January 18, 2026 • 30 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following is a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed. The following program is sponsored by New
York Priority Medical Care. Now it's time for the Laws
of Your Money, a weekly call in show with legal
(00:20):
tips to help you protect your money. Here's your host
and Margaret Caroza.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, and welcome to the Laws of your Money. This
is a program dedicated to protecting you from legal and
financial mayhem. I believe we all have legal landminds in
our lives. Are you concerned about an elderly relative losing
(00:48):
their home to a nursing home. Do you have a
special needs loved one that you're concerned about protecting after
you're gone. Are you in a second marriage thinking about
blended family warfare later? Or do you have a loved
(01:09):
one who spends money like a drunken sailor and we're
trying to do our best to rein them in. I
am asset protection attorney and Margaret Carosa, joined today once
again by my esteemed co host, the Reverend Paul Slatkus.
(01:30):
Welcome to the program, Paul, Thank you, Ann, thank you
for being here today in this inclement weather my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I'm very excited to announce that the long awaited book,
The Smart Woman's Guide to Building and Protecting Wealth, The
Laws of Your Money, is available. You can go on
to Amazon check it out. There should be an excerpt
there that you can get a lot little more info
(02:01):
about it, and I naturally do hope you consider ordering it.
I think you know I wrote the book because this
is a book that did not exist when I was
trying to get my financial act together. There are a
ton of financial books out there. There are a ton
(02:26):
of legal books out there. But I don't think we
can view those two things in separate categories, right because
what does it matter how brilliantly I save an invest
I can be an investment genius if there is a
(02:48):
greater than forty percent chance of losing assets to a
long term illness and expensive divorce taxes. This can be
cap gains taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes. Not to mention
ordinary lawsuits. You know that we are living in the
(03:11):
most litigious society that the world has ever known, So
it is incumbent upon us like never before to protect
ourselves legally. If we do not become aware of possible
legal threats and learn what to do about it. We
(03:34):
can be absolutely steamrolled. So we need to roll up
our sleeves, educate ourselves, and keep other people's hands out
of our pockets. That's what this is all about.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It seems like on television fifty percent of the ads
are for lawyers wanting to sue. Yes, it's out of control.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I think. I don't know if New York is the worst.
We're either number one or number two. I think California
is definitely very creative in their theories of legal liability.
I told you, Paul, the last time I was out there,
there are billboards trolling for clients who have perceived workplace
(04:23):
bullying issues. So if you were not invited, you know,
to the office bowling evening, maybe you have cause to
sue people, so changing, I think so. A central premise
of the book is my opinion. I think it's a
(04:48):
fact that money alone does not solve money problems, and
the reason for that is no amount of money is inexhaustible,
and people don't believe it's true, but it is true
that a fair amount of lottery winners lose it all.
(05:13):
And the question is how in the world can you
lose it all if you just won one hundred million
dollars and you know it's about your mindset. If you're
all about what am I going to buy next, and
you have hangers on asking you to buy them things,
(05:35):
it's not inexhaustible. And these folks end up in many
cases with less than they had to start with. So
in the book, I really get into changing our mind
sets because that's what I had to do when I
(05:56):
was an absolute financial train wreck. I had to educate
myself about finances and legal issues and really get it
together mentally. And I see this with my more than
twenty thousand estate planning clients. I have made it my
(06:17):
mission to learn from them, those who have built a
lot of wealth from humble beginnings and those who have
blown through a large inheritance because they didn't have a
financial mental structure in place. And I cannot tell you
(06:40):
how many times in my practice I see adult children
who are earning a ton of money, high flying lives,
high flying careers, and they have to go had in
hand to their retired blue collar parents who learned a
(07:02):
thing or two about saving money. They have a nest
egg and the adult children have to borrow from them
because they have fancy cars, they belong to a country club,
they're wearing designer clothes. So I think it's about changing
our mindset. If you have someone in your life who
(07:27):
spends too much money, I'm not suggesting that you call
them out on it, because you know no good deed
goes unpunished. You might try setting an example, and I
hope you consider gifting them this book, because this book
(07:48):
is all about tips to keep it together financially.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Leanna, I will say, since I've read the book, I
don't think it's possible to read this book and not
come away with new approach, coach to your money, a
lot of practical tools to grow with, and I love
those takeaways at the end of the chapters. Do you
really you really put a Bible here?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well, listen, there are millions of different ways to make money,
to create wealth. I do get into you know, I
do investment real estate in my life, and I talk
about my journey there. The pitfalls involved, the cautionary tales,
(08:32):
but I call this book the Smart Woman's Guide to
Building and Protecting wealth, not because there are different laws
for men and women. Right, there's not a woman's internal
revenue code. Right, there's there's one internal revenue code. And
(08:53):
reading this book, you're going to come away with ways
to pay less in taxes. Right, paying taxes is mandatory.
