Latest / The Jon Sanchez Show / Should You Tell Your Kids What's In Your Estate Plan?

Transcript

Should You Tell Your Kids What's In Your Estate Plan? · The Jon Sanchez Show

• Jon G. Sanchez: Good Wednesday afternoon too. Welcome to the John Sanchez Show on Newstock 780KOH. Pleasure to be with you this Wednesday, this hump day. And again, congratulations to all the first responders out there just busting their butts, getting everything good. And again, hope everybody's getting back in their homes. And again, our prayers are with those that have lost things. So it's a tough time here in northern Nevada, but you know what? We're gonna make it through. We always do. We always do. All right, got a great show lined up for you this afternoon. It is Wednesday. Always try to bring you an estate planning topic that you can learn about. Every Wednesday. So after I give you my stock market recap, after I cover what Nvidia's earnings were after the close and how the stock is performing in the after hour sessions, I've titled today's show, Should You Tell Your Kids What's in Your Estate Plan? Mm. No, your children may someday inherit everything. Most likely they're going to be the ones, right? Inherit everything that you have spent a lifetime building. But should they know what's in your estate before you are gone? Well, today I'm going to talk about what your children should know, what you may want to keep a little bit private from them, and why the first family conversation about your estate shouldn't happen after the funeral, right? That is the last time. And please, as I will emphasize, you probably hear me say this more than once. I promise you that. Don't have the estate planning conversation. Sitting around the Thanksgiving table, the birthday table, the Christmas dinner table. That is not the place to do it. That's why we're going to formalize this process a bit for you and tell you how you can have this information with them. Speaking of estate planning, I want to give you a quick reminder. This evening at 6 p.m., I invite you to join me for my educational webinar titled The estate planning checkup. That's right. So many people, so many of you have had estate plans written over the years. But how long has it been since someone has reviewed it? You know, gone back and make sure that it's the same as what you want, or it's the same today as how you wanted it years ago, which it probably isn't. Right? What I typically see is this number one, people coming in from another state. Number two, people when they wrote their original estate plan, their children were minors. Now they're adults. Maybe they want those children to be successor trustees or agents on their power of attorney or their medical directive. when I say power of attorney, I mean on the financial side. Right? Life changes, as I say all the time. We're not today the same today as we were a year ago as a person or as a family, our assets, our liabilities, so on and so forth. But rarely do people ever blow the dust off that estate plan and say, you know what? Let me do a checkup, right? We get our physicals, our cars go in for oil changes. But we forget about really one of the most important things besides our health, and that is our estate plan. So this evening at six o'clock, what I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be going through things that we need to check in our estate trust, our estate plan. Things like beneficiaries, powers of attorney, and how assets are titled, right? All of these for the estate plan checkup. Join me at 6 p.m. as I said this evening. Just go to my website, specialized trusts.com. And right at the top, you can register. It's free, it's educational. We'll be together for about an hour, it'll be from 6 to 7 p.m. and a little QA session at the end. And then again, you'll put another notch in your belt as far as furthering your estate planning education. So I'll give you one more reminder before the show's over today. But in the meantime, let's get down to the stock market side of things today. You know, it was amazing to see really how lackluster this market was, because it was highly anticipating Nvidia's earnings numbers. And boy, did Nvidia deliver. We had a lot of activity on the calendar today. A lot of very, very important reports. But the market really didn't even budge on them. Let me run through them real quickly with you. 5 30 this morning, we had personal income, showed an increase. This is July's number, showed an increase of four tenths of a percent month over month. Personal spending, up a half of that, two tenths of a percent month over month. And you know what's interesting with this personal income or personal spending that I've noticed? Over I don't know what it's been, six months, eight months, somewhere around there, probably less than a year. I've seen a switch. And I commend all of you for this switch. And that switch is this. As you just heard me say, personal income was double what personal spending. That's not the way it normally is. Usually personal