Latest / The Legal Exchange / Problems with a poorly drafted trust
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- 0:01Speaker 1: This is the Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky from the
- 0:04Speaker 1: law firm of Cushing and Dolan and Susan Powers of
- 0:07Speaker 1: the Armstrong Advisory Group. Each week, Todd and Susan will
- 0:10Speaker 1: discuss many topics including estate planning, how to avoid probate,
- 0:13Speaker 1: and protecting your money from a nursing home. If you
- 0:16Speaker 1: need assistance in any of these areas, or have a
- 0:18Speaker 1: question about another issue that may affect your future, call
- 0:21Speaker 1: eight six six eight four eight five six ninety nine
- 0:24Speaker 1: to make an appointment. That's eight sixty six eight four
- 0:27Speaker 1: eight five six ninety nine. Operators are standing by. Now
- 0:31Speaker 1: Here are your hosts, Tod Lutsky and Susan Powers.
- 0:37Speaker 2: Welcome into the Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky. I'm Susan Powers,
- 0:41Speaker 2: of financial Advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group and I'm
- 0:44Speaker 2: joined by Todd Lutsky, a partner with the law firm
- 0:47Speaker 2: of Cushing and Dolan with a master's in taxation. Welcome Todd.
- 0:52Speaker 2: How are you today?
- 0:53Speaker 3: I am never better in you.
- 0:54Speaker 2: I am great? Thank you. What do you have for
- 0:56Speaker 2: us this week?
- 0:57Speaker 3: We've got a couple of things. We've got an east
- 1:00Speaker 3: there in district of California case dealing with trust drafting
- 1:06Speaker 3: and really how to leave assets. It's it's very interesting
- 1:12Speaker 3: because you when you figure out how you want to
- 1:14Speaker 3: leave assets, the most important part of it is drafting
- 1:19Speaker 3: and how to draft the language to do that. And
- 1:21Speaker 3: we're going to see the problems that occur in this
- 1:23Speaker 3: case when that doesn't happen properly. In addition, I have
- 1:29Speaker 3: a real life story, really another I think feel good
- 1:33Speaker 3: story at the end of the day. It's someone who
- 1:35Speaker 3: did planning as a single person, a widow with kids
- 1:39Speaker 3: and stepkids, came back years later getting married again. And
- 1:45Speaker 3: now what do we do and do you get married?
- 1:48Speaker 3: And what are the pros and cons of getting married
- 1:50Speaker 3: from nursing homes to taxes to et cetera. So things
- 1:54Speaker 3: to think about in the importance of what revisiting your
- 1:56Speaker 3: estate plan when life even change. So we're going to
- 2:01Speaker 3: show you that because and actually both of these really
- 2:04Speaker 3: tie into you know, how to leave your assets to
- 2:07Speaker 3: your to your beneficiaries, which is actually the new guide
- 2:10Speaker 3: for this month. It's going to help you when you
- 2:13Speaker 3: draft both of these cases explain you know the most
- 2:16Speaker 3: important part. Yeah, it's great what you're living, but there's
- 2:20Speaker 3: so many ways to leave assets to your kids, and
- 2:22Speaker 3: these trusts can live on after you die and they
- 2:25Speaker 3: can talk about creditor protection and generation skipping tax benefits
- 2:29Speaker 3: and just really control any number of ways you might
- 2:33Speaker 3: want to do that. So if you're thinking about getting
- 2:36Speaker 3: your estate plan in order, might be great to get
- 2:38Speaker 3: the guide to learn about the back end of the
- 2:41Speaker 3: estate planning and how to leave the assets to the beneficiaries.
- 2:44Speaker 3: Eight six six eight four eight five six nine nine
- 2:49Speaker 3: or Legal Exchange Show dot com again eight six six
- 2:52Speaker 3: eight four eight five six nine nine or Legal Exchange
- 2:56Speaker 3: Show dot com. Now let's head over to the Eastern
- 3:00Speaker 3: District of California. So Kathy and Deb are sisters and
- 3:05Speaker 3: they were beneficiaries of their parents' trust, the Kerner Trust,
- 3:11Speaker 3: we'll call it. And this trust had two shares, one
- 3:15Speaker 3: for each daughter. But Deb was actually the trustee of
- 3:19Speaker 3: the trust. Well, Kathy the sister lived in California and
- 3:25Speaker 3: all the real property in the trust was actually located
- 3:29Speaker 3: in California. But Cathy claimed that Deb, the trustee and sister,
- 3:34Speaker 3: never really told her that the trust was created for
- 3:37Speaker 3: her benefit, so it was tough I guess that was
- 3:40Speaker 3: held in trust for her benefit, nor did she ever
- 3:45Speaker 3: provide any accountings. Remember she's a trustee. Kathy also accused
- 3:51Speaker 3: Deb and her husband of taking assets from the trust
- 3:55Speaker 3: and then relocating to Oregon. Okay, well, arbitration occurred and
- 4:01Speaker 3: the parties actually unilaterally settled and Deb was required to
- 4:06Speaker 3: transfer back all the funds that she took that they
- 4:10Speaker 3: used to purchase the real estate in Oregon where they moved,
- 4:14Speaker 3: and they settled. So I don't have a lot of
- 4:16Speaker 3: detail for you. I'm just happy to know that they
- 4:18Speaker 3: settled and she got her money back and the trust
- 4:20Speaker 3: did what it was supposed to do, and that's the key.
- 4:24Speaker 3: But really, I think we can learn a lot from
- 4:29Speaker 3: this case, right, And what we learn is not only
- 4:32Speaker 3: that drafting, isn't that trust work? And of course this
- 4:36Speaker 3: whole incident, did you notice I mentioned arbitration, There was
- 4:41Speaker 3: no probate. There was no fighting in the probate courts.
- 4:44Speaker 3: They weren't involved, and know why because they had a trust.
- 4:48Speaker 3: So first and foremost, the trust kept them out of probate.
- 4:51Speaker 3: And you're going to see that the trust actually accomplished
- 4:55Speaker 3: what it was designed to do. Now, sometimes it's not
- 4:59Speaker 3: without fighting, but we should draft to prevent that. Right,
- 5:04Speaker 3: So let's think about it. So you have lots going
- 5:06Speaker 3: on here, right, there's both real estate involved and there's
- 5:10Speaker 3: money involved in this trust. And when you start drafting,
- 5:13Speaker 3: you really need to take these assets into account to
- 5:16Speaker 3: prevent fighting. So let's run through a couple of examples. First,
- 5:22Speaker 3: if you want to treat the kids equally, then this
- 5:24Speaker 3: two share approach is a good idea. We got two
- 5:27Speaker 3: separate chairs, break them up. I like it. Second, real
- 5:33Speaker 3: estate language. Now, we always want there to be no
- 5:37Speaker 3: fighting over real estate, and there certainly could be and
- 5:40Speaker 3: generally is. So we draft language just says we force
- 5:44Speaker 3: the sale of the property unless everybody wants it, or
- 5:49Speaker 3: allow the ones who want it to buy out the
- 5:52Speaker 3: ones who don't want it at fair market value.
- 5:55Speaker 2: So that would be like if you have a vacation
- 5:56Speaker 2: home and you want to leave it to a couple
- 5:58Speaker 2: of kids and doesn't live near that, they have new
- 6:01Speaker 2: desire to have it, they want the cash, they can
- 6:03Speaker 2: be bought out.
- 6:05Speaker 3: Geographic geographics matter where are you, where you're living, where
- 6:09Speaker 3: your head's at the property. And again people think that
- 6:14Speaker 3: they love these for their children, but their children may
- 6:17Speaker 3: not love the real estate. The way. The parents want
- 6:20Speaker 3: them to love the real estate.
- 6:21Speaker 2: They just want them all to just vacation forever.
- 6:25Speaker 3: And this and that's true. They do mm hm. And
- 6:28Speaker 3: this approach prevents no fighting. And the buckets now are
- 6:32Speaker 3: going to be filled. These separate buckets are going to
- 6:34Speaker 3: be filled, and they're going to be equal, even if
- 6:37Speaker 3: they're filled with different assets, so they might some might
- 6:40Speaker 3: have more money, some might have more real estate. It's okay, right.
- 6:44Speaker 3: Number three? What well, what if you're going to hold
- 6:46Speaker 3: the trust, hold assets in trust or are you're going
- 6:49Speaker 3: to pay it out? That's the next question when you
- 6:51Speaker 3: start drafting here, it sounds like there was some holding
- 6:54Speaker 3: in trust going on. Well, paying it out it's easy, right,
- 6:57Speaker 3: You simply walk away, You divide the assets, walk away,
- 7:01Speaker 3: pretty easy. Trust ends when you hold things in trust.
- 7:05Speaker 3: You need to start thinking about how these discretionary payouts
- 7:09Speaker 3: are going to happen. And you want discretionary payout language
- 7:11Speaker 3: because the sole discretionary payout language provides that the creditor
- 7:17Speaker 3: protection that you're looking for perhaps down the road from
- 7:20Speaker 3: future divorces. It also allows generation skipping tax benefits to occur,
- 7:25Speaker 3: meaning if you died and you haven't emptied your bucket,
- 7:29Speaker 3: then you don't own it. And if you've allocated generation
- 7:32Speaker 3: skipping tax exemption to the bucket on the day mom
- 7:36Speaker 3: and dad passed away, those assets are not going to
- 7:38Speaker 3: be included in your estate and therefore not subject to
- 7:41Speaker 3: death tax again again and all the growth. So that's
- 7:46Speaker 3: a really nice feature, but again you have to draft
- 7:49Speaker 3: for that. Okay. Well, then if we're going to number
- 7:51Speaker 3: four would be, you know, if we're going to hold
- 7:52Speaker 3: this in trust, who should be the trustee? Well, they
- 7:55Speaker 3: had two kids, both of them certainly could have served
- 7:57Speaker 3: as trustee and that would have solved this problem. Now
- 8:00Speaker 3: they're both actively involved. Yep, that's an option and it
- 8:03Speaker 3: could work, you know, but if one serves as trustee,
- 8:07Speaker 3: that's okay too. But make sure you use a discretionary
- 8:10Speaker 3: trustee to authorize the distributions to the kids, not the child. Right.
- 8:17Speaker 3: That's the way they don't feel like, you know, I
- 8:19Speaker 3: have to you know, any ill will towards each kid.
- 8:22Speaker 2: You have to be the heavy and say no, you
- 8:24Speaker 2: can't take the money.
- 8:25Speaker 3: Right right appointed and allow the kids, each kid the
- 8:30Speaker 3: power to remove and replace that disinterested trustee. Okay, Now
- 8:35Speaker 3: there really is no downside, right for these kids, and
- 8:38Speaker 3: you're getting all this protection also prohibit the ability of
- 8:44Speaker 3: a trustee to take from another child's bucket, so you
- 8:48Speaker 3: don't have to ever worry about robbing Peter to pay Paul.
- 8:51Speaker 3: All right, So we've got that done. And don't forget
- 8:53Speaker 3: fiduciary rules exist, right, You're required to provide accountings, You're
- 8:57Speaker 3: required to keep beneficiaries informed. So so you know this
- 9:01Speaker 3: this works to help keep everybody's head sort of in
- 9:05Speaker 3: the game, and so you know, the courts can act
- 9:08Speaker 3: to protect the beneficiaries. So planning does work. And that's
- 9:12Speaker 3: exactly what happened here, right. And and the other thing
- 9:16Speaker 3: that you know, you kind of struggle with sometimes is,
- 9:20Speaker 3: you know, do you tell your kids about the estate
- 9:23Speaker 3: planning that you're doing and let them know that you've
- 9:26Speaker 3: done some stuff so that when the time comes, they
- 9:29Speaker 3: know to go look for the documents.
- 9:30Speaker 2: And maybe people do struggle with that. I get that question.
- 9:34Speaker 3: It's a tough it's a tough one, I mean, and
- 9:37Speaker 3: I just sort of throw this out there is sort
- 9:38Speaker 3: of at the end to sort of say, is that
- 9:40Speaker 3: a way to do it? You know, you know, go
- 9:43Speaker 3: look for the documents. This way each child can sort
- 9:45Speaker 3: of take responsibility for themselves and say, Okay, look, we
- 9:50Speaker 3: know this exists, let's work together. We're ready for it.
- 9:53Speaker 3: Let's figure out what we need to do.
- 9:54Speaker 2: As a plan.
- 9:56Speaker 3: I don't have answers, but that's an option for you.
- 9:59Speaker 3: But either way, folks, learn how to leave your assets
- 10:02Speaker 3: to your family. I think is probably one of the
- 10:04Speaker 3: most important parts of estate planning. And so if you're
- 10:07Speaker 3: beginning your estate planning, see what might be right for you,
- 10:10Speaker 3: and if you've already done it, see how you might
- 10:13Speaker 3: be able to change your mind and leave assets another way.
- 10:16Speaker 3: Get the guide eight six six eight four eight five
- 10:19Speaker 3: six nine nine or Legal Exchange show dot com.
- 10:22Speaker 2: You've been listening to Todd Lutsky, a partner with the
- 10:25Speaker 2: law firm of Cushing and Dolan. I'm Susan Powers, a
- 10:28Speaker 2: financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group. We've got much
- 10:32Speaker 2: more to come when we return to the Legal Exchange
- 10:34Speaker 2: with Todd Lutsky.
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- 13:53Speaker 2: Welcome back into the Legal Exchange with Todd Lotsky. I'm
- 13:56Speaker 2: Susan Powers of financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group,
- 14:00Speaker 2: and I'm joined by Todd Letsky, a partner with the
- 14:02Speaker 2: law firm of Cushing and Dolan with a master's in taxation.
- 14:06Speaker 2: Where are we headed now, Todd.
- 14:08Speaker 3: We are going to go to nowhere. We're going to
- 14:10Speaker 3: go to a real life.
- 14:11Speaker 5: Story staying right We're staying right here nice, which I
- 14:15Speaker 5: do like these because when they when they come up,
- 14:17Speaker 5: it's just it just re emphasizes all the stuff that
- 14:20Speaker 5: we say that's actually very real.
- 14:23Speaker 3: And so in this case we had several years ago.
- 14:26Speaker 3: Mat say, back in twenty twenty one, client comes in.
- 14:29Speaker 3: She's single, widow too kids, and she had some grandkids
- 14:35Speaker 3: and she wanted to do, you know, some estate planning
- 14:38Speaker 3: and she had some step grandkids and step kids from
- 14:43Speaker 3: prior marriage, and she was wanting to take care of everybody,
- 14:47Speaker 3: which is great. She was seventy three at the time,
- 14:51Speaker 3: and she had home and IRA, some money and some investments,
- 14:55Speaker 3: you know. About one point eight we discussed whether her
- 14:59Speaker 3: both the irrevocable trust and the revocable trust planning and
- 15:03Speaker 3: gave her options. She started the process with the irrevocable trust,
- 15:10Speaker 3: and as we went through the planning process, she decided
- 15:13Speaker 3: to switch to the revocable trust planning, which is perfectly okay.
- 15:17Speaker 3: For whatever reason she said, no, I think I'm good
- 15:20Speaker 3: with with revocable, So we did that.
- 15:24Speaker 2: Well.
- 15:24Speaker 3: The trust that we did for her, of course, allowed
- 15:26Speaker 3: her to be the donor, allowed her to be the trustee,
- 15:30Speaker 3: and we ended up funding the trust we put in
- 15:33Speaker 3: there her home and all of her non qualified investments,
- 15:39Speaker 3: leaving her IRA outside the trust. She was also able
- 15:44Speaker 3: to provide for the step kids in there and her
- 15:48Speaker 3: own children in very specific ways. Some were paid out,
- 15:52Speaker 3: some were credit or protected, some were age protected. It
- 15:56Speaker 3: was a function of how she wanted to treat them.
- 15:58Speaker 3: Some were divorce proof. Good and she was able to
- 16:03Speaker 3: get these assets to the grandkids, estate tax free with
- 16:07Speaker 3: this generation skipping, that's enjoyable language. Fast forward to today.
- 16:14Speaker 3: She comes back in with a significant other. Good for her, right,
- 16:19Speaker 3: and guess what they're getting married? Well, pretty sure they're
- 16:23Speaker 3: getting married. He has two kids and two grandkids. He's
- 16:27Speaker 3: eighty two, she's seventy seven, ye know, which is again great.
- 16:35Speaker 3: So he has about a condo worth about three fifty
- 16:38Speaker 3: that he rents. He's got three fifty he rents the condo.
- 16:43Speaker 3: He's got five hundred and in an IRA and three
- 16:45Speaker 3: fifty in cash. She has about a one point five
- 16:48Speaker 3: million dollar home now seven hundred and an iron about
- 16:51Speaker 3: one hundred and cash. What do you do? Right? She
- 16:55Speaker 3: just comes in. What do we do?
- 16:56Speaker 2: They both can't trust for a single person. Well, and
- 17:00Speaker 2: now they're getting married.
- 17:02Speaker 3: Do we plan as a married couple? Do we plan singlely?
- 17:04Speaker 3: Are we absolutely going to get married? I think we
- 17:06Speaker 3: have to do some analysis here, But what are the
- 17:09Speaker 3: pros and cons? And folks, obviously what's going to really
- 17:14Speaker 3: matter to them is exactly what we're doing in this guide, Right,
- 17:18Speaker 3: How are we going to leave the assets when we're gone?
- 17:23Speaker 3: In this case, if they do get married, we need
- 17:26Speaker 3: to think about whether or not we want to provide
- 17:29Speaker 3: for the significant other or spouse if that's the case,
- 17:33Speaker 3: and how do we do that and not interfere with
- 17:38Speaker 3: the assets ending up on our side of the equation
- 17:41Speaker 3: if that's what we ultimately want. So here, how we
- 17:46Speaker 3: leave assets is even more important than for first marriages, folks.
- 17:51Speaker 3: That's just one of the kinds of things to think
- 17:53Speaker 3: about in this guide. So get the guide if you're
- 17:56Speaker 3: doing your estate planning, learn how to leave your assets
- 17:59Speaker 3: to the beneficial There are multiple examples in here eight
- 18:03Speaker 3: six six eight four eight five six nine nine or
- 18:07Speaker 3: Legal Exchange Show dot com again eight six six eight
- 18:11Speaker 3: four eight five six nine nine or Legal Exchange Show
- 18:16Speaker 3: dot com. So let's let's get to the tips and let.
- 18:21Speaker 2: God love them.
- 18:22Speaker 3: I know. How about that huh? Getting together? It's nice. Well,
- 18:26Speaker 3: there's pros and cons. Let's look at a few. We're
- 18:28Speaker 3: obviously not going to have time to go through them all,
- 18:30Speaker 3: but let's look at some of the glaring ideas. Right So,
- 18:33Speaker 3: right now they're living together in the house, her house.
- 18:37Speaker 3: That's the first issue was the house. They're renting his condo.
- 18:41Speaker 3: But at least each of them have a home, right
- 18:44Speaker 3: so you know, there's no real risk of anyone losing
- 18:48Speaker 3: a home here if one goes into a nursing home
- 18:51Speaker 3: because the other one has a home. Remember, if you're
- 18:55Speaker 3: not married, those assets are not at risk if one
- 19:00Speaker 3: gets sick for the other one. Right, However, if they
- 19:04Speaker 3: get married, then both persons assets become at risk for
- 19:09Speaker 3: the nursing home. Now I get it. If they're married,
- 19:14Speaker 3: there's also a benefit of a home being not countable
- 19:19Speaker 3: last minute, So that's the other side of that equation.
- 19:22Speaker 2: Might be able to save one last minute.
- 19:24Speaker 3: Yeah, so you got you gotta think about that, right
- 19:27Speaker 3: and then so however, if they get married, then together
- 19:33Speaker 3: they can double their Massachusetts state tax exemption. So let's
- 19:37Speaker 3: shift over from.
- 19:38Speaker 2: Their say home to taxes to taxes.
- 19:41Speaker 3: Right, so if you if you get married, then you
- 19:44Speaker 3: can double the exemption and eliminate the death tax. Now
- 19:48Speaker 3: remember she's worth about two point three on her own.
- 19:52Speaker 3: He's only worth about one point two on his own,
- 19:55Speaker 3: so he doesn't really care about the estate tax. But
- 19:58Speaker 3: together they can eliminate her estate tax, which they have currently.
- 20:04Speaker 3: Now it's not a ton of money because she's not
- 20:06Speaker 3: you know, way over, but you know, as a planner,
- 20:09Speaker 3: you can't not share mention that. So so alone she
- 20:14Speaker 3: would owe some death taxes, but together they got four million,
- 20:18Speaker 3: they can eliminate the tax. Well, either way, they're getting married.
- 20:21Speaker 3: I think that was determined at the meeting. So now
- 20:27Speaker 3: you really need to plan. Now he was not quite
- 20:30Speaker 3: ready yet to plan. He said he's not sure, you know,
- 20:34Speaker 3: whether he liked the ear rev or the rev trust
- 20:36Speaker 3: and just wasn't sure. She was absolutely ready to plan.
- 20:41Speaker 3: And remember now this is years later, not that it's
- 20:45Speaker 3: seventy three when we met her, erev planning was a
- 20:49Speaker 3: good option. Well, now she's seventy seven and thinking more
- 20:52Speaker 3: about it, right, and getting married, right, So now she
- 20:57Speaker 3: decided to go with the irrevocable trust plan. Well, remember
- 21:01Speaker 3: her home has now grown to one point five million. Well,
- 21:05Speaker 3: the IRA money she can continue to live off of, right,
- 21:07Speaker 3: So she'll just continue to live off her IRA money
- 21:11Speaker 3: and put you know, just the house in.
- 21:13Speaker 2: Which won't really change her daily life.
- 21:16Speaker 3: And Susan, that's exactly the point, right, Well you might
- 21:21Speaker 3: as well. It's your biggest asset. It's something you want
- 21:25Speaker 3: to make sure it gets to your family. It's also
- 21:27Speaker 3: I think it was located on the cape, so it's
- 21:30Speaker 3: a nice.
- 21:31Speaker 2: Just keep going up, probably just appreciating.
- 21:33Speaker 3: You would think, right, So, so she wanted to this way,
- 21:37Speaker 3: she's now going to be able to provide for her family,
- 21:41Speaker 3: and provide for her family only because at this moment
- 21:45Speaker 3: they both decided that they don't need to take care
- 21:48Speaker 3: of the other one's side. And they're okay with that. Now,
- 21:52Speaker 3: Remember they each have the ability to provide for themselves,
- 21:57Speaker 3: and they each have a home, and he just would
- 22:00Speaker 3: stop renting his. So but by the same token, I've
- 22:05Speaker 3: explained to them that now that this home is in
- 22:07Speaker 3: an irrevocable trust, you can have it held there and
- 22:10Speaker 3: actually allow your spouse, if you go through with the marriage,
- 22:15Speaker 3: to actually live there and just have your kids wait
- 22:19Speaker 3: and have him pay all the bills since he has
- 22:22Speaker 3: the wherewithal to do that.
- 22:24Speaker 2: If they do get married, would you still would you
- 22:26Speaker 2: do two separate your evocable.
- 22:28Speaker 3: Oh yes, you have to. Good point. Yeah, you have
- 22:30Speaker 3: to do two, not just because it's a second marriage,
- 22:32Speaker 3: but from an estate tax planning standpoint, you kind of
- 22:35Speaker 3: need to can't get away with the joint revoke like
- 22:38Speaker 3: we do with the revocable the joint revocable trust, you
- 22:41Speaker 3: can get away with one, but not so with combining nursing,
- 22:47Speaker 3: home planning and estate tax planning. So so, but this
- 22:51Speaker 3: is great, right, So, this case really shows the importance
- 22:55Speaker 3: of planning and how to protect both sides of a marriage.
- 23:00Speaker 3: In this case, she added irrevocable trust planning, so it
- 23:04Speaker 3: shows the importance really of revisiting an estate plan when
- 23:09Speaker 3: life events change. Before she wasn't ready to do irrevocable
- 23:14Speaker 3: trust planning. Now she is right and with good reason. Folks.
- 23:19Speaker 3: This is a prime example of why it's so important
- 23:22Speaker 3: to figure out how to leave your assets to your family.
- 23:26Speaker 3: That's what the guide is all about. Get the Guide
- 23:29Speaker 3: eight six six eight four eight five six nine to
- 23:32Speaker 3: nine or Legal Exchange show dot com.
- 23:36Speaker 2: You have been listening to Todd Lutsky, a partner with
- 23:38Speaker 2: the law firm of Cushing and Dolan. I'm Susan Powers,
- 23:42Speaker 2: a financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group, and Todd
- 23:45Speaker 2: will be answering your listener questions when we return to
- 23:49Speaker 2: the Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky.
- 23:52Speaker 1: Beneficiary planning and asset protection go hand in hand. Cushing
- 23:55Speaker 1: and Dolan has a new guide out called how to
- 23:57Speaker 1: Leave Assets to beneficiaries and it can help me make
- 24:00Speaker 1: your planning process smooth and easy. Leaving your assets to
- 24:03Speaker 1: your children isn't as simple as it sounds, especially if
- 24:06Speaker 1: they have problems of their own. If you're retired or
- 24:08Speaker 1: nearing retirement, it's time to consider the best way to
- 24:11Speaker 1: keep your assets in your family while avoiding significant financial
- 24:14Speaker 1: consequences down the road. Call Cushing and Dolan right now
- 24:17Speaker 1: at eight six six eight four eight five six nine
- 24:20Speaker 1: nine and get their new guide called how to Leave
- 24:22Speaker 1: Assets to Beneficiaries. You'll learn which paths are the safest
- 24:25Speaker 1: when it comes to protecting yourself and your children while
- 24:27Speaker 1: avoiding unnecessary risks that can create substantial problems in the
- 24:31Speaker 1: long run. That number again is eight sixty six eight
- 24:34Speaker 1: four eight five six nine nine, or you can request
- 24:36Speaker 1: it online from our website Legal exchange show dot com.
- 24:39Speaker 1: That's Legal exchange show dot com. The proceeding was paid
- 24:42Speaker 1: for and the views expressed are solely those of Cushing
- 24:44Speaker 1: and Dolan. Cushing and Dolan and or Armstrong Advisory may
- 24:47Speaker 1: contact your offering legal or investment services. Cushing and Dolan
- 24:49Speaker 1: and Armstrong Advisory do not endorse each other and are
- 24:51Speaker 1: not affiliated.
- 24:52Speaker 4: Retirement planning is complicated enough without having a formal budget
- 24:56Speaker 4: to help you maintain your lifestyle during your later years.
- 24:59Speaker 4: This is my Armstrong from the Armstrong Advisory Group. Our
- 25:02Speaker 4: new guide, called how to Build a Retirement Budget, was
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- 25:31Speaker 4: for our new guide today once again that number eight
- 25:34Speaker 4: hundred three nine three for zero zero one.
- 25:37Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
- 25:39Speaker 1: registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
- 25:42Speaker 1: Armstrong guide a specific financial, legal or tax advice. Consult
- 25:45Speaker 1: your own financial, tax into state planning advisors before making
- 25:48Speaker 1: any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
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- 26:53Speaker 6: This is Michael Valila, added of the Disabled American Veterans
- 26:56Speaker 6: Department of Massachusetts. We focus on the people returning from service,
- 27:00Speaker 6: not their specific illness or injury. Our number one goal
- 27:03Speaker 6: is to make sure our veterans have the necessary services
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- 27:24Speaker 1: You're listening to the Legal Exchange and it's time for
- 27:27Speaker 1: Ask Todd, the segment where Todd will answer your questions
- 27:31Speaker 1: about anything and everything that's included in the estate planning process.
- 27:35Speaker 1: Once again, here's Todd Lutsky and Susan Powers.
- 27:39Speaker 2: Welcome back talk. We have a few questions from listeners
- 27:42Speaker 2: for you. First question comes from Marjorie and Warner, New
- 27:46Speaker 2: Hampshire and Marjorie Rits. My husband and I are in
- 27:48Speaker 2: our late seventies and we own homes in New Hampshire
- 27:51Speaker 2: and Connecticut. We both have long term care policies and
- 27:55Speaker 2: currently have simple wills that leave everything to each other
- 27:58Speaker 2: and then ultimately to our daughter. She is married but
- 28:02Speaker 2: does not have any children. We are concerned with nursing
- 28:05Speaker 2: home protection, and we do not want our son in
- 28:07Speaker 2: law controlling our daughter's inheritance. What would you recommend for
- 28:11Speaker 2: an estate plan?
- 28:13Speaker 3: Do we have dollar amounts here? Because that really matters.
- 28:19Speaker 3: Unfortunately we have the driving for details.
- 28:23Speaker 2: Don't worry about those details.
- 28:24Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I guess in some regards you don't
- 28:27Speaker 3: have to because they're New Hampshire residents. So in New
- 28:31Speaker 3: Hampshire there's no state death tax. And although they have
- 28:37Speaker 3: homes in two states, I mean, it's it's probably safe
- 28:41Speaker 3: to say that they might not be worth more than
- 28:44Speaker 3: thirteen point nine million.
- 28:46Speaker 2: I think that's probably safe to say that about most people.
- 28:49Speaker 3: So let's assume in this case that they're they're under
- 28:52Speaker 3: way under the federal exemption, so we don't need to
- 28:55Speaker 3: worry about that. And so that does bring us back
- 28:59Speaker 3: around to the idea of okay, well now that estate
- 29:03Speaker 3: taxes are not the driving force here, and in fact,
- 29:06Speaker 3: they told us they're not. In the facts, they said
- 29:08Speaker 3: they really just don't want they have long term care insurance.
- 29:13Speaker 3: But I couldn't help you know, it says they are
- 29:17Speaker 3: concerned about protecting their assets.
- 29:19Speaker 2: Maybe a family history somebody's parents were in for a
- 29:22Speaker 2: long time, so just concerns out there, even if you
- 29:25Speaker 2: have long term care.
- 29:26Speaker 3: Right. So now I think we've narrowed it down to saying,
- 29:29Speaker 3: we don't have to worry about the taxes, so we're
- 29:31Speaker 3: going to worry about, you know, nursing homes. And if
- 29:34Speaker 3: we're gonna worry about nursing homes, then we need to
- 29:36Speaker 3: think about irrevocable trusts. And since they are in a
- 29:40Speaker 3: no state death tax situation and looking like not a
- 29:45Speaker 3: federal problem, probably you could get away with one irrevocable
- 29:51Speaker 3: trust for them. So that's the difference. Sometimes it's one,
- 29:54Speaker 3: sometimes it's two. But I think here you could probably
- 29:57Speaker 3: get away with one irrevocable true, and it would be
- 30:02Speaker 3: irrevocable so that we could protect the assets. What we
- 30:05Speaker 3: would put in there would be the homes, both of them, yep.
- 30:08Speaker 3: And if they have some non qualified money that they
- 30:12Speaker 3: would want to protect, we would move that.
- 30:14Speaker 2: So non retirement money.
- 30:16Speaker 3: Yeah. Right, So that's sort of the analysis to get
- 30:19Speaker 3: where we are as to which documents we need. Then
- 30:24Speaker 3: we would of course explain how they work. But in
- 30:26Speaker 3: the interest of time, let's jump to the dying part,
- 30:28Speaker 3: because that's the next part. Of the question, and they
- 30:32Speaker 3: some concerns, Yeah, that they had where they want they
- 30:38Speaker 3: don't want their daughter's husband to control or be involved
- 30:44Speaker 3: really in the inheritance. And it makes sense. And what
- 30:46Speaker 3: they're saying is they want it divorce proof, right. I
- 30:49Speaker 3: mean that to me is their way of.
- 30:52Speaker 2: Saying politely saying, yeah, that.
- 30:54Speaker 3: We wanted divorce proof. And so again, not only do
- 30:57Speaker 3: we have to figure out what kind of documents, but
- 30:59Speaker 3: we come back to the how do we leave our
- 31:01Speaker 3: assets question? And in this case divorce proofing and there
- 31:06Speaker 3: might be grandchildren, generation skipping. Tax planning is not overly
- 31:09Speaker 3: important if there's no grandchildren, but divorce proof. So we
- 31:13Speaker 3: would set up a trust and we would have her
- 31:15Speaker 3: probably be the trustee. The daughter. Yeah, she should be
- 31:19Speaker 3: in charge of managing and investing her assets and in
- 31:23Speaker 3: control of her inheritance, not him. However, we will have
- 31:28Speaker 3: to give her the power to appoint an independent trustee
- 31:31Speaker 3: in order to exercise discretion to get money out to
- 31:36Speaker 3: her or her future kids, if there are any. We
- 31:39Speaker 3: certainly will plan for that. And it's that discretionary distribution
- 31:43Speaker 3: and the ownership by the trust that prevents the asset
- 31:47Speaker 3: from being exposed to her creditors. So if the divorce
- 31:51Speaker 3: comes and they want the assets, not only is there
- 31:54Speaker 3: a discretionary trustee to decide no, but more importantly, she
- 31:59Speaker 3: doesn't own the asset, never owned the asset, and therefore
- 32:03Speaker 3: it's not an asset of the marriage. It's not a
- 32:06Speaker 3: marital asset subject to being divided. So just go away.
- 32:11Speaker 3: So really good stuff, folks. That's how you want to
- 32:14Speaker 3: do this is think about the family, think about not
- 32:18Speaker 3: today but whole life. Right, where are we gonna be
- 32:22Speaker 3: later and how are we going to get there? Leave?
- 32:26Speaker 3: How to leave your assets to beneficiaries? Is the guide
- 32:28Speaker 3: this month really packed full of multiple different examples, So
- 32:34Speaker 3: it's important for you if you've done your planning to
- 32:36Speaker 3: get it and see if there's ideas that you might
- 32:39Speaker 3: want to implement now into your plan, or if you
- 32:43Speaker 3: haven't started, get it and give yourself some ideas as
- 32:46Speaker 3: to how to create your plan. Eight six six eight
- 32:51Speaker 3: four eight five six nine nine or Legal Exchange Show
- 32:55Speaker 3: dot com again eight six six eight four eight five
- 32:58Speaker 3: six nine nine or Legal Exchange Show dot com todd.
- 33:02Speaker 2: Our last question comes from Joan in Stoton, Mass and
- 33:05Speaker 2: Joan writes, I am single and have no children. I
- 33:09Speaker 2: plan to leave my assets around five hundred thousand in
- 33:12Speaker 2: an ira and a home worth eight hundred thousand to
- 33:15Speaker 2: my nephew. Is it really necessary for me to create
- 33:19Speaker 2: a trust if I only have one beneficiary? Can't I
- 33:23Speaker 2: just add them to my deed to avoid probate? He
- 33:26Speaker 2: is already listed on my ire as beneficiary, So it's
- 33:29Speaker 2: really just the house that I am concerned with.
- 33:32Speaker 3: Yeah, So you know, this is a great example to
- 33:34Speaker 3: talk about in terms of people who think, oh, well,
- 33:38Speaker 3: i'm single, I don't need to do planning, or I'm
- 33:41Speaker 3: single and I have no kids, so I definitely don't
- 33:44Speaker 3: need to do planning. Well not always the case, right, right,
- 33:48Speaker 3: And in this whenever you have a situation, I always
- 33:51Speaker 3: ask them are their loved ones in your life that
- 33:56Speaker 3: you want to leave these assets to? And if the
- 34:00Speaker 3: answer is yes, well then let's start talking about how
- 34:03Speaker 3: to do that. Then the next question is even if
- 34:06Speaker 3: it's yes and in this case single, not married, no children, right,
- 34:12Speaker 3: this is the situation where you ask this. If the
- 34:15Speaker 3: answer is yes, nieces nephews in this case and the like,
- 34:21Speaker 3: then I say, is it your desire to go out
- 34:25Speaker 3: of your way to protect these assets, so there is
- 34:30Speaker 3: absolutely something left for this nephew or niece or are
- 34:36Speaker 3: you okay just saying well, you know, when I die,
- 34:39Speaker 3: whatever I happen to have left can go there right now,
- 34:43Speaker 3: that's very different. Sure. And so if they were to say, oh,
- 34:48Speaker 3: whatever I happen to have left can just go there.
- 34:51Speaker 3: I just want to make sure it gets there, well, fine,
- 34:53Speaker 3: then revocable trust planning is probably right for her because
- 34:58Speaker 3: she doesn't need to be worried about protecting the assets
- 35:03Speaker 3: trustee exactly, Susan. She can she can be trustee, she
- 35:07Speaker 3: can be in complete control of her assets, which she
- 35:10Speaker 3: might want to be. And and so I think that
- 35:15Speaker 3: would be the answer. But if if they say no,
- 35:19Speaker 3: I would like to protect some of my assets, at
- 35:22Speaker 3: least in this case, I'm thinking the home is a
- 35:26Speaker 3: good one.
- 35:27Speaker 2: It's a good size asset too.
- 35:28Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's like eight hundred grand. So you know,
- 35:34Speaker 3: if the answer is yes, I'd like to protect something,
- 35:36Speaker 3: and maybe the home is the thing. Okay, Well, now
- 35:38Speaker 3: we know we need to talk about the irrevocable trust.
- 35:43Speaker 3: And again, I don't want to make it sound like
- 35:45Speaker 3: she's lost control because we just talked about the revocable
- 35:48Speaker 3: trust having control. Yep, she hasn't really lost control, especially
- 35:53Speaker 3: if you're putting just your house in I think it's
- 35:55Speaker 3: so important for people to understand how the trust work,
- 35:58Speaker 3: but also how they work depending on what assets are
- 36:02Speaker 3: in there makes a difference. And so with just the
- 36:07Speaker 3: house in there, yeah, she's probably going to have to
- 36:09Speaker 3: throw the nephew on as trustee. But that's okay because
- 36:14Speaker 3: she can remove and replace the trustee and she's not
- 36:16Speaker 3: going to be doing anything at all until she sells.
- 36:22Speaker 3: If she doesn't sell, she's just going to live there.
- 36:25Speaker 2: What about the alternative where she's asking, can I just
- 36:28Speaker 2: throw my nephew on my deed? What happens?
- 36:30Speaker 3: Then that's a good point. Yeah, So no, I don't
- 36:35Speaker 3: like that idea because now you've exposed your asset, half
- 36:38Speaker 3: of the home to that nephew's creditors, divorces, who knows
- 36:41Speaker 3: what well you're living, and you've really taken away your
- 36:44Speaker 3: ability to sell it, and you've lost half the proceeds.
- 36:48Speaker 3: If you do sell it, you know what, the trust
- 36:50Speaker 3: you keep all that control. Even with the irrevocable trust,
- 36:53Speaker 3: you keep the control to live there, sell it and
- 36:55Speaker 3: go from there. So folks call and get the guide
- 36:59Speaker 3: learn how to if your assets to your family no
- 37:02Speaker 3: matter what eight six six eight four eight five six
- 37:06Speaker 3: nine nine or Legal Exchange Show dot com.
- 37:09Speaker 2: If you have a question you would like to ask Todd,
- 37:11Speaker 2: visit his website Legal Exchange Show dot com and click
- 37:15Speaker 2: on the ass Tod tab. Maybe I'll be able to
- 37:17Speaker 2: read your question on the air, and hopefully his answer
- 37:20Speaker 2: will stop you from becoming one of his next real
- 37:22Speaker 2: life stories. You've been listening to Todd Lutsky, a partner
- 37:26Speaker 2: with the law firm of Cushing and Dolan. I'm Susan Powers,
- 37:30Speaker 2: a financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group. We'll be
- 37:33Speaker 2: back with more after this quick break on the Legal
- 37:36Speaker 2: Exchange with Todd Lutsky.
- 37:38Speaker 1: Beneficiary planning and asset protection go hand in hand. Cushing
- 37:42Speaker 1: and Dolan has a new guide out called how to
- 37:44Speaker 1: Leave Assets to Beneficiaries, and it can help make your
- 37:46Speaker 1: planning process smooth and easy. Leaving your assets to your
- 37:49Speaker 1: children isn't as simple as it sounds, especially if they
- 37:52Speaker 1: have problems of their own. If you're retired or nearing retirement,
- 37:56Speaker 1: it's time to consider the best way to keep your
- 37:58Speaker 1: assets in your family while avoiding signs unificant financial consequences
- 38:01Speaker 1: down the road. Call Cushing and Dolan right now at
- 38:04Speaker 1: eight sixty six eight four eight five six ninety nine
- 38:06Speaker 1: and get their new guide called how to Leave Assets
- 38:09Speaker 1: to Beneficiaries. You'll learn which paths are the safest when
- 38:11Speaker 1: it comes to protecting yourself and your children while avoiding
- 38:14Speaker 1: unnecessary risks that can create substantial problems in the long run.
- 38:18Speaker 1: That number again is eight sixty six eight four eight
- 38:21Speaker 1: five six nine nine, or you can request it online
- 38:23Speaker 1: from our website Legal exchange show dot com. That's Legal
- 38:27Speaker 1: exchange show dot com. The proceeding was paid for and
- 38:29Speaker 1: the views expressed are solely those of Kushingan Dolan. Cushing
- 38:32Speaker 1: and Dolan int Or Armstrong Advisory may contact you're offering
- 38:34Speaker 1: legal or investment services. Cushing and Dolan and Armstrong Advisory
- 38:37Speaker 1: do not endorse each other and are not affiliated. Consistently
- 38:40Speaker 1: voted one of the top Caribbean destinations the United States,
- 38:44Speaker 1: Virgin Islands is the perfect place for your next vacation,
- 38:47Speaker 1: whether you're looking for romantic getaway, a long weekend with friends,
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- 38:54Speaker 1: John have everything you need to enjoy that special time
- 38:57Speaker 1: away from home. Take advantage of a variety of promotions
- 39:00Speaker 1: that are available right now. Go to visit USVII dot
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- 39:33Speaker 1: That's visit USVII dot com slash promotions.
- 39:39Speaker 4: The breadth of the stock market sell off in recent
- 39:41Speaker 4: days hasn't been seen since the early days of the pandemic.
- 39:44Speaker 4: And while it's easy to say don't panic if you're
- 39:46Speaker 4: concerned about your portfolio given the impact of these tariffs,
- 39:49Speaker 4: now's the time to have that conversation. Hi, this is
- 39:52Speaker 4: Mike Armstrong from the Armstrong Advisory Group. If the market
- 39:55Speaker 4: correction has you anxious or worse rattled, give us a
- 39:57Speaker 4: call at eight hundred three nine three four z zero
- 40:00Speaker 4: zero one. Let's get together and talk through your financial strategy,
- 40:03Speaker 4: evaluate at strengths and weaknesses, and make decisions for the
- 40:06Speaker 4: future that are in your best interest. These are challenging times,
- 40:09Speaker 4: but we've dealt with them before and are prepared to
- 40:11Speaker 4: deal with them again. Our goal is to help you
- 40:13Speaker 4: protect the assets that you've worked so hard to attain.
- 40:16Speaker 4: You can give us a call at eight hundred three
- 40:18Speaker 4: nine three four zero zero one and request a no
- 40:20Speaker 4: obligation consultation. That number again is eight hundred three nine
- 40:24Speaker 4: three four zero zero one.
- 40:25Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
- 40:28Speaker 1: registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
- 40:30Speaker 1: Armstrong guide a specific financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult
- 40:33Speaker 1: your own financial tax into state planning advisors before making
- 40:35Speaker 1: any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
- 40:38Speaker 1: advisory services. Your tune to the legal exchange with Todd Lutsky.
- 40:43Speaker 1: If you are a loved one needs a nursing homestay,
- 40:46Speaker 1: call Todd right now at eight sixty six eight four,
- 40:48Speaker 1: eight five six, ninet nine and let him make sure
- 40:50Speaker 1: your assets are protected. That's eight six six eight four
- 40:54Speaker 1: eight five six nine nine. Or visit him online at
- 40:56Speaker 1: Legal Exchange show dot com.
- 41:00Speaker 2: Welcome back into Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky. I'm Susan Powers,
- 41:04Speaker 2: a financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group, and I'm joined,
- 41:07Speaker 2: of course by Todd Lutsky, a partner with the law
- 41:10Speaker 2: firm of Cushing and Dolan with a master's in taxation.
- 41:15Speaker 2: I was going to say vacation, but it's not. It's
- 41:17Speaker 2: taxation sexation. You'd like to have a master vacation, so
- 41:21Speaker 2: it's on your mind. Yeah, it is. So I want
- 41:24Speaker 2: to talk and dive in more about second marriages, Todd,
- 41:29Speaker 2: because there are a lot of folks out there that
- 41:33Speaker 2: I mean, we know what the divorce rate is, we
- 41:35Speaker 2: know what the remarriage rate is. I mean they're pretty high.
- 41:38Speaker 2: So a lot of people get remarried.
- 41:41Speaker 3: And it's not even you could have people who lost
- 41:43Speaker 3: their spouses and sure, so that's not even a bad thing.
- 41:47Speaker 3: That's just life, you know, life moving on.
- 41:49Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, so the percentages are pretty high, and you know,
- 41:53Speaker 2: they want to make sure that they're able to live
- 41:58Speaker 2: the rest of their lives being happy with their whether
- 42:00Speaker 2: it's a spouse or even a long term partner, they
- 42:04Speaker 2: want to take care of that part and they want
- 42:06Speaker 2: to take care of each other, but they also want
- 42:09Speaker 2: to make sure that they're taking care of their kids
- 42:11Speaker 2: at the end of the day, right, right, So let's
- 42:14Speaker 2: start with how you can take care of your spouse
- 42:18Speaker 2: after you die if you die first while not putting
- 42:22Speaker 2: your kids inheritance at wristling. So what are some of
- 42:25Speaker 2: the things that you see in your day to day
- 42:28Speaker 2: first things want to do.
- 42:29Speaker 3: The first thing is you need a trust. I mean
- 42:31Speaker 3: just hard stop right. If you don't have a trust,
- 42:34Speaker 3: it's going to be pretty pretty impossible to control something
- 42:39Speaker 3: from the grave.
- 42:40Speaker 2: So if you just own things jointly with your new
- 42:43Speaker 2: spouse and they get it when you die and they go, oh,
- 42:47Speaker 2: don't worry, I'll take care of your kids, Sure they will.
- 42:51Speaker 3: All bets are off. I mean, you can trust each other.
- 42:53Speaker 3: You're certainly welcome to do that, but you really got
- 42:57Speaker 3: to know all bets are off. And you know what,
- 42:59Speaker 3: it's funny because when you talk about and again when
- 43:01Speaker 3: we haven't even talked about the specifics of the language
- 43:04Speaker 3: that you need in the trust, but trust in general
- 43:07Speaker 3: is your first, you know, go to. But even when
- 43:11Speaker 3: you do that, you have folks that have iras that
- 43:16Speaker 3: are you know, So even if you put a lot
- 43:18Speaker 3: of assets into the trust, what about the IRA that's
- 43:22Speaker 3: not in the trust? Now some people and we know
- 43:25Speaker 3: from an income tax perspective, it's still you know, naming
- 43:29Speaker 3: the spouse is the most efficient. So what do you
- 43:33Speaker 3: do with that? I mean, if you could say, all
- 43:34Speaker 3: these assets in the trust are going to be designed
- 43:37Speaker 3: in a way to provide for my spouse, but not
- 43:40Speaker 3: allow my spouse to own them, I get it, and
- 43:43Speaker 3: so that it can find its way to my.
- 43:45Speaker 2: To my family side of the family.
- 43:48Speaker 3: What do I do with my IRA? If my IRA
- 43:50Speaker 3: goes to my spouse, Well, all bets are off.
- 43:54Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what, Todd. I have a client
- 43:57Speaker 2: who did do trust planning, your evocable trust planning with
- 44:00Speaker 2: her husband. He had children, she did not, And when
- 44:05Speaker 2: he died, they really changed their tune, oh to their stepmom.
- 44:12Speaker 2: And even though they did the trust planning, she changed
- 44:16Speaker 2: that the beneficiaries on the IRA. She was going to
- 44:20Speaker 2: have all those kids be the beneficiaries. She was the primary,
- 44:23Speaker 2: they were a contingent, and.
- 44:24Speaker 3: She was going to leave it that way.
- 44:25Speaker 2: Which leave it that way you're allowed to trust yourself.
- 44:28Speaker 2: Really turned on her after he died and they were
- 44:31Speaker 2: married for a decades. So it's so true that all
- 44:36Speaker 2: bets are off.
- 44:37Speaker 3: Yeah, bad bad news. I mean, even when you think
- 44:39Speaker 3: you trust your spouse, and apparently she was trustworthy, just.
- 44:44Speaker 2: He would not have been happy with the way his
- 44:47Speaker 2: children treated her.
- 44:48Speaker 3: Bad result there. Now, sometimes you have some options, right
- 44:51Speaker 3: with an IRA, I know you didn't ask me about that,
- 44:53Speaker 3: but I kind of got off on that tangent. But
- 44:56Speaker 3: but with an IRA, you know, you could say that, okay,
- 45:00Speaker 3: appease these kids. You know, I'm going to leave fifty
- 45:03Speaker 3: percent of my IRA to my children, yeah, and fifty
- 45:06Speaker 3: percent of MYRA to my spouse and do a trust
- 45:09Speaker 3: to provide for my spouse further and protect for the kids.
- 45:14Speaker 3: So sometimes, yeah, sometimes that offset giving them a little
- 45:17Speaker 3: something makes them feel better. Or you could design it
- 45:22Speaker 3: so that the beneficiary is not the spouse but the
- 45:25Speaker 3: trust and then have a like a q tip share
- 45:28Speaker 3: set up for the spouse so the minimum distributions can
- 45:32Speaker 3: still come out and go into the trust and then
- 45:33Speaker 3: out to the spouse and control it. So folks lots
- 45:37Speaker 3: to think about. This question is a great one to
- 45:40Speaker 3: kick off this segment because it really brings to the
- 45:43Speaker 3: forefront the idea of how important it is to leave
- 45:46Speaker 3: assets to family and how to do it, folks. This
- 45:50Speaker 3: guide how to Leave Assets to Beneficiaries gives you multiple
- 45:53Speaker 3: examples of how to do that, from creditor protection, divorce
- 45:57Speaker 3: proof to generation skipping tax to special needs kids. We
- 46:02Speaker 3: forgot about that. So if you've never done your planning,
- 46:05Speaker 3: get the guide to learn how to do it. If
- 46:07Speaker 3: you've done your planning, get the guide to see if
- 46:09Speaker 3: there's any way you can tweak your existing estate plan
- 46:13Speaker 3: and maybe make it better. Eight six six eight four
- 46:17Speaker 3: eight five six nine nine or Legal Exchange Show dot
- 46:21Speaker 3: com again eight six six eight four eight five six
- 46:25Speaker 3: nine nine or Legal Exchange Show dot Com.
- 46:28Speaker 2: So let's say it's not just a house that's in
- 46:31Speaker 2: your trust that you establish, You've got some money, investments,
- 46:35Speaker 2: things like that in there. How can you set it
- 46:38Speaker 2: up so that, I mean, you don't want to leave
- 46:41Speaker 2: your your spouse destitude certainly, so can you set it
- 46:44Speaker 2: up so that they only get income and they can't
- 46:48Speaker 2: reach in and take big chunks of principle out of
- 46:50Speaker 2: that trust.
- 46:52Speaker 3: You can. In fact, you can design it any number
- 46:56Speaker 3: of ways. So let's let's play out that string. YEA.
- 47:00Speaker 3: So if there's an investment portfolio, and let's assume it's
- 47:04Speaker 3: non qualified now because we already talked about qualified, sure,
- 47:08Speaker 3: it will need to be invested and managed. Trustee can
- 47:11Speaker 3: do that, and it could be your spouse as the trustee,
- 47:15Speaker 3: the trustee who can manage and invest.
- 47:18Speaker 2: Do you recommend that just having it be the spouse,
- 47:20Speaker 2: won't you pass?
- 47:21Speaker 3: Again? It's this whole idea of the trust factor. Not
- 47:26Speaker 3: to play on words, but I mean you could put
- 47:29Speaker 3: a child on as trustee as well. Not so much
- 47:32Speaker 3: because I worry about how it's going to be invested,
- 47:35Speaker 3: but how you're going to get it right. So if
- 47:38Speaker 3: the trust says mandatory distributions of income to the spouse,
- 47:43Speaker 3: well I guess it doesn't really matter who the trustee is.
- 47:45Speaker 3: So it could be the spouse and she can just
- 47:47Speaker 3: take her mandatory distributions of income. The question becomes how
- 47:53Speaker 3: you control the principal distributions.
- 47:56Speaker 2: Because things happen in life, you might you might need
- 47:59Speaker 2: more than just income if something comes.
- 48:01Speaker 3: Up yeah yeah, or you just want it. I think
- 48:04Speaker 3: you need to really balance this. So let's say you
- 48:09Speaker 3: put the spouse on as trustee alone, and the language
- 48:13Speaker 3: said with regard to principle that can come out for health, education,
- 48:17Speaker 3: maintenance and support.
- 48:18Speaker 2: Okay, so you.
- 48:19Speaker 3: Have these standards and if you meet the standard, then
- 48:23Speaker 3: you can give yourself the money.
- 48:25Speaker 2: What if I want a much higher standard than what
- 48:28Speaker 2: I had before.
- 48:29Speaker 3: I know some say that's when the living really begins. Right. So,
- 48:33Speaker 3: so a couple of things. One, if you had the standard,
- 48:38Speaker 3: could a child of the other side of the marriage complain, Yes,
- 48:44Speaker 3: so that would be your check and bounce. They could
- 48:46Speaker 3: actually complain if you're living beyond what that standard is.
- 48:50Speaker 3: Got it? But to your point, what if they wanted more?
- 48:56Speaker 3: What if something happened and they needed more? Right, Well,
- 48:59Speaker 3: you could put language in that allows an independent trustee
- 49:03Speaker 3: to be appointed to make sole discretionary distributions to give
- 49:08Speaker 3: more than the standard. So decision right, and you would
- 49:12Speaker 3: need an independent trustee to do that. Oftentimes it's someone
- 49:15Speaker 3: not related or subordinate, So I might not jump to
- 49:18Speaker 3: the other child of the other marriage.
- 49:21Speaker 2: Right, because they would be an ultimate beneficiary and they
- 49:24Speaker 2: you know, they have skin in.
- 49:25Speaker 3: The game, right, So so I mean that's a way
- 49:28Speaker 3: of putting that in. But quite frankly, the safest approach
- 49:32Speaker 3: could be that you if you just went ahead and
- 49:35Speaker 3: put you know, to trustees on and and use the
- 49:41Speaker 3: standard language health, education, maintenance and support. Well, well then
- 49:47Speaker 3: it's okay because you could say, look, I'm in the hospital,
- 49:50Speaker 3: I needed something from my house. I'm I need this
- 49:53Speaker 3: to meet my standard.
- 49:54Speaker 2: Lander.
- 49:55Speaker 3: Well, then that trustee, that child of the other marriage
- 49:59Speaker 3: trustee would not be allowed to say no if you
- 50:03Speaker 3: meet the standard. So it kind of is a nice
- 50:06Speaker 3: check and balance. But if you started willy nilly taking
- 50:09Speaker 3: money out, then that that's yeah, then that trustee would
- 50:13Speaker 3: have the power to say no because it's beyond the standard. Right,
- 50:17Speaker 3: So I think that might be the safest approach when
- 50:20Speaker 3: when you think about it, if you're really trying to
- 50:23Speaker 3: protect from both sides. Okay, so little something to think about, folks,
- 50:26Speaker 3: But most importantly, learn how to leave your assets to
- 50:31Speaker 3: your family. There's about multiple references in here and examples
- 50:36Speaker 3: on how to do that eight six six eight four
- 50:39Speaker 3: eight five six nine nine or legal Exchange show dot Com.
- 50:43Speaker 2: Todd Lutsky from the law firm of Cushing and Dolan,
- 50:46Speaker 2: thank you so much.
- 50:47Speaker 3: Thank you. Susan's always a pleasure.
- 50:49Speaker 2: I'm Susan Power as a financial advisor with the Armstrong
- 50:52Speaker 2: Advisory Group. We thank you for joining us today and
- 50:55Speaker 2: we'll be back again next week on the Legal Exchange
- 50:58Speaker 2: with Todd Lutski.
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- 51:48Speaker 1: exchange show dot com. The proceeding was paid for in
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- 51:53Speaker 1: Cushing and Dolan and or Armstrong Advisory may contact your
- 51:55Speaker 1: offering legal or investment services. Cushing and Dolan and Armstrong
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