Over paying taxes, Paul, is what that's so smart? Stupid?
I think you know, women suffer from more financial stress
(09:16):
and pressure. Studies show that women have difficulty sleeping because
of financial issues. And because we are people pleasers at heart,
we want all of our loved ones to be happy.
It is harder, I think, for women to say no
to people even if our own financial well being is jeopardized.
(09:42):
And this is what we need to guard against. And
the book is designed to give women tools to build
ourselves up so that we take care of ourselves financially.
We serve as an example to those around us at
the end of the day. I think that is the
(10:03):
most important gift that we can give to our children
and grandchildren.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Education, wisdom.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, And I think the other challenge that women have
is we are far more likely to be on our
own later in life. We have an eighty percent chance
of surviving a spouse and many women you know have
(10:32):
never been married. And I think studies say that they
live longer, that single women live longer and married men
live longer. So yeah, but I think you know, given
the fact that I will statistically likely be alone at
(10:55):
some point in my life, it's incumbent upon me to
put an infrastructure together now for the future care and
feeding of myself later in life. Who do I want
excuse me making healthcare decisions? Excuse me for me in
(11:17):
the event that I am, for whatever reason, incapacitated. So
I think, you know, the future is a little less
scary if we have acted on our own to put
some structures together to keep wacky people out of our
lives and keep their hands out of our pockets.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
And that can be any age for a woman. Would
you say, thirties, forties?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I think any age for any person. And when we
look at the Britney Spears conservatorship, that all started when
she was in her mid twenties, and one of the
first questions that the court asked is, you know, does
Miss Spears have advanced directives in place to name the
(12:07):
person who would take care of things in the event
that she is forever, for whatever reason, not able to
do so. And she did not have these things in place,
So you know, the healthcare proxy, the living will. These
are things that, yes, you can do them on your own.
Go onto my website. You can jump onto my website
(12:30):
from Instagram. Instagram is at my Lawyer, Anne, and then
there's the link to the website where you can get
the free documents to do on your own. And you know,
the only time you want to think about updating your
healthcare proxy and other advanced directives is if your life
(12:55):
situation changes, your relationship with your named agent changes, your
named agent has their own long term illness or cognitive impairment,
then we want to create a new document. And I
shared this story with you, Paul that I saw in
the paper about a woman in Thailand who passed away
(13:21):
at the house and her brother transported her to the
crematorium and as she was being prepared, she woke up.
So yeah, so books, and I'm thinking, you know, she
is someone who may want to update her advance directives
(13:45):
because I think that brother should be fired from a
few different things.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
That's really funny. And so you know, Anne, you've had
a very very interesting career. I will say one of
the things that extremely because you helped write some of
the laws for elder care you were a state in legislature,
I think for fourteen years right.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
During my misspent you. Yeah, I had the privilege of
shairing the Task Force on Trust Reform. So in that capacity,
I really worked on learning the laws of many different states,
(14:32):
and I was involved in the creation of many New
York tax and trust laws. You know, the legislature is
a very interesting experience, and people ask me about it,
and I always say that I am less of a
(14:54):
cynic about government having served in government, because the people
that we read about, the people that get the headlines,
are often not shining examples of public service. But it
is the less flamboyant folks who are not out at
(15:16):
parties every night, and they're really doing the right thing.
