Unlock the secrets of estate planning and learn how to protect your family's future with insights from Simply Money and our special guest, expert Mark Reckman from Wood and Lamping. Discover the intricacies of Anthony Bourdain’s estate, where smart planning led to the creation of a trust for his daughter, effectively sidestepping the probate process. Yet, his choice of an estranged wife as trustee serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of selecting a reliable trustee. Listen as we dissect the complex world of assets, including the unexpected significance of frequent flyer miles, and how they can play a role in your estate plans.
Join us as we explore estate planning as a profound gesture of love for those you hold dear. Through the lens of Paul Newman's personalized approach and the strategic application of the Wagner Rule, we highlight the necessity of bespoke planning that fits unique family dynamics. With Mark Reckman’s expert guidance, we emphasize the critical nature of having a well-crafted estate plan to secure the future of your loved ones. Elevate your understanding of managing trusts and learn valuable lessons from the “Death Styles of the Rich and Famous” that can be applied to your own life.
Join us as we explore estate planning as a profound gesture of love for those you hold dear. Through the lens of Paul Newman's personalized approach and the strategic application of the Wagner Rule, we highlight the necessity of bespoke planning that fits unique family dynamics. With Mark Reckman’s expert guidance, we emphasize the critical nature of having a well-crafted estate plan to secure the future of your loved ones. Elevate your understanding of managing trusts and learn valuable lessons from the “Death Styles of the Rich and Famous” that can be applied to your own life.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You're listening to, simply when you're presented by all Worth Financial,
I mem Wagner along with Bob Sponseller, one of my
favorite shows when I was growing up. And I'm not
going to do the impression of Robin Leech, but oh please,
I cannot even begin.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You can do it if you want to. Lifestyles of
the rich and Famous.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I mean, it was just amazing, the yachts and the
ways that they live.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, we're going to pivot that on its head tonight
and we're going to talk about death styles of the
rich and famous. Doesn't sound exciting, but I do think
that when.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We lose someone in the headlines that everyone knows and
has maybe followed their career for years, you can learn
a lot about state planning, what to do, what not
to do. So joining us tonight with this perspective on
the death styles of the rich and famous is of course,
our state planning expert, Mark Rekman from the law firm
of Wood and Lamping.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
All right, Mark, we're just gonna let you take hold here.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Well, you know, in my line of work, I sort
of track these things, and it's always interesting to see
someone famous that has died or has handled their estate
in an interesting way. Often what amuses me about this
is that these people have accumulated often a lot of money,
just as often they've done little or nothing to plan ahead.
(01:21):
And one of the things that and some of them
plan ahead, but they don't plan ahead very well. These
people often have very complicated lives and very complicated relationships,
and of course it's reflected in their estate plan. The
one that I want to talk about first is Anthony Boudaine.
He's the guy who travels around and eats unusual items
on television. Yeah, and he's been a factor on TV
(01:45):
for oh, I don't know what thirty years. He died.
This has been probably about ten years ago now. He
died and he left a will, and in his will
he directed his executor to set up a trust for
his minor daughter. His daughter is no longer a minor,
but she was at the time, and the trust was
(02:06):
to last until she was twenty five or thirty. Now
that's a good move, especially considering the size of his estate.
According to the probate records, he was worth about sixteen
million dollars, but interestingly enough, only about one point two
million dollars of his estate actually went through probate. That's
good because what it means is that he worked with
(02:28):
his lawyer to find a more streamlined way to set
this trust up with a little less probate court involvement.
That saved a fair amount of time and money. Here's
the rub. He picked his estranged wife and put her
in charge of the trust, and I presume he did
that with full knowledge. The problem was, of course, that
(02:49):
he was a strangeman his wife for good reasons, and
she was a not the right person for doing that job,
and it created a great deal of stress and conflict
between his daughter and her mother actually, and of course
what that meant was that there was a lot of conflict. Now,
one of the interesting things about that estate is that
(03:09):
one of his largest assets, or one of his larger
surprise assets, was frequent flyer miles.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I guess that makes sense, and he's traveling everywhere for.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Work, that's right, And they do have value, as all
of us know who've used them. In his case, he
had millions of these miles, and under the laws are
under the rules of these frequent flyer programs, sometimes you
can leave those in a will or a trust and
leave them to someone else. They're transferable. So one of
the things I have told my clients over the years
(03:41):
is that if you're the kind of person who accumulates
lots of these miles, it's a good idea to familiarize
yourself with the rules of each one of those programs
and figure out a way that your miles don't die
with you, because they can be worth tens of thousands
of dollars.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Amy, I think you need to Martin, meet with Mark
immediately and make sure all of your Starbucks reward points
are accounted.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
For my daughter who has Starbucks Award points, and yes,
probably enough to feed the entire tri state if something
were to happen or you know, Mark, you're talking about
this trust that Anthony Bodain had. There are different kinds
of trust. I'm wondering in this situation. What's what's the
good kind of have? What's the not so great.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Kind of have?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
They're basically two kinds of trusts. They're testamentary trusts and
what we call living trust. A testamentary trust is one
that's set up after your died. It's set up by
your executor under the supervision of the probate court, and
they're commonly used for people with minor children because they're
commonly used in cases where you're not really expecting to
(04:47):
die while your child is still young, so younger people
are frequently using testamentary trusts. A living trust is a
trust that you set up while you're alive, and as
a result, it's already in place when you die, you
transfer your funds into that trust. During your lifetime, you
control the trust yourself. You live off of the assets
(05:08):
that are in the trust, but at the time of
your death everything's already in place. As a result, the
trust is not supervised by the probate court. That gives
you a great deal of more flexibility. It's a lot
easier to operate, but it also means that there's it's
extra important when you set up a living trust that
(05:29):
you pick a trustee that you can rely on. That
might be a bank, that might be a trust company.
It might be a spouse, it might be a child.
But take someone who's well suited. Just because you love
them doesn't mean that they're going to be a good trust.
Trust manager what we call a trustee. A trustee has
to know how to invest money, or at least how
(05:49):
to hire someone who knows how to trust, how to
invest money. They need basic accounting skills. They've got to
see to it the tax returns are filed. They have
to be good with paperwork, which is actually a skill.
I know we all laugh about that and how easy
and what a nuisance paperwork is, but actually it is
an individual skill and those who have it can get
(06:11):
along a lot better and get a lot more out
of their assets.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Hey, Mark, I know you came equipped with several real
life stories, you know, from rich and famous folks. What's
another one, another story, another estate planning story that has
really caught your eye.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The one that I find interesting to me is Paul Newman.
You know. Paul Newman, of course, was the movie star
and race car driver, and he created a brand of
salad dressings Newman's Salad Dressings and salsas, and they actually
did pretty well. And interestingly enough, when he set this
thing up, he set up a charity and all of
the all of the this was a non profit, so
(06:50):
there was no stock. He didn't own it, but he
did set up this charity. He was the member of it,
and he elected the board and he elected the person
to write on it. And it really did a great job.
He died in two thousand and eight, and at that
point Newman's Own, that's what they called the company. All
of that was left to a private foundation that he created,
(07:12):
and that foundation still operates. Now Here was the rub
The irs rules do not permit a private charity to
own one of a commercial enterprise, and making solid dressings
and salsa is clearly a commercial enterprise. And so the
rationale is to prevent people from putting profitable businesses into
(07:35):
a foundation to avoid taxes. Now that's not what Newman
was trying to do. He was trying to do a
good thing. And so as a result, nobody wanted to
enforce the law against Newman's Own because the gesture was
such a good gesture. So the Congress got involved and
they amended their tax rules, and they amended the rule
(07:59):
to create what they now called the Newman rule. And
this is in the Internal Revenue Code, section forty ninety
three G. And what that rule says is that you can,
in fact put a profitable business into a foundation one
hundred percent. But they've created six special rules, special conditions,
and of course the Newman's Own meets all of these conditions.
(08:22):
They have to own all of the stock. The stock
has to be acquired by gift. All the income from
the foundation must be distributed to a charity each year,
and it cannot be controlled by the contributor. But I
found that whole story to be interesting and just. It
is interesting, and.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I also think, Mark, we have to take into account
if I don't get a state planning right, there's not
going to be the Wagoner rule. It works for Paul Newman,
it may not.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Work for the rest of us. So make sure that
your estate planning is in good shape. It is an
act of love. I always say this for your loved ones.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Great insights as always from our estate planning expert Mark
Krakman from the law form of wood and Lamping. You're
listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial here
in fifty five KRC.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The talk station
You're listening to, simply when you're presented by all Worth Financial,
I mem Wagner along with Bob Sponseller, one of my
favorite shows when I was growing up. And I'm not
going to do the impression of Robin Leech, but oh please,
I cannot even begin.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You can do it if you want to. Lifestyles of
the rich and Famous.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I mean, it was just amazing, the yachts and the
ways that they live.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, we're going to pivot that on its head tonight
and we're going to talk about death styles of the
rich and famous. Doesn't sound exciting, but I do think
that when.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We lose someone in the headlines that everyone knows and
has maybe followed their career for years, you can learn
a lot about state planning, what to do, what not
to do. So joining us tonight with this perspective on
the death styles of the rich and famous is of course,
our state planning expert, Mark Rekman from the law firm
of Wood and Lamping.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
All right, Mark, we're just gonna let you take hold here.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Well, you know, in my line of work, I sort
of track these things, and it's always interesting to see
someone famous that has died or has handled their estate
in an interesting way. Often what amuses me about this
is that these people have accumulated often a lot of money,
just as often they've done little or nothing to plan ahead.
(01:21):
And one of the things that and some of them
plan ahead, but they don't plan ahead very well. These
people often have very complicated lives and very complicated relationships,
and of course it's reflected in their estate plan. The
one that I want to talk about first is Anthony Boudaine.
He's the guy who travels around and eats unusual items
on television. Yeah, and he's been a factor on TV
(01:45):
for oh, I don't know what thirty years. He died.
This has been probably about ten years ago now. He
died and he left a will, and in his will
he directed his executor to set up a trust for
his minor daughter. His daughter is no longer a minor,
but she was at the time, and the trust was
(02:06):
to last until she was twenty five or thirty. Now
that's a good move, especially considering the size of his estate.
According to the probate records, he was worth about sixteen
million dollars, but interestingly enough, only about one point two
million dollars of his estate actually went through probate. That's
good because what it means is that he worked with
(02:28):
his lawyer to find a more streamlined way to set
this trust up with a little less probate court involvement.
That saved a fair amount of time and money. Here's
the rub. He picked his estranged wife and put her
in charge of the trust, and I presume he did
that with full knowledge. The problem was, of course, that
(02:49):
he was a strangeman his wife for good reasons, and
she was a not the right person for doing that job,
and it created a great deal of stress and conflict
between his daughter and her mother actually, and of course
what that meant was that there was a lot of conflict. Now,
one of the interesting things about that estate is that
(03:09):
one of his largest assets, or one of his larger
surprise assets, was frequent flyer miles.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I guess that makes sense, and he's traveling everywhere for.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Work, that's right, And they do have value, as all
of us know who've used them. In his case, he
had millions of these miles, and under the laws are
under the rules of these frequent flyer programs, sometimes you
can leave those in a will or a trust and
leave them to someone else. They're transferable. So one of
the things I have told my clients over the years
(03:41):
is that if you're the kind of person who accumulates
lots of these miles, it's a good idea to familiarize
yourself with the rules of each one of those programs
and figure out a way that your miles don't die
with you, because they can be worth tens of thousands
of dollars.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Amy, I think you need to Martin, meet with Mark
immediately and make sure all of your Starbucks reward points
are accounted.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
For my daughter who has Starbucks Award points, and yes,
probably enough to feed the entire tri state if something
were to happen or you know, Mark, you're talking about
this trust that Anthony Bodain had. There are different kinds
of trust. I'm wondering in this situation. What's what's the
good kind of have? What's the not so great.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Kind of have?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
They're basically two kinds of trusts. They're testamentary trusts and
what we call living trust. A testamentary trust is one
that's set up after your died. It's set up by
your executor under the supervision of the probate court, and
they're commonly used for people with minor children because they're
commonly used in cases where you're not really expecting to
(04:47):
die while your child is still young, so younger people
are frequently using testamentary trusts. A living trust is a
trust that you set up while you're alive, and as
a result, it's already in place when you die, you
transfer your funds into that trust. During your lifetime, you
control the trust yourself. You live off of the assets
(05:08):
that are in the trust, but at the time of
your death everything's already in place. As a result, the
trust is not supervised by the probate court. That gives
you a great deal of more flexibility. It's a lot
easier to operate, but it also means that there's it's
extra important when you set up a living trust that
(05:29):
you pick a trustee that you can rely on. That
might be a bank, that might be a trust company.
It might be a spouse, it might be a child.
But take someone who's well suited. Just because you love
them doesn't mean that they're going to be a good trust.
Trust manager what we call a trustee. A trustee has
to know how to invest money, or at least how
(05:49):
to hire someone who knows how to trust, how to
invest money. They need basic accounting skills. They've got to
see to it the tax returns are filed. They have
to be good with paperwork, which is actually a skill.
I know we all laugh about that and how easy
and what a nuisance paperwork is, but actually it is
an individual skill and those who have it can get
(06:11):
along a lot better and get a lot more out
of their assets.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Hey, Mark, I know you came equipped with several real
life stories, you know, from rich and famous folks. What's
another one, another story, another estate planning story that has
really caught your eye.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The one that I find interesting to me is Paul Newman.
You know. Paul Newman, of course, was the movie star
and race car driver, and he created a brand of
salad dressings Newman's Salad Dressings and salsas, and they actually
did pretty well. And interestingly enough, when he set this
thing up, he set up a charity and all of
the all of the this was a non profit, so
(06:50):
there was no stock. He didn't own it, but he
did set up this charity. He was the member of it,
and he elected the board and he elected the person
to write on it. And it really did a great job.
He died in two thousand and eight, and at that
point Newman's Own, that's what they called the company. All
of that was left to a private foundation that he created,
(07:12):
and that foundation still operates. Now Here was the rub
The irs rules do not permit a private charity to
own one of a commercial enterprise, and making solid dressings
and salsa is clearly a commercial enterprise. And so the
rationale is to prevent people from putting profitable businesses into
(07:35):
a foundation to avoid taxes. Now that's not what Newman
was trying to do. He was trying to do a
good thing. And so as a result, nobody wanted to
enforce the law against Newman's Own because the gesture was
such a good gesture. So the Congress got involved and
they amended their tax rules, and they amended the rule
(07:59):
to create what they now called the Newman rule. And
this is in the Internal Revenue Code, section forty ninety
three G. And what that rule says is that you can,
in fact put a profitable business into a foundation one
hundred percent. But they've created six special rules, special conditions,
and of course the Newman's Own meets all of these conditions.
(08:22):
They have to own all of the stock. The stock
has to be acquired by gift. All the income from
the foundation must be distributed to a charity each year,
and it cannot be controlled by the contributor. But I
found that whole story to be interesting and just. It
is interesting, and.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I also think, Mark, we have to take into account
if I don't get a state planning right, there's not
going to be the Wagoner rule. It works for Paul Newman,
it may not.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Work for the rest of us. So make sure that
your estate planning is in good shape. It is an
act of love. I always say this for your loved ones.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Great insights as always from our estate planning expert Mark
Krakman from the law form of wood and Lamping. You're
listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial here
in fifty five KRC.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The talk station
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Medal of Honor: Stories of Courage
Rewarded for bravery that goes above and beyond the call of duty, the Medal of Honor is the United States’ top military decoration. The stories we tell are about the heroes who have distinguished themselves by acts of heroism and courage that have saved lives. From Judith Resnik, the second woman in space, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice, these are stories about those who have done the improbable and unexpected, who have sacrificed something in the name of something much bigger than themselves. Every Wednesday on Medal of Honor, uncover what their experiences tell us about the nature of sacrifice, why people put their lives in danger for others, and what happens after you’ve become a hero. Special thanks to series creator Dan McGinn, to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and Adam Plumpton. Medal of Honor begins on May 28. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear ad-free episodes one week early. Find Pushkin+ on the Medal of Honor show page in Apple or at Pushkin.fm. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com