May 11, 2022 • 16 mins
Ms. Callahan practices in the areas of wills, estate planning, and probate.
Erin is a native Texan. In 2007 Ms. Callahan was awarded her Bachelors in Science Degree in International Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2011, she received her law degree from SMU Dedman School of Law. At SMU she received numerous accolades, served as the Student Bar President and the Women in Law President. Since graduation, she has primarily worked for insurance companies involving complex matters related to Nonprofits, Sports and Entertainment, and Oil and Gas. Not only is Erin an excellent attorney, but she is also a businesswoman who understands the complexities of running a company. She has held several Board of Director positions including Atlantic Housing Foundation, Dallas Women Lawyers Association, and currently, she serves as the Ms. JD Board Chair.
Organizations & MembershipsErin is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Young Lawyers Association, Houston Association of Women Attorneys, National Association of Women Lawyers, and Ms. JD.
In addition, Erin contributed to the ABA Best Practices for Combating Sex-Based Harassment in the Legal Profession. You can purchase a copy at the American Bar Association’s E-Store.
Honors & Achievements
- Ms. JD, Chair
- Houston Young Lawyers Association 2017-2018 Leadership Academy, Graduate
- SMU Dedman School of Law Student Bar Association, President
- DAYL Foundation Scholarship for Dedication to Community Service and Outreach, Recipient
Languages
English, Spanish (conversational), French (conversational).
Your hosts: Colton Cockerell & Trisha Stetzel
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Trisha Stetzel
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Colton Cockerell (00:04):
Hello and welcome to a another exciting
episode of Bridge the Gap wherewe're balancing life through
health, wealth, business andrelationships.
Hello everyone and welcome toanother week with that means
another exciting episode ofBridge the Gap is here and we
have an amazing guest but beforewe get to him, My name is Colt
(00:25):
get to him get to her. Before wedo My name is Colton Cockerell.
And I have my lovely co hostwith me who is putting her hands
on her head because she'sembarrassed already by me. And
that is the illustrious TriciaStetzel. Trisha. Hello,
Trisha Stetzel (00:39):
Colton. You know, it is another amazing
week. I'm pretty sure that'swhat you started with. It is it
is an amazing week. Hey,everybody, I'm so excited to be
here. Just as a reminder thismonth on the show, we're focused
on family and relationships. Sowe're going to talk be talking
about the importance of familyprotection through estate
(01:01):
planning. And who better to talkwith us about estate planning
than Erin Callahan with the LawOffice of Erin C Callahan. Erin,
welcome to the show.
Erin Callahan (01:12):
Well, thank you.
I'm so excited to be on theshow. Again. I'm looking forward
to it.
Colton Cockerell (01:16):
Yes. And I'm excited for you to experience
the new format. But before youexperience it, I gotta give a
shout out to our sponsor, whichis Sharer McKinley Group LLC.
All right, Erin, let's go aheadand jump on in because we're
gonna focus something onsomething, we're going to focus
on something that is veryimportant to many families, and
it kind of gets overlooked. Ithink that when I say that, I
(01:37):
mean, at the dinner table,people don't really talk about
this. And that is if somethingwere to happen to you, I you
still have young kids who arestill under the age of majority.
So what happens first, beforeyou give me the solution, what
happens if you go out to alovely dinner with your your
spouse, and the worst thing thatwon't happen? And you both pass
away in a car accident orsomething happens? What happens
(01:57):
to your kid now with the systemthat we have in place in
America?
Erin Callahan (02:03):
Yeah, great question. I mean, you know, the
S part of it is there's a veryreal chance that CPS could be
involved. So the first thingthey're going to do is they're
going to try to find family andfriends close by hopefully left
that with the trust tobabysitter. And it's, you know,
easy peasy and no big deal. Butif they cannot locate somebody,
(02:24):
they do call CPS. And so there'sa couple things that I know
we're going to talk about in alittle bit that we recommend to
try to kind of avoid thatsituation from ever happening.
Colton Cockerell (02:35):
And so what so what does that look kind of just
give me a bit more details therelike so who is responsible for
for naming. So again, you're youyou passed away, you didn't do
in your planning, who wasresponsible for now saying, Hey,
your kids will now be in thehands of X?
