Join Michael Bailey as he takes you through the intricate world of estate planning. With over a decade of experience, Michael shares personal anecdotes and client stories highlighting the necessity of preparing a comprehensive estate plan. Understand how life’s unexpected changes can affect your plans and why it’s crucial to act before it’s too late. Gain insights into the legal terminology that might seem daunting but are essential for securing your family’s future.
00:21:21 Changing Life Circumstances and Estate Planning
00:25:46 The Importance of Finalizing Estate Plans
00:28:25 Closing Thoughts and Next Episode Preview
SPEAKER 02 :
Mobile Estate Planning with Michael Bailey is next on KLZ 560 AM and 100.7 FM.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m Jonathan McKean. You’re listening to Plugged In on KLZ AM 560. A wise man once told his son, one of the most important choices you’ll ever make is choosing your friends. In fact, look at the five people you spend the most time with. That is who you are. For many of us growing up, those friends and influences were people we talked with face to face. Today, many of those friends are mainly on that screen we carry around with us. And don’t underestimate their impact. Consider the new TikTok trend, the door knock challenge, the basic doorbell ditch that some of us may have done as a kid, knocking a door late at night and run away. Well, this viral trend now has over 322 million posts. That’s a lot of people getting scared in the middle of the night. Is it time to engage your kids in conversations about these kinds of influences and behaviors? For more about the screens in your kids’ pockets, visit pluggedin.com slash radio. I’m Jonathan McKee, author of Parenting Generation Screen, with Focus on the Family’s Plugged In.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is AM560 KLZ, your home station. Welcome to Mobile Estate Planning with your host, Michael Bailey. Over a decade ago, attorney Michael Bailey turned his attention to estate law after he recognized the unacceptable number of adults without proper end of life planning. Michael recognizes that many of his clients have difficulty finding the time for making a proper estate plan. That’s why he became the Mobile Estate Planner. He will go to wherever you are to assist you with your estate planning, including writing wills, trusts, and giving you the information you need to avoid probate. Now, ATX, Ask the Experts, presents Mobile Estate Planning with your host, Michael Bailey.
SPEAKER 01 :
All right, good afternoon. Welcome to Mobile Estate Planning with Michael Bailey. So we can do something besides just leave your family alone. You’re listening to 560 KLZ AM, possibly 100.7 FM, or the KLZ 560 radio app. There’s nobody in the studio with me to listen live. So we all have to depend upon Luke to do a good job and send things out. Luke’s back there doing all his radio wizardry. Are you a true radio wizard there, Mr. Luke? Is that what I’m hearing? Yeah, yeah, I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty good. I’m here tooting it for you, so you can just agree with me. I’ll be here all week. Okay, sweet. The audience can’t see it, but I bowed rather dramatically. Yes, I will not be here all week. I’m only here for the next half an hour. But if you want to talk to me on the phone, the phone number to talk to me on the air is 303-477-5600. And once again, that’s 303-477-5600. And my direct line is 720-394-6887. And once again, 720-394-6887. So I give out those two phone numbers and I recall a few years ago I was driving home. I was just turning onto the street that runs by, the main street that I have to turn off to get onto my house. So I was like a half a mile from home. and i got a call from somebody and they called and they said they wanted to discuss whatever it was that john rush was discussing on rush to reason and i said i think you might have the numbers mixed up she’s like no no this is the one they gave out on the air i’m like yes probably he did a commercial for me and gave you my number but the studio line is the 303-477-5600 number so she was a little bit disbelieving of me until she called that line and About two minutes later, I heard her talking to John Rush on the phone. So I was trying to get someone to the right place. So the right place to talk to me on the air is the 303-477-5600 number. I tend not to talk to people on the air on the 720-394-6887 number because that’s my direct line. And while I’m on the air, it just seems like that isn’t the right place to be trying to have a private conversation with somebody about… Just because that’s how life works. But I’ve been thinking a lot this week, and one of the referral sources I have put me, they’re changing the way that they compensate me. And so I have been asked to put together a list of all of the things that I’ve done for this particular referral source for the last several years. And so as I was doing so, I went through, and they’re like, okay, the ones from last year, they’re still in process. I’m like, okay, I’m still working on those. We’ll get those done. But then I kind of kept going backwards, and I went all the way back to somebody that I had worked for them for back in 2001. And my thought was, you know, I don’t think this person who hasn’t spoken to me since the – like September of 2001, is really going to call me back. I’m getting the feeling that they might have given up on doing the estate plan. And so I put them on the list. I’m like, well, this is one that’s outstanding that if they ever got back to me, I