August 11, 2025 • 51 mins
wills, trusts, C-corps, legacy building
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Setting It Straight w/ Ms. Gray is broadcast live Mondays at 7PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Setting It Straight w/ Ms. Gray is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Setting It Straight w/ Ms. Gray Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
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make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or
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Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments
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(00:20):
choosing W four c Y Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I'm telling you that musical score just it just takes
you there. Man, I'm telling you, this boy is so creative.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
He just doesn't know, just doesn't know.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Good evening, and welcome to another segment of Setting it
Straight with Miss Gray and her fabulous co hosts. We
just thank you for tuning in tonight. Trey Tray, how
is it up there? What's the weather like? I see
the fans the wind blowing in your locks there, so
it must be really cool.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
No, the fan is blowing.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Actually got something going on with the AC unit, so okay, okay,
But that's okay, that's.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Okay, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's why we go get some fans and do a
surround sound on the fans.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You know fast, how are you doing?
Speaker 5 (02:02):
You great?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Golly, he's smiling for the reason. I've never seen this before. Okay,
we'll keep you right there. I keep it right there,
right there. Let's pray.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh my God, we just thank you and we praise you.
We give you glory, for you alone are worthy to
be praised.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Lord.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
We just thank you for this opportunity, Papa God, to
discuss this particular topic tonight for your people. Lord, we
will say, have a moment of silence for the fatal
shooting that occurred in Texas at the target.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
We will do that now.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And this goes for any and any other situation that's
going on, whether it's due to the weather or it's
due to just people actions and everything else. Lord, please
just forgive us, help us along this way, help us
along the way. We just love you so much. Now,
as always, we get behind the cross. This is your show,
this is your opportunity. You do what you do best,
(03:00):
and that set your captives free.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, as you all know, it is national make a
will month, and guess what we have a guest who
specializes in wills and all that good stuff and estate planning,
and so I hope that you go get grab a
paid piece of paper or grab a tablet and a pen,
because she's got some interesting things to say. I trust her,
(03:27):
she's my trust and will attorney.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
She's bad to the bone. Please help me.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Welcome Attorney Damaris Claude right here from the.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Sound thing going, so we can get the cock and
go and get it. Thank you so much for joining
us this evening. And you know, I'm gonna let you
do what you do.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You've got that knowledge, and these folks need to really
have a better understanding of the importance of having a will,
the importance of you know, having a state planning and
no matter you know who you're planning it for, uh,
and what the state would do with your stuff if
you don't have something written down, and things like that.
So I'm gonna mute myself and let you have at it.
(04:11):
Thank you so much, and welcome again. Appreciate this, Thank you,
thank you for having me. I appreciate it. My name
is Demarus Claude.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I'm the senior principal at Fusion Law Pier and Ada Avida, Florida.
I have been practicing for about twenty four years now
in this area, so I'm pretty well versed in most
areas of estate planning, probate, an elder law.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
But I'm just gonna keep.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
It interesting and try and hit some of the more
common mistakes that I see made by people who haven't
seen an attorney or you know, can't for whatever reason,
to maybe try and avoid those help help you all
avoid those mistakes. So I'll kind of start with what
(05:03):
I first do when when people come in, which is
talk to me about their current family status. Right, So
one of the first things I'm looking for in deciding,
you know, kind of what to advise you and what
you need is what your family looks like.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Whether you're you're married, whether.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
You're single, whether you're divorced, whether you have kids from
a previous marriage and this is a second marriage, you know,
if you have a child with disabilities. All of those
things are minor children, All of those things are things
that really will impact my advice to you. So this
is gonna be very general kind of explanations.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And then the.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
Next thing we kind of talk about is, uh, you know,
whether you have real estate, whether you have a homestead,
whether it's homestead in the state of Florida, because that,
you know, my advice then also change depending on what
types of what the character of your assets are, whether
they're you know, real estate, whether it's cash accounts.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
That also makes an impact.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
And of course the amount what you what you have
is important for.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
A state estate tax purposes.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
Florida doesn't have estate taxes, but federal estate taxes are
still you know, uh in effect.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
So I think the.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
Federal estate tax cap is upwards of twelve thirteen million
right now. So if you're under that, you're probably okay.
But if you win the lottery, we need to we
need to see right away. So the next thing we
kind of talk about aside from the character of the assets,
and you know, I'm going to ask you about your iras,
(06:49):
your bank accounts, so you should have a general knowledge.
And if you're married, this is one of the one
of the things that I see people doing a lot
is that one spouse is completely in charge of all
of the financial stuff. So there's one spouse that pays
the bills and you know, knows what the debts are,
knows what the assets are, and the other spouse is
(07:12):
kind of in the dark because you know, you have
one that kind of does that, that's their job, and
then something happens to that spouse that's paying the bills,
that's doing all the financial stuff, and then you suddenly
have the other the surviving spouse that's like, what do
I do? I even know where to start. I don't
know what we have, you know, so you know, that's
one thing I would recommend is if you are the
(07:32):
spouse that is kind of taking care of everything financially,
make sure that your you know, your spouse has a
general knowledge of what you have, where it is, who
to talk to if they need to, you know, call
uh like a financial institution. Those are all things that
definitely I see people not doing. So that's the first
(07:55):
piece of advice there. So after we look at kind
of the assets. Reason I'm looking at the assets not
so much for the monetary value, because I'm gonna ask
you very generally you have over twelve million, and then
we'll talk about taxes, but I'm not looking for the
amount really at that point. I'm looking to see what
assets we can put beneficiaries on is primary usually, and
(08:19):
the reason for that is if you own something jointly
in the state of Florida, if you own something jointly
with another person, or you have a beneficiary designation like
a POD, like a pay on death at the bank
or a transfer on death, if you have either of
those things upon the death, upon your death, it's going
to go to the beneficiary that you named or the
(08:41):
joint account holder, as the case may be. So if
what happens if you don't have those though, and this
is what this is where we get into the complex
things that you can really be avoiding on your own
before you even come to see us, and that is
you avoid probate by having a joint account holder. And
I would also recommend also having a pay on death
(09:03):
or a POD beneficiary designation every asset you have, even
real estate. You can put beneficiaries on real estate. There's
a number of ways to do that. You definitely see
in a state planning attorney for more information. But in
the state of Florida, there's no absolutely no reason that
you should have assets going through probate if you plan properly.
(09:24):
So that's number one. So if you can't trust her,
you don't need to trust. Number one, put beneficiary designations
on everything. Life insurance is one of the biggest things
that people miss designating and if your spouse dies, remember
you had to redo those right because you're going to
(09:45):
have your spouse as the primary and they're gone. So
you want to make sure that your beneficiary designations are
always up to date. And another reason for that is
and what a lot of people don't know is they
make a will and they think, okay, well my asset,
they are going to go according to what I've what
I've said in this will. Well, what they don't know
is in Florida, the beneficiary designations and joint account.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Ownership trumps the will.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
So if you have you know this twenty five twenty five,
twenty five to everybody, but you only put you know,
one daughter as a joint account holder with you, guess
who's getting all the money in that account and then
people get very upset. So, you know, just be very
careful if if you have a specific estate plan you
have certain beneficiaries, make sure those are the same beneficiaries
(10:35):
you have named as pay on death or joint account holders,
which I don't recommend for other reasons, but we'll get
into that. So you know, the three things I'm kind
of looking for when I'm asking questions at our initial
meeting is whether you have probate assets, and then we're
going to talk about how to fix those.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Most of it you can do on your own.
Speaker 6 (10:57):
And the second thing I look for is whether there
are any special needs. So if you have minor children,
we're going to start talking about, you know, children's trusts.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
If you have a child that's.
Speaker 6 (11:09):
Disabled or a relative that's disabled that's a beneficiary, We're
going to start talking about special needs trusts. So you know,
it's very dependent on that, you know, what the character
of your family is there. And then the third thing
I'm gonna you know, be thinking about is taxes. But
again these days, it's very rare that I have a
client that needs it's you know, federal estate tax planning.
(11:32):
It just doesn't happen. And again, Florida doesn't have a
state taxes. So next, the next biggest mistake I see
people make is with their real estate, with their homestead
property in Florida. So homestead property is absolutely protected in
Florida from creditors. Right, So if you have homestead in
(11:55):
the state of Florida and you get sued nine times
out of time, there's no way they can get to
your house. And my first answer when a client calls
me and says, hey, can this creditor get No, they can't.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
They can't. They cannot touch your house. They can't touch
your homestead.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
If it's a rental property, if it's a second home, yeah,
my advice is going to change. But if it is
homestead property in the state of Florida, and that is
why it is so important to be very very careful
of what you do with it, and you should always
talk to an attorney before you.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Do anything with homestead.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
I've seen so many huge litigated issues from people just
like doing a deed wrong. You know, something as simple
as just not signing it properly and everything's messed up,
Just go see a lawyer. It's not the cost you're
going to pay them to do it right. If you
(12:48):
mess it up, it's going to be ten times that.
So make sure that anything dealing with real estate you
go to see an attorney before you try and DIY
with that said, one of the guess mistakes I see
people make from the d i Y is they think
that by putting their children on the deed, they are
(13:09):
doing something good to avoid probate to you know, I
don't know what what what they're thinking.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
What this does is a few things.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
One, it's not your children's homestead generally, right, So what
happens if they get sued and their name is now
on your house, Well, now you've just opened your house
up to their creditors. So if they get sued, you're
getting sued and they're gonna they're gonna go after your house.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
So never do that.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
There's other ways to achieve that, just as simple that
don't include putting the kids directly on the house. Uh.