Erin Callahan (02:50):
Yeah, well, if you haven't worked with an
estate planning attorney, andyou haven't completed a
declaration of guardianshipform, your voice is not going to
be represented. So there's notgonna really be that control
over who that person is going tobe. So the judge is going to
look to family and friends, andwhoever puts up, you know, kind
(03:10):
of comes forward and wants toplay that role. You know, if you
say always, I'm always wanted mysister to do it, that's great.
But the judge doesn't have tofollow that the judge is going
to, you know, decide what's inthe best interest of the child,
and they might not have all theinformation available. Also,
another concern is, if you ifyou're kind of like on a second
(03:31):
marriage, and that kiddo had abiological parent that maybe
just isn't in the picture, or,you know, maybe they just
aren't, you know, going to be ithas to be pretty severe. But you
know, maybe they're not capableof being a parent, you need to
have that kind of backup plan inplace.
Colton Cockerell (03:47):
So important.
Trisha Stetzel (03:48):
So Erin, is it different in each state? So I
know you talk a lot about thestate of Texas and the way we
see things here, most of ourlisteners are in Texas, but not
all of them. So is it differentstate to state? Yes, so
absolutely. So unfortunately,our legal system is very unique,
(04:10):
and every single state isdifferent. So like, just for
example, in California, theytypically call it
conservatorship. If you think ofkind of like the Britney Spears
situation, it's similar. She hadto have a guardian over her
because she didn't havecapacity, but that was called a
conservator and aconservatorship in California.
And here in Texas, we typicallycall it guardianship. And so
(04:34):
yeah, so it does change wildly.
And same if you have a will ifyou have your will done and
Arizona and maybe you know, I'mnot saying that in Arizona, this
is the requirement but let'sjust say they only had one
person sign that will then youcould have issues with
presenting that here in Texaswhere we require two or
sometimes in Texas, if you takeyour will elsewhere, they might
require three and so yeah, itvaries wildly from state to
(04:57):
state. So if y ou move we are Ialways recommend seeing an
estate planning attorney.
I think there's so many beforewe get oh, sorry, Colton, before
we get too far down the road,because you guys speak the same
length, same language, and Idon't speak that language. What
is considered a minor in thestate of Texas?
Erin Callahan (05:15):
Yeah, well, I think that's a really good
question. So I mean, legally, ofcourse, it's somebody that's
going to be under 18. But thereality is, we probably don't
want 18 or 20 year olds makingsignificant decisions. When it
comes to assets. You know, wereally like to make sure they're
a little bit older, a little bitmore mature, you know, 25-30, I
personally am a fan of kind ofdoing like a half and half doing
(05:39):
kind of like, let's just say youhave $100,000 to leave that, you
know, 50,000 at 25 and 50,000.
At 30. You know, that way, theyhave a little bit of time? How
responsible are they going to bewith that money? Okay, they did
good will, you know, give themkind of like the second half? So
that's a great question.
Colton Cockerell (05:55):
The crazy thing is you never I mean, you
got to make that decision today.
Right? You, don't you you can'tpredict the future. So I want
to, I'm gonna tie off theguardianship. And there were so
many things. First, the freeBrittany epidemic that we had,
whenever that happens,believable. Second, I mean, I'm
all about states having power.
But man, you would think there'dbe some kind of system where
everything that important thateverything is working together,
(06:18):
but tying it all back around. Soin order to protect your kids
from something happening, andyou're out of the picture, and
you know what's best for them,and you're the one that's going
to decide where they're going togo, you need to obviously talk
to an Erin, Erin Callahanperson, an attorney, but also to
Erin Callahan (06:35):
a estate planning attorney, somebody who focuses
haveon this, like most of the time,
not somebody that does likebusiness law and bankruptcy,
and, you know, Family Law andEstate Planning, you want
somebody that's, you know, onlydoing, you know, estate planning
and probate.
Colton Cockerell (06:52):
That is a really good point. I'm glad you
made that. But just want to makesure our listeners understand in
order to be protected, you'resaying that they need a
declaration of guardianship toprotect their kids in case
something were the worst wouldhave happened to them and their
spouse, correct?
