Estate Planning and Avoiding Probate, with Attorney Valerie Pasion

0:00 Our thursday probateweekly.com zoom call we get together every thursday 4 pm pacing time 7 pm eastern time and talk about all things probate for Realtors® investors wholesalers bird doggers investors real estate agents attorneys we get families pro pers looking to do their own probates and vendors we get together try to help each other by increasing our income and make more money sometimes we have just a topic that we talk about and share but I'd like to get guests on who are practitioners who can help tell us kind of the insights both as service for our clients and give us insights into our business if you follow now some people are new to probate don't understand how important estate planning is to the probate real estate business in some regards probate is estate planning as a way to avoid probate but as a real estate practitioner it's a way I can generate leads in business we'll talk about that so today I have on as a special guest an attorney who is a specializes in the estate planning or the avoiding of the probate problems you may if you watch regularly one of our favorite guests was one of her legal partners who's the probate side so if you see shoddy something went wrong it means you didn't meet valerie but today I'm really excited to introduce valley passion valley thank you so much for being a call today you're welcome bill thank you guys for having me I'm excited to be here and so valerie you're in orange county and your attorney and how long you're practicing law approximately so I have been practicing law since 2010 so I was about 10 years old and so been practicing law for quite a bit now I actually started off in family law but you know my colleague really is in estate planning so that's where I am so give us a little background on you where'd you grow up and then how did you get into law school what was it that drove you to get to law school and get your borrower card so I grew up in orange county here in orange

2:04 County I did not really want to venture too far away so I went to ucla school of law for law school oh hold on hold on one second I missed on your bio really oh I missed that okay well despite that go ahead I'm sure you learned something along the way go ahead you must be a ufc person when's a trojan who when one nearly went to ucla one is a trojan but go too ahead away but then I came back from orange county you know I'm practicing at the Asset Protection and Elder Law Center here in irvine living here with my husband who is also my high school sweetheart and we have four children all under 12. How do you ensure to do it like I actually I talk to you guys I feel so incompetent that my wife handled we have one child and she handled all that I couldn't even deal with it you have four kids how do you deal with that you know you know what they say it does take a village and we do have a village we're very blessed to have amazing grandparents and aunts and uncles who are readily available to babysit so we are we're so blessed wow and these days I am the grandparent my wife and other grandparents the babysitter for our daughter who lives nearby so that's a lot of fun a lot of them sure joy for your parents to enjoy so you mentioned that you're in asset protection and elder law how did you get in that particular niche of law because there's obviously like real estate there's a lot of wide variety of choices where to practice in law as well wide variety criminals and drunk drivers and divorces and corporations how did you end up in asset protection and elder law in particular wow you know I usually don't get asked this story but can I be just very transparent please it sounds juicy yes was quite a bit of a journey I had mentioned earlier I started off in family law and I guess I'm just that type of

4:08 Person where you know I carry a lot of my emotions you know on my sleeve and when I'm with someone I really do feel their emotions and so as you can expect family law was a bit hard for me you know I struggled a bit I would come home sometimes crying I was starting you know a family of my own at that time I had two babies at home and so you know it was it was a little emotionally totally for me so I actually took a little bit of time off and you know spent time building my family raising my family and I worked as at a non-profit you know part-time and I did legal counseling and I mainly did you know family law you know free pro bono counseling for you know the community and I had a gentleman walk in he was a homeless man and he asked me if I could help him with estate planning now you know I had never done estate planning before so you know it wasn't something I was familiar with however he seemed pretty desperate you know he told me he had not very much but what he had he loved very much and he wanted to give it to certain people that have helped him through his life including some pastors he wanted to leave some things to the church and my heart just you know just really went out for him and I said you know I don't know anything about estate planning but I'm going to figure it out and so I did kind of a deep dive and I just really dove into like learning what to do and you know I understood that you know all this man really needed was a simple will you know he didn't own any property his assets weren't over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars at that time you know he didn't have any children so he all he really needed was simple will so you know I prepared the will for him I you know scheduled the witnesses for him I had everything signed and after everything was done and I gave him the documents

6:11 He cried and he you know hugged me and he said valerie you have no idea how much this means to me now I feel like if I go I can go in peace thank you I have never had that reaction before because in family law no matter how well you do and how hard you fight for someone is always sad someone is always not happy I was in a place where someone came to me and was extremely grateful so it kind of changed how I saw law it kind of changed you know what I wanted to do with my life and I always say that lawyers you know we generally deal with good people at their worst but I get to say now that I deal with good people at their best because you've done everything right you've saved money you've built a family you have a 401k you know bought property and now you're just trying to extend that to your legacy and I get to do that it's great nice you know it's funny talking to you now because I feel like you and we should have you and shiny on the same call and the before and after picture because you're talking to it's all rainbows and unicorns and you help people ahead of time they plan ahead they get their legacy if they don't see you they have to walk down the hall to shoddy's office and they're paying for attorney's fees they're litigating and they're killing their family members and all that but it is great that you get to do that when you plan ahead like that and build the practice so let's back up so back up a little bit tell me about how obviously you know you can care about people all you want but at some point people have to come to you or get to you how do you get clients what's you know is there is it because you guys are already established in the market or you do particular business development or particular relationships or how do you generate business besides real estate agents who like you guys and refer clients to you and market for you well we actually have a very strong reputation in the community we've been around for almost 20 years now and a lot of it is word of mouth

8:14 We're not the typical estate planning law firm where we just churn out documents and here you go you deal with it we actually provide lifetime guidance so our clients they come to us and they become family to us you know we work with them you know throughout life changes you know whether they're having new children or buy new property we become their real estate real estate agent I wish no we become their attorney for life and so that kind of what separates us it's one comprehensive flat fee it includes everything we don't leave anything out we do everything for our clients unlike some attorneys you know they'll do a piece of it we don't piecemeal it's all comprehensive and I think that's what really attracts clients to us and we've just sort of built quite a following you know when I first called shady to come on my call by a year and a half ago the first time and she texted me like in a panic before the college saying I'm really sorry but a client came in you know without an appointment is it okay you know a little late I said should I take care of the client like I'm in real estate I get you gotta take care of the client first the marketing and the business development is fun I enjoy this but really and I can just hear in her voice the passion I heard that with you and I did a 101 previously as well or I hear that and I think this comes across and differentiates you from other people and that comprehensive approach because I see attorneys who meet the client get the check filled documents the client didn't fund the trust didn't follow up with the things had to get followed up on and they're really not a lot better offer in some cases could almost be even worse off so let's talk about that a little bit the number one you I'm sure you talk to people all the time that say I'm here to see because blank what's the thing that causes people to pick up the phone to get introduced to your firm to actually get their little bottom in their little chair across from you in your office and be willing to write a check to actually

10:17 Pay for the fees to get down what is the motivating factor that gets them to finally do it the number one motivating factor is they've experienced the probate process for themselves they now realize that they don't want just anyone working on their estate plan they want someone who is going to give them a plan on steroids they want to make sure that there is no way that their family is going to go through this process as you know here in california our real estate is just going crazy I'm gonna give you guys a little bit of an example but you know say a house you know right now is worth market value a million dollars which is very easy you're looking at about 31 000 minimum in probate fees that's just the fees it's three thousand dollars just to open a case in probate there's other fees that could possibly involved and so when people realize just how expensive it is not to mention it is public you know everyone gets to see what's going on in your situation you've heard of celebrities like paul walker and prince you know you've heard situations that have happened in their probate cases because it's all public another thing is it's just very time consuming I mean california particularly we're seeing about one to two years of a probate court you know process that being said most people who experience it know that if they're gonna do it they're gonna do it right we also get a lot of clients coming in that have previously gone to you know somewhere else you know they maybe have done it themselves and they've run into a problem and their attorney is nowhere to be found we don't do that we have every incentive to make sure that our clients are happy because we provide lifetime guidance so we try to do it right from the very beginning and if we don't do it right I mean let's be real we're human beings

12:20 Sometimes we make mistakes we get it fixed that's kind of the difference now those are watching along here today with us the goal is to be interactive because of security we kind of have to limit the jumping in part but if you have a question in zoom there's a raise your hand feature feel free to do that or put in the chat box and if in the chat box you could put the first word or letter either question or queue I know some of you guys like to promote your businesses and it's kind of hard to catch all the questions but feel free to ask any questions I want to be interactive and I'll just tell you the more the more that you interact and ask questions the more you learn the more you help other people so you know I think what shahi that said it was an attorney at work with I wanted to say with shady who said that if you don't have an estate plan the state of california has one for you and I add to that yeah and it looks a lot like the dmv but it's only worse like you're standing online getting your paperwork your paperwork's not right if you thought the dmv was bad man you should have probably court on your own and try to fill those papers and yet to some degree you bypass the process so describe kind of like the before and after if somebody can live their life and they go to probate or they go back in time and then they go through the state plan what's the difference look like in terms of the process in a high somebody you level comes to me and they want to do an estate plan I sit down with them we do a very expensive consultation you know I understand what their unique issues are your their unique needs and I provide them an all comprehensive package usually that package includes a living trust that's the foundational document that is needed secondly I always include a poor over will the portal for will is not like just a will it is actually a document that allows you to assign an executor to transfer anything that is not in the trust into the trust now this is just sort of like a safety net this is not your primary way of avoiding probate but it's an added safety net that is there moreover the will is where you include the guardian designation which is one of the most

14:22 Litigated issues in a lot of probate cases and so trust does not have the guardian designation but a will does after that we make sure that we have a financial power of attorney because we don't want to just have these documents in place once we pass we actually want to have these documents in place when we are still alive but sometimes life happens and we're not able to do certain things so we assign someone that we trust we put that into a financial power attorney and then there's the advanced medical directives which are also very important and that has to do with health care so that's kind of the comprehensive process that we do when someone wants to sit down and do estate planning with us now on the back end of things if someone doesn't have a trust and they own any property if they have over a hundred and sixty thousand dollars in assets if they have children and there's guardianship issues that all goes to probate court and that's tens of thousands of dollars and so it's very different how we approach the situations I obviously am biased and so I think that on my side it's a lot more joyful and happy and if you talk to anyone I think they will agree as well yeah definitely so and the truth is that a great estate plan won't avoid litigation because there's still estate plans that get litigated anybody can litigate anything it's just going to reduce the odds and reduce the friction recently my first grandchild and my daughter and son-in-law had to decide you know god forbid something happens to them who is in charge they're lucky to have four grandparents but you can imagine for grandparents arguing over decisions on what school and religion and this and that and so we said to my I said I don't care who does it you need to create those documents ahead of time so you decide what happens with your son I trust your decision but don't leave it to us to work out then because there's emotions involved things like that okay couple questions I see first question I had was from frank if a person has a will and designates who

16:25 Gets the million dollar home upon their death is there still a big tax obligation now I'll give the disclaimer that valerie's not a accountant we should give legal advice and she's not giving a little advice on this call because she's giving us general education so don't take what she says as legal but that said valerie if somebody gets a property they inherit through probate a property worth say a million dollars what kind of tax obligations they have and then how can you minimize those obligations so that is a very good question now I see two points though generally if you are going to be giving somebody a million dollar property through a will keep in mind that property will still be probated so there's going to be the probate fees because a will does not avoid probate only a trust fund now hold on yes and again because that is by far the biggest misconception people say well I don't need a estate plan I have a will but will is like having the dmv form filled out ahead of time you still got to go the dmv with it right the will just is a ticket to use in probate court okay good I always want to emphasize that because I hear that all the time oh I'm good I have a will no you're not good you're really bad it's really a problem go ahead I'm sorry damn there are wrong different types of taxes there is you know just state tax you guys will be very happy to hear california does not have an estate tax a lot of things you do not have an estate tax and the federal act there is a federal estate tax and that's about 11 million so it's capped off at 11 million so if you have under 11 million dollars worth of assets you do not have an estate tax on that and if you're married you combine it's about 22 million so if it's in a million dollar property

18:27 You know and it's trusted to you in a trust and you're avoiding probate there won't be any sort of estate tax on that got it good I saw some of the hand up and now the hands down I'm not sure who that was and I see a question the box from edie how often should a will or trust be updated so will she trust she's updated like right away go take it to your estate planning attorney and get a estate plan done how often though should those designations and distributions be evaluated this is a really good question we provide free reviews for all our clients every three years now that does not mean that we don't review them earlier than that sometimes a client comes in and tells us hey I had a major life of that happen you know I you know adopted a child I you know got married I got divorced you know any sort of big life event that's a good time to kind of call your attorney and see if it's time to come in and review the trust documents that being said you know sometimes clients don't need to get it reviewed at all because nothing's changed and they know that everything is good and they know that they can trust our estate plans so every three every three years if you just want you know that peace of mind otherwise come in when a life big event happens great we got a question on our linkedin live from ryan what's the best way for a real estate agent like myself to build a strong niche in probate real estate with estate planners and or probate attorneys so the question you know it's interesting but I don't know that you would know this but in our industry there's all kinds of companies to say oh here's a list of the probate data just cold call the attorneys and tell them you're great and ask them for referrals do you get cold calls like that is that effective way for business or what would you recommend to somebody who want to build a business in this space you know that is a good question

20:30 And we do get a lot of you know cold calls we do get a lot of people coming in and you know I think a way to build an effective relationship is you know just being a good resource you know being a good resource for them you know bill is a fantastic resource I know that you know if shoddy or I had any questions we could reach out to bill and he would give us an honest thorough answer you know at the end of the day you know we're human too we don't know everything we as much as you know some lawyers think they know everything we do not so you know being a good resource for attorneys you know being able to communicate you know estate planning needs to your clients is also a big one because real estate agents are in a very great position you guys are dealing with clients face to face and a lot of times these clients have multiple properties you know they have families they have a lot of assets and so if those assets are not in a trust they really need to be in a trust they really need to have estate planning so you guys are in an opportunity to really serve your clients by you know referring them to an attorney that they can trust so I think kind of the mutual referral the mutual relationships that's kind of how you build the best solid relationships well thanks for saying that I agree and that's why I do this call is to learn myself and to network I'd only had a call today with a team member who called her past client database somebody needed an estate plan she knew one of her clients had an estate plan called find out who the attorney was put them together and they end up listing the house with her you know a year later so definitely being educated and networking is a big resource that we can bring to our clients absolutely bill you know there's a saying that everybody needs their a t and their a team is their estate planning a lawyer their cpa and their financial advisor well I always like to add that real estate professional is added in there as well

