November 1, 2023 • 31 mins
Ever wonder what happens to your wealth after you're no longer there to manage it?
If you're among many families in the US feeling uneasy about their estate plans, this is the episode for you! Join us as we sit down with renowned estate planning expert Steve Boss, shedding light on the importance and intricacies of setting up an estate plan. Steve has been in the estate planning industry for over 40 years.
Discover how proper planning gives you more privacy, time, money, and control over your assets. Also, hear Ed Butowsky's journey of estate planning and why Steve was the ideal choice. As a bonus, mentioning our podcast will snag you a whopping $500 discount on a consultation with Steve!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Making Sense podcast is recorded by Chaplain
Investments managing partner, edButowski and Jordan McFarland.
If you have any questions,please email them to info at
chaplaininvestmentscom.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Making Sense with Ed
Butowski podcast.
This is episode five, Ed.
How are we doing today, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Doing great.
I'm looking forward to theweekend.
I'm going to do absolutelynothing.
This weekend had a busy week,so I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Those are the best weekends.
Well, Ed, we are joined by anexpert in estate planning today,
and folks will get thatinterview to you here in just
about five minutes.
We just wanted to recap andprime your appetite.
Maybe serve as the appetizerfor the meal.
On estate planning Ed, I knowthat you're actually going
through the estate planningprocess right now.
(00:54):
I guess I just want to give youan open-ended question of what
led you to do that and how it'sbeen going.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
What led me to do it was my wife kept harping on me
about do we need a trust?
Because our friends had trust.
We went to one estate attorneyand he said you don't need to
have a trust.
Then everyone kept telling usno, we need one, we need one.
We got a hold of this gentleman, steve Boss, who came highly
(01:21):
recommended.
We talked to him and hethoroughly convinced us that we
needed to have a trust.
My wife thinks I'm going to dievery soon and she's got her life
insurance in place.
That's one thing for sure.
I think she's planning on medying soon.
(01:42):
Hopefully that won't happen.
But that's what really led medown this path.
I wanted to have Steve on ourpodcast to go through some of
the pitfalls about estateplanning and how to avoid some
of the issues that might havecome up.
(02:02):
Even with someone like me who'sin the wealth management space
but didn't really understand thebenefit of a trust and why
people need them and all thedifferent kinds of trust.
I think people are going toenjoy this interview that we did
with him.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Absolutely.
One of the first reasons thatSteve actually mentions is that
people normally don't likedealing with their own mortality
.
It's good to see, Ed, that youdon't have an issue bringing
that to light.
I definitely agree that thiswas a helpful podcast Listeners.
I know that estate planningmight not be the most fun topic
on earth, but it is extremelyimportant.
(02:40):
I really boiled it down to acouple of benefits almost
immediately that you can receivefrom setting up a trust and
from working with an estateattorney.
It all comes down to moreprivacy, more time, more money,
more control.
That is not the background of aevil dictator in a bad movie.
That is what you could get andbeing able to set up an estate
(03:03):
trust.
Steve also did offer our guestsof the show who mentioned our
name $500 off a consultationwith him.
We don't have any say in amatter.
We don't make any money fromtelling you about Steve.
We just think he's a great guy.
We think he's been doing this along time and knows what he's
talking about.
Hey, money matters.
(03:23):
$500 off, Ed.
What was your takeaway from ourconversation with Steve?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, I think he is exactly the kind of person you
want as an estate attorney.
He is very knowledgeable,understands things, can talk
about anything, very empatheticand does not charge a lot of
money.
I can tell you that right now.
But this isn't a commercial forSteve, but we do want to
(03:53):
highlight a little bit about him, so why don't we go to the
podcast now?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
We've got a very special guest with us today.
I'm going to give him anintroduction here in a second,
but we've got Steve Boss andthen, as always, ed Butowski.
First, steve, how are we doingtoday, sir?
Just fine, jordan, awesome, ed,I know you got to be doing well
, it's Friday, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I'm looking forward to a nice weekend.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Awesome, awesome, ed.
I'm sorry to tell you a note, atrivia question.
Today we're going to save thisspot for an intro for Steve.
So for those of you who don'tknow Steve, steve holds a
Bachelor of Science in AerospaceEngineering with honors from
the University of Texas.
Beyond academics, he excelledas a three-year varsity
letterman in swimming and waterpolo, where he served as the
(04:39):
team captain.
He was an NCAA All-American,the MVP at the University of
Texas, and he won theprestigious Chester A Nagel
Sportsmanship Award.
Steve was then elected to theUniversity of Texas Swimming
Hall of Honor.
Steve then obtained his JD fromthe University of Southern
California at Gould School ofLaw and went on to receive
recognition in both national andinternational ways.
(05:02):
He's currently a member of theState Bar of Texas, the State
Bar of California, the AmericanBar Association, with admission
to practice before the SupremeCourt of the United States.
That's a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Steve, I did not know that.
Did you know, rick Carey?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Oh yes.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
So, rick and I, when I was much younger, I beat him
when we were nine years old andswimming, but never again, never
again.
