The Estate Planning Podcast

Colby Kukelski
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Expert Legal Hosts Colby Kukelski, Brought to you by Rhodes Law Firm, Augusta Georgia

Episodes

  1. 11/18/2021

    Estate Planning Mistakes To Avoid… Horror Stories of Improper Estate Planning

    Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Estate Planning Podcast. I’m your host Colby Kukelski. The Estate Planning Podcast is brought to you by our friends with Rhodes Law Firm. In this week’s episode, we’re going to do something a little bit different than we normally do. In this week’s episode, we’re going to talk about some of the horror stories that come with not having an estate plan, or an improper estate plan. Now remember, when we’re talking about an estate plan, we’re talking about either a Last Will and Testament or a Trust. Again, anyone who has anything whether it be just a bank account, or bank account, and real estate, should have some type of estate plan in place, depending on the type of estate plan will vary from family to family, but everyone should have something in place. Now there are times where I’ve come across clients whose loved ones did not have an estate plan in place. So think of this episode as your cautionary tale. To have something in place, I always say something is better than nothing. And when we’re talking about an estate plan, that couldn’t be any closer to the truth. The first story I want to focus on for today is a family who did have a plan in place, they had a trust in place. And if you recall from our earlier episodes, trusts avoid probate. But where they went wrong, is they didn’t periodically come in for a review of this plan. So over the years, they acquired new assets, a couple new pieces of land, some new bank accounts, and they didn’t know or didn’t realize that they had to come in to review their plan to ensure that these new things they’ve acquired is tied to their plan. So when mom and dad both passed away, the children came in to see us. And we learned that a couple pieces of their property hadn’t been tied to their trust. So what that meant is that now we’re going to have to go through that probate process. And probate again is asking the court to verify your Will. So anytime you have a Trust in place, you typically also have a backup Will, just in case just like in this type of situation. Now in this situation, to make it even more unique, is there were lots of siblings, I think six in total, and not everyone got along with each other. So when we initiated the probate process, we were initiating it over one piece of land. Again, we knew what was supposed to happen with the land. But because we were having to go through probate, we’re now having asked, having to ask all the kids to agree to that. And again, they didn’t see eye to eye on the situation. So needless to say, the probate dragged on for three years, all over one piece of land. So even if you have an estate plan in place, it’s still very important that you periodically review it so we can avoid situations like this. Anytime you have, you know, the saying is more than one cook in the kitchen, but anytime you have multiple people involved, and especially if they don’t always get along, it can very much complicate the administration of your plan at your passing. The next potential horror story that I want to focus on is another family who again, did have an estate plan in place he had a Last Will and Testament, but it wasn’t the best plan to have in place. In this situation, it was an elderly man and his nineties who never had married, never had any children. And he left everything to one nephew of his. Again, the Will stipulated that, but because Wills require probate, the nephew who was set to inherit everything has to now petition the court requesting permission to validate that Will. Anytime you have to go through probate, if you’ll recall, we’re not only having to ask the person who’s inheriting everything from the Will but also the people who could have inherited had there been no Will, or the other heirs at law. In this situation, this elderly man again was in his 90s. During his life, he had five siblings, both of his parents had predeceased him. So his closest heirs would have been these five siblings. All five of these siblings except for one, had predeceased him. And so then we’re having to involve the other nieces and nephews. So this quickly turned into what we thought should have been just one person involved, that one nephew, turned out to be about 15 to 20 people, all the children of those deceased siblings, and some children of the deceased nieces and nephews are now having to be asked, What do you think about this Will? Again, they’re not getting anything, but because they’re considered heirs at law, they have to be involved in the probate process. Again, these are people that this nephew has never met, or may have not seen in years, that we’re now having to track down and locate all because this elderly man was using a Will. Had he used a Trust, we could have kept it out of probate. And if we would have kept it out of probate, we wouldn’t have had asked all these people, what they think about this Will. And finally, the final horror story to talk about this week is going to be in the event there was no estate plan. I had and younger gentleman come in whose wife had passed away at a relatively young age, early 30s. And they had one minor child, she had no Will in place, and half the house was in her name. Now he’s trying to sell the house. But he’s being told that he has to go through probate to be able to sell her portion of the house. Not only in this is this man having dealt with the loss of his wife at a very young age, but now he’s having to deal with the probate process as well. Because she didn’t have a plan in place that stipulates what happens with her assets upon her passing her assets, they pass according to the law, or intestacy. Here in Georgia, that doesn’t mean all to your surviving spouse or minor children can inherit assets this way as well. So in our situation, we’re having to go through the probate process for half of the house. And then determining how that house is to be inherited, a portion was left to her husband, and a portion for the benefit of her minor child. And again, anytime a minor is ever involved, the court will appoint a conservator to control the assets for the benefit of that minor child. So when this home sold, a portion of the proceeds went to her husband and a portion went to that minor child. This isn’t necessarily what he was expecting to happen. But since you know, his late wife didn’t have a plan in place. It certainly did complicate the probate process and the selling of the home. And he was having to do this at a time where he had just lost his wife and his child had just lost her mother. So think this through any time you have something whether you know, that’d be a little bit or a lot, you should always have some sort of an estate plan in place. Again, something is better than nothing. But in most instances, you certainly want to keep it out of the probate court. And that’s it for this week’s episode. I really hope hearing some of these stories remind you that having an estate plan in place is crucial. It’s an uncomfortable conversation to have and no one wants to have it even at a young age. But it’s very important that you plan ahead of time if something should happen to you, where your things will end up and the simplest way to accomplish that. If you’ve enjoyed this week’s episode, I hope you’ll like and subscribe and join us back here next week. And if you ever have any additional topics you want more information on please feel free to send that information in we may cover in future episodes I’m your host Colby Kukelski and this has been the Estate Planning Podcast. The post Estate Planning Mistakes To Avoid… Horror Stories of Improper Estate Planning first appeared on The Estate Planning Podcast. The post Estate Planning Mistakes To Avoid… Horror Stories of Improper Estate Planning appeared first on The Estate Planning Podcast.

    11 min

  2. 11/11/2021

    How to Help an Aging Parent With Estate Planning

    Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Estate Planning Podcast. I’m your host Colby Kukelski. The Estate Planning Podcast is brought to you by our friends at Rhodes law firm. In recent episodes of the podcast, we’ve been discussing various estate planning tools and some of the most common questions that come with estate planning. But in this week’s episode, we’re going to focus on how you can help an aging parent. I have many people who come to us who have parents that have been recently diagnosed with some sort of illness, whether it be dementia or Alzheimer’s, and they’re asking how do we help mom and dad? How do we plan for the next steps of their life? The very first thing you want to consider when we’re talking about an aging parent is their use of powers of attorneys. Now in previous episodes, we talked about the importance of having both a healthcare power of attorney and a financial power of attorney. What these documents enable is for someone to act on behalf of an individual. So when thinking about your parents, you want to make sure that your parents have a power of attorney that authorizes you or sibling or trusted family friend to be able to make those financial decisions and medical decisions on their behalf, should they be unable to. These are very important documents to have and really everyone over the age of 18 should have one. But when we’re talking about an aging parent, it’s important for them to have one. So that way if you know we need to make sure their bills are getting paid or their taxes are getting filed, that financial power of attorney is in place or they’re unable to make a health care decision for themselves, someone’s named to be able to make that decision on their behalf. Without these powers of attorneys, what we’re left with is having to get guardianship or conservatorship through the court. And speaking on guardianship and conservatorship, there are some well-known cases happening in the public eye that deal with a particular type of conservatorship. But for our conversation, today, I’m going to focus on guardianship and conservatorship, based on Georgia and South Carolina law. Guardianship is the legal process of obtaining the ability to make decisions on behalf of someone. So in order to make medical decisions for them or their health care decisions for them. Conservatorship is the legal ability to make financial decisions on behalf of someone’s property. So the ability to access their bank account and pay their bills. They are two different types of things. So in order to obtain guardianship or conservatorship, someone will have to petition the probate court and request the court’s permission to be able to make those decisions. For most people. A quick and easy way to avoid this is to have those powers of attorneys in place. So when dealing with an aging parent, the first question really should be, are these powers of attorneys in place? Are they up to date? And are mom and dad still comfortable with the individuals who they’ve named? The next question you should consider when dealing with an aging parent is then looking at their estate planning documents. Now in previous episodes, we’ve discussed the importance of having some type of a estate plan. When we’re talking about estate plans, we’re talking about either having a last will and testament or some type of trust in place. This is the time to make sure mom and dad have these documents in place. And these documents are still adequate, adequately reflecting their decisions. I would always recommend while mom and dad are still with us and are able to that you visit an estate planning attorney to revisit these documents. In doing this mom and dad will be able to review what they currently have in place. They’ll be able to consider if there have been any changes in the law, any changes in the family, and then if they’re comfortable with it, you can be involved as well so you understand your role in the process, if you have one   And finally, the last crucial step that you should think about when helping an aging parent is, if there’s a need for long term care, there are a couple of different types of long term care options. There’s the at home care where someone comes to your house, there’s the assisted living where mom and dad live in a facility, but they’re still able to live on their own. And then there’s the nursing home care or full skilled nursing with each different type of care. The next consideration has to be the cost of that care. Now, a lot of people have heard that you will spend everything you’ve ever saved if you need any form of long term care. And this isn’t necessarily a false statement. These different levels of care are fairly pricey depending on where you live. But there are ways to strategically plan for these types of care. So having the conversation ahead of time can help you and mom and dad prepare for if they need these types of care how we’re going to pay for it, and if they need these types of care where they would prefer being. So when dealing with an aging parent, while it’s an uncomfortable conversation to have, it is a necessary conversation to have, one in three adults will end up needing some form of long term care in the future. So planning ahead of time will help alleviate at least that burden on the family. So when dealing with an aging parent, the first couple of things that you should consider is ensuring that they have the appropriate financial and health care powers of attorneys in place, making sure their estate planning documents are up to date and are still reflecting their wishes, and then having the conversation ahead of time about long term care. Now, this isn’t a conclusive list, but it is the first three things that you should be having the conversation with mom and dad about. No one likes to have a conversation. It’s an uncomfortable conversation, but having it ahead of time, will at least help your family prepare for if and when that time comes. There’s a plan in place. It’s a plan that you know, everyone’s agreed to ahead of time, and it’s plan that we’re all comfortable implementing. Thank you for joining us here this week for another episode of the Estate Planning Podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this week’s episode, make sure that you subscribe share with a friend. And make sure to come back next week where we’ll have another episode discussing different types of estate planning topics. If there’s a particular topic you have in mind, feel free to send that into the show and we may cover in future episodes. I’m your host Colby Kukelski. See you back here next week. The post How to Help an Aging Parent With Estate Planning first appeared on The Estate Planning Podcast. The post How to Help an Aging Parent With Estate Planning appeared first on The Estate Planning Podcast.

    9 min

  3. 10/27/2021

    Estate Planning Case Study with Hal Coleman

    Hello, and welcome back to the Estate Planning Podcast. Today I have us joined by our guest Hal Coleman. Hal is a longtime friend of the Rhodes Law Firm team and he is going to tell us a little bit about his estate planning journey, and how we can help others like you moving forward. Hal thank you for joining us. Oh, you’re welcome. I’m excited. Excited to be here to talk about the estate planning process. So when we talk about the estate planning process, what we’re really talking about is the importance of having an estate plan. And correct me, you and your family, have an estate plan? Well, we do now. You know, we, my wife and I, have been married for 48 years. And we have a couple of grown kids, we have grandkids. And when we first got married, and I guess my son was born after three years, we just thought we needed a Will. We wanted to do everything that you’re supposed to do. If I can interrupt you real quick, why was it that you thought you needed a Will? Somebody told me I needed one. So when you’re looking to get a Will, what were the important things you guys were looking to accomplish with that Will? Well basically just if something happened to us, where did our stuff go? We wanted our stuff. You know, it was a simple Will. It was if I died everything went to my wife, if she died, everything went to me and if we both died at all went between our two kids, divided equally. So this is about three years after your first child was born. Yeah. My second child was born by then I guess. We decide later. But yeah, tell us much. When we went to get an estate plan about two years, three years ago, finally. Actual I’m a Rotarian. And we had somebody speak at our rotary club about estate planning. And, you know, we now we own a home, we own stocks, we own jewelry, we own a lot of stuff. And so it made me realize we need more than just that simple. We’ll know my marks on I said, you know, if something happened to mama, you’re going to quit your job move North Carolina and live where you’re at. Because that Will hadn’t been looked at guardianship kids for minors, presumably, Since they were toddlers. And here they are in their 40s. And they were going to have to go live with the aunt and so when when y’all looked at this, again, you know, life’s changed, your children are much older, you have a lot more stuff. So what were y’all looking to do when you’re realizing you needed an updated estate plan? Well, to make sure that things from a simple standpoint, to make sure that everybody got what we wanted them to have, and that the government got the least amount that they could constantly get, and that that we were hit with the least amount of taxes that we’d be hit with and that it didn’t get hung up in probate or in the courts forever. And a lot of it is on my mind. I had an employee one time who was he went to work for me when he was about 18 years old. And right after that this, his parents were divorced. And his father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. An inoperable brain tumor. So they left and went on this trip, they had hunted and fished together all you know since he was a little kid. So they went on this trip out west. Just one last trip together father and son came home and that next year his father passed away. And his father didn’t even have a Will. So his father’s camping equipment, his father’s guns, the all the stuff that were the keepsakes and stuff, they’d use fishing equipment and everything. Oh, the stepmother gave all that stuff to her kids. And he didn’t get he didn’t get anything of his father’s he got to see that a lot. And that kind of hit me hard. I’m thinking golly, that’s what a bad thing. So I was thinking that you know, the importance of having stuff designated. And then when we have a financial guy, you know who manages our retirement our money and He said, You know, you really need to get an estate plan if you hadn’t had a Will done in a long time. And then when I heard the guy speak at Rotary and I thought, okay, we better go do this. And then I found out well, it’s a lot more complicated than I thought it was. It is it is a lot more complicated. But also at the same time, I would like to say that it’s probably making things easier. Yes, it’s more work on the front end. But we’re making things easier on your heirs, whether that be your spouse or your children down the line as well, because at least we have some sort of plan in place. You know, your friend that you mentioned, his dad had no plan in place. I don’t think his dad’s intent was that the step-mom gave everything to her children. But because there was no plan in place, that’s what happened. So yes, estate planning can be doing more work on the front end. But it’s also you know, saving that grief and that heartache down the line, because at least we have a plan to implement. Yeah, and when I said it was more complicated than I thought it was, it turned out to be a whole lot more important and a whole lot more necessary than I thought it was to I’m thinking holy smokes. If something happened to us, and we didn’t have this, you know, who knows? What would happen? What would have happened at that point? Yeah. So the estate plan you put in place you and your wife put in place, you know, when your children were young, versus the estate plan y’all put in place a couple of years ago, are probably dramatically different. The kids are older, your circumstances in life have changed. So the importance of ensuring that you review this periodically, I think is a good lesson to learn from that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, we, we had a, for instance, my daughter was named as our Will, my wife, brother was named as the executor of our estate in the beginning. And since he had been deceased for about 10 years, that was another reason now we have nobody named as executor or now my daughter is, but what if she were to be deceased before us, so we have a second choice and a third choice, and you just, you got to have a plan eight. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but a plan A plan B, a Plan C. As many plans as that’s what I typically tell clients when they’re coming to us, and they’re thinking of, who do we name in these executive roles, you can give me as many names as you want, because the less likely we have to, you know, amend this on the on very quickly in the future. It’s important that you know, you review your estate plan periodically, for the very reason you just mentioned, if there’s been family changes with someone passing away, or you know, the children getting older, no longer needing guardianship, it’s important that you put a pair of eyes on this every couple of years. Yeah, and I can’t imagine somebody passing away and their heirs, maybe there’s a lot of land, maybe there’s millions of dollars in the estate. But something causes it to get into the court systems and it can’t be probated, or it can’t be resolved. And you have people, I’ve got that going on with a friend of mine right now who they own property worth millions of dollars. And when his father passed away, there are some distant relatives somewhere that is named in there as an heir to get $100,000 or something trivial amount compared to this state. But they their attorney located this person and paid him their money, but this person won’t sign some document that has to be signed to they can’t do anything. Because this person is presented complications. Yeah, who explained to me how it worked or not, but it’s like there’s one person that they’ve never even met in their life is holding up the liquidation of this multi million dollar estate. And everybody is like, we’d like to have our money. Right? We’d like to get this wrapped up. And you know, it’s not always the distant relatives either. We we’ve seen time and time again, where it could be one of the children. I just, you know, got through a probate in South Carolina that we’ve been closing for three years over a piece of land that the children were arguing between themselves about who’s should inherit, even though mom and dad had a Will that explicitly says who’s to inherit, they still argued between themselves and the dragged on for three years. So anytime you’re using that Will, it’s going to have to be probated, and we get into all kinds of issues and people arguing and dragging their feet on getting things closed out. Yeah, funny story. I had a friend, Attorney years ago, who told me that he had a couple and he was a divorce lawyer. But he said, I’ve got this couple that got divorced, and they got this crock pot for a wedding present. And it had sentimental value for both of them. And they’re fighting over the crock pot. And he said, he said they have spent so far $1,500 on legal fees to say who gets to take home, a $39 crock pot. Just the trivial stuff. It’s just emotional. You know, when emotions get involved, I guess is when it really goes off the track. But you know, it was a big issue once we got in there to do the financial plan. And came back, we get we we talked it all through, we got everything, you know, agreed upon, then we had to go back after they got it all drawn up and signed the papers. But I tell my wife, I said, Well, this has just lifted a big burden off of me that I didn’t even know I was carrying around. I wasn’t even aware of how complex and how important all of these decisions were. I said it’s. And we both agreed that we wish it had done this a long time ago. Thank goodness. You know, we’re still around. But sure. Yeah. So I typically tell clients, you know, you don’t know what you don’t know. But once you know, that usually puts the little fear. And you’ve we’ve been doing life without these documents in place. And now you understand the importance of them. So when you put your estate plan in place, I’m pr

    18 min

  4. 10/18/2021

    Estate Planning – Top Three Most Frequently Asked Questions

    Hello, and welcome back to The Estate Planning Podcast, I’m your host, Colby Kukelski, In this week’s episode we’re going to focus on the most commonly asked estate planning questions. I asked a few of you to send in some questions that you have regarding estate planning, now that you have a general overview of what we do. I’m going to answer a couple of those today here for you. So turning to the questions that I’ve already received, one of the most frequently asked is, can we talk about a little bit more of the differences between a Will and a Trust. I think this is a great starting point for our conversation today. If you recall from one of our previous episodes, a Will is a document you have drawn up during life. It designates where your assets go upon your passing. However, a Will must be probated, meaning a probate court must determine the validity of your Will after you’ve passed away. So even though you’ve had a document drawn up, you’ve signed it, you’ve decided where everything goes, that Will still must be validated by the court upon your passing. In order to make that determination, the court is going to ask all of the beneficiaries of your Will what they think about your Will, but also any other potential heirs or those other individuals who could have inherited had you not had a Will. In this particular situation and the reason most clients want to avoid probate is we don’t want to ask a bunch of people what they think about our Will. When we put a Will in place, we’ve already decided where our stuff goes, that should be the way that it is. But anytime you’re using the Will, it must be probated. So even if you’ve gone through the trouble of you know, putting a document in place, deciding where your assets are going to go, that Will will still require probate at your passing. And another side to this whole probate conversation is the lack of accessibility to your assets. Let’s say something’s happened to a loved on and you need to access a bank account to pay for final expenses. Typically, a bank or a financial institution is not going to grant you access to those accounts, until you’ve gone through the probate process. So in some instances, we have loved ones coming to us saying I need to pay for final expenses, and the bank’s not giving me access to their account. That’s where we have to explain that’s because you haven’t gone through probate. Probate has to be started first before anything regarding your estate can be finalized upon your passing. So what’s different with a Trust, a Trust is very similar to Will, it’s a document you have drawn up during life. It’s a document that designates where your assets go. It’s a document that appoints someone to carry out your final wishes. But the primary difference is that if a Trust is properly funded, it will not require probate. So we won’t have to ask the court to validate it, we won’t have to ask those heirs what they think about our Trust, we won’t have to worry about financial institutions not giving our loved ones immediate access to our assets. Because we’ve done all this work ahead of time. For most families, if they’re using, you know, one of these Revocable Trusts, sometimes known as a Living Trust, it really is to make things as simple as possible on their loved ones. So the biggest differences between a Will and a Trust is the amount of work that would be involved at one’s passing. The Will is always going to require probate, whereas the Trust is going to make things much simpler, much quicker. So when thinking about the two and what would work best for your family, I really do suggest thinking, you know, what are the long term goals? How much work do we want to put on our heirs if something should happen to us? On our next question that we’re going to discuss is from someone who asked more information about a Trust. If using a Trust and funding it, do you still have access to the assets? In our example of the Trust we’ve been discussing recently that Revocable Trust, sometimes known as a Living Trust. Any assets that you place inside of this Trust are still yours, they’re still yours to spend the income, and they’re still yours to spend the principal. In terms of real estate. If we retitle your real estate to be owned by your Trust, you can still sell it, you can still rent it. All the things are still yours. Now, there are other types of Trusts that don’t necessarily have access to your assets. We haven’t really discussed those Trusts yet, but stick around in later episodes and we’ll talk about more about those Irrevocable Trusts and why some families may use them. But for now, yes, if you’re using a Revocable Trust or Living Trust, the assets held by that Trust are still yours just freely spend and to freely use. Then our final question that we’re going to get to today is how often I should update my estate plan. This is a question that will apply to you whether you have a Will, whether you’re using a Trust. Anytime you have an estate plan, it is very important that you revisit that estate plan from time to time. Typically, we recommend about every three years or so. We put this estate plan in place, but we don’t want it to just sit there, we don’t want it to just get old. There are a lot of reasons you’ll want to revisit your estate plan in terms of your family situations. There may be marriages, divorces, births, deaths. We want to make sure that your plan is as up to date as it can be to address any and all of those changes. But aside from family situations, the laws change. Laws change a little bit more frequently than we’d like. But it’s very important that you revisit your estate plan from time to time. That way, if there’s a major change in the tax law, we can revisit that with you. So anytime you have an estate plan in place, it’s important that we keep this current and we revisit it from time to time. Again, usually for most people that’s about every three years or so. If you’ve enjoyed this week’s episode regarding some frequently asked questions, I do recommend, send me your questions and we’ll address them in our later episodes. It’s hard for a lot of information into one episode without it being overwhelming. So if there is anything that you wish I would have gone into a little further or something that just piqued your interest, feel free to send that into we and we’ll get to it. Thank you for joining us for this week’s episode. Join us back here next week, and we’re going to discuss some more of the common questions and concerns you should be considering when thinking about your estate plan. Thanks, guys. The post Estate Planning – Top Three Most Frequently Asked Questions first appeared on The Estate Planning Podcast. The post Estate Planning – Top Three Most Frequently Asked Questions appeared first on The Estate Planning Podcast.

    9 min

  5. 10/07/2021

    What is a Revocable Trust – Trust Planning in Two Stages

    Welcome back to another episode of The Estate Planning Podcast. I’m your host Colby Kukelski. In this week’s episode, we’re going to be discussing a trust what a trust is and when it can be used. If you’ll recall from our episode last week, we spent some time discussing Wills. What Wills are and Wills requiring probate. So after that, you may have a question of well, how do I avoid probate. That’s what we’re going to focus our conversation on this week. Typically, when people hear the term trust, they think these documents are meant for celebrities or people with a lot of money. What we typically like to say is that a trust can be used for all of your stuff, whether you have a good bit of stuff, where you whether you have a little bit of stuff a trust can be used by pretty much anyone. I’ll tell you, in most instances, you can make an argument that a trust would make more sense for some families versus a Will. The primary difference between a Will and a trust is that a trust is actually activated while you’re alive. Whereas a Will is activated once you’ve passed away by the Probate Court. So when using a trust, since it’s activated while you’re alive, it wouldn’t require probate. So if you’re recall from our conversation last week, all Wills must be probated. But a trust doesn’t have to be probated. There are many different types of trusts, and there are many reasons why you would use a particular type of trust. For our conversation today, I’m just going to focus on a revocable trust, sometimes known as a living trust. This is probably the most common type of trust we typically run across. With a revocable trust, its intended purpose is to ensure that (1) we’re avoiding probate and (2) the assets are organized ahead of time. So if something should happen to you, your successor trustee could step in and manage the assets, and then (3) your family having a stand in for you. So again, if you’re no longer here, that trustee already knows what to do. By having a trust, we do a lot of work ahead of time to ensure if something should happen to you, the tools are already in place to help your family through the next steps. You heard me mentioned the role of a trustee. Typically a trustee is someone that you trust. So a lot of people think this has to be a corporate trustee, a bank or financial institution. And in most cases, I’ll typically recommend against that. There is a reason why you would want someone that is intimately familiar with your family and your assets to serve in this role. The role of the trustee if something should happen to you, is to essentially administer the trust or doing what the trust says. So again, if it’s to be equally divided between the kids, the trustee is the person responsible for effectuating that decision. When creating a trust, you are typically the trustee during life, meaning you are 100% in control, the assets are yours to use, you could spend to the principal you can spend the income, it is business as usual. Whereas if something should happen to you, that successor trustee can immediately step in, and then begin administering the trust from that point forward. In order for your trust to work correctly, I typically say trust planning is in two stages. Stage one is actually putting you know the documents in place making those important decisions about you know where the assets go, something should happen, who that successor trustee is and then signing the actual documents. But the other side of trust planning is just as equally important, and that’s what I call stage two, and that is funding the trust. Again, with a trust. Our goal is that all of your assets are somehow some way tied to this place. So if something should happen, everything’s already pre organized. All your trustee has to do is step in and then administer the trust. Well, how do we do that? Funding the trust is of particular importance. And again, yes, when you sign the documents, you have a trust in place. But in order to make sure that that documents actually doing what you intended for them to do, you need to make sure that all of your assets are tied to this trust. That’s where we discuss, you know, ensuring that there’s appropriate beneficiary designations on your assets. Whether that’s bank accounts, brokerage accounts, life insurance, IRAs, 401, K’s, we want to make sure each and every asset that you have is somehow some way tied to this trust. So when we think of trust planning, I always say it’s in two stages, stage one, signing the trust, making sure that it’s in place, stage two, making sure that those assets are actually tied to this trust plan. So to recap, a trust can be used in place of a Will, a trust is activated during your life, you become trustee. All the assets are then tied to this trust. The trust says what happens with these assets, if something should happen to you, we name a successor trustee. So again, if something should happen to you, we already have that trusted individual named who can immediately step in and then administer the trust. When you’re using a trust, for most families, what we’re intending to do is just to make things easier, easier for surviving spouse, easier for the kids. So if something should happen, they aren’t having to worry about petitioning the Probate Court and opening the estate. All the work is done ahead of time. So if something should happen to you, it’s just much simpler for your family. For most families, that that’s what they’re truly looking to do with estate planning. They want to make sure that there’s a plan in place, and that plan is as simple as it can be. Again, there are many different types of trusts. There are many different reasons to use a particular type of trust. This conversation today just focuses on our very basic revocable trust, sometimes known as a living trust. Anytime you think of a trust, remember, it really takes two stages. Stage one, signing the actual trust and then stage two, ensuring your assets are tied to this plan. This has been a great conversation today to get us started in the world of trusts. Make sure to join us back here next week, we’re going to focus on some of the most commonly asked questions in regards to estate planning. I look forward to seeing you then. Bye, guys. The post What is a Revocable Trust – Trust Planning in Two Stages first appeared on The Estate Planning Podcast. The post What is a Revocable Trust – Trust Planning in Two Stages appeared first on The Estate Planning Podcast.

    9 min

  6. 09/29/2021

    Estate Planning – Wills, Probate and How to Avoid Probate

    Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Estate Planning Podcast. I’m your host, Colby Kukelski. This week’s episode we’ll be discussing something you may be familiar with or something you may not, which is probate. Now, last week, I mentioned that if you’re using a Will, as an estate planning tool, that that Will must be probated. So I always get the question of what is probate? And why would it impact me, and I’m here to tell you that probate may not be something that is as straightforward as it sounds. I will say that today’s conversations going to be based on South Carolina and Georgia law, since that’s where I’m licensed. Each state has their own probate rules, and each state probate looks different. So and in mentioning that, let’s get started. Probate is the process of having a judge validate your will. Now, if you’re recall from our last conversation regarding Wills, a Will is a document you have drawn up during life that designates where your assets go, but requires probate. So what does that mean? If you’re using a Will, yes, you get to say where your stuff goes and who you would want it to go to. But that Will must be validated after you’ve passed away. So what does that mean? Essentially, a judge is going to determine whether your Will is valid or not. In making that determination, the court is going to require some things you wouldn’t typically think that they would. What I mean by that is the court is going to ask certain people, what they think about your Will and its validity. Now, let’s take our typical example, a Will says you know, everything goes to my spouse, if not my spouse, then my children. In determining whether that Will is valid, the court is going to ask your spouse what they think about your Will, and the court is also going to ask your children. Now remember, your children aren’t inheriting anything because everything goes to your spouse. But because your children are your heirs, they have the legal ability to have an opinion on your Will. Usually this isn’t too ba d of a thing. Usually the children are okay with you know, your surviving spouse getting everything. But there could be situations where maybe we don’t want them having a say so in our Will, maybe it’s an estranged child, or maybe it’s someone we just don’t really have a close relationship with who we’re not leaving anything to. But when it comes to probate, they still have the ability to have a say so and what your Will says. So in them having the ability to have a say so and what your will says what probate can really turn into is a hearing to accept any arguments to your Will. All someone has to do is say, well, I don’t agree with the terms of the Will or I want to fight the Will. That turns the probate process into a contested situation. In dealing with a contested situation regarding probate, it’s going to cost you know, time and money. This is all at a time where you’ve just lost a loved one, and now you’re having to try to get this Will deemed as valid in the court. It’s not likely to occur in each and every situation . But in going through the probate process, we are essentially opening the door to hearing any and all complaints regarding the Will. It’s not something that a surviving spouse or grieving children should have to go through at that point in time. Where we really can see these issues is you know, regarding the children, mom and dad have both passed away and now the will says everything equally splits between the three kids. You may think your children won’t argue among themselves, but I’m here to tell you anytime there’s just a little bit of money involved. It’s very difficult to keep your feelings intact, so going through the probate, they’re having to work together, they all get a say so and what happens regarding the Will, it’s not really a time you want to have the kids argue between themselves. But because we’re having to go through the probate process and involving the court determining whether that Will is valid, it may be a time where their emotions get the best of them. Now, there are situations that make probate even more complicated. I’ll give you a quick example from a former client of ours, this individual passed away. He had never married, he had never had any children and he had a Will that left everything to a nephew. So who are we involving in that probate process? Because he had no spouse, and no children, we had to look for his closest heirs at law. Now remember, he left everything to that one nephew. But because of the courts requirement, we had to notify all of his closest heirs of the probate process occurring, and you know, offering them a say so and how the probate was to turn out. In this situation, his closest heirs would have been considered his siblings, but a lot of his siblings had pre deceased him. So we were contacting other niec es and nephews, because they were in fact, his closest heirs at law. This is, you know, seven or eight different people across the country, we’re having to contact notify the probate proceedings, and again, they’re not getting anything, but because they were considered this man’s closest heirs, they had to be notified and they had a legal right to be involved in the probate process. That particular case is took you know, longer than a typical probate would, and cost more than a typical probate would cost all because we are having to track down these other heirs and have their involvement in the probate process. Now, that’s not the only time probate can really turn into a hassle. Let’s again say that you’ve left everything to surviving spouse, if not your spouse, then your children. What happens if those children are minors under the age of 18. They don’t have the legal ability to defend themselves essentially in court and have a legal say so. So what the court will do is appoint someone to represent their interests. This person is typically known as a Guardian Ad Litem and that person may be another licensed attorney or may be another trained individual. But what their role is, is to essentially represent that child in the probate proceedings. Now, again, when you’re involving a minor, they don’t they don’t have the ability to inherit. So what happens with the assets that they’re supposed to be getting from your Will? The court will actually have oversight over these assets and the use of these assets for that minor child until they’ve turned 18. So really, anytime we’re having to involve a minor, this increases court costs, it increases the time involved with the court itself. It’s not something again, you’re typically wanting to do when you’ve just lost a loved one. However, anytime a minor is involved, just because they’re minor doesn’t mean they don’t get a say, they do. It’s just through that advocate for them or a Guardian Ad Litem. So in conclusion, anytime you’re using a Will, that Will must be probated. What probate is considered is essentially asking a court to determine whether your Will is valid or not. In making that determination, the court is going to invite some people to have a say so in your Will, and th at is anyone who is inheriting from your Will, or anyone who could have inherited or your other heirs. This really can get complicated, quick. So typically when people come in to see us, the question we get most often asked is how do we avoid probate? We don’t want our grieving spouse or our grieving children to have to worry about going before the court and you know getting this Will validated. How can we get around to doing that? How can we do the work ahead of time? So join us back here next week, we’re going to talk about some alternatives to probate and how we can get around probate and make things as easy as possible and your family. I’ve enjoyed having you listen this week, I’ll see you back here next week. The post Estate Planning – Wills, Probate and How to Avoid Probate first appeared on The Estate Planning Podcast. The post Estate Planning – Wills, Probate and How to Avoid Probate appeared first on The Estate Planning Podcast.

