April 7, 2025 • 50 mins
Attorney Keats Boyd joins Chris Boyd and Jeff Perry for a lively conversation on the recent tariff policies of the Trump administration and how they could relate to your estate planning. In addition
to tariffs, estate planning topics discussed include the “Golden Funnel,” multi-
generational wealth, estate taxes, income taxes, using a LLC for your estate planning, and
more.
To reach Attorney Keats Boyd, please call his office at 508-775-7800 or click the link
below:
https://www.boydandboydpc.com/
For more information or to reach TEAM AMR, click the following link:
https://www.wealthenhancement.com/s/advisor-teams/amr
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to something more with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner, practitioner,
and senior vice president, financial advisor at Wealth
Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it something more because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues, but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters matter.
(00:22):
Here he is your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
Thank you for joining us for another episode
of something more with Chris Boyd.
I'm Chris Boyd here with Jeff Perry.
We are both of the AMR team of
Wealth Enhancement and glad to have you joining
(00:44):
us every time we have these podcasts.
You can find them of course, by audio
where you like to listen to your podcasts,
but they're also available on video on YouTube
or our webpage at somethingmorewithchrisboyd.com.
So glad to have you here.
We have a returning guest we haven't seen
in quite a little while.
My brother, attorney F Keats Boyd III of
(01:07):
Boyd & Boyd, the estate planning law firm
here on Cape Cod.
And we thought it would be desirable to
have a little chance to talk a little
bit about financial planning.
Their estate planning is a related discipline just
as their tax planning and insurance considerations and
so on.
All of these are components of the things
we need to be considering and planning around.
(01:30):
You know, oftentimes we take for granted that
people have taken the time and the steps
to do all these things and that's not
always the case, probably more likely as things
change and evolve.
Yeah.
And that doesn't just have to be tax
laws and exterior considerations, but you know, there's
(01:50):
also the own personal dynamics, family dynamics.
I was talking with someone the other day
and they were saying how, well, some of
their beneficiaries have passed away and they need
to do some revisions of their plan to
be mindful of, well, now what happens, you
know, how do they want to structure things?
And we've had some occasions where people have
(02:12):
been talking about, I'm not sure who to
turn to for important roles in the process.
So, but, you know, before we jump into
that, you just had an interesting communication to
clients today.
We're recording this by the way, on Thursday,
April 3rd.
(02:32):
And as it turns out, today is a
big day in the markets with all that's
going on with the introduction, tariff positions and
all that's happening, the markets interpretation of that.
And so it's on people's minds.
We're focused on these things.
But you had some insights to share on
(02:53):
this specifically as it relates to estate planning.
And I know you've been very active talking
about another issue as it relates to business
owners and LLC owners, a couple of those
kinds of things, and then turn some attention
to some of these other considerations.
All right.
Sounds good.
(03:14):
Where do you want to begin?
I don't know.
I guess we'll start with saying first, thank
you for having me back.
Good to be here.
Good to see you, Bob.
And I'd like to wish everybody a happy
Liberation Day plus one.
A little tongue in cheek, but you know,
that's what they're touting the policy shift to
be part of the golden age in America,
(03:34):
bringing that back.
Now, whether you like President Trump or not,
I think what we have to do as
planners, whether it's financial planners or estate planners,
wealth protection planners, is recognize policy shifts and
recognize and look for the opportunities contained within
them to help our clients.
And that was really the point of my
(03:55):
newsletter that I sent out to our client
base this morning.
The tariff proposals that are being implemented do
have opportunities buried within them.
We may have to look a little bit
deeper for them.
We may not feel the opportunity today as
we look at the portfolio moving in what
we perceive to be the wrong direction.
(04:15):
But very often those are opportunities for buying,
maybe looking, you know, not that you can
time those very well necessarily, but if you
happen to have cash sitting on the sideline,
it might be a chance to improve your
portfolio.
And, you know, this is your area of
expertise, not mine, but I would think that
(04:37):
looking at domestic buying opportunities in some of
the companies here in the United States or
companies that are investing in the United States
to avoid some of these tariffs, that might
be the purchasing opportunity for investors in the
next few days, next week or so as
the markets adjust to this.
Yeah, I wouldn't speak to the timing as
(04:58):
far as that's concerned, but I will say
that, you know, your sentiment echoes some of
ours in that on the one hand, I
think, you know, we're looking at what remains
to be a little bit murky as far
as, you know, this, how this policy will
play out.
Will there be reciprocal response?
(05:20):
Will it escalate all of that?
And that can have some economic slowing consequence
profitability is what we look to, to derive,
you know, share price.
But to your point, not all companies are
the same, right?
And when you look at particularly some of
the parts of the market where they've seemed
(05:40):
to be the most expensive at times, will
there be greater opportunity for these companies that
to a large extent don't import contents for
their product, their service base, their thought, you
know, programming kind of content?
There may be some values that are in
(06:01):
the making, right?
And whether today is that point, you know,
I'm not sure I admit, you know, but
at the same time, you know, at the
start of the year, we were looking at
some of these companies saying, oh, their pricing
is really frothy.
Yeah.
And your favorite word, right?
It is.
It's a word I use frequently, not at
the moment.
(06:22):
I'm not using frothy, but I have used
it.
He likes that word.
But now, you know, you may be getting
to a point where you start looking opportunistic,
right?
You know, saying some of this is getting
priced in a way that it could be
more attractive and more opportunity.
So, you know, I think to some extent
the challenge is what's the greater economic impact
(06:48):
if you mentioned like manufacturing being more done
here?
Yeah, that takes a long time for that
to evolve.
So you look at what happened in the
last couple of months.
Some very big names have promised to invest
in manufacturing in the United States, Hyundai, a
company that I happen to drive a Hyundai
manufactured vehicle.
(07:09):
I love the car and I'm glad to
see that they're doing that.
I'd like to buy another one, but the
tariff might stop me.
But now if they're manufactured in the United
States, I don't have that problem.
We see that already with some, you know,
you see that with the Toyotas and some
extent already where they build them here largely.
Exactly.
Another one I'm thrilled to see is Taiwan
(07:29):
Semiconductor.
About a year ago, I was very nervous
about whether or not Taiwan would be occupied
by now.
And what would that do to the semiconductor
market?
Because the large majority of semiconductors are manufactured
by Taiwan Semiconductor.
Now that they're going to invest in the
United States and have manufacturing here, that's, I
(07:51):
think, a very good thing for the computer
industry as a whole, because we're not going
to have that fear of what would happen
if China finally says, hey, you're part of
our country and you're not a separate nation
anymore.
On that particular, I think we've seen that
as a concern in the last administration, as
(08:11):
well as this administration.
Right.
Yeah.
You know, the technology stuff, Nvidia, SoftBank, OpenAI,
Oracle, those commitments to invest in the United
States, I think that's a really good opportunity
for a growing industry of blockchain technologies and
artificial intelligence.
(08:33):
These two technologies, to me, are major disruptors
of so many service industries and other manufacturing
industries or other parts of our economy, rather.
I think those two areas are going to
introduce major change in the next five to
10 years in so many areas that's just
(08:54):
going to be a complete disruption.
And to have those more based in this
country is critical to our country's economic success.
And we are known as an innovator as
a country.
And so I think it's really important to
have that innovation be centered here to a
large extent.
So bring this back to the commentary about
(09:15):
an estate plan and how this is relevant
to the way we think about our estate
planning as dynamic, not static.
Well, you know, I think you always need
to review it.
I mean, part of it is saying, you
know, what is my portfolio worth?
You know, and that will change day to
day, obviously, up and down.
(09:37):
But if this does do what President Trump
is expecting this will do to uplift American
industry, to renovate and revitalize manufacturing in this
country, that will uplift most portfolios.
And so I think that's one opportunity.
I think another thing is, as we see
these tariffs go into place, it's going to
(09:59):
bring dollars into the United States that will
strengthen the U.S. dollar as opposed to
other currencies.
So our buying power will increase.
I think that's an important consideration.
I think another important thing is tariff revenues
will offset the need for tax increases.
We have a huge deficit.
(10:20):
And if tariffs do bring in revenues, as
they should, then those revenues can be either
used to pay down the deficit or eventually
maybe reduce income taxes.
President Trump has alluded to the idea of
maybe eliminating income taxes in favor of tariffs.
(10:42):
Now, again, a lot of what the president
says is hyperbole.
It is often done as a tool for
putting himself in a negotiation posture for something
else he's really trying to do.
But tax relief to the middle class and
lower class, I think, is important.
(11:03):
While one party is trying to emphasize the
tax favorability to the uber wealthy, the 1
percent, a lot of the tax policies that
he wants to implement will really help the
middle class.
And it's not just going to be the
super wealthy.
An extension of the estate tax reforms from
(11:25):
the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, that will
have a major impact on people.
There is a bill before the House right
now.
It's an estate tax repeal bill that, in
my perspective on it, is really a tax
hike on everybody but the uber rich.
(11:46):
Estate tax repeal would mean that we'd no
longer have an estate tax in this country.
And if we no longer have an estate
tax, we no longer have what's called a
step up in cost basis.
And that's a big concept for capital gains
taxes.
If we do away with the step up
in basis because we don't have an estate
tax, there are two possibilities.
(12:08):
One, we'll have inherited cost basis.
So when someone passes away, the cost basis
of the decedent will become the cost basis
of the heirs.
And if they want to sell mom and
dad's home after they pass, they're going to
have a capital gains tax that could be
enormous based on a property that has been
held in the family for 30, 40 years.
(12:31):
Same with the stock portfolio, huge capital gains
tax consequences if the kids sell the portfolio.
The other capital gains impact would be there
could be death as a capital gains recognition
event whereby mom and dad pass away.
We have to pay a capital gains tax
(12:51):
because they died and that would replace the
estate tax.
In my mind, that would be a tax
on the lower middle class, not so much
a big deal for the uber wealthy, the
one percent, because right now the estate tax
is 40 percent.
