Speaker 1: Welcome to j dot Il, a production of I Heart Radio. Well,
Speaker 1: Hello everybody. M m mmmm, what a week? What a week?
Speaker 1: When I tell you I have been working in every
Speaker 1: possible direction, I'm half alive. But it feels good because
Speaker 1: I'm doing something that I want to do. Welcome to
Speaker 1: j dot Ill the Podcast. I'm here with my sister
Speaker 1: friends Aga Grading dance La. That would be me learning
Speaker 1: Evening Afternoon's so loving you, just loving learning, good learning,
Speaker 1: good evening afternoon afternoon morning. I love you, Agent Grading Danceler.
Speaker 1: I love you too, JL. I feel like people are
Speaker 1: going to just start calling you agent grading Danceler because
Speaker 1: it's fine. It's actually fine. It's actually fine because when
Speaker 1: I go into the streets, people already say things that
Speaker 1: we say on here all the time, and they definitely
Speaker 1: give me the three namers from Supremacy for me, it's
Speaker 1: right to the Tennessee. I get a lot of listens.
Speaker 1: I get a lot of I'm sorry, I'm mixed up
Speaker 1: your phrases. It's black women for me. Yes, yes, always
Speaker 1: your black women. Also, here's my sister Layah sank clown. Yes.
Speaker 1: I just like to thank you for all your hard
Speaker 1: labor for our satisfaction. Thank you, Miss Jill Scott. I
Speaker 1: cannot wait to see the proofs of your labor. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're quite excited, baby, quite excited. We're turn off all
Speaker 1: the work, you dude, all the work that we do, really,
Speaker 1: all the work that we do. Everybody listening right now,
Speaker 1: all the work that we do. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a moment where you're like, yeah, yeah, because you
Speaker 1: paid off your car note, or because you know, you
Speaker 1: paid your mortgage, or you paid your rent, or are
Speaker 1: able to to buy yourself something real cute and feel
Speaker 1: good about it. You know. We, you know here in
Speaker 1: the United States, were like super consumers. We buy shit,
Speaker 1: that's when we do. We buy stuff. But maybe, just
Speaker 1: maybe we might want to consider buying some other things
Speaker 1: that will benefit our existence, not just our existence, dolling
Speaker 1: for for for our family and for the next generation
Speaker 1: of us because, as you know, this country is built
Speaker 1: off of the backs of brown people and indigenous people.
Speaker 1: We know these things and that money be long. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of millionaires in the United States now billion
Speaker 1: but wait, it's the billionaires that that that are blowing
Speaker 1: my mind. Like when you can spend twenty eight billion
Speaker 1: dollars on a business or seventy three billion dollars maybe
Speaker 1: means that primarily like millionaires are coma broke. Wow. All
Speaker 1: this time, you know, we've been like, yeah, one day
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a millionaire. So that's like middle class,
Speaker 1: like exactly, damn, and I just got sad. And I
Speaker 1: also got sad as well. It's fine as well. I'm
Speaker 1: doing say all all of the all of the real
Speaker 1: ratchet things I want to say in my mind. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna keep them in my mind for today because
Speaker 1: and find me a rich person to cuss out for
Speaker 1: no reason. That's what I'm I'm a person. There's definitely
Speaker 1: a big chasm in in finances. Huge. Wow. Well, we
Speaker 1: want to talk about some money, money, money, money today. Okay,
Speaker 1: So so put your seatbelt on and get ready. I
Speaker 1: would like for Agent grading Danzel to introduce our guests,
Speaker 1: because we got one. Are you ready you ship? We
Speaker 1: all know ship. This is a beautiful thing. Y'all are
Speaker 1: going to hear us be as quiet, quieter than you
Speaker 1: are used to us being in general, because we don't
Speaker 1: know what the hell to do with this. As we're
Speaker 1: talking about wealth. It's a real specific kind of wealth. Okay,
Speaker 1: and this has been the big word across the internet
Speaker 1: for quite some time, this little generational wealth. When I
Speaker 1: tell you, there are times in which it makes my
Speaker 1: scalp itch that people use it in ways that literally
Speaker 1: make no sense. So we're here to make this make
Speaker 1: sense for you. A quick thing before I tell you
Speaker 1: who our guest is. Seventy percent of Black families do
Speaker 1: not have a will or have any set up for
Speaker 1: if they were to leave this earth suddenly or even
Speaker 1: as old people. The fact of the manners that we
Speaker 1: are not prepared for said generational wealth and multiple ways,
Speaker 1: but today we're talking about a very specific way as
Speaker 1: it pertains to estate planning. And our guest today is
Speaker 1: Miss Jennifer Norton. Now, before starting her own practic, this
Speaker 1: was a member of the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys,
Speaker 1: in which she worked for the CEO for almost five
Speaker 1: years before she started her own firm. Her practice is
Speaker 1: now concentrated on providing fully funded trust based because we
Speaker 1: know that the Blacks don't deal in trust too often
Speaker 1: at all. Okay, there we go, trust based estate plans
Speaker 1: currently serving over three hundred and fifty client families, so
Speaker 1: that means that she has the receipts and how we
Speaker 1: are a full service estate planning firm providing wills, trusts,
Speaker 1: powers of attorney, health and financial living wills, guardianship, conservativeship assistance,
Speaker 1: probate administration something that many of us know a little
Speaker 1: bit too much about, and strategic Medicaid qualification. Amen, ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, Ladies and gentleman, once again, a black woman,
Speaker 1: because this is what we're here at the Jay dot
Speaker 1: il y'all give it up, y'all get it up our city,
Speaker 1: or y'all give it up for Jennifer Norton's right. You
Speaker 1: got you plenty of time to get your pins and paper,
Speaker 1: to get your pad out. Listen, thank you, thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. That was great. I need to take
Speaker 1: you on the road with me. This is what I do.
Speaker 1: Just turn up. Let's get these families. Let's get these
Speaker 1: families straight, starting with mine. Though I got excited to
Speaker 1: hear myself speak. You know, we'll tell us how did
Speaker 1: we get here? Because I know that's a that sounds
Speaker 1: like a simple question, but black folks need to know
Speaker 1: where we're at, like how do you get here? And
Speaker 1: what is our current state? Like what are we looking
Speaker 1: at here? We got here because we are the We
Speaker 1: have the highest discretionary incomes in this country. And Ms
Speaker 1: Jill Scott alluded to it. But we're consumers. We consume
Speaker 1: a lot of things, and so when the death occurs,
Speaker 1: we just are not prepared. Even though we may see things,
Speaker 1: you know, and social media, we'll see publicity and the news.
Speaker 1: We got here by sticking to the consumer mentality and
Speaker 1: believing that the American dream is unattainable. And even I
Speaker 1: don't even know what that means when you say that,
Speaker 1: what is that dream is? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: That's a dream is different for different folks, for different reasons.
Speaker 1: And so I think that when it comes to us
Speaker 1: in general, we just spend. And so you look up
Speaker 1: and we're just cyclical. We're on the hamster wheel and
Speaker 1: no one is getting us off. And that's I mean,
Speaker 1: there's no other explanation. Because we all know how to
Speaker 1: do better, we just choose not to do better. We
Speaker 1: know better, we just don't do better. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, y'a saw Chad with Boseman. We've
Speaker 1: seen the Franklin, We've seen I think Whitney Houston was
Speaker 1: kind of are we too busy? Do we think we're
Speaker 1: too busy? Because when you bring that up, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there are resources, we know, Google, we know. Do we
Speaker 1: just think we're too busy and it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: I think it's also very uncomfortable talking about your demise,
Speaker 1: like and having multiple conversations about when you which is
Speaker 1: inevitable for all of us. And the fact that the
Speaker 1: fact that the Blacks, the black folk, the diasporaic folk
Speaker 1: tend to have to face ideas about death and their
Speaker 1: own mortality quite a bit. Perhaps it's just all a
Speaker 1: real massive trauma response. Who knows, but rather than you know,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, we could come up
Speaker 1: with a different a lot of different reasons, that's why.
