Haven Financial Group Radio - 10/26/25

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You worked hard for your money, but do you know
how to make it work hard for you. You need
a team with experience, vigilance, and a strategy to help
you live the retirement you deserve. Find your financial safe
haven with Haven Financial Group. Today you're listening to the
new and improved Haven Financial Group Radio Show, where we
bring you comprehensive weekly financial wisdom from the professionals. It's

(00:23):
all about helping you solve retirement problems so you can
make your nest egg last. Your tune to the Haven
Financial Group Radio Show with your host Larry Kolbig and
Kim Karrigan your guides to weekly retirement confidence. If you're
interested in protecting and growing what you have, let us
be your financial safe haven. The fuone nines are always

(00:43):
open at six point two five four eighty four hundred.
Now get your financial questions ready because the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show starts now.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Good morning, and welcome to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show.
I'm Larry Kolvig, founder and CEO of the Haven Financial Group.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Feel free to give us a call this morning at
six one two five zero four eighty four hundred, or
visit us online at Havenfinancialgroup dot Com.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Kim, good to be.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
With you again. We have a guest today, Keith Mitchell.
Keith Russell. That is excuse me, Keith Russell. He's an
estate planning attorney. He practices with Provision Law. They're good
partners of ours at Haven Financial Group. Some of the
listeners may have heard Carrie Rinner. He works with her
and many many of our clients. That it's just right

(01:33):
up his wheelhouse today because all of these topics we're
going to talk about on the show very important as
they are every week. State planning beneficiaries, how to make
sure that things go potentially the way you want them go,
both when you're here on earth and when you're not
here on earth, for you, your spouse and your family.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
So it's good to have them absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Keith welcome. It's great to have you, terrific. I have
not had the chance to meet you, so it's wonderful
to meet you and we're looking forward to hearing some
of your advice this morning as we do just that
talk about a state planning and best practices for retirees.
You know, I'm if it be okay with you, Larry,
I'm just going to start with a question to Keith
right off the bat, and that's just how important is

(02:18):
a state planning when you start talking about retirement planning.

Speaker 5 (02:23):
Well, thank you, Kim and Larry, it's great to be here.
So with retirement planning, I say that it's very important,
but a lot of it has to do with what
your goals are. If you don't really care where your
assets are going to go when you pass away or
at that point, the probably don't need a plan. But
if you do have specific goals and objectives for your

(02:45):
assets when you pass away, then then it's very important
to have a plan.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Sure, and its state planning is not just necessarily a
one time fits your entire life situation, is it.

Speaker 6 (02:58):
No, Absolutely, Kim, that's correct.

Speaker 5 (03:01):
People at different stages in life are going to probably
have different needs. When people are starting out, perhaps they're
married now and maybe have a couple of young kids,
what they need and their plans are going to be
a lot different than say someone who is an empty
nester and their kids are adults and grown and living
their own lives.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Sure. Absolutely, And then of course as we transition and
then we have kids, and then our kids are out
and about and whatever. Life just continues to change, and
so do those estates. You know, I know that's been
our experience in our life.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, and I'm going to add him here.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
The topic today is not a fun topics and if
you're listening.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
At any age, this relates to you.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
And many of much of society has made this a
senior topic discussion. And it wasn't designed just to be
a senior topic discussion. It was designed when you got married,
or when you had kids, accumulated assets, maybe when you
bought a house, variety of these things.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
And again, a lot of times the misconception is, oh.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
This show is only going to be for rich people.
Could not be further from the truth. All Right, small,
medium or large, big family, no kids. If this relates
to you, We're going to talk about charities and beneficiaries.
So again I just wanted to preface this whole show
by saying, this relates to you. If you're an adult,

(04:25):
this relates to you, so please listen to that.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
We've got a lot to talk about today.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
Absolutely, Let's take a look at some of the subjects
that we are going to try to hit. Understanding trusts
and wills, the nuances of beneficiaries, designation, those are so important.
That's something that Larry talks about a lot. You need
to constantly be updating those tax reduction strategies for a
state transfers. And then finally, your legacy stretches well beyond

(04:50):
your financial matters. We're going to talk a little bit
about that. With us is Keith Russell. As we have said,
he is an estate planning attorney, and let's start by
talking a little bit about understanding trusts and wills. You know,
I think one of the big misconceptions out there, Keith,
is that I really don't need a will. If my

(05:11):
spouse is living, everything will just go to my spouse
and then you know, it can move on from there.

Speaker 5 (05:17):
So yeah, that would that would probably be again that
failure to plan. Now, in Minnesota, they could be correct.
The laws of Minnesota basically give a priority to the
surviving spouse. But there's a lot of other factors in
play as well. And we'll talk about beneficiary designations. Even

(05:38):
though you might have a will, if you've got beneficiary
designations on financial accounts and things that aren't going to
your spouse, then that's gonna trump any kind of will
that you've done, or no plan at all. So I
would say that probably having a will is probably bare minimum,

(05:59):
But you certainly don't want to have a plan where
you're just hoping that your spouse survives, because what happens
if your spouse passes away and at that point, where
is your assets going to go? And I've unfortunately seen
it where people fail to plan and they would like
it to go to someone, but since they didn't plan,
Minnesota has a different plan for you. And it's going

(06:21):
to be based on your bloodline. And so if you
have someone else, a partner, or someone who's not in
your bloodline, they're going to lose out completely.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Right.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
What's the difference between a will and a trust?

