Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 08/13/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton

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08/13/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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  Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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  Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ad w
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  Speaker 1: c hs it's employees or WVRC media. Of course created equal.
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  Speaker 2: Well, mass come here and a Kate.
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  Speaker 3: Can rob sap and if very place.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: You're listening to where you can put the law on
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  Speaker 3: your side. I don't have to fight the law this morning.
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  Speaker 3: The Payton Law Firm is in studio taking your phone
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  Speaker 3: calls and your text questions. Harvey Payton is in studio
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  Speaker 3: with us this morning. Harvey, good morning. How you doing
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  Speaker 3: this morning? Dang it, we're gonna have to use that
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  Speaker 3: other microphone. This happened to me yesterday and I thought
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  Speaker 3: I fixed it. Let's just move that over. Sorry about
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  Speaker 3: that now? Yes, I can can you hear me?
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  Speaker 4: Now?
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  Speaker 3: Yes? We can.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I'm going quite well today. I've got a text
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  Speaker 4: yesterday from Tom. You know he is he he spoke
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  Speaker 4: of last week. He had his family, his wife and
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  Speaker 4: the two kids, took this adventure trip hiking to the
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  Speaker 4: bottom of the Grand Canyon. He told me he was
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  Speaker 4: going to do that, and he's is now. It has
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  Speaker 4: been since he was a little fellow petrified of heights,
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  Speaker 4: so I don't know how that was going to go.
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  Speaker 4: But he told us before he started on the track
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  Speaker 4: that there'd be two days. They're completely out of touch
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  Speaker 4: because there's no signal, no communication. They were staying somewhere
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  Speaker 4: called the Phantom Ranch. Well, last evening I got a
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  Speaker 4: text which included a little film clip. Apparently had a
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  Speaker 4: waterline problem with Phantom Ranch, so they closed it a
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  Speaker 4: day early. So they hiked back up out of the canyon.
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  Speaker 4: It's like a six thousand foot change in elevation, grueling hike,
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  Speaker 4: he said, particularly for someone who's terrified of heights. And
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  Speaker 4: then the fifth the film clip was of his son
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  Speaker 4: Houston treading along this trail, which to me was to terrifying.
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  Speaker 4: And I'm not afraid of that anyway. So they're on
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  Speaker 4: their way back and I think I'll probably be put
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  Speaker 4: back on the bench for the next few weeks while
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  Speaker 4: Tom carries through the rest of the summer. Today, however,
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  Speaker 4: August thirteenth, is a big day in our family. Today
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  Speaker 4: is my youngest grandchild, Lillian Roberts, the daughter of Sarah
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  Speaker 4: Peyton Roberts and Brian Roberts. Sixteenth birthday. Oh congratulations, getting
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  Speaker 4: ready to start her junior year at Saint Auban's High School.
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  Speaker 4: She'll be one to the fourth generation Red Dragon, just
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  Speaker 4: like her older brother Logan was before her. And a
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  Speaker 4: happy birthday, Lillian. I'm sure she's not listening. She's either
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  Speaker 4: still in bed or playing a video game. But Papa
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  Speaker 4: Harvey is trying thinking about a grandchild. I got to
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  Speaker 4: thinking this morning, actually last evening, about you know we've
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  Speaker 4: got that's a tremendous national debt. It's a real problem.
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  Speaker 4: It's a threat to our children and grandchildren. That's what
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  Speaker 4: the politicians always say before doing nothing. So I thought,
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  Speaker 4: how can we save a little money in today's climate. Well,
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  Speaker 4: last evening on the news, I saw where the ever
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  Speaker 4: vigilant Department of Homeland Security, they're subset Immigration and Customs
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  Speaker 4: Enforcement aka ICE. They've been author us to spend several
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  Speaker 4: million dollars buying what are referred to as shock gloves.
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  Speaker 4: They demonstrated them on the news. They're these glove apparatus.
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  Speaker 4: They look like big black work gloves. They have a
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  Speaker 4: little button on the side. I assume they have some
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  Speaker 4: sort of high powered battery or a battery pack. But
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  Speaker 4: so if you as a part of the crowd control
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  Speaker 4: or distouraging someone from for instance filming you or holding
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  Speaker 4: a sign that says melt ice or ice out. You
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  Speaker 4: can grab their forearm, activate the glove and drop them
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  Speaker 4: to the ground. Here we are, I think, well, why
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  Speaker 4: are we doing that? I mean, I read this morning
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  Speaker 4: in the New York Times where Ice, under the fearless
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  Speaker 4: leadership of Christy Nome had engaged in a no bid
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  Speaker 4: contract with one of her political contributors. Does that sound
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  Speaker 4: strange and purchase ten used aircraft. Three of them were
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  Speaker 4: luxury jets, one of which was equipped with a full
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  Speaker 4: bedroom that Christy and prepare more used of Lenandowskia, and
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  Speaker 4: the other was offered to cash Battel. The luxury private
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  Speaker 4: jet I assumed to fly around with his erstwhile country singer,
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  Speaker 4: the three U seven thirty seven or the seven U
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  Speaker 4: S seven thirty seven's, which were desperately needed to carry
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  Speaker 4: out deportations, not least planes or military aircraft as had
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  Speaker 4: been done for decades. But we have to have as
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  Speaker 4: an emergency seven used seven thirty sevens on a new
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  Speaker 4: bid contract. They're sitting on a tarmack now in Louisiana,
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  Speaker 4: not been flown because DHS has no personnel who can service, maintain,
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  Speaker 4: or fly the airplanes. So there they are. And so
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  Speaker 4: I think, well, how does that relate to shot gloves.
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  Speaker 4: One thing, you know, like the West Side Volunteer Fire Department.
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  Speaker 4: You know where it is, right there at the bottom
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  Speaker 4: of the Kolover Road. Great Fire Department. It's been providing
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  Speaker 4: fire protection to my house, my mom and dad's house,
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  Speaker 4: Sarah's house for seventy years. They would probably like to
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  Speaker 4: have some new fire hose. So I'm sure that DHS,
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  Speaker 4: if they're worried about fire crowd control, they could approach
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  Speaker 4: these fire departments and say, well, why don't we just
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  Speaker 4: buy your old hose. We can use that for crowd control.
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  Speaker 4: It's proven. And don't stop there. You could go to
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  Speaker 4: Kent Leeonhart, the Commissioner of Agriculture, said, Kent, why don't
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  Speaker 4: you contact all these stock sales stockyards we have here
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  Speaker 4: around West Virginia and the cattle farmers, and surely they'd
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  Speaker 4: like to trade their cattle prods if they're still working well,
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  Speaker 4: to DHS in exchange for some money. I mean, look,
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  Speaker 4: we know that fire hoses and cattle prods work. They
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  Speaker 4: worked well through the fifties and sixties, didn't they down south?
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  Speaker 4: So why take a chance on high price shot gloves
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  Speaker 4: when the answers right here before your face. I'm eager
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  Speaker 4: to see if my advice will be taken. I doubt
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  Speaker 4: it be fodder for the ever vigilant Larry Pack. He's
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  Speaker 4: always looking to save some money. Although we'll say Treasurer Pack,
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  Speaker 4: his comments are quite precient. Right now, it's going to
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  Speaker 4: be a heck of a primary election for the governor's race.
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  Speaker 4: I think in twenty twenty eight, brutal knockdown. We'll see
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  Speaker 4: what happens. And that's just the primary. Oh yeah, that's
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  Speaker 4: just the primary. So well, I hate to get off
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  Speaker 4: on the Greenbrier because that's just like a horse that's
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  Speaker 4: been beaten. But I noticed today, You know, big coal
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  Speaker 4: has had a pattern of behavior in West Virginia for
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  Speaker 4: all my life, which has been the threat of economic disaster.
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  Speaker 4: If you don't let us run heavy coal trucks and
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  Speaker 4: tear up your roads, two hundred coal miners are going
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  Speaker 4: to lose a job in Logan County. Or if we
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  Speaker 4: can't pollute a little bit of water down there on
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  Speaker 4: the Guyan Dot Reservoir, well, we're going to have to
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  Speaker 4: shut down a prep plant, so we really don't want
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  Speaker 4: to clean this up. It's gonna cost us some money,
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  Speaker 4: so let's just change the law to make the illegal legal.
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  Speaker 4: But apparently is carried over to the mastermind of the Greenbrier,
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  Speaker 4: because this morning it's like, well, unless the Lottery Commission
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  Speaker 4: can violate every rule and every regulation and every rule
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  Speaker 4: of common sense and approve a casino license for a
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  Speaker 4: hotel that just had eleven million dollars in federal tax
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  Speaker 4: liens filed against it, we're going to have to lay
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  Speaker 4: off ninety people and that has to be done by Friday. Well, surprise, surprise,
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  Speaker 4: that's not going to work. The game's changed. It's not
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  Speaker 4: the cold business. It's a politician whose opponent is running
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  Speaker 4: the executive branch, and it's the director of the Lottery,
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  Speaker 4: David Bradley, who's a person to my observation, integrity and
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  Speaker 4: follows the rules. So it was, however, interesting to see
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  Speaker 4: this big puffed up Oh, it'll cost the state millions
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  Speaker 4: and it'll will have to put people out of work. No,
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  Speaker 4: the way to keep people working and not cost the
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  Speaker 4: state millions would have been defile your audited finance reports
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  Speaker 4: by March thirty one with the Lottery Commission, as their
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  Speaker 4: regulations require, instead of waiting until they threatened to shut
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  Speaker 4: off your license and filing them the day before your
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  Speaker 4: license was shut off on June the thirtieth, or maybe
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  Speaker 4: instead of stealing money from employees by holding it out
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  Speaker 4: of their paychecks, you could have reached into your own
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  Speaker 4: wallet and taken less money out of the pot and
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  Speaker 4: paid the withholdings over to the state and federal governments
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  Speaker 4: and avoided eleven million dollars in tax lins. So that
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  Speaker 4: effort to shift blame and play the cold card, I
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  Speaker 4: don't think is going to get very far. We'll see
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  Speaker 4: how it flies on Friday. Anyway, I wanted to talk today.
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  Speaker 4: You know, you can sort of tell when things are
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  Speaker 4: a particular idea is percolating up, because you know, we
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  Speaker 4: deal a lot with the public. People call us. We
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  Speaker 4: try to return every phone call every day, and even
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  Speaker 4: if it's a even if it's a topic. If someone
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  Speaker 4: takes a message, well that's not something I can really
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  Speaker 4: deal with. Courtesy requires you call the person back and
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  Speaker 4: explain to them why, you know, so they don't feel
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  Speaker 4: ignored or disrespected. But from time to time, things pop
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  Speaker 4: up in conversations and questions, and I think, as I've
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  Speaker 4: said before, I mean, I've had some health issues, but
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  Speaker 4: I'm fine. But Tom does all the litigation now and
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  Speaker 4: I primarily meet with clients in the office, do some intake.
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  Speaker 4: I guess, like some of the big advertisers, I would
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  Speaker 4: be considered the intake department. I notice one air it
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  Speaker 4: said our intake department is great. Well, I think ours
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  Speaker 4: is too, because and transaction work. Because I'm one of
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  Speaker 4: the lawyers that is still a dinosaur and knows how
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  Speaker 4: to do things like help people straighten out a title
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  Speaker 4: to a piece of property, or help people straighten out
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  Speaker 4: a will that perhaps wasn't written well or what was handwritten,
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  Speaker 4: or help them they have a particular way that they'd
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  Speaker 4: like to have their estate distributed, I can talk to
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  Speaker 4: them about that and do it for them in a
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  Speaker 4: way that's quick, inexpensive, efficient, carries out their wishes. So
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  Speaker 4: one thing, I notice the word probate. At least in
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  Speaker 4: the last two or three years, and even more so
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  Speaker 4: perhaps in the last six months, probate has become just
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  Speaker 4: a dirty word. How do I avoid probate? I don't
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  Speaker 4: want probate well. The idea of probate is simply an
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  Speaker 4: orderly process set up under state law, administered by the
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  Speaker 4: counties to see to the legal and verifiable transfer of
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  Speaker 4: your assets, the bounty of your lifetime to those who
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  Speaker 4: you desire it, desire to receive it at the time
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  Speaker 4: of your death. That's customarily done by a will. Everybody
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  Speaker 4: has a will. If you don't write one, the state
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  Speaker 4: has already written one for you. If you die without
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  Speaker 4: a will, there's a set of statutes that govern hire
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  Speaker 4: your estates to be distributed. And I say it today,
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  Speaker 4: have said it several times in the smodern era of
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  Speaker 4: what we call blended families, where there are second and
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  Speaker 4: third marriages, there are children born to each marriage partner,
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  Speaker 4: then vp children born to their union. It's really important
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  Speaker 4: that you start thinking about the manner in which are
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  Speaker 4: states to be distributed, because the laws are quite different.
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  Speaker 4: A couple who has married been married for fifty years,
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  Speaker 4: they have three children all their own. The husband dies
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  Speaker 4: without a will, is our wife gets everything. Now if
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  Speaker 4: you change that scenario and he has a child by
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  Speaker 4: a prior marriage or relationship, then a significant percentage of
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  Speaker 4: what the wife would receive will go to the children.
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  Speaker 4: So you really need to talk to a lawyer about that.
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  Speaker 4: But what's cropped up even more frequently lately is well
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  Speaker 4: do I need to trust? Someone told me I should
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  Speaker 4: have a trust. I want to trust so that I
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  Speaker 4: can avoid probate. Well, first of all, with a conventional trust,
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  Speaker 4: you're not going to avoid probate. For one particular reason.
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  Speaker 4: The way that trusts are used as a manner of
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  Speaker 4: a state management in Florida a good bit almost exclusively
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  Speaker 4: in California, my uncle Jim, who was a career man
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  Speaker 4: in the Navy. When he retired, he stayed in San
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  Speaker 4: Diego and his wife passed, and he married another lady
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  Speaker 4: whose husband had been a Navy guy and passed away,
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  Speaker 4: and they lived there till you lived a full life.
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  Speaker 4: And I just made an inquiry about his really about
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  Speaker 4: his personal effects if you had anything that my dad's,
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  Speaker 4: because I wanted it as a stepdaughters of well, you know, Harvey,
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  Speaker 4: it's all governed by a trust. That's the way we
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  Speaker 4: do things. There really isn't any probate. Well, that's always
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  Speaker 4: been the long California. The rule in West Virginia has
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  Speaker 4: generally been a simple, well written admissible will is I
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  Speaker 4: believe superior. Here's the problem with the trust, and I've
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  Speaker 4: seen a lot of them, but people have loaded downloaded
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  Speaker 4: from the internet. What you would do if you were
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  Speaker 4: going to establish a trust for the purpose of quote
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  Speaker 4: defeating probate, you established through a written document something called
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  Speaker 4: the Harvey D. Payton revocable intervivos trust. That means it's
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  Speaker 4: written during my lifetime, but I can revoke it at anytime,
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  Speaker 4: and I name myself trustee and I write you know
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  Speaker 4: that I can maintain and administer my property for my
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  Speaker 4: benefit and make withdrawals during my lifetime, or or revoke
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  Speaker 4: the trust and reclaim all the property. But if I die,
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  Speaker 4: the trust and provides it becomes irrevocable, can't be revoked,
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  Speaker 4: and the terms of the trust have to be carried out.
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  Speaker 4: That's normally and I think appropriately accompanied by a will.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I think people don't. Trust becomes a separate entity.
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  Speaker 4: If you set up a lifetime trust, you have to
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  Speaker 4: assume the responsibility of transferring your real estate, your stock investments, uh,
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  Speaker 4: your accounts into the trust. They have to you know,
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  Speaker 4: you have to get a taxpayer ID number for the trust.
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  Speaker 4: It operates as a separate entity. I've seen it done correctly.
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  Speaker 4: I had helped a person handle a lady's estate, significant
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  Speaker 4: sizeable estate. The woman knew what she was doing. After
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  Speaker 4: her husband passed.
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  Speaker 5: Uh.
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  Speaker 4: She took the car byter you know when they had
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  Speaker 4: good benefits, took the life insurance, formed a trust. She
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  Speaker 4: was an accountant, transferred everything appropriately, got a tax number,
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  Speaker 4: spent the rest of her life investing in the market,
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  Speaker 4: and died. But she had a will which said, you know,
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  Speaker 4: all the rest and residue of my property. Because everybody
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  Speaker 4: is going to own something. You're gonna have your furniture,
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  Speaker 4: you're gonna have your jeweler, You're going to have things
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  Speaker 4: that can't be represented by really a transfer or a
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  Speaker 4: bill of sale. Maybe you've got some cash, maybe you've
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  Speaker 4: got some coins. Do you write a will saying everything
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  Speaker 4: that I own all the resid of my property, which
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  Speaker 4: would exclude I direct to be paid over to the
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  Speaker 4: RVD Payton irrevocable now testamentary trust and then you distribute it.
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  Speaker 4: So you're not avoiding the writing a trust instrument, you're
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  Speaker 4: not avoiding the necessity of taking a death certificate and
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  Speaker 4: an half A David of intestate heirs and a valid
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  Speaker 4: will to the courthouse. It's just another part of it.
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  Speaker 4: It may be simpler, but what's different from that and
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  Speaker 4: writing a will? Honestly, a trust can't execute a transfer
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  Speaker 4: on death deed transfer on death deed. Neither can a
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  Speaker 4: limited liability company. People put all their real estate in
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  Speaker 4: a single member limited liability company without any without doing
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  Speaker 4: the next step and having some sort of operating agreement
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  Speaker 4: that distributes it. And all you've got is real estate
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  Speaker 4: sitting in a company that how do you get it?
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  Speaker 4: Out right? So folks will do it on their own.
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  Speaker 4: Download a trust instrument from the internet. Well I want
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  Speaker 4: my house to go in there. But they don't go
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  Speaker 4: write a deed for the house and convey it to
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  Speaker 4: the trust. There's nothing there, or sometimes even worse, create
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  Speaker 4: a trust for the only asset is a house. That's it.
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  Speaker 4: And you give the house to a child. Well, what
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  Speaker 4: do you do with the house? Well, you live in it,
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  Speaker 4: But what else do you do with it? You maintain it,
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  Speaker 4: you ensure it, you pay taxes on it, you have
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  Speaker 4: utilities for it. Well wait a minute, where's that money
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  Speaker 4: coming from? Well, there isn't any money. A house doesn't
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  Speaker 4: generate money if you use it to live in. So
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  Speaker 4: you've just created what's called a non economic trust, a
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  Speaker 4: trust that has no economic benefit. Now those can be dissolved,
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  Speaker 4: but guess what, you have to hire a lawyer, or
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  Speaker 4: you can do it yourself. If you can find your
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  Speaker 4: way to the Kanaw County Courthouse or whatever courthouse the
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  Speaker 4: property's located in, and you know to look in the
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  Speaker 4: code and find the statutory procedure for the dissolution of
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  Speaker 4: a non economic trust, then you can get the property
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  Speaker 4: back and sell it. Right. But I mean, I've been
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  Speaker 4: alive long enough. I tell folks, you know, if you'd
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  Speaker 4: like to have a trust, if that's something you think
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  Speaker 4: you're absolutely interested in, and you've heard about it and
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  Speaker 4: readers digest or you've seen it on TV. Other than
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  Speaker 4: the circumstances in which I find a trust is completely appropriate,
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  Speaker 4: you really need to see somebody else because I think
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  Speaker 4: it's just the creation of another entity. I recommend to
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  Speaker 4: almost everyone, well to everyone that comes in the US. Look,
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  Speaker 4: the best thing that can happen to this will is
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  Speaker 4: that you put it in a safe place and you
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  Speaker 4: never probate it, right because you don't have to. You
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  Speaker 4: put your house it's held jointly with you and your spouse,
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  Speaker 4: or it's governed by a transfer on death deed you
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  Speaker 4: designate beneficiaries ought. You can put every account of a
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  Speaker 4: bank with a PUD so that the bank will pay
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  Speaker 4: that account on your death to another party. Doesn't give
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  Speaker 4: anyone your money, doesn't give them access to your money
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  Speaker 4: like a joint account does. You can do the same
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  Speaker 4: thing with the title of your vehicles, what you have left,
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  Speaker 4: your personal facts, jewelry, things of value. You can simply
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  Speaker 4: gift away in your lifetime. Give somebody a note and
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  Speaker 4: say here's what I want to do. It's not a
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  Speaker 4: binding testamentary instrument, but have a valid simple will. You
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  Speaker 4: may need to probate it sometimes. I've been involved in
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  Speaker 4: several instances where folks, you know, they didn't need to probate,
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  Speaker 4: so they didn't. They may have gone down and lodged
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  Speaker 4: the wheel with the fiduciary office, which you can do.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: And then two years later somebody calls. A landman from
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: Texas calls is Hey, your husband, who's now deceased owned
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: a one to eighth interest in forty acres up in
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Gilmour County through his great great grandfather who you never
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: heard of, and we'd like to lease it sometimes for
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: a lot of money. Well, how are you going to
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: do that? Well, now you've got to go probate the
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: whell appraise the property, file the appraisement at the claims front.
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: I mean, but that's how you can transfer the you
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: need it, then if you don't need it, you don't
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: need it. I just I mean, I certainly. I mean,
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: I've seen a lot lately of these universal whills that
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: are downloaded from the Internet that they're really really bad.
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: The ones that I've seen, they have so many, so
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: much verbiage. It's confusing. People put names in the wrong space,
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: they check the wrong box. It's obviously you know, somebody
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: who's a beneficiary, signs, is a witness, all the sorts
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: of things that you know. They take it to the
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: courthouse because they think, oh, happy me, I'm going to
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: get all of Aunt Amy's property. And someone says, well, no,
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: you're not. Actually Aunt maybe's a strange son who left
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: the house because he beat her up and stole her
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: money to buy drugs, but now lives in Colorado. That's
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: her sole air and he gets it. So I just
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: you know, the idea that the term probate should be
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: a feared term. That's really expensive. First of all, there
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: is no inheritance stacks in West Virginia. None, There is
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: no effectively, there's no US of State tax. Federal estate
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: tax only kicks in well over ten million dollars in
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: net estate assets. I've never handled it. I've handled a
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: few ess to help people of the states there were
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: worth more than that, but it wasn't with regard it.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: It was questions about a surviving spouse's interest or litigation
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: over maybe an income interest. But I would doubt well,
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: could there be ten folks in West Virginia. Maybe John
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: Racie who owns this station, but he's a resident of
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: Florida now, so he would be you know, I'm sure
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: Racey's worth a billion, probably, But that's a completely different universe.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: That's not where we live. The rules that apply to
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: ninety nine point nine nine percent of the folks that
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: we deal with are no inheritance tax, no estate tax,
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: about two thousand dollars in legal fees to do the
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: probe and do it correctly and close the estate out.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: Including here's another little kicker. Suppose somebody has property in
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: another County, a camp in a camp in Poconnas County,
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: or mineral interests in Marshall County. Those all need to
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: be appraised, even though the state might be in Putnam County,
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: because at the end of the day, you have to
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: take all those papers to the other county and record
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: them to verify your title. Where you're going to get
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: bad title in twenty years from now. You're ready to
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: sell and the question is, well, how'd you get this, Well,
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: I inherited it from my dad. Well there's no record here.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: So then you've got to go back reopen the estate,
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: filing them into appraisement. Now they're the FUCIA office doesn't
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: usually charge they're about twenty dollars to reopen an estate
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: and file them inuted appraisement. But unless you're prepared to
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: do that yourself, there's another thousand dollars an attorney's fee.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: So I think you're better off in My recommend is
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: at least talk to a lawyer. You mean you can
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: talk to us. I'll tell people all the time with no,
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: you don't need me right here. You can do this
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: because there's just not enough, not much here. And I
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: don't say that the spirits and leave. But if if
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: all the assets were jointly held and they're covered by
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: nonprobate beneficiary designations, if anything comes up in the future,
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: call me. Otherwise you're good to go. Now. Having said that,
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: just take a break because there's one.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: Want to get into that. Okay, take a break and
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: then get into the rest of it.
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's one other really important thing that I want
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: to talk.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, we wanted to find a natural place there
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: we go and do that. If you have any questions
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: for Harvey Panton, you're more than welcome to get a
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: hold of us. Text on numbers, threes are four, not three, five,
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: five zeros or eight. Threes are four notin three five?
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Is that right now? That's that's the that's the network number.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, No, that was right now. I've been doing
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: two shows this week and I have text numbers over
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: the place. It's right the first time. Threes are four nine,
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: three five five zeros or eight. Threes are four nine, three, five, five,
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: zero or eight. You can give us a call this morning.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: Threes are four three, four five. The fifty eight three
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: four five, fifty eight fifty eight remembers an auto Q
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: so we'll put your right on hold and then we'll
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: get you right on the air if you call that,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: and you're more than welcome to do that. To talk
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: to Harvey Payton from the Payton Law Firm online Peyton
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: Lawfirm dot com. P E y T you in Payton
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Lawfirm dot Com. We'll give you more information when we
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: come back. You're listening to ask the lawyer this morning
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: with Harvey Payton from the Payton Law Firm. I'm Dale
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: Cooper and this is five AD WCCHS the Boys with Charleston.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: Why do so many West Virginians choose the Peyton Law
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Firm after an injury Because Tom and Harvey Payton are
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: from here and they fight for their neighbors every day.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: When you're dealing with an injury claim, you need experience,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: straight answers and results you can trust. Don't let insurance
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: companies or out of state firms push you around. Call
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: seven five five fifty five fifty six or visit Peyton
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Law Firm dot com.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: The attorney's referenced in this ad our lifelong residents and
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: our license to practice law in the state of West Virginia.
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: Adventure is boundless Adventure is a journey that never ceases.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: When you hit the open road or the open.
