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.
Michael Bailey (Host) :
Good afternoon. Welcome to Mobile Estate Planning with Michael Bailey here on KLZ 560 AM. Also heard on 100.7 FM, the KLZ 560 radio app. Or today, Luke is not the one hearing things and sending them out to the world. I get Charlie today. So we’re very happy to have Charlie. Luke is apparently snowed in. He is stuck in his house. And I can understand that. in a more rural area that had a long driveway, I too would be happy to be stuck in on a given day. But I am not. I live in a kind of suburban neighborhood. And this morning I woke up and I went out and I started the car so that it would Warm up and be nice and warm when I took my daughter to school and then could drive around today. I’ve been happy that the roads have been fairly, you know, they’re wet, but they’re not like slippery and slick. You know, driving home last night, I think the roads were even worse than they are right now. So as it gets dark, that may change. But, you know, we’ll see. So if you want to talk to me on the air, phone number is 303-477-5600. And again, that’s 303-477-5600. And my direct line is 720-394-6887. Again, that’s 720-394-6887. And I hope we were all enjoying our snowy holiday today. For those of you who are wondering what holiday it is, it is the day after an election. So this is our We Are Political ad free holiday day today. So we no longer have to listen to candidate A and candidate B being described as the best people and the worst people in successive commercials. I’m like, look, try to sell me stuff I don’t need, you know? I saw a commercial. I was watching a football game. It was a commercial for some sort of, like, kinetic movement little scooter type of thing. You sat down on it and pushed back and forth. And they’re like, oh, it’s the latest craze. It’s the latest everything. I’m like, no, we bought those for our kids when they were called plasma cars 10 years ago. But now they have a new name. So I’m like, go back to trying to get me to buy stuff or convince me that I need to drive a Toyota or a a Mazda as opposed to a Honda because Toyota and Mazdas are vastly superior in every way, shape, and form. Now, I mean, I don’t know that there’s… To be clear, I don’t care about Toyota, Mazda, or Honda. They’re all perfectly fine cars as far as I know. And you’ll notice that they’re all kind of the same vein. I didn’t throw a Lexus or an Infiniti or something like that in there. They’re the higher level ones. So… I sent in my mail-in ballot two weeks ago, and I’m like, isn’t there a way to opt out of having to deal with political commercials? But alas, there was not. But now that we are done, there’s no more political commercials. Like I said, the holiday is the free from political ads day. And, you know, but it was very interesting to watch those political ads with my kids. You know, my 18 year old is off at college and we sent her her ballot and she filled it out. She actually called. She said, so how am I supposed to fill this out? We’re like, well. This is what you do. She’s like, so we explained to her our kind of kind of our thought process. We would think through the various ways, the various candidates and amendments and propositions and proposed things. And we like, OK, so that’s how our thought process. She’s like, but which way should I vote? And we’re like, we can’t tell you that actually, kiddo. that’s up to you because you’re the one voting and we don’t want to tell you how to vote because that just seems like a bad idea. I mean, she very likely voted in a different direction on many things than the way that I would have voted because she’s her own person and she thinks differently than I do and A lot of that might be that I’m a parent and she’s a child, or it could be that I’m 46 and she’s 18. There’s just different approaches. And just because she would want to vote one way or another way on something doesn’t mean that I’m going to be upset with her. But I certainly don’t want to tell her what to do. and so, you know, not being, you know, I couldn’t, I can be like, no, you must vote yes on this proposition and no on this proposition. And I was like, okay, here’s some things to think about. Here’s some things you want to learn about. Here’s some things you want to know about. They go, oh, okay. You know, those, those are the things you want to consider. And then once you’ve considered those things, then you can do it. Now, then she started asking about candidates. What about this Canada? What about that Canada? I’m like, well, you know, you’re, Sometimes your candidates you can know very well. One of the people who is running for a state house seat is in our church congregation. We know them rather well. I think we might have voted different directions on that particular person, my daughter and I, based on our thoughts and interactions with that person. Some of the other people, I didn’t have nearly as many thoughts and interactions on. I’ve never had a personal interaction with either presidential candidate. I just haven’t. Several years ago, when Bill Ritter was running for president, I’m like, well, I worked for Bill Ritter at the DA’s office. I know the guy. I had a personal interaction with him, so I had a better idea of what he was like as a person. A lot of the things that we hear about the presidential candidates, I’m like, well, I’ve never met either of them. I don’t know exactly who they are as people, so you have to believe whatever reports there are. But in the same way that my daughter, in filling out the ballot, we could kind of be like, okay, here’s how your thought process, you want to think about this. You kind of think it through and then arrive at your own conclusion. That’s a lot of what I do with estate planning as well. Think about the thought process of… People are like, oh, well, I’m relying on you to tell me what to do. And usually people are like, oh, what should I do? I’m like, if you came here for me to tell you what to do, you are going to be sorely disappointed in this meeting because I can’t tell you what to do. I can only tell you what you’re allowed to do, what you can’t do and kind of push you towards, hey, what is it that you want to do? Because that’s one of the things that comes in with estate planning is what do you want to do? Who do you want to leave it to? You know, sometimes even yesterday I was meeting with somebody and it was a. A mom and one of her sons was there, and the other son was supposed to come, but he got hung up doing something else. So I was like, okay, so if you die, are we giving everything to the son that’s here and nothing to the other one because he’s not here to defend himself? And they laughed. They’re like, no, we should do it 50-50. I’m like, okay, I figured that’s what you wanted to do. But it was funnier to let her… laugh at the silliness that just because they didn’t make the meeting, we wouldn’t give them any money. So I try to be a little bit funny about things. I try to be not too demanding on people. But I do need to draw out what is it that you want to do with your estate plan? because your estate plan is different from my estate plan they they’ll be the same documents there’s a will there’s a trust there’s powers of attorney yes but i would very much doubt that the person you want to be your agent and make your financial or medical decisions if you’re incapacitated would be the same as the person i chose because i mean first of all in first place i have my wife and And I’ve been married to her for coming up on 21 years. So I like to think January 2nd will be 21 years. So I like to think that I’ve got a pretty good relationship with her and she has a pretty good relationship with me. So we can trust each other. And it’s a great thing that we have that. But the rest of you out there, you’re not married to my wife. If you were, then we’d have a bigger problem than simply who is going to make decisions for us. But because it is that time, you are listening to Mobile Estate Planning with Michael Bailey here on 560 KLZ AM or 100.7 FM. The phone number to talk to me on the air is 303-477-5600. And again, that’s 303-477-5600. 4 7 7 5 6 0 0. And my direct line is 7 2 0 3 9 4 6 8 8 7. And once again, that’s 7 2 0 3 9 4 6 8 8 7. So our, um, So, you know, going through, you know, who do we pick? I mean, if someone was like, oh, who do you think I should pick to make a decision? I’d be like, well, I think that my wife would be a wonderful person for you to pick. They’d be like, yeah, but we don’t necessarily know your wife. I’m like, yeah, but I can vouch for her. She’s really awesome. But then again, I don’t think my wife would want to make decisions for everybody. Now, we all know people in our lives who would like to make everybody’s decisions for everybody. You know, I have a… I have a friend and his mom and grandma are like that. They’re pretty sure that they know absolutely everything and that they can make the best decisions ever. And they’re not shy at all about telling you that, that they could make perfect, better decisions for you. And I’m like, well, the person or the entity that I know that would make perfect decisions is in fact the deity that I worship. And you’re not it. So I can’t really say that everybody’s going to do everything perfect. But I don’t know that my wife would want to be making decisions for everybody. I think she makes great decisions for our family.