He went on and won gold medalsin the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
You're saying that many people beat him.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah.
So, steve, we're delighted tohave you here.
For those of you listening andwatching, when you first hear
about estate planning, it soundslike boring stuff.
There's just no two ways aboutit.
I saw recently that 88% offamilies are not comfortable
(06:00):
having the documents set up theright way, that there's only 22%
of people that we work withthat are comfortable with the
documents, their wills, theirestate and everything set up
right.
So there's a huge need for whatyou do, steve, and so I really
just want to talk a little bitabout the importance of it.
(06:21):
You're actually doing my stuffright now, and you did a great
job with it, and I wanted tohighlight you here today talking
a little bit about estateplanning and some of the
pitfalls that people make, andwhy is it that so many people
avoid doing what they know theyneed to be doing?
Speaker 4 (06:42):
We find that, ok, erica Kneed for theantly
Disabled.
The prime reluctance is peoplenot wanting to deal with their
own mortality.
And the second issue is theythink that it's a big chore and
there's just too much workinvolved and it's going to take
too much time.
And the last thing is probablyreluctant to incur another
(07:06):
expense.
It's really not that expensivecompared to what happens in the
long run.
To go ahead and do your estateplan now and we have a process
in the system that you've beenthrough at that really takes the
(07:30):
burden off the client to spenda lot of time and effort doing
it.
So I just mentioned when westarted to you.
Your documents are essentiallyready now and the next step is
(07:50):
to arrange the signing.
And it all starts with theprocess where we try to empower
our clients with the knowledgethat they need to make the best
decisions for their familysituation today so that somebody
else doesn't make thosedecisions for them at some point
in the future, like a judge ina probate court.
(08:13):
And so we start with a meetingthat does that, and if
everything we do is on a fixedprice basis that we quote in
advance, and if the clientagrees, we proceed in that
meeting to actually design theplan and then in about three or
(08:34):
four weeks the documents areready for signing and the
clients come in and their planis ready and the documents
become effective when they sign.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Now there's a number of things that can be set up to
benefit people while they'realive it's not all about when
they die and there's some prettysophisticated trusts and
techniques.
Can you explain a few of thosewhere people can use this for
their tax benefits today?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Well, there's certain types of trust that can be used
for tax benefits.
There's what's called acharitable remainder trust that
allows charitable deductionstoday against income.
(09:29):
But, by and large, the bigbenefit that a plan today does
while a person is still aliveespecially if you have a plan
based on trust is that it takescare of a client in the event of
(09:52):
incapacity, whereas a willdoesn't take effect if somebody
actually dies.
You can actually make decisionsregarding how you are treated
and the care you get and yourcomfort level and numerous other
(10:14):
issues that arise, if in theevent of dementia or Alzheimer's
, which is getting to be moreand more of an issue as we have
an aging population.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Stephen, if I could add on there, I know a lot of
times when we speak with folksand we mentioned estate planning
, they kind of give us the yeah,no thanks, already have a will.
Can you kind of give us thedifference between a will and a
trust?
And and I know that kind of theobvious answer is everyone
might have this, depending onyou know whether they already
have it.
But just kind of being able todefine the difference between
(10:47):
the two of those.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Well, a lot of people think of a will as a be all-in
dog.
I've got a will, it's justgoing to happen.
What they don't realize and alot of people don't concentrate
on is the fact that a will inand of itself does not do that.
It has to go through probate tobe effective.
(11:10):
I had a law professor thatdescribed probate as a lawsuit
you file against yourself withyour own money for the benefit
of your creditors, and it'sprecisely that.
And you've got to go throughprobate, which, at the same time
you're dealing with the deathof a loved one, is an additional
(11:31):
burden.
And and it's not easy and theother thing, because it is in
fact a lawsuit it allows peopleto intervene that have griped
with what's in the will, what isprobate.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
What is this?
We talk about all the time, butwhat is probate?
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Well, think about it this way I think most people are
familiar with the power ofattorney, and one of the state
documents you need while you'realive is a power attorney that
if something happens to you,like you're in an accident, in
an anacoma, or you do getdementia and can't make
(12:21):
decisions for yourself, you'vealready appointed an agent to do
things for you to pay yourbills, to manage your bank
account and do a variety ofother things.
The problem with the power ofattorney is that it terminates
when somebody dies.
So who makes decisions for you?
(12:43):
Supposing you own a house andyour beneficiaries' heirs want
to sell it, well, there's nobodyto transfer title.
So what probate does is it isthe court's blessing of
designating somebody.
In the case of a will, you namean executor and it essentially
(13:06):
gives that executor the power ofattorney for the deceit, and so
they can sell property and theycan collect debts, they can do
all the necessary things to asif the person were still here.
Otherwise there's nobody tofill that role.
And so probate you file, theexecutor would file an
(13:29):
application for probate of awill and the issuance of what's
called letters testamentary, andthere, as I said earlier,
there's a lot of noticerequirements, where you have to
notify creditors, mortgagecompanies, you have to post
notice so that others can bemade aware of the fact that this
(13:55):
individual has died and and ifthey have a claim against the
estate years, who they need tocontact to resolve it.
