Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's your old pal and trusted confidante Josh
Speaker 1: and for this week's s Y s K selects, I've
Speaker 1: chosen How Wills Work to Die in the Wool example
Speaker 1: of a classic Stuff You Should Know episode where we
Speaker 1: did our absolute best to find the most interesting stuff
Speaker 1: about a seemingly boring topic. Plus it's chock full of
Speaker 1: helpful legal advice issued by a pair of decidedly non
Speaker 1: lawyers us at any rate, I hope you enjoy it,
Speaker 1: Take care of Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a
Speaker 1: production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as
Speaker 1: always is Charles W. Chuck Chucker, Chuck Tran, Brian Chuck
Speaker 1: trans so weird to me, I don't get it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have no recollection of where that came from. Are no? Wait?
Speaker 1: It was from a show though, Yeah, you didn't just
Speaker 1: make that up, not just now, No, it was there
Speaker 1: was It was in relation to something we were talking
Speaker 1: about at the time. Someone It made sense once, okay, um,
Speaker 1: I was on our Facebook page. I was looking for
Speaker 1: discussions like sometimes I like to go on and read
Speaker 1: like what's your favorite line? Did you ever. Have you
Speaker 1: ever read this? It's like a trip down memory lane. Really. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's like whole discussion threats. There's like forty different threats
Speaker 1: people have created. But there was one that was like,
Speaker 1: what's what's your favorite stuff you should know line of
Speaker 1: all time? And I can't I can't find that thread
Speaker 1: any longer. It was a good one. Did you go
Speaker 1: through and count on how many you had and how
Speaker 1: many I had? I did not count. I kept a
Speaker 1: running tally, but I didn't count just mentally. I didn't
Speaker 1: write anything down as it as it were. Chuck. Yes,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine was a pretty good year for movies. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: allow me. That year the Muppet movie came out, Creamer
Speaker 1: Versus Kramer was number one at the box office. One
Speaker 1: of my personal favorites Amityville Horror, the first one, the
Speaker 1: nineteen nine one m what do you Allen's Manhattan the Jerk.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite all time movie. Manhattan is I've not
Speaker 1: seen it? What I have not? Okay? The Jerk is awesome?
Speaker 1: Oh wait, the Jerk or Manhattan? I said Manhattan. You said,
Speaker 1: uh huh, yeah, Manhattan. I was just I was changing
Speaker 1: the subject. Okay, all right. I like the Jerk, Alien,
Speaker 1: Rocky Too, Alien so far ahead of its time, Moonraker
Speaker 1: so behind the times. But none of these held a
Speaker 1: candle too in my opinion. Overlooked movie by director Michael
Speaker 1: Schultz a classic called Scavenger Hunt. Really have you ever
Speaker 1: seen it? No, you've not seen Scavenger Hunt? Uh? No?
Speaker 1: Was it kind of a riff on? It's a mad, mad,
Speaker 1: mad mad world. I can see how some maybe some
Speaker 1: uh elitists might make that distinction or that that um comparison.
Speaker 1: Okay um. I personally think that it's a great movie
Speaker 1: and it's about vin and Price. While it begins, Vincent Price,
Speaker 1: is this aged video game magnet? Was he ever young? No?
Speaker 1: He was born like gold and gray. Yeah, and suave,
Speaker 1: though he was much more suave than he led on. Um,
Speaker 1: he is dying and he actually does die playing one
Speaker 1: of his video games. And then you cut to the
Speaker 1: his his former home, and his lawyer is executing a
Speaker 1: will which his stated worth two million dollars. And it
Speaker 1: turns out we learned very quickly as all the characters assemble,
Speaker 1: that the whole thing is up for grabs to a
Speaker 1: single team who go on a scavenger Hunt. Did you
Speaker 1: really see this or is this just I grew up
Speaker 1: on this one? Okay, Yeah, that's a great movie. Have
Speaker 1: you really not seen it? No, I've never heard of it.
Speaker 1: I strongly recommend it, and I found it just to
Speaker 1: get myself in the mood. I found it on YouTube
Speaker 1: and parts I think eleven parts, like ten minutes segments.
Speaker 1: So if you're a very cheap person um or can't
Speaker 1: find it, it's up on YouTube. Sweet. I think if
Speaker 1: you search um Scavenger Hunt and then in parentheses nine,
Speaker 1: it'll it'll bring it up. Awesome. So the whole point
Speaker 1: of that was that number one, scaveng John is a
Speaker 1: good movie, and number two people do some wacky things
Speaker 1: with wills. That scenario wasn't that far off from things
Speaker 1: that people have done with their wills. We're talking about wheels, Chuck.
