easiest thing to do
is to get stuff from one person to the other.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Just give it to them.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
Oh boit a second, I did say after you die,
So when you're dead, you can't give stuff away. So
how are we going to handle that transition? How are
we going to get it to the kids? You know,
there are some really bad, stupid, awful, horrible, terrible ideas
out there, like ladybird deeds, like beneficiary designations, things like that.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
These things avoid probate absolutely. They avoid probate.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yes, yes they do, but they have consequences, you know,
negative consequences that most people don't say, Oh, I avoided probate. Yeah,
here's a cookie. Oh, by the way, now the taxes
have gone up.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Now this is now.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
There's other consequences, which we'll talk about in number three
that are unique to your kids.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
But the point is how do we.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Get And then you say and then you say, oh,
but I have a trust and I was told that
my trust avoids probate. Trusts avoid probate, which is not untrue. Okay,
aprust can avoid probated. It is possible to avoid probate
with the trust. But the way most trust planning is

(24:07):
done these days, you go through the process. You get,
you know, a trust and a will and a power
of attorney for healthcare and finance. You get some documents, right,
and in those documents and maybe the lawyer even said
it if I've had people tell me, but I say
it over and over again, yeah, well it's not effective. Yeah,
but I say it over and over again. I even
get put it in writing that people are supposed to

(24:30):
take the next step, which is to put your stuff
into the trust. Right forget about the fact that they
do nothing at all, nothing at all, traditional approach, nothing
at all to protect your assets. If you need long
term care, that's something we're doing that's different. Most people
don't do it. If I was at a recent confab

(24:52):
of attorneys, we had maybe I don't know, ninety one
hundred a state planning to call them over the stage
and you know, raise your hand if you do the
long term care of the Medicaid. Ten hands go up,
and then you start asking them and it's like you don't,
not really okay. And these are people who were focused
on doing a good job, Like they travel, They spent

(25:13):
a lot of money to go and be trained and
how to do a good job, how to serve clients well,
and all the rest of it. And they had no
idea right how to do that number one thing we
were talking about, no concept Okay, ooh, scary, ooh, uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
What I mean, how do you serve the client if
you're not doing that?

Speaker 3 (25:35):
I mean, it has been a mystery to me for
thirty years how you can claim to do a state
planning and not do that part of it. But hey, people,
they play their intellectual games. Whatever they managed to separate
it out. But here is the point. Even if you
even if that were legitimate, which I don't think it is,
but even if it were legitimate to say, oh, I

(25:56):
just want to get my stuff to my kids, most
trusts fail. And I had a guy who wrote me
a letter, well, what persons, what are your writing? Not
on well and basing on talking to literally tens of
thousands of clients over thirty four years, thirty five years,
very quickly, very soon by the time you know, if
you're watching this on replay, it will be thirty five years.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Anyway, The point is the point is people get a trust,
there's a written instructions in it, and people don't follow
the instructions. And because it's they're difficult instructions to follow, Okay,
And what I mean is putting your stuff into the
trust right now. Lots of times the attorney will do

(26:37):
the deed to put the house in the trust. Yay,
hurrah for that. That's that's good, okay, better than nothing.
But not the bank accounts, not the insurance policies, not
the beneficiary in IRA, which is a whole other Michigan
as maybe I should make that four number four. How
we deal with iras, because that's the whole separate thing.
But the point is that you get this letter and

(27:00):
whenever you talk to these people and like.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
At this that this means it happened again.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
It happens all the time, not unusual. But I'm talking
to these folks, Well, what do you do about funding
the trust? What do you do about making sure that
people get to Well, I gave him the letter. What
do you know that the letter doesn't work? Well, yeah,
there's stupid clients. They don't put the stuff in the trust.
I told them. I even I even told them upfront.

(27:28):
I told him, and I told him, and I told him.
Talk to an estate planning train.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
It does trust. Talk to him for five minutes.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Talk to him for five minutes, and by minute five,
I guarantee you'll have heard two or three stories, especially
if you bring it up about how you know the
dumb client didn't follow through. I gave him the letter,
I told him what to do. I was available to help. Right,
that's the sorts of excuses that they give. But what

(27:59):
is the success rate? Are people actually doing it?

Speaker 2 (28:03):
Well?

Speaker 3 (28:04):
No, oh, it's so frustrating that they're not doing it.
And it's like what do you mean it's frustrating that
you know they weren't going to do it. You knew
that going in that they weren't gonna follow the now,
I didn't figure that out, incidentally, until i'd been out
on my own. As everybody knows, I haven't made a
secret of it. It's almost the point of pride, you know.

(28:26):
I got kicked out of the big law firm after
a couple of years. Right, didn't fit round pig, square hole, all.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
That kind of thing. And I believed what I had been.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
Told about putting assets in the trust because obviously if
the trust doesn't work, if the assets are not in
the trust, and what I was told, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Like, whoa, why don't we remember really follow through on us?