And so the the attorney filesthe application, you wait for
the certain notice periods andthis all costs money, which is
(14:22):
not cheap.
It's a lot cheaper in Texasthan it is in many other states,
but it's still looking at three, four, five thousand dollars to
probate in the state.
You finally get all the noticerequirements resolved.
You go to court in front of ajudge and the executor answers
(14:45):
certain questions to that arerequired according to Texas
estate code and those are on therecord.
If the judge agrees witheverything, he issues a.
An order issue for issuance ofletters testamentary, which you
(15:05):
then go down to the countyclerk's office and and collect
them for a small fee, and thatgives the executor the legal
authority that needs to he orshe needs to have.
You still have to do a few morethings with the will.
You have to file an inventoryof the assets of the estate and
(15:28):
you have to file a certainaffidavits indicate you legally
complied with all the noticerequirements and then your
executor is in charge withmarshalling all the assets, put
them into an estate bank accountand then distributing the
(15:53):
assets as the will provides.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
So, Steve, if I could kind of summarize the benefits
of setting up a trust so thatyou can bypass probate, it
sounds like okay.
Fees are one, maybe two wouldjust be complexity.
You can kind of pass overhaving to do all the issues with
time, with things like that.
Maybe emotional damage, right,you typically mentioned that
(16:16):
this is directly after someonepasses.
Does that sound like three goodones that you could mention in
terms of benefits?
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Oh, easily.
There's many more and, like Isaid earlier, a will doesn't
take effect until somebodyactually passes away.
A trust exists today and ifyou're incapacitated, whether
through an accident or illness,it starts to work.
(16:47):
With a trust, you don't have togo through probate, and one of
the examples I tend to use is weget clients to come in here
because a loved one has died andsaid my dad died.
He told me he was going to takecare of everything and
(17:09):
nothing's been done.
So what do I do from here?
And that's a case where theremight not even be a will, which
is a whole different discussion.
But with a trust, nothinghappens.
Nothing has to happen forthings to just go on normally
(17:32):
and be taken care of.
It's usually the analogy oflike being, when the CEO of
General Motors dies, retires,quits and a replacement is named
(17:55):
and that person has all thepowers and authorities of the
office of the CEO.
Well, trust is the same way.
The trust we use generally, thetrustor, the person creating
the trust, becomes the trusteeto manage all the assets while
he or she is alive.
(18:15):
But when they are incapacitatedor died, they've already named
their successor, who justautomatically steps in and has
all the authority that they needto manage that person's affairs
.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And Steve, is there a way that you have this kind of
a high-level breakdown of thedifferent types of trusts and
what scenarios you've typicallyseen when each is best for?
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Well, the standard revocable living trust is kind
of the, and, probably withwhat's called a disclaimer trust
, is the so-called Swiss ArmyKnife of Trust Planning.
And then there's somevariations on that.
(19:00):
There's things that, forexample, there's what's called a
Q-TIP Trust Qualified TerminalInterest Trust and one of the
things that does is, if you'vegot a blended family, for
example, the typical trust willbetween with a husband and wife.
(19:28):
If the family has children ofthat marriage and each spouse
may have a child or two of aprevious marriage, the trust the
married couple enters the trustlife goes on until one of them
(19:50):
dies.
The surviving spouse then getsmost of the benefits of the
trust.
But technically, because Texasis a community property state,
the trust splits into two thesurviving spouse's community
(20:11):
property interest and thedeceased spouse's community
property interest as long witheach of their separate
properties.
Well, if you do nothing and thesurviving spouse just leaves
that trust as is, that worksfine.
But for the fact that if thesurviving spouse decides to
(20:36):
remarry or they can change thebeneficiary designations to cut
out the deceased spouse's heirs,well, one of the things you can
do with this type of trust isyou can actually freeze the
(21:01):
deceased spouse's assets so thatthey can't be changed.
Now the surviving spouse canlive off the income from not
only his or her half that shegets, he or she gets, but also
the income from the deceasedspouse's assets.
But they can't change thecorpus and its ultimate
(21:25):
beneficiaries.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
That would be a problem.
Is that a common occurrencethat you see coming up with a
lot of these cases?
Is that it kind of I don't wantto say splits families, but it
really does cause some heatamongst family members?
Yes, I just wanted you to knowthe details of that in this
video.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah, it's always a concern and there's we get
clients that are totally notconcerned about it because they
have.
Maybe they're a little bitolder, the kids are all grown up
and their relationship is solidand they don't worry about it.
(22:05):
In some younger marriages it'ssomething that definitely is a
concern but, like I say, there'sa solution and it makes
everybody comfortable.
When they make that decision atthe beginning, they know what
the deal is going to be as oneor the other passes away.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So let's go ahead.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
We have a situation in our family that a lot of
people listening right now mighthave, where our daughter's
going to marry somebody andwe're concerned that he will
have and I know he's going tolisten to this, but he's going
to have access that after mywife and I are gone, that we
(22:56):
don't want him to have theability to take over the money
that we leave to our daughter.
