Estates, Probate, and You
Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:27
Hi, my name is Leah Crawford. And I'm Rhonda Nolan. And you're listening to the let's talk with Leah and Rhonda show for all the beautiful entrepreneurs out there. This is for you. Good morning in Las Vegas. Happy Saturday day. Morning. Well, my name is Leah Crawford. I am one of the hosts of the let's talk with Leah and Rhonda show. Rhonda is not here with us again this week. So next week, she has to tell us what she's been doing for the past two weeks. I can't wait to hear about it. I hope you got up this morning. It is absolutely gorgeous outside now at six, seven o'clock in the morning, if you want to take those walks because you know Rhonda is going to come back and talk about are you exercising? Are you exercising? And I have been exercising so I can't wait to tell her next week. We are in the middle of June. Oh my God. We are in the middle of June. And last week we talked about the checkup doing a financial checkup? Well, we're going to continue that conversation. But we're going to talk to an attorney that deals with probate and some best practices for you. And just planning your life because you're planning your life. But planning your transition. So it can be easier for your family. So I want to welcome to the show. Attorney Pamela Jones. Welcome. Thank you so much. Well, Pam Jones, was it Pam Jones. Right. Pam Jones. Good morning. How are you?
Unknown Speaker 1:59
Doing? Fabulous. How are you doing?
Unknown Speaker 2:01
I'm doing amazing. So your office downtown Las Vegas? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 2:05
Yes. In the arts district seven than about Southern Charleston,
Unknown Speaker 2:10
right seven in Charleston. First of all, what brought you to Las Vegas? Oh,
Unknown Speaker 2:14
my parents brought me to Las Vegas. So my father moved here first. And then my mother moved here. And as they were getting older, then it became time for someone else to be around. So I moved out here and haven't regretted it. I love living here.
Unknown Speaker 2:30
You love to to. Yeah, I love live. I do I love living here. Why? Law? But more importantly, why are you Why do you practice probate?
Unknown Speaker 2:44
Right. So I gosh, I guess this was back in 2001. My mother in law at the time passed away, okay. And it left an awful mess for the family. So I I tried to fix it at the time, I didn't know what I was doing. I felt helpless. And I decided right then and there. I wanted to go to law school and just be able to take care of this for my own family and then probably other people and then as I went through school and and confirmed my my belief that that's what I wanted to do. So I after I got out of school, I worked for an estate planning attorney who also did business law, and worked for him for six years and then went out on my own and haven't looked back since this is all I do is estate planning and probate estate
Unknown Speaker 3:29
planning and probate two different things, right. Correct. Two different things. Okay, so let's break let's let's talk about them. Estate planning, what is estate planning? Estate
Unknown Speaker 3:39
planning is setting things up for when either you get sick and become incapacitated, or when you die. So you are planning out. We were talking about the transition planning out for the different transitions in your life, let's say so we have a series of documents estate plan it you know people think they don't have enough money to plan for their as they don't have, quote unquote, an estate. But a lot most people do. And especially particularly if you own your own home, then you got an estate that you should need to plan for. And so we typically have a series of documents. And if you just get sick during your lifetime, and you can't handle your own affairs, two documents are very important. You need an advanced health care directive to set up what you want. If it looks like you're going to die soon or if you have an incurable condition or and also a healthcare power of attorney. And so that is where you're naming someone to make your decisions for you if you can't make them yourself. And I get a lot of people thinking oh, I don't I don't want to put down this name. What if what if I changed my mind? Well, it's a very simple document. You can download it from the internet and you can change it tomorrow. So always go by the most recent one
Unknown Speaker 4:54
is indeed it exactly. Just date it Yeah. So if you change it tomorrow, just date it right in Evernote Right have a notarized and have a notarized, right?
