[music] Welcome to Mobile Estate Planning with your host, Michael Bailey. Over a decade ago, attorney Michael Bailey turned his attention to a state 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. [music] 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 AM KLZ or 100.7 FM, or possibly on the KLZ 560 radio app, or if you’re Luke, you’re listening and making sure this goes out to all the world at large. Well, now all the world seems excessive. I don’t think I reached as quite that big. What do you think, Luke? Not quite all the way to all the world. Well, I mean, with the app and the internet, technically. There you go. I mean, your signal’s reaching everywhere in the world if someone just tunes in. That’s a good call. I remember years ago when I was growing up, a different radio station. I won’t name any names, but I was listening to a different radio station as a 12, 13-year-old. One of the hosts was talking about how the radio signal had been heard by somebody like Sweden. I’m like, that’s a long way away. I don’t know that we have such a powerful signature that we’re broadcasting all the way to Sweden. Although, you know, you watch a movie like Contact, and apparently, if a radio, if a TV signal goes off into the universe, it will just kind of keep going in a straight line. In that particular fictional movie, to be clear, it was picked up by an alien race that, you know, then brought, you know, came here. Well, we’re not worried too much about aliens today, you know. Today is September 11th, so it’s Patriots Day. You know, I mean, there is a movie called Independence Day where the aliens invade. But that is not the movie we’re talking about today. I don’t know that there’s been a particularly great September 11th movie either, you know. There’s been some of them, but they haven’t been quite as well done as many of the, not that I’m calling Independence Day, a great movie. But there have been many wonderful movies made about America and things like that, just not necessarily. You know, I mean, there’s been plenty of movies. I mean, I, I guess I prefer something like Torra, Torra, Torra to Pearl Harbor. But, you know, both were made significantly after, and some of the, you know, kind of difficulties. And, you know, I mean, I still remember the day of September 11th, 2001, when I was driving to school for an 8am advanced writing class, or maybe 9am, pros 9am, I learned my 8 o’clock lesson, my freshman year. But it was a 9am advanced writing class, and we were like, you know, a week and a half into the semester. And it was, I went for like three days, and I’m like, yeah, if I just have to turn in papers, I don’t have to go to class, I don’t have to listen to you. The professor tried to teach me how to write. I had plenty of other classes that did that in my political science and history and other classes. So I just had to turn in papers. But as I was driving, I remember hearing about, you know, a plane that hit the World Trade Center, and, you know, nobody quite knew what was happening at that point. And they just said plane. They didn’t say jumbo jet passenger jet. But I’m thinking, oh, some idiot in a Cessna got lost and ran into the World Trade Center. So that was my initial, what happened here. And so I went, and I went to my first class, and still none of us knew what was happening because it was 9am in, so the class was 9am in Utah. So, many of the events that transpired later on had not yet happened. And so I went to that class and then I had an off hour and then I went to my next class, which was a public economics class. And we were sitting there, and 10, 15, 20 minutes later, our professor showed up and said, you know, I was wondering if I should lecture today, just given the events that are transpired. And all of us were kind of like, did we miss something? Because everybody who’s in like the student center was glued to the TV, is watching what happened, is that unfolded. And we were, I had just been on the wrong part of campus, so I hadn’t been near TV. And so we ended up finding in the classroom we were in, there was a projector, and we could find, we found TV, and we’re kind of going through the various stations and landed on one that was showing footage of what was going on. But it was not a United States channel. It was actually a, it was the Provdich channel from Russia. So I was one of the few people in the class who could read and or could hear and understand what they were saying about. And so eventually they moved on because it wasn’t super interesting to the rest of the class that didn’t speak Russian like I happened to. But it was, it was a very, I think all of us were impacted by that day. And you know, I do, I work with a wartime veterans mostly, Korea, or sorry, World War II Korea and starting to do Vietnam. So people who, veterans who were wartime veterans and they’re looking for money to help pay for their long term care. And that’s part of what I do with my practice as I help people get qualified and work for and receive the VA aid and attendance benefit. And you know, because I’m on the list of authorized attorneys who work and to appear in front of the VA, I happen to work with that particular program. But I’m also on the list. So sometimes I get calls from people who want to know about their available benefits for burial or their available benefits for whatever else is happening. And I think that’s one of the things that, and so I get calls and I’m like, I don’t necessarily keep track of all of the. Yeah, I don’t keep track of all of the various programs and I’ll keep track of all of the things that you are available. It’s just not part of what I do. Yeah, there are different people who, if there’s people who work from the VA who do that, there’s attorneys who are I’m sure. And you know, that type of, you know, handle those type of cases is just not what I do because I am, it’s just not everything I wanted to do. But veterans and, you know, those who serve in the military have always kind of