Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to Life Happens Radio. This is
our weekly radio program for individuals and their families where
we address the challenges we all face as we age.
We talk about aging as a lifestyle, the issues that
must be confronted, and the careful planning that's required to
avoid crisis in the future. Life Happens will provide you
with the tools to educate and prepare yourself for events
(00:20):
like preparing for retirement, protecting your income and assets, planning
to pay for nursing, home and home care, special needs planning,
preparing wills and trusts, as well as planning for an
untimely death, and resolving disputes in and out of court.
And as the laws and necessities for planning and care
continued to evolve, Life Happens will continue to make smart
decisions to ensure that your goals are reached and your
(00:43):
needs are met for you and your family.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I am Tom Morasco, your host this morning from Pierre
O'Connor and Strauss. We are a full service lower firm
located throughout New York with offices in the Albany region, Manhattan,
and Long Island. I am accompany this morning by my
colleague Anthony Kachewi.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Good morning, Anthony, Good morning, Tom, Good morning New York.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
My absolute pleasure. Nowhere else I'd rather be today.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So today we have a good show lined up for you.
We're going to be talking about why you shouldn't leave
your legacy to luck in light of our Saint Patrick's
day coming up. So we're going to explore the essential
leaguing documents that everyone should have. We're going to explore
the essential legal documents that everyone should have to protect
themselves and their loved ones both during their lifetime and
(01:33):
after death. Think of these documents as a personal insurance
policy against life's and certainties.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Right, That's what this show is all about.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Life happens, and we need to be prepared, and that's
not something that we want to take a gamble on.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's not something that we want to leave to chance.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So we're going to walk you through exactly what these
documents are, the protection that they provide, and the very
real consequences of not having them in place. So we're
going to break down our show in a few different
in a few different ways. We're going to talk about
certain documents that we should have in place during our
lifetime because a lot of times we think of planning
as what happens after we die. But a lot of
(02:11):
times people don't pay mind to understanding that there are
situations that could arise during our lifetime that require assistance,
that we need people in place to be able to
step in and to assist us. So we're going to
talk about these ancillary documents and the most powerful tool
in that arsenal is.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
The power of attorney.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And why don't you tell a little bit about what
the power of attorney is and what its purposes.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Sure, power of attorney, you're appointing an agent. You're the principal,
and the agent has the ability to make financial decisions
on your behalf. So you know, often people will say, well,
I'm married. I you know, I have a spouse, and
what do I need a power of attorney for? My
wife will take care of everything. But if you have
(02:58):
anything in your name, solely in your name, a bank account,
of the mortgage, credit cards, utility bills, they're not going
to speak to your spouse. In fact, when I get
the wrong groceries and I call up Amazon and let
them know, they will not speak to me. They'll say
is your wife present. So common misconception is that, oh,
(03:18):
I'm married, it's everything's fine, you know, but we have
separate accounts and certain things are in my name, certain
things are in my spouse name, but they'll speak to me.
They will not. So the power attorney, you're pointing an
agent to make financial decisions on your behalf. In contrast
to some of the other documents that we're going to discuss,
the power attorney allows you to have multiple agents serve
(03:39):
at the same time. Healthcare proxy, for example, does not.
And you have different types of powers of attorney. Do
you want the power of attorney to be effective immediately,
which is what we recommend, or do you want to
have a power attorney that sort of springs into effect
upon incapacity or if you have diminished capacity? Tom, what
are your feelings about the power attorney? Do you think,
(04:03):
as I know you do, it should be effective immediately
or should it spring into effect?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I think that it's something that should be available immediately.
And the whole purpose of this document is to have flexibility. Right,
we don't know what's going to happen or when, or
to the extent on which we're going to require help
and it may not always be that we're incapacitated. People
fail to appreciate the power of this tool and how
(04:29):
could even be used in certain for conveniences. If in
the event you have some type of injury or procedure,
you're in recovery, you're bedridden, you need people to be
able to step in and take care of your affairs.
You're not incapacitated at that point, but you still need help.
So I think it's very crucial that you have that
effective immediately, and just to go back and really hone
(04:55):
in on exactly why this document's important. It's the question is, well,
what happen if we don't have this documented port.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Now that means we're gonna have to.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Go to court and go through what's called a guardianship proceeding,
and that's gonna take several months, and it's gonna take
a considerable amount of money in order to find the
court to say you are the right person to make
decisions on behalf of this individual.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Meantime, this person is in dire need of help, and
you're limited in what you're able to do for that.
And I have a very real example, the one that
still sticks with me. I had a couple, a married
couple who were together forty years, and there were a
second marriage to each other, so they did have separate assets,
and for one reason or another, they never really got
(05:42):
around to planning. There was no real health concerns of
the horizon that you know, would really move them.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
To try to take some quick action.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But what ended up happening is the wife suffered from
a stroke, and unfortunately it was pretty severe and she
didn't recover. She required to be placed in a long
term care facility. And I don't know if many of
the people listening understand or have a you know, excuse me,
I'm not sure if the people listening have a true
(06:13):
understanding of what that might cost. But that could be
anywhere from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars per month. And
now I have a client who came to me to
try to get help, to try to get Medicaid assistance
for a spouse, and we didn't have access to her
finances in order to do that, and we had to
go through a guardianship proceeding. And meanwhile she is languishing
(06:36):
in this long term care facility and they were bleeding
their money that they could have been used to continue
to take care of himself or or be used in
other ways. So it's crucial that this document is in
place now.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Aside, it's the sort of thinking back what you said.
People don't usually think of about returney as a sort
of acid protection tool, but what you were just saying
is critical for the listeners to understand that you could
have a power of attorney where you enable your agent
to make gifts on your behalf, to transfer assets out
of your name, and to do further planning. If your
(07:12):
client suffers from some sort of event or situation where
they need home health AIDS, they're not going to qualify
for medicaid if they have more than thirty two thousand
dollars approximately in resources. So now they have hundreds of
thousands of dollars in their name, they have some sort
of event. If the power of attorney, even if you
have a power of attorney, if it doesn't have gifting
(07:33):
provisions which enables your agent to form a trust and
gift your assets into that trust, the power attorney is
not going to be able to secure your safeguard their
assets from medicaid.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Absolutely, and that's a great point. So that's power of
attorney that, as we were pointing out, is for financial
and legal decision making. And on the other side of that,
the other side of the coin is healthcare decision making. Now,
the document that we would use in this situation is
a healthcare proxy. Now people say, well, if it's my
(08:12):
spouse and I have a right.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
To be able to help assist make decisions.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Well, yeah, that may be true perhaps for a spouse,
but that's not the reality for a lot of individuals.
There are life partners who choose not to get married,
and the only other people that would have in a
right under the law, and that the very specific exceptions
that the law provides for, would only be immediate family.
(08:38):
But sometimes that's not the people that we would want
to be in place to make those medical decisions for
us in the event that we cannot make those decisions.
So in the event of it incapacity, we have the
ability to name an agent to step in and make
those medical decisions for us as we would want to
make those decisions.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
And now the.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Way that we craft our healthcare proxy, we include a
different you know, some other components to it, Anthony. You know,
one of the other important pieces of this document is
a living will right a living declaration, so why don't you.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Living? One that we typically put in our documents say
is that if the principle suffers a some sort of injury, disease,
illness that leaves them unable to have a meaningful life,
they're not going to have a sentient life and the
chance of recovery is slim. That you don't want to
be kept on artificial life support or be fed artificially indefinitely.
(09:43):
That you want to be given pain medicine. But this
could be tailored or anything you want. Everyone has different
sort of wishes on this. Some people don't want to
be on life support, some people do. So this is
a document that we can customize and tailor to your wishes.
There's also a hip or really p which allows your
healthcare agent to have access to your medical records. And
(10:05):
just stepping back for a minute, the healthcare proxy allows
you to appoint an agent. You can't have multiple agents
serve at the same time. It's not allowed. It's not
permitted by night. They don't want, unlike the power attorney,
because they don't want The state doesn't want the spouse
to say, my husband wanted this procedure and the kids
(10:26):
to say, no, Dad never wanted that procedure. So that's
one thing. The next thing that I think we should
focus on is who should you select as your agent.
Often clients will say, I have a son who's a doctor,
I have a daughter who's a doctor. I have a
brother who's a nurse. They're very knowledgeable about medicine. They
(10:49):
should be my agent. And we're of the opinion of
you want to pick the person who's going to implement
your wishes, right, not necessarily the person who's a doctor
or a nurse or has background in the medical field.
It's the person who's going to implement what you want done.
You don't want to appoint an agent that's going to
permit procedures to be done that you would not want yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, and Anthony, I think you touched on the exact
point of what the purpose of all of these documents
and the purpose of putting a plan in place is.
It's to maintain autonomy, the control over what it is
that you want done when you are no longer able
to communicate those wishes to others.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
It is putting the people in place to serve as
our mouthpiece that will convey and carry out the wishes
as we set them forth, not pursuing to a court
or not pursuing to someone else who is able to
step in. It's the people that we would want to
step in in those particular situations.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
We're gonna if you don't do it, then the state
is going to do it for you.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
So we're going to take a short break and when
we come back, we're going to talk about wills, and
we're back. So for this portion of the show, we
want to focus on wills, probate, and intestesy. So first,
before we get into that, I want to talk a
little bit about what probate is. So, when a person
(12:18):
dies with assets in their name alone, the only way
we can access those assets if they weren't otherwise held
jointly or had beneficiary designations, is through probate, which is
having to go to court proffering a will if there
(12:38):
was one, or an administration if there wasn't a will,
and then the court having to ratify that will, approve
the person that you've appointed in charge, and then oversee
all the distributions at that point. And in New York,
the probate process can take anywhere from the approximately nine
(13:00):
months to up to two years in cases longer, because
there are so many different variables that have to be
considered when we're talking about probate. Number one is, as
I said, we have to go through the court, so
we're at the mercy of the court's docket and.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
What that looks like.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Second, you were required to notify all next of kin,
so this is a very public proceeding, which is again
one of the things that we have to consider, especially
what your wishes are. So that means notifying that estranged
family member that perhaps you haven't spoken to in years
(13:45):
and perhaps you want nothing to do with or have
anything to do with, but now they have an open invitation,
and then.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
If they choose to subsequently.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Contest the proceeding, and that's going to drag things out
even further. Sometimes we don't even know where the next
of kin is and we have to hire genealogists to
try to even just locate and find out where they
are to even just be able to serve them and
move on with the proceedings. So, as you can see,
probate is definitely something that we want to avoid. It's time,
(14:21):
it's money, and what you have to think about is
all of the assets that are tied into that estate. Okay,
think about real estate, because for most people that's the
biggest asset they have. The real estate taxes, maintenance, other
carrying cross are continuing to accrue and we do not
have ability to get out from underneath it, nor do
(14:44):
we have access to other funds that we could potentially
use to pay and offset those costs, and leaving that
burden on the family members and the people, the loved
ones that are left behind to really take care of
it for you. So, one of the things that we
put in place to try and at least manage and navigate.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
How we want things to go is through a will.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Now, a will is going to name somebody who's in charge.
They're your executor. They're going to be the person in
charge of managing the estate, and then we can also
discuss at that point what the disposition of your assets are,
to whom and how you want them to go. Anthony,
(15:33):
what are the common things that you've noticed when people
just rely on a will plan.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So a couple of things I just want to sort
of mention. One is, if you have a will, you're
going through probate, and as Tommy mentioned, your assets are frozen.
You can't get the loved ones, can't get access to
your money to pay the bills that are accruing. Could
(16:02):
you potentially call a bank and work out some sort
of arrangement where you make payments once the proceeding is over. Possibly,
but usually, like Tommy said, these proceedings could last for
several months. It could take several months just before you
get into probate, depending on the county, could take several years,
(16:24):
especially if it's contested. So probate the proving of the will, Well,
what happens if you don't have a will. If you
don't have a will, then this state determines who's going
to get your assets. So, if you're married and you
don't have kids, your spouse is going to inherit everything.
If you're if your spouse predeceased you and you just
(16:48):
have children, your children will inherit. And if you have
a spouse and children surviving, your spouse is going to
get the first fifty thousand dollars and half of the balance,
and your kids are going to get the other balance.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So well, it's important to note their anthony.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I just want to piggyback on what you said, in
those situations where there are certain family dynamics. But now
what that doesn't include are people who have life partners
or non married individuals, or people who are.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Just simply single.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
They're at least in the in the in that kind
of a nuclear family or context. Yeah, we have maybe
espouse and children, and ultimately that may how you how
you want things to go. But now what about you
have a life partner who you wanted to care for
and you made the conscious decision not to get married.
That person's going to be completely cut out of your
(17:46):
state in the event of an intestacy, and then you
know where to go to it. Yeah, it might go
to those people that you don't want to get Like
I said, those are strange siblings as that you haven't
spoken to in years, and you were.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Saying absolutely, Well, there's also a situation of you could
have minor children. So even if you have a spouse
and children surviving you, you may not want your eight
year old to inherit those assets because now you're going
to have to have the court involved, right, You're going
to have to have a guardian to watch over those assets,
even though it's the child of the of the marriage. Right,
(18:28):
So the decedent may have wanted assets to ultimately go
to his wife, who would then or husband who is
ever surviving and have those assets available for the whole family.
But if you don't have a will, those assets are
going to go into the name of the child, and
(18:49):
then there's going to be a guardian appointed and you're
going to be under court supervision during the while the
child is a minor.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And in the same respect, you also have to think
about other people's individual.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Circumstances at the time they inherit.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
What if they're disabled, what if they're applying for what
benefits Exactly, any outright inheritance could disqualify them from receiving
those benefits. And then they're utilizing the inheritance to pay
for the benefits they were already receiving, as opposed to
using it as a supplement to add more comfort to
(19:28):
their lives. So intestacy does not really take into consideration
any of those factors.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Absolutely, at least with the will, you have a plan.
You are appointing someone that you trust to serve as
the executive of your estate that's going to marshal the assets,
pay your debts, and then distribute those assets to the
beneficiaris and you're picking who the beneficiaries are, right, you
work your entire life. I often joke with clients and
(19:57):
I'll say how much money do you have in this account?
And they'll rattle off the number. Well, how much is
your state? And they'll know it, and I'll say, does
that bank account have a beneficiary designation? Oh? I don't know. Well,
you could have a will and you could say everything's
going to go to your spouse. But if you have
(20:17):
a bank account that says everything's going to your parents
because you opened it thirty years ago and you weren't
married at that time, then whatsever in that account would
go to them?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Right?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And sometimes often when you open up a bank account,
you don't even have a beneficiary designation, right, You're just
there at the bank, you're filling out forms. You may say, oh,
i'll do this later, and there's no one on that account.
Then it's going to be controlled by your will, and
then you then have to go through probate. So the
will is one step up from not having anything, because
(20:52):
if you don't have anything, then the state decides to
inherit your assets. At least if you have a will,
you are determining, Hey, I worked my life and these
are the people who I want to inherit my assets,
These are my loved ones, and you could write out
you know who you want to receive those assets, and
you could even have trust for them formed under the will.
(21:14):
But the problem, which is a testamentary trust. But the
problem with that is that those trusts then are always
going to be subject to the court supervision. And if
you want to remove a trustee or if you want
to do something, you have to then go back to court.
And I've heard of situations where to remove a trustee
took over a year. So while a will is a
(21:36):
good step and often, you know, sufficient for people who
are younger, who are just starting out, maybe don't have
a family, or just our young family, as you get
older and you require more assets, which we're going to
discuss shortly, we think that a revocable living trust is
(21:59):
the way to go.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, and just another keynote there, it's not uncommon for
people in New York or in any state rather to
have assets that fall outside of the state. There are
plenty of people in New York, our clients especially, that have.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Properties all over the states.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Whether it's Florida, Connecticut, where have you? And what that
would require in that instance is not only do you
have to bring a probate proceeding here in New York,
you also have to bring an ancillary probate proceeding in
each of the states in which you have those assets.
So again, time money, It's just it's something that we
(22:45):
want to avoid. And so what we're gonna do after
we take this next break for the news is we're
gonna go in what are the best ways and how
can we avoid having.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
To go through the probate process. Stay tuned and welcome
back everybody.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So so far, just as a quick recap, we've talked
about certain planning documents that we should have during our
lifetype in the event that we become incapacitator or we
require assistance. We talked about the power of Attorney, which
was for legal and financial decision making. We've talked about
the healthcare Proxy, which is about decision making and the
other components of that document as well. And we spoke
(23:24):
briefly about probate wills and the intestacy process. And what
we want to focus on now is how do we
avoid that probate process. Now, while we should always have
a will as part of our foundation of estate planning documents,
we should always have one. There are better ways that
we can deal with our assets.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
During our lifetime. We've alluded to a couple of them before. Right.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
If we jointly own property, then upon the passing of
the first joint owner, it automatically would pass to the
second joint owner. If there was a bank account with
a designated beneficiary on it, upon the passing of the
owner or the joint owner, it would pass to that beneficiary. Now, again,
what that doesn't account for is that person's individual circumstances
(24:11):
at the time that they would go to inherit. So
again we talked about if someone has a disability, or
if someone was a minor at the time, what that
would mean in that type of context. So, while those
two things would achieve avoiding probate, the best way to
not only avoid probate, but to account for all those
different contingencies is through a trust plan. Now, there are
(24:35):
various kinds of trusts. Categorically, we can break them down
into revocable and irrevocable trusts, and when we would use
one or the other really depends on the circumstances. So, Anthony,
revocable living trusts extremely extremely powerful tool. Just tell us
a bit about how it works, how it functions, and
(24:56):
what it could be used for.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Sure, So vocable or revocable living trust typically the client
is the creator known as the grant tour, the trustee
which is the person in charge of the legal title
to the assets, and the beneficiary. So they're the grant
or the creator, they're the trustee, they have legal title
to the assets, and they're the beneficiary. It's just like
how you have a bank account. You can take money in,
(25:20):
take money out, you do whatever you want. You have
complete authority over the trust. You could amend it, restate it,
revoke it at any time. So you have complete control
and authority over the trust assets. In contrast to a will,
which is a public document, a revocable trust is a
private document. So you outline or lay out your wishes
(25:42):
on who you want to inherit your assets, so it's
in a control the dispositive intent or these can we
just backtracked on that.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, just go back and start over when you're ready.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Okay, I don't know the last thing I said, But
so the revicable living trust will control who inherits your assets,
and the benefit of a revcable living trust is that
it avoids probate. Like I said, it's a private document.
It's not a public document. But the difference between a
(26:15):
will and a revcable living trust is that for the
revcable living trust to get the full benefit, you have
to actually transfer assets to the trust. So a lot
of people go and they say, oh, I formed the
trust and everything is perfect. I've had this trust for
several years, and I say, what is your trust on?
They say, oh, what do you mean? And they don't
(26:36):
understand that to get the full power of the trust,
you actually have to go to your bank and tell
your banker or transfer your deed into your trust. You
have to actually move assets into the name of the trust.
Just by simply forming a trust, you're not going to
avoid probate because what's going to happen is if you
had the accounts in your name with no beneficiary, it's
(26:56):
going to be a probate asset. You're going to have
to probate your will to get those apps assets into
your trust. Like Tommy mentioned, if you have a deed
and it joint with writer survivorship with the spouse or
tenets by the entirety. Upon the death of the first spouse,
there's not going to be a need for probate. But
what happens when the surviving spouse dies, right then it's
going to be a probate asset. So the key of
(27:17):
having a trust is forming it but then funding it.
And just like the will where you outline who you
want to inherit, it's the same thing for the trust,
except you get the added benefit of having an incapacity
management system so that in the event you're incapacitated, you
name trustees to be in charge of the trust assets
and the trustee has the ability to use those assets
(27:39):
for your benefit, and it's a detailed list of instructions
that you provide to the trustees. So similar to a
power of attorney where the power attorneys and to control
of the assets that are outside the trust, the trust
is and the success or trustee will control the assets
that are owned by the trust. So you have multiple
documents working in tandem. You have the power of attorney
for the assets that can't be transferred to a trust,
(28:00):
a retirement account, and then you have a success or
trustee that's in charge of the assets that are owned by.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The trust absolutely, and not only does it have a
system in place in the event that you, as a trustee,
should become incapacitated to have somebody step in, but it
also again accounts for all those different contingencies of the
individuals that we want to benefit from our passing, and
the whole purpose of that is making sure that we're
(28:25):
setting it up that's going to be most advantageous for
us during our lifetime and ultimately to our beneficiaries once
they are ready to inherit those assets. And now one
of the examples that I mentioned before about having property
out of the state, which would require all those other
ancillary probates to be brought in order to acquire those
assets if we put them into the trust. Now, okay,
(28:47):
this is different from the trust established under the will.
As Anthony pointed out, that's a testamentary trust which only
comes into effect after our death, which still requires probate
in order to put into action. A intervevos trust, this
is done during your lifetime. So we would do the
funding now, so we would take the deeds and the
(29:07):
assets that are outside of the state, we put them
into the trust now and we get to avoid not
only the probate here in New York, but all the
other ancillary probate actions that we would have to bring
in all those other jurisdictions to acquire that property.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
So as you can see just alone how powerful this
tool could be.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Now and Tommy, while that's happening, the assets are not
frozen like they would be if it was a probate
proceding exact right, we can get immediate to ministered exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Right, exactly so whatever action, the part of the time.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
With the revocable living trust is how are your beneficiaries
going to inherit those assets? Are they going to inherit
the assets outright, which would mean that it's in their
names potentially subject to their creditors in their estates, or
do you want to have the assets continue in trust.
Have One of the beautiful benefits of having a revicable
living trust is that during your lifetime, because you're creating
(30:04):
the trust for yourself and you're the grantor you're the trustee,
you're the beneficiary, you have all this power. There's no
asset protection, right, you're just putting that's called a self
settled trust. It's a first party trust. But when you
form the trust, underneath is sub trust for your descendants
or for your spouse upon your death, that's considered a
(30:25):
third party trust. So this one trust document is going
to have actually it could have multiple trust in one agreement,
so that during your lifetime, it's going to take care
of yourself. It has provisions in the event you're incapacitated,
and then upon your death, your beneficiaries are going to
be labeled with the amount of assets that are going
to inherit and if you want, you could provide for
(30:46):
them asset protection. Because once you're deceased, you're forming a
trust for their benefit. That's considered a third party trust.
You're using your money for the benefit of someone else.
So now rather than having the assets go outright, you
could keep them those assets in trust for them where
it's non included in their state and it's protected from creditors.
And like Tommy mentioned before, if they're getting government assistance,
(31:09):
there could be a supplemental needs trust, a special type
of trust that the assets would be in trust for
that beneficiary but not be included or accountable for Medicaid
or whatever program they're on.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
And I want to stress that portion about the asset protection. Okay,
because the next topic we're going to talk about our
irrevocable trusts, which are meant for asset protection services. But
I really want to key in on what Anthony just
said there for those trusts that those sub trusts that
are established under the revocable living trust, for the beneficiaries,
they inherit that in an asset protected vehicle. And I
(31:44):
have to stress that because that means, as Anthony pointed
out correctly, that means that it's not available to creditors.
It's not available against anyone that could be the subject
of a lawsuit, bankruptcy, divorce, okay, or even if they
need to then subsequently apply for government benefits, the principle
of that trust will always be protected for them. And
(32:07):
that is an invaluable tool that you can do for
your loved ones. Now, on that same token, we're.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Going to talk about it because interroject quickly. Sure, the
biggest creditor in life is a divorcing spouse. And typically
what happens is when you're deceased, your assets are going
to be distributed. Let's say they distributed out right to
your kids. Say all my kids are responsible, They don't
have any creditors. They're not doing anything. They're various. Why
on earth would they need this? And they get an inheritance,
(32:34):
and inheritance is separate property. But as you're married, most
of you know that you don't really keep separate accounts.
As time goes by, you have mainly joint accounts. And
then you take that inheritance that's separate property and you
put it in a joint account, and now it's been tainted.
And now several years later, your spouse, your child gets
(32:56):
divorced from their spouse, they're gonna say, that's my money
in that account and I want have So by having
a trust a subtrust for your descendants, you are providing
asset protection in the event, God forbid, they have a
divorce in the future. Which is the biggest creditor.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, And honestly, I get that question all the time.
Does this mean that if something happens to my son
or my daughter to do their spouse get it? And
it's not that we don't love, you know, our in
laws or whatnot, But that's not the intent. Right.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
So moving on to the irrevocable trusts.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Now they still have all of the same protections that
are afforded to any and all the other advantages of
a of a trust right. They avoid the probate, We
have the flexibility of saying who gets what, who's going
to be in charge, how.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Are they going to receive?
Speaker 1 (33:43):
But it structured a little bit differently during our lifetime,
and the purpose for that is really for long term
care purposes. So for those who are concerned about well,
you know, I've heard all these nightmares about people getting
older and then needing care, and I've heard that home
care could be anywhere, you know, over ten thousand dollars
a month if you need full time aids, and these
(34:03):
nursing homes, as I said earlier, could be anywhere from
fifteen to twenty thousand.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
And people start to panic. They see, well, I don't
have assets for that. Maybe the biggest asset they have
is a house.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
And they really want to take care of their loved
ones when they leave, and that is their primary tool
that they believe that they're going to have to be
able to pass on. And now they're saying, well, what
happens if I need to apply for medicaidor they going
to take my house?
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Are they going to take my assets?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
So what this irrevocable trust that is otherwise known as
an asset protection trust or Medicaid asset protection trust.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
It structured differently.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
We wouldn't serve as your own trustee in that situation,
we would nominate a third party. And then a lot
of people get apprehensive. They're like, oh, wait a second,
it's irrevocable. That means I can't cancel it at any time,
I can't amend it, and now someone else has to
be in charge of my assets, like what happens? Well,
there's some misconceptions about that. So yes, there has to
(34:57):
be a third party. But one of the two powers
that you owe always maintain control over it. By the
way that we draft these documents is number one, you
always have the right to change who the trustees are,
and we carve out something called a limited powerful appointment
to allow you to also update and change your beneficiaries should.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
It be required.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
But by creating that distance between you and the asset right.
Once we clear the five year lookback period for Medicaid purposes,
those assets are fully protected.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
And just to intervene Tommy, the five year lookback period
often a misconception, common one is that it's for all
Medicaid right now. For nursing home there's a five year
lookback period, but there is no lookback period currently for
home health AIDS.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yes, there has been legislation introduced to impose a two
and a half year look back, which has not yet
been enacted, but for purposes of what we're discussing now today, yes,
it would be for nursing home. And if you'd want
more information about Medicaid specifically, Pier O'Connor and Strauss has
Medicaid Mondays the second Monday of every month where we
have a half hour presentation on all things Medicaid. We
(36:03):
delve into the specifics, the details, because it's incredibly nuanced,
well beyond the scope of what we'd be able to
accommodate in this short time together here.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
But that's also an invaluable tool.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
You can find a database of all of our previous
shows on our website www dot prolaw dot com. We're
gonna be taking another short break and when we get back,
we're gonna talk about common.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Mistakes to avoid and what actions you should be taking. Now.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Stay tuned, welcome back, and before we get back into
the next portion, I just wanted to make one last
commentary on the trust that we talked about in Avoiding
the Probate. There's always a misconception that when people hear trusts,
they believe it's only for the wealthy people, and that
(36:49):
is simply not true. And in the previous segment it's
evidence enough that there are so many different reasons that
a trust could be useful to any single person. So
I don't want anyone to have that misconceived notion they
hear trust and they automatically shut down. They think, oh, well,
that's not for me. So it's an extremely incredible powerful
(37:12):
tool for anybody, and if necessary for you, it should
be in your arsenal. So with that being said, I
want to focus a little bit now on what mistakes
you should avoid. What are the common mistakes we could avoid,
And I think everyone could agree that this area of
(37:36):
law is extremely complex and one of the biggest things
that I know, Anthony, I'm sure you've encountered it with
your clients as well as I have, is that people think, well,
this is this something that I can do by myself? Right,
I know they have forms for this online. Can I
just go online?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Right? I call them the Google Warriors? Sometimes?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Can I just go on and find the document and
do it myself.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
I want.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
So, and what do tell me?
Speaker 1 (38:07):
What are the couple of the biggest issues you you've
seen in your practice.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
With why Yeah, you know, like I was saying, you'll
hear people say often, I spent seventy five thousand dollars
on a kitchen remodel, I bought this fancy car. Don't
look to cheap out when it comes to your estate plan.
You've worked your entire life for those assets. You do
not want to take a gamble now and see if
(38:35):
you can get it right, and that you're going to
fill out these forms correctly. I've seen many people they
go online and they get these sort of trusts, and
they come and they show me their trust document and
I say, oh, well, I'm looking at the schedule A,
which is a portion of the trust, usually the last
page that lists all the assets that have been funded
(38:55):
with the trust. And I say, oh, you your trust
is fully funded. And I say, let me see your
deed and the deed is in their name and I said, well,
the the schedule as has this property listed And they said,
oh yeah, I wrote it down there, not realizing that
to actually transfer legal title to real estate, you have
(39:16):
to have a deed that you file with the county
with the proper transfer tax forms. Right, you just can't
write an asset on schedule. A same thing with the
bank accounts. So they go and they start writing down
all these bank accounts and I say, did you actually
go to your bank and tell them to change the
title of the account from your name to the revocable trust?
(39:36):
And they say, oh, no, I didn't know how to
do that. So being a Google warrior, it's okay for
certain things, right, we all do it. But when it
comes to a state planning, when it comes to all
of the assets that you've worked in your entire life for,
do you want to sort of chance it now and
see if you can get it right? I don't want
to take that risk. Lawyers are risk averse people by nature.
(40:00):
But this is one thing, Tommy, where I think that
having a professional do it is in your best interest.
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (40:08):
I couldn't agree more. One of the biggest things I've seen.
And sometimes it's not just doing it yourself. Sometimes they
go to a friend who they know is an attorney,
but they don't necessarily practice in estate planning and you
had alluded to it before earlier. But the power of attorney,
there's so many different portions of the power of attorney
(40:31):
that you can apply, and sometimes something simple as not
checking off the gifting provision could be completely detrimental. So
you think I have this power of attorney, I can
do whatever I need. Well, no, that's not the truth.
And with my example that I gave earlier about my
two clients, if they had a power of attorney but
didn't have the gifting provision, guess what I would have
(40:53):
been in the same exact situation that I would have
been before, and I would still have to revert to
a guardianship proceeding because I don't have the sufficient powers.
And for someone if you don't practice in this field
of law, if you haven't seen the things that we've seen,
or know how what one thing could impact any type
of future decision making that you might need to make,
(41:15):
something is going to get missed.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
So I don't.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Believe this is something that people should take upon themselves.
And it's not that I don't respect people who like
to do their own research and to come prepared.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I love nothing more than a client who comes in
that I could tell that their homework because I know
it means something about them. I know they're taking the care,
but take that extra step. Do not do it yourself,
do not rely on it yourself. There's the reasons why
there's professionals who do this.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
For a living.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I would not recommend people to just take it upon
themselves to do that. And Anthony, going back what you
said about the funding of trusts and whatnot, even updating beneficiaries, right,
Sometimes people have said something and you said earlier. Right,
maybe it was your parents because you open that account
thirty years ago and you just don't even think to
(42:06):
update that. Or you know what, I'm married and I
have a joint account with my spouse, so I know that, Okay,
if anything happens to me, it goes to my spouse.
But then we always forget, well, what happens when your spouse.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Dies or whomever?
Speaker 1 (42:20):
That joint account owner is, right, and if it's supposed
to go to people, guess what, we're back in the
same boat.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
So what we do and what we take care of
is not only do we put together the plan, not only.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Do we establish the trust, we do a Part two.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
It was strictly about funding your trust. We make you
produce a list of all of your assets, what kind
of assets, where they're situated, who the current beneficiaries are,
and we work with you.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
We go hand in hand.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
We make sure that you've addressed every single one of those,
making sure that it ties into your estate plan the
way that you intended to. So, Anthony, as far as
what you would advise people as to when you think
people should start considering putting in an estate plan, what
would you say.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
To that, I would say that there, if they're considering
it now, it means it's too late. They should already
have an estate plan. Everyone should have a document. Even
We even have clients when their kids are going to
college that they basically have no assets, and they'll have
them prepare a health care proxy or power of attorney
or will you want to have these basic documents in place?
(43:29):
You don't. You're not going to think of preparing these
documents in the event of some sort of life catastrophe,
and by that time it may be too late.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
So that's true.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
One of the one of the quick stories I like
to always tell a client is I was saying the
same thing to this client that in the event something
bad happens, you're not going to be thinking about right Dotavid,
you have a medical emergency, You're not going to be thinking,
oh my god, I have to do a will. You're
now faced with the situation where you're where you're fighting
for your wife or or something catastrophe has happened, and
you're putting all your effort and energy into that. And
(44:03):
this client eventually proceeded with that firm and then their
estate plan. We did the funding, and then a month
or so later it was COVID. So you never know
what's going to be, right, Like, if everyone knew that
everything would be fine, then you could wait a week
before you die, like LOUI will always say, or a
day before you die and do your plan and we'd
(44:23):
be very efficient and you know everything would be taken.
But that doesn't exist in real life. So you have
these documents. Hopefully you don't need it, right because if
you need these documents, especially healthcare proxy, and probably something
has happened that's not to your benefit. But you don't
want to have the added costs and the added stress
(44:45):
and the added aggravation of not having these documents in place.
If something catastrophic does happen to you.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
That's exactly right. And listen, your loved ones will thank you.
I can't tell you.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
And that's honestly, maybe the most gratifying part of my
job that I find is I get the clients or
the actually the family members of clients who come after
the fact and say, I can't thank you enough because
of what you were able to do when everything happened. Yeah,
was it stressful, yes, was it chaotic and a really
(45:16):
tough time to get through, Yeah, but it could have
been so much worse. And so that's that's the whole
point of today's show, is what we really wanted to
stress is that you need to have the plan. And
it's not just so much for yourself, but it's for
the loved ones, the people who are gonna ultimately end
up being responsible for taking care of your affairs. They
will have a roadmap, they will have guidance, and they
(45:39):
will thank you for it.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
So while Saint.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Patrick's Day is a day about luck, protecting your family's
future is not something you should ever leave to luck. Right,
true four leaf clover in life isn't found by chance.
It's created by thoughtful planning, and each of the documents
that we've discussed today could honestly be representative of one
of those leaves of each of the of that clover right,
the power of attorney, your healthcare proxy, will, and perhaps
(46:03):
a trust, and so together they're gonna give you the
protection that your loved ones deserve. So please consider giving
your family that lasting gift of a well crafted estate plan.
If any other information you need, we are always available
to you. You can reach us any day during the
week at five one eight four five nine to one
(46:24):
zero zero. You can email us at infittpuro Law dot com,
and on our website there is a plethora of other
helpful information. We have our estate planning Guide that was
just recently updated in twenty twenty five. We have the
abcs of trusts, all at no cost, all there for
you for your advantage. We thank you all for your
time today and sharing this morning with us, and we
(46:46):
wish you a beautiful weekend and a happy and save
Saint Patrick's Day. Anthony, thank you for joining us my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
Bye everyone, well, have a great weekend.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
So long
Good morning, and welcome to Life Happens Radio. This is
our weekly radio program for individuals and their families where
we address the challenges we all face as we age.
We talk about aging as a lifestyle, the issues that
must be confronted, and the careful planning that's required to
avoid crisis in the future. Life Happens will provide you
with the tools to educate and prepare yourself for events
(00:20):
like preparing for retirement, protecting your income and assets, planning
to pay for nursing, home and home care, special needs planning,
preparing wills and trusts, as well as planning for an
untimely death, and resolving disputes in and out of court.
And as the laws and necessities for planning and care
continued to evolve, Life Happens will continue to make smart
decisions to ensure that your goals are reached and your
(00:43):
needs are met for you and your family.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I am Tom Morasco, your host this morning from Pierre
O'Connor and Strauss. We are a full service lower firm
located throughout New York with offices in the Albany region, Manhattan,
and Long Island. I am accompany this morning by my
colleague Anthony Kachewi.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Good morning, Anthony, Good morning, Tom, Good morning New York.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
My absolute pleasure. Nowhere else I'd rather be today.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So today we have a good show lined up for you.
We're going to be talking about why you shouldn't leave
your legacy to luck in light of our Saint Patrick's
day coming up. So we're going to explore the essential
leaguing documents that everyone should have. We're going to explore
the essential legal documents that everyone should have to protect
themselves and their loved ones both during their lifetime and
(01:33):
after death. Think of these documents as a personal insurance
policy against life's and certainties.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Right, That's what this show is all about.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Life happens, and we need to be prepared, and that's
not something that we want to take a gamble on.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's not something that we want to leave to chance.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So we're going to walk you through exactly what these
documents are, the protection that they provide, and the very
real consequences of not having them in place. So we're
going to break down our show in a few different
in a few different ways. We're going to talk about
certain documents that we should have in place during our
lifetime because a lot of times we think of planning
as what happens after we die. But a lot of
(02:11):
times people don't pay mind to understanding that there are
situations that could arise during our lifetime that require assistance,
that we need people in place to be able to
step in and to assist us. So we're going to
talk about these ancillary documents and the most powerful tool
in that arsenal is.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
The power of attorney.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And why don't you tell a little bit about what
the power of attorney is and what its purposes.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Sure, power of attorney, you're appointing an agent. You're the principal,
and the agent has the ability to make financial decisions
on your behalf. So you know, often people will say, well,
I'm married. I you know, I have a spouse, and
what do I need a power of attorney for? My
wife will take care of everything. But if you have
(02:58):
anything in your name, solely in your name, a bank account,
of the mortgage, credit cards, utility bills, they're not going
to speak to your spouse. In fact, when I get
the wrong groceries and I call up Amazon and let
them know, they will not speak to me. They'll say
is your wife present. So common misconception is that, oh,
(03:18):
I'm married, it's everything's fine, you know, but we have
separate accounts and certain things are in my name, certain
things are in my spouse name, but they'll speak to me.
They will not. So the power attorney, you're pointing an
agent to make financial decisions on your behalf. In contrast
to some of the other documents that we're going to discuss,
the power attorney allows you to have multiple agents serve
(03:39):
at the same time. Healthcare proxy, for example, does not.
And you have different types of powers of attorney. Do
you want the power of attorney to be effective immediately,
which is what we recommend, or do you want to
have a power attorney that sort of springs into effect
upon incapacity or if you have diminished capacity? Tom, what
are your feelings about the power attorney? Do you think,
(04:03):
as I know you do, it should be effective immediately
or should it spring into effect?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I think that it's something that should be available immediately.
And the whole purpose of this document is to have flexibility. Right,
we don't know what's going to happen or when, or
to the extent on which we're going to require help
and it may not always be that we're incapacitated. People
fail to appreciate the power of this tool and how
(04:29):
could even be used in certain for conveniences. If in
the event you have some type of injury or procedure,
you're in recovery, you're bedridden, you need people to be
able to step in and take care of your affairs.
You're not incapacitated at that point, but you still need help.
So I think it's very crucial that you have that
effective immediately, and just to go back and really hone
(04:55):
in on exactly why this document's important. It's the question is, well,
what happen if we don't have this documented port.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Now that means we're gonna have to.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Go to court and go through what's called a guardianship proceeding,
and that's gonna take several months, and it's gonna take
a considerable amount of money in order to find the
court to say you are the right person to make
decisions on behalf of this individual.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Meantime, this person is in dire need of help, and
you're limited in what you're able to do for that.
And I have a very real example, the one that
still sticks with me. I had a couple, a married
couple who were together forty years, and there were a
second marriage to each other, so they did have separate assets,
and for one reason or another, they never really got
(05:42):
around to planning. There was no real health concerns of
the horizon that you know, would really move them.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
To try to take some quick action.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But what ended up happening is the wife suffered from
a stroke, and unfortunately it was pretty severe and she
didn't recover. She required to be placed in a long
term care facility. And I don't know if many of
the people listening understand or have a you know, excuse me,
I'm not sure if the people listening have a true
(06:13):
understanding of what that might cost. But that could be
anywhere from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars per month. And
now I have a client who came to me to
try to get help, to try to get Medicaid assistance
for a spouse, and we didn't have access to her
finances in order to do that, and we had to
go through a guardianship proceeding. And meanwhile she is languishing
(06:36):
in this long term care facility and they were bleeding
their money that they could have been used to continue
to take care of himself or or be used in
other ways. So it's crucial that this document is in
place now.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Aside, it's the sort of thinking back what you said.
People don't usually think of about returney as a sort
of acid protection tool, but what you were just saying
is critical for the listeners to understand that you could
have a power of attorney where you enable your agent
to make gifts on your behalf, to transfer assets out
of your name, and to do further planning. If your
(07:12):
client suffers from some sort of event or situation where
they need home health AIDS, they're not going to qualify
for medicaid if they have more than thirty two thousand
dollars approximately in resources. So now they have hundreds of
thousands of dollars in their name, they have some sort
of event. If the power of attorney, even if you
have a power of attorney, if it doesn't have gifting
(07:33):
provisions which enables your agent to form a trust and
gift your assets into that trust, the power attorney is
not going to be able to secure your safeguard their
assets from medicaid.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Absolutely, and that's a great point. So that's power of
attorney that, as we were pointing out, is for financial
and legal decision making. And on the other side of that,
the other side of the coin is healthcare decision making. Now,
the document that we would use in this situation is
a healthcare proxy. Now people say, well, if it's my
(08:12):
spouse and I have a right.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
To be able to help assist make decisions.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Well, yeah, that may be true perhaps for a spouse,
but that's not the reality for a lot of individuals.
There are life partners who choose not to get married,
and the only other people that would have in a
right under the law, and that the very specific exceptions
that the law provides for, would only be immediate family.
(08:38):
But sometimes that's not the people that we would want
to be in place to make those medical decisions for
us in the event that we cannot make those decisions.
So in the event of it incapacity, we have the
ability to name an agent to step in and make
those medical decisions for us as we would want to
make those decisions.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
And now the.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Way that we craft our healthcare proxy, we include a
different you know, some other components to it, Anthony. You know,
one of the other important pieces of this document is
a living will right a living declaration, so why don't you.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Living? One that we typically put in our documents say
is that if the principle suffers a some sort of injury, disease,
illness that leaves them unable to have a meaningful life,
they're not going to have a sentient life and the
chance of recovery is slim. That you don't want to
be kept on artificial life support or be fed artificially indefinitely.
(09:43):
That you want to be given pain medicine. But this
could be tailored or anything you want. Everyone has different
sort of wishes on this. Some people don't want to
be on life support, some people do. So this is
a document that we can customize and tailor to your wishes.
There's also a hip or really p which allows your
healthcare agent to have access to your medical records. And
(10:05):
just stepping back for a minute, the healthcare proxy allows
you to appoint an agent. You can't have multiple agents
serve at the same time. It's not allowed. It's not
permitted by night. They don't want, unlike the power attorney,
because they don't want The state doesn't want the spouse
to say, my husband wanted this procedure and the kids
(10:26):
to say, no, Dad never wanted that procedure. So that's
one thing. The next thing that I think we should
focus on is who should you select as your agent.
Often clients will say, I have a son who's a doctor,
I have a daughter who's a doctor. I have a
brother who's a nurse. They're very knowledgeable about medicine. They
(10:49):
should be my agent. And we're of the opinion of
you want to pick the person who's going to implement
your wishes, right, not necessarily the person who's a doctor
or a nurse or has background in the medical field.
It's the person who's going to implement what you want done.
You don't want to appoint an agent that's going to
permit procedures to be done that you would not want yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, and Anthony, I think you touched on the exact
point of what the purpose of all of these documents
and the purpose of putting a plan in place is.
It's to maintain autonomy, the control over what it is
that you want done when you are no longer able
to communicate those wishes to others.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
It is putting the people in place to serve as
our mouthpiece that will convey and carry out the wishes
as we set them forth, not pursuing to a court
or not pursuing to someone else who is able to
step in. It's the people that we would want to
step in in those particular situations.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
We're gonna if you don't do it, then the state
is going to do it for you.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
So we're going to take a short break and when
we come back, we're going to talk about wills, and
we're back. So for this portion of the show, we
want to focus on wills, probate, and intestesy. So first,
before we get into that, I want to talk a
little bit about what probate is. So, when a person
(12:18):
dies with assets in their name alone, the only way
we can access those assets if they weren't otherwise held
jointly or had beneficiary designations, is through probate, which is
having to go to court proffering a will if there
(12:38):
was one, or an administration if there wasn't a will,
and then the court having to ratify that will, approve
the person that you've appointed in charge, and then oversee
all the distributions at that point. And in New York,
the probate process can take anywhere from the approximately nine
(13:00):
months to up to two years in cases longer, because
there are so many different variables that have to be
considered when we're talking about probate. Number one is, as
I said, we have to go through the court, so
we're at the mercy of the court's docket and.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
What that looks like.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Second, you were required to notify all next of kin,
so this is a very public proceeding, which is again
one of the things that we have to consider, especially
what your wishes are. So that means notifying that estranged
family member that perhaps you haven't spoken to in years
(13:45):
and perhaps you want nothing to do with or have
anything to do with, but now they have an open invitation,
and then.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
If they choose to subsequently.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Contest the proceeding, and that's going to drag things out
even further. Sometimes we don't even know where the next
of kin is and we have to hire genealogists to
try to even just locate and find out where they
are to even just be able to serve them and
move on with the proceedings. So, as you can see,
probate is definitely something that we want to avoid. It's time,
(14:21):
it's money, and what you have to think about is
all of the assets that are tied into that estate. Okay,
think about real estate, because for most people that's the
biggest asset they have. The real estate taxes, maintenance, other
carrying cross are continuing to accrue and we do not
have ability to get out from underneath it, nor do
(14:44):
we have access to other funds that we could potentially
use to pay and offset those costs, and leaving that
burden on the family members and the people, the loved
ones that are left behind to really take care of
it for you. So, one of the things that we
put in place to try and at least manage and navigate.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
How we want things to go is through a will.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Now, a will is going to name somebody who's in charge.
They're your executor. They're going to be the person in
charge of managing the estate, and then we can also
discuss at that point what the disposition of your assets are,
to whom and how you want them to go. Anthony,
(15:33):
what are the common things that you've noticed when people
just rely on a will plan.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So a couple of things I just want to sort
of mention. One is, if you have a will, you're
going through probate, and as Tommy mentioned, your assets are frozen.
You can't get the loved ones, can't get access to
your money to pay the bills that are accruing. Could
(16:02):
you potentially call a bank and work out some sort
of arrangement where you make payments once the proceeding is over. Possibly,
but usually, like Tommy said, these proceedings could last for
several months. It could take several months just before you
get into probate, depending on the county, could take several years,
(16:24):
especially if it's contested. So probate the proving of the will, Well,
what happens if you don't have a will. If you
don't have a will, then this state determines who's going
to get your assets. So, if you're married and you
don't have kids, your spouse is going to inherit everything.
If you're if your spouse predeceased you and you just
(16:48):
have children, your children will inherit. And if you have
a spouse and children surviving, your spouse is going to
get the first fifty thousand dollars and half of the balance,
and your kids are going to get the other balance.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So well, it's important to note their anthony.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I just want to piggyback on what you said, in
those situations where there are certain family dynamics. But now
what that doesn't include are people who have life partners
or non married individuals, or people who are.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Just simply single.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
They're at least in the in the in that kind
of a nuclear family or context. Yeah, we have maybe
espouse and children, and ultimately that may how you how
you want things to go. But now what about you
have a life partner who you wanted to care for
and you made the conscious decision not to get married.
That person's going to be completely cut out of your
(17:46):
state in the event of an intestacy, and then you
know where to go to it. Yeah, it might go
to those people that you don't want to get Like
I said, those are strange siblings as that you haven't
spoken to in years, and you were.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Saying absolutely, Well, there's also a situation of you could
have minor children. So even if you have a spouse
and children surviving you, you may not want your eight
year old to inherit those assets because now you're going
to have to have the court involved, right, You're going
to have to have a guardian to watch over those assets,
even though it's the child of the of the marriage. Right,
(18:28):
So the decedent may have wanted assets to ultimately go
to his wife, who would then or husband who is
ever surviving and have those assets available for the whole family.
But if you don't have a will, those assets are
going to go into the name of the child, and
(18:49):
then there's going to be a guardian appointed and you're
going to be under court supervision during the while the
child is a minor.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And in the same respect, you also have to think
about other people's individual.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Circumstances at the time they inherit.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
What if they're disabled, what if they're applying for what
benefits Exactly, any outright inheritance could disqualify them from receiving
those benefits. And then they're utilizing the inheritance to pay
for the benefits they were already receiving, as opposed to
using it as a supplement to add more comfort to
(19:28):
their lives. So intestacy does not really take into consideration
any of those factors.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Absolutely, at least with the will, you have a plan.
You are appointing someone that you trust to serve as
the executive of your estate that's going to marshal the assets,
pay your debts, and then distribute those assets to the
beneficiaris and you're picking who the beneficiaries are, right, you
work your entire life. I often joke with clients and
(19:57):
I'll say how much money do you have in this account?
And they'll rattle off the number. Well, how much is
your state? And they'll know it, and I'll say, does
that bank account have a beneficiary designation? Oh? I don't know. Well,
you could have a will and you could say everything's
going to go to your spouse. But if you have
(20:17):
a bank account that says everything's going to your parents
because you opened it thirty years ago and you weren't
married at that time, then whatsever in that account would
go to them?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Right?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And sometimes often when you open up a bank account,
you don't even have a beneficiary designation, right, You're just
there at the bank, you're filling out forms. You may say, oh,
i'll do this later, and there's no one on that account.
Then it's going to be controlled by your will, and
then you then have to go through probate. So the
will is one step up from not having anything, because
(20:52):
if you don't have anything, then the state decides to
inherit your assets. At least if you have a will,
you are determining, Hey, I worked my life and these
are the people who I want to inherit my assets,
These are my loved ones, and you could write out
you know who you want to receive those assets, and
you could even have trust for them formed under the will.
(21:14):
But the problem, which is a testamentary trust. But the
problem with that is that those trusts then are always
going to be subject to the court supervision. And if
you want to remove a trustee or if you want
to do something, you have to then go back to court.
And I've heard of situations where to remove a trustee
took over a year. So while a will is a
(21:36):
good step and often, you know, sufficient for people who
are younger, who are just starting out, maybe don't have
a family, or just our young family, as you get
older and you require more assets, which we're going to
discuss shortly, we think that a revocable living trust is
(21:59):
the way to go.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, and just another keynote there, it's not uncommon for
people in New York or in any state rather to
have assets that fall outside of the state. There are
plenty of people in New York, our clients especially, that have.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Properties all over the states.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Whether it's Florida, Connecticut, where have you? And what that
would require in that instance is not only do you
have to bring a probate proceeding here in New York,
you also have to bring an ancillary probate proceeding in
each of the states in which you have those assets.
So again, time money, It's just it's something that we
(22:45):
want to avoid. And so what we're gonna do after
we take this next break for the news is we're
gonna go in what are the best ways and how
can we avoid having.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
To go through the probate process. Stay tuned and welcome
back everybody.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So so far, just as a quick recap, we've talked
about certain planning documents that we should have during our
lifetype in the event that we become incapacitator or we
require assistance. We talked about the power of Attorney, which
was for legal and financial decision making. We've talked about
the healthcare Proxy, which is about decision making and the
other components of that document as well. And we spoke
(23:24):
briefly about probate wills and the intestacy process. And what
we want to focus on now is how do we
avoid that probate process. Now, while we should always have
a will as part of our foundation of estate planning documents,
we should always have one. There are better ways that
we can deal with our assets.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
During our lifetime. We've alluded to a couple of them before. Right.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
If we jointly own property, then upon the passing of
the first joint owner, it automatically would pass to the
second joint owner. If there was a bank account with
a designated beneficiary on it, upon the passing of the
owner or the joint owner, it would pass to that beneficiary. Now, again,
what that doesn't account for is that person's individual circumstances
(24:11):
at the time that they would go to inherit. So
again we talked about if someone has a disability, or
if someone was a minor at the time, what that
would mean in that type of context. So, while those
two things would achieve avoiding probate, the best way to
not only avoid probate, but to account for all those
different contingencies is through a trust plan. Now, there are
(24:35):
various kinds of trusts. Categorically, we can break them down
into revocable and irrevocable trusts, and when we would use
one or the other really depends on the circumstances. So, Anthony,
revocable living trusts extremely extremely powerful tool. Just tell us
a bit about how it works, how it functions, and
(24:56):
what it could be used for.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Sure, So vocable or revocable living trust typically the client
is the creator known as the grant tour, the trustee
which is the person in charge of the legal title
to the assets, and the beneficiary. So they're the grant
or the creator, they're the trustee, they have legal title
to the assets, and they're the beneficiary. It's just like
how you have a bank account. You can take money in,
(25:20):
take money out, you do whatever you want. You have
complete authority over the trust. You could amend it, restate it,
revoke it at any time. So you have complete control
and authority over the trust assets. In contrast to a will,
which is a public document, a revocable trust is a
private document. So you outline or lay out your wishes
(25:42):
on who you want to inherit your assets, so it's
in a control the dispositive intent or these can we
just backtracked on that.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, just go back and start over when you're ready.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Okay, I don't know the last thing I said, But
so the revicable living trust will control who inherits your assets,
and the benefit of a revcable living trust is that
it avoids probate. Like I said, it's a private document.
It's not a public document. But the difference between a
(26:15):
will and a revcable living trust is that for the
revcable living trust to get the full benefit, you have
to actually transfer assets to the trust. So a lot
of people go and they say, oh, I formed the
trust and everything is perfect. I've had this trust for
several years, and I say, what is your trust on?
They say, oh, what do you mean? And they don't
(26:36):
understand that to get the full power of the trust,
you actually have to go to your bank and tell
your banker or transfer your deed into your trust. You
have to actually move assets into the name of the trust.
Just by simply forming a trust, you're not going to
avoid probate because what's going to happen is if you
had the accounts in your name with no beneficiary, it's
(26:56):
going to be a probate asset. You're going to have
to probate your will to get those apps assets into
your trust. Like Tommy mentioned, if you have a deed
and it joint with writer survivorship with the spouse or
tenets by the entirety. Upon the death of the first spouse,
there's not going to be a need for probate. But
what happens when the surviving spouse dies, right then it's
going to be a probate asset. So the key of
(27:17):
having a trust is forming it but then funding it.
And just like the will where you outline who you
want to inherit, it's the same thing for the trust,
except you get the added benefit of having an incapacity
management system so that in the event you're incapacitated, you
name trustees to be in charge of the trust assets
and the trustee has the ability to use those assets
(27:39):
for your benefit, and it's a detailed list of instructions
that you provide to the trustees. So similar to a
power of attorney where the power attorneys and to control
of the assets that are outside the trust, the trust
is and the success or trustee will control the assets
that are owned by the trust. So you have multiple
documents working in tandem. You have the power of attorney
for the assets that can't be transferred to a trust,
(28:00):
a retirement account, and then you have a success or
trustee that's in charge of the assets that are owned by.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The trust absolutely, and not only does it have a
system in place in the event that you, as a trustee,
should become incapacitated to have somebody step in, but it
also again accounts for all those different contingencies of the
individuals that we want to benefit from our passing, and
the whole purpose of that is making sure that we're
(28:25):
setting it up that's going to be most advantageous for
us during our lifetime and ultimately to our beneficiaries once
they are ready to inherit those assets. And now one
of the examples that I mentioned before about having property
out of the state, which would require all those other
ancillary probates to be brought in order to acquire those
assets if we put them into the trust. Now, okay,
(28:47):
this is different from the trust established under the will.
As Anthony pointed out, that's a testamentary trust which only
comes into effect after our death, which still requires probate
in order to put into action. A intervevos trust, this
is done during your lifetime. So we would do the
funding now, so we would take the deeds and the
(29:07):
assets that are outside of the state, we put them
into the trust now and we get to avoid not
only the probate here in New York, but all the
other ancillary probate actions that we would have to bring
in all those other jurisdictions to acquire that property.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
So as you can see just alone how powerful this
tool could be.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Now and Tommy, while that's happening, the assets are not
frozen like they would be if it was a probate
proceding exact right, we can get immediate to ministered exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Right, exactly so whatever action, the part of the time.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
With the revocable living trust is how are your beneficiaries
going to inherit those assets? Are they going to inherit
the assets outright, which would mean that it's in their
names potentially subject to their creditors in their estates, or
do you want to have the assets continue in trust.
Have One of the beautiful benefits of having a revicable
living trust is that during your lifetime, because you're creating
(30:04):
the trust for yourself and you're the grantor you're the trustee,
you're the beneficiary, you have all this power. There's no
asset protection, right, you're just putting that's called a self
settled trust. It's a first party trust. But when you
form the trust, underneath is sub trust for your descendants
or for your spouse upon your death, that's considered a
(30:25):
third party trust. So this one trust document is going
to have actually it could have multiple trust in one agreement,
so that during your lifetime, it's going to take care
of yourself. It has provisions in the event you're incapacitated,
and then upon your death, your beneficiaries are going to
be labeled with the amount of assets that are going
to inherit and if you want, you could provide for
(30:46):
them asset protection. Because once you're deceased, you're forming a
trust for their benefit. That's considered a third party trust.
You're using your money for the benefit of someone else.
So now rather than having the assets go outright, you
could keep them those assets in trust for them where
it's non included in their state and it's protected from creditors.
And like Tommy mentioned before, if they're getting government assistance,
(31:09):
there could be a supplemental needs trust, a special type
of trust that the assets would be in trust for
that beneficiary but not be included or accountable for Medicaid
or whatever program they're on.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
And I want to stress that portion about the asset protection. Okay,
because the next topic we're going to talk about our
irrevocable trusts, which are meant for asset protection services. But
I really want to key in on what Anthony just
said there for those trusts that those sub trusts that
are established under the revocable living trust, for the beneficiaries,
they inherit that in an asset protected vehicle. And I
(31:44):
have to stress that because that means, as Anthony pointed
out correctly, that means that it's not available to creditors.
It's not available against anyone that could be the subject
of a lawsuit, bankruptcy, divorce, okay, or even if they
need to then subsequently apply for government benefits, the principle
of that trust will always be protected for them. And
(32:07):
that is an invaluable tool that you can do for
your loved ones. Now, on that same token, we're.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Going to talk about it because interroject quickly. Sure, the
biggest creditor in life is a divorcing spouse. And typically
what happens is when you're deceased, your assets are going
to be distributed. Let's say they distributed out right to
your kids. Say all my kids are responsible, They don't
have any creditors. They're not doing anything. They're various. Why
on earth would they need this? And they get an inheritance,
(32:34):
and inheritance is separate property. But as you're married, most
of you know that you don't really keep separate accounts.
As time goes by, you have mainly joint accounts. And
then you take that inheritance that's separate property and you
put it in a joint account, and now it's been tainted.
And now several years later, your spouse, your child gets
(32:56):
divorced from their spouse, they're gonna say, that's my money
in that account and I want have So by having
a trust a subtrust for your descendants, you are providing
asset protection in the event, God forbid, they have a
divorce in the future. Which is the biggest creditor.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, And honestly, I get that question all the time.
Does this mean that if something happens to my son
or my daughter to do their spouse get it? And
it's not that we don't love, you know, our in
laws or whatnot, But that's not the intent. Right.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
So moving on to the irrevocable trusts.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Now they still have all of the same protections that
are afforded to any and all the other advantages of
a of a trust right. They avoid the probate, We
have the flexibility of saying who gets what, who's going
to be in charge, how.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Are they going to receive?
Speaker 1 (33:43):
But it structured a little bit differently during our lifetime,
and the purpose for that is really for long term
care purposes. So for those who are concerned about well,
you know, I've heard all these nightmares about people getting
older and then needing care, and I've heard that home
care could be anywhere, you know, over ten thousand dollars
a month if you need full time aids, and these
(34:03):
nursing homes, as I said earlier, could be anywhere from
fifteen to twenty thousand.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
And people start to panic. They see, well, I don't
have assets for that. Maybe the biggest asset they have
is a house.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
And they really want to take care of their loved
ones when they leave, and that is their primary tool
that they believe that they're going to have to be
able to pass on. And now they're saying, well, what
happens if I need to apply for medicaidor they going
to take my house?
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Are they going to take my assets?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
So what this irrevocable trust that is otherwise known as
an asset protection trust or Medicaid asset protection trust.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
It structured differently.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
We wouldn't serve as your own trustee in that situation,
we would nominate a third party. And then a lot
of people get apprehensive. They're like, oh, wait a second,
it's irrevocable. That means I can't cancel it at any time,
I can't amend it, and now someone else has to
be in charge of my assets, like what happens? Well,
there's some misconceptions about that. So yes, there has to
(34:57):
be a third party. But one of the two powers
that you owe always maintain control over it. By the
way that we draft these documents is number one, you
always have the right to change who the trustees are,
and we carve out something called a limited powerful appointment
to allow you to also update and change your beneficiaries should.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
It be required.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
But by creating that distance between you and the asset right.
Once we clear the five year lookback period for Medicaid purposes,
those assets are fully protected.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
And just to intervene Tommy, the five year lookback period
often a misconception, common one is that it's for all
Medicaid right now. For nursing home there's a five year
lookback period, but there is no lookback period currently for
home health AIDS.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yes, there has been legislation introduced to impose a two
and a half year look back, which has not yet
been enacted, but for purposes of what we're discussing now today, yes,
it would be for nursing home. And if you'd want
more information about Medicaid specifically, Pier O'Connor and Strauss has
Medicaid Mondays the second Monday of every month where we
have a half hour presentation on all things Medicaid. We
(36:03):
delve into the specifics, the details, because it's incredibly nuanced,
well beyond the scope of what we'd be able to
accommodate in this short time together here.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
But that's also an invaluable tool.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
You can find a database of all of our previous
shows on our website www dot prolaw dot com. We're
gonna be taking another short break and when we get back,
we're gonna talk about common.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Mistakes to avoid and what actions you should be taking. Now.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Stay tuned, welcome back, and before we get back into
the next portion, I just wanted to make one last
commentary on the trust that we talked about in Avoiding
the Probate. There's always a misconception that when people hear trusts,
they believe it's only for the wealthy people, and that
(36:49):
is simply not true. And in the previous segment it's
evidence enough that there are so many different reasons that
a trust could be useful to any single person. So
I don't want anyone to have that misconceived notion they
hear trust and they automatically shut down. They think, oh, well,
that's not for me. So it's an extremely incredible powerful
(37:12):
tool for anybody, and if necessary for you, it should
be in your arsenal. So with that being said, I
want to focus a little bit now on what mistakes
you should avoid. What are the common mistakes we could avoid,
And I think everyone could agree that this area of
(37:36):
law is extremely complex and one of the biggest things
that I know, Anthony, I'm sure you've encountered it with
your clients as well as I have, is that people think, well,
this is this something that I can do by myself? Right,
I know they have forms for this online. Can I
just go online?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Right? I call them the Google Warriors? Sometimes?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Can I just go on and find the document and
do it myself.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
I want.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
So, and what do tell me?
Speaker 1 (38:07):
What are the couple of the biggest issues you you've
seen in your practice.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
With why Yeah, you know, like I was saying, you'll
hear people say often, I spent seventy five thousand dollars
on a kitchen remodel, I bought this fancy car. Don't
look to cheap out when it comes to your estate plan.
You've worked your entire life for those assets. You do
not want to take a gamble now and see if
(38:35):
you can get it right, and that you're going to
fill out these forms correctly. I've seen many people they
go online and they get these sort of trusts, and
they come and they show me their trust document and
I say, oh, well, I'm looking at the schedule A,
which is a portion of the trust, usually the last
page that lists all the assets that have been funded
(38:55):
with the trust. And I say, oh, you your trust
is fully funded. And I say, let me see your
deed and the deed is in their name and I said, well,
the the schedule as has this property listed And they said,
oh yeah, I wrote it down there, not realizing that
to actually transfer legal title to real estate, you have
(39:16):
to have a deed that you file with the county
with the proper transfer tax forms. Right, you just can't
write an asset on schedule. A same thing with the
bank accounts. So they go and they start writing down
all these bank accounts and I say, did you actually
go to your bank and tell them to change the
title of the account from your name to the revocable trust?
(39:36):
And they say, oh, no, I didn't know how to
do that. So being a Google warrior, it's okay for
certain things, right, we all do it. But when it
comes to a state planning, when it comes to all
of the assets that you've worked in your entire life for,
do you want to sort of chance it now and
see if you can get it right? I don't want
to take that risk. Lawyers are risk averse people by nature.
(40:00):
But this is one thing, Tommy, where I think that
having a professional do it is in your best interest.
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (40:08):
I couldn't agree more. One of the biggest things I've seen.
And sometimes it's not just doing it yourself. Sometimes they
go to a friend who they know is an attorney,
but they don't necessarily practice in estate planning and you
had alluded to it before earlier. But the power of attorney,
there's so many different portions of the power of attorney
(40:31):
that you can apply, and sometimes something simple as not
checking off the gifting provision could be completely detrimental. So
you think I have this power of attorney, I can
do whatever I need. Well, no, that's not the truth.
And with my example that I gave earlier about my
two clients, if they had a power of attorney but
didn't have the gifting provision, guess what I would have
(40:53):
been in the same exact situation that I would have
been before, and I would still have to revert to
a guardianship proceeding because I don't have the sufficient powers.
And for someone if you don't practice in this field
of law, if you haven't seen the things that we've seen,
or know how what one thing could impact any type
of future decision making that you might need to make,
(41:15):
something is going to get missed.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
So I don't.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Believe this is something that people should take upon themselves.
And it's not that I don't respect people who like
to do their own research and to come prepared.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I love nothing more than a client who comes in
that I could tell that their homework because I know
it means something about them. I know they're taking the care,
but take that extra step. Do not do it yourself,
do not rely on it yourself. There's the reasons why
there's professionals who do this.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
For a living.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I would not recommend people to just take it upon
themselves to do that. And Anthony, going back what you
said about the funding of trusts and whatnot, even updating beneficiaries, right,
Sometimes people have said something and you said earlier. Right,
maybe it was your parents because you open that account
thirty years ago and you just don't even think to
(42:06):
update that. Or you know what, I'm married and I
have a joint account with my spouse, so I know that, Okay,
if anything happens to me, it goes to my spouse.
But then we always forget, well, what happens when your spouse.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Dies or whomever?
Speaker 1 (42:20):
That joint account owner is, right, and if it's supposed
to go to people, guess what, we're back in the
same boat.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
So what we do and what we take care of
is not only do we put together the plan, not only.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Do we establish the trust, we do a Part two.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
It was strictly about funding your trust. We make you
produce a list of all of your assets, what kind
of assets, where they're situated, who the current beneficiaries are,
and we work with you.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
We go hand in hand.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
We make sure that you've addressed every single one of those,
making sure that it ties into your estate plan the
way that you intended to. So, Anthony, as far as
what you would advise people as to when you think
people should start considering putting in an estate plan, what
would you say.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
To that, I would say that there, if they're considering
it now, it means it's too late. They should already
have an estate plan. Everyone should have a document. Even
We even have clients when their kids are going to
college that they basically have no assets, and they'll have
them prepare a health care proxy or power of attorney
or will you want to have these basic documents in place?
(43:29):
You don't. You're not going to think of preparing these
documents in the event of some sort of life catastrophe,
and by that time it may be too late.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
So that's true.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
One of the one of the quick stories I like
to always tell a client is I was saying the
same thing to this client that in the event something
bad happens, you're not going to be thinking about right Dotavid,
you have a medical emergency, You're not going to be thinking,
oh my god, I have to do a will. You're
now faced with the situation where you're where you're fighting
for your wife or or something catastrophe has happened, and
you're putting all your effort and energy into that. And
(44:03):
this client eventually proceeded with that firm and then their
estate plan. We did the funding, and then a month
or so later it was COVID. So you never know
what's going to be, right, Like, if everyone knew that
everything would be fine, then you could wait a week
before you die, like LOUI will always say, or a
day before you die and do your plan and we'd
(44:23):
be very efficient and you know everything would be taken.
But that doesn't exist in real life. So you have
these documents. Hopefully you don't need it, right because if
you need these documents, especially healthcare proxy, and probably something
has happened that's not to your benefit. But you don't
want to have the added costs and the added stress
(44:45):
and the added aggravation of not having these documents in place.
If something catastrophic does happen to you.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
That's exactly right. And listen, your loved ones will thank you.
I can't tell you.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
And that's honestly, maybe the most gratifying part of my
job that I find is I get the clients or
the actually the family members of clients who come after
the fact and say, I can't thank you enough because
of what you were able to do when everything happened. Yeah,
was it stressful, yes, was it chaotic and a really
(45:16):
tough time to get through, Yeah, but it could have
been so much worse. And so that's that's the whole
point of today's show, is what we really wanted to
stress is that you need to have the plan. And
it's not just so much for yourself, but it's for
the loved ones, the people who are gonna ultimately end
up being responsible for taking care of your affairs. They
will have a roadmap, they will have guidance, and they
(45:39):
will thank you for it.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
So while Saint.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Patrick's Day is a day about luck, protecting your family's
future is not something you should ever leave to luck. Right,
true four leaf clover in life isn't found by chance.
It's created by thoughtful planning, and each of the documents
that we've discussed today could honestly be representative of one
of those leaves of each of the of that clover right,
the power of attorney, your healthcare proxy, will, and perhaps
(46:03):
a trust, and so together they're gonna give you the
protection that your loved ones deserve. So please consider giving
your family that lasting gift of a well crafted estate plan.
If any other information you need, we are always available
to you. You can reach us any day during the
week at five one eight four five nine to one
(46:24):
zero zero. You can email us at infittpuro Law dot com,
and on our website there is a plethora of other
helpful information. We have our estate planning Guide that was
just recently updated in twenty twenty five. We have the
abcs of trusts, all at no cost, all there for
you for your advantage. We thank you all for your
time today and sharing this morning with us, and we
(46:46):
wish you a beautiful weekend and a happy and save
Saint Patrick's Day. Anthony, thank you for joining us my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
Bye everyone, well, have a great weekend.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
So long
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