Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always this
Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Chucker, Chuck Tran Bryant Chuck trans so
Speaker 1: weird to me. I don't get it. Yeah, I have
Speaker 1: 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 and 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? Just like a trip down memory lane?
Speaker 1: Really yeah, there's like whole discussion threats. There's like forty
Speaker 1: different threads people have created, But there was one that
Speaker 1: was like, what's what's your favorite stuff? You should no
Speaker 1: line of all time? And I can't I can't find
Speaker 1: that thread any longer. That's a good one. Did you
Speaker 1: go through and count on how many you had and
Speaker 1: how many I had. I did not count. I kept
Speaker 1: a running tally, but I didn't count just mentally. I
Speaker 1: didn't 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. Um, 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
Speaker 1: said U huh yeah, Manhattan. I was just I was
Speaker 1: changing the subject, Okay, all right. I like The Jerk, Alien,
Speaker 1: Rocky two, 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. UM.
Speaker 1: I personally think that it's a great movie and it's
Speaker 1: about Vincent Price. While it begins Vincent Price, is this
Speaker 1: aged video game magnet? Was he ever young? No? He
Speaker 1: was born like Golden Gray. Yeah, and suave, though he
Speaker 1: was much more suave than he led on UM. He
Speaker 1: is dying and he actually does die playing one of
Speaker 1: his video games, and then you cut to the his
Speaker 1: his former home, and his lawyer is executing his will,
Speaker 1: which his stated worth two million dollars. And it turns
Speaker 1: out we learned very quickly as all the characters assemble
Speaker 1: that the whole thing is up for grabs, just single
Speaker 1: team who go on a scavenger hunt. Did you really
Speaker 1: see this or is this just I grew up on
Speaker 1: this one? Okay, Yeah, that's a great movie. Have you
Speaker 1: 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: in 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 it'll
Speaker 1: it'll bring it up awesome. So the whole point of
Speaker 1: that was that number one, Scavenger Hunt is a good movie,
Speaker 1: and number two people do some wacky things with wills.
Speaker 1: That scenario wasn't that far off from things that people
Speaker 1: have done with their wills. We're talking about will's chuck,
Speaker 1: let's get ready to talk about contract law. And now
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 at 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 momo 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.
Speaker 1: Really huh, yeah, they have everything. Well, that brings up
Speaker 1: one of the first points, which is a will isn't
Speaker 1: super complicated to draw up. Um, and it varies from
Speaker 1: state to state, so you can do it yourself, but
Speaker 1: you should get an attorney to look over things. But
Speaker 1: if you want to save a few bucks, you can
Speaker 1: always go to Staples. Well, well we should probably say
Speaker 1: that again and again through this this podcast, as you
Speaker 1: did again and again through this article, Like really, you
Speaker 1: should have at the very least an attorney. Look, get
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: like state, I got some questions for you. And if
Speaker 1: you have a will in one state and you move
Speaker 1: it'll it'll still be valid. But you still should check
Speaker 1: your state's laws and stuff like that, right, because is
Speaker 1: it the state you die in? That is the state
Speaker 1: that you execute your your will is executed, Inez, because
Speaker 1: it seems like if you were going to move, it
Speaker 1: would seem like that's the way it would go. I guess. So.
Speaker 1: But what if you you die on vacation in Hawaii?
Speaker 1: Is your will wouldn't be based on I think it.
Speaker 1: I think it's pertains to the state in which it
Speaker 1: was drafted and approved. Check with your lawyer, check, or
Speaker 1: at least call the state. I don't think you'd stop
Speaker 1: me so early. Sorry, 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 or your other spouse
Speaker 1: with your spouse in the will. That's right, Um, your
Speaker 1: children's names. And I love this part. How you want
Speaker 1: any step children or false foster children to be treated?
Speaker 1: You could be like, well, yeah, please treat them well.
