our title today are your affairs in order and so I think everyone knows what we mean by affairs papers and those kind of wonderful things that we need but we might
not exactly know how to go about that So in our families there's could be a lot of changes and something's always changing in the family You have um a baby being born You have someone may
pass away You have a marriage of yourself or other people in your family uh you may have strong feelings one way or the other about the person who your relative has chosen to
marry and all of a sudden there's a lot of changes in the family dynamics And so it's always a good idea to look into the future although it's kind of hard sometimes for us but we
need to concern ourselves with a couple of things while you're alive if you were to have a head injury or have
uh god forbid go into a coma not come out or go into a coma that was six months and then you came out What happens to your money for the six months
and what happens to your health care decisions while you're out of it Like I said coma head injury dementia other
temporarily or permanently cannot make a healthc care decision So I just want to let you know I've got a healthc care proxy on the table If you've never signed one they're free I use a free Commonwealth of Massachusetts form and
which my own doctor has given to me So it's a very uh generic form but to Massachusetts because it follows what the laws are in Massachusetts Here you appoint a person who you trust and have faith in
to make a healthc care decision for you you're alive but cannot make the decision Other states may have other ways of doing it I have heard people ask me about uh
the something called the five wishes which is all very good and is a tool of communication where you discuss what are your wishes if you had a medical emergency and you discuss it with your relatives But the law is that the doctor
wants to know who's the name on the form and what's their phone number And so that's why your form is is not a long drawn out thing and it doesn't say any detailed information We used to when I was a new attorney we would write these
six page healthcare proxies Then as time went on things got more complicated and I realized there's no doctor that's going to sit there and read your six pages They want to know I have to cut
Mary's big toe off and she can't sign So who am I going to get permission to do this operation that's kind of a simple example So uh as you know with health care they're doing more uh people are
staying alive longer You get a h head injury 30 40 years ago people used to die So now they're alive and so what is the best thing for them and you your uh best option to start this off is to have
a discussion with the person that you think is the one you want to make the decision for you the form lives leaves a space for an alternate and you're gonna try to think about person number two in case person number one can't do it doesn't wanna whatever go moves to
England or something like that second thing which I mentioned was money which is those same reasons head injury incompetence temporarily or permanently cannot make a financial
decision this is a broad power The documents called durable power of attorney Uh my advice is everyone over 18 should have one It's kind of like car insurance You hope you never need it but
you are sure glad when you have it So same thing You appoint a person number one who you have faith in and they're going to do right by you with your financial decisions and you appoint person number two you uh keep the document in your home
and you tell person number one where it is in case something happens to it You do not put it in a safe deposit box because only you can get in to the safe deposit box So uh those are the things
while you're alive Um this the other side of that is when you're no longer with us So if you died tonight would your relatives know what you wanted for the dis
distribution passing out of your assets that is everything cash checks savings stocks bonds CD real estate 401k
etc etc etc poss uh possessions es especially valuable ones such as cars boats uh jewelry So those are things that you address in a document called a will which people probably have heard of Uh
last will and testament in Massachusetts your will must be cannot be I should say handwritten So it's best to have a a lawyer do your will for you because
there's intricacies in the law that you want to make sure are addressed And uh I've had people ask me about internet wills uh which is I do not agree that that's a good option for people Uh one
example is this If you have uh children under 18 or grandchildren that you want to leave something to if you do if you leave it to them in your will then at the probate court when your
will goes through the system of the of the probate system the judge has to appoint a guardian ad lightum over every beneficiary of your will who's under 18 or who is
disabled So you don't want to uh that costs a lot of money and it's a hassle and it takes a lot of time So it would be better if you gave your funds to that person's parent
or guardian on their behalf So that's just one example of how I'm trying to point out that uh internet wills are lacking in a lot of areas Let's say it that way
Okay So your will uh what goes through your will is those things that are in your name alone For example if you own a house with another person and
the deed says well first of all if you're married the deed is going to say tenants by the entirety That means when one person passes away the other one is automatically the owner of the real
estate If you have a car that's in your name and you your name alone and you pass away the Commonwealth of Mass has made it easy for spouses to if you get a diagnosis where they say
you're not going to be driving that motorcycle anymore you might want to give it away Or you know if you need the money obviously you can sell it But just if you know somebody wants it the time to give away your treasured
possessions that you want to know where it's going is while you're alive So if you can make a way to do that So I didn't tell you uh I guess the worst news I have for you is if you
don't do those documents that I said at the beginning the healthc care proxy and the power of attorney but you're still alive a hospital or rehab center is going to be forced to go to the probate court and
get a guardian for you Now your relatives may come forward and say "Oh I'll take that job of being the guardian." But the decision is up to the judge And so uh it's very complicated
The last one I did took nine months and costs a lot of money uh the person sick person or incapacitated person receives a free lawyer paid by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts So if there's any question about whether they're well they're competent some of the time whatever that lawyer is not going to allow the court to appoint a full guardian which you may think your relative needs So going
backwards rewinding here let's avoid all that What happens with with your estate at the probate court uh while you're alive you can avoid them being involved in your business the government being
too involved in our business You have control over that if you take advantage of the opportunity and think about it which I'm very glad that you're all here today So that means to me that you've been thinking about it Okay Same thing with the
um power of attorney If you don't have one and you have real estate in your name alone and you're alive no one can sign a deed and sell the real estate if that has to be done for whatever reason You're you're never going back to your
house whatever You need a power of attorney or a conservator Same thing and a lot of money a lot of lawyers the judge decides who the conservator is So you can avoid all that by the document called durable power of
attorney If you don't have a will the Commonwealth of NAS h does not get your money That's a myth I hear all the time They do tell you who will get your money So they have a family tree in
the it's called the uniform probate code and they tell you who will get your money and it may or may not be someone you want to get your money and I'll give some examples So in the family tree the Commonwealth of Mass has made for
us spouses get 100% or mostly everything depending on if there's children from a prior marriage or second marriage third marriage whatever So the spouse has a strong
inheritance right in Massachusetts If there's no spouse the kids are next Say you have four kids One is a surgeon and they have no children and you put them through
medical school And then you have another child who has three of your grandchildren Who do you think would need your money more maybe Probably the one with the grandchildren However the Commonwealth
of Mass says no you have four kids you got to divide by four and they all get the same equally Another example if one of your children has their health insurance from Mass Health you probably know there's a
limitation on how many what dollar amount they can have for assets And they cannot have more than $2,000 So if they inherit from you 50,000 they are going to lose their eligibility for Mass Health and you will
be causing them a lot of issues with their medical care and red tape if you leave them money and they're not entitled to it And there's not very
much ways to manipulate this Like say there's a house to be sold And so I'm just throwing out even numbers here Like say the house is 400,000 and you have four kids and you're going to give them 100,000
each So one could say the mass health person is not allowed to say no I don't want the money and the lawyer who's the who's writing the checks for that real estate is not allowed to write checks to
bypass the rules here So this is how it is and you know the the government has rules and ways of checking on these things Now if you have 20,000 in the in the closet in the bedroom whoever finds
it can pass out the 20,000 in cash to anybody they want But when you're dealing with checks that come from a bank account and are going into a bank account there's a public record that the banking system
uh is aware of and they're going to know that the person on Mass Health got this 50,000 or whatever number So when you when you see maybe people don't know this but when people sign up for Mass Health or Social not
not social security disability SSI which is a program for poor people who have never worked um you give them permission to look at your bank account So a lot of people that I talked to because I have done
some of that work don't seem to realize that when they signed on and it's it's very clear there's a statement right there but people don't read things that's the other well shouldn't say everybody but many don't read them and so they don't know oh the government can
look at my bank account if you're on mass health the answer is yes and so you you would need to know that when you're doing your plan for who's going to get my stuff and my money after I pass away
So um part of this is it's a kind act not to leave a mess for your relatives And you you know we all know there's there's conflicts everywhere and
conflicts and families but you have to put that aside and say "Okay now here I am I'm in my right mind right now What am I going to do and who am I going to have faith in to make these decisions and so between family friends children
grandchildren niece nephews whoever think about who you have And um very rare but sometimes people hire a lawyer to do that job for them in their lifetime They don't have any family or
the family's all passed away Occasionally that happens um but it's very rare Most of the time the control should be with the family of th you know of those assets and most people can find
at least one person that they have some faith in So uh I've said a lot and um just take one more second here So I've talked about some of the changes that happen in families that kind of force you to think
about these things So I guess my message just would be think about it before you get forced into it by a medical emergency and because if you don't come to from the medical emergency then
somebody else is going to be making decisions that belong to you So let me hear from you for questions Yes All right I'm kind of a little different I don't have a lot of anything
Okay My kids aren't much of I can put their name down but how do I like I've got the will My daughter helped me get that together I just have to have it notorized She works for a lawyer Okay So I can do that But um as
far as assets I really don't have anything I just want to make sure everything's done Like the apartment's cleared out I paid for my funeral Well if you read your will there's a magic sentence But I'm concerned what you're talking about though Okay Help is what
I'm Did a lawyer write your will my daughter did She's a parillegal Okay Because you'll see there's a magic sentence All the rest residue and remainder of everything I own I give to anybody in the family
what whatever name you said your will has that Let me just say if it's a will that's done correctly It has that and so you don't need to worry about who's cleaning out your apartment being rental you know but you
need to tell your executive which is now called personal representative Right Okay Okay You need to tell somebody Yeah Well she's she's my everything So they're going to take care of it I hope Well no They're the law says they're
going to take care of it If they don't want the job they tell the the court "No I don't want the job." And person number two who you should have an alternate executive in your will They'll take care of like that should not be a concern because even if those two people said no
someone else in the family is going to go to the court and say "I'll be the executive." Yeah Because she's she's on the will She's on the power of attorney She's She's on everything that I I I guess I'm not
clear on Well I got Why you're concerned i'm just I'm still in the dark on certain things I I Yeah Uh I I guess I would say read your will again and then talk to your daughter
And then the other thing your your will is a useless piece of paper Okay unless it is signed in the presence of three witnesses one of which must be a notary public Okay Okay So I didn't realize that Okay And they should all in ideal
setting Right Right Right They need to be all in the room at the same time Yeah Okay So many people do the internet wills and they show them to me and they say "Okay where's the signatures?" This isn't the internet This is right from
the right But you the will is a useless piece of paper unless it is signed in the correct way right by like it can't be signed by someone who's named in the will for example and one of them should
be a notary post so you have to take care of the signing ceremony which is part of what if a lawyer does your will they're going to do it according to the way the rules work So okay Other comments yes Um
one of my questions I I think you just answered Um a personal representative is the same as an executive Yes In 2012 the law changed in Massachusetts and there was many things that change a few some of the wordings changed The biggest
change was the spousal inheritance was strengthened But the other change was it's now called personal representative Okay So they but you know on TV you watch Perry Mason and all these old shows older shows you know that say oh
executive Okay Yeah So that's why um I do have an internet will but I do I did have the three witnesses Okay And one of the witnesses was a notary republic Um my question
is here it says where the notary um says my commission expires and it gives a date that has to do with their commission In other words they can't sign after that date So it has nothing to do with you You're so
this is still legal or whatever afterwards Yes Okay Because it ends this year and I was like right Oh no I didn't know if I had to renew it or we get a notary commission for seven years and then we have to renew our the person who's the notary has to renew their
commission Okay Yeah So you should be fine with that Um is it I know we didn't talk about this yet but is a DNR that has to be renewed or whatever uh DNR I think you're referring to do not
resuscitate which is a which is in the law and the only time I've seen them a couple times uh if you have someone in the house on hospice you put it on the refrigerator or that they don't want to be resuscitated and then or if you're in
a nursing home and they know you're at end of life or you've already had five heart attacks and you're 95 then you can sign on the form mark the X do not resuscitate me So the decision for a do
not resuscitate is very individual and depends on the person and the doctor I already had that but I didn't know if it needed to be kept up or renewed or Well you have it in advance of your illness
because you're here today Yeah So I I I think when you get to be in that mental state or you go to a facility they're going to ask you the question over again And and a lot of the facilities have their own form
So So there's there's no renewing It's you don't need it at this moment You can change it though Of course you absolutely If you're competent so if you're competent you can change it If you're incompetent your health care proxy is
going to fill that out Now can your health care proxy be the same as your personal representative yes Yes Thank you very much Question Yes Dumb question Durable It's a durable power of attorney Okay So that means it
lasts or you can uh say you have surgery and you're out for three months incompetent for three months because you're on too many drugs whatever Then it comes back and you get your power back In other words it doesn't end or go away Oh I got
to get a new power of attorney now because I've they used it when I was in the hospital last year No So the dur durable is temporary or permanent no permanent Permanent Okay Okay Yes One owner's name on a house Yes Can that be written in a will
that say the kids are to sell it and split proceeds or uh the law says they're going to to sell it and split pro proceeds Okay If you want something else done like you want to let somebody live
there like say you had a disabled child I want them to live there for at least five years after I die You leave them a life estate in your will Or you could do it on the deed before you pass away Yeah You could write a new deed that says I
live I give my house to my three kids but I want Mary to live there for five years after my death at if she wants to In other words she would sign say she wants to move out after three years and then they can sell it and everybody gets their money Long as you understand the
other people are going to be waiting for their money Yeah if you did this life estate thing So that's that's like a gift You're giving them a right You're not giving them them any money You're giving her the right to live there Now if you have children some are very
financially capable and say a couple let's say you got four two are fine they manage money fine and the other one's burns a hole in their pocket So you wouldn't do 5050
Well that's an example of a question that is a personal decision on your part Okay You do what you want Okay But you can set up like a trust I mean you know if unless they're incompetent No Or you know whatever Hospitalized or whatever
But otherwise you do what you want and you hope they have the right resources Or you say I'm only going to give them 10% each Yeah and the rest can the other people can get it and ju just understanding what that's going to do to the family dynamics We need to do
something like that So yes I had a will and every all these papers done like 20 years ago Yes Things have changed Do I have to go back and notify the original attorney that did that will the healthcare and all that no The only thing that matters is the current All
right And you if you're doing a new will most lawyers would have you rip up the old one right in the office when you sign the new one because it's not good to leave two wills lying around Think about the reason why Oh I I cut out
Johnny Jones Okay So now they're going to be mad right so yeah you but but just cuz 20 years has gone by is not a reason The reason is is somebody gone Everything's changed So that yeah you need to rethink that What's the difference between a trust and a will
then okay So a trust try to give it uh simple Uh a trust is like a box You put things in it to not hide it but
prevent the probate court the nursing home who could get those assets from getting them You would if you we're talking about nursing home you have to
make the box the trust five years before you're going to ask Mass Health to pay your bill in the nursing home I heard seven but it's five Okay Okay So you would you can put your house into the trust but here's the part
that So there's second of all you you really need to talk to somebody or read more about trust but just briefly uh there's two kinds of trust Revocable in the big picture Let's say there's there's all kinds of trust but in the big picture there's revocable
Revoke can get it back You put the house in take the house out You put the house in and five years goes by and you want to um get a roof Oh I need a home equity loan The bank's not going to give you a loan You need to they will loan to individuals not to the trust So you have
to take the house out of the trust just for that Get your bank loan and put the house back in the trust So there's some effort involved and you would need to think about that before you uh before you did the trust
So um but you the other one that we just started briefly on the topic of nursing homes is called irrevocable trust You don't want the your house to be attached by the nursing home You think you're going there You're pretty sure you're
going to run out of money to pay privately So in in uh this is not a hard and fast rule but I'm going to say briefly uh the first 100 days on Medicare for people over 65 for the first 100
days Medicare and your health what other other health insurance you have pays the bill as long as you're getting better when say you stop getting better at day 50 they're going to come to you in the family and say "There's nothing more we
can do for you You need to go home or you need to go on private pay." So if you don't have the 13,000 a month for the private pay bill then you're going to or if you you know run out of money you can go on Mass Health But if you
have a house well again it's more complicated than that If you're married you're allowed to have a house because you have a community spouse someone who's living in the community and they need a house to live in But if you're single you don't need a house because the nursing
home says "Hey you're too sick You got to you need nursing care for the rest of your life." And you you don't have a house that you need And so they your house is subject to being attached after you die Not while you're
alive but after you die So those are just and it happens in different ways Some people their relatives say "Oh why don't you just sell the house and then you take the cash and you pay your bill till you run out of money?" Which hopefully is not that's kind of rare that people stay in
nursing homes that long A lot of people you probably know that these days there's more home care Uh even Mass Health wants you to have home care instead of sitting in a nursing home So there's more care
in the home You probably know of a lot of home care agencies It's kind of a big business and you might not need 24 hours of nursing care Maybe you need three or four hours a day which is far cheaper if
you had had some cash to pay for than is your bill for 13,000 plus a month That's around here Other other places are parts of the country are different prices So anyway I've said a lot but you you can look into it The internet has a lot of
articles and and the website mass.gov has a lot of um articles about Mass Health nursing homes um what their rules are There's quite it's quite an