Unknown Speaker 5:01
And that way you can you have someone in place, when the unexpected happens, you get in an accident, something happens, then it's in place, and the doctors can call this person to help make decisions. So it's just I get calls all the time, from someone who says, you know, my brother was in an accident, I can't I need to pay the mortgage, how do I do that? Well, he didn't have anything in place. At that point, you got to go to court, you got to get a guardianship setup. It's very expensive and time consuming, so simple to have that health care directive in place. And then like I said, you can change it all the time. And you don't. So you can always override it. So that's the other thing people worry about. What if I, I, you know, they want to do this and I wanted to do something else, well, you can always, you're always in charge that that document only comes into play, if if you're unconscious, for example, or have lost capacity and don't understand what's going on. That's when the document comes into play. So you can always override it, you can always change it. And even when you're in the hospital, and you decide, gosh, I did that five years ago, I don't I haven't kept in touch with that person. You can say to your health, if you're lucid, you can say to your healthcare providers, I'm changing, I want this person, you can tell them while I'm under, I'm about to go under this big operation. I want so and so to make the decisions, and that's your healthcare surrogate. And that's legal, you can end and that that will trump anything that you have put in, in that health care directive at that time at that hospital. So alright,
Unknown Speaker 6:32
so she said a lot. And I didn't want to interrupt because I was totally entranced. I'm like, wow. So basically, we think that it's complicated, only, you know, only the wealthy. It's a mindset. So if you simply just have the document, this is your mid year check in. So there are some documents, there's an Advanced Health Care Directive, right, and a health care power of attorney. Sorry,
Unknown Speaker 6:58
I wasn't clear on that. So the health care directive includes two parts, the first parts the living will, okay. And that's your declaration to your health care providers about what you want to have happen. If you have an incurable and irreversible condition looks like you're not going to live very much longer. And it requires that they put you on life sustaining treatments, so a ventilator or something like that. You can say to your health care providers in that living will. I don't want treatment, if it looks like I'm gonna die soon, anyway, just pull me off the ventilator. And you can say the same thing about feeding and hydration tubes. So if they pull you off the machines, do you also want them to pull you off the feeding and hydration tubes? So that's the living will. And that's its statutory declaration. And then we have the second part of the health care directive is the healthcare power of attorney. Okay, that's,
Unknown Speaker 7:49
that's part of it. Okay, got it, I had it separate. Okay, got it. And
Unknown Speaker 7:52
that's where you're naming that person to make your decisions for you.
Unknown Speaker 7:56
And what I can tell you is, it's very emotional for the other person when your loved one is going through these changes. Yes. And sometimes we might not make the best decision, because it's very, it's a different type of emotion. I don't think it would be nice, well, if you, they're telling you what to do, what they want, how they want their affairs handle,
Unknown Speaker 8:20
absolutely. And you can even choose not to have a living will if you think you can just leave everything up to your healthcare agent. But like you said, having some guidance from that person is so comforting, and, and helps people through that process so much. So in a healthcare power of attorney, you can also give guidance to your agent and say, This is what I want. And so maybe maybe you don't do the declaration to your physicians, but you're giving guidance to your health care agent. And one of those is even weigh the benefits and burdens if it's going to cost a lot of money. And I'm only going to live a couple of weeks longer. Don't do it. You know, so
Unknown Speaker 8:57
it's a hard decision. That's a hard decision. Yes. That's our
Unknown Speaker 9:01
decision because we're optimistic people and we think well, if we continue to treat maybe something, something will
Unknown Speaker 9:06
happen and things will turn around and things will turn around. Yes. Okay. So we are listening to Attorney Pam Jones. She can be contacted at 702-370-6102. Again, 702-370-6102. We talked about a mid year check in we talked about the finances last week. Now we're just talking about the other documents that you have to have in place. Because I can't tell you the number of times when we get calls the following year, especially we live in a retirement community. And a lot of you know they're here and children are around not only around the country, they can be around the world. Something happens to their parent. It would be nice if you know anything had happened. No they didn't. They now need a ventilator. You know, just to have some guidance and and place. So I really, really appreciate that. Is there anything else about the estate? Any other documents? Oh, sure.
Unknown Speaker 10:06
So the other lifetime documents very important to have in places that is a financial power of attorney. And they can be two totally different people that you're making, you know, pointing to make these decisions. Healthcare might be somebody who's, you know, good at that, or at least, you know, will do what you want them to do. And then the second is the financial power of attorney. So if you know if even if that's the only document you have in place, that person would be able to, should be able to access your bank account, pay your bills, talk to the mortgage company, make some work something out while you're sick, that kind of thing.
Unknown Speaker 10:37
Got it. And that's something that you can put in place. And I guess, can you call the banks, though, and put that in place with the banks? Or is this a separate document,
Unknown Speaker 10:46
if I have a bank account at a certain bank, I can call and on each individual account, I can name a power of attorney just for that account. So or you can just there is another statutory form of financial power of attorney where you can initial which powers you want to give that person and including banking, including real estate transactions, or just all of the above
Unknown Speaker 11:10
nine, Oh, I love it. I love it. And we're giving you this information on the air. As Attorney Jones said, It's downloadable. If you need guidance, 70237061027023706102 This show was also a podcast. So if you need to go back and play it again and play it again, because you want to catch the number. When clients come into our offices that are going through this. It's definitely it's a different type of experience. When the information is laid out, from when everyone has to guess, two totally different experiences.
Unknown Speaker 11:55
Well, everyone has to guess. And then the question is who's in charge? If you haven't put these in the documents? There's very likely going to be a fight over over a decision.
Unknown Speaker 12:05
Yeah, yeah. Been there, done that. Been there done that? Sorry. Not pretty. No, it's not because we had Well, young people don't think about it, right? Because they think they have to, they're going to live forever. And about eight years ago, actually, this mom, my sister transition from complications due to diabetes, she was 30. She she was late 30s. So 38 ish. But she had been living with type two diabetes. She didn't have any other stuff in place. And part of it is not knowing. Part of it is well, she knew she had diabetes, they had given her X amount of years to live, she will live way beyond that, but just not knowing. And now because of that, we have these conversations in my family put twice a year. And like we're having the conversations now. And my daughter has asked me Well, do you have this and do you? And I'm like, Yeah, okay, sure. Okay, right. Right. But if you do, if you own a home, these are some of the things that you want to have in place.
Unknown Speaker 13:09
Oh, yeah. Those two documents, even if you don't own on, it, just just have something in place. And you bring up a good point, because young people so you know, when when a person turns 18, they're there on their own, essentially, for decision making contract arrangements, etc. And if you come, particularly if you come from a blended family, you know, then you have two sets of parents perhaps it's very important for that 18 year old to put in writing who they want to make decisions for health care decisions, in case they get hurt in an accident, for example. And, you know, financial, most 18 year olds don't have a whole lot of money. So it's usually not that big of a deal. But but a health care directive. Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 13:50
Most definitely. Because they drive Oh, God, they Oh, we live there interesting drivers. Yeah, interesting drivers, right. Sometimes I drive slower down. The older I get, the slower I drive. I'm like, Okay, I'm driving for all of us. No, no, go ahead. No, you go first. Go ahead. I'm gonna let you throw. Yes. Yeah, I will. Wow, I never thought about that. So even at 18, you want to have something in place? Because there are multiple people, right? So you want to make sure that you want to decide who makes the decisions for you.
Unknown Speaker 14:20
Right. And, you know, again, it doesn't have to be it's not about who you love more. It's about who you either have had that conversation with or you know, would respect your wishes, you
Unknown Speaker 14:30
know, who are respected. You're wishing okay, you're listening to the let's talk with Leah and Rhonda show. I am Lea Crawford and we have the amazing attorney, Pam Jones here with us. And we're talking about that heart conversations, right heart a hard conversation that you need to have with yourself, right? But then communicate it to your family, communicate it to your family. So that's the estate style. That's the estate side. That's the living side. What about probate
Unknown Speaker 14:58
right probate? is a court process so the whole process is designed to protect the creditors of the estate and and also to ensure that the either the wishes of the decedent if they had put together a will are respected or you know if there's no will then it passes by the laws of intestate succession which the state of Nevada setup. And so intestate succession means if you have kids, Well, depends on whether you're married or not. So if you're married, your spouse either gets all or if you have kids, they get a portion, if it's your separate property, if it's community property, they get the whole thing. And and you know, if you're unmarried, it goