2025 12-14 DAVID CARRIER PODCAST HOUR 2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He served at the Pentagon as an army jag. 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's your family's personal attorney. It's time
for the David Carrier Show.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello, and welcome to the David Carrier Show on David Carrier.
Your family's personal attorney, because why not. It's Christmas and
you know, spirit of giving in all that good stuff.
Six one six seven seven four twenty four twenty four.
That's the ELF hotline. If you call that line, our
new Elf Charles will pick up the phone and decide

(00:41):
if you've been naughty or nice, and then pass your
question right along and you get to say it if
you want to. Six one six seven seven four twenty
four twenty four. Six one six, I'll do it slowly
for you. Six one six, seven seven four twenty four
twenty four. Get your question, comment or concern on the airs.
It's that easy to do. If you want to recap

(01:04):
of the first hour in thirty seconds. Here's the idea.
Old cars were easier to work on back in the
day fifty sixty years ago. Seventy years ago, my god, seriously,
just about seventy years ago. When my fifty six Chevy
was built, things were easier, you know, but they were

(01:27):
and it doesn't work that way no more. And my
experience replacing the winchy a wiper transmission and things snapped,
and things weren't bad, but we eventually got it all
to work, except for the most easy part of it,
which I will do this morning and around this morning,
and we'll do that part of it. The point is,
with the state planning, even if you get everything else right,

(01:51):
and you know this is true, but practically everything, there
is no unimportant step in accomplishing a goal right because
every link in the chain chain only strong is its
weakest link. So even if you have the estate planning
done correctly, which most people don't, in my humble opinion,
not so humble opinion, most people are ignoring the elephant

(02:14):
in the room, and everybody else is ignoring the elephant
in the room because it's easy to ignore the elephant.
But you know, like think about your here's another car
analogy for you, seeven like this one. You know how
the check engine light comes on but the car still
runs right, You know how that works, or the car

(02:36):
goes boom, but you know it still works. And if
I don't push that hard on the pedal, it won't
clunk that much and it'll be okay, right, you can
do that for a while. In fact, back when I
was on active duty, a friend of mine who had
no more idea how anything mechanical work. It was a
good thing. She was a jag officer instead of a
instead of anything to do with combat arms or anything.

(03:02):
Her mother gave her a car, a Pinto, right, and
she ran the Pinto and her husband was no better
at this than she was. Anyway, they ran the Pinto
until it stopped running, and I said, well, when was
the last time you changed the oil? And they're like,
what do you mean change the oil? And they had
the car for like three years, and of course the
head had seized up, and so I rebuilt the engine.

(03:23):
Not that I knew anything about rebuilding engine, I didn't,
but I thought, well, they were like, look you want it.
I said, sure, well tow it away and it's yours.
And it was in really great shape except for the
engine was blown. So it took me two years, but
eventually I did rebuild the engine and you know, ran
around in it until I came to Michigan and I

(03:44):
left it to a buddy in DC. Anyway, long story short,
long story short. If you don't take care of stuff,
it'll break on you, okay, and then you'll be in
You think it's easy to do, right, But not only
did this into have a blown engine, it was the
Brazilian engine that Ford was buying at the time. And

(04:05):
apparently there's a whole other range of things that because
I had the Brazilian engine in it. Oh my god.
The point is that when you're driving along until things
go very wrong, right, it's you can keep driving along
and people do that what with like with I'll get

(04:25):
back to the example from yesterday fixing the Winche wipers.
It's very obvious sometimes right that it doesn't work. Like
if if the headlights were out and half of the
headlights on this truck are out, and I'm fixing that too.
But the point is if there were no headlights at all, well,
you couldn't drive the damn thing. And you would know

(04:47):
that you couldn't drive it because it would be screaming
at you. You're blacked out here, you can't see in
front of you right, it doesn't work at all. Winchy wipers,
same thing, they don't work at all. Okay, it's very
obvious that they're not working. Whereas with an awful lot
of things, including a state planning, right, you don't know

(05:08):
if it works or it doesn't work until you know,
until you put your foot on the brake and it
doesn't go to the floor, or you see what I'm saying.
That that's my that's my analogy. And and the simplest,
easiest things sometimes can be the things that are the worst.
And sometimes things that look easy, like yesterday, I'm taking

(05:29):
the thing apart, right, and I'm thinking, there's two bolts
that hold that hold the the the motor to the
to the to the arm. Okay, and anyway, the three
bolts really if you count it that way. The point
is the first one came off no problem. The second