It also limits your ability to sell. Obviously, you have
to get their permission if you ever want to sell
it or refinance or whatever. So the other thing that
it does is they will get your tax basis and
(13:59):
the property when you put their house, when you put
their name on it before you pass, they're going to
get your tax basis. So let's say if you purchase
the thousand for one hundred thousand, at your death, it's
worth two hundred thousand, right normally if it just passed
by operation of law or other methods, they're going to
get the two hundred thousand dollars basis, which means when
(14:21):
they go to sell it, they're not going to have
capital gains to realize. Right when you put them on
the deed before you die, they're going to get your
basis of one hundred thousand. So then when you die
and the house is worth two hundred thousand, they're going
to have to realize some capital gains. So it has
tax implications. Just don't mess with real estate. If you
(14:41):
remember one thing from this, don't touch real estate without
a lawyer. We do have in Florida, and people you
know ask about this all the time because real estate
is very hard. They think is very hard to put
a beneficiary on, And we have in Florida, and I
think there are several other states that do now as well.
(15:03):
Enhance what we call enhanced life estate deeds, or most
people know them as ladybird deeds. That's a more common
common terminology. But these enhanced life estate deeds are meant
to one avoid probate and two make sure that the
(15:24):
children don't have to do anything other than record a
death certificate at the time of your death, well, whoever
your benefit is. All they would have to do is
record a death certificate in the clerk's office. And around
here it's about ten bucks and title is in their name,
so one simple deed, no probate. And the other benefit is,
of course they get the stepped up tax basis. So
(15:47):
they're going to get that two hundred thousand dollars basis
in the property upon your death.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Did you have a Yes, we have a few questions
and we're going to get to you. Guys, don't worry
about it. But I'm in a situation right now where
somebody has wrap their uh inherited property around in this
ladybird life estate thing. But she's got a lean on it.
It don't affect the lean, you know, and people need
to understand that. They think she thinks she's doing something
(16:13):
to protect but you're really not because you're really putting
your kids and then you put your children's names in
there and everything. There's still a lean on the property
and that lean will be settled satisfied first before anything.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So I just wanted to put that in there.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
But we do have a couple of questions, so we'll
just face some time towards the end.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Okay, thank you so much so.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
So the Lady birdies are a very very efficient way
to avoid probate without all of the negative consequences of
just putting somebody on the deed with you. And the
other good thing is you can still it's revocable, right,
so you put them on as beneficiaries, you get mad
at one of them, we're gonna take them right back off.
So if you the only the only caveat I would
(16:56):
say is that they if you have to refinance your house,
title companies don't really like them, so we kind of
undo it and then redo it after you refinance. But
that is really one of the only negatives we've found,
and we've been using them for many, many years, I
think since two thousand and six, two and seven, so
they've been pretty well tested in court.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
So definitely something I recommend.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
The other mistake I see made frequently is people lawyers
love to sell trusts. So there are a lot of
you know, I will say, you know, there are a
lot of valid reasons for a trust, and maybe some
attorneys just think, you know, everybody should have one, but
not one of them. So nine times out of ten
(17:42):
you'll come in and you'll be like, I want to trust,
and you'll leave and you don't have a trust, not
because I don't want to do a trust for you
or sell you a trust, but because you really don't
need one. So what I look for when I'm looking
at really whether to create whether we think we need
a trust, is again family situation, right, that's the most
(18:02):
important thing. If you have kids that have special needs
or beneficiary that has special needs. If you have some
tax issues, if we need to avoid income tax or
federal estate tax, we're going to talk about trust. If
you have property that is very hard to designate a
beneficiary on, again trust, you have kids from a previous marriage, trust,
(18:25):
So all of those things are things that I kind
of look at to determine whether or not you need
to trust. If it's just a very simple case where
husband and wife, you know, no significant income tax issues,
no significant estate tax issues, We're just going to do
very basic state planning. We're going to do a simple will,
a durable power of attorney, a living will, and a
(18:45):
health care surrogate. Those are the very basic four basic
estate planning documents everybody should have, at the very least,
the power of attorney being number. If you have to
do any one of those, the power attorney should be
the one you do. But in any case, I'm not
going to try and sell you a trust if you
don't need one. So those are those are kind of
(19:07):
the things I look for. All of the assets generally,
of like a husband and wife with let's say two kids,
all of the assets are usually jointly titled. The ones
that aren't usually the spouse is the primary beneficiary, and
you know, usually the pay on death are the kids.
So if we're kind of sticking with that, we want
everything fifty. You know, we want everything fifty to fifty
(19:28):
between the two kids. You know, the death of the
second to die. Well, it's going to be very very easy, right,
We're just going to create very very simple documents the will,
even though the beneficiaries, like I said, the beneficiaries trump
the will. The personal property and there are several other
things personal representative things that are covered in the will
(19:52):
that you will need. So if you want to have
the power to dictate what happens to your assets in
the event you don't have a beneficiary on them, a
lot of times we'll have litigation after you pass and
then we got a bunch of money where you wanted
to go. Do you want Florida to decide in the
statutes or do you want to decide, And that's why
(20:12):
we do our last will and testament.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
That's why it's so important.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
So going back to the documents, we were talking about
another issue. I see, the big issue, big mistake is
going to Office MAX or Office Depot and printing out
a power of attorney or a will or whatever, a
state planning document. I used to have a calculus teacher
(20:38):
in high school. He used to say garbage and we
used to have those graphic calculators used to say garbage in,
garbage out. And if you don't know what you're doing,
you're putting garbage in, You're gonna get garbage out. And
then the other thing is you don't know how to
sign right. We had a we had a whole class
in law school where the estate planning guy had a
skeleton and showed us how the witnesses had to look
(20:58):
at the test stator in order for the will to
be valid.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
It is very, very specific.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
In Florida, they just had a case where they said
the banker was witnessing and she walked away for a second.
Guess what invalidated the whole will. Just don't do a
will on your own. The powers of attorney also in Florida,
are very very specific, I think minor about forty pages long.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
So if you're spitting out a two.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
Page, three page power of attorney, it is not going
to work when you need it. And like I said,
that is the most important thing, because what happens if
you don't have.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
A power of attorney. We have to go through a
court appointed guardianship if you become incapacitated, which runs upwards
of fifteen thousand dollars. No one can do anything.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
For you if you're incapacitated and you don't have a
power of attorney, No one.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Not even your spouse.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
So I've had to tell and I've had to tell
a number of very you know, very sad cases where
I've had to tell spouses I'm sorry, but we need
to do a guardianship for your husband, for your wife
because we don't have a power of attorney. She didn't
do an advanced ere saying this is the person I
want in charge of my stuff. So that's why these
documents are so very important, because you know, it might
(22:09):
be a little bit expensive uptunt, but in the end
it is going to save you.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, So.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
I think that's I think I've touched on most of it.
Did I miss anything, Lisia, Well.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I think you know you hite it spot on.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I believe that you know everything. But Rebel, can you
pull up the questions real quick?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
We could do.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
This would be a good time for Q and A
because we had some folks. We've got viewership live all
over the place. Okay, is a will state specific? Is
a will state specific?
Speaker 4 (22:45):
That is a really good question.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
So if you do a will in a jurisdiction in
which you're domiciled in, So let's say you're in California,
you do a California will, and then you move to Florida,
Florida will recognize that will. I'd still recommend that you
have it reviewed by Florida attorney because we do have
like special requirements and we don't want have to jump
(23:08):
through hoops and get witnesses if you know, we don't
need to, so.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
I would definitely.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
But yes, wills that are created properly in another jurisdiction
are valid in Florida, and usually it's it's the other
way around as well. Florida has some of the most
strict requirements for witnessing and notorization, so usually they are
going to be accepted in other states.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Next, well, how can you keep things out of probate?
Speaker 6 (23:35):
So again there there are kind of a number of ways,
but really in Florida, joint joint ownership, beneficiary designations, and trusts,
those are kind of the three most common ways that
we keep things out of probate.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Gotcha, rebel.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
There was another question, if you're a signature on the
bank account, is that enough?
Speaker 4 (23:57):
No, that was a really good question.
Speaker 6 (23:59):
No, it is not enough being a signatory that ends
the minute the person passes. So what I typically recommend
my clients do if they want somebody on the account
for convenience purposes is we will submit the durable power
of attorney to the bank and they will put that
(24:21):
person on as the agent under the power of attorney.
That agency ends at death, which means they don't actually
get the account at death. The beneficiaries, whoever you have
us to pay on death beneficiaries will That way, you
can avoid that whole headache of having a kid on
the account just for convenience and then they end up
getting it all, you know if you die.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Well, that's what happened with side chick number four of
my now deceased husband. She convinced him to along with
his son and some other people, to have her being
this power of attorney, not knowing dumb, dumb and the
bank she walked in there. He passed away two thirty
in the morning. She walks into the bank at nine
(25:01):
o'clock with the power for Turney in her hand. She
clears out his account bank and I knew, and I
know the bank was on alert because when I was
made aware and walked in there, she closes the account,
which was great for us because guess what, he still
had six paychecks coming.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
And then what they came to us, hallelujah.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And I had to be on I'm on the phone
with the personnel department in New Jersey with the bank
manager and they're.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Like, oh my god, we're so sorry. Yeah. Yeah, I
could have owned the bank.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I could have owned the phone, but God said no,
stand down, stand down. And that little thing took out
one thousand and ninety eight dollars and thirty four per cents.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
So I told her his family go get that from her.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I'm sorry. Yeah, okay, if you have a trust and
the executor.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Is that a good start?