So we're concerned about thatsituation.
I just thought I'd throw thatout there.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Yeah, well, there's a way to address that concern is
that one option that we offer isthat the heirs inherit the
assets from the parent in what'scalled a lifetime asset
(23:32):
protection trust.
Now, lifetime asset protectiontrusts are with a secure year
from having creditor issuesattaching those assets, and so
(23:55):
states, including Texas, don'tallow them to happen.
For an individual to create one.
There are some states now thatdo allow it, but you've got some
bankruptcy laws that preventtransfers within a certain
period of time prior to deathand things like that.
(24:17):
But, like I say, texas doesn'tallow them.
But the type of trust we'retalking about is not a
self-settled or a self-createdtrust.
It's one that's created by theparent in their estate planning
and it goes into an irrevocabletrust so that only the heir of
(24:43):
the parent has access to it.
In the event of a divorce, theother spouse cannot claim any
part of that trust, andcreditors can't either.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Well, so I think what's obvious is everybody
needs to have a conversationwith an estate attorney like
Steve Boss.
We selected you and we're very,very happy with how the
onboarding process and the pricewas perfect, and I just really
(25:26):
believe that, based on thispodcast and this webinar, that
everyone needs to really takemore seriously what they're
going to be doing while they'realive to make it easier for
their heirs later on in life,and I encourage everybody to
reach out to Steve and give hima jingle and give him a shot at
(25:52):
winning your business.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, and I would second that.
I mean I was just writing down.
I'm always thinking about thebenefits of something, right?
So if something can get me moreprivacy, more time, more money,
more control over something, Ithink it's going to be at least
worth the conversation.
To second Steve's work, you canfind him at stevenbosslawcom.
He's obviously mentioned howthat process works.
(26:16):
But last question for you,steve let's say I'm somewhere in
my late 40s and early 50s.
I have a large estate and all Ihave is a will, or maybe I just
need to figure out what's goingon.
I know a lot of times peoplejust need to get their whole
picture under control.
Talk me through what I shoulddo next in terms of getting a
hold of an attorney likeyourself and going from there.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Well, in our case and I'm sure there's other
attorneys that are fairlysimilar, but a lot or not we
start with a consultation thatwe call a family wealth planning
session, which has nothing todo with financial planning or
wealth manage, but it's lookingat your assets and, again, the
(27:02):
purpose is to empower you withthe knowledge you need to make
the best decisions on an estateplan today, so they aren't made
by a judge later.
Clients come into our officefor that session.
We collect some informationfrom them about the nature of
(27:23):
their assets and their familysituation and there's absolutely
no obligation at that point intime until we go through what we
can do for them and they agreethat we offer them a, give them
(27:45):
a price and anybody thatmentions this podcast or adds
their involvement with that.
We give a $500 discount on anytrust plan that they select from
us and, like I said, that takesabout an hour where they can
(28:12):
make up their mind that yes,this is something we want to do
and we agree on the price.
And then we continue on foranother 45 minutes or so,
however long it takes toactually design the plan, and
the client goes home and if theyhave any concerns or questions
(28:35):
or anything they can call us inany time.
No additional charges, becauseonce they agree to the fixed
price, they pay half then andthe other half when all the
documents are signed.
And as soon as we have thedocuments ready, we schedule a
(28:59):
signing Now if they selected atrust plan.
There's one other thing that'svery important, and that is for
a trust to work, assets have tobe legally titled in the name of
the trust, and so we willassist in that transfer.
We will take care of anypersonal residents in Texas.
(29:22):
We'll do that transfer for them.
We provide our clients withwhat we call a trust funding kit
, which gives you Word documentsof letters you'd send to your
banks, your mortgage company,your financial planner, and what
to ask for and what type ofdocuments to request to make
(29:45):
sure the ownership or thebeneficiary designations are
correct, and we help every stepof the way with that, as well as
all part of the fixed fee.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
That's wonderful.
I'm looking forward to thatAbsolutely.
Steve, thank you so much forbeing a guest today and I hope
people take confidence from yourwords and knowing how much you
know about this and hopefullythis will be the beginning of a
(30:23):
good relationship with somebodylistening right now.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Jordan, absolutely.
To add to that, steve can bereached at stevenbosslawcom.
Again, their phone number is214-382-3342.
And I don't think we evenmentioned it's also very
important to keep your estateand everything updated as well.
Laws often change.
There's changes coming aroundthe corner, so also just want to
add in that detail as well.
(30:49):
But, like Ed said, thanks foryour time, steve.
It's been great talking withyou and look forward to talking
to you in the future.
Thank you, guys.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
The Making Sense podcast is recorded by Chaplain
Investments' managing partner,ed Butoskey and Jordan McFarlane
.
If you have any questions,please email them to info at
chaplaininvestmentscom.
This podcast contains generalinformation that may not be
suitable for everyone.
The information containedherein should not be construed
as personalized investmentadvice.
(31:19):
Past performance is noguarantee of future results.
There is no guarantee that theviews and opinions expressed in
this podcast will come to pass.