(05:50):
one snapped. Well you think it's only a bolt, it's
just a freaking bolt. Yeah, Well the freaking bolt having
snapped means that you have to replace the whole thing
or drill out the whole right, And who you know
who's got a drill press on Saturday afternoon, you know
what I mean? So you just go ahead and buy

(06:13):
another one. Kick yourself, because right, things that should be
easy right, if they're not done right, it's just as
bad as you as you messed up the whole big thing.
And then, and this is my beef. It's like with
estate planning. Not only are the easy things conceptually easy

(06:35):
things screwed up, the difficult things are screwed up too, right.
I mean, the whole idea is wrong in my opinion.
I have to keep saying that my non customary, untraditional
conflict with everybody else's opinion. Right, I think it's being
done wrong, all right, And it's not even done right.
If you do it without doing it wrong, you know

(06:58):
what I'm saying. Even the wrong thing is done wrong. Anyway,
Let's get to a question, shall we. My husband's father
and my husband had a quick deed. I think they
mean quick claim deed. Quick deed done to sign my
husband's father's property to his son, that was my husband.
He made over the quick deed to my husband to
leave him the property of my husband's dad. This is

(07:21):
the Department of repetition department, right. And then he passed
away the next day, so dad signs the property to
her husband and then dies. My husband's name was on
the quick deed to the property, and that's how it
has been. Still was in my husband's name, only then
my husband died, oh the rotter, and still my husband's

(07:42):
name on the quick deed. Who does the property belong
to after my husband died? Good question, right? And the
answer is the answer to the question is what does
it saying your husband's will? I'm gonna guess because you
didn't mention it five times, he doesn't have a will.
I'm also going to guess that he didn't put it
in a truck. I'm also gonna guess right that. You know,

(08:04):
there may be other problem. Who knows, right, But it
is your husband. He died while he was your husband,
which means that now you have to go to probate
court to get the property. Kind of simple, simple as that.
That's what that's what right now? The property is in
your husband's estate. Okay, And here's the problem. Did your

(08:24):
husband owe money to anybody? Because if he did, before
you get the property, you got to satisfy the creditors. Right,
So let's hope he didn't. You know, he wasn't one
of these sports people who you know, bet everything on everything.
Apparently these days everybody's betting everything on everything. Let's hope
that wasn't him. So now he owns Owes the book,

(08:46):
he's a whole bunch of money because now they can
come after the property instead of you getting it right.
So there were things, are things that could have been
done here right in terms of trust, in terms of
deeds and married couple with a married couple, not at
all unusual, not wrong to do a joint deed. Now

(09:06):
you don't do that with your kids. You don't do
that with strangers. You don't do you know, quick claim
deeds and stuff like that with them, but you might
with your spouse. That might be a good idea. So
in this situation, it looks to me like you've got
an appointment at probate and you're just going to have
to probate the thing. Now it depends, of course, on
how much what the value of the property is. If

(09:28):
it's under they just raised it. You know, it was
like around twenty thousand, Now it's like seventy five thousand
or something like this before you have to go through
full fledge probate in Michigan. So that's all good, right,
So it may be a simplified, simplified probate that you've
got to go through, but it is real property. You
do have to go through probate. It's not a simple assignment.
So you are going to have to go through that rigmarole.

(09:49):
But I'm going to bet that you own the property. Now,
if the property is very let's say it's a million
dollar property, you're gonna wind up splitting it. You're gonna
wind up splitting it with your kids again, if you
don't do a will or a trust of your own.
You know, it's amazing how people who have quite a
bit of property really and haven't planned for it. Really,

(10:13):
you know, you own it all in your own name,
you wind up splitting it with the kids. And it's
not that much. It doesn't have to go that high
before you start, before you start doing that, so you
don't want that to happen. Do a will, do a trust,
put your spouse on the deed. Okay, that's what we
should do here. When we get back, we'll have some
more questions. In the meantime, I'm David Carrier, your family's

(10:34):
personal attorney, inviting you to give us a call six
one six seven seven four twenty four, twenty four.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
This hour of the David Carrier Show is pro bono,
so call in now at seven seven four twenty four
twenty four. This is the David Carrier Show.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Wellcome back to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. Now is the time give us
a call? Six one seven seven four twenty four twenty four.
That's six one six seven seven four twenty four twenty four.
Go to the website Davidcarrier Law dot com because at
Davidcarrier Law dot com you're gonna see the AI, the

(11:14):
artificial intelligence, which is better than anything really, so I
hear anyway, the AI assistant. What's so great about that?
What's so great about that is anytime you dial it
up right, this thing will pop up, unless you have
a pop up locker, in which case it'll be frustrated
and just sitting there. But you don't want to do that.
So anyway, this thing will pop up and you can

(11:36):
talk to it, you know, if you've got microphone and
speakers and stuff, because it's it's not a real person.
But anyway you can you can talk to the thing,
you can type, it'll give you you can print out
the stuff, all kinds of stuff, but it's it's much more.
It's not hunt, clickpeck whatever you know, and it's not

(11:57):
gonna every time you ask you the questions, well that's
a very good question, we'll have somebody call you, give
us your name, rank and serial number. Now it's not
like that. It will actually answer with a lively legal
discussion that is not legal advice. Don't rely on it. Okay,
it's a computer, right, need a little bit better than that.

(12:18):
But if you go there, it'll give you a really
handy advice. And we're working on empowering it so that
you can schedule workshops and you can schedule other stuff
with the AI. That was always the big stumbling that
had been always we've only been doing this for six months,
but I tell you that AI it's just developing so rapidly.

(12:42):
It's just it's every week you got news. There's new
capabilities that we're building into it, and it's it's very exciting,
really enabling us to do a lot of things that
just weren't cost effective before, just to deliver a higher
a higher experience. We just did a webinar. We had

(13:04):
twelve hundred folks sign up for it. On how to
use the international thing, how to do the AI, how
to use AI? You know what estate plan is about
number one, because you got to establish the baseline. But
then how AI can Artificial intelligence can really be used
to accomplish things that weren't cost effective before. I think

(13:28):
they're always been cost effective, but which I'll get into
with one of my questions. There's a segue for you.
This is a very easy one. Can I put my
home cars bank account any trust if I receive medicaid?
That's the whole that's the whole thing. That's the headline
and the and that's the subject line in the email. Right,
Can I put my home cars bank account any trust

(13:48):
if I receive medicaid? Here's the misconception here. The idea
is that medicaid is a thing. Okay, Medicaid is not
a thing. Medic is a collection of three or four
dozen programs. There's all kinds of different things. When you
say medicaid, what was that slogan? You know when you

(14:12):
say that you said it all. When you say when
you say medicaid, you said it all. Anyway, the idea
is there's all kinds of things going on with the medicaid. Okay,
there's all kinds of programs. Some let you have a trust,
some don't let you have a trust. And then when
you say trust again, there are more trust than Carter

(14:32):
has little pills. Okay. I mean there's lots and lots
and lots of different kinds of trusts. Some are okay,
some are not okay. So when you ask a question
like this, when somebody asks a question like this, the
first thing to do is figure out is try to
figure out what's going on here? What is it you
want to accomplish? What kind of medicaidor you want? What

(14:54):
kind of trust do you want? What do you want
to see the future like you have family? What do
we try? What are we trying to do here? Do
you see? Everybody wants to pretend that it's so easy. Oh,
I mean, seriously, people think that this is a real question.
Can I put my home, car's bank account into trust
if I receive medicaid? Well, there's two things right there,

(15:15):
right we don't know what the heck they're talking about.
One is trust, what kind of trust? The other one
is medicaid? Which medicaid program? Do you see what I'm saying?
I mean, I wish I was like one of these people.
Oh it's so easy, just signed ladybirdeed woo easy. It's like,
what what, Oh, just put your kids on the account. Yeah,
that'll work. No, it's anyway. You know where I'm coming

(15:38):
from on this. Here's another one. What is better? Trust
or will? Now I'm going to take a little more time.
I'm not gonna be quite so dismissive of this one
because I really sympathize with this. I am a single mom.
I have three kids, twenty eighteen and sixteen, so we
get a five year spam in the kids right and
I owe It says I owe the high House. I

(16:00):
think I own the house after the divorce, and I
want to transfer the house to my kids. What is
the best way? And if not trust or will, which
one is better? Again? What you have to do, my
suggestion is what you have to do is you have
to ask yourself, what are you trying to accomplish? Was
the idea that you want even if you die, that

(16:21):
you want your kids to have a place to live?
Was that what we were doing? Okay? And it says
they have a house, and it's like, okay, well, what
else do you have? If you've got three kids right
of these ages, you better have yourself some life insurance.
I hope you got some life insurance too, because if
you don't have life insurance, whoop, there goes the house. Right,