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Well, if you have a trust, I don't know if
you have a trust.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
So a trust is that document that kind of sets
forth what's going to happen to the assets in it
once you pass right. And then an executor and we
call it a personal representative here in Florida executors up north,
but the executors the person that is the fiduciary under
the will. So if the if you had probate assets,
(26:22):
the executor would be or the personal representative would be
the person that went to court that you know, put
the petition to the judge that does all that kind
of work, meets with the attorney. So yeah, if you
have a will and and a trust, that's a that's
a good start. If they were you know, validly executed
and and another big estate planning mistake funded right funding
(26:45):
you can't. Attorneys will send you out the door with
a beautiful trust, a beautiful trust that covers everything. And
guess what, I'll be back with the kids two years later,
three years later, and I'll be like, what's in the trust?
What do you mean?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
What's in the trust? Nothing? Nothing?
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Well, well, you have to fund it. You've got to
put the stuff in the trust. You have to fill
out those beneficiary designations. Put the trust is beneficiary. There's
stuff to do. You can't just sign the trust and go, oh,
got a trust. So if it was validly executed and
it was funded properly.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
And you have your will, yeah you should. That should
be a good start.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Do we have any other questions rebel out there yet? Okay,
thank you, Charles. What about businesses? Does this information apply
as well? Again, if you have a business, I presume
these means he means that because like I have a building,
but my building is designated as a nonprofit, so I
cannot that's a whole set of rules.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
I cannot, you know, will that to anybody?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I have to close that business a whole lot of
it's a whole different step. But go ahead, well, for
profit business or yeah, I would think that's what he's
talking about.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
So, yeah, it totally depends on the character of the business,
what type of business it is. So there are different
methods for making sure that a business does.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Not go through pro bit That can go through probate.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
But you know, if you have an operating agreement, a
shareholders agreement, those are real good places to start with that,
because that's where it would say, what would happen to
the business, you know, if something were to happen to you?
Speaker 4 (28:15):
So yeah, same principle.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
And what's the difference between probate and succession?
Speaker 6 (28:20):
So we don't we don't really use succession here in Florida.
So probate is the court process by which assets of
a decedent that don't have anyone else owning them, that
don't have a beneficiary, where they're transferred to, uh, depending
on whether you have a will or not, either the
(28:42):
airs if you don't have a will, or the beneficiaries
of the will if you do have a will.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
So you know, I.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Would assume succession is the same maybe in a in
a different jurisdiction, but here here it's just probate.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Got you?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
And I want to say this, Okay, hang on, Charles, please,
you have bank accounts, you have your kids bank accounts.
Put a beneficiary on the back end of that thing. Okay,
name somebody that this can go to. I've missed out
on two aunts because they didn't have a will. They
didn't put me on the thing. My aunt said, Lisa,
you're going to get everything I got nothing because my
(29:18):
name was nowhere on any especially the bank. It was
not there, and I took it to the bank all
the time, but it didn't matter. You know, it's all
about what HRS used to say, now DC, yup. If
it's not in writing, it don't exist. You can have
all these great plans in your head. That's where they
stay in your head.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
And yeah, thinking of it, and you just brought a
great point out and that again, that goes hand in
hand with the knowing the spouse knowing kind of what
you have. Make sure you keep some statements from you know,
all the accounts so your kids don't have to dig
through your mail, which is like ninety nine percent of time.
That's what they've got to do is dig through the
(29:56):
mail and find you know, what you had, and that's
not fair. They're already grieving, So have things prepared. That's
that's a big thing.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Thank you, Charles. What was your question?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Would it not be better to put the assets in
Would it not be better to put the assets in
a trust?
Speaker 6 (30:11):
Again, it depends on you know what your specific circumstances are,
so you know, trust to avoid probate. So if you
put your assets into a trust, that's going to avoid probate.
So are beneficiary designations they avoid probate as well. Trusts
also have you know, high administrative is you know issues,
You have to have a trustee, you have to file
(30:33):
a notice of trust with the court when you die,
you have to get as a tax ID number for
the trust. It is administratively, you know, kind of a nightmare.
So those are the kind of things you have to
think about there. You know, it might be easy for you,
but is it going to be easy for the kids
to navigate, especially if you don't have like a significant
amount of assets that make it worth while. You know,
(30:57):
you know, a trust is probably not gonna not gonna
work work again unless you have those family situations that
we talked about.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
How often should you update your will? Thank you Mickey.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
So I tell my clients, you know, when there's a
family change. So when there's a change, come in and
see me. If somebody passes. But normally built into the
will as a series of like succession, you know, contingencies.
So normally you know, we're going to say all to
the spouse if living. If not living, then it's going
(31:28):
to go the two kids in equal shares. If one
of them is we You know, lawyers are always about contingencies,
so we have like a million of them in there.
So normally, unless we run out of people or you
want to change a personal representative or executor, we're going
to tell you if the law changes. But they don't
change it very frequently. As it relates to wills, powers
attorney every five years.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Okay, do wills have to be registered somewhere.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
So while you're living.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
No, while you're living, the original is very import orton
because if you lose it, it's presumed you intended to
destroy it. So I always usually advise my clients to
leave it with me. But yeah, no, there's I'm sorry,
what was the question again.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
I just just forgot it right after death, I'm sorry.
After death they do.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
They're depositive with the court in which the decedent was
domiciled at the time of their death. It's six or
seven dollars, depending on the county. And then they just
even if there's no probate, they are deposited and it's
supposed to be within ten days of the date that
the person holding the will was notified.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
What if the will is just handwritten, not notarized, A witness.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Okay, now we talking about to read the Franklin. Franklin.
They found five different wills. There was one that was
in the couch.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
There's one in the couch.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Under the couch the legal pad.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I mean Jesus, and please help us all yeah, all right,
James Brown, all those.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Folks, okay, please please to answer that law. I have mercy.
Speaker 6 (33:02):
Please, So Florida, No, that is going to be an
invalid a completely invalid will. Handwritten wills or you know,
we call them holographic wills, and they are not admissible
in the state of Florida, so especially the witnesses and
the notary.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
And that's like the most important.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Amen, thank you, thank you for making that because they
still I don't think they've set a little Rita's real yet. Yeah,
and they're not going to because it's all over the place.
And please don't do that to your family, okay, and
be careful who you designate, you know, even giving fifty
percent to I want to go back to something real quickly.
(33:45):
When I used to as I did therapy, and I
would have mainly my disabled neurologically disabled as a client,
and the parent, the aging parent would come in and
They're like, well, if anything happens to me and my husband,
you know, he's got a brother, he's got a sister.
They're gonna take care of him. I said, no, no,
I think you need to have a conversation with them.
(34:06):
And I would have them if they were just adamant.
Oh no, he's gonna you know, Billy's gonna take care
of his brother. I'm like, okay, let's bring Billy into
the next session. I want to talk to him and stuff.
And it never fails. I said, so, Billy, what do
you He's a senior in high school and I'm like, so,
what are your plans for your future?
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I'm going away to college, far away. I'm like, oh,
here we go. I put the pen down there and
sit back. I said, Okay, here we go. And I
said so, I mean, but your mom, your dad is
expecting you to if something should happen to them, he said,
and if this kid said no, he needs they need
to get somebody else, because Jimmy gets all the attention.
I said, oh, here we go, Here we go, and
(34:46):
he needs all the attention, so why should I No,
I'm going far away. I'm not even coming back for Thanksgiving.
I'll come back for Christmas, but I'm not even coming
back to the parents sitting there. I've had a few
parents that were disillusioned and they're like they couldn't believe
what they were hearing.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
So I said, can you repeat that again?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
But then I had some this, and then I would
say to them, what you're going to do about that?
You're going to need somebody else. And that's where mid
waiver came into play, you know, trying to help someone
you know, get the adult child out of the home,
get them in an apartment with a couple of other people,
and then a support coordinator, all that kind of stuff.
That's where all that came from. Yeah, I mean, it's
(35:22):
it's not instone.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
That you who you think is going to take care
of people will take care of it.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
It isn't.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
And that you definitely have to talk to, you know,
your agents before you name them as agents and ensure
that this is what they want to do. They see
that a lot sometimes, and especially with out of state children,
and so you really do have to think about that.
For for financial for the power of attorney, not such
(35:49):
a big deal.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
You can do it from anywhere. But with the healthcare surrogate.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
You know, it really does help to have somebody in
the state or nearby that can get to you quickly.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
What was it last question? Who should be able to
see the will? That's a good one. In a space,
that's a good one.
Speaker 6 (36:06):
So so typically typically it's everyone that's named in the will,
and the heirs at law can ask for a copy.
But will's are public record, so you can go to
the clerk and ask for a copy of the will,
certified copy of the will. Yeah, they're public record. They're
not like trust. Trust are not public record. But that's
(36:28):
another reason you might want to trust. If you want
to keep all your estate planning secret, that's a that's
another good way to do it.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
But yeah, you mean it.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
I could go to Palm Bay and go look up
pastor's will.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
No, you can't. They have to be to be dead.
That have to be dead.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That's the okayeah, okay, every tract that thank you forget
I said it.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
The one here. How would you know if it was
even had a ballot will question, mickey.
Speaker 6 (37:01):
So they they are required to be depositive with the
court within ten days of you know, it's within ten
days of finding out that they've passed. So yeah, the
person holding the will should have deposited it, so you
can check the clerk in the county in which they're
domiciled for a will if you are expecting them to
(37:21):
pass you know soon, and you know you're afraid your
your brother, your sister or your aunt might beat you
to the courthouse to you know, file their will. And
there's another if you think there's going to be any
problems that you might need to object to a probate
or a will, definitely file. Uh, well, go see an attorney.
But we can file what's called a caveat in advance
(37:42):
of death. And that way, when a probate does get filed,
they are they have to notify you and then you
have a chance to object.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
But you have to have standing.
Speaker 6 (37:53):
You have to be you know, an heir at law
or creditor have some kind of connection.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Got you to what time does a family member have
to question things after someone passes away? Misty, that's that's
that's a brabo real reality show.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Okay, there we go.
Speaker 6 (38:13):
So it and I'm going to use the default lawyer answer,
which is it depends, right, it depends on what what
you are to the decedent, So I mean, are you
a beneficiary in the will and you got served, then
the paperwork will tell you how long you have you know,
if you're served formally, sometimes it's twenty days. If you're
inform served informally it's four months. So you know, it
(38:34):
depends on that. If you're just an air at law,
you know you you you can pretty much object, you know,
during the probate proceeding.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
I don't know if you're going to object after something.
Speaker 6 (38:44):
I'd have to look up, but I've never had it
happen so, but normally during the probate proceeding is when
we would object.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Gotcha. I want to take a break. Here.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
You've seen on the ticker h https for slash twice.
Here we go lol dot dash Consultants dot com. That's
my web page and I would like to for everybody
just go on there and subscribe to it. It's free,
but that's where I can be keeping more up to
dated things. I know most of you all are waiting
for on us week the week some of you follow
(39:18):
us on Facebook, but definitely if you go in and
sign off on that sign up on that, you definitely
will be made aware of things. That's going on in
real time a little sooner than than the show.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
All right, co hosts your turn.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
You all have any questions for this fabulous lady and she's, oh,
you know, you know, well, I'll share.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
It with people, but you gotta pay. Got to pay
any questions pastor Well.
Speaker 5 (39:47):
You had touched on the the office depot, staples, POA
and living trusts and all that, but what about the
online services like legals or living or wills or living
(40:07):
wills dot com kind of issues like that where you
know they they'll charge you for it, So what would
be the differentiator there versus doing it yourself?
Speaker 6 (40:20):
That's it's actually the same, the same kind of method, right,
it's with legal zoom. It's kind of a fill in
the questions, Right, you pick your thing and then you
start filling it in. Well, you pick the rise. I
saw one from legal Zoom. They left out the residuary clause,
the entire residuary. That's like the point of making a will,
so you know, if you don't know what it means
(40:42):
and you're trying to fill.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
It out, it's it's going to be wrong.
Speaker 6 (40:46):
And again the execution part, executing the document, that's where
a lot of them are completely invalidated, not even a part.
If you sign it wrong it can be can be valid.
The whole thing's tossed. So so it's just to me,
it's just such a big thing to play with on
your own. You know, it's just worth it for the
(41:10):
for the peace of mind.
Speaker 5 (41:12):
I also I also do life I'm also in a
license insurance agent as well. And one of the things
that we've always had to ask is if they want
contingent beneficiaries or another term that's used as per sturpees,
And many people don't understand what per sturpies means, and
(41:36):
it means that if the beneficiary passes, then the children
get the their portion of the inheritance. So that should
also be something into consideration when when you're doing a
life insurance, how do you want to balance out the beneficiaries,
Because if you do a contingency and the beneficiary passes,
(41:59):
nothing thing happened, nothing is given to their children. So
that's why it's some that's why these types of plannings
are so essential that you speak with someone who understand
the repercussions afterwards, because when as you touched on Demarus,
(42:21):
that that that those those clauses are so key that
you're not thinking straight because the loved one passed away.
I can speak from experience, because my mother sat my
brother and I down and uh made our favorite meal
and told us that they played they paid for all
(42:43):
the funeral arrangements, and uh we laughed and we got
beaten up for it because we told them that we're
going to be living forever. But the day came, they
came where I was in the middle of a divorce.
My my brother had filed bankruptcy and we wouldn't have
had the funds. So estate planning is always good. And
(43:05):
I'm going to do a cheap plug here for you
tomorrows that it's always good to speak to someone who
really understands what's happening and is able to see beyond.
And that is always essential because if that individual can
see beyond, they're helping you avoid those potholes that you
(43:28):
may not be aware of.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Amen, And she does just that. She does this, just that.
I am a stickler for if you know more than me,
you take the floor. I will sit here. You tell
me what I need to do, and I give you
that authority. I give you that permission. She she's a
social worker deep down too. She won't say that, but
she really, but you know it's it's we'll get with it.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Here go missy. She yeah, she's one of a kind.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Some lawyers are in a rush and you know they
got no she's she's when she told you in the beginning,
I'm gonna be asking you these questions. I need to
know what your family character looks like. I need to
know what is it that you really want to do.
And she has to get into your business. She has
to get in there so she can give you the
right product done done. So yeah, thank you, pastor. You
(44:22):
know I double a second that. You know, you got
to get somebody that you can trust. And I mean
this is huge. She she she got she's she's got
the a knowledge, she's got your information, and she knows
what's best for you.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
That's why I could call on her, and you know,
I gotta get to her.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
But I get to her and say, hey, you know
everybody's talking about, you know, the Sea Corp thing. I know,
if we got a couple of minutes here, the Sea
corpor If you gotta trust, you got to put it
in the Sea Corp. And then you got to do this,
and you're adding these layers. And I'm like, okay, I
know where my culture is getting that from, because they're
saying the elite, the wealthy folks do that, and so
(44:58):
somebody leaked it and they got started getting so all
of a sudden, now on the reels on Facebook, Oh
you got to have a sea court, you got to
have a seat court.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
And I'm like, eh, and so what did I do?
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Make an appointment, got a consultant, I have a own retainer.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
I really don't.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
But anyway, and I didn't and I didn't make you
spend money.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
You didn't. I drove all the way over there. She said,
what are you doing? So can you?
Speaker 2 (45:22):
I mean, I know that's not your area of specialty,
but you knew enough to calm me down.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
So so what would your cake on that be?
Speaker 6 (45:30):
Well, so a lot of people, and you're not the
you're not the only one. You're not alone. I get
this a lot where you know, they heard that if
they use this kind of trust or they do this,
you know this special kind of you know, this one
owns this and we're going to get some tax breaks.
And nine times out of ten, one the advice is wrong.
(45:51):
Because it's from the internet, and then or two it's
it's meant for a different you know, a different people
with different levels of wealth for instance, or different like
the character of the assets is different. So everything is
a case by case basis. But a lot of those
(46:12):
very complex things can can really be simplified if you
go to a good attorney so and and simplify all
the headaches you're gonna have in the future too. But yeah,
you know, a lot of times in LLC is is
uh the easiest and and uh cheapest way to go,
and it's going to accomplish what your goals most of
(46:33):
the time, you know, if we're talking you know, uh
tax strategies or you have other income, maybe you know
we we do something different. But for most people, most
of my clients, LLC is what what they end up
going with.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
What was that last question? Hang on, I have a past. Okay,
oh okay, hang on, just a quick second. What was
that last question? Rebel?
Speaker 4 (46:58):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (46:58):
So the assets?
Speaker 2 (46:59):
I think what about oh no, what's the difference between no, no,
go all the way to the end. So I think
it was misty they said something. Okay, Well, if we
can't find that, that's Okay, we did we did that.
What is it written with? You know?
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Baalid?
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Okay, no, you know it's talking about how would you
know if no one's talking about at the assets? How
would you know if no one is talking about the asset?
Speaker 3 (47:20):
Oh, they talking about them? What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (47:25):
How would you know the anybody's talking about assets? Well,
the probabary people should be talking about assets. If I
don't get if it's figurines in the house or you know,
what counts as assets?
Speaker 4 (47:37):
What counts?
Speaker 3 (47:38):
Okay, yeah, there we go.
Speaker 6 (47:40):
Every you know, pretty much everything that you pass away
with is gonna count as an asset.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
What counts as a.
Speaker 6 (47:45):
Probate asset are assets that do not have a beneficiary
and do not have a joint account holder.
Speaker 4 (47:51):
Those assets go through probate.
Speaker 6 (47:53):
The other the other thing is, and what people don't
understand is that when you put beneficiaries on things, or
when you're own things with another person, when you pass,
if you have creditors, they go away very very unhappy.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
So, uh, they.
Speaker 6 (48:09):
Don't have anything to claim to put a claim against.
There's no probate, So they can't file a claim against
probate assets because there's no probate assets. They all went
to beneficiary. So that's another good reason. You have a
huge credit card bill and you pass. No one's inheriting
that bill. It's going away if you don't have a probate.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
Okay, real quick.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Louisiana has different law than the rest of the country.
Advice for anyone in that state who may have lost.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
A loved one, we have that one.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (48:39):
Definitely say, you know, go see an attorney. Even if
all you do is get a consult Generally the consoles
under five hundred bucks, and you're gonna get so much information,
at least a basic understanding of how probate works and
what your rights are as a beneficiary or you know,
whatever relationship you have. But that that's what I would say,
(49:01):
is just go go see a lawyer. It's not scary.
Most of us are very nice. So you know, just
make make an apavement. You can't even do it online,
but get a good one, you know, don't don't just
you know, scroll through Google, not get a referral.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
Yeah, I tried to get some attorney in real estate
attorneys and I went through this whole thing and I
asked for a consultation.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
No one's responded back. So it's an empty hole. Pastor.
I know you have something real quick you want to
add real quickly. What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Oh yeah, okay, very good. All right, Attorney Claud, thank
you so much. And now you're gonna get some calls.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
You're gonna get some calls. Hey, I heard that you've
said on the show.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
You know, but praise God with that, and thank you
so much for being that extended family for me when
you know, with my situation and everything else.
Speaker 3 (49:51):
And really you just don't know what it means to me.