Speaker 5 (06:33):
So the big difference between a will and a trust
is a will is basically just a set of instructions
on what to do with your assets when you die.
It also allows you to name guardians for your minor
children and also name a personal representative for your estate.
Wills are always going to be subject to probate if
you don't do anything else. So if you have no

(06:54):
beneficiary designations on accounts, you don't have any deeds, or
don't own anything with another person, then at that point
the will will be part of that probate. And a
will is better than nothing, like I said, because you
get to name a personal representative, you get to name
your beneficiaries, but you're as far as in a state

(07:15):
playing tool, it is fairly limited. There's a lot of
limitations and what.

Speaker 6 (07:19):
You can do with a will.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
For instance, with minor children, a will is basically going
to be allowed a conservator to hold that money for
them until they turn twenty one, but at that point
all that money's going to be dumped into their lap.
So a trust is different because a trust is not
just a set of instructions. A trust is an entity
that you create, and you create it while you're living,
and it's essentially like an open box. And the box

(07:42):
is basically constructed of all the rules about how the
trust is to be administered while you're alive, and also
at your death, you fund the trust, and that means
you put your assets into the box or you set
it up for those assets to go into the box
at the time of your death, and that way it
avoids probate because we know where the assets are supposed

(08:04):
to go. The assets are supposed to go in the trust,
and it also allows for a much more efficient and
effective administration of your estate, and it also allows you
it gives you a lot more options and flexibility to
deal with certain situations, such as basically holding money for
minor children for longer durations. You can have money for
their education and things, but they're not going to get

(08:26):
money at twenty one.

Speaker 6 (08:27):
Maybe you can get it at thirty or forty.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
Also, if you have special needs people love ones in
your family have special needs and are getting basically needs
based support from the government, if you give them an inheritance,
they may lose that, whereas with a trust you can
structure things to avoid that. So there's a lot of
flexibility with a trust. It gives you a lot more options.

Speaker 4 (08:49):
There's a few different kinds of trust as well. Let's
walk through that. If we could keith the first revocable
versus irrevocable trusts exactly.

Speaker 5 (08:58):
Yeah, So a revocable trust is probably going to be
the overwhelming majority of trusts that people are going to create,
and a revocable trust, essentially, what it means to be
revocable is is that you can amend it or change
it at any time when you're the creator of that trust.
Called the settler. You can also revoke or terminate the
trust at any time. And so since you're in control

(09:20):
of that trust again, it's going to give you a
lot more flexibility to do what you want to do
at the expense of anything in that trust is going
to be part of your taxable estate. So that's the
trade off. Now irrooquable I'm sorry, irrevocable trust. The difference
there is that is where you basically put assets into
a trust and you do lose control over that. You're

(09:43):
not able to amend that trust, so you have a
lot less control. But the advantage there is oftentimes you're
going to be.

Speaker 6 (09:53):
Able to it's going to reduce a taxable estate.

Speaker 5 (09:56):
So typically we're irrevocable trust when we see those util
it's used for tax planning reasons. We're trying to reduce
someone's taxable state.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
Sure, when we talked about trusts and wills, you guys
have already mentioned the idea of guardianship. You know of
minors certainly can be a part of it. Special needs trusts,
but let's talk about charitable trusts and how that can
is that set up separate from maybe what you're leaving
for loved ones and family.

Speaker 5 (10:23):
Yeah, typically with charitable trust, basically you're basically trying to
get the tax advantages, but you're also trying to do
some guidance and structure how those assets will be used
for the charities of your choice.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
Okay, I know we're going to talk a little bit
more about tax taxes and how it relates to a
state planning a little later in the show. But tax
planning certainly can be a big part of this estate
planning plan correct for tax purposes.

Speaker 5 (10:54):
Yeah, it can be, especially I think we'll talk about
it later, but especially in Minnesota, where one of the
lucky twelve states that actually has an estate tax. And
uh so, unfortunately basically anything over three million dollars can
be subject to an estate tax.

Speaker 6 (11:09):
So, especially in Minnesota.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
Tax plan is important, and it again that's an area
where trusts really shine, revocability trust. There are things that
we can do within that, especially with married couples, to
reduce that that taxable state.

Speaker 6 (11:22):
That is just not available with something like a will.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
Do you recommend trusts for everyone that you work with
or is that certain you know who who qualifies most
specifically to have a trust?

Speaker 6 (11:35):
Sure?