Erin Callahan (07:05):
Yes. So it's a separate form, that we're able
to do that in Texas, you arealso able to make that
designation in your will. It'sabout 50/50. It's just one of
those kind of like preferencethings. But yes, you need one or
the other, you need to make itin your will or you need to have
a separate form. Okay. Nice.
Yeah. And we recommend, like acouple other things, too. You
know, I always recommend to myfamilies that they kind of have
(07:29):
like a kiddo dossier. And weactually recommend this to pet
owners as well, is kind ofhaving like a one sheet of like,
all about your kids, like, whatmedication? Are they on? Who's
their doctor? You know, whereare where are the local family
members, if you're going out ona date, you know, this is the
kind of stuff you need to, youknow, share with a babysitter,
you know, what do they need,like, every night, you know,
(07:52):
maybe, you know, your kids areso young, and they have that
like, you know, stuffed animaland they're not going to go to
sleep without it, you know, itneeds to be on there. Anything
that's going to be critical. Ifsomething happens, it needs to
be kind of on that sheet if thatare allergic to anything, you
know, anything that is, is lifesaving, or you know, going to
make that difference in theirday to day it needs to be on
(08:14):
there.
Trisha Stetzel (08:16):
And that's my dog wants to sleep in my bed.
Erin Callahan (08:19):
Yeah. I mean, maybe I probably wouldn't put
that on there. Just because, youknow, I know that's true,
Trisha.
Colton Cockerell (08:28):
I think that again, you're you're making all
these great, you're making upquestions and having amazing
answers to them. I love it.
That's another great questionthat you brought up to answer
yourself. And that's fantastic.
This is this. Luke and Roseactually talked about pets. I
mean, I don't know what's goingon. You brought it up Trisha,
Trisha Stetzel (08:45):
Family, family and relationships. They're part
of our family. It's real.
Colton Cockerell (08:52):
For those that don't know, me and Erin work
together, she's she's great. AndI pick on her. So I'm not being
mean, I promise. So Erin, youactually had a great little
segue earlier, and we kind ofcut it off. You talked about
will so you can use guardianshipor declaration guardianship. And
that also is in the wills. Howimportant is it now that you're
protecting your kids? Howimportant is it to make sure
that your estate is now goingwhere you want it to go?
Erin Callahan (09:17):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's like even more
important, important after like,COVID. It's, it's something that
we're seeing, like a huge uptickin families, you know, wanting
to go ahead and have that plan.
And I think the hard part is,it's like that thing on the to
do list that can get moved tothe next day, and the next day,
because there's no timeline,right? There's no due day until
(09:37):
it's too late. And so what wetry to do is just help families
come up with a plan that's kindof specific to their family and
their interests and their goals.
So that if something were tohappen, then they have that, you
know, it kind of takes theweight off their shoulder to
know that they're not going tohave to worry about those
(09:58):
things, but it does take time.
As you know, it is somethingthat is an investment in your
future. And you know, you haveto give us all that information.
We can't do it without yourparticipation. And so we
understand everybody, you know,often can get in a busy season
of life. But, but yeah, it isreally important to have those
basic documents, you need tohave a will for sure. You know,
(10:19):
some people tell me Okay, well,like when do you not need a
will, right. And so I definitelyhave counseled people before
that, you know, don't have anyassets, don't have a car, don't
have a house don't really have abank account, you know, if
they're 18 years old, then theyprobably don't need a will at
that point in time. But they doneed other documents, you do
(10:41):
need to make sure that your youknow, medical power of attorney,
your healthcare directive, yourHIPAA authorization, all those
key medical documents are inplace, whether you're 18 or 89,
it doesn't matter.
Trisha Stetzel (10:56):
On those those documents, you know, as you
started talking about that Erin,and I've heard you say in the
past, that if you don't havethose documents in place, and
even if you have a young adultliving with you, alright,
someone who's in their 1920 21years old, you don't have access
(11:16):
to their medical records unlessyou have documents in place.