And you'll be happy to know that there are many
many folks like that who are in office. And you know,
I think if I had to do it over again,
I don't know where I come down on this, because
(15:37):
it was not an easy process and I certainly didn't have,
you know, a great base of support starting out, or
any money to speak of. I was in my twenties
when I had the idea to run for the state legislature,
(15:57):
and I thought I was so clever. Because I had
no money, I thought the substitute for that, the way
to get my message out would be to knock on
every door in the district. So I did the math
and I projected out over the course of I think
three months, I had to knock on one hundred doors
(16:22):
per day. And that experience, I think that experience is
priceless because you develop an armor having doors slammed in
your face, you know, getting wet by a sprinkler, getting
bitten by dogs, getting yelled at. These are all very
(16:48):
valuable experiences. And I can't help but think of one time.
The math worked out that to hit one hundred head
a day, you had to be at every house for
no more than forty five seconds. So a lot of
people weren't home, a lot of people ignored me. They
(17:09):
pulled the shades down, so that saved a little bit
of time if a conversation went over. But there was
this one elderly woman who invited me in, and I
felt like it would be rude if I didn't go in.
And then one thing led to another, and she had
iced tea out and then she busted out the family
(17:31):
photo albums, and now I'm sitting there thinking what the
heck did I get myself into. There was no way
for me to get up and leave without being rude.
So now, Paul, I'm fantasizing in my head that maybe
she's gonna call all of her friends and tell them
(17:52):
how nice that Ann Margaret Caroza was. And I was there,
I would say well over an hour. As I finally
got up to leave, she asked me, honey, what's your
name again? And I said, well, I'm and Margaret Carosa
and she said, oh, that's right. You work for that
(18:16):
nice man Assemblyman Doug Prescott, which of course was the
incumbent that I was trying to unseat. And all I
could do was just nod and smile and say yes.
So I ended up later meeting Doug Prescott here, a
very impressive guy, show host, good looking, really affable and charming,
(18:44):
and I told him at a subsequent debate that I
got him a vote.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That yeah, but you've always it seems I feel this
because I know you're this way. You do your homework.
You literally think about what's the best way to go
about things, just like your book, right show show these people,
this book, this book is your homework. Everybody is taking
(19:10):
time to really think about your life.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Well, it tells the story of what was a little
bit of a financial train wreck waiting to happen. So
it's part auto biography, it's part guide on investment real estate.
It's a guide on what legal actions you can take
(19:35):
on your own And I talk a lot about paying
less in taxes. So, for example, right now, the federal
estate tax threshold is fifteen million dollars per person, and
many people who are not yet at that level of
(19:57):
wealth tune out of the conversation and they say, well,
that doesn't affect me, so I don't need to learn
anything about a state tax laws. Well, it does affect everyone,
because back in the day when I first started practicing
in New York State, the state estate tax threshold was
(20:20):
one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. So every nearly every
decedent in New York was hit with estate taxes. And
what a lot of people did during the nineties and
the early two thousands was a state tax planning to
deal with what were then lower thresholds. So, for example,
(20:45):
if I had an estate of two million dollars in
the year two thousand, when the new York State threshold
was one million. What did I do? I wanted to
get rid of one million dollars, and I did that
by putting it in an estate tax trust. The downside
(21:07):
with having done that is that those assets go to
the next generation with a carryover basis for capital gains purposes.
Now fast forward to twenty twenty six, I no longer
need to take that tough medicine of the carryover basis,
(21:32):
and I was willingly accepting capital gains taxes for the
privilege of removing that million from my gross taxable estate,
which would have cost forty cents on the dollar. Fast
forward to twenty twenty six. I want to pull it
all back into the gross taxable estate so that if
(21:55):
it's in a properly drafted trust, the beneficiaries will get
a so called step up in basis. So now we're
free of estate taxes and we're all so free of
capital games taxes.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So that is the change. So there's something called a
living revocable trust.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
A living revocable trust is very, very popular. I think
the number one legal book of all times was the
so called Living Revocable Trust Book, and I think it
came out in the nineteen seventies, and a lot of
folks have living revocable trusts, which are very appealing psychologically.
(22:45):
With a revocable trust, I can be my own trustee.
I can put assets in, I can take assets out,
very very appealing. But if I, acting alone, can pull
things out of this trust whenever I want, so can
(23:06):
my creditors. So a living revocable trust does one good
thing for us. It will avoid probate. Okay, so it's
better than having no trust at all. But if in
addition to avoiding probate, we also want to get this
(23:29):
five year federal clock going, and that pertains to how
long an asset must be in a properly drafted trust
in order for it to be invisible to healthcare claims
such as a nursing home Medicare, and the supplement only
(23:50):
cover the first one hundred days of an illness. Beyond that,
we're up the creek unless we have long term care insurance.
But if our home and other real estate have been
in a properly drafted asset protection trust for five years,
(24:12):
then no health care entity can put leans on those assets.
So does this mean that the trust has to be
totally irrevocable, and the answer is absolutely not. A properly
drafted asset protection trust, I must appoint to another person
(24:34):
to be the trustee. But if the trust is properly drafted,
I retain the ability to remove and replace the trustee
whenever I like. I can prevent the trustee from being
able to take any action during my life without my
written signature. And I can include in the provisions of
(25:01):
the trust that I retain all of the rental income
for investment real estate. I name beneficiaries, but I want
to retain the ability to remove and replace those beneficiaries,
and this enables us to customize how a beneficiary receives
(25:23):
the assets. If I have three children, I love them equally,
but one is a financial train wreck like I used
to be. They should not receive their share of the
estate in one lump sum. We want to customize. We
want to say, perhaps that they get five percent a
(25:47):
year for twenty years. So all of these retained powers
render this trust very attractive. In my worldview, I can
still receive rental income. No one can make any decisions
without me. My beneficiaries legal liabilities don't affect me because
(26:12):
to the extent that I retain the ability to remove
a beneficiary. That means that their future interest is not
legally vested, such that their creditors can worm their way
into my trust and put a lien on my assets.
You know, I say this all the time. A state
(26:35):
planning is our last act as a parent. And we
look back to the first chapter of parenting, and we
customized everything, We specified everything. We didn't take a one
size fits all approach to parenting. Why then, on the
(26:55):
other end of the parenting journey do so many of
us set up for a fill in the blank's will
that some DIY document websites say you can have a
will more quickly than it takes to order a pizza
to be delivered to your house. Is that really what
(27:17):
we want to leave for the next generation. I think
we can do better, and I think, you know, that's
what this is all about, putting a little creativity into
the process, and you know, being a good parent right
up until the end.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Nursing homes, nursing homes or.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
We don't we don't want to be in them, Paul,
And next week we'll talk about how how to avoid
being in a nursing home. Oh, okay, if if any
of you have questions in your lives, you want a
second set of eyes to review the planning that you've
already done. Please consider reaching out to me. If you
(28:02):
live in New York I have My main office is
in Bayside. And for you city folks, Paul, you know
that I am two blocks from the Long Island Railroad stop,
very simple off of Belle Boulevard. For our listeners in
the Capital District, I hope that you reach out to
(28:24):
me and come visit me at my new office on
State Street three eleven State Street in Albany. I have parking,
or if you're out on Long Island, come see me
in Poor Jefferson and then you can have lunch down
by the ferry. It's very charming. But definitely consider checking
(28:49):
out the book on Amazon building and protecting wealth. And
please visit me on Instagram at my lawyer Ann. And
with that, Paul, thank you so much for being here
today and I want to wish everyone a terrific rest
of your day. Hope you tune in next week.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
The preceding program was sponsored by New York Priority Medical Care.