They would love to see a 20 percent
capital gains tax, but most lower middle class
(13:12):
families who are not going to be subject
to an estate tax because their estate's under
14 million dollars or under 28 million dollars
if they're married, they're not going to get
that 40 percent tax.
But instead, they will be replaced with a
mandatory 20 percent tax, possibly 15, but most
likely 20 percent on most families because they
(13:33):
have a capital gains tax event because they
died.
That to me is is is extremely confiscatory
and something to be avoided.
So I would much rather see the tax
cuts and jobs acts expanded to either become
permanent or at least for another 10 years
and give us a better opportunity to allow
(13:55):
tariff revenue to replace these income tax revenues.
And I think it would be a wonderful
thing if we could do away with the
income tax code.
That would that would do be such a
boon for the economy, for economic growth.
Yeah, but the the amount of tariffs, even
though they're looking at a sizable tax increase
(14:17):
for for consumers, isn't going to be the
scale of the income tax probably revenue that
we generate today.
But, you know, it's just it's it's interesting
to see that even if it's a tax
reduction, if we go from a typical 22
percent down to, I don't know, 10, 12
percent, you cut it in half.
(14:39):
If that is possible, that would be such
a stimulus to the economy.
You think about it.
If you get paid a thousand dollars but
only get to keep 80.
Eighty eight hundred dollars, 80 percent of it,
the question is to change that to 90
percent.
Now you've got more to spend and that
will create a stronger economy in the whole.
(15:00):
Yeah.
So are we saying you're expecting tariff revenue
to compete with income tax?
I'm saying it's going to be interesting to
see what happens.
And if, you know, countries who against whom
(15:21):
we are placing these tariffs have two choices,
they can reduce their tariffs and we'll reduce
or eliminate ours, or they can increase their
tariffs and we'll increase ours.
The wiser choice for both sides would be
to eliminate tariffs.
So if that happens, then we'll see what
happens.
But that's going to impact those countries revenues.
(15:43):
And so it's going to be a little
bit of a wait and see what everybody
does.
I think there is certainly there have been
significant revenues from China on the tariffs that
were put in place under the last Trump
administration and kept in place by the Biden
administration.
You know, they were working for a number
(16:05):
of revenue reasons.
And so it'll be interesting to see how
this plays out.
You know, I'm not going to make that
prediction that can it replace income taxes.
But even if it can offset them or
reduce them, I think that will have a
major positive economic impact because taxes create huge
economic inefficiency.
It's basic economics 101.
You raise a tax, you lose a portion
(16:29):
of the economy that we are not working
in the most efficient fashion anymore.
And that that deadweight loss concept is well
accepted within economics.
And it's something that, you know, any tax
increase is going to do that if we
can change that income tax revenue by shifting
it toward tariffs, I think we'll get a
(16:51):
better result.
So, you know, to revisit this notion that
things are dynamic and not static, I mean,
just.
Prior to yesterday, tariff revenue represented about one
percent of the revenues of the.
The the the budget, right?
(17:13):
Right.
When it comes to income taxes represent about
thirty seven percent payroll taxes, FICA type stuff,
Medicare, maybe twenty five percent corporate taxes, seven
percent.
And then you got twenty seven percent debt,
right?
(17:34):
Deficit.
I mean, so that we're financing.
So more likely we're going to be trying
to reduce that than replace it.
Income tax in the short run.
Absolutely.
I agree 100 percent.
I do think, though, that, you know, they're
battling this on a two front approach, trying
to reduce the size of the federal government,
(17:54):
trying to reduce fraud, waste and abuse, which
having been a government contracting officer in a
prior life, you know, I know exists.
We did our best to minimize it.
But when, for example, Congress wouldn't authorize a
new building, we'd create a new building in
two years.
(18:15):
We'd renovate the inside in one year from
the frame out and then the next year
from the frame.
I'm sorry, from the frame in and then
the next year from the frame out, put
a new building on.
So, you know, it's there are things that
are inefficient in the way that the federal
government is run.
And that certainly can be reduced and eliminated,
thereby reducing the need for so much deficit
(18:37):
spending.
You do that and you increase tariffs that
increase revenues.
I mean, we you know, if I don't
know the specifics of what tariffs were in
place before yesterday, it would be interesting to
see.
Yeah, there's some interesting stuff that's been reported
on that to you on the Wall Street
Journal as an example.
(18:57):
They had some details about that kind of
information.
Yeah.
But to that point, anyway, let's let's let's
bring it into the state planning again, you
know, to talk about, I mean, interesting discussion,
lots to think about.
You know, so, OK, maybe that's something we
(19:17):
will see opportunity in terms of investment.
Maybe there'll be some things in terms of
economic expansion.
You know, you're you're forecasting that would be
the ideal for all of us.
Right.
That this works out as such.
So, you know, then I think we want
(19:39):
to talk about some of this in that
context of the plan.
Right.
So as far as the plan goes, I
think there are a number of opportunities certainly
to revisit investment allocations.
That's something where clients should reach out to
folks like you and say, what's my investment
allocation look like?
Am I too exposed in one sector or
(19:59):
another?
Yeah.
Am I positioned?
Yeah.
Review asset valuation.
And that means, what's my house worth?
What's my portfolio worth?
How much money is in my IRA versus
in my non-retirement portfolio?
What do we have in cash?
Reviewing those valuations to see where does that
put you from a tax planning perspective.
(20:21):
I think also reviewing your basic plan to
make sure that it is doing more than
just avoiding probate and avoiding estate tax.
Many people today think the tax to avoid
is still the estate tax.
It is not.
It is the income tax.
And so an estate plan really needs to
(20:42):
be crafted to be income tax sensitive.
That means making sure that when a trust
becomes irrevocable after somebody dies, that the trust
is taxed at personal rates, not at the
more common trust tax rates.
And that just means the trust has to
be drafted to accomplish that.
(21:04):
You're talking a difference between if you have
an irrevocable trust and it's going to pay
taxes at 37% when income exceeds around
$15,500.
Should we be paying 37% when we
could instead be paying 22%, 24% by
(21:24):
shifting the way the trust is written?
Should we be paying capital gains rates at
20% or should we be paying 15
%?
Should we be subject to the Affordable Care
Act surtax of 3.8% when we
can completely avoid it by keeping income taxed
at lower rates?
It's just a question of structuring things the
(21:44):
right way.
That's really, really important.
I also think that looking at how your
plan is structured, we've been promoting two concepts
in the last six months or so.
The first concept is something we're calling a
golden funnel.
If you look at a traditional estate plan,
(22:05):
especially will-based estate plans or trust-based
estate plans that give everything to your kids
when you die, outright distribution.
What you're doing is, if you imagine it
as an upside down funnel, assets are going
out to various family members and they're owned
outright.
They are not concentrated.
(22:27):
They're not working together anymore.
They're fractured and that often can result in
loss, whether it's a divorce of one of
the kids, a bankruptcy need for one of
the children, a lawsuit against them.
That wealth is not protected.
It's not concentrated.
It's dispersed and it often gets dissipated.
If you want to turn the traditional estate
(22:49):
plan upside down, you concentrate it and instead
have it work like a regular funnel, a
right side up funnel.
That will concentrate the wealth.
You do that through long-term asset protection,
trust, multi-generational dynastic planning.
You do it through things like using limited
liability companies within the estate plan, either to
act as a family trustee or to act
(23:11):
as an asset protection device, to act as
a family governance device, or maybe even a
tool to teach the kids how to work
with money that they really don't understand ahead
of time.
How many families have we all worked with
where mom and dad understand how to invest,
but the kids didn't get that skill set?
(23:34):
Using an LLC is a wonderful tool to
provide that educational resource to put the portfolio
in there, bring the kids in to understand
how wealth is managed, to get them involved
in it.
Maybe it's to help with charitable giving and
the structures and the goals of what charities
(23:55):
to help and guide with.
LLCs are a critical part that we're putting
a big emphasis on.
I noticed you've really been emphasizing the LLC
as a structure.
Is this in any way replacing the use
of a trust or is it supplementing it?
Yeah, it's complementing it.
Obviously, there's some liability elements that are attractive
(24:16):
through an LLC, but is that the driver?
What is- It's a driver.
Most people do estate planning and they're doing
things for the kids.
They're not doing things for themselves.
An LLC is a structure where you can
really do something for yourself.
You can help structure it so that if
(24:37):
you hit the gas pedal instead of the
brake, you're not going to lose everything you
own.
There was this case- When you get
into an accident.
Yeah, just a case that is referred to
in my industry a lot is a gentleman
named George Weller who's since passed away.
In 2003, he got into a car accident.
He was driving in Santa Monica, bumped into
the car in front of him, apparently got
flustered, hit the gas pedal instead of the
(24:58):
brake, and ended up driving through a farmer's
market.
He ended up killing 10 people and injuring
70, costing some damages somewhere in the neighborhood
of $21 million in 2003 dollars.
Today, it's well over $30 million as the
damages.
Who's estate could possibly afford that because of
an accident?
Your estate can't withstand that.
(25:18):
Even if you have a good umbrella policy,
it's not going to protect your estate from
all that damage.
An LLC can help with that because the
LLC can protect you from outside people trying
to get in to take away your money,
but it's got to be structured the right
way using the right state's laws.
We tend to look at states like Nevada,
(25:40):
South Dakota, and Wyoming because they have statutes
that say the only remedy of a creditor
is to wait around until the LLC ends,
and then they can participate in liquidation.
They can't break through the LLC and try
to sell off stuff, even if there's only
one owner.
These LLCs are a great tool from an
(26:00):
asset protection standpoint.
It offers something to the client to protect
their wealth and give them a safety net
if something bad should happen by accident.
It also provides these other tools that you
can use it to be a family trustee.