(16:45):
So let's hope. Let's pretend. Let's assume that there is
some life insurance. There's some other assets, and life insurance
is cheap. You can't get out of it. Don't buy
the whole life stuff by the term, which I'm not
telling you what to buy or anything, because I don't
know anything about life insurance or any thing. But they
get the term stuff. That's the level term. That's what
you want. Anyway. The point is the point is that

(17:07):
there's gonna be money, and there's gonna be a house.
And you've got kids who've got about five in between
twenty and sixteen. I know it's four, but figure out
six months in between. Because of the ages, they've got
about five years between them. So you got one kid
who's gonna be in high school and the other one
in college or you die, ones in their career and

(17:29):
the other one starting college, and you're gonna treat them equally.
See again, you really need to be thinking about what
is going on here. Okay, so let's say you die
in five years. Let's say mom dies in five years.
Now there's a bunch of money. Now there's a house. Right.
Do I treat all the kids equally? Right? Do we

(17:51):
divide by three? I hope not. I divide by three?
And now the one who's done with college, yay, thanks
for the tuition. And the one who is just starting college,
you're like, what am I gonna do? Okay, equal is
not fair when it comes to kids. Fair is not equal.
Equal is not fair. Don't do it. Everybody does that.

(18:13):
I know everybody does it because you put your kids'
names on it and you just dos them. Oh, they'll
get it. Be fine. Or even worse, you put all
the money in the name of the oldest one, right,
who then marries snidely Whiplash, who divorces her and takes
all the money. It's like, and I know it's not
supposed to work that. Or or you know you thought
that your daughter was Nell Fenwick and she turns out

(18:35):
to be Cruela Deville and now all the money that
was supposed to be there for the kids also wasted.
Or you divided equally, which is equally cruel. If you're
getting the impression that I think the world is a
more complex place than the simple, you know, cut and
paste estate plan that gets done, then you are quite right.

(18:59):
And I just saw the Gabe is on the line,
and so Gabe, if you hold on, we'll get you
in the very next segment. Even listening to the David
Carrier Show, I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
David's got the how too you're looking for. Just call
seven seven four twenty four twenty four. This is the
David Carrier Show.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Welcome back to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. Now is the time to give
us a call. Six one six seven seven four twenty
four twenty four. That's sixty one six seven seven four
twenty four twenty four. We got Gabe on the line. Hello, Gabe,
Welcome to the David Carrier Show.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
Good morning, David, thanks for doing what you do. I'll
get right to my question. We have a home, Ok,
that's got a David Carrier trust. Hey, we're elderly. We
built another home next door. My daughter would like to
buy the larger hole. How do you do that? What's

(20:06):
the easiest, sure, what's the easiest and most inexpensive way
of doing that?

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, so I'm guessing we have the Protection Trust right
in the in the original homestead is in the protection Trust.
Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (20:21):
That's qui.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Okay, So now you can you can transfer that to
anybody but yourself, and there's no penalty for that, so
you can, you know, we would just go to the
title company ed it out, so your daughter has you know,
gets title insurance, although that's not really necessary. You could
really just quick claim it to her and she can

(20:45):
worry about getting the title insurance herself because it's been
in there for the five years. Because it's pickled, as
you might say, you know, it's it's past the look
back period. Then you you're completely free to sell it.
You're you know, for consideration, you can sell it, you
can give it, you can pretty much do whatever. Now

(21:05):
the house next door, was it on the was that
built on land that was already in the trust? In
the protection Trust?

Speaker 3 (21:15):
That's correct, And your people tell me that that home
is in the trust.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
That's correct, that's right. An anything that you affixed the
real estate becomes part of the real estate. It's in there. Now,
the one thing you are going to have to do
if you're going to sell the house separately to your
daughter is get the split from the township or the city.
Have you looked into that yet it's been split, Yes, sir,
it's been split. Okay, well, there you go. Then. Really

(21:44):
it's really pretty straightforward. You know, there can be some
I mean, the easiest way is just to quick claim
to her. You could do that or what you might
want to do. But there's do you have any I
ra as at all, any any investments that are not

(22:04):
in the trust, like like I RA A four one
K that kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Everything we have is in the trust.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
It's in the trust. Okay, if you did, there's a
there's a kind of a uh expand the envelope. I
want to say, push the envelope, but expand the envelope
strategy that we could do. Uh. We could set up
when you when you uh give it to the daughter.
Now are you are you selling it? Actually? Yes, you're

(22:36):
selling the property. Okay, So, and it's been your homestead
for two out of the last five years, is.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
That correct, in the last thirty two years?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, there you go. So, so you're not gonna unless
you're selling it for more than half a million of gain,
you're not gonna have to worry about You're not gonna
have to worry about capital gains at all, because it
was your primary residence, your principal residence, and that would
be a reason, frankly, to go through the go through

(23:09):
the title company, okay, just because all the paperwork will
be done so that there's no question that it was
a sale, you know, and you can there won't be
any reporting. It won't be any ten ninety nine because well,
what's the how much is she paying you for it?

Speaker 3 (23:28):
Oh? Probably right around five hundred.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Okay, so it's said, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Wait, well right around five hundred k. That hasn't been
decided yet, but it's the property has been appraised at
five seventy.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Okay. If you sell it for less, for five hundred
or less, there won't even be a ten ninety nine
going to the IR Okay, Because you and your wife
have each lived there for two out of the last
five years as your principal residence. You each get a
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars exclusion on the sale

(24:13):
of the principal residence and so the IRIS doesn't even
require a ten ninety nine if the entire consideration that's
paid for the property is less than an equal to
half a million. Okay, so you know you're not going
to pay any tax anyway because you paid more than
seventy thousand for the property originally, so you're not going

(24:36):
to have to pay any capital gain tax. You don't
have to worry about it. Your daughter's going to live there,
she and her husband if she's married or whatever. They'll
get the two hundred and fifty thousand each exclusion as
well if when they go to sell it. So you
know that's that's just another aspect of it. But I

(24:56):
would that would be a reason, and it's usually if
they're paying half a million for it, go ahead and
pay the title company for the UH to do the
clo I mean, we can do the closing, but just
go through the title company. It's you know, it's easier,
it's cheaper. Why not, you know, That's what I would
That's what I would say. The only the only thing

(25:17):
that UH that we would get involved in would be
the a new certificate of trust existence for the for
the property. Are you going to change your distribution plan?
At all, given that you know, in making the sale,
do you have other kids?

Speaker 3 (25:37):
And that's that That was the question that we're going
to have for you offline and your shop.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yeah, yep, yep, So that would be it would it
would be worthwhile, It would be worthwhile for you to
just come in and let's review the options, what the
costs are, what the what's the most effective, most efficient thing,
least expensive thing for you to do and get all
the benefits because you know it's all the it's all
cost benefit and generally speaking, the see one of the

(26:11):
reasons we would go for the let's not report it
to IRS if we don't have to, is it just
eliminates you know, it would be very easy for you
when you do your taxes to say, uh, you know,
I have two hundred thousand a basis plus five hundred
thousand exclusion. I'm selling it for five seventy there's no
there's no capital gains involved, so I'm good to go, right.

(26:33):
I mean, that's that's not hard to do. But but
wouldn't it be nicer not even in file to ten
ninety nine. I Mean, that's kind of how I look
at it. If there's a way, if there's a legitimate
way for us not to do that. So that would
be the kind of thing that we would we would
talk about offline and then adjusting between the kids and

(26:54):
was there a bargain sale and you know, just evening
evening things out. So so yeah, just give us a
shout and we'll you know, we'll talk about all those things,
you know, get them squared around.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
Okay, okay, but the first thing we should do, David,
is go to Worth Title Company.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Now, the first thing you should do is call us,
and then we'll go over the things in your situation,
you know what I mean, and make some decisions with
some thought. Okay, let's think about well, if we do
it like this, here's the consequence, and we do it
like that, here's the consequence. And I'm going to I'm
leaning in the direction of doing of using a title company.

(27:39):
But you know, it's a half a million dollars, that's
a big deal, and your daughter trusts you because your
mom and dad. Right. On the other hand, she might
still want to get title insurance on the thing. Who
pays for the title insurance? Well, if it's a bargain sale,
then she can pay for the title insurance. If she's
paying full price, then maybe you split the title insurance.
It's just and do you even need title insurance? Not really,

(28:02):
but it's one of those comfort things, you know, and
that's that's what we would talk about. It's like, do
you want to get it? Do you not want to
get it? What are the pros? What are the cons?
You know, with a lot of this stuff, it's a judge.
It comes down to judgment call. It's like, what do
I really want to do? What am I trying to accomplish?
How do I feel about it? Right? So let's do

(28:23):
this so that it's a very positive experience all the
way around. That's and if it's done correctly, it can
be a very positive thing, very positive thing. Whereas if
we leave things kind of half done, or we didn't
think about why exactly what we were doing taking one
course of action or another, then you can look back

(28:44):
and second guess, and then you don't feel good about it.
At the end of the day, You're doing a very
nice thing. It seems like to me, I'd be surprised
if it's not a very good thing. So let's let's
get the good feelings that you've earned by doing the
good thing and not leave. Not leave some loose ends
that might cast the shadow. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Okay, I understand.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah. And the other thing is the other thing is
too the money now right, Remember you had homestead right
in the trust. Now you've got cash in the trust.
The cash is also off limits. The cash is also protected,
just like the house was protected. Okay, I just want
to make sure we're on board with that. Okay, great,

(29:31):
which is why we get to check made to the
Protection Trust.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Okay, okay, Well we've been giving you a call. Thank
you for your time. There. You go have a great
Christmas guy, Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Merry Christmas to you two gave take care. You've been
listening to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your
family's personal attorney.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
David's perking and working and taking your calls. Now this
is the David Carrier Show.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Welcome back to the David Carriers Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. I'm going to go back to
the caller. We just had a client of ours who
been a client for many years and put his land
and house and whatnot into his protection trust. Now we
got a lot of folks who are like, oh, well,

(30:23):
I have is house. Why would I do a trust?
Why would I do the protection trust? And I just
do a ladybird deed. And I think this illustrates in
a small way. And I'm not saying everybody has the
same situation, right, but the thing is when you put
the house in the trust, right, if you sell it
later on, then the money is off the table. See

(30:44):
so many people like, oh, my house is protected from medicaid.
Your house is not protected from medicaid. I mean people
say that, and you know, it's like it's like, uh,
what's it like. Let's say let's say you have a
shower cap. You know what a shower cap is. I
don't need one, of course I don't have any hair.
But a shower cap is something that ladies put over

(31:07):
their heads when they go in the shower. Right, little
plastic thingy is at the hotel whatever, that's a shower cap. Okay.
So if you go out in a hurricane in a
shower cap, are you protected? Well yeah kind of, unless
the wind blows or you know something something you know, Yeah,
but the rest of you is naked. Yeah, Well, I

(31:28):
got the shower cap. I got some protection there, right,
And that's the way it is like with the homestead.
Is there some protection for the homestead? Well, Medicaid doesn't
force you to sell it right away, but if it
goes through probate, they're coming after it, okay. And they
don't leave you any money for the taxes, utilities, insurance,
or the upkeep or anything else. So you're kind of

(31:49):
hoping that someone's going to pay that stuff, and why
would they until now it's behind in taxes and it
gets seized right for back taxes, or finally you sell
it and then you just give the money over. So
this idea that the house is protected is just. And
by the way, you screw up your Medicaid application and
now the nursing home doesn't get paid for a few months,

(32:11):
which of course never ever happens except all the time.
And now now they sue you for what, Well, for
the back you didn't pay the nursing home. You say, well,
what about Medicaid? I thought Medicaid the house was protected. Yeah,
but you didn't get on Medicaid because your kids didn't
know about that annuity that you've got, or they didn't

(32:32):
account for the Christmas club or there's a million ways
to screw up a Medicaid application, million ways your kids
do that. Now you've got three months where Medicaid doesn't cover.
Now they sue you. Now they're coming after your house,
and you see the kids. Of course, sell the house
and then boom, there goes the because now you don't
have house anymore. Now you're just have money. And of

(32:53):
course they get the money. And in most states, not Michigan,
not Michigan, and there's a few other states Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, California,
and you argue about that one, but anyway, North Carolina.
But the point is that in some states, a few states,
several states, I guess would be better. Several states they

(33:14):
wait until you go through probate before they grab your house.
In most states, including the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with which
I'm intimately familiar, they put the lean on the house
right away. They do this in Minnesota, they do it,
in Wisconsin, they do it in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
We've had folks move to Michigan to go to the

(33:34):
Medican to go to nursing home right because in Michigan
we didn't put the lean on the farm right away, okay,
Whereas if they had gone to long term care in
Ohio or Indiana, for example, right now, they're going to
put a lien on the farm, which means what means that,
you know, people think that medicaid's free. They think it's

(33:54):
like medicare. Oh, I don't have to pay it back. Wrong,
they've got anything you do. And in most states, and
again this gets to well, which programs is that? It
depends on which Medicaid program you're in. Which of the
dozens of Medicaid programs are you in. If it's a
long term care Medicaid, they're coming after your stuff, simple
as that. Why because they can get away with it.

