Five Key Decisions -- Completing Will & Trust Documents Does Not Have To Be Complicated

Join Host Jeff Roediger and Special Guest Butch Patrick as we discuss the five questions you need to answer before finalizing your Estate Plan (Will and Living Trust). 

"Everyone has an estate plan.... unless you implement your own it is called the "Government's Plan""

Regardless of how many assets you have, It is important to control your legacy. 

Transcript

Unknown: 0:02

Hello, everybody, welcome back to Jeff Redditors podcast series, replacing Wall Street with Main Street, where I co host a sessions that are directed to certain industry. And today we're going to focus on a very important topic. Legacy planning for the small business owner and I have an expert on here that I'm gonna introduce in a second. If you have questions, we at the end will provide 800 number, email and website. So we want to educate you. And that's our role. So we're, we're on 14 different podcast channels out there, please forward this to any co workers or other business owners that you think would benefit 80% of those that we have surveyed over the last year and a half, especially since the pandemic and have not done their will and trust planning, or have let it go. And they have an old will. As a business owner. If you don't do this, you're partnering with the government. And I'm very adamant about that. So let me introduce my hosts for this important session called the five key decisions that business owners need to make when putting together their will and trust package. And I brought on Robert Butch Patrick. We prefer to refer to you as Butch. Is that okay? That's fine. Yes, yes. And Bucha is firm, Patrick, retirement resources, is a financial advocacy firm that focuses on helping the small business advisor and business owner plan for retirement plan there their estate, and Butch as a former business owner. And so that is one of the reasons why you focus on on the small business community, correct? That's exactly right. Yes. So I'm going to turn it over to you and have you get into these five key decisions. But you are a retirement legacy planning professional. And how long were you a business owner before you sold your your business? 32 years? So you understand what keeps the business owner up at night? Well, I absolutely did. Yeah, yes. And so with this said, this is the first of three podcasts that we're going to roll out here over the next month that is dedicated to the business owner and the business owner community. So for those of you listening in, want to make sure you check out our replacing Wall Street Main Street channel for future episodes. But today, we're going to talk about what you need to do as far as completing a will and trust package. And so Bucha, I know that you and I talked about that statistic of 80% of people out there either have an old will or haven't even done it. And it doesn't have to be complicated or confusing. But what are the five key decisions that need to be made? As somebody is thinking through not only from their business team, but personally getting this done? Can you share that with the audience? Sure, yeah. You know, a lot of people want to know, you know, who, who makes the decisions when something happens to me and everyone needs to select and have a discussion with a trusted family member or maybe a trusted advisor to make decisions for them once they're gone. And so when you think through that, well, you know, so what's the next step? Who should they choose? It should be they need to be at least 18 years old, are older. And it needs to be someone obviously that you trust. You know, if you're married the most that most people just choose their spouse, or a brother or sister or close friend. Or maybe untrusted faster. And you know, sometimes we hear about a successor trustee, or an executor, could you share with the audience? What is that they do? What's what's their role? Well, they they're the ones that's going to make the decisions for you, once you've gone per your instructions, they are to carry out your wishes. And they will be the person who makes all the, the medical decisions. So let's say that you become incapacitated and, and are not able to make your own medical decisions, it would be someone to do that for you, that would be a medical power of attorney. Obviously, we would not want that person to be the caregiver. Should that be the case, it would be someone that you've had a thorough discussion with and agreement. And it's always a good idea to have an alternative medical power of attorney just in case that your first choice is unable to carry out those plans. So I know I hear this a lot. When it comes to an a Will or Trust. determining where the money goes, what are the options? And how many people can you choose? Well, you need to name at least one. And we always recommend that you have an alternative person to carry out your wishes. And they will make the financial decision that the title of that is a financial power of attorney person. And Bear similar to the medical power of attorney, they need to be at least 18 years old need to be a trusted person, probably a family member, or a spouse. If you were to say let's say you chose a brother, and you felt really good about your brother, but maybe not so good about your sister in law, then then if something happened to your brother, you would want to have a secondary person to make those decisions for you. And that's very important when you talking about a custodial parent. Should you pass away and you have young children? Well, that's not just young children, but also elderly parents, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think that's something that's coming up more and more. What are some thoughts? As far as you know, not just I think sometimes what we've seen is like a will gets old and now those children are over 18. So that's something you need to go back in and review. But what about like an alternate? You mean, an alternate? pardoning? Like an alternate Guardian guardian? I'll yeah, I think something that's missed some times. It is, you should always have an alternate because, you know, something may happen to your first show us or they decide they don't want that responsibility. You would need to have an alternate custodian for your children. Yes. And something that, again, in the surveys and the conversations that we've had, you know, a lot of people don't think through it is going to make medical decisions on your behalf if you're incapacitated. What are some thoughts on that? Well, they as far as making the medical decisions, then then a person needs to be defined as this there needs to be in writing by to two different physicians to declare that you're not capable of making medical decisions for yourself. So you would need to have obviously somebody trusted that that would make those decisions for you and that needs to be in a will. And the fun Mental decisions if you're incapacitated are also a decision. And some, sometimes people don't decipher the difference. Well, it's just like in a medical power of attorney, financial power of attorney, you need to have a probably a family member, first choice would be spouse, and then you need to have an alternative. Because something might happen and not able to fulfill that role for you. Right? Well, and sometimes somebody might be more compassionate with the medical decision may not be the one that's most financially capable. Very true. Yes. And that's, those are kind of the that's, that's what you need to walk through. When you're thinking through this. I think sometimes it's just like this, you fill out a form, and then you're, you know, you need to think through this very important decision, especially in the world we're in. Because, you know, the financial power of attorney doesn't work after you die. So, you know, you have to be thinking through, you know, the choices that you're making and planning that you do now, both from a business standpoint, and a personal standpoint, will have lasting effect on your life, and then the lives of your family and your business. And I think sometimes we're just run around with all this urgent stuff. This is crucially important, it's overlooked. And that's why I focused the session on having this conversation, especially to the small business community because you and I are small business owners. So let's review the five key decisions. Number one who's going to manage your money? Where does the money go? Who's going to take care of your minor children or elderly dependent parents? Who's going to make medical decisions on your behalf if you're incapacitated, who's going to make financial decisions on your behalf if you're incapacitated? So Butch is affiliated with a firm called My legacy lock. He's a licensee and one of the services they offer. And my legacy lock is a state planning software that will allow the business owner to be able to complete a will and trust package through their software at a much discounted costs with with, with Butch being the facilitator. Is that correct? Butch? Yeah, and, Jeff, that that is true. And, you know, I think everybody looks at it this way. We live our life by the decisions that we make. And as I see it, there's three decisions that if you don't have a will and a trust, you can either just let the government take care of it, because they will step in and take care of it if you don't have a will and a trust. And it go through probate, which can take months and dollars to go through probate. The second. The second option would be you could go the you could make an appointment with an attorney. And you can spend 234 $5,000, to have this service done. In my case, I didn't know about legacy lock at the time, but you know, I did a willing to trust in it. And I wanted to spend $6,000. So you can always go that route, hire an attorney. The third one is for $995 You can do this online, at your home, and we myself and other people could help you walk through all the paperwork. And you wind up spending a whole lot less money. And you can sleep well at night knowing that you have all this taken care of and you're not leaving your your loved ones after your gown with a really headache. It is a very comforting feeling knowing that you have done this and your loved ones will love you even more because you did it. So let's recap here for those listening. And then we'll give you information I can contact Butch if you'd like more information, the consultations free so there is a simple solution out there. It is internet based estate planning technology. This was created the software was created by a Harvard law firm and it's available in all 50 states. Essentially what they wanted to do was the one to bring as affordable, simplified will and trust planning to each of you as books that this process can be done for under $1,000. And the Bucha is the facilitators not a, let's make it clear he's, you know, he's not a licensed attorney. And he's backed by attorneys. But the facilitator of the software program, your information is stored in a secure document vault, the 24/7 access to you will get the documents sent to you notarized as well as having the virtual vault if you need to make changes, which is a lot less expensive than going to your attorney every time you need to make a change. The process walks you through step by step. It's really it takes about less than two hours. Right, Butch? That's right. And we're here to help you. So if somebody is interested after going through this, and you know, somebody just need to get more information on how do they get a hold of you. Best way is to call the 800 number that numbers 888-545-8840. Extension 715, that's 888-545-8840. Extension 715. You can also email me at Birch that's bu tch at Patrick R r.com. You can also check me out on my website. It is Patrick retirement resources.com. And you can also you can be found on LinkedIn at Robert Patrick Patrick retirement resources. So if you're not following, Robert, that's your official title, Robert Patrick. Retirement financial consultant, check them out their small business advocate. And okay, so that number again, before we close out the sessions 888-545-8840 extension 715. Carrie is your contact person there and she'll set you up with a free consultation with Butch and he'll walk you through the software and get this very important piece of your financial planning completed in a very cost effective way. So, Butch great information. Thanks for joining me today. All right, thank you, Jeff. And look for our next podcast to drop as we start getting into reducing taxes as a business owner. But just some tips on that and also how to retain a key employee or employees. There's some some great tools and resources but she's going to share with you on upcoming podcasts and make sure you look for those to drop in the near future. This concludes our session today. Thank you very much everybody. Have a great day.