Speaker 1: Let's get ready to talk about contract law. I know
Speaker 1: this is one of the first articles I wrote, and
Speaker 1: it was a little rigid, but there's not a lot
Speaker 1: you can do. I mean, try to make it a
Speaker 1: little fun in the end. But I was fully planning
Speaker 1: on complimenting you on this article. It's a good article,
Speaker 1: it's comprehensive, it's got everything you need. I mean, you
Speaker 1: don't get into like any of the legal mamo jumbo,
Speaker 1: but that's not the role of the site. And you
Speaker 1: know what, let's just go ahead and say, I'm glad
Speaker 1: you brought that up. We are not attorneys. You should
Speaker 1: not take this podcast and base your will and life
Speaker 1: on Please do not do that. No, but that being said,
Speaker 1: you can get um all the documents you need to
Speaker 1: create your own will for six dollars and cents at Staples. Really. Huh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they have everything. Well, that brings up one of the
Speaker 1: first points, which is a will isn't super complicated to
Speaker 1: draw up, um, and it varies from state to state,
Speaker 1: so you can do it yourself, but you should get
Speaker 1: an attorney to look over things. But if you want
Speaker 1: to save a few bucks, you can always go to Staples. Well, well,
Speaker 1: we should probably say that again and again through this
Speaker 1: this podcast, as you did again and again through this article, Like, really,
Speaker 1: you should have at the very least an attorney look
Speaker 1: at your will if you're gonna do it yourself. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: let's talk about some of the specifics. Man. If if
Speaker 1: you are um, if you have ten minutes to write
Speaker 1: this thing a piece of paper and a pen. What
Speaker 1: are the high points that you want to hit to
Speaker 1: make your will as close to legal as possible? And
Speaker 1: by the way, state law governs wills, right, yeah, And
Speaker 1: you always got to check with your state and if
Speaker 1: you if you want to call it up and be like, state,
Speaker 1: I got some questions for you. And if you have
Speaker 1: a will in one state and you move, it'll it'll
Speaker 1: still be valid. But you still should check your state's
Speaker 1: laws and stuff like that, right, Because is it the
Speaker 1: state you die in that is the state that you
Speaker 1: execute your your will is executed in? Jeez, because it
Speaker 1: seems like if you were going to move, it would
Speaker 1: seem like that's the way it would go. I guess. So,
Speaker 1: but what if you you die on vacation Hawaii? Is
Speaker 1: your will wouldn't be based on I think. I think
Speaker 1: it's pertains to the state in which it was drafted
Speaker 1: and approved. Check with your lawyer. Check with your lawyer,
Speaker 1: or at least call the state. I didn't think you'd
Speaker 1: stop me so early, all right, So what you want
Speaker 1: to have, at the very bare minimum is your name,
Speaker 1: your spouse's name if you have one, and when you
Speaker 1: were married, yeah, your your children's names so they can
Speaker 1: make sure they're not confusing you your other spouse with
Speaker 1: your spouse in the will. That's right, Um, your children's
Speaker 1: names and I love this part. How you want any
Speaker 1: step children or false foster children to be treated? You
Speaker 1: could be like, well, yeah, please treat them well. Um,
Speaker 1: a statement revoking any other wills if you have one, Um,
Speaker 1: you gotta name your executor and an alternate. You should
Speaker 1: name an alternate list of powers that you want that
Speaker 1: executive or to have special gifts, personal property and uh.
Speaker 1: Instructions for distributing paying debts. There are actually you know,
Speaker 1: you can't decide whether or not you want to pay
Speaker 1: your debts, but after debt has been paid, how you
Speaker 1: want your stuff to be doled out? So I'm officially
Speaker 1: founding a movement that if your debtors can't get the
Speaker 1: money they need out of you while you're alive, that's that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: didn't you look that up? What's the what's the law? Well,
Speaker 1: the for it varies by state again, um, but generally,
Speaker 1: if you have enough money to pay, say like a
Speaker 1: credit card debt, you have to pay that credit card debt.
Speaker 1: But there there are um, there are onuses on credit
Speaker 1: card companies like they have to notify your executor um
Speaker 1: within like sixty days or something of this outstanding debt
Speaker 1: um and if it turns out that there's not enough money,
Speaker 1: then you can basically say like, sorry, that's that, and
Speaker 1: the credit card company has to write it off and
Speaker 1: then we all pay for it with our outrageous financing fees.
Speaker 1: In the end um burial instructions. You can sometimes put
Speaker 1: it in a will, but you should burial. I just
Speaker 1: got thick tongue, didn't burial And you probably want those
Speaker 1: somewhere else though, because sometimes the will isn't like immediately
Speaker 1: accessible if you've got it locked in a safe in
Speaker 1: your family does another combination, they're they're gonna lead you
Speaker 1: laying around on the floor for days. You don't need
Speaker 1: to sweat your pension plan or life insurance or annuity
Speaker 1: stuff like that because that's all taken care of they
Speaker 1: the beneficiary or in those documents, so it doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be in your will, right, and it can actually
Speaker 1: screw things up, right, not screw things up. It can
Speaker 1: slow things down because you can say I I want this,
Speaker 1: you know, my life insurance policy to go to my
Speaker 1: estate and then divvy it up, but that just adds
Speaker 1: a lot more time to the process. Correct. Absolutely, Um,
Speaker 1: you should probably in most states have to be at
Speaker 1: least eighteen years old to have a legal will, and
Speaker 1: you have to everyone knows you have to be of
Speaker 1: sound mind and body or I think it's just sound mind, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I mean, what does your body of do with?
Speaker 1: As long as you can make an X or you know,
Speaker 1: draw a whale like quick wag, you're fine. So what
Speaker 1: does uh, what does that mean legally speaking? Mentally? Um? Sound? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you brought that up, or I'm glad
Speaker 1: that you put this in the article because I think
Speaker 1: it's a good idea. Basically, you have to know that
Speaker 1: you own property. You have to know about it, right.
Speaker 1: If you don't know that you have like a hundred
Speaker 1: acres in Montana, then you're not probably a sound mind.