• 26:56
  Speaker 6: Water, time stops and adventure begins from anchors away to
• 27:00
  Speaker 6: kickstands up. A continuous tradition of adventure is the spirit
• 27:04
  Speaker 6: that drives Trojan Landing, Marine and Power Sports featuring segwe
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  Speaker 6: side by sides for you, a co pilot and a
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  Speaker 6: compass to embark on endless adventure. Discover more at Trojan
• 27:14
  Speaker 6: Landing dot com or visit Trojan Landing, Marine and Power
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: Sports in Charleston today.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Now let's check in on traffic from the five eight
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: WCCHS studio.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: Good morning, here's your traffic update. A vehicle crash on
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: West Virginia six twenty two at fifty four forty two
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: Big Tyler Road. A pothole in the roadway on US
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: sixty mccorkyl Avenue and Smith Street. Maintenance on I seventy
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: seven south at mile marker eighty five to mile marker
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: eighty five point five. That's at Shillion and in Boone County.
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: A tree in the roadway on West Virginia seventeen at
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: Spruce Laurel Road. Drive safely, I'm chapel in the WCCHS
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: Network Traffic studio.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: You're listening to Ask the Lawyer five AWCHS. The voice
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: of Charles and Harvey Payton is in the studio with
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: this morning. Give us a call three zero four three
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: four five fifty fifty eight three four five fifty eight
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: fifty eight. You can find out more about to pay
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: them off from online Peyton Law Firm dot com, p
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: E y t e inn Peyton Law Firm dot com
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: in Nitro, West Virginia. Their phone number. Threes are A
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: four seven five five fifty five fifty six. Threes are
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: A four seven five five fifty five fifty six. You
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: can still get on with us this morning though with
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: threes are A four three four five fifty to fifty.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: We're talking. Harvey's been talking a lot this morning about uh,
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: well maybe the unnecessary creation of trusts and uh with
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: things that happened with your estate after you pass and everything,
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: and this is highly important. Suff We got a lot
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: of questions on this, even on shows where like our
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: financial show that we do in the insurance show that
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: we did, different shows like this. People have different angles
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: that they have to approach on this, and Harve is
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: addressing an issue right now where I think maybe a
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: social media trend has taken off where people suggest sort
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: of gamifying trusts to avoid certain situations.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: There, it is a social media trend in it or
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: And of course I don't know. What you see on
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: social media is governed by an algorithm that shows you
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: things that that algorithm dictates to the nether world that
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: floats around that they're what you may be interested in.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: So if you have to go online and you do
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: a search about a state planning or then you're going
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: to see a lot of things. I don't I mean,
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: I don't do that because that's what I do for
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: a living. I don't know. I mean, I look at
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: things like about sports and politics. Yeah. Sure, but you
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: know you just need to be don't be afraid. I mean,
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: and the thing that I told people, don't be afraid,
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: don't be afraid of probate. It's nothing to fear. It's
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: just a process. It's not real expensive. I tell a
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: lot of folks. Look if you can, if you ordered
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: a bicycle for your child when they were young, and
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: you can and it came unassembled, and you can read
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: the instructions, empty the box, sort out the parts and
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: put it together before Santa Claus comes. You can do
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: the paperwork results required to close out a very very
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: simple estate. Now that doesn't mean you should, because there
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: are things that you miss, things get put on the
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: wrong place. But you know you can take some advice,
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: and you know, you pay a lawyer for some additional advice,
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: and things will go smoothly, and in about six to
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: eight months after your loved one departed, the thing will
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: be closed out and the real estate will be transferred
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: and the assets will be free and clear. Any claims
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: will be paid and you move on. It's difficult to
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: move on and you've lost somebody. But what lawyers get
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: paid to do is to worry about things you don't
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: want to worry about yourself, or things that you just
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: don't want to do. A lot of people just don't
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: want to handle a state of a deceased loved one.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's really somewhat difficult. But one thing you
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: need to really pay attention to, and this is something
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: to be concerned about. If you have a tax deferred
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: retirement account, I'm talking about an IRA for one K,
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: it is crucially important that you talk to your financial
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: advisor or the plan administrator to be sure that the
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: bill inefficiary designations on that plan are up to date.
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: You know the way that the plans work. You know,
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: it's tax deferred, so that if you put fifty thousand
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: dollars in an IRA or you know, when you're thirty nine,
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: it benefits earnings and the value increases, but there are
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: no taxes on that. You know, they're not capital gains
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: on every transaction it accrues value. But then when you're
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: seventy years old, seventy and a half, I think you
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: have to start withdrawing what are called mandatory minimum distributions,
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: which are taxable and are theoretically actuarily a gilt computed,
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: so that during your expected lifetime you will actually pay
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: taxes on all of the tax free accumulation. Now that's
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: not true. People are living longer now, and you know,
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: but if you pass away, you can leave a beneficiary.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: The beneficiary steps into your place, the account continues tax deferred.
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: The beneficiary will have to start taking the mandatory minimum
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: distributions when you would have, but in theory they're going
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: to be older and in a lower tax procket as well. However,
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: if I had this a week ago, a lady asked
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: me about her retirement account. Well, I made my mother
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: the beneficiary because the retirement account was opened thirty years ago. Well,
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: where's my mother's deceased, So well, should I just make
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: my estate the beneficiary? No, if in a situation like that,
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: and I've seen it happen, unfortunately, if your retirement account,
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: your tax deferred savings are paid to your estate, your
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: estate is a separate entity, and that's what the company
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: will do. They'll just write a check for the whole
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: amount to the estate of John Doe, and you, as
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: the person to represented, have to deposit it. Well, in
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service, that's just as
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: if you had cashed that entire account that day. And
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: it's all taxable. And what's the big difference is for
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: an estate, the maximum tax rate kicks in after twelve
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: five hundred dollars, So everything over twelve thousand, five hundred
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: dollars is going to be taxed at the ordinary income
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: rate of thirty six point nine percent. Well, whatever the
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: rate is, it's going to be the maximum rate thirty
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: six point nine percent. And I've had the unfortunate circumstance
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: of having to tell clients and you need to write
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: a check for eighty five thousand dollars, pay the tax
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: out of this money, and which can be avoided by
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: that's not a bad idea annually, just to think about.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: Talk to your spouse, talk to your kids, talk to
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: your lawyer. Here's the situation I'm in. What should I do? Well?
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: Call ed Stike right, but I actually have a lot
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: of They must listen to me on the radio and
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: listened because they have him as an advisor. Call He'll
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: tell you how to do that. That's the power of
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: radio right. And you can you know, you can have
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: designated beneficiary to alternates. You can designate a beneficiary fractionally.
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: If you have four children, you can. You can allocate
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: one fourth, one fourth, one fourth one fourth and they'll
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: have the option to either take it out in cash,
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: pay the tax, or roll it into another plan and
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: then name. But it's very very important if you have
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: any sort of tax deferred savings that you make sure
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: the BENEFICIARYA is up today that's not governed by your will.
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: You will has no control over that has no control
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: over life insurance, no control over joint bank accounts, no
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: control over transfer on death deeds, no control over payable
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: on death certificates to deposit or saving certificates. Your will
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: doesn't speak that. It only speaks to your probated state
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: and that is what you own in your own name
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: individually at the time of your death. Now obviously that
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: and a lot of times that may only be a vehicle.
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: It's a little bit of trouble. You to transfer the
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: title of a vehicle, You've got to call, make an
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: appointment to the DMV, put two names on the title.
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: You can sign the title, give it to your child,
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: make it, take it, and change it when something happens
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: to you. I don't think anybody's ever quest that. But uh,
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: the important thing is don't rely on social media. But yeah,
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: if you'd like to talk more about that, you can
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: go to Peyton Law Firm dot com and send an
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: email which only comes to me or Tom and just say, hey,
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: I'd like to discuss something I've got on a state issue.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Or you can call the office three oh four seven
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: five five five five five six and you'll get our
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: intake department with me. So and don't be afraid to
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: call a lawyer. I mean, we're human beings. We're here
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: to help you. We're here to help you in all
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: regards accidents or injuries. If you want to talk to
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: an old person about issues that affect old people, then
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: I'm your person. How's that? I don't know what I'll
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: be back Donald, I'm sure be here next week.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: It's a compelling case though, for Harvey Payton at the
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: Peyton Law Firm, been on the radio here for decades
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: and he can help you out. Give the Peyton Law
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: Firm A companies or four seven five five fifty five
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: six Patent Lawfirm dot com. Peytonlawfirm dot com. Dave, that
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: one's up next. Thanks for listening to Bob ad w
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: c HS, the voice of Charleston.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: W c H s A W two four three t
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: R f N Charleston W two A three a Q
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Cross Lanes at w VRC Media Station. We're proud to
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: live here too,