0:12

He served at the Pentagon as an army jag. He graduated from Notre Dame

0:17

and has two law degrees from Boston University and Georgetown University. He's been practicing

0:23

law for over thirty years. He's your family's personal attorney. It's time for

0:29

the David Carrier Show. Hello, and welcome to the David Carrier Show.

0:38

I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney. You have found the place where

0:42

we talk about estate planning, elder law, real estate and business law.

0:47

I promised a caller that I would find out what the liability of a contractor

0:51

who damages your premises while on the premises, and I haven't figured it out

0:57

yet. You know what I mean. I mean sometimes sometimes when the lawyer

1:02

says research, they mean it so. But I'll have that for next week.

1:07

I'll get you. I'll get you the update on that one. The

1:11

question was if you know how the you know how? Ohsevend keep sorry,

1:17

I was a little bit involved with the trying to answer this question promptly and

1:21

accurately. But six one six seven seven four twenty four, twenty four,

1:26

that's the number to call. Six one six seven seven four twenty four twenty

1:32

four the UH. This is the David Carrier Show where we talk about a

1:37

state planning, elder law, real estate and business law, plus anything else

1:42

you you'd like to talk about. The UH Secure Act, which most of

1:48

you don't even care about, but but you should. You should. It

1:51

matters the Secure Act one, Secure Act too, well, it's not SECURECT

1:53

one Secure Act and then Secure Act two to fix Secure Act. Anyway,

1:59

The point is that the IRS had some flapp adoodle interpretation of what that meant.

2:07

And now for like the fourth year in a row, third, fourth year in a row, they've fifth, I don't know, I'm losing track.

2:14

They've said, oh yeah, don't worry about those regulations just yet,

2:20

because the regulations they issued were very different than what you thought. So if

2:23

you haven't inherited IRA, this may be of interest to you, to both

2:28

of you. But the reason I bring it up, it's not because everybody's

2:34

got this issue. Well you could. If you have an IRA, you

2:37

die with it and you leave it to your kids, that will become an issue for you for your family anyway, now for you you're dead, but

2:44

for your family anyway when they get the IRA. But I'm making the larger

2:49

point, you know, the more general point, which is that you think

2:53

this stuff is easy, It ain't easy. The IRS has had years,

2:58

now years, the Internal Revenue Service has had years to figure out what Congress

3:02

meant when they wrote this law, and they came out with something that they

3:08

thought the Congress meant, and everybody in the in the business is like,

3:13

where the hell did you get that from? And so because nobody believes it,

3:17

rather than pull back the regulation, they just keep putting off and forcing

3:22

it. I don't know what they're hoping is going to happen, but the

3:25

point is this is this is the law, okay, And you're thinking,

3:30

well, the law is pretty simple law. I can understand that. You

3:32

know, it's not so hard to you know, just do the right thing.

3:36

Don't cheat people, tak commandment type stuff, you know what, I'll

3:39

be fine. No you won't. No, you won't, because look if

3:46

they had enforced this rule, you know, and you inherited an IRA and

3:50

you didn't take the RMDS right. Is a fifty percent penalty tax. That's

3:53

a big deal. I think it's a big deal. Fifty on top of

3:59

the end tax fifty percent. Uh, there's a fifty percent tax on the

4:03

payment that you should have taken. Yikes, are you kidding me? It's

4:10

terrible. It's a big deal, right. I even know of a case

4:14

where they took this prominent guy. He was like a real estate developer or something. Now, you'd think that somebody operating in a big saying, this

4:20

guy, I think, operating in all kinds of big cities, right,

4:24

various big cities. And you would think that being involved in the construction business

4:30

and running hospitality things in big cities. You know what I mean. There's

4:34

this thing called the mob, which of course doesn't exist because in Australia never

4:39

happened. Right, that's just that's just the book stuff, right, you

4:43

know what I mean, that's the you know what's his name? You know,

4:47

that's just the movies that never really happens. Okay, you never have

4:50

to really deal with, you know, corrupt people and governments. Well,

4:57

anyway, this so this guy did this for years, right, for years,

5:00

he did this. He's kind of flamboyant. Went now got a big mouth. And but anyway, the point is the irs actually had a passl

5:10

of I. R. S agents like living with him, camping him.

5:14

He's under constant audit and they never came up with anything. They never complained

5:16

about anything, right, and then get this, this guy decides to I

5:21

forget what it was he's running for. He wanted to be on some board

5:25

or something. I don't know. It was a public some sort of public

5:28

thing, you know what I mean, where people would have to support him

5:31

and whatnot. And people liked him, and a lot of people like him.

5:36

A lot of people didn't like him because he had a big mouth and

5:39

all that. But anyway, so this guy who's in the construction business goes

5:44

for years without criminal accusations or anything. The banks love him. Everybody loves

5:53

him, right, I mean because he pays them. He's apparently he's got

5:57

a talent for making money. Well, and like then he did some good

6:01

stuff, like like in he went to Florida and he opened this golf club

6:06

and it was like the first one in the neighborhood that admitted Jewish people.

6:10

Right, he even has a kid. I think he's got some family relation

6:13

who's Jewish or something like this, and his kids granted to be and raised

6:15

Jewish and stuff like that. And so but then they said he was an

6:18

Anisemi for some reason. I don't know exactly. Then he brought peace to

6:21

the Middle East, peace to the Middle East. That would seem like a

6:25

big deal, But I forget what this guy is. They want to make

6:29

them chairman of something or other or a board member. I don't know that's

6:32

something. So anyway, the people who don't like him decided to decided he

6:36

was a criminal and deserves it to be in prison. You know. So

6:42

there's that, you know, and that's that's the law. And you say,

6:45

well, what difference does that make to me? I mean, I didn't. I didn't start admitting Jewish people to exclusive country clubs in some restrictive

6:55

area. And I didn't welcome lbgqg XYZ people like that guy. Did you

7:02

know, I've all turned on him. Now I didn't. I didn't.

7:06

Why do I care? And here's why you care? Because things like the

7:11

Secure Act right where the government issues regulations and they're so they've had years get

7:18

this, they've had years to figure out these regulations and they can't do it.

7:26

Well, how the hell are you supposed to do it? What am

7:30

I supposed to advise a client? You know? Oh? Yeah, you got to take the R and DS because we got this regulation. Oops,

7:35

maybe maybe not. And what if you don't, you think they say,

7:41

yeah, we screwed up. So uh so uh you know you get a

7:44

pass on that. You think they do that? No? No, So

7:48

you've got these people who've got the inherited IRA raise. And I'm just bringing

7:53

this this is just one example. Right, you got the inherited iron raise,

7:57

right, are you supposed to take it or you're not supposed to take

8:00

Well maybe if they were taking rm ds, then you got to take rm ds. But maybe you don't. But maybe you do, but maybe da

8:05

da da da. Oh and by the way, forget about it for this year, we'll figure it out for next year and then next year. So

8:11

you think, if you're prudent, right and you don't want to hit a

8:15

get a fifty percent on top of ordinary income tax tax. I mean that

8:18

could be up to ninety percent. Ninety percent of the distribution you'd be getting

8:22

from the IRA could go to taxes. You know they add the ordinary and

8:26

the penalty together, right, and that's not tax deductible. Guess what?

8:31

Right? But this is this is something that you yourself could face and your

8:35

accountant doesn't know, your tax prepayer doesn't know you think, Ez, your

8:37

arm block knows what the answer is to this. No, no, they

8:41

don't, and you should leave your inherited IRA alone, let it grow tax

8:46

free. That would be a good thing. But what if you don't know

8:48

what the rules are? And what if the reason you don't know what the

8:50

rules are is because the IRS can't figure out what the rules are to be?

8:56

How about that one? How about that one? Mm? And you

9:01

think, oh, this is only you know people who you know who are

9:05

kind of obnoxious loudmouth and bad hair and orange skin and stuff like that.

9:09

You know what I mean. Yeah, built a bunch of skyscrapers. Yeah,

9:13

I've employed thousands of people. Yeah, a lot of people love them.

9:16

But you know he had mean tweets and stuff like that. That's bad.

9:20

So we gotta figure out some way some hyper technicality which isn't even a

9:24

hyper technical which has just never been used before, never been you know,

9:30

will be laughed at if you made the argument this is true, if you

9:35

made the argument that these people make in law school, because I did.

9:39

I mean, not exactly like this, but when you get into building cloud

9:45

creations in the law and probably it's different now, but at least back in

9:50

the day, things had to pass a laugh test, you know what I

9:52

mean, because you could make things that were very intricate and very logical and

9:56

show all the steps, but the dame thing would just fall apart. That's

10:00

been my experience with the state planning. The simpler, the better, I

10:05

mean, you can you can give me all kinds of reasons for having these, you know, all these rules and structures and stuff like that. You're

10:11

just making a thriller novel. When you do that, you know, there's

10:15

things that you can do that are very solid, common sense things that people

10:18

aren't doing right. But it's when you get all this Rube Goldberg type stuff

10:24

that gets nutty. You know, people do try that, but but what

10:30

they're doing now, it's like it's just so obvious. I mean, it's

10:33

like why even why even pretend that the law has anything to do with it,

10:37

because it really it doesn't, you know. And my point is that

10:43

the law is so amorphous, is so hard to figure out what it is

10:48

you're supposed to be doing that the I R s can't even figure it out.

10:52

Well, if the I R s can't figure it out, how the hell are you supposed to figure it out? You know what I mean,

10:58

that's that's that's my you know, that's my burn, that's my burn on

11:05

it. So there you are. You're listening to the David Carrier Show.

11:09

I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney. Do it right? If you

11:13

can figure out what the hell that is? And sometimes it's darn tough you

11:18

came along to claim it. I didn't know just what was wrong with me?

11:39

What David's got the how too? You're looking for? Just call seven

11:45

seven twenty four. This is the David Carrier Show. Wellcome back to the

11:58

David Carrier Show. I'm David carry your family's personal attorney. You know this

12:03

was supposed to be Marvin Gay song actually and Aretha got it. So there

12:07

you are. Did you know that? Fun? Facts to know? Intel

12:13

anyway? Six one six seven seven four twenty four twenty four, that's the

12:16

number to call. It's your question, comment or concern on the air.

12:20

You know, if you can, if you can get a hold of any like last night I found a live performance Retha, a live performance on a

12:30

British TV show. You know ough, ugh, better than the recordings,

12:37

you know what I mean, because the recordings get kind of overproduced, you

12:39

know, that whole wall of sound kind of idea. But anyway, six

12:43

one, six, seven, seven, four, twenty four, twenty four

12:46

will get your question, comment or concern on the air. Now, does

12:50

it does the fact that the law can't be figured out, that the agencies

12:54

that are responsible for figuring out the law they can't tell you what it is

12:58

exactly, or that they disagree with each other, or when they reread it,

13:03

like years later, they decide it means something else. All right,

13:07

But if you're in that situation, you know, what do you what do you do? What is? What is? What can you do? Well?

13:13

For thirty four years, I've been figuring it out, going with the

13:18

you know, with what they tell me, reading this stuff and trying to

13:24

you know, trying to figure it out from there. And as a consequence,

13:28

you know, I don't know how much it's over a billion dollars now

13:31

that our clients have protected, you know, houses and businesses and savings.

13:37

Mostly you know, it's mostly regular folks saving the house, the cottage.

13:41

Most people don't have cottages, of course, but most people do have Virara's

13:45

and stuff like that. And the thing is you've got to well, you

13:52

can you can just lose everything you've you've built up. I mean, you

13:58

know, what kind of what kind of people think about think about it like

14:01

this, what kind of people have stuff right now? If you're at however

14:05

old jar whether it's young er, role that, it doesn't matter. You know, if you have stuff, what kind of person are you? And

14:13

don't tell me that it doesn't matter because your values are what dictate what you've

14:16

got. You know, you can set you can tell me whatever you want.

14:20

That is, I don't believe any of it. What I do believe

14:24

is your values, the values that motivate you will dictate what you have,

14:31

not specifically, but in general. And I'm not saying that people don't have

14:35

bad luck from time time. They do. Sometimes people have bad luck.

14:39

That's bad luck. Okay, bad luck happens. I get it, Okay.

14:45

I didn't ask for the genetic mutation that gave me the thyroid cancer.

14:48

I didn't ask for it. Bad luck. You know. Good news,

14:52

Oh good news. I haven't updated you on this, but the good news is that all my brothers and sisters, there's eight of us altogether, and

14:58

none of them have it. What kind of cosmic justice is that? But

15:05

but that's all good. You know, what are you going to do?

15:09

Cry in your beer? You don't forget about it. It's is what it

15:11

is. So that's bad luck. Okay, So what what are you supposed

15:16

to? You know, what do you do at that point? Well,

15:18

you just keep going on. What do you do when you're confronted with the

15:20

legal system that can't seem to make up its mind about what it is you're

15:24

supposed to do? Whoa, Well, what do you do? You do

15:31

the best you can with what you've got. That's what you do. That's

15:33

what you have done if you have any stuff. Right. See, there's

15:37

there's two ways of going at this right well. The one is to say,

15:39

oh, it's all too confusing, Oh nothing I can do? Okay,

15:45

all right, it's not indefensible. I mean you could you could decide

15:50

that, or you could decide, Hey, I'm going to be you know,

15:54

I'm gonna keep on the path, I'm going to do the righteous thing. I'm gonna do what needs to be done. I'm gonna you put one

16:00

foot in front of the other, and I'm going to trust that it'll at

16:03

least work out pretty good. Right, And that's the approach that we're taking

16:08

to a state planning, elder law, real estate and business lan. That's

16:11

the I don't know what other approach you can take, you know, other

16:15

than to just kind of run away from the whole thing and say, oh,

16:18

it's all too it's all too terrible, right, you can you can

16:22

do that. Some people do, but not you. You never have.

16:26

Why would you, Why would you start now? Why would you start now?

16:30

And so the approach, you know, like right now where the rumors

16:36

are we're in the middle of a of upheaval, going to have an upheaval

16:41

in the rules governing the whole long term care thing. Now, there won't

16:45

be any legislation. So the good news is here's here's the good news,

16:48

which is why, frankly we've taken the approach we did. The good news

16:55

is there's no congressional legislation. They're talking about changing regulations, which is good

17:00

because they can't really monkey with the fundamental plans that have been in place now

17:06

that our clients have been putting in place for thirty years. You can't really.

17:10

But all around the edges, you can. Around the edges, you

17:14

know, you can make this more difficult, you can make that more you

17:17

can reinterpret things, and certainly we've certainly we've had we've experienced an awful lot

17:22

of an awful lot of that kind of thing where you know, things that

17:27

were just accepted they get reinterpreted, or things that were never an issue before

17:37

all of a sudden become the issue. Okay, Okay, that's the way

17:42

it is. We'll deal with it. We'll roll with the punches. Right.

17:45

But the people who have planned right, and that's over twenty thousand families

17:53

now have got a plan with us. It's like, what thirty four years?

17:59

What do you want? Uh? Okay, So you guys got to

18:03

handle the people who I feel the strongest about, I guess are folks who

18:17

the bad luck happens. Okay, the bad luck and it just saw a

18:22

few. It was. It was not a good week for that. It

18:26

was. I don't really want to say it was a good week. It was a bad week. It was whatever week. It was an unusual week

18:32

in that we had more than one at several three families where the no planning

18:45

had been done right. Because they were workers, they did the righteous thing,

18:51

you know, all the rest they did all they checked all the boxes,

18:53

you know what I mean. They followed the rules, okay, and

18:57

it had done very well. I had done very well. But then you

19:02

know, you get the whether it's early onset dementia or Huntington's Korea that hits

19:07

younger people or whatever, you know, and then you're faced with a situation

19:12

where people have worked their whole lives and how everything's at risk, everything's threatened,

19:19

you know, and it's like, and you never got around to it.

19:27

Well, you got to get around to it, okay. And the

19:30

good news is what I mean. There's good news is that for all of

19:36

those families were able to come up with a solution that will avoid avoid the

19:41

most negative consequences. But generally speaking, what happens in a situation and I

19:45

told them, I told all of them, it's like, you know,

19:48

generally, you know, I'm so happy you're here and we're getting this done,

19:51

which I've seen you a few years ago. But you know, okay, because usually what happens is people don't plan it at all, and they

20:02

keep putting it off until half of the assets are gone, all right,

20:07

and then their strife in the family because you got the kids think you're doing

20:11

the wrong thing. They think this and that and somebody else is chiming in.

20:17

You got all these things going on, and it's very easy for that

20:21

sort of thing to happen where there is no solid Okay, here's what happens

20:26

next, and then here's what happens. And this is a tough environment to

20:30

create that, but it's worth doing. It's still worth doing. That's my

20:34

point. You've been listening to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,

20:38

your family's personal attorney. This hour of the day, Bid Carrier Show is

21:00

pro bono, so call in now at seven seven twenty four, twenty four.

21:06

This is the David Carrier Show. Wellcome back to the David Carrier Show.

21:11

On David Carrier, your Family's personal attorney. I have somebody who emails

21:18

me every once in a while says you're not my personal attorney. I didn't

21:21

hire you. Well, you know that's kind of aspiration. That's an aspirational

21:26

statement, right, I mean would to be right. So if you're one

21:33

of those people who gets under your skin when I say your families personally,

21:37

I never hired you, well, okay, you can remember that situation very

21:41

easily. Let's go to the website Davidcarrier Law dot com sign up for a

21:45

workshop and then you and then I could be your personal attorney, you know

21:48

what I mean. So we had I want to give a shout out.

21:52

We had a couple of sisters showed up. I think they were identical twins

21:59

in the eighties, and uh, we're gonna put some if they don't call

22:03

me in, if they don't call up an object, I'm gonna put the

22:06

pictures of us by the old car on the website, on our Facebook page.

22:11

But they're not clients. They're not clients, but they are faithful listeners.

22:15

I keep running to faithful listeners who haven't been who, uh a,

22:18

you're not my family's personal attorney. Yeah, well right, true enough,

22:22

but at least your your faithful listeners. That's that that counts for something.

22:26

But anyway, too delightful, delightful young young ladies and uh just uh hi

22:33

guys. So I'm gonna I'm gonna put we took some pictures. We're gonna

22:37

put those out on the on the Facebook page tomorrow. But uh yeah,

22:44

but come go to the go to the website. Why don't you David Carrier

22:47

Law dot com. Uh, and on the website, David Carrier law dot

22:51

com is the uh you know, is the whole schedule of works outs and

22:56

whatnot. And you know, it's better to light when candled and cursed the

23:00

darkness. And sometimes it feels like that is what we're doing. On the

23:04

other hand, you know, I've been at this for a while, so

23:08

what we're seeing now is time after time the plans that have matured, right,

23:15

and now we have folks who need the coverage, who need what we

23:21

said would happen, and it happens. It always happened, happens every time,

23:25

you know what I mean. But it's one of those things where you

23:27

know, if if back in six or seven or the teens or whatever,

23:34

if you did a plan with us right, you might think, oh,

23:38

is this going to work? And a lot of people didn't think that,

23:41

I mean, very upfront about it, and now they are working. You

23:47

know, the clients are getting the benefits. It's it's not really, you

23:51

know, it's not you know, putting a plan together is not the end

23:56

result to plan, Okay, it's the tools in the toolbox. That's what's

24:00

going on. And the fact of the matter is that if you have the

24:03

right tools and you have done the prep work, correctly and you have a

24:10

roadmap, Well, you put all those together, and now the results can

24:14

be very advantageous. That's just the reality that we're seeing time and time and

24:22

time again. And the point is that back in the day these things might

24:27

have been questionable. Right before you prove something, then you wonder, cheapers,

24:33

does that really work? And will that work for me? And you

24:37

know, it's all in the execution too. I wouldn't want to say that.

24:41

I wouldn't want to say that just because it works for somebody else,

24:45

it's going to you know, it depends on the facts of the case.

24:49

Did we do the work that was necessary to be done, was the work

24:53

done that was required? And when it is, yeah, that it works

24:59

every time. But we're not exactly wallflowers about about insisting that the that the

25:07

plan should work. I mean, for example, years ago, we were

25:11

concerned when you have a married couple and I've got a I've got a question

25:17

here on the sort of bringing it to mind. I'll get to it. But years ago we were very concerned that when uh married couple, one of

25:27

them goes and both both with individual retirement accounts four O one k's i RA

25:32

s four O three B. You know, any of those through savings plans,

25:34

any of those retirement plan assets right in a tax qualified plan wroth I

25:41

R A traditional you know, and and with pensions and stuff too, very

25:47

concerned. You know. Well, here you are married, and now all

25:51

of a sudden, because your spouse has dementia instead of a heart attack,

25:55

now you you get to foot the bill, okay, And it's a very

25:59

expensive bill. I mean it's five hundred and fifty bucks a day nowadays at

26:06

some of the long term skilled nursing facilities, and more when you add on

26:10

the extras like laundry. You know, you might be able to find a

26:15

place for twelve thousand, but even the memory care units are or over ten

26:21

thousand dollars a month. So and like you said, if you say,

26:26

wha, well look at this place, that's chuaper, and it's like,

26:30

okay, right, great, nine thousand dollars a month, courrah. I

26:33

guess I was wrong. But it's so expensive, you know, that's the

26:38

thing. And some people haven't saved for it, and for them, fine,

26:42

it's free. But what if you did save for it, you know,

26:47

you know what I mean, what if you did save to better your life? What if you were the kind of person who actually planned ahead,

26:52

who didn't go on vacation. This is I'm just telling you what was told

26:57

to me this week, not the first time, far from the first time.

27:03

You know. It's like we worked our whole lives. We're both basically

27:07

healthy. But now this has happened, whether it's a Louis body dementia or

27:14

Huntington's or cancer or whatever, right, and now we're facing a convalescence and

27:18

there's no there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You

27:22

know what I mean, there's no good result. The you know, it's

27:27

it's a the dementia is a terminal thing. Okay, so what do you

27:32

what do you do now? Well do you just say, okay, I

27:36

work forty years and now it you know, eighteen thousand dollars a month here

27:41

you can have my money? Is that? Is that? Is that?

27:45

How's that work? Because if you hadn't saved it, you'd get the same

27:48

services anyway. But because you did save it, now you've got to go

27:52

broke right So if you're smart enough to be broke right along, well that's

27:57

good. But if you weren't smart enough to be broke right along. Now

28:00

you're screwed. Really yeah, really yeah, that's really how it works.

28:07

Okay, Well, so what if there was a way for us to save

28:10

the ira? What if there was a way to save the pension? What if we could go to court and have and have the court move pension and

28:18

IRA from one spouse to the other. Now, when we first started doing

28:23

this, I don't know, six seven years ago whenever it was. At

28:29

first it was accepted, but then there was a backlash. How would you

28:36

like the whole circuit court bench to grieve you? I bet you wouldn't like

28:41

it. But you know it's was it Galahad who said my strength is that

28:48

of ten because my heart is pure? You know, I don't know one

28:52

of the knights in round table, but but you know, you kind of

28:55

get that mentality. It's like, well, you can say whatever you want.

28:59

You know you're wrong in all these particulars and you're wrong on the law.

29:03

Now, what if the Court of Appeals had come back and said,

29:06

no, they're right. Well you know, okay, I'll go push a

29:10

broom for the rest of my life. But they didn't. The Court of Appeals came back and said, no, you guys are right. You can

29:15

save the pension. You can save the IRA for then on the spouse who

29:21

doesn't need it, the at home's spouse, the community's spouse. You can

29:23

do that. Okay. But my point is, I guess this is sort

29:29

of turning in the theme of the show. It's like, just because the

29:32

law is difficult, just because the law is uncertain, just because you know

29:37

people can do stuff to you that they shouldn't be doing and interpret things differently,

29:42

doesn't mean you should give up. Doesn't mean you shouldn't keep your eye

29:47

on the prize. What's the prize? My clients, don't go broke,

29:51

that's the prize. Okay. I think that's important. I think the people

29:55

who live their life a certain way should enjoy the fruits of their labors.

29:59

Use my father phrase, he was beg on fruits fer labors, you know,

30:02

the fruit treier laborers, and whether it was grades or whatever else.

30:06

Okay, well you should enjoy the FRUITI your laborers, old darn it?

30:11

Why not? You know you paid for it? Why why shouldn't you?

30:17

But that's it's just an attitude thing. And and I look at these yeah,

30:22

I look at what's going on in college campuses and stuff, and it's

30:25

it's just you know, how is that a righteous thing? I don't.

30:29

I don't see it. I don't get it. But you did the righteous

30:33

things, so you should get screwed. What how does I don't I don't

30:36

get any of that. So let's strike back, like when Candle cursed the

30:40

dark forget cursed in the darkness. You might as well not been listening to

30:42

the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your famili's personal attorney. David's

31:06

perking and working and taking your calls. Now, this is the David Carrier

31:11

Show. I think we ought to just go out on this, don't you.

31:21

It's in the next fifteen minutes, so I don't we get in trouble

31:29

with the FCC. Welcome back to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carry

31:33

plus copyright probably I don't know, though. I mean, we don't have

31:36

any of the live Aretha stuff because this is all you know, the bumper

31:41

music. Just so you know, I'm not ripping off her estate or anything because it's all licensed through iHeartMedia. So there you go. Ah, try

31:48

to get me on that one. Will you not gonna work anyway? Let's

31:52

go to some of our emails. Here. Can living trust be changed by

31:56

one living spouse that is going to have open heart serve in two days?

32:00

I just found out, Oh this is good planning. I just found out

32:05

that I was executor of their living trust, which means you're a successor trustee.

32:09

Okay, Mom cannot sign due to her Alzheimer's and dementia. My dad

32:15

wants all three daughters to be in agreement for the trust. So let's interpret

32:19

what this means. What it means is that I think it means. I

32:22

mean, how the hell do I know what it means? I can't ask him any questions. But here's what I think is going on here. I

32:29

think when Mom and Dad set up the trust, they said that the person I'm writing a letter here would be the trustee. And now that Dad is

32:36

two days away from surgery, thanks a lot, Dad for not rushing anything.

32:40

Now he wants all three of his daughters to be co trustees. I

32:45

think that's what's going on. And now the question is can Dad require that

32:50

all three daughters be co trustee? And the answer is probably yes. Mom's

32:55

got the Alzheimer's, so she's out of that she's out of action. Dad.

33:00

That is probably first up on her financial power of attorney. And although

33:06

most of the time the financial power of attorney doesn't let your monkey with the

33:09

trust, but if it did, then he could and he can certainly as

33:15

the sole successor trustee, he can still amend the trust. He might be

33:19

able to do it that way. So let's just assume that he could.

33:23

All right, Let's assume that he could amend the trust to require all three

33:30

daughters as the trustees. Bad idea, like terrible idea, like the worst

33:36

idea. I don't know when there's such a bad idea. I don't know,

33:43

like maybe electing somebody who's senile to president of the United States. That

33:46

could be a bad idea. That's another bad idea. But anyway, this

33:49

is a good way that would never happen. So something like this, having

33:53

three trustees happens all the time. It's routine. It's what people do,

34:00

all right, because you can't decide which one of your kids, so you

34:02

put two or three of them on there. And it's a total mistake to

34:07

do that, all right. It's it's just awful because what you do when

34:13

you put if you put two on now you've got two kids fighting each other.

34:17

One gives in, gives in, gives in, until finally they're second

34:21

tired of giving in. And then they, you know, they stand up

34:24

and say, oh, well, you know, we've been doing things your

34:27

way, and the one who has been dominating, the one has been dominating.

34:31

They don't even get that they've been dominating. They just think that's the

34:35

way it's supposed to be right. And and so it's not good. And

34:40

with three then you get two gang up on one, also not good.

34:45

And the point is that the reasons that people give for putting co trustees are

34:50

just totally bogus. It's like, oh, they'll work together, bs,

34:54

they'll work together maybe maybe, but probably not. And and what you're doing,

35:04

it's like this. It's like, hmm, I want to go across

35:07

the kitchen floor. It's nighttime. I'm not gonna turn on the lights.

35:10

I want to go across the kitchen floor. I think I'll throw a bunch

35:14

of glasses on the floor and break them because I might not necessarily step on

35:19

some of the broken glass. It's like, why would you do that in

35:22

the first place? Why not turn on the lights? Why not? Why

35:25

not there's a million things you could have done instead of put yourself into this

35:30

situation, which is which is uselessly and purposely, purpose purposelessly, purposely,

35:39

purposelessly, I don't know anyway, The point is it's dumb. Don't do

35:43

it, Okay, So don't put co trustees. Just go with the one

35:47

because that one kid's not gonna rip off the others. And if they are

35:51

going to rip off the others, well then get rid of them and get

35:53

somebody else shapers, you know, but don't put so. In this case,

36:00

ken Dad, who's about to go in for open heart surgery, add

36:05

the other two is required co trustees. Yeah, that's possible. But I'll

36:08

tell you what I would have done is back when Mom gets the dementia and

36:14

Dad is the sole trustee, that's the time to put on a co trustee

36:19

so that this doesn't happen. Now, did Dad have months of planning for

36:24

this open heart surgery? Who knows. Maybe he just went in they said,

36:28

oh man, look at all that blockage. We've got to get you in here day after tomorrow because that's the first time we can get you in.

36:34

Otherwise we'd will you down there right now. Maybe that's the case.

36:37

Okay, So when you've got a spouse with dementia, co trustees, So

36:44

you and your spouse or co trustees on your trust. Right, if your

36:46

spouse gets dementia, that's the time to put one of the kids, the

36:51

next successor probably the next successor, put them on because why not? What

36:57

are you losing? Nothing? What are you gaining? You don't have Oh

37:01

my god, I've got bypass surgery in two days, and uh, I

37:06

got to get this done. Oh and by the way, I want to amend the trust and add all three of his trustees. Oh and by the

37:09

way, God knows what else you want to change on it? All right?

37:14

Not, as Tony Stark said to Loki, not a good plan,

37:21

don't do it? All right? What else we got here? Let's see

37:25

we got an elder law. Uh oh, here's a good one. Common

37:37

power. My dad is refusing to put mom in a nursing home or assisted

37:42

living. Refusing to do that. Well, you know, most of the

37:45

time people want to stay at home anyway, So you know how difficult to

37:50

sell is that staying at home. I believe it's I believe it's because of

37:53

the income she makes, and he does not, So true enough, if

37:57

she goes into long term care, you know her income is going to go

38:01

to the facility. That's true. He'll get some. He will get some

38:07

what we call the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance. That's what he'll get.

38:14

So he'll get some, but most of it will go to there. She needs to be an assisted living environment. Well maybe or maybe not. I

38:20

am power of attorney, meaning you hold power of attorney, and do I

38:23

have the power to do this? To do what? Place him over over

38:28

him? How does it work with their assets? Well, the thing is

38:32

you have control as let's assume your agent on a financial power of attorney.

38:37

We have control over the finances, the money that's that's under the financial power

38:43

attorney. You probably don't have placement authority. Now if you're the if you're

38:46

the patient advocate, then you would okay. So again, like so much

38:51

of this stuff, the answer is it depends. It depends on what the

38:54

actual trust actually says. What the actual power of attorney. What are the

38:59

words in the power of attorney? What are those words? What do they

39:02

say? That will govern? All right? That will govern what's going on

39:07

here. The good news is I got to put in a plug my weekly

39:12

plug for the Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly. I can't believe

39:15

there's still people coming in my office. Never hurt of Pace because in my

39:20

mind, I'm always boring how often I say it. But in a situation

39:24

like this, you can get at home care for mom through the program of

39:30

all Inclusive Care for the elderly. Through Pace, you can get the care

39:35

that mom needs. Right, Why wouldn't you do that? You would do

39:37

that, You should do that, Okay, and she stays at home and

39:40

she keeps her income. That's the key. You've been listening to the David

39:45

Carrier Show. I'm Davidcarrier, your family's personally attorney. You've been listening to

40:10

the David Carrier Show a lively discussion addressing your questions and concerns, but not

40:15

legal advice. There is a big difference. So when making decisions that affect

40:20

your family, your property, or yourself, the best advice is to seek

40:23

good advice specific to your unique needs. If you missed any of today's show,

40:29

or would like additional information about the law offices of David Carrier, please

40:31

visit Davidcarrier Law dot com.