Investing in the stock marketinvolves gains and losses and
may not be suitable for allinvestors.
Information presented herein issubject to change without
notice and should not beconsidered as a solicitation to
buy or sell any security.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Chaplain Investments does not offer legal or tax
advice.
Please consult the appropriateprofessional regarding your
individual circumstance.
The Making Sense podcast is recorded by Chaplain
Investments managing partner, edButowski and Jordan McFarland.
If you have any questions,please email them to info at
chaplaininvestmentscom.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Making Sense with Ed
Butowski podcast.
This is episode five, Ed.
How are we doing today, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Doing great.
I'm looking forward to theweekend.
I'm going to do absolutelynothing.
This weekend had a busy week,so I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Those are the best weekends.
Well, Ed, we are joined by anexpert in estate planning today,
and folks will get thatinterview to you here in just
about five minutes.
We just wanted to recap andprime your appetite.
Maybe serve as the appetizerfor the meal.
On estate planning Ed, I knowthat you're actually going
through the estate planningprocess right now.
(00:54):
I guess I just want to give youan open-ended question of what
led you to do that and how it'sbeen going.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
What led me to do it was my wife kept harping on me
about do we need a trust?
Because our friends had trust.
We went to one estate attorneyand he said you don't need to
have a trust.
Then everyone kept telling usno, we need one, we need one.
We got a hold of this gentleman, steve Boss, who came highly
(01:21):
recommended.
We talked to him and hethoroughly convinced us that we
needed to have a trust.
My wife thinks I'm going to dievery soon and she's got her life
insurance in place.
That's one thing for sure.
I think she's planning on medying soon.
(01:42):
Hopefully that won't happen.
But that's what really led medown this path.
I wanted to have Steve on ourpodcast to go through some of
the pitfalls about estateplanning and how to avoid some
of the issues that might havecome up.
(02:02):
Even with someone like me who'sin the wealth management space
but didn't really understand thebenefit of a trust and why
people need them and all thedifferent kinds of trust.
I think people are going toenjoy this interview that we did
with him.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Absolutely.
One of the first reasons thatSteve actually mentions is that
people normally don't likedealing with their own mortality
.
It's good to see, Ed, that youdon't have an issue bringing
that to light.
I definitely agree that thiswas a helpful podcast Listeners.
I know that estate planningmight not be the most fun topic
on earth, but it is extremelyimportant.
(02:40):
I really boiled it down to acouple of benefits almost
immediately that you can receivefrom setting up a trust and
from working with an estateattorney.
It all comes down to moreprivacy, more time, more money,
more control.
That is not the background of aevil dictator in a bad movie.
That is what you could get andbeing able to set up an estate
(03:03):
trust.
Steve also did offer our guestsof the show who mentioned our
name $500 off a consultationwith him.
We don't have any say in amatter.
We don't make any money fromtelling you about Steve.
We just think he's a great guy.
We think he's been doing this along time and knows what he's
talking about.
Hey, money matters.
(03:23):
$500 off, Ed.
What was your takeaway from ourconversation with Steve?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, I think he is exactly the kind of person you
want as an estate attorney.
He is very knowledgeable,understands things, can talk
about anything, very empatheticand does not charge a lot of
money.
I can tell you that right now.
But this isn't a commercial forSteve, but we do want to
(03:53):
highlight a little bit about him, so why don't we go to the
podcast now?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
We've got a very special guest with us today.
I'm going to give him anintroduction here in a second,
but we've got Steve Boss andthen, as always, ed Butowski.
First, steve, how are we doingtoday, sir?
Just fine, jordan, awesome, ed,I know you got to be doing well
, it's Friday, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I'm looking forward to a nice weekend.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Awesome, awesome, ed.
I'm sorry to tell you a note, atrivia question.
Today we're going to save thisspot for an intro for Steve.
So for those of you who don'tknow Steve, steve holds a
Bachelor of Science in AerospaceEngineering with honors from
the University of Texas.
Beyond academics, he excelledas a three-year varsity
letterman in swimming and waterpolo, where he served as the
(04:39):
team captain.
He was an NCAA All-American,the MVP at the University of
Texas, and he won theprestigious Chester A Nagel
Sportsmanship Award.
Steve was then elected to theUniversity of Texas Swimming
Hall of Honor.
Steve then obtained his JD fromthe University of Southern
California at Gould School ofLaw and went on to receive
recognition in both national andinternational ways.
(05:02):
He's currently a member of theState Bar of Texas, the State
Bar of California, the AmericanBar Association, with admission
to practice before the SupremeCourt of the United States.
That's a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Steve, I did not know that.
Did you know, rick Carey?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Oh yes.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
So, rick and I, when I was much younger, I beat him
when we were nine years old andswimming, but never again, never
again.
He went on and won gold medalsin the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
You're saying that many people beat him.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah.
So, steve, we're delighted tohave you here.
For those of you listening andwatching, when you first hear
about estate planning, it soundslike boring stuff.
There's just no two ways aboutit.