spending is more, usually double, if not more, than the personal income. But I think, you know, for whatever the reason is, people are tightening their belts, people again. facing inflationary pressures, so on and so forth. And they're cutting down on the spending. I think that's the bottom line. Like I said, thank the good lord above that we have AI right now, because I think this market, this economy would be in the doldrums if we did not have AI sparking, you know, a lot of capital, a lot of investing interest. I really do. All right. So those were the first two reports. But then the granddaddy of them all also released at 530, the personal consumption expenditure, better known as the PCE. Now, this is the Fed's favorite measure of inflation. It looks at a lot of different things that the PC or excuse me, that the PPI and the CPI reports do not look at. Some are similar, but a lot of differences. And again, this is the one that the Fed wants to get down to about 2%. Well, they're about 1.7% away from obtaining that goal. Why? Year over year, PCE prices are up 3.7%. Month over month, we're up two tenths of a percent. Strip out food energy get down to the core, also a two-tenths of a percent increase, and year over year up 3.3%. So no matter how you slice it, hot number, but not as bad as everybody thought. So the market didn't really have much of a negative reaction to it. Simultaneously, also at 530, we had the second read of the GDP. Remember, we get three reads. They're about two weeks apart for each quarter. So what I'm referring to here is the second quarter, second read. And the number was identical to the first read, which that rarely happens. And this is again for the second quarter. showing the economy growing at an annual rate of 1.5%. So nothing's huge. I would have thought that this number would have been a bit higher, of course, if you look at again capital spending and in the AI space and so on and so forth. But that one has me a little worried. Didn't have anybody else really worried. But you know, I would really welcome somewhere around a three percent growth rate. But the flip side of that is. Strong economy. Fed's, of course, not gonna hesitate to increase interest rates. So that's that's the good side of the economy, just kind of kind of muddling along, as the old country saying goes. So those are the reports that came out today. And like I said, gave us somewhat of a lackluster session. We finished down 114 on the Dow, point two one percent. Our closing level was fifty-three thousand four sixty-three. The NASDAQ gave up just twenty-one points, closing at twenty-six thousand one thirty. And the SP down two points to a close of 7,675. Just don't see that very often. to the the commodity side of things again, we got a little bit more action, not so much on oil, though. It was another very quiet day on oil, a four cent loss, 82.25 a barrel. Gold, a little more action here, fell $47.10, closing at $4,644.10 an ounce. And over to the bond market, we had a three basis point increase on the 10-year treasury to a yield close of 4.66%. But again, all eyes and ears were focused on what was going to happen around 1.30 when Nvidia released the earnings numbers. And boy, did they do it. Let me tell you how the stock did in the regular session, what it's doing right now in the after hours. Then I'll get to the details of the report. In the regular session, NVIDIA lost $3.39 and 1.59% loss, closing at $209.66. After hours right now, the stock is up $8.69, 4.15% gain to $218.36. So here is what the company reported. Earnings per share, two dollars and twenty two cents a share. Estimates were two dollars and ten cents. Revenue ninety-six point two two billion, estimates ninety-two point one seven billion. You know, it's been almost four years since the launch of OpenAI, Chat GPT, so on and so forth, but Nvidia's still seeing massive growth, revenue more than doubling in the latest quarter from forty six point seven billion dollars a year ago. So think about that. In one year to go from $46 billion to $92 billion in revenue. Their CFO, Colette Krauss on a conference call with analysts said that Nvidia expects fiscal twenty twenty eight revenue growth of seventy percent. Analysts were only looking for forty-four percent. She said that customer forecast point two are growth doubling next year, but she said guidance reflects supply constraints. Net income in the quarter more than doubled to $53.95 billion. Or again, $2.22 a share from $24.76 billion net income in the same quarter a year ago. So $24.7 to $53.9. Amazing. And that was $1.87 a share a year ago. But you know interesting? Does it not feel like Nvidia's running out of steam just a little bit from an investor enthusiasm standpoint? I mean, you know, we own this stock, of course, we've owned it for years. And and you'd get so excited when these numbers came out because again, they were similar to like this, right? You know, up revenue up 70%, 80%. I mean, phenomenal numbers. And we would get some huge pops in the stock on the day the the earnings numbers were released. You know, again, we're up, you know, four percent. Okay, but we lost one and a half today, so You know, let's net that out. We're, you know, up what three for the day, basically. So the other thing that to keep in mind how the stock's kind of fizzling just a bit, is if you look at the performance of the stock through yesterday, through actually through today, pardon me, through the the close today, where again it closed at 209.66, stocks only up 13% for the year. You know, and again, it's it's you know, if you look at at some of the the other areas of the, I mean small caps, the Rustell 2000's up twenty-one point one percent, NASDAQ itself's up twelve point four, so it's pretty much tracking the Nasdaq. S P's up twelve point one percent for the year, and the Dow's up eleven point two. So again, not that massive standout like it has been in in in years past. But you know, bottom line is what Nvidia tends to do after a strong earnings report like this, it tends to Again, I'll use the octopus theory, spread its tentacles throughout the rest of technology. And everybody gets real giddy and and I would not be surprised if we have a a really good session tomorrow, at least on the the Nasdaq side. Matter of fact, NASDAQ futures, they just started trading at three, but they're up two hundred and seventy-one points right now, point nine two percent gain. S P futures up a little over half a percent, and Dow futures are up two hundred and eight or point three nine percent. So I didn't even look at that before I gave you my octopus analogy. So just to let you know I didn't cheat. but that's just typically what what the stock does. That's why again, it's probably the the biggest barometer of what people look at right now to determine the health of the overall stock market. So great, great earnings report. Congratulations to any of you that own Nvidia. Hopefully you'll see a little bit of a bump in your in your portfolio tomorrow. All right. You're now up to date. Like I said, not a lot of activity going on. Give you the economic data. I told you what NVIDIA's doing, told you what the market's doing. Let me tell you what we should be doing with our kids when it comes to your estate plan. I'll get right started on the topic when we come back, but first. Welcome back to the John Sancho show on Newstalk 780K. All right, gonna get started here on our estate planning topic this afternoon. Should you tell your kids what's in your estate plan? But before we do, another quick recap of the market. Finish down 114 on the Dow. NASDAQ lost 21. The SP lower by two. Nvidia, very strong earnings to report. right the stock's up seven dollars and ninety-five cents. And after hours, three point seven nine percent gain to two hundred and seventeen dollars and fifty-five cents per share. All right. Let me ask a question of you. All right. We're sitting across the kitchen table, and I look at you straight in the eye and I ask you this question Do your children know what's in your estate plan? Not whether you have a trust, do they know Who you've put in charge? Do they know what happens when you're gone? Do they know where all of the critical documents are? Do they know who to call? And here's a real uncomfortable question. Do they know what they're going to inherit? Now, some of you are probably thinking, absolutely, I tell my kids everything. They they know it all. But other group of you are going, it's none of their you know what business. It's my money. I mean, I hear this all of the time from clients. Put it this way: I hear more that it's none of their you know what business. It's my money. I hope to die with a dollar left than I do. Yeah, absolutely. My kids are dialed. You know, we talk about this all the time. They know if, you know, I pass away, or mom and I pass away, you know, they go to this file cabinet, they contact this person, they do di- di-di- di- di- di- di. I I can't tell you the last time that I heard that. And I I've sat back and I've and I've analyzed this and I've thought about this a lot. I've been very, very forthcoming with my children because I know what happens. I've shared stories, I'm not going to do it today, with you of clients that were closed-lipped. They didn't tell their kids anything for whatever their reason was: privacy, fear that, you know, the siblings may be fighting among each other because this child may get a little bit more, this child may get a little bit less, whatever the reason was. They decided that it's best that they didn't say anything. But I took the opposite approach. I wanted my kids to know everything. And that's what I recommend to all of you. But yet again, there's some things that as I'm going to share with you that maybe I'll I'll let you decide how you want to share it with them, if at all. Because you know, there are reasonable arguments on both sides. Some people will have children, whether it's stepchildren or flesh and blood children, that they don't trust knowing what they have. Now, if you notice, and I'm not going to ever mention in this e this afternoon's discussion to tell them a specific dollar amount. I can perfectly understand where you may not want to share a specific dollar amount. But in reality, does it hurt to say, hey, I've got an IRA over here, I got a taxable brokerage account over there, here's where my trust documents are. Let's go over my medical wishes, so on and so forth. Because as I said on Monday, when when I was, you know, really heartbroken for for our our our neighbors, you know, being affected by the fires. I you know, like I said, I was really having a hard time that day. I just felt so terrible not being able to do anything. you know, a lot of those people in in Commending all of you that were involved in that, that had a a go bag, a to-go bag, that had a plan to get out. Now I know there's a lot of controversy going on right now about you know having a hard time getting out of Somerset and some of the other neighborhoods and so on and so forth. That's obviously a whole nother discussion. But you individually, I've talked to a lot of you that again, you you were set, you were ready to go. You got great warnings from from our first responders and you did your part. You were packed, you were ready to go, and you went. So you you were prepared for that. But use that same logic when it comes to your estate plan. Are you prepared for your passing? Is your family prepared for your passing? So now let's talk about there is a difference between privacy and a difference between secrecy. Let's talk about privacy. My children do not need to know my exact net worth. It's none of their business. Okay, I can get that. And Lord knows the list of reasons could be a mile long. Like I said, it could be a situation where people just parents are fearful, again, that their children are gonna fight when they know the amount. I've seen it also where parents don't want their kids to know simply because. They don't want it to be lazy, especially if they're going to inherit a lot of money. And I think this is a good time, folks. You're going to hear me do this topic a lot over the years, and I'll tell you why. Remember, it's no longer, yeah, on the stock market and the economy side, yeah, we still have the baby boom generation going on. But now on the estate planning side, we have even a greater phenomenon. It's called the great wealth transfer. And here's what it tells what it says: 124%. Trillion dollars. 124 trillion dollars. According to Cerulean Associates and many others have backed this study up. 124 trillion dollars is gonna pass from my generation, the baby boom generation, down to our kids. Between now, it's just starting, literally just starting this year, between now and the year 2040. So, you know, our generation has a lot of wealth due to hard work, blessings in the stock market, blessings on real estate to pass on to our children and our grandchildren. So a lot of people go, you know what? My kids don't need to know I'm worth a couple million bucks or five million or 10 or maybe a half a million, whatever your number is. They just don't want the kids to know. And again, I perfectly understand that. That's not the purpose of this topic this afternoon. The purpose of this topic this afternoon is to. Share with them as much as you feel comfortable sharing with them without again going into the exact dollar amounts. You don't have to do that. And frankly, you know, obviously your dollar amounts are going to change. Hopefully you're going to live many, many more years. So why tell them that you have a half a million dollar in a brokerage account when, you know, 10 years from now, who knows what that's going to be worth? So that's the privacy side of things. Again, my children don't need to know exactly what my net worth is. Let's talk about the difference with secrecy. My successor trustee, so that's the person again that you've assigned. That's the I like to call the big dog. That's the person that's going to take care of your estate when you're gone, right? They're the ones that got the hard work ahead of them. So people say, you know, my successor trustee doesn't know that they are my successor trustee. my goodness. I cringe when I see this. Now, this person, again, as I've gone over many times, the successor trustee has to be a really unique individual, right? They've got to be pretty smart. They've got to be able to talk to other professionals. They've got to be organized. maybe they live locally, maybe they're out of town, but either way, they're gonna be spending a lot of time in this position to wind down your estate. Distribute assets, pay bills, pay taxes, you know, sell real estate, sell business, whatever they have to do. But my successor trustee doesn't know that they're my successor trustee. Imagine for just a moment, because you want to be so secret about your estate plan, that let's say you named, I don't know, let's say you named your, your, your oldest child, your son. Let's call him Jack. Jack, you named years ago when you wrote your trust, but you never told Jack, hey, you're gonna be my successor trustee. And say your wife passes away and you're the last one to go. Jack's absolutely distraught. Course, parents are now gone. And then Jack is notified by someone, it could be anybody, that you are the successor trustee. First of all, most people have no idea what a successor trustee is or does. But secondly, once he does learn what it is and what he's going to have to do, he may be cussing you out in your grave, saying, Really, Dad, you left this mess to me. What did I do to you? You know, why are you doing this? And by the way, you're not paying me for this, even though again, our trusts allow you to compensate your successor trustee, which they should be. But you don't need to necessarily sit down with your kids and announce, hey kids, mom and I are worth, you know, 3.75 million dollars. But somebody should probably know. And that successor trustee, if it's one of your children, they probably should have a good idea. They don't need to know the exact amount, but they should at least know that you're not being secret and that you've nominated them. And most importantly, you have asked their permission, right? This is the other problem. You name somebody and they have no clue, like I said. Then you know you die and now they find out. So at least ask in this example. Talk to your son Jack and say, Jack, we'd like for you to be our successor trustee. Here's the responsibilities. Here's what the job's going to entail. We are going to compensate you. Here's the pros. Here's the cons. Are you willing to do it? Sure, mom and dad, I'd love to do that. Or you know what? Like I just had a client the other day. Great matter of fact, one of their children in the financial business, financial services business, perfect fit. Responsible. It checked all the boxes. But the kid said, you know what, Dad? I can't do it. I I I'm I'm too busy at my job. I don't want that. I can't do that responsibility. Cool. So then he passed it on to his next kid. So it happens. But there is a difference between privacy and secrecy. Now when I come back, what should you be telling your kids about? Back to the John Sancho Show One Newstock 780K, which again a very lackluster day in the market, but I think tomorrow may be just a little bit different. We finished down 114 on the Dow. NASDAQ lost 21, SP down two. Start of the day, though, in the video after the close, strong earnings and revenue, amazing growth. stock right now up $8.63 after hours, 4.12% rise to $218.29. Still watching the NASDAQ futures now knocking on the door with a 300 point gain. SPs are higher by 48 and the Dow futures right now up to 166. All right, we're talking about your children, right? What a touchy subject. Should you tell your kids what's in your estate plan? All right, let me continue on. Should your children know how much they're inheriting? Well, here's the debate. Let's say mom and dad have, I don't know, $4 million and they've got three kids. Now, in our estate plans, one of the questions we ask our clients is: Do you want to distribute your assets evenly among your children? Or do you want to customize the distribution? In other words, 10% to this child, 30% to that child, that type of thing. So again, mom and dad in this example, they've got four million bucks, three children. Do you tell them, you know, hey, we've got four mom and dad we you we we've got four million bucks? Well, here's the argument for not telling them. First of all, it's your money, it's not your kids' money. Secondly, this is a major issue, especially if you got a few bucks and your net worth is up there. A lot of times what we have seen happen is once children know they're going to be inheriting, and I'm talking life-changing money, you know, millions of dollars, they start changing their life. Maybe they don't try to push for that promotion at work. Maybe they're okay, you know, at the revenue level that their current business is at. Or if they're younger, Maybe they don't want to go finish their college degree. Why should they? They know they're gonna be getting millions of dollars. And especially if mom and dad are older or in poor health, they're thinking, Yeah, this is gonna happen sooner rather than later. So children, you need to emphasize to them, children should not plan their lives around their inheritance, right? If they get it, great. That's your dream, that's your wish. But if something changes, I'll explain in a moment, where it absolutely can, and they don't get the inheritance they want, you want them to be responsible adults, living their lives responsibly, and again, without the assumption that they're gonna be inheriting anything. Again, another argument for not telling your kids exactly what they're gonna get. Circumstances can change. Obviously, asset values can change, right? Real estate goes up, stock market goes up, down, so and so forth. Long term care could consume substantial assets. If you do not have long term care insurance, I shared with you many times I've seen multi million dollar estates wiped out because prolonged long term care. Parents could change their estate plan. You know, you may love your kid right now or kids right now, but you know what? That's the great thing about having a revocable, the keyword, revocable living trust. You can change it at any time. You can change anything you want in that plan. If you love your three kids equally today, but a month from now, one of your kids develops a drug problem and you're like, you're not gonna get a third of my money, you can change that. That's the great thing. It's completely flexible. Also, what I run across a lot, people are like, I love my kid, but he or she's not financially responsible. And that's where we get into you know, who's gonna manage the the the kid's money? And this is where it gets touchy. I'll I'll tell you this. I need to do a whole show on this. Because especially if we're talking adult children, which usually we are, we're not talking, you know, minors. you're sitting there saying, Hey, son, you're not responsible to to manage you know this inheritance. So therefore, and this is where we come in. We help them find a trust company, right? They will do all that. They will delve out the money based upon your wishes, et cetera. But your kid can't get their hands on a big chunk of money unless you want them to, right? It's up to you. But that's a great alternative. If you have a child that, you know, maybe they're they're for whatever reason, they you just don't feel they can handle an inheritance, look at doing it hiring a trust company. Okay, so what's the argument for telling in this example your kids that you have four million dollars? Well, for the responsible child, it allows them to prepare. Also, it can improve their financial literacy. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, guess what? Put yourself in your kid's position. Let's say you make the number simple. Let's say you got four kids, right? And you got four million bucks, you're gonna give a million bucks to each kid. Okay. If you're a kid and you know you're gonna be getting a million dollars, if you're responsible, don't you think you'd want to step it up a little bit and listen to the John Sancho show every day and maybe attend a few of our webinars and read some things on the internet? And bottom line, try to improve your financial literacy. So that you can be a great steward of your money when you do inherit it. Another reason to tell your kids, large inheritance may require planning and boy do they ever. So let me tell you a major problem that's going on. I told you at the beginning of the show, this thing called the Great Wealth Transfer, hundred and twenty four trillion dollars being passed from baby boomers down to down to their children over the next you know, well, till twenty forty is what the numbers are showing. Here's where a problem or problems are beginning to unsurface. Or unsurface? How about surface? And it doesn't have to really anything to do with the taxable assets, which again, if you do things correctly, are covered in the trust. Where the problems lie are in the tax-deferred accounts, the IRAs, the 401ks, 403Bs, things like that. Now, why could that be a problem? Remember. You have the LC IRA, the same rules apply for the 401k, etc. When you have the 401k, you've named beneficiaries, or hopefully you have. We make sure that you do. Usually you're going to name your spouse's primary beneficiary, meaning you pass away, she gets the account, or he gets the account. Then you name contingents, meaning when both of you are gone, here's who's going to get the money. Many times clients want us to put in the trust the same percentages. you know, in this example, if we have three kids, you know, a third, a third, a third. for the remainder of the estate. And then the same thing in the IRA, a third, a third, a third. No problem. You can do whatever you want to do. But remember, can't say I want that IRA, you know, to go two thirds to one child and break up the rest to another child. Because that application, that IRA application supersedes we have in the trust. Another little tidbit there. Now So here's the problem. Remember, unless your trust has specific verbiage in there, you do not want to name your trust, your living trust, as a beneficiary, whether it's primary or contingent. I have this discussion probably three to four times a day. Because the law states or the rules state that if you name a non-human being, like a trust, within 10 years of your death, and I'm not talking your spouse, I'm talking non-spouses. Within 10 years of your death, your beneficiaries have to spend every penny of that IRA. You know what? Some of you have some big IRAs, multi-million dollar IRAs. So let's make the number simple. Let's say you got a $3 million IRA. You got three kids. You're going to give them a third, a third, a third. So each kid's going to get a million dollars. Well the rule says they can postpone taking out anything until the 10th year after your death. But by that 10th year on that anniversary of your death, every dollar has to be out. So let's say your kid was financially prudent. You know, let's say you died in 2026. So in 2036, that money's got to be out. But they didn't touch a penny, they let it grow. And maybe that million's now worth $2 million. Well, they were smart financially, letting it grow tax deferred, but now here comes the tax hit. Now they've got to take out a $2 million distribution. And guess what? That's 100% taxable income. Could throw them in a obviously the highest tax bracket compared to where they were. It can create all kinds of tax challenges. And depending upon where they live, they could lose 30, 40, 50% of that money, depending upon state and and obviously federal taxes, et cetera. So you have to do a significant amount of very specific planning when you are talking about large inheritances from a tax perspective. So I'll wrap up this portion saying, you know what, there's not one universal answer to say, hey kids, here's our exact dollar amount that we have today. It's up to you. Some people again will say my children don't know exactly how much until they're going to get it. And others say my children are absolutely have no idea what happens when I die. We don't like the last one. All right, we come back. Let's running out of time. Let's go to should you tell them who gets what? That's another very touchy conversation. Welcome back to the John Sanchez show in New Stock 780 KOH. Once again, a recap of the market. 114 loss on the Dow down 21 on the NASDAQ. Two-point decline on the SP 500. Nvidia again, the star of the after hour session, doing very, very well. Stock up $8.76, 4.18% to $218.43 after an extremely strong earnings report. And we did break the $300 mark on the NASDAQ futures, now up 315. SP's up 50, and the Dow futures now knocking on 300 points, up 289. All right, let's Get back to our topic again. talking to your children. This is such an important area. Should you tell your kids what's in your estate plan? A couple more things I want to mention as I'm, as always, rapidly running out of time. But first I want to again give you one more reminder about tonight's webinar. You know, I've spent you know, the last half hour or so talking to you about how you can communicate your estate plan to your family, right? It's a touchy area, there's no doubt about it. But before you explain your estate plan to your children, there's even a more basic question. Are you confident in the plan that you're going to be explaining? And does your plan still work the way you think that it does? That you the way you originally created it? Well, that's what we're covering at six o'clock tonight in my free webinar, the estate planning checkup. We're going to look at your trust, beneficiary designations, power of attorney, how your assets are owned, and I'll show you how to determine whether all these pieces still work together the way you intended. Because before your family can understand your estate plan, you need to understand it yourself. Just go to specializetrust.com and sign up. So again, that'll be from 6 to 7 p.m. this evening. Okay, now a couple more important things I want to try to squeeze in here very quickly. here we go. Should you tell them who gets what, meaning your children? Should you tell them who gets what? So again, let's use an example. Three children, equal thirds, really easy. But suppose out of your three children, you're not gonna do an equal distribution. Child A is going to get 40%. Child B is going to get 40%. And child C is going to get 20%. Do you explain this to them while you're alive? Well, if you're intentionally doing something your children are likely to perceive as unequal, please consider whether explaining your reasoning during your lifetime would reduce future conflict. Because otherwise, mom dies, kids open up the trust. What the heck? I've seen this. What the it's not heck, it's another word that starts with an H. What the heck? Now mom isn't here to explain. The siblings begin creating their own explanation. mom loved you more. Yeah, but you manipulated dad. You already got money. You didn't help mom. And now we're heading towards family warfare. So remember, silence leaves a vacuum, and families have a remarkable ability to fill that vacuum in with assumptions that, again, you don't want. Because remember also, equal doesn't always mean fair, right? Again, with the three children, maybe you have one child and this happens all the time. One child spent 10 years caring for mom. Another received $200,000 during mom's lifetime for the you know down payment on a house. The third joined the family business and helped build it. Should everybody still receive exactly one third? Maybe. But that's the great thing about a trust. You get to decide it now, not trying to manage from the grave. I look forward to seeing all of you at six p.m. this evening. Again, just go to specializetrust.com. God bless, have great afternoon. See you tomorrow.