informative from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Uh and so that's that would just be something we could look into Um I I didn't say before I forget to say it there's a couple of articles on the table if you
want them And there is also a healthcare proxy form if anybody wants one You don't need a lawyer You don't need a notary You need two witnesses not the people you are selecting to do the job for you Do you need files anywhere
uh you you should give it to your primary care doctor and any other doctor Like say you have a heart condition you should give it to the heart doctor just to make sure they know And of course you always keep a copy for yourself Okay Anything else yes Um on the
paperwork you gave us I see where it says executive or alternate executive Is it possible to have two people i want coex Uh it's it's possible to have two people I personally advise against it because guess what happens when the two
people don't agree on the decision Nothing gets done right or they argue and you have all this hatred and bitterness So the whole point of this is hopefully to eliminate bad feelings in the family Although they might be mad at you but
you won't be here So it doesn't matter if they're mad at you or don't like your decision Uh I did it once for two sisters and they took care of their parents for several years as co-guardians and then the parents both
passed away well into their 90s and but every time that a check Oh I need to pay this bill One lived about 50 miles away the checkbook's got two names on it two signatures can't have an ATM card on a conservator account or an estate account
You you can't make it There's no simplicity So one had to send the other one the check here You got to sign your name Two two signers on the check Of course the other person took their time and then made the other one mad because they were doing all the work running
around buying clothes for the person etc etc So I I'm saying uh when this was all over the two sisters didn't talk to each other So I'm telling you that because it's a
bad idea So but at the end of the day you're free to write that two people are going to be your executive and two people are going to be your Are you saying now I should have the executive put on like a checking account and stuff no No No Because you're alive now
totally different thing After you pass away the executive has to has to open an estate account for your assets that were left in your name alone Okay So I I guess I'm trying to um
say it's not possible to plan everything but as I said the older you get you should at least have at the bank payable upon death some sort of beneficiary And I do
understand from a couple people I've talked to recently some banks refuse to let you put a beneficiary on a CD CD I don't know why and I don't know which banks these are but you have to ask your bank If you're a single person and you
have a checking account in your name alone then you should have a payable upon debt person on the account that is going to be the owner of the money They're not going to pay your bills They have no obligation to pay You have you are making them a gift Oh okay They
don't have to pay for your funeral They don't have to pay for anything You You put their name on the account They might do what you suggest just so they can get their hands on it You're going to get the money because say you have a house
and it's a charity and because my kids will fight Yeah I'm sorry I missed that You have a charity have it go to a charity or something or No that has nothing to do with the question Char Well you can you can leave money to charity in the will but what I'm saying
is if you have the bank's probably not going to let you leave your money to charity and Okay Yeah I'm pretty sure they not don't allow that kind of thing anyway because after death if you leave money to a charity the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Mass has to be notified and just you know make sure
they're really a nonprofit organization is kind of extra step that has to be taken Um I'm sorry I lost my thought I was thrown off by the charity Do you still do you still have a question
Okay I'm okay Okay What I was saying is that Oh we were on payable upon death I'm going around in circles Sorry about that So payable upon death The reason you want them to get the money is that in an ideal
world they know that several months is going to go by Oh we got to put the house for sale Oh well it's January Nobody's going to buy now Well somebody's got to pay the property taxes and somebody's got to pay the electric bill on this house and heat the place for the winter So where's the money
coming from and if you have this person who's already taking some responsibility and you trust them enough that you put their name as payable upon debt what they can do is pay the property taxes and later when the house sells they can get their money back
because you have allowed them to have use of the money which by giving them this gift So what I'm saying is that if you know you got a bad diagnosis leave several thousand if you possibly can where
someone can get at it because they are going to have some expenses Either that or they've put it and I I have had this happen They put the funeral on a credit card and then when the house sells and
five months later they get their 6,000 or however much the funeral costs money back So at the closing before anybody gets like there's four kids before anybody gets their money back the ones who were paying the property
tax and the paid the funeral paid whatever after death bills after death the person gets paid back I mean that's fair right so the executive is going to be in charge of that does being a
co-signer on their checking account circumvent that like is being a co-signer er is the same thing as a payable upon death Well not exactly the same thing Co-signer they get the money It's their money You die it's their
money But if they use that money to keep everybody happy oh I'm going to pay the property taxes What then I'll get paid back when the But they'll say well what about that money that you got and you say legally that's my money I don't have
to pay the property taxes Now it depends on the family because many people don't think like that and they just say "Oh yes that's what dad wanted I'm going to pay the property taxes." With my own money with my own money the dad gifted
you by putting your name on the account The other thing about it's moderately dangerous depending on your family circumstances Again every family's different When you have a person's name on your bank account that's not the same as payable upon debt co-owner means you
could walk in the bank any time and withdraw all the money and maybe dad doesn't know that or or it says oh no they'd never do that or whatever but it's moderately dangerous to do that so so again all family this is this
is what I'm trying to say all families are different you make decisions for different reasons you know some people are single by themselves don't have any relatives Some people are have five relatives who are going to be chopping at the bit to
get their money or you have one relative who's I don't want to say but an addict You got to make provision for people like that You can't sign over a house to a person who's an addict and
think that they're going to willingly divide up all the profits and you have to use your wisdom So um the best thing is think about these decisions um and make a plan Uh get a trusted
person in the family if you you know want to speak with someone make some plans in order to get these things done Uh on my end I will just tell you uh because I'm not sure if people have to go or or whatever uh how we wrap this up
I I'm happy to stay but just letting you know that I am I work all over Western Mass and uh I'm happy to meet you or whatever needs to be done for you I'm just
letting you know that that I'm a person who travels and uh there are many lawyers who do travel now and go to people and and I am one of those attorneys Yes Um I have a question If
you have Oh Oh I'm sorry I thought I was talking Oh sorry Yeah Yeah I was wanted to get some input from you I had a um made up a will and I have no husbands no siblings You made up a will with a lawyer or by yourself no with a lawyer
Okay But the question came up after it was drafted Okay No no spouse no siblings I have two children adult children So everything was going to be 5050 Yes And then he said to me "Well what happens if one of them predesceases
you?" Right Then you have to say "Does the other one get the 100% or do they do they have children?" They're both married Do they have children yeah One does one doesn't Okay So you have to say what's going to happen Yeah And that's your choice
question is does it go to the spouse or does you can actually skip to the next generation so it only goes to the children you choose and if I was you I'd be putting a name in there you have a right to choose whose name
what do you mean who do you want to get the money so the question is somebody dies who you've left as a beneficiary it's always good to say if so and so dies guys before me then
Johnny gets it Mary gets it my friend down the street who helped me all my life gets it Could be anybody Well I'm thinking about the bad feeling that might happen if I decide I want to bypass the spouses
and leave it to the the the children Yeah But you're dead And and I don't worry about I was going to say you won't you won't be here Let them fight for that But but you should you should make sure you're not
leaving it to children under 18 Going back to what I said earlier Okay So that's your decision now Okay Go ahead in the blue Um yeah my question is if you have everything jointly owned your house all of your assets your life
insurance obviously that's not going to that's uh the beneficiary's name in the life insurance policy kind of thing So if you get everything into joint assets and you have a will when the first person dies do you still have to probate
that will no Oh okay No it's after It's up because everything is settled right by the law like your deed It's in two names So the law says the other person's automatic So if you get everything on there's no court no judge no probate So it's not till the second person It's not
till right Once there's an asset that somebody cannot get a hold of Example you have a bank account that you forgot about from 10 years ago that has money in it and you can't get it and your heirs can't get it because it's not included
Then you they look and say "Okay who did they leave things to in their will or if there's no will then it's by the family tree whatever the common says." Thank you Okay Any other comments questions
yes Um just to go back you said a trust you said um five years for the mass health protection Um is that um the uh irrevocable trust and um does the person have to live for five
years like if it was mine do I have to live for 5 years if Well yes Because you'd be the reason you're protected from nursing home is because you you're afraid you might go there Yeah So you would be alive to go to the nursing home So what if it happened in you know three years like a year after she went into
the nursing home well then there you're not protected Okay Yeah See the protection starts at five years It it seems unfortunate even four and a half years you So you have to pay your bill for the six months and then you'll be protected but you you have no money
That's why you're applying for Mass Health So it's it's a very sticky situation So if you don't mind me asking approximately how much does it cost to establish a trust and are there different costs it might be complicated I would say you it's all over the map and the lawyer that's going to do it for
you You need to ask them Okay Yeah What about the will the will of it like an average cost prices are all over the map Depends on who you who you're talking to Yeah Yes What happens at probate when when
your will is probated what happens okay So uh probate you have about 20 forms You have to list out the family tree You have to list out who the money left to in the will You have to submit the original