would go ahead and finish it off. But it was kind of crazy just to think that this person, you know, almost four years ago, we met and we started the estate planning process. And so I met with them. I started the process. We talked through what they wanted to do and who they wanted to leave stuff to and who they wanted to leave in charge. And then I put together draft copies and I emailed them out draft copies and I called and talked to them on the phone a couple of times, answered some questions, and then they just kind of disappeared. Now, I don’t think anything bad has happened to these people. I assume that they’re probably living their lives and going about their business and not super concerned about what the estate planning attorney thinks of whether or not they’re going to finish their estate plan, but I, it does kind of confuse me a little bit why you’d go that far down the road and then be like, oh, and I’m not, I’m giving up. I’m like, well, maybe it makes you feel better that she started. You’re like, yes, I got it. Cool. Look at me. And then, you know, later on you’d be like, oh yes, you know, I started, but we never were able to finish it up. So then you can start with it, either back up with me or with a different attorney, you know, whatever. I’m good. But. I’ve also had many people tell me or, you know, that they’re like, oh, well, you know, but you’ve got everything, so you can just tell the court about it. So we don’t need to do anything else, do we? And I’m like, no, actually he’d kind of need to sign it and get it witnessed and notarized. Those are kind of important things. We can’t just, I mean, I do appreciate the confidence that people have in me. I appreciate that they think that I am so powerful that if they tell me what they want to do with their estate plan, that I can then go to the court and say, well, I had a conversation with them. I took some notes, and my notes are here on my trusty legal pad. And yes, I do use the notepads and the legal pads. I don’t necessarily use the legal size, the 8 1⁄2 by 13. I’m like, the 8 1⁄2 and 11 by 11 fits better in my bag and things like that. But I’m like, yes, I have notes. So I can tell you with absolute certainty that this is exactly what they wanted. I know with absolute certainty that I understood everything they told me. I had no misunderstandings. It’s not possible that I misunderstood anything. I am that powerful. Well, unfortunately, I am not. I actually got an email today, or last night, I got an email that I responded to today saying, from a client who said, oh, well, mom went into the hospital. Okay, that’s unfortunate. We gave the doctors and the emergency medical service people a copy of the living will, and they were confused about it because they thought that it meant that they had to do all of these different treatments and everything. And so we’re trying to make it easier. Can you do that? And, of course, the last line was, and would you charge for making the change? I said, well, yes, I’m going to charge for making the change. And I’m like, I was kind of questioning, I’m like, so why did you give them the living will? Was mom on life support? We were deciding whether or not we were going to keep her on life support? Or did you give them the wrong document? Because you probably should have just given them the… a medical power of attorney that allows them to make decisions for you. So if somebody is wondering who they’re supposed to be dealing with and you hand them a document that says what’s supposed to happen at the end for end of life type of things, I can see where that would be somewhat confusing to people. And I can see why they might get it confused. And it’s not that the document itself is confusing because she’s like, oh, well, you know, they all understood this. I’m like, well, they appear to not be confused by the document, what it says. because they properly read it and interpreted it. They just were wondering, why in the world are we talking about end of life and disconnecting life support when, you know, this is just a hospital visit? You know, I don’t think there was really a… I don’t think there was really going to be a problem of they would need life support. They just, you know, people go into the hospital and sometimes, you know… Most people go to the hospital, they go to get better and they come out. I mean, I’ve spent some time in hospitals. I’ve found that hospitals are wonderful places to get treatment. They’re not necessarily the most wonderful place to be restful and all those types of things that I. When I had my most serious injury, I remember being in the hospital, and you go to sleep, and every few hours somebody comes by to check on you, and the phlebotomists, or as I call them, the vampires, are there every morning at 5.30 or 6 so they can draw your blood and do whatever tests they need to so that by the time the doctors get there, they’ve got the… latest results from the blood draws so the hospitals aren’t necessarily the most restful of places to be when you’re trying to rest and recover you know they’re very good for treatment centers and all that type of thing you know i mean when i’ve needed surgeries or you know various things like that yeah you go to the hospital that’s it’s a very good place to do it you know Hospitals for surgery are wonderful places, especially compared to, I don’t know, the street corner or the golf course or the rooftop or the KLZ studios. You are listening to 560 KLZ and 100.7 FM. And this is Michael Bailey talking to you for mobile estate planning. You could also be listening to the KLZ 560 radio app. Phone number to talk to me on the air is 303-477-5600. And again, that’s 303-477-5600. And my direct line is 720-394-6887. Once again, 720-394-6887. So if you’re in a hospital and doing things, I remember that I got discharged from the hospital and I was pretty excited about that because then I could go home and sleep in my own bed and not have to worry about somebody coming to draw my blood at 5.30 or 6 in the morning, except I was asleep in my own bed and the light turns on and my mom is there. She says, oh, yes, this is Michael right here. And there was a traveling phlebotomist. A traveling vampire had come to bite me at 530 in the morning at my own house. I was not thrilled. I’m like, I’m not in the hospital anymore. I don’t have to worry about vampires coming to bite me. But apparently I did because there was still a traveling vampire. For all of you out there who are phlebotomists, you do important and necessary work. and i’m okay with that but when i’m trying to sleep at 5 30 in the morning i do feel like it’s a vampire coming to bite me so you know that’s why i try to you know exercise and eat right and stay happy and healthy as much as i can so that i don’t have to be in the hospital for long periods of time so that i can avoid being interacting with phlebotomists more than i need to now i understand that when you’re being treated you’ve got to be treated and that’s how that works but still And I have a sister-in-law who’s a phlebotomist. And when she’s in a good mood, she’ll understand that I can call her a vampire and it’s not a negative thing. But otherwise, it’s kind of how it goes. But anyhow, so when you’re in the hospital and you’re trying to do these things, I can see how this person got confused. So it is possible… that as powerful as I may be, and I’m really not, and this is also borne out by the number of times I’ve sent out a draft copy to people, and they say, hey, wait a minute, isn’t it supposed to say this? And I’m like, well, yes, yes, it is. I either didn’t read that for my notes or it somehow didn’t make it in the first draft. That’s why we send it out. because we want those drafts to be right by the time we sign them. And I want my clients to have read through them and understand them and be able to know what the estate planning documents say before they sign them. It just seems like a good idea. now sometimes there are people who are you know a little bit concerned about oh well i don’t understand everything i’m like yeah i know but i guarantee you the entire three and a half pages of the trust where it’s talking about the treasure regulations and citing all of the treasure regulations and all those type of things you probably don’t need to go read all the treasure regulations you probably don’t need to understand what every single treasure regulation says But you can believe me when I say all of those sections say that this is a grantor-type trust, everything flows through to you, and that your trustee can make whatever tax selections they need to after you’ve passed away. That’s what all those words mean. And they may or may not be the words that sometimes it’s not as clear as it would be. But if you go read the Treasury regulations, you’ll understand that clarity is not a strong suit of those who write the Treasury regulations. They’re not super keen on trying to be super clear on things. They’re just trying to implement whatever the laws are. And sometimes clarity is… not their strong suit, and that’s okay. That’s part of what happens with laws is you have laws that are passed, you have a bill that’s passed, and then a bill may or may not be the only thing that’s done. A lot of times with taxes, there’s tax bills that are passed and then the Treasury The United States Treasury or the Colorado Department of Revenue will publish their regulations and clarifications of things. And then you get revenue rulings that will clarify things. You get court rulings that clarify things or that reinterpret things. So not every single statute or not every single Treasury regulation is going to be crystal clear on what exactly it means. I mean, even sometimes there’s a Colorado law that talks about registering a trust, and it says it needs to be registered within 30 days of the trust being created. But the thing is, that means the trust becoming irrevocable. So for most people who write a revocable trust where they can change amend or revoke it during their lifetime, they don’t necessarily need to go get a separate tax ID number or need to register the trust because the interpretation is that the trust doesn’t need to be registered until such time as within 30 days of the trust becoming irrevocable. And you know, does the statute say that? No, it doesn’t. Do those of us who practice in this area know that it’s been interpreted by the courts to mean that? Yes. Or if you go into the statute and you go find the legislative history, the legislative history will talk about that. But, you know, things being completely clear and straightforward, just not part of what’s written in the statute. So as you’re going through all of these things, there can be some things that are unclear. And that’s why I want my clients to be able to read things beforehand and ask me questions on what they find unclear so that I can clarify those for them. you know, sometimes they get confused, you know, they’re like, oh, well, we want it, if it doesn’t go to our kids, we want it to go to our grandkids, if not to our grandkids, then back to the other kids, and I’m like, yes, that’s what the language to your issue per stirpes, or if no issue, then to the other surviving beneficiaries per rata means. I’m like, that’s just a couple of sentences that mean all those things, so that we can write that, you know, those are the legal words to use to write them. People are like, well, how come you just can’t write it in plain English? I’m like, Technically, that is plain English, but I understand it’s not the same words that everybody’s used to. You know, the phrase persterpes, you know, does the phrase persterpes, you know, is it used in everyday common discussion? No, it’s not. But that’s, it is a generally recognized phrase. legal phrase and legal concept that we spent time in law school and learning and knowing what it means. And so those who practice in the area that I do and those who understand the area of law where I practice, we’re all familiar with the workings of that and how it goes. But when it’s written out in somebody’s trust, they may not know exactly what those words mean. So I’m like, okay. I want you to be able to read that and I want you to be able to say, hey, I don’t know what this means so that I can clarify and explain it. I mean, I usually explain it when we’re first meeting, but I don’t expect everybody to remember everything I said the first time that I talked to them. You know, as much as I’d love to believe that everybody retains everything that somebody says to them, that’s just not true. That’s part of why there are different grades in school. You get an A, B, C, D, depending on how much you retain or how much you learned of what was taught to you. But there are certain things that need to be repeated so that we understand them. And that’s kind of why I have the whole process if I send out a draft copy. And then you can read through the draft copy and get back to me with questions, concerns, or changes immediately. And then we get that draft copy right. And then once the draft copy is right, and, you know, sometimes the first draft is correct. Woo! Sometimes there’s a question or two. Okay, that’s easy. Sometimes people are like, hey, this is completely different. I’m like, well, let’s talk about that. Okay. And people will have changed their mind from what they wanted the first time, which is perfectly acceptable. You know, not everybody has to believe or think the exact same thing all the time from the time that I first meet them all the way through when they die. I mean, if they thought that, I’d be meeting with a lot of people who are going to die soon. And I don’t want people to die soon. I want people to do their estate plan and then kind of sit on it for the next 30, 40, 50 years and be like, oh, I’m glad I did that just in case something happened, but nothing ever did happen. So now… I did my estate plan as a 50-year-old and now as a 90-year-old, I’m heading towards actually dying. So I’ve had things in place just in case, but it’s a good thing I didn’t have to use it for a long time. And my response is, yes, I very much appreciate that you didn’t have to use it for a long time because I want my clients to live long, happy, healthy lives. But you still want to do it. And once the drafts are right, you want to finish it. And I’m continually baffled why people wouldn’t want to finish what they’d started on certain times. I mean, I guess if life circumstances change or something gets in the way, I’ve had people who I met with and they decided to get divorced in between when we met and we were going to sign things. I’m like, well, we got to switch things up now, don’t we? And that’s not to say that we shouldn’t finish it. It just means we have to do things differently. Because if you’re getting divorced, you’re probably not super keen on leaving everything to an ex-spouse. That just makes sense. I have actually met ex-spouses who are in very good spots and they’re going to leave everything to the ex-spouse and they just haven’t gotten back to getting married. That is an unusual case. Most people who are getting divorced don’t really want to leave everything to their ex-spouse. That’s part of why they’re getting divorced is because they don’t want to be connected to that person. Hey, makes sense. So, you are listening to Mobile Estate Planning with Michael Bailey on KLZ 560 AM, also heard on 100.7 FM, or the KLZ 560 radio app. Phone number to talk to me in the air is 303-477-5600. And once again, that’s 303-477-5600. And my direct line is 720-394-6887. And once again, 720-394-6887. So, with all of that being said, you know, you want to finish it. And, you know, if we started it, we should finish it. Because I’m not powerful enough that I can just say, hey, everything’s fine. We need to get everything signed, witnessed, and notarized. And, you know, each document has slightly different rules. You know, they don’t, not all of them have the exact same requirements. Because making universal exact same requirements requires would require the legislature to act and to do something, whereas when they did set these up and the requirements, they were done however many years ago, and the state legislature appears to have better things to do than worry about changing signing, witnessing, and notarizing rules. Whether they’re passing the new ban on manufacturing or selling or transferring what they call assault rifles, the new assault weapons ban here in Colorado. which I don’t know that it’s necessarily an assault weapons ban, but there’s prohibitions on transferring or manufacturing certain types of firearms. I’m like, okay, well, that’s a little bit different. You know, that’s something that was important