Latest / Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Mastery, Wealth Mindset, Leadership Principles, Intuitive Decision-Making, Human Design / 119 | Are Your Bank Accounts Set Up Properly to Bypass Probate?
Transcript
- 0:00Erin Gray: Today on the podcast.
- 0:01Erin Gray: I'm talking about a simple, often overlooked tool that can save your family from financial headaches.
- 0:07Erin Gray: It's called POD, or payable on death, and if you've never added a POD to your accounts or know what I'm talking about, not sure what it is this episode is for you, girlfriend.
- 0:19Erin Gray: So I thought that I would have this episode because it was two clients in the same week that I was discussing this with them and they were not aware of what I was referring to.
- 0:30Erin Gray: So typically I take that as a hint sign of hey, I need to probably talk about this on the podcast to share it with more people.
- 0:40Erin Gray: So I want to say, first and foremost, I'm not an attorney, I'm not your financial planner, so always refer back to what they are suggesting for you, and I will say I've had, like I said, many clients that I've worked with that have had attorneys, and when I ask about this designation, it is often overlooked.
- 1:01Erin Gray: So let's talk about what a POD is.
- 1:03Erin Gray: What does it mean?
- 1:05Erin Gray: How does it pertain to you?
- 1:07Erin Gray: So most banks or brokerage houses like think of Fidelity or probably Vanguard they use what's called a POD.
- 1:17Erin Gray: Now, life insurance companies typically will call it a beneficiary designation.
- 1:22Erin Gray: Basically, it's the same thing, they're just calling it something different.
- 1:26Erin Gray: So a POD allows someone to receive the funds in your account after you die without having to go through probate.
- 1:34Erin Gray: You know most of my clients.
- 1:35Erin Gray: When they come to me they've already have a will or a trust and that's already set up.
- 1:40Erin Gray: And if you don't, this might even be more important for you to pay attention to, because I mean, even if you do have a will or trust and it's not designated, still pay attention.
- 1:50Erin Gray: So it applies to typically like bank accounts.
- 1:54Erin Gray: When I say brokerage, I mean money market accounts, checking, saving CDs, things like that.
- 2:00Erin Gray: It's a simple form that you file with your bank that names a beneficiary and typically they have a primary and a secondary beneficiary.
- 2:09Erin Gray: Like I said, I'm not your attorney, I'm not your financial planner, but if you have a will or a trust set up, typically a trust you want to, your attorney should be advising you or they have advised you.
- 2:23Erin Gray: Maybe, maybe not, I'm not sure, depending on your state.
- 2:25Erin Gray: But you know, like mine is set up where it's my trust is my the primary POD.
- 2:30Erin Gray: So it's just, if you don't have that set up, you want to make sure.
- 2:34Erin Gray: If you don't have a trust set up, then you want to make sure you have somebody designated, because these are the types of assets that will get hung up in probate.
- 2:44Erin Gray: So why does this matter?
- 2:52Erin Gray: Because if you do have a will or trust, depending on the what your attorney has set up for you and sometimes an attorney might set up both for you because of how a trust works and then to have poor overwill it's probably another topic, another podcast episode but you definitely want to make sure that you have this set up so it follows the trust and if you have a will, you'll want to make sure that it bypasses outside of the will, because probate for some, depending on your States, depending on your attorney, all of the things probate can take months, sometimes years.
- 3:19Erin Gray: I have family members that were 20 years in the making, probably 25 at this point, because there are family members that are fighting what the trust has said.
- 3:28Erin Gray: So, um, but if you don't have this designated, this is going to go to probate and it's going to temporarily freeze this access to the cash.
- 3:44Erin Gray: So whoever would be administering your estate, they would not have access to this.
- 3:50Erin Gray: So a lot of women think like a will is enough or your trust is, you know, fine, but I I want to say you know wills go through probate.
- 4:02Erin Gray: That is one of the benefits of a trust is it bypasses probate, um and PODs.
- 4:09Erin Gray: If you have it on file, it bypasses all of that and it's quick and it's easy and it's free to set up.
- 4:16Erin Gray: They might even call it a TOD, which is a transfer on death, but I've seen most banks just call it a POD.
- 4:25Erin Gray: So I want to talk about some common misconceptions.
- 4:27Erin Gray: You know, assuming that because you have a joint account, that that is the only way to ensure access.
- 4:34Erin Gray: That is not true.
- 4:35Erin Gray: Um.
- 4:36Erin Gray: Also forgetting to update beneficiaries after life events.
- 4:41Erin Gray: So if you were married and now you're not anymore, um, someone has passed away, like really making sure you just stay on top of it and I always put you know.
- 4:50Erin Gray: I always tell my clients like I wear my 3d financial planning or hat when we're working together, but I also wear my like spiritual 5D hat, and what I mean by that is I'm telling you this information because we do live on the material plane and we do know the way that the world works in the financial planning and the estate planning.
- 5:08Erin Gray: And my 5D spiritual hat for you is coming from the energy that, like I'm fine, nothing's happening to me, but I also am empowered and I'm also going to take care of my money and be a good steward of my money, right?
- 5:22Erin Gray: So it's not coming from the place of like, oh my gosh, we have to fix this.
- 5:25Erin Gray: Oh my goodness, you know something's going to happen.
- 5:27Erin Gray: From that fear-based place.
- 5:29Erin Gray: It's just like.
- 5:29Erin Gray: You know what.
- 5:30Erin Gray: I make sure all my accounts have the proper desert, you know beneficiary designations and I take care of my estate planning.
- 5:37Erin Gray: Also, too, is not aligning your PODs with your overall estate plan.
- 5:44Erin Gray: So if you have a trust and you don't have the POD as the trust, like I mentioned earlier, then technically it's not funded correctly, and this is something that I had a conversation with a client the other day.
- 5:54Erin Gray: It's not funded correctly and this is something that I had a conversation with with a client the other day.
- 5:57Erin Gray: I said you know, a trust is amazing.
- 6:01Erin Gray: What is really important with the trust is what is and this is what your attorney should be talking to you about is that it should actually be what they call it.
- 6:06Erin Gray: I'm going to air quote funded, when a trust is funded, meaning the assets are actually put inside the trust, which actually means that you go to the you know tax assessor and you put your home in the trust, or you put you know, you make sure that your beneficiary designations for your IRAs or your qualified accounts have the trust as the beneficiary.
- 6:33Erin Gray: That is what I mean when I say is the trust funded?
- 6:36Erin Gray: Because just because you have a trust but you don't do anything with the assets, the trust isn't funded properly.
- 6:42Erin Gray: So it's easy to set up.
- 6:45Erin Gray: If we're just talking about your bank account checking savings accounts, if you have any CDs money market account, you just call your banker, go to the bank and ask for a PD, pod form, um, and I will say this, that some of the banks, some of the brokerage houses, may not know what this is.
- 7:07Erin Gray: I know that when I switched over to fidelity, I had to take it up the ladder, the chain of command, and tell them.
- 7:13Erin Gray: This is what I need, because the person that answered the phone told me that that was not possible.
- 7:18Erin Gray: I'm like, not true.
- 7:19Erin Gray: You need to go check your facts.
- 7:20Erin Gray: So just be persistent when it comes to this that this does exist.
- 7:25Erin Gray: Obviously, I'm not your attorney and depending on what state you live in, it may be called something different.
- 7:32Erin Gray: So just be aware of that.
- 7:34Erin Gray: You want to reach out to your state attorney.
- 7:35Erin Gray: You want to make sure you're doing this the correct way.
- 7:37Erin Gray: But I'm just telling you this, having this episode for you, because clearly there's two clients of mine that experienced this.
- 7:43Erin Gray: There's more women out there, I'm sure, that are unaware, and I want to empower you and to talk to you about this.
- 7:49Erin Gray: So you set it up based on, either, if you don't have a will or trust, who would be your beneficiary Also not an attorney, but I would highly recommend not making any children who are under the age of 18, your beneficiary check with your attorney on that as well but just really deciding who are going to be my, my, beneficiaries.
- 8:11Erin Gray: You're going to need their full legal name, social security number, probably keep the documentation safe and up to date and also, like, if you have an executor or a trustee, that they know where these accounts are and you know the POD on them.
- 8:29Erin Gray: Okay.
- 8:29Erin Gray: So let's talk about okay, we know that this is necessary, but if we are not taking action, I want to address that as well.
- 8:41Erin Gray: So procrastination around this might bring up.
- 8:50Erin Gray: Maybe we have some fear of death, maybe we have avoidance, maybe we this might show up as a freeze response.
- 8:57Erin Gray: So what I want you to do is, first and foremost, if you're experiencing resistance, when I say this, I want you to tap into your body, I want you to get curious.
- 9:08Erin Gray: This is an opportunity for you to lean in and for you to learn more about yourself.
- 9:13Erin Gray: Really hone in on what is you know, what are you thinking, feeling, believing right now?
- 9:19Erin Gray: That's causing the resistance, and taking small action is a powerful way for, or to create this self-regulation, right?
- 9:30Erin Gray: Maybe you just put it on the calendar where you actually just look at your bank accounts and see if they have a POD.
- 9:36Erin Gray: That's where you start.
- 9:37Erin Gray: Maybe the next week you look and you see okay, I don't have them set up.
- 9:42Erin Gray: What would I need to do?
- 9:43Erin Gray: Maybe I need to contact my attorney.
- 9:45Erin Gray: So just notice what are you feeling in your body as I'm talking about this.
- 9:49Erin Gray: Are you feeling overwhelmed?
- 9:51Erin Gray: Are you feeling resistance?
- 9:53Erin Gray: Are you feeling like you know oh my gosh, I don't know.
- 9:57Erin Gray: Like, just notice what the body is doing and allow this as an opportunity for you to connect to yourself even deeper.
- 10:04Erin Gray: You know, you do not have to tackle everything today.
- 10:08Erin Gray: Fix everything today.
- 10:09Erin Gray: Like I always say zero to 1%, it's everything.
- 10:14Erin Gray: Start where you are, just get some facts, get some information and then go from there.
- 10:22Erin Gray: I just wanted to have an episode about this because there are many of you that tune in every week and I wanted to spread the word and share that.
- 10:33Erin Gray: If this is something that is you know, I am seeing in in my clients it's probably happening a lot outside of them as well.
- 10:42Erin Gray: You know so in the collective consciousness.
- 10:44Erin Gray: So I just want to encourage you to.
- 10:47Erin Gray: This is another way to you can feel empowered.
- 10:52Erin Gray: You can choose to feel empowered about this.
- 10:54Erin Gray: You have this knowledge.
- 10:55Erin Gray: Now go do some research on your accounts, see what they say, and it's been my experience that it actually says that on the statement.
- 11:06Erin Gray: So if it doesn't say it on the statement, I would call my bank and I would ask if it actually is existing on your account at all.
- 11:15Erin Gray: That's all I have for you.
- 11:16Erin Gray: If this is something that is bringing up some internal dialogue and you want some support, not just to walk through this, but noticing your relationship with money, how you're feeling in your body, so that you can feel more safe and confident with money, more empowered I would money more empowered.
- 11:35Erin Gray: I would love to support you.
- 11:40Erin Gray: You can head over to the link in my show notes and click on the link to schedule a clarity session, and we can really just get to know one another, dive into what it is that you're working on, how I can help you.
- 11:47Erin Gray: Or you can head over to my website generatealifewelllivecom and schedule a call.
- 11:54Erin Gray: Okay, that's all I've got for you.
- 11:57Erin Gray: I'll see you next time.