will and uh there's as I said lots of other forms that you're usually filed by the executive who's been appointed in your will Okay If there's no will then some family member has to say "Oh well this they own this house by themselves
We've got to get this settled." And they go to court and say "I'd like to become the executive." Before they do that I say "Ask your relatives are they going to oppose you?" Because if somebody opposes you you'll be there for a long time and a lot of money So you should
you should say among the family hey there's no will but I'd like to go to the court and try to settle this Will you people back me up brothers and sisters or whoever that cousins whoever they are um so then you do your forms
uh there's going to be a wait that a required newspaper publication probably 30 30 to 45 days then if everything's in order the judge will say oh yeah okay I see this is all in order and they appoint you if
somebody and then you have power you can hire a realtor sell the house have a tag sale you be have the authority which piece of paper you get it's called letters of authority party and you have the uh you take that to the bank and you
set up your bank new bank account the estate of Mary who died Okay and so that's everything any money you get in for the estate or bill you pay like say Mary owed the Mercy Hospital some money You're gonna wait till the money gets in
there obviously and you're going to write a check for whatever Mary owed her bills while she was alive not anybody else's bills Um and then you you're going to have to show an accounting as time goes on You're going
to have a realtor they're going to sell whatever or you could sell it to a family member but you you know the lawyer will be writing a new deed and there's going to be a uh accounting required usually if there's real estate as to what did you do with all the money
and or if Mass Health has owed some money these people are going to come forward because one of the money back especially Mass Health is going to come forward uh and there are people like collection agencies that watch the filings at the probate court it's public record and they say "Oh they owe us
20,000 in Visa." And they'll be sending mail to the executive and if you have money you should be paying the bills Uh if you have money and you have a house you will not be if it's Mass Health you
will not be allowed to sell the house Mass Health gets paid person number one at the closing Okay at except for I should qualify the mortgage is first Mass Health is first So whatever Mass Health paid you for right whatever their bill it was in the nursing home that
they paid or your health care if you were over 55 and you were on Mass Health they're going to be settling that up If you own real estate in your name alone when you die that you haven't already given away but a will will
bypass probate right no No The will goes to probate Will does that by if you have a will how approximately how long will it stay in probate or how long does probate if no one protests you can probably get appointed in 30 to 60 days
If there's any question issued pro uh there's little things that can happen I had one recently cause a death when you die alone Going to do an autopsy The death certificate says pend cause of
death pending That's going to hold up your case in the probate court Got to have a cause of death It's a long story It's related to murder and making sure you think the no one who murdered the person is getting assets from it etc It's like
a little funky thing in the law It could be you Anyway so the word pending is a problem and you have to keep haunting the funeral home Hey you got to get me that death certificate because the like I have one right now The case is being held up Everything's at a standstill
because we're waiting for the cause of death So that's what happens when people die by themselves and there's a question as to what did they die what's the reason they died yes Yes Do you recommend a revocable living trust to prevent
uh the answer the question is if uh would I recommend a revokable living trust to avoid probate the answer is it depends on the family depends on what's in the trust depends on if you got somebody to be the trustee I like this all of these things I it
seems like I'm you know lawyers have these ways of avoiding the question but the answer is different for every person in every family If if you if I said to you oh you should have re an irrevocable living trust Well I'd have to hopefully
have had a long talk with you and had to hear about all your relatives and the money and who's doing what and who needs the money and what are you doing We would have this long conversation So the answer is different for everyone It does avoid probate Yeah Yeah
Oh that's what I meant Trust So you have to decide is the cost outweigh the benefit you get So because when you put your real estate in trust you have to appoint a trustee
It can be you revocable living trust but there's no no nursing home protection Yeah no complication but they avoid you avoid probate right so you have to discuss it with you know you should discuss it with an attorney
what you what is your wishes and why do why do you want to do it that way can you clarify going to probate i thought everything has has to go through probate It could be even so the trust is not
well the verb let's go with the verb go Okay You don't go anywhere Well it goes through the case goes to probate Okay Usually by a lawyer because as I mentioned the 20 pages of forms and people don't want to either don't the
the forms are moderately technical and the answers are can be wrong and when logically you would think it was right Anyway that's why people hire attorneys to get this get that done Um so you have to go to probate if
there's something you cannot reach get to bank account with no beneficiary life insurance with no beneficiary or they p somebody died who they had as a beneficiary and they didn't get around to putting a new beneficiary 401k oh I forgot to put