Speaker 1: Or you did at one time know that you had
Speaker 1: it and just don't remember any longer. That that could
Speaker 1: be a problem as well. If you're not it is
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of said to not be of sound mind. Um,
Speaker 1: if you're not suffering from a mental illness, which I
Speaker 1: remember I saw a remake of Psycho which wasn't psycho
Speaker 1: to It was made for TV, and it was kind
Speaker 1: of a spoof comedy. And the thing starts with the
Speaker 1: execution of Norman Bates will and it gets to the
Speaker 1: point where it says, I Norman eights being of sound mind,
Speaker 1: and everybody in the rooms like. But it kind of
Speaker 1: brings up a point like, what do you do if
Speaker 1: you are mentally ill and you have a bunch of
Speaker 1: assets and you've never created a will and you want
Speaker 1: to create when you just do you die in testing?
Speaker 1: That's a good question into state. I do know that, Uh,
Speaker 1: if you become mentally ill later on, then it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter as long as you have a sound mind when
Speaker 1: you first wrote the will, right, okay, um. You also
Speaker 1: need to be aware of the people who are related
Speaker 1: to you again, like, not like you fathered a kid
Speaker 1: back in nineteen sixty two that you didn't know about.
Speaker 1: That's not what they're talking about. They're talking about the
Speaker 1: kid that you had nineteen sixty two and raised into
Speaker 1: an adulthood is still recognizable to you. And also, you
Speaker 1: generally probably shouldn't hold conversations with lapper cons that tell
Speaker 1: you to burn things, right, that's usually a big red
Speaker 1: flag that you might not be a sound mind. That's right,
Speaker 1: so chuck that sound mine. Um, and let's say you've
Speaker 1: got that check check check. You know about your land
Speaker 1: and Montana, you know your kid's name. Um, you you
Speaker 1: don't suffer from mental illness, and you are ready to
Speaker 1: create your will? All right? Boom the executor. Yes, that
Speaker 1: is the most important person in your will, because that
Speaker 1: is the person that is gonna make an inventory of
Speaker 1: all your junk. Um, they're gonna pay your debts. They're
Speaker 1: legitimate debts. That is not vinny who comes over and
Speaker 1: says you will meet although you may want to pay
Speaker 1: that too if you're smart. Um distributes the assets under
Speaker 1: the terms of the will. So it can be anybody,
Speaker 1: but you want it to be someone you really really trust.
Speaker 1: Someone who's probably pretty smart, maybe has a little business experience,
Speaker 1: and someone who is thoughtful because you can get ugly.
Speaker 1: You want someone this is a tough time for a
Speaker 1: family usually, and you want someone that's got some a
Speaker 1: good bedside manner if they're going to execute your will, right,
Speaker 1: not some jerk. Right. You also want somebody who has
Speaker 1: a lot of time to go to your house and
Speaker 1: inventory stuff. I remember when I found out my sister
Speaker 1: is my dad's executive tricks um, And I was like,
Speaker 1: what about me? And I read about all that. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're just like cut me the check. Yeah, I actually
Speaker 1: think my dad likes me more than I thought, now
Speaker 1: that I know what an executive executive has to do,
Speaker 1: let you off the hook. Yeah. Well, now we're on
Speaker 1: the road, driving in your truck. Want to learn a
Speaker 1: thing or two from Josh Man, Chuck. Stuff you should know?
Speaker 1: All right, that's why sks good. But you should know, so, Chuck,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the different kinds of wills. Right. There's
Speaker 1: obviously the standard like ironclad will, it's been drafted by
Speaker 1: an attorney or whatever. She'll talk about a second. But
Speaker 1: there's some kind of interesting wills because death doesn't necessarily happen,
Speaker 1: um when you're counting on it, exactly. That should be this,
Speaker 1: That should be stuff you should know as new model,
Speaker 1: the new slogan, death doesn't happen when you're counting on it.
Speaker 1: Death doesn't necessarily happen when you're counting on Just to
Speaker 1: add the extra, I like it a bit of suspense. Um.
Speaker 1: So you're talking about probably, um, a couple of things
Speaker 1: one can be an oral will, which is a lot
Speaker 1: of times in the in the old days, and it
Speaker 1: might still happen because soldiers are still very young and
Speaker 1: might not think that they need a will because they're
Speaker 1: young and their bulletproof. But a lot of times soldiers
Speaker 1: on the battlefield would execute an oral well to their
Speaker 1: buddy there as their dying in the trenches. You want
Speaker 1: to do too, buddies, oh to two witnesses. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: definitely helps the helps the case that it's legal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the in the scenario I just mentioned, which is
Speaker 1: the the dying soldier on the battlefield, is one of
Speaker 1: the more common ways that an oral will will be
Speaker 1: upheld because I imagine they have a lot of compassion
Speaker 1: for something like that. Yeah, And um, if they can
Speaker 1: find your your buddies and get them to sign an affidavit,
Speaker 1: or they can actually come to probate court and say, yes,
Speaker 1: this is what he said. He said to leave it
Speaker 1: all to me. Yeah, no, he said to leave it
Speaker 1: all to me. Then it turns ugly. But if they
Speaker 1: both agree that it is what you said, then um,
Speaker 1: it's probably going to stand up in court. Right. So
Speaker 1: what's a deathbed will? A deathbed will is virtually the
Speaker 1: same thing, but say, rather than dying young and being
Speaker 1: of sound mind, you might be on your deathbed and
Speaker 1: are suffering from Alzheimer's or something like that, so the
Speaker 1: deathbed will UM. It also can be written to it's
Speaker 1: more of like the time rather than the type right um,
Speaker 1: so the the it can be written, It can be oral,
Speaker 1: and you can have several witnesses, but it's also the
Speaker 1: most commonly challenged one because mental capacity is frequently argued,
Speaker 1: like this person didn't know what they were talking about,
Speaker 1: or somebody you know had their feeding too kinks, so
Speaker 1: they did it under durest you know. Yeah. Uh, there
Speaker 1: is a holographic wheel Josh, very informal handwritten. Usually this
Speaker 1: is the coolest looking will. That's right, it's not a hologram. Uh.