Speaker 3 (28:46):
Because you don't have to because we gave them the
letter and it's all the instructions are right there. It's
here's a great letter. It's a wonderful letter explaining it all. Okay, yes,
you know, yeah letters. And it took about six months
to realize from talking to clients. You know, I've been out,
they weren't following through. They weren't doing it, and this

(29:08):
is what everybody was complaining of. And these thirty years
of compla thirty five years now almost almost thirty about
years of complaints about you know people now following through. Well, look,
if you know people aren't gonna do if you know
that a given process doesn't doesn't give you the results.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
If you know that, then if you're continuing to do
the same process and you don't alter it, then my
conclusion is you intend the results. You can complain about
it all you want, you know, I don't care complain
where around rand complain the system. The results the system

(29:53):
creates are the intended results. If it creates those results
over time, if over time the same result, that's the result.
That's the typical result is that you get a trust
that it's not funded. And I've talked to financial advisors,
I've talked to attorneys, I've talked to lots of regular
thousands of regular folks, you know, about getting the stuff

(30:14):
in the trust. Oh yeah, we're supposed to do that.
That's the best you get, that's the best. That's not
true if you have an engineer. Regular folks who aren't
engineers engineers will do it.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
I admit that some executive secretary I used to think
executive secretaries were like engineers in terms of getting the
trust funded, and they're not. But engineers are great at
getting If you're an engineer and you got a trust,
I almost guarantee it's funded, you know, meaning you put
the assets in the trust. But nobody else the surgeons
don't do it. Accountants don't do it, lawyers don't do it.

(30:48):
Regular people don't do it. Nobody does it except engineers
as a as a so there's an invidious comparison between
engineers and the rest of society.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
As I don't know.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
The point is that the system that the setup is
designed to cover the lawyers behind not get the job done.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
That's number two. You've been listening to the David Carrier Show.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney, Chris.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Just like the ones I to know, David's working and
working and taking your calls down. This is a David
Carrier show.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Well, it's well, welcome back to the David Carrier Show.
I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney. Now number one,
we focus on you. We make sure that your stuff
doesn't go bye bye. If you need long term care,
your spouse needs long term care. I make sure that
you don't proverish yourself and priverish your spouse. There's reasons

(31:57):
for that, and get into them. But the point is
that when you say, well, what do you guys do
that's different, you have a good challenge. Okay, fine, So
Number one, we focus on you to make sure that
you're okay and that there are some leftos. There actually
are some leftovers for the kids. Number two, make sure
that your trust actually works. Most trusts don't work, you know,

(32:19):
And like I said, I was channeling, Oh, where's statistics
for that? You know, where's your you know, peer reviewed study.
It's like, hey, my peer reviewed studies. I've talked to
my peers. I've reviewed what they said and what they
tell me is and everybody complains about that, and I
don't care. You go to a national meeting, you can
go to the local meeting, you can go to the
statewide meeting. You know, getting conversation for a few minutes,

(32:42):
and routinely it's almost the game I play. You know,
whatever I'm talking to somebody I don't know, stay planning attorney,
you know, and you know, if they do trust right away,
I always kind of steer the conversation a little bit
that way. But before you know it, man, they are
complaining about clients who don't put the stuff and the trust.
And it's every state I've ever seen, coast to coast.

(33:07):
It's a routine failing. And the letter, the so called
instruction letter, is really just there so that the lawyer
has something to say to your kids when they say,
how come the trust isn't working. Well, you see here
I gave your parents' strud they didn't do it.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Oh, it's not my fault. Now we're going through probate. Whoops.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
Okay, So anyway, so that's number one. That's number two, right,
the trust doesn't actually work. We make sure the trust
actually works. We have a whole process for that.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yeah, people don't like it's not popular. Why do I
have to do it?

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Nobody else has to do it? Yeah, because their trusts
are working, and these trusts are working.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
That's the difference. Okay, but people pretty accepting of that actually.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
And then the third step, here's the third thing that's
make a different most everybody, most wills, most trust, They say,
when I die, pay the bills, give the stuff to
the kids. Boom, give the stuff to the kids. Right,
or they do these benefits, shared designations, ladybird deeds, which
is just a one way ticket. Give the stuff to

(34:04):
the kids. Now, I'm not saying anything against your kids.
People say, oh, my kid's very smart, they make more
money than I do, all these things right about how
great their kids are, And it's like, I'm not.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Saying anything against your kids. Yeah, your kids are wonderful.
I get it.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
Okay, I don't want to restrict them and what they get.
Blah blah blah. Okay, when is it that your kids
are this way? The answer is right now, Right now,
your kids are this way. What do you know about tomorrow,
next week, five years from now. Okay, maybe your kids