Speaker 1: Um a statement provoking 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: executor to have special gifts, personal property and uh. Instructions
Speaker 1: for distributing paying debts. There are actually you know, you
Speaker 1: can't decide whether or not you want to pay your debts,
Speaker 1: but after debt has been paid, how you want your
Speaker 1: stuff to be doled out? So I'm officially founding a
Speaker 1: movement that if you're debtors can't get the money they
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: for it? Varies by state again, um, but generally, if
Speaker 1: you have enough money to pay, say like a credit
Speaker 1: 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 pick tongue tonight burial, and you probably want those
Speaker 1: somewhere else though, because sometimes the will isn't like immediately accessible.
Speaker 1: If you've got it locked in a safe in your family,
Speaker 1: there's another combination. They're gonna theyre's gonna leave you laying
Speaker 1: around on the floor of the kitchen for days. You
Speaker 1: don't need to sweat your pension plan or life insurance
Speaker 1: or annuity stuff like that because that's all taken care
Speaker 1: of they the beneficiary or in those documents, so that
Speaker 1: need to be in your will, right, and it can
Speaker 1: actually screw things up right or not screw things up.
Speaker 1: It can slow things down because you can say I
Speaker 1: want this, you know, my life insurance policy to go
Speaker 1: to my estate and then divvy it up. But that
Speaker 1: just adds 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 like make an X or
Speaker 1: you know, draw a whale like quick wag, you're fine.
Speaker 1: So what does uh, what does that mean legally speaking? Mentally? Um?
Speaker 1: Sound Well, I'm glad that you brought that up, or
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you put this in the article, because
Speaker 1: I think it's a good idea. Basically, you have to
Speaker 1: know that 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 Bates 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 assets,
Speaker 1: and you've never created a will and you want to
Speaker 1: create when you just do you die Intestine. That's a
Speaker 1: good question into state. I do know that. Uh. If
Speaker 1: you become mentally ill later on, then it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: as long as you were of sound mind when you
Speaker 1: first wrote the will, right, okay, Um. You also need
Speaker 1: to be aware of the people who are related to you. Again,
Speaker 1: like not like you fathered a kid back in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty two that you didn't know about. That's not what
Speaker 1: they're talking about. They're talking about the kid that you
Speaker 1: had in nineteen sixty two and raised into an adulthood
Speaker 1: is still recognizable to you. And also you generally probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't hold conversations with lack of cons that tell you
Speaker 1: to burn things. That's usually a big red flag that
Speaker 1: you might not be a sound mine. That's right, so Chuck,
Speaker 1: that's sound mine. Um. And let's say you've got that
Speaker 1: check check check. You know about your Lana Montana, you
Speaker 1: know your kid's name. Um, you you don't suffer from
Speaker 1: mental illness, and you are ready to create your will?
Speaker 1: All right? Boom the executor. Yes, that is the most
Speaker 1: important person in your will, because that is the person
Speaker 1: that is gonna make an inventory of all your junk. Um,
Speaker 1: they're gonna pay your debts. They're legitimate debts. That is
Speaker 1: not Vinny who comes over and say zo he met,
Speaker 1: although you may want to pay that too if you're smart.
Speaker 1: Um distributes the assets under the terms of the will.
Speaker 1: So it can be anybody, but you want it to
Speaker 1: be someone you really really trust, someone who's probably pretty smart,
Speaker 1: maybe has a little business experience, and someone who is
Speaker 1: thoughtful because you can get ugly. You want someone this
Speaker 1: is a tough time for a family usually, and you
Speaker 1: want someone that's got some a good bedside manner if
Speaker 1: they're going to execute your will, not some jerk. Right.
Speaker 1: You also want somebody who has a lot of time
Speaker 1: to go to your house and inventory stuff. I remember
Speaker 1: when I found out my sister is my dad's executive
Speaker 1: tricks um, and I was like, what about me? And
Speaker 1: I've read about Okay, you're just like cut me the check. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I actually think my dad likes me more than I thought,
Speaker 1: now that I know what an executive executive let off
Speaker 1: the hook. Yeah, So, Chuck, let's talk about the different
Speaker 1: kinds of wills. Right. There's obviously the standard like ironclad will.
Speaker 1: It's been drafted by an attorney or whatever. But she'll
Speaker 1: talk about in a second. But there's some kind of
Speaker 1: interesting wills because death doesn't necessarily happen, um, when you're
Speaker 1: counting on it. Exactly. That should be this, that should
Speaker 1: be stuff you should know. His new model, the new slogan,
Speaker 1: death doesn't happen when you're counting on it. Death doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily happen when you're counting on it. Just to add
Speaker 1: that extra like it that it's suspense. Um. So you're
Speaker 1: talking about probably um, a couple of things. One can
Speaker 1: be an oral will, which is a lot of times
Speaker 1: in the in the old days, and it might still
Speaker 1: happen because soldiers are still very young and might not
Speaker 1: think that they need a will because they're young and
Speaker 1: their bulletproof. But a lot of times soldiers on the
Speaker 1: battlefield would execute an oral well to their buddy there
Speaker 1: as their dying in the trenches. You want to do too, buddies,
Speaker 1: oh to two witnesses. Yeah, that that definitely helps the
Speaker 1: helps the case that it's legal. Yeah. And the in
Speaker 1: the scenario I just mentioned, which is the dying soldier
Speaker 1: on the battlefield is one of the more common ways
Speaker 1: that an oral will will be upheld, right because I
Speaker 1: imagine they have a lot of compassion for something like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, if they can find your your buddies and
Speaker 1: get them to sign an affidavit, or they can actually
Speaker 1: come to probate court and say, yes, this is what
Speaker 1: he said. He said to leave it all to me. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: he said to leave it all to me. Then it
Speaker 1: turns ugly. But if they both agree that it is
Speaker 1: what you said, then um, it's probably going to stand
Speaker 1: up in court. Right. So what's a deathbed will? A
Speaker 1: deathbed will is virtually the same thing, but say, rather
Speaker 1: than dying young and being of sound mind, you might
Speaker 1: be on your deathbed and are suffering from Alzheimer's or
Speaker 1: something like that. So the deathbed will. Um. It also
Speaker 1: can be written to it's more of like the time
Speaker 1: rather than the type. Right. Um, so the the it
Speaker 1: can be written, It can be oral, and you can
Speaker 1: have several witnesses. But it's also the most commonly challenged
Speaker 1: one because mental capacity is frequently argued like this person
Speaker 1: didn't know what they were talking about, or sobody you
Speaker 1: know had their feeding two kinks, so they did it
Speaker 1: under Durest. You know. Yeah, there's a holographic wheel, Josh,
Speaker 1: very informal, handwritten. Usually this is the coolest looking will.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's not a hologram. Uh. Not all states
Speaker 1: recognize these as valid um, so as always check with
Speaker 1: your state. But scenario where this might happen is you
Speaker 1: wreck your car on a snowy road in the middle
Speaker 1: of nowhere and you're like, I'm gonna die and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna scratch out my will, or you pee it into
Speaker 1: the snow. That would be awesome. Or if you're James
Speaker 1: Franco or that real dude and you're stuck in a
Speaker 1: and a boulder, you could probably videotape it. Although I
Speaker 1: think holographic is strictly handwritten, so that would be an
Speaker 1: oral deathbed will sort of commonly written in blood, but
Speaker 1: one's own blood. Um. Yeah, that's that's a pretty cool one.
Speaker 1: I said it was cool. Yes, yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: the coolest one. Did you think so? Yeah, the impending
Speaker 1: death by oneself. Yeah yeah, and you just scratch it
Speaker 1: out on whatever paper you have and then succumb to
Speaker 1: the elements. I think it's neat because you think about it,
Speaker 1: you're thinking about the people you love and in some
Speaker 1: way they're there with you. Right then, Yeah, but what
Speaker 1: if you're saying I don't want to leave any of
Speaker 1: those no good uh never do wells anything, Well, then
Speaker 1: you deserve to freeze to death. Okay, Uh, there's the
Speaker 1: d I y will which you mentioned. You can get
Speaker 1: um on the internet or I guess it Staples. You
Speaker 1: can get the forms. Self probating wills can save you
Speaker 1: 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. Right. So it expedites the
Speaker 1: whole process. It makes it more difficult to challenge and
Speaker 1: basically it's the butt of boom butt of being of wills.
Speaker 1: Don't 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 legal. 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: at and Judge John Hodgman. So the testatur is the
Speaker 1: only person that can do this. It's very common a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons. You might have a new kid, you
Speaker 1: might get divorced, you might get married, you might start
Speaker 1: hating your kid, might start hating your kid. The tax
Speaker 1: laws might change in your favors. You can tweak it
Speaker 1: a bit. Uh. You might all of a sudden, you
Speaker 1: 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, Okate,
Speaker 1: he's leaving the line share of his though to charity.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, while he's alive. Even that's right. 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,
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 Joe 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 saying, you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. I don't know. You could technically be
Speaker 1: a person of legal standing, which is what you have
Speaker 1: to be too challengea will. You either have to be
Speaker 1: someone who is in the will and you're challenging it
Speaker 1: like I got rem this is terrible. I want more
Speaker 1: money than This's what is your problem, But you can't
Speaker 1: challenge on fairness. You can do it, but you won't win.
Speaker 1: Thank you for correcting me. Um, you could be like
Speaker 1: somebody was holding this guy's feeding too. You know this
Speaker 1: is because so that's when you can challenge, or you
Speaker 1: could be someone who should have been in the will
Speaker 1: e g. A podcaster. I would think it's usually a
Speaker 1: family member, though you probably have to be. I would
Speaker 1: be relative blood or maybe marriage. But I'm sure if
Speaker 1: you're a blood relative, it helps make you, Um, it
Speaker 1: 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: Did you ever see that? But I laughed anyway, right um.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I'm leaving all my stuff to
Speaker 1: you me so you can challenge it all you want, pal,
Speaker 1: But I just contradicted your challenge and this is gonna
Speaker 1: stand up. And you know, because this is a very
Speaker 1: I would think that this would work. Yeah, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: challenge Himy, she can have it all, Okay, she can
Speaker 1: have your junk, So good junk. If you do, you do, Josh,
Speaker 1: I have a good chunk. Um if you do challenge it, um,
Speaker 1: which you're gonna You can either rewrite it completely, revoke
Speaker 1: the original, or add something called the codasil to your
Speaker 1: existing Well. It's just like an addendum basically. Oh, that's
Speaker 1: if you want to change your well. But if you
Speaker 1: want to challenge it, well, well, there's going to turn
Speaker 1: out so right, the will is forged this one. Um
Speaker 1: that it didn't meet the requirements of the state, Like
Speaker 1: maybe the state requires two witnesses and there's only one. Right, 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 testator was a victim of fraud. What would that be?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Um, Like maybe the person who drew
Speaker 1: up the will wasn't really a lawyer but charged lawyer's
Speaker 1: fee fraud. Yeah, okay. And then lastly, the beneficiary doesn't
Speaker 1: improve the executor and this could be like the executors
Speaker 1: maybe the fraudulent attorney. Yeah it can It can't just
Speaker 1: be like she borrowed my pearl necklace once and never
Speaker 1: gave it back. There's no way she can execute this
Speaker 1: a state. 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. And
Speaker 1: that's as if you had died without a will. That's
Speaker 1: how they treated, which is called dying intest state. 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 or he went
Speaker 1: through the game. Oh yeah, like that kind of guy.
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 brought the child into the world you married the spouse.
Speaker 1: I was surprised by that too, Chuck. Yeah, you like
Speaker 1: you said, you disinherit a child for unless you have
Speaker 1: some sort of ironclad pre nup, then your spouse husband
Speaker 1: or wife is gonna be um, gonna be getting some
Speaker 1: dough half. Generally is the is the way to go. Um.
Speaker 1: So spouses are tough, kids are easy, right, but um,
Speaker 1: most lawyers will be like, don't do that. Do not
Speaker 1: just disinherit and don't try to cut your spouse out.
Speaker 1: It's gonna make you look like a jerk. It's gonna
Speaker 1: make a judge overturn your will. Here's what you do.
Speaker 1: You give them each fifties sense Okay, right, pretty horrible, right.
Speaker 1: That didn't make it look like a No, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: But you put in an into rum clause that says
Speaker 1: that if they challenge the will, that they forfeit everything.
Speaker 1: And you know what that means in Latin, it means
Speaker 1: in order to frighten. So basically it's saying, you know,
Speaker 1: it's trying to scare someone off. Right, So the fifties
Speaker 1: cents thing wouldn't work, right, You want to leave them
Speaker 1: enough so that they are they they're gonna have what
Speaker 1: they need, but they're still offended, like exactly right, So
Speaker 1: like they're like, well, I could buy five dollars whether
Speaker 1: the crack with that five thousand dollars, Maybe I should
Speaker 1: just stick with this, you know. Yeah, divorce can complicate things. Obviously,
Speaker 1: some states renders the will invalid, but most times just
Speaker 1: the parts where the spouses in there will be uh addressed.
Speaker 1: So the bequest is what the people get. The beneficiaries
Speaker 1: are the people who get bequests actually figured out like
Speaker 1: a pretty good sentence to explain all this. The beneficiary
Speaker 1: receives a bequest from the tests will in probate court
Speaker 1: at the behest of the executor. That's so clever, Thank you,
Speaker 1: look at you. So the the beneficiaries are all going
Speaker 1: to get slapped with what is called a death tax.
Speaker 1: Really it's called in the state tax, but opponents of
Speaker 1: the estate tax, the rich um basically created this other
Speaker 1: name for it called the death tax, which is like
Speaker 1: you're being taxed to die. You're not actually being taxed
Speaker 1: to die. Your estates not even being taxed. Your beneficiaries.
Speaker 1: Bequests are what are taxed The thing is, it's a
Speaker 1: lot you know what I call it, what one final
Speaker 1: little from the government from uncle saying like, you paid
Speaker 1: your whole life, you paid your whole life, you died
Speaker 1: on the battlefield, and then we're going to get some
Speaker 1: more tax and it's hefty. Yeah. Well, I mean, part
Speaker 1: of the reason why the estate taxes around is to
Speaker 1: prevent dynasties from taking place. But the problem is with
Speaker 1: 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 a state taxes, So that kind
Speaker 1: of goes onto the middle class and prevents middle class
Speaker 1: dynasties from being formed. But you know, it's really weird.
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 tick 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 six staples package. No, No, it actually says
Speaker 1: good luck with the decks death taxes. Pale doesn't, so
Speaker 1: chuck um. If if you are a person living in
Speaker 1: I think two thousand six in the United States and
Speaker 1: you inherited over ten thousand fifty dollars, what did you
Speaker 1: pay close to three grand? That's just that that's just
Speaker 1: for inheriting ten thousand and fifty one dollars, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's the base thing. Then you have to pay
Speaker 1: an additional thirty five percent over and above the ten
Speaker 1: thousand fifty dollars. So let me ask you that is
Speaker 1: that thirty five percent on the whole thing or thirty
Speaker 1: percent 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 going.
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 thou 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 trusts. About two grand to
Speaker 1: set up a trust y UM and this number one
Speaker 1: it's it's very speedy. It keeps it out of probate court.
Speaker 1: Like when you die, you're dying wishes that are a
Speaker 1: part of your will that are incorporated into this trust.