    11 min

  7. 09/21/2021

    Estate Planning – Last Will and Testaments, Trusts, Powers of Attorney and Elder Law

    Hello, and welcome back to the Estate Planning Podcast presented by your friends with Rhodes Law Firm. I’m your host, Colby Kukelski and thank you for joining us back here this week. If you’re unfamiliar with us, the Estate Planning Podcast is focused on helping families just like yours figure out what estate planning is and what tools they may need to create the best plan for their family. This week, we’re focusing our discussion on what types of estate planning tools are available to you. Now, typically, when people think of estate planning, they are overwhelmed thinking, you know, what type of documents do we need? How much is this going to cost. And I’m here to tell you what the tools are available to you and which ones you may need to help your family. After our discussion today, you will be very familiar with what types of tools are out there for you and so when you go to complete your estate plan, you’ll know exactly what you need, and what that document actually means to you. I always like to start the conversation around probably the most well-known estate planning tool, which is a Will or Last Will and Testament. Now you’ve probably heard of the term Will before but you don’t know what that actually means. Well, a Will is a document that you have drawn up during a life that designates where your assets go upon your passing. Most people if they have a Will, will say that you know upon my passing, everything goes to my spouse, and if my spouse has pre deceased, then everything goes to the children. However, what most people fail to realize is that all Wills require probate. If you are using a Will, your Will must be probated at the time of your passing. We’re going to have a later discussion about what probate is and what it entails. But stick with me for now in knowing that if you are using a Will, that Will must be probated at the time of your passing. So in conclusion, regarding a Will it is a document you have drawn up during live, it does designate where your assets go upon your passing, but there is a little bit of work that will be required of your family should something happen to you. The next type of estate planning tool that I want to discuss is something you may be unfamiliar with, which is a Trust. A Trust, I like to say is very similar to a Wil in that it is a document that is drawn up during life. It does designate where your assets go. However largest difference with a Trust is that it doesn’t require probate. The difference with a Trust is that you essentially activate it during life, meaning you become trustee, and there is a plan of if something should happen to you who the next trustee would be. So with a Trust, we can completely avoid having to go through the probate process and having to you know, do that work. If something should happen, your family won’t have to go to the court and complete the probate process. Now, there are many different types of Trusts, but for our conversation here, I’m really just going to focus on the probate avoidance aspect. Join us in later episodes where we’ll really get into the nitty gritty of the different types of Trusts that are out there, and how they may be beneficial to you. So in conclusion of our Trust discussion, our big takeaway is that a Trust is a document that you have drawn up during life. It does designate where your assets go upon your passing, however the biggest difference really from a Trust and a Will is that if properly used a Trust can completely avoid the probate process. Now I’m going to talk about the documents that you probably have heard of during life, meaning Powers of Attorney. A lot of people ask, do you have a Power of Attorney? Do you have a living will and most people aren’t really sure what to say. So here’s where we’ll discuss the different types of Powers of Attorneys that are available to you and what purpose they may serve. The Durable Power of Attorney,   I like to call it a Financial Power of Attorney, is a document that you signed during life that designate someone to be able to help make decisions for you should you be unable to. This Durable Power of Attorney typically covers those day to day financial things that you may have, such as paying bills, filing taxes. This tool allows someone to complete these actions on your behalf, if you should be unavailable. So if you should be incompetent, you’ve appointed someone to handle these things for you. Now, I will say what most people fail to realize is that a Power of Attorney is durable, meaning it’s valid during the duration of your life. If you should pass away, that Power of Attorney is void at that point. There’s been many times where I’ve had children of clients come in when their parents have passed, and we’re talking about accessing bank accounts and, you know, closing accounts and they’re saying, well, I have my mom’s Power of Attorney. That’s where I have to explain to them that Power of Attorney is no longer valid, it was only valid during your mother’s life. Having a Power of Attorney is an essential tool to having an estate plan. So while it may not be invalid, once you’ve passed away, it serves a very important purpose for during your life. I always, always recommend that every single person over the age of 18 has a Power of Attorney in place, in discussing Powers of Attorney, the next one we’re going to talk about is a Health Care Power of Attorney. A healthcare power of attorney sometimes called a living will or an advanced directive is a document that again, you sign during life that designates someone to make health care decisions on your behalf should you be unable to. Now I will tell you, each state has a little bit of a different type of health care power of attorney. Some states have these where you can make particular decisions regarding treatment preferences and some states have healthcare powers of attorneys that are just a little bit more discretionary. In any case is always important to have this in place. So someone has the legal authority to make those health decisions for you. In conclusion, regarding our conversation about Powers of Attorneys, there really are two different types you should be focusing in on a Durable Power of Attorney and a Healthcare Power of Attorney. Both of these documents serve very important purposes for you during life. But also both of these documents are only valid while you’re alive. Again, anyone over the age of 18 should have these in place, and it allows someone to be able to make these financial and medical decisions on your behalf. So there you have it guys, a very brief overview of the different types of estate planning tools that are available to you. Now when considering what you want your estate plan to look like. We’ll also discuss what tools you need for that. Every estate plan needs those Powers of Attorneys, but not every estate plan needs a Will or Trust. So consider what your goals are for your family and what tools will best help get you there. That’s all for this week. But Join us next week as we talk about what probate is, when it’s required and how it could impact your family. The post Estate Planning – Last Will and Testaments, Trusts, Powers of Attorney and Elder Law first appeared on The Estate Planning Podcast. The post Estate Planning – Last Will and Testaments, Trusts, Powers of Attorney and Elder Law appeared first on The Estate Planning Podcast.

    10 min

  8. 08/11/2021

    Introduction to The Estate Planning Podcast

    Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Estate Planning Podcast with your host Colby Kukelski. The Estate Planning Podcast is brought to you by Rhodes Law Firm in Augusta, Georgia. For over 30 years Rhodes Law Firm has been helping people just like you create solid estate plans. This is the podcast where you will learn everything you need to know about estate planning and why you need one to protect you and your family. In this episode, we will be discussing what an estate plan is and the benefits of having a complete estate plan. Typically, the term estate plan is something most people associate with celebrities or individuals with a lot of money. But that is not how we define what an estate plan is. Estate planning is ensuring everything you have, all of your stuff, whether it be a little or a lot, is set up in such a way that it’s being left to your family or beneficiaries according to your wishes when you are no longer here. While there are numerous benefits to having a complete estate plan, today, we are going to be focusing on some of the largest benefits you will experiencing from having a plan that is complete and specific to your family and your wishes on how your assets are going to be used by your family and loved ones when you’re no longer here. One of the largest benefits you will receive with having a complete estate plan is having peace of mind. Knowing you and your family have a plan in place if something should happen. There won’t be a question about what happens with your things or who gets what. By having a plan in place, you will know if you are no longer here, your family will not have to assume what you would have wanted to happen with your things. There’s already a plan in place and all your family has to do is follow that plan. When helping families to draft these estate plans, one of the first responses we receive after they’ve signed everything is the relief they have knowing if something should happen tomorrow, the next day next month, their family is taken care of. So they walk away knowing there’s that family peace being preserved should something unexpected happened to them. When having a complete estate plan, not only will you have that peace of mind, but it also will serve a secondary purpose. And that is backing up all of the information you have in your head to a secondary location. You have a really good idea about where all of your assets are, what banks you use, what companies manage your IRAs, 401 K’s, but if something should happen unexpectedly to you tomorrow, would your spouse know this information? Would your children? By having a complete estate plan in place, we are ensuring that we are backing up all that information you have in your head to one central location. So if something should happen, your spouse, your family will know where to go and what to do to manage your assets from there. There have been instances where we’ve met with loved ones who have a family member who’s recently passed away. They’re telling us we don’t know what bank they used or we don’t know what companies have their life insurance or their retirement accounts because that information wasn’t stored anywhere. So we’re having to tell these family members while they’re grieving, you have to check the mail, search the drawers in the home, we have to have hands on this information somehow. By having a complete estate plan in place, you will be ensuring that if something should happen to you, all of that information is stored in one central location so your family knows where to go and who to turn to. But probably the largest benefit you will experience from having a complete estate plan is having the ability to create your own set of rules. By having a plan in place, it’s not just setting up the plan, but also making sure that the plan is based on your own rules about how your stuff is to be used. We can ensure that any beneficiaries of this plan are subject to the rules you create There are special instances where this can be very helpful for families. And we’ll get into that in some of our later episodes. But having a plan in place ensures that you are able to dictate your own set of rules about how your things are to be used when you’re no longer here. As you can see, having an estate plan provides numerous benefits to each and every family. And what is so great about estate planning is that no two are the same. You want to ensure your plan reflects your wishes for your family. Stick around to join us on our next episode where we were discussing the important considerations you might face when choosing what type of estate plan is best for you. You’ve been listening to The Estate Planning Podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this show, please subscribe and share it with your friends. We look forward to having you back for our next episode. If you’d like more information about estate planning and how to set up your own estate plan, please contact our friends at Rhodes Law Firm found at gorhodeslaw.com, that is GORHODESLAW.com. Or give them a call at 706-724-0405, simply mentioned this podcast and get a free consultation with one of their estate planning attorneys. We’ll see you back here next week. The post Introduction to The Estate Planning Podcast first appeared on The Estate Planning Podcast. The post Introduction to The Estate Planning Podcast appeared first on The Estate Planning Podcast.

    7 min
  • 8 Episodes

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Expert Legal Hosts Colby Kukelski, Brought to you by Rhodes Law Firm, Augusta Georgia

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