The preceding was a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed.
The following is a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed. The following program is sponsored by New
York Priority Medical Care. Now it's time for the Laws
of Your Money, a weekly call in show with legal
(00:20):
tips to help you protect your money. Here's your host
and Margaret Caroza.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, and welcome to the Laws of your Money. This
is a program dedicated to protecting you from legal and
financial mayhem. I believe we all have legal landminds in
our lives. Are you concerned about an elderly relative losing
(00:48):
their home to a nursing home. Do you have a
special needs loved one that you're concerned about protecting after
you're gone. Are you in a second marriage thinking about
blended family warfare later? Or do you have a loved
(01:09):
one who spends money like a drunken sailor and we're
trying to do our best to rein them in. I
am asset protection attorney and Margaret Carosa, joined today once
again by my esteemed co host, the Reverend Paul Slatkus.
(01:30):
Welcome to the program, Paul, Thank you, Ann, thank you
for being here today in this inclement weather my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I'm very excited to announce that the long awaited book,
The Smart Woman's Guide to Building and Protecting Wealth, The
Laws of Your Money, is available. You can go on
to Amazon check it out. There should be an excerpt
there that you can get a lot little more info
(02:01):
about it, and I naturally do hope you consider ordering it.
I think you know I wrote the book because this
is a book that did not exist when I was
trying to get my financial act together. There are a
ton of financial books out there. There are a ton
(02:26):
of legal books out there. But I don't think we
can view those two things in separate categories, right because
what does it matter how brilliantly I save an invest
I can be an investment genius if there is a
(02:48):
greater than forty percent chance of losing assets to a
long term illness and expensive divorce taxes. This can be
cap gains taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes. Not to mention
ordinary lawsuits. You know that we are living in the
(03:11):
most litigious society that the world has ever known, So
it is incumbent upon us like never before to protect
ourselves legally. If we do not become aware of possible
legal threats and learn what to do about it. We
(03:34):
can be absolutely steamrolled. So we need to roll up
our sleeves, educate ourselves, and keep other people's hands out
of our pockets. That's what this is all about.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It seems like on television fifty percent of the ads
are for lawyers wanting to sue. Yes, it's out of control.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I think. I don't know if New York is the worst.
We're either number one or number two. I think California
is definitely very creative in their theories of legal liability.
I told you, Paul, the last time I was out there,
there are billboards trolling for clients who have perceived workplace
(04:23):
bullying issues. So if you were not invited, you know,
to the office bowling evening, maybe you have cause to
sue people, so changing, I think so. A central premise
of the book is my opinion. I think it's a
(04:48):
fact that money alone does not solve money problems, and
the reason for that is no amount of money is inexhaustible,
and people don't believe it's true, but it is true
that a fair amount of lottery winners lose it all.
(05:13):
And the question is how in the world can you
lose it all if you just won one hundred million
dollars and you know it's about your mindset. If you're
all about what am I going to buy next, and
you have hangers on asking you to buy them things,
(05:35):
it's not inexhaustible. And these folks end up in many
cases with less than they had to start with. So
in the book, I really get into changing our mind
sets because that's what I had to do when I
(05:56):
was an absolute financial train wreck. I had to educate
myself about finances and legal issues and really get it
together mentally. And I see this with my more than
twenty thousand estate planning clients. I have made it my
(06:17):
mission to learn from them, those who have built a
lot of wealth from humble beginnings and those who have
blown through a large inheritance because they didn't have a
financial mental structure in place. And I cannot tell you
(06:40):
how many times in my practice I see adult children
who are earning a ton of money, high flying lives,
high flying careers, and they have to go had in
hand to their retired blue collar parents who learned a
(07:02):
thing or two about saving money. They have a nest
egg and the adult children have to borrow from them
because they have fancy cars, they belong to a country club,
they're wearing designer clothes. So I think it's about changing
our mindset. If you have someone in your life who
(07:27):
spends too much money, I'm not suggesting that you call
them out on it, because you know no good deed
goes unpunished. You might try setting an example, and I
hope you consider gifting them this book, because this book
(07:48):
is all about tips to keep it together financially.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Leanna, I will say, since I've read the book, I
don't think it's possible to read this book and not
come away with new approach, coach to your money, a
lot of practical tools to grow with, and I love
those takeaways at the end of the chapters. Do you
really you really put a Bible here?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well, listen, there are millions of different ways to make money,
to create wealth. I do get into you know, I
do investment real estate in my life, and I talk
about my journey there. The pitfalls involved, the cautionary tales,
(08:32):
but I call this book the Smart Woman's Guide to
Building and Protecting wealth, not because there are different laws
for men and women. Right, there's not a woman's internal
revenue code. Right, there's there's one internal revenue code. And
(08:53):
reading this book, you're going to come away with ways
to pay less in taxes. Right, paying taxes is mandatory.