Speaker 1: That's that right right, UM, So all of the stuff
Speaker 1: gets divvied up right away. It stays out of court. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And if you have a minor in your family, a
Speaker 1: lot of times you'll set up a trust because if
Speaker 1: you don't set up a trust, the court is going
Speaker 1: to assign or there will be a conservator who will
Speaker 1: oversee the assets of the minor. And I think eighteen
Speaker 1: to twenty one generally in most states as when a
Speaker 1: minor can all of a sudden handle their own finances.
Speaker 1: But if you set up a trust, it's managed by
Speaker 1: the trust store and they'll handle it for your kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: whoever that person is I would imagine someone just as
Speaker 1: trustworthy is the executor, maybe one and the same. You're right,
Speaker 1: and then chuck. Of course there is the living will,
Speaker 1: right yeah, And there's a whole article on living wills,
Speaker 1: but so we won't get into it too specifically. But
Speaker 1: the living will has nothing to do with your money's
Speaker 1: and properties. It is, um, Hey, if I'm ever in
Speaker 1: a serious accident, I'm on a ventilator, here's how I
Speaker 1: would like my UM, I would like you to pull
Speaker 1: the plug or not pull the plug. And it's more
Speaker 1: complicated than that, yeah, because that's like that's line one.
Speaker 1: And the line too is if I'm ever attacked by
Speaker 1: a dog and I need a heart that's coming, that's
Speaker 1: that my family can afford take, you know, pull the
Speaker 1: plug and then down the line right, yeah, And these
Speaker 1: need to be signed and witnessed, and power of attorney
Speaker 1: is usually included because if you can't cover every scenario obviously,
Speaker 1: and the power of attorney would be let's say, you
Speaker 1: know what, I want Emily to be in charge of
Speaker 1: making this decision and not my mom, let's say, because
Speaker 1: my mom would be like no, he'll pull through, and
Speaker 1: Namily'd be like, yeah, he didn't look too good. She
Speaker 1: wouldn't do that. I'm just kidding. Still funny, but yeah,
Speaker 1: a living will is very important though for anyone of
Speaker 1: any age. Um, it can get real messy. We've seen
Speaker 1: it in the news time and time again. Uh so yeah,
Speaker 1: get your living will taken care of. And I think
Speaker 1: you can also just do like a blanket, like don't
Speaker 1: don't take any heroic measures to save me. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to be on any kind of life support
Speaker 1: mine mine says, do never ever unplug me. Really, I
Speaker 1: want to be a burden on my family for the
Speaker 1: rest of my life, as long as that machine can
Speaker 1: keep me alive. I want to be shaved once a
Speaker 1: week from top to bottom. All right. That segways nicely
Speaker 1: into odd things that can happen stipulations with your will.
Speaker 1: Nice Is that how we should finish up? Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: You can have requirements of your big quest stores. No,
Speaker 1: the beneficiaries and officiaries like, hey, this article. I know
Speaker 1: it's a long time ago, um like hey, I want
Speaker 1: I want to give my son the majority of my fortune,
Speaker 1: but he's got a Finnish college first, or quit smoking.
Speaker 1: I saw was thinking of me when you wrote that
Speaker 1: that was not you were smoking a ton back then, though,
Speaker 1: yes you were. Um, so let's talk about some funny
Speaker 1: and and odd things in history with wills. Josh finished
Speaker 1: on a lighter note. Well, there's Portuguese aristocrat Louis Carlos.
Speaker 1: They no rona coupled all the camara. That's terrible, And
Speaker 1: I sounded like I took a bite of peanut butter
Speaker 1: towards the end. Do you want to do that one? Well,
Speaker 1: I'll now that you said his name, Um, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what he did. He picked seventy so you don't
Speaker 1: want to try that one. He picked seventies strangers, random
Speaker 1: strangers from a phone book in Lisbon and thirteen years
Speaker 1: before he died, and said, these are the people, but
Speaker 1: don't tell him. It's going to be just a big surprise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and some people thought they were being conned. If I
Speaker 1: did that and I died, everybody there be um, seventies
Speaker 1: strangers each getting a one dollar bill. But I put
Speaker 1: in my will that had to be like crisp from
Speaker 1: the bank never circulated one dollar bills to make them
Speaker 1: feel good. I thought you're gonna say it like a
Speaker 1: roller quarters or something. That's another way to go. But
Speaker 1: that's more than a dollar. Yeah, you're right, Um McNair ill.
Speaker 1: Grin Fritz was a unsuccessful but wealthy composer and he said,
Speaker 1: you know what, Metropolitan Opera of New York, I'll leave
Speaker 1: you a hundred grand if after I die, you put
Speaker 1: on this opera I've I've written. And the met said, yea,
Speaker 1: we could use that money but nothings, which is like ouch, yeah,
Speaker 1: but they said the music it was workable. That's not
Speaker 1: like they said, this is awful. I think I guess
Speaker 1: you just wentn't in their plan. Um, who else, Josh?
Speaker 1: Who else do we have here? Onny 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: dred and eighty shares of a rubber boot company that
Speaker 1: I imagine I had something to do with at some
Speaker 1: point maybe, um. And that rubber boot company went on
Speaker 1: to become cell phone giant Nokia, and all of those
Speaker 1: people became millionaires. I imagine all of those people's children
Speaker 1: or grandchildren became millionaires because I don't think Nocchia went
Speaker 1: from a boot company to the cell phone biz like overnight. Um,
Speaker 1: but it was still very nice. This is a good
Speaker 1: story if you ask me, Uh, these are pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Josh um ed Hedrick the inventor. Um, Well, I'm not
Speaker 1: the inventor of the frisbee, but he's credited with perfecting
Speaker 1: the modern frisbee. He wanted to be. He took it
Speaker 1: out of its original square exactly. He worked for WAMO, obviously,
Speaker 1: and he said, you know what, I want my ashes
Speaker 1: to be molded into memorial versions of the frisbee and
Speaker 1: sell those and use the money from those to open
Speaker 1: up a frisbee museum. And then another guy, a Marvel
Speaker 1: comic writer Mark Gruenwald, said, I would like my ashes
Speaker 1: to be mixed with inc and be on a mickbook.
Speaker 1: And when he died young at forty two, there were
Speaker 1: four 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 being Punisher. It
Speaker 1: was probably his comic though. I still want to be
Speaker 1: in the punished, Okay, I want to be in a
Speaker 1: better comic and who else, Dusty Springfield? Shall we mention her?
Speaker 1: Hers just kind of eat I guess it's kind of silly.
Speaker 1: She had a cat named Nicholas, and Nickols had a
Speaker 1: favorite meal, which was imported baby food. So she left
Speaker 1: the singer of Son of a Preacher man Um. She said,
Speaker 1: you know what, Um, Nicholas is gonna lay on my
Speaker 1: nightgown for the rest of nickolas his life, and my
Speaker 1: music is going to be played and lifetime supply that
Speaker 1: cat food for Nicklas. Yeah. And then Leona Helmsley like
Speaker 1: million to her dog for the care of her dog.
Speaker 1: You can't actually leave money to an animal, Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can like stipulating your will that this money is for
Speaker 1: the care of this animal. Right, And she left her
Speaker 1: a couple of grandkids nothing and then yeah, and then
Speaker 1: there is the There was the tree that owns itself
Speaker 1: in Athens. The elderly couple that died or the elderly
Speaker 1: woman that died and left this piece of land apparently
Speaker 1: set up a trust for the tree so that it
Speaker 1: can never be cut down or removed. And actually, if
Speaker 1: you drive along the street, you have to go around
Speaker 1: the roundabout that built around the tree that owns itself again.
Speaker 1: It's got a little placard and a little chain around it, yea.
Speaker 1: And that tree grows up to the center of city Hall.