Speaker 1: Not all states recognize these as valid um, so as
Speaker 1: always check with your state. But scenario where this might
Speaker 1: happen is you wreck your car on a snowy road
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere and you're like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: die and I'm gonna scratch out my will, or you
Speaker 1: pee it into the snow that would be awesome, or
Speaker 1: if you're James Franco or that real dude and you're
Speaker 1: stuck in a and a boulder. You could probably videotape it,
Speaker 1: although I think holographic is strictly handwritten. Yeah, so that
Speaker 1: would be an oral deathbed will sort of commonly written
Speaker 1: in blood, but he lived one's own blood. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a pretty cool one. I said it was cool. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's the coolest one that you think. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: the the impending death by oneself? Yeah, yeah, and you
Speaker 1: just scratch it out and whatever paper you have and
Speaker 1: then succume to the elements. I think it's neat because
Speaker 1: think about it, you're thinking about the people you love
Speaker 1: and in some way they're there with you. Right then. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but what if you're saying, I don't want to leave
Speaker 1: any of those no good uh never do wells anything, Well,
Speaker 1: then you deserve to freeze to death. Okay. Uh, there's
Speaker 1: the d I y will which you mentioned. You can
Speaker 1: get um on the internet or I guess it Staples.
Speaker 1: You can get the forms. Self probating wills can save
Speaker 1: you a little time. Well, this is the ironclad will, right,
Speaker 1: I think so, so this is the one where you
Speaker 1: hire a lawyer to draft it. At the very least
Speaker 1: review it. But probably you've hired a lawyer to draft
Speaker 1: your will a couple hundred bucks from what I understand. Um,
Speaker 1: and the the witnesses sign affidavits ahead of time that
Speaker 1: are part of the will, saying like, yes, this guy
Speaker 1: did say this, so you don't have to These witnesses
Speaker 1: don't have to appear in probate court to testify that
Speaker 1: this is the correct will. So it expedites the whole process.
Speaker 1: It makes it more difficult to challenge. And basically it's
Speaker 1: the butt of boom butt of being of wills. Don't
Speaker 1: contest me, baby, is what it says at the bottom. Uh.
Speaker 1: And since we're talking about contesting and changing that happens
Speaker 1: all the time, totally illegal. The only person that can
Speaker 1: change a will is the test to tour. Why is
Speaker 1: that funny? That's like Hodgment says complain ant and defend
Speaker 1: ant and Judge John Hodgment. So the test it tour
Speaker 1: is the only person that can do this. It's very
Speaker 1: common a lot of reasons. You might have a new kid,
Speaker 1: you might get divorced, you might get married, you might
Speaker 1: start hating your kid, might start hating your kid. The
Speaker 1: tax laws might change in your favors. You can tweak
Speaker 1: it a bit. H You might all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you might win the lottery and think, oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: I might want to rethink how my will has read
Speaker 1: at this point. Or you might just feel like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm kind of old and my kids are
Speaker 1: doing okay, so I'd rather just leave my money to
Speaker 1: some great charities. That's a nice thing to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Bill Kates, he's leaving the line sheriff his though to charity.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, while he's alive. Even tried. Um And okay,
Speaker 1: So let's say that your your elderly parent dies and
Speaker 1: you decide that, um, he or she is obviously crazy
Speaker 1: because he or she left his or her money to charity. Right, right,
Speaker 1: You can challenge this, right, that's right, and there are
Speaker 1: a number of ways to challenge it. But it's that's
Speaker 1: it's first of all, it's a very difficult, long and
Speaker 1: expensive process. Unless you have like real solid evidence of
Speaker 1: one of maybe several points that that could possibly overturn
Speaker 1: a will, it's gonna be you're not gonna win, and
Speaker 1: not anyone can challenge like no Schmo off the street,
Speaker 1: or like let's say you I couldn't challenge your will
Speaker 1: and say but Josh was my podcast partner. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't matter. I don't know. You could
Speaker 1: technically be a person of legal standing, which is what
Speaker 1: you have to be to challenge it will. You either
Speaker 1: have to be someone who is in the will and
Speaker 1: you're challenging it like I got reem. This is terrible.
Speaker 1: I want more money and that's what is your problem.
Speaker 1: But you can't challenge on fairness. I mean, you can
Speaker 1: do it, but you won't win. Thank you for correcting me. Um.
Speaker 1: You could be like somebody was holding this guy's feeding too.
Speaker 1: You know this is because so that's when you can challenge.
Speaker 1: Or you could be someone who should have been in
Speaker 1: the will e g. A podcaster. I would think it's
Speaker 1: usually a family member, though you probably have to be
Speaker 1: a I would blood relative, blood or maybe marriage. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure if you're a blood relative, it helps make you. Um,
Speaker 1: it helps your position as a person of legal stand anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna challenge your will like when we're in our eighties,
Speaker 1: and this is gonna be like some sort of proof
Speaker 1: that I agree you should be a person of legal
Speaker 1: standing at least will be like the Sunshine Boys, like
Speaker 1: we haven't spoken in thirty years, and like our children
Speaker 1: are trying to get us together for a more show.
Speaker 1: Yeah did you ever see that? No, that's a good one,
Speaker 1: but I laughed anyway. All right, um, and by the way,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving all my stuff to you me so you
Speaker 1: can challenge it all you want, pal, but I just
Speaker 1: contradicted your challenge and this is going to stand up.
Speaker 1: And you know, because this is a very public I
Speaker 1: would think that this would work. Yeah, I wouldn't challenge.
Speaker 1: I mean, she can have it all, Okay, she can
Speaker 1: have your junk, So a good junk. If you do,
Speaker 1: you do, Josh, have a good junk. Um. If you
Speaker 1: do challenge it, um, which you're gonna, you can either
Speaker 1: rewrite it completely, revoke the original, or add something called
Speaker 1: a codicil to your existing will. It's just like an addendum. Basically.
Speaker 1: Oh that's if you want to change your will. But
Speaker 1: if you want to challenge it, well, well there's going
Speaker 1: to turn out so right the will is forged this
Speaker 1: one um that it didn't meet the requirements of the state,
Speaker 1: Like maybe the state requires two witnesses and there's only one. Um,
Speaker 1: it didn't. Uh, the person was coerced the testator, right,
Speaker 1: it was coerced with the kink in the feeding too. Um,
Speaker 1: the tested term was a victim of fraud. What would
Speaker 1: that be? I don't know. Um, like maybe the person
Speaker 1: who drew up the will wasn't really a lawyer but
Speaker 1: charged lawyer's fee oradeah. Okay. And then lastly, the beneficiary
Speaker 1: doesn't improve the executor. And this could be like the
Speaker 1: executors maybe the fraudulent attorney. Yeah, it couldn't. It can't
Speaker 1: just be like she borrowed my pearl necklace once and
Speaker 1: never gave it back. There's no way she can execute
Speaker 1: this estate. Right. And I didn't get stats, but the
Speaker 1: general feeling I get is that wills are pretty tough
Speaker 1: to overturn unless, like you said, there's some pretty blatant
Speaker 1: egregious errors or fraud going on. And if and if
Speaker 1: it is rejected, then they just go to the state law,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, your wife gets this percentage, your
Speaker 1: firstborn gets this percentage, and on down the line. Okay,
Speaker 1: And that's as if you had died without a will.
Speaker 1: That's how they treat it, which is called dying intestate. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I never heard that word. Okay, so let's say that
Speaker 1: you um, let's say that you really your kid. It
Speaker 1: just really turns out to be a jerk. You did
Speaker 1: everything you could, but you just don't like your kid.
Speaker 1: You nurtured, you nurtured, you nurtured, and then natured one out.
Speaker 1: It's like Sean Penn in the game before you went
Speaker 1: through the game. Oh yeah, like that kind of guy. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, Okay, you can cut your kid out of
Speaker 1: the will, but there's you have to follow a specific guideline.
Speaker 1: And that guideline is you officially have to disinherit your kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm surprised it's it's easier to write your child
Speaker 1: out of your will than your spouse. Yeah. And you
Speaker 1: you you brought the child into the world, you married
Speaker 1: the spouse. I was surprised by that too, Chuck. Yeah, you,
Speaker 1: like you said, you disinherit a child for unless you
Speaker 1: have some sort of ironclad pre nup, then your spouse
Speaker 1: husband or wife is gonna be um, gonna be getting
Speaker 1: some dough a half. Generally is the is the way
Speaker 1: to go. Um. So, spouses are tough. Kids are easy, right,
Speaker 1: but um, most lawyers will be like don't do that.
Speaker 1: Do not just disinherit, and don't try to cut your
Speaker 1: spouse out. It's gonna make you look like a jerk.
Speaker 1: It's going to make a judge overturn your will. Here's
Speaker 1: what you do. You give them each fifty cents. Okay, right,
Speaker 1: pretty horrible, Right? That didn't make you look like a jerk, No,
Speaker 1: it doesn't. But you put in an into rum clause
Speaker 1: that says that if they challenge the will, that they
Speaker 1: forfeit everything. And you know what that means in Latin,
Speaker 1: it means in order to frighten. So basically it's saying,
Speaker 1: you know, it's trying to scare someone off right, So
Speaker 1: the fifty cents thing wouldn't work, right, You want to
Speaker 1: leave them enough so that they are they they're gonna
Speaker 1: have what they need, but they're still offended, like exactly right,
Speaker 1: So like they're like, well, I could buy five tho
Speaker 1: dollars with a crack with that five thousand dollars, maybe
Speaker 1: I should just stick with this, you know. Yeah, divorce
Speaker 1: can complicate things. Obviously, some states renders the will invalid,
Speaker 1: but most times just the parts where the spouses in
Speaker 1: there will be addressed. So the bequest is what the
Speaker 1: people get. The beneficiaries are the people who get bequests.
Speaker 1: Actually figured out like a pretty good sentence to explain
Speaker 1: all this. The beneficiary receives a bequest from the testator's
Speaker 1: will in probate court at the behest of the executor.