had a very important place for me in my life. Both my grandfather served in World War II. One of my grandfather’s was a gunners mate on the USS Tennessee. So he got to fire the big huge, you got to help fire the big huge guns, which was kind of neat. If you’re going to be on a battleship, you might as well fire big huge guns. There’s lots of other important things, but it’s still kind of fun to have it be that way. And so we had, and then my other grandfather was a medical corpsman. And so he was in the Navy and was a medical corpsman and did medical stuff. And so we had, and so, you know, I’ve always appreciated, and just because I was in my, this goes, I’ve had, you know, two grandfather’s, the Civil War Lord, who I’ve always kind of appreciated veterans. And, you know, my wife’s grandfather was also a veteran. He was apparently in the Marines. It was a sniper in Okinawa. And, you know, he was one that when they were talking about invading the island of Japan, they kind of, the officers and the, you know, the Spiriers kind of sat them all down inside. So we’re, you know, we’re looking at our next objective is to take the island of Japan. And they were basically told, “Don’t expect to survive this.” That there will be millions upon millions of casualties. And, you know, because the Japanese fighting force in World War II would fight, we’re very fanatical and would fight to the last, you know, kind of last man, woman, child type of thing. And so he was one that was grateful for the development and the deployment of the atomic bomb because it very well saved his life because there was not a necessary invasion. Now, I’m not saying that using atomic weapons is, you know, a wonderful thing, but in his case, you know, it helps save millions of lives. So, you know, for him personally, it was beneficial. So you’re listening to Mobile Estate Planning with Michael Bailey here on 560KLZAM, also heard on 100.7 FM, or the KLZ 560 radio app. Full number to talk to me on the air is 303-4775-6000. And again, that’s 303-4775-6000. And my direct line is 720-3946-887. And once again, that’s 720-3946-887. So, you know, veterans and being able to help veterans, I mean, that’s kind of how I got my start in estate planning actually was at a financial planner friend who was helping the World War II and Korean War vets get money to pay for long-term care. Because there’s a benefit called the VA aid and attendance benefit. And for veterans who served during a time of war and are now in need of long-term care, there’s money out there from the VA available to pay for that. Now, over the course of my time in helping the rules have changed. It used to be that you could, you know, there were very strict asset limits, but you could move things out of your name and into some sort of protective trust. And if you did that, then you could, if you did that on one day, you could qualify for the VA benefit the next day. Well, you know, that was not a very long, you know, at no day or a one day look back period. That’s fairly doable. Okay, well, we’ve got, you know, a million dollars in assets. Well, we’ll stash them over here in this place to hide them. Cool. Well, now you qualify. Awesome. Well, you know, there were lots and lots of people who were working on that and lots of people who were, you know, I wasn’t the only one in that space, you know. And as a matter of fact, I still work with a kind of nationwide group that the person who does the applications to the VA probably has a lot more patience in working with government entities than I do. And a lot more patience in working with the government to get things going and, you know, work through, I mean, the VA isn’t exactly known for being the most efficient or most well-run and well-organized organization in the government. Actually, I don’t know what the most efficient well-run organization the government would be. I mean, maybe the military, I don’t know. Probably not the IRS and doubting it would be the Department of Education, probably not the housing and urban development department. I don’t know. Just, you know, when I think of government, you know, super efficient isn’t the first words that jump to leap to mind. So sometimes we have to plan our ways around what the government wants us to do or doesn’t want us to do this case, maybe. So in over the course of time of helping veterans get qualified for the VA benefit several years ago, the VA came out and the Institute did a three-year look back period. So now if you want to transfer assets and try to move them, the VA will say, well, did you do that in the last three years? If you’re like, oh, yeah, they’re like, okay, well, you’re going to be disqualified from receiving benefits because you’ve moved it. Medicaid has a five-year look back period. So if you move assets out of your name and go, oh, well, you know, we’re going to look back and then you’re going to go apply for Medicaid and they’re going to say, well, did you give anything away in the last five years? Well, yeah, we did. Oh, okay. Well, it was a value of it. $100,000. Cool. We’re going to take $100,000. We’re going to say you should have spent that on us. We’re going to make you disqualified for the next number of years. And now you get to pay for it on your own. Hopefully you gave that $100,000 to somebody who will give it back to you so that you can use it to pay for life. Okay, cool. Maybe that’s not really cool. But those are the rules. The government gets to set the rules of who gets benefits from the government and who can receive what they want to receive or what they’re trying to receive. So as we go through and trying to help, you know, my world or two in Korean war veterans, a lot of times, we’ll look and say, okay, where are we at? All right. We’re like, well, we’ve got $150,000 and we’ve got a house. I’m like, okay, cool. The house is an exempt asset. So we don’t have to worry about that too much. Does your house need any sort of repairs? Is it falling into disrepair? Do you need to repair the deck? Do you need to repaint the house? Does it need a new carpet? Does it need to do a cabinets? Because that $150,000, we got to shrink it down to where it’s less than like $124,000. Or like, oh, yes, we need to redo the carpet. Okay, well, there’s $6,000. We need to redo the deck. Well, there’s $20,000. We need to repaint the outside of the house. So there’s $3,000. Okay, now you’ve got $118,000. And so we go, okay, well, now you can qualify and be set up to receive the benefit. Now that the money that you put into the house, if you ever sell the house, the cash from selling the house will turn it to in a non-exempt asset or a countable asset that could affect your eligibility. So there there’s still some planning opportunities. We say, well, you know, if we take advantage of some of the rules of transferring assets to kids or transferring assets to protective trusts, or if you’re a kid, if you have a child who’s been a caregiver for you, can transfer to them without triggering any sort of, you know, kind of look back type of periods. So there’s even if there’s a three year look back period, sometimes that may not be the end of the story because sometimes, if you come to me and you’re like, oh, well, I’ve got $6 million in assets. We need to move them all. Okay, so you’re going to move $6 million assets out of your name so that you can qualify for a VA benefit for a couple thousand a month and three years. Okay, cool. We can do that. But that may not be the best idea may not be the best thing for you and you, you know, kind of if we run numbers like, well, you know, if your break even period is, you know, 16 to 18 months from now, because, you know, when you move an asset, you lose a little bit and then you have to get your regain things. Things, you know, all of those things go into it and you say, well, if your break even period is in the next couple of months, hey, we might as well do it. If your break in period is going to be, you know, 18 to 24 or even 30, 60, 48 months, then I say, well, is it actually worth it? Because we don’t want to just jump in and do something and go, oh, we have to do this because we can. You know, that’s kind of the whole of a state planning. Sometimes people are like, well, you know, we need to do a trust to keep everything safe and protected. So if we ever need long term care, then Medicaid won’t be able to touch them. Like, cool. So how old are you? Well, I’m 43. I’m like, okay, if you’re 43, we’re going to put things in an asset protection trust. Are you, you know, you can no longer be the trustee of that trust because that’s a part of how you get the asset protection is you separate yourself from the assets. Okay, cool. Well, if we’re separated from the assets, then you’re no longer in control of the assets. As a 43 year old, I mean, if you’ve got your house all paid off and it’s not going to be a problem, cool. Go for it. If, however, you’re like most of us where at the age 43, I did not have my house paid off at the age of 46 right now. It is still not all the way paid off. I’m paying on it. I’m paying it down quicker than I might otherwise be. But, you know, I don’t. You buy a house you put on a 30 year loan as a 25 year old is like, well, that’s going to be 55. Hopefully I’ll get it paid off before I’m 55. But if not, then we’ll just kind of keep paying and see what happens. So, you know, there’s benefits and drawbacks to all of these things. So some of the asset protection trust that we set up for veterans or for people who need long term care. They’re like, okay, well, you know, we’re in our 70 news or 80s, houses paid off. So we’re like, okay, we can move that asset. We’ll put your kids in charge of the trust. And we’ll trust, we’ll believe in the benevolence of your kids and that your kids are going to do the things that they, the right thing of letting you continue to live in the house and taking care of you. But there’s just, you know, there’s always timings issues and there’s always, if we’re counting on the benevolence of kids, we need to have benevolent kids. Now, I like to think that I’m a benevolent child and that I would take care of my parents. I think that my children or benevolent children would take care of me. But I also, you know, as a 46-year-old, I have an 18-year-old in college. So I don’t really want to put my 18-year-old college student in charge of the assets of my house and being like, hey, well, you know, if you get a property tax bill, make sure you forward that to us so that we can pay. You know, that’s just not, not really how it goes is not how it’s supposed to go so that can be problematic again. So as we go, all right, well, we’ll try to figure that out so we can do and how we can make that work. That’d be good. But, you know, there, there’s always, you know, there’s not, there’s not this like wonderful thing. You’re like, oh, hey, this works and there will never be a problem. Now, there’s always benefits and drawbacks to everything. So you have the sending to a mobile estate planning with Michael Bailey here on KLZ 560 AM. also heard on 100.7 FM or the Cale Z560 radio app. Phonobar, you’re talking on the air is 303 or 303 4 7 5 6 0 0 and again that’s 303 4 7 7 5 6 0 0 and my direct line is 7 2 0 3 9 4 6 8 8 7. So as we’re looking to help veterans we have to say okay let’s let’s look at what’s what’s what’s there what’s available you know and I’ve even had veterans with the program that I work with they’ll call me and talk we’ll be talking like well you know I’m 80% disability rated veteran and I’m receiving a $3,000 pension I’m like okay well as much fun as it would be for everything to double up doesn’t quite work like that so the VA aid in attendance benefit is only going to be about $2,000 so if you’re using $3,000 and you’re going to trade out a $3,000 disability benefit for a $2,000 service connected like that’s that’s the wrong direction you don’t want to trade for 3,000 for 2000 you know it’s kind of like the story of the man who gives his child a $1 bill and he goes and he trades it for two shiny quarters and he she then he trades the two shiny quarters for three nickels and then he changed change the trades the three nickels for four pennies until he goes home to show his dad that he has four things instead of one he’s super proud of himself and his dad’s just like yep that’s great son we’re very excited for you you know get a teach kid about the value money and things like that but you don’t want to throw good money after bad and you don’t want to trade a $3,000 payment for a $2,000 payment and I’ve had that conversation with people like oh how come I can’t get both I’m like because that’s the rules you know the VA makes the rules we have to play by them kind of like the state legislature in the Supreme Court of Colorado make the rules about a state planning we have to play by them and as much as I would like to say that everybody who served in the military should receive you know all sorts of wonderful benefits they’re the rest of their entire life I don’t know that that’s really quite how it goes I mean I think that there are I mean based on your service I think there’s like health insurance benefits that can turn you but I’m not 100% familiar with how good those benefits are I hear they’re pretty good but since it’s not where I do things I’m not exactly sure so as we go through and as we attempt to help veterans we want to make sure that we’re helping them and helping them in the best way possible instead of putting them in either in a worse position or trying to do all sorts of legal changes in legal wrangling for something that may or may not work so when I hold sit down to help a veteran and like okay we do have you know some time too that we need to spend on you know doing some things or we have some time that we need to spend you know spend down a little bit of assets or you know some’s like oh well you know I really want to do this I’m like well let’s talk about that let’s talk about the time frame involved you know if you have three years do you have five years and someone who’s like well you know I got diagnosed with cancer and so I think I only have a year and a half to live like okay then it might not be in your best interest to say let’s do something that has a three or a five year time horizon when we’re going to run out of that time horizon I mean I have had people where I met with the person and I drafted everything sent it out for review and I got a call back that the person had passed away from the cancer that they had and I’m like oh no and so as much as I want to help people and I want to put them in a good position I also don’t want to you know overcharge people for something like oh yes you can do this cool trust and it’s only going to be $4,000 and then you know if you get past the five years you’ll be able to get all this wonderful things but if you only live three years then you don’t get any benefit from the government paying you benefit because you didn’t get past it and you’ve just paid me extra for me to do something that was what I would consider overkill so whether or not something is overkill or it’s worth the risk or it’s worth the time is not really a determination that I’m able to make for people because the unknown of what are you going to die or when are you going to get sick when are you going to need long-term care that I just don’t know how to do apparently I’m not clairvoyant apparently I’m not you know able to see the future and just know what’s going to happen I mean that would be really good skill to have in a state planning attorney I think I’m like haha I can see when your death will be so I know exactly how much you know when we need to do things and when we need to have things set up and that that would be a great skill to have I think then I would I think if I had that skill of knowing exactly when people would die I would also then probably do a lot of investing in life insurance for people or I’m like okay I know full well that you have 19 years 360 three years to live so I’m going to buy a 20-year term plan on you that you’ll die two days before it expires and then I’ll get the payout that’ll be great you know if I did that for people then I could be that I could be ridiculously rich at the expense of the insurance companies but I think they’d probably figure out what’s going on with me if I was buying these plans and people were dying within a day or two they’re like maybe we won’t sell this guy those type of plans anymore but I really want them that’s not how that works but you know I don’t have that skill I don’t have that ability but I do like to help people make informed decisions and you know a lot of the people that I’ve done stuff for I was able to help them and they’ve been receiving VA benefits for years and years that’s helping pay for life I did have one where I signed a trust on a Friday afternoon and she had an unexpected stroke and died on Saturday and the her son called me and said well what can we do I said well fortunately we’ve got your trust in place it’ll distribute things out sorry that we’re not going to be able to get you money from the VA but and it was just an unexpected thing and I felt really terrible for him I mean I was most concerned I’m like hey how are you doing or how are you handling it like oh it’s rough but I think a lot of times when parents reach that age and their health is starting to go it’s you never want to get rid of anybody but sometimes it’s a little bit of a relief to have somebody who’s been suffering for that long leave us but I appreciate everybody listening to mobile estate planning with Michael Bailey stay tuned for rush a reason or up rush a reason is up next and hopefully next week we don’t have to talk about Patriots day and things like that so thanks so much for listening I’ll be back next week I have a great day and bye bye [Music] Mobile estate planning with Michael Bailey will return to ATX next Wednesday at 230 here on KLZ 560 AM 560 FM 100.7 and online at KLZradio.com