September 3, 2024 • 32 mins
Estate planning is important at any stage of life, but it's most critical after you've established significant assets, either personally or through a business. Texas attorneys Alex Hunt and Bri Holcombe of Hunt Law Firm delve into the essentials you need to ensure your family is protected after you're gone.
Whether you're a business owner or well-established adult with assets built through hard work, this latest episode provides invaluable insight on ensuring your legacy and wealth are managed exactly as you envision.
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This podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice. The information in this podcast is not intended to and does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alex Hunt (00:08):
and today we're going to be talking a little bit
about estate planning.
We have two previous videospodcasts on estate planning and
we'll link those down in thecomments.
The focus of those was on firstkind of the 18 to 24 college
age, new adult demographic.
Then we went on to talk alittle bit about younger
(00:31):
families, new parents, newmarriages.
Today we're going to take alittle bit of a turn.
We're going to talk about moreof a established, older you know
, talk a little bit less aboutchildren's issues, a little bit
more about things like how does,how should my estate plan look
at my business, businesssuccession planning, what are
(00:53):
some of the unique aspects thatI need to look at?
So, as always, this is intendedto be informational.
It's not legal advice.
It's not intended to create anattorney-client relationship
(01:24):
no-transcript.
So, Bree, start us off first.
What is an estate plan?
What is estate planning and whyshould somebody care about?
Bri Holcombe (01:37):
it, yeah.
So estate planning is basicallytaking an inventory of
everything that you'veaccumulated throughout your life
.
You know this video is for someof our older individuals who
are well-established and havecreated property and have built
a family and have built a life.
Planning your estate is aboutplanning for your death and what
should happen to your propertywhen you pass, what should
(01:59):
happen to your body, but alsoplanning for incapacity, which
is as we get older, you know wemay fall into declining health,
we may lose capacity, and wewant to have family members or
friends who can step up and stepin in the event that those
things happen.
Alex Hunt (02:15):
So what does an estate planning consultation
with our firm look like, fromstart to finish, from the first
phone call, the first websitemessage to wrapping everything
up and getting a binder with allof the documents?
Bri Holcombe (02:31):
Yeah.
So the first step is our intakeprocess, where you call and you
say, hey, I'm ready to go aheadand get started.
We gather some information onyou, we make sure that we run a
conflict check so that there'sno conflict of interest in the
attorney-client relationship andwe schedule that consultation.
In the consultation you cancome in our office, you can do
it by phone call, you can do itby Zoom, and we really talk
(02:53):
about in-depth what your estateis comprised of, what probate
assets you have, how many homesyou have real property, vehicles
, and also your non-probateproperty life insurance,
retirement accounts, bankaccounts and also your
non-probate property, lifeinsurance, retirement accounts,
bank accounts.
We go through everything and wediscuss who should get those
things, who's going to be incharge.
We also walk through all thedocuments of incapacitation you
(03:15):
know and planning for thosethings, if that were to arise.
What I do, once I've got all theinformation from you, is I send
you drafts, drafts of each ofthe documents that we talked
about, with your wishes laid outin them, got a big draft
watermark on them, so they'renot the original.
You can't go and sign them, butyou look at them and you see if
you have any questions.
Oftentimes, when you get thosedocuments, you're going to feel
overwhelmed.
It's going to have legalese andbig words that you don't
(03:38):
understand and you don't know.
But that's why we're here wewant to walk you through and
guide you through thosedocuments so you have an
understanding of what each doesand what the role for each
person that you appointed iscomprised of.
Once you have all yourquestions answered, we'll bring
you in for a signing ceremonywhere we provide two witnesses
and a notary.
We sign all your documents intheir original form and then we
(04:00):
provide them to you in ourestate planning binder.
We also provide you with a USBso that you can make copies and
share them with loved ones whomay need to have those documents
.
Alex Hunt (04:09):
And I might be biased , because I see the work that
our team does and it's just sooutstanding, it's responsive,
it's fast.
But a lot of people might beinclined to go online and there
are so many new websites thatare popping up that will just
you put in some information,like TurboTax for state planning
, and it spits out an estateplanning document, a will or
(04:32):
power of attorney.
Those don't get the blessing ofa licensed Texas attorney.
You're not able to answer, getquestions answered from a
licensed Texas attorney,particularly like somebody who
lives in your neighborhood orhas experience with you, know
what you're maybe going throughand whatever your life
(04:54):
circumstance is.
A lot of times those forms arejust generic too.
They're national forms, they'renot Texas specific and the way
the law works is that Texas hasdifferent requirements than the
other 49 states in the Districtof Columbia and we need to have
somebody that's looking at thoseand making sure that you are
(05:17):
following Texas law.
And it's worth a little bit ofextra cost and I think that a
lot of people would be surprisedat how inexpensively you can
get a comprehensive estate plandone.
What are, what are, thedocuments in our comprehensive
estate plan?
We do things a la carte, but wealso have a state plan package.
(05:40):
What are the documents thatpeople are going to get?
Bri Holcombe (05:44):
Yeah, so the first document is your last will and
testament.
That's the document that takeseffect only when you've passed.
So it's not living now, it'sliving when you pass.
It says here's what I want tohave happen to my property when
I die.
Here's going to be the personwho's in charge If I have minor
children, here's going to be theindividuals who take care of
those minor children.
And it's an important documentbecause it it lays out your
(06:06):
wishes and, rather than goingthrough the process of not
having a will and you know thelaw and Texas determining where
your property is going to go youspell out your wishes.
So that's one.
The second would be theappointment of disposition of
remains.
That's a document that sayswhen I die, here's who's going
to be in charge of my body andhere's you know what I want to
have happen whether you want tobe buried, cremated.
(06:28):
You know you want certainflowers at your funeral.
We provide you with that spaceto do that and it also allows
someone to make those decisionsfor you, if you have it.
For if you've passed the otherdocuments, we plan for
incapacitation, which is, youknow, maybe you got into a car
accident and you no longer havethe ability to function, or
(06:54):
you're just getting older andyou don't want to make decisions
.
You don't want to deal with thecredit card companies or your
mortgage company.
You want someone to comealongside you and assist you.
So the first we have is afinancial power of attorney,
often referred to as a statutorydurable power of attorney.
A durable power of attorneythis document says when I can't
make financial decisions formyself, these people are going
to come alongside me and makethose decisions for me.
(07:14):
They're going to help me andhold my hand, or I'm just going
to surrender the power to themand say I don't want to do this
anymore.
Alex Hunt (07:21):
And that's one of those terms that scares people
away from doing this, because itsounds like the type of thing
that I don't need and Icertainly don't want to dive
into, because it sounds like ascary legal.
Bri Holcombe (07:35):
It's scary to think I'm giving you know,
access to an individual,everything that I have, finance
wise, and you get worried thatwell, maybe they're going to
take the money that's in myaccount and run.
When you appoint these peopleas your agent, they have a
fiduciary duty to act in yourbest interest, and if they're
not, you've got remedies andways to kind of combat that.
Alex Hunt (07:56):
And you can set it up so that they don't have any
power, any authority, untilsomething happens where you lose
capacity or you know.
So.
It isn't like you're going tosign it.
You're 40 years old and, all ofa sudden, whoever you're
sending us over to can makedecisions on your behalf
immediately.
Something has to happen in theinterim.
Bri Holcombe (08:16):
So we have two different types of powers of
attorney one that's effectiveimmediately and one upon
disability or incapacitation.
But different financialinstitutions, they actually want
that power of attorney that'seffective immediately rather
than upon incapacitation,because it draws into question
that event of incapacity and itmakes them say well, are you,
are you not, rather than justhaving the freedom to do things
(08:38):
now?
You know, I'm my parents' powerof attorney, it's effective
immediately, but I can't go totheir bank account and withdraw
all of their money.
If I did, I'm screwed, for lackof a better word.
So there are checks andbalances in place that prevent
someone from just taking theassets and running.
We also have for our powers ofattorney a little provision that
says you can't change thebeneficiary designations on my
(09:00):
account.
You know, when you werecapacitated you laid out who you
wanted those items to go to,and so we don't want somebody
coming in and changing yourwishes.
Alex Hunt (09:09):
So you mentioned before what the Texas law
decides what happens in theabsence of a will, and so we've
got another legalese termintestacy.
What does that mean?
What does it look like?
What happens if you don't havean estate plan in place?
Bri Holcombe (09:27):
Yeah.
So if you die without a will,the good news is that Texas law
has taken care of what shouldhappen to my property, but it's
also a bad thing because it maynot be what you want and what
your wishes are are.
So if you were to pass, you know, and you just had one spouse,
no children, or you had childrenof that marriage, your spouse
is getting everything.
If you pass and you have ablended family and let's say
(09:48):
that you're on your secondmarriage and you have kids from
your first marriage, it's goingto be 50-50 between your current
spouse and the children thatyou have.
If you don't have any children,if you don't have a spouse,
it's going to go to your parentsor then possibly to your
siblings and work its way down atree.
But it's important to have yourwishes laid out, because that
might not be what you want.
Your parents might not be hereif you pass, or you might not
(10:10):
have children and you want todirect your funds to a
charitable institution.
Without having it written down,there's no way to direct those
things there.
Alex Hunt (10:19):
So another question that we often get is for folks
that are doing their last willand testament and they're
deciding who will get bequests,who will get their physical
items, their financial accounts,but they also want to exclude
(10:40):
somebody.
Bri Holcombe (10:53):
Is that something that specifically needs to be
outlined, or you just don't listthem?
What does that look like?
So if we're going to disinheritsomeone, we can disinherit them
.
We just simply put a line inthere that says I have this
child and I disinherit them andall of their descendants, or I
just specifically disinheritthis child.
You know, it's very common todo and it's something that we
(11:14):
can certainly take care of.
One thing to note is that evenif you did a holographic will
which I'm sure we'll kind ofdive into you're able to
disinherit somebody.
But I just I would avoid thehere's why.
Here's all the things that theydid to make me mad.
I don't care that you'redisinheriting your child, I
don't care that you'redisinheriting a sibling.
(11:35):
That's not my place todetermine whether or not that's
an OK decision and, quitefrankly, none of the attorneys
really care.
We just want to make sure thatyou understand what that means
and that when you sign the will,you have capacity to enter into
it.
Alex Hunt (11:48):
And, more importantly , the probate court doesn't
necessarily need to know whyyou're doing it either.
They just need to see thatyou're doing it.
But there is a need Like say,you've got three kids and
unfortunately maybe you've lostcontact.
There's not a relationship withone of them.
You should specificallydisinherit that person in the
(12:09):
last will and testament, correct?
Bri Holcombe (12:12):
If that's what you want to do, correct.
Alex Hunt (12:14):
And in testacy rules, it's just Texas law.
If you don't have anything,it's going to those children.
It's going to those kids.
Okay, it's just Texas law.
(12:45):
If you don't have anything,it's going to those children.
In this estate planning process, like you know, sometimes I'll
have a client that'll come inand want to have a financial
advisor, or maybe there's.
Maybe they have a sizableestate and they have tax
questions about what's going tohappen with however they're
giving out things in their willIs it?
Is it good to have other peopleinvolved?
Does it complicate the processand who should be involved?
Bri Holcombe (13:05):
Good question.
So the one thing to know isthat if we're not creating a
trust, which is a legal processthat you pour your assets into
while you're living it's calleda living trust that's not
something that your will isgoing to actually take care of,
because those are considerednon-probate assets.
Those items go specifically tothe beneficiaries that you have
(13:26):
designated.
You've got retirement accounts,iras, life insurance policies.
Those items go to who you haveinstructed that financial
institution to go to.
Your will doesn't carry anddoesn't touch any of that.
In the event that you forgot abeneficiary, then your WillX is
a catch-all and it grabs thoseassets and distributes them in
accordance with your will.
(13:46):
But those things go to whomeveryou've instructed.
I always advise my clients goback and look, make sure that
those items are going to who youwant them to go to.
You can oftentimes have a firstbeneficiary and then a secondary
beneficiary if the first is nolonger there.
I know, specifically withFidelity, you can check a box
that says per stirpes, which isessentially a fancy Latin term
(14:09):
for the distribution of propertyin accordance to birth.
So it's important to revieweverything.
If you've got a financialadvisor, certainly pull them in
and ask them those questionslike tax consequences.
In Texas we don't have aninheritance tax.
That's not something that Texaslaw has, but the IRS does have
(14:30):
taxes and estate taxes.
You've got to have an estateworth well over I believe it's
$12.9 billion or millionsomething that most middle-class
families are not going toachieve, so that's not something
we have to worry about.
Okay.
Alex Hunt (14:45):
We have a lot of business owners as clients.
What should they be thinkingabout?
That's maybe different thansomebody who works for a company
and isn't a business.
Bri Holcombe (14:55):
So the first thing is how's your business
structured?
You know, sometimes peoplecreate companies off legal Zoom
and there may not be anoperating agreement, there may
not be a succession plan inplace.
That is something that's goingto be incredibly important for
an individual to have.
In the event that you did notestablish a succession plan for
your business, one, I wouldrecommend that you do it now.
(15:16):
But if you were to pass andthat was not in place, probate
is the process at which yourbusiness is going to be
distributed.
It very well may be dissolved,because if you have, for example
, a professional company you'rea lawyer, you're a doctor and
you didn't have these things inplace, a non-lawyer and a
non-doctor can't come in andfill your shoes.
So you know, having that windup plan in place, having the
(15:40):
succession plan, is going to bekey.
Alex Hunt (15:42):
Yeah, and that's something that a lot of
attorneys deal with.
We have clients that aredoctors.
There's something in Texascalled corporate practice of
medicine.
There's the same doctrine inthe law, like you mentioned, you
can't have a non-doctor takeover a medical practice.
But there certainly are assetsthere that you want to be going
(16:05):
to your family and the lastthing that you want to do if
you're a doctor, if you're alawyer, if you're a business
owner there's a lot ofbusinesses where the owner is in
a complex area and their spousemight not be familiar with it,
might not be able to dissolvethe.
(16:26):
You won't have a plan in place.
So that way you're not creatinga crisis, a disaster, and
you're making sure that theassets that are in that business
can easily be resolved, so thatway your family can get the
benefit of it.
Are there any otherconsiderations that business
(16:48):
owners should think of?
Bri Holcombe (16:50):
I think it's really important for business
owners to take account of theirownership interest in the
company that they have andremember, when you pass, debts
and liabilities have to be paid.
Now, if you were a soleproprietor, you had an LLC and
you're just a single member.
The debts that you accumulatedaren't just wiped away
necessarily.
When you pass and you gothrough the probate process, an
(17:12):
inventory is prepared ofeverything in your estate.
We look at the debts that youhave.
There's a priority order of howdebts are paid, from secured
claims to unsecured claims andso you want to make sure that
you know all your assets aren'tjust going to pay those things,
that your family has somethingin place.
Life insurance is a great placeto look.
So pulling in a financialadvisor and saying, hey, how
(17:33):
much is it going to cost tocover these liabilities that I
have so that my family can havesomething on the other side when
they get out of it?
Alex Hunt (17:41):
And a lot of people, including us, want to keep as
much of this property out of theprobate court as possible.
Tell me a little bit more aboutprobate versus non-probate
assets.
What should people be thinkingof to try to stay out of court
as much as possible?
Bri Holcombe (17:59):
So I mean it really comes down to what's in
your specific estate.
Everybody is different.
Everybody has different makeupof assets and makeup of
liabilities.
I would say the first thing ifyou wanted to avoid probate, one
option is to have a livingtrust.
That is, a document that youfund all of your property with
during your marriage.
I'm sorry, not a document, aprocess, a legal process.
(18:20):
So you put your home in thename of the trust, you put your
retirement accounts in the nameof the trust, your life
insurance policies.
That way, in the event of yourpassing, you know those things.
You don't have to go throughthe probate process.
You don't have to openeverything up.
When you pass, your trusteesteps in and they just take care
of managing the trust.
(18:41):
For middle class families thoughsometimes that's not always
practical of having that andkeeping up with it over time
there are different tools thatwe can use to avoid probate.
If you have all non-probateassets, you've just got
retirement accounts and lifeinsurance policy, bank accounts
and then maybe just a home.
A transfer on death deed is agreat option.
It basically says I give myownership interest in this
(19:04):
person.
When I pass, we file thatdocument with the property
records with a county clerk andit's on file.
It's there and when you pass,your person just has to take the
death certificate and the titletransfers over.
Alex Hunt (19:18):
Okay, so we talked a little bit about living trusts.
Tell us about testamentarytrust.
We talked about this in aprevious episode, where it was
really more geared towardsyounger families, but this
certainly might haveimplications for older
individuals as well.
What's a testamentary trust andwho needs it?
Bri Holcombe (19:39):
So a testamentary trust is a trust that's created
in your will.
It only takes effect if certainconditions are met, meaning
someone is under a certain ageor maybe they've reached
incapacity and they're not ableto you know inherit property
because it would mess up somesort of government benefits or
assistance that they're on.
Who needs a contingent trust ora testamentary trust is, you
(20:01):
know, really just depends onyour family makeup.
If you're giving, you know,let's say you're a married
couple and you're givingeverything to your spouse and
then to your children, well,what happens if one of your
children predeceases you andthey've got grandkids, or you've
got grandkids, you want to makesure that those grandkids are
not inheriting and then spendingall their money on Roblox or
(20:21):
Legos or whatever the new fad is.
So in our estate plan we do putthat testamentary trust in
there, just because because ofwhat, if, what, if it does make
it down the line, we want tomake sure that we're thinking of
everything and taking care ofyour family for the long run.
Alex Hunt (20:39):
Okay, and especially some of our older clients or
more established clients mighthave specific items that they
want to bequest to certainindividuals, and so I know that
we have a system in place forthat.
Tell me about how that works inour state planning process.
Bri Holcombe (20:54):
Yeah, so one of the documents we include is
what's called a personalproperty memorandum.
In our will we say we canreference this personal property
memorandum.
Personal property is thingslike your clothes, your jewelry,
your china, that you may have,those items you may want to give
specifically to one individual,and you can do that over time,
which is great.
(21:14):
But we don't want to have tohave you come back and redo your
will every time you give apiece of jewelry away.
You know, in my family myMeemaw's china, her Christmas
china, is a big deal.
So she can put on this personalproperty memorandum.
I give four place settings tomy granddaughter, I give four
place settings to my daughterand it covers you so that those
things are carried out.
(21:34):
Your wishes are there, it'shandwritten, you don't have to
have a notary or witnesses andyou can add to it over time and
you can take away as propertycomes and goes.
Alex Hunt (21:43):
Okay, well, very good .
And then it's something that,especially when folks are
approaching the end of life, butit's really applicable at any
point, because you never knowand you want to have plans in
place our funeral expenses anduh, planning and, um, the
probably the most morbidlytitled document that we deal
(22:03):
with the agent to fordisposition of remains, um,
helps give an idea to your lovedones, um, of how you'd like
your body disposed of, what youwould like your funeral to look
like.
Ones of how you'd like yourbody disposed of, what you would
like your funeral to look like,how much money you want to
spend.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat, yeah.
Bri Holcombe (22:21):
So it's a great document because if you don't
know what you want to do, youcan appoint someone who's going
to do it for you.
You appoint the person who'sgoing to be in charge of your
body and making sure that, onceyou've passed, your wishes are
carried out, if you have any.
I always think it's a good ideaand, again, it's very morbid to
(22:42):
go ahead and think about thecost and the expense of having a
funeral, having a celebrationof life being buried, being
cremated.
Visiting one of the many youknow funeral homes around the
Houston area is going to begreat, because you can not only
take care of those expenses nowand pay for them and have that
set, have things ready to gowhen the time comes and you take
that burden off your family.
(23:03):
You take the burden off of themto spend more money than you
would want them to.
So I always encourage myclients to go and visit with one
of those funeral homes to gettheir wishes laid out, get
things taken care of, pay for itnow so you don't pay for it
later and lock yourself in.
Alex Hunt (23:38):
If it's $20,000 for a full funeral and a spot in a
cemetery and all that stuff, youcan only imagine what it's
going to be like, and we know ofsomebody that did that process
decades ago and it was afraction of the cost of what it
would be now, I think, like $600for a plot.
Bri Holcombe (23:49):
Now they're going probably for like $13,000.
Alex Hunt (23:52):
Yeah, so definitely not something we think of in
terms of like an investment, butit is an investment in our
family's future.
Another end of life issue isnot necessarily if you pass, but
if there is some sort ofincapacity.
We want to make sure that atleast I know that I do, that the
(24:14):
person that is making decisionsfor me is who I want, and I
specifically want to make sure,maybe, that there's certain
people that I don't want to bemaking those decisions for me,
and so that's where thedeclaration of a guardian in the
event that the need arises is aform that will walk our clients
through.
Tell us a little bit about thatform, why it's important, what
(24:38):
we need to know.
Bri Holcombe (24:39):
So a guardianship is a legal lawsuit that
basically takes an individual'srights away.
They're not able to makedecisions for themselves and
they become in danger and weneed to strip them of that power
.
It's not necessary in allcircumstances.
The court, before they appointa guardian over someone and take
rights away from an individual,is going to say are there least
restrictive means in place?
Is there a financial power ofattorney?
(25:01):
Is it doing its job?
In most circumstances that'sgoing to be effective.
Represent your person andrepresent your property.
So it's twofold.
You know you may not be able tomake financial decisions for
yourself or you're not able tomake appropriate care decisions
for yourself.
This document says we're goingto take that power away and
(25:24):
we're going or, I'm sorry, notthis specific document, but a
guardianship takes that poweraway and appoint someone to be
in charge.
When we have that happen, youknow, oftentimes people have
their opinions on who they'dwant to be in charge of them and
who they wouldn't want to be incharge.
When we have that happen, youknow, oftentimes people have
their opinions on who they'dwant to be in charge of them and
who they wouldn't want to be incharge of them this document
says, if that has to happen if Ihave to get there.
These are the people that I'dwant to be in charge of my
(25:46):
person and my property, and hereare the people that I don't
want.
That way, if you're in and youfind yourself in a contested
guardianship hearing two doctorshave certified, you know that
you're incapacitated, you can'tmake decisions and you've become
a danger that if that personthat you said no, I don't want
them to be my guardian comes in,wave and say and pick me to the
(26:06):
court, of course going to saywhen this person was competent,
they they said not you.
Alex Hunt (26:11):
And they're going to take that serious.
Bri Holcombe (26:12):
They are.
Alex Hunt (26:13):
And they're not going to let that person make any
decisions for you.
And the court's preference, thecourt's requirement, unless
there's a reason otherwise, isthey're going to select the
person that you did say that youwant to be the guardian, so
it's putting you in the driver'sseat, whereas you would just be
at an extraordinarily difficulttime in your life, whether you
(26:36):
might come back from thatincapacity or not.
You're really putting thatdecision in someone else, a
situation where you can't makedecisions they have to petition
the court for guardianship.
Bri Holcombe (26:45):
They have to take your rights away and be
appointed the person to be yourguardian, and it easily can be
ten thousand dollars, it can beso expensive, or you could spend
(27:08):
a couple hundred bucks.
Now have those documents doneand your family members can just
step in and you don't have topursue that option and we've
gone over.
Alex Hunt (27:17):
One of the worst things that you can do is to do
nothing, because then you'reputting your life at the in the
hands of a judge who knows maybean hour's worth of your story
and it's making major decisionsfor you, um, and putting
decisions.
If you pass into your family'slap and they're going to have to
(27:38):
deal with it, the best thingyou can do is to get a
comprehensive estate plan thatdeals with all of these
different scenarios.
It puts in place who yourguardian is going to be in the
event the need arises.
If you have children, it'sgoing to say who you want to be
the guardians of those children.
If you have a sizable state,it's going to make sure that
(28:00):
that is disposed of with yourwishes.
The middle option, because alot of people see this process
and they say I don't have thetime, I don't have the money and
it's more inexpensive than youthink.
And our consult for estateplanning is free.
It's less expensive than youthink.
(28:21):
But a lot of folks say I justdon't have the capacity to do
that right now.
A holographic will is maybe astop gap, depending on your
situation, to put something inplace.
It's better than nothing, and aholographic will is simply a
handwritten document that sayswhat you want to happen with
(28:46):
your estate.
You can write down who you wantto be the guardian of your kids
and the key is can't be a video, can't be typed, it has to be
handwritten.
Write it out on a legal pad andsign it, and we certainly big
surprise a lawyer saying thatit's best to go to a lawyer and
(29:07):
to get this document done theright way.
But in the absence of that, itcertainly pays to just write out
something so that your familyand the courts will know what
your wishes are.
Yep, what else would yousuggest?
If somebody is doing aholographic will or maybe
doesn't have time for this, whatwould you suggest that they do,
(29:28):
or what should they know?
Bri Holcombe (29:29):
Well, the first thing I would say is making time
for something that's going tosave your family time and money
in the future is something thatyou want to make a priority, and
it really doesn't take muchtime to get an estate plan done.
You know you're not waiting onus to get these documents out
and moving into you.
Where I find most clients wantto drag their feet is once they
see them and they know they haveto sign that.
(29:51):
It scares them, but we can takeas much time as you need, so
you're never going to be waitingon the attorneys at Hunt Law
Firm to get things done and getthings moving.
I would say too, it's justimportant to have something
written out.
Even if you want to take yournapkin to a lawyer and let them
look at it and tell you thatit's good or it's not good,
(30:11):
that's better than nothing.
And two, you want to make surethat someone knows where that
napkin is.
Someone knows where your wishesare in that legal pad or
whatever you chose to create andcraft your holographic will.
So that's what I'd say foranyone who's kind of on the
fence is that make this apriority.
Alex Hunt (30:30):
Yeah, and making sure that the loved ones that are
either going to care for you orthey're going to benefit under
your will know where it isIncredibly important.
I remember a few years ago Iwas reading an article about a
court case with Aretha Franklin,the singer who passed away a
few years ago, and her familyliterally found some holographic
handwritten wills inside of thecouch at her home, and the
(30:57):
court ruled didn't matter whereit was, didn't matter how it was
written.
It expressed her wishes andthey upheld it.
So doing something is betterthan nothing, but doing it the
right way is easier and lessexpensive than I think a lot of
people realize.
Bri Holcombe (31:16):
And it saves you money in the future and it saves
your family the heartache andthe trouble of navigating the
court process on their own andfighting over things.
Alex Hunt (31:24):
And I've found in clients some measure of peace to
know that they've put a plan inplace.
It's one less thing to have tothink about, especially if
they're later on in life,they're approaching end of life.
It's one thing that they cancontrol in life which is
unpredictable.
Well, bree, is there anythingelse that you think folks need
(31:47):
to know, want to know?
Bri Holcombe (31:49):
I don't think so, but if you have questions, feel
free to reach out.
Alex Hunt (31:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
If anybody has questions, feelfree to go to our website,
message us.
Look at past episodes thatwe've done on estate planning or
a variety of other topics.
So thanks for joining me, brie.
Bri Holcombe (32:04):
Thank you.
and today we're going to be talking a little bit
about estate planning.
We have two previous videospodcasts on estate planning and
we'll link those down in thecomments.
The focus of those was on firstkind of the 18 to 24 college
age, new adult demographic.
Then we went on to talk alittle bit about younger
(00:31):
families, new parents, newmarriages.
Today we're going to take alittle bit of a turn.
We're going to talk about moreof a established, older you know
, talk a little bit less aboutchildren's issues, a little bit
more about things like how does,how should my estate plan look
at my business, businesssuccession planning, what are
(00:53):
some of the unique aspects thatI need to look at?
So, as always, this is intendedto be informational.
It's not legal advice.
It's not intended to create anattorney-client relationship
(01:24):
no-transcript.
So, Bree, start us off first.
What is an estate plan?
What is estate planning and whyshould somebody care about?
Bri Holcombe (01:37):
it, yeah.
So estate planning is basicallytaking an inventory of
everything that you'veaccumulated throughout your life
.
You know this video is for someof our older individuals who
are well-established and havecreated property and have built
a family and have built a life.
Planning your estate is aboutplanning for your death and what
should happen to your propertywhen you pass, what should
(01:59):
happen to your body, but alsoplanning for incapacity, which
is as we get older, you know wemay fall into declining health,
we may lose capacity, and wewant to have family members or
friends who can step up and stepin in the event that those
things happen.
Alex Hunt (02:15):
So what does an estate planning consultation
with our firm look like, fromstart to finish, from the first
phone call, the first websitemessage to wrapping everything
up and getting a binder with allof the documents?
Bri Holcombe (02:31):
Yeah.
So the first step is our intakeprocess, where you call and you
say, hey, I'm ready to go aheadand get started.
We gather some information onyou, we make sure that we run a
conflict check so that there'sno conflict of interest in the
attorney-client relationship andwe schedule that consultation.
In the consultation you cancome in our office, you can do
it by phone call, you can do itby Zoom, and we really talk
(02:53):
about in-depth what your estateis comprised of, what probate
assets you have, how many homesyou have real property, vehicles
, and also your non-probateproperty life insurance,
retirement accounts, bankaccounts and also your
non-probate property, lifeinsurance, retirement accounts,
bank accounts.
We go through everything and wediscuss who should get those
things, who's going to be incharge.
We also walk through all thedocuments of incapacitation you
(03:15):
know and planning for thosethings, if that were to arise.
What I do, once I've got all theinformation from you, is I send
you drafts, drafts of each ofthe documents that we talked
about, with your wishes laid outin them, got a big draft
watermark on them, so they'renot the original.
You can't go and sign them, butyou look at them and you see if
you have any questions.
Oftentimes, when you get thosedocuments, you're going to feel
overwhelmed.
It's going to have legalese andbig words that you don't
(03:38):
understand and you don't know.
But that's why we're here wewant to walk you through and
guide you through thosedocuments so you have an
understanding of what each doesand what the role for each
person that you appointed iscomprised of.
Once you have all yourquestions answered, we'll bring
you in for a signing ceremonywhere we provide two witnesses
and a notary.
We sign all your documents intheir original form and then we
(04:00):
provide them to you in ourestate planning binder.
We also provide you with a USBso that you can make copies and
share them with loved ones whomay need to have those documents
.
Alex Hunt (04:09):
And I might be biased , because I see the work that
our team does and it's just sooutstanding, it's responsive,
it's fast.
But a lot of people might beinclined to go online and there
are so many new websites thatare popping up that will just
you put in some information,like TurboTax for state planning
, and it spits out an estateplanning document, a will or
(04:32):
power of attorney.
Those don't get the blessing ofa licensed Texas attorney.
You're not able to answer, getquestions answered from a
licensed Texas attorney,particularly like somebody who
lives in your neighborhood orhas experience with you, know
what you're maybe going throughand whatever your life
(04:54):
circumstance is.
A lot of times those forms arejust generic too.
They're national forms, they'renot Texas specific and the way
the law works is that Texas hasdifferent requirements than the
other 49 states in the Districtof Columbia and we need to have
somebody that's looking at thoseand making sure that you are
(05:17):
following Texas law.
And it's worth a little bit ofextra cost and I think that a
lot of people would be surprisedat how inexpensively you can
get a comprehensive estate plandone.
What are, what are, thedocuments in our comprehensive
estate plan?
We do things a la carte, but wealso have a state plan package.
(05:40):
What are the documents thatpeople are going to get?
Bri Holcombe (05:44):
Yeah, so the first document is your last will and
testament.
That's the document that takeseffect only when you've passed.
So it's not living now, it'sliving when you pass.
It says here's what I want tohave happen to my property when
I die.
Here's going to be the personwho's in charge If I have minor
children, here's going to be theindividuals who take care of
those minor children.
And it's an important documentbecause it it lays out your
(06:06):
wishes and, rather than goingthrough the process of not
having a will and you know thelaw and Texas determining where
your property is going to go youspell out your wishes.
So that's one.
The second would be theappointment of disposition of
remains.
That's a document that sayswhen I die, here's who's going
to be in charge of my body andhere's you know what I want to
have happen whether you want tobe buried, cremated.
(06:28):
You know you want certainflowers at your funeral.
We provide you with that spaceto do that and it also allows
someone to make those decisionsfor you, if you have it.
For if you've passed the otherdocuments, we plan for
incapacitation, which is, youknow, maybe you got into a car
accident and you no longer havethe ability to function, or
(06:54):
you're just getting older andyou don't want to make decisions
.
You don't want to deal with thecredit card companies or your
mortgage company.
You want someone to comealongside you and assist you.
So the first we have is afinancial power of attorney,
often referred to as a statutorydurable power of attorney.
A durable power of attorneythis document says when I can't
make financial decisions formyself, these people are going
to come alongside me and makethose decisions for me.
(07:14):
They're going to help me andhold my hand, or I'm just going
to surrender the power to themand say I don't want to do this
anymore.
Alex Hunt (07:21):
And that's one of those terms that scares people
away from doing this, because itsounds like the type of thing
that I don't need and Icertainly don't want to dive
into, because it sounds like ascary legal.
Bri Holcombe (07:35):
It's scary to think I'm giving you know,
access to an individual,everything that I have, finance
wise, and you get worried thatwell, maybe they're going to
take the money that's in myaccount and run.
When you appoint these peopleas your agent, they have a
fiduciary duty to act in yourbest interest, and if they're
not, you've got remedies andways to kind of combat that.
Alex Hunt (07:56):
And you can set it up so that they don't have any
power, any authority, untilsomething happens where you lose
capacity or you know.
So.
It isn't like you're going tosign it.
You're 40 years old and, all ofa sudden, whoever you're
sending us over to can makedecisions on your behalf
immediately.
Something has to happen in theinterim.
Bri Holcombe (08:16):
So we have two different types of powers of
attorney one that's effectiveimmediately and one upon
disability or incapacitation.
But different financialinstitutions, they actually want
that power of attorney that'seffective immediately rather
than upon incapacitation,because it draws into question
that event of incapacity and itmakes them say well, are you,
are you not, rather than justhaving the freedom to do things
(08:38):
now?
You know, I'm my parents' powerof attorney, it's effective
immediately, but I can't go totheir bank account and withdraw
all of their money.
If I did, I'm screwed, for lackof a better word.
So there are checks andbalances in place that prevent
someone from just taking theassets and running.
We also have for our powers ofattorney a little provision that
says you can't change thebeneficiary designations on my
(09:00):
account.
You know, when you werecapacitated you laid out who you
wanted those items to go to,and so we don't want somebody
coming in and changing yourwishes.
Alex Hunt (09:09):
So you mentioned before what the Texas law
decides what happens in theabsence of a will, and so we've
got another legalese termintestacy.
What does that mean?
What does it look like?
What happens if you don't havean estate plan in place?
Bri Holcombe (09:27):
Yeah.
So if you die without a will,the good news is that Texas law
has taken care of what shouldhappen to my property, but it's
also a bad thing because it maynot be what you want and what
your wishes are are.
So if you were to pass, you know, and you just had one spouse,
no children, or you had childrenof that marriage, your spouse
is getting everything.
If you pass and you have ablended family and let's say
(09:48):
that you're on your secondmarriage and you have kids from
your first marriage, it's goingto be 50-50 between your current
spouse and the children thatyou have.
If you don't have any children,if you don't have a spouse,
it's going to go to your parentsor then possibly to your
siblings and work its way down atree.
But it's important to have yourwishes laid out, because that
might not be what you want.
Your parents might not be hereif you pass, or you might not
(10:10):
have children and you want todirect your funds to a
charitable institution.
Without having it written down,there's no way to direct those
things there.
Alex Hunt (10:19):
So another question that we often get is for folks
that are doing their last willand testament and they're
deciding who will get bequests,who will get their physical
items, their financial accounts,but they also want to exclude
(10:40):
somebody.
Bri Holcombe (10:53):
Is that something that specifically needs to be
outlined, or you just don't listthem?
What does that look like?
So if we're going to disinheritsomeone, we can disinherit them
.
We just simply put a line inthere that says I have this
child and I disinherit them andall of their descendants, or I
just specifically disinheritthis child.
You know, it's very common todo and it's something that we
(11:14):
can certainly take care of.
One thing to note is that evenif you did a holographic will
which I'm sure we'll kind ofdive into you're able to
disinherit somebody.
But I just I would avoid thehere's why.
Here's all the things that theydid to make me mad.
I don't care that you'redisinheriting your child, I
don't care that you'redisinheriting a sibling.
(11:35):
That's not my place todetermine whether or not that's
an OK decision and, quitefrankly, none of the attorneys
really care.
We just want to make sure thatyou understand what that means
and that when you sign the will,you have capacity to enter into
it.
Alex Hunt (11:48):
And, more importantly , the probate court doesn't
necessarily need to know whyyou're doing it either.
They just need to see thatyou're doing it.
But there is a need Like say,you've got three kids and
unfortunately maybe you've lostcontact.
There's not a relationship withone of them.
You should specificallydisinherit that person in the
(12:09):
last will and testament, correct?
Bri Holcombe (12:12):
If that's what you want to do, correct.
Alex Hunt (12:14):
And in testacy rules, it's just Texas law.
If you don't have anything,it's going to those children.
It's going to those kids.
Okay, it's just Texas law.
(12:45):
If you don't have anything,it's going to those children.
In this estate planning process, like you know, sometimes I'll
have a client that'll come inand want to have a financial
advisor, or maybe there's.
Maybe they have a sizableestate and they have tax
questions about what's going tohappen with however they're
giving out things in their willIs it?
Is it good to have other peopleinvolved?
Does it complicate the processand who should be involved?
Bri Holcombe (13:05):
Good question.
So the one thing to know isthat if we're not creating a
trust, which is a legal processthat you pour your assets into
while you're living it's calleda living trust that's not
something that your will isgoing to actually take care of,
because those are considerednon-probate assets.
Those items go specifically tothe beneficiaries that you have
(13:26):
designated.
You've got retirement accounts,iras, life insurance policies.
Those items go to who you haveinstructed that financial
institution to go to.
Your will doesn't carry anddoesn't touch any of that.
In the event that you forgot abeneficiary, then your WillX is
a catch-all and it grabs thoseassets and distributes them in
accordance with your will.
(13:46):
But those things go to whomeveryou've instructed.
I always advise my clients goback and look, make sure that
those items are going to who youwant them to go to.
You can oftentimes have a firstbeneficiary and then a secondary
beneficiary if the first is nolonger there.
I know, specifically withFidelity, you can check a box
that says per stirpes, which isessentially a fancy Latin term
(14:09):
for the distribution of propertyin accordance to birth.
So it's important to revieweverything.
If you've got a financialadvisor, certainly pull them in
and ask them those questionslike tax consequences.
In Texas we don't have aninheritance tax.
That's not something that Texaslaw has, but the IRS does have
(14:30):
taxes and estate taxes.
You've got to have an estateworth well over I believe it's
$12.9 billion or millionsomething that most middle-class
families are not going toachieve, so that's not something
we have to worry about.
Okay.
Alex Hunt (14:45):
We have a lot of business owners as clients.
What should they be thinkingabout?
That's maybe different thansomebody who works for a company
and isn't a business.
Bri Holcombe (14:55):
So the first thing is how's your business
structured?
You know, sometimes peoplecreate companies off legal Zoom
and there may not be anoperating agreement, there may
not be a succession plan inplace.
That is something that's goingto be incredibly important for
an individual to have.
In the event that you did notestablish a succession plan for
your business, one, I wouldrecommend that you do it now.
(15:16):
But if you were to pass andthat was not in place, probate
is the process at which yourbusiness is going to be
distributed.
It very well may be dissolved,because if you have, for example
, a professional company you'rea lawyer, you're a doctor and
you didn't have these things inplace, a non-lawyer and a
non-doctor can't come in andfill your shoes.
So you know, having that windup plan in place, having the
(15:40):
succession plan, is going to bekey.
Alex Hunt (15:42):
Yeah, and that's something that a lot of
attorneys deal with.
We have clients that aredoctors.
There's something in Texascalled corporate practice of
medicine.
There's the same doctrine inthe law, like you mentioned, you
can't have a non-doctor takeover a medical practice.