You could use it to be that educational
(26:20):
role of bringing the kids in and getting
them involved while mom and dad are still
around to teach them the values and the
skill sets that they're going to need to
maintain the wealth that mom and dad have
created and to keep it concentrated so it's
still working for the family as a whole.
(26:41):
I've talked about the Vanderbilt family for years
as a family to look at to see
if you don't do it right, your wealth
gets dissipated.
Commodore Vanderbilt had, I think it was $100
million when he died in 1877.
He was the most wealthy person in the
United States at the time.
When his family had a reunion, let's see,
(27:02):
it was in 1973, 120 members came for
the family reunion.
There was not a single millionaire among them.
How many generations?
About four generations maybe.
It was through a lack of planning.
They used the old primogenitor model, give everything
to the eldest and the eldest did not
have good skill sets.
(27:23):
They invested in the breakers and beautiful buildings
with this opulence.
And within 30 years, their families were not
among the richest families in the United States
anymore.
Then you look at the Rockefeller family.
John D.
Rockefeller Sr. used dynastic trusts with business entities
(27:44):
and created a tool for generational wealth, making
sure that he had family education on wealth
and how to manage the money.
They had set up rules for how to
pull money out of the trust and you
couldn't just go crazy with it.
He set it up with a good structure.
While you don't have to be a John
D.
Rockefeller, you can be a family with a
(28:05):
modest means.
You mimic that structure and you're guaranteeing that
wealth can grow for two or three or
four generations and continue to be substantial wealth
or grow to be even more substantial wealth
for your family in the next generation or
two or three.
That's the model that we're trying to guide
our clients to use.
(28:26):
And the tariff thing, to an extent, it's
a reminder that you can't just put your
estate plan up on the shelf after you
got it.
You know, we did our will, we did
our trust.
Okay, I'm all set.
I can ignore this for 10 years or
so, dust it off.
No, you've got to keep it open and
review it regularly.
That's why we're saying review your valuations.
(28:47):
Make sure that, you know, do you have
an estate tax problem in Massachusetts?
Are there ways to eliminate or reduce that
estate tax?
What are the steps you need to take?
What about income taxes?
How can we modify our trust to eliminate
income taxes or maybe not eliminate but reduce
them to lower rates?
You know, those kinds of things are important.
(29:08):
And then recognizing that each year new cases
come down that impact your estate plan.
Each year new regulations are issued.
Last year, the Corporate Transparency Act was a
big deal.
Each year there's new statutes and tax revisions
that impact your estate plan.
And so you've got to recognize that your
(29:30):
plan needs to be dynamic.
It cannot be static.
It can't just be put up on the
shelf and forgotten about.
So Keats, how often should that, you know,
our doctors tell us to come back, our
financial planning clients, even if we don't reach
out to them and we're not in regular
contact with them all the time, at least
(29:50):
once a year, we want to sit down
with them and have an annual review.
Do you have a timeframe for people generally?
Yeah, a couple of things.
One, you know, I think it's a really
good idea to do a self-exam.
You know, every six months or so, uh,
review the valuation of your state and see
(30:10):
how it's moved.
Uh, review who are your important people?
Who are your fiduciaries?
Uh, you know, your executor, your personal representative,
not so important if you're using a trust
-based plan, but still a consideration.
Who's your power of attorney?
Who's your healthcare agent?
And who most importantly is, who is your
trustee?
Uh, make sure that they're still the right
(30:31):
people.
Are they still where you had them in
the original document?
Now, if they've moved, sometimes we don't need
to make a change simply because they've moved.
Um, but we, you know, if you move
out of Massachusetts or wherever your residence is,
and you move to a new state, that's
certainly a time to talk to your attorney
and review.
I'd say, you know, I used to think
(30:53):
every three to five years was an important
timeline.
The last couple of years, I'm beginning to
move a little bit more toward an annual
review.
Um, and that's, there's so much going on
and we've tried to address that by having
clients enroll in a maintenance program.
Uh, and we've got a couple of different
options, but you know, at the very least
(31:14):
it'll give a 30 minute conference of some
kind at no cost other than the maintenance
program cost.
And, uh, it just come in, let's talk
about it.
Or you want to have a little more
with your family or whatever.
Probably a little more proactive in dealing with
some of these seemingly, uh, routine now, uh,
(31:35):
changes that happen in terms of legal impact
on your estate plan.
Right.
Right.
Um, so that's a good idea.
The, the maintenance program, um, I, you were
talking about, Oh, do a review of your,
your, your plan and your numbers.
Um, I think a lot of times people
who have an estate plan, put it on
(31:56):
the shelf because it's intimidating.
It's not written in a way that's easy
to follow.
Right.
And so it becomes a little bit challenging
to know, what do I have?
How does it work?
You know, that it's not as clear.
I know you do some education around this
with clients routinely.
Yeah.
That can help.
(32:16):
Right.
And some of that education we've posted to
our website.
So even if you're not a client of
ours and you want the education, feel free
to go to our website.
It's available for free.
We've got, uh, one that we call a
walk through the trust where, you know, if
you pick up a trust today, they are
written in legalese.
Um, but they need to be, you know,
everybody wants it to be such that their
(32:38):
child can pick it up, read the trust
and understand exactly what they're supposed to do.
But the truth of the matter is if
I wrote it in plain English, it's like
trying to tell a computer, I'm going to
write a program and I'm going to write
it in conversational voice.
And you're going to do what I want
you to do, but the computer doesn't understand
it.
You have to write it in Python or
in code and you know, you have to
(33:00):
have the code and you got to write
it in the right language.
It's like saying to a person from another
country, I'm going to speak to you in
English and you're going to follow my instructions.
Granted you speak French or Italian or Spanish
or Portuguese or whatever the language is, you
may not speak English.
And so talking to you in English, isn't
going to help you to understand what you
need to do.
So we have to write it in legalese.
(33:23):
So for our clients, we use the opportunity
of a walk through the trust to translate
the legalese into plain English and we get
really high response from our clients.
It very positive.
Uh, and so that's very helpful.
We do another one about how to fund
your trust.
Uh, you know, every trust should be properly
funded.
What does that mean?
I take my house and I deed it
(33:44):
into the trust.
I take my non-retirement investment assets and
I change them so that trust is the
owner.
I take my savings account, my money market,
my CD, I make it so that my
trust is the owner.
And we walk you through during that seminar,
how you do those things.
Uh, we teach our clients how to do
it.
When we have them sign their trust, we
spend a lot of time trying and give
(34:05):
them written resources and tools to help them
do this stuff.
And of course, if they want us to,
we'll do it for them.
Uh, you know, so there's a lots of
opportunity to make sure that it's done the
right way.
But funding a trust is one of the
biggest overlooked things.
It's one of the, we have a book
that's, I think it's available on our website
called the seven biggest estate planning mistakes.
Uh, and that's one of them, uh, not
(34:27):
funding your trust.
So, so I think a lot of times
people think, um, that's easy.
Why do I need someone else to do
some of the things when someone passes and,
um, they have expectation of, well, you know,
mom and dad died.
Let's just get this done.
Oh yeah.
Tuesday.
Good for you.
You know what I mean?
(34:49):
Uh, you know what I mean?
Yeah, I do.
And all too often it's sadly, that's the
hardest part of our job when that happens
is to set realistic expectations as to how
long this is going to take.
And there is a process.
Yeah.
See, that's the other thing.
And I, I've run into instances where I've
said, oh, and did you get the valuation
when your spouse died?
(35:10):
And they look at me like, what?
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
And, and so I said, well, who settled
your, the fair interest?
Um, we didn't, we didn't do that.
Yeah.
There wasn't an estate tax, right.
To your point about the estate tax.
So, um, you know, I think that's worth
reiterating why that's, it's not quite as straightforward
(35:30):
as it seems.
Uh, there, there is layers of complexity that,
uh, you can do things in a way
that, you know, functionally you might be able
to get by, but there may be missed
opportunities when it comes to a step up
in basis.
In this case, that's what I was talking
about with someone or fill in the blank
of right.
You probably, I just, we, yesterday we had
(35:53):
a situation where, um, uh, we were working
with the estate of a surviving spouse trying
to amend his plan.
And, uh, we reviewed the trust that we
were amending.
And when his spouse passed away, uh, a
large portion of the estate was supposed to
(36:13):
be put into an irrevocable trust and wasn't.
And so now, you know, it's been years,
you know, about 15 years, we're left with
the situation of, well, how do we do
the forensic accounting to figure out what was
owned by whom then, how has it been
transferred?
(36:34):
What did it get used to buy?
And just to complicate things a little bit
more, uh, the couple at the time of,
of the first spouse's death lived in a
community property state, which meant half of everything
that wasn't dictated to be separate property was
community property.
Half of it belonged to the decedent, half
of it belonged to the survivor.
So half of it is supposed to be
(36:55):
in an irrevocable trust.
Um, it's, this is going to be a
nightmare.
Uh, so that's a, that's an exceedingly complicated
instance.
Um, but even in more mundane circumstances, there's,
there's reasons to try to talk to someone
about it, uh, to, to take advantage of
(37:17):
some of the benefits.
I'm just thinking of step up in basis
as a simple example.
I'm sure there's a myriad of other things.
I mean, the real quickly, the process is
five steps and it sounds simple.
Inventory, what did the deceased person own?
You know, what's out there?
Is it in a bank?
Is it in a brokerage account?
How is it owned?
Is it individual joint in a trust?
(37:39):
Does it have a beneficiary designation?
That's the inventory process.
Truthfully, that's going to take a month or
two because not everybody keeps really good records
of what they own.
And then you have to wait for a
statement to arrive to try to figure it
out.
Yeah.
You know, so you've got a month.
You know, sometimes people get stuff electronically and
(37:59):
you might not see it for a while.
Uh, you may not get access to the
account because once the person dies, so, you
know, it's their own login, it's their own
login.
And for someone else to use the deceased
login technically as a crime, it's criminal fraud.
You're not supposed to do that.