Speaker 5 (11:36):
Well, we like to think anybody can really benefit from
a trust. That again, because of that flexibility. I would
say in most situations, someone is going to have some
situation that makes a trust ideal. Oftentimes it's not. It's
not necessarily assets. A lot of people think, oh, I
need a lot of money to have a trust. What
I find more often is it really advantageous. Is with

(11:59):
with family dynamic you have if you have loved ones,
you have children, they don't get along, you know, they're
like oil and water. A trust is really a great
way to kind of maintain family harmony. You can have
a trust, you can have a trustee, a non family
member of corporate trustee managed things and that takes a
lot of volatility out. They can they can be mad
at the corporate trustee, not mad at each other over

(12:22):
sharing assets. Again with the special needs, if you have
special needs children, and trust can be highly advantageous. And
then also too if you've got family members who have
money issues or you know, chemical dependency issues.

Speaker 6 (12:36):
I had a client one.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
Time who had a brother who just apparently like any
kind of any kind of scam if it was a
Nigerian prince and money on the internet, he was going
to be sending money so it's a big concern about
giving him money outright, and with a trust, you can
structure that so that the money can be there for
his benefit, but we're going to kind of control a
little bit and make sure that he's not giving it
away to scammers.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Keith sim if I can just briefly in all the
years I've done this, just a little bit of advice,
you know, Susie Orman not picking on her. A lot
of things I agree, some things I disagree. Of course,
she says everybody should have a trust. Well, everybody doesn't
need a trust, and that's where when they sit down
with Keith or Carrey, they're going to talk through a conversation,

(13:19):
just like our Haven process, a conversation to find out
is it relative to does it make sense? Because also
you have to be the public has to be cautious
to some degree, because I've seen this, the trust mills
that are out there and they try to sell trust
to everybody.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
You got to be careful with that.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
And I think a takeaway from the segment is, you know,
setting up trust in wills is more than just clicking
a box, if you will. It's about taking control of
your legacy, ensuring your loved ones are protected, and that
can be whether it's avoiding probate, minimizing taxes, which we're
going to talk more, safeguarding your family's future. The right
plan makes all the difference. A failure to plan is

(13:58):
a plan to fail, and I know none of us
want to fail. So if this is resonating with you
this morning, let's get started. Reach out to us today
six one two five zero four eighty four hundred, give
us a call. You have nothing to lose, but only
to gain.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Absolutely. Keith Russell is our guest and he is an
estate planning attorney, and we're going to continue this conversation
about estate planning coming up right after the break. You're
listening to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show.

Speaker 6 (14:30):
Don't go too far.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
We're gathering more important insights and retirement. Please govinment the
Haven Financial Group Radio Show. We'll be right back. Stick around.
You've got questions, We've got answers. Your tune to the
Haven Financial Group Radio Show with your host Larry Kolvig
and Kim Karragan. Now back to the show.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Good morning once again, and welcome to the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Kolvig, Founder and CEO of
the Haven Financial Group. Free to give us a call
at six one two five zero four eighty four hundred
or Havenfinancialgroup dot com. We have tons of classes, Kim.
We have our new education center that we just added on.

(15:12):
You know, we do lots of classes. You can go
to our website and see all of them. Public, public classes,
in our office classes some really fun ones, not just
the Social Security and tax and investments in all the
ones that we will continue to do.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
But I'll give you an example.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
This week we had women Wine and Peace of Mind,
which is a great class.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
Probate.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Another class coming up November seventh, Probate explain simple steps
to keep your family out of court.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Many of us would want to do that. How do
you do that?

Speaker 2 (15:44):
We have one December eleventh, just to give you kind
of a flavor of what's on the menu with state
planning for parents from diapers to diplomas and beyond see
not just for the senior market. So again, these are
very well attended. Anybody can attend. They do fill up quickly,
so be aware of these, as in many other classes,

(16:06):
because we truly believe education is how we learn, and
through education is how we avoid many mistakes that can
be avoided.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
Absolutely. Keith Russell is our guest this morning alongside Larry
and me, and he is in a state attorney and
we're so glad that he could be with us today.
You know, your legacy is too important to leave it
by chance. And without proper assigned beneficiary designation, your heart
earned assets, well, they can either be delayed, they can

(16:37):
be disrupted, or most of I think what would be
the most unpleasant of all of this is unintended recipients.
So let's talk a little bit about the importance of this.
How frequently, Keith, do you see, you know, people pass
away and you start to dig into what they've left
behind and you find out they never had any designation.

Speaker 5 (16:59):
Well, part of my practice involves actually probate, so I
do handle probates for provision law firm, and so we
do see it quite frequently where individuals either they just
completely don't have any beneficiaries, or you can just tell
there was maybe there was a mix up or a mistake,
and then we're still would be where you have people
that have unintended beneficiaries. The scenario basically where people get

(17:23):
divorced and they have a life insurance policy and they
forget to take their ex spouse off that policy.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
Sure. Absolutely, So for those who don't have and I
know we're doubling back some and we're going to again
sort of cross over in some of the segments here,
but for those who don't have beneficiaries, what.

Speaker 5 (17:41):
Happens, So typically what happens when they don't have beneficiaries
on it, at least when I have people come to me,
is they basically say, well, we went to the financial institution,
went to the bank, and we knew mom or dad
had an account there, and when we went and asked about.

