00:00:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to Love, Death and Money.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: I'm your host, attorney nas Berruti on talk radio seven ninety KABC. If you have a question about trust, wills, probate, call the station right now at one eight hundred two two two five two two two. That's one eight hundred two two two KABC. If this is the first time you're joining the program, welcome. My name is Naz Berruti. I've been practicing law in southern California for the last fifteen years, focusing my practice on making sure that my clients have the proper legal documents for the day that they pass away or become incapacitated. Now, if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for you, and you are not going to like it. For the next hour, I'm going to share with you some general information that will help you better prepare on how you can protect your family. As always, this information is general in nature. You should always consult an attorney about your particular case. And when I say attorney, I don't mean chat GPT, I mean an actual attorney about your case. To get more information about my practice, you can visit my website Buruti law dot com. That's Bruti Law dot Com. Now what do I mean when I say, if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for you. Well, seventy percent of Americans do not have an end of life plan, meaning they don't have a trust, they don't have a will, they have no financial power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and as a result, if something happens to them, if they pass away, their families are going to have to look to the state for help and guidance, and they will not be able to access the assets that that person left behind until they go through the probate process. That's what I mean when I say if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for you. Probate court is the plan that they have for you. I'm going to get into the details of how probate court works, but I just want to clarify that when we talk about end of life planning and having a trust, there is a misconception that you have to be a multi millionaire to create a trust. I can't tell you how many times listeners will call or people will call the office and say, you know, I talk to my neighbor and or I've heard or I've seen that if my estate is under a million dollars, I don't need to create a trust, I don't need a plan. Well, I just wanted to give you the threshold of how much will go through probate. So if you have this amount or more, your estate is going to go through probate. And I think you would be surprised to know that it's nowhere near the million dollar mark.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: It's way below that.
00:02:51
Speaker 2: So if somebody dies after April first, twenty twenty five, and they do not have an end of life plan and their assets total two hundred eight, eight hundred and fifty dollars, the estate will.
00:03:05
Speaker 1: Have to go through probate court.
00:03:07
Speaker 2: That's not a huge amount, and it doesn't mean that if you have a mortgage, that amount gets deducted from your estate value. I get asked this question too. People will say, well, I have a million dollar home, but I only have I have one hundred thousand dollar equity, So is my estate worth one hundred thousand dollars. No, they look at the value of the estate. So when we talk about estate, we're talking about everything you own real estate, property, bank accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance policy, personal possessions in your home like jewelry, you know, antiques. These all get counted towards the value of the estate. So if you don't have an end of life plan, your family is going to have to go.
00:03:54
Speaker 1: Through probate court.
00:03:55
Speaker 2: Probate court is the court that administers your estate when you don't have have a proper a state plan and you don't want your family to have to go through this process. This plan that the State of California has for you is not an easy plan. It's not a free plan. It's not something that you should depend on. But I want you to understand what it entails so that you can decide for yourself. Does this make sense or for me to create a plan while I'm alive today? So why do we not want our family members to go through probate? Well, number one, this is a very very expensive process. Most likely your family members, your loved ones, will have to hire a probate attorney. Let me just tell you how probate attorneys work. They are not like personal injury attorneys that say, hey, whatever we collect will take you know, thirty three percent or thirty percent of it, and we won't collect anything if we don't win. They are not contingency attorneys. They are able to charge statutory and extraordinary fees. Statutory fees mean that they can take a percentage of the value of the estate of the person who passed away. So I'll just give you a quick rundown of what that looks like. The first hundred thousand they can take four percent of it. Just that amount, four thousand dollars is significantly more than creating an end of life plan as a single person with a property. I just want to be very clear about that. So the first hundred thousand they take four percent, which is four thousand dollars. The next one hundred thousand they take three percent, which is three thousand dollars. The next eight hundred thousand they take two percent, which is sixteen thousand dollars. The next nine million they take one percent, which is ninety thousand dollars. Now, in addition to these statutory fees, the attorney can charge extraordinary fees, meaning that if they do additional work like litigation, tax work, selling property, they are able to charge an hourly fee on top of the statutory fees. This, in turn will double or triple the expected cost of your family to go through this process, So you have to ask yourself what makes more sense paying a couple thousand dollars now, are potentially my family having to pay almost six figures depending on the value of the state and the time the attorney has to put in the case. Do I want to pay six figures or do I want to pay a couple thousand dollars now? Not only is this an issue about how much this process costs, but this process is extremely time consuming. On average, you're looking about two years to go through this process.
00:06:50
Speaker 1: Two years.
00:06:51
Speaker 2: That means within this timeframe, your family cannot do anything until they get that court approval. That means they can't sell real estate, they can't access bank accounts, they can't contact your retirement account provider and ask how much is in there, They can't contact the lender. They have to wait till this process is over. There's no access to it. That means they may have to pay out of pocket to pay your mortgage, to pay your car note, to all your other.
00:07:23
Speaker 1: Expenses that are due.
00:07:25
Speaker 2: This can cause a lot of stress for your family members. And on top of that, everything becomes public record through this process, so it's expensive, it's time consuming, your family's not going to have access to the assets, and everything becomes public record. Now despite me explaining all of the reasons why you want to take control and create a plan today, listeners and potential clients still avoid having this conversation, and they say, I'll just let my loved ones deal with it.
00:07:58
Speaker 1: When I'm gone. I'm gone. I don't get hair.
00:08:01
Speaker 2: But what I would like to remind you is some of you listening, your biggest asset is your property. That is going to be, maybe for some of you, the only asset you pass on to your loved ones. And my question to you for those that think this process will just you know, family members will just have to deal with it, is what if that's the only asset, and what if they need to live in that house and.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: They're not planning on selling it.
00:08:28
Speaker 2: How are they going to find an attorney that's going to take the case, Because an attorney wants to know, Okay, where am I collecting my fees? Are there liquid assets where I can just take the cash? Are they going to sell the property so I can take my fees after you know, escrow is finalized. But if there's no liquid assets and they're not selling a property that means your loved ones are going to have to pay out of pocket for an attorney. If they do not have the means to do that, they are put in a position where they are stuck, and you should not put them in that position. If you're just tuning in, you're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk Radio seven ninety KBC. If you need to create an end of life plan and you've been putting it off for way too long, I want you to give my office a call right now, Attorney nas Berruti at four two four four six five nine zero zero three. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero three, or you can visit my website Burrudi Law dot com, b A r o U t I Law dot com. We're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, we have guests Tina Burrudi from New Capital Insurance Solutions joining us tonight. You're listening to Talk radio seven ninety KABC. Welcome back to Love, Death and Money. I'm your host, Attorney nas Berruti on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. If you have a question about trust, wills probate, call the station right now at one eight hundred two two two five two two two. That's one eight hundred two two two kab C. To get more information about my practice, you can visit my website Burrudi Law dot com Baruti Law dot com. And if you'd like to order a copy of my best selling book, Love, Death and Money, you can get it on Amazon dot com. This is a legal guide for you on how you can protect yourself during different stages of life. It's available in paperback and kindle version. Again, the book is called Love, Death and Money and you can get it on Amazon dot com now. In addition to getting your legal documents in order, another important part of an end of life plan or an estate plan is preparing yourself financially. That includes not only planning for retirement expenses, but also being prepared for long term care costs. Our guest tonight, Tina Burrudi is the founder of New Capital Insurance Solutions. She will share with us some insights into long term care insurance. Her offices are based in southern California. You can find more information about New Capital Insurance at new Capitalinsurance dot com. That'scapitalinsurance dot com, or you can reach her directly at four two four four sixty five nine zero zero one. That's four two four four sixty five nine zero zero one.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: Welcome back, Tina, thanks for having.