Lesson number one, if you have accounts, uh,
(38:20):
and you're married or you have a child,
who's your person, try to get them a
separate login as a durable power of attorney.
Or if it's your spouse as a joint
account or don't put your child on as
a joint account owner to get login, but
you know, find somebody else, their own separate
log.
That's a great example though.
I mean, it's so common and people don't
realize some of the pitfalls that come with
(38:40):
that.
Right.
We, we had a, a client years ago
who lost her spouse and, and the bank
closed her out from the account because it
was his login go down to the bank
and do things.
But it was, she thought I can't get
it my own money anymore because it was
his login and his login was closed once
they told the bank, right.
(39:01):
Now she could get her own login as
it turned out, it turned out, you know,
but I mean, it's, it's a, what if
it's in one's name, both names, you know,
it just is all these complexities.
So that inventory is the first step.
Second step is to get data death values
or praise everything that can take time, especially
if there's a business involved or there's real
estate, uh, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, bank accounts.
(39:23):
You know, the, the stocks, bonds, and mutual
funds are pretty quick.
If we know what's in the account, if
we know what the holdings are, the banks,
we have to write to the bank and
get the data death value that can take
some time.
It may be if you have a statement,
but sometimes you have to wait.
The timing is optimal.
Yeah.
Right.
But I mean, you're talking 30 days anyway.
And then once you have, uh, the, the
appraisals done, that's when you start the work
(39:44):
of taking the decedent's name off of those
accounts.
But you have to know what they own
before you try to take a name off.
Right.
And sometimes you don't want to take their
name off because if it's a joint account
and the check arrives, you know, two months
later as a refund for something and it's
payable to the deceased, if the name's on
a joint account, maybe you can deposit the
check without having to go through probate.
(40:06):
Right.
So, you know, there's there, you know, anyway,
retitling is the next step.
Then you deal with tax returns.
The estate tax return is due nine months
after death.
Yeah.
And that's also potentially income tax returns.
Yep.
And those are April 15th of the next
year.
So, you know, you've got a long time
frame.
And if assets carry over between two years,
you can have more than one year's tax
(40:26):
return.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So you've got, you know, this timeframe that
people don't recognize.
Then when you get through all of that,
now it's time to divide everything and distribute.
In the meantime, you've got to pay, make
sure all the debts are paid, the mortgage
is paid off, the bills are paid and
so on.
So it's, it's typically a year to a
year and a half long process.
Yeah.
Um, one of the other things I just,
(40:46):
uh, we, I mentioned earlier is that sometimes
people don't have the right person or need
someone outside of family, um, to handle their,
their affairs after they pass.
Um, I was talking with a client recently
and they were saying, well, um, I have
(41:07):
smart kids, but I don't want to put
them in the position where they will be
at odds with one another.
And one's going to have the, the responsibility
and one won't.
And you know, that kind of thing or
worse yet, I want them all to work
together.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So trust me, if they don't work well
now, they are not going to work better
(41:29):
after you die.
It's going to be tell about like this.
I mean, sometimes it's, it makes sense.
There's reasons at times to say, I'm going
to hire this out rather than do it
more cheaply, but for other reasons, the dynamics
you might not prefer, you know?
So yeah, you can bring in a professional
(41:49):
trustee.
Um, you know, and is that something you
often do or we can act in that
role, but you know, it's, it can be
a bank or a trust company.
Uh, you know, there are times where you
want to trust company in a certain location.
You know, one of my preferred, I have
two, the two top jurisdictions in this country
under trust law are in no particular order,
(42:12):
Nevada and South Dakota.
Um, I have an affinity for South Dakota.
I've been there.
I like the state of place.
It's a little bit cold in the winter,
just, just a little, um, but it sounds
a little bit more appealing.
Yeah.
Um, but, um, you know, both states are
excellent when it comes to trust law and,
uh, there, they also have no income tax
(42:33):
and no estate tax.
And so bringing a trust to a jurisdiction
like that and having a trust company, it
allows for something called a domestic asset protection
trust.
You can make a trust for yourself.
You know, I often kiddingly say in my
seminars, who here would like to make a
gift to themselves?
Raise your hand.
And everybody laughs because they don't think they
can make a gift to themselves, but they
(42:55):
can.
Yeah.
But you have to have a trust based
in a state like Nevada or South Dakota.
Is that something you help people with?
Yes, absolutely.
And I, it's one of my favorite techniques
is to make a gift to yourself because
you're getting it out of your state.
It's great for things that aren't going to
appreciate like bond portfolios, CD portfolios, ladders, those
kinds of things where, uh, you're not worried
(43:17):
about capital gains, get it out of the
estate now.
And if you need it in a domestic
asset protection trust, it can be given back
to you.
Okay.
That's helpful.
Yeah.
So, you know, those are great tools.
A spousal limited access trust or another great
one.
Uh, and there'll be, you know, because of
this bill I mentioned earlier about elimination of
the estate tax.
Many people in my industry are advocating, do
(43:39):
this now, put your slat together, put your
DAPT together.
Uh, now, while there is an exemption because
you can exempt it from not only the
estate tax, but also the generation skipping transfer
tax, even if they do repeal it, it
is, you know, we've had four repeals of
the estate tax in our history already.
(43:59):
They will likely bring it back at some
point in the future.
And so having a trust that has exemption
because you acted before they passed the estate
tax appeal makes a lot of sense.
And then if you, uh, wait until after
the repeal is, you don't have the exemption.
And then if they reinstate a generation skipping
transfer tax on a dynasty type trust, your
(44:22):
kids could be paying taxes as high as
55%, depending on what rates they put in
place sometime in the future.
So it's, it's, it's, it's a good idea
to think about that.
Yeah.
So I guess, I mean, you, uh, when
you talk about this, you know, we, we
always seem to find there's like all these
layers of like, Oh, there's even more to
it than we thought about.
Right.
(44:42):
Yeah.
If we were thinking a little bit about
a few of these kind of superficial things
of like, it might be good to talk
about.
And here we are with, um, you know,
these kinds of trusts in Nevada and South
Dakota.
Um, so in any case, um, I guess,
um, bottom line is, um, people need, uh,
(45:05):
to really look at this regularly, not just
once in a while.
Uh, there may be occasions, circumstances here going
on, maybe opportunities, uh, to come out of
that.
In addition, um, you know, it's, uh, maybe
a good idea to think in terms of
like a maintenance plan so that you can,
you can update it, uh, as all these
(45:26):
things change perpetually, you're, um, you're not in
a position where it's like, where do I
begin?
Or, gee, I just did that.
I don't want to spend it again.
You know, you got sort of maybe a
more gradual, uh, easy payment structure.
Right.
And we're, we're expecting, you know, the, they're
probably going to work with the tax cuts
(45:47):
and jobs act 2.0, whatever they're going
to call it.
Uh, probably, you know, early, early summer.
You'd expect far enough in advance of the
midterm election.
Yes.
Well, we, they need something in before the,
uh, before the, the budget, uh, on September
30th.
Uh, so, you know, I think there'll probably
be in June, July timeframe that they get
(46:08):
something passed.
And when that happens, of course, we got
to wait to see what's in it to
know how we have to draft around it,
but we're expecting that our clients will want
to put some change in place as a
result of that.
And we're looking for other things.
It was a big divorce case that came
out a couple of years ago.
We're drafting, uh, uh, to make sure that
(46:28):
our trusts are not going to be, uh,
subject to, uh, this, the implications of the
Jones versus Jones case, uh, from, from Massachusetts
that indicated that there might be some ability
of a divorce court to say assets owned
by a trust are includable or countable, if
you will, in calculating what is the marital
(46:50):
estate.
And we want to make sure that our
trusts are drafted around.
I feel like our trust should be drafted
around it, but there are going to be
circumstances that are not in the drafting, but
more in the fact pattern.
My child, uh, is married, but has no
kids.
That could be a problem under the Jones
versus Jones case.
So we're trying to put language in place
that will eliminate that issue.
(47:11):
Um, all these things we don't even think
about.
Yeah.
Uh, last point before we wind down a
call to action, um, you have any seminars,
you have, uh, resources.
I know you have all kinds of things,
but what would you like to tell people
to take advantage of to get visit the
website.
If you want to learn a little bit
(47:31):
more, Boyd and Boyd, pc.com B O
Y D A N D B O Y
D p c.com.
And you have seminars.
The seminars are on a page called seminars.
Uh, if you click on that at the
top of the menu, you can see, uh,
you know, all of the seminars that we've
done over the last several years, it's got
some of the, you know, our announcements as
to public seminars, we don't have anything scheduled
(47:54):
right now.
I just did one on Tuesday on limited
liability companies.
I'm likely going to redo that one short
and do it again in the very near
future.
Uh, and then another one that we did
on, uh, the, uh, the wealth protection plan,
golden funnel technique that was a more public
facing seminar.
We're doing these so far this winter as
(48:15):
online webinars, uh, and, uh, you know, encourage
people to consider that there are huge opportunities
now to get a really good plan in
place that will protect your family for generations.
It's just a question of deciding to take
action.
And I, you know, encourage people to take
a look at a website and decide if
we're a good fit for them.
(48:36):
All right.
Take action.
That's the bottom line here.
Take action.
And, and, uh, as usual, uh, we try
to provide you the best content, uh, that
you can make use of in all aspects
of your financial planning and portfolio management, share
it with others.
Um, it's a must listen to content and
(48:57):
thanks for being with us for another episode
until next time, keep striving for something more.
Thank you for listening to something more with
Chris Boyd, call us for help, whether it's
for financial planning or portfolio management insurance concerns,
or those quality of life issues that make
the money matters matter, whatever's on your mind,
visit us at something more with chrisboyd.com
(49:19):
or call us toll free at 866-771
-8901, or send us your questions to amr
-info at wealthenhancement.com.
You're listening to something more with Chris Boyd,
financial talk show wealth enhancement, advisory services, and
Jay Christopher Boyd provide investment advice on an
individual basis to clients.
(49:40):
Only proper advice depends on a complete analysis
of all facts and circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth Enhancement Group cannot guarantee that using the
information from this show will generate profits or
ensure freedom from loss.
Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or
conduct their own due diligence before making any
financial decisions.
Welcome to something more with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner, practitioner,
and senior vice president, financial advisor at Wealth
Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it something more because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues, but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters matter.
(00:22):
Here he is your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
Thank you for joining us for another episode
of something more with Chris Boyd.
I'm Chris Boyd here with Jeff Perry.
We are both of the AMR team of
Wealth Enhancement and glad to have you joining
(00:44):
us every time we have these podcasts.
You can find them of course, by audio
where you like to listen to your podcasts,
but they're also available on video on YouTube
or our webpage at somethingmorewithchrisboyd.com.
So glad to have you here.
We have a returning guest we haven't seen
in quite a little while.
My brother, attorney F Keats Boyd III of
(01:07):
Boyd & Boyd, the estate planning law firm
here on Cape Cod.
And we thought it would be desirable to
have a little chance to talk a little
bit about financial planning.
Their estate planning is a related discipline just
as their tax planning and insurance considerations and
so on.
All of these are components of the things
we need to be considering and planning around.
(01:30):
You know, oftentimes we take for granted that
people have taken the time and the steps
to do all these things and that's not
always the case, probably more likely as things
change and evolve.
Yeah.
And that doesn't just have to be tax
laws and exterior considerations, but you know, there's
(01:50):
also the own personal dynamics, family dynamics.
I was talking with someone the other day
and they were saying how, well, some of
their beneficiaries have passed away and they need
to do some revisions of their plan to
be mindful of, well, now what happens, you
know, how do they want to structure things?
And we've had some occasions where people have
(02:12):
been talking about, I'm not sure who to
turn to for important roles in the process.
So, but, you know, before we jump into
that, you just had an interesting communication to
clients today.
We're recording this by the way, on Thursday,
April 3rd.
(02:32):
And as it turns out, today is a
big day in the markets with all that's
going on with the introduction, tariff positions and
all that's happening, the markets interpretation of that.
And so it's on people's minds.
We're focused on these things.
But you had some insights to share on
(02:53):
this specifically as it relates to estate planning.
And I know you've been very active talking
about another issue as it relates to business
owners and LLC owners, a couple of those
kinds of things, and then turn some attention
to some of these other considerations.
All right.
Sounds good.
(03:14):
Where do you want to begin?
I don't know.
I guess we'll start with saying first, thank
you for having me back.
Good to be here.
Good to see you, Bob.
And I'd like to wish everybody a happy
Liberation Day plus one.
A little tongue in cheek, but you know,
that's what they're touting the policy shift to
be part of the golden age in America,
(03:34):
bringing that back.
Now, whether you like President Trump or not,
I think what we have to do as
planners, whether it's financial planners or estate planners,
wealth protection planners, is recognize policy shifts and
recognize and look for the opportunities contained within
them to help our clients.
And that was really the point of my
(03:55):
newsletter that I sent out to our client
base this morning.
The tariff proposals that are being implemented do
have opportunities buried within them.
We may have to look a little bit
deeper for them.
We may not feel the opportunity today as
we look at the portfolio moving in what
we perceive to be the wrong direction.
(04:15):
But very often those are opportunities for buying,
maybe looking, you know, not that you can
time those very well necessarily, but if you
happen to have cash sitting on the sideline,
it might be a chance to improve your
portfolio.
And, you know, this is your area of
expertise, not mine, but I would think that
(04:37):
looking at domestic buying opportunities in some of
the companies here in the United States or
companies that are investing in the United States
to avoid some of these tariffs, that might
be the purchasing opportunity for investors in the
next few days, next week or so as
the markets adjust to this.
Yeah, I wouldn't speak to the timing as
(04:58):
far as that's concerned, but I will say
that, you know, your sentiment echoes some of
ours in that on the one hand, I
think, you know, we're looking at what remains
to be a little bit murky as far
as, you know, this, how this policy will
play out.
Will there be reciprocal response?
(05:20):
Will it escalate all of that?
And that can have some economic slowing consequence
profitability is what we look to, to derive,
you know, share price.
But to your point, not all companies are
the same, right?
And when you look at particularly some of
the parts of the market where they've seemed
(05:40):
to be the most expensive at times, will
there be greater opportunity for these companies that
to a large extent don't import contents for
their product, their service base, their thought, you
know, programming kind of content?
There may be some values that are in
(06:01):
the making, right?
And whether today is that point, you know,
I'm not sure I admit, you know, but
at the same time, you know, at the
start of the year, we were looking at
some of these companies saying, oh, their pricing
is really frothy.
Yeah.
And your favorite word, right?
It is.
It's a word I use frequently, not at
the moment.
(06:22):
I'm not using frothy, but I have used
it.
He likes that word.
But now, you know, you may be getting
to a point where you start looking opportunistic,
right?
You know, saying some of this is getting
priced in a way that it could be
more attractive and more opportunity.
So, you know, I think to some extent
the challenge is what's the greater economic impact
(06:48):
if you mentioned like manufacturing being more done
here?
Yeah, that takes a long time for that
to evolve.
So you look at what happened in the
last couple of months.
Some very big names have promised to invest
in manufacturing in the United States, Hyundai, a
company that I happen to drive a Hyundai
manufactured vehicle.
(07:09):
I love the car and I'm glad to
see that they're doing that.
I'd like to buy another one, but the
tariff might stop me.
But now if they're manufactured in the United
States, I don't have that problem.
We see that already with some, you know,
you see that with the Toyotas and some
extent already where they build them here largely.
Exactly.
Another one I'm thrilled to see is Taiwan
(07:29):
Semiconductor.
About a year ago, I was very nervous
about whether or not Taiwan would be occupied
by now.
And what would that do to the semiconductor
market?
Because the large majority of semiconductors are manufactured
by Taiwan Semiconductor.
Now that they're going to invest in the
United States and have manufacturing here, that's, I
(07:51):
think, a very good thing for the computer
industry as a whole, because we're not going
to have that fear of what would happen
if China finally says, hey, you're part of
our country and you're not a separate nation
anymore.
On that particular, I think we've seen that
as a concern in the last administration, as
(08:11):
well as this administration.
Right.
Yeah.
You know, the technology stuff, Nvidia, SoftBank, OpenAI,
Oracle, those commitments to invest in the United
States, I think that's a really good opportunity
for a growing industry of blockchain technologies and
artificial intelligence.
(08:33):
These two technologies, to me, are major disruptors
of so many service industries and other manufacturing
industries or other parts of our economy, rather.
I think those two areas are going to
introduce major change in the next five to
10 years in so many areas that's just
(08:54):
going to be a complete disruption.
And to have those more based in this
country is critical to our country's economic success.
And we are known as an innovator as
a country.
And so I think it's really important to
have that innovation be centered here to a
large extent.
So bring this back to the commentary about
(09:15):
an estate plan and how this is relevant
to the way we think about our estate
planning as dynamic, not static.
Well, you know, I think you always need
to review it.
I mean, part of it is saying, you
know, what is my portfolio worth?
You know, and that will change day to
day, obviously, up and down.
(09:37):
But if this does do what President Trump
is expecting this will do to uplift American
industry, to renovate and revitalize manufacturing in this
country, that will uplift most portfolios.
And so I think that's one opportunity.
I think another thing is, as we see
these tariffs go into place, it's going to
(09:59):
bring dollars into the United States that will
strengthen the U.S. dollar as opposed to
other currencies.
So our buying power will increase.
I think that's an important consideration.
I think another important thing is tariff revenues
will offset the need for tax increases.
We have a huge deficit.
(10:20):
And if tariffs do bring in revenues, as
they should, then those revenues can be either
used to pay down the deficit or eventually
maybe reduce income taxes.
President Trump has alluded to the idea of
maybe eliminating income taxes in favor of tariffs.
(10:42):
Now, again, a lot of what the president
says is hyperbole.
It is often done as a tool for
putting himself in a negotiation posture for something
else he's really trying to do.
But tax relief to the middle class and
lower class, I think, is important.
(11:03):
While one party is trying to emphasize the
tax favorability to the uber wealthy, the 1
percent, a lot of the tax policies that
he wants to implement will really help the
middle class.
And it's not just going to be the
super wealthy.
An extension of the estate tax reforms from
(11:25):
the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, that will
have a major impact on people.
There is a bill before the House right
now.
It's an estate tax repeal bill that, in
my perspective on it, is really a tax
hike on everybody but the uber rich.
(11:46):
Estate tax repeal would mean that we'd no
longer have an estate tax in this country.
And if we no longer have an estate
tax, we no longer have what's called a
step up in cost basis.
And that's a big concept for capital gains
taxes.
If we do away with the step up
in basis because we don't have an estate
tax, there are two possibilities.
(12:08):
One, we'll have inherited cost basis.
So when someone passes away, the cost basis
of the decedent will become the cost basis
of the heirs.
And if they want to sell mom and
dad's home after they pass, they're going to
have a capital gains tax that could be
enormous based on a property that has been
held in the family for 30, 40 years.
(12:31):
Same with the stock portfolio, huge capital gains
tax consequences if the kids sell the portfolio.
The other capital gains impact would be there
could be death as a capital gains recognition
event whereby mom and dad pass away.
We have to pay a capital gains tax
(12:51):
because they died and that would replace the
estate tax.
In my mind, that would be a tax
on the lower middle class, not so much
a big deal for the uber wealthy, the
one percent, because right now the estate tax
is 40 percent.
They would love to see a 20 percent
capital gains tax, but most lower middle class
(13:12):
families who are not going to be subject
to an estate tax because their estate's under
14 million dollars or under 28 million dollars
if they're married, they're not going to get
that 40 percent tax.