Speaker 1: But um, I think a big way to do it
Speaker 1: is communication because what happens is that it is when
Speaker 1: that one person that you trust and you know says
Speaker 1: to you, hey, have you done this? And then they say, well,
Speaker 1: I did it. And because we are a definitely a
Speaker 1: community driven people, we are a grio driven people, we
Speaker 1: want to know from others how they did it? One
Speaker 1: are their stories? How does that? Those are the things
Speaker 1: that validate things for us if we see a commercial
Speaker 1: or we see somebody tell us something. And like I said,
Speaker 1: we trust base people. Now we don't tend to trust lawyers.
Speaker 1: And you know, we might buy a little product from them,
Speaker 1: but we don't trust them. We're a very secretive race.
Speaker 1: If you if you're talking about black folks, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: always talking about black folks. Okay, Well, then when when
Speaker 1: I get with families in particular, especially the black man,
Speaker 1: he's very close knit to the chest with about the finances.
Speaker 1: I've even had families where they didn't even want to
Speaker 1: leave the money to the women, their spouses. They left
Speaker 1: it to their children by passing a spouse. So when
Speaker 1: it comes to you know, you do make it both
Speaker 1: all of you make a good point that when it
Speaker 1: comes to our community, we don't share. My granny when
Speaker 1: she died, she had a tin can under her bed,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like nobody knew you know
Speaker 1: what was in it. You're back and not touch it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And only a few people
Speaker 1: knew where it was. So when it comes to our community,
Speaker 1: we are very secretive about finances. And I think that
Speaker 1: sometimes may even have a little to do with shame,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Because I feel like we
Speaker 1: always feel like we should be better, and sometimes we
Speaker 1: even portray ourselves as being more advanced and more financially
Speaker 1: well off than we are. And then you then the
Speaker 1: death occurs, and then everybody sees, well, she she looked
Speaker 1: like she had it all together and exactly got barely
Speaker 1: two pennies to rub together. And so I think that
Speaker 1: that's what tends to happen, is the shame around money
Speaker 1: and the where we thought we were supposed to be
Speaker 1: and then we're just and sometimes unfortunately in our community,
Speaker 1: we're just very comparison driven. Right. I think what you
Speaker 1: said is like you're you're seeing these people aspired or
Speaker 1: different things, and so we put on these masks. So
Speaker 1: when you come to see me, you gotta take that
Speaker 1: thing off, right, because I can't plan for you if
Speaker 1: you don't tell me everything you have or don't have, right,
Speaker 1: And I care either way, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Because the cards are gonna come out the way they're
Speaker 1: gonna come out, whether you tell me or not tell me.
Speaker 1: It's just gonna be worse if you don't tell me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe maybe what you said about the American dream.
Speaker 1: Aim is the American like illusion. People really want to
Speaker 1: have this illusion as if they have what they believe
Speaker 1: well to look like and they don't want anyone to
Speaker 1: know they don't quite have it. But can we just
Speaker 1: say this all so many sources of shame around this
Speaker 1: that would feed that, right music? You got music, be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got so, and so that means that I'm a
Speaker 1: better hustler than you. That means I work harder than you.
Speaker 1: You got folks talking about I came from nothing and
Speaker 1: you can do it too, because I came from nothing.
Speaker 1: So it's like, well, if I came from nothing and
Speaker 1: I didn't do it, then what does that say about me?
Speaker 1: So I think a lot of times there's a lot
Speaker 1: of sources to the shame man. And also what is nothing?
Speaker 1: Because we came on this zoom today we were like
Speaker 1: we got friends. We mentioned this conversation and like, I
Speaker 1: gotta know a state, what a trust? Like? That's the
Speaker 1: rich people. So maybe we need to really talk to
Speaker 1: about the kind of people and hop about this one too.
Speaker 1: I ain't got no family, I've got no kids, I
Speaker 1: ain't got nothing to leave nobody, So let's talk about
Speaker 1: the things student, start thinking this way, you're supposed to
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, who is this for? That is a
Speaker 1: perfect question, because that's actually how when I do presentations,
Speaker 1: when I'm educating the public. That's the main reason I
Speaker 1: started my own practices. I didn't see many of my
Speaker 1: people over there. I was servicing a firmness had almost
Speaker 1: three people, but I probably could count on two hands
Speaker 1: how many were the same color as me, and half
Speaker 1: of them with my people, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So the thing of that is so starting this practice
Speaker 1: helped me to get the word out because the issue
Speaker 1: is people didn't think they had a states. Everybody has
Speaker 1: in the state. If you have a bank account, a house,
Speaker 1: a car. If you have at a minimum a bank
Speaker 1: account and a car, you got in the state that
Speaker 1: needs to be passed. And then if you have the
Speaker 1: other assets, if you have life insurance, retirement plans, you
Speaker 1: have businesses, then of course now your state is growing.
Speaker 1: But everybody in this world has in the state. If
Speaker 1: you have a bank account. Now, if you don't use
Speaker 1: banks in Okay, then maybe you got a car and
Speaker 1: we can get by, you know, some other avenue to
Speaker 1: get that car transferred. But yes, we have in the state,
Speaker 1: and then two you you lead into another. One issue
Speaker 1: is a lot of single people think they I feel
Speaker 1: like they know they need planning, they just don't because
Speaker 1: they're just so independent. And if they don't have children,
Speaker 1: they're thinking, well, what is my legacy? And so that
Speaker 1: word generational wealth really gets on my nerves because most people,
Speaker 1: and I say this all the time, everybody always talks
Speaker 1: about it, but rarely will anyone ever achieve it right one,
Speaker 1: because we keep having the conversation about wills and wills.
Speaker 1: They pass well from one generation to the next, but
Speaker 1: they don't preserve it for a generation that's more than
Speaker 1: two steps away from you, because people blow through the
Speaker 1: money in the first five or teen years. And so
Speaker 1: when you talk about generational wealth, it's not only a
Speaker 1: conversation that should be about finances. We should be truly
Speaker 1: talking about legacy, like how do you want to be
Speaker 1: remembered when you leave this earth? Even if you don't
Speaker 1: have children, you could be scholarship fuzz. You paid the
Speaker 1: way to do X y Z. You know, um act
Speaker 1: in this world, and so you're gonna show other people
Speaker 1: this is how you do it. And I'm gonna provide
Speaker 1: the finances to get there because I know most people
Speaker 1: can't get there without money. And so legacy in general
Speaker 1: is it's more than about wealth. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: care if you put a tree, you know, in somebody's yard.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, you better the earth could
Speaker 1: be better oxygen on this planet or something like that.
Speaker 1: But when you get when you're single, your legacy is
Speaker 1: more than just your finances. The same thing with married people.
Speaker 1: Married people incorrectly believe that my spouse can handle all
Speaker 1: my assets and take care of everything. They cannot. Try
Speaker 1: calling Social Security, trying, you know, try calling some any
Speaker 1: government agency or any institution in your names out on
Speaker 1: the account. These institutions don't know if you're separated, you're
Speaker 1: got a divorce pending, um, you're really you know, got
Speaker 1: a protective just a if you I didn't want to
Speaker 1: say that, they don't know. Yeah, there you go. But
Speaker 1: so when it comes to your point that I'll bring
Speaker 1: it home, is that everyone has an estate because you
Speaker 1: have something something that you cove it. Whether someone else
Speaker 1: covers it or not, it's a gift, it's a blessing.
Speaker 1: Someone's gonna take it, use it and and make it,
Speaker 1: you know, improve their life whatever it is, however large
Speaker 1: or small it is. And then too, as a single person,
Speaker 1: if you have no children, you still have assets, you
Speaker 1: still have an estate. Now what your legacy gonna be?
Speaker 1: Now that's internal, that's the thing you and that's my
Speaker 1: job as an estate planning attorney to help you uncover.
Speaker 1: How do you want to be remembered? Because I don't
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to be that person. I
Speaker 1: said this on one of my reels the other day.
Speaker 1: You can either be blessed or cursed, and I ain't
Speaker 1: trying to be cursed. I don't want nobody. Why did
Speaker 1: she have no life insurance? And we gotta do this?
Speaker 1: Go fund me. I don't want none of them parts
Speaker 1: associated with my name. I'm just saying, you dropped the
Speaker 1: Mica couples times. I appreciate girl, you did more real
Speaker 1: talk after the break. If you don't have your your
Speaker 1: pencil and paper, please y'all politics and go get it,
Speaker 1: because I'm about to ask this question and I need
Speaker 1: to know because this is like this a state for dummies.
Speaker 1: Hear me, Okay, listen, that's what I'm here for. So
Speaker 1: what is the difference between a will and a trust? Okay?
Speaker 1: Great question. Okay, so they are both sets of instruction,
Speaker 1: pieces of paper that tell your property or to go. Okay,
Speaker 1: so let me back up, if you do nothing. We
Speaker 1: all know that our states have statutory rules on how
Speaker 1: we're to distribute our assets. Right, So a lot of people,
Speaker 1: especially if you're married, you may think it all goes
Speaker 1: to my spouse In Indiana, that's not the law. In Indiana,
Speaker 1: if you die in an asset is less solely in
Speaker 1: your name, with no joint ownership and no beneficiary designation,
Speaker 1: our state gets fifty to the spouse to the children
Speaker 1: when you die, right, So most people are not expecting that.
Speaker 1: But every state is different. So wills are state specific.
Speaker 1: So you have to check your state law about how
Speaker 1: things are transferred when people die. And they say, well,
Speaker 1: my state didn't go through probade, my it passed immediately,
Speaker 1: We just gave a death certificate. Well, that happened because
Speaker 1: the person's name was either jointly on the account or
Speaker 1: listed as the beneficiary on a policy like life insurance,
Speaker 1: retirement plans and annuities. Those are contractual agreements. Right, So
Speaker 1: by law, the minute of death occurred, ownership transferred by
Speaker 1: contract to that person they were just waiting on a
Speaker 1: death certificate. When you get a will, a will is saying,
Speaker 1: hold up, Indiana, I don't like you given fifty to
Speaker 1: my kids. This our money. I wanted to go to
Speaker 1: my bows, and then when my spouse dies, I wanted
Speaker 1: to go to my kids. So a will is a
Speaker 1: document that will help you alter the default. But this
Speaker 1: is important that most people one will's only control things
Speaker 1: in your individual name. So again, if it has something
Speaker 1: jointly owned or beneficiary, the will cannot control it because
Speaker 1: it's already contractually spoken for. But if you say you
Speaker 1: had a straight bank account, so a lot of black
Speaker 1: women do this, this is my spending money. Or here,
Speaker 1: they ain't got worried about this, this account over here,
Speaker 1: this this is my play money, right, the play money.
Speaker 1: If you don't could have beneficiary and you leave it
Speaker 1: solely in your name, then the will can control that
Speaker 1: asset because will's only control things that are less solely
Speaker 1: in your name, and then they only instruct the probate
Speaker 1: court how to distribute your assets. So people say, oh,
Speaker 1: he should have got a will, she should have got
Speaker 1: a will when they died, But they started to sit
Speaker 1: and saying why they had a court all in their business.
Speaker 1: They shouldn't have been going through probate. You just said,
Speaker 1: go get a will, will tell the probate court how
Speaker 1: to disturb your assets. So the public is either miss
Speaker 1: been misinformed or again we're just repeating things we keep hearing.
Speaker 1: But wills, all wills go through probate court something. It's
Speaker 1: no Somebody try to argue about that with me the
Speaker 1: other day, and I said, ma'am, I paid a hunt
Speaker 1: at thun for this degree. So I don't know who
Speaker 1: you learn from, but I'll tell you right now. I
Speaker 1: paid good money to tell you you are incorrect, blatantly incorrect.
Speaker 1: So you're a girl. So funny because I told them
Speaker 1: the time, I'd be like, listen my library card exactly,
Speaker 1: it's function exactly exactly. Okay. Sometimes you gotta check people.
Speaker 1: You gotta let them know that's right anyway. So, Jennifer,
Speaker 1: do you think that everybody shouldn't we should kind of
Speaker 1: know our little state laws when it comes to this word. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: because in Indiana, so I I put you read it
Speaker 1: in my bio. I do do will based planning. But
Speaker 1: in our state, in the state of Indiana, in my practice,
Speaker 1: I help my clients avoid probate. So the will is
Speaker 1: just a backup because our state allows us to put
Speaker 1: beneficiaries on not just your life insurance or tire plans
Speaker 1: and nuties. Every state will allow you to do that
Speaker 1: because that's an institutional thing, right. Most institutions will allow
Speaker 1: you to put beneficiaries on your bank accounts, investment account.
Speaker 1: Now there are certain cryptocurrencies and certain assets and certain
Speaker 1: companies that may say no, we don't do beneficiaries, but
Speaker 1: they will move to that because they don't want their
Speaker 1: money at some other institutions, so eventually their their rules
Speaker 1: are changing. But the state of Indiana will also allows
Speaker 1: to put beneficiaries directly on real estate. It's called a
Speaker 1: transfer on death deeds. So everybody knows the concept of
Speaker 1: t o D and p o D. That just means
Speaker 1: transfer on death payable on death, So you can put
Speaker 1: those payable on death or transfer on death designations on
Speaker 1: your bank accoun ount, on investment accounts, you can put
Speaker 1: them on real estate in Indiana. Like I said, it's
Speaker 1: called a transfer on death deed. Not every state allows
Speaker 1: you to do a transfer on death deed, like Georgia doesn't.
Speaker 1: I think North Carolina doesn't. Yeah, so there's a number
Speaker 1: of states that don't allow that. And then in Indiana,
Speaker 1: we can also put beneficiaries on our car at the
Speaker 1: Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and we can put beneficiaries on
Speaker 1: businesses on LLC's. Again, those things are state specific on
Speaker 1: whether you can literally touch every asset and put beneficiaries.
Speaker 1: That's one thing this good old state. It ain't good
Speaker 1: for a lot of things, but it is one thing
Speaker 1: they did here, right, is we can put beneficiaries on
Speaker 1: all of our assets so that we never need to
Speaker 1: use the will. Right because the minute the death occurs,
Speaker 1: everything trains transfer immediately. Immediately the will becomes like a backup.
Speaker 1: What if my long lost relative dies and I'm the beneficiary?
Speaker 1: Or these class action lawsuits, So y'all saw the class
Speaker 1: action lawsuit for perms is coming around. So if you
Speaker 1: had a perm there's a class action lawsuit, find you
Speaker 1: a black person to go get it, get in line
Speaker 1: with there's a big class action lawsuit for a bunch
Speaker 1: of the one just for me, all of them. And
Speaker 1: so if you were to die before that class action
Speaker 1: lawsuit is settled, then the then your will is on
Speaker 1: file with the court. When the death occurs, we will
Speaker 1: it's called spread the will of record will spread it
Speaker 1: with the court. So when that check comes in, we
Speaker 1: didn't know if we're gonna get something or not. The
Speaker 1: will says give it to whomever you had listed in
Speaker 1: your will as the beneficiary. But the goal is to
Speaker 1: never use it intentionally at your death, and that keeps
Speaker 1: us out of probate. And that explains will. I'm a
Speaker 1: pose for the cause. And now go ahead, I know
Speaker 1: you got something for me. We all look like we
Speaker 1: got a question, y'all. Yeah, I blew your mind. I know.
Speaker 1: That's my point. That's what I'm here for for for
Speaker 1: everybody else too, doesn't know what probe it is? Can
Speaker 1: you explain what exactly that is? Great question? Okay, So
Speaker 1: probe is I always say when a person dies, this
Speaker 1: it's like a morbid scavenger hunt because most people do
Speaker 1: not know what you own, where is it, and what
Speaker 1: to do with it? Right, even in married couples, most
Speaker 1: especially in the black family, usually it's the wife that's
Speaker 1: the strongest one with the finances, making sure the bills
Speaker 1: are paid and all that. At least in my practice,
Speaker 1: that's what it's it's been now again, there's outliers. So
Speaker 1: whoever it is in your relationship that knows where the
Speaker 1: finances is that the odds are, the other person does not.
Speaker 1: So the probate course says, we just want to make
Speaker 1: sure a person's final debts, taxes and expenses are all
Speaker 1: wrapped up and paid prior to beneficiaries inheritance. So we
Speaker 1: need someone to step up and be the executor or
Speaker 1: administrator of the estate because we can't be in everybody's homes.
Speaker 1: There's too many people in this country, let alone in
Speaker 1: our state for us to run point on everybody's um
Speaker 1: de sea slow ones of state. So someone gets appointed
Speaker 1: in Indiana, you check your state requirements. They have to
Speaker 1: be over the age of eighteen and not commit a felony.
Speaker 1: And so once they're appointed, then we have to publish
Speaker 1: notice in the local paper because the court assumes if
Speaker 1: if you don't know what they owned, you don't know
Speaker 1: who they owe either. So let's put you place. Let's
Speaker 1: run notice in the paper that says this person has dived,
Speaker 1: and it runs for a period called publication. So in Indiana,
Speaker 1: publication in the newspaper has to last for ninety days
Speaker 1: three months. Every state is different on their publication requirements.
Speaker 1: Some states or six months, some states are a year.
Speaker 1: So this is why probate can drag out in certain
Speaker 1: states because they're longer. Indiana has a very short publication
Speaker 1: so three months now when you run it in the paper.
Speaker 1: Then the creditor has to file into the estate and
Speaker 1: say I'm old of debt, show evidence of the debt,
Speaker 1: and typically swear under panels of perjury on some type
Speaker 1: of affidavit. I swear on this affidavit this is the debt.
Speaker 1: Here's a copy. And then in Indiana, we have to
Speaker 1: pay a filing fee to the court because of course,
Speaker 1: like we're not working for free, so they send the
Speaker 1: you know them, a bill. Now, the great thing about
Speaker 1: in our state is most creditors don't pay that filing fee.
Speaker 1: So guess what. The court will then issue a dismissal
Speaker 1: here and to dismiss the case, and they're aim After
Speaker 1: the ninety days runs, it's about thirty more days. If
Speaker 1: they do everything right, file evidence of that, swear on affidavit,
Speaker 1: and pay the filing fee, then they have perfected their
Speaker 1: can their claim and thus can pursue it civilly to
Speaker 1: collect full reimbursement. Now, we typically will try to negotiate
Speaker 1: that down. We ain't got no money, it's it's very little.
Speaker 1: We got fifty cents on we got twenty cents on
Speaker 1: the dollar, fifty cents on the dollar, and see if
Speaker 1: we can get that amount reduced. And a lot of
Speaker 1: times they'll work with us, right and then we'll pay them.
Speaker 1: They'll file satisfaction of the claim, and then at the
Speaker 1: end of the ninety days we look to the statute
Speaker 1: to see who to distribute it to. If you did
Speaker 1: a will, then we would look to the will to
Speaker 1: see who the beneficiaries are, and the will and the person.
Speaker 1: When you have no plan, we typically call the person
Speaker 1: that's doing the work the executor or administrator. When you
Speaker 1: have a will, they're called your personal representative because you
Speaker 1: personally selected them. But a lot of people will call
Speaker 1: them the same thing even if there was or wasn't
Speaker 1: a will. So if you hear personal representative, just know
Speaker 1: it's the person doing the work. It ain't that glamorous
Speaker 1: of a job, but it's a person doing the work. Now,
Speaker 1: in in Indiana, the representative can get up to half
Speaker 1: of the attorney's fees, so they get a little bit
Speaker 1: of money, but it ain't a lot. And so every
Speaker 1: state there is also different on whether the personal representative
Speaker 1: can be compensated. They can always be reimbursed, but whether
Speaker 1: or not they can be compensated the great question. So
Speaker 1: the estate. So what happens is whenever a death occurs,
Speaker 1: the beneficiaries and the representative are never responsible for any
Speaker 1: of the fees that are incurred. The estate is, which
Speaker 1: you think is kind of a conundrum because if I
Speaker 1: don't know how much money it is, why am I
Speaker 1: signing up, you know, to to for someone's services and
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's enough money to pay for everything. Well,
Speaker 1: a lot of attorneys will kind of you know, they'll play.
Speaker 1: They'll work with you to figure out what's going on
Speaker 1: and try to work with you on the fees. And
Speaker 1: a lot of attorneys are either a billable our or
Speaker 1: their flat feet. Usually they'll be flat feet. If it's uncontested,
Speaker 1: meaning all of the people get along and we can
Speaker 1: run it what's called unsupervised meaning the court doesn't have
Speaker 1: to lord over us in Indiana versus if you run
Speaker 1: it supervised, I mean, get the petition everything, petition to
Speaker 1: sell the house, petition to distribute petition. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just petition, petition, petition, and that's why the fees go up.
Speaker 1: And then most attorneys want to be billable hour when
Speaker 1: it comes to that that approach um. But a beneficiary
Speaker 1: is never ever responsible for the funeral costs in our
Speaker 1: in our state, they're not responsible for the funeral. The
Speaker 1: estate is so people can be reimbursed for those expenses.
Speaker 1: And then any time someone has cut life insurance, so
Speaker 1: this is this thing always happens to a lot of
Speaker 1: people in our community, will purchase life insurance for the
Speaker 1: funeral home. You gotta be careful about that because that's
Speaker 1: a contract and it says that it's the beneficiaries, meaning
Speaker 1: the beneficiary ain't got paid for your dag on funeral.
Speaker 1: And I've literally had people not come up off the money. No,
Speaker 1: and Mama said, use the money for the funeral, because
Speaker 1: it's there's the check is written to them. If you're
Speaker 1: if you're buying life insurance for a funeral, you can
Speaker 1: irrevocably assign the policy to the funeral home so that
Speaker 1: the funeral gets paid. And then you make whoever is
Speaker 1: that contingent beneficiary, so then they get the excess, and
Speaker 1: that makes sure your funeral gets paid. Because we as
Speaker 1: black folks, we always do that. We give it to
Speaker 1: the oldest. But guess what if they got siblings, they
Speaker 1: always piss her ass off. The next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: she keeping all the points. And the same thing goes
Speaker 1: when we put people's names on bank accounts, like oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put my daughters and when the account because
Speaker 1: she's helping me. Well, if you put her on as
Speaker 1: an owner, it's her money when the death occurs and
Speaker 1: she gives that death certificate. If you just put her
Speaker 1: on as a signer, then she can just sign. But
Speaker 1: you just gotta be careful when you ask been of
Speaker 1: fishiary two accounts. You need to put who you want
Speaker 1: to receive it all the people. If you just put
Speaker 1: one name, you gotta be comfortable with the fact that
Speaker 1: they may keep all the mon money. So that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's a lot about a lot, y'all ask me one question.
Speaker 1: But I just went I gotta tell you. I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you what I what's on my spirit? Get out.
Speaker 1: You guys can't can't see this, but I'm the excitement
Speaker 1: in this, Okay. The excitement is it's such a scary subject. Right,
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be
Speaker 1: right back. Okay, so we covered wills, can you cover
Speaker 1: the trust? Okay, great questions. Okay, so y'all might have
Speaker 1: to bring you back for apart two. Okay, but you can.
Speaker 1: You know, I wouldn't be I wouldn't be an owner
Speaker 1: in a business owner fight. Throw that out there, you
Speaker 1: know a little. You ain't wrong. A trust is just
Speaker 1: a set of instructions, just like a will. It can
Speaker 1: avoid probate. I'm still an attorney, can not will avoid probate.