Speaker 6 (17:57):
It, the bank wouldn't talk to us.

Speaker 5 (17:59):
Bank said come back with letters testamentary or letters of
general administration, which are probate documents that you need in
order to gain access to those when there's not beneficiaries.
So that's typically the first the first indication you have
a problem is is no one's going to talk to
you about what mom or dad had in that institution.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
And let me just ask you, if you run into
that problem and then you have to take it to probate,
what could the timing on that be, Because you know,
sometimes people need access to that those dollars to take
care of business.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
Yeah, typically it's not a fast process. Typically speaking, there
are different types of probate in Minnesota, and it depends
on the factors and situation. I won't go into that,
but there sometimes you have to go in front of
a judge. Sometimes you can go in front of registrar.
So sometimes there are a little faster ways to do things.
But typically I would say thirty to forty five days. Ideally,

(18:53):
maybe you might be able to get access to those assets,
probably a lot longer than that, I frequently. I just
recently had a few probates in Hennepin County here in Minnesota,
and it was taken about twelve weeks to see a
judge even. Yeah, so it can be quite a lengthy process.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
Absolutely. It could also be an expensive process, right.

Speaker 5 (19:14):
Yeah, Typically it's going to be at the bare minimum,
it's going to be probably three hundred dollars for filing
fee to start the probate, and then on top of
what you're going to pay an attorney probably to do it. Now,
some people try to do it themselves, but oftentimes things
might get missed and then there it slows the process down.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
So, yeah, what's the difference between a primary and a
contingent for beneficiary.

Speaker 5 (19:39):
So typically your primary beneficiary is going to be sort
of first in line to receive benefits. And so if
if the primary beneficiary is deceased, or if the beneficiary
says I don't want it, and there's a there's a
termin called disclaimer where they can disclaim the asset. Typically
what happens is the primary beneficiary has passed away, no
longer living. At that point, you're going to look at

(20:00):
the contingent beneficiary to see who's gonna who's they're going
to take that that asset.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
Okay, all right, What's what's the most important thing that
people need to know about beneficiary of designation?

Speaker 5 (20:14):
I would say that they need to understand that it
is a kind of a powerful tool. And then there
can be downsides to making outright beneficiaries. So, uh, you know,
going back to what we talked about, people with chemical
dependency issues, or if people are on disability benefits that
are needs based, if they're a beneficiary and they have

(20:35):
money dropped in their lap, it could be big problems
for them. That again is where an issue where maybe
making a trust a beneficiary is a better solution and
let that trust manage the money for that person. The
other downside too with beneficiaries is if everything goes out
through beneficiary designations, beneficiaries benefit, they have no obligation to

(20:57):
pay any expenses.

Speaker 6 (20:59):
So what can happen is.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
You're gonna have a situation where multiple children receive money
through those beneficiary designations, but there's funeral costs, and so
maybe one kid pays for mom's funeral expenses, then goes
to the others and say to their siblings and say, hey,
you know, can you can I get my share?

Speaker 6 (21:16):
Can you pay me back?

Speaker 5 (21:19):
Maybe they say, well, you know what, I think you
spend too much on that funeral. I'm only going to
give you this much. So there is a potential there
for some family discord if there's things left pay after
the fact. Because again, everyone benefits, no one has any
obligation to pay.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:33):
Absolutely, money does crazy things to people too, doesn't it.

Speaker 6 (21:37):
You know it does?

Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yeah, Unfortunately it doesn't.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
It doesn't. Kim.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
You know, this segment about beneficiaries to some may seem
so elementary. Oh my goodness, who doesn't have beneficiaries and
in all the years have done this. I see it
all the time, even those that you would think would
be current on their beneficiaries. You know, I've used this example,
but it is an example. It's a funny example, but
it wouldn't have been funny had something happened. You know,

(22:03):
one of my clients, she's a nurse at Fairview Ridges, Southdale,
has been for forty one years and earned her husband
in my office for a quarterly review and no, it
was actually before they became clients. I was looking at
her four h three B at her work and I mentioned,
I go, I don't see any beneficiaries on this four

(22:24):
H three B, and mind you forty one years as
a nurse, and she goes, yeah, all these years, I
just could figure out who to make my beneficiary.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
And I looked at her.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
I said, isn't your husband sitting right next to you?
Oh yeah, that's probably a good idea. Had something happened
that might not have been a very that story probably
doesn't end well. Or I think Keith mentioned it X
spouses a gentleman, great client. I didn't even know he
had this account. He brought it in and goes, yeah,
I forgot about this one. And I looked at and

(22:54):
I said, you are the nicest guy in the world.
And he goes, what are you talking about. I go,
you made your expose the beneficiary. You're such a good man.
And he used expletives that I would never ever repeat.
Let me say he changed the beneficiary. We helped him
with it, because if you're listening, if you're working with
a good partner, they should be monitoring this, updating these things.