Speaker 1: So however, thank you m hm. So the the beneficiaries
Speaker 1: are all going to get slapped with what is called
Speaker 1: a death tax. Really it's called in the state tax,
Speaker 1: but opponents of the estate tax, the rich um basically
Speaker 1: created this other name for it called the death tax,
Speaker 1: which is like you're being taxed to die. You're not
Speaker 1: actually being taxed to die. Your estates not even being taxed.
Speaker 1: Your beneficiaries bequests are what are taxed. The thing is,
Speaker 1: it's a lot, you know what. I call it, one
Speaker 1: final little from the government from uncle saying like, you
Speaker 1: paid your whole life, you paid your whole life, you
Speaker 1: died on the battlefield, and then we're going to get
Speaker 1: some more tax and it's hefty. Yeah. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: part of the reason why the estate taxes around is
Speaker 1: to prevent dynasties from taking place. But the problem is
Speaker 1: with all of the loopholes tax shelters that kind of stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: the rich are the only ones who can afford to
Speaker 1: get around from paying estate taxes, So that kind of
Speaker 1: goes under the middle class and prevents middle class dynasties
Speaker 1: from being formed. But you know, it's really weird. What
Speaker 1: I cannot describe to you how severe the level of
Speaker 1: deja vu I have right now is have we had
Speaker 1: a conversation about the state taxes in that same vein
Speaker 1: I don't think so. But we've done a podcast on
Speaker 1: deja vu. Well, then prepare for some really vitriolic listener
Speaker 1: mail from that one, because in my deja vu memory, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that ticked people off. What because you said that only
Speaker 1: the rich people can know about these loopholes, Well, they
Speaker 1: can afford accountants that can figure out these loopholes, lawyers
Speaker 1: that kind of things, like you ain't gonna get that
Speaker 1: at the Staples package. No, No, it actually says good
Speaker 1: luck with the decks death taxes, pal doesn't so chuck. Um.
Speaker 1: If if you are a person living in I think
Speaker 1: two thousand six in the United States, and you inherited
Speaker 1: over ten thousand fifty dollars, what did you pay five
Speaker 1: close to three grand? That's just that that's just for
Speaker 1: inheriting ten thousand and fifty one dollars, right, yeah, well
Speaker 1: that's the base thing. Then you have to pay an
Speaker 1: additional thirty five percent over and above the ten thousand
Speaker 1: fifty dollars. So let me ask you that is that
Speaker 1: thirty five percent on the whole thing or thirty percent
Speaker 1: and the whole thing minus ten thousand and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: It's a good question, and I don't know, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure some smart attorney will say, here's how it is. God.
Speaker 1: But if you're inheriting a million dollars, who cares? Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's a lot of change. Though, if it's like
Speaker 1: Bucks right on ten thousand, yes, Josh, you're indeed right
Speaker 1: a million bucks? Who cares? So there's the death taxes.
Speaker 1: You can set up a trust. That is one good
Speaker 1: way to UM maybe pay fewer taxes UM. If smart
Speaker 1: people often set up trust, rich people often set up trust. Well,
Speaker 1: it also keeps your UM. You don't have to be
Speaker 1: rich though, I've looked into trust. About too grand to
Speaker 1: set up a trust? Yeah, yeah, it's UM And this
Speaker 1: number one, it's it's very speedy. It keeps it out
Speaker 1: of probate court, Like when you die, you're dying wishes
Speaker 1: that are a part of your will that are incorporated
Speaker 1: into this trust. That's that right, right, Um, so all
Speaker 1: of the stuff gets divvied up right away. It stays
Speaker 1: out of court. Yeah. And if you have a minor
Speaker 1: in your family, a lot of times you'll set up
Speaker 1: a trust, because if you don't set up a trust,
Speaker 1: the court is going to assign or there will be
Speaker 1: a conservator who will oversee the assets of the minor
Speaker 1: and I think eighteen to twenty one generally in most states,
Speaker 1: as when a minor can all of a sudden handle
Speaker 1: their own fine answers. But if you set up a trust,
Speaker 1: it's managed by the trust store and they'll handle it
Speaker 1: for your kid. Yeah, whoever that person is, I would
Speaker 1: imagine someone just as trustworthy is the executor, maybe one
Speaker 1: and the same, You're right, and then Chuck. Of course,
Speaker 1: there is the living will, right yeah, And there's a
Speaker 1: whole article on living wills, but so we won't get
Speaker 1: into it too specifically, but a living will has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with your money's and properties. It is, um. Hey,
Speaker 1: if I'm ever in a serious accident and I'm on
Speaker 1: a ventilator, here's how I would like my um, I
Speaker 1: would like you to pull the plug or not pull
Speaker 1: the plug. And it's more complicated than that. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: that's like that's line one. And the line too is
Speaker 1: if I'm ever attacked by a dog and I need
Speaker 1: a heart that's coming, that's that my family can afford take,
Speaker 1: you know, pull the plug and then down the line right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and these need to be signed and witnessed, and power
Speaker 1: of attorney is usually included because if you can't cover
Speaker 1: every scenario obviously, and the power of attorney would be
Speaker 1: let's say, you know what, I want Emily to be
Speaker 1: in charge of making this decision and not my mom,
Speaker 1: let's say, because my mom would be like, no, he'll
Speaker 1: pull through and Emily be like, yeah, he doesn't look
Speaker 1: too good. She wouldn't do that. I'm just kidding. It's
Speaker 1: still funny, but yeah, a living will is very important
Speaker 1: though for anyone of any age. UM, it can get
Speaker 1: real messy. We've seen it in the news time and
Speaker 1: time again. Uh So yeah, get your living will taken
Speaker 1: care of. And I think you can also just do
Speaker 1: like a blanket, like, don't don't take any heroic measures
Speaker 1: to save me and I don't want to be on
Speaker 1: any kind of life support mine mine says, do never
Speaker 1: ever unplug me. Really, I want to be a burden
Speaker 1: on my family for the rest of my life, as
Speaker 1: long as that machine can keep me alive. I want
Speaker 1: to be shaved once a week from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: All Right. That segways nicely into odd things that can
Speaker 1: happen stipulations with your will? Nice Is that how we
Speaker 1: should finish up? Yeah, totally. You can have requirements of
Speaker 1: your big quest stores. No, the beneficiaries and officiaries like, hey,
Speaker 1: this article. I know it was a long time ago.