Erin Callahan (11:20):
Exactly. So it is. And so we saw a big issue
with COVID, we had a lot offamilies were hostile, where
families aren't able to go intothe hospital, they're not able
to verify identity. And by law,once you turn 18, your parents
no longer like you're an adult,you know, it's like true hashtag
adulting 101, for sure. And sowe always recommend that if you
(11:44):
still have kids living at home,or not, but you're still active
in their life, like very active,then you need they need to have
healthcare documents in place,so that you can at least help
them if something does happen ifsomething unfortunate happens.
So yeah, so we recommend thosefour, those three healthcare
documents that I you know,listed previously, and then a
financial power of attorney aswell. And then, so Colton,
(12:08):
you're talking about the theguardianship form, just like you
do that for minor children, youalso do that for yourself. And
it's to prevent against theBritney Spears situation. You
know, Britney didn't have thatdocument. I don't know exactly
what it's called in California,because I'm not licensed there.
But she didn't have that. So shedidn't get to pick who her
guardian or conservator in hersituation was. We do that for
(12:31):
everybody so that they get toactually pick who that person is
for themselves. So not just foryour kids, but who do you want
it to be for you? And so yeah,and then, you know, another
thing is, you just don't know,like, if you had a kiddo that
was missing or hurt, like with apower of attorney, you have
access to information faster,that you're not going to have
(12:51):
to, you know, the police aren'tgonna have to issue a subpoena,
you're not gonna have to gothrough all of the legal aspects
when you know, somebody is hurt,or, you know, missing or, you
know, just kind of like your anytype of like, legal issue, you
have more power because you'vebeen appointed agent.
Colton Cockerell (13:10):
Yeah, love it.
And we have about a minute left.
And I want to hit on thisbecause you also kind of touched
on a little bit, how much moreimportant because a lot of our
other people listening arebusiness owners. And they
actually, you know, they they'rea blended family, right? They,
they have kids from probablymultiple spouses. So what does
that look like and how much moreimportant is to make sure that
your house is in order? You getyour wills, power of attorneys
Erin Callahan (13:33):
Yeah, it's even more important. And I think
all that together?
that's probably one of the bigmisnomers out there. You know,
we have a lot of blendedfamilies. I'm from you know, my
husband, I have twostepdaughters. So I've been
through it myself, it'scompletely different. We have to
use more complex planning tools.
Because we want to protect notjust the kids, but the spouse.
(13:53):
So it's not as complicated ifyou ultimately don't
particularly care what happensto your assets, if you want to
give everything to your spouse.
And if they get remarried andthe money goes to the new
spouse. If you're fine withthat, then you don't necessarily
have you know, any extraconcern. But most of the time,
people want to make sure it goesto the spouse and then to their
(14:14):
kids when the spouse passesaway, or a second spouse.
Trisha Stetzel (14:17):
So, Colton, I know you said we only have a
minute, but I know we have 30seconds left because I have my
timer on. One more question.
Erin, how important is it asbusiness owners to make sure
that we have all of thesedocuments squared away because
we have a business?
Erin Callahan (14:33):
Yeah, it's even more important because you don't
want to put your spouse througha complex probate. You want to
make sure that you've goteverything lined up for them and
you're using password managersand you're organized and you
know you have a will and youaddress the who's going to get
the business and and Tricia, ifthere's multiple owners, you
they really need to go like runto an attorney's office. mean
(15:00):
that's okay. Just just just findan attorney as fast as possible.
Colton Cockerell (15:04):
In the future we're gonna talk to a business
attorney about that specificthing. So I mean, that's that's
spot on. Look at show you'relike for what's it called
foreshadowing that for whatever.
But anyway, we are close to thatmark. Erin, thank you so much
for being here today. It'salways a breath of fresh air
whenever I get to talk to youand see you so thank you for
being here. Trisha. Same goes.
(15:26):
thing.
Trisha Stetzel (15:27):
Yeah. Aaron, thank you so much for being
here, my friends. I can't waitto spend some time with you in
person. I know. I know. Allright.
No, he's not invited.
Erin Callahan (15:43):
I met separately, Trisha. Oh, okay. That's fine.
Trisha Stetzel (15:52):
All right. Thank you again, Erin, and tune in
next week for another excitingepisode of Bridge the Gap while
we we will be focused on familyand relationships for the month
of May. Next week we'll betalking with Kade Pierce Colton.
Colton Cockerell (16:06):
He is a youth pastor. So it's gonna be very
interesting.
Unknown (16:10):
Thanks again for tuning into this week's podcast. Don't
forget to subscribe and sharethis podcast with the most
important people in your life.
Colton Cockerell with SharerMcKinley Group, LLC is located
at 820 South Friendswood DriveSuite 207 Friendswood, Texas
77546 phone number to281-992-5698. Securities and
investment advisory servicesoffered through NEXT Financial
Group, Inc. member FINRA/SIPCSharer McKinley Group is not an
affiliate of NEXT FinancialGroup, Inc.
Hello and welcome to a another exciting
episode of Bridge the Gap wherewe're balancing life through
health, wealth, business andrelationships.
Hello everyone and welcome toanother week with that means
another exciting episode ofBridge the Gap is here and we
have an amazing guest but beforewe get to him, My name is Colt
(00:25):
get to him get to her. Before wedo My name is Colton Cockerell.
And I have my lovely co hostwith me who is putting her hands
on her head because she'sembarrassed already by me. And
that is the illustrious TriciaStetzel. Trisha. Hello,
Trisha Stetzel (00:39):
Colton. You know, it is another amazing
week. I'm pretty sure that'swhat you started with. It is it
is an amazing week. Hey,everybody, I'm so excited to be
here. Just as a reminder thismonth on the show, we're focused
on family and relationships. Sowe're going to talk be talking
about the importance of familyprotection through estate
(01:01):
planning. And who better to talkwith us about estate planning
than Erin Callahan with the LawOffice of Erin C Callahan. Erin,
welcome to the show.
Erin Callahan (01:12):
Well, thank you.
I'm so excited to be on theshow. Again. I'm looking forward
to it.
Colton Cockerell (01:16):
Yes. And I'm excited for you to experience
the new format. But before youexperience it, I gotta give a
shout out to our sponsor, whichis Sharer McKinley Group LLC.
All right, Erin, let's go aheadand jump on in because we're
gonna focus something onsomething, we're going to focus
on something that is veryimportant to many families, and
it kind of gets overlooked. Ithink that when I say that, I
(01:37):
mean, at the dinner table,people don't really talk about
this. And that is if somethingwere to happen to you, I you
still have young kids who arestill under the age of majority.
So what happens first, beforeyou give me the solution, what
happens if you go out to alovely dinner with your your
spouse, and the worst thing thatwon't happen? And you both pass
away in a car accident orsomething happens? What happens
(01:57):
to your kid now with the systemthat we have in place in
America?
Erin Callahan (02:03):
Yeah, great question. I mean, you know, the
S part of it is there's a veryreal chance that CPS could be
involved. So the first thingthey're going to do is they're
going to try to find family andfriends close by hopefully left
that with the trust tobabysitter. And it's, you know,
easy peasy and no big deal. Butif they cannot locate somebody,
(02:24):
they do call CPS. And so there'sa couple things that I know
we're going to talk about in alittle bit that we recommend to
try to kind of avoid thatsituation from ever happening.
Colton Cockerell (02:35):
And so what so what does that look kind of just
give me a bit more details therelike so who is responsible for
for naming. So again, you're youyou passed away, you didn't do
in your planning, who wasresponsible for now saying, Hey,
your kids will now be in thehands of X?
Erin Callahan (02:50):
Yeah, well, if you haven't worked with an
estate planning attorney, andyou haven't completed a
declaration of guardianshipform, your voice is not going to
be represented. So there's notgonna really be that control
over who that person is going tobe. So the judge is going to
look to family and friends, andwhoever puts up, you know, kind
(03:10):
of comes forward and wants toplay that role. You know, if you
say always, I'm always wanted mysister to do it, that's great.
But the judge doesn't have tofollow that the judge is going
to, you know, decide what's inthe best interest of the child,
and they might not have all theinformation available. Also,
another concern is, if you ifyou're kind of like on a second
(03:31):
marriage, and that kiddo had abiological parent that maybe
just isn't in the picture, or,you know, maybe they just
aren't, you know, going to be ithas to be pretty severe. But you
know, maybe they're not capableof being a parent, you need to
have that kind of backup plan inplace.
Colton Cockerell (03:47):
So important.
Trisha Stetzel (03:48):
So Erin, is it different in each state? So I
know you talk a lot about thestate of Texas and the way we
see things here, most of ourlisteners are in Texas, but not
all of them. So is it differentstate to state? Yes, so
absolutely. So unfortunately,our legal system is very unique,
(04:10):
and every single state isdifferent. So like, just for
example, in California, theytypically call it
conservatorship. If you think ofkind of like the Britney Spears
situation, it's similar. She hadto have a guardian over her
because she didn't havecapacity, but that was called a
conservator and aconservatorship in California.
And here in Texas, we typicallycall it guardianship. And so
(04:34):
yeah, so it does change wildly.
And same if you have a will ifyou have your will done and
Arizona and maybe you know, I'mnot saying that in Arizona, this
is the requirement but let'sjust say they only had one
person sign that will then youcould have issues with
presenting that here in Texaswhere we require two or
sometimes in Texas, if you takeyour will elsewhere, they might
require three and so yeah, itvaries wildly from state to
(04:57):
state. So if y ou move we are Ialways recommend seeing an
estate planning attorney.
I think there's so many beforewe get oh, sorry, Colton, before
we get too far down the road,because you guys speak the same
length, same language, and Idon't speak that language. What
is considered a minor in thestate of Texas?
Erin Callahan (05:15):
Yeah, well, I think that's a really good
question. So I mean, legally, ofcourse, it's somebody that's
going to be under 18. But thereality is, we probably don't
want 18 or 20 year olds makingsignificant decisions. When it
comes to assets. You know, wereally like to make sure they're
a little bit older, a little bitmore mature, you know, 25-30, I
personally am a fan of kind ofdoing like a half and half doing
(05:39):
kind of like, let's just say youhave $100,000 to leave that, you
know, 50,000 at 25 and 50,000.
At 30. You know, that way, theyhave a little bit of time? How
responsible are they going to bewith that money? Okay, they did
good will, you know, give themkind of like the second half? So
that's a great question.
Colton Cockerell (05:55):
The crazy thing is you never I mean, you
got to make that decision today.
Right? You, don't you you can'tpredict the future. So I want
to, I'm gonna tie off theguardianship. And there were so
many things. First, the freeBrittany epidemic that we had,
whenever that happens,believable. Second, I mean, I'm
all about states having power.
But man, you would think there'dbe some kind of system where
everything that important thateverything is working together,
(06:18):
but tying it all back around. Soin order to protect your kids
from something happening, andyou're out of the picture, and
you know what's best for them,and you're the one that's going
to decide where they're going togo, you need to obviously talk
to an Erin, Erin Callahanperson, an attorney, but also to
Erin Callahan (06:35):
a estate planning attorney, somebody who focuses
haveon this, like most of the time,
not somebody that does likebusiness law and bankruptcy,
and, you know, Family Law andEstate Planning, you want
somebody that's, you know, onlydoing, you know, estate planning
and probate.
Colton Cockerell (06:52):
That is a really good point. I'm glad you
made that. But just want to makesure our listeners understand in
order to be protected, you'resaying that they need a
declaration of guardianship toprotect their kids in case
something were the worst wouldhave happened to them and their
spouse, correct?
Erin Callahan (07:05):
Yes. So it's a separate form, that we're able
to do that in Texas, you arealso able to make that
designation in your will. It'sabout 50/50. It's just one of
those kind of like preferencethings. But yes, you need one or
the other, you need to make itin your will or you need to have
a separate form. Okay. Nice.
Yeah. And we recommend, like acouple other things, too. You
know, I always recommend to myfamilies that they kind of have
(07:29):
like a kiddo dossier. And weactually recommend this to pet
owners as well, is kind ofhaving like a one sheet of like,
all about your kids, like, whatmedication? Are they on? Who's
their doctor? You know, whereare where are the local family
members, if you're going out ona date, you know, this is the
kind of stuff you need to, youknow, share with a babysitter,
you know, what do they need,like, every night, you know,
(07:52):
maybe, you know, your kids areso young, and they have that
like, you know, stuffed animaland they're not going to go to
sleep without it, you know, itneeds to be on there. Anything
that's going to be critical. Ifsomething happens, it needs to
be kind of on that sheet if thatare allergic to anything, you
know, anything that is, is lifesaving, or you know, going to
make that difference in theirday to day it needs to be on
(08:14):
there.
Trisha Stetzel (08:16):
And that's my dog wants to sleep in my bed.
Erin Callahan (08:19):
Yeah. I mean, maybe I probably wouldn't put
that on there. Just because, youknow, I know that's true,
Trisha.
Colton Cockerell (08:28):
I think that again, you're you're making all
these great, you're making upquestions and having amazing
answers to them. I love it.
That's another great questionthat you brought up to answer
yourself. And that's fantastic.
This is this. Luke and Roseactually talked about pets. I
mean, I don't know what's goingon. You brought it up Trisha,
Trisha Stetzel (08:45):
Family, family and relationships. They're part
of our family. It's real.
Colton Cockerell (08:52):
For those that don't know, me and Erin work
together, she's she's great. AndI pick on her. So I'm not being
mean, I promise. So Erin, youactually had a great little
segue earlier, and we kind ofcut it off. You talked about
will so you can use guardianshipor declaration guardianship. And
that also is in the wills. Howimportant is it now that you're
protecting your kids? Howimportant is it to make sure
that your estate is now goingwhere you want it to go?
Erin Callahan (09:17):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's like even more
important, important after like,COVID. It's, it's something that
we're seeing, like a huge uptickin families, you know, wanting
to go ahead and have that plan.
And I think the hard part is,it's like that thing on the to
do list that can get moved tothe next day, and the next day,
because there's no timeline,right? There's no due day until
(09:37):
it's too late. And so what wetry to do is just help families
come up with a plan that's kindof specific to their family and
their interests and their goals.
So that if something were tohappen, then they have that, you
know, it kind of takes theweight off their shoulder to
know that they're not going tohave to worry about those
(09:58):
things, but it does take time.
As you know, it is somethingthat is an investment in your
future. And you know, you haveto give us all that information.
We can't do it without yourparticipation. And so we
understand everybody, you know,often can get in a busy season
of life. But, but yeah, it isreally important to have those
basic documents, you need tohave a will for sure. You know,
(10:19):
some people tell me Okay, well,like when do you not need a
will, right. And so I definitelyhave counseled people before
that, you know, don't have anyassets, don't have a car, don't
have a house don't really have abank account, you know, if
they're 18 years old, then theyprobably don't need a will at
that point in time. But they doneed other documents, you do
(10:41):
need to make sure that your youknow, medical power of attorney,
your healthcare directive, yourHIPAA authorization, all those
key medical documents are inplace, whether you're 18 or 89,
it doesn't matter.
Trisha Stetzel (10:56):
On those those documents, you know, as you
started talking about that Erin,and I've heard you say in the
past, that if you don't havethose documents in place, and
even if you have a young adultliving with you, alright,
someone who's in their 1920 21years old, you don't have access
(11:16):
to their medical records unlessyou have documents in place.
Erin Callahan (11:20):
Exactly. So it is. And so we saw a big issue
with COVID, we had a lot offamilies were hostile, where
families aren't able to go intothe hospital, they're not able
to verify identity. And by law,once you turn 18, your parents
no longer like you're an adult,you know, it's like true hashtag
adulting 101, for sure. And sowe always recommend that if you
(11:44):
still have kids living at home,or not, but you're still active
in their life, like very active,then you need they need to have
healthcare documents in place,so that you can at least help
them if something does happen ifsomething unfortunate happens.
So yeah, so we recommend thosefour, those three healthcare
documents that I you know,listed previously, and then a
financial power of attorney aswell. And then, so Colton,
(12:08):
you're talking about the theguardianship form, just like you
do that for minor children, youalso do that for yourself. And
it's to prevent against theBritney Spears situation. You
know, Britney didn't have thatdocument. I don't know exactly
what it's called in California,because I'm not licensed there.
But she didn't have that. So shedidn't get to pick who her
guardian or conservator in hersituation was. We do that for
(12:31):
everybody so that they get toactually pick who that person is
for themselves. So not just foryour kids, but who do you want
it to be for you? And so yeah,and then, you know, another
thing is, you just don't know,like, if you had a kiddo that
was missing or hurt, like with apower of attorney, you have
access to information faster,that you're not going to have
(12:51):
to, you know, the police aren'tgonna have to issue a subpoena,
you're not gonna have to gothrough all of the legal aspects
when you know, somebody is hurt,or, you know, missing or, you
know, just kind of like your anytype of like, legal issue, you
have more power because you'vebeen appointed agent.
Colton Cockerell (13:10):
Yeah, love it.
And we have about a minute left.
And I want to hit on thisbecause you also kind of touched
on a little bit, how much moreimportant because a lot of our
other people listening arebusiness owners. And they
actually, you know, they they'rea blended family, right? They,
they have kids from probablymultiple spouses. So what does
that look like and how much moreimportant is to make sure that
your house is in order? You getyour wills, power of attorneys
Erin Callahan (13:33):
Yeah, it's even more important. And I think
all that together?
that's probably one of the bigmisnomers out there. You know,
we have a lot of blendedfamilies. I'm from you know, my
husband, I have twostepdaughters. So I've been
through it myself, it'scompletely different. We have to
use more complex planning tools.
Because we want to protect notjust the kids, but the spouse.
(13:53):
So it's not as complicated ifyou ultimately don't
particularly care what happensto your assets, if you want to
give everything to your spouse.
And if they get remarried andthe money goes to the new
spouse. If you're fine withthat, then you don't necessarily
have you know, any extraconcern. But most of the time,
people want to make sure it goesto the spouse and then to their
(14:14):
kids when the spouse passesaway, or a second spouse.
Trisha Stetzel (14:17):
So, Colton, I know you said we only have a
minute, but I know we have 30seconds left because I have my
timer on. One more question.
Erin, how important is it asbusiness owners to make sure
that we have all of thesedocuments squared away because
we have a business?
Erin Callahan (14:33):
Yeah, it's even more important because you don't
want to put your spouse througha complex probate. You want to
make sure that you've goteverything lined up for them and
you're using password managersand you're organized and you
know you have a will and youaddress the who's going to get
the business and and Tricia, ifthere's multiple owners, you
they really need to go like runto an attorney's office. mean
(15:00):
that's okay. Just just just findan attorney as fast as possible.
Colton Cockerell (15:04):
In the future we're gonna talk to a business
attorney about that specificthing. So I mean, that's that's
spot on. Look at show you'relike for what's it called
foreshadowing that for whatever.
But anyway, we are close to thatmark. Erin, thank you so much
for being here today. It'salways a breath of fresh air
whenever I get to talk to youand see you so thank you for
being here. Trisha. Same goes.
(15:26):
thing.
Trisha Stetzel (15:27):
Yeah. Aaron, thank you so much for being
here, my friends. I can't waitto spend some time with you in
person. I know. I know. Allright.
No, he's not invited.
Erin Callahan (15:43):
I met separately, Trisha. Oh, okay. That's fine.
Trisha Stetzel (15:52):
All right. Thank you again, Erin, and tune in
next week for another excitingepisode of Bridge the Gap while
we we will be focused on familyand relationships for the month
of May. Next week we'll betalking with Kade Pierce Colton.
Colton Cockerell (16:06):
He is a youth pastor. So it's gonna be very
interesting.
Unknown (16:10):
Thanks again for tuning into this week's podcast. Don't
forget to subscribe and sharethis podcast with the most
important people in your life.
Colton Cockerell with SharerMcKinley Group, LLC is located
at 820 South Friendswood DriveSuite 207 Friendswood, Texas
77546 phone number to281-992-5698. Securities and
investment advisory servicesoffered through NEXT Financial
Group, Inc. member FINRA/SIPCSharer McKinley Group is not an
affiliate of NEXT FinancialGroup, Inc.
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