Speaker 1: And that tree grew up to be roy Comb. I
Speaker 1: got nothing else. I don't either. If you want to
Speaker 1: read a fine article written by a young, strapping Charles W.
Speaker 1: Bryant when he first came to how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: just type how wills work into the handy search bar
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot Com. That, of course brings
Speaker 1: up listener mail. All right, Josh, I know you're gonna
Speaker 1: balk at this because we have another request from a
Speaker 1: boyfriend trying to get his girl. No, no, no, I
Speaker 1: feel so bad for Timmy though. Alright, alright, Timmy before
Speaker 1: we read this, dude, if you don't get back in
Speaker 1: touch with us and let us know what happened, we
Speaker 1: will find you. Yeah, you're dead to me, even though
Speaker 1: we can't find the other guy. We will find you
Speaker 1: to me since too, Yeah, and since we mentioned it
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: part um Jerry cracking up today. Guys have been a
Speaker 1: big fan since two thousand nine. One big thing that
Speaker 1: has changed since that time was I found an absolutely
Speaker 1: brilliant girlfriend. She also loves you, guys. We would spend
Speaker 1: our nights together falling asleep, listening stuff. You should know.
Speaker 1: She would fill me in on bits I missed. It
Speaker 1: sounds like a very sweet thing. Unfortunately, recently we were
Speaker 1: having a rough time of things, sort of lost perspective
Speaker 1: and the spark faded. Uh, let me go ahead and
Speaker 1: tell you to me do the spark like that. Spark
Speaker 1: always fades. You gotta have something else going on there.
Speaker 1: Substantial Model Airplanes is a good one. So we both
Speaker 1: am amicably agreed that it would be easier to split
Speaker 1: after eighteen months together. And the best thing we both
Speaker 1: do the same university. We are have the same courses
Speaker 1: at times. He must be English or something. We still
Speaker 1: chat a lot and I really miss her though, and
Speaker 1: I know she misses me too. You don't know that, Timmy.
Speaker 1: You're about to find out. We were great together and
Speaker 1: just needed this time apart to sort out our heads
Speaker 1: and commit back to one another. What I would like
Speaker 1: to do, guys, is for you to say to Elaine,
Speaker 1: would you please get back with Timmy? Go back out
Speaker 1: with him. He's boyfriend again. I'm sorry girlfriend. I know
Speaker 1: she'll be listening. It would be a great way of
Speaker 1: me showing her how much I still care. Or you
Speaker 1: could just talk to her. That's that's another thing, or
Speaker 1: that he's watching her. I don't think I'll do any
Speaker 1: more of these. Um. I love her. I want to
Speaker 1: spend my future with her. I would be really grateful
Speaker 1: for this. So that's the deal, Timmy. It's as much
Speaker 1: love Elaine. Take him back or don't. Either way, Timmy,
Speaker 1: Please let us know what happens so we can follow
Speaker 1: up and tell people what happened with the ten Elaine
Speaker 1: Socca and that is it. That is as dead as
Speaker 1: Haiku and disco. We're not doing that anymore, never again. No,
Speaker 1: all right, agreed? Okay, thanks a lot, Timmy. Good luck
Speaker 1: to you forever. All right, Um, Chuck, are you okay
Speaker 1: with that? No? I'm fine, because it just gets out
Speaker 1: of hand and then you know, we're asking people out
Speaker 1: on a first date all of a sudden, and hey,
Speaker 1: can you tell my friend Joe to pick up the
Speaker 1: tab every now and then. You know, it's just it's
Speaker 1: I'm okay with that one. Okay, Yeah, that's fine. You
Speaker 1: know how I feel about freeloaders. All right, Well, then
Speaker 1: let's call for that and the email. Um, now we'll
Speaker 1: 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 Know, 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
Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com. To learn more about
Speaker 1: the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper
Speaker 1: right corner of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone
Speaker 1: app has a ride. Download it today on iTunes. Brought
Speaker 1: to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
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