Being a child.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Pressport doesn't make your beneficiary, no, unless you've listed as that.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Unlest somebody put your name down as a beneficiary.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
Don't have to be in the will.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Man got to be in the will. All right.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
That's it. That's it for us. We're gonna see you
next week, same time, same stations. Stay safe, night night,
Thank you, Attorney Cloud. This is
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choosing W four c Y Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I'm telling you that musical score just it just takes
you there. Man, I'm telling you, this boy is so creative.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
He just doesn't know, just doesn't know.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Good evening, and welcome to another segment of Setting it
Straight with Miss Gray and her fabulous co hosts. We
just thank you for tuning in tonight. Trey Tray, how
is it up there? What's the weather like? I see
the fans the wind blowing in your locks there, so
it must be really cool.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
No, the fan is blowing.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Actually got something going on with the AC unit, so okay, okay,
But that's okay, that's.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Okay, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's why we go get some fans and do a
surround sound on the fans.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You know fast, how are you doing?
Speaker 5 (02:02):
You great?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Golly, he's smiling for the reason. I've never seen this before. Okay,
we'll keep you right there. I keep it right there,
right there. Let's pray.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh my God, we just thank you and we praise you.
We give you glory, for you alone are worthy to
be praised.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Lord.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
We just thank you for this opportunity, Papa God, to
discuss this particular topic tonight for your people. Lord, we
will say, have a moment of silence for the fatal
shooting that occurred in Texas at the target.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
We will do that now.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And this goes for any and any other situation that's
going on, whether it's due to the weather or it's
due to just people actions and everything else. Lord, please
just forgive us, help us along this way, help us
along the way. We just love you so much. Now,
as always, we get behind the cross. This is your show,
this is your opportunity. You do what you do best,
(03:00):
and that set your captives free.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, as you all know, it is national make a
will month, and guess what we have a guest who
specializes in wills and all that good stuff and estate planning,
and so I hope that you go get grab a
paid piece of paper or grab a tablet and a pen,
because she's got some interesting things to say. I trust her,
(03:27):
she's my trust and will attorney.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
She's bad to the bone. Please help me.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Welcome Attorney Damaris Claude right here from the.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Sound thing going, so we can get the cock and
go and get it. Thank you so much for joining
us this evening. And you know, I'm gonna let you
do what you do.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You've got that knowledge, and these folks need to really
have a better understanding of the importance of having a will,
the importance of you know, having a state planning and
no matter you know who you're planning it for, uh,
and what the state would do with your stuff if
you don't have something written down, and things like that.
So I'm gonna mute myself and let you have at it.
(04:11):
Thank you so much, and welcome again. Appreciate this, Thank you,
thank you for having me. I appreciate it. My name
is Demarus Claude.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I'm the senior principal at Fusion Law Pier and Ada Avida, Florida.
I have been practicing for about twenty four years now
in this area, so I'm pretty well versed in most
areas of estate planning, probate, an elder law.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
But I'm just gonna keep.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
It interesting and try and hit some of the more
common mistakes that I see made by people who haven't
seen an attorney or you know, can't for whatever reason,
to maybe try and avoid those help help you all
avoid those mistakes. So I'll kind of start with what
(05:03):
I first do when when people come in, which is
talk to me about their current family status. Right, So
one of the first things I'm looking for in deciding,
you know, kind of what to advise you and what
you need is what your family looks like.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Whether you're you're married, whether.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
You're single, whether you're divorced, whether you have kids from
a previous marriage and this is a second marriage, you know,
if you have a child with disabilities. All of those
things are minor children, All of those things are things
that really will impact my advice to you. So this
is gonna be very general kind of explanations.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And then the.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
Next thing we kind of talk about is, uh, you know,
whether you have real estate, whether you have a homestead,
whether it's homestead in the state of Florida, because that,
you know, my advice then also change depending on what
types of what the character of your assets are, whether
they're you know, real estate, whether it's cash accounts.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
That also makes an impact.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
And of course the amount what you what you have
is important for.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
A state estate tax purposes.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
Florida doesn't have estate taxes, but federal estate taxes are
still you know, uh in effect.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
So I think the.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
Federal estate tax cap is upwards of twelve thirteen million
right now. So if you're under that, you're probably okay.
But if you win the lottery, we need to we
need to see right away. So the next thing we
kind of talk about aside from the character of the assets,
and you know, I'm going to ask you about your iras,
(06:49):
your bank accounts, so you should have a general knowledge.
And if you're married, this is one of the one
of the things that I see people doing a lot
is that one spouse is completely in charge of all
of the financial stuff. So there's one spouse that pays
the bills and you know, knows what the debts are,
knows what the assets are, and the other spouse is
(07:12):
kind of in the dark because you know, you have
one that kind of does that, that's their job, and
then something happens to that spouse that's paying the bills,
that's doing all the financial stuff, and then you suddenly
have the other the surviving spouse that's like, what do
I do? I even know where to start. I don't
know what we have, you know, so you know, that's
one thing I would recommend is if you are the
(07:32):
spouse that is kind of taking care of everything financially,
make sure that your you know, your spouse has a
general knowledge of what you have, where it is, who
to talk to if they need to, you know, call
uh like a financial institution. Those are all things that
definitely I see people not doing. So that's the first
(07:55):
piece of advice there. So after we look at kind
of the assets. Reason I'm looking at the assets not
so much for the monetary value, because I'm gonna ask
you very generally you have over twelve million, and then
we'll talk about taxes, but I'm not looking for the
amount really at that point. I'm looking to see what
assets we can put beneficiaries on is primary usually, and
(08:19):
the reason for that is if you own something jointly
in the state of Florida, if you own something jointly
with another person, or you have a beneficiary designation like
a POD, like a pay on death at the bank
or a transfer on death, if you have either of
those things upon the death, upon your death, it's going
to go to the beneficiary that you named or the
(08:41):
joint account holder, as the case may be. So if
what happens if you don't have those though, and this
is what this is where we get into the complex
things that you can really be avoiding on your own
before you even come to see us, and that is
you avoid probate by having a joint account holder. And
I would also recommend also having a pay on death
(09:03):
or a POD beneficiary designation every asset you have, even
real estate. You can put beneficiaries on real estate. There's
a number of ways to do that. You definitely see
in a state planning attorney for more information. But in
the state of Florida, there's no absolutely no reason that
you should have assets going through probate if you plan properly.
(09:24):
So that's number one. So if you can't trust her,
you don't need to trust. Number one, put beneficiary designations
on everything. Life insurance is one of the biggest things
that people miss designating and if your spouse dies, remember
you had to redo those right because you're going to
(09:45):
have your spouse as the primary and they're gone. So
you want to make sure that your beneficiary designations are
always up to date. And another reason for that is
and what a lot of people don't know is they
make a will and they think, okay, well my asset,
they are going to go according to what I've what
I've said in this will. Well, what they don't know
is in Florida, the beneficiary designations and joint account.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Ownership trumps the will.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
So if you have you know this twenty five twenty five,
twenty five to everybody, but you only put you know,
one daughter as a joint account holder with you, guess
who's getting all the money in that account and then
people get very upset. So, you know, just be very
careful if if you have a specific estate plan you
have certain beneficiaries, make sure those are the same beneficiaries
(10:35):
you have named as pay on death or joint account holders,
which I don't recommend for other reasons, but we'll get
into that. So you know, the three things I'm kind
of looking for when I'm asking questions at our initial
meeting is whether you have probate assets, and then we're
going to talk about how to fix those.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Most of it you can do on your own.
Speaker 6 (10:57):
And the second thing I look for is whether there
are any special needs. So if you have minor children,
we're going to start talking about, you know, children's trusts.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
If you have a child that's.
Speaker 6 (11:09):
Disabled or a relative that's disabled that's a beneficiary, We're
going to start talking about special needs trusts. So you know,
it's very dependent on that, you know, what the character
of your family is there. And then the third thing
I'm gonna you know, be thinking about is taxes. But
again these days, it's very rare that I have a
client that needs it's you know, federal estate tax planning.
(11:32):
It just doesn't happen. And again, Florida doesn't have a
state taxes. So next, the next biggest mistake I see
people make is with their real estate, with their homestead
property in Florida. So homestead property is absolutely protected in
Florida from creditors. Right, So if you have homestead in
(11:55):
the state of Florida and you get sued nine times
out of time, there's no way they can get to
your house. And my first answer when a client calls
me and says, hey, can this creditor get No, they can't.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
They can't. They cannot touch your house. They can't touch
your homestead.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
If it's a rental property, if it's a second home, yeah,
my advice is going to change. But if it is
homestead property in the state of Florida, and that is
why it is so important to be very very careful
of what you do with it, and you should always
talk to an attorney before you.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Do anything with homestead.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
I've seen so many huge litigated issues from people just
like doing a deed wrong. You know, something as simple
as just not signing it properly and everything's messed up,
Just go see a lawyer. It's not the cost you're
going to pay them to do it right. If you
(12:48):
mess it up, it's going to be ten times that.
So make sure that anything dealing with real estate you
go to see an attorney before you try and DIY
with that said, one of the guess mistakes I see
people make from the d i Y is they think
that by putting their children on the deed, they are
(13:09):
doing something good to avoid probate to you know, I
don't know what what what they're thinking.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
What this does is a few things.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
One, it's not your children's homestead generally, right, So what
happens if they get sued and their name is now
on your house, Well, now you've just opened your house
up to their creditors. So if they get sued, you're
getting sued and they're gonna they're gonna go after your house.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
So never do that.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
There's other ways to achieve that, just as simple that
don't include putting the kids directly on the house. Uh.
It also limits your ability to sell. Obviously, you have
to get their permission if you ever want to sell
it or refinance or whatever. So the other thing that
it does is they will get your tax basis and
(13:59):
the property when you put their house, when you put
their name on it before you pass, they're going to
get your tax basis. So let's say if you purchase
the thousand for one hundred thousand, at your death, it's
worth two hundred thousand, right normally if it just passed
by operation of law or other methods, they're going to
get the two hundred thousand dollars basis, which means when
(14:21):
they go to sell it, they're not going to have
capital gains to realize. Right when you put them on
the deed before you die, they're going to get your
basis of one hundred thousand. So then when you die
and the house is worth two hundred thousand, they're going
to have to realize some capital gains. So it has
tax implications. Just don't mess with real estate. If you
(14:41):
remember one thing from this, don't touch real estate without
a lawyer. We do have in Florida, and people you
know ask about this all the time because real estate
is very hard. They think is very hard to put
a beneficiary on, And we have in Florida, and I
think there are several other states that do now as well.
(15:03):
Enhance what we call enhanced life estate deeds, or most
people know them as ladybird deeds. That's a more common
common terminology. But these enhanced life estate deeds are meant
to one avoid probate and two make sure that the
(15:24):
children don't have to do anything other than record a
death certificate at the time of your death, well, whoever
your benefit is. All they would have to do is
record a death certificate in the clerk's office. And around
here it's about ten bucks and title is in their name,
so one simple deed, no probate. And the other benefit is,
of course they get the stepped up tax basis. So
(15:47):
they're going to get that two hundred thousand dollars basis
in the property upon your death.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Did you have a Yes, we have a few questions
and we're going to get to you. Guys, don't worry
about it. But I'm in a situation right now where
somebody has wrap their uh inherited property around in this
ladybird life estate thing. But she's got a lean on it.
It don't affect the lean, you know, and people need
to understand that. They think she thinks she's doing something
(16:13):
to protect but you're really not because you're really putting
your kids and then you put your children's names in
there and everything. There's still a lean on the property
and that lean will be settled satisfied first before anything.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So I just wanted to put that in there.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
But we do have a couple of questions, so we'll
just face some time towards the end.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Okay, thank you so much so.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
So the Lady birdies are a very very efficient way
to avoid probate without all of the negative consequences of
just putting somebody on the deed with you. And the
other good thing is you can still it's revocable, right,
so you put them on as beneficiaries, you get mad
at one of them, we're gonna take them right back off.
So if you the only the only caveat I would
(16:56):
say is that they if you have to refinance your house,
title companies don't really like them, so we kind of
undo it and then redo it after you refinance. But
that is really one of the only negatives we've found,
and we've been using them for many, many years, I
think since two thousand and six, two and seven, so
they've been pretty well tested in court.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
So definitely something I recommend.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
The other mistake I see made frequently is people lawyers
love to sell trusts. So there are a lot of
you know, I will say, you know, there are a
lot of valid reasons for a trust, and maybe some
attorneys just think, you know, everybody should have one, but
not one of them. So nine times out of ten
(17:42):
you'll come in and you'll be like, I want to trust,
and you'll leave and you don't have a trust, not
because I don't want to do a trust for you
or sell you a trust, but because you really don't
need one. So what I look for when I'm looking
at really whether to create whether we think we need
a trust, is again family situation, right, that's the most
(18:02):
important thing. If you have kids that have special needs
or beneficiary that has special needs. If you have some
tax issues, if we need to avoid income tax or
federal estate tax, we're going to talk about trust. If
you have property that is very hard to designate a
beneficiary on, again trust, you have kids from a previous marriage, trust,
(18:25):
So all of those things are things that I kind
of look at to determine whether or not you need
to trust. If it's just a very simple case where
husband and wife, you know, no significant income tax issues,
no significant estate tax issues, We're just going to do
very basic state planning. We're going to do a simple will,
a durable power of attorney, a living will, and a
(18:45):
health care surrogate. Those are the very basic four basic
estate planning documents everybody should have, at the very least,
the power of attorney being number. If you have to
do any one of those, the power attorney should be
the one you do. But in any case, I'm not
going to try and sell you a trust if you
don't need one. So those are those are kind of
(19:07):
the things I look for. All of the assets generally,
of like a husband and wife with let's say two kids,
all of the assets are usually jointly titled. The ones
that aren't usually the spouse is the primary beneficiary, and
you know, usually the pay on death are the kids.
So if we're kind of sticking with that, we want
everything fifty. You know, we want everything fifty to fifty
(19:28):
between the two kids. You know, the death of the
second to die. Well, it's going to be very very easy, right,
We're just going to create very very simple documents the will,
even though the beneficiaries, like I said, the beneficiaries trump
the will. The personal property and there are several other
things personal representative things that are covered in the will
(19:52):
that you will need. So if you want to have
the power to dictate what happens to your assets in
the event you don't have a beneficiary on them, a
lot of times we'll have litigation after you pass and
then we got a bunch of money where you wanted
to go. Do you want Florida to decide in the
statutes or do you want to decide, And that's why
(20:12):
we do our last will and testament.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
That's why it's so important.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
So going back to the documents, we were talking about
another issue. I see, the big issue, big mistake is
going to Office MAX or Office Depot and printing out
a power of attorney or a will or whatever, a
state planning document. I used to have a calculus teacher
(20:38):
in high school. He used to say garbage and we
used to have those graphic calculators used to say garbage in,
garbage out. And if you don't know what you're doing,
you're putting garbage in, You're gonna get garbage out. And
then the other thing is you don't know how to
sign right. We had a we had a whole class
in law school where the estate planning guy had a
skeleton and showed us how the witnesses had to look
(20:58):
at the test stator in order for the will to
be valid.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
It is very, very specific.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
In Florida, they just had a case where they said
the banker was witnessing and she walked away for a second.
Guess what invalidated the whole will. Just don't do a
will on your own. The powers of attorney also in Florida,
are very very specific, I think minor about forty pages long.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
So if you're spitting out a two.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
Page, three page power of attorney, it is not going
to work when you need it. And like I said,
that is the most important thing, because what happens if
you don't have.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
A power of attorney. We have to go through a
court appointed guardianship if you become incapacitated, which runs upwards
of fifteen thousand dollars. No one can do anything.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
For you if you're incapacitated and you don't have a
power of attorney, No one.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Not even your spouse.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
So I've had to tell and I've had to tell
a number of very you know, very sad cases where
I've had to tell spouses I'm sorry, but we need
to do a guardianship for your husband, for your wife
because we don't have a power of attorney. She didn't
do an advanced ere saying this is the person I
want in charge of my stuff. So that's why these
documents are so very important, because you know, it might
(22:09):
be a little bit expensive uptunt, but in the end
it is going to save you.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, So.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
I think that's I think I've touched on most of it.
Did I miss anything, Lisia, Well.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I think you know you hite it spot on.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I believe that you know everything. But Rebel, can you
pull up the questions real quick?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
We could do.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
This would be a good time for Q and A
because we had some folks. We've got viewership live all
over the place. Okay, is a will state specific? Is
a will state specific?
Speaker 4 (22:45):
That is a really good question.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
So if you do a will in a jurisdiction in
which you're domiciled in, So let's say you're in California,
you do a California will, and then you move to Florida,
Florida will recognize that will. I'd still recommend that you
have it reviewed by Florida attorney because we do have
like special requirements and we don't want have to jump
(23:08):
through hoops and get witnesses if you know, we don't
need to, so.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
I would definitely.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
But yes, wills that are created properly in another jurisdiction
are valid in Florida, and usually it's it's the other
way around as well. Florida has some of the most
strict requirements for witnessing and notorization, so usually they are
going to be accepted in other states.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Next, well, how can you keep things out of probate?
Speaker 6 (23:35):
So again there there are kind of a number of ways,
but really in Florida, joint joint ownership, beneficiary designations, and trusts,
those are kind of the three most common ways that
we keep things out of probate.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Gotcha, rebel.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
There was another question, if you're a signature on the
bank account, is that enough?
Speaker 4 (23:57):
No, that was a really good question.
Speaker 6 (23:59):
No, it is not enough being a signatory that ends
the minute the person passes. So what I typically recommend
my clients do if they want somebody on the account
for convenience purposes is we will submit the durable power
of attorney to the bank and they will put that
(24:21):
person on as the agent under the power of attorney.
That agency ends at death, which means they don't actually
get the account at death. The beneficiaries, whoever you have
us to pay on death beneficiaries will That way, you
can avoid that whole headache of having a kid on
the account just for convenience and then they end up
getting it all, you know if you die.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Well, that's what happened with side chick number four of
my now deceased husband. She convinced him to along with
his son and some other people, to have her being
this power of attorney, not knowing dumb, dumb and the
bank she walked in there. He passed away two thirty
in the morning. She walks into the bank at nine
(25:01):
o'clock with the power for Turney in her hand. She
clears out his account bank and I knew, and I
know the bank was on alert because when I was
made aware and walked in there, she closes the account,
which was great for us because guess what, he still
had six paychecks coming.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
And then what they came to us, hallelujah.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And I had to be on I'm on the phone
with the personnel department in New Jersey with the bank
manager and they're.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Like, oh my god, we're so sorry. Yeah. Yeah, I
could have owned the bank.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I could have owned the phone, but God said no,
stand down, stand down. And that little thing took out
one thousand and ninety eight dollars and thirty four per cents.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
So I told her his family go get that from her.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I'm sorry. Yeah, okay, if you have a trust and
the executor.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Is that a good start?