I saw recently that 88% offamilies are not comfortable
(06:00):
having the documents set up theright way, that there's only 22%
of people that we work withthat are comfortable with the
documents, their wills, theirestate and everything set up
right.
So there's a huge need for whatyou do, steve, and so I really
just want to talk a little bitabout the importance of it.
(06:21):
You're actually doing my stuffright now, and you did a great
job with it, and I wanted tohighlight you here today talking
a little bit about estateplanning and some of the
pitfalls that people make, andwhy is it that so many people
avoid doing what they know theyneed to be doing?
Speaker 4 (06:42):
We find that, ok, erica Kneed for theantly
Disabled.
The prime reluctance is peoplenot wanting to deal with their
own mortality.
And the second issue is theythink that it's a big chore and
there's just too much workinvolved and it's going to take
too much time.
And the last thing is probablyreluctant to incur another
(07:06):
expense.
It's really not that expensivecompared to what happens in the
long run.
To go ahead and do your estateplan now and we have a process
in the system that you've beenthrough at that really takes the
(07:30):
burden off the client to spenda lot of time and effort doing
it.
So I just mentioned when westarted to you.
Your documents are essentiallyready now and the next step is
(07:50):
to arrange the signing.
And it all starts with theprocess where we try to empower
our clients with the knowledgethat they need to make the best
decisions for their familysituation today so that somebody
else doesn't make thosedecisions for them at some point
in the future, like a judge ina probate court.
(08:13):
And so we start with a meetingthat does that, and if
everything we do is on a fixedprice basis that we quote in
advance, and if the clientagrees, we proceed in that
meeting to actually design theplan and then in about three or
(08:34):
four weeks the documents areready for signing and the
clients come in and their planis ready and the documents
become effective when they sign.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Now there's a number of things that can be set up to
benefit people while they'realive it's not all about when
they die and there's some prettysophisticated trusts and
techniques.
Can you explain a few of thosewhere people can use this for
their tax benefits today?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Well, there's certain types of trust that can be used
for tax benefits.
There's what's called acharitable remainder trust that
allows charitable deductionstoday against income.
(09:29):
But, by and large, the bigbenefit that a plan today does
while a person is still aliveespecially if you have a plan
based on trust is that it takescare of a client in the event of
(09:52):
incapacity, whereas a willdoesn't take effect if somebody
actually dies.
You can actually make decisionsregarding how you are treated
and the care you get and yourcomfort level and numerous other
(10:14):
issues that arise, if in theevent of dementia or Alzheimer's
, which is getting to be moreand more of an issue as we have
an aging population.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Stephen, if I could add on there, I know a lot of
times when we speak with folksand we mentioned estate planning
, they kind of give us the yeah,no thanks, already have a will.
Can you kind of give us thedifference between a will and a
trust?
And and I know that kind of theobvious answer is everyone
might have this, depending onyou know whether they already
have it.
But just kind of being able todefine the difference between
(10:47):
the two of those.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Well, a lot of people think of a will as a be all-in
dog.
I've got a will, it's justgoing to happen.
What they don't realize and alot of people don't concentrate
on is the fact that a will inand of itself does not do that.
It has to go through probate tobe effective.
(11:10):
I had a law professor thatdescribed probate as a lawsuit
you file against yourself withyour own money for the benefit
of your creditors, and it'sprecisely that.
And you've got to go throughprobate, which, at the same time
you're dealing with the deathof a loved one, is an additional
(11:31):
burden.
And and it's not easy and theother thing, because it is in
fact a lawsuit it allows peopleto intervene that have griped
with what's in the will, what isprobate.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
What is this?
We talk about all the time, butwhat is probate?
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Well, think about it this way I think most people are
familiar with the power ofattorney, and one of the state
documents you need while you'realive is a power attorney that
if something happens to you,like you're in an accident, in
an anacoma, or you do getdementia and can't make
(12:21):
decisions for yourself, you'vealready appointed an agent to do
things for you to pay yourbills, to manage your bank
account and do a variety ofother things.
The problem with the power ofattorney is that it terminates
when somebody dies.
So who makes decisions for you?
(12:43):
Supposing you own a house andyour beneficiaries' heirs want
to sell it, well, there's nobodyto transfer title.
So what probate does is it isthe court's blessing of
designating somebody.
In the case of a will, you namean executor and it essentially
(13:06):
gives that executor the power ofattorney for the deceit, and so
they can sell property and theycan collect debts, they can do
all the necessary things to asif the person were still here.
Otherwise there's nobody tofill that role.
And so probate you file, theexecutor would file an
(13:29):
application for probate of awill and the issuance of what's
called letters testamentary, andthere, as I said earlier,
there's a lot of noticerequirements, where you have to
notify creditors, mortgagecompanies, you have to post
notice so that others can bemade aware of the fact that this
(13:55):
individual has died and and ifthey have a claim against the
estate years, who they need tocontact to resolve it.
And so the the attorney filesthe application, you wait for
the certain notice periods andthis all costs money, which is
(14:22):
not cheap.
It's a lot cheaper in Texasthan it is in many other states,
but it's still looking at three, four, five thousand dollars to
probate in the state.
You finally get all the noticerequirements resolved.
You go to court in front of ajudge and the executor answers
(14:45):
certain questions to that arerequired according to Texas
estate code and those are on therecord.
If the judge agrees witheverything, he issues a.
An order issue for issuance ofletters testamentary, which you
(15:05):
then go down to the countyclerk's office and and collect
them for a small fee, and thatgives the executor the legal
authority that needs to he orshe needs to have.
You still have to do a few morethings with the will.
You have to file an inventoryof the assets of the estate and
(15:28):
you have to file a certainaffidavits indicate you legally
complied with all the noticerequirements and then your
executor is in charge withmarshalling all the assets, put
them into an estate bank accountand then distributing the
(15:53):
assets as the will provides.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
So, Steve, if I could kind of summarize the benefits
of setting up a trust so thatyou can bypass probate, it
sounds like okay.
Fees are one, maybe two wouldjust be complexity.
You can kind of pass overhaving to do all the issues with
time, with things like that.
Maybe emotional damage, right,you typically mentioned that
(16:16):
this is directly after someonepasses.
Does that sound like three goodones that you could mention in
terms of benefits?
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Oh, easily.
There's many more and, like Isaid earlier, a will doesn't
take effect until somebodyactually passes away.
A trust exists today and ifyou're incapacitated, whether
through an accident or illness,it starts to work.
(16:47):
With a trust, you don't have togo through probate, and one of
the examples I tend to use is weget clients to come in here
because a loved one has died andsaid my dad died.
He told me he was going to takecare of everything and
(17:09):
nothing's been done.
So what do I do from here?
And that's a case where theremight not even be a will, which
is a whole different discussion.
But with a trust, nothinghappens.
Nothing has to happen forthings to just go on normally
(17:32):
and be taken care of.
It's usually the analogy oflike being, when the CEO of
General Motors dies, retires,quits and a replacement is named
(17:55):
and that person has all thepowers and authorities of the
office of the CEO.
Well, trust is the same way.
The trust we use generally, thetrustor, the person creating
the trust, becomes the trusteeto manage all the assets while
he or she is alive.
(18:15):
But when they are incapacitatedor died, they've already named
their successor, who justautomatically steps in and has
all the authority that they needto manage that person's affairs
.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And Steve, is there a way that you have this kind of
a high-level breakdown of thedifferent types of trusts and
what scenarios you've typicallyseen when each is best for?
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Well, the standard revocable living trust is kind
of the, and, probably withwhat's called a disclaimer trust
, is the so-called Swiss ArmyKnife of Trust Planning.
And then there's somevariations on that.
(19:00):
There's things that, forexample, there's what's called a
Q-TIP Trust Qualified TerminalInterest Trust and one of the
things that does is, if you'vegot a blended family, for
example, the typical trust willbetween with a husband and wife.
(19:28):
If the family has children ofthat marriage and each spouse
may have a child or two of aprevious marriage, the trust the
married couple enters the trustlife goes on until one of them
(19:50):
dies.
The surviving spouse then getsmost of the benefits of the
trust.
But technically, because Texasis a community property state,
the trust splits into two thesurviving spouse's community
(20:11):
property interest and thedeceased spouse's community
property interest as long witheach of their separate
properties.
Well, if you do nothing and thesurviving spouse just leaves
that trust as is, that worksfine.
But for the fact that if thesurviving spouse decides to
(20:36):
remarry or they can change thebeneficiary designations to cut
out the deceased spouse's heirs,well, one of the things you can
do with this type of trust isyou can actually freeze the
(21:01):
deceased spouse's assets so thatthey can't be changed.
Now the surviving spouse canlive off the income from not
only his or her half that shegets, he or she gets, but also
the income from the deceasedspouse's assets.
But they can't change thecorpus and its ultimate
(21:25):
beneficiaries.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
That would be a problem.
Is that a common occurrencethat you see coming up with a
lot of these cases?
Is that it kind of I don't wantto say splits families, but it
really does cause some heatamongst family members?
Yes, I just wanted you to knowthe details of that in this
video.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah, it's always a concern and there's we get
clients that are totally notconcerned about it because they
have.
Maybe they're a little bitolder, the kids are all grown up
and their relationship is solidand they don't worry about it.
(22:05):
In some younger marriages it'ssomething that definitely is a
concern but, like I say, there'sa solution and it makes
everybody comfortable.
When they make that decision atthe beginning, they know what
the deal is going to be as oneor the other passes away.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So let's go ahead.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
We have a situation in our family that a lot of
people listening right now mighthave, where our daughter's
going to marry somebody andwe're concerned that he will
have and I know he's going tolisten to this, but he's going
to have access that after mywife and I are gone, that we
(22:56):
don't want him to have theability to take over the money
that we leave to our daughter.
So we're concerned about thatsituation.
I just thought I'd throw thatout there.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Yeah, well, there's a way to address that concern is
that one option that we offer isthat the heirs inherit the
assets from the parent in what'scalled a lifetime asset
(23:32):
protection trust.
Now, lifetime asset protectiontrusts are with a secure year
from having creditor issuesattaching those assets, and so
(23:55):
states, including Texas, don'tallow them to happen.
For an individual to create one.
There are some states now thatdo allow it, but you've got some
bankruptcy laws that preventtransfers within a certain
period of time prior to deathand things like that.
(24:17):
But, like I say, texas doesn'tallow them.
But the type of trust we'retalking about is not a
self-settled or a self-createdtrust.
It's one that's created by theparent in their estate planning
and it goes into an irrevocabletrust so that only the heir of
(24:43):
the parent has access to it.
In the event of a divorce, theother spouse cannot claim any
part of that trust, andcreditors can't either.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Well, so I think what's obvious is everybody
needs to have a conversationwith an estate attorney like
Steve Boss.
We selected you and we're very,very happy with how the
onboarding process and the pricewas perfect, and I just really
(25:26):
believe that, based on thispodcast and this webinar, that
everyone needs to really takemore seriously what they're
going to be doing while they'realive to make it easier for
their heirs later on in life,and I encourage everybody to
reach out to Steve and give hima jingle and give him a shot at
(25:52):
winning your business.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, and I would second that.
I mean I was just writing down.
I'm always thinking about thebenefits of something, right?
So if something can get me moreprivacy, more time, more money,
more control over something, Ithink it's going to be at least
worth the conversation.
To second Steve's work, you canfind him at stevenbosslawcom.
He's obviously mentioned howthat process works.
(26:16):
But last question for you,steve let's say I'm somewhere in
my late 40s and early 50s.
I have a large estate and all Ihave is a will, or maybe I just
need to figure out what's goingon.
I know a lot of times peoplejust need to get their whole
picture under control.
Talk me through what I shoulddo next in terms of getting a
hold of an attorney likeyourself and going from there.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Well, in our case and I'm sure there's other
attorneys that are fairlysimilar, but a lot or not we
start with a consultation thatwe call a family wealth planning
session, which has nothing todo with financial planning or
wealth manage, but it's lookingat your assets and, again, the
(27:02):
purpose is to empower you withthe knowledge you need to make
the best decisions on an estateplan today, so they aren't made
by a judge later.
Clients come into our officefor that session.
We collect some informationfrom them about the nature of
(27:23):
their assets and their familysituation and there's absolutely
no obligation at that point intime until we go through what we
can do for them and they agreethat we offer them a, give them
(27:45):
a price and anybody thatmentions this podcast or adds
their involvement with that.
We give a $500 discount on anytrust plan that they select from
us and, like I said, that takesabout an hour where they can
(28:12):
make up their mind that yes,this is something we want to do
and we agree on the price.
And then we continue on foranother 45 minutes or so,
however long it takes toactually design the plan, and
the client goes home and if theyhave any concerns or questions
(28:35):
or anything they can call us inany time.
No additional charges, becauseonce they agree to the fixed
price, they pay half then andthe other half when all the
documents are signed.
And as soon as we have thedocuments ready, we schedule a
(28:59):
signing Now if they selected atrust plan.
There's one other thing that'svery important, and that is for
a trust to work, assets have tobe legally titled in the name of
the trust, and so we willassist in that transfer.
We will take care of anypersonal residents in Texas.
(29:22):
We'll do that transfer for them.
We provide our clients withwhat we call a trust funding kit
, which gives you Word documentsof letters you'd send to your
banks, your mortgage company,your financial planner, and what
to ask for and what type ofdocuments to request to make
(29:45):
sure the ownership or thebeneficiary designations are
correct, and we help every stepof the way with that, as well as
all part of the fixed fee.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
That's wonderful.
I'm looking forward to thatAbsolutely.
Steve, thank you so much forbeing a guest today and I hope
people take confidence from yourwords and knowing how much you
know about this and hopefullythis will be the beginning of a
(30:23):
good relationship with somebodylistening right now.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Jordan, absolutely.
To add to that, steve can bereached at stevenbosslawcom.
Again, their phone number is214-382-3342.
And I don't think we evenmentioned it's also very
important to keep your estateand everything updated as well.
Laws often change.
There's changes coming aroundthe corner, so also just want to
add in that detail as well.
(30:49):
But, like Ed said, thanks foryour time, steve.
It's been great talking withyou and look forward to talking
to you in the future.
Thank you, guys.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
The Making Sense podcast is recorded by Chaplain
Investments' managing partner,ed Butoskey and Jordan McFarlane
.
If you have any questions,please email them to info at
chaplaininvestmentscom.
This podcast contains generalinformation that may not be
suitable for everyone.
The information containedherein should not be construed
as personalized investmentadvice.
(31:19):
Past performance is noguarantee of future results.
There is no guarantee that theviews and opinions expressed in
this podcast will come to pass.
Investing in the stock marketinvolves gains and losses and
may not be suitable for allinvestors.
Information presented herein issubject to change without
notice and should not beconsidered as a solicitation to
buy or sell any security.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Chaplain Investments does not offer legal or tax
advice.
Please consult the appropriateprofessional regarding your
individual circumstance.
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