00:11:14
Speaker 3: Me on the program NODS. My name is Tina Brudi and I am licensed with the California Department of Insurance license number four two eight seven two one eight. I am the founder of New Capital Insurance Solutions, license numbers six zero one one nine zero one. Now, before we begin, please note that these opinions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice for any individual. Please remember to consult with your financial professional to determine what may be appropriate for you. Now, I want to talk to your listeners tonight about the importance of planning for long term care. If you don't have a plan for long term care, you're faced with a triple burden. First, you have the emotional burden, Second you have the administrative burden, and third you have an economic burden. Now, when it comes to the emotional burden, you unfortunately have to cross that bridge yourself. Planning definitely helps lessen the stress, but you can't really ensure against all of the complicated emotions that arise when your loved ones health starts declining, they suddenly need around the clock care, or when you can no longer take care of yourself, or you see your grandparents starts misplacing items and is experiencing cognitive decline. The economic burden of long term care is often the catalyst for these conversations with your financial planner, and we know that it can be extremely expensive. The third and five burden, that administrative burden, is often a missed point. Many people don't even think about that administrative burden. And when I say administrative burden, I'm not just talking about the physical tasks of you know, bathing your loved one, getting them in and out of bed, helping to feed them. I'm talking about arranging those care services, constantly having to wonder is the nurse going to show up today? Can I even trust the people that are coming in and out of my home or who are at the healthcare facility that my loved one is in. Every day you turn on the news and there's another case of senior abuse. Right, They're really some of the most vulnerable demographic. You also have to remember to be on top of medical expenses and bills.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Right, But in.
00:13:50
Speaker 3: California, there are some incredible new products on the long term care market that will help you lessen that financial burden. And they also offer concierge services that are handling all of that administrative headache, so that when the time comes that you or your loved one needs long term care, you and your family are better prepared to tackle this difficult period.
00:14:22
Speaker 2: That's a great point and not much different from what I share with my clients. Having a long term care policy in place is not just for you, but also for your family. I always say it's the greatest final gift you can give your.
00:14:35
Speaker 1: Loved ones as an end of life plan.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: What do you say to clients who think they are too young to think about long term care or say that they are wealthy enough and therefore don't need to purchase additional insurance.
00:14:47
Speaker 3: Well, those are excellent questions, and I get that pushback all of the time. On one hand, I have clients who say they're too young, they're very healthy, they don't need to think about something so negative so far in the future. But I always tell them that it is the wrong mentality to have because you never know what can happen tomorrow, so it's best practice to lock in coverage when you are young and healthy. When you're applying for life insurance, you get a better rating and often lower premiums that way, rather than waiting. A lot of the high net worth clients are under the false impression that they can just self ensure their long term care needs in the future. But I always have to ask them, well, is your wealth liquid or is it tied up in real estate? For example, if you are critically ill, will your children have a hard time liquidating those assets that you've worked so hard to build. Do they have the capacity to sell off your investment properties, for example, to pay for your long term care expenses? And on top of that, if you do have a large pool of cash, why would you take such a huge bite out of your net worth to cover those long term care costs When you can purchase an insurance policy and leverage your dollars.
00:16:17
Speaker 1: Self funding is just.
00:16:18
Speaker 3: Not the smartest nor is it the most efficient use of your assets. So with an insurance policy in place, you can not only maximize your dollar, but get more in return. For example, I had a client whose mother became cognitively impaired and she was in a memory care facility for twenty years because with a lot of those neurological disorders, your quality of life goes down, but the life expectancy often doesn't. So their total monthly expenses to keep their mother in this facility was around seven thousand dollars. The policy that she had purchased provided them with around five thousand, five hundred dollars in coverage each month, so their only responsibility was fifteen hundred a month. Now, I don't know about you, but I would take fifteen hundred over seven thousand dollars any day and imagine paying that for twenty years.
00:17:21
Speaker 1: Right.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: The goal is to not go broke trying to cover long term care expenses if you don't need to. If you're just tuning in, you're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. We have guest Tina Brudi, founder of New Capital Insurance Solutions, joining us tonight.
00:17:40
Speaker 1: We're talking about long term care.
00:17:42
Speaker 2: If you want to reach out to Tina or New Capital Insurance, you can reach her at Newcapitalinsurance dot com or call her directly at four two four four six five nine zero zero one. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero one. Tina, I agree with you there. On top of that, you have to ask yourself, can your family members drop everything to take care of you? So it's not even just a financial component, it's do they have the time? They most likely will not have the energy, time, or financial resources to take on that task. What are some insurance solutions available to listeners tonight?
00:18:23
Speaker 3: Well, I want to emphasize first and foremost that Medicare generally does not pay for ongoing custodial care. That's a huge misconception that people have. Many assume that they can just rely on these government sponsored programs, but the coverage is simply not enough for most individuals. With private coverage, you have more control over what your care looks like, which is hands down a more dignified experience. Now, I had a client who approached me for long term care because she didn't want to end up like her mother, who unfortunately was in a subpar facility. Because they simply could not afford a better alternative. They hadn't purchased any additional insurance for her. Now, there are lots of great approaches that I introduce to my clients. One option, and this is what most of my younger clients opt for, is to add a critical illness writer to your life insurance policy. For example, say you have a one hundred thousand dollars policy that means you have a death benefit of one hundred thousand dollars. If you can no longer complete two or more of the six activities of daily living, your long term care coverage is then triggered and you go on what's called claim. Now, say, with this policy, you can use four percent of your death benefit towards that long term care expense that gives you, in this scenario, four thousand dollars a month to spend. Now that's just one example in one solution. Another option, which is really popular now is asset based long term care. For example, say you have a qualified account, meaning you have pre tax money like a four to oh one k sitting around. You can use that four oh one k to fund a long term care policy not only for yourself, but also for a spouse. Now, let me give you a hypothetical scenario. Say we have a male age sixty married to a female age sixty. We are using his one hundred sixty thousand dollars IRA and repositioning it to purchase long term care with some carriers you can get a twenty five five percent bonus on day one, meaning that one hundred and sixty thousand dollars grows to two hundred thousand dollars the day the policy goes into effect. With the purchase of a continuation of benefits writer, they can each receive seven thousand, four hundred dollars per month for life tax free for their long term care expenses once they need it.
00:21:29
Speaker 1: Now.
00:21:29
Speaker 3: This is just an example of how it can look. If you go to our website, Newcapitalinsurance dot com, you can fill out our client intake form to get the process started. Each person's situation is different, and at New Capital Insurance we can tailor a policy to fit your particular needs and your financial situation.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: If you want to get started on long term care planning, give Tina Bruti of New Capital Insurance Solutions a call. That number is four two four four six five nine zero zero one. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero one. You can also email her at Tina at New Capitalinsurance dot com. That's Tina at New Capitalinsurance dot com, or find her online and take their client intake form at New Capitalinsurance dot com.
00:22:25
Speaker 1: Newcapital Insurance dot com again.
00:22:28
Speaker 2: To reach Tina directly, her office number is four two four four six five nine zero zero one four two four four six five nine zero zero one.
00:22:38
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Tina. Thank you.
00:22:40
Speaker 2: You're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. Welcome back to Love Death and Money. I'm your host, Attorney Nasburuti on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. If you have a question about trust, wills probate, call the station right now at one eight hundred two two two five two two two. It's one eight hundred two two two KABC. To get more information about my practice, you can visit my website Berudylaw dot com. That's b A r o U t I Law dot com. If you'd like to order a copy of my book, Love Death and Money, which is a legal guide for you on how you can protect yourself during different stages of life, you can get it on Amazon dot com. It's available in paperback and kindle version. The first part of the book goes through what's end of life planning, and the second part, which I find to be the most interesting part, is real life stories of individuals, some who had plans and some who did not, and the devastating consequences it had.
00:23:40
Speaker 1: Again.
00:23:40
Speaker 2: The book is called Love, Death, and Money and you can find it on Amazon dot com.
00:23:45
Speaker 1: Now.
00:23:45
Speaker 2: In the book, there is a chapter about you know who you name as your healthcare proxy to make decisions for you if you become incapacitated. There's also a chapter about you know, if you have minor children, what legal documents you need to protect them. And I've just been in the trenches watching the Lindsay Clancy trial. It's day twelve today and I've been watching every day of trial, all the questioning, all the cross exams. I've been just consumed with this case. And I think it's a really important case to follow because it points out all the flaws in medical care that we receive in this country, especially mental health, postpartum depression.
00:24:35
Speaker 1: And this is just my opinion.
00:24:37
Speaker 2: You can disagree with it, you can agree with it, it doesn't really matter. But watching the testimony and having Kevin Reddington, who's the defense attorney for Lindsay Clancy, question all these quote unquote medical professionals that we're trying to help her or attempted to help her.
00:24:58
Speaker 1: And when you have a woman.
00:25:00
Speaker 2: Being placed on thirteen different medications, and nobody speaking to each other about what is being prescribed, no one properly getting medical records, not having proper notes in the medical records. One thing that was really alarming for me, and a lot of people can disagree, but as an estate planning attorney, when she's in that moment, when she's in the hospital and she's trying to figure out what just happened. You know, she's been accused of allegedly strangling her three children, killing them, and then attempting to unlive herself. And her husband comes home and sees all of this. Now, whether she did it, whether she didn't, I don't want to talk about that. But what I do want to talk about is that when she was in the hospital, which, by the way, she's paralyzed from the waist down. Okay, she comes every day to trial in a wheelchair. She cannot walk anymore. When she's in the hospital and she's regaining consciousness, she makes an active choice at that point to change her health care proxy, to remove her husband, and to put her parents. And one of the psychiatrists testifies that, you know, we had to do an evaluation to see if she was able to make that change on her medical proxy. And just for those of you that don't know what a medical proxy is, if you become incapacitated and you cannot communicate your wishes for medical care, you can name someone to step into your shoes and make those medical decisions on your behalf. She had her husband as her medical proxy. Now, in that moment when everything's so heightened and you're emotional, and you've just been told that you murdered your three children, you tried to kill yourself, my life thought, I don't know if it would be let me remove my husband. Something must have clicked for her in that moment that he is not going to make the best medical decisions for me. And I don't care what you say that, Oh, it's because he just found out she murdered their three children, so he wouldn't make the best choice.
00:27:22
Speaker 1: When you marry.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: Someone through sickness and health, you have to step up to the plate to make those decisions. And I really do believe in that moment it clicked for her because with all the testimony, even the husband that ex husband, Patrick Clancy, was on the stand, it seemed as if he wasn't proactive in her health care decisions. He wasn't really going to appointments with her. When she was locked up in a facility for five days, he didn't call to get an update, he didn't visit her.
00:27:55
Speaker 1: It just seemed that he was checked out. And if he was checked out because.
00:28:00
Speaker 2: He was overwhelmed with work, or not being happy in his marriage, or just being overwhelmed with three young children under the age of five, I don't know what the reasoning is, but I would think that if someone comes to you and tells you I'm having thoughts of hurting myself and hurting the children, I probably.
00:28:21
Speaker 1: Wouldn't leave them alone with the children.
00:28:24
Speaker 2: I probably wouldn't fire the nanny once she decided not to go back to work. I probably wouldn't tell my parents, you don't need to come over and help us.
00:28:36
Speaker 1: Lindsey has it. This woman was overwhelmed.
00:28:40
Speaker 2: This woman needed help, and I don't think she got the help that she needed. But this issue brings up a lot of end of life or incapacity issues for me as an estate planning attorney, and I want to talk about it tonight because it's important for you to have these documents prepared to make sure that if you cannot make these decisions for yourself. The person that you are putting in charge, you wholeheartedly believe they are going to do whatever is in your best interests. That's why these documents are so important. And I also believe it's important to not just put one person in charge. I believe you should have coagents. Whether it's for medical decisions or financial decisions. You want to have a checks and balances. You don't want one person being in full control over really vital, important, life changing decisions. I feel the same way about who becomes your executor or success or trustee of your trust. You don't want to give just one person full control. And when we talk about medical decisions, some of the things that are important to clients that I've worked with in the past fifteen years is do I want to be an organ donor do I want to be on life support? If I'm a vegetative state? Do I want to be administered psychiatric drugs? Sometimes there's religious convictions that go into play when we are talking about medical directives healthcare proxies.
00:30:14
Speaker 1: I have a lot of clients that are Jehovah's witness. They do not do what is it called blood transfusions they don't do it.
00:30:22
Speaker 2: Some do not want to give their organs, they don't want to be or you know, receive other people's organs. There are so many factors that go into creating this document, and you have to remind yourself that if you don't have these documents, then your next of kin or next person in line is usually deciding. And even then some physicians will say, oh, you don't have a healthcare proxy. You got to go get a conservatorship. Oh you're just this person's friend.
00:30:53
Speaker 1: You can't. You can't even be in here. I'm not even going to speak to you.
00:30:57
Speaker 2: These are really serious situations that can arise. And I don't think the morning that this happened three years ago, Lindsay Clancy woke up and was like, better check my health care proxy to make sure that the person that's in charge can make real clear decisions for me. Nobody anticipates this stuff, but we know that there's a possibility in this world that these things can happen. That's why we need to be prepared. And when we're talking about minor children, let's say the children had survived. Let's say both parents had passed. Maybe she had killed herself and was successful and also killed her husband in the process. Instead of the children, what is so important for those of you listening tonight that have minor children is who is going to be the guardian of those minor children. There is a misconception that, oh, well, I did a religious Catholic ceremony and I named a godfather at the baptism, so I'm sure you know that godfather or godmother is just gonna take charge. But religious ceremonies don't have any legal buds the courts. If you do not have a will to name a guardian for your minor children, the court decides. And one of the chapters in my book, Love, Death, and Money is about this situation about how parents passed away in a tragic car accident. Two minor children survived, and the family member that was the closest to them from birth was unable to get guardianship over these two young children. Why because she didn't have enough financial resources. She tried to liquidate her retirement. She tried to show the court like, look, I've been in these girls' lives from day one. I will liquidate whatever I need to. They decided, no, they are going to live with their other aunt. Who lives in another state, who's probably seen them three times in their whole life, and that's the best call. So without a written document giving instructions of what you would want when you are not here, you are leaving it up to the courts to decide all of this for you. The courts who have no understanding of your family dynamics, a court who doesn't understand your political beliefs, your religious beliefs, how you want to raise your children. What kind of you know, moral compass do you want to show your children. This is why an end of life plan is so important, because you control from the grave who's taking over. How your children are going to inherit assets. Are you going to put age restrictions for them? Are you going to require them to go to college? I mean, look at the Nick Reiner case right now. He's being accused of killing both his parents. He tried to get approval to access his trust account with money that his parents put aside for him so that he could hire legal defense. And I'm guarantee you that those trustees are saying, better luck next time. You are not going to take the money that your parents put aside for you under the condition of helping you after you allegedly murdered them in a very gruesome way.
00:34:19
Speaker 1: That's not going to happen.
00:34:21
Speaker 2: So being in control over these documents right now, when you are alive, when you have capacity, is so important because end of life planning is all about timing. It's like if you don't have a plan, it's like driving your car without your seat belt on. If you get into an accident, it's too late to go put your seat belt back on. If you're just tuning in, you're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. If you need to create an end of life plan, you can give my office a call right now at four two four four sixty five nine zero zero three. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero three. Or you can visit my website bu law dot com. B A r o U t I Law dot com.
00:35:04
Speaker 1: Again.