Speaker 1: Um Like, hey, I want I want to give my
Speaker 1: son the majority of my fortune, but he's got a
Speaker 1: finish college first. Or quit smoking. I saw thinking of
Speaker 1: me when you wrote that. That was not you were
Speaker 1: smoking a ton back then, though, yes you were. Um, So,
Speaker 1: let's talk about some funny and and odd things in
Speaker 1: history with wills. Josh finished on a lighter note. Well,
Speaker 1: there's Portuguese aristocrat Luis Carlos de Norona Coporal the Camara.
Speaker 1: That's terrible, and that sounded like I took a bite
Speaker 1: of peanut butter towards the end. Do you want to
Speaker 1: do that? One. Well, I'll now that you said his name, Um,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what he did. He picked seventy so
Speaker 1: you don't want to try that one. He picked seventies strangers,
Speaker 1: random strangers from a phone book in lisbon and at
Speaker 1: thirteen years before he died and said, these are the people,
Speaker 1: but don't tell him. It's going to be just a
Speaker 1: big surprise. Yeah. And some people thought they were being
Speaker 1: conned if I did that and I died, everybody there
Speaker 1: be um seventies strangers each getting a one dollar bill.
Speaker 1: But I put in my will that it had to
Speaker 1: be like crisp from the bank never circulated one dollar
Speaker 1: bills that make them feel good. I thought, you're gonna
Speaker 1: say it like a roller quarters or something that's another
Speaker 1: way to go, but that's more than a dollar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, Um McNair ill. Grin Fritz was a unsuccessful
Speaker 1: but wealthy composer, and he said, you know what, Metropolitan
Speaker 1: Opera of New York, I'll leave you a hundred and
Speaker 1: five grand if after I die, you put on this
Speaker 1: opera I've I've written. And the met said, yeah, we
Speaker 1: could use that money, but no thanks, which is like ouch, yeah,
Speaker 1: but they said the music. It was workable. This is
Speaker 1: not not like they said, this is awful. I think
Speaker 1: I guess it just wasn't in their plan. Um. Who else, Josh,
Speaker 1: who else do we have here? Ony Nermi? Yeah, finished, businessman,
Speaker 1: This is this is my favorite one. Um. He apparently,
Speaker 1: late in life, made some friends at the rest home
Speaker 1: where he was dying, and died, I imagine, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna leave everybody here. Uh, seven
Speaker 1: and eighty shares of a rubber boot company that I
Speaker 1: imagine I had something to do with at some point. Um.
Speaker 1: And that rubber boot company went on to become cell
Speaker 1: phone giant Nokia, and all of those people became millionaires.
Speaker 1: I imagine all of those people's children or grandchildren became millionaires,
Speaker 1: because I don't think Nocchia went from a boot company
Speaker 1: to the cell phone biz like overnight. Um, but it
Speaker 1: was still very nice. This is a good story if
Speaker 1: you ask me, H, these are pretty cool, Josh. Um
Speaker 1: ed Headrick the inventor. Um, well, I'm not the inventor
Speaker 1: of the frisbee, but he's credited with perfecting the modern frisbee.
Speaker 1: He wanted to be. He took it out of its
Speaker 1: original Squareship exactly. He worked for WAMO, obviously, and he
Speaker 1: said he know what, I want my ashes to be
Speaker 1: molded into memorial versions of the Frisbee and sell those
Speaker 1: and use the money from those to open up at
Speaker 1: Frisbee Museum. And then another guy, a Marvel comic writer,
Speaker 1: Mark Gruenwald, said, I would like my ashes to be
Speaker 1: mixed with ink and be on a comic book. And
Speaker 1: when he died young at forty two, there were four
Speaker 1: thousand inc and Ashes issues of Squadron Supreme printed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: wouldn't you be disappointed if that was the one you
Speaker 1: got printed in? Well? That was probably it was probably
Speaker 1: his comic though I still want to be in The Punished, Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to be in a better comic. And who
Speaker 1: else Dusty Springfield? Shall we mention her? Hers just kind
Speaker 1: of eat. I guess it's kind of silly. She had
Speaker 1: a cat name Nicholas, and Nicks had a favorite meal,
Speaker 1: which was imported baby food. So she left the singer
Speaker 1: of Son of a Preacher man Um. She said, you
Speaker 1: know what, Um, Nicholas is gonna lay on my nightgown
Speaker 1: for the rest of nicklas Is life, and my music
Speaker 1: is going to be played and lifetime supply that cat
Speaker 1: food for Nicklas. Yeah. And then Leona Helmsley fifteen million
Speaker 1: to her dog for the care of her dog. You
Speaker 1: can't actually leave money to an animal. Yeah, you can
Speaker 1: like stipulate in your will that this money is for
Speaker 1: the care of this animal or right. And she left
Speaker 1: her a couple of grandkids nothing and then yeah, and
Speaker 1: then there was the There was the tree that owns
Speaker 1: itself in Athens. The elderly couple that died or the
Speaker 1: elderly woman that died and left this piece of land
Speaker 1: apparently set up a trust for the tree so that
Speaker 1: it can never be cut down or removed. And actually,
Speaker 1: if you drive along the street, you have to go
Speaker 1: around the roundabout that just built around the tree that
Speaker 1: owns itself. It's got a little placard and a little
Speaker 1: chain around it. Yea. And that tree grows up to
Speaker 1: the center of city Hall. And that tree grew up
Speaker 1: to be roy Comb. I got nothing else. I don't either.
Speaker 1: If you want to read a fine article and by
Speaker 1: a young strapping Charles W. Bryant, when he first came
Speaker 1: to how Stuff Works dot com, just type how wills
Speaker 1: work into the handy search bar at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot Com that of course brings up listener mail. All right, Josh,
Speaker 1: I know you're gonna balk at this because we have
Speaker 1: another request from a boyfriend trying to get his girl. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I feel so bad for Timmy though. Alright, alright, Timmy
Speaker 1: before we read this, dude, if you don't get back
Speaker 1: in touch with us and let us know what happened,
Speaker 1: we will find you. Yeah, you're dead to me, even
Speaker 1: though we can't find the other guy, we will find
Speaker 1: you to me since too. Yeah, and since we mentioned
Speaker 1: it other guy who we proposed, we don't like you anymore.
Speaker 1: Just what happened there, dude. People are clamoring to know. Alright,
Speaker 1: to my beloved Josh and Chuck and Jerry since two
Speaker 1: thousand nine, Uh, let me skip ahead to the interesting party. Um,
Speaker 1: Jerry's cracking up today. Guys have been a big fan
Speaker 1: since two thousand nine. One big thing that has changed
Speaker 1: since that time was I found an absolutely brilliant girlfriend.
Speaker 1: She also loves you, guys. We would spend our nights
Speaker 1: together falling asleep listening stuff. You should know. She would
Speaker 1: fill me in on bits I missed. It sounds like
Speaker 1: a very sweet thing. Unfortunately, recently we were having a
Speaker 1: rough time of things, sort of lost perspective and the
Speaker 1: spark faded. Uh, let me go ahead and tell you, Timmy,
Speaker 1: do the spark like that. Spark always fades. You gotta
Speaker 1: have something else going on there. Substantial Model Airplanes is
Speaker 1: a good one. So we both am amicably agreed that
Speaker 1: it would be easier to split after eighteen months together.
Speaker 1: And the best thing we both do the same university.
Speaker 1: We are have the same courses at times. He must
Speaker 1: be English or something. We still chat a lot and
Speaker 1: I really miss her though, and I know she misses
Speaker 1: me too. You don't know that, Timmy. You're about to
Speaker 1: find out we were great together and just needed this
Speaker 1: time apart to sort out our heads and commit back
Speaker 1: to one another. What I would like to do, guys,
Speaker 1: is for you to say to Elaine, would you please
Speaker 1: get back with Timmy? Go back out with him. He's
Speaker 1: boyfriend again. I'm sorry girlfriend. I know she'll be listening.
Speaker 1: It would be a great way of me showing her
Speaker 1: how much I still care. Or you could just talk
Speaker 1: to her that's that's another thing, or that he's watching her.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'll do any more of these. Um,
Speaker 1: I love her, I want to spend my future with her.
Speaker 1: I would be really grateful for this. So that's the deal, Timmy.
Speaker 1: It says much love Elaine. Take him back or don't.
Speaker 1: Either way, Timmy, Please let us know what happens so
Speaker 1: we can follow up and tell people what happened with
Speaker 1: the Timmy Elne soccer and that is it. That is
Speaker 1: as dead as Haiku and disco. We're not doing that anymore,
Speaker 1: never again. No, all right, agreed? Okay, thanks a lot, Timmy.
Speaker 1: Good luck to you forever. All right, Um, Chuck, are
Speaker 1: you okay with that? No, I'm fine, because it just
Speaker 1: gets out of hand and then you know, we're asking
Speaker 1: people out on a first date all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: and hey, can you tell my friend Joe to pick
Speaker 1: up the tab every now and then? You know, it's
Speaker 1: just it's I'm okay with that one. Okay, Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 1: You know how I feel about freeloaders. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: then we're gonna let's call for that in the email. Um, now,
Speaker 1: we'll do that something they'll send him anyway. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: So if you know a story about a crazy will
Speaker 1: crazy stipulation in a will I love that. I can't
Speaker 1: get enough of them, so let's hear him, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: real ones are you? Yeah? Well yeah, I don't make
Speaker 1: them up. Jerks, we want to hear it. You can
Speaker 1: put it on Facebook, Stuff you Should Know, Facebook, Facebook
Speaker 1: dot com, slash Stuff you Should Not s y s
Speaker 1: K podcast. That's our Twitter handle, and you can send
Speaker 1: us an email at stuff podcast at how stuff works
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