Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, and welcome to the David Carriers Show on David Carrier.
Your family's personal attorney, the retirement law specialist. I just
made that one up, but well actually it made it
up a while ago, but it seems it seems to
fit right. We talk about a state planning, elder law,
real estate and business law, will trust, probate, long term care,
all that kind of stuff. You know, your house, your business,
(00:22):
whatever it may happen to be. And to me, it
all is to say, retirement law. It all kind of
wraps into that because it's all about you. It's all
about making sure that the life that you have built
for yourself your spouse built together. Right, it's not we,
it's us, or it's not you or me, it's we. Right.
I don't know however that works. Men from Mars, women
(00:47):
from Venus. There you are anyway. The point is the
point is that you've built something here, why not hang
on to it? Huh? And the retirement is when the
hanging on, the hanging on happens. We've been planning for that.
We wanted to get to that point. Now you're there, right,
or you want to get there. I always say it's
for people who are retired, want to retire, know someone
(01:08):
who's retired or dream of being retired at some point, meaning,
you know, living your life and living the life that
you've earned, right, living the life that you've built. That's
really the that's really the key to the thing. And
there's so many things that people don't talk about. Really
kind of a shame. It's not my opinion, which I've
(01:29):
shared freely. I'm being challenged for that right now. Actually,
you know, it's like, oh, you shouldn't be saying these things.
It's like, why the hell shouldn't be saying these things?
Pretty obvious? It really is pretty obvious that state planning
has failed most people. Most of the state planning does fail.
It doesn't honor what you've done, It doesn't take care
(01:49):
of you right here and now. Right If you talk
about a state planning, if you take a very narrow view,
it's like, oh, where did the stuff go when I die? Yeah? Okay, good,
that's in a state plan right, But it's the it's
the least part of an estate plan, in my opinion.
And if you haven't taken care of people right now,
where they are, where they live, and then you haven't
(02:10):
done much of an estate plan, because there are things
that need to be done in retirement as we get
older that are different than what we were doing before.
It was. Well, yesterday I met a at a baby
shower for a buddy of mine who's you know, we've
been friends since since I got here in West Michigan
(02:32):
and you know what thirty seven years ago, Yeah, thirty
seven years ago. We've been friends and we're kind of different.
He's a tool and die maker and I'm not, obviously,
you know, but we both have kids, and you know,
he and his wife just really solid citizens. And you know,
all the kids you're there at the at the baby shower,
very nice, and all their friends are there with all
(02:54):
these little kids running around. It's really really one of
those one of those heartwarming movements. You know, we said, oh,
oh yeah, this is what it's all about. But we're
at a different point in life than we were thirty
seven years ago when we first when we first met,
you know, talking about well why are you working and
why are you still working? And maybe you should do this,
maybe you should do that. You know, there's some of us,
(03:16):
you know, we'll die, you know, I'll die at the
microphone because why not why wouldn't I just keep doing this?
That's why wouldn't I? You know, and he's he's doing
his thing, uh, his business, you know, because he's always
been very handy and always turned everything into you know,
if I, if it works for me, why I wouldn't
have worked for somebody else? And then one thing leads
(03:38):
to another, and you know, you do get to questioning
what's the effort for at the end of the day.
You know, it's like like he was saying, I'm not
trying to you know, am I working for my kids?
I'm not spending the money I'm making now, not spending
the savings I've got? Why am I doing all this? Right?
What is the what is the point? You know? And
that's a fair that's a fair question, right, that is
(04:01):
a fair question. Why why are you doing it? And
every one of us have our own answer for that
part of it. A big part of it is because
that's how you're built, that's what you've been doing. Right,
You're just going to keep on doing what you're doing
because that's what you've been doing, and that's you know,
that's what you to some extent, that's what you want
(04:22):
to do. Some people say, oh, that's terrible. You know,
some people live for retirement, they can't wait to retire,
and then when they're retired, it's like, what the hell
do I do? Now? That's a real that's a real problem. Okay,
So what you need to do, right is we need
to constantly This is just my view of the world.
