EPIC Estate Planning – You are going to have your financial affairs in order. You, your stuff, and your loved ones are going to be protected. You, personally, are going to feel good. Your stress will be relieved because you know that you’ve taken care of your family and estate. Gain peace of mind and have confidence that you and your family are protected.
Today You’ll Discover EPIC Estate Planning
- How to control who gets what, when, and how without Probate
- How to protect yourself and your stuff during your lifetime
- How to avoid costly, devastating planning mistakes
This is for you if you are…
- Curious about planning
- Know that planning is important, but don’t know where to start or what to do
- Frustrated with the thought of putting your family through probate
- Worried about the future and security of you, your spouse, your family, or your money
- Concerned about who will help you when you need help the most
- Want to know what’s in a plan and why
- And many more reasons
Magic Wand
Imagine you could wave a magic wand to control who will get what, when and how without probate; protect yourself, your family and your assets during your lifetime and beyond; and avoid catastrophic, expensive mistakes?
How would that make you feel? How much peace of mind and confidence would you gain?
Why should you listen to me?
Let me ask, if you don’t do anything, in six months will you still be worrying about this? Will you be frustrated because you haven’t gotten around to it? Will you be disappointed because you’re not protecting you, your family, and your money like you should?
That’s what I’m going to show you how to do today.
When I was 40 years old, my dad passed away unexpectedly. Mom and I had to struggle through the rigors of probate. Neither of us had even done this and were lost, confused, and worried for the entire time it took. Dad had a little money in a lot of places, and we had to find it all. We had to find all the property, catalog it, inventory it, and then distribute it. All of this had to be done under the oversight of a Judge and the attorney.
And the attorney was billing us for every minute of time…
Then later that same year, I was hospitalized with chest pain. It wasn’t a heart attack, but it made me take a good long look at my life. And while I was laying there in the hospital bed, I was worried about the future of my family. I was worried about both their financial security and their personal future. I was also worried about who would make my decisions if I took a turn for the worse.
So, laying there in the hospital, I knew there had to be a better way to do things. So, I made up my mind then and there to go to law school, become a lawyer, and help people avoid probate and worry less about their future, their family, and their money.
And that is just what I did. I went to law school at 40 years old, learned as much about estate planning and elder law as I could, and opened my practice to help you get peace of mind.
Furthermore, I completed an advanced law degree in estate planning and elder law to better help people.
After finishing, I knew how to help people avoid probate, control their destiny, and get peace of mind.
I wanted to help people, but they were afraid if they called, I would send a bill. So, I decided to practice in a different way.
I decided to find a new way of working with clients to plan for their future so when they needed me, they wouldn’t have to worry about getting a bill. Now clients can call me whenever they need to.
Now, I work with people like you every day to protect them, their family, and their assets so they can get peace of mind knowing that they have taken care of everything they can take care of. And they don’t have to worry about calling later with questions because I’m not going to start the clock to create a bill…
That’s why I created EPIC estate planning. It’s different. To start with, we guarantee our quoted fee. No matter how much time we put into your plan, the fee won’t change. We also guarantee your meeting to start on time. If it doesn’t start within 15 minutes of your scheduled time, I’ll give you $50.
I love this place. Top shelf legal help for wills, estates, trusts, etc. They are hard working, approachable, caring people with their client’s best interests in mind.”
Today, I’m going to cover
1.How to manage your stuff so that it goes to who you want, when you want, and how you want without government interference or oversight avoiding the costly, time consuming, complex, expensive, emotional process of probate
2.How to protect you, your family, and your stuff during your lifetime and beyond
3.How to avoid devastating and costly planning mistakes
Three important things to keep in mind
First, if you do nothing, the government and legislature has already decided what goes to who, when and how. It will happen under a Judge’s strict oversight and may require multiple trips to court. This is called probate. Probate is an unnecessary, public evil.
Second, Wills alone don’t prevent probate. Wills require probate to be validated and activated. Probate requires laws created by the legislature and enforced by impersonal judges. Probate is public, complex, expensive, and inefficient at passing property. Wills are created just for Probate and require Probate. Some lawyers call having just a will your down payment on probate.
Third, wills provide no lifetime protection. Lifetime protection comes from planning with things other than trusts. If you become incapacitated, even temporarily, during your lifetime, your family may be forced to go to court, often multiple times, to get permission – a guardianship – to make decisions and manage your affairs. Guardianship is often embarrassing and is always public.
Wills
Wills do three things in general. A Will is really nothing more than a list of instructions on how to pass your property to the next generation and nominating somebody to care for minor children. It also names somebody to oversee taking the document through court, the executor, to manage the property until it’s final distribution. A Will names who you want to raise your minor children.
A Will controls who gets what, but not when and not how. It may end up that everything is sold and the money split.
A Will alone does not prevent probate or a Judge’s involvement and oversight. A Will requires Probate to be validated and activated. A Will plus some additional planning will prevent probate for your major property, leaving only the little stuff. Arkansas has a way to pass small probate estates without the need to go to court in most cases.
However, the rules around the small estate are strict. The major reason they can’t be used is that you owe final medical expenses or credit card debt.
You can be very detailed in the instructions, or you can be very terse. I’ve seen Wills from 1 page to 40 pages depending on how detailed they were.
Wills require Probate to be validated and for the property to be passed out. That’s rights, Wills require Probate. Wills are just the instructions to the Probate court.
Keep this in mind, a Will can create a Trust. This is called a testamentary trust and they have their place in planning.
A Will does nothing during your lifetime to protect you, your money, or your rights.
In order to avoid most probate with a Will, you need additional planning. The goal is to get as much of your estate passed outside of probate as possible and use the Will as a catch all for anything else. Your Will should just cover the little stuff, if there is anything at all left outside probate. Your major property should be setup to pass outside of Probate.
Bill’s Will
Bill thought that just a Will would prevent Probate. But just a Will doesn’t prevent probate as Bill’s family discovered when they tried to sell his house. Instead of being a smooth, quick transition, Bill’s family had to go through the expense, time, and hassles of Probate to get the house sold and estate settled.
If Bill had done some additional planning, then his family could have avoided probate to sell the house, saving time, money, and emotional turmoil.
Trust
Before explaining what a trust is, I need to define a few terms.
The person creating the trust is called the trustor or grantor. Grantor simply means they granted property to the trust.
The person who legally owns the property and manages it is called the Trustee.
The person who gets the benefit of the property is the beneficiary.
A trust is a contract between two people (the trustor and trustee) for the benefit of a third person (the beneficiary)
A living trust is created during your lifetime. A testamentary trust is created in a Will.
The most common type of trust used in estate planning is the revocable living trust. Revocable means that it can be changed during your lifetime. Living means you set it up now. With the trust you are usually the trustor, trustee, and beneficiary during your lifetime. However, if you should become incapable of managing the Trust property, you can name somebody else to step in and manage the trust property, your successor trustee.
The trust owns your property and you control the trust completely. Therefore, you control the property.
When you pass, the trust usually becomes irrevocable and its instructions are carried out by the Trustee you name without Probate.
The advantages of a trust is the trust property is managed during your lifetime and probate is avoided for all property in the trust.
Trusts in Arkansas are not required to pay your final expenses, which can save your heirs literally $100,000’s in final medical bills.
Trusts give what you want to who you want in the amounts you want when you want under the rules you create.
Trusts provide some lifetime protection without a Judge’s oversight. Trusts usually have a backup trustee to manage the assets in the trust. But that trustee can only manage Trust assets, not your other affairs or healthcare matters.
Trusts do not require probate.
This picture can help understand what a trust is better. A trust is really nothing more than a contract between the grantor and trustee for the benefit of a third person, the beneficiary.
The grantor transfers assets to the trustee. The trustee manages the assets for the benefit of the beneficiary.
The most common trust to prevent probate and manage assets is the revocable living trust. With that trust, while you are capable, you are the grantor, trustee, and beneficiary. The trust (trustee) owns the property, and you control the trust. Therefore, you control the property in the trust.
A trust gives you the ability to decide who gets what, when, and how. For example, you can pay out the money in the trust at ages 30, 35 and 40 but pay for college. You can pay for rent, utilities, and food for a child with an addiction.
Trusts give you the best chance of avoiding all probate and leaving the property to your children without having to pay final medical expenses or worry about other debts.
Payable on Death
You can go to the bank and name the people you want to receive the money. This is called payable on death or POD.
However, the money is an outright gift. If the person is under 18, then either the bank will hold the money in trust until they are 18, or the court will order a trust to hold the money until they are 18. If they are 18 or over, then the money will be given directly to them without any safeguards or limits. They are free to squander it as they please.
POD provides no lifetime protection.
POD prevents probate.
Beneficiary Designations
For many investment accounts, retirement plans, and life insurance, you can setup a beneficiary to receive the money, avoiding probate. It’s an easy way to give money outright to family without probate.
But the money is an outright gift. If the person is under 18, then either the company will hold the money in trust until they are 18, or the court will order a trust to hold the money until they are 18. If they are 18 or over, then the money will be given directly to them without any safeguards or limits. They are free to squander it as they please.
Beneficiary designations avoid probate.
Beneficiary designations don’t provide any lifetime protection for you.
Transfer on Death Title
You can go to the department of motor vehicles and name the people you want to receive your vehicles. This is called transfer on death or TOD.
TOD has some rules: •Only 1 person can be named •No more than 3 owners of the vehicle •The owner must be an individual, not a business •You can’t have any liens against the vehicle
If you meet these requirements, then you can fill out the TOD paperwork and take it to the DMV along with your current title. Don’t sign it until you get there. At least at my local DMV office, they want to watch you sign.
TOD prevents probate.
TOD provides no lifetime protection.
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