somebody's name as the new beneficiary person got to happen to my uncle he got divorced He didn't put his son's name on the beneficiary He left his ex-wife as the beneficiary who got all the life insurance money So these things these things happen when you and there's
nothing he could do once she got everything right Well then it life insurance and these accounts passed by a contract with Fidelity or Credential or whoever they are They have to give the money to the one that you said is your beneficiary It has nothing to do with
your will So it's a contract as opposed to the will goes through the probate court and and only affects like say in your will it says I leave my Corvette
to Mary but the year before you die you gave the Corvette to Mary There's no reason to go to probate You've already already decided or you're out of money and it says I leave my bank account at TD Bank Well you don't have a bank account at TD Bank because you spent all
the money So there's no reason to go to probate So we go to probate Go to meaning file at probate if you have assets that only no one can get to If you go in the bank and say
"Hey I'm the executive on this will." And they say "Oh okay Uh you got to go through probate because your name's not on it." Yeah Because your name's not on the account And so you need to be officially become the executive We're not just going to give you the money That's why I said back way back put a
payable upon death Say that would save you Yeah You won't have to go anywhere You just walk in the bank with your photo ID and a debt certificate and you'll get the money payable upon death So will no will trust Do those
cases go to probate regardless and it's just a matter of it gets the the pro probate process If you have a will it's 30 to 60 days If you don't have a will it's could be for it'll be a little longer But
you'll you'll get appointed as the executive without a will as long as no one in the family is protesting Okay So but even if you have a will it still goes to probate Yes Because it's a probate is a process Yes And because there's real with the probate is for
things in the dead person's name alone otherwise you don't have to go to probate If you have a house it's in two people's names There's no probate The other person gets it That's if it's tenants by the entirety or joint tenants
Once in a great while the parent will say "I'm leaving it to the four kids Tenants in common 25% a piece while they're alive." So while they're alive so then the parent dies and these four people only own a 1/4
share all separate So there's So you have to sell it and prove that's there that doesn't go to probate but they still only split four ways So that's one way to do it because
they did the deed while they were alive So you can sign your deed while you're alive but there's tax consequences which is another long story that you should ask your your accountant Hey if I receive a h 100red,000 out of a house
while the person is still alive I receive this gift of a house but I can't get it till they die There's tax consequences So you have to ask your accountant or whoever tax preparer somebody who knows something about taxes
If someone contests a will or contests that can go on for years Correct Correct So that's why it's good to sit with people and say and occasionally if there's like no will people say oh can
we meet with you know if you can have a meeting with a lawyer who will tell you here's what's going to happen I hope you don't object because otherwise you'll be here for a long time and many thousands many thousands of dollars more than you need to pay Is there anybody who would
like to be the executive and and hopefully they've discussed it and or I'll say okay well why don't you think about it and I'll go away and call me when you're ready Yes Those
are so let's forget for a moment about nursing Yeah In which case is not advisable to the second one
Okay For how long that to be in force uh okay Question number one is a question for you and a lawyer The answer is different for every person Whether a trust is right for you
is something you're going to discuss with the lawyer You're going to see what are you putting in the trust because if you only put your house in a trust and you have all this other money you're still going to have to have a will and have other ways of
distributing the money after your death Okay and so that's why I'm saying when when you're talking about trusts you have to understand what are the you and the lawyer need to
understand what do you want to do You want to avoid this You want this to happen for this child or grandchild It's a seamless transition from to the transition to the Yes And that's
your call on the trust You're going to have dates I don't want these kids to get this money till they're 30 You can put that in if you want As long as you There is a law about you know hundreds of years You can't you
can't carry it out you know I have seen trust where it's carried on several generations but you but somebody is managing that like a like a a bank that manages trusts which charges fees every year meaning there's a lot of money in there and they
only want to give out you know 20,000 a year to somebody Yeah that's there's somebody's got to manage that and it's expensive So who does somebody manage that from the It can be someone in the family
or it could be a stock fund manager if you have enough money So there's rules about that These companies have their own rules about how much the stock fund has to be worth before they would be involved in managing a trust And not all
stock companies manage trust You have to find somebody A lot of banks have uh people like that So listen I'm gonna and finish it up Um yes last question Okay I um just checking Does
Massachusetts still allow the no contest clause like anyone who contests this will shall not take under it clause yes they're still usable Yes Okay So let me say thank you and uh happy to chat with you I've got some
cards and things there Thank you Thank you Lots of good questions