22:34 Because let's be real our real estate our house is going to be one of the biggest assets we have in our lifetime so you know having that diamond of a team that's solid that's solid for anybody yeah now essentially ryan asks also is appropriate to pay a referral fee to the attorney and I don't think it's illegal and I would say I don't want that relationship I want to be so valuable the attorney wants to work with me appreciates me and values my relationship should I take him out to lunch or something like that would you do you hear of attorneys getting referral fees or oh that's a really good question we are held by very strict ethical rules and you know we actually can lose our license if we're accepting referral fees from you know real estate agents and so I have never taken a fee that being said we do get a lot of referrals from real estate agents because they know that we provide an added service that a lot of attorneys don't add so you know we just won't work for our clients we don't definitely that's why I saw you guys out I knew you were I saw what you did with through other agents and frankly you are the kind of the kind of attorneys that Realtors® should want to work with together client a great relationship to then get their other clients to raise their hand and say I need some help as well so fantastic and then also on our live stream on youtube ro says that you heard that some wills are invalidated if they're not notarized while others need notification others need to be witnessed what's the difference in witnessing and notarization that was a famous movie on that body heat but it also has to do with the unique laws in florida and I know laws change from states to state but in general and this is another issue about people doing their own wills that you might think you're better because you have a will and you might have made it worse by having a valid will or you created something somebody can contest with a will or if you didn't have one it may not make a difference anyhow what's your experience on wills and being invalidated and so on I really like this question

24:38 A couple of issues here the first one bill already addressed is that you need to go to a state specific attorney because the laws change from state to state now our firm is licensed in california and florida if somebody comes to us and wants us to do an estate plan in you know idaho we would not be able to do that because the rules change from state to state now in california a will needs to be witnessed and the difference is that a witness can be you know your neighbor it could be anyone really as long as it's not a you know beneficiary who's also a trustee I mean there's certain rules about who can be a witness but generally anyone could really be a witness now a notary they have to be licensed by the state to be a notary and it requires a little bit more to it but that's really the difference that being said our firm handles it all from beginning to end so you don't really need to know if you need a witness or a notary or you know what you need because from beginning to end we provide the notary for you know we provide the witnesses we make sure that everything is done according to california state law so you don't even have to worry about that question we handle it all and I know I've seen in court I don't know the law but I know in practice there's occasions where there's disputes whether or not something is done or right or signature's right or notarized right or witness right yet the court will rely on an attorney if they prepared it that attorneys are in front of the court they give them some additional leeway or some additional respect that the attorney is held to a certain standard of truthfulness more so than the average person and that helps oh yeah absolutely so that's a very good point to say as well when you go to an attorney well at least if you go talk to our firm we fight on your behalf so you know a lot of times especially with very large estates you know if there's a trust involved and

26:41 You know they're they feel slighted you know they may maybe they didn't get the 30 million that their dad had promised you know people come out of the woodworks and it gets litigated heavily well we as attorneys we fight for the trust you know the trust is our client we come and we say no judge you know this is how we did it this is you know what you know our client wanted and you know it's not ambiguous and 100 of the time I mean knock on wood I don't want to say anything the judge has come back and have always agreed in our favor so having an attorney that is fighting on behalf of your state plan is very important a lot of people don't realize this they think all I need is the documents but you also need someone to kind of back you up when you know things happen that you don't expect and I've seen it again on the well it feels from a legal point of view but just from a business point of view I've been in court and see how judges react differently to attorneys they know that are regular practitioners that are active members of that particular bar versus it doesn't seem like they have their act together you can I can I've seen you know you can you can see the judge's hesitancy or decisions or rules it's so important to have somebody that they respect and appreciate okay we've got a bunch of questions here so I feel like I'm falling behind sorry about that daniel rossetto I see you had your hand up very patiently for a while I know we talked before the call you have a question you want to talk to us I have a few questions but the one question that I have is what is the process let's say that the person has a living trust and now you have to put it into action what how's the process how do you take that living trust and transfer it over to the new person well that process is called stress administration so once someone passes and they had a trust that revocable living trust now becomes irrevocable so it can no longer be changed you know nothing can be done and

28:44 Then that point there are certain steps that you know the trustee has to go through in order to distribute the assets you know they'll have to notify the beneficiaries you know let them know by a certain time period that this has happened you know show a copy of the trust they have to make sure that in the meantime that they are you know properly taking care of the trust assets and you know putting it into a place that's safe and you know growing interest it's a fairly easy process there are a couple of you know forms that need to be filled out but it's called the trust administration process you know they have to make sure that they are paying the final taxes for the estate but you know it could it could get a little bit more complicated but it's a lot more easy than the probate process itself and if you wanted more information on that I'd be happy to talk to you and kind of give you the rundown of the trust administration process now I have a second question I do have a close friend childhood friend his father died and they were going through probate with his older brother was handling them okay now his brother died a month ago and he has no access to any of the paperwork or any other information so where would he go from there so at this point it's already in the probate process we don't even know he doesn't even know if he started the probe process okay so where is he the property's in victorville and he lives in long beach who the deed is titled is petition the court to be the

30:52 Executor at this point so it you know it could be anyone you know a beneficiary it could be a family member someone who is you know invested in the process you'll actually have to go and you know let the court know that this has happened and that you would like to open a probate case I got you with the death certificate showing that the person is died yes and both parties are just the you know you're going to have to file with the court to become the official executor and then the judge will kind of tell you the process it's going gotta be probably about three thousand dollars just to open up the case but once you know everything is opened I do recommend you know having a lawyer that you trust on that case because that lawyer can kind of walk you through step-by-step process the process takes about a year to two years that's kind of the process right now but talking to a very good probate attorney and you know someone like shoddy schaefer probably the way to go all right it's a little shoddy there and then I can help a little bit if you want to text me offline the proper address or the names I can look and see if a probate is currently open okay we can see if there is an attorney involved already we can see if the training is experienced or not if they're a shoddy shafer or they're not and then like we've always said you can somebody can apply to be the substitute administrator and then they also can change the attorney if necessary but it's easier I think to take over a probate than start from scratch unless there's some problems so yeah feel free offline and send that I'll give you some information on that let you help with that wonderful thank you great thanks so much rob you've had your hand up patiently as well rob dornan how could we or bob learn how can I help you if you're muted I just asked to meet you okay there you go my question is a live real situation we helped a family member establish a living trust

32:55 A willing living trust and now they're selling the property and my thought is that the funds that from the sale need to go into an account that is open in within the trust to receipt those but I need someone to tell me that's right or wrong or what should be done there should be a bank account that is opened in the name of and those funds should transfer into those but you know whoever the trustee is there's going to be accounting involved you know they're going to have to show like an accounting list and it's very important that they're showing that the funds are coming out of an account that is titled into the trust so if there never was a an account opened in the name of the trust that can still be done and receipt the fund the proceeds from the sale and then you're not jeopardizing I don't know okay the trust owner is alive so they could go to a bank absolutely very good and if you don't do that for this or any other situation then do you risk something within the guidelines of wills and trust that's sorry so they if they are alive you know they can buy and sell they could do whatever they want with their property they don't necessarily have to put it into the account that is under the name of the trust I mean it's recommended because

34:59 Ultimately you don't want it to go through probate but you know there's no you know trust police out there saying you know you have to make sure that it's funded this way ideally any of their assets should be titled under the trust you know just to make sure that they avoid probate but if they want to you know kind of give me a call and you know kind of consult with me as far as how to open up assets under the name of the trust I'd be happy to do that thank you very much having done this recently I can tell you that if you just walk into bank america it's a nightmare but attorneys work with certain bank and branch certain branches and certain personnel at those branches to know exactly what to do and it's look at these splits so I would say talk to valerie or your local attorney and they probably know a banker at a local branch that they know what to do and this thing goes pretty smooth because they'll be of a was just a complete nightmare for personally bob at me at the very minimum make sure that whatever account they are transferring their funds into the beneficiaries are updated you know make sure that if they have minor children that the trust is one of the beneficiaries if not the primary beneficiary the secondary beneficiary because if for you know god forbid something were to happen to them tomorrow and there's no beneficiaries you know in that account then those assets could be probated depending on the value so at a minimum update that the beneficiaries of that account and that could be a reference to an account that is actually not held in the trust is that right it can be if it's held under their name then you know make sure that the you know eod beneficiaries are updated okay great thank you okay there you go next up hector aguilar see your hand up a question for valerie

37:01 Hey good afternoon valerie thanks for being on here before I even ask my question I know we're having some audio issues I don't know if maybe you're talking away from your mic or not but just kind of be intentional about talking into the mic because we're having a hard time hearing some of your responses okay can you hear me now my true question is I have an example I sold the property for an administrator of a trust there was three heirs to the property and in response to the gentleman I believe his name was daniel if I'm not mistaken or maybe bob I can't remember the previous gentleman who asked what we did is oh bob it was bob dorman so what they did is it's also important to know that the escrow company that you're working with in terms of the sale of that property if that's what they decide to do that they're also knowledgeable in handling a trust sale right and they were guided by the escrow officer and given certain steps to go to a bank and open that account in trust because escrow is not able to at least from what I understand and milk it probably correctly is that bob or pardon me escrow isn't able to write out checks directly to those three errors it has to actually go wired to the trust account and then be able to when the trust or the transaction is closed they would be able to go to the bank and then be able to either close out the account or reconcile their portions through that account so that's the experience I had I don't know if that helps bob or not or if that was the right way to do it yeah I think I think maybe in your head you're having some internet a little bit because I know your audio was dropping off and I heard it hector fine can you hear me okay now valerie yeah I think it might be an internet issue on your side just to summarize this question airpods for your macbook maybe that you can put your airpods on for better audio hector the technical support team I'm a little techy not too bad I will say and hector just while she's

39:03 Just to summarize the question he was what he was saying was when the property is titled let's say in the trust and I've had this happen they titled the property in the trust maybe they have their stocks and such in a trust but now they have the proceeds from the sell the house and the estrogen was like well we're going to send this money you can't send you know we can't send the check to you personally because they can't they can't center the errors directly theirs will say oh yeah send it split up three ways but the actual can't do that they're not authorized to a smart escrow will ask the question early and encourage the family to get an account set up in the trust so the money gets worried in the trust right away because that's really otherwise what happens the escrow says we'll just hold on to your funds and they're glad to do it because the bank that finances them is glad to have the money for free so have just a good point I think that's why we want to work with I think the thing I've learned about probate is when you work with experts in all this stuff everything gets to be a lot simpler when you when you deal with a bunch of hodgepodge people that try to do on their own every step is difficult val can you hear us okay for some reason I'm having trouble hearing hector can you hear me yes we can hear you okay so his question was he was talking about the distinction between escrows being able to wire funds to a trust account but you need to set up a trust bank oh she's still doing that okay so I think we I think we got your question answered hector are we good okay you're muted now okay good thank you so much I saw another hand up I have a question from that's been hanging here for a while if I can for michelle there's a retirement account that has beneficiaries does that get involved in the calculation for assets for probate and do those assets have to be probated ira is set by raise retirement from work and such so with iras and you know retirement accounts yes it can be probated

41:08 If you do not have any sort of designated beneficiaries and you have over a hundred and sixty six thousand dollars of funds in there that those funds would get probated I always recommend that with 401ks or any sort of retirement accounts that you do not list the trust as the beneficiary but you list individuals as the beneficiaries you know like I said earlier I'm not a cpa but there are certain tax benefits that you get when it's an individual receiving retirement accounts versus an entity but this is something that I can definitely you know go over with a lot more with a client during a funding meeting which we always provide you know at the end when we do our signing we do an extensive funding meeting with them and this is where you know information is dangerous because somebody might tell you oh an ira is not doesn't have to be probated well that's true as always said if you designate a beneficiary but if you don't who gets the money answer the court will tell you who gets the money they have a system and it's like the dmv you don't want to go that route so that's why it's part of an important planning meeting can I see your hand up can we help you are you I don't see your video do you have a question you want to ask and now your hand went down so I guess we took care of that okay here's a question oh now there's a question out of state kim asks should the client's father passed away the bank is for closing on the on the loan have to be a va loan and probate wasn't done yet they got the auctionate delayed there's equity in the home and she's having trouble finding an attorney to take the case because they want to print money so it's a common problem there's equity but there's no probate filed now I know this is a state you don't do you do business in florida not north carolina but kim I can tell you that I actually am part owner in advert inheritance

43:11 Advanced company and one way that we help people like this is if the right attorney some attorneys will work on contingency or work on getting proceeds paid some will want the expenses advanced someone you know the money is advanced but I work with a company that can advance those money so there's equity in the property get them five or ten thousand dollars what's needed to file the probate and get the attorney at least started there do you guys work with inheritance advance and I guess you and maybe shoddy might when you get somebody who has equity but they don't have any cash their father and mother passed they didn't they have the finances is that something that you work with at all right we have before you know it's not something that we do with everyone the best way to know is just to schedule a consultation with shoddy and have her look at your own unique circumstances yeah life questions are individual but again can phil reach out reach out to me I have agents on a network in north carolina I have an attorney actually interviewing in north carolina she's on my youtube channel already so if I can help with that be glad to make a connection there jb asks what's the fee to set up a will or have a probate or have an estate planning set up and I think the answer is you don't know until you have a introductory console of some sort correct valerie so we do work on a flat fee so everything is all inclusive our single truck our single trust package starts at 3 850 and then our marital package starts at 4850 but that is all inclusive and it also does depend on what assets you are you know obviously someone who has you know one primary residence it's gonna be you know way different than someone who owns 30 properties so but that's kind of the starting point got it I think we have another question about if you inherit a million dollar home will be capital gains I think we kind of answered that which is

45:14 Oops the state may or may not have capital gains but the heir doesn't necessarily receive the capital gains is that correct so capital gains taxes is a different type of tax than the one that I had talked about earlier the estate tax you know obviously with capital gains tax that's the gains on you know whatever the profit is on the house now I really love this question because a lot of people don't know this but you know if you inherit property you get that step up in basis so your capital gains taxes will most likely be a whole lot less than if you inherit property during your lifetime so that's another reason why it's so important to set up a trust you know for your you know children or heirs or beneficiaries because that's one of the biggest tax advantages that you get in california is you know through an inhere inherited property so that's something else that we can talk about but most importantly talk to your tax professional first because they can give you a lot better answer than I can as an attorney great and kim to go back to your question north carolina actually watching this zoom as this live on youtube is ashley palmer who I interviewed my youtube channel she's a trust administrator in north carolina so I could be more glad to put something together for you there and help you make that connection so reach out to me if you want to text or email me or something we'll get in touch with you okay see survive florida okay nice have people promoting their business very nice something to do with the handwritten will that doesn't need to be notarized but a type 2 will does so frank's asking is there a legal distinction between handwritten wills and typed wills there's no distinction I mean a handwritten will is a valid will it's called a holographic will it does need to be witnessed now obviously

47:16 There can be a lot of issues with written wills just because of the nature of a written document there's a lot of room for error and there's a lot of room for people contesting that will but it is a valid will a lot of people don't realize this now does it always you know do what we want it to do you know that's just a question on an individual basis so here's a question here from albert and he asked if we have an office outside of orange county there in pasadena I actually do work with a lot of clients from pasadena one of my you know best friends lives down in pasadena so she actually refers a lot of medical professionals down in that area to me we don't have an office there but we can do most everything virtually if needed and we have the technology to do it all virtually and we do have notaries that we work with down in that area that we can send the documents to and depending on the situation I've been known to drive all the way down there and meet with my clients as well you know I'm very passionate about my estate plans and you know passionate about my clients and so whenever I can do something for them I always will now here's a question that I don't want to ask but I want to know the answer to I want to hear you say it you know I will say that a lot of people you know you gave your fees which are very reasonable I've interviewed and talked to attorneys whose entry prices 50 higher twice as high three times as high and at the same time I know there are you know more self-service online companies that are cheaper and I tell people better to have a bad estate plan than none better to have a good one than a bad one right so and also if you get a bad one you can always bring it to the attorney when you have some more money and want to upgrade it but let me ask you that question what's the difference

49:20 That you see between you know legalzoom or TrustandWill.com online you know hundred thousand dollars but you do it yourself you fill it online what difference and I know I my answer is why if you can afford a proper package while you should but what how do you answer that why are you charging x when I could do it online for a quarter x well that's a very good question and I never you know want to be that attorney that you know speaks poorly about you know another attorney or speaks poorly about you know a do-it-yourself option because those options exist for a reason but the truth is you're not going to get everything that you get with an attorney that you know is charging higher fees I mean you really have to ask yourself why are these fees so low that being said we do get a lot of clients that end up coming in to us that have you know done it themselves or have gone to another lawyer just because you know they didn't get all the documents that they needed perhaps they just got a trust and they didn't get you know their financial power of attorney or their advanced medical directives or their poor overwhelm and a lot of times the funding is not included as well which if you don't have a funded trust it's as if you don't have a trust at all we handle all the important stuff we make sure that your property we make sure that your businesses are in the name of the trust you know we want our clients to walk out of the office and feel that the cloud has been lifted from their shoulders there's nothing else that they need to do and a lot of times you know these other companies don't do that you know there's something that's missing and that's why they come to us and then they end up spending more money because they already got their trust done and then you know they try to do it over again that's what we want to prevent we want you guys to come to us first and then not have to worry about anything and I see that as the biggest value as a practitioner having been in probate court pre-covert daily because people say well it's not a big

51:22 Deal if it's not the trust you can just file a petition it's called the Heggstad petition no big deal well you got a higher return go to court a b today in l.a county that's scheduled six months out from the filing date maybe not in other counties but in california or in lake county it's six months whereas a probate hearing's in 30 days and you could you could probably sell the house in that time period and then the heggstad also gets litigated now you have the ex-wife pops up or some brother pops up and you're back to a probate situation it's handled a probate court so you know the self-service is for somebody who can do all the work themselves not just part of it and I do think it's important to know it's all been done from for most people if you can afford the fee if you have a couple million dollars of assets that extra amount of the extra amount will save you 10 times or more not to mention aggravation down there I also want to add something though I know I mentioned this earlier but what kind of differentiates us with you know the do it yourself or you know other options out there is that we provide that lifetime guidance so we grow with our clients you know anytime a client texts us call us email us you know we answer their questions we don't send them a billable hourly rate after the fact which you know let's be honest a lot of attorneys do you know they get you in they you know do a trust for you know you think the price is good but you can you know you call them and you want to consult with them and then they give you a bill for their hourly rate after the fact you know we don't want to nickel and dime our clients we don't want them getting upset with us or mad at us like we want them to love us so at the end of the day you know we built in a product that's all inclusive so that we're not nickel and diming our clients bob has a question again I'm sorry I can't find the where I type in the question anyway if someone has a living will and a trust but it's you know a few decades old do you is it typical you'll start from

53:28 Zero and write a new one or do you make an adjustment to the older one so there's two ways to you know this is generally if someone has not changed anything they don't really need to change anything they can keep their trust that's fine now if things have changed you know they want to update their beneficiaries or you know their family has grown or you know they've you know have different properties there's two ways to make these changes one is an amendment that's an additional document that you attach onto your previous you know estate plan that immense small things I don't recommend amendments if there's multiple changes in that situation I would recommend having a restatement is not you know having a brand new trust it's still the same trust but you know it's as if you're having a brand new trust because the name is the same but you know the documents are all updated everything's all new the only difference is it will state that any previous trust has now been revoked and this restatement now is the reigning supreme documents so it's called and towards that do the do the underlying rules and laws change so that the format of your trust documents that you provided customers change regularly yearly every three years five years has there been significant changes like in real estate we have new state laws passing california every minute and so everything changes all the time what's it like in your practice and how does that affect estates are done by the people that's a really good question so there are changes you know california you know changes probate laws and there are changes I wouldn't say that any of them are so significant that you would have to run out and you know get a brand new trust now our documents are constantly updating so if you have a trust with us now you'll know that it's the most you know recent updates most recent laws you know we're writing

55:31 Things you know to make sure that we're including all any new update but for the most part you know if you've had a trust that's you know 20 years old and you went to a good attorney that you know made sure that things were properly done you know it shouldn't you shouldn't have to worry too much about the changes of laws now if you know certain things are irrelevant you know then definitely come in and talk to an attorney and then I guess related to that question if somebody has done one already whether it be an attorney or a do-it-yourself package do you get customers who bring those into you and say here's what I've done help me what do I do at this point yeah every day you know a lot of times people do it to a certain point and then they realize hey I don't really know if this is valid then what we'll do is we'll come in and we'll review it with them and see if it's good enough I will promise you guys one thing I will never ever do anything that I don't need to do I will never ever suggest something to my client that they don't need just for my own benefit if I review a trust and I say hey you know your attorney did a good job I really don't think you need me you know I give it back and I send them off their way now if that attorney is no longer there and no longer answering their phone calls and that's a whole different story I would like to you know take over so that I can continue to give them that guidance through their lifetime but like I said I'll never do something that I don't need to do well great look you guys have a strong reputation that's why I reached out to you initially a couple years ago to your firm and have referred people shot in I know you guys do a fantastic job look we're coming up on the end here we I appreciate all the questions I got to a bunch of them I know we had a little technical glitches during the middle I will say that in the chat box is her contact info valley passion she's with the asset protection and elder law center in orange county in

57:34 Irvine I think yeah in irvine and phone number six four [phone number] they do free consultations there or their website which is asset protection center dot com and if you click on there's a nice picture of her and again all dressed up so that's all pre-covered kind of photos which is great and but the nice thing about them is they're a full-service firm valley does primarily the estate planning side which is the before a void and then if you don't do that you have to go see shoddy and that's the after I forgot to do my estate plan and I have a litigation problem and she can help with that as well and like I said she's interviewed on our youtube channel as well so on behalf of everybody here on the call thank you so much really appreciate your time and your insight and your giving of your heart to us you guys have a fabulous group here and I apologize for the technical difficulties you know if there was no technical difficulties then it wouldn't be me because I guess it just follows me wherever I go I apologize for that part of part of the coveted life you know we talked to our grandkids we talked about covid life and how they happen hey guys thanks so much for being on the call today I know a lot of you guys had questions I tried to get to as many as we could sorry about the technical issues but we do this every thursday 4 p.m we live streaming on youtube and facebook and linkedin we also record it on my youtube channel and other social media Bill Gross exp is where we on my social media at Bill Gross exp this is probateweekly.com register appreciate your help I'm part of a national team of real estate agents across the country focus on probate and trust and litigation real estate thank you so much everybody we'll see you next week make it your best week every