(34:16):
This is my opinion. This is my opinion. It's not
in the congressional recording where oh, by the way, we
figured out we can screw old people right by taking
their stuff after they've paid for the Medicaid and and
of course it's free for anybody who didn't save. If
you're a saver, we're coming after your stuff. If you're
not a saver, well you're cool. Huh what what how

(34:39):
did that?

Speaker 1 (34:41):
What?

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Let's say that again, if you worked and you saved
and you built stuff up. We're coming after your stuff.
You don't get anything that you paid for until you're broke,
and even after you're gone, we're still we still want
your we still want the leftover. I am completely at

(35:03):
a losss to figure out how that's a fair thing. Right,
But if you lived your life on a credit card,
if you went bankrupt three times, if you have nothing, well,
well you know you're the virtuous You're the virtuous profligate.
You know the Prodigal Son? Right? I mean, who knew?
Who knew that the who knew that the Medicaid system

(35:26):
was based on the They read the Prodigal Son as
a the you know, the parable of the Prodigal Son.
They read that as an instruction manual. Oh yeah, so
if you waste everything, then everything's free for you. But
if you save, well you don't even get a goat
to celebrate with your family. What what? But that's you know,

(35:47):
with your friends. I guess that's what the that's in
the Prodigal Son. You know, who knew that The Prodigal
Son was actually a Medicaid instruction manual? Oh yeah, that's
a good philosophy. Let's do that. If you work, you
save in your faithful nothing for you. But if you
blow everything, Oh, come on down, you know here have
a purple robe. You know, let's kill the fatty calf.

(36:09):
Why not? I don't know if that's blasphemous or what. Well,
I guess I'll find out sooner or later. We'll find
out from my higher authority whether or not the uh.
But but see, you think about it like that, right,
I mean, how does what Wait a second, I did
all the good things, which means which means that if

(36:32):
I need to get back some of what I paid in,
I get nothing. Plus remember what the prodigal son. The
idea was that kid said, well, give me whatever my
inheritance is. So what does the father have left? Only
the other kid's inheritance? You already got yours. Yeah that's fine,
that's good, you know. And that's how medicaid works. It.

(36:54):
It's like you had the people. See here's what you
got to realize that it's people that you worked with.
Think about people on the job who you wonder how
they still have a job, doing the job the way
they do the job. You know, people like that, people
that you cover for, people who it's like, eh, you

(37:15):
know Joe or Cindy's been here forever. I guess they're
always going to be here forever. He must have videotape
or photographs or something on somebody, all right, And I
got to still do their job. I got to pick
up the slack. And they don't save anything, and they
go on great vacations and they have a big house
which you know is going to get foreclosed on. But okay,
you know, the car got repoted again. But they're good
at repolling cars, and you know, going through the bankruptcy,

(37:38):
it's not that big a deal. Right, Well, when that
person needs long term care, it's come on down, come
on down, free for you. When you need it. It's like, oh,
look at this, you've got a four one kg. Oh
you've got a cottage. What you've got to Oh you
you potentate you you you grand poobah. We're going to

(38:00):
take that away. And how that becomes fair is a
consistent mystery to me. I don't get it. It shouldn't
be that way and it doesn't have to be that way,
which is why folks like Gabe can actually be generous
with their kids, why they can live the life that
they have earned, because they're getting the benefits that they

(38:21):
paid for, right, and maybe somebody can convince me how
bad that is. You know that middle class people should
go broke and they shouldn't get what they've earned, and
they shouldn't get what they paid for. Other people should
get all that. Maybe maybe maybe I'm a bad Christian,
could be probably am center born. Anyway, you've been listening

(38:41):
to the David Carriers Show. I'm David Carrier, your family's
personal attorney.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
You've been listening to the David Carrier Show a lively
discussion addressing your questions and concerns, but not legal advice.
There is a big difference, so when making decisions that
affect your family, your property, or yourself, the best advice
is to seek good advice specific to your unique needs.
If you missed any of today's show, or would like
additional information about the law offices of David Carrier, please

(39:30):
visit Davidcarrier Law dot com.