Speaker 1: This is where you miss what a lot of people say,
Speaker 1: Oh I gotta trust. I'm not going through. Yes you
Speaker 1: will if you don't re title all of your assets
Speaker 1: today into the name of that trust. That process is
Speaker 1: called funding to fund your trust. So, for instance, I
Speaker 1: have a trust. My bank account doesn't say Jennifer Norton.
Speaker 1: It says my my trust, Jennifer Norton Living Trust. You
Speaker 1: can name your trust whatever you want. That's irrelevant. People
Speaker 1: can name trust whatever they want. But the point is
Speaker 1: you need to put it on everything that you own.
Speaker 1: So my investment accounts say that Jennifer Norton Living trust,
Speaker 1: my life insurance, the beneficiary is a living trust. My
Speaker 1: retiring assets, the beneficiary is coordinated with the trust. Even
Speaker 1: my house, any real estate I own is needed in
Speaker 1: the name of the trust, even if it has a mortgage.
Speaker 1: A mortgage just a lean on the property. So if
Speaker 1: I sold it, they get paid back first. But I
Speaker 1: own my house. So your deed needs to reflect the
Speaker 1: name of your trust. If you have a business, oh
Speaker 1: I went him on show some media about this. Your
Speaker 1: your business does not own your trust. Your interest in
Speaker 1: your business should reflect the name of your trust. Meaning,
Speaker 1: say all of us have a business together. How would
Speaker 1: you feel if I told you, y'all, unfortunately this business
Speaker 1: is in my trust. Y'all, just sit back. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put it in my trust and I'll take care of
Speaker 1: you in No, you don't want to hear that, because
Speaker 1: if you all have trust, then you would say no.
Speaker 1: If we're all one fourth interest owners of this business,
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna put my trust. Just gonna put her
Speaker 1: twenty you see what I'm saying. Everybody's gonna put there
Speaker 1: in the name of their respective trust, so that if
Speaker 1: we sell the business in the future, when the check
Speaker 1: comes in, they're gonna cut it not to me personally,
Speaker 1: because when you do a trust, you still get a will,
Speaker 1: but it's only known for its formalities. It's called a
Speaker 1: poorrible will. If I leave something outside of my trust,
Speaker 1: remember with no beneficiaries, no joint ownership. Remember wheels only
Speaker 1: get things in your individual names. So if I forgot
Speaker 1: my business interest, I left it in my own name,
Speaker 1: go get it, but poured over to my trust where
Speaker 1: all my terms are. But remember all wills go through probate.
Speaker 1: So that's why I say, when you do a trust,
Speaker 1: the only way to avoid probate is you have to
Speaker 1: re title everything that you own. So the instructions in
Speaker 1: this document the contract right, courts don't get involved in
Speaker 1: contracts like life insurance and entire plans. The trust is
Speaker 1: a contract. The contract controls those assets. Thus the course like, oh,
Speaker 1: we don't need to get involved, just collor out of us.
Speaker 1: If you leave something now and you got to use
Speaker 1: that their will to get it over there, then we're
Speaker 1: gonna pay attention. And even just as a side note,
Speaker 1: every state has a threshold for probate because they don't
Speaker 1: want say this never happens, but say you do do
Speaker 1: a good job. And spend up all your money so
Speaker 1: there's nothing left. You got ten dollars to split. Never happens.
Speaker 1: But every state does have a threshold. They don't want
Speaker 1: that ten dollar case coming in. So in Indiana prior
Speaker 1: to July one, so last year three, if the estate
Speaker 1: was under fifty thou dollars, they didn't want to see it.
Speaker 1: They said, just do an alfa David, the estate is
Speaker 1: too small, so it's called a probate administration as of
Speaker 1: July one, moving forward to the president, if they've upped
Speaker 1: it to a hundred thousand dollars, because they were tired
Speaker 1: of seeing us with our houses being our major asset,
Speaker 1: and we're coming through a probate for one thing because
Speaker 1: we got a mortgage and it's and it's very you know,
Speaker 1: the equity is barely over fifty thou dollars, So they
Speaker 1: raised the bar. Every state has that bar. I believe
Speaker 1: Illinois is like dollars. So you look at your state
Speaker 1: to see if the estate is too small, it won't
Speaker 1: go through probate. But you don't want to leave anything out.
Speaker 1: You never want to leave it to chance, because who
Speaker 1: knows what could be uncovered or what you forgot so
Speaker 1: trust are just documents that explain where property goes, just
Speaker 1: like a will. The beauty of a trust are the terms.
Speaker 1: There are two ways to draft a trust. The first
Speaker 1: is you can draft it so that the outcome is
Speaker 1: very similar to a will, give the money to my
Speaker 1: beneficiary outright free of trust. What happens when you do
Speaker 1: a trust and you set it up a revocable living trust,
Speaker 1: everything stays under your social Security number. So to the
Speaker 1: I R S it's like you take money from one
Speaker 1: pocket and put it in the next. Nothing changes. You
Speaker 1: still file your same TIM forty. When you do a
Speaker 1: revocable living trust, you're just pre positioning all of your
Speaker 1: assets so the instructions can control it. When your death occurs,
Speaker 1: your social Security number dies with you. And so what
Speaker 1: the I R S says is what are you gonna
Speaker 1: do with the assets? If you give them to a beneficiary,
Speaker 1: then they're gonna put them outright free a trust. Then
Speaker 1: they're gonna put it in their bank accounts, their investment accounts,
Speaker 1: but all under their social Security numbers. So if they
Speaker 1: have lawsuits, creditors, divorces, there a state is available at
Speaker 1: creditor there are state is tied to their Social Security number.
Speaker 1: So when you less to them. If ever you set
Speaker 1: up a trust in the terms give the money outright,
Speaker 1: free of trust to a beneficiary, whether it's left and
Speaker 1: trust for a spouse, and then you gave it out
Speaker 1: right to the kids, or you gave it out right
Speaker 1: to a spouse, there's no protection they called asset protection.
Speaker 1: The beauty of doing a trust is the way that
Speaker 1: I do it right, which is in most um families.
Speaker 1: Think the Rocket Fellers, they left assets in trust for people.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is when the death occurred,
Speaker 1: they said, I'm not gonna give it to the beneficiary outright.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna set up little trust lets for my beneficiary.
Speaker 1: So if I if I'm married, I have one trust
Speaker 1: left for my spouse first, and then my spouse dies,
Speaker 1: say I have three children, it breaks into three trust
Speaker 1: lets for my children. But those trust lets have their
Speaker 1: own e i N Federal Employee Identification number, just like
Speaker 1: when you're setting U LLLC. So these trust lets have
Speaker 1: their own ei N. So if the beneficiary has a lawsuit,
Speaker 1: a creditor, a divorce, then guess what. These aren't their assets,
Speaker 1: they're your assets. You just gave them the right to
Speaker 1: use them for the terms that the i r S
Speaker 1: sets up, which our health, education, maintenance, and support. Not
Speaker 1: that money doesn't get penalized. That's what you're saying, right,
Speaker 1: that money doesn't get penalized. No matter how much in
Speaker 1: debt or anything that I'm in, it doesn't get penalized
Speaker 1: because right it's not there, so it's able to support.
Speaker 1: Even if your beneficiary has some massive lawsuit or massive
Speaker 1: divorce they wiped them of their assets, then your assets
Speaker 1: they're not there's under the law a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: when it's divorced. Divorce splits marital assets, not inherited assets.