(34:42):
co signed on your grandkids' student loans, maybe they co
sign for other stuff, who the hell loans. Maybe your
kid had a stroke, Maybe their a spouse had a stroke.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Maybe they were in a car accident.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Remember we talked a bunch a couple of years ago
about the the auto insurance reform.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
That'll be a good experience for them. Okay. Whatever, the
point is, you don't know what the future holds for
your kids. It's not that the kids are gonna go nuts.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
It's not that the kids are gonna Look, you don't
want to protect the money. You're not trying to protect
an inheritance from your kids. Sometimes you are, sometimes you are.
So we have dozens of prisoners, you know, actually in prison,
what have you? Okay there, we're setting up a trust
because we know what the kid's situation is and we're
trying to protect it from the kid that happens, yes

(35:36):
it does, okay, fine, or developmentally disabled kids, or kids
who've been in an accident, or there's reasons. You know
that parents are aware and you want to protect it
for those kids, So we do. It's necessary to protect
it for the kids. My point is that the world
is the kind of place where you don't know what's

(35:58):
happening next.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
We just had this national thing. I don't know if
you remember it.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
It was a few weeks ago, and the experts were all, oh,
this is what's gonna happen. There were people who stake
their sanity on a certain consequence, right that the world
was gonna unfold in a certain way, and then it
didn't unfold in that way, and the consequence was psychic disaster. Okay,

(36:26):
you know, And anyway, the point is the world doesn't
always unfold the way you think it's gonna You think
you know what's gonna happen, and lots of times you're right.
If you weren't right, were not correct, most of the time,
you wouldn't be able to plan your day. You wouldn't
be able to figure out what's happening next. Most of
the time you were correct, But you're not always correct,

(36:49):
and if you're wrong in important ways, disaster. So, for example, today,
many of you will get into an automobile, many most
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
We'll go to church, right, and.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
You'll be thinking good thoughts, and you'll be, you know,
aligning yourself with moral imperatives, and you know, and touch
of the divine and.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
All that which is wonderful, wonderful stuff.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Okay, but some of you, excuse me, if you get
into an automobile, I'm willing to bet that all of
you will buckle up.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Now, why do you buckle up? Do you buckle up?
Because hey, you know, whenever we go to church we
smash into something.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Well maybe, but for most people that doesn't happen. Right,
most of the time, you get in the car.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
You go where you're going, you buckle and buckle whatever.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Plus you got airbags in their secret airbags that you
don't even know that you don't even know about that work.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
The point is you always buckle up because you don't know.
And if I ask you, hey, on the way to
church today, when you smashed into a tree, yeah, probably not.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Yeah, probably not. Oh it's knowing though, I mean maybe
maybe will I don't know, chances go up.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
My point is that you don't know what the future holds,
so we all.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Do things, we all do things.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Right to guard against the future, to plan for what
the future may bring, and you completely ignore that, totally
throw it out the window when it comes to your
your estate plan. Oh no, yeah, I buckle up. Yeah,
I got vaccinations. Yeah, I brush my teeth.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
I save money in a four to one k Yeah,
I uh, you know, I change the oil in my car.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
I do all these things which are future oriented against
you know, the possible consequences. Right, I do all these
things that are future oriented. But I'm going to pretend
that everything is going to go smooth. It's every day's
a sunny day for my kids.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Why in the world would you do that?

Speaker 3 (39:01):
So what we always do, always of the time, and
I've had some knockdown drag outs over planning this way.
But we always plan so that we don't just dump
money on kids, because while today might be a good
idea to dump money on kids, generally uncontrolled money because

(39:25):
people can take the money away from the kid, whether
it's an ex spouse. And believe me, I'd love to
have a conversation with you about Oh, inheritances don't come
what a bunch of anyway?

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Uh? But benefit you know the Supreme Court said, was
it ten years ago? Almost now? Hey, if you.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Make a beneficiary in an IRA and the kids in bankruptcy, boom,
there goes the money. It's available to their creditors, which
has huge tax consequences to the kids. You haven't even
thought about because you haven't been told about them unless
you listen here. But that's the point. Number one, we
take care of you first. Number two, we make sure
that the trust actually works because we do the follow

(40:06):
up now and into the future right when that gets done.
Number Three, we don't pretend that we're always on the
yellow brick road heading to the Emerald City and everything's
going to be just fine or well, actually that's a
good example, Yeah, your kids are on the yellow brick road, right,
But is it always sunshine and daisies. There are apple

(40:27):
trees out there, live apple trees. You know what I
mean that there's flying monkeys, there's bad stuff on the
on the yellow brick road. That's not a bad example, right,
you know, or throw them.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
There's apple trees.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Anyway, that's a multimedia experience around here.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
The point is things happen either your plant form or
you're just using. You're just using. Why would you just
wish when you can make sure? That's my question to you.
I've been listening to the Day to Carrier show.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
I'm Baby Carrier, your family's personal attorney, and we will
talk about areas next.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
I know that's no exciting mm hmm
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