You have all had so many estate planning questions and today we delivered answers, with certified estate planning attorney Tim Semro. It’s an “estate planning all the time” episode, as we cover everything from estate planning headlines to our estate-filled TikTok minute. You also asked tons of questions about when to leave people money, what traits make a good executor, how do you help loved ones with disabilities, what if you don’t want a relatives money, and how to minimize probate costs…plus much, much more.
In our headline segment we focus on celebrity cases that have ended ugly. From Tony Bennett to Aretha Franklin and Chadwick Boseman, estate issues are seemingly always in the news. In our TikTok minute we shine a light on a top television show (Curb Your Enthusiasm) that brings up some awkward estate situations. On the back porch we show another family (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) that also may not end up happy with a recent estate settlement.
All of that plus Doug’s trivia on today’s podcast.
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Our Headlines
- What estate debacles of Aretha Franklin, James Caan and Tony Bennett can teach the rest of us (FinancialPlanning)
Our TikTok Minute
Tim Semro
Big thanks to Tim Semro for joining us today. To learn more about Tim, visit Semro Henry Ltd.
Grab your copy of Tim’s book Your Money, Your Way: Keep the Most, Give the Most and Enjoy True Peace of Mind
Doug’s Trivia
- Which U.S. president had a tattoo of a tomahawk on his inner thigh?
Better call Saul…Sehy & OG
- Write listener question here
Have a question for the show?
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Other Mentions
- Your Money, Your Way – Semro Henry Ltd. (download the book and estate planning scorecard for free)
- Download the Semro Henry College Preparedness Plan
Join Us Friday!
Tune in on Friday where our roundtable will tackle some lessons from the book “Die With Zero.“
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Miss our last show? Listen here: How One Woman Quit Her High Paying Job to Focus on Being a Force for Good
Episode transcript
[00:00:00] bit: Hello, my name is You Killed. My father Prepare to Die [00:00:15] Doug: Live from Joe’s Mom’s basement. It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show. [00:00:29] I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, and on today’s show, I’ve invited death expert Tim sro here to help me figure out how to get all the money outta OGs pockets. Wait, what? That’s not why we’re here. Well, why else would Tim be here? I mean, it, it can’t be both. All right. You’re the boss. Hey, uh, Steve, can you roll the music again for me today? [00:00:54] You’ll learn everything you need to know about what to do with your stuff apparently when you die with Certified Estate Planner attorney Tim sro in our headlines, more celebrities in the News Dead ones. We’ll talk about what we can learn about estate planning from the rich and famous and for our TikTok Minute estate planning on a major TV show. [00:01:17] It sure was. We’ll share a clip plus we’ll answer lots of questions from stackers who thought, you know, I’d better call Saul, see hi og, and in this case Tim, and then I’ll share some inked trivia. And now two guys who’ve promised to leave everything to be after they die. The script is legally binding. [00:01:39] It’s Joe and OG and the guy who can prove it’s legal. Tim, [00:01:50] Joe: hey there, stackers. Happy Wednesday. Welcome to the show. People are dying to get on. Get a Doug, huh? Ha [00:01:58] bit: ha. Yes. You’re killing me. [00:02:00] Joe: The Stacky Benjamin. Show you’re here. Sit back and relax. ’cause we have. An hour of, uh, financially nerdery stuff going on today. Death related stuff, which is always fun when we talk about death with a guy across the car table from me. [00:02:14] Mr. og, how are you man? [00:02:16] OG: I’m still living, I guess so. So far, so good. [00:02:20] Joe: Just gotta tell Doug that. Hey, Doug, he’s still alive. The pillow trick last night didn’t work. Can we do something with his makeup [00:02:27] Doug: so he looks more lifelike? Yes. [00:02:29] Joe: Well the good the good news is, is that uh, it’s not just og Doug and I Today we have our good buddy estate planning attorney, Tim Ro here. [00:02:39] How are you man? [00:02:40] Tim: I’m doing well. Thanks for, uh, having me on the show. [00:02:43] Joe: Well, thanks for coming and saving us. We really appreciate it. You’ve got a new book out, your Money Your Way. Let’s talk first about the book just a little bit. This is a book where you dive into estate planning stories, which I think estate planning, it’s a lot more fun to cover it. [00:02:59] I think, Tim, when you talk about it in terms of stories, [00:03:02] Tim: when we wrote the book, I wrote it telling stories because when we sit down with clients, oftentimes when we’re explaining. Complicated concepts. We do it by telling stories and there’s enough books out there that tell you you need a trust or you need a will, or you need a power of attorney. [00:03:16] And those things that quite frankly, are boring. Um, and they focus too much on the tools. What we focus on is what is the issues and what’s the solutions. And that’s what these stories do [00:03:25] Joe: well, it’s exciting part of your subtitles about giving more and, and living more. This isn’t just for dying. This is about actually having. [00:03:32] I guess a more fun life, huh? [00:03:34] Tim: Yeah, and a lot of people find out that, you know, especially with charitable giving, for example, they say, Hey, I wanna leave some money to my charity when I die. And oftentimes the conversation goes to, Hey, you could leave some money to them now. Give them money now and see how they handle it. [00:03:48] And, uh, get a lot of satisfaction out of that. And maybe an income tax deduction. By the way, [00:03:53] Joe: I remember that Tim, from the time I was a financial planner, when parents, uh, had enough for their lifetime and they would give it. To family members or causes they like while they were alive. Like it was so much, I could never figure out why. [00:04:05] This was always just talking about when I die it, I don’t think it, I don’t think it really needs to be when I die. [00:04:11] Tim: Well, and especially because it’s great to leave a charity things when you die, but you don’t get an income tax deduction for that. So I would rather do it now when you get an incomes tax deduction, which in some cases means you can leave more money to your charity. [00:04:23] Uh, than you would’ve before, but also you get a, a benefit. And then the secret one is you can also see what they do with their money. And there’s, in the story, one of the stories in the book, I talk about how the client, I encouraged her to give to this charity ahead of time, just a smaller amount of money. [00:04:37] And she found out that they didn’t do what they promised they would do with it. And so guess what? She cut ’em out of her will as a result. [00:04:43] Joe: Wow. Oh, that’s hardcore. Yeah. [00:04:46] Tim: So it’s an easy way to find out how the charity’s gonna handle this. And the other thing we do is we help them vet the charities to see if they spend all their money on fundraising or if they actually do their charitable purpose. [00:04:55] Joe: Yeah. It’s not just a charity to get more money. More money, more money. Actually do the thing. Oh gee. At what point are you cutting your kids outta the will? [00:05:02] OG: Well, I cut the boys out a long time ago, as I told them. And my daughter walks around and goes, I get all the money ’cause I’m a princess. So they’re not too happy about it, but, you know, it is what it is. [00:05:13] Just like, uh, go, [00:05:14] Joe: geez, the princess on this podcast. We, we got a great, we got a great show today. We got, uh, attorney Tim Ero with us. We’ve got a bunch of your questions that you asked in our basement Facebook group. We’re gonna ask. Tim, your questions hopefully help you get your estate planning right and make, as Tim said, uh, a happier life for you. [00:05:33] Now, I can’t believe, by the way, Tim, when I got my estate plan done, just how much better I felt like I put it off and put it off, and when I actually got it done, I remember walking out of the attorney’s office and going, this is phenomenal. I feel so good right now. By the way, for the book, before we get started, we’ll have this at the end. [00:05:49] We’ll also have it in the show notes. People want the book. Where can they get it? [00:05:53] Tim: If they go to our website, sro henry.com, that’s S-E-M-R-O-H-E-N-R y.com, they can, uh, hit the trust book tab and download it for free. [00:06:02] Doug: Awesome. You know what I really appreciate you did when you titled the book Your Money Your Way, you know what, what most attorneys would’ve done would title that your money or Your Life, but you kind of took the, the nicer approach and said, your money your way. [00:06:15] And I thought that was a really nice touch. [00:06:17] Tim: Yeah, I appreciate it. And it’s funny, the, the title was the very last thing I came up with. So the book was all written, and then I said, what am I gonna call this thing? And you know, we’re talking about people’s money and, and where it’s gonna end up. So you’re, it’s your money and it’s your way as opposed to me telling you where you should leave it or what you should do, or the IR RSS telling you what you should do with it. [00:06:36] Joe: It’s your money, the IRS’s way. That’s a, that’s not as sexy. It’s a different book. That’s, that’s the next book. [00:06:43] Tim: Well, we talk about this in the book, the, the fact that, uh, you can leave your assets to three different people. You can leave it to people, you can leave it to charities, or you can leave it to the IRS. [00:06:51] I’m not a big fan of leaving it to the IRS, but that is one of your options. [00:06:55] Joe: We got attorney Tim Sero with us, OG Doug me. We got a wild headline coming up, but before all that, we have some sponsors that make this podcast free so that you don’t have to pay for it. We’ll hear from one right now. We’ll be right back. [00:07:09] Alright guys, let’s dive into this headline. [00:07:11] bit: Hello Doling. And now it’s time for your favorite part of the show, our Stacking Benjamins headlines. [00:07:18] Joe: Our headline today comes to us from financial planning.com, financial planning. Unfortunately, this is behind a paywall, but you know what, I don’t think there’s a lot here that. [00:07:28] Our stackers really need to read, but we will still link to it in the show notes. This is a piece written by Rob Burgess. What advisors, since this is a website for advisors and their clients can learn from celebrity estate debacle. Oh gee. You and I on several podcasts we’ve talked about the Aretha Franklin issue. [00:07:44] Aretha Franklin, I think had maybe more wills than she had birthdays. I think that How many, how many wills at last count did they find for her? 37. The [00:07:53] OG: handwritten one on the couch was [00:07:54] Joe: especially. Helpful. Yeah. [00:07:57] OG: Allegedly [00:07:58] Joe: after years of legal dispute in 2023, this piece says a judge found that the last one was the valid one. [00:08:06] And I guess, Tim, I don’t wanna focus too much on Aretha Franklin, but if they find five different wills of yours, is that generally the case? Whatever was written last is the one that they go with. [00:08:16] Tim: Yeah. Ironically they call it the last will and testament, but we’ve had clients do this where they wanna sign three copies of the will and, and you can’t sign three copies. [00:08:24] The last one you sign is your one and only will. You can make a photocopy of it, but you can’t sign several. And if you sign one every week for the next three weeks, it’s the last one you sign. That’s. That’s valid. [00:08:34] Joe: By the way, my son Nick, who’s rehabbing houses in Detroit, oh gee, we’ve talked about this before. [00:08:39] He bought a house around the corner from the house where Aretha Franklin grew up and there’s lots of construction like all over Detroit. Tons of people making these beautiful properties beautiful again. This piece says Franklin’s far from the only celebrity to die without clear estate plans in place. [00:08:54] Singer Tony Bennett’s children are currently embroiled in a legal feud over his estate. And last year the estate of actor James Conn lost its five-year quest to avoid paying nearly a million dollars in tax deficiencies and penalties. Relating to a partnership interest in a hedge fund in his IRA. I don’t know that we need Tim to go into like what it means to have a partnership interest in a hedge fund in an IRA. [00:09:21] OG: Don’t. [00:09:22] Joe: But how does this get so complicated? It seems like, right? It seems like it could be. It should be pretty straightforward, shouldn’t it? [00:09:28] Tim: Well, it should, and there’s two issues you brought up there. The one was with the children causing problems. And usually the problems they’re gonna cause is they’re gonna say that mom or dad signed the will and they were being forced to sign it because their arm was being twisted by one of their other siblings. [00:09:43] So that’s a undue influence or a diminished capacity situation where they said they really didn’t know what they were doing anymore. And then the other. One is the IRS, uh, rules, and those can get incredibly complicated inside of IRAs and the distribution of IRAs [00:09:58] Joe: when it comes to money inside of IRAs. [00:10:01] So IRAs always have these beneficiaries, do I not to make the beneficiaries my children, or the same heirs that I would make them, you know, that I think of as Myers. [00:10:11] Tim: Yeah. And one of the important things, and when we often talk about what’s the first step you can take in an estate plan when you don’t know what to do is put beneficiaries on everything your own, including your IRAs. [00:10:20] ’cause they will go outside of probate, which is the fastest, cheapest, easiest way to get assets to transfer if you put a beneficiary designation on there. [00:10:28] Joe: We did a story a few weeks ago, Tim, about a guy that had his, uh, girlfriend at the time, what was it, OG, like 30 years ago? Yeah. His girlfriend from 30 years ago who’s still the, was, was the best, still the beneficiary [00:10:41] OG: of the 401k for 30 years and over a [00:10:44] Joe: million dollars of ex-boyfriend’s money. [00:10:45] Turns [00:10:46] OG: out she was not as benevolent to the family as they had hoped. [00:10:49] Joe: Yeah. Shocking. She still, uh, she still wanted the cash, but how often do you see that she still love. She’s like, I’m still in love with him. I’m still in love with him. I knew he was the one. Well, she’s, she’s not as in love with him as she is. [00:10:59] Two commas og. Yeah. Well, there’s that. I fall in love really quickly with two commas, but how often, Tim, do you see beneficiaries that haven’t been changed in for like surprising beneficiaries? I. [00:11:10] Tim: Especially in the divorce situation, we see this a lot where they assume that the divorce decree cancels, all of that stuff. [00:11:16] Depending on the state you’re in, what the laws are, that may not be the case. And there’s been some classic cases where that occurs. And also where we see this just in a more simple version, is they say, look, for my estate plan, I’m gonna have this bank account go to my son and this bank account go to my daughter. [00:11:31] And they, later on, they switch banks and they forget to change. The, the first account, uh, beneficiary. And so now the daughter’s getting this part and the other part’s going equal shares through probate to the two of ’em. And it’s not at all what they wanted the division to be. So that’s, you know, a lot of times where you end up using another tool called a trust where you can just have one document that you change if you need to make a change. [00:11:54] And you don’t have to worry about every single account. ’cause that happens a ton. [00:11:57] Joe: Those are obviously just a few relatively recent cases. Uh, this piece goes on to talk about actor Chadwick Bozeman, musician Prince, and Doug’s brother by another mother rapper, Tupac Shakur. Uh, people get them confused all the time. [00:12:11] Doug in Tupac, they’re part of a long list of artists who died without leaving a will. Can we, can we just talk about that, Tim? If you don’t have a will. In fact, one of our questions today when we were talking about you coming on this show, I asked people in our Facebook group for their questions and comments, and one person told me they don’t know what to do, so they haven’t done a will, and that’s their procrastination. [00:12:32] But if this person, this stacker doesn’t have a will, what happens to your stuff? [00:12:36] Tim: One of the common mistakes people make is thinking that if you have a will, that you’re not gonna go through probate. Well, a will goes through probate, and if you don’t have a will, you go through probate. It’s just these are the instructions you’re giving to court to get to deal with your assets. [00:12:49] The only way to avoid probate is to have a beneficiary designation on your account or have it passing through a trust somehow where it’s not going in your name. If you die with the asset in your name, with no co-owner, no beneficiary, you’re in probate whether you have a will or not. But I would say the first step they can make. [00:13:05] Put a beneficiary on every account you have, at least. Then you’re avoiding probate. [00:13:10] Joe: You, uh, told us before we hit record today, something a lot of people don’t know. Those probate fees can really add up, Tim, but those aren’t what people think they are often. [00:13:20] Tim: Yeah. So this is a secret that, uh, attorneys don’t like to talk about, but every court has a court schedule or there’s a state statute in the state that you’re in that says that they won’t challenge the fees if they’re this amount or less. [00:13:33] So attorneys will come and say, well, that’s the court schedule. And it says right here, they will approve these fees. So that’s the schedule and that’s what you have to pay. Here’s the secret. Those fees are negotiable. You do not have to pay a percentage of the assets to an attorney. They can bill it hourly, they can bill less than that statute. [00:13:49] And, and here’s why that’s important. Let’s say that you have an a state that has two assets, that has a bank account and a house, right? I have to do is file some papers to get that house transferred. I have to file a couple of papers to get that bank account transferred. That’s a lot less work. And one beneficiary. [00:14:06] By the way, if I have minor children, I have a special needs person who’s, uh, under disability. If I’ve got multiple assets that are more complicated partnerships, real estate partnerships or just LLCs, things like that, it can get a lot more complicated. But if I have a very simple one. There’s no reason I would need to charge you two or 3% to do that. [00:14:27] I can do it for a lot less, [00:14:29] Joe: but I can imagine if somebody has a business and they haven’t done a will or they’ve done a will and it’s going through probate like that, I can’t imagine like a business that might be your only part owner of could be well worth the 3% fee. [00:14:43] Tim: Well, there’s a really important reason there. [00:14:45] One of the things you have to do in probate court is you have to value the assets and probate court records are public records. So if I own a business and I have to file what I think the value is and then the heirs wanna sell the business, there’s not a lot of negotiation going on when they, when I can just look up and say, well, here’s what you think it’s worth. [00:15:03] Joe: Yeah. At what point, og somebody’s arc of business, right? I mean, I can’t imagine if you and I are starting a business today that we’re gonna talk about, hey, how do we, how do we define [00:15:12] OG: this business? I’m good, man. We’ve got one already. I don’t need to start another one with you. Like this has been, this has been great, but I don’t know that I need another one at this point. [00:15:21] Joe: Working with OG Tim is where all my hair went, and the little that’s left is all gray. Just uhhuh, so we know. [00:15:26] OG: Sure, sure. But [00:15:27] Joe: let’s say that you’re starting a business, you’re not gonna talk about this type of estate lining type, talking about. Right away. At what point do you sit down with a business owner and go, you know what, if one of you dies? [00:15:36] OG: Well, I think that’s a good point, but the other problem with this is the way that you go through and start trying to solve this problem is also under review right now. There was recently, Tim, I don’t know that you, maybe you caught this or not. There was recently, uh, I dunno, this is an IRS case. Maybe something where a very popular strategy to kind of help with that transition is to have the owner’s own different life insurance policies and so on and so forth. [00:16:00] Got kind of, uh, sipsy turvy in the IRS courts not too long ago. Basically, the IRS said, correct me if I’m wrong here, Tim, but I think the IRS said the value of the insurance is also included in the value of the business. So back to like trying to calculate how much it’s worth and some of that, sometimes that has an effect on succession planning or it has an effect on potential tax bill. [00:16:22] You know, if you owe taxes to your community or to your state, or you know, federal, depending on the value. They were saying that the value of the insurance, you know, so you have this $6 million business and everybody’s got 2 million of insurance on each other for three owners. Well maybe that’s actually a, an $8 million business because the business got another $2 million cash infusion, which obviously is silly because then you go, doesn’t make sense. [00:16:45] Wait a second, now I’ve gotta pay 3 million to get out of this, but I only got 2 million in cash to do it. And you know, there’s a lot of downstream effects on this, but I think the bigger issue is having the discussion. What are we gonna do? And I think all this boils down to, you know, what Tim was saying, is doing nothing isn’t not a great option because there is a plan for you if you do nothing right? [00:17:05] I mean, there’s, you know, the, the court cases and, and the IRS and whatnot, they have a do nothing plan. If you want something other than the do nothing plan. You have to be talking about it and thinking about it and making some affirmative changes. [00:17:18] Joe: But back to my question, og, when does that discussion happen? [00:17:20] When the business finally [00:17:21] OG: starts turning a profit? I don’t know that there’s a hard and fast rule on this. I mean, I don’t know that you wanna peg a certain dollar amount at any point. A business that’s worth something. I. Whatever it is. If one of the owners passes away, then it’s gonna be a mess one way or the other. [00:17:38] You know, whether the business is a small family business that has, you know, a few employees, or if it’s a big, giant private business that has 500 employees, either way it’s gonna be a mess. You have to think about not only the succession planning of it, like who’s gonna be in charge, but also, you know, what are all the financial ramifications of me not being around at the smallest level. [00:17:58] I, I don’t know why you wouldn’t. [00:18:00] Tim: Well, and on top of that, when you have that discussion is important. So you may have that discussion very briefly at the beginning when you first set up the company, but it’s not a one and done situation. Things change over time. So you need to have that discussion regularly. [00:18:14] ’cause what you thought when you first started the company and you had one partner and you thought that the company was going in this direction, and all of a sudden later on you’ve got several more partners, or the business has gotten a lot larger, could be a totally different solution than you originally thought of. [00:18:28] Joe: Apparently Doug thinks about when OG iss dying like daily. Based on the Open Today Show, he’s always on my mind to quote, uh, Elvis b Presley, [00:18:36] Doug: A Girl Can Dream. [00:18:37] Joe: Uh, we will again link to this piece on our show notes page at Stacking Benjamins dot com. Time for us to transition over to our TikTok minute, Tim, this is a part of the show where we shine a light on a TikTok creator who’s either doing something brilliant on TikTok or air quotes. [00:18:53] Brilliant. Which one you think we have today? Brilliance or air quotes. [00:18:58] Tim: Hmm, I’m gonna go with brilliant. [00:19:01] Joe: Well, this one actually, I think, oh geez. Sucker OG is shaking. Guess wrong, sir. Is shaking his head. No, no, no. I think this one actually is brilliant because this, uh, gentleman on TikTok called the Probate Pro is actually looking at one of the, uh, most popular. [00:19:20] Comedy shows out. This show is called, uh, curb Your Enthusiasm. This is a discussion from the show between Larry David and Richard Lewis, and then he’s got some commentary at the end. So let’s listen in to, uh, Larry and Richard and, uh, well, the Probate Pro introduces the segment. [00:19:39] bit: Have you seen the recent curve episode in which Larry, David and Richard Lewis discuss their estate plans? [00:19:45] Hilarious stuff, but what about the law surrounding all of this? Let’s watch. I’m leaving you in my will. I’m tweaking it and you’re in it. No, no, no. Don’t, don’t do that. It’s done. You’re in. I don’t wanna be in, I got, I have money. I don’t need it. Give it to someone who needs it. When I die, I want you to know how much I care about you. [00:19:59] I’m not gonna keep it. I’m gonna give it to charity. I’m my best friend. You’re getting it? No, I’m making a shermanesque statement about the will. Right now, I’m sick of your historical references. If nominated, I will not run. If bequeath, I will not accept. Well, I’m bequeathing. Well, I’m not accepting. You’ll have to accept. [00:20:12] Don’t give it to me. You have every right to discuss your estate plan with your friends and family and know you don’t have to receive a gift that’s given to you. You can disclaim it saying you don’t want it. And lastly, you can assign your gift to a third party, to another family member, or in this case, to a charity. [00:20:28] So, Larry, if, [00:20:29] Joe: if, if I know though, Tim, that, that somebody, if I’m giving my money, Larry, David and Larry, David’s telling me I don’t want your money. Do you see people still give it to him anyway? Or do they do what this gentleman’s saying? They just deny the gift. Just go, Nope, no thank you. [00:20:42] Tim: Usually what we see them do is disclaim or deny the gift. [00:20:45] You can have that conversation, but it’s kinda like in that clip. If people wanna leave money, they have it set in their minds that they wanna leave money to that person. [00:20:53] Joe: If everybody wants to leave money to me or OG or Doug, uh, but specifically me, really, we will not deny [00:20:58] OG: it we’ll, we’ll nor disclaim it fully accept the gift. [00:21:03] I will exclaim it if that counts. Yay. [00:21:06] Joe: But if you have a gift, let’s say that I’m doing okay financially, Tim, but other people in my family are not doing okay and I get left a gift. Can I disclaim the gift and redirect it to other people instead? Or does it go through the beneficiary channels that are in a trust or probate or whatever? [00:21:27] Tim: Yeah. Usually what’s gonna happen is when you sign a disclaimer that says, treat me as if I’ve predeceased, and therefore you are not directing what’s gonna happen to it. It’s gonna go to the next. Beneficiary listed in the line of beneficiaries. If it was in a trust document or whatever, it usually, you don’t have the ability to direct it. [00:21:47] That’s an unusual situation that he was bringing up. [00:21:49] Doug: Tim, I have a slightly different question. Is there any reason why you would want to. Deny or redirect, whether it’s tax implications or anything else legal that by somebody might not wanna take something that was bequeathed to them. [00:22:03] Tim: Yeah. Here’s a good one. [00:22:04] Uh, tax implications. Yes. If you already have a high net worth and you’re already in the estate tax situation you like in that clip, you might say, I don’t really need it. I don’t want it. But what about like a timeshare. A lot of people don’t wanna deal with timeshares and they end up saying, well I have to take mom’s timeshare ’cause she left it to me. [00:22:22] No, you don’t have to. And we’ve actually had cases where we let the timeshare just sit in probate. Oh, that’s fabulous. And we just don’t even open probate because they don’t want it. It’s [00:22:35] OG: the ultimate reverse card on UNO to the [00:22:37] Joe: timeshare people course. The best. Are you saying the best way to get rid of your timeshare, Tim, is to die? [00:22:42] Tim: Um, there are a lot of people, I can tell you, I will not buy a timeshare based on all the clients I’ve talked to. Yeah. [00:22:49] Joe: I think most people have probably had that situation in their family where they either ended up with being bequeathed the timeshare and thought they had to take it, or they, uh, continued to pay the fees on the timeshare afterwards. [00:23:01] So, interesting. That’s a [00:23:02] Tim: really important one, because you don’t have to, just because the decedent owned it and you’re inheriting that doesn’t mean it’s yours yet. You don’t have to. Pay those fees. And, and especially with an asset like that where it’s got fees attached to it, don’t just start paying those fees or don’t start paying If you get, uh, medical bills after somebody dies and go, well those are mom’s medical bills, we have to pay them. [00:23:21] You may not have to pay them because it goes through the probate court process and if there’s no assets in probate, they might get released. But people will start paying all those fees, uh, right away. And it’s, they don’t necessarily need to. [00:23:32] Joe: This is a show, by the way. Curb Your Enthusiasm. That I love. And what’s funny is. [00:23:36] I would continually talk about this show with Neighbor Doug, and he and I would hang out and I’d go, let’s watch an episode. And we would always pick out the crappiest episodes. So, so Doug, this is a show that you should [00:23:50] Doug: love, and yet I know you’re not the only one who’s told me that too. They’re like, this is right up your alley. [00:23:58] It’s your humor. It is [00:23:58] Joe: totally up your alley. I was always disappointed by the episodes that, ’cause I’m like, oh, we could watch any episode. Apparently not, because every time I’d show you an episode, it was really a representation Coming up. In the second half of the show, we’re gonna have an extended q and a with Tim. [00:24:15] These are not our questions. These are your questions that you guys, uh, that are in our Facebook group. The basement submitted, but before that. We are going to tomorrow have an extended discussion in the 2 0 1, our newsletter that comes out the day after this show appears. So head to stacky Benjamins dot com slash 2 0 1 so you can get, uh, to the next level on all of the stuff that we’re talking about today. [00:24:39] That’s always free. The 2 0 1 comes out twice a week. Doug here at the midway point though. You’ve got today’s trivia question. This is a, this is a good one, man. I [00:24:48] Doug: think it’s a great one. Hey there, stackers. I’m Joe’s Mom’s neighbor, Doug. Today is National Tattoo Removal Day and of course we all know it’s just one of those fake holidays made up by Big Laser. [00:25:00] Well, they can take my tramp stamp off my cold dead upper butt. It’s what you can do. Big laser. Now look, I’ve had it since college. It’s becoming something of a trademark for me. For the very few of you who haven’t seen it, it’s an homage to Nicholas Cage. In the center is the plane from Con Air engulfed in flames, like on the movie poster, but this time, you know, it’s just, just above my butt. [00:25:23] Then on my left butt cheek is a mini portrait of said Nicholas Cage holding the Declaration of Independence and above the other. Is his mugshot from raising Arizona. But you know, it, it’s, it’s tastefully done. Don’t worry. Surprisingly, a lot of political figures like me, Doug 2024, not crooked at all, have had tattoos. [00:25:44] Nicholas II of Russia had a dragon on his arm and former Secretary of State George Schultz, while he had a tiger on his butt, but that made him pretty popular with the ladies. Am I right? Today’s trivia question is which US President had a tattoo of a tomahawk? On his inner thigh. I’ll be back with today’s answer and the ad-free second half of this estate planning party after we hear from the sponsors who make this free for you. [00:26:13] And right after I ask Joe’s mom if she has any hidden tattoos. [00:26:31] Hey, there’s DERs. I’m tattoo historian and Nicholas Cage. Stan Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. Today’s trivia question is, which US President had a tattoo of a tomahawk on his inner thigh? Well, without even looking, I can tell you it wasn’t Chester Arthur, I’m a. Bit of an Arthur Arthur Fi Arthurian. What? I’m an Arthur file. [00:26:53] We’ll just put it that way. I can’t be the only one with a Chester Arthur poster over my bed. My favorite fact about Chester Arthur is that he was famous for his sense of style, much like myself. People even called him elegant Arthur. Reminds me of how some people call me dignified Doug. Who? Who is that the answer? [00:27:13] That’s what they call me when I wear my bow tie and nothing else. The answer I’m getting to it. According to the University of North Carolina and other sources, it was Andrew Jackson who had a tattoo of a tomahawk on his inner thought. And probably, you know, still does. And now back to Joe and OG and Tim [00:27:35] Joe: og. [00:27:35] I bet you knew you’re a big fan of, uh, Andrew Jackson. So you knew he had a to hawk on his inner thigh. [00:27:42] OG: Uh, I did not know that. My guess would’ve been FDR no Teddy Roosevelt. Sorry. My teddy guess would’ve been Teddy Roosevelt more outdoorsy. [00:27:51] Joe: Guy we went to our friends in the Facebook group, the basement, stacky Benjamins dot com slash basement if you’d like to join us there. [00:28:01] And Tim, they had some really good questions. And what’s great is, is how much these actually line up with the topics in your book. In fact. You start off with a story about a couple that wants to figure out what to do with their cottage in their estate plan, and in fact, Leona has a question that might be similar. [00:28:20] So let’s tackle Leona’s first. What’s the best way to leave a property to two adult children? Joint tendency with rights as survivorship. Tendency by the entirety. Tendency in common are in a trust. We want them to be able to use or rent a large vacation property that they own and be able to sell it if they decide to do so. [00:28:40] Thanks, Leona for the question. What do you think about that, Tim? [00:28:43] Tim: Yeah, that’s a great question because if you own it, tenancy in common, any of the owners can force a sale through what’s called a partition action. And a lot of times that isn’t what the parents wanted when they left it to the kids, is they don’t want one of the kids to be able to force a sale, especially if the other kids don’t have the ability to buy them out. [00:29:01] Tenancy by the entireties or or joint tenancy work. Very similar Tendency by the entireties has a little creditor protection attached to it. But again, if you have two kids and you want the property to stay 50 50 in those families going down to the next generation, it doesn’t do that. If one of ’em dies, it goes to the survivor. [00:29:17] So it kind of depends on what they want. The most flexibility you can get is using a trust. ’cause you can make whatever rules you want inside the trust you can dictate. Uh, here’s what happens. If you, one of ’em wants to sell, you can say, here’s what happens if you go to vacation there and you bring your pet along. [00:29:32] And uh, you know, is there gonna be a pet cleaning fee that’s put on the cottage every time you bring your pet or who gets which weeks? You can put that in the trust as well. So a lot of times we end up using a trust for that specific purpose. [00:29:44] Joe: I think the pet cleaning fee is something people would never think about in a million years. [00:29:48] Tim: Yeah, and that’s the problem with a joint with, uh, joint tenancy ownership is you own a full right to the entire place. So if one of you shows up and wants to paint the front door purple. The other one really can’t stop them from doing that. So you have to have rules laid down. And pets are one of these rules that if you’re a pet owner, you bring your pet along. [00:30:07] If you’re not a pet owner, you might be annoyed when someone brings their pet along. [00:30:11] OG: In practicality here, Tim, when it comes to like the vacation property Lake house, you know, once you get to the second generation, in your experience, has it been that that’s really a gigantic mess? Let’s assume that I had a vacation house and I have other assets and things like that. [00:30:29] Might it not be better to leave the house to one person and the assets to one person as opposed to. Giving both kids half the IRA and both kids half the cottage to kind of avoid maybe some of this issue. [00:30:40] Tim: Yeah, this is a tough one because that would make a lot more sense and I do like to encourage that, especially when you have one kid that lives farther away and what if they don’t wanna be involved with the cottage anymore? [00:30:50] But what you run into is these personal issues with the family where the mom and dad say, look, growing up, everybody always spent time in the cottage. We want the kids to spend time together at the cottage. How do we encourage that? Type of reuniting in this cottage, rather than them looking at it as just a gold mine. [00:31:07] But in practicality, you’re right. A lot of times that’s really hard to do. So one of the solutions is to say, look, if you leave it to all of ’em, you gotta put some restrictions. And we did this through a trust where the person that may not be spending any time there can’t just force a sale and force their siblings to buy ’em out. [00:31:25] So what we did is we said they could buy ’em out. They could be bought out, but they would get 50% of the fair market value payable over 10 years. Well, now all of a sudden it’s not just a big stack of cash that they get their hands on. The encouragement is, well, why don’t you just hold onto it? It’s not worth selling. [00:31:41] And then maybe down years down the road, they might live closer again and reunite. And that’s really what this family wanted, is they wanted their kids to experience the cottage the way they had experienced it when they were younger. [00:31:51] Joe: A quick follow up question to this. Xander just asks about a house in general, Tim, should a house be in a will or a trust, is it better or easier to put it in during the process of buying or after closing, assuming that it should be in a trust or a will. [00:32:05] Tim: So this is almost always gonna be after the process of buying, because most people are buying with a mortgage and the mortgage company. If you are gonna put it into a trust or an LLC or something like that, they’re probably gonna have a problem with that. So you’re much better off waiting and doing it afterwards. [00:32:20] After the, the transfer has occurred [00:32:23] Joe: in the second chapter of your book, you go over terms some important terms. And I think Mark has a great question on this one. Uh, he says, what makes a good executor? And, and let’s add to that some of the other terms people might need to know and in estate plan, uh, contingent trustee would be another one who’s good in these different roles people have, Tim. [00:32:45] Tim: So generally we’re looking for someone who. Has the temperament to handle the family dynamics. And I’ll give you an example. Recently I have a client who. Passed away and they picked the child who is an airline pilot as their trustee. Airline pilots can deal with all sorts of stress. He was the perfect guy to be the trustee among his siblings who may not have been getting along so well together. [00:33:08] You wanna think about who can handle the family dynamics, who can meet with the professionals, the attorneys, the CPAs, the financial advisors. In the old days, it used to be they actually had to marshal the assets, meaning, you know, they had all kinds of stuff they had to do. The executors and trustees don’t have as much physically to do anymore except for one thing that I’ll bring up in a second. [00:33:26] So it’s really more just dealing with the interpersonal relationships. But there is one thing, all the stuff in the house, so the personal property, that’s always an issue and someone has to clean it out and. That sometimes can be a problem. I would just hire that job done. But a lot of people insist on, they wanna clean up all the mom’s stuff. [00:33:46] And if mom was kind of a hoarder, this can be a real problem. And it’s real physical work. [00:33:52] Joe: Doug, did you have something there? I saw you put your microphone up for a second. [00:33:55] Doug: Oh, I was gonna like, oh gee was getting all chaffy about, oh, airline pilot. That’s me. For people not watching [00:34:01] Joe: us on video. Uh, OG [00:34:02] OG: was like, oh yeah, I’m the perfect person. [00:34:04] I didn’t say that was me. I was just. Agree, we can tolerate a lot of bs. [00:34:09] Tim: I totally walked into that. I I wasn’t thinking that. Oh, gee’s. A pilot when I said that. [00:34:13] OG: Nice job, [00:34:13] Joe: Tim, as if his ego [00:34:14] OG: needed a little more. When I was first a financial planner and then I got married before we had kids, and just kind of getting started, I was trying to drink my own Kool-Aid, right? [00:34:22] We recommended estate plans, so I got my estate plan done. The attorney that I used at the time had a, I thought a pretty great thing, and maybe you do this Tim as well, is he would send a letter to everybody who was in the estate plan and just said, Hey, if OG gets hit by a bus, you have something to do. [00:34:40] Save my contact info. Basically, and this was, you know, in the late nineties, it was all paper mail. So I had decided in, in discussing this, that I didn’t want to put the burden of. Making the decision of, you know, extending life to my new bride and I couldn’t do it to my mom. So I decided that would be my next older brother. [00:35:00] And so he gets this letter and he says, you know, you know, dear Justin, you have this thing. And so my brother calls me, he goes, Hey, I got this letter from attorney. What the hell is this about? And I said, oh, well this is a really important thing to me. And I explained it to him. He goes, so I’m the one in charge of, uh, pulling the plug. [00:35:15] And I go, well, I mean. Put it mildly. Yes. Um, but, you know, look, this is really important. He goes, awesome. Uh, so, uh, when do I get to do that? Can, can I do it now? So be careful in who you select in these different roles, because some of them may be a little bit more excited to fast forward to the end than others. [00:35:35] Well, a big problem that [00:35:35] Joe: I’ve seen, Tim, you know, I know OG you’re joking, but I’m not actually. But [00:35:40] OG: that went exactly. I I was a fair representation of that conversation. [00:35:45] Joe: Something I know that you and I have both seen is that people have this person as the executor or the trustee who is and more in the executor role, I suppose, that just wants to make everybody happy regardless of what the estate plan says. [00:36:00] It always seemed to me, Tim, that you’re better off if you’ve got somebody who’s better off is being seen a little bit like a, they’re just gonna follow. If they’re gonna follow whatever the estate plan says, and I don’t really care what you think. If you, if you’re not the person that wrote this out, would you say that characterization is true or no? [00:36:19] Tim: Well, you definitely, um, and by the way, the difference between executor and trustee, one’s in the will, one’s in the trust, but you’re right, they do pretty much the same thing. You do want somebody who’s gonna follow those rules. ’cause that’s, that’s their only choice, is what the will says and what the trust says. [00:36:31] And you’re not gonna make everyone happy. So they do have to kind of stick to their guns. And a lot of times we have to be the bad guy. ’cause they’ll, they’ll bring us in and say. I don’t really, and I mean, I’ve had cases where the family doesn’t even get along together and we have to do all the communicating. [00:36:45] Oh God. Uh, rather than the executor or the trustee [00:36:47] OG: bet those fees are not negotiable then, huh? [00:36:49] Tim: Yeah, exactly. [00:36:51] Joe: That’s where you earn your money, Tim, right there. [00:36:53] OG: That’s when you pull out the court schedule and go, well, the court says here’s the schedule. So [00:36:57] Tim: I have been involved in some difficult, uh, conversations over the years. [00:37:01] Yeah. And, [00:37:01] Joe: and a lot of the time, Tim, is it true that they don’t fight over the important stuff? They fight over the stupid crap? [00:37:06] Tim: Yeah, we had a case one time where there it was a, a rock that sat in the front yard and everyone wanted this rock ’cause it meant a lot. And they spent a lot of money in litigation arguing about this rock. [00:37:23] OG: Was it made of gold? [00:37:24] Tim: No. It was just a diamond [00:37:26] OG: of some kind. [00:37:27] Tim: Nope. [00:37:28] OG: It’s a quarry rock that, uh, that the landscaper couldn’t move when they built the house. Yeah. [00:37:32] Tim: And it was a very important, um, family. I. I don’t know. Memento. Unbelievable sitting out there in the yard. [00:37:39] Joe: The rock. Yeah. Two more quick ones here, Tim. [00:37:44] Several people ask, uh, Corey is is one of them, but I know a couple other people in here ask this. If I had my estate plan done in one state and I move to another state that may have some different rules, do I need to get that estate plan redone? [00:37:58] Tim: This is a great question. Um, now the Constitution of the United States full faith and credit clause says if you sign it and it’s valid in the state, you signed it in, it’ll be honored in the other states. [00:38:07] But the laws are different, right? So sometimes it does make sense to talk to somebody, but you don’t necessarily, I. Have to make changes. So hopefully the attorney you sit down with, the attitude they have is, does this work in this state? It might not be exactly mentioning the, the, you know, lineup directly, but does it work because I hate to just redo a plan just because you moved from a different state. [00:38:31] Now that being said, generally speaking, the laws east of the Mississippi are all the same except for a few states like Wisconsin and west of the Mississippi. They’re different. East of Mississippi, you have, uh, what we call separate property states and West is. Typically community property states, so you should have the conversation with an attorney, but don’t assume that you’re gonna have to make a bunch of changes, because since you signed it and it was valid in the state, you signed it in, it will be honored in the state you would pass away in. [00:38:59] It’ll just be interpreted under the laws of that state. [00:39:01] OG: There could be another issue too, Tim, when it comes to states, especially as the federal estate tax is changing and becoming higher and higher states are getting cut out more and more. We’re seeing, obviously you are as well, a little bit more interest at the state level of having some sort of estate tax or death tax. [00:39:18] That changes depending on the state too. So you might have some, some minuscule changes if you move from one state that maybe didn’t have an estate tax and you move to another state that has now, now maybe you’re below the threshold for the tax in that state. [00:39:31] Tim: True. ’cause a lot of states have gotten rid of their estate tax. [00:39:33] There’s kind of a wave that went across the country with that. But there are a few select states that still have it. And then some of them have what we refer to as a cliff tax where you have no tax, uh, up to a certain point. But once you’re past that point, you have a tax, but the rates are such that it starts to scoop up. [00:39:50] The entire part that was exempt before all of [00:39:52] Joe: it. So all the stuff that, all of it. Wow. Yeah, [00:39:55] Tim: so it’s very important ’cause there are a few specific states that we run into that in, you know, it’s just part of that you make sure that the person you’re talking to understands taxes, not just a general attorney. [00:40:05] And this is the thing is one of the questions we get is. How do I choose an attorney for estate planning? And, and one easy way is if you go to their website or their advertising, and they’ve got like 10 things that they do that are listed in their, their bio and estate planning is the 10th or ninth thing. [00:40:20] They’re probably not doing a lot of estate planning, but every attorney says, oh, sure, I’ve got a will that I could pull off the shelf at some point. So look for somebody who’s certified. Or that you got introduced to, uh, or you can ask a friend about and say, who did you use? You can even call bar associations and ask for referrals. [00:40:37] But that, that’s a generally, don’t just take a general sole practitioner that does everything because it’s really hard to get, I. Deep into just estate planning if you’re not doing it all the time. [00:40:47] Joe: Last topic I wanna hit is around kids. We have a couple important questions about obviously your children, that we will not only be beneficiaries, but Tracy’s question is around disabled kids, but we’ll have careers. [00:40:58] She writes, how do we protect our assets for them once they transfer to protect them from not great people? Tracy calls it, who may come into their life if we aren’t around? Is that a trust of some kind? [00:41:09] Tim: Yeah, this is, and we run into this a lot and there’s a chapter in the book where we talk about a special needs situation more on the, when you leave money to them, how do we make sure we don’t disqualify them from any benefits they might be entitled to, uh, from the government just because they inherited money. [00:41:23] But the other soft issue there is how, how do we make sure that they don’t get influenced by the wrong people? We’ve experienced this with some of our family members of people that work here as well as clients. And yes, using a trust you can have. Trustees that can help out, uh, another person being the trustee that can help them out. [00:41:42] Also, just having conversations with them where, um, I’ve got a client that he says he carries my. Card in his wallet and he knows that he doesn’t sign anything unless he calls me. [00:41:53] Joe: Ah, nice. [00:41:54] Tim: Yeah, he, he would have issue even reading a contract, much less, um, knowing what he was consenting to. So those are important issues that we have to discuss. [00:42:02] Joe: A lot of people in a trust, maybe some of our stackers don’t know this. In a trust you can specify at what age. Kids get the money and you can stagger those ages. Carrie asks, what age do you recommend allowing kids the inheritance? Should you both pass? She says that they have their staggered, but as they get older, I kind of wanna keep moving the goalposts. [00:42:19] They’re 22 and almost 20 now. I want them to establish their careers well and not come into money if we both suddenly pass. She has it right now at 25 years old, but she’s thinking about pushing it back. Her question, Tim, is, is that dumb? [00:42:31] Tim: No, and I’ve even had a client that said, well, you know, I wanna push it back to 55. [00:42:35] And I said, well, at some point we gotta let ’em, we gotta let ’em, uh, leave the nest. But, but it’s a good question of when and, and so a lot of times what we’ll do is, instead of putting an age when they have that concern, is to say, look, usually the mistakes that are made are within the first 18 months after somebody passes away. [00:42:51] So when we sit down with people, we say, look for the next 18 months, try not to make any big decisions. One thing we could do is you can put a co-trustee for the first two years or three years. So you say, look, if you’re as long as you’re age 30, you can take over your allocation in the trust. But we’re gonna have a co-trustee there who you can balance ideas off and then, you know, you have to get their consent to take distributions. [00:43:13] So they kind learn what does it mean to have whatever this inheritance is? And. How will that affect my life? Because it’s not just, I can do some really cool things for the next year. We’d like this to last over their lifetime. The other thing is a lot of attorneys will put in staggered distributions where they say, well, at 25, 30 and 35, you get a third at each stop. [00:43:32] So that way, if they kind of blew the first. Third, then, you know, they have another, uh, chance at it. I like the general idea, but what I don’t like is just handing them the, the cash at those ages, because what if they were going through a creditor situation, they had a lawsuit against them, they had a divorce, they had a bankruptcy. [00:43:49] All of a sudden, this could be subject, this money could be subject to that creditor. What I’d rather do is have it be in trust. Hand ’em the checkbook, meaning that you are now a trustee, maybe even just a co-trustee, but a trustee of it. And if we wrote the trust right. It has creditor protection where those creditors can’t touch the the assets. [00:44:06] Joe: I wanna end with Melissa’s question ’cause this is a question that maybe a lot of our younger stackers have. I’m single and I don’t have kids. Do I really need an estate plan? I. [00:44:16] Tim: Well, what you wanna do is not be in probate, so your estate plan that you need is to have beneficiary designations on all your accounts, so that way we don’t go through probate when you pass. [00:44:25] But you might say, look, all I got is a bank account. I don’t own a house or anything. Just put a beneficiary on that. You can, in most states, put a beneficiary on your car if you own a car. And that covers you for, for the time being. What I’d rather you have is make sure you have a healthcare power and a financial power so that if you’re alive but need some help, you’ve got, uh, people that can help you. [00:44:44] That’s a more likely issue than passing away when you’re younger. I. [00:44:48] Joe: Thanks to everybody who asked us, uh, questions. Thanks Tim for answering those, uh, because obviously some really important stuff here that you do. And, um, and I know that you helped a lot of people, so thanks for being the mentor for all of our stackers today on that. [00:45:01] Tim: We usually have this happen at the end of a meeting, the estate planning meeting. Then they’ll say, well, I have a couple other questions. And I go, great. Let’s play stump the lawyer. [00:45:09] Joe: I was, I was concerned, og, we didn’t make him sweat. [00:45:12] OG: No, not at all. This was so easy. Yeah, we’ll have ’em come back for a version two of this. [00:45:17] Joe: Yeah. I’m a little annoyed Tim by how easily you handled that. We gotta do better stackers. Uh, get your game up, Doug. We’ve got a back porch today. You found some evidence on a popular TV show of some estate planning. I did. I did. Can we play that? Absolutely. I. Set it up for us. Doug. [00:45:34] Doug: Yeah. So this is a great scene where, uh, some of the primary characters in always sunny in Philadelphia are meeting with an attorney. [00:45:41] The attorney walks into the room to begin the reading. [00:45:47] bit: I am so sorry. My apologies is so busy today. It’s good to see all of you. Hey, that’s quite all right, sir. Don’t worry about it. Listen, would now be a good time to say a few words about my wonderfully warm and caring mother? No, Justina, come get to the reading part. Let’s get on with it, man. Let’s go. [00:46:01] Alright. Uh, which one of you, uh, is Frank Reynolds? No. Okay. Uh, Frank, I have something here that I need to read to you from Barbara. Hmm. Frank, if your fat monkey heart is still beating, uh, then congratulations. I want you to know that I hear by leave all of your money to Bruce Mathis, the real father of my children. [00:46:23] What? What? Bruce Mathis, a handsome man with a beautiful soul. And a nicer penis. You are giving all my money to that jerk off. You know Mr. Reynolds, I’m reading what’s on the document. Why are you giving it to him? I’m not. She merely even knew him. Yeah. I’m not giving any money to anybody. You see, I’m just reading what’s on a will. [00:46:41] Where is that rat, sir? I don’t know because I don’t wanna smash his face until he’s dead. Killed dead. Bruce, give away all of our money. You know what? We should just move forward. Okay? For my darling son Dennis. Hmm. Presumably, um, I give you my house. Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah. Now it’s starting to make sense. [00:47:02] Read on, on the sole condition that Frank not be allowed in. I would never let him in. What? Deandra? Yes. You get nothing. You were a disappointment and a mistake. A mistake. We’re twins. Yeah, we were born at the same time. What are you talking about? You’re not making any sense. Tell that it doesn’t make sense. [00:47:20] Okay. I’m reading the words that someone else wrote. Okay. I don’t know your mom. Never met your mom. In fact, I’m certainly not speaking to your mom now because she’s dead. Yeah, we know she’s dead. We’re venting because we’re frustrated. You tell her she’s a been no. What about, what about jewelry? Does it say anything about jewelry? [00:47:43] She does say something about the jewelry in here, in that, um, she wants to be buried in it. [00:47:50] Joe: It just, it just keeps getting better. Tim, you ever get the opportunity to tell one of your, uh, client’s beneficiaries that they were a disappointment? [00:48:00] Tim: It’s interesting because we, every once in a while we’ll have a meeting after somebody passes away and the whole family shows up and you can tell that they’re expecting this Hollywood reading of the will. [00:48:09] We don’t really do that. We, I mean, we’ll hand out a copy of the will where everybody else did, and no, I haven’t had any surprises. Wait a minute. You, you [00:48:15] Joe: don’t pop like a VCR tape into the thing and there’s. Your client in a smoking jacket. It’s like [00:48:20] OG: brewster’s millions. [00:48:21] Doug: Yeah. And do you have a special room that’s all wood paneled? [00:48:23] ’cause it seems like they’re always in these beautiful rooms that are wood paneled with books everywhere. [00:48:28] Tim: Yes. And we have, uh, we’re all smoking cigars. No, that doesn’t happen that way now. I have had the opportunity and it’s a lot of fun where I get to call someone who had no idea they were getting anything. [00:48:39] And you know, it’s a life changing event. So I called this kid who was just one year into college and he was, you know, trying to figure out how he’s gonna pay for everything. And his, you know, aunt that he really didn’t know that was from, uh, a long time ago, left him $400,000 and that could pay for his college and it could start his life. [00:48:57] And he got very, very emotional. And that was a great phone call that I got to do. And it’s funny ’cause I said, you know. I didn’t do any. I don’t, I’m not the one who left in the money, but here I am kind of taking the credit and the phone call just like this guy’s [00:49:08] Doug: taking the credit. Yeah. How quickly did that kid drop outta college after you made that phone call? [00:49:13] Tim: This kid was a good kid and so he actually did. Now I have had other ones where. We we’re supposed to pay for the college, and they do this trick where they think, well, I’ll just register for classes, he’ll pay for the college, and then I’ll drop the classes and I’ll get my refund. Oh. But what he doesn’t realize is I’ve told the college, if they drop the classes, send the money back to the trust. [00:49:32] I’ve seen that trick before. [00:49:33] OG: For the record, when I die, I’m gonna make everybody read that whole big giant book. We’re just gonna sit down and read that whole thing, and then I’m gonna put all sorts of fun little Easter eggs in it [00:49:44] Joe: that book your money your way. [00:49:46] OG: No, no, no. The big estate planning book, you know, like the big, the the big binder that they send you. [00:49:51] We’re gonna article one, wherefore th one, two pertaining the party and the first part and the party and the second part. [00:49:59] Joe: Wait, wake up for this. You gotta stay awake for the whole thing, or you don’t get any, stay awake. There’ll be a test. [00:50:03] OG: There’s gonna be a test. [00:50:04] Joe: Tim, uh, thanks so much for joining us by the way. [00:50:07] Uh, one more thing before we tell you again where to get the book. And Tim, I know you’ve got. A little special thing that people can get with the book as well. But before that, I’m gonna be in Minneapolis Labor Day weekend, the Thursday before Labor Day. Head to Stacking Benjamins dot com slash meetup. If you wanna hang out with me, a bunch of, uh, Minneapolis stackers and people in the personal finance community. [00:50:29] That’s gonna be on Thursday, the 29th of August. So coming up in two weeks, I’ll be there two weeks in one day. I’ll be hanging out with people in Minneapolis, but Stacking Benjamins dot com slash meetup to get your ticket, which is free. But Tim, you’re, you’re gonna give people your book for free. [00:50:44] Tim: Yes. If they go to my website, ro henry.com and hit the trust book tab, they can download the book for free. [00:50:51] And then along with that, they can get this, uh, estate plan Readiness scorecard. So this is a scorecard that you can go through. And figure out where do you stand in your estate planning journey? What you know, what have you done? How do you feel confident in the different aspects of your estate plan? And I’ve got two columns. [00:51:06] The first column, you fill it in when you do this the first time, then go meet with your attorney, your financial advisor, your CPA, come back and then fill this in again, and you’ll see how much you’ve changed and what you’ve done. To get your estate plan in the right place. And the other thing we’ve put on there since it is college time when people are sending their kids off to college, and I’ve got a freshman in college this fall. [00:51:26] Joe: Is that where your hair went, Tim? [00:51:28] Tim: Yeah, it’s, that’s exactly where it went. The, this is the Ro Henry College Preparedness plan. So they can download this. It’s a list of all the things you should be thinking about when you’re sending a child off to college. Such as do they have an Uber account, by the way? [00:51:43] Uh, or a Lyft account? Do they have Venmo and Apple Pay? Do they understand credit? When they get to college, they get inundated with credit card applications, things like that. And then stuff that we can help ’em out with. Like, do you have a financial power of attorney and a healthcare power? And we run into this where with my son, for example, he’s 18 now. [00:52:02] And does he wanna call the doctor to set up an appointment? No. He wants mom to call the doctor for him. So. She can’t do that when he’s 18. He’s an adult. Can’t do it. No. But with healthcare power, she can do that. So some important information on there and we provide that, uh, for free. They can also get that on my LinkedIn, uh, Tim ro at LinkedIn. [00:52:19] Do you also [00:52:20] Doug: have Awesome, I’ll link to [00:52:20] Joe: those, by the way, on the show notes page. [00:52:22] Doug: Yeah. Doug, uh, I was just wanted to make sure that on that list, Tim, you’ve got how to treat a hangover. If that’s an important thing for a kid to learn how to do in college, [00:52:31] Tim: some things, yeah. Their lawyer can’t tell them about. [00:52:33] Joe: Might stay outta that one. Right. Well Tim, thanks so much for mentoring our stackers today. Doug. You got it From here man. Well, maybe with a little help from Tim, what should we have learned today? [00:52:44] Doug: Sure thing, Joe. I’ll tell everybody what we should have learned today. First, take some advice from attorney Tim Ro, [00:52:51] Tim: you should have an estate plan of some sort. [00:52:54] Doug: Wow. That was good. So good. I’m gonna ask Tim for another one. [00:52:59] Tim: You should download my book for free. [00:53:02] Doug: Bang. Mind blown. Where did they download it again? [00:53:04] Joe: Tim [00:53:05] Tim: somero henry.com. [00:53:07] Joe: Well, that’s weird. That’s the same one he said last time. [00:53:09] Doug: Doug. Okay. Here’s the biggest to do. Never ever, ever ask Joe’s mom to see her butt cheek tattoo, no matter how many people you think have seen it already. [00:53:24] Thanks to attorney Tim SRO for joining us. You’ll find Tim’s new book, your Money Your Way. Keep the most. Give the most and enjoy true peace of mind. Five stories about establishing trust@rohenry.com. That’s S-E-M-R-O-H-E-N-R y.com. Then hit trust book. You can download the book and your estate planning scorecard. [00:53:49] This show is the property of SB podcasts LLC, copyright 2024, and is created by Joe Saul-Sehy Joe gets help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You’ll find out about our awesome team at Stacking Benjamins dot com, along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. [00:54:09] Come say hello. Oh yeah. And before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don’t take advice from people you don’t know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I’m Joe’s Mom’s Neighbor, Duggan. We’ll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamin Show.
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