Securing Your Legacy: Why Everyone Needs an Estate Plan

8.25.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

8.25.23: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to Safe Money Masters with Greg Castle. Get ready for a full hour of financial information and economic news you can't afford to miss. Greg works hard each and every day to help hard working Americans like you navigate challenges and reach the financial freedom they desire and deserve. So now let's start the show. Here's Greg Castle.

Greg Castle:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Safe Money Masters, where our main goal is to help you become masters of your money and teach you how to keep it safe. Know, we hope your Tuesday has been terrific so far. I'm Greg Castle, and I'll be your host, along with my co-host and executive producer, Matt McClure. You know, Matt, here we are once again on a very special, terrific Tuesday lineup. So why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about what they can expect to hear on the show today?

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely it is. It's terrific. It is special on this Tuesday. You know, we we sort of teed it up last week that we have a guest coming on the show and a very special one to talk about estate planning. So I won't like, you know, spoil your fun of introducing him and giving him like the big fancy intro in a little bit. But it's going to be it's going to be great there. But yeah no a lot of great stuff to talk about with, you know estate planning kind of being the main focus today. But we'll also have, of course, our quote of the week, little words of wisdom there from another Nobel Prize winning economist. We're sort of getting we're just going to take the quotes all from Nobel winners here. We've established a pattern here lately, but our estate planning Q and A, why is that so important? Who is it for? And is it for you? I mean, that's a that's a good question to consider. They're choosing an estate trustee. Some things that you need to consider on that side of things as well. And then, of course, this week in history, before we wrap things up at the very end. So a lot of great stuff to come. And you know, if you have been out there as someone listening to the show because you are interested in improving your financial situation and, you know, just being able to retire someday, that's, you know, really the goal here. Let Castle Financial Solutions help you with some one on one attention. You can give them a call. 813430 7100 or you can visit the website SafeMoneyMasters.com. Greg and the team there will be happy to meet with you personally and provide customized guidance and solutions based on your specific financial needs. All right, Greg, here we go. Let's let's get things rolling with kind of the meat of the show here and our quote of the week, shall we?

Producer:
And now wholesome financial wisdom. It's time for the Quote of the Week.

Greg Castle:
This week's quote comes from behavioral economist and Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler, who once said, For many people being asked to solve their own retirement savings problems is like being asked to build their own cars. So so, Matt, what are your thoughts on that?

Producer:
Yeah, I mean, it I those two things can be very complicated. And if I was going to go try and build a car, I would need help. I would need a lot of help. And I think the same is true for, you know, your your retirement and, you know, sort of building your own plan because there's a lot that goes into it that I think people might, you know, miss out on or not think of. And that's why, you know, we often say around here, if you've got a problem with your car or you're building a car, go to go to a mechanic or go to an expert in it. And the same is true with your money.

Greg Castle:
That's so true. As a matter of fact. Times have changed as well. I mean, my very first car was a used Camaro rally sport, a 67 Camaro rally sport. I loved that car. I still miss that car. Anyway, I used to be able to do things like, you know, change the spark plugs, you know, change the distributor, cap the rotors, and. And work on it very simply. Today's car you couldn't pay me to touch because it usually cost me more to have somebody fix the things I broke while I'm trying to fix a simple problem then than it would cost me. Just take it to the mechanic to begin with. But you're so right when you talk about, you know, certain things should be left to the pros. In other words, if you try and do your own estate plan based on water cooler advice you've got around the office somewhere, chances are, whenever that you get to to a time where you need something from that plan, there's a possibility, if not a probability, that it may not be legal. Yeah. So you want to make sure that all the I's are dotted, the T's are crossed, and that you have an expert help you prepare that. And, you know, we're here to help you with that. And the same thing with the mechanics. Something happens that, you know, something happens to your car. Don't be like Greg. Go find somebody that knows what they're doing to take care of it for you. So, yeah, you don't.

Producer:
Want to be driving around and, you know, the wheels are falling off and the things are leaking everywhere and all that. Just not not a good thing.

Greg Castle:
Exactly right. You know, Taylor was an interesting guy. You know what, Matt? He, uh. He had some special accomplishments.

Producer:
Yeah, he really did. You know, he was the 2017 recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics for incorporating psychologically, psychologically realistic assumptions into analyses of economic decision making. So that combination there of psychology and economics. You know, we often think that economics and just money in general is all kind of just a numbers game. But there is so much psychology that goes into it. This is why we tell people, you know, avoid emotional investing and that kind of thing, because it can be an easy trap to fall into.

Greg Castle:
That's another reason to come see Castle Financial Solutions Group as well, because you got to bear in mind is that I cover both of these spaces. My PhD is actually in psychology and I'm also in the financial world, so I love that quote, love. I would like to actually read the article that he did for the Nobels Nobel Prize that he received.

Producer:
I would I would if I had the power to Greg, then I would nominate you for the Nobel Prize. You got the same credentials here.

Greg Castle:
Hey, just because I have the paper doesn't necessarily mean that I that I'm ready to go out and beat all these other folks. But, you know, what's the old saying? The jack of all trades, Master of none. I like to think that I've mastered safe money tactics and I'm pretty good at reading people. I've already determined that, you know, Mad is mad as crazy serious couch time in his future. But anyway, hey, mad before before we digress any further, you know, it's probably time that I want to make sure before we get into today's topics that I'd like to take another minute. You know, just to remind our listeners what our show is all about. You know, the whole premise of this show is to bring you our listeners topics and tools and information that will help you protect and grow your wealth and retirement income. So we hope you'll keep tuning in. You can catch us every Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. on Moneytalk 1010 and on your local FM stations, 92.1 down south and 103.1 up north. If you happen to miss an episode, you can always catch a replay at SafeMoneyMasters.com. Just click on the podcast podcast tab or you can also listen wherever that you listen to your favorite podcast. Note, you can also check out our YouTube channel and subscribe to see weekly video highlights and special content. And if you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to email me personally at Greg at savemoney masters.com where you can give us a call at 813430 7100.

Producer:
Well, right? Yeah, definitely great things to do there. Reach out and get some help. And don't try to build your own car for your retirement. Well, okay, we teed it up and now it is that time here. Greg, Estate planning. There are a lot of questions I know that that we have and that you have specifically. I'm sure there are probably a lot of questions that our listeners have, kind of whether they know it or not, about estate planning, But it's going to be it's going to be a great conversation, I feel.

Greg Castle:
You'll get so many questions about estate plans and trust and other things. And so we thought it'd be very, very important to have someone here that that, you know, we recognize as an expert and someone to give advice to our listeners. So today, we're really excited to have a special guest with us to talk about estate planning. So with that said, without further ado, I want to welcome to the show Chris Hall.

Chris Hall:
Hey, Greg. How are you?

Greg Castle:
We're doing well, Chris.

Chris Hall:
Great to be with you guys. Love the intro. Bringing back lots of memories of working on my little dots and pickup. You talked about your Camaro and boy, all kinds of memories were flashing back for me. You're right. Cars used to be simple, but I'm not touching any now either.

Greg Castle:
Yeah. You know, you're aging yourself when you talk about Dotson's instead of Nissan, so.

Chris Hall:
Oh, I know. Isn't that funny? Probably a lot of this audience. Well, this audience know about the dots and that funny looking vehicle driving around.

Greg Castle:
Yeah, I went. I went. You know, back in the Dotson days, back in the Air Force days, I went through a Dotson 240 Z, a Dotson 260 and a Dotson 280.

Chris Hall:
Look at you go All classics now.

Greg Castle:
Yeah, the 260 wasn't all that great. The 240, the two and the 280 were pretty nice vehicles. I had to give them up because when I took up golf, you couldn't put a set of golf clubs in the back of them very much. But they were they were fun cars for getting around in anyway. So I know we didn't.

Chris Hall:
Talk about cars, but I have to tell you, 240 was the beginning of my love affair with cars. I had an older brother whose friend drove up in a brand new 240 Z when I was a kid, and I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. But anyway.

Greg Castle:
It got a lot of looks back in the day. Yeah. All right. So today we're going to talk about estate planning. And like I say, we're so excited to have Chris with us. So, Chris, you know, rather than cars we talk about, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and how you got started in the estate planning business?

Chris Hall:
Sure. Yeah. Um, it was a long time ago. Um, but as a youngster, 29, 30 years old, I got started as a life insurance agent, and then I moved on and got my series 65, 66 and seven and became a became a financial advisor. And in that process, um, I was struggling to build my business and I happened to run into a father and son financial advisor team at San Diego, California, that taught me that, you know, if you help people out with their estate plan first. They're much you know, they're likely to become a good, loyal, long term client because it's a really important thing that they need to be doing. Everybody needs one. And so I, I started helping people with estate planning through a company that these gentlemen had started back in Southern California. And next thing I know, I've done 250, 300 estate plans with this company and was growing a nice business and had a great run at it. And in 2010 I decided to move on and do other things and. Really enjoyed my time was on the advisor side of the desk, so to speak. Went out to do some other things. And then about seven years ago, we decided to create a solution that would assist financial advisors using technology to allow them to help their clients get really high quality estate planning documents in place in a really simple way. You know, estate planning is not everybody's favorite subject. So we wanted to make it easy. And so here we are and we're helping people and companies like Castle Financial help their clients get their documents in place. And we're excited about it. It's it's great working with Greg.

Greg Castle:
Yeah, we really appreciate the expertise you provide for us. As a matter of fact, should probably explain the relationship that we have with Chris. A Chris and his team provide expertise in guidance for Castle Finances Financial Solutions Group in the area of estate planning, and we're able to help our customers through the software that they provided and and and by the way, this is not just a software that we go through and, you know, we sanction for you. It actually does have an attorney involved. And the attorney is the one that will recommend what goes into your plan. And we'll talk about that as time goes on, I'm sure. But just wanted you to realize this is not just something that we do. We actually have attorneys that are involved with us as well to make sure that your your your estate plan is airtight when we get finished.

Chris Hall:
Right? Yeah, that's a that's a really key component of what we do is that we've always felt like some of the some of the solutions we see these days have sort of eliminated the attorney from the process, and we never felt like that was a good idea. And we don't feel it's fair to leave the client who has little knowledge to try and choose their own path, their own documents. And that's what a lot of these simplify, overly simplified solutions do. And we love that. We've been able to build a process that allows a lawyer to actually make the legal recommendations based on a person's unique situation. And then once we know what those documents are, build a custom set of documents.

Greg Castle:
Signed by the attorney.

Chris Hall:
Right.

Greg Castle:
So, you know, you and I both know that estate plans are very, very important. So, you know, why do you think it is that approximately 65 to 70% of adults don't have an estate plan?

Chris Hall:
Uh, honestly, I believe there's a lot of reasons. The probably some of the bigger ones are there's a lot of myths around estate planning. Um, a lot of people don't think they need an estate plan, although I find that these days people are starting to figure it out. There's a little more information available to people nowadays and they're starting to understand that it's not just for wealthy people. Everybody needs basic documents. I think there's a lot of myths that say it's overly complicated what you do in estate planning. My life is going to be changed forever. I will. It'll be hard to, you know, do my banking or refinance my house or sell my house or all these types of things. Cost is certainly one of the things that has been a hindrance for a lot of people. Traditionally, estate planning could be very, very expensive. And now with solutions like ours, it can be more affordable. Um, gosh, you probably know 1 or 2 Greg from your own clients that giving you reasons why they didn't want to do it but think cost, fear of change, fear of the unknown. All those things are on the list. Procrastination Don't want to talk about dying, all those things.

Greg Castle:
That was going to add procrastination to the list you had, because that's what I run into a lot is part of discovery. When we're working with clients for the retirement plan, I'll go down the list and say, Okay, do you have this? Do you have this? Do you have a will? Do you have. Powers of attorney, a durable power of attorney and also a medical or health care power of attorney. Do you have trust? And for all these questions, you know, literally 8 to 9 times out of ten, they'll tell me no if they have a will or something. In most cases, it's done, you know, just going online and and taking off a you know, just a something. They take off and they sign it and hope they find some witnesses that take care of it. And it's really not very well thought out in most cases, I'm finding out. But. So procrastinates a big part. They all most of the folks say, look, yeah, hey, we know that we need, you know, to take care of this. We just haven't gotten around to it yet. And that, you know, we know that's a recipe for disaster. So I think that that's all the things you mentioned were a part. But I think procrastination really comes into play a lot, especially for folks that aren't quite ready to retire yet. But they're getting close to it. They've been lucky that they've lucky. I'm always the one that they've they've lived as long as they have without one, because I know so many people who have family members that passed on with nothing. They had they had nothing in place. And we hear stories all the time about celebrities and and other folks that, you know, died without a will or without an estate plan. And you hear all the heirs, you know, fighting over, you know, what's what's left behind was a.

Producer:
Aretha Franklin, I think very famously, just recently was a big one. A big case like that.

Chris Hall:
Yes. And I think I think sometimes people hear those stories. And for a moment they think, oh, gosh, that's horrible. But well, she was rich. So it doesn't really apply to me. And I think that's a huge mistake. And I mean, I could I could talk till now, til New Year's Eve of on the stories that I hear because we work solely with financial professionals like Greg and and I hear the stories all the time about people who've been successful at putting together a plan for to, you know, to retire and get build their wealth to a certain level. And then then they get to a point where, gosh, I think I'm going to be okay. I'd like to leave a legacy. I'd like to make sure I leave something for my children. And and so they sit with their advisor and they talk about what they'd like to leave. And then but they don't ever put their estate plan in place. What happens is, is they get a the advisor gets a call one day that that client passed. And in fact this is a story I've heard this last year. This got this particular advisor had been trying to get their client to do documents for nearly 20 years. This client died and now they're three years into a horrible court proceeding and probate and and the estate is being eaten by attorneys fees. And none of that plan to leave a legacy for those children and grandchildren. It's going to pan out the way they want it. So I think of it as without these documents in place, your plan is is is at massive risk. It would it could basically implode the moment you pass or become incapacitated. So it's really important to not procrastinate. And our system allows someone like Greg to help a client. Solve that problem really simply. Look, you know, seamlessly. You know, it's almost effortless.

Greg Castle:
Yeah. And I can I can vouch for that, having used the software and, and turn what we find out during our discovery over to an attorney to have them put things in place for our clients. So, you know, we, you and I know what's in an estate plan. But for our listeners, what exactly is an estate plan and what's involved in it?

Chris Hall:
Sure. Yeah, There's a there's a couple a few key components. Like we talked about cars earlier, they're more complex and today they're more complex too. And so you need an expert and to to number one, tell you what you need. And that's part of our process. And the key components really are you need to address. While you're living. What if you became incapacitated? How can you maintain control over your health and your finances? That's what powers of attorney do you get to tell the world who's going to make decisions for me regarding my health care? If I can't do that for myself, who's going to make decisions for me around my finances if I can't do that for myself? That's a key component that's going to allow you to keep control of your assets and your health care and not force your family to have to go to court and ask a judge who's going to make this decisions, Because oftentimes that judge is not going to make the same decision your family would make. Right. So that's a key component. The second part is what's going to happen to my assets when I die? Who's going to get what? When are they going to get it? Do I want to spread it out over some time? Do I want to put some conditions around that? Do you want it? Most people want to have a little bit of control over that. They don't want the state they live in making those decisions for them. You don't want to end up in a probate. The best probate still take months, if not years. Assets are frozen during a probate process. We talk more a little bit about what probate is we like to Greg, but the key component is those living components, those peak powers of attorney. And then you need the component that's going to direct your assets at the time of death. And so those are the things you need to address. Keep your family out of the courts, make things private, say it was a time, money and hassle.

Greg Castle:
Right. You talked a little about states there. So in Florida, or is there anything particular for Florida that that folks need or don't need in their plan?

Chris Hall:
Florida is not a very friendly state as far as probate goes. There are there's a thing that allows attorneys to charge what's called reasonable, reasonable fees that generally run around 3% of the estate's value. You can just do some quick math. You know, if you've got a million and a half dollar estate, you're looking at over $40,000 in probate costs in most cases. And that's a lot of money. And that's that's if nobody contests it, if somebody contests your your will or your lack of will. Yeah. Now, now you could be looking like the case I mentioned a minute ago. You could be years. You could be a lot more in fees. Wills simply tell a will simply tells a probate court what you want to have done with your assets at the end of a probate. Um, you've still gotta look at the. A lot of people think if they have a will, they'll avoid probate. That's not the case. You need a revocable trust to avoid probate.

Greg Castle:
Right? Right. We talked a little about wheels there. Just let me add something that is really, really important. Is. The beneficiary that you list on your life insurance policy, you know, for example, that's a document all into itself. So that is going to take precedence over whatever you put in your will. And most people don't realize that the sailcat changed the wheels on the road by changing my beneficiaries. But your beneficiaries are all important. If you have if you have an asset such as an annuity or life insurance or something else, that that that has a beneficiary named your bank account, for example, those beneficiaries will supersede whatever you have in your will. So make sure that they're both compatible with each other.

Chris Hall:
That's that's a great point. That's a that's a common oversight for for folks. So you definitely want to do that. That and another thought around that is sometimes people don't really think that, oh, if I've named that beneficiary, it's an outright distribution at your death. There's no control over that. All the money's going at once. If you'd rather have that money distributed over time or put some conditions around receiving that money, you're not going to be able to do that with a regular beneficiary designation. You may want to route that through your estate planning document, like your revocable trust. So now that that that now that money or that distribution would be subject to the rules within that trust document.

Greg Castle:
Right? Yeah, I know someone. Who? Whose husband passed away when her children were teens. And so and it was determined to be the fault of of the driver who was driving the other person's vehicle, the husband's vehicle. Anyway. So that person happened to be a fluent. Uh, so there was money for both the widow and also for the children. And unfortunately, the children got a lump sum at a relatively young age. One of the children actually, you know, put it aside to help pay for college and went on and, you know, used him for purposeful things. The other child. Managed to blow most of the stuff before we ever got out of high school and. And so you know some. You know, most of us who make it to a to adulthood, you know, aren't always the best managers of our money. And so certainly you don't want to make sure that you want to make sure that someone who really has no financial education or someone who is too young to really know what's important to do with money, without that education, make sure that they don't get it all at one one big lump sum. Basically, let's say, for example, they could take and say, okay, give this person, give this child, you know, 20% at this age, give them 30% when they reach, you know, 25 or 26, you know, give them the balance of it fit the other 50% when they reach, you know, 30 or 30 2 or 33 at that point. But that they, you know, tend to be established, married in careers and they have a better idea of what to do with that money at that point. And something such as an estate plan gives you the option to dictate that. And so it's really important to to to realize what a plan can do for you. Um, you know, one of the things that goes into a plan. Basically or trust. So just for a second, take a minute and explain what trust actually are and are there different types of trust? So what are some of the different types?

Chris Hall:
Sure, there absolutely. There's a lot. There's many trust you could think of. There's there's a lot of different variations out there. But the most common use trust is and that's what we're talking about mostly today, is how do you avoid probate? Because probate is no fun. It's expensive, time consuming and all the things I mentioned earlier. But there's that's typically going to be a revocable trust. Sometimes people call it a revocable living trust. There are things called your revocable trust. Those are typically used for more advanced tax planning and things like that. But the most typical is the revocable trust. And really what it is, it is an entity that you create. Let's say it's a married couple. A married couple is going to create this entity. It's a joint trust. And it it, it basically owns all of your assets. So for instance, your real estate, you own it with your spouse as joint tenants and you have you typically have the right of survivorship. And you one of you passes the the other one gets that property. Same thing in a trust. You have a joint trust that's going to own your property. The nice thing about that is, is this entity now owns your property so that when you pass away, that entity still exists. And so it's not probate. And that entity tells the world what you want to have happen with those assets once you have passed away. So it's a it's a separate entity that takes ownership of your assets, but you're still 100% in control of how it works. You can revoke it at any time. That's why they call it a revocable trust. You can still refinance your home, sell your home, do whatever you need to do on a day to day basis. It's just an entity that's going to take ownership of your assets.

Greg Castle:
Yeah, a couple of questions I've had over the past. You know, when it comes to, you know, putting like real estate into a trust is, you know, let's say, for example, you know, you financed the house and it's you and the bank that are owners like they're your name is on it and the bank's name is on it. So can you if you still have a loan on a home. That's really the question. If you still have a loan on the home, can you put that into a trust and change your name to the trust entity on there?

Chris Hall:
Yeah. Yeah. So you can and what the way it works when the trust world or revocable trust world is what you're doing is you're you're you're transferring your ownership whatever amount of ownership that is. If you, if the bank owns 50% of it today, you're, you know, your equity position is roughly half of your whole when you're transferring your real estate into the trust, what you're really doing is transferring whatever you interest you have in that property, that's what you're transferring into your trust.

Greg Castle:
Is that done with like a is that done with like a quitclaim deed or.

Chris Hall:
That's exactly right. Okay. In in most cases, there are some guys that might be. But the idea is it's a deed that is going to transfer your interest in that property to that trust.

Greg Castle:
Right. And you mentioned. Irrevocable trust the. They're used a lot for like special needs children and those things where you make sure that assets are set aside to make sure that child that has some disabilities of some sort, whether it be mental, emotional or physical. Uh, or set aside to make sure that they're able to function and have a chance to basically to provide for them as time goes on after your passing?

Chris Hall:
That's correct. And most of the time, those types of trusts, the vast majority of those trusts are testamentary, meaning that trust is actually created when when mom and dad pass away. And so there's generally, generally speaking, there's language within the trust that allows the allows for the creation of that separate trust to protect that that child is a special needs child. Well, we we address that in our software. There are some cases that are might be more complex. And the beauty of what you can do with our services is then connect to a lawyer in our network and create the necessary documents, kind of a seamless experience when things get a little more complex or if they get a little more complex, we can connect you direct to that lawyer and get you the additional help you need.

Greg Castle:
Right. Right. You know, I think we've touched on this a little bit, but I'd like to expand on it a little bit. You know, there's a there is an assumption out there that trust are only for rich people with lots of assets. What would you say to that?

Chris Hall:
Wrong. Not surprising, though. Again, back to our earlier conversation. There's a lot of myths out there. I think, you know, attorneys love them or hate them, we need them. But they also have done a lot of they did a lot of good defense on their territory. They made things tended to make things a little more complicated than they need to be all the time. And I think that was part of the problem. But you don't need to be rich to benefit from this. I think of 3% of a half a million, if that if that's the cost of probate in Florida. And that's kind of a minimum expectation. That's a lot of money in and of itself. And take the money out. Just take the money out of the out of the process and just think of the fact that your estate would be public. Anybody who has access to go down to the courthouse would know everything about your estate, who your beneficiaries were and so forth. It's a public proceeding. Um, at the time when you when you pass away, if you don't have the proper documents in place and you end up in a probate court, the assets in your estate are frozen. That means your kids don't have access to your money. There's a. I think the probate threshold in Florida, I could be off by 25,000, but it's, I think around 75,000 or above. Your estate is subject to probate, so you don't need to be wealthy and certainly not on the point of having powers of attorney for health care and financial decisions. That alone can be an absolute nightmare. Imagine having to go to court to try and convince convince a court that you ought to be able to take care of your spouse, But then the kids decide they want to take care of their their mother. And you could lose control. The ability to care for your own spouse if you have it. But these powers of attorney in place. So these documents are for everybody and we've made it affordable and easy to.

Greg Castle:
Right. And just to that point to. The, you know, with divorce. The, you know, being basically around 50% of the population with the divorce somewhere. And going back to the importance of making sure everything is up to date. Let's say, for example, that you have an ex spouse that really can't stand you anymore and but they're listed on your previous power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and you have not changed that. At some point, that person still responsible for your health care decisions? I'm not sure you really want that, do you?

Chris Hall:
No, I laughed. But that's a horrible scenario. And we see things like that happen often. So yeah, you're you're spot on. You need to pay attention to these things and have them reviewed from time to time.

Greg Castle:
Yes, you do. So, you know, just to sort of summarize some of the main benefits of a revocable trust, um, what would, how would you summarize that?

Chris Hall:
But it's all about keeping keeping control of your estate and minimizing the misery for the people you leave behind. And think that that's what it's all about. And I can't say it enough. Those powers of attorney, you need them while you're alive. And once you pass away, the powers of attorney don't do anything anymore. Now, everything is driven by your estate plan document, whether that be a will or a trust. Um, but yeah, you got to have those in place, right?

Greg Castle:
Uh, other than real estate, what else could be put into a trust?

Chris Hall:
Lots of things. Pretty much anything that's got a named beneficiary on it typically is going to pass directly to your point earlier. It's going to go directly to the named beneficiary. The the benefit of making the trust the owner or the beneficiary, depending, is to again, apply the rules that are written within that trust document to those assets. But you can put in real estate, you can put in your business, your LLC, you can put in your brokerage accounts. All your non-qualified or pre-tax type accounts are generally a candidate for moving into your revocable trust.

Greg Castle:
So you can put a business into your trust?

Chris Hall:
Absolutely. Yes.

Greg Castle:
Okay. Interesting. Just just for our listeners, just to clarify something that, you know, people have asked about before, and that is, let's say we talked about, you know, having your beneficiaries for life insurance, annuities, those type of things, bank accounts put into the trust. Basically, you would change you put a change of beneficiary form from your life insurance, for example, for the annuity, making the trust the beneficiary. Correct. That way the the assets or the funds from from either your life insurance annuity or bank account would go into the trust and be distributed according to the things that you've outlined in that trust, correct?

Chris Hall:
That is correct. Yeah. And that's a common strategy, for instance, with qualified accounts, IRAs for links as well, where and annuities, like you mentioned, you may have your spouse as the primary beneficiary. Right. But what if something happened to both of you at the same time? Then would it go directly to your kids? Maybe that's not a good idea. Maybe they're minors still. So by adding the. Trust as the contingent or backup beneficiary is going to ensure that the rules apply and that they will go according to the rules within their trust or their estate plan document.

Greg Castle:
Okay.

Greg Castle:
Um, we talked about some of the protections that a trust provides. And you also mentioned putting the business into the trust or whatever. And someone asked me a question recently. Let's say, for example, you, you have a business that someone sues the business. You know. It's a business inside a trust. How would that work?

Chris Hall:
Yeah. Or are you asking if there's an asset protection? As far as getting sued?

Greg Castle:
Not sure.

Chris Hall:
That's a pretty common question. I'm really glad you brought it up, because what we want to be totally upfront with everybody, this type of trust, a revocable trust this is all about. Probate avoidance and estate planning. Passing your legacy to your heirs with the least amount of problems and the least cost. This is not an asset protection type document is not going to keep protect you from being sued. Anybody tells you that is not giving you the straight story. Those in order to get asset protection and I'm not a lawyer, but I hang out with a bunch of them. You'll definitely want to talk to one. But typically those types of asset protection trusts are irrevocable documents and they you can exploit that. That's a concern of yours. Certainly connect with Greg. You can connect to our attorney network and get you some help around that. But. De-stresser all about probate issues and keeping control of your estate.

Greg Castle:
Right. And then that's that's the same advice that I'd give them as well. The. But. There are still a lot of protections that a trust provides, but like I say, it's designed for for legacy and and make sure that your wishes are carried out as opposed to being a legal protection against, you know, lawsuits. The. Now, how do you know what documents that you need? Know, for example, you've got a young couple just starting out or an individual starting out there in an apartment somewhere. They've been there for a while. They really have limited assets. They have no dependents at this point. So someone like that may not need a full blown estate plan, but they probably need a will and some powers of attorney, correct?

Chris Hall:
Exactly. That's really that's that's a beautiful part of our process that we do together is that when you have when you use our software, you're able to run the client through a series of questions and based on their answers, like the scenario you just gave a young couple just starting out, not much in the way of assets really need a in a basic will when you use our software and attorney in here in Florida or whatever state where the client lives is going to actually give a recommendation based on a series of questions they ask. And so in the scenario you just gave, it's likely going to be the attorney saying, hey, your situation is pretty straightforward. Here's what I recommend for you. It's going to be that basic will, along with the powers of attorney for health care decisions and financial decisions. And so you're going to all you're all going to always get a lawyer recommendation based on your unique situation.

Greg Castle:
Correct. And then, you know, for most people as they move on in life. And this is most people, maybe not all some some people may be a little more complex things put in here. But for the majority of us, the basic things you're going to need in estate plan are going to be wheels or, you know, husband wife. You're going to need powers of attorney, durable power of attorney, and also medical power of attorney. And in some cases, and probably in a good portion of the cases, a trust of some sort. What else would you add to that, if anything, Chris.

Chris Hall:
Um, always important and is typically a part of the trust, but I think one of the best gifts you can leave for your family is a current list of assets. It's called a schedule within a trust document typically, right? Yeah. With that, yeah. And anybody who's ever been involved in settling an estate knows there's nothing worse than walking into that home and, and then having it hit you that you have no idea what these people owe. What accounts are open, what accounts are closed? Is this old life insurance policy real or not? It's an absolute nightmare. And so part of our process is putting together a nice schedule of assets so that when your family goes to settle your estate, you have an up to date roadmap of where to start and what to do. Because it's it's it's not a fun job. And a lot of times people don't think it through to that level. And so again, I think it's one of the biggest gifts you can give is get these things in order and leave a good roadmap.

Greg Castle:
Right? And then as I've told listeners time and time again that, you know, you need to have a document such as that even if you don't have a state plan. Basically, if something were to happen to to you or your spouse, you know, here's what they need you to know. What have I got? How do I access it? Who do I call? Absolutely. And of course, now we have passwords to that. And some other things as well. But you know, that's important. What have I got? How do I access it? Who do I call? And if it's strictly an online thing, you know, what are the password to get in there and check it out? One thing I would add to this, and we've talked about it a little bit throughout here is that, you know, don't do a set it and forget it type of estate plan as your situations change, by all means, you want to make sure that you have a review of that estate plan. You know, for example, marriage, divorce, children, health issues, anything that comes up that might change in your situation. Sell a house, buy a new house, buy an additional piece of property. You want to make sure that you take a look at your estate plan and revise it where necessary. So, Chris, anything else you want to add?

Chris Hall:
No, I just think it's a great conversation to be having, and I'm glad that you're doing this for your clients, offering this opportunity for them to get it done in a modernized way. We'll call it, you know, simplify it. You don't have to go sit in front of a lawyer in his expensive office and pay pay the big bucks. Now, there's a better way to do it. It's a lot more approachable and frankly, it's affordable. But what's even better than that and the feedback we get from clients like yours and our other advisor partners is what they really appreciate is the process that they can. You could do a Zoom meeting with them. They can come in your office. It doesn't matter. But they can sit in their pajamas basically, and get this done once and for all and get that peace of mind that, you know what, I did that. And like I said, more of the the feedback we get is all about how easy it was. Most people say things like, Gosh, if I'd have known it was that easy, I'd have done this a long time ago. And that makes us feel good and it makes them feel good.

Greg Castle:
Yeah, there's two big things you get all the time, and that is how easy it is. Number two is the fact that it only costs a fraction of what they would pay if they went to an attorney for it. And it's still, you know, equally as legal and as viable and also overseen and signed by an attorney. Matt, do you have any questions for Chris?

Producer:
I don't think so. I mean, I think we've covered a lot of great ground here and answered a lot of the big, big questions that people are probably going to have. I think it's been a great discussion. And you know, hopefully the goal is for the listeners and for those who are clients or future clients of Greg's to find this useful and get that help because as you say, I mean, you know, there are so many people who don't have an estate plan who need one and at the very least need to explore, okay, do, do I need one? Do I not need one? Because, you know, as you say, you don't have to be a gazillionaire to to need an estate. You don't have to be an Aretha Franklin to have an estate plan.

Greg Castle:
Correct. And by the way, if you if any of our listeners out there basically are considering an estate plan or you would like to check in to see, you know, what an estate plan might do for you, by all means, give us a call at (813) 430-7100, or you can email me personally at Greg at Safe Money, Masters.com.

Producer:
Chris Hall, thank you so much for coming on and talking about estate planning and answering all these questions today. I mean, we really do appreciate your time.

Chris Hall:
Absolutely. A pleasure to be with you and looking forward to helping you out in any way we can.

Greg Castle:
Chris, really appreciate it as well. And you know, we love working with you. So, so, so glad you're part of the team.

Producer:
Now, sort of springboarding off of our conversation with Chris. There's really no doubt that the use of a living trust associated with the development of an estate plan can really be a challenge, can be complicated sort of a thing. But a significant part of that challenge is naming a trustee, right? So let's talk about six considerations you need to keep in mind when choosing a trustee as part of the development of that estate plan. Number one cost.

Greg Castle:
Your cost needs to be first and foremost in everybody's mind where, you know, basically you want to make sure that you focus on the outcome. The outcome is basically having a good solid estate plan that does exactly what you wanted to do. You know, if you choose a friend or family member to be the estate trustee and that person chosen should be trustworthy and up to the task. If a professional such as an accountant or a financial planner, a lawyer, a bank or a trust department is chosen, there could be significant fees associated with hiring that financial professional, and you want to make sure what those fees are before you get involved with it. I can assure you at at Castle Financial Solutions, we will help point you in the right direction.

Producer:
Yeah, they also number two on the list here, they need to have some financial knowhow.

Greg Castle:
Yeah. Trustees are responsible for making financial decisions related to the assets held in the trust. So therefore, you know, I would say that a trustee must have experience of financial matters. Trustee responsibilities can include all sorts of things like investing the money held in the trust or or hired a professional to invest the assets for the benefit of adult children, you know, But the responsibilities can linger on forever, especially if they're minor children involved. So a good trustee should be comfortable supervising and collaborating with financial professionals, which can include attorneys, accountants, stockbrokers and even property managers in some situations.

Greg Castle:
Yeah.

Producer:
And then another consideration here. Number three is should a co trustee be hired?

Chris Hall:
Oh.

Greg Castle:
The answer to that is it depends. Some trusters are willing to overlook the lack of experience, you know, since the trustee candidate that they're considering has a good relationship with the heirs or is particularly close to the family in these situations, it can be helpful to have a coach, trustee possibly, or preferably a professional such as a lawyer or a bank or a trust department to assist in the event the trustee chosen lacks experience or knowledge in some aspect of what you're trying to do with the trust and administering the trust. In this situation, the two co trustees have to act unanimously, which in itself is advisable for check and balance purposes. It's also obvious that co trustees have to work well together, so you make sure you want to be careful about who you pick and and how you. Pair them up together. Yeah.

Producer:
If you pick your co-trustees. And one of them's last name is Hatfield, the other one's McCoy, you might want to rethink things. Number four consideration is when should a professional be hired as a trustee?

Greg Castle:
Are among the reasons that a professional trustee such as a bank or trust company or a private professional trustee that offers their services on a full time basis should be hired, or things like, let's say, number one. In some cases, a trust can last for 3 or 4 more generations. As many as 80 to 100 years in a lot of situations. So, you know, a bank or a trust company is going to be in a better position to provide continuity of that trust administration for for many, many years, as well as adjusting to any changes in. I would add that in the likelihood of when a family when when family conflicts arise and they're bound to happen, sometimes a professional trustee can help preserve family relationships while ensuring that the trust distributions are made appropriately.

Producer:
Yeah, very true. Number five, which type of professional should be chosen as a trustee?

Greg Castle:
Using a bank is generally recommended for trust, whose access exceed 5 million or so. A trust company or professional individual fiduciary may be more appropriate for trust than 1 million to 5 million range In terms of fees, most banks and trust companies charge half a percent and 2% overall to the value of the trust that they're administering.

Greg Castle:
They're very good.

Producer:
Well, and number six here, last one on the list. If choosing a family member as a trustee, how much time can the family member afford to function as the trustee? Another important consideration.

Greg Castle:
Yeah, this is really, really important. You know, when choosing a non-professional trustee, you know, for example, a family member. It's important that the non-professional not only has the skills to function as a trustee in his or her capacity, but but also has the time to to do the complete necessary trustee task. The non-professional may have to spend weeks or months carrying out the role of trustee, you know, family members in particular who have full time responsibilities such as parenting of children or full time jobs, particularly family members who live out of town and who will likely have to travel in order to fulfill their responsibilities may not be appropriate choices as an estate trustee. The family member may not realize the amount of effort and time it's going to take to accomplish the task of an estate trustee when accepting that position. And you need to make sure that you take those things into account.

Producer:
Absolutely. You got to proceed with caution there. And if you're interested in having an estate plan, just give Greg and his team of professionals at Castle Financial Solutions Group a call today. 813 430 7100. It's this Week in History.

Greg Castle:
August 29th. We're talking about the day in history. On this date in 1958, one of my all time favorites, guitarist George Harrison, who was only 15 years old at the time, joins the Quarrymen, who later become the Beatles. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina makes landfall as a Category three hurricane, devastating much of the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. Unfortunately, it kills more than 1800 people. Birthdays today, the king of Pop, Michael Jackson turned would have turned 65 today. Of course, he was the singer, writer and performer for Billie Jean Beat It. And of course, his 1982 hit Thriller, which became the best selling album of all time. He's recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by the Guinness Book of World Records. Did not know that. Wow.

Greg Castle:
Didn't know that either.

Greg Castle:
And in politician, presidential candidate and former P.O.W.. John McCain would have turned 87 today. And then for those of you that are really old timers, like like Matt over there. Swedish movie actress Ingrid Bergman would have been 108 years old today. Of course, she's famous for Casablanca, for Whom The Bell Tolls and Gaslight. And then today is National Lemon Juice Day. National Chop Suey Day. National Sports Day. National Uprising Day. So as soon as this is all over today, I think I'm going to uprise out of this chair. I'm going to pour myself a glass of lemon juice. I am going to have it with some chop suey. I'll go out and play some golf for sports day.

Producer:
It sounds like a plan.

Greg Castle:
And so with all that said, we want to once again thank Chris Hall for his time today and his expertise. And we will see you next week at the same bat time.

Producer:
Same bat channel.

Greg Castle:
All right, everybody, have a great week. Look forward to talking to you next week.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Safe Money Masters with Greg Castle. You deserve to work with a financial expert who has a track record of helping clients exceed their financial goals by implementing safe and proven strategies to schedule your free No obligation consultation with Greg. Visit SafeMoneyMasters.com.

Producer:
Not affiliated with the United States government. Greg Castle does not offer tax, legal or investment advice. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice, nor do they predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. This information is intended to be educational in nature and does not provide a guarantee or specific result. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. AmeriLife assumes no responsibility or liability for the content of this message. The information contained herein is provided on an as is basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, timeliness or the results obtained from the use of this information.

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