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Well, if you have a trust, I don't know if
you have a trust.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
So a trust is that document that kind of sets
forth what's going to happen to the assets in it
once you pass right. And then an executor and we
call it a personal representative here in Florida executors up north,
but the executors the person that is the fiduciary under
the will. So if the if you had probate assets,
(26:22):
the executor would be or the personal representative would be
the person that went to court that you know, put
the petition to the judge that does all that kind
of work, meets with the attorney. So yeah, if you
have a will and and a trust, that's a that's
a good start. If they were you know, validly executed
and and another big estate planning mistake funded right funding
(26:45):
you can't. Attorneys will send you out the door with
a beautiful trust, a beautiful trust that covers everything. And
guess what, I'll be back with the kids two years later,
three years later, and I'll be like, what's in the trust?
What do you mean?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
What's in the trust? Nothing? Nothing?
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Well, well, you have to fund it. You've got to
put the stuff in the trust. You have to fill
out those beneficiary designations. Put the trust is beneficiary. There's
stuff to do. You can't just sign the trust and go, oh,
got a trust. So if it was validly executed and
it was funded properly.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
And you have your will, yeah you should. That should
be a good start.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Do we have any other questions rebel out there yet? Okay,
thank you, Charles. What about businesses? Does this information apply
as well? Again, if you have a business, I presume
these means he means that because like I have a building,
but my building is designated as a nonprofit, so I
cannot that's a whole set of rules.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
I cannot, you know, will that to anybody?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I have to close that business a whole lot of
it's a whole different step. But go ahead, well, for
profit business or yeah, I would think that's what he's
talking about.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
So, yeah, it totally depends on the character of the business,
what type of business it is. So there are different
methods for making sure that a business does.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Not go through pro bit That can go through probate.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
But you know, if you have an operating agreement, a
shareholders agreement, those are real good places to start with that,
because that's where it would say, what would happen to
the business, you know, if something were to happen to you?
Speaker 4 (28:15):
So yeah, same principle.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
And what's the difference between probate and succession?
Speaker 6 (28:20):
So we don't we don't really use succession here in Florida.
So probate is the court process by which assets of
a decedent that don't have anyone else owning them, that
don't have a beneficiary, where they're transferred to, uh, depending
on whether you have a will or not, either the
(28:42):
airs if you don't have a will, or the beneficiaries
of the will if you do have a will.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
So you know, I.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Would assume succession is the same maybe in a in
a different jurisdiction, but here here it's just probate.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Got you?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
And I want to say this, Okay, hang on, Charles, please,
you have bank accounts, you have your kids bank accounts.
Put a beneficiary on the back end of that thing. Okay,
name somebody that this can go to. I've missed out
on two aunts because they didn't have a will. They
didn't put me on the thing. My aunt said, Lisa,
you're going to get everything I got nothing because my
(29:18):
name was nowhere on any especially the bank. It was
not there, and I took it to the bank all
the time, but it didn't matter. You know, it's all
about what HRS used to say, now DC, yup. If
it's not in writing, it don't exist. You can have
all these great plans in your head. That's where they
stay in your head.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
And yeah, thinking of it, and you just brought a
great point out and that again, that goes hand in
hand with the knowing the spouse knowing kind of what
you have. Make sure you keep some statements from you know,
all the accounts so your kids don't have to dig
through your mail, which is like ninety nine percent of time.
That's what they've got to do is dig through the
(29:56):
mail and find you know, what you had, and that's
not fair. They're already grieving, So have things prepared. That's
that's a big thing.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Thank you, Charles. What was your question?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Would it not be better to put the assets in
Would it not be better to put the assets in
a trust?
Speaker 6 (30:11):
Again, it depends on you know what your specific circumstances are,
so you know, trust to avoid probate. So if you
put your assets into a trust, that's going to avoid probate.
So are beneficiary designations they avoid probate as well. Trusts
also have you know, high administrative is you know issues,
You have to have a trustee, you have to file
(30:33):
a notice of trust with the court when you die,
you have to get as a tax ID number for
the trust. It is administratively, you know, kind of a nightmare.
So those are the kind of things you have to
think about there. You know, it might be easy for you,
but is it going to be easy for the kids
to navigate, especially if you don't have like a significant
amount of assets that make it worth while. You know,
(30:57):
you know, a trust is probably not gonna not gonna
work work again unless you have those family situations that
we talked about.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
How often should you update your will? Thank you Mickey.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
So I tell my clients, you know, when there's a
family change. So when there's a change, come in and
see me. If somebody passes. But normally built into the
will as a series of like succession, you know, contingencies.
So normally you know, we're going to say all to
the spouse if living. If not living, then it's going
(31:28):
to go the two kids in equal shares. If one
of them is we You know, lawyers are always about contingencies,
so we have like a million of them in there.
So normally, unless we run out of people or you
want to change a personal representative or executor, we're going
to tell you if the law changes. But they don't
change it very frequently. As it relates to wills, powers
attorney every five years.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Okay, do wills have to be registered somewhere.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
So while you're living.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
No, while you're living, the original is very import orton
because if you lose it, it's presumed you intended to
destroy it. So I always usually advise my clients to
leave it with me. But yeah, no, there's I'm sorry,
what was the question again.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
I just just forgot it right after death, I'm sorry.
After death they do.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
They're depositive with the court in which the decedent was
domiciled at the time of their death. It's six or
seven dollars, depending on the county. And then they just
even if there's no probate, they are deposited and it's
supposed to be within ten days of the date that
the person holding the will was notified.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
What if the will is just handwritten, not notarized, A witness.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Okay, now we talking about to read the Franklin. Franklin.
They found five different wills. There was one that was
in the couch.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
There's one in the couch.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Under the couch the legal pad.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I mean Jesus, and please help us all yeah, all right,
James Brown, all those.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Folks, okay, please please to answer that law. I have mercy.
Speaker 6 (33:02):
Please, So Florida, No, that is going to be an
invalid a completely invalid will. Handwritten wills or you know,
we call them holographic wills, and they are not admissible
in the state of Florida, so especially the witnesses and
the notary.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
And that's like the most important.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Amen, thank you, thank you for making that because they
still I don't think they've set a little Rita's real yet. Yeah,
and they're not going to because it's all over the place.
And please don't do that to your family, okay, and
be careful who you designate, you know, even giving fifty
percent to I want to go back to something real quickly.
(33:45):
When I used to as I did therapy, and I
would have mainly my disabled neurologically disabled as a client,
and the parent, the aging parent would come in and
They're like, well, if anything happens to me and my husband,
you know, he's got a brother, he's got a sister.
They're gonna take care of him. I said, no, no,
I think you need to have a conversation with them.
(34:06):
And I would have them if they were just adamant.
Oh no, he's gonna you know, Billy's gonna take care
of his brother. I'm like, okay, let's bring Billy into
the next session. I want to talk to him and stuff.
And it never fails. I said, so, Billy, what do
you He's a senior in high school and I'm like, so,
what are your plans for your future?
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I'm going away to college, far away. I'm like, oh,
here we go. I put the pen down there and
sit back. I said, Okay, here we go. And I
said so, I mean, but your mom, your dad is
expecting you to if something should happen to them, he said,
and if this kid said no, he needs they need
to get somebody else, because Jimmy gets all the attention.
I said, oh, here we go, Here we go, and
(34:46):
he needs all the attention, so why should I No,
I'm going far away. I'm not even coming back for Thanksgiving.
I'll come back for Christmas, but I'm not even coming
back to the parents sitting there. I've had a few
parents that were disillusioned and they're like they couldn't believe
what they were hearing.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
So I said, can you repeat that again?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
But then I had some this, and then I would
say to them, what you're going to do about that?
You're going to need somebody else. And that's where mid
waiver came into play, you know, trying to help someone
you know, get the adult child out of the home,
get them in an apartment with a couple of other people,
and then a support coordinator, all that kind of stuff.
That's where all that came from. Yeah, I mean, it's
(35:22):
it's not instone.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
That you who you think is going to take care
of people will take care of it.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
It isn't.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
And that you definitely have to talk to, you know,
your agents before you name them as agents and ensure
that this is what they want to do. They see
that a lot sometimes, and especially with out of state children,
and so you really do have to think about that.
For for financial for the power of attorney, not such
(35:49):
a big deal.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
You can do it from anywhere. But with the healthcare surrogate.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
You know, it really does help to have somebody in
the state or nearby that can get to you quickly.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
What was it last question? Who should be able to
see the will? That's a good one. In a space,
that's a good one.
Speaker 6 (36:06):
So so typically typically it's everyone that's named in the will,
and the heirs at law can ask for a copy.
But will's are public record, so you can go to
the clerk and ask for a copy of the will,
certified copy of the will. Yeah, they're public record. They're
not like trust. Trust are not public record. But that's
(36:28):
another reason you might want to trust. If you want
to keep all your estate planning secret, that's a that's
another good way to do it.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
But yeah, you mean it.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
I could go to Palm Bay and go look up
pastor's will.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
No, you can't. They have to be to be dead.
That have to be dead.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That's the okayeah, okay, every tract that thank you forget
I said it.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
The one here. How would you know if it was
even had a ballot will question, mickey.
Speaker 6 (37:01):
So they they are required to be depositive with the
court within ten days of you know, it's within ten
days of finding out that they've passed. So yeah, the
person holding the will should have deposited it, so you
can check the clerk in the county in which they're
domiciled for a will if you are expecting them to
(37:21):
pass you know soon, and you know you're afraid your
your brother, your sister or your aunt might beat you
to the courthouse to you know, file their will. And
there's another if you think there's going to be any
problems that you might need to object to a probate
or a will, definitely file. Uh, well, go see an attorney.
But we can file what's called a caveat in advance
(37:42):
of death. And that way, when a probate does get filed,
they are they have to notify you and then you
have a chance to object.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
But you have to have standing.
Speaker 6 (37:53):
You have to be you know, an heir at law
or creditor have some kind of connection.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Got you to what time does a family member have
to question things after someone passes away? Misty, that's that's
that's a brabo real reality show.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Okay, there we go.
Speaker 6 (38:13):
So it and I'm going to use the default lawyer answer,
which is it depends, right, it depends on what what
you are to the decedent, So I mean, are you
a beneficiary in the will and you got served, then
the paperwork will tell you how long you have you know,
if you're served formally, sometimes it's twenty days. If you're
inform served informally it's four months. So you know, it
(38:34):
depends on that. If you're just an air at law,
you know you you you can pretty much object, you know,
during the probate proceeding.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
I don't know if you're going to object after something.
Speaker 6 (38:44):
I'd have to look up, but I've never had it
happen so, but normally during the probate proceeding is when
we would object.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Gotcha. I want to take a break. Here.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
You've seen on the ticker h https for slash twice.
Here we go lol dot dash Consultants dot com. That's
my web page and I would like to for everybody
just go on there and subscribe to it. It's free,
but that's where I can be keeping more up to
dated things. I know most of you all are waiting
for on us week the week some of you follow
(39:18):
us on Facebook, but definitely if you go in and
sign off on that sign up on that, you definitely
will be made aware of things. That's going on in
real time a little sooner than than the show.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
All right, co hosts your turn.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
You all have any questions for this fabulous lady and she's, oh,
you know, you know, well, I'll share.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
It with people, but you gotta pay. Got to pay
any questions pastor Well.
Speaker 5 (39:47):
You had touched on the the office depot, staples, POA
and living trusts and all that, but what about the
online services like legals or living or wills or living
(40:07):
wills dot com kind of issues like that where you
know they they'll charge you for it, So what would
be the differentiator there versus doing it yourself?
Speaker 6 (40:20):
That's it's actually the same, the same kind of method, right,
it's with legal zoom. It's kind of a fill in
the questions, Right, you pick your thing and then you
start filling it in. Well, you pick the rise. I
saw one from legal Zoom. They left out the residuary clause,
the entire residuary. That's like the point of making a will,
so you know, if you don't know what it means
(40:42):
and you're trying to fill.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
It out, it's it's going to be wrong.
Speaker 6 (40:46):
And again the execution part, executing the document, that's where
a lot of them are completely invalidated, not even a part.
If you sign it wrong it can be can be valid.
The whole thing's tossed. So so it's just to me,
it's just such a big thing to play with on
your own. You know, it's just worth it for the
(41:10):
for the peace of mind.
Speaker 5 (41:12):
I also I also do life I'm also in a
license insurance agent as well. And one of the things
that we've always had to ask is if they want
contingent beneficiaries or another term that's used as per sturpees,
And many people don't understand what per sturpies means, and
(41:36):
it means that if the beneficiary passes, then the children
get the their portion of the inheritance. So that should
also be something into consideration when when you're doing a
life insurance, how do you want to balance out the beneficiaries,
Because if you do a contingency and the beneficiary passes,
(41:59):
nothing thing happened, nothing is given to their children. So
that's why it's some that's why these types of plannings
are so essential that you speak with someone who understand
the repercussions afterwards, because when as you touched on Demarus,
(42:21):
that that that those those clauses are so key that
you're not thinking straight because the loved one passed away.
I can speak from experience, because my mother sat my
brother and I down and uh made our favorite meal
and told us that they played they paid for all
(42:43):
the funeral arrangements, and uh we laughed and we got
beaten up for it because we told them that we're
going to be living forever. But the day came, they
came where I was in the middle of a divorce.
My my brother had filed bankruptcy and we wouldn't have
had the funds. So estate planning is always good. And
(43:05):
I'm going to do a cheap plug here for you
tomorrows that it's always good to speak to someone who
really understands what's happening and is able to see beyond.
And that is always essential because if that individual can
see beyond, they're helping you avoid those potholes that you
(43:28):
may not be aware of.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Amen, And she does just that. She does this, just that.
I am a stickler for if you know more than me,
you take the floor. I will sit here. You tell
me what I need to do, and I give you
that authority. I give you that permission. She she's a
social worker deep down too. She won't say that, but
she really, but you know it's it's we'll get with it.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Here go missy. She yeah, she's one of a kind.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Some lawyers are in a rush and you know they
got no she's she's when she told you in the beginning,
I'm gonna be asking you these questions. I need to
know what your family character looks like. I need to
know what is it that you really want to do.
And she has to get into your business. She has
to get in there so she can give you the
right product done done. So yeah, thank you, pastor. You
(44:22):
know I double a second that. You know, you got
to get somebody that you can trust. And I mean
this is huge. She she she got she's she's got
the a knowledge, she's got your information, and she knows
what's best for you.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
That's why I could call on her, and you know,
I gotta get to her.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
But I get to her and say, hey, you know
everybody's talking about, you know, the Sea Corp thing. I know,
if we got a couple of minutes here, the Sea
corpor If you gotta trust, you got to put it
in the Sea Corp. And then you got to do this,
and you're adding these layers. And I'm like, okay, I
know where my culture is getting that from, because they're
saying the elite, the wealthy folks do that, and so
(44:58):
somebody leaked it and they got started getting so all
of a sudden, now on the reels on Facebook, Oh
you got to have a sea court, you got to
have a seat court.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
And I'm like, eh, and so what did I do?
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Make an appointment, got a consultant, I have a own retainer.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
I really don't.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
But anyway, and I didn't and I didn't make you
spend money.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
You didn't. I drove all the way over there. She said,
what are you doing? So can you?
Speaker 2 (45:22):
I mean, I know that's not your area of specialty,
but you knew enough to calm me down.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
So so what would your cake on that be?
Speaker 6 (45:30):
Well, so a lot of people, and you're not the
you're not the only one. You're not alone. I get
this a lot where you know, they heard that if
they use this kind of trust or they do this,
you know this special kind of you know, this one
owns this and we're going to get some tax breaks.
And nine times out of ten, one the advice is wrong.
(45:51):
Because it's from the internet, and then or two it's
it's meant for a different you know, a different people
with different levels of wealth for instance, or different like
the character of the assets is different. So everything is
a case by case basis. But a lot of those
(46:12):
very complex things can can really be simplified if you
go to a good attorney so and and simplify all
the headaches you're gonna have in the future too. But yeah,
you know, a lot of times in LLC is is
uh the easiest and and uh cheapest way to go,
and it's going to accomplish what your goals most of
(46:33):
the time, you know, if we're talking you know, uh
tax strategies or you have other income, maybe you know
we we do something different. But for most people, most
of my clients, LLC is what what they end up
going with.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
What was that last question? Hang on, I have a past. Okay,
oh okay, hang on, just a quick second. What was
that last question? Rebel?
Speaker 4 (46:58):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (46:58):
So the assets?
Speaker 2 (46:59):
I think what about oh no, what's the difference between no, no,
go all the way to the end. So I think
it was misty they said something. Okay, Well, if we
can't find that, that's Okay, we did we did that.
What is it written with? You know?
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Baalid?
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Okay, no, you know it's talking about how would you
know if no one's talking about at the assets? How
would you know if no one is talking about the asset?
Speaker 3 (47:20):
Oh, they talking about them? What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (47:25):
How would you know the anybody's talking about assets? Well,
the probabary people should be talking about assets. If I
don't get if it's figurines in the house or you know,
what counts as assets?
Speaker 4 (47:37):
What counts?
Speaker 3 (47:38):
Okay, yeah, there we go.
Speaker 6 (47:40):
Every you know, pretty much everything that you pass away
with is gonna count as an asset.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
What counts as a.
Speaker 6 (47:45):
Probate asset are assets that do not have a beneficiary
and do not have a joint account holder.
Speaker 4 (47:51):
Those assets go through probate.
Speaker 6 (47:53):
The other the other thing is, and what people don't
understand is that when you put beneficiaries on things, or
when you're own things with another person, when you pass,
if you have creditors, they go away very very unhappy.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
So, uh, they.
Speaker 6 (48:09):
Don't have anything to claim to put a claim against.
There's no probate, So they can't file a claim against
probate assets because there's no probate assets. They all went
to beneficiary. So that's another good reason. You have a
huge credit card bill and you pass. No one's inheriting
that bill. It's going away if you don't have a probate.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
Okay, real quick.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Louisiana has different law than the rest of the country.
Advice for anyone in that state who may have lost.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
A loved one, we have that one.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (48:39):
Definitely say, you know, go see an attorney. Even if
all you do is get a consult Generally the consoles
under five hundred bucks, and you're gonna get so much information,
at least a basic understanding of how probate works and
what your rights are as a beneficiary or you know,
whatever relationship you have. But that that's what I would say,
(49:01):
is just go go see a lawyer. It's not scary.
Most of us are very nice. So you know, just
make make an apavement. You can't even do it online,
but get a good one, you know, don't don't just
you know, scroll through Google, not get a referral.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
Yeah, I tried to get some attorney in real estate
attorneys and I went through this whole thing and I
asked for a consultation.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
No one's responded back. So it's an empty hole. Pastor.
I know you have something real quick you want to
add real quickly. What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Oh yeah, okay, very good. All right, Attorney Claud, thank
you so much. And now you're gonna get some calls.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
You're gonna get some calls. Hey, I heard that you've
said on the show.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
You know, but praise God with that, and thank you
so much for being that extended family for me when
you know, with my situation and everything else.
Speaker 3 (49:51):
And really you just don't know what it means to me.
Being a child.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Pressport doesn't make your beneficiary, no, unless you've listed as that.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Unlest somebody put your name down as a beneficiary.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
Don't have to be in the will.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Man got to be in the will. All right.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
That's it. That's it for us. We're gonna see you
next week, same time, same stations. Stay safe, night night,
Thank you, Attorney Cloud. This is
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