Speaker 1: But when people receive money outright free of trust, they
Speaker 1: mix their money with the inherited and marital money. It's
Speaker 1: called co mingles. And the i r S and the
Speaker 1: judges say, listen, this ain't we ain't accounting firms. We're
Speaker 1: not doing first then last out you know why I
Speaker 1: would like to tell y'all something that I knew this
Speaker 1: because and this is this is just because and um,
Speaker 1: I have a good cousin that she for fun since
Speaker 1: in these um good cousin I got a good cousin
Speaker 1: who since in these um forums, and one of them
Speaker 1: is these rich divorced white ladies. And that's why I
Speaker 1: know about that, because there was a woman in the
Speaker 1: forum that talked about how she had gotten divorced and
Speaker 1: found out that her husband's money was not actually his money,
Speaker 1: and that she would not be able to draw her
Speaker 1: alimony or anything from his income because the money he had,
Speaker 1: the rich that he had, was coming from a family
Speaker 1: trust to which she could not at any party. I'm
Speaker 1: bringing it full circle for you. I'm needed, I needed
Speaker 1: a really got it. So it's imperative that not only
Speaker 1: do we get a will, but we get a trust
Speaker 1: as well, so we could be exceptionally specific about who
Speaker 1: gets what. I'm sorry. You all know how our families go.
Speaker 1: You want to leave it to somebody. You love your kids,
Speaker 1: you know you got that one kid. You love them.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying, and that's what happens
Speaker 1: with us. We'll have some wealth, but it won't make
Speaker 1: it to the grandkids or the great grands because before
Speaker 1: you know it, someone so done gotten too a car accidental.
Speaker 1: They doesn't marry. You know, Pookie's nephew from down the street,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't took all the money like you wanna
Speaker 1: do that, and I'm gonna take that further. I gonna
Speaker 1: push you out a little bit more, which is then
Speaker 1: when the kids inherit to make the money move for
Speaker 1: generation to generation, you you put stipulations on their access.
Speaker 1: So now they get interest only, no principle because money
Speaker 1: typically So I don't know if I told you, but
Speaker 1: I got to find my my background. I have a
Speaker 1: finance degree from Indiana University's Color School Business. So this
Speaker 1: is a perfect marriage my profession the money, and then
Speaker 1: the rules, the laws and what happens is when you
Speaker 1: leave assets and trust. Most people blow through the inheritances
Speaker 1: in the first five or teen years. So what you
Speaker 1: could do if money typically doubles every nine years. I
Speaker 1: always take my son. He's ten, so whatever I lead
Speaker 1: to him by the time he is twenty will have doubled.
Speaker 1: By the time he's thirty, it will double again. So
Speaker 1: and you can't do that, Matthe You really gotta say
Speaker 1: it out loud. So say my state is two million dollars.
Speaker 1: We have we have a bunch of commercial real estate.
Speaker 1: Say my state is two million dollars. Two becomes four,
Speaker 1: four becomes eight, eight becomes sixteen. The world's wealthiest individuals
Speaker 1: didn't believe that their children are ready to run their
Speaker 1: own finances until age forty. So guess what age my
Speaker 1: son runs his money forty. So what you'll find is
Speaker 1: a lot of people when they set up these trusts. So, Jill,
Speaker 1: you made a good point. When you go ask someone
Speaker 1: for an estate plan, you're either asking for a will
Speaker 1: based plan, which means you only get a will, or
Speaker 1: you're gonna ask him for a trust based plan that
Speaker 1: includes a will right the poor overwill. So you're doing
Speaker 1: either a will based plan or trust based plan. And
Speaker 1: if you have minor children, you're always gonna name who
Speaker 1: the guardian is and and in the will. So that's
Speaker 1: why trust also have wills, because you gotta name the
Speaker 1: guardian in there. But what happens is when you get
Speaker 1: wills and people say, well, I can just set up
Speaker 1: trust for your children, right one. Just know that because
Speaker 1: the will goes through probate. That's how we fill up
Speaker 1: the trust. If you get a will based plan, what
Speaker 1: they call testamentary because last will and testament testimony after death.
Speaker 1: So if you set up that testamentary trust under the will,
Speaker 1: then you've gotta go through probate to fill it up
Speaker 1: and then typically if you look at the will, you'll
Speaker 1: see they phase the checks out at certain ages. Eight.
Speaker 1: When they do that, they're passing the money outright free
Speaker 1: of trust, meaning no more asset protection, no more control
Speaker 1: over the inheritance. What you can do as just a
Speaker 1: tip a pro tip is my son's ten, so he's
Speaker 1: a minor. He cannot own things his own name. So
Speaker 1: I set up a trust. I have trust, let's underneath
Speaker 1: it for him. While he's under the age I pick.
Speaker 1: You can pick whatever age you want. I picked twenty two.
Speaker 1: While he's under the age of twenty two, I pick
Speaker 1: who runs his money? And then at twenty to think
Speaker 1: of he's in the back of the plane, he comes
Speaker 1: to the front of the plane. He can become a
Speaker 1: co pilot. He don't run it. He can work with them.
Speaker 1: Because another big issue in our community is teaching financial literacy.
Speaker 1: We're not teaching our children and so we but we're
Speaker 1: just giving them the money and hoping that they're going
Speaker 1: to be successful. So what you can do it would
Speaker 1: trust to say, why when you become twenty two tied,
Speaker 1: you can come only accounts with my trusted co trustee
Speaker 1: that I think you should work with and for how
Speaker 1: long I said, from twenty two to forty? Are told
Speaker 1: you to forty and so, and then at forty he
Speaker 1: can press eject on his co pilot. But he's still
Speaker 1: in the air, right, so he's still flying towards my
Speaker 1: map on my map, And so my map says no
Speaker 1: principle because that money when it doubles, right, So it's
Speaker 1: I doubled it to sixteen million by the time he
Speaker 1: get access. If I died in the next two years.
Speaker 1: You multiply that number by four percent. The stock market
Speaker 1: typically does four percent. And why do I say the
Speaker 1: stock market is because people when what you have, people
Speaker 1: are gonna cash all that in. They're not gonna come
Speaker 1: move into your house. They're not going to take over
Speaker 1: the same investments. They're gonna cash it all in and
Speaker 1: invest how they want to invest. So you've multiplied by
Speaker 1: four percent, and that shows you how much income would
Speaker 1: be produced each year. That's a lot of it. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's our next episode with you. So that there you go.
Speaker 1: So so you can do things to set your children
Speaker 1: up for success, but you have to leave the assets
Speaker 1: in trust. Yes, this ain't nothing that I knew coming
Speaker 1: into this conversation when they tell you you don't want
Speaker 1: to grow up kids, I know, right, this is the ship.
Speaker 1: This the ship we'll be talking about. And I just
Speaker 1: want everybody to know whoever reposted that meme about a
Speaker 1: goddamn passport and not buying Jordan's as your key to
Speaker 1: generational wealth it I'm going, yes, but I have nothing
Speaker 1: to do with nothing really at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm really hells no. Well, I don't mean
Speaker 1: like I'm saying literally no, no, no, no. I agree
Speaker 1: with you. You know when you said you get a
Speaker 1: passport for somebody, you know that that is like world
Speaker 1: travel and experience. You know, so it is, but it is,
Speaker 1: it is valuable. But I think that people have a
Speaker 1: tendency to give the want like give a co equivalent
Speaker 1: or code whatever the word is. That makes stuff to
Speaker 1: slam fair false equivalents to certain things. And it's like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean it doesn't have value, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, It doesn't. Earlier, earlier in its oversimplified earlier
Speaker 1: in the conversation, we we we admitted to and acknowledge
Speaker 1: the fact that we are very much consumers and so
Speaker 1: the consumer mentality is problem at it, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that by simply not consuming or and some people
Speaker 1: will tell you, hey, because we want we're fine with
Speaker 1: you consuming. We just want you to consume with a
Speaker 1: black owned business, or this business wants to be a
Speaker 1: part of that one percent. So just because you're spending
Speaker 1: with a black business, is it a black business that
Speaker 1: doesn't care about exploiting other people? So so it's very
Speaker 1: very it's complicated. Now, what I will say is that
Speaker 1: these are some very clear instructions about how to value
Speaker 1: what you have, how to first of all, know that
Speaker 1: everyone has something of value. That's number and number two,
Speaker 1: how to value what you have, how to utilize what
Speaker 1: you have in order to plan for your family generations
Speaker 1: down the line. This is very clear. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of detail, but it's worth it. It's worth it to
Speaker 1: understand it so that you can actually achieve this hashtag
Speaker 1: that's been running around here that nobody has actually giving
Speaker 1: you any real clear pathway to it. More conversation after
Speaker 1: the break, I want to flip it on your real
Speaker 1: quick Jennifer. I want you to tell some of these,
Speaker 1: some of us grown ups, what we should be having
Speaker 1: in place for some of our parents in that way
Speaker 1: who have the same education, Like if it's a top
Speaker 1: three list or something, just okay, So that's great because
Speaker 1: I like to leave people this is achievable for everybody.
Speaker 1: This is a project. So you just need to clear
Speaker 1: your mind that this is a one and done thing, right,
Speaker 1: and then it's doable, and then you're gonna check on it.
Speaker 1: So even just like you check on your finance, you're
Speaker 1: gonna check on the plan. So the thing that you
Speaker 1: need to do if you have older parents, the first
Speaker 1: thing you want to do is you want to find
Speaker 1: where do they own their assets? Let's avoid morbid scavenger hunts.
Speaker 1: So I always and you're welcome to email me help
Speaker 1: out of state dash planners dot org. Send me an email.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to share with you this personal information form.
Speaker 1: But you want to know where they bank, where their investments,
Speaker 1: Do they have a safe deposit box, who's their primary
Speaker 1: care physician, who has their mortgage on their property, who's
Speaker 1: their property and casualty insurance agent? Do they have valuables
Speaker 1: in the house that are you know, family sacred items
Speaker 1: that they want to pass. So knowing where the assets are,
Speaker 1: the financial and the non financial. We didn't talk about that.
Speaker 1: You have one form with all these questions. Yes, man,
Speaker 1: I love this. I would love like post this on
Speaker 1: our social like that. Yes you, Jen said, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: of course I wouldn't send you. I wouldn't send you
Speaker 1: down a dark alley with no light at the end
Speaker 1: of the time. So I have a form. I will
Speaker 1: send it to you all, and yes, you can post
Speaker 1: it on whatever you want to. So this form helps
Speaker 1: you to organize your assets. Okay, and then it also
Speaker 1: even like I said, it gets into even who your
Speaker 1: people are working with. Okay, to maybe go another way,
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna do it to y'all. Number two,
Speaker 1: um is the second thing you want to have, probably
Speaker 1: the most important, and we didn't talk a lot about this,
Speaker 1: but we need to make sure we have powers of attorney.
Speaker 1: More people are likely to become disabled prior to a
Speaker 1: death than anything, so having a financial power of attorney
Speaker 1: sometimes they call it a general durable power attorney. Durable
Speaker 1: just means it last, meaning when the death occurs, y'all,
Speaker 1: stop trying to use this power attorney. It don't work.
Speaker 1: Durable medical life so like medicals, thing, medical emergencies and whatnot, correct,
Speaker 1: so you can have there's sometimes the general durable will
Speaker 1: will include the health care side of things, and sometimes
Speaker 1: you can get a separate health care power of attorney.
Speaker 1: So I'm a fan of separate separation because sometimes one
Speaker 1: person is your money person and these people are your
Speaker 1: compassionate persons. So you want to be able to bi
Speaker 1: for kate the two. Don't be forced to say, oh,
Speaker 1: I gotta pick one person and they gotta be it
Speaker 1: at all things. No, you can separate them. So you
Speaker 1: need to get healthcare power of attorney, financial power of attorney.
Speaker 1: Some states call it that advanced healthcare directives. Same thing,
Speaker 1: and they always always have a backup. So can I
Speaker 1: just say this real quick. I knew of a very
Speaker 1: nice older lady that was um the power of attorney
Speaker 1: for a friend of hers. So her this man's children
Speaker 1: took care of the medical power of attorney, but she
Speaker 1: was the financial power of attorney. She was not a spouse,
Speaker 1: nor was she a child. She was a friend of
Speaker 1: the deceased because he felt that she as a person
Speaker 1: who he knew would be capable of doing this. I
Speaker 1: don't want to put that out there. Person ain't got
Speaker 1: to be amen, And you know what. I just again,
Speaker 1: did a girl here in my brain come? I can say,
Speaker 1: going to row with me. But essentially the person don't
Speaker 1: be aspirational about these people. If they don't pay their
Speaker 1: bills on time, they okay, we're paying late fees. They
Speaker 1: forget their bills. They not. They don't manage their own money, well,
Speaker 1: do not put them in charge of your money. So,
Speaker 1: like she said, this is not a message for only children.
Speaker 1: I hear y'all, but I'm like only children like well,
Speaker 1: but you know what, even if it is even if
Speaker 1: your only child, that's a good point to Even if
Speaker 1: your only child, you can name other people to work
Speaker 1: with you, because it is a lot of work. Someone
Speaker 1: becomes disabled, h you you can well, as the agent,
Speaker 1: you can always enlist. Sometimes um powers of attorney have
Speaker 1: what's called a delegation, so you as the agent can
Speaker 1: delegate other people to work with you or be your
Speaker 1: succession if something should happen to you. But if your
Speaker 1: parents are still alive in the right mind, just have
Speaker 1: them appoint to or tell you who they could, who
Speaker 1: you could look to for help, a guide into assistance
Speaker 1: right for the health care power of attorney. So I
Speaker 1: guess assets power of attorney um. And then three we
Speaker 1: said that at the top of the meeting communication of
Speaker 1: those who you believe will cause trouble, I'm here to
Speaker 1: tell you you are absolutely correct. Okay, So those people
Speaker 1: will be drama. So it's better to have the family
Speaker 1: meeting today. Get that drama all out on the out
Speaker 1: on the table now, let him know who the boss is.
Speaker 1: You're not in charge. Have the meeting if you feel
Speaker 1: like you need to record it or videotaping, because it's
Speaker 1: gonna be that much drama. You just need to have
Speaker 1: it right now and and split it right. Even when
Speaker 1: it comes to the assets, like if you have like
Speaker 1: who gets Grandma's Bible, who gets the cookbooks? Who gets
Speaker 1: the jewelry? Make make the list because people always tell
Speaker 1: you they don't want anything. That's a lot. Everybody won't something.
Speaker 1: So just make the list and share the list, and
Speaker 1: then you'll find out real quick where the drama is
Speaker 1: and you then you can nip that in the But
Speaker 1: those will be my three takeaways. Are you a family okay?
Speaker 1: Almost cut? Almost cursed? What do we already paper work through?
Speaker 1: Oh lord? Listen, okay, listen, listen, listen to this. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say I'm not a fan of it
Speaker 1: because it's better to have. Somebody asked me to say
Speaker 1: that it's better to have something, So it ain't the
Speaker 1: worst thing to have, but it definitely ain't the best.
Speaker 1: So if you're walking around, ma'am with Gucci Louis, you
Speaker 1: gotta passport, and you're going to do to buy and
Speaker 1: you're going to you buying new cars, and and you're
Speaker 1: telling me you can't afford to protect those assets with
Speaker 1: a little bit of money. You gotta pay an the
Speaker 1: state plan and attorney. Something is wrong. You're priorities are
Speaker 1: messed up. I like a good edge snatcher, Like we'll
Speaker 1: say stuff like, well, I ain't gonna be here, so
Speaker 1: I ain't here. You should. You spent a lifetime acquiring
Speaker 1: the things that you have a life time. Some of
Speaker 1: those things have our great value in resale, and some
Speaker 1: of those things are great value for your for your legacy,
Speaker 1: for the history of who you are. You know that
Speaker 1: counts as well. We have to think about the things,
Speaker 1: and that's the hard part to really consider what happens
Speaker 1: after I asked just one funny, last weird old question
Speaker 1: for me, Is there any state that a client comes
Speaker 1: to you from and you like, oh, fun, No, this
Speaker 1: is gonna be hard. Yeah, California one of the reasons
Speaker 1: I left. One of the reasons I left taxes alone. Wow,
Speaker 1: I live in the worst state in the my mother,
Speaker 1: my mother just said, yes, and you're gonna say Pennsylvania next.