You want to be constantly challenged, you want to be
(04:43):
looking out for what's happening next. Let's think about this,
let's think about that. And most people aren't doing that.
Most the state planning that I see is very simple.
You're going to drop dead, and when you do, where's
the stuff go? Instead of realizing that there's a whole process.
Right once you've stopped actively working or as we're getting older,
(05:06):
it doesn't work. Doesn't have all kinds of folks in
their eighties who are still running their businesses and doing stuff.
I mean, we work with a lot of these folks, right,
and they find meaning in it, meaning, purpose, intention, All
those values that you lived your life by will continue
to right even though oh you're older now, Yeah you're
(05:28):
older now, but that doesn't mean you know, it's not
you may have one foot in the grave and the
other on a banana peel. But hey, it's still on
the banana peel, you know what I mean. We haven't
given it up yet. Okay, good, So let's live that way,
let's plan for that part of life. And that's what
this law firm is all about. And you may recall
(05:53):
I talked about this a few months ago, but we
had a number of law firms who with myself and
a couple of partners in different states, we've been talking
to each other for quite a while and we shared
a frustration. Why doesn't people why don't a state planning
attorneys financial plan Why don't they understand this? Right? If
(06:16):
you've listened to the show for any period of time
we have, I think it's fair to say there's a
point of view here. Okay, this is for certain people,
This is about certain things, all right. This is not
just oh there's a bunch of legal doctrine. I hope
you like it. No, I mean we actually have a
perspective on the way these things are to be done.
(06:39):
And it's not a popular it's not the customary, it's
not the traditional, conventional, whatever you want to say. It's
not the regular. That's another good word. It's not the
regular perception of what this whole enterprise is about. It's different.
It's about you. It's about maximizing what you've got. It's
about understanding that you're at a different point in life
(07:02):
right now, all right, and you're going to be interacting
with the government right throughout your working career. Did you
get Social Security? No? Did you care about Social Security? Well,
you saw how much money they were taking out of
your paycheck, but beyond that, not worried about it. How
about Medicare, Well, that's only since you've been sixty five.
Right before then, that wasn't your healthcare. Now it is okay.
(07:26):
As you get older, you start interacting with the government
in ways that you didn't do it before. Now the
question is is that interaction. Is that interaction going to
be positive, It's going to be a good thing. Are
we going to maximize what you've contributed? Are we're going
to maximize the rest of your life? That's the question,
and for most people the answer is those questions. May
(07:51):
I've heard this over and over from attorneys. You know,
it's like, Oh, I'm uncomfortable with that. I'm just going
to do this part of it. I'm just going to
do the leftovers go. It's like Thanksgiving dinner and the
only thing you're worried about is the tuppleware? Are you
a kidding me? Right? What about the main course? How
about don't worry so much about the plastic graph. Let's
(08:11):
worry about the turkey and the gibliic gravy. How about that? Right?
How about the mashed potatoes? Right? And and that's really
it's a different perspective on it because and it requires
more and it requires you know, thinking about things. Oh no,
we got to think about things go to make things different.
And the and the point I'm trying to make not
(08:35):
the point. The observation I'm going to share is that
a few months ago I was talking about how we're
bringing together other law firms. We've got the first dozen
of them start training on Monday, right to systematize this thing.
Our goal is really to bring this vision of retirement law,
of the state planning of elder law, whatever you want
(08:55):
to whatever label you want to put on it, but
the idea that while you're here, that's important stuff. Right,
It's not limited just to West Michigan or Pittsburgh or Miami. Right,
there are people right now. We've got lawyers from San
Diego to Trent, New Jersey, New York City, all the right.
You know, it's a national thing, and we're starting small.
(09:16):
A dozen or so. I think we've got fourteen law
firms signing up to say, Okay, how are you guys
doing this stuff? What is you know? We share common values?
How about getting common results? How about fully loading the toolbox?
How about anticipating the things that actually happen in real
people's lives. And the more that we do that, right,
(09:39):
the more acceptance we get for that, which I which
thirty five years here. I mean, it's pretty well accepted
that that is a good way to do things. It's
not universal, it's not customary, it's not traditional, it's not conventional.
I understand, not the accepted practice. I get it. Fine,
hurt my feelings, but the key is it is the
(10:01):
way to do it. It's a good way to do it.
It works every time you do it, all right, So
you have any questions about that, give us a call
six one, six, seven, some of them. Four twenty four,
twenty four. I'm David Carrier, your families personal attorney. Welcome
back to the David Carriers Show. I'm David carrier, welcoming
you to a world where things are changing rapidly, that's right,
(10:23):
changing rapidly in ways that you cannot anticipate, ways that, frankly,
are a little bit shocking. And what I'm talking about
is the ending of the war in Africa. Did you
know there was a war going on in Africa? Did
you know that? It's true? Is the war going on
in Africa? Has been going on for decades, millions upon
millions of people dead because of this war, and the
(10:46):
good old US of A finally put a stop to it.
How about that negotiated settlement signed in the White House
in the Oval Office. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness,
everything's terrible, really, stock market's back. Yeah, okay, you know,
atomic bomb threat from crazy people eliminated. You know what
(11:07):
about that? Oh, Indian Pakistan aren't fighting each other? And
oh yeah, what about that? You know, at some point,
at some point, we're gonna we're gonna acknowledge that good
things are happening. And and frankly, frankly, uh, you have
a lot to do with that good old US of A.
(11:27):
You know, we're not just sitting on the sidelines and
wringing our hands and giving billions dollars of military equipment
to terrible people who who issue who wish us badly, right,
who go around and resell at the terrorists. Apparently what well,
now the United States is doing all kinds of good things.
What's the matter with that? Is that a bad thing?
Well maybe a little unconventional, maybe not quite what you expected. Uh,
(11:51):
maybe you got a president that rust the F bomb
every once in a while, and it does so for
good purpose. You know. What's funny is seeing some of
these politicians who who they think, oh, profanity works, right,
It's like it's so it's so phony bloga and it's like, oh,
if I use you know, four letter words more then
(12:14):
I'll be more popular. It's like the difference between that
and the genuine use of every once in a while,
every once in a while, not on the radio, of course,
but every once in a while dropping a dropping a
cuss word is is effective. But when you do it
all the time because somebody else is doing it, it's
completely you know, it's just a bunch of nonsense, like
(12:37):
anything else, right, It's like, why do you why do
you do what you do? Right? Is it genuine care
and concern? Is it real, emotions real or is it
phony blogny And what you see is you know, you've
probably been heart you know, probably heard don't by judge
a book by its cover? Right? You heard that one?
(12:58):
That's an old American saying, my wife Chinese, he's always
giving me these Chinese You know, there's an old Chinese saying, right,
And this is a Chinese saying. There's like two or
three Chinese sayings for absolutely every situation in the world.
I'm learning a budget, but they're also American sayings. Right.
There's also stuff that we say, like can't chudge a
book by its cover, how about that one? Or actions
(13:19):
speak louder than words, right, or they should anyway, But
the people who deal in words want you to listen
to the words. It's like, okay, you know, we just
did a kind of a brief around the world in
thirty seconds. Peace breaking out here, bad guys being defanged
over there. Very different, just a little bit different from
(13:45):
what we're used to. Okay, the United States, a big
player goes over to Europe, and you know, they of
course they try to you know, they try to sabotage things.
But you know, at the end of the day, you
know you're in a U. Your country's a player again,
not being played. Don't you think that's important. I think
(14:05):
that's important. I think it mattered. I think that's how
you want to approach your own life. Right, you're not
being played. You're a player, right, You're engaged in it.
You're making it happen, and you can continue to make
it now. You need the right tools, all right. I
mean they didn't dream up those, you know, the B
two bombers. That didn't happen overnight. There was a long
(14:29):
drawn out process. There were people who were committed to
the vision even when it was difficult. Think about that.
Think about that, even when things were looking the bleakest, right,
and there are all kinds of screwed up stuff when
you can see it's kind of screwed up here, right,
But there were still people doing the right work, doing
the good things. And then when the mood changed, then
(14:50):
when you know, the right people got involved, I would say,
things happen, things changed. Isn't that the same? You know
you have good habits, great, you've put yourself in a
certain situation. That's good, Okay, why not cash in on that?
Why not maximize that You've already done. The hard work,
hardware has already been done. Okay. Now it's time for
(15:12):
the making decisions. Now it's time for the other part
of it, where you fully realize you fully benefit from
the hard work that you've already done. That's just my
that's my thought. How about an email? We want one
of those? Sure? Why not? What should I do? I
have a trust prepared by an attorney. Well, that's good.
(15:33):
I guess that means everything's wonderful. My house is in
the trust. Oh good, that's good. It's important to put
your house in the trust. But it is not recorded?
What as such in the county? What do you mean
it's not recorded? What do you mean? How is your
house in the trust but it's not recorded? Allow me
to suggest that your house is not in the trust? Okay,
(15:55):
and which would be kind of typical, frankly. But what
you should do is have somebody take a look at
your trust, right, who's not the person who drew it up?
Who hasn't you know? Bring it to somebody who doesn't
have a vested interest in telling you everything's a okay.
Bring it to somebody else, okay. And what you want
(16:18):
to do is just make sure that they're a good
and honest person. And if they are a good and
honest person, the attorney, then they will tell you, yeah,
this is fine, or oh my god, I can't believe
you did this, or whatever it may happen to be,
or maybe it's somewhere in between. But what you should
do is get somebody to look at it, because when
you say it's in the trust but it's not recorded,
(16:41):
it's like, why not? Why isn't it recorded? What's going
on here? The trust should be recorded? And why do
you think we have registers and deeds? Why do we
record deeds anyway so we can prove what actually happened,
what actually is the case? If you're hanging on to
a piece of paper in a folder, people used to
(17:02):
do this all the time. They would have, you know,
piece of paper in the folder. They had the envelope,
you know. I remember when I first concerned. It was
very popular. Somebody out here was doing them right, and
they would give people as soon as as soon as
you die, take this envelope to the register of deeds
or take it to somewhere, you know, And there were
some instructions like like people don't lose envelopes right, like
(17:24):
houses don't burn down, like I don't know it. It
was this well, it was a way of doing it
at the time. I suppose, you know, kind of again
traditional historic, conventional way. You're doing things with a hurryman
record the deed at that point. No, everything should be upright. Fourth, right,
say what you're doing, mean what you say right now.
(17:44):
I'm not saying not saying that you should publish your trust.
You shouldn't tell anybody what's in the trust, but the
fact that you have a trust, that your property is
in the trust, all the rest of it. You don't
want that challenge. You don't want to have to deal
with Oh, was it really in the trust, wasn't in
the trust? Whatever? You don't want to deal with that,
and you shouldn't deal with that. And the way you
(18:05):
don't have to deal with that is by recording that
that deed should be recorded. And if it if it
can't be recorded, if there's some tricksy thing that you're
thinking of that's gonna then you're not doing the plan right.
It's a bad plan. Tricky stuff is almost always bad.
Don't be tricksy about it beforethright, disclose everything to the
(18:25):
government to whomever right, not what your ultimate distribution is.
But you know you don't want to be you don't
want to be tricksy about your state plan with hidden
envelopes and documents and stuff. Don't do that. Not a
good idea. Okay, So what you can do, what you
should You do? Get the deed recorded there, you go,
have somebody else take a look at it so you
(18:45):
know you're doing it the right way. You've been listening
to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your family's
personal attorney, inviting you to one of our three secrets
workshops every week. The good Lord brings Bump bump bottom.
Welcome back to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. Let's check the boxes. Number one.
(19:09):
This method, this way that we do things, is spreading
like a rash across the country. That's probably bad analogy,
but anyway, we've got our first dozen or so law
firms who are incorporating it. We're partnering with them to
show them exactly how to do this. Training starts Monday,
as I say, for another dozen or so law firms,
(19:31):
so that our goal eventually is to get this way
of doing things, this approach, the red wagon club approach,
to get it everywhere so that we see because right
now the conventional thing is, oh, you don't do this,
and you don't do that, you don't do the other thing,
and you guys are terrible because you're not conventional, which
is just annoying. But it's the world we live in
(19:54):
and that's the way it is. But it doesn't have
to be the way it is. We can actually do
things differently. So we are doing things differently by as
I say, while recruiting other law firms, you just demonstrating
to them what's going on. And this is the this
is the beginning of it. I'll keep you I'll keep
you informed as we go. As we go along, where
(20:15):
do we h Where do we go from here? But
right now we're in New York City, the San Diego
law firms and north to south getting involved. So it's
looking it looks looking very good. We're very frankly kind
of we're hoping for. We're hoping for you know, maybe
four or five would be would actually want to do it.
(20:39):
And of the people we talked to and almost everybody did.
We had to wind a couple of them down, but
doing our due diligence. But but right now we've got,
as I say, we've got you know, the first dozen
or so better than you know, twice as many as
we as we had really kind of hoped for. But
(21:03):
that's because, you know, there's nothing more powerful than an
idea whose time has come. I think the time has
come for this idea. I think it's been here for
a while, but somebody had a step up. And so
that's what we're that's what we're doing. Okay, it's this
whole How do I make sure that your stuff lasts
as long as you do when it gets to the kids.
We're thoughtful about every step of the process. Then instead
(21:25):
of having just to this, just to that, just to
something else, right, locking a promise sort of gee you
know I got something instead of that, just being very
conscientious about it, making sure it's a complete, a complete solution,
and that you understand what your solution is. I'll tell
you I was talking last night to some folks and
it's like, oh, yeah, I gotta I gotta yeah. I said, well,
(21:46):
how does it work? Well, I don't know how it works. Well,
what's it going to do? What about this? What about that.
I don't know about that, but I got one. I
got one name brand guy, you know, and it's like
the name brand law firm is like, okay, well let's
have lunch. What do you say bring it? Well, just
take a look, uh if you want to. You know,
it's go of a friendly thing. But anyway, so that's
(22:10):
that's moving ahead. Now let's go chicken dinner Saint Patrick's
in Parnell. I gotta I gotta plug the chicken dinner.
If you've ever been there, you well, if you've ever
been there to the chicken dinner that we do at
the Saint Pat's Festival, then you don't have to uh,
you don't need the advertisement because you will be there.
It's addictive. But if you haven't been and all you've had,
(22:32):
all you've heard about are your friends raving about the
chicken dinners at at the Saint Pat's Summer Festival, then
go it to yourself. Get over there. Yeah, it's like Heroin.
You'll be you'll be hooked for life. But but hey,
this is a good one. This is a good thing.
And you know, and like I say, Colin and I
will be running around with food and stuff this afternoon
(22:56):
so love to see you. Love to see you there.
And if you're if your chicken dinner doesn't come out
quick enough, you can blame me. There you go. One
more thing. Uh, let's get to one of our emails here.
I think we've got time to handle this one. I
am trustee in charge of the family trust to Midiicate
(23:16):
Asset protection trust. It says the only asset in the trust,
the only asset. Are you kidding me? What are you thinking?
The only asset in the trust? You did the trust
and now you're gonna waste it by putting one asset in.
But okay, fine, the only asset in that trust is
a lake house. There are three benefits. I ran into
this a few weeks ago where we had a client
(23:37):
who had done somebody had done an asset protection trust
for them, right, they had actually done it, and it
was well, this isn't terrible. I mean, there's other stuff
that could be done. But they only put a certain amount.
They only put like twenty percent of their assets in it.
It makes no sense. Okay, fine, I'm willing to burn
up eighty percent of what I got, but I saved
twenty Yeah, how about saving one hundred percent? Anyway, that's
(24:00):
one of these situations. Anyway. The only asset is the
lake house. There are three beneficiaries, including me. One of
the beneficiaries, brother, I guess, has been in and out
of jail. Most of his life history is selling and
using drugs. Have him on video stealing items from the
property when we gave him access, and also inviting people
to the property whom we don't know. Oh my goodness,
(24:21):
did he bring did he bring baby oil with him?
Let's let's have a what did he call those parties? Anyway,
Let's have a crazy party. Anyway. It was in jail
for the past five years for felony, no kidding, and
just recently got let out. He wants access to the property,
but my other brother and I, who are the other benefits,
(24:42):
don't trust him. Did he with access? Obviously? I believe
his best interest in remainder of beneficiaries for him not
to have access for now. Dudu is possibly doing illegal activities.
I think you can pretty much count on him doing
illegal activities. Can't you count on it? I mean, leopard
changing spots and all that kind of thing. Let's say
(25:05):
the grand tour. My mother also doesn't want them there
the grand tour is the mother. Okay if this and
this gets into drafting, right, because if this trust was
done correctly, Mom should have retained the general power of appointment,
meaning she can change who the beneficiaries are. It would
(25:25):
seem obvious to me that what we want to do
is eliminate brother Jailbird brother as a beneficiary, which if
it was done correctly, Mom can do. It doesn't endanger
excuse me, it does not endanger the use of the
trust as an asset protection trust. It doesn't. You can
retain that right and still and in fact it's a
(25:46):
good idea because then it's a grand Tour trust. You
don't have to do a separate tax return the whole
nine yards. So in a situation like this, where we
have a rogue, and here's the other question, how has
this trust drawn up so that the trustee isn't confident
in his ability and the trustee's ability to eliminate someone,
(26:09):
to bar someone from the property if it's stupid to
give them access, I mean, how stupid is it to
give the keys to the lake house to the felon
who's already brought his evil compatriots out there. They've already
done this. They've already stolen stuff. You got them on
video stealing stuff, and now you're going to give him
(26:30):
the keys? What and if the trust actually requires that
you do that, which you know, when you put everybody
on the deed, you are giving access. Right You remember
Jailhouse Rock, you know the Purple Gang and all that, Well,
you just let him have Jailhouse Rock at your lakehouse
(26:50):
if you put them all on the deed, at least
with the trust. One hopes, One hopes that the trust
imagine how the trustee wouldn't have authority to exclude people
are going to steal stuff from it. It's hard to
imagine that someone drafted it that poorly, But the world's
a big place, you know, everything happens. Maybe they did,
(27:11):
But you don't have to give him access. You see,
as trustee, am I allowed to restrict his access if
I feel it may be in the best interest for
the trust? I think it's your obligation. It's not just
a can I mother, may I. It's damn well better
unless the trust is written in such a way that
you don't have discretion to do that, which frankly I
(27:33):
do find hard to believe. But as I say, all right,
I want to make sure I'm acting correctly as trustee.
Of course you do. Right, he's been threatening to get
a lawyer. He probably knows a bunch, but they're all
public defenders. Also, I understand I will have to most
likely hire a lawyer to get actual legal advice. Yeah,
you do. I mean it's a lake house. I mean right,
(27:56):
it sounds like a nice place. You did. Mom did
a separate trust so she wouldn't have to worry at
least about the lake house. Right, it sounds like a
nice place. Yeah, you should hire somebody. I really should
hire somebody to get actual legal advice. Review the trust,
tell you what your duties are, is trustee, I would
be surprised if you don't have more liability, more liability
(28:22):
if you let jailbird brother into the place from saintly
brother who doesn't want the trust property dissipated, wasted or destroyed. Right,
think about it that See this is get in this
very quickly. Get you into why it's so easy to
get someone to be a trustee one time. Very easy
(28:43):
to get somebody to be the trustee the first time
they've ever been trustee. Right, because it's honor and it's oh,
they trust me. Oh, it makes me feel good to
be the trustee. You know, it's almost impossible getting someone
to be trusty a second time because after they've been
trusted the first time, realize what a show it is,
and almost impossible to get to do it the second
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time unless unless right, unless everything's laid out so that
it goes very smoothly. Right. So we have a lot
of you know, trust these second time around, because frankly,
if you do it correctly, it ain't that bad, not
that terrible. But most of the time it's you can't
get them to do it again. Anyway, you've been listening
(29:27):
to the David Carriers Show inviting you into a three
secrets workshop. Come to the workshop find out how to
get all this stuff done. You might as well. I'm
David Carrier, your family's personal attorney. Come back to the
David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your famili's personal attorney.
You got four items that well, four things you know
(29:48):
I want to get covered in the last thirty seconds here,
whatever it is. Number one, Number one, the world is
safe for place. I don't know if you've noticed this yet,
but you know, some really hor horrific wars that have
been going on under the radar screen, not very teleigenic,
doesn't involve oil supplies or what have you. And so actually,
(30:11):
millions and millions of people have died in Africa and
guess what it got settled. Guess where it got settled
in the Oval Office, right, not not a preliminary framework whatever,
but a peace treaty that was signed. I mean, you know,
if you're an American and you don't even know about
six million people dying in the in East Africa over
(30:35):
the last several decades, well you can be excused because
nobody talks about it. But it's one of those things
that if you do know about it, it just drives
you nuts. It's like it's just a bad thing, you
know what I mean. And now it's like, oh, guess
what they somebody actually spent whatever time, whatever credibility was
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necessary and got that one fixed. And you know, you
look at something like that and you think it's been
going on for decades and within six months of somebody
paying some attention with a full plate of other stuff
going on, now hundreds of thousands don't have to die
this year. It's like, and your country did that all
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right for us, all right, more for those people because
they're ones who aren't dying, you know, but other countries
didn't do it. Your country did that. Thank you, Thank
you to your country. There you go. So that's number one.
Number two, chicken dinner at Saint Patrick's. You know, it's
the annual chicken dinner. You know, start off with the
parish festival and all the rest of it. It's a
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very pleasant drive. You know where it is. I'm Parnell,
you know, just the east of Easter Grand Rapids up
on you know, five mile five mile well building roads, No,
Kensburg is what they call it, but changes to something
else five mile maybe this anyway, it's out there, you know,
putting your GPS. We got a GPS and say hello
(32:04):
if you know, if I'm serving you your chicken dinner.
So that's number two, number three, oh, number three. The
idea that estate planning is more about what happens to
the leftovers when you're dead. The idea that maybe taking
care of your stuff for you, The idea that really
engaging with the government, with all the government programs that
(32:26):
are available to you. This crazy, unconventional, uncustomary idea that
maybe it's more about what happens after you're dead. All right,
we've got our first twelve or fifteen fourteen. I think
law firms coast to coast who were starting training on Monday.
I will keep you informed on that. But that is
(32:47):
moving ahead. And you know the goal is within five
years you'll be able to go anywhere and get that
red wagon club experience, that red wagon law experience, that
you'll be dealing with somebody who actually cares about you
before you stop breathing. I think that's important. And number three,
number three, No, that's number three, number four. We're got
(33:08):
to get one more question in I'm trying to hire
an attorney to prepare my ninety year old mother's estate.
That's very nice of you. The new attorney is stating
that he must meet with my mother. Try to hie
an attorney. The new attorney's stating that they just repeated it,
so the headline is the same. Yes, duh, of course
you gotta meet with mom. You know, Look, lots of
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times we've got a situation where we get the information
from the kids and that's fine, or loved ones or
a friend or whoever. Right, so we can gather a
lot of the information. That's fine. We can even prepare
you know, if somebody is not not mobile or whatever
on the phone, you know, if we talk to him,
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we can say, okay, yeah, this is what we're going
to do. Or sometimes people have very difficult time communicating
on the phone, that's fine too, we've done it. See Like,
if you've got someone in the hospital or someone who's isolated, whatever,
it can be very difficult to have that in person
meeting and you rely on the what the kids are
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telling you to draft the documents. You've drafted up documents, right,
you got the documents ready to go, but you don't
give them to the kid. You know, you're not gonna
do that. You got to meet with the client with
documents in hand. Now, maybe mom doesn't want what's in
the documents. Maybe the kids have been you know, down
the Primrose Path or whatever else. Okay, that could happen,
(34:41):
has happened right where. What the kids think mom wants
is not what mom wants, all right, But you can
go like I say, you can prep for it, right,
but at the end of the day, you're not you know,
we're not the word processors here. We're not just plunking
out documents here, take it to mom. Good luck with you. No,
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you got to meet with the client in order to
do it correctly. You got to meet with the client.
Make sure that what you have put together, what the
kids told you mom wanted, is what Mom actually wants.
And the kids can't be there interpreting for mom. But oh,
she says, she says, she wants that. You know, in
our family, we always shake our head from side to
(35:22):
side to indicate a cent right, who believes that? So anyway, yeah,
you do need to Uh, of course you got to
meet with the with the client, don't you know. That's
just kind of that's just kind of obvious. Oh, here's
a good one. Can my sister who's executor of mom's estate,
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we just got a couple of monutes prohibit me, a
beneficiary and sibling from having a key to the property.
Sister who's executor is not informing me, sister and beneficiary
of assets a mounts intention. She's been in property alone
for significant amounts of times to peruse belongings, bank and
other accounts, paying bills, making funeral purchases without notifying me.
She hired an estate agent provide net worth of possessions
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well as a realtor provide appraisal price this price, complete documents,
or in commission when properly sold. I've sold home successfully
and I prefer to save the money. Luck for you.
She decided what she wants in home. She's telling me
I cannot stay overnight in the home or be present
without her. Is this accurate? It's one hundred percent accurate.
That's right. Just because you're a beneficiary and a sibling
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doesn't mean you get a key. In fact, my position
is if the trustee does give you a key, or
the executor or whatever you want to call them, the
person in charge of the stuff that used to belong
to the dead person, right, allows access to Tom Dick
and Harry. They've got real problems. Okay, you should not
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have access to it. You should not be going through
the thing. In fact, it would be a breach I
think could be a breach of a fiduciary duty to
give you a key. Right, and you're talking about all
this stuff about hiring age and I could sell the house. Yeah, well,
Mom didn't put you in charge. Who died and left
you in charge? Mom did right, They didn't leave you
in charge. They left sister in charge, and maybe there
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were reasons for that. Maybe Mom doesn't think that you
selling the houses was particularly a good idea. Who knows,
I don't know. But when you're the trustee, do not
give in to the whinings of your siblings. Well, we
should have a key to that. Why would you let
me in? No, your job, because you were responsible for this.
Get this, it's two sides of the coin, right, you
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have responsibility. Right, if that person goes in there and
steals a bunch of stuff, who's on the hook for it? Well,
I don't know who gave her access. You see, so
you have an actual obligation of confidentiality to Mom, which
preserves after death right and you have to account for
all this stuff. Sister who sold houses on our own
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or whoever it was, brother or whatever it is, right,
they don't have any responsibility. You have all the responsibility. Okay,
So if you're going to be the trustee, executive administrator,
whatever you want to say, right, hang tough. You've got
the responsibility, you've got the authority. Right, the two of
them go together, authority and responsibility. You have the power
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to act, which means you have to be accountable for
how you use that power. If you delegate that authority
to somebody else by giving them a key, right, you're
still responsible. Is that a good idea? I think not.
The answer is no. Even listening to the David Carrier Show,
I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney, inviting you to
(38:36):
one of our workshops we do every week The Good
Lord Brings, and twice on Sundays,