00:35:04
Speaker 2: The number to reach me four two four four six five nine zero zero three. You're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. Welcome back to Love Death and Money. I'm your host, Attorney Nasberruti on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. If you have a question about trust, wills probate. Call the station right now at one eight hundred two two two five two two two. That's one eight hundred two two two KA b C. We've been talking about the importance of end of life planning because if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for.
00:35:38
Speaker 1: You, and it's called probate court.
00:35:40
Speaker 2: Seventy percent of Americans are going to end up in probate court because their loved ones did not have an end of life plan, which means this process is going to be expensive, time consuming. They're not going to have access to the assets that are left behind till after the process is completed and everything becomes public record. To avoid a situation like this, you need to create an end of life plan today. While you are alive, you will be in control over your assets, and even after you're passing, you're going to control from the grave, who's going to control the estate, how it's going to be distributed, and there would be no need to.
00:36:17
Speaker 1: Go through the probate proceeding. Now.
00:36:20
Speaker 2: To get more information about end of life planning and the other services that my office provides, you can visit my website Burruti Law dot com BA r o U TI Law dot com. I just want to quickly go over some of the other services for many who call and ask. I mostly do end of life planning, which entails estate planning, so drafting revocable trusts, wills, financial power of attorney, medical power of attorney. We also do business planning for those of you that need to incorporate. They need you need to get limited liability companies, You need operating agreements. I also draft prenuptial and post nuptial agreements for those of you that are getting married or are married and want to make sure that you have a plan if one day you do separate. And for those that have lost loved ones that didn't have an end of life plan and you need to go through the probate proceeding.
00:37:16
Speaker 1: We help with probate proceedings.
00:37:17
Speaker 2: We help with conservatorships, with trust litigation, with trustee services, trust administration. If you've been named a trustee of an estate and you don't know where to start, we can help you and guide you on how to administer that estate in a legal matter because you owe a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries. Again, you can visit my website. Burruty law dot com to get all the services that our office provides BA r O UTI Law dot com. Now, I always end the show with talking about asset protection, which is an important conversation to have, and this one's the one that gets a lot of people calling the office the next day or while we are on air. And it's important to have this conversation because we live in a society where lawsuits happen frequently and the likelihood that in your lifetime you may get sued is very high. Every thirty seconds a lawsuit is filed in this country. Now, despite what many believe, having a revocable trust does not protect you from lawsuits. There is this theory that flies around social media or you may have heard it from a friend or a neighbor who seems like they're really smart, and they may be, but they are not. If they are not a legal professional, you should not be taking legal advice from them. There's this misconception that if you have a trust that a creditor won't be able to touch it, but if it's a revocable trust, I'm here to tell you that that's not the case.
00:38:50
Speaker 1: If your assets.
00:38:51
Speaker 2: Are in a revocable trust and tomorrow you get sued and there's a judgment against you, they can access the assets that are within that trust very easily. So in order to avoid that, we have to talk about acid protection. Now, there are certain groups of individuals that need to make sure that they have acid protection immediately. So if you fall within one of these categories, you should definitely give my office a call. So, if you have paid off property, no mortgage, you need an acid protection trust. If you are a landlord and you have tenants, you need acid protection. If you have children under the age of eighteen who are now driving, you should have an acid protection plan. If you are any type of business owner, especially in California, you need acid protection. Or you are in a profession where you are at high risk for getting sued and you know at any point could be sued in the line of your work, like you're a physician, plastic surgeon, you're in the construction business, you need to make sure that you have an acid protection plan. Now, with everything, there's different lines of defense. When we are talking about acid protection, and the first line of defense the most basic that I believe everyone should have. Whether you're in this those groups of individuals that I just listen off or not is insurance. So having malpractice insurance, umbrella insurance, home insurance, get all the insurance that you can. I'm a big advocate of having insurance. But the problem with insurance is one we have issues with policy limits. You know, you could get sued for more than the policy amount. If your policy limit is half a million and you get sued for two, that's a big issue. Or another issue we see with insurance carriers is that they deny your claim and they're very strategic about this, and trying to argue with them and go back and forth with them could be very costly. But they are strategic in the sense that they write these policies in a way where there's a gray or yeah, and because of that gray area, at any point they can deny your claim. And insurance companies are not always in the business of paying out claims. They deny multiple claims per year. So that's your first line of defense. How do we protect if that line of defense fails? The second is to maximize exempt assets, meaning that instead of putting your money in taxable accounts, you should be using protected vehicles to secure your assets. For example, there are certain assets that are protected by statute against creditor claims, specially retirement accounts. I'm talking about four to one k's and defined benefit plans. If you don't have these two, you are risking the money that you just put in a regular savings account from a creditor. Third, if you are a business owner, you need to make sure that you have proper business entity set up. So I'm talking about limited liability companies corporations. You want to have one entity that's going to earn income and one entity that's going to own real estate or equipment. There are many of you walking around as soul proprietors just LA law, just doing business under my individual name. Or some of you have maybe twenty different properties in one LLC and you are a single member LLC. That gives you no asset protection. So you got to get yourself incorporated. But not just go to these online sources and register or name. You need to have the statement of information filed out. You need articles, You need an operating agreement. If you're an LLC, you need bylaws. If you're a corporation, you need to keep annual minutes. You need to actually operate as a business. Some of you are not doing that. You just registered a name for like fifty bucks, and you think you're in coated. And if you get sued tomorrow and they want to see your corporate records, you don't have any of it. So you got to get that in order. Fourth line of defense acid protection trust. Now, I don't have a lot of time to go over acid protection trusts. They're very complicated. But the difference between an acid protection trust and a revocable trust is an acid protection trust is erevocable. Erevocable meaning you do not have control over the asset. You cannot change the trust, and you must give up real control and you're shifting the asset out of your name, out of your estate. That's what gives you that protection. And finally, the most common sense approach, but sometimes common sense is not common sense. Do not put too much wealth in personal accounts. Do not guarantee everything personally. Do not wait until a complaint is filed before you do anything. Now, when we talk about the state planning, end of life planning, I talked about timing. Acid protection is the same. If you're involved in the middle of a lawsuit and you're deep in it, you can't call my office and expect me to help you at that time, it's too late because anything I do at that point, a judge can consider that a fraudulent transfer. A judge can say, oh, you were in the middle of a lawsuit, you were hiding assets. No, we're going to reverse everything that this lawyer did, so I won't even take your case if you're in the middle of a lawsuit.
00:44:32
Speaker 1: We want to plan ahead.
00:44:34
Speaker 2: We want to make sure that if something bad does happen, we have all these lines of defense set up for you. We don't want to just wait because there's an emergency to do any of this. So that's why timing is everything. So if you've listened tonight, you learn something new. You know that you need to create a plan. You know you need acid protection, you know you need long term care. You have to give our office a call so that we can help you. I can't help you unless you call me again. The number to reach me Attorney nos Berruti is four two four four six five nine zero zero three. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero three. Or you can visit my website Burudilaw dot com. That's b A. R oh u ti Law dot com and for all KABC listeners. If you want to set up a fifteen minute complementary call with me, you can visit my Instagram page at Baruti Law b A. R oh U Ti Law. Click on the link in the bio and you can get access to my calendar to schedule a fifteen minute call. But you got to go on that link to click my calendar and set up a time that will work for you. This fifteen minute call is complementary to KBC listeners. I'll answer any questions that you have the best of my best of my abilities, and then maybe we could possibly come up with a game plan if it's a good fit for the both of us. But again, ladies and gentlemen do not depend on the state to create end of life plans. You have to make sure to create a plan because if you don't have one, the state has one for you and it's not in your best interests. Again, the number to reach me nas Beruty four two four four six five nine zero zero three four two four four.
00:46:21
Speaker 1: Six five nine zero zero three.
00:46:23
Speaker 2: You're listening with Love, Death and Money on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC
Speaker 1: Welcome to Love, Death and Money.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: I'm your host, attorney nas Berruti on talk radio seven ninety KABC. If you have a question about trust, wills, probate, call the station right now at one eight hundred two two two five two two two. That's one eight hundred two two two KABC. If this is the first time you're joining the program, welcome. My name is Naz Berruti. I've been practicing law in southern California for the last fifteen years, focusing my practice on making sure that my clients have the proper legal documents for the day that they pass away or become incapacitated. Now, if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for you, and you are not going to like it. For the next hour, I'm going to share with you some general information that will help you better prepare on how you can protect your family. As always, this information is general in nature. You should always consult an attorney about your particular case. And when I say attorney, I don't mean chat GPT, I mean an actual attorney about your case. To get more information about my practice, you can visit my website Buruti law dot com. That's Bruti Law dot Com. Now what do I mean when I say, if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for you. Well, seventy percent of Americans do not have an end of life plan, meaning they don't have a trust, they don't have a will, they have no financial power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and as a result, if something happens to them, if they pass away, their families are going to have to look to the state for help and guidance, and they will not be able to access the assets that that person left behind until they go through the probate process. That's what I mean when I say if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for you. Probate court is the plan that they have for you. I'm going to get into the details of how probate court works, but I just want to clarify that when we talk about end of life planning and having a trust, there is a misconception that you have to be a multi millionaire to create a trust. I can't tell you how many times listeners will call or people will call the office and say, you know, I talk to my neighbor and or I've heard or I've seen that if my estate is under a million dollars, I don't need to create a trust, I don't need a plan. Well, I just wanted to give you the threshold of how much will go through probate. So if you have this amount or more, your estate is going to go through probate. And I think you would be surprised to know that it's nowhere near the million dollar mark.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: It's way below that.
00:02:51
Speaker 2: So if somebody dies after April first, twenty twenty five, and they do not have an end of life plan and their assets total two hundred eight, eight hundred and fifty dollars, the estate will.
00:03:05
Speaker 1: Have to go through probate court.
00:03:07
Speaker 2: That's not a huge amount, and it doesn't mean that if you have a mortgage, that amount gets deducted from your estate value. I get asked this question too. People will say, well, I have a million dollar home, but I only have I have one hundred thousand dollar equity, So is my estate worth one hundred thousand dollars. No, they look at the value of the estate. So when we talk about estate, we're talking about everything you own real estate, property, bank accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance policy, personal possessions in your home like jewelry, you know, antiques. These all get counted towards the value of the estate. So if you don't have an end of life plan, your family is going to have to go.
00:03:54
Speaker 1: Through probate court.
00:03:55
Speaker 2: Probate court is the court that administers your estate when you don't have have a proper a state plan and you don't want your family to have to go through this process. This plan that the State of California has for you is not an easy plan. It's not a free plan. It's not something that you should depend on. But I want you to understand what it entails so that you can decide for yourself. Does this make sense or for me to create a plan while I'm alive today? So why do we not want our family members to go through probate? Well, number one, this is a very very expensive process. Most likely your family members, your loved ones, will have to hire a probate attorney. Let me just tell you how probate attorneys work. They are not like personal injury attorneys that say, hey, whatever we collect will take you know, thirty three percent or thirty percent of it, and we won't collect anything if we don't win. They are not contingency attorneys. They are able to charge statutory and extraordinary fees. Statutory fees mean that they can take a percentage of the value of the estate of the person who passed away. So I'll just give you a quick rundown of what that looks like. The first hundred thousand they can take four percent of it. Just that amount, four thousand dollars is significantly more than creating an end of life plan as a single person with a property. I just want to be very clear about that. So the first hundred thousand they take four percent, which is four thousand dollars. The next one hundred thousand they take three percent, which is three thousand dollars. The next eight hundred thousand they take two percent, which is sixteen thousand dollars. The next nine million they take one percent, which is ninety thousand dollars. Now, in addition to these statutory fees, the attorney can charge extraordinary fees, meaning that if they do additional work like litigation, tax work, selling property, they are able to charge an hourly fee on top of the statutory fees. This, in turn will double or triple the expected cost of your family to go through this process, So you have to ask yourself what makes more sense paying a couple thousand dollars now, are potentially my family having to pay almost six figures depending on the value of the state and the time the attorney has to put in the case. Do I want to pay six figures or do I want to pay a couple thousand dollars now? Not only is this an issue about how much this process costs, but this process is extremely time consuming. On average, you're looking about two years to go through this process.
00:06:50
Speaker 1: Two years.
00:06:51
Speaker 2: That means within this timeframe, your family cannot do anything until they get that court approval. That means they can't sell real estate, they can't access bank accounts, they can't contact your retirement account provider and ask how much is in there, They can't contact the lender. They have to wait till this process is over. There's no access to it. That means they may have to pay out of pocket to pay your mortgage, to pay your car note, to all your other.
00:07:23
Speaker 1: Expenses that are due.
00:07:25
Speaker 2: This can cause a lot of stress for your family members. And on top of that, everything becomes public record through this process, so it's expensive, it's time consuming, your family's not going to have access to the assets, and everything becomes public record. Now despite me explaining all of the reasons why you want to take control and create a plan today, listeners and potential clients still avoid having this conversation, and they say, I'll just let my loved ones deal with it.
00:07:58
Speaker 1: When I'm gone. I'm gone. I don't get hair.
00:08:01
Speaker 2: But what I would like to remind you is some of you listening, your biggest asset is your property. That is going to be, maybe for some of you, the only asset you pass on to your loved ones. And my question to you for those that think this process will just you know, family members will just have to deal with it, is what if that's the only asset, and what if they need to live in that house and.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: They're not planning on selling it.
00:08:28
Speaker 2: How are they going to find an attorney that's going to take the case, Because an attorney wants to know, Okay, where am I collecting my fees? Are there liquid assets where I can just take the cash? Are they going to sell the property so I can take my fees after you know, escrow is finalized. But if there's no liquid assets and they're not selling a property that means your loved ones are going to have to pay out of pocket for an attorney. If they do not have the means to do that, they are put in a position where they are stuck, and you should not put them in that position. If you're just tuning in, you're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk Radio seven ninety KBC. If you need to create an end of life plan and you've been putting it off for way too long, I want you to give my office a call right now, Attorney nas Berruti at four two four four six five nine zero zero three. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero three, or you can visit my website Burrudi Law dot com, b A r o U t I Law dot com. We're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, we have guests Tina Burrudi from New Capital Insurance Solutions joining us tonight. You're listening to Talk radio seven ninety KABC. Welcome back to Love, Death and Money. I'm your host, Attorney nas Berruti on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. If you have a question about trust, wills probate, call the station right now at one eight hundred two two two five two two two. That's one eight hundred two two two kab C. To get more information about my practice, you can visit my website Burrudi Law dot com Baruti Law dot com. And if you'd like to order a copy of my best selling book, Love, Death and Money, you can get it on Amazon dot com. This is a legal guide for you on how you can protect yourself during different stages of life. It's available in paperback and kindle version. Again, the book is called Love, Death and Money and you can get it on Amazon dot com now. In addition to getting your legal documents in order, another important part of an end of life plan or an estate plan is preparing yourself financially. That includes not only planning for retirement expenses, but also being prepared for long term care costs. Our guest tonight, Tina Burrudi is the founder of New Capital Insurance Solutions. She will share with us some insights into long term care insurance. Her offices are based in southern California. You can find more information about New Capital Insurance at new Capitalinsurance dot com. That'scapitalinsurance dot com, or you can reach her directly at four two four four sixty five nine zero zero one. That's four two four four sixty five nine zero zero one.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: Welcome back, Tina, thanks for having.
00:11:14
Speaker 3: Me on the program NODS. My name is Tina Brudi and I am licensed with the California Department of Insurance license number four two eight seven two one eight. I am the founder of New Capital Insurance Solutions, license numbers six zero one one nine zero one. Now, before we begin, please note that these opinions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice for any individual. Please remember to consult with your financial professional to determine what may be appropriate for you. Now, I want to talk to your listeners tonight about the importance of planning for long term care. If you don't have a plan for long term care, you're faced with a triple burden. First, you have the emotional burden, Second you have the administrative burden, and third you have an economic burden. Now, when it comes to the emotional burden, you unfortunately have to cross that bridge yourself. Planning definitely helps lessen the stress, but you can't really ensure against all of the complicated emotions that arise when your loved ones health starts declining, they suddenly need around the clock care, or when you can no longer take care of yourself, or you see your grandparents starts misplacing items and is experiencing cognitive decline. The economic burden of long term care is often the catalyst for these conversations with your financial planner, and we know that it can be extremely expensive. The third and five burden, that administrative burden, is often a missed point. Many people don't even think about that administrative burden. And when I say administrative burden, I'm not just talking about the physical tasks of you know, bathing your loved one, getting them in and out of bed, helping to feed them. I'm talking about arranging those care services, constantly having to wonder is the nurse going to show up today? Can I even trust the people that are coming in and out of my home or who are at the healthcare facility that my loved one is in. Every day you turn on the news and there's another case of senior abuse. Right, They're really some of the most vulnerable demographic. You also have to remember to be on top of medical expenses and bills.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Right, But in.
00:13:50
Speaker 3: California, there are some incredible new products on the long term care market that will help you lessen that financial burden. And they also offer concierge services that are handling all of that administrative headache, so that when the time comes that you or your loved one needs long term care, you and your family are better prepared to tackle this difficult period.
00:14:22
Speaker 2: That's a great point and not much different from what I share with my clients. Having a long term care policy in place is not just for you, but also for your family. I always say it's the greatest final gift you can give your.
00:14:35
Speaker 1: Loved ones as an end of life plan.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: What do you say to clients who think they are too young to think about long term care or say that they are wealthy enough and therefore don't need to purchase additional insurance.
00:14:47
Speaker 3: Well, those are excellent questions, and I get that pushback all of the time. On one hand, I have clients who say they're too young, they're very healthy, they don't need to think about something so negative so far in the future. But I always tell them that it is the wrong mentality to have because you never know what can happen tomorrow, so it's best practice to lock in coverage when you are young and healthy. When you're applying for life insurance, you get a better rating and often lower premiums that way, rather than waiting. A lot of the high net worth clients are under the false impression that they can just self ensure their long term care needs in the future. But I always have to ask them, well, is your wealth liquid or is it tied up in real estate? For example, if you are critically ill, will your children have a hard time liquidating those assets that you've worked so hard to build. Do they have the capacity to sell off your investment properties, for example, to pay for your long term care expenses? And on top of that, if you do have a large pool of cash, why would you take such a huge bite out of your net worth to cover those long term care costs When you can purchase an insurance policy and leverage your dollars.
00:16:17
Speaker 1: Self funding is just.
00:16:18
Speaker 3: Not the smartest nor is it the most efficient use of your assets. So with an insurance policy in place, you can not only maximize your dollar, but get more in return. For example, I had a client whose mother became cognitively impaired and she was in a memory care facility for twenty years because with a lot of those neurological disorders, your quality of life goes down, but the life expectancy often doesn't. So their total monthly expenses to keep their mother in this facility was around seven thousand dollars. The policy that she had purchased provided them with around five thousand, five hundred dollars in coverage each month, so their only responsibility was fifteen hundred a month. Now, I don't know about you, but I would take fifteen hundred over seven thousand dollars any day and imagine paying that for twenty years.
00:17:21
Speaker 1: Right.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: The goal is to not go broke trying to cover long term care expenses if you don't need to. If you're just tuning in, you're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. We have guest Tina Brudi, founder of New Capital Insurance Solutions, joining us tonight.
00:17:40
Speaker 1: We're talking about long term care.
00:17:42
Speaker 2: If you want to reach out to Tina or New Capital Insurance, you can reach her at Newcapitalinsurance dot com or call her directly at four two four four six five nine zero zero one. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero one. Tina, I agree with you there. On top of that, you have to ask yourself, can your family members drop everything to take care of you? So it's not even just a financial component, it's do they have the time? They most likely will not have the energy, time, or financial resources to take on that task. What are some insurance solutions available to listeners tonight?
00:18:23
Speaker 3: Well, I want to emphasize first and foremost that Medicare generally does not pay for ongoing custodial care. That's a huge misconception that people have. Many assume that they can just rely on these government sponsored programs, but the coverage is simply not enough for most individuals. With private coverage, you have more control over what your care looks like, which is hands down a more dignified experience. Now, I had a client who approached me for long term care because she didn't want to end up like her mother, who unfortunately was in a subpar facility. Because they simply could not afford a better alternative. They hadn't purchased any additional insurance for her. Now, there are lots of great approaches that I introduce to my clients. One option, and this is what most of my younger clients opt for, is to add a critical illness writer to your life insurance policy. For example, say you have a one hundred thousand dollars policy that means you have a death benefit of one hundred thousand dollars. If you can no longer complete two or more of the six activities of daily living, your long term care coverage is then triggered and you go on what's called claim. Now, say, with this policy, you can use four percent of your death benefit towards that long term care expense that gives you, in this scenario, four thousand dollars a month to spend. Now that's just one example in one solution. Another option, which is really popular now is asset based long term care. For example, say you have a qualified account, meaning you have pre tax money like a four to oh one k sitting around. You can use that four oh one k to fund a long term care policy not only for yourself, but also for a spouse. Now, let me give you a hypothetical scenario. Say we have a male age sixty married to a female age sixty. We are using his one hundred sixty thousand dollars IRA and repositioning it to purchase long term care with some carriers you can get a twenty five five percent bonus on day one, meaning that one hundred and sixty thousand dollars grows to two hundred thousand dollars the day the policy goes into effect. With the purchase of a continuation of benefits writer, they can each receive seven thousand, four hundred dollars per month for life tax free for their long term care expenses once they need it.
00:21:29
Speaker 1: Now.
00:21:29
Speaker 3: This is just an example of how it can look. If you go to our website, Newcapitalinsurance dot com, you can fill out our client intake form to get the process started. Each person's situation is different, and at New Capital Insurance we can tailor a policy to fit your particular needs and your financial situation.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: If you want to get started on long term care planning, give Tina Bruti of New Capital Insurance Solutions a call. That number is four two four four six five nine zero zero one. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero one. You can also email her at Tina at New Capitalinsurance dot com. That's Tina at New Capitalinsurance dot com, or find her online and take their client intake form at New Capitalinsurance dot com.
00:22:25
Speaker 1: Newcapital Insurance dot com again.
00:22:28
Speaker 2: To reach Tina directly, her office number is four two four four six five nine zero zero one four two four four six five nine zero zero one.
00:22:38
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Tina. Thank you.
00:22:40
Speaker 2: You're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. Welcome back to Love Death and Money. I'm your host, Attorney Nasburuti on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. If you have a question about trust, wills probate, call the station right now at one eight hundred two two two five two two two. It's one eight hundred two two two KABC. To get more information about my practice, you can visit my website Berudylaw dot com. That's b A r o U t I Law dot com. If you'd like to order a copy of my book, Love Death and Money, which is a legal guide for you on how you can protect yourself during different stages of life, you can get it on Amazon dot com. It's available in paperback and kindle version. The first part of the book goes through what's end of life planning, and the second part, which I find to be the most interesting part, is real life stories of individuals, some who had plans and some who did not, and the devastating consequences it had.
00:23:40
Speaker 1: Again.
00:23:40
Speaker 2: The book is called Love, Death, and Money and you can find it on Amazon dot com.
00:23:45
Speaker 1: Now.
00:23:45
Speaker 2: In the book, there is a chapter about you know who you name as your healthcare proxy to make decisions for you if you become incapacitated. There's also a chapter about you know, if you have minor children, what legal documents you need to protect them. And I've just been in the trenches watching the Lindsay Clancy trial. It's day twelve today and I've been watching every day of trial, all the questioning, all the cross exams. I've been just consumed with this case. And I think it's a really important case to follow because it points out all the flaws in medical care that we receive in this country, especially mental health, postpartum depression.
00:24:35
Speaker 1: And this is just my opinion.
00:24:37
Speaker 2: You can disagree with it, you can agree with it, it doesn't really matter. But watching the testimony and having Kevin Reddington, who's the defense attorney for Lindsay Clancy, question all these quote unquote medical professionals that we're trying to help her or attempted to help her.
00:24:58
Speaker 1: And when you have a woman.
00:25:00
Speaker 2: Being placed on thirteen different medications, and nobody speaking to each other about what is being prescribed, no one properly getting medical records, not having proper notes in the medical records. One thing that was really alarming for me, and a lot of people can disagree, but as an estate planning attorney, when she's in that moment, when she's in the hospital and she's trying to figure out what just happened. You know, she's been accused of allegedly strangling her three children, killing them, and then attempting to unlive herself. And her husband comes home and sees all of this. Now, whether she did it, whether she didn't, I don't want to talk about that. But what I do want to talk about is that when she was in the hospital, which, by the way, she's paralyzed from the waist down. Okay, she comes every day to trial in a wheelchair. She cannot walk anymore. When she's in the hospital and she's regaining consciousness, she makes an active choice at that point to change her health care proxy, to remove her husband, and to put her parents. And one of the psychiatrists testifies that, you know, we had to do an evaluation to see if she was able to make that change on her medical proxy. And just for those of you that don't know what a medical proxy is, if you become incapacitated and you cannot communicate your wishes for medical care, you can name someone to step into your shoes and make those medical decisions on your behalf. She had her husband as her medical proxy. Now, in that moment when everything's so heightened and you're emotional, and you've just been told that you murdered your three children, you tried to kill yourself, my life thought, I don't know if it would be let me remove my husband. Something must have clicked for her in that moment that he is not going to make the best medical decisions for me. And I don't care what you say that, Oh, it's because he just found out she murdered their three children, so he wouldn't make the best choice.
00:27:22
Speaker 1: When you marry.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: Someone through sickness and health, you have to step up to the plate to make those decisions. And I really do believe in that moment it clicked for her because with all the testimony, even the husband that ex husband, Patrick Clancy, was on the stand, it seemed as if he wasn't proactive in her health care decisions. He wasn't really going to appointments with her. When she was locked up in a facility for five days, he didn't call to get an update, he didn't visit her.
00:27:55
Speaker 1: It just seemed that he was checked out. And if he was checked out because.
00:28:00
Speaker 2: He was overwhelmed with work, or not being happy in his marriage, or just being overwhelmed with three young children under the age of five, I don't know what the reasoning is, but I would think that if someone comes to you and tells you I'm having thoughts of hurting myself and hurting the children, I probably.
00:28:21
Speaker 1: Wouldn't leave them alone with the children.
00:28:24
Speaker 2: I probably wouldn't fire the nanny once she decided not to go back to work. I probably wouldn't tell my parents, you don't need to come over and help us.
00:28:36
Speaker 1: Lindsey has it. This woman was overwhelmed.
00:28:40
Speaker 2: This woman needed help, and I don't think she got the help that she needed. But this issue brings up a lot of end of life or incapacity issues for me as an estate planning attorney, and I want to talk about it tonight because it's important for you to have these documents prepared to make sure that if you cannot make these decisions for yourself. The person that you are putting in charge, you wholeheartedly believe they are going to do whatever is in your best interests. That's why these documents are so important. And I also believe it's important to not just put one person in charge. I believe you should have coagents. Whether it's for medical decisions or financial decisions. You want to have a checks and balances. You don't want one person being in full control over really vital, important, life changing decisions. I feel the same way about who becomes your executor or success or trustee of your trust. You don't want to give just one person full control. And when we talk about medical decisions, some of the things that are important to clients that I've worked with in the past fifteen years is do I want to be an organ donor do I want to be on life support? If I'm a vegetative state? Do I want to be administered psychiatric drugs? Sometimes there's religious convictions that go into play when we are talking about medical directives healthcare proxies.
00:30:14
Speaker 1: I have a lot of clients that are Jehovah's witness. They do not do what is it called blood transfusions they don't do it.
00:30:22
Speaker 2: Some do not want to give their organs, they don't want to be or you know, receive other people's organs. There are so many factors that go into creating this document, and you have to remind yourself that if you don't have these documents, then your next of kin or next person in line is usually deciding. And even then some physicians will say, oh, you don't have a healthcare proxy. You got to go get a conservatorship. Oh you're just this person's friend.
00:30:53
Speaker 1: You can't. You can't even be in here. I'm not even going to speak to you.
00:30:57
Speaker 2: These are really serious situations that can arise. And I don't think the morning that this happened three years ago, Lindsay Clancy woke up and was like, better check my health care proxy to make sure that the person that's in charge can make real clear decisions for me. Nobody anticipates this stuff, but we know that there's a possibility in this world that these things can happen. That's why we need to be prepared. And when we're talking about minor children, let's say the children had survived. Let's say both parents had passed. Maybe she had killed herself and was successful and also killed her husband in the process. Instead of the children, what is so important for those of you listening tonight that have minor children is who is going to be the guardian of those minor children. There is a misconception that, oh, well, I did a religious Catholic ceremony and I named a godfather at the baptism, so I'm sure you know that godfather or godmother is just gonna take charge. But religious ceremonies don't have any legal buds the courts. If you do not have a will to name a guardian for your minor children, the court decides. And one of the chapters in my book, Love, Death, and Money is about this situation about how parents passed away in a tragic car accident. Two minor children survived, and the family member that was the closest to them from birth was unable to get guardianship over these two young children. Why because she didn't have enough financial resources. She tried to liquidate her retirement. She tried to show the court like, look, I've been in these girls' lives from day one. I will liquidate whatever I need to. They decided, no, they are going to live with their other aunt. Who lives in another state, who's probably seen them three times in their whole life, and that's the best call. So without a written document giving instructions of what you would want when you are not here, you are leaving it up to the courts to decide all of this for you. The courts who have no understanding of your family dynamics, a court who doesn't understand your political beliefs, your religious beliefs, how you want to raise your children. What kind of you know, moral compass do you want to show your children. This is why an end of life plan is so important, because you control from the grave who's taking over. How your children are going to inherit assets. Are you going to put age restrictions for them? Are you going to require them to go to college? I mean, look at the Nick Reiner case right now. He's being accused of killing both his parents. He tried to get approval to access his trust account with money that his parents put aside for him so that he could hire legal defense. And I'm guarantee you that those trustees are saying, better luck next time. You are not going to take the money that your parents put aside for you under the condition of helping you after you allegedly murdered them in a very gruesome way.
00:34:19
Speaker 1: That's not going to happen.
00:34:21
Speaker 2: So being in control over these documents right now, when you are alive, when you have capacity, is so important because end of life planning is all about timing. It's like if you don't have a plan, it's like driving your car without your seat belt on. If you get into an accident, it's too late to go put your seat belt back on. If you're just tuning in, you're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. If you need to create an end of life plan, you can give my office a call right now at four two four four sixty five nine zero zero three. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero three. Or you can visit my website bu law dot com. B A r o U t I Law dot com.
00:35:04
Speaker 1: Again.
00:35:04
Speaker 2: The number to reach me four two four four six five nine zero zero three. You're listening to Love, Death and Money on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. Welcome back to Love Death and Money. I'm your host, Attorney Nasberruti on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. If you have a question about trust, wills probate. Call the station right now at one eight hundred two two two five two two two. That's one eight hundred two two two KA b C. We've been talking about the importance of end of life planning because if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for.
00:35:38
Speaker 1: You, and it's called probate court.
00:35:40
Speaker 2: Seventy percent of Americans are going to end up in probate court because their loved ones did not have an end of life plan, which means this process is going to be expensive, time consuming. They're not going to have access to the assets that are left behind till after the process is completed and everything becomes public record. To avoid a situation like this, you need to create an end of life plan today. While you are alive, you will be in control over your assets, and even after you're passing, you're going to control from the grave, who's going to control the estate, how it's going to be distributed, and there would be no need to.
00:36:17
Speaker 1: Go through the probate proceeding. Now.
00:36:20
Speaker 2: To get more information about end of life planning and the other services that my office provides, you can visit my website Burruti Law dot com BA r o U TI Law dot com. I just want to quickly go over some of the other services for many who call and ask. I mostly do end of life planning, which entails estate planning, so drafting revocable trusts, wills, financial power of attorney, medical power of attorney. We also do business planning for those of you that need to incorporate. They need you need to get limited liability companies, You need operating agreements. I also draft prenuptial and post nuptial agreements for those of you that are getting married or are married and want to make sure that you have a plan if one day you do separate. And for those that have lost loved ones that didn't have an end of life plan and you need to go through the probate proceeding.
00:37:16
Speaker 1: We help with probate proceedings.
00:37:17
Speaker 2: We help with conservatorships, with trust litigation, with trustee services, trust administration. If you've been named a trustee of an estate and you don't know where to start, we can help you and guide you on how to administer that estate in a legal matter because you owe a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries. Again, you can visit my website. Burruty law dot com to get all the services that our office provides BA r O UTI Law dot com. Now, I always end the show with talking about asset protection, which is an important conversation to have, and this one's the one that gets a lot of people calling the office the next day or while we are on air. And it's important to have this conversation because we live in a society where lawsuits happen frequently and the likelihood that in your lifetime you may get sued is very high. Every thirty seconds a lawsuit is filed in this country. Now, despite what many believe, having a revocable trust does not protect you from lawsuits. There is this theory that flies around social media or you may have heard it from a friend or a neighbor who seems like they're really smart, and they may be, but they are not. If they are not a legal professional, you should not be taking legal advice from them. There's this misconception that if you have a trust that a creditor won't be able to touch it, but if it's a revocable trust, I'm here to tell you that that's not the case.
00:38:50
Speaker 1: If your assets.
00:38:51
Speaker 2: Are in a revocable trust and tomorrow you get sued and there's a judgment against you, they can access the assets that are within that trust very easily. So in order to avoid that, we have to talk about acid protection. Now, there are certain groups of individuals that need to make sure that they have acid protection immediately. So if you fall within one of these categories, you should definitely give my office a call. So, if you have paid off property, no mortgage, you need an acid protection trust. If you are a landlord and you have tenants, you need acid protection. If you have children under the age of eighteen who are now driving, you should have an acid protection plan. If you are any type of business owner, especially in California, you need acid protection. Or you are in a profession where you are at high risk for getting sued and you know at any point could be sued in the line of your work, like you're a physician, plastic surgeon, you're in the construction business, you need to make sure that you have an acid protection plan. Now, with everything, there's different lines of defense. When we are talking about acid protection, and the first line of defense the most basic that I believe everyone should have. Whether you're in this those groups of individuals that I just listen off or not is insurance. So having malpractice insurance, umbrella insurance, home insurance, get all the insurance that you can. I'm a big advocate of having insurance. But the problem with insurance is one we have issues with policy limits. You know, you could get sued for more than the policy amount. If your policy limit is half a million and you get sued for two, that's a big issue. Or another issue we see with insurance carriers is that they deny your claim and they're very strategic about this, and trying to argue with them and go back and forth with them could be very costly. But they are strategic in the sense that they write these policies in a way where there's a gray or yeah, and because of that gray area, at any point they can deny your claim. And insurance companies are not always in the business of paying out claims. They deny multiple claims per year. So that's your first line of defense. How do we protect if that line of defense fails? The second is to maximize exempt assets, meaning that instead of putting your money in taxable accounts, you should be using protected vehicles to secure your assets. For example, there are certain assets that are protected by statute against creditor claims, specially retirement accounts. I'm talking about four to one k's and defined benefit plans. If you don't have these two, you are risking the money that you just put in a regular savings account from a creditor. Third, if you are a business owner, you need to make sure that you have proper business entity set up. So I'm talking about limited liability companies corporations. You want to have one entity that's going to earn income and one entity that's going to own real estate or equipment. There are many of you walking around as soul proprietors just LA law, just doing business under my individual name. Or some of you have maybe twenty different properties in one LLC and you are a single member LLC. That gives you no asset protection. So you got to get yourself incorporated. But not just go to these online sources and register or name. You need to have the statement of information filed out. You need articles, You need an operating agreement. If you're an LLC, you need bylaws. If you're a corporation, you need to keep annual minutes. You need to actually operate as a business. Some of you are not doing that. You just registered a name for like fifty bucks, and you think you're in coated. And if you get sued tomorrow and they want to see your corporate records, you don't have any of it. So you got to get that in order. Fourth line of defense acid protection trust. Now, I don't have a lot of time to go over acid protection trusts. They're very complicated. But the difference between an acid protection trust and a revocable trust is an acid protection trust is erevocable. Erevocable meaning you do not have control over the asset. You cannot change the trust, and you must give up real control and you're shifting the asset out of your name, out of your estate. That's what gives you that protection. And finally, the most common sense approach, but sometimes common sense is not common sense. Do not put too much wealth in personal accounts. Do not guarantee everything personally. Do not wait until a complaint is filed before you do anything. Now, when we talk about the state planning, end of life planning, I talked about timing. Acid protection is the same. If you're involved in the middle of a lawsuit and you're deep in it, you can't call my office and expect me to help you at that time, it's too late because anything I do at that point, a judge can consider that a fraudulent transfer. A judge can say, oh, you were in the middle of a lawsuit, you were hiding assets. No, we're going to reverse everything that this lawyer did, so I won't even take your case if you're in the middle of a lawsuit.
00:44:32
Speaker 1: We want to plan ahead.
00:44:34
Speaker 2: We want to make sure that if something bad does happen, we have all these lines of defense set up for you. We don't want to just wait because there's an emergency to do any of this. So that's why timing is everything. So if you've listened tonight, you learn something new. You know that you need to create a plan. You know you need acid protection, you know you need long term care. You have to give our office a call so that we can help you. I can't help you unless you call me again. The number to reach me Attorney nos Berruti is four two four four six five nine zero zero three. That's four two four four six five nine zero zero three. Or you can visit my website Burudilaw dot com. That's b A. R oh u ti Law dot com and for all KABC listeners. If you want to set up a fifteen minute complementary call with me, you can visit my Instagram page at Baruti Law b A. R oh U Ti Law. Click on the link in the bio and you can get access to my calendar to schedule a fifteen minute call. But you got to go on that link to click my calendar and set up a time that will work for you. This fifteen minute call is complementary to KBC listeners. I'll answer any questions that you have the best of my best of my abilities, and then maybe we could possibly come up with a game plan if it's a good fit for the both of us. But again, ladies and gentlemen do not depend on the state to create end of life plans. You have to make sure to create a plan because if you don't have one, the state has one for you and it's not in your best interests. Again, the number to reach me nas Beruty four two four four six five nine zero zero three four two four four.
00:46:21
Speaker 1: Six five nine zero zero three.
00:46:23
Speaker 2: You're listening with Love, Death and Money on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC
