May 6, 2026 • 37 mins
Rising gas prices are beginning to reshape how Americans work, travel, and spend money.
Chuck Zodda and Paul Lane break down the latest developments in the Strait of Hormuz as conflicting reports around a potential U.S.–Iran agreement send oil prices swinging wildly and keep energy markets on edge.
Also covered:
Chuck Zodda and Paul Lane break down the latest developments in the Strait of Hormuz as conflicting reports around a potential U.S.–Iran agreement send oil prices swinging wildly and keep energy markets on edge.
Also covered:
- Why gas prices are surging despite hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough
- How higher fuel costs are impacting commuters and remote work trends
- What AMD’s earnings reveal about the next phase of the AI boom
- Why semiconductor stocks continue to dominate market gains
- Signs the labor market may finally be stabilizing after months of weakness
- The growing risks higher energy costs pose to hiring and economic growth
- Common estate planning mistakes that can create major financial problems later
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
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(00:42):
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(01:02):
This is the Financial Exchange with Chuck Zada and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And it is Chuck, Paul, and Tucker with you today
and top stories. We kick things off early this morning,
around six twenty am.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I had been awake for a couple of hours at
this point, and.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I woke up at four forty today. Actually, I woke
up at four forty this morning, sties, and was just
you know, processing my day, you know, sworting through. Okay,
what's gonna happen, what's gonna go on? You know, how
are the ducks outside? Is gonna rain later? And all
of a sudden, I'm looking at my screen and I
see the price of crude oil start taking a little dipperoni,
(01:49):
and I say, okay, like this is interesting, what's going
on here? And I keep watching and the price of
crude oil keeps dipping, and it keeps dipping, and it
keeps dipping, and finally it stops around fifteen or twenty
minutes later. And what we saw was again like these
(02:12):
moves are just kind of nuts right now. What we
saw was Brent crude fell from about one hundred and
nine dollars a barrel down to about ninety seven a
twelve dollars move in a span of I don't know,
you know, a thirty forty minute period, and I'm sitting
(02:33):
there and as this is going on, like halfway through,
I'm like, okay, there's got to be a headline. And
sure enough, Axios reported that in an exclusive that the
US and Iran are closing in on a one page
memorandum of understanding to end the war and set conditions
for further negotiations on other items. The US is reportedly
(02:56):
expecting Iranian responses in the next four eight hours, so
if you do the math, that's okay, sometime Friday they're
expecting and I'll quote here from Axios. Among other provisions
of the deal would have involved Iran committing to a
moratorium on nuclear enrichment, in the US agreeing to lift
its sanctions and really these billions and frozen Iranian funds,
and both sides lifting restrictions around transit through the straight
(03:19):
of horror moves. Many of the terms laid out would
be contingent on a final agreement being reached, leaving the
possibility of renewed war or an extended limbo in which
the hot war has stopped but nothing is truly resolved,
which is basically where we are right now. And again
it's something where look. Shortly after, the Iranian side, or
(03:40):
at least parts of the Iranian side, said no, this
isn't accurate. We've seen this story from the US before,
and we're not sure about this, And so Brent crude
went from ninety seven back up to one hundred and four,
retracing about fifty five percent of its slide. So you're
seeing just these these huge moves in the short period
of time. And when you see big moves in a
(04:02):
short period of time, whether it's in commodity markets, whether
it's in equity markets, in bond markets, it's generally indicative
of the fact that nobody knows anything, because if they did,
the price wouldn't really be moving because people would say, okay,
like yes, we understand, and this is already priced in.
So I don't really know if this goes anywhere.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
It might it might not.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
As I've said from the beginning, paid very little attention
to what is being said and more attention to what
is actually happening. That's what will ultimately drive the economy
and the impact on the economy, and so we'll see
how this goes. But as of right now, you still
don't have any uptick in ships moving through the strait
of hor moves and until that resolves. The outlook for
(04:47):
energy prices over the course of the summer can be
best described using a short two letter word known as up.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yes, very well the case this is always a hard
intro when we go into these US I ran negotiats
for me to add even more color to what you
kind of laid out here. It's a situation where it
is just continue to wait and see. We've just seen this, Chuck,
I don't know how many times like.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Okay, no, you can't make this up. Actually, The New
York Post has an update from Wow. Post is covering
a lot of subjects the post is, but to be fair,
it's a Trump interview exclusive. Okay from about half an
hour ago. Did you see this, Tucker? I did, Okay,
I this just came across my my screen, so I'm
just seeing it right now. The President Trump was talking
(05:36):
to the Post earlier this morning, and I'll quote them,
asked whether the Post you prepared to send a reporter
back to Pakistan for a new round of negotiations after
Islamabad sources revealed a tenet of peace deal was closed.
The President responded, I don't think so I think we'll
do it. It's too far, No, it's too much. So
(05:57):
it's it's just kind of all right. We'll see what
we actually end up getting out of this. But again,
I don't know if there's any meat to this bone.
I'm hopeful there is, because I would love to see
a resolution that puts some of the worst case economic
scenarios to bed.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
But I just don't know. I just don't know what
is going on here.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yeah, like you said, gas prices still have been ticking
up recently. We're sitting at four point fifty four a
gallon as the national average according to Triple A. That's
about a fifty three percent jump since the war began,
and diesel is sitting at about five dollars and sixty
seven cents a gallon. That's up about fifty one percent
as well. We know the terms on both sides in
(06:43):
terms of what each side wants to see. The moratorium
of nuclear enrichment is the biggest sticking point for the
United States. On the Iranian side of things, the economic
sanctions and the frozen funds of Iranian dollars, those are
the two biggest concerns. And then lastly, probably most concerning
from an economic standpoint is the opening of the straight.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
That's the the table stakes, and we will continue to.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
See how things progress here. I really can't even add
much more to right.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, same old. I don't know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, you know, you're Maine hopeful that there's some progress
that can be made. But to this point, the strait
has been closed for you know, two months and about
a week or so, and as we've talked about on
the show for the last week now, we're at the
point where even if it were to open today, the
impact is still going to be felt through rising gasoline
prices later in the summer, even if oil prices come
(07:39):
down in the short term here. And so really what
you're hoping is that you have a very short peak
in the summer where you know, those higher prices are present.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
But every day that you go on is.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
One in which you are running closer to that problem
becoming longer, broader and more damaging to the US and
world economies. And so we'll just see how things go.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Again.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I'm hopeful that maybe there's there's something here, but I
can tell you I've been hopeful before the vance trip
to Pakistan. I gotta tell you, like that, that whole
run up to that, in that weekend, I was like, okay,
like this is gonna be it. Like you don't send
Jadvance to Pakistan if you're not close to getting somewhere.
And maybe they thought they were close and they just
(08:23):
couldn't get over the hump. But that was three three
weeks ago now, I believe, and we still haven't really
seen anything in terms of progress on the Horror Moves
issue since then, So we'll see where things go again.
I recommend everyone keep an open mind on this. It
could be resolved shortly, it could take a while longer,
(08:44):
and we don't really know. We'll see.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I'm not involved in the negotiations. Oh man, I.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Know they missed your arbitrary deadline of Sinka Demayoyes today.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Fortunate they did.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
I save my negotiating for the cable companies and the
cell phone plans. Those are the ones where I go out,
I drive a hard bargain, you know. I know I'm
in the catbird seat on those, and so that's where
my expertise.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Lie play with linear cable.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, you got a lot of leverage there, you know,
I really struggle to negotiate the opening of waterways.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Not in my skill set. Let's take a quick break here.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
When we come back, let's talk a little bit about
what we are seeing in terms of the impact of
higher gas prices.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
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(09:55):
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Speaker 2 (10:14):
Really interesting piece here from the Wall Street Journal, not surprising.
It's titled how gas prices recavoc on America's army of supercommuters.
Not supercomputers, but super commuters. And the interesting thing I've
seen a couple different pieces on this. Actually, the fascinating
thing is in America's fastest growing cities, which tend to
(10:36):
be in the southeast, you are seeing the biggest impact
because of gas prices. Because where that growth is typically
happening is through these massive suburban developments that are spread
out from the city, making it longer commutes for a
lot of people and so you're seeing the biggest impacts
in a lot of those areas. But ultimately this is
(10:59):
one where hey, with gas prices up, you know, about
fifty percent on average throughout the United States in the
last couple months, basically everyone who owns a car is
feeling this in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, so a supercommuter is someone who travels more than
seventy five miles each way every weekday, and that with
the recent gas price spikes that we've seen, would equate
to about spending five hundred bucks a month to keep
their tanks filled at today's prices if they continue to
stay as elevated as they are. And interesting data that
(11:31):
came from this Wall Street Journal piece. The specific data
that I'm going to reference here is from researchers from
from Stanford University, where they've seen an uptick in people
working from home, perhaps in conjunction with some of these
higher gas prices, where about twenty five percent of the
American workforce was working from home according to the Stanford
(11:52):
University data in the month of February. That's up to
about twenty seven percent in the month of March. What
that means from a numbers perspective. Think about if there's
one hundred and fifty million Americans that are working on
a given day, what they saw from February to March
was three million more of those one hundred and fifty
million workers working remotely from home seventy five miles each way.
(12:14):
I just as an aside in terms of commute, I
do one a couple of days a week, sometimes do
what's it ninety plus each way, and that just takes
a lot out of you. So I have ultimate sympathy
for anybody who does it every day because mine's sporadic
of tune that much. It's it's a grind, So it's
quite about a time in the car, it's quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I wanted to move now to talk a little bit
about AMD's earnings from yesterday. Paul, what do we see
when they reported?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Who?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Those were fantastic numbers? Chuck in and just in general,
you know, first we'll hit AMD, but just caps what's
been a really good earnings quarter for Q one for
the S and P five hunder which we can dive
into a second. But specific to your questions on am D,
the stock was up I think close to twenty percent
when I had last looked at it earlier this morning.
On the backs of these numbers, what they.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Saw twenty percent year to date? No today? Oh you
mean today?
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Ye?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
No, you did? I know? Yeah, fourteen Oh it cooled
off a bit fourteen percent. But now I was just
playing up how much the move today was.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
They were up sixty five percent year to date I
think going into today.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
But regardless, just you know, crushing it. In terms of
their numbers.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
They saw ten point twenty five billion of revenue for
Q one, That was up thirty eight percent from a
year ago and above analysts expectations.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Of nine point nine.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Not only that for this quarter, the second quarter that
they're in the middle of, they raised their guidance where
they're gonna come in around eleven point two billion. That
was up from analysts expectations of ten point five to two.
And regardless of the big numbers that I'm throwing out there,
the bottom line is we've talked about on this show
so frequently over the course of the last three or
four years, the darling of the stock market has been
(13:53):
in video. And the reason for that is building out
all these large language models. Whether you mess around with
chat chipet or Claude, any of these other ones, the
type of chips that Nvidia designs the best ones in
class where they have a huge market share. On GPUs,
we're just flying off the shelves, and they continue to
fly off the shelves. They're seeing great revenue growth. But
when now is happening and the reason you're seeing companies
(14:15):
like AMD, like Intel do so well as they produce
these what we're thought as with the GPUs as older, stodgier,
sort of not as versatile technology CPUs. But as a
result of the shift from just training these models to
actually trying to run these agentic tasks that you hear
about more frequently, the CPUs that AMD produces a lot of,
(14:39):
and Intel is a big part of two, they're becoming
just robust demand for it. In fact, AMD had mentioned
that they anticipate the CPU market that I'm referencing here
is going to grow as big as I think it
was upwards of one hundred and twenty billion. They expected
to reach by twenty thirty thirty five percent annual growth
on it. Just you continue to see chuck here. These
(15:01):
semiconductor companies are just ripping. They are absolutely just flying.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I want to now move. Sorry, we're moving rapid fire
through this. But it's because there's a lot that we
have to get. Like it's it's a great news day today,
Like there's just a lot of good stuff here. And
I commend Tucker for putting together an excellent stack, if
I may say so myself. Piece from CNBC data suggests
the hiring recession maybe behind us, but iron war poses
(15:27):
job market risks. So here's the deal. I don't really
like looking at you know what this this piece is
actually looking at, which is like, hey, like the Jolts
report from Tuesdays says that things are good. No, like
that's that's that's dumb. One report from one day doesn't
say that things are good. What I think you can
say is that in the aggregate the jobs data for
(15:49):
the last four months, starting at the beginning of the
year January February, what comes next March and then April,
you will get the jobs data that we've had there
and the second half of last year we were concerned
with a slowdown in the labor market. That slowdown has abated.
I don't think you have enough yet to conclusively say
(16:09):
that the job market is improving. It on an upward trajectory.
But I think you can say, at least in the
short term, there's no more worsening there. And this is
true whether you look at job openings and hiring and
quits rates.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
If you look at what we are seeing for initial
and continuing unemployment claims, it's the same. If you look
at what we're seeing on payroll, tax withholding and things
like that. You can look across the board, and the
message from the first four months of the year really three,
because we haven't gotten any three months of the year.
(16:46):
We haven't gotten any April data yet. But the message
for the first three months is, Hey, the hiring picture,
it's still sluggish, but it's not worsening anymore like it
was in the second half of last year. And remember,
you've got to go from you gotta walk before he
can run, So you don't just go from hey, hiring,
(17:08):
you know, slowing down and falling off to well that
the things gangbusters. You go through these transition periods. Can
that transition hold up to a stronger job market? Given
the uncertainties about the world economy and higher energy prices
and other commodity costs, we're gonna have to see. I
don't know, but if you've missed the fact that, hey,
(17:31):
you know, the labor market may be turning for the
better in the last few months, I understand because if
you're in a job search like you don't necessarily feel
it at a micro level, and it's not like things
have gotten like meaningfully better yet, but it is something
where you can point to a bunch of different areas
and say, yeah, we've got some green shoots here, and
hopefully they can run in the next few months, and
(17:52):
hopefully the conflict in the Middle East doesn't derail what
might be a nascent improvement in the labor market.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, we'll get the April data on Friday.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
The consensus is that sixty thousand jobs will be added
in the month of April. We had a big blowout February.
Some of that could be attributable to some summer visions
and there was some kind of one off nuances with
that February data. But we are hoping for, in terms
of estimates, about sixty k for Friday, and then about
four point three percent is where the unemployment is anticipated
(18:25):
to sit when that report comes out on Friday morning.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
Here.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, that'll be an interesting one. To see, just because
it's gonna be the really the first jobs report from
a full month after the war began. I know that
the war technically began on like February twenty seventh, but
it's not like that war. It didn't influence hiring decisions
immediately at the beginning of March, you know, broadly. So
I think this one will be interesting. But we're gonna
(18:50):
have to see just what the Q two data shows.
I can tell you my personal expectations are kind of low,
just because you're going to have the inflation piece eat
through a lot of the nominal GDP growth that's out there,
So don't be surprised if you end up seeing, you know,
a fairly weak Q two GDP number. The question is, hey,
(19:11):
does that bleed into you know, later months if inflation
remains high, or do you see improvement in the inflation picture,
you know, because the war winds down in horror moves reopens.
That's the good possibility for the second half of the year.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When we come back, Wall Street watch and then Todd
Lutsky joins us. Get your estate planning questions ready. Next.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at
TFE show. Breaking business news is always first right here
on the Financial Exchange Radio Network till now for Wall
Street Watch trecking the stocks, the data, and the headlines
driving markets so far today right here on the Financial
Exchange Radio.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Netw Market sentiment higher this morning following report from Axios
that the US and around are closing in on a
one page memo to end the war, sending oil prices plunging.
Traders are also encouraged by more strong tech earnings. Right now,
the Dow is up over one percent, or five hundred
and seventy three points, SMP five hundred up one percent,
NASDAC up about one hundred quarter percent or three hundred
(20:22):
and five points. RUSS two thousand is up about a
half a percent. Ten year treasure reel down five basis
points at four point three six four percent, in oil
plunging seven percent, trading right around ninety five dollars a barrel.
AMD shares rallying fourteen percent after the chip maker posted
strong first quarter sales and profit while also issuing strong guidance.
(20:43):
Another chip maker, and super Microcomputer, also posted a stronger
than expected quarterly guidance despite a revenue miss sending shares
up by fifteen percent. Meanwhile, Disney saw its revenue climb
seven percent from a year ago, while it's earnings beat
expectations due to growing streaming Marginan's new CEO, Josh de Mero,
revealed his long term vision of the company, focusing on
(21:04):
technology to reach customers elsewhere. In Nvidia and Corning announced
a partnership to expand manufacturing of fiber optics for AI
infrastructure and video. Stock up by three percent, while Corning
shares are jumping by nine percent. In Uber climbing nearly
nine percent high after the riot hailing company posted a
rise in revenue and bookings for the previous quarter. I'm
(21:29):
Tucker Silva and that is Wall Street Watch.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
This is Ask Todd on the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
If you have an existing estate plan or in the
market for one, Todd Lutsky is here to answer your
questions and help you plan for later life. Ask Todd
is presented by Cushing and Dolan, serving Massachusetts and New
England for more than thirty five years, helping families with
a state and tax planning, Medicaid planning, and probate law.
(21:54):
Visit Cushingdolan dot com now here's Todd Lutsky.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
As promised, We're now joined by the one and only
Todd Lutsky from the law firm of Cushing and Dolan,
and we call the segment asked Todd because it's your
chance to ask Todd your estate planning questions live on
air right now. We got the phone lines open at
(22:22):
eight eight eight to zero five two two six three
again eight eight eight two zero five two two sixty three.
That is the number to call, so Todd can answer
your estate planning questions live on air right now again
eight eight eight to zero five two two six three.
(22:43):
We can usually get through two to three questions, so
get calling early and often to make sure you get
a chance to ask Todd your estate planning question. Eight
eight eight to zero five two two six three. Mister Lutsky,
how uh how you doing today?
Speaker 6 (23:00):
Feeling pretty good? Pretty good today?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
It's good you uh great.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
I had a little minor surgical procedure yesterday.
Speaker 6 (23:07):
Minor surgery.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I asked the surgeons if I could do my own
anesthesia though. Yeah, so yeah, knock yourself out.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
That's that's good.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah, it was great. Great, Todd.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Let's talk a little bit about when estate planning goes awry.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
What are the biggest or most.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Common estate planning mistakes that you tend to see when
people are coming in.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
To see you.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
Yeah, so the top estate planning mistake is not funding
your trust.
Speaker 6 (23:39):
That's a huge pothole.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So you spend a bunch of money out of trust. Yeah,
some some larrior drafts it. H and then you didn't
realize that you need to put something in it.
Speaker 7 (23:48):
See, and this is that this is the problem, right,
It's it's one of these situations where they'll come in
and if they already have their estate planning place, my
you know, my first comment to these people is normally, look,
you know, maybe go back to your existing estate planning
attorney rather than me try to you know, update your plan.
It might be you know, cheaper for you to go
back there. So I always offer, you know that first,
(24:10):
and then they tell me why they don't want to
erstand and say, okay, well the estate plan still might
be good. It still might be doing what you want
it to do. And so then I proceed to learn
about their assets and then learn about their objectives so
that I can then look at the trust with their
objectives in mind. Their current objectives and member popes objectives change.
(24:30):
So I said, these are your current objectives. Then I
can look at the estate planning trust that they have
in place and compare it to their current objectives, and
if possible, I'll just tell them, you know, hey, it
still works. I don't need to recreate the will. And
you're off and running. But to your point, and I
know you're wondering where I'm going with this, To your point,
when I'm gathering the information about their assets to learn
(24:54):
whether or not this plan still works for them, as
I'm doing it right. You have a home, yes, how's
it owned jointly?
Speaker 6 (25:02):
Oh? You have a vacation home? How's it owned? Yeah? Jointly?
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Oh okay, and then give me the values right? What
about your brokerage account? What about your bank accounts?
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (25:10):
Yeah, we own everything jointly. That's just how we are.
That's a married couple. That's normal, folks. You all know
you're listening. You know you say, that's me, that's how
we do it. Well, when I get done with that,
I say, I haven't looked at your trust yet, but
I can already tell you all your assets, according to
what you just told me, are not in the trust.
(25:33):
They're all joint Well yeah, is that a problem? Well, yeah,
that's a problem because you've spent all this money to
do an estate plan and when you die, if you've
not done anything else, all these joint accounts are going
to automatically go to the surviving joint owner pass under
the marital deduction, and you will have you will avoid probate.
(25:53):
That's great, sure, but you will have wasted your estate
tax exemptions. You will have weight did the ability to
shelter any assets for estate tax purposes. This is horrible planning,
and you spent all this money on your trust. So
I would say that's a pretty big problem.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Talking with Todd Lutsky from the law firm of Cushing
and Dolan, we do still have room on the phone
lines at eight eight eight to zero five two two
sixty three. That's the number to call to ask Todd
your estate planning questions live on air right now again.
Eight eight eight to zero five two two sixty three
is the number, and Todd is again here to answer
(26:35):
your estate planning questions. We're gonna take a quick break here,
but when we come back, we're gonna get to those
questions again. That phone number is eight eight eight to
zero five two two sixty three.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Ask Todd with Todd lets Key every Wednesday at ten
thirty only here on the Financial Exchange Radio Network. You're
listening to Ask Todd with Todd Lensky on the Financial
Exchange Radio.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Network, talking with Todd Lutsky from the law firm of
Cushing and Dolan. We do still have room on the
phone lines at eight eight eight to zero five two
(27:24):
two six three, So get your questions in for Todd again.
Eight eight eight two zero five two two six three
is the number to call to ask Todd your estate
plan questions live on air right now, and right now
we're gonna go to greg In Lowell for his question
for Todd.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Greg what's on your mind?
Speaker 8 (27:44):
Yes, Todd, I have a house in a trust in Massachusetts.
I'm contemplating buying a condo down in Florida. Is there
a danger in putting it into that trust in Massachusetts?
Or should I form a separate trust in to hold
the Florida property.
Speaker 7 (28:05):
So I've always a fan of Florida. I'm down there
as well. And what part are you thinking I got
going to.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Tampa Bay nice?
Speaker 7 (28:15):
So the trust you have up here. Is it a
revocable trust or irrevocable.
Speaker 8 (28:24):
Revocable revocable?
Speaker 6 (28:26):
Great?
Speaker 8 (28:26):
Are you married, kids, widowed and one one child?
Speaker 7 (28:33):
Okay, So the long and the short of it is,
it makes no difference. So you do not need a
separate trust in Florida to put the condo that you
buy into. It can be deeded directly into this trust
since it's revocable, no worries. Are you planning on making
(28:56):
Florida a primary residence at some point?
Speaker 8 (29:01):
Yes, I am so.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
Again, the reason I asked that is because in Florida
there's something called a homestead exemption that you get to
help reduce your real estate taxes if you're a resident
of Florida. So because it's revocable, you'll get that homestead
exemption no matter what. It wouldn't matter if it was irrevocable.
(29:23):
I was going to tell you about some special language
that you needed to put in it if it was
going to be irrevocable, to ensure that when it does
become your primary residence in Florida, you get that homestead.
But for now, buy the condo, transfer it right into
the revocable trust along with your house up here, and
you have absolutely no issues whatsoever, but a good idea
(29:45):
to do it because it's going to avoid probate in Florida,
and you need to make sure you don't go to
probate in any state. That trust will do that. Folks,
that's a great question. And that's a little pothole really
there that he just picked up on and we don't
have to have it. This guide has many potholes to
avoid in the estate planning world. Call and get it.
This is great for you. If you've done your planning,
(30:06):
look at these things. If you haven't done it before,
you get it done, look at this guide and learn
what they are. When I say that, it's like you
might say, I got a will, I don't need to
do anything else. So I got jointly owned assets. I'm fine.
I don't need a trust because I don't have enough money.
You know what if I got a second marriage?
Speaker 6 (30:23):
Right? Does this all sound like you? Guys? You hear this?
What if I'm moving here?
Speaker 7 (30:27):
We might have greg who might move If I change
my residency, how do I affect my estate plan? If
I lose a spouse, how do I affect my estate plan? So, folks,
very important, lots of things to think about when you're
doing your planning and potholes to avoid for those who
haven't gotten started and for those who already have it
but might have a reason to look at it eight
(30:50):
six six eight four eight five six nine nine or
Legal Exchange Show dot com again eight six six eight
four eight five six nine nine or Legal Exchange Show
dot com. You can download it there and always go
to our Instagram page Cushing Dolan PC for more information.
(31:11):
Tod talking about, you know, potholes to to fix. I'm
assuming that the if if someone figures out, hey, there's
a problem with my state plan, it's it's never too
late to try to remedy that. Or there's some situations
where no, like there's there's nothing you can really do
at this point. So that's all gonna depend on who's
(31:34):
alive and who's not. Okay, So if we'll take an
example where obviously if you're both alive, then the answer is, yeah,
likely there's things you can do. You can you know,
if it's revocable trust, you can change the you know,
the language of a trust. Anyway you want six ways
to Sunday, don't accommodate whatever issues you want. But I
(31:56):
think the bigger issue is Oh, and by the way,
even if it's irrevocable, you can you know, there's ways
to change irrevocable trust. But there was a real life
example not too long ago where you know, what if
one spouse died and like we just did this example
that you asked me earlier about not funding a trust.
(32:17):
Sure they had trusts in place, but they were unfunded, okay,
and everything was owned jointly, and one spouse died.
Speaker 6 (32:28):
Is it too late? And I think that's really the
question that you're asking.
Speaker 7 (32:32):
Not always And again, remember folks, one of the things
you have to do when someone dies is call a
lawyer and say what do I do? I don't care
if you've done no planning or if you've done planning
and trusts are in place, you still need to know
what to do with that trust now that the donor
of that trust has died, Okay, So always call a lawyer.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
So in this case, I'm thinking.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
What could you do?
Speaker 7 (32:57):
Everything's owned jointly. Let's say husban and died, wife's alive,
are they you know, you know, out of luck? No,
There's something called a disclaimer, So what the heck is that?
A disclaimer is something that can be filed by the
surviving spouse wife in this case, that says, in the
(33:20):
legal world, treat me as if I'm already dead. Treat
me as if I died before my husband.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
In this case. Okay, now, when you make.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
This, this is a qualified disclaimer, which has to be
done within nine months of the date of death in
this case of husband.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
So it's qualified.
Speaker 7 (33:42):
And the other thing that you can't do as a
disclaim or is direct where the assets.
Speaker 6 (33:49):
That you're disclaiming goes. You can't can't do that.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
It just goes to the next person in line.
Speaker 7 (33:54):
Well that's where we're headed, right. So now the good
news here, Chuck, is at least in this example we're
talking about, well, there was planning.
Speaker 6 (34:02):
Done, They did have trusts, They.
Speaker 7 (34:04):
Did have something called a poor over will that is
connected to the trust. Right, So a poor over will says,
whatever I die leaving, whatever I die owning in my
own name, goes to my trust.
Speaker 6 (34:19):
It's a safety net.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
Okay, all right, So we've got all this in place,
so I would tell the surviving spouse why not disclaim? Okay,
so all these joint accounts you already own half, but
what you're disclaiming is the half that you're gonna get
because your husband died. Right, that's what joint means. You
(34:43):
get the survivor, you get the decedents half. Sure, but
by filing the disclaimer, you're saying I don't want that half.
This could be a lot of money. It could be
millions of dollars in you know, investment accounts. Sure, I
don't want that half. Okay, Well, you can't direct where
it goes. So where's it going to go? Well, if
you're saying it really wasn't joint or you're disclaiming it,
then it's going to go back into the estate. So
(35:05):
now it's going to hit the probate of the estate.
I'm okay, that's that's fine. Right Now it goes through
probate and it gets addressed by your will. Oh okay,
read husband's will. Husband will says, I leave everything to
my spouse if living, Okay, But remember the disclaimer tells
(35:27):
the world that she's not living, she predeceased him. That's
what disclaimer means. Oh okay, So all to my spouse
if living, well, she's not living okay.
Speaker 6 (35:40):
Otherwise to my family. Trust.
Speaker 7 (35:44):
Ah, you see where this is going We're connecting the dots. Okay,
So now all this money and by the way, half
of the real estate. Right, if the real estate was
owned jointly, same issue, right, So all of this value
can now find its way through probate into the will.
(36:06):
From the will, we retitle it to the family trust,
which is where it should have been when the trust
was set up. But because it wasn't funded, it wasn't
in there, and so it didn't avoid probate. But it's
not going to result in a complete failure to shelter
(36:29):
estate taxes for tax purposes, which is what we wanted
it to do to begin with. So now you're going
to be able to shelter these assets for the state
tax planning purposes, and more likely than not, not only
is it taking care of the surviving spouse, but when
the spouse dies, remember now both buckets are going to
be designed to provide the bloodline plan distribution to the
(36:52):
children in the manner that you wanted it done. So
sometimes post mortem planning for folks can save the day.
But don't do that fund your trust. That's a pothole
to avoid. Mister Lutsky.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
Thanks for joining us. Always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
This has been asked Todd on the Financial Exchange Radio network.
Ask Tod with Todd. Lutsky has been presented by Cushing
and Dolan, serving Massachusetts and New England for more than
thirty years, helping families with the state and tax planning,
Medicaid planning, and probate law. Call eight hundred and three
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The views expressed in this segment are solely those of
(37:29):
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or tax advice. Please consult with your illegal or tax
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(00:20):
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(01:02):
This is the Financial Exchange with Chuck Zada and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And it is Chuck, Paul, and Tucker with you today
and top stories. We kick things off early this morning,
around six twenty am.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I had been awake for a couple of hours at
this point, and.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I woke up at four forty today. Actually, I woke
up at four forty this morning, sties, and was just
you know, processing my day, you know, sworting through. Okay,
what's gonna happen, what's gonna go on? You know, how
are the ducks outside? Is gonna rain later? And all
of a sudden, I'm looking at my screen and I
see the price of crude oil start taking a little dipperoni,
(01:49):
and I say, okay, like this is interesting, what's going
on here? And I keep watching and the price of
crude oil keeps dipping, and it keeps dipping, and it
keeps dipping, and finally it stops around fifteen or twenty
minutes later. And what we saw was again like these
(02:12):
moves are just kind of nuts right now. What we
saw was Brent crude fell from about one hundred and
nine dollars a barrel down to about ninety seven a
twelve dollars move in a span of I don't know,
you know, a thirty forty minute period, and I'm sitting
(02:33):
there and as this is going on, like halfway through,
I'm like, okay, there's got to be a headline. And
sure enough, Axios reported that in an exclusive that the
US and Iran are closing in on a one page
memorandum of understanding to end the war and set conditions
for further negotiations on other items. The US is reportedly
(02:56):
expecting Iranian responses in the next four eight hours, so
if you do the math, that's okay, sometime Friday they're
expecting and I'll quote here from Axios. Among other provisions
of the deal would have involved Iran committing to a
moratorium on nuclear enrichment, in the US agreeing to lift
its sanctions and really these billions and frozen Iranian funds,
and both sides lifting restrictions around transit through the straight
(03:19):
of horror moves. Many of the terms laid out would
be contingent on a final agreement being reached, leaving the
possibility of renewed war or an extended limbo in which
the hot war has stopped but nothing is truly resolved,
which is basically where we are right now. And again
it's something where look. Shortly after, the Iranian side, or
(03:40):
at least parts of the Iranian side, said no, this
isn't accurate. We've seen this story from the US before,
and we're not sure about this, And so Brent crude
went from ninety seven back up to one hundred and four,
retracing about fifty five percent of its slide. So you're
seeing just these these huge moves in the short period
of time. And when you see big moves in a
(04:02):
short period of time, whether it's in commodity markets, whether
it's in equity markets, in bond markets, it's generally indicative
of the fact that nobody knows anything, because if they did,
the price wouldn't really be moving because people would say, okay,
like yes, we understand, and this is already priced in.
So I don't really know if this goes anywhere.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
It might it might not.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
As I've said from the beginning, paid very little attention
to what is being said and more attention to what
is actually happening. That's what will ultimately drive the economy
and the impact on the economy, and so we'll see
how this goes. But as of right now, you still
don't have any uptick in ships moving through the strait
of hor moves and until that resolves. The outlook for
(04:47):
energy prices over the course of the summer can be
best described using a short two letter word known as up.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yes, very well the case this is always a hard
intro when we go into these US I ran negotiats
for me to add even more color to what you
kind of laid out here. It's a situation where it
is just continue to wait and see. We've just seen this, Chuck,
I don't know how many times like.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Okay, no, you can't make this up. Actually, The New
York Post has an update from Wow. Post is covering
a lot of subjects the post is, but to be fair,
it's a Trump interview exclusive. Okay from about half an
hour ago. Did you see this, Tucker? I did, Okay,
I this just came across my my screen, so I'm
just seeing it right now. The President Trump was talking
(05:36):
to the Post earlier this morning, and I'll quote them,
asked whether the Post you prepared to send a reporter
back to Pakistan for a new round of negotiations after
Islamabad sources revealed a tenet of peace deal was closed.
The President responded, I don't think so I think we'll
do it. It's too far, No, it's too much. So
(05:57):
it's it's just kind of all right. We'll see what
we actually end up getting out of this. But again,
I don't know if there's any meat to this bone.
I'm hopeful there is, because I would love to see
a resolution that puts some of the worst case economic
scenarios to bed.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
But I just don't know. I just don't know what
is going on here.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yeah, like you said, gas prices still have been ticking
up recently. We're sitting at four point fifty four a
gallon as the national average according to Triple A. That's
about a fifty three percent jump since the war began,
and diesel is sitting at about five dollars and sixty
seven cents a gallon. That's up about fifty one percent
as well. We know the terms on both sides in
(06:43):
terms of what each side wants to see. The moratorium
of nuclear enrichment is the biggest sticking point for the
United States. On the Iranian side of things, the economic
sanctions and the frozen funds of Iranian dollars, those are
the two biggest concerns. And then lastly, probably most concerning
from an economic standpoint is the opening of the straight.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
That's the the table stakes, and we will continue to.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
See how things progress here. I really can't even add
much more to right.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, same old. I don't know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, you know, you're Maine hopeful that there's some progress
that can be made. But to this point, the strait
has been closed for you know, two months and about
a week or so, and as we've talked about on
the show for the last week now, we're at the
point where even if it were to open today, the
impact is still going to be felt through rising gasoline
prices later in the summer, even if oil prices come
(07:39):
down in the short term here. And so really what
you're hoping is that you have a very short peak
in the summer where you know, those higher prices are present.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
But every day that you go on is.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
One in which you are running closer to that problem
becoming longer, broader and more damaging to the US and
world economies. And so we'll just see how things go.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Again.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I'm hopeful that maybe there's there's something here, but I
can tell you I've been hopeful before the vance trip
to Pakistan. I gotta tell you, like that, that whole
run up to that, in that weekend, I was like, okay,
like this is gonna be it. Like you don't send
Jadvance to Pakistan if you're not close to getting somewhere.
And maybe they thought they were close and they just
(08:23):
couldn't get over the hump. But that was three three
weeks ago now, I believe, and we still haven't really
seen anything in terms of progress on the Horror Moves
issue since then, So we'll see where things go again.
I recommend everyone keep an open mind on this. It
could be resolved shortly, it could take a while longer,
(08:44):
and we don't really know. We'll see.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I'm not involved in the negotiations. Oh man, I.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Know they missed your arbitrary deadline of Sinka Demayoyes today.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Fortunate they did.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
I save my negotiating for the cable companies and the
cell phone plans. Those are the ones where I go out,
I drive a hard bargain, you know. I know I'm
in the catbird seat on those, and so that's where
my expertise.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Lie play with linear cable.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, you got a lot of leverage there, you know,
I really struggle to negotiate the opening of waterways.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Not in my skill set. Let's take a quick break here.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
When we come back, let's talk a little bit about
what we are seeing in terms of the impact of
higher gas prices.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Next, remember you can watch the show live every day
on our YouTube page. We've got market updates and breaking
business news all morning long, plus a full archive of
all our shows content. It's all there with that click
of a button at YouTube dot com. Slash the Financial
Exchange show from FED Decisions to Market Moves. Watch the
(09:55):
Financial Exchange live on x face. He's the Financial Exchange.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Really interesting piece here from the Wall Street Journal, not surprising.
It's titled how gas prices recavoc on America's army of supercommuters.
Not supercomputers, but super commuters. And the interesting thing I've
seen a couple different pieces on this. Actually, the fascinating
thing is in America's fastest growing cities, which tend to
(10:36):
be in the southeast, you are seeing the biggest impact
because of gas prices. Because where that growth is typically
happening is through these massive suburban developments that are spread
out from the city, making it longer commutes for a
lot of people and so you're seeing the biggest impacts
in a lot of those areas. But ultimately this is
(10:59):
one where hey, with gas prices up, you know, about
fifty percent on average throughout the United States in the
last couple months, basically everyone who owns a car is
feeling this in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, so a supercommuter is someone who travels more than
seventy five miles each way every weekday, and that with
the recent gas price spikes that we've seen, would equate
to about spending five hundred bucks a month to keep
their tanks filled at today's prices if they continue to
stay as elevated as they are. And interesting data that
(11:31):
came from this Wall Street Journal piece. The specific data
that I'm going to reference here is from researchers from
from Stanford University, where they've seen an uptick in people
working from home, perhaps in conjunction with some of these
higher gas prices, where about twenty five percent of the
American workforce was working from home according to the Stanford
(11:52):
University data in the month of February. That's up to
about twenty seven percent in the month of March. What
that means from a numbers perspective. Think about if there's
one hundred and fifty million Americans that are working on
a given day, what they saw from February to March
was three million more of those one hundred and fifty
million workers working remotely from home seventy five miles each way.
(12:14):
I just as an aside in terms of commute, I
do one a couple of days a week, sometimes do
what's it ninety plus each way, and that just takes
a lot out of you. So I have ultimate sympathy
for anybody who does it every day because mine's sporadic
of tune that much. It's it's a grind, So it's
quite about a time in the car, it's quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I wanted to move now to talk a little bit
about AMD's earnings from yesterday. Paul, what do we see
when they reported?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Who?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Those were fantastic numbers? Chuck in and just in general,
you know, first we'll hit AMD, but just caps what's
been a really good earnings quarter for Q one for
the S and P five hunder which we can dive
into a second. But specific to your questions on am D,
the stock was up I think close to twenty percent
when I had last looked at it earlier this morning.
On the backs of these numbers, what they.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Saw twenty percent year to date? No today? Oh you
mean today?
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Ye?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
No, you did? I know? Yeah, fourteen Oh it cooled
off a bit fourteen percent. But now I was just
playing up how much the move today was.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
They were up sixty five percent year to date I
think going into today.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
But regardless, just you know, crushing it. In terms of
their numbers.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
They saw ten point twenty five billion of revenue for
Q one, That was up thirty eight percent from a
year ago and above analysts expectations.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Of nine point nine.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Not only that for this quarter, the second quarter that
they're in the middle of, they raised their guidance where
they're gonna come in around eleven point two billion. That
was up from analysts expectations of ten point five to two.
And regardless of the big numbers that I'm throwing out there,
the bottom line is we've talked about on this show
so frequently over the course of the last three or
four years, the darling of the stock market has been
(13:53):
in video. And the reason for that is building out
all these large language models. Whether you mess around with
chat chipet or Claude, any of these other ones, the
type of chips that Nvidia designs the best ones in
class where they have a huge market share. On GPUs,
we're just flying off the shelves, and they continue to
fly off the shelves. They're seeing great revenue growth. But
when now is happening and the reason you're seeing companies
(14:15):
like AMD, like Intel do so well as they produce
these what we're thought as with the GPUs as older, stodgier,
sort of not as versatile technology CPUs. But as a
result of the shift from just training these models to
actually trying to run these agentic tasks that you hear
about more frequently, the CPUs that AMD produces a lot of,
(14:39):
and Intel is a big part of two, they're becoming
just robust demand for it. In fact, AMD had mentioned
that they anticipate the CPU market that I'm referencing here
is going to grow as big as I think it
was upwards of one hundred and twenty billion. They expected
to reach by twenty thirty thirty five percent annual growth
on it. Just you continue to see chuck here. These
(15:01):
semiconductor companies are just ripping. They are absolutely just flying.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I want to now move. Sorry, we're moving rapid fire
through this. But it's because there's a lot that we
have to get. Like it's it's a great news day today,
Like there's just a lot of good stuff here. And
I commend Tucker for putting together an excellent stack, if
I may say so myself. Piece from CNBC data suggests
the hiring recession maybe behind us, but iron war poses
(15:27):
job market risks. So here's the deal. I don't really
like looking at you know what this this piece is
actually looking at, which is like, hey, like the Jolts
report from Tuesdays says that things are good. No, like
that's that's that's dumb. One report from one day doesn't
say that things are good. What I think you can
say is that in the aggregate the jobs data for
(15:49):
the last four months, starting at the beginning of the
year January February, what comes next March and then April,
you will get the jobs data that we've had there
and the second half of last year we were concerned
with a slowdown in the labor market. That slowdown has abated.
I don't think you have enough yet to conclusively say
(16:09):
that the job market is improving. It on an upward trajectory.
But I think you can say, at least in the
short term, there's no more worsening there. And this is
true whether you look at job openings and hiring and
quits rates.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
If you look at what we are seeing for initial
and continuing unemployment claims, it's the same. If you look
at what we're seeing on payroll, tax withholding and things
like that. You can look across the board, and the
message from the first four months of the year really three,
because we haven't gotten any three months of the year.
(16:46):
We haven't gotten any April data yet. But the message
for the first three months is, Hey, the hiring picture,
it's still sluggish, but it's not worsening anymore like it
was in the second half of last year. And remember,
you've got to go from you gotta walk before he
can run, So you don't just go from hey, hiring,
(17:08):
you know, slowing down and falling off to well that
the things gangbusters. You go through these transition periods. Can
that transition hold up to a stronger job market? Given
the uncertainties about the world economy and higher energy prices
and other commodity costs, we're gonna have to see. I
don't know, but if you've missed the fact that, hey,
(17:31):
you know, the labor market may be turning for the
better in the last few months, I understand because if
you're in a job search like you don't necessarily feel
it at a micro level, and it's not like things
have gotten like meaningfully better yet, but it is something
where you can point to a bunch of different areas
and say, yeah, we've got some green shoots here, and
hopefully they can run in the next few months, and
(17:52):
hopefully the conflict in the Middle East doesn't derail what
might be a nascent improvement in the labor market.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, we'll get the April data on Friday.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
The consensus is that sixty thousand jobs will be added
in the month of April. We had a big blowout February.
Some of that could be attributable to some summer visions
and there was some kind of one off nuances with
that February data. But we are hoping for, in terms
of estimates, about sixty k for Friday, and then about
four point three percent is where the unemployment is anticipated
(18:25):
to sit when that report comes out on Friday morning.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
Here.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, that'll be an interesting one. To see, just because
it's gonna be the really the first jobs report from
a full month after the war began. I know that
the war technically began on like February twenty seventh, but
it's not like that war. It didn't influence hiring decisions
immediately at the beginning of March, you know, broadly. So
I think this one will be interesting. But we're gonna
(18:50):
have to see just what the Q two data shows.
I can tell you my personal expectations are kind of low,
just because you're going to have the inflation piece eat
through a lot of the nominal GDP growth that's out there,
So don't be surprised if you end up seeing, you know,
a fairly weak Q two GDP number. The question is, hey,
(19:11):
does that bleed into you know, later months if inflation
remains high, or do you see improvement in the inflation picture,
you know, because the war winds down in horror moves reopens.
That's the good possibility for the second half of the year.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When we come back, Wall Street watch and then Todd
Lutsky joins us. Get your estate planning questions ready. Next.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at
TFE show. Breaking business news is always first right here
on the Financial Exchange Radio Network till now for Wall
Street Watch trecking the stocks, the data, and the headlines
driving markets so far today right here on the Financial
Exchange Radio.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Netw Market sentiment higher this morning following report from Axios
that the US and around are closing in on a
one page memo to end the war, sending oil prices plunging.
Traders are also encouraged by more strong tech earnings. Right now,
the Dow is up over one percent, or five hundred
and seventy three points, SMP five hundred up one percent,
NASDAC up about one hundred quarter percent or three hundred
(20:22):
and five points. RUSS two thousand is up about a
half a percent. Ten year treasure reel down five basis
points at four point three six four percent, in oil
plunging seven percent, trading right around ninety five dollars a barrel.
AMD shares rallying fourteen percent after the chip maker posted
strong first quarter sales and profit while also issuing strong guidance.
(20:43):
Another chip maker, and super Microcomputer, also posted a stronger
than expected quarterly guidance despite a revenue miss sending shares
up by fifteen percent. Meanwhile, Disney saw its revenue climb
seven percent from a year ago, while it's earnings beat
expectations due to growing streaming Marginan's new CEO, Josh de Mero,
revealed his long term vision of the company, focusing on
(21:04):
technology to reach customers elsewhere. In Nvidia and Corning announced
a partnership to expand manufacturing of fiber optics for AI
infrastructure and video. Stock up by three percent, while Corning
shares are jumping by nine percent. In Uber climbing nearly
nine percent high after the riot hailing company posted a
rise in revenue and bookings for the previous quarter. I'm
(21:29):
Tucker Silva and that is Wall Street Watch.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
This is Ask Todd on the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
If you have an existing estate plan or in the
market for one, Todd Lutsky is here to answer your
questions and help you plan for later life. Ask Todd
is presented by Cushing and Dolan, serving Massachusetts and New
England for more than thirty five years, helping families with
a state and tax planning, Medicaid planning, and probate law.
(21:54):
Visit Cushingdolan dot com now here's Todd Lutsky.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
As promised, We're now joined by the one and only
Todd Lutsky from the law firm of Cushing and Dolan,
and we call the segment asked Todd because it's your
chance to ask Todd your estate planning questions live on
air right now. We got the phone lines open at
(22:22):
eight eight eight to zero five two two six three
again eight eight eight two zero five two two sixty three.
That is the number to call, so Todd can answer
your estate planning questions live on air right now again
eight eight eight to zero five two two six three.
(22:43):
We can usually get through two to three questions, so
get calling early and often to make sure you get
a chance to ask Todd your estate planning question. Eight
eight eight to zero five two two six three. Mister Lutsky,
how uh how you doing today?
Speaker 6 (23:00):
Feeling pretty good? Pretty good today?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
It's good you uh great.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
I had a little minor surgical procedure yesterday.
Speaker 6 (23:07):
Minor surgery.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I asked the surgeons if I could do my own
anesthesia though. Yeah, so yeah, knock yourself out.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
That's that's good.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah, it was great. Great, Todd.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Let's talk a little bit about when estate planning goes awry.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
What are the biggest or most.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Common estate planning mistakes that you tend to see when
people are coming in.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
To see you.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
Yeah, so the top estate planning mistake is not funding
your trust.
Speaker 6 (23:39):
That's a huge pothole.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So you spend a bunch of money out of trust. Yeah,
some some larrior drafts it. H and then you didn't
realize that you need to put something in it.
Speaker 7 (23:48):
See, and this is that this is the problem, right,
It's it's one of these situations where they'll come in
and if they already have their estate planning place, my
you know, my first comment to these people is normally, look,
you know, maybe go back to your existing estate planning
attorney rather than me try to you know, update your plan.
It might be you know, cheaper for you to go
back there. So I always offer, you know that first,
(24:10):
and then they tell me why they don't want to
erstand and say, okay, well the estate plan still might
be good. It still might be doing what you want
it to do. And so then I proceed to learn
about their assets and then learn about their objectives so
that I can then look at the trust with their
objectives in mind. Their current objectives and member popes objectives change.
(24:30):
So I said, these are your current objectives. Then I
can look at the estate planning trust that they have
in place and compare it to their current objectives, and
if possible, I'll just tell them, you know, hey, it
still works. I don't need to recreate the will. And
you're off and running. But to your point, and I
know you're wondering where I'm going with this, To your point,
when I'm gathering the information about their assets to learn
(24:54):
whether or not this plan still works for them, as
I'm doing it right. You have a home, yes, how's
it owned jointly?
Speaker 6 (25:02):
Oh? You have a vacation home? How's it owned? Yeah? Jointly?
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Oh okay, and then give me the values right? What
about your brokerage account? What about your bank accounts?
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (25:10):
Yeah, we own everything jointly. That's just how we are.
That's a married couple. That's normal, folks. You all know
you're listening. You know you say, that's me, that's how
we do it. Well, when I get done with that,
I say, I haven't looked at your trust yet, but
I can already tell you all your assets, according to
what you just told me, are not in the trust.
(25:33):
They're all joint Well yeah, is that a problem? Well, yeah,
that's a problem because you've spent all this money to
do an estate plan and when you die, if you've
not done anything else, all these joint accounts are going
to automatically go to the surviving joint owner pass under
the marital deduction, and you will have you will avoid probate.
(25:53):
That's great, sure, but you will have wasted your estate
tax exemptions. You will have weight did the ability to
shelter any assets for estate tax purposes. This is horrible planning,
and you spent all this money on your trust. So
I would say that's a pretty big problem.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Talking with Todd Lutsky from the law firm of Cushing
and Dolan, we do still have room on the phone
lines at eight eight eight to zero five two two
sixty three. That's the number to call to ask Todd
your estate planning questions live on air right now again.
Eight eight eight to zero five two two sixty three
is the number, and Todd is again here to answer
(26:35):
your estate planning questions. We're gonna take a quick break here,
but when we come back, we're gonna get to those
questions again. That phone number is eight eight eight to
zero five two two sixty three.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Ask Todd with Todd lets Key every Wednesday at ten
thirty only here on the Financial Exchange Radio Network. You're
listening to Ask Todd with Todd Lensky on the Financial
Exchange Radio.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Network, talking with Todd Lutsky from the law firm of
Cushing and Dolan. We do still have room on the
phone lines at eight eight eight to zero five two
(27:24):
two six three, So get your questions in for Todd again.
Eight eight eight two zero five two two six three
is the number to call to ask Todd your estate
plan questions live on air right now, and right now
we're gonna go to greg In Lowell for his question
for Todd.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Greg what's on your mind?
Speaker 8 (27:44):
Yes, Todd, I have a house in a trust in Massachusetts.
I'm contemplating buying a condo down in Florida. Is there
a danger in putting it into that trust in Massachusetts?
Or should I form a separate trust in to hold
the Florida property.
Speaker 7 (28:05):
So I've always a fan of Florida. I'm down there
as well. And what part are you thinking I got
going to.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Tampa Bay nice?
Speaker 7 (28:15):
So the trust you have up here. Is it a
revocable trust or irrevocable.
Speaker 8 (28:24):
Revocable revocable?
Speaker 6 (28:26):
Great?
Speaker 8 (28:26):
Are you married, kids, widowed and one one child?
Speaker 7 (28:33):
Okay, So the long and the short of it is,
it makes no difference. So you do not need a
separate trust in Florida to put the condo that you
buy into. It can be deeded directly into this trust
since it's revocable, no worries. Are you planning on making
(28:56):
Florida a primary residence at some point?
Speaker 8 (29:01):
Yes, I am so.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
Again, the reason I asked that is because in Florida
there's something called a homestead exemption that you get to
help reduce your real estate taxes if you're a resident
of Florida. So because it's revocable, you'll get that homestead
exemption no matter what. It wouldn't matter if it was irrevocable.
(29:23):
I was going to tell you about some special language
that you needed to put in it if it was
going to be irrevocable, to ensure that when it does
become your primary residence in Florida, you get that homestead.
But for now, buy the condo, transfer it right into
the revocable trust along with your house up here, and
you have absolutely no issues whatsoever, but a good idea
(29:45):
to do it because it's going to avoid probate in Florida,
and you need to make sure you don't go to
probate in any state. That trust will do that. Folks,
that's a great question. And that's a little pothole really
there that he just picked up on and we don't
have to have it. This guide has many potholes to
avoid in the estate planning world. Call and get it.
This is great for you. If you've done your planning,
(30:06):
look at these things. If you haven't done it before,
you get it done, look at this guide and learn
what they are. When I say that, it's like you
might say, I got a will, I don't need to
do anything else. So I got jointly owned assets. I'm fine.
I don't need a trust because I don't have enough money.
You know what if I got a second marriage?
Speaker 6 (30:23):
Right? Does this all sound like you? Guys? You hear this?
What if I'm moving here?
Speaker 7 (30:27):
We might have greg who might move If I change
my residency, how do I affect my estate plan? If
I lose a spouse, how do I affect my estate plan? So, folks,
very important, lots of things to think about when you're
doing your planning and potholes to avoid for those who
haven't gotten started and for those who already have it
but might have a reason to look at it eight
(30:50):
six six eight four eight five six nine nine or
Legal Exchange Show dot com again eight six six eight
four eight five six nine nine or Legal Exchange Show
dot com. You can download it there and always go
to our Instagram page Cushing Dolan PC for more information.
(31:11):
Tod talking about, you know, potholes to to fix. I'm
assuming that the if if someone figures out, hey, there's
a problem with my state plan, it's it's never too
late to try to remedy that. Or there's some situations
where no, like there's there's nothing you can really do
at this point. So that's all gonna depend on who's
(31:34):
alive and who's not. Okay, So if we'll take an
example where obviously if you're both alive, then the answer is, yeah,
likely there's things you can do. You can you know,
if it's revocable trust, you can change the you know,
the language of a trust. Anyway you want six ways
to Sunday, don't accommodate whatever issues you want. But I
(31:56):
think the bigger issue is Oh, and by the way,
even if it's irrevocable, you can you know, there's ways
to change irrevocable trust. But there was a real life
example not too long ago where you know, what if
one spouse died and like we just did this example
that you asked me earlier about not funding a trust.
(32:17):
Sure they had trusts in place, but they were unfunded, okay,
and everything was owned jointly, and one spouse died.
Speaker 6 (32:28):
Is it too late? And I think that's really the
question that you're asking.
Speaker 7 (32:32):
Not always And again, remember folks, one of the things
you have to do when someone dies is call a
lawyer and say what do I do? I don't care
if you've done no planning or if you've done planning
and trusts are in place, you still need to know
what to do with that trust now that the donor
of that trust has died, Okay, So always call a lawyer.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
So in this case, I'm thinking.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
What could you do?
Speaker 7 (32:57):
Everything's owned jointly. Let's say husban and died, wife's alive,
are they you know, you know, out of luck? No,
There's something called a disclaimer, So what the heck is that?
A disclaimer is something that can be filed by the
surviving spouse wife in this case, that says, in the
(33:20):
legal world, treat me as if I'm already dead. Treat
me as if I died before my husband.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
In this case. Okay, now, when you make.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
This, this is a qualified disclaimer, which has to be
done within nine months of the date of death in
this case of husband.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
So it's qualified.
Speaker 7 (33:42):
And the other thing that you can't do as a
disclaim or is direct where the assets.
Speaker 6 (33:49):
That you're disclaiming goes. You can't can't do that.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
It just goes to the next person in line.
Speaker 7 (33:54):
Well that's where we're headed, right. So now the good
news here, Chuck, is at least in this example we're
talking about, well, there was planning.
Speaker 6 (34:02):
Done, They did have trusts, They.
Speaker 7 (34:04):
Did have something called a poor over will that is
connected to the trust. Right, So a poor over will says,
whatever I die leaving, whatever I die owning in my
own name, goes to my trust.
Speaker 6 (34:19):
It's a safety net.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
Okay, all right, So we've got all this in place,
so I would tell the surviving spouse why not disclaim? Okay,
so all these joint accounts you already own half, but
what you're disclaiming is the half that you're gonna get
because your husband died. Right, that's what joint means. You
(34:43):
get the survivor, you get the decedents half. Sure, but
by filing the disclaimer, you're saying I don't want that half.
This could be a lot of money. It could be
millions of dollars in you know, investment accounts. Sure, I
don't want that half. Okay, Well, you can't direct where
it goes. So where's it going to go? Well, if
you're saying it really wasn't joint or you're disclaiming it,
then it's going to go back into the estate. So
(35:05):
now it's going to hit the probate of the estate.
I'm okay, that's that's fine. Right Now it goes through
probate and it gets addressed by your will. Oh okay,
read husband's will. Husband will says, I leave everything to
my spouse if living, Okay, But remember the disclaimer tells
(35:27):
the world that she's not living, she predeceased him. That's
what disclaimer means. Oh okay, So all to my spouse
if living, well, she's not living okay.
Speaker 6 (35:40):
Otherwise to my family. Trust.
Speaker 7 (35:44):
Ah, you see where this is going We're connecting the dots. Okay,
So now all this money and by the way, half
of the real estate. Right, if the real estate was
owned jointly, same issue, right, So all of this value
can now find its way through probate into the will.
(36:06):
From the will, we retitle it to the family trust,
which is where it should have been when the trust
was set up. But because it wasn't funded, it wasn't
in there, and so it didn't avoid probate. But it's
not going to result in a complete failure to shelter
(36:29):
estate taxes for tax purposes, which is what we wanted
it to do to begin with. So now you're going
to be able to shelter these assets for the state
tax planning purposes, and more likely than not, not only
is it taking care of the surviving spouse, but when
the spouse dies, remember now both buckets are going to
be designed to provide the bloodline plan distribution to the
(36:52):
children in the manner that you wanted it done. So
sometimes post mortem planning for folks can save the day.
But don't do that fund your trust. That's a pothole
to avoid. Mister Lutsky.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
Thanks for joining us. Always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
This has been asked Todd on the Financial Exchange Radio network.
Ask Tod with Todd. Lutsky has been presented by Cushing
and Dolan, serving Massachusetts and New England for more than
thirty years, helping families with the state and tax planning,
Medicaid planning, and probate law. Call eight hundred and three
ninety three, four thousand and one or visit Cushingdolan dot com.
The views expressed in this segment are solely those of
(37:29):
Cushing and Dolan. Armstrong Advisory does not provide any legal
or tax advice. Please consult with your illegal or tax
advisor on such matters. Cushing and Armstrong do not endorse
each other and are not affiliated.
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