Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Okay, good in live, well, better better than bad in life,
I suppose. Anyway, welcome back to the David Carrier Show.
And now we are actually live. I'm taking another one
of those trips.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You know. I've really feel bad about having.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You know, had to go to the pre recorded shows.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hate to do that.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So if you have a question, comment or concern, just
give us a call six one six seven seven four.
I gotta think about it now. Six one six seven
seven four twenty four twenty four. That's six one, six
seven seven four twenty four to twenty four. We'll get
your question, comment or concern on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
One of the things I complain about a lot is
kind of the horrible state of estate planning. You've heard me,
faithful listeners know that I don't think too much of
the way it's being done generally speaking. Of course, we're
wonderful and super duper and all that, but in general,
(01:05):
it's pretty tough. It's pretty tough to get an a
state plan that I think really meets the needs of
middle class folks. And so that's one of the things
I've been working on, obviously over thirty five years, but
recently over the last three years working with a couple
of partners, and we've now got all these all our
(01:28):
processes are all set up and ready to go, and
we're actually meeting with twenty twenty law firms from New Jersey.
This is a guy in New York. From New York
to California. See they even need it there, from Minnesota
down to Florida. Twenty law firms across the country. And
the idea is, what if what if we could all
(01:50):
agree on what it was to do a good estate
plan right, not only a good estate plan, but the
best estate plan that you could do. If we could
all agree that, if everybody's assets were protected, that if
if everything was followed through, if we treated iras correctly,
(02:11):
if we treated kids correctly. What if what if you
could go to a group of people who thought about
the same thought about things the same way.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Maybe that would be a good thing.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
But right now, before we answer that, those those difficult questions,
we've got Mike on the line. Hello, Mike, welcome to
the David Carrier.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Are good? Thank you? Hello, Dave, Yes right here, can
you hear me?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah? I was wondering it sounds like people can steal
your house now just by going down to the county
clerk's office and signing a piece of paper.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Ah, well, yeah, it ain't that easy, you know what
I mean. I mean you've got the have you ever
heard of cancer insurance? You know, people get insurance policies
if they get cancer, and it's like, you know, yeah,
people get cancer, me too. But the idea of buying
(03:14):
cancer insurance as opposed to regular health insurance probably not
the best bet. Certainly, anybody can record anything they want
in the public record, that is, the Register of deeds, Okay.
Registered deeds says if it's got a notary stamp on it, okay,
(03:34):
where and it meets very limited requirements. Very notary stamp
is pretty much about it. Very limited requirements, we will
record it. That doesn't mean it's valid, okay, It just
means that they recorded it. And the idea has been
that everything's public, so we know, anybody can go to
(03:56):
the registered deeds find out what the story is on
a given piece of property.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's not a problem. But what some.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Folks have been doing is taking people's deeds, which are
public record, it's all out there, and then pretending to
be those people, conveying it to a third party. Right,
or putting loans against it that kind of thing. Let
me just say that if a bank takes a loan
(04:24):
against your property okay, and doesn't know that it's being defrauded,
the bank is not doing its job. Now you can understand.
So banks and mortgages and stuff like that very unlikely
that they would get duped.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Very common though for regular folks like you wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
How would you know if somebody brings a deed and
all the rest. Well, hopefully you get title insurance, and
the title insurance means that they go through the last
fifteen years of the title, which nowadays is very easy
to do because it's all computerized. And you see what's
you know, you see what's going on. There is title fraud. Yes,
(05:09):
that's a real thing that really does happen. Is it
a great idea to pay extra for that?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Boy?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
You know, that's going to be a personal thing. It
seems like to me, I don't have title. You know,
I have regular title insurance, you know, to make sure
that the person signing the documents is the person revealed
in the chain of title to be that person. Okay,
but you get so many steps of identification, right if
(05:40):
you use a title company that it's extremely unlikely that
that's how this title fraud is being done.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I suspect it's it's.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Much more of a you know, the typical con man
sort of thing, you know, where somebody comes to your
house and gives you a good deal or I don't know,
I don't know exactly how they do it, but I
mean I don't know how they sell it. I know
how they do it. They copy somebody's deed and then
they have someone else sign it. They put a fake
(06:10):
notary on it, and away you go. Because that's another
thing that's very easy to do, is to find out
who a notary public is, what their data commission is,
what their expirations. You know, it's easy to recreate that document.
What's difficult is to do it successfully against anybody who's
(06:32):
kind of on the ball. Now, could that happen? Could
that happen to you? I mean, could they sell it
to some innocent third party? Sure, But that doesn't mean
you lose your house. It's a hassle, okay, But all
you have to do is prove the fraud. And you know,
it's like receiving stolen property. You know, you get your
property back it's all right, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Well
(06:56):
because it's grand theft, right, I mean it's more than
what ten thousand dollars or twenty five thousand or whatever
it is these days. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a felony,
but that doesn't stop people from doing felonies, right, you know.
But I don't know. It strikes me as one of
those things that is it a real problem? Yes, it's
(07:18):
a real problem. Is this the answer to it? Maybe
maybe it's but it does seem to me to be
one of those It's not like putting airbags in your car,
you know what I mean, You gotta have airbags in
your car, and the government says get airbags because too
many people hit each other in the cars, right, Whereas
(07:40):
with this.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, could it happen?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, but you know, but then again, you know, maybe
I should be less optimistic simply because there's more of
that online fraud and all the rest of that crap happening,
So that might be a reason for it.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah, you're on your on your comment, carrier. It's kind
of nice to know that the government can go after
somewhat honest guy and his possessions set up the shell company.
He can he can do that for his whole family
and system out.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, well I got a lot of blowback on that,
so I don't know why we're doing the best of
that one. Hey, that music means I got to get out.
If you'd like to, if you like to come in
on that a little bit more, that'd be fine. Just
stick around and we'll be back from the break in
just a second. You've been listening to the David Carrier Show.
I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It's perking and working and taking your calls. Now, this
is the David Carrier Show.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Wellcome back to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. Now's the time to give us
a call. Six one six seven seven four twenty four
twenty four. That's six one, six seven seven four twenty
four to twenty four. Will get your question, comment or
concern on the air.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
You know the thing with the with those the title
scams and stuff like that, it's not like it doesn't happen,
and it's not like it's not a hassle when it does.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Okay, it is a hassle, and it's a it's a pain.
But is it worth?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I mean, would you take the time out of the day,
your time out of the day to check and see
whether someone had filed something in the at the Register
of Deeds office against you?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Would you do that on your own?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And I guess the question is how much are you
willing to pay somebody to do that for you? Because
that's really what these things are. It's it's a monitoring system.
It's like the you know, it's like the whole identity
theft thing. And there are a lot of people, there
are quite a few people, lots and lots of people
victimized by the identity theft thing. Now, the good news
(10:08):
is that most credit cards, if they you know, if
there's fraud and whatnot, you're not going to get charged
for that. You know, it's not extra.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Uh. And I'm sure that the remediation.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Services, the insurance services that those folks offer, I would
guess that you know, that's good too. Uh, that's all
good to have, you know, what do I know? So
I can I can see you doing that. The the
title thing, though, is so see that all right? So,
(10:39):
my friend, my second job out of law scol my
first job was clerking, but for a judge. My second
My second thing was defending convicted criminals, Guys who've been
convicted at court martial of you know, some criminal offense
and we're getting kicked out and that's why they they
(11:00):
got an automatic appeal, automatic review by a JAG officer.
And I was one of a dozens that was doing
that kind of work. And what I learned about criminals
is that they're not too bright. Okay, most criminals are
really pretty stupid, which is why they get caught so easily.
(11:20):
That's most of them. And in order to effectively commit
deed fraud you have to do there are a whole
bunch of steps that you have to go through, including
finding a victim, finding someone who will give you money
(11:41):
for a fake deed, or a bank that will give
you money for a fake mortgage.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And it's not that.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Easy to find suckers like that or dupes or victims
or what have you, or to convince them that the
phony ballooney deed that they made up is legitimate. Okay, So,
like I say, I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I'm
not saying it's not a real problem, but boy, is
(12:11):
it the kind of problem where you need special insurance
for that problem, and that's going to be you know,
that's an individual choice. It's America. You get to get
to choose. But it seems to me. And one of
the things too, you got to remember that they can't
(12:33):
keep your house, so it isn't a hassle. It's an
enormous pain to straighten out the record. Okay, it's an
enormous pain to do that. Maybe you have to do
a quiet title action, especially on a property where you
don't go visit it very often and you don't really
know about it.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
See, if you don't take care of your property for
fifteen years, like if somebody else is using your property
right out in the open, Okay, after fifteen years of
using it right out in the open, they get to
keep it. Okay, it's not even your property anymore. Holy cats.
(13:14):
So are there people out there not paying attention to
the real estate that they own. Yes, and that's been
going on for literally hundreds and hundreds of years, which
is why, which is why we have this law of
adverse possession. Okay, that said, how many people are actually
(13:37):
losing property due to adverse possession? Well, not many, you know,
and most of us are keeping track of our stuff, right,
But you know, once you buy your house, you don't
go back and check the deed every once in a while.
Not a bad idea, I suppose, But unless there is
some evil criminal out there, it's not going to be
(13:57):
it's not going to be a problem. Well, if there
is an evil criminal out there, we'll think of all
the steps that person's got to go through in order
to get your property. Now, it's not like, I mean,
who's gonna buy a house sight unseen? Nobody, at least
not many never say never, right, but not many people
(14:19):
would buy a house site unseen.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
They didn't want to see it. So my point is that.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Mortgage fraud going to the register of deeds, copying the records,
it's easier now than it has ever been. And when
people are doing so many transactions online, okay, then you're
gonna get more fraud. That's true. I guess I'm kind
of talking to myself. Maybe I should get that insurance myself, hmmm,
(14:52):
because well, because there are so many things that are done,
you know, everything used to be done face to face.
You do all the paper work, you've got your realtor,
you've got an attorney, lots of times, right, You've got
a lot of people who are involved in the transaction
so that you don't get ripped off, right, because everybody
(15:12):
kind of knows each other at least to some extent.
But what about nowadays when everything is done so much online,
when everything is done anonymously, right, who knows it will
be robots next looking at this stuff? So you know,
maybe having an additional monitoring is not such a And
(15:38):
I'm kind of talking myself into it, but you know,
but it's that. But it's true though, you know, you
think about it. There is so much less personal involvement
in transactions nowadays. And like I say, everyone expects the
convenience of doing things online, which just means that you
have fewer people in there, fewer people involved, which means
(16:00):
means that there's more opportunity for shenanigans. So well, it does,
and nothing else is gonna cover it anyway, you know.
I mean, your your insurance isn't gonna isn't gonna cover that.
(16:20):
I mean as a matter of law, right, your umbrella
policy maybe, but I mean as a matter of law,
that person did not acquire title to your property just
because they fraud in it.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
So they're not you don't really have to worry about
that part of it, but it is a hassle and
most of these, the ones that I've seen, have involved
some kind of insurance to get your title back for you.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
And I guess maybe that's the most.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Valuable part of it really, because you know, people, oh,
we lost our house, now we're getting evicted. Well maybe
they're going through the eviction process right, But as soon
as you go to court, after you get served, and
you say, hey, you know that was our property, and
you prove it with all the ways you can prove it,
(17:08):
you're not going to lose it.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So I don't know coin to us.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I guess evaluate your own circumstances. You've been listening to
the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney.