In the News with Dr. Marty Greer from CheckOut Veterinary

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And our telephone lines are open for you right now
at six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's
six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. If you
have questions for our retirement planning professionals love to have
you join us this week again station.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Number six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Delpha up for Class Financial their office right here in
Madison six oh eight four four two five six three seven.
Don't forget no charge for that initial get to know
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five six three seven. Also head on over to the
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recently checked them out.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
That's Closs A L aas Financial dot com.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Great website to learn more about Class Financial, listen back
to this in previous shows podcast. Learn more about the
separate divisions at Clause the team, as well as sign
up for the weekly market Paul's newsletter that all available
to you at class financial dot com and join us.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
This morning our CJ. Closs and Eric Schwartz.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
CJ. How you doing this morning?

Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm doing great. Good morning Sean, Good morning, CJ. Eric
Hof you Ben, I've been doing great.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
I'm glad to see some temperatures above zero.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yes, yeah, yeah, it's always nice to have to have
a solid whole number, a positive, a plus number firs
for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Speaking of positives and really good good things.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
I know this time a year, a lot of folks
start thinking about gift giving and other things, and we're
to talk about gift giving and when it comes to
adult children and other areas of that. This Morning with
Eric and CJ here on Money in Motion thirteen to
ten WIVA. Before we get rolling though on this week's conversation,
another great feature of the show is the Closs Quiz
Question of the week, your chance to win a fantastic

(01:39):
prize this week, no exception, our friends from Class Financial
provide a twenty five dollars gift card to Cheesecake Factory
and we'll let you know how you can win that
before the end of the program. A little tip they'll
listen closer to the show because most of the time
the question and answer come up during the show. And
before we get rolling on this week's topic and conversation,
let's actually take a look back at last week's program

(02:00):
at the Class Quiz question, the week question and answer
from last week's show as well.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Yeah, so, as always, thank you to everyone for listening.
And our winner last week was Alex from Madison, So congratulations.
Alex got the question correct, which was what is the
new standard deduction for single taxpayers in twenty twenty five?
The choices were ten thousand dollars or fifteen thousand and
the answer is that in twenty twenty five, for single

(02:26):
taxpayers and married individuals filing separately, the standard deduction rises
to fifteen thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
Fantastic and it was a great show last week.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
And I know a lot of folks have questions as
we get.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Prepared for this year, and there's always great information up
at classfinancial dot com. That's Class klaasfinancial dot com. So
as we talk about obviously here on the program saving
for Retirement, another area that comes up is adult children,
specifically helping them out. What are some things that we
need to be aware of when it comes to gifting
object option CJ.

Speaker 5 (03:00):
Yeah, So we're excited about this topic today because often
inside of our meetings there's confusion between the difference of
a gift to a child or individual relative or in
comparison to a gift to a charity or a charitable donation.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
And so we're going to talk about gifting today a
little bit.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
And I guess first, let's define what is considered a gift.
The IRS considers any transfer to an individual, either directly
or indirectly, where full consideration measured in money or money's
worth is not received in return. The general rule is
that any gift is a taxable gift. Now I'll just

(03:40):
pause right there. A lot of times that final sentence,
the general rule is that any gift is a taxable
gift freaks people out because they.

Speaker 6 (03:48):
Go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa.

Speaker 5 (03:49):
What do you mean by every gift is a taxable gift? Well,
there's all these exceptions that make it so that that
final statement rarely is actually impacting individuals, and so.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Kind of stick with us here.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
So every year, there's something called a gift tax Exclusion
amount for and this is for federal gift tax purposes,
and that amount is currently nineteen thousand dollars in twenty
twenty five. That means that you can gift nineteen thousand
dollars per person to as many people as you want
with no federal gift tax consequences.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Now, if you.

Speaker 5 (04:27):
Split gifts with your spouse, that total is thirty eight
thousand dollars per person.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
So think of this in terms of children, right, Hey, I'm.

Speaker 5 (04:33):
Going to give money to my children, and I don't
want to pay more taxes and I don't want them
to pay any taxes on this cash that I have
sitting in my savings account. How do I give it
to them? Well, you could just use the gift tax
exclusion amount of nineteen thousand dollars per person, or if
you're you know, if you're married, you could do nineteen
times nineteen thirty eight thousand to each child. I mean,
it's a lot of money, as you can imagine.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
And here's the key.

Speaker 5 (04:56):
If you stay under that gift tax limited amount for
each gift to each of those children, you know, you
could give away a lot of money without any tax repercussions.
And the ones those gifts are made, that money is
removed from your taxable estate. And here's the other kind
of cool thing. In twenty twenty five, the max you

(05:17):
can give without any federal estate tax is thirteen million,
nine hundred and ninety thousand dollars to as many individual
or I'm sorry to you know, beneficiaries. Let's say this
is during or after life or times two for a
married couple, So twenty seven million, nine hundred and eighty dollars,

(05:38):
and again you would pay no federal.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Estate tax or gift tax.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
Now here's the key that nineteen thousand dollars I was
talking about earlier, that those gifts do not apply towards
reducing what is called your lifetime exemption amount. So lifetime
exemption is that call it. I'm just going to round up,
call it fourteen million dollars. So during or after life
you can give up to fourteen million dollars with no

(06:03):
gift tax or federal estate tax. However, those nineteen thousand
dollars gifts all throughout your life don't count. It would
only be the amounts that go over that. So imagine
that I want to instead of giving nineteen thousand dollars
to say one of my children, I want to give
them one hundred thousand dollars. Well, the way that would
work is I would take one hundred thousand dollars minus

(06:24):
nineteen thousand that doesn't count towards the towards the lifetime
exemption amount. I would then take that number, so call it,
what is that eighty one thousand dollars, and I would
reduce that from my fourteen million dollars that I can
give during my life, actually during or after my life.
So you see my point. That final sentence that I read,

(06:45):
which is the general rules that any gift is a
taxable gift, you kind of pause and you go, really
because it sounds to me like there's a lot of
ways for me to give money away without having to
worry much about it. Let me add one other factor here.
That nineteen thousand dollars for every individual from you to
any individual you want to per year without reducing your

(07:05):
lifetime exemption amount. That is a really critical number to
remember because if you stay under that number, you don't
have to fill out what's called a Form seven oh nine.
Think of that Form seven oh nine. It's called a
gift tax return as the certificate. Right, So let's say
I can give away fourteen million dollars during or after life. Well,
if I go over that nineteen thousand, I have to

(07:26):
start filling out that certificate aka Form seven oh nine
that keeps track of how much I'm reducing my lifetime
exemption amount. Now final thought here on this kind of
little section is that at the end of twenty twenty five,
the federal estate and gift tax exemption amount is scheduled
to sunset. Assuming Congress and the President take no action,

(07:49):
this gift tax exemption could decrease to approximately seven million
dollars per person. So it's about fourteen million dollars it
could decrease to seven Now, I'll be frank with you,
we have no idea whether or not this will change.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
There's people guessing that it.

Speaker 5 (08:04):
Will change under on the Trump administration, but we we
really still do not know. So just be aware. Lifetime
amount you can give away is fourteen million. Now it
could be down to seven million as early as twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Talk this morning with CJ.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Closs and Eric Schwartz, our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial.
Their website Class financial dot com. That's Coss Klaas Financial
dot com and they're telephone number six So eight four
four two five six three seven that's four four.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Two fifty six thirty seven.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Don't forget no charge for that initial get to know
you appoyment at Class Financial.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
AIG will be complementary to you.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
What are some of the things then, CJ that we
do know. Yeah, so just just some things for people
to be aware of.

Speaker 5 (08:44):
Here there are again there's no taxes on the giver
and again usually no taxes paid by the recipient.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
Now I say usually, and people hate that word, they
would be definitive.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
Well, listen, if you if you gift stock, highly appreciated
stock to your child that you have not paid the
capital gains tax on. Well, if you gift them that,
you're gifting them not only the value of the stock,
but also the basis of the stock. Aka, you didn't
pay tax, they're going to have to pay tax. So
if you give them that stock and then they go

(09:15):
and sell it, they're gonna pay the capital gains tax
on it. But assuming you're giving cash of some sort,
so money you've already paid tax on. So not retirement accounts, right,
because you can't gift money out of a retirement account
that's pre tax. But let's say this is money in
a checking savings stock account that you've already paid tax on.
Generally speaking, you as the giver will pay no tax

(09:35):
and the recipient will pay no tax. Now here's a key,
one of the biggest questions. We get this is great, well,
then I will just I'll give nineteen thousand to each
of my children and then I'll deduct that on my taxes.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
No no, no, no, no, no no no.

Speaker 5 (09:49):
We didn't say you'd get a deduction. They are not charities.
So that's where the kind of the line in the
sand comes in here. The good news is you don't
have to pay any tax. They don't pay any tax
upon rescups even get assuming it's cash.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
But it does not.

Speaker 5 (10:04):
It's not a gift to a charity, and therefore you
cannot deduct that gift to your children. I mean, that
would be great, and then if we could just give
money away to our children and take it off our
own income for the year, But that is not the
way that it works. And so I already mentioned as
long as you are aware of that nineteen thousand dollars
limit and you try to avoid going over it to
any one individual in a year, then you don't have

(10:26):
to fill out that Form seven o nine. And the
beauty there is then you preserve your lifetime exemption amount.
Now why would you want to do that, Well, because
when you die, everything you own, including any life insurance
proceeds goes towards that lifetime exemption amount. So there is
kind of this incentive to try to preserve that if

(10:48):
you don't need to use it. Now, I'll admit to you,
for ultra wealthy family families, they're actually not trying to
preserve that. They're actually trying to do very large gifts
to use up their lifetime exemption amount and then get
large portions of their estate out to an irrevocable trust.
But more to come on that later in our show. Today.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
We'll get to that and so much more as we
continue our conversation with CJ.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Closs and Eric Schwartz.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Of course, they are our retirement finding professionals from Class
Financial the website Coss financial dot com. That's Coss k
l A A S Financial dot com. And they're telephone
number six so eight four four two five six three seven.
So Eric, let's talk then about if you give money
to someone, do I have to pay a gift tax?

Speaker 4 (11:29):
That's a great question, Sean. In most cases, as CJ
was saying, there is no gift tax to be paid. However,
if there is, you know, we just talked about a
bunch of the ways of UH. Basically excluding gifts from
your taxable income. But if there is a tax to
be paid, the donor is generally responsible for paying that tax.

(11:50):
There are some special arrangements where where the receiver can
can pay the tax, but in most cases it's going
to be the donor. But let's I want to dig
in here a little bit more on some of the
exceptions and why we say, you know, generally there's not
going to be any gift techs do on this. So
the one that the first one and the one we
talk about most often with our clients and CJ is

(12:12):
just talking about here, is the any gifts that don't
exceed that nineteen thousand dollars per individual per year. Those
are that's your freebie, right, That's not even going to
be considered when it comes to your your lifetime credit
or anything. So that nineteen thousand number is generally what
people are focusing on when they're when they're giving money

(12:33):
to those non charitable organizations, regardless of how the parents
feel about the kids. Another exclusion is going to be
a tuition or any medical expenses that you pay for
someone else. So I'm going to discuss more about this
in a moment. In terms of the rules around that.
But the you know, tuition support, medical expenses that you

(12:55):
pay off, those are not subject. Those are those are
not subject to the gift texts.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Fantastic, Oh go ahead, No, I'm.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
From gifts to your spouse. So the irs allows you
to gift as much as you would like to your spouse,
assuming that they are US citizen. And finally, gifts to
a political organization for its own use, those are are
automatic subject any gift tax rules.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Really important.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
It's interesting that they that the politicians would leave that,
leave that little loophole there for you.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
It really is ironic. I'm talking this morning with CJ.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Closs and Eric Schwartz, our retirement planning professionals from Class
Financial website Class.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Financial dot com.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
That's Coss k l a as Financial dot com and
their telephone number six so eight four four two five
six three seven. We'll continue our conversation with CJ and
Eric and take your call next as Money in Motion
with Class Financial continues right here on thirteen ten doll
will u ib A getting charitable this week with our
retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, Eric Schwartz and CJ.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Closs the website you can learn more about Class.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Financial, the team, the separate divisions.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Also and sign up for the weekly market Ball's newsletter
and listen back to this in previous shows podcasts.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
All of that available to you at class financial dot com.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
That's colss k l a as Financial dot com at
the teleph number six so eight four four two five
six three seven. No charge for that initial get to
know you appoyment dech loss financial. It will be complimentary
to you. So, Eric, just before the break, we started
talking about some of the areas where there would not
be a gift text. What are some of the other
benefits then of giving gifts to families or other folks?

Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, I think.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
I think in general it's nice to give a gift
and actually see the recipient enjoy it, rather than waiting
until you're no longer here. So we see a lot
of people once they've kind of gotten to a point
where they feel comfortable that they have enough for themselves,
they will begin gifting to their kids and and beyond that.
If you're giving to children, for example, they probably have

(14:56):
a greater need for that financial support when they're in
their thirty or their forties compared to when most folks
pass away. So let's think about this. If people live
into their seventies or maybe their eighties, their children are
likely closing in on retirement when they pass away, and
they've already had to do, you know, a lot of

(15:17):
the what i'll call it financial hard work.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
At by that point.

Speaker 4 (15:22):
So are they going to be grateful for the gift,
obviously yes, But will it be as impactful as it
would have been when they were younger. Probably not. And
you know, so, I think those are just a couple
of things we think about when we're thinking about gifting,
specifically to family. And regardless of who you decide to
give to or when you decide to start gifting, it's

(15:44):
really important to create a gifting strategy. So, like I said,
once you have enough resources to take care of your
needs during your lifetime, giving assets to your children or
to charities, which we haven't talked too much about yet,
it could be helpful from the state planning perspective, and
it can have a really really large impact on the
quality of life of your errors your favorite causes, and

(16:10):
for yourself, a strategy for gifting can help you minimize
your future state taxes and really really want to drive
home the fact that if you're giving to family, giving
to them earlier on generally is a lot more impactful
than waiting until later. But earlier we were talking about

(16:31):
the gift tax exclusion for education and medical expenses, and
I mentioned that we were going to dig into that
a little bit more because it's a little bit more
complicated than the nineteen thousand dollars rule. So one of
the exceptions to the nineteen thousand dollars annual gifting limit
is that you can give an limited amount to your
children for tuition or medical expenses. So education and retraining

(16:55):
that can be an excellent way to help your kids
be more self sufficient, and you know it has the
potential to make them more employable or maybe even help
them earn more in their current job. But two really
important things to understand around the education and medical expense
exception was that the money it must be paid directly

(17:16):
to the educational institution or the medical provider. It cannot
go to the kids first. At that point you're going
to be subject to that nineteen thousand dollars rule again.
And then helping to pay off student loans would not
count as an exception unless you were a co signer
on the loan. That's despite the fact that it originally

(17:37):
came from tuition obviously, but you must have been a
co signer on that loan in order to not have
it count as a taxable gift. And the last thing
I want to talk about in this section here is
another great way to benefit your errors is by giving
them money that they can then contribute to their retire accounts.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
Okay, so.

Speaker 4 (18:02):
If you think about an individual retirement account, the annual
contribution limit to that is currently seven thousand dollars a
year for those who are under fifty. So you could
give a gift to the kids with the expectation that
it is then used to say for their future.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
It's really really good to really good to options and
really really good opportunities for folks, and of course something
worth exploring. You can learn more online Clasfinancial dot com
delvium number six so eight four four two five six
three seven so CJ. Earlier, you kind of alluded to
trust that we were going to get into them a
little bit more. Let's talk about using trusts to make gifts.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
What do we need to know there?

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yeah, so we're going to talk about those trusts.

Speaker 5 (18:41):
I do want to make a quick comment on what
Eric was just mentioning there on retirement accounts, because, as
Eric can attest, every once in a while we'll have
somebody say, hey, I heard what you saw said on
the air, and I want to make a contribution or
set up a roth IRA for my adult daughter and
put seven thousand dollars into it, and we go, hmm,

(19:02):
you slightly misunderstood what we were saying there. So just
to clarify, you can give money to your children. You
can't be making contributions on their healf without their awareness.
Now give a minor child. That's a little bit different.
There's these things called custodial retirement accounts or custodial roth
I raise. I was just helping a client set up
one yesterday on Fidelity. But generally speaking, what Eric is

(19:23):
saying here is like you can give it with the
expectation of a going into a retirement account, which is
again it can be a huge blessing to your children
when they have cash to live off of, so that
those earnings that they receive from their employer can go
into a retirement account.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
Well, that being said, yes, so.

Speaker 5 (19:40):
Your question about trust and what I alluded to earlier,
so a state planning just it's not just about preparing
for the future, it's also about taking strategic steps during
your lifetime to benefit your loved ones. Using specialized trust
can help you pass on wealth efficiently, reduce taxes, and
preserve the value of your estate. So here's a breakdown

(20:04):
of three key points as it relates to trust and
kind of gifting and moving money to the next generation
while being tax efficient. Item number one would be an
irrevocable trust. This can shift growth to the next generation.
So here would be a concept. Let's say that I
own I've been blessed throughout life, I built maybe a
small business. That small business has grown, I don't know,

(20:27):
I own a good portion of it, and suddenly I'm
left in a position where I go, goodness, gracious, my
stock when I die is gonna put me over some
of these limitations on lifetime exemption amounts. And now again
these are large amounts, right, but often people say, what
the heck do I do?

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Because I've got these.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
Lifetime exemption amounts, I can only gift so much to
my kids without using up my lifetime exemption.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
So how does this work?

Speaker 5 (20:53):
C how could I and not to mention I've still
got the business. This this thing is still growing. It
could be fifty eighty one hundred million dollars by the
time I die, and then my family just has to
get blown up with taxes. Well, no one thing you
can do if you're operating agreement allows for it, which
you do have to start getting pretty specific here on
working with lawyers and accountants. But is you can actually

(21:15):
gift some of that stock into an irrevocable trust. Once
it goes into the vocabal trust, two things happen. You
are using up some of your lifetime exemption amount that
you know, fourteen million dollars we talked about to put
money into that trust.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
But let's say I put ten million.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
Dollars hypothetically of that highly appreciated you know stock into
that irrevocable trust. Well, all the future appreciation on that
is now outside of the estate. It can still benefit
my children, so it can still say the beneficiaries of
this stock.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Are my children.

Speaker 5 (21:44):
But the beauty is I have used some of my
lifetime exemption. I've gotten that money into a trust, and
then all the future appreciation of that stock is outside
of the estate and it can't impact my lifetime exemption amount.
Another concept might be, so stick with that idea of
the highly appreciated stock. Well, what if I my corporate
governance doesn't allow for that, or I just don't want

(22:06):
to put that much money into an irrevocable trust, or
I should say that much stock.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
What are other options?

Speaker 5 (22:13):
Well, another option would be doing what's called an irrevocable
life insurance trust known as an islet. Because we know
our industry loves our acronyms, so islets. It's this idea
of saying, Hey, I'm going to keep all that stock
inside of my estate, but I don't want to my
kids get blown up on taxes when I die.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
What do I do?

Speaker 5 (22:32):
Well, you could buy a life insurance policy inside of
an irrevocable life insurance trust if you do it all appropriately,
and by the way, you really need to work with
a lawyer, accountant advisor on this is not something to
try to do on your own and my humble opinion,
but if you do it all appropriately, that large life
insurance policy when you die can come swooping into the

(22:52):
estate without counting towards your federal estate tax exemption amount.
So it comes swoop in And why does it come
swooping in to pay all the taxes, right, so it
pays the taxes without increasing your taxes. So ear Vocal
Life Insurance trust can be a great way to pay
final expenses, pay pay any taxes that would be due

(23:15):
upon the estate without kind of forcing the beneficiaries to
have to sell a bunch of your stock or to
have to, you know, sell a bunch of land. Think
of a farmer with a lot of land. So these
can this can be another great estate planning tool. And
then finally there's these concepts of grantor retained annuity trust
known as grats. And I will just warn everybody, as
much as I love talking about this, just a word

(23:39):
to the wise, none of these strategies we're talking about
should be something you jump on Google and say, I'm
gonna I'm gonna.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Do this tomorrow. Please don't.

Speaker 5 (23:48):
These are advanced financial planning strategies that often require you know,
expert legal advice, good accounting advice, good financial advice, advisor feedback.
So with that being said, though, the concept of a
grant or retained annuity trust is that they're ideal for
gifting assets that are likely to appreciate significantly in value.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
So a lot like the irrevocal trust.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
So this could be again privately health shares of a company,
you know, hedge funds, private equity stocks, real estate interests,
and closely held business and you transfer assets to the
grat and retain the rights to receive an annuity aka
income for a set period. When the trust term ends,
any remaining assets pass to your beneficiaries free of federal

(24:34):
gift tax. This allows you to lock in today's asset
value while giving your loved ones the benefit of future growth,
while also getting some income along the way. So think
of that original irrevocable trust concept I talked about at
the beginning, that once it's out, it's out, you can't
get it back. Whereas this granted retained annuity trust, you

(24:55):
still can't get the money back, but you can get
an income stream off of it, which can be nice
because lest you put the money in you use part
of your lifetime exemption. That money goes to your children
a state tax free later on. But along the way
you're able to get an income stream to you know,
offset any any income needs you have in retirement. So

(25:15):
very advanced estate planning techniques, this is actually just the
tip of the Iceberg of various estate planning advanced estate
planning techniques, but these are a few that we see commonly,
commonly used.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Really fascinating stuff. This week, as we talked with CJ.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Closs and Eric Schwartz, oh were retirement finding professionals from
Class Financial, the website COSS Financial dot com. That's Coss
k l a A S Financial dot com and their
telephone number four four two, five, six three seven. More
of Money in Motion is next right here thirteen ten
WI b A and the website Colss Financial dot com.
That's k l a A S Financial dot Com. They're

(25:52):
telephone numbers six so eight four four two, five, six
three seven. Coming up with later this segment will do
our class quiz quesch Leak, So you want to hold
on to that number for that as well. Talking this
week about charitable giving and Eric, what about incorporating charitable
giving into our estate planning.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
Yeah, we've been talking a lot about giving gifts to
family members or other individuals in your life, but we
wanted to touch on charitable giving here a little bit
before the end of the show. And when it comes
to charitable giving, there are more options than just writing
a check to the charity, and I know that's how
most folks will do it, but there are some more

(26:31):
we'll say advantageous options as well. So whether you're looking
to give back to your community or just support a
cause that you really love, there were some really impactful
ways to do that. We're going to look at four
of them here briefly. The first one is the simplest. Okay,
so it's just an outright charitable gift. This is, you know,
sending a check to the Salvation Army or whichever organization

(26:55):
is important to you. You're giving cash directly to the charity,
and provided that you are able to itemize your taxes,
you can often get an income tax deduction for this,
and you know, in the long run it can also
reduce your estate taxes, and you know, really simple win

(27:17):
win for the charity and for the individual. But the
second one here is is actually when we're seeing a
lot more since since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
raised these standard deductions so high and made it less
likely that folks will itemize their taxes. And that's a
donor advised fund or a daft CJ says, we love

(27:38):
the acronyms, but think of this as like your personal
charitable giving account. So when you contribute dollars to this
fund that you set up at you know, a brokerage
house or wherever it is, you get an immediate tax benefit.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
So let's say you put in a big chunk of money.
Let's say you put in twenty thousand dollars. You get
an immediate twenty thousand dollars today deduction. But you don't
have to give all of that money right away to
the charitable organizations. Okay, it gives you time to decide.
It can be you know, years before you actually give
the money out of the out of the account. Now,

(28:17):
it's important to remember, even though you don't have to
give all the dollars to the charitable organizations immediately, your
contribution is irrevocable.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
The IRS gave you a deduction, they're not going to
allow you to take it out later on. But these
funds can remain in the account, they can be invested,
they can grow tax free, and you can you can
have some flexibility and time in making your charitable giving decisions.
And the really really important part about this is it

(28:46):
allows you to what we call bunch your gifts in
one year, so that you can get enough to deduct
to use the itemized deductions and actually be able to
deduct the contributions, and then you know, in future years
you can give the dollars away having gotten that large
tax benefit right up front. The last two that I

(29:09):
want to talk about here are actually forms of irrevocable trusts,
which CJ was just just talking about in our last
section here. The first one is a charitable lead trust.
So this arrangement allows a charity to benefit first from
the dollars and basically any income generated by the assets

(29:29):
in the trust goes to a charity for a set
period of time. After that, the remaining assets are passed
to your beneficiaries, all while potentially lowering your estate tax burden.
So it's a great way to support an organization that's
important to you, but also leave a legacy for your heirs.
And then the last one here is a charitable remainder trust.

(29:51):
So this is the reverse of the charitable lead trust. Okay,
so in this case, your beneficiaries are receiving income from
the trust for a set period of time time and
then any assets left over go to the charity at
the end of the term. So you'll receive a charitable
deduction upfront, you'll reduce your state taxes, and this approach
allows you to support a cause while ensuring that your

(30:14):
loved ones are still cared for for that set period
of time. Now, I know all of these strategies seem
like I don't know. People may to hear them and say, gosh,
that just seems so far away from me. I'm not
going to think about that right now. But thinking about
these strategies earlier, it gives you more control and flexibility
in managing your legacy. So whether you know you're trying

(30:35):
to protect your state, maximize your growth, ensure liquidity, all
of these are going to be more impactful if you
actually think about them strategically and plan for them ahead
of time, and make sure you speak to a professional
to see how you can implement these two best benefit
you a lot of.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Great tools and a lot of great options.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Just got to make sure that you're putting these things
in place and putting that plan together. If you've got questions,
don't forget great website cossfinancial dot com great resource you
can learn more about Class financial folks. At class Financial
you can learn about their separate divisions as well, that's
all at Cossfinancial dot com. That's Coss Klaasfinancial dot com
and their telephone number six oh eight four four two five,

(31:19):
six three seven. And you want to hold on to
the telephone number. Now it's time for the Class Quiz
Question the Week.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
It works like this.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
In just a moment, I'll ask you the Class Quiz
Question the Week. You then have thirty minutes from the
today's program to call the Class Financial Office right here
in Madison at six oh eight four four two five
six three seven. If you are the first caller with
correct answer, you'll win this week's prize, which is a
twenty five dollars gift card to the cheesecake Factory. This
week's Class Quiz question week is this what amount can

(31:45):
you gift per person in twenty twenty five with no
federal gift tax consequences? Is it fifteen thousand dollars or
nineteen thousand dollars? Telephone number six oh eight four four
two five six three seven. First call correct answer, we'll
win that twenty five dollars gift card two the cheesecake Factory.
Don't forget as well, that's Class Financials Office right here

(32:05):
in Madison, again the number six O eight four four
two five six three seven CJ Eric Always great chatting
with both of you.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Guys.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
Have a great day, Thanks Sean, Thanks Sean, Take care guys.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Doctor Marty Greer joins us next year on thirteen ten
wiv eightsisssssssssssssssssssst Hey thirty eight thirteen ten WIBA and Ask

(34:24):
the Experts joined in studio this morning. Bye, Doctor Marty
Greer of Checkout Veterinary. Phone lines are open for you
six oh eight three two one. That's six oh eight
three two one thirteen ten is a telephone over here
at the station to get on the air with doctor
Marty Greer. Of course, doctor Gear comes to us from
Checkout Veterinarian. Doctor Grear also recognized as Veterinarian of the
Year by the Westminster Kennel Club. You can learn more

(34:46):
about Checkout Veterinary on the website checkout vet dot com.
That's checkout vet dot com. Not only is the clinic
beautifully set up to make things very convenient for you
and your pet, low stress making things do come for
you and your pet, they're also really easy to get
to right on Prairie Lakes Drive, in sunt Prairie, right
off the interstate, right off the highway. There you cannot

(35:07):
miss them again. It's a great day to start that relationship,
start that conversation. Your first visit.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
It is free.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Get that free exam. You can bring one. You can
bring a dozen. Bring all your pets in all in
one carl.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Do you get that?

Speaker 2 (35:17):
By the way, Good morning, got good to see it.

Speaker 7 (35:18):
By the way, it's great to see you too. A dozen, yes,
you do? You have a dozen at a time?

Speaker 4 (35:22):
You do?

Speaker 7 (35:23):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (35:24):
If somebody has puppies or they have a whole raft
of dogs, we don't care how many you bring us
at one time. We have big garage spaces. They're big
enough to fit two minivans and to end in. I
have done it, so there's lots of room. Please feel
free to do that. We can set up for anything
you bring us, well, not large animals like not goats
and sheep and cows and horses, but any dog cat.

(35:47):
You bring a dozen cats, we're happy to wrangle them.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
How much fun is that?

Speaker 5 (35:52):
You know?

Speaker 1 (35:52):
What you guys need to have is like a like
a live camera in one of the bays. Just still
watch because I also like seeing I think we all
like this. I think one of the one of the
areas that I'm most jealous of you is you get
to work with pets all day and I love watching them.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
Yeah do their pets.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
By the way, what's the biggest litter you've ever You've
ever seen as far as puppy dogs?

Speaker 3 (36:12):
Seventeen seventeen?

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (36:15):
What kind of dog?

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Was it?

Speaker 7 (36:16):
A lab?

Speaker 2 (36:17):
Okay?

Speaker 6 (36:17):
Yeah, And we've had several in the sixteens, we had
sixteen springers. We've had sixteen labs, We've had We've had
some pretty good sized letters. But seventeen No, actually the
seventeen was a was an American bully, I believe she was.

Speaker 7 (36:31):
She walked through my door.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
My I'm all stopped out.

Speaker 7 (36:34):
Oh boy, you are having a pile of puppies.

Speaker 5 (36:37):
Oh yes, we litters, do you?

Speaker 1 (36:39):
But with those larger litters. And we're going to talk
about obviously some stuff in the news, but I just
now now that I'm on this, let it go. One
final thing is is with that with those with those
large litters, I'm guessing they need specialized attention from a vet,
don't they.

Speaker 7 (36:55):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (36:57):
Oftentimes if they have more than nine puppies. We'll recomm
a C section because you have better outcomes. More puppies
are born alive. If we do that, we do need
to give the female more supportive care and the puppies
more supportive care nutritionally because a she's going to be
really wiped out.

Speaker 7 (37:12):
And secondly, we you know, we'll bottle.

Speaker 6 (37:14):
Feed, tube feed whatever we have to because I'm not
going to let puppies starve to death. Sure you know,
that's one of the things I talk about every single
time I do a lecture is no one should die
of starvation. There's lots of reasons that things go wrong,
but starvation is not an excuse. So please, please, please,
if you have any concerns about how your pet is eating, baby, puppy, baby, kitten, adult,

(37:36):
you give us a call.

Speaker 7 (37:37):
We're going to have happily see you in happily help you.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
It's good to know and great information.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
You mentioned giving a call to the clinic of course
six eight three one eight sixty seven hundred.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
That's six eight three one eight sixty seven hundred for checkout.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Veterinary again open Monday through Wednesday and then Friday through
Sunday nine until five.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
We say, well, what about what about Thursdays, what about Wednesdays?

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Well, well, well they've got you covered at check out
that with check in that open Monday through four nine,
two five, so.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
They are there for you.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
They've also got the clinic in Marshall and Leamyra Is
that Myra, right?

Speaker 3 (38:06):
So it's in the town proper or near Well.

Speaker 6 (38:09):
Actually no, it's out on the highway. There isn't much
in Lamira. It's a town of two thousand people and
we're outside of that.

Speaker 7 (38:16):
But yes. But really great news is in the last
five weeks.

Speaker 6 (38:19):
I've hired five doctors, wow, one for each of the practices,
plus a spare, so it's really exciting. I've got one
doctor on maternity leave. We've been able to find a
replacement for her. I've got two very experienced doctors coming
one back to us that used to work for us,
a new graduate, and a person who's been in the
military for.

Speaker 7 (38:38):
A dozen years.

Speaker 6 (38:39):
So we have a whole array of different personality types
and different skill sets and different experience levels. So I
am so excited because finding veterinarians has been really, really tough,
and we've been working on these relationships for a while
and they all just sort of fell into place once
you three for five and we are in a much
better place. It's going to be exciting for starting in March.

(39:02):
I've got two additional two of the doctors are starting
in the middle of March, so I don't have some
of them yet. The new graduate won't be starting until
she graduates. It's a good idea to graduate.

Speaker 7 (39:11):
Yeah, start, you know, get a license, those kinds of things.
So we've got it, got them kind of trickling in.

Speaker 6 (39:17):
But starting the middle of March, we're going to be
able to expand some of our hours because we are
going to have more doctors.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
That is great to hear.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
And of course you can learn more about checkout Veterinary
the website. Checkout vets dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
The website is an absolutely fantastic tool. You can even
schedule employment and other things right at the website. Checkout
vet dot com.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Doctor.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Last week we started a conversation about the av and
flu and bird flu getting into raw food, and I
know we had some news here on the on the
radio station this morning. It's expanding it. This is scary
stuff for cat owners, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (39:51):
It is, and we don't know if it's going to
just reflect only in cat food, but it may also
show up in other pet foods like dog food. On
January nineteenth, so this was just a couple of days ago,
that was Monday, the FDA issued what they call a
directive to pet food producers. So they are telling them
that if so for any pet food, whether it's processed

(40:12):
with heat or not, so whether it's canned, whether it's dry,
whether it's raw, freeze dried, whatever, that they need to
reconsider some of their processing techniques. Now it doesn't require
that they do it, they're just asking them at this point.
But if it continues to expand and become more dangerous
to our pet supply pet food supply, then we're going

(40:34):
to start to see some stronger action from FDA.

Speaker 7 (40:37):
So it's important that you're paying attention to that.

Speaker 6 (40:40):
They are saying that in this that the raw meat diets,
So I use the Worms and Germs blog very extensively.
It's written by an infectious disease specialist from the university
up in Guelf, Canada at the Vet School, and his
recommendation with people that just fill like they need to

(41:00):
continue feeding a raw meat diet is to avoid poultry
based diets. Use diets that are high pressure pasteurized HPP,
and ask if their HPP is effective.

Speaker 7 (41:10):
Ask the company about their food safety plan.

Speaker 6 (41:13):
This is probably the most important is to use good
food handling practices. So if you're handling your pet food
in your kitchen, wash your hands, be very careful that
you're not taking hands that are contaminated with food. Touching
the faucets, touching the knives, touching the bread boards, all
those things. Disinfect any of those, you probably want to
use a good disinfectant, maybe bleach, and then report any

(41:35):
illnesses in pets or people that might be linked to
the food. So those are the current recommendations. And I
know a lot of people are very committed to feeding
a raw meat diet, but veterinarians have not seen any
documentation that it's healthier for most pets. So in many cases,
it is absolutely fine for you to switch to a kibble,
to a different style of diet. I don't want you

(41:56):
to feel guilty about it. You know, feeding raw doesn't
necessarily make you a better pet owner, So I would
not hold tight to that right now, because we just
don't know where.

Speaker 7 (42:07):
This is going to go.

Speaker 6 (42:08):
It was just out on the west coast California, Oregon,
in Washington state. But your news today when I was
driving down, I was listening and they reported some cases
in Colorado.

Speaker 7 (42:16):
And over a dozen pets have died.

Speaker 6 (42:18):
So people who are really well meeting pet owners are
trying really hard to feed the very best bid they
can and then if it turns around, turns out that
that turns around on them and it damages their pets health.
Oh my gosh, Like, how terrible do you feel about that?
So just really be thoughtful about the kind of food
you're feeding right now.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
And kibble, as you mentioned, is a fantastic choice. It's
nutritionally very important for you.

Speaker 6 (42:42):
Yeah, I feed kibble to my dogs. I don't have
time to do all this stuff.

Speaker 7 (42:47):
I feed a lot of dogs.

Speaker 6 (42:49):
So there's really not any scientific evidence that shows raw
meat diets are more effective. If somebody has a better outcome,
that's a different conversation. But we don't have any scientific reports,
any studies that show that it works better.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Okay, And speaking of two, Doctor Stark's Morning with Doctor
Marty Grier. Checkout Veterinary Online. Checkout vets dot com. That's
checkout vets dot com. Speaking of things in the news,
looking at the forecast. Now we're kind of on the
good side of a cold snap. It's definitely not the
final one of the winter, but we tend to obviously
around the summer months, hot days, there's a lot of

(43:23):
news and information about proper care for our pets, not
as much in these in these colder temperatures. It's important
to be concerned about pets in this kind of weather
as well as.

Speaker 6 (43:31):
Absolutely I'm sitting here at your desk looking at the
weather forecast and it doesn't look real great for the
next week or so.

Speaker 7 (43:38):
It's still going to be pretty cold that it says
eleven o'clock.

Speaker 6 (43:40):
Eleven degrees is the high or the low on Sunday,
So it's going to be pretty cold. So you want
to be careful with your pets, sending them outside for
an extended period of time. Yesterday, when I got to
the clinic and Lamirah, and Lamirah admittedly is a windy place.
That's why they put windmills down the marsh from us,
I got out of my car and this big gust
of wind came up. It was so cold I literally

(44:02):
couldn't catch my breath. I mean it was just like
and then I got an ice cream headache just from
breathing outside.

Speaker 7 (44:07):
So if you're that cold, remember your pets are as well.

Speaker 6 (44:11):
So if you have dogs, cats, other animals that are
outside and you feel like it's cold enough to call
the vat and say, should I bring the cat in?
Should I bring the dog in? If you feel like
calling the vat is necessary, the answer is yeah, you
should probably bring them inside. But what's important is if
you do bring them in, don't put them in a
large unheated.

Speaker 7 (44:28):
Space like a garage.

Speaker 6 (44:30):
Put them in a space that's small enough that their
body heat can heat it. So either provide an external
heat source. They make heating boards. You can buy them
at the farm stores. They work really well. They're black,
rigid plastic. They're made by K and H, which is
a company here in Wisconsin. They've got a coil wrapped
around the cord so the dog won't chew through it.
They make little cat houses, they make chicken houses. They
make all kinds of really great heated products. They make

(44:51):
heated water bowls. So make sure that you're getting that
external source of heat to a pet that may not
be able to come in the heated water bowls are
really important because if you put water out, it's going
to be frozen in a very short period of time.
So your pets aren't going to be able to get
adequate water sources. So think about not just food, not
just shelter, but water as well, because when it's frozen,

(45:13):
they could they could dehydrate as a result, So provide
that heat source, get them into a space that they
can stay warm in. If you're taking your little dog
out for a walk, you know, think about putting a jacket.

Speaker 7 (45:23):
Maybe some boots on them.

Speaker 6 (45:24):
They typically don't like the boots when you first put
them on, but pretty quickly they figure it out that
they can walk, that they're.

Speaker 7 (45:30):
Not that they're not paralyzed by the boots.

Speaker 6 (45:33):
And then, of course, if they're walking in an area
where there's salt on the sidewalk or the street, make
sure that your if it's your own yard, your own
sidewalks in your backyard, your deck or whatever, that you're
using the pet safe types of salt.

Speaker 7 (45:46):
So there are some definite things you can do.

Speaker 6 (45:48):
The concern I have even though this really cold temperature
of eleven degrees is really really cold, the bigger frostbite
concern comes at about thirty two degrees ride thirty thirty
two when it's slushy and the pet may go out.
You know, you're shoveling the sidewalk, you know, cleaning off
the deck so they have a place to go, shoveling
the yard so the dog can find a place to go.
Like if you have a little, tiny, short dog and

(46:09):
a lot of snow, you got a shovel for them, because.

Speaker 7 (46:12):
Otherwise they can't they can't get out there.

Speaker 6 (46:14):
So if they're out there with you helping you shovel,
you may be out there for a longer period of
time and ordinary because you're physically active, so you're probably
staying relatively warm. But if your dog is standing in slush,
that's when we see their footpads get really damaged, their
undersides of their their bodies, and you know, if it's
a mail dog, things like that. So you want to
be really careful with keeping the pets out in those

(46:37):
kinds of environmental temperature. So be thoughtful, be careful, use
some common sense. If you think it's too cold, it's
probably too cold.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
What about what about I guess the term like barn cats,
those type of pets that are that are not really indoor.
Building them some type of structure is probably very important.

Speaker 6 (46:55):
Yeah, you can build just a small enclosure. If you're
not handy with wood or with a saw, you can
and get a plastic box that you can put them in.
We used to have lambs in January, back when my
kids were in four each We would lamb. Mean, what
a terrible idea. But if you didn't lamb in January,
then you were going to have lambs that were ready
for the fair.

Speaker 7 (47:13):
So that's what we did.

Speaker 6 (47:15):
And they make little lamb jackets. They make little cow jackets,
so you can buy those, and my husband that one
particular year forgot to buy the lamb jackets in time
and the baby lambs were being born. So we set
up a plastic box with a heat source, not a
heat lamp. I don't like heat lamps. I think they
can potentially start fires. But those heated boards from underneath

(47:35):
are really great. And I went in the house and
took a dog blanket and started cutting it into pieces
and putting belcrow straps on it and making little holes
for the little lamb's legs to go in. I was
so upset with them I'm like, seriously, you did not
order the lamb jackets?

Speaker 7 (47:49):
Are you serious?

Speaker 6 (47:50):
So and they, I mean dairy farmers use jackets on
their calves because if they do that, they keep them warmer.
It saves them a lot on feed. The calves grow fit,
the lambs grow faster. It's just I know it sounds
a little like fufu, but it's really true that.

Speaker 7 (48:06):
That's what they do. Because you want to do that
so you can. Cats won't wear clothes.

Speaker 6 (48:10):
I'm just going to warn you don't try to make
a coat for your cat because they're not going to
keep it on. But you can use heated sources and
you don't have to be that creative or that handy.
Go to the farm store, buy a heated board, buy
a plastic storage box, lay it on its side, put
the board underneath it, and you know, some bedding in
it so that there's something fluffy, blanket, straw, something that
allows that pet to kind of bury down in it

(48:31):
and be warm enough that they're safe.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
You'll see those cats sometimes with frost bite damage on
their little ears and things of the oh goodness that.

Speaker 5 (48:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (48:39):
Well, here's the thing is most of the Spain neuter
organizations when they spay or neuter a pet. They now
your local vet won't, but those spain neuter organizations will
tip the ear. They will cut the tip of the
ear off so that at a distance you can see
if the cat is spade or neutered, so you can
get out your binoculars and see that.

Speaker 7 (48:57):
But it's only one ear.

Speaker 6 (48:58):
If both ear tips are missing, hmm, that was frostbite.
If one ear tip is missing, it's usually the left,
then that was probably because the pet is spader neutered,
and then you don't have to try and chase it
down to catch it and take it in for sterilization.
So just be aware if it's a one eared thing,
it's probably because they're spader neutered.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Talk this morning with doctor Marty Greer of check Out Veterinary.
So we've talked about what's been going on with raw food.
We've talked about the cold temperatures. We're talking about another
story in the news, which is the tragedy that's been
going on in California, Southern California with the wildfires. How
it applies to pet owners and the importance of having
a go bag and some other things ready not just
for your family, but for your pets as well. We'll
talk with doctor Greer about that in just a moment.

(49:35):
In the meantime, if you haven't had a chance to
check out the website for checkout Vet, get on over there.
It's check out vet dot com. All one word checkout
vet dot com. Great data. Start that relationship. You can
schedule apployment right online. You can also give them a
call six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's six'h eight three one eight sixty seven hundred if
you just want to stop on in check out the clinic.

(49:56):
They love having guests in twenty seven ten Prairie Lakes
drive right and so on.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Prairie very easy to get to.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
We'll continue our conversation with doctor Greer.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
We will do that next as ask the experts with
check Out Veterinary continues right here on thirteen ten WU
I B I eight fifty five thirteen ten WU I
B A. Talking with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary.
The website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Great data.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Start that relationship, and they'd love to have you at
Checkout Veterinary. They make it really easy to schedule appointment.
You can do that right online, or you can give
them a call six eight three one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's six eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. Don't
forget that first visit.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
It is free.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
That exams free. Obviously, testing and other things there are fees.
The really cool thing too about the website. Checkout vet
dot com. Pricing transparency. I know as a pet owner
sometimes you wonder what these things are going to cost.
If you're wondering, they've got a they've got a really
good list. Obviously, all pets are unique. Situations are unique
in developing that relationship and getting to know your vet
and your vet. Getting your pet really helps out with

(51:01):
that stuff too. Doctor, just the news has just been
just not It's rarely the greatest thing to be watching
those unfortunately, and so much stuff going on. And when
I saw the stories out of California with these wildfires,
I had heard from folk know, whole neighborhoods decimated, and
you heard from.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Folks with pets what that's like and the chaos.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
I'm getting the family together and then of course making
sure that the pet's part of it. It's important to
have a plan in place. Gosh forbid, anything close that
ever happens to anybody. That's that anybody anywhere, But it can't.

Speaker 6 (51:32):
Things can happen, can't They They can, And it's a
good idea to have some kind of a contingency plan.
You know, you should have that plan with your family
for where you would meet if there's something that happens,
and that you have things packed for an emergency, but
for your pets as well, so you can have a
small backpack packed with some first aid supplies, with their
routine medications if they need something, so you can have

(51:53):
those things prepped.

Speaker 7 (51:54):
So if you have to evacuate your home quickly or
leave the area quickly, you can grab.

Speaker 6 (51:58):
That bag and have metics basic first aid supplies, a
small amount of food.

Speaker 7 (52:03):
Just some of the things that you're going to need.

Speaker 6 (52:05):
It's really important that you plan because without that planning,
you can really get into some trouble. The other thing
is that many of these animals, the pets and so forth,
have been taken to the Pasadena Humane Society. I know
our Waukesha Kennel Club made a donation to them, a
financial donation to help. I have actually a friend that's
a veterinarian in Pasadena, and so they're really struggling to

(52:29):
get through all this. So any kind of help that
you can give there. There's sometimes places you feel good
about giving money to, and sometimes you're not quite sure
if it's a little scammy, But the Pasadena Humane Society
looks like it's got a pretty reputable place to donate
money to for some of these animals. They on their
website today it says they have over seven hundred animals

(52:50):
there that they're taking care of. So you can imagine
the influx that they don't have the paper towels and
the staff, and the food and the supplies and the
medications and the pain meds and all the stuff that
they're going to need for these pets. And you know,
if your displaced as a human, you may not be
able to find a place that your pets can go
with you. You may have to have moved in with
a relative or into a hotel, and you may not

(53:11):
always have access to those places. So if you have pets,
you can really sympathize with how that would be if
you had to do an immediate evacuation. I have friends
that live out there and they have motor homes or
you know, like campers and stuff. They'll just keep them packed,
gas in the tank, and if they have to go,
they throw everybody in the motorhome and they're out. So
you can put things together like that if you have

(53:32):
those resources. But even if you don't have that, put
together a backpack. If your meds have to be refrigerated,
then of course you have to be thoughtful about when
you can grab those at the last minute. But some
of the other things you should just have those basic
if your dog is on or your cats on chronic medication,
have a small supply in that bag so you can
get out and be safe.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Really important stuff. Get to have your pet prepared and
have a hard carrier too. Oh, I'm always amazed by
how many pet owners don't have like a carrier.

Speaker 6 (53:57):
For them well, and for cats, actually pillowcases work pretty well.
I mean, it is certainly not the ideal situation because
a carriers always best, but if you have a dozen
cats and one carrier, then you grab your pillow cases,
you pop the cats into the pillowcases and very short,
you know, for very short transport, that is going to
be a safe way to get them out.

Speaker 7 (54:16):
We do that for our clinic.

Speaker 5 (54:18):
We have a.

Speaker 6 (54:18):
Contingency plan if there's a fire at the clinic or
some other disaster that we have pillowcases for the cats,
we have carriers for the dogs. We know where we're
all going to meet, we know what we're going to
do if there's an emergency. So have those plans in
place for your your staff, for your clients, for your family.

Speaker 7 (54:34):
Don't wait until it's a crisis.

Speaker 6 (54:36):
Think about those things because this is a good opportunity
to learn what could happen.

Speaker 7 (54:40):
It doesn't just happen in California. It can happen anywhere
you like.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
The doctors at checkout Veterinary be prepared.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Great data start that relationship I got You can learn
more online checkout vets dot com. That's checkout vet dot
com of course, leading by example at checkout Veterinary. Great
data start that relationship, gets schedule deployment right on the website.
Checkout vet dot com Career. It's always great seeing you
have a fantastic day.

Speaker 7 (55:02):
Thanks.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Vicky McKenna.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Has your chance to win one thousand dollars next right
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