But instead, they will be replaced with a
mandatory 20 percent tax, possibly 15, but most
likely 20 percent on most families because they
(13:33):
have a capital gains tax event because they
died.
That to me is is is extremely confiscatory
and something to be avoided.
So I would much rather see the tax
cuts and jobs acts expanded to either become
permanent or at least for another 10 years
and give us a better opportunity to allow
(13:55):
tariff revenue to replace these income tax revenues.
And I think it would be a wonderful
thing if we could do away with the
income tax code.
That would that would do be such a
boon for the economy, for economic growth.
Yeah, but the the amount of tariffs, even
though they're looking at a sizable tax increase
(14:17):
for for consumers, isn't going to be the
scale of the income tax probably revenue that
we generate today.
But, you know, it's just it's it's interesting
to see that even if it's a tax
reduction, if we go from a typical 22
percent down to, I don't know, 10, 12
percent, you cut it in half.
(14:39):
If that is possible, that would be such
a stimulus to the economy.
You think about it.
If you get paid a thousand dollars but
only get to keep 80.
Eighty eight hundred dollars, 80 percent of it,
the question is to change that to 90
percent.
Now you've got more to spend and that
will create a stronger economy in the whole.
(15:00):
Yeah.
So are we saying you're expecting tariff revenue
to compete with income tax?
I'm saying it's going to be interesting to
see what happens.
And if, you know, countries who against whom
(15:21):
we are placing these tariffs have two choices,
they can reduce their tariffs and we'll reduce
or eliminate ours, or they can increase their
tariffs and we'll increase ours.
The wiser choice for both sides would be
to eliminate tariffs.
So if that happens, then we'll see what
happens.
But that's going to impact those countries revenues.
(15:43):
And so it's going to be a little
bit of a wait and see what everybody
does.
I think there is certainly there have been
significant revenues from China on the tariffs that
were put in place under the last Trump
administration and kept in place by the Biden
administration.
You know, they were working for a number
(16:05):
of revenue reasons.
And so it'll be interesting to see how
this plays out.
You know, I'm not going to make that
prediction that can it replace income taxes.
But even if it can offset them or
reduce them, I think that will have a
major positive economic impact because taxes create huge
economic inefficiency.
It's basic economics 101.
You raise a tax, you lose a portion
(16:29):
of the economy that we are not working
in the most efficient fashion anymore.
And that that deadweight loss concept is well
accepted within economics.
And it's something that, you know, any tax
increase is going to do that if we
can change that income tax revenue by shifting
it toward tariffs, I think we'll get a
(16:51):
better result.
So, you know, to revisit this notion that
things are dynamic and not static, I mean,
just.
Prior to yesterday, tariff revenue represented about one
percent of the revenues of the.
The the the budget, right?
(17:13):
Right.
When it comes to income taxes represent about
thirty seven percent payroll taxes, FICA type stuff,
Medicare, maybe twenty five percent corporate taxes, seven
percent.
And then you got twenty seven percent debt,
right?
(17:34):
Deficit.
I mean, so that we're financing.
So more likely we're going to be trying
to reduce that than replace it.
Income tax in the short run.
Absolutely.
I agree 100 percent.
I do think, though, that, you know, they're
battling this on a two front approach, trying
to reduce the size of the federal government,
(17:54):
trying to reduce fraud, waste and abuse, which
having been a government contracting officer in a
prior life, you know, I know exists.
We did our best to minimize it.
But when, for example, Congress wouldn't authorize a
new building, we'd create a new building in
two years.
(18:15):
We'd renovate the inside in one year from
the frame out and then the next year
from the frame.
I'm sorry, from the frame in and then
the next year from the frame out, put
a new building on.
So, you know, it's there are things that
are inefficient in the way that the federal
government is run.
And that certainly can be reduced and eliminated,
thereby reducing the need for so much deficit
(18:37):
spending.
You do that and you increase tariffs that
increase revenues.
I mean, we you know, if I don't
know the specifics of what tariffs were in
place before yesterday, it would be interesting to
see.
Yeah, there's some interesting stuff that's been reported
on that to you on the Wall Street
Journal as an example.
(18:57):
They had some details about that kind of
information.
Yeah.
But to that point, anyway, let's let's let's
bring it into the state planning again, you
know, to talk about, I mean, interesting discussion,
lots to think about.
You know, so, OK, maybe that's something we
(19:17):
will see opportunity in terms of investment.
Maybe there'll be some things in terms of
economic expansion.
You know, you're you're forecasting that would be
the ideal for all of us.
Right.
That this works out as such.
So, you know, then I think we want
(19:39):
to talk about some of this in that
context of the plan.
Right.
So as far as the plan goes, I
think there are a number of opportunities certainly
to revisit investment allocations.
That's something where clients should reach out to
folks like you and say, what's my investment
allocation look like?
Am I too exposed in one sector or
(19:59):
another?
Yeah.
Am I positioned?
Yeah.
Review asset valuation.
And that means, what's my house worth?
What's my portfolio worth?
How much money is in my IRA versus
in my non-retirement portfolio?
What do we have in cash?
Reviewing those valuations to see where does that
put you from a tax planning perspective.
(20:21):
I think also reviewing your basic plan to
make sure that it is doing more than
just avoiding probate and avoiding estate tax.
Many people today think the tax to avoid
is still the estate tax.
It is not.
It is the income tax.
And so an estate plan really needs to
(20:42):
be crafted to be income tax sensitive.
That means making sure that when a trust
becomes irrevocable after somebody dies, that the trust
is taxed at personal rates, not at the
more common trust tax rates.
And that just means the trust has to
be drafted to accomplish that.
(21:04):
You're talking a difference between if you have
an irrevocable trust and it's going to pay
taxes at 37% when income exceeds around
$15,500.
Should we be paying 37% when we
could instead be paying 22%, 24% by
(21:24):
shifting the way the trust is written?
Should we be paying capital gains rates at
20% or should we be paying 15
%?
Should we be subject to the Affordable Care
Act surtax of 3.8% when we
can completely avoid it by keeping income taxed
at lower rates?
It's just a question of structuring things the
(21:44):
right way.
That's really, really important.
I also think that looking at how your
plan is structured, we've been promoting two concepts
in the last six months or so.
The first concept is something we're calling a
golden funnel.
If you look at a traditional estate plan,
(22:05):
especially will-based estate plans or trust-based
estate plans that give everything to your kids
when you die, outright distribution.
What you're doing is, if you imagine it
as an upside down funnel, assets are going
out to various family members and they're owned
outright.
They are not concentrated.
(22:27):
They're not working together anymore.
They're fractured and that often can result in
loss, whether it's a divorce of one of
the kids, a bankruptcy need for one of
the children, a lawsuit against them.
That wealth is not protected.
It's not concentrated.
It's dispersed and it often gets dissipated.
If you want to turn the traditional estate
(22:49):
plan upside down, you concentrate it and instead
have it work like a regular funnel, a
right side up funnel.
That will concentrate the wealth.
You do that through long-term asset protection,
trust, multi-generational dynastic planning.
You do it through things like using limited
liability companies within the estate plan, either to
act as a family trustee or to act
(23:11):
as an asset protection device, to act as
a family governance device, or maybe even a
tool to teach the kids how to work
with money that they really don't understand ahead
of time.
How many families have we all worked with
where mom and dad understand how to invest,
but the kids didn't get that skill set?
(23:34):
Using an LLC is a wonderful tool to
provide that educational resource to put the portfolio
in there, bring the kids in to understand
how wealth is managed, to get them involved
in it.
Maybe it's to help with charitable giving and
the structures and the goals of what charities
(23:55):
to help and guide with.
LLCs are a critical part that we're putting
a big emphasis on.
I noticed you've really been emphasizing the LLC
as a structure.
Is this in any way replacing the use
of a trust or is it supplementing it?
Yeah, it's complementing it.
Obviously, there's some liability elements that are attractive
(24:16):
through an LLC, but is that the driver?
What is- It's a driver.
Most people do estate planning and they're doing
things for the kids.
They're not doing things for themselves.
An LLC is a structure where you can
really do something for yourself.
You can help structure it so that if
(24:37):
you hit the gas pedal instead of the
brake, you're not going to lose everything you
own.
There was this case- When you get
into an accident.
Yeah, just a case that is referred to
in my industry a lot is a gentleman
named George Weller who's since passed away.
In 2003, he got into a car accident.
He was driving in Santa Monica, bumped into
the car in front of him, apparently got
flustered, hit the gas pedal instead of the
(24:58):
brake, and ended up driving through a farmer's
market.
He ended up killing 10 people and injuring
70, costing some damages somewhere in the neighborhood
of $21 million in 2003 dollars.
Today, it's well over $30 million as the
damages.
Who's estate could possibly afford that because of
an accident?
Your estate can't withstand that.
(25:18):
Even if you have a good umbrella policy,
it's not going to protect your estate from
all that damage.
An LLC can help with that because the
LLC can protect you from outside people trying
to get in to take away your money,
but it's got to be structured the right
way using the right state's laws.
We tend to look at states like Nevada,
(25:40):
South Dakota, and Wyoming because they have statutes
that say the only remedy of a creditor
is to wait around until the LLC ends,
and then they can participate in liquidation.
They can't break through the LLC and try
to sell off stuff, even if there's only
one owner.
These LLCs are a great tool from an
(26:00):
asset protection standpoint.
It offers something to the client to protect
their wealth and give them a safety net
if something bad should happen by accident.
It also provides these other tools that you
can use it to be a family trustee.
You could use it to be that educational
(26:20):
role of bringing the kids in and getting
them involved while mom and dad are still
around to teach them the values and the
skill sets that they're going to need to
maintain the wealth that mom and dad have
created and to keep it concentrated so it's
still working for the family as a whole.
(26:41):
I've talked about the Vanderbilt family for years
as a family to look at to see
if you don't do it right, your wealth
gets dissipated.
Commodore Vanderbilt had, I think it was $100
million when he died in 1877.
He was the most wealthy person in the
United States at the time.
When his family had a reunion, let's see,
(27:02):
it was in 1973, 120 members came for
the family reunion.
There was not a single millionaire among them.
How many generations?
About four generations maybe.
It was through a lack of planning.
They used the old primogenitor model, give everything
to the eldest and the eldest did not
have good skill sets.
(27:23):
They invested in the breakers and beautiful buildings
with this opulence.
And within 30 years, their families were not
among the richest families in the United States
anymore.
Then you look at the Rockefeller family.
John D.
Rockefeller Sr. used dynastic trusts with business entities
(27:44):
and created a tool for generational wealth, making
sure that he had family education on wealth
and how to manage the money.
They had set up rules for how to
pull money out of the trust and you
couldn't just go crazy with it.
He set it up with a good structure.
While you don't have to be a John
D.
Rockefeller, you can be a family with a
(28:05):
modest means.
You mimic that structure and you're guaranteeing that
wealth can grow for two or three or
four generations and continue to be substantial wealth
or grow to be even more substantial wealth
for your family in the next generation or
two or three.
That's the model that we're trying to guide
our clients to use.
(28:26):
And the tariff thing, to an extent, it's
a reminder that you can't just put your
estate plan up on the shelf after you
got it.
You know, we did our will, we did
our trust.
Okay, I'm all set.
I can ignore this for 10 years or
so, dust it off.
No, you've got to keep it open and
review it regularly.
That's why we're saying review your valuations.
(28:47):
Make sure that, you know, do you have
an estate tax problem in Massachusetts?
Are there ways to eliminate or reduce that
estate tax?
What are the steps you need to take?
What about income taxes?
How can we modify our trust to eliminate
income taxes or maybe not eliminate but reduce
them to lower rates?
You know, those kinds of things are important.
(29:08):
And then recognizing that each year new cases
come down that impact your estate plan.
Each year new regulations are issued.
Last year, the Corporate Transparency Act was a
big deal.
Each year there's new statutes and tax revisions
that impact your estate plan.
And so you've got to recognize that your
(29:30):
plan needs to be dynamic.
It cannot be static.
It can't just be put up on the
shelf and forgotten about.
So Keats, how often should that, you know,
our doctors tell us to come back, our
financial planning clients, even if we don't reach
out to them and we're not in regular
contact with them all the time, at least
(29:50):
once a year, we want to sit down
with them and have an annual review.
Do you have a timeframe for people generally?
Yeah, a couple of things.
One, you know, I think it's a really
good idea to do a self-exam.
You know, every six months or so, uh,
review the valuation of your state and see
(30:10):
how it's moved.
Uh, review who are your important people?
Who are your fiduciaries?
Uh, you know, your executor, your personal representative,
not so important if you're using a trust
-based plan, but still a consideration.
Who's your power of attorney?
Who's your healthcare agent?
And who most importantly is, who is your
trustee?
Uh, make sure that they're still the right
(30:31):
people.
Are they still where you had them in
the original document?
Now, if they've moved, sometimes we don't need
to make a change simply because they've moved.
Um, but we, you know, if you move
out of Massachusetts or wherever your residence is,
and you move to a new state, that's
certainly a time to talk to your attorney
and review.
I'd say, you know, I used to think
(30:53):
every three to five years was an important
timeline.
The last couple of years, I'm beginning to
move a little bit more toward an annual
review.
Um, and that's, there's so much going on
and we've tried to address that by having
clients enroll in a maintenance program.
Uh, and we've got a couple of different
options, but you know, at the very least
(31:14):
it'll give a 30 minute conference of some
kind at no cost other than the maintenance
program cost.
And, uh, it just come in, let's talk
about it.
Or you want to have a little more
with your family or whatever.
Probably a little more proactive in dealing with
some of these seemingly, uh, routine now, uh,
(31:35):
changes that happen in terms of legal impact
on your estate plan.
Right.
Right.
Um, so that's a good idea.
The, the maintenance program, um, I, you were
talking about, Oh, do a review of your,
your, your plan and your numbers.
Um, I think a lot of times people
who have an estate plan, put it on
(31:56):
the shelf because it's intimidating.
It's not written in a way that's easy
to follow.
Right.
And so it becomes a little bit challenging
to know, what do I have?
How does it work?
You know, that it's not as clear.
I know you do some education around this
with clients routinely.
Yeah.
That can help.
(32:16):
Right.
And some of that education we've posted to
our website.
So even if you're not a client of
ours and you want the education, feel free
to go to our website.
It's available for free.
We've got, uh, one that we call a
walk through the trust where, you know, if
you pick up a trust today, they are
written in legalese.
Um, but they need to be, you know,
everybody wants it to be such that their
(32:38):
child can pick it up, read the trust
and understand exactly what they're supposed to do.
But the truth of the matter is if
I wrote it in plain English, it's like
trying to tell a computer, I'm going to
write a program and I'm going to write
it in conversational voice.
And you're going to do what I want
you to do, but the computer doesn't understand
it.
You have to write it in Python or
in code and you know, you have to
(33:00):
have the code and you got to write
it in the right language.
It's like saying to a person from another
country, I'm going to speak to you in
English and you're going to follow my instructions.
Granted you speak French or Italian or Spanish
or Portuguese or whatever the language is, you
may not speak English.
And so talking to you in English, isn't
going to help you to understand what you
need to do.
So we have to write it in legalese.
(33:23):
So for our clients, we use the opportunity
of a walk through the trust to translate
the legalese into plain English and we get
really high response from our clients.
It very positive.
Uh, and so that's very helpful.
We do another one about how to fund
your trust.
Uh, you know, every trust should be properly
funded.
What does that mean?
I take my house and I deed it
(33:44):
into the trust.
I take my non-retirement investment assets and
I change them so that trust is the
owner.
I take my savings account, my money market,
my CD, I make it so that my
trust is the owner.
And we walk you through during that seminar,
how you do those things.
Uh, we teach our clients how to do
it.
When we have them sign their trust, we
spend a lot of time trying and give
(34:05):
them written resources and tools to help them
do this stuff.
And of course, if they want us to,
we'll do it for them.
Uh, you know, so there's a lots of
opportunity to make sure that it's done the
right way.
But funding a trust is one of the
biggest overlooked things.
It's one of the, we have a book
that's, I think it's available on our website
called the seven biggest estate planning mistakes.
Uh, and that's one of them, uh, not
(34:27):
funding your trust.
So, so I think a lot of times
people think, um, that's easy.
Why do I need someone else to do
some of the things when someone passes and,
um, they have expectation of, well, you know,
mom and dad died.
Let's just get this done.
Oh yeah.
Tuesday.
Good for you.
You know what I mean?
(34:49):
Uh, you know what I mean?
Yeah, I do.
And all too often it's sadly, that's the
hardest part of our job when that happens
is to set realistic expectations as to how
long this is going to take.
And there is a process.
Yeah.
See, that's the other thing.
And I, I've run into instances where I've
said, oh, and did you get the valuation
when your spouse died?
(35:10):
And they look at me like, what?
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
And, and so I said, well, who settled
your, the fair interest?
Um, we didn't, we didn't do that.
Yeah.
There wasn't an estate tax, right.
To your point about the estate tax.
So, um, you know, I think that's worth
reiterating why that's, it's not quite as straightforward
(35:30):
as it seems.
Uh, there, there is layers of complexity that,
uh, you can do things in a way
that, you know, functionally you might be able
to get by, but there may be missed
opportunities when it comes to a step up
in basis.
In this case, that's what I was talking
about with someone or fill in the blank
of right.
You probably, I just, we, yesterday we had
(35:53):
a situation where, um, uh, we were working
with the estate of a surviving spouse trying
to amend his plan.
And, uh, we reviewed the trust that we
were amending.
And when his spouse passed away, uh, a
large portion of the estate was supposed to
(36:13):
be put into an irrevocable trust and wasn't.
And so now, you know, it's been years,
you know, about 15 years, we're left with
the situation of, well, how do we do
the forensic accounting to figure out what was
owned by whom then, how has it been
transferred?
(36:34):
What did it get used to buy?
And just to complicate things a little bit
more, uh, the couple at the time of,
of the first spouse's death lived in a
community property state, which meant half of everything
that wasn't dictated to be separate property was
community property.
Half of it belonged to the decedent, half
of it belonged to the survivor.
So half of it is supposed to be
(36:55):
in an irrevocable trust.
Um, it's, this is going to be a
nightmare.
Uh, so that's a, that's an exceedingly complicated
instance.
Um, but even in more mundane circumstances, there's,
there's reasons to try to talk to someone
about it, uh, to, to take advantage of
(37:17):
some of the benefits.
I'm just thinking of step up in basis
as a simple example.
I'm sure there's a myriad of other things.
I mean, the real quickly, the process is
five steps and it sounds simple.
Inventory, what did the deceased person own?
You know, what's out there?
Is it in a bank?
Is it in a brokerage account?
How is it owned?
Is it individual joint in a trust?
(37:39):
Does it have a beneficiary designation?
That's the inventory process.
Truthfully, that's going to take a month or
two because not everybody keeps really good records
of what they own.
And then you have to wait for a
statement to arrive to try to figure it
out.
Yeah.
You know, so you've got a month.
You know, sometimes people get stuff electronically and
(37:59):
you might not see it for a while.
Uh, you may not get access to the
account because once the person dies, so, you
know, it's their own login, it's their own
login.
And for someone else to use the deceased
login technically as a crime, it's criminal fraud.
You're not supposed to do that.
Lesson number one, if you have accounts, uh,
(38:20):
and you're married or you have a child,
who's your person, try to get them a
separate login as a durable power of attorney.
Or if it's your spouse as a joint
account or don't put your child on as
a joint account owner to get login, but
you know, find somebody else, their own separate
log.
That's a great example though.