But there certainly are assetsthere that you want to be going
(16:05):
to your family and the lastthing that you want to do if
you're a doctor, if you're alawyer, if you're a business
owner there's a lot ofbusinesses where the owner is in
a complex area and their spousemight not be familiar with it,
might not be able to dissolvethe.
(16:26):
You won't have a plan in place.
So that way you're not creatinga crisis, a disaster, and
you're making sure that theassets that are in that business
can easily be resolved, so thatway your family can get the
benefit of it.
Are there any otherconsiderations that business
(16:48):
owners should think of?
Bri Holcombe (16:50):
I think it's really important for business
owners to take account of theirownership interest in the
company that they have andremember, when you pass, debts
and liabilities have to be paid.
Now, if you were a soleproprietor, you had an LLC and
you're just a single member.
The debts that you accumulatedaren't just wiped away
necessarily.
When you pass and you gothrough the probate process, an
(17:12):
inventory is prepared ofeverything in your estate.
We look at the debts that youhave.
There's a priority order of howdebts are paid, from secured
claims to unsecured claims andso you want to make sure that
you know all your assets aren'tjust going to pay those things,
that your family has somethingin place.
Life insurance is a great placeto look.
So pulling in a financialadvisor and saying, hey, how
(17:33):
much is it going to cost tocover these liabilities that I
have so that my family can havesomething on the other side when
they get out of it?
Alex Hunt (17:41):
And a lot of people, including us, want to keep as
much of this property out of theprobate court as possible.
Tell me a little bit more aboutprobate versus non-probate
assets.
What should people be thinkingof to try to stay out of court
as much as possible?
Bri Holcombe (17:59):
So I mean it really comes down to what's in
your specific estate.
Everybody is different.
Everybody has different makeupof assets and makeup of
liabilities.
I would say the first thing ifyou wanted to avoid probate, one
option is to have a livingtrust.
That is, a document that youfund all of your property with
during your marriage.
I'm sorry, not a document, aprocess, a legal process.
(18:20):
So you put your home in thename of the trust, you put your
retirement accounts in the nameof the trust, your life
insurance policies.
That way, in the event of yourpassing, you know those things.
You don't have to go throughthe probate process.
You don't have to openeverything up.
When you pass, your trusteesteps in and they just take care
of managing the trust.
(18:41):
For middle class families thoughsometimes that's not always
practical of having that andkeeping up with it over time
there are different tools thatwe can use to avoid probate.
If you have all non-probateassets, you've just got
retirement accounts and lifeinsurance policy, bank accounts
and then maybe just a home.
A transfer on death deed is agreat option.
It basically says I give myownership interest in this
(19:04):
person.
When I pass, we file thatdocument with the property
records with a county clerk andit's on file.
It's there and when you pass,your person just has to take the
death certificate and the titletransfers over.
Alex Hunt (19:18):
Okay, so we talked a little bit about living trusts.
Tell us about testamentarytrust.
We talked about this in aprevious episode, where it was
really more geared towardsyounger families, but this
certainly might haveimplications for older
individuals as well.
What's a testamentary trust andwho needs it?
Bri Holcombe (19:39):
So a testamentary trust is a trust that's created
in your will.
It only takes effect if certainconditions are met, meaning
someone is under a certain ageor maybe they've reached
incapacity and they're not ableto you know inherit property
because it would mess up somesort of government benefits or
assistance that they're on.
Who needs a contingent trust ora testamentary trust is, you
(20:01):
know, really just depends onyour family makeup.
If you're giving, you know,let's say you're a married
couple and you're givingeverything to your spouse and
then to your children, well,what happens if one of your
children predeceases you andthey've got grandkids, or you've
got grandkids, you want to makesure that those grandkids are
not inheriting and then spendingall their money on Roblox or
(20:21):
Legos or whatever the new fad is.
So in our estate plan we do putthat testamentary trust in
there, just because because ofwhat, if, what, if it does make
it down the line, we want tomake sure that we're thinking of
everything and taking care ofyour family for the long run.
Alex Hunt (20:39):
Okay, and especially some of our older clients or
more established clients mighthave specific items that they
want to bequest to certainindividuals, and so I know that
we have a system in place forthat.
Tell me about how that works inour state planning process.
Bri Holcombe (20:54):
Yeah, so one of the documents we include is
what's called a personalproperty memorandum.
In our will we say we canreference this personal property
memorandum.
Personal property is thingslike your clothes, your jewelry,
your china, that you may have,those items you may want to give
specifically to one individual,and you can do that over time,
which is great.
(21:14):
But we don't want to have tohave you come back and redo your
will every time you give apiece of jewelry away.
You know, in my family myMeemaw's china, her Christmas
china, is a big deal.
So she can put on this personalproperty memorandum.
I give four place settings tomy granddaughter, I give four
place settings to my daughterand it covers you so that those
things are carried out.
(21:34):
Your wishes are there, it'shandwritten, you don't have to
have a notary or witnesses andyou can add to it over time and
you can take away as propertycomes and goes.
Alex Hunt (21:43):
Okay, well, very good .
And then it's something that,especially when folks are
approaching the end of life, butit's really applicable at any
point, because you never knowand you want to have plans in
place our funeral expenses anduh, planning and, um, the
probably the most morbidlytitled document that we deal
(22:03):
with the agent to fordisposition of remains, um,
helps give an idea to your lovedones, um, of how you'd like
your body disposed of, what youwould like your funeral to look
like.
Ones of how you'd like yourbody disposed of, what you would
like your funeral to look like,how much money you want to
spend.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat, yeah.
Bri Holcombe (22:21):
So it's a great document because if you don't
know what you want to do, youcan appoint someone who's going
to do it for you.
You appoint the person who'sgoing to be in charge of your
body and making sure that, onceyou've passed, your wishes are
carried out, if you have any.
I always think it's a good ideaand, again, it's very morbid to
(22:42):
go ahead and think about thecost and the expense of having a
funeral, having a celebrationof life being buried, being
cremated.
Visiting one of the many youknow funeral homes around the
Houston area is going to begreat, because you can not only
take care of those expenses nowand pay for them and have that
set, have things ready to gowhen the time comes and you take
that burden off your family.
(23:03):
You take the burden off of themto spend more money than you
would want them to.
So I always encourage myclients to go and visit with one
of those funeral homes to gettheir wishes laid out, get
things taken care of, pay for itnow so you don't pay for it
later and lock yourself in.
Alex Hunt (23:38):
If it's $20,000 for a full funeral and a spot in a
cemetery and all that stuff, youcan only imagine what it's
going to be like, and we know ofsomebody that did that process
decades ago and it was afraction of the cost of what it
would be now, I think, like $600for a plot.
Bri Holcombe (23:49):
Now they're going probably for like $13,000.
Alex Hunt (23:52):
Yeah, so definitely not something we think of in
terms of like an investment, butit is an investment in our
family's future.
Another end of life issue isnot necessarily if you pass, but
if there is some sort ofincapacity.
We want to make sure that atleast I know that I do, that the
(24:14):
person that is making decisionsfor me is who I want, and I
specifically want to make sure,maybe, that there's certain
people that I don't want to bemaking those decisions for me,
and so that's where thedeclaration of a guardian in the
event that the need arises is aform that will walk our clients
through.
Tell us a little bit about thatform, why it's important, what
(24:38):
we need to know.
Bri Holcombe (24:39):
So a guardianship is a legal lawsuit that
basically takes an individual'srights away.
They're not able to makedecisions for themselves and
they become in danger and weneed to strip them of that power
.
It's not necessary in allcircumstances.
The court, before they appointa guardian over someone and take
rights away from an individual,is going to say are there least
restrictive means in place?
Is there a financial power ofattorney?
(25:01):
Is it doing its job?
In most circumstances that'sgoing to be effective.
Represent your person andrepresent your property.
So it's twofold.
You know you may not be able tomake financial decisions for
yourself or you're not able tomake appropriate care decisions
for yourself.
This document says we're goingto take that power away and
(25:24):
we're going or, I'm sorry, notthis specific document, but a
guardianship takes that poweraway and appoint someone to be
in charge.
When we have that happen, youknow, oftentimes people have
their opinions on who they'dwant to be in charge of them and
who they wouldn't want to be incharge.
When we have that happen, youknow, oftentimes people have
their opinions on who they'dwant to be in charge of them and
who they wouldn't want to be incharge of them this document
says, if that has to happen if Ihave to get there.
These are the people that I'dwant to be in charge of my
(25:46):
person and my property, and hereare the people that I don't
want.
That way, if you're in and youfind yourself in a contested
guardianship hearing two doctorshave certified, you know that
you're incapacitated, you can'tmake decisions and you've become
a danger that if that personthat you said no, I don't want
them to be my guardian comes in,wave and say and pick me to the
(26:06):
court, of course going to saywhen this person was competent,
they they said not you.
Alex Hunt (26:11):
And they're going to take that serious.
Bri Holcombe (26:12):
They are.
Alex Hunt (26:13):
And they're not going to let that person make any
decisions for you.
And the court's preference, thecourt's requirement, unless
there's a reason otherwise, isthey're going to select the
person that you did say that youwant to be the guardian, so
it's putting you in the driver'sseat, whereas you would just be
at an extraordinarily difficulttime in your life, whether you
(26:36):
might come back from thatincapacity or not.
You're really putting thatdecision in someone else, a
situation where you can't makedecisions they have to petition
the court for guardianship.
Bri Holcombe (26:45):
They have to take your rights away and be
appointed the person to be yourguardian, and it easily can be
ten thousand dollars, it can beso expensive, or you could spend
(27:08):
a couple hundred bucks.
Now have those documents doneand your family members can just
step in and you don't have topursue that option and we've
gone over.
Alex Hunt (27:17):
One of the worst things that you can do is to do
nothing, because then you'reputting your life at the in the
hands of a judge who knows maybean hour's worth of your story
and it's making major decisionsfor you, um, and putting
decisions.
If you pass into your family'slap and they're going to have to
(27:38):
deal with it, the best thingyou can do is to get a
comprehensive estate plan thatdeals with all of these
different scenarios.
It puts in place who yourguardian is going to be in the
event the need arises.
If you have children, it'sgoing to say who you want to be
the guardians of those children.
If you have a sizable state,it's going to make sure that
(28:00):
that is disposed of with yourwishes.
The middle option, because alot of people see this process
and they say I don't have thetime, I don't have the money and
it's more inexpensive than youthink.
And our consult for estateplanning is free.
It's less expensive than youthink.
(28:21):
But a lot of folks say I justdon't have the capacity to do
that right now.
A holographic will is maybe astop gap, depending on your
situation, to put something inplace.
It's better than nothing, and aholographic will is simply a
handwritten document that sayswhat you want to happen with
(28:46):
your estate.
You can write down who you wantto be the guardian of your kids
and the key is can't be a video, can't be typed, it has to be
handwritten.
Write it out on a legal pad andsign it, and we certainly big
surprise a lawyer saying thatit's best to go to a lawyer and
(29:07):
to get this document done theright way.
But in the absence of that, itcertainly pays to just write out
something so that your familyand the courts will know what
your wishes are.
Yep, what else would yousuggest?
If somebody is doing aholographic will or maybe
doesn't have time for this, whatwould you suggest that they do,
(29:28):
or what should they know?
Bri Holcombe (29:29):
Well, the first thing I would say is making time
for something that's going tosave your family time and money
in the future is something thatyou want to make a priority, and
it really doesn't take muchtime to get an estate plan done.
You know you're not waiting onus to get these documents out
and moving into you.
Where I find most clients wantto drag their feet is once they
see them and they know they haveto sign that.
(29:51):
It scares them, but we can takeas much time as you need, so
you're never going to be waitingon the attorneys at Hunt Law
Firm to get things done and getthings moving.
I would say too, it's justimportant to have something
written out.
Even if you want to take yournapkin to a lawyer and let them
look at it and tell you thatit's good or it's not good,
(30:11):
that's better than nothing.
And two, you want to make surethat someone knows where that
napkin is.
Someone knows where your wishesare in that legal pad or
whatever you chose to create andcraft your holographic will.
So that's what I'd say foranyone who's kind of on the
fence is that make this apriority.
Alex Hunt (30:30):
Yeah, and making sure that the loved ones that are
either going to care for you orthey're going to benefit under
your will know where it isIncredibly important.
I remember a few years ago Iwas reading an article about a
court case with Aretha Franklin,the singer who passed away a
few years ago, and her familyliterally found some holographic
handwritten wills inside of thecouch at her home, and the
(30:57):
court ruled didn't matter whereit was, didn't matter how it was
written.
It expressed her wishes andthey upheld it.
So doing something is betterthan nothing, but doing it the
right way is easier and lessexpensive than I think a lot of
people realize.
Bri Holcombe (31:16):
And it saves you money in the future and it saves
your family the heartache andthe trouble of navigating the
court process on their own andfighting over things.
Alex Hunt (31:24):
And I've found in clients some measure of peace to
know that they've put a plan inplace.
It's one less thing to have tothink about, especially if
they're later on in life,they're approaching end of life.
It's one thing that they cancontrol in life which is
unpredictable.
Well, bree, is there anythingelse that you think folks need
(31:47):
to know, want to know?
Bri Holcombe (31:49):
I don't think so, but if you have questions, feel
free to reach out.
Alex Hunt (31:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
If anybody has questions, feelfree to go to our website,
message us.
Look at past episodes thatwe've done on estate planning or
a variety of other topics.
So thanks for joining me, brie.
Bri Holcombe (32:04):
Thank you.
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