Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Ann-Margaret Carrozza, host of “The Laws of Your Money with Ann-Margaret Carrozza,” Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WOR, interview

Transcript

Ann-Margaret Carrozza, host of “The Laws of Your Money with Ann-Margaret Carrozza,” Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WOR, interview · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Happy to have Ann-Margaret Carrozza, host of The Laws of
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Your Money with Ann-Margaret Carrozza, which can be heard on
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: WOR Sundays at 10.30 in the morning. Ann-Margaret Carrozza is
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: an asset protection attorney who served for 14 years as
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: a New York State legislator, where she chaired the Trust
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Reform Task Force. By the way, I'll give you this
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: address again at the very end. But if you want
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to reach out to Ann Margaret, it's mylawyerann.com. That's mylawyerann.com. So,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Ann Margaret, thanks as always.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you, guys.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being in here today. This is something
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that's happening a lot. Children are moving back in with
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: their parents. So take us through the legal do's and don'ts,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: what we should be setting up for.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Well, this is a trend that we expect to really
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: increase with the yield on the 10-year Treasury at a
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: 20-year high. That is directly correlated with interest rates on
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: revolving credit card debt. private student loans, auto loans. So
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: if you haven't gotten a call from an adult child,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: you may very soon that they're struggling financially and they
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: need to come live with mom and dad for a
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: little while. So it's super important to set up some
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: do's and don'ts within the household. Can the adult child
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: contribute anything financially? Groceries, utilities? What are they going to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: be doing around the house? Are they going to take
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: garbage out, etc.? Because the tendency is to be super
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: nice and accommodating in the beginning, and then you're stuck
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: doing laundry again and cooking again for these adult children.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I've gone through that exact same thing where one– parent
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: would like to set rules. The other parent says, no, no, no,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: just whatever you want, do whatever you want. I think
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that might happen a lot. Yes, absolutely.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: And it causes conflict.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: And what about the situation where one parent is actually
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: looking forward to the child returning, understanding the problems that
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: they've had that forced them to return, but the other
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: parent is saying, when are you going to cut the
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: apron strings? When are we going to let this kid
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: get out on their own and realize, you know, when
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I was 18, I left the house and I got
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: my own apartment. One of those.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Well, Curtis, that is above my pay grade. I stay
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: in the lane of the legal issues. And you know what?
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Sometimes adult children come home to help the parents, right?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: If they need a little bit of help at home.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: So I think it is super important when we're in
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: that situation, permanently or temporarily, we need to look at
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: the estate planning. Because if my daughter and her two
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: kids are living with me and the will says everything
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: three ways... The other two kids are going to want
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: her to sell right away. It would be great if
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I have enough assets to leave the home to the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: child that's living there and leave an equivalent amount of
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: assets to the others. But for most people, the house
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: is the single biggest asset.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Well, that's perfect for you to be talking about this
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: because we've mentioned before you were chair of the Trust
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Reform Task Force. So you're an expert on this. When
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: should people think about setting up the trust? And should
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: they always keep it a secret, that trust, or do
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the children have a right to know?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's nice to let the children know
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: that you've gone that extra step to save them from
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: an eight-month probate process, right? And if the kids are
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: not living at home, you're setting up a situation where
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: where they can't sell it for eight months until the
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: court finishes the probate, and now you have squatters that
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: can go into the empty house. So you want to
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: do a trust to avoid probate, to obviate capital gains
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: taxes for the kids, and to protect the home from
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: long-term care claims. Federal law says it must be in
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the trust for five years before it's invisible to a
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: nursing home.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: You know what I was getting at with the secrecy
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of it? Because there can be fights in families when
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: why is this person getting this? Why is this person
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: getting this?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Yes, I think there's more than one way to achieve equity.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: You can say that the house goes three ways, but
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Sally has the right to stay there until her kids
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: graduate high school or whatever it is. So we don't
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: want to throw a hand grenade into the life of
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: the child that's living there.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you want to avoid fights because those three
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: that you're talking about, Sally and her siblings, that'll be hell.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: You're right. It is a hand grenade. That was a
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: perfect way to put it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Now, the form of rent. I grew up in a house,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: this was old school, where you tried to rent to
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: your family members, immediate family members, because the idea was
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: you would care for their parents, my grandparents. It was
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: like almost a quid pro quo. But if they're not
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: paying rent... or they can't pay rent, how do you
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: avoid it becoming a legal issue where all of a
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: sudden you're in court on that?
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Curtis, that happens every week that I see this.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: The other kids say, Sally didn't pay rent for 10 years,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: so we need to deduct the value from her one-third
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: share of the house when it sells. And Sally says, well,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: my husband cleaned out the gutters and on and on
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and on. We enabled mom and dad to stay in
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: the house longer and we saved nursing home expenses. So
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: it's really important to sit down and talk it all through.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: What happens when parents have to go to the nursing home?
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Is there a preparation for that?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Well, hopefully you did a trust five years beforehand so
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: that the house is invisible.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: The house is invisible. Explain that.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: So federal law says that a nursing home can put
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: a lien on your home to pay the bill. And
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: in our listening area, the cost of a rehab is
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: $ 16, 000 per month. So you want to protect the house
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: so that the nursing home is not able to put
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: a lien on it for the $ 16, 000 a month.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Well, you tell me so many things I never knew.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: It's really important to listen to her at 10.30. Ann-Margaret Carrozza,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: host of WOR's Laws of Your Money on what you
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: need to know with your adult children. She just went
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: through all of that. Ann-Margaret Carrozza, Sundays at 10.30 a.m.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: You're a wealth of information. Thank you for being in
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: here today.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you, guys.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: Thanks for coming in.