I mean, it's so common and people don't
realize some of the pitfalls that come with
(38:40):
that.
Right.
We, we had a, a client years ago
who lost her spouse and, and the bank
closed her out from the account because it
was his login go down to the bank
and do things.
But it was, she thought I can't get
it my own money anymore because it was
his login and his login was closed once
they told the bank, right.
(39:01):
Now she could get her own login as
it turned out, it turned out, you know,
but I mean, it's, it's a, what if
it's in one's name, both names, you know,
it just is all these complexities.
So that inventory is the first step.
Second step is to get data death values
or praise everything that can take time, especially
if there's a business involved or there's real
estate, uh, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, bank accounts.
(39:23):
You know, the, the stocks, bonds, and mutual
funds are pretty quick.
If we know what's in the account, if
we know what the holdings are, the banks,
we have to write to the bank and
get the data death value that can take
some time.
It may be if you have a statement,
but sometimes you have to wait.
The timing is optimal.
Yeah.
Right.
But I mean, you're talking 30 days anyway.
And then once you have, uh, the, the
appraisals done, that's when you start the work
(39:44):
of taking the decedent's name off of those
accounts.
But you have to know what they own
before you try to take a name off.
Right.
And sometimes you don't want to take their
name off because if it's a joint account
and the check arrives, you know, two months
later as a refund for something and it's
payable to the deceased, if the name's on
a joint account, maybe you can deposit the
check without having to go through probate.
(40:06):
Right.
So, you know, there's there, you know, anyway,
retitling is the next step.
Then you deal with tax returns.
The estate tax return is due nine months
after death.
Yeah.
And that's also potentially income tax returns.
Yep.
And those are April 15th of the next
year.
So, you know, you've got a long time
frame.
And if assets carry over between two years,
you can have more than one year's tax
(40:26):
return.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So you've got, you know, this timeframe that
people don't recognize.
Then when you get through all of that,
now it's time to divide everything and distribute.
In the meantime, you've got to pay, make
sure all the debts are paid, the mortgage
is paid off, the bills are paid and
so on.
So it's, it's typically a year to a
year and a half long process.
Yeah.
Um, one of the other things I just,
(40:46):
uh, we, I mentioned earlier is that sometimes
people don't have the right person or need
someone outside of family, um, to handle their,
their affairs after they pass.
Um, I was talking with a client recently
and they were saying, well, um, I have
(41:07):
smart kids, but I don't want to put
them in the position where they will be
at odds with one another.
And one's going to have the, the responsibility
and one won't.
And you know, that kind of thing or
worse yet, I want them all to work
together.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So trust me, if they don't work well
now, they are not going to work better
(41:29):
after you die.
It's going to be tell about like this.
I mean, sometimes it's, it makes sense.
There's reasons at times to say, I'm going
to hire this out rather than do it
more cheaply, but for other reasons, the dynamics
you might not prefer, you know?
So yeah, you can bring in a professional
(41:49):
trustee.
Um, you know, and is that something you
often do or we can act in that
role, but you know, it's, it can be
a bank or a trust company.
Uh, you know, there are times where you
want to trust company in a certain location.
You know, one of my preferred, I have
two, the two top jurisdictions in this country
under trust law are in no particular order,
(42:12):
Nevada and South Dakota.
Um, I have an affinity for South Dakota.
I've been there.
I like the state of place.
It's a little bit cold in the winter,
just, just a little, um, but it sounds
a little bit more appealing.
Yeah.
Um, but, um, you know, both states are
excellent when it comes to trust law and,
uh, there, they also have no income tax
(42:33):
and no estate tax.
And so bringing a trust to a jurisdiction
like that and having a trust company, it
allows for something called a domestic asset protection
trust.
You can make a trust for yourself.
You know, I often kiddingly say in my
seminars, who here would like to make a
gift to themselves?
Raise your hand.
And everybody laughs because they don't think they
can make a gift to themselves, but they
(42:55):
can.
Yeah.
But you have to have a trust based
in a state like Nevada or South Dakota.
Is that something you help people with?
Yes, absolutely.
And I, it's one of my favorite techniques
is to make a gift to yourself because
you're getting it out of your state.
It's great for things that aren't going to
appreciate like bond portfolios, CD portfolios, ladders, those
kinds of things where, uh, you're not worried
(43:17):
about capital gains, get it out of the
estate now.
And if you need it in a domestic
asset protection trust, it can be given back
to you.
Okay.
That's helpful.
Yeah.
So, you know, those are great tools.
A spousal limited access trust or another great
one.
Uh, and there'll be, you know, because of
this bill I mentioned earlier about elimination of
the estate tax.
Many people in my industry are advocating, do
(43:39):
this now, put your slat together, put your
DAPT together.
Uh, now, while there is an exemption because
you can exempt it from not only the
estate tax, but also the generation skipping transfer
tax, even if they do repeal it, it
is, you know, we've had four repeals of
the estate tax in our history already.
(43:59):
They will likely bring it back at some
point in the future.
And so having a trust that has exemption
because you acted before they passed the estate
tax appeal makes a lot of sense.
And then if you, uh, wait until after
the repeal is, you don't have the exemption.
And then if they reinstate a generation skipping
transfer tax on a dynasty type trust, your
(44:22):
kids could be paying taxes as high as
55%, depending on what rates they put in
place sometime in the future.
So it's, it's, it's, it's a good idea
to think about that.
Yeah.
So I guess, I mean, you, uh, when
you talk about this, you know, we, we
always seem to find there's like all these
layers of like, Oh, there's even more to
it than we thought about.
Right.
(44:42):
Yeah.
If we were thinking a little bit about
a few of these kind of superficial things
of like, it might be good to talk
about.
And here we are with, um, you know,
these kinds of trusts in Nevada and South
Dakota.
Um, so in any case, um, I guess,
um, bottom line is, um, people need, uh,
(45:05):
to really look at this regularly, not just
once in a while.
Uh, there may be occasions, circumstances here going
on, maybe opportunities, uh, to come out of
that.
In addition, um, you know, it's, uh, maybe
a good idea to think in terms of
like a maintenance plan so that you can,
you can update it, uh, as all these
(45:26):
things change perpetually, you're, um, you're not in
a position where it's like, where do I
begin?
Or, gee, I just did that.
I don't want to spend it again.
You know, you got sort of maybe a
more gradual, uh, easy payment structure.
Right.
And we're, we're expecting, you know, the, they're
probably going to work with the tax cuts
(45:47):
and jobs act 2.0, whatever they're going
to call it.
Uh, probably, you know, early, early summer.
You'd expect far enough in advance of the
midterm election.
Yes.
Well, we, they need something in before the,
uh, before the, the budget, uh, on September
30th.
Uh, so, you know, I think there'll probably
be in June, July timeframe that they get
(46:08):
something passed.
And when that happens, of course, we got
to wait to see what's in it to
know how we have to draft around it,
but we're expecting that our clients will want
to put some change in place as a
result of that.
And we're looking for other things.
It was a big divorce case that came
out a couple of years ago.
We're drafting, uh, uh, to make sure that
(46:28):
our trusts are not going to be, uh,
subject to, uh, this, the implications of the
Jones versus Jones case, uh, from, from Massachusetts
that indicated that there might be some ability
of a divorce court to say assets owned
by a trust are includable or countable, if
you will, in calculating what is the marital
(46:50):
estate.
And we want to make sure that our
trusts are drafted around.
I feel like our trust should be drafted
around it, but there are going to be
circumstances that are not in the drafting, but
more in the fact pattern.
My child, uh, is married, but has no
kids.
That could be a problem under the Jones
versus Jones case.
So we're trying to put language in place
that will eliminate that issue.
(47:11):
Um, all these things we don't even think
about.
Yeah.
Uh, last point before we wind down a
call to action, um, you have any seminars,
you have, uh, resources.
I know you have all kinds of things,
but what would you like to tell people
to take advantage of to get visit the
website.
If you want to learn a little bit
(47:31):
more, Boyd and Boyd, pc.com B O
Y D A N D B O Y
D p c.com.
And you have seminars.
The seminars are on a page called seminars.
Uh, if you click on that at the
top of the menu, you can see, uh,
you know, all of the seminars that we've
done over the last several years, it's got
some of the, you know, our announcements as
to public seminars, we don't have anything scheduled
(47:54):
right now.
I just did one on Tuesday on limited
liability companies.
I'm likely going to redo that one short
and do it again in the very near
future.
Uh, and then another one that we did
on, uh, the, uh, the wealth protection plan,
golden funnel technique that was a more public
facing seminar.
We're doing these so far this winter as
(48:15):
online webinars, uh, and, uh, you know, encourage
people to consider that there are huge opportunities
now to get a really good plan in
place that will protect your family for generations.
It's just a question of deciding to take
action.
And I, you know, encourage people to take
a look at a website and decide if
we're a good fit for them.
(48:36):
All right.
Take action.
That's the bottom line here.
Take action.
And, and, uh, as usual, uh, we try
to provide you the best content, uh, that
you can make use of in all aspects
of your financial planning and portfolio management, share
it with others.
Um, it's a must listen to content and
(48:57):
thanks for being with us for another episode
until next time, keep striving for something more.
Thank you for listening to something more with
Chris Boyd, call us for help, whether it's
for financial planning or portfolio management insurance concerns,
or those quality of life issues that make
the money matters matter, whatever's on your mind,
visit us at something more with chrisboyd.com
(49:19):
or call us toll free at 866-771
-8901, or send us your questions to amr
-info at wealthenhancement.com.
You're listening to something more with Chris Boyd,
financial talk show wealth enhancement, advisory services, and
Jay Christopher Boyd provide investment advice on an
individual basis to clients.
(49:40):
Only proper advice depends on a complete analysis
of all facts and circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth Enhancement Group cannot guarantee that using the
information from this show will generate profits or
ensure freedom from loss.
Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or
conduct their own due diligence before making any
financial decisions.
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