Over paying taxes, Paul, is what that's so smart? Stupid?
I think you know, women suffer from more financial stress
(09:16):
and pressure. Studies show that women have difficulty sleeping because
of financial issues. And because we are people pleasers at heart,
we want all of our loved ones to be happy.
It is harder, I think, for women to say no
to people even if our own financial well being is jeopardized.
(09:42):
And this is what we need to guard against. And
the book is designed to give women tools to build
ourselves up so that we take care of ourselves financially.
We serve as an example to those around us at
the end of the day. I think that is the
(10:03):
most important gift that we can give to our children
and grandchildren.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Education, wisdom.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, And I think the other challenge that women have
is we are far more likely to be on our
own later in life. We have an eighty percent chance
of surviving a spouse and many women you know have
(10:32):
never been married. And I think studies say that they
live longer, that single women live longer and married men
live longer. So yeah, but I think you know, given
the fact that I will statistically likely be alone at
(10:55):
some point in my life, it's incumbent upon me to
put an infrastructure together now for the future care and
feeding of myself later in life. Who do I want
excuse me making healthcare decisions? Excuse me for me in
(11:17):
the event that I am, for whatever reason, incapacitated. So
I think, you know, the future is a little less
scary if we have acted on our own to put
some structures together to keep wacky people out of our
lives and keep their hands out of our pockets.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
And that can be any age for a woman. Would
you say, thirties, forties?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I think any age for any person. And when we
look at the Britney Spears conservatorship, that all started when
she was in her mid twenties, and one of the
first questions that the court asked is, you know, does
Miss Spears have advanced directives in place to name the
(12:07):
person who would take care of things in the event
that she is forever, for whatever reason, not able to
do so. And she did not have these things in place,
So you know, the healthcare proxy, the living will. These
are things that, yes, you can do them on your own.
Go onto my website. You can jump onto my website
(12:30):
from Instagram. Instagram is at my Lawyer, Anne, and then
there's the link to the website where you can get
the free documents to do on your own. And you know,
the only time you want to think about updating your
healthcare proxy and other advanced directives is if your life
(12:55):
situation changes, your relationship with your named agent changes, your
named agent has their own long term illness or cognitive impairment,
then we want to create a new document. And I
shared this story with you, Paul that I saw in
the paper about a woman in Thailand who passed away
(13:21):
at the house and her brother transported her to the
crematorium and as she was being prepared, she woke up.
So yeah, so books, and I'm thinking, you know, she
is someone who may want to update her advance directives
(13:45):
because I think that brother should be fired from a
few different things.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
That's really funny. And so you know, Anne, you've had
a very very interesting career. I will say one of
the things that extremely because you helped write some of
the laws for elder care you were a state in legislature,
I think for fourteen years right.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
During my misspent you. Yeah, I had the privilege of
shairing the Task Force on Trust Reform. So in that capacity,
I really worked on learning the laws of many different states,
(14:32):
and I was involved in the creation of many New
York tax and trust laws. You know, the legislature is
a very interesting experience, and people ask me about it,
and I always say that I am less of a
(14:54):
cynic about government having served in government, because the people
that we read about, the people that get the headlines,
are often not shining examples of public service. But it
is the less flamboyant folks who are not out at
(15:16):
parties every night, and they're really doing the right thing.
And you'll be happy to know that there are many
many folks like that who are in office. And you know,
I think if I had to do it over again,
I don't know where I come down on this, because
(15:37):
it was not an easy process and I certainly didn't have,
you know, a great base of support starting out, or
any money to speak of. I was in my twenties
when I had the idea to run for the state legislature,
(15:57):
and I thought I was so clever. Because I had
no money, I thought the substitute for that, the way
to get my message out would be to knock on
every door in the district. So I did the math
and I projected out over the course of I think
three months, I had to knock on one hundred doors
(16:22):
per day. And that experience, I think that experience is
priceless because you develop an armor having doors slammed in
your face, you know, getting wet by a sprinkler, getting
bitten by dogs, getting yelled at. These are all very
(16:48):
valuable experiences. And I can't help but think of one time.
The math worked out that to hit one hundred head
a day, you had to be at every house for
no more than forty five seconds. So a lot of
people weren't home, a lot of people ignored me. They
(17:09):
pulled the shades down, so that saved a little bit
of time if a conversation went over. But there was
this one elderly woman who invited me in, and I
felt like it would be rude if I didn't go in.
And then one thing led to another, and she had
iced tea out and then she busted out the family
(17:31):
photo albums, and now I'm sitting there thinking what the
heck did I get myself into. There was no way
for me to get up and leave without being rude.
So now, Paul, I'm fantasizing in my head that maybe
she's gonna call all of her friends and tell them
(17:52):
how nice that Ann Margaret Caroza was. And I was there,
I would say well over an hour. As I finally
got up to leave, she asked me, honey, what's your
name again? And I said, well, I'm and Margaret Carosa
and she said, oh, that's right. You work for that
(18:16):
nice man Assemblyman Doug Prescott, which of course was the
incumbent that I was trying to unseat. And all I
could do was just nod and smile and say yes.
So I ended up later meeting Doug Prescott here, a
very impressive guy, show host, good looking, really affable and charming,
(18:44):
and I told him at a subsequent debate that I
got him a vote.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That yeah, but you've always it seems I feel this
because I know you're this way. You do your homework.
You literally think about what's the best way to go
about things, just like your book, right show show these people,
this book, this book is your homework. Everybody is taking
(19:10):
time to really think about your life.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Well, it tells the story of what was a little
bit of a financial train wreck waiting to happen. So
it's part auto biography, it's part guide on investment real estate.
It's a guide on what legal actions you can take
(19:35):
on your own And I talk a lot about paying
less in taxes. So, for example, right now, the federal
estate tax threshold is fifteen million dollars per person, and
many people who are not yet at that level of
(19:57):
wealth tune out of the conversation and they say, well,
that doesn't affect me, so I don't need to learn
anything about a state tax laws. Well, it does affect everyone,
because back in the day when I first started practicing
in New York State, the state estate tax threshold was
(20:20):
one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. So every nearly every
decedent in New York was hit with estate taxes. And
what a lot of people did during the nineties and
the early two thousands was a state tax planning to
deal with what were then lower thresholds. So, for example,
(20:45):
if I had an estate of two million dollars in
the year two thousand, when the new York State threshold
was one million. What did I do? I wanted to
get rid of one million dollars, and I did that
by putting it in an estate tax trust. The downside
(21:07):
with having done that is that those assets go to
the next generation with a carryover basis for capital gains purposes.
Now fast forward to twenty twenty six, I no longer
need to take that tough medicine of the carryover basis,
(21:32):
and I was willingly accepting capital gains taxes for the
privilege of removing that million from my gross taxable estate,
which would have cost forty cents on the dollar. Fast
forward to twenty twenty six. I want to pull it
all back into the gross taxable estate so that if
(21:55):
it's in a properly drafted trust, the beneficiaries will get
a so called step up in basis. So now we're
free of estate taxes and we're all so free of
capital games taxes.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So that is the change. So there's something called a
living revocable trust.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
A living revocable trust is very, very popular. I think
the number one legal book of all times was the
so called Living Revocable Trust Book, and I think it
came out in the nineteen seventies, and a lot of
folks have living revocable trusts, which are very appealing psychologically.
(22:45):
With a revocable trust, I can be my own trustee.
I can put assets in, I can take assets out,
very very appealing. But if I, acting alone, can pull
things out of this trust whenever I want, so can
(23:06):
my creditors. So a living revocable trust does one good
thing for us. It will avoid probate. Okay, so it's
better than having no trust at all. But if in
addition to avoiding probate, we also want to get this
(23:29):
five year federal clock going, and that pertains to how
long an asset must be in a properly drafted trust
in order for it to be invisible to healthcare claims
such as a nursing home Medicare, and the supplement only
(23:50):
cover the first one hundred days of an illness. Beyond that,
we're up the creek unless we have long term care insurance.
But if our home and other real estate have been
in a properly drafted asset protection trust for five years,
(24:12):
then no health care entity can put leans on those assets.
So does this mean that the trust has to be
totally irrevocable, and the answer is absolutely not. A properly
drafted asset protection trust, I must appoint to another person
(24:34):
to be the trustee. But if the trust is properly drafted,
I retain the ability to remove and replace the trustee
whenever I like. I can prevent the trustee from being
able to take any action during my life without my
written signature. And I can include in the provisions of
(25:01):
the trust that I retain all of the rental income
for investment real estate. I name beneficiaries, but I want
to retain the ability to remove and replace those beneficiaries,
and this enables us to customize how a beneficiary receives
(25:23):
the assets. If I have three children, I love them equally,
but one is a financial train wreck like I used
to be. They should not receive their share of the
estate in one lump sum. We want to customize. We
want to say, perhaps that they get five percent a
(25:47):
year for twenty years. So all of these retained powers
render this trust very attractive. In my worldview, I can
still receive rental income. No one can make any decisions
without me. My beneficiaries legal liabilities don't affect me because
(26:12):
to the extent that I retain the ability to remove
a beneficiary. That means that their future interest is not
legally vested, such that their creditors can worm their way
into my trust and put a lien on my assets.
You know, I say this all the time. A state
(26:35):
planning is our last act as a parent. And we
look back to the first chapter of parenting, and we
customized everything, We specified everything. We didn't take a one
size fits all approach to parenting. Why then, on the
(26:55):
other end of the parenting journey do so many of
us set up for a fill in the blank's will
that some DIY document websites say you can have a
will more quickly than it takes to order a pizza
to be delivered to your house. Is that really what
(27:17):
we want to leave for the next generation. I think
we can do better, and I think, you know, that's
what this is all about, putting a little creativity into
the process, and you know, being a good parent right
up until the end.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Nursing homes, nursing homes or.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
We don't we don't want to be in them, Paul,
And next week we'll talk about how how to avoid
being in a nursing home. Oh, okay, if if any
of you have questions in your lives, you want a
second set of eyes to review the planning that you've
already done. Please consider reaching out to me. If you
(28:02):
live in New York I have My main office is
in Bayside. And for you city folks, Paul, you know
that I am two blocks from the Long Island Railroad stop,
very simple off of Belle Boulevard. For our listeners in
the Capital District, I hope that you reach out to
(28:24):
me and come visit me at my new office on
State Street three eleven State Street in Albany. I have parking,
or if you're out on Long Island, come see me
in Poor Jefferson and then you can have lunch down
by the ferry. It's very charming. But definitely consider checking
(28:49):
out the book on Amazon building and protecting wealth. And
please visit me on Instagram at my lawyer Ann. And
with that, Paul, thank you so much for being here
today and I want to wish everyone a terrific rest
of your day. Hope you tune in next week.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
The preceding program was sponsored by New York Priority Medical Care.
The preceding was a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed.
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