Speaker 1: No's not bad. Yeah, he's not bad. I got my
Speaker 1: first p A client the other day. Um, New York
Speaker 1: is kind of but I think we can work around
Speaker 1: it because they're New York and Florida are friendly states
Speaker 1: because of the wealth, right, But California is the word. Yeah.
Speaker 1: My mother just asked me to ask you about the
Speaker 1: irrevocable trust definitely part two. But you know what I did, though,
Speaker 1: Go on my social media, go to go to it's
Speaker 1: on my law firm page, Norton Estate Planners. I do
Speaker 1: have a page called the Legacy Strategists as well, but
Speaker 1: the real is on Norton Estate Planners. I did Alive yesterday,
Speaker 1: which would have been what's Today's day? That had been
Speaker 1: a twenty one January twenty one, and it talks towards
Speaker 1: the end. Someone asked me about irrevocable trust and we
Speaker 1: went we went deep that's an hour live, so you
Speaker 1: can fast forward if you want. But it does talk
Speaker 1: about business owns. There's a lot of good content in there.
Speaker 1: But we talked about irrevocable trust on my live yesterday. Mama,
Speaker 1: thank you so many notes. I have so many you
Speaker 1: don't have. This don't have to be one and done. Listen,
Speaker 1: I'm your b at F. I'm gonna tell you exactly
Speaker 1: what you need to know. You all need to beff
Speaker 1: like you because you just got your second Pennsylvania. Okay,
Speaker 1: come on, guys, six kids, I'm telling you right now.
Speaker 1: And I know who's gonna wipe my ass, and I
Speaker 1: know who's gonna pay the bills. Hey, that's very important.
Speaker 1: And I know who's gonna be crying so bad they're
Speaker 1: gonna be good for ship. This is this is one thing.
Speaker 1: I guess my parting words would be when you go
Speaker 1: into an office of an attorney, remember you have all
Speaker 1: the power. This is your family. We're talking about everything
Speaker 1: you own, everybody you love. Don't be rushed. If you
Speaker 1: don't like them, leave You're never tied to this person,
Speaker 1: right you need to feel good about this person and
Speaker 1: they need to be asking you question and knowledgeable yes,
Speaker 1: because what tends to happen is a lot of people
Speaker 1: go in and just give up all their power. They're
Speaker 1: just like, well, I guess, I guess I gotta do that.
Speaker 1: Is that the only ages you got, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? It's like, no, no, no, this is your stuff.
Speaker 1: And so don't lose your power when you walk into
Speaker 1: that office. Where here to help you make good decisions?
Speaker 1: And so you don't come in so stubborn. I want
Speaker 1: this and then you you can't open your mind and
Speaker 1: someone trying to tell you what you know, what your
Speaker 1: options are. But but you have the power when it
Speaker 1: comes to your family. I want to say this too
Speaker 1: before we do wrap that. Just really again the importance
Speaker 1: of communication people, communication when you were talking to someone
Speaker 1: who gives you this service, communication with your family members,
Speaker 1: and the conversation that you have to have with yourself.
Speaker 1: I will never have now both of my parents have
Speaker 1: passed on. This is not an issue that I'm dealing
Speaker 1: with from that aspect of things. But one of the
Speaker 1: one of the beautiful things and gifts that my mother
Speaker 1: gave me was that she handled her business. We were
Speaker 1: able to go in there and very easily find what
Speaker 1: her stuff was use it for the purpose that it
Speaker 1: was supposed to be there for. And also too, we
Speaker 1: had guidance from my aunts and uncles who know legally
Speaker 1: that's not what was in place. But when I tell you,
Speaker 1: do it legally so that you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about that, not have that, because having assistance is everything.
Speaker 1: They helped us with things that gave us feedback about
Speaker 1: their process with their own mother, my grandmother. So that
Speaker 1: kind of thing makes every a hard situation much easier.
Speaker 1: And those of you who followed this podcast know that
Speaker 1: my mother's death was a transformative time for me, a
Speaker 1: very emotional time for me, and I can only imagine
Speaker 1: how much more difficult it would have been had her
Speaker 1: business not been in order. And this is a woman
Speaker 1: who didn't own a home. This is a woman who
Speaker 1: did not have a degree. This is a woman who
Speaker 1: did not have a lot of wealth in money, but
Speaker 1: yet in still there was business to attend to. And
Speaker 1: the gratitude I have for her for making it easy
Speaker 1: for me and my sister to simply just grieve her
Speaker 1: and not have to go through that drama. I'm saying
Speaker 1: that to y'all now just as a personal story. So
Speaker 1: this that as we listen to all of these things,
Speaker 1: you understand these things have personal and very real life implications.
Speaker 1: I don't, she said, I have gotten all emotional. And
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why that is. That is the kindest
Speaker 1: thing that you could do for somebody that you love.
Speaker 1: Like we're talking, we're talking about death, which is inevitable.
Speaker 1: I don't mean I want to let I want to
Speaker 1: be around for a long time. I want my mom
Speaker 1: to be around, my family and people I love to
Speaker 1: be around a long time. But that's not up to us,
Speaker 1: is it right? And and because it's inevitable and not
Speaker 1: up to us, the kindest thing that you can do
Speaker 1: for somebody you love is to handle your fucking business.
Speaker 1: I said it. Like I said it, I thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being with us here today, Miss Jennifer Norton,
Speaker 1: you are very well. Thank you for having so much.
Speaker 1: We got to have you again, please because it's super important.
Speaker 1: Gee whiz, and it feels it feels like a lot,
Speaker 1: but it's not. Know what you said, Jill, that reminds
Speaker 1: me of I saw your podcast off listen here podcasts
Speaker 1: about love letters. The estate planet is the last love
Speaker 1: letter you get to write. I mean literally, it's the
Speaker 1: last one on that. Thank you so much for listening
Speaker 1: to Jay dot Ilga podcast. We love to have conversation
Speaker 1: that sparks conversation and guess what else, conversation and action.
Speaker 1: Bless y'all, peace. How do you eat an elephant? One? By?
Speaker 1: It time? Hey listeners, it's Amber the producer here this episode. Wow,
Speaker 1: there's so much information to unpack here. I am leaving
Speaker 1: all of Jennifer's information in the show notes as well
Speaker 1: as her socials. We will also link the document that
Speaker 1: she mentioned in the episode. Like I said before, there
Speaker 1: is so much information to unpack here, So I'm also
Speaker 1: going to drop a link to an article outlining ten
Speaker 1: steps to start estate planning. But please please look up
Speaker 1: jennifer socials. She is dropping gems on the regular. Generational
Speaker 1: wealth means having a plan in place for the next generation.
Speaker 1: Jennifer also pointed out that Black Americans are the highest
Speaker 1: discretionary spenders. I really want to recommend making a date
Speaker 1: with your bank accounts and really seeing where your money
Speaker 1: is going and if there are any places you can
Speaker 1: cut back and redistribute your income. I personally use mint
Speaker 1: dot com to track my spending and plan my budgets.
Speaker 1: It's great and it's free. Let's continue to change the
Speaker 1: trajectory of black wealth in this country, one transaction at
Speaker 1: a time. Hi, if you have comments on something that
Speaker 1: he said in this episode called eight six six, Hey, Jill,
Speaker 1: if you want to add to this conversation that's eight
Speaker 1: six six nine five four five five. Don't forget to
Speaker 1: tell us your name and the episode you're referring to.
Speaker 1: You might just hear your message on a future episode.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Presents Jay dot Ill.
Speaker 1: The podcast JA dot Ill is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit
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