to the state legislature to do. You know, when I was in law school, I worked for the Lakewood Police Department as a legal advisor there. and I would go through all of the bills that were being done and find the ones that had to do with, I specifically worked for on finding traffic, what new traffic things would be out there. So there were new rules on how many passengers a newly licensed 16-year-old driver could have or how many passengers a 16-and-a-half-year-old or 17-year-old newly licensed driver could have or whatever. So that’s what I did was I would look at the bills to see what the new rules were. And then I wrote training bulletins for the police, for the police officers who are out enforcing the traffic rules. And it was very interesting because many of the changes were different from when I was a kid. And then I was off just being able to drive. Well, now my newly licensed 16-year-old from about a month ago, she is not allowed to drive with friends until for at least six months. She can take her brother or her sister somewhere or her parents. So she could be in the car with a family member, but she can’t just have all of her friends. Now this is not a bad thing. It’s nice to have a newly licensed driver who’s not going to be distracted by friends or people doing things. She was actually at a volleyball party in the fall and one of the other volleyball players was driving her home and somehow missed the red light. So drove through the red light into the intersection. and ended up freaking out and stopping in the middle of the intersection as people coming the perpendicular direction who had a green light and we’re all trying to stop to not crash into them. And we, our response was maybe you shouldn’t drive with that particular teammate. She’s like, yeah, I agree. But now that she’s a driver, we’re like, don’t be that teammate, be a safe driver. You know, yesterday she was on her way to volleyball practice and there was a, there was a car accident and she, all the lanes were blocked. So she couldn’t get through. Well, this is really the only way she’s ever known how to get to volleyball practice. So she started driving off through a, um, a neighborhood trying to get around the accident and the GPS kept trying to route her back to where the road was closed because there was an accident. And apparently GPS did not know that there had been an accident there. And so it was trying to route her that way. Well, she worked her way through the neighborhood and found a way to get on a road that she knew would connect to where she needed to go. And she had left about 10, 15 minutes early. So she was even on time to practice. Had she been late, it probably would have been okay. Her coaches would have understood that she was trying to get around a traffic accident and That’s how things go. But it was good for her as a newly licensed driver to be able to navigate her way around things. I mean, I don’t know that having another person in the car would have made a huge difference in that particular instance, but because that’s the way that it was, so she was able to be successful in getting where she needed to go. And so with that, so she’s a newly licensed driver. these new rules were important so i could find the new rules and pass them out and you know we could learn them and they’re good rules so that’s what i did as a legal advisor and so you know there weren’t any bills that were changing the rules of signing witnessing notarizing various estate planning documents But they do need to be signed and notarized. I had a client several years ago who he sat on his drafts for like a year and a half. And then he passed away. And his brother called me and said, oh, well, he sent me a text message that said he wanted to execute all of the things that you’ve written. Is that sufficient? I said, it’s really not. I mean, if you can go convince a court that that’s enough, go for it. But I don’t think that’s going to meet the standards. And so that particular person was trying to protect assets for like a new girlfriend and keep assets for the new girlfriend. but when he died and didn’t have that in place, it was all going to go to his closest living relatives as per the rules of the Colorado Intest State Statute, which means to die without a will. So if we’ve gotten together, we’ve talked about what we want to do, and we’ve put in the time and the effort to want to find how we can, what you want to do for your estate plan, and how you want things to go and how you want things to look. We’ve come this far, we might as well finish it. And, you know, we want to finish it because I don’t want to get calls from brothers or sisters or other relatives asking if I set up an estate plan or I got a call a couple weeks ago from somebody who said, oh, well, you know, this person had your card in their wallet. Did you prepare an estate plan for them? I’m like, I’ve never heard of that person. They never did call me. And, you know, it’s always sad when you have to deliver that type of news, but it’s just kind of how it goes. So we try to avoid that. So when we’ve started an estate plan, we want to finish it. So thank you so much for listening to Mobile Estate Planning with Michael Bailey here on 560 KLZ. John Rush and Rush Reasoner are up next, so stay tuned. And I will be back next week to talk to you some more. Thanks and have a great day. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 02 :
Mobile Estate Planning with Michael Bailey will return to ATX next Wednesday at 2.30 here on KLZ 560, AM 560, FM 100.7, and online at klzradio.com.