(23:18):
You know, if things don't stay constant, life has challenges.
Life's calendar doesn't cooperate with our calendar. This is something
that you should have a partner to help you with,
not that you need a bunch of help, but to
make sure that these things don't fall through the cracks,
which they can. And that's part of our Haven process
and that's part of the relationship building that we build

(23:40):
with our Haven clients.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
So it's really really important.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
Absolutely So if you're looking for a partner, maybe for
state planning purposes, or you're looking for a partner for
retirement planning purposes, give the folks that Haven Financial Group
a call the number six one two five zero four
eight four zero zero. Go him today, Tell him that
you heard us on the radio that you'd like to
set up an appointment. Come into the office and talk
about what your needs might be When we come back. Gentlemen,

(24:06):
let's talk about taxes by everybody's everybody's favorite, right Larry,
We want to talk about Texas and how that relates
to a stage claiming this is the Haven Financial Group
Radio Show.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Ready to find your financial safe haven. Your dream retirement
is in reach. Don't go away, The Haven Financial Group
Radio Show will be right back. Are you worried that
your financial strategy might be missing something, Well you're in
the right place. Larry Kolvig is back and ready to
help you find your financial safe haven.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Good morning once again, and welcome to the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Kolvig, founder and CEO of
the Haven Financial Group, celebrating our ten year anniversary and
proudly ten years serving the metro area and outstate area
as well of Minnesota. So again, thanks for listening. He
threstles with talking of state planning, beneficiary, the tax strategies

(25:04):
to go with the state planning, all these topics, which
is right up Keith Wheelhouse. And it's great to having Kim,
you know, because these conversations aren't fun, but they are
as we're talking about. So very very important.

Speaker 4 (25:18):
Absolutely they are. Keith, let's talk about tax reduction strategies. Obviously,
nobody you know, living or passed away necessarily wants to
give Uncle Sam any more money than what Uncle Sam
it deserves to get. So when you sit down with
someone and you start to put together in a state plan,
what are some of the things that you ask, some

(25:40):
of the questions you ask, and some of the strategies
that you maybe suggest her or you actually use to
minimize taxes when it comes to what's being left behind.

Speaker 5 (25:52):
Yeah, so typically so we practice the Minnesota so again
with the Minnesota state tax. That's that's going to be
one of the first questions is to trying to determine
whether or not an individual or married couple has over
three million dollars in assets. And that's just not financial assets.
That could be that's the home, that could be farmland,

(26:14):
that could be a cabin. All that is going to
be counted. And so with married couple, we're we're going
to probably look first of all it you know, depending
on the amount, but if it's close to three million
or three to five million, we're probably going to utilize
revocable living trusts to find ways at the death of
the first spouse to be able to move some of

(26:34):
that money into an irrevocable trust to minimize that surviving
spouse's taxable state. And then for people that have higher
amounts at that point, we're probably going to be looking
at maybe irrevocable life insurance trust islets or maybe some
other other vehicles for those situations.

Speaker 6 (26:54):
And then there's also giving charitable giving.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
If there's money left to charity, that is going to
reduce your overall taxable estate as well.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
Okay, if you're someone who has I'm not going to
use the term extreme wealth, but you have wealth, are
there ways to distribute your dollars prior to your death
that will eliminate some taxes for those who are left behind.

Speaker 6 (27:19):
Yeah, it can.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
So.

Speaker 6 (27:20):
Again with.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
Leaving money to charities, if they are qualified charities, they
that is going to reduce your taxable estate. Now, if
you give, if you gift money during your lifetime or
property during your lifetime to people other than charities in Minnesota,
there's going to be what we call a three year
look back for that. So if you give a gift

(27:44):
in Minnesota, you have to wait three years before that.

Speaker 6 (27:47):
To me not be counted against your taxable estate.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
So if you give something and then you die, year two,
Minnesota Department revenue is going to count that whatever your
gift is going to count as part of your taxable estate.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
Okay for the oh you're going no, I'm sorry, go ahead, sorry.

Speaker 5 (28:03):
So for the federal government, the federal government is a
little better used there. So right now the gift tax
and estate tax is fifteen million. Oh it's going to
be fifteen million dollars. It's not quite there yet, but
it's starting next year will be fifteen million dollars per person.

Speaker 6 (28:18):
And that's actually portable.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
So if you have a spouse, whatever is the spouse
doesn't use, they combined could be thirty million dollars worth
of so you can make lots of gifts. You have
a lot more flexibility and leeway with the federal gift
in estate tax.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
What about educational funds and that kind of thing. Can
they be used in a way to protect from taxes?

Speaker 6 (28:43):
Yes, five twenty nine plans. They can.

Speaker 5 (28:46):
Actually, they can be an effective means as well as
trying to shunt some money for tax planning.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
So if you, let's say you could put that in
for a grandchild, or something like that that money and
then that money would be would be TechEd or would
be sheltered. In a five twenty nine.

Speaker 5 (29:04):
Plan, they do qualify for the annual gift tax exclusion,
so yeah, they if you structure it correctly, then yeah,
you could certainly be putting money away and helping with
the tax situation.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Kim, I'd like to it isn't exactly along the lines
of taxes with this segment is but I want to
pose just a couple of questions. There are questions that
I frequently and half frequently few years have got from
from the public.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Number one.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
One would be, Keith, what happens if I don't have
a will? You know, I'm not going to put one together.
I'm just not going to do one. What happens? And
the second question being we get this often. I want
to hide all my assets from the nursing home. Please
help me do it? How do I do it? How
do I do it?

Speaker 3 (29:54):
I want to hide it all from the nursing home.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
If you could just briefly answer those two detailed questions,
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (30:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (30:02):
So for the for the first question, if you only
have wills, then you're really not going to have much
ability to avoid a state tax, and I've seen that
actually occur. I did a probate where a couple had
over four point five million dollars and they all they
had was wills. They'd made their own wills and had
had family members witnessed it, and had they come to us,

(30:26):
we could have planned more effectively and they wouldn't had
to pay any estate tax. But they ended up paying,
you know, over one hundred thousand dollars in a state
tax just because they did will. So wills are definitely
not an effective strategy. And then I would say, for
so for medical assistance in Minnesota, probably the most effective

(30:46):
strategy is going to be making gifts. Minnesota, revocableving trusts
are not going to be an effective way to avoid
medical assistance claims because you control the assets. They're going
to be card counted as part of your assets for qualifying.

Speaker 6 (31:03):
For medical assistance.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
But if you can structure it to where you can
make gifts to love ones and then don't apply for
medical assistance for five years after that, medical assistance is
not going to look at those gifts because there's again
a five year look back, and so anything five years
in a day, it's not going to be counted as
part of your assets. So that can be an effective
strategy if you're trying to make gifts and not basically

(31:30):
have them used against you for medical assistance purposes.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
Okay, can I go just go back for just a second.
The couple who had the four million dollars and they
had done their own wills, what if they wouldn't have
had wills at all? Would that have would the impact
have been even greater?

Speaker 5 (31:46):
So from a tax perspective, No, it would not have
affected them from a tax perspective, but they had no children,
and so it had been very much more complicated because
then we would have been looking at nieces, great nieces, cousins,
maybe second cousins. There would have been a lot of
beneficiaries that would have to be identified and basically tracked down.

(32:08):
Sometimes you can't find people who have to hire private investigators.

Speaker 6 (32:12):
It can be a big mess.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
If someone doesn't have a will and doesn't have beneficiaries
listed in that will, you may be trying to find
It's kind of that story about someone who has a
long lost aunt and they end up inheriting. Those kind
of situations and they they are a really kind of
messy probate situation when you have that many beneficiaries to
hunt down.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Or correct me if I'm wrong, Keith, if you die
without a will, the state of Minnesota will draw up
a will for you. Is it not called dying intestine intestate,
which sounds like a terrible digestive disease.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, I want to avoid.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
Yeah, and yeah, that's a great point, Larry.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
It is.

Speaker 5 (32:48):
So it is called intestacy when you die without a will,
and Minnesota has an intestacy law. And so there's kind
of a chain depending on if you don't have a will,
how who's going to benefit? And so it starts it's
a surviving spouse. If you don't have one of those,
it's going to go to your children. If you don't
have children, it's going to go to your grandchildren. If
you don't have grandchildren, it's going to go to your
parents if they're still alive, if not, to your siblings,

(33:11):
nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, cousins, and so,
depending on someone's situation, Like I was saying, with the
couple that had the four million dollars, they again had
no children or grandchildren, and their siblings were to see,
so we would have been looking at nieces and nephews
and so. Yeah, So that that basically is how the

(33:32):
progression goes.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
It can be a very very complicated situation for people
after you have passed away. All the more reason obviously
to make your wishes known and get it taken care
of prior to that time. Not something that, like Larry says,
this isn't something that's fun to think about, and your
kids don't want to hear about it in a lot
of cases or whatever, but certainly something that is necessary.

(33:56):
If this is something you've been thinking about, maybe it's
time for you you to draw up some kind of
estate plan, or maybe you have one and it needs
to be reviewed. You know, as we have said, this
is something that needs constant maintenance. Then give up a
call here at Haven Financial Group six one two five
zero four eighty four hundred. The number again is six
one two five zero four eight four zero zero. Tell

(34:20):
them that you've heard us here on the radio and
you'd like to commit set up an appointment and chat
a little bit about estate planning or any other kind
of retirement planning that you need. When we come back,
we're going to talk a little bit more about your
legacy and how it stretches beyond just your finances. This
is the Haven Financial Group Radio Show.

Speaker 6 (34:39):
Don't go too far.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
We're gathering more important insights and retirement paye go. The
Haven Financial Group Radio Show will be right back. Stick around.
You've got questions, We've got answers. Your tune to the
Haven Financial Group Radio Show with your host Larry Kolvig
and Kim Karrigan. Now back to the show.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Good morning once again, and welcome to the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Kulvig, founder and CEO of
the Haven Financial Group, and we really do appreciate you
listening and feel free to give us a call if
you have questions, worries, concerns, reservations, if anything's resonated with
you today six one two five four eighty four hundred
or Havenfinancialgroup dot com.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
I'm encouraged to go there.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
There's all kinds of retirement tools, all kinds, all our
classes inside the officer, outside in the public. All of
them are on the site. And Kim a key takeaway
from the last segment about taxes. For the most part,
you know, we say none of us get too excited
about taxes. Lance our CPA, on the other hand, he
gets really excited about taxes and his assistant Melissa, And

(35:48):
it is fourth quarter. We're having tax discussions all year,
but this quarter especially now is Roth conversions IRA or
to Roth conversions.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
Do they make sense? Don't they make sense?

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Don't miss opportunities just because you're not having a conversation
or nobody's helping you. This is the time and unforced airs,
missed opportunities all they happen all the time because they
most A lot of people don't have a good partner
that can hold your hand and walk you through what
you should do and why you should do it. So
strongly encourage it. It's fourth quarter. You should be having

(36:22):
these conversations.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
Fantastic advice six one two five zero four eight four
zero zero is how you get hold of the folks
there at even Financial Group. If you'd like to sit
down and talk to Lance about your tax strategy, excuse
me for this coming year, or if you've got some
tax issues that need to be taken care of before
the year is out. We are talking with Keith Russell.

(36:47):
He's an attorney and he is an estate planning attorney,
and we've been talking about, you know, all different aspects
of a state planning, and before we go today, we
wanted to talk to just a little bit about you know,
the state planning isn't always just about your money. People
want to leave behind some legacy, There is an image

(37:07):
of you, or there are important things to you that
maybe don't have the same kind of value that we
think about when we talk about dollars, but have great
value in your family or great value to you. So
let's talk a little bit about that if we could. Keith,
you know, one of the things that jumps out at
me that I think must be very different now than
it was maybe fifteen years ago, is this whole idea

(37:28):
of your digital footprint. I mean, when people pass away.
I just recently had a friend who, thank goodness, did
not pass away, but had a massive stroke and he
could not remember any of his passwords. He couldn't remember
anything related to his digital life, and so as a

(37:48):
result of this, none of his family could get into
anything until finally he was healthier. This could be a
real problem for a family, correct.

Speaker 6 (37:58):
Yeah, it definitely could.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
And I've seen situations too in probate and where uh
someone kind of kept everything close to the vest and
and families are kind of struggling trying to figure out,
you know what mom or dad had, not just for assets,
but like you said, for for passwords or uh, you
know what we're credit cards did they have or where

(38:20):
where are the family photos?

Speaker 6 (38:21):
That those kind of things.

Speaker 5 (38:23):
Absolutely, so part of what we do as well in
our documents is as part of planning is we're gonna
we're gonna incorporate what we call digital asset authorizations into
our documents, and those are going to be tools that
are going to allow that for instance, in the situation
that you just described, you know someone who maybe healthcare

(38:43):
agent or someone who could act on their behalf and
then reach out to these companies and maybe get into
those accounts that otherwise wouldn't be able to.

Speaker 6 (38:53):
Part of what we do as well.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
When we do is stay planning, is we give our
clients we call homework folders, which we give them tools
to be able to basically keep things like passwords or
subscriptions or where these documents are, keeping a list for
their loved ones so that if something does happen, they're
going to be able to find that password or find

(39:14):
find those documents because it's going to be listed out
where they all are.

Speaker 4 (39:18):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Yeah, I came on memory archives, although not digital because
it was before digital. You know, personally, my late Grandma Ruth,
who passed quite a few years ago, she was a
storyteller and she was comical as I'll get out her.
Her and grandma and grandpa were Archie, the Archie Bunker, and.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
I forget what Archie's wife was, but she was the wife.
Eat it.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Anyways, when she passed, she because she was a good storyteller,
we found cassette tapes where she told on numerous cassette
tapes her life story from being young and all the
way through it.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Her whole life story.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
And we still whether it's the siblings, any family members, kids'
grandkids can go back and listen to great Grammar Ruth
give her life story and just reflect on that. So
I just think of that. It hit it personally, hit
it hit home.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
Oh absolutely, Well, you know again, this is all sort
of part of your state planning, and that's that's the
portion of it we're looking at. You know, maybe you're
someone in this day and age, you know your your
grandma let audio tapes, but maybe you want to leave videotapes.
I mean that's certainly accessible to everyone.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Right, absolutely, and memories. It's all about telling your story.
When we think of state planning, you think, we think
of a number, we think of money, we think of investments,
and that is all part of it. But it is
your life story. What do you want to leave behind?
How do you want to be remembered? And again that's
why it's so very important.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
Sure, Keith, maybe you could share a story about someone
who left something behind for legacy purposes that you know
you help them put together, or you you ensured that
it got to the beneficiars.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
Well, I actually have have not really run into the
situation where I've actually seen the results, but I have
certainly set up for individuals particularly. I've had some charity
minded clients who wanted to leave something in place I had.
I had one client basically who wanted to leave it
to a conservation society for conservation for for hunting land,

(41:30):
and wanted to leave that legacy for his grandchildren, you know,
in order for them to be able to enjoy and
and make memories with their family as well with that
particular land.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
Sure, it's not it's I think for some people, they
may think this is just something you leave in a
box in your your drawer and you hope somebody stumbles
upon it. But it can really be designated.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Correct.

Speaker 5 (41:54):
Yeah, So with a will and with a trust there
is something we call tangible personal property lists, and we
give these to our clients too as part of our
homework folder. So if there are particular heirlooms or items
that you want to go to certain people, that's going
to be listed out. And I think that's a it's
a real advantage because you know you're not putting a
trustee or a personal representative.

Speaker 6 (42:14):
In a position of haveing to figure out where stuff goes.

Speaker 5 (42:17):
You've let people know where you want to go and
maybe including a little bit of a story or like
why this is important to the person, so that the
recipient understands why this is an important heirloom.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Absolutely, and Kim as Keith breaks up charities. I'll bring
it full circle back to tax planning, charitable giving. It's
fourth quarter. I mentioned that right now we're talking about
r and ds that need to be done before the
end of the year. I bet you I did a
half dozen just this past week of clients to say
I don't need my requirement of distribution. I am charitable,

(42:51):
and here's the charity or charities I want to give
to a qualified charitable distribution where there's tax advantages to
the giver of the recipient.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Again, take advantage of that.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
I say that you don't give charitably for tax reasons,
but if you are charitable, it opens up some tax
planning avenues that can be beneficial. And the same to
be with non IRA money. If it's maybe you came
into a bunch of money in this given year and
you have an income problem, donor advice funds. With non

(43:23):
qualified funds, donor advice funds giving a bigger chunk take
getting the big tax advantage up front in a given year.
It allows some flexibility. So again we come full circle
back to tax planning. And that's why maybe there's some
real benefits tax wise to doing that.

Speaker 4 (43:39):
Sure, So, Keith, as we wind down here, and we've
had this great conversation about estate planning, and by the way,
I think it's just been really incredibly informative. What is
it that you hope people walk away from today's show
with and what's the message here that you hope people
are getting.

Speaker 6 (43:59):
I hope.

Speaker 5 (43:59):
The missag as they're getting is that estate planning is
really all about goals, and so you really need to
think about what are your goals, what are the things
that you want to accomplish with your assets, and then
you know, come to someone like us, a Provision or
an a state planning firm, and you know, make those
goals known and that we can help to give you

(44:20):
tools or ideas on how to realize those goals.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
And Darry, what.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
About you, Well, we do everything related to retirement planning.
All of these retirement puzzle pieces as I talk about
in half of years, they're also important and in retirement
they should be more coreded coordinated than ever. It's why Provision,
Carrie and Keith are good partners because we know the
a have even know the importance of a competent estate plan.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
We work very closely together.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
And clients said, and folks that partner with Provision, they
communicated that with us. Once the estate plan is done,
here's how the beneficiary should be titled. This is with
the verbiage that should be used, and it's the coordination
of that with the investments, with the insurance, with.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
The Medicare and the healthcare.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
And by the way, it's annual enrollment to open enrollment
for Medicare, get your Medicare reviewed, make sure you're saving
some money. Insurance companies, I don't want to say their haywire,
but there's a lot going on in the insurance world.
Let's just put it that way, and open enrollment support, Medicare, life, insurance,
long term care. At Haven, we have all that under

(45:30):
this roof. And you don't have to have it all
under the same roof, but I can tell you the best.
In the ten years that I've been here, the number
one compliment is Wow, it's so nice to have it
under the same roof, multiple personalities all working together. That
was the goal and again that's why we want to
be a partner with those that are listening and that

(45:52):
we can truly help. And if you have all your
ducks in the row, more.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Power to you. But do you really have all your
ducks in a row?

Speaker 1 (46:00):
All right?

Speaker 3 (46:00):
Right?

Speaker 4 (46:01):
Good questions? Six one two five zero four eight four
zero zero. That's how you reach the folks at Haven
Financial Group. Give him a call, tell them you heard
us here on the radio. You'd like to come in,
make an appointment, sit down, it's not gonna cost you anything.
You're gonna sit down, You're gonna chat with the experts,
tell them what your goals are and they can tell
you how they can help you to reach them. Six

(46:21):
one two five zero four eight four zero zero. Keith Russell,
it's been great to have you today, So thank you
so very much.

Speaker 6 (46:29):
Thank you, Kim.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
Thank you, Yeah, thanks Keith Kim. We'll see you next
week and have a blessed. One.

Speaker 4 (46:34):
Investment advisory service is offered through Guardian Well Strategies LLC.

Speaker 5 (46:38):
Haven Financial Group and Guardian Well Strategies LLC are not
affiliated companies, and investments involve risk, and, unless otherwise stated,
are not guaranteed.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
Please consult with the qualified financial advisor and or tax
professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein, and comments regarding
as safe and secure investments and guaranteed income streams only
refer to fixed insurance products, not refer in any way
to securities or investment advisory products.

Speaker 5 (47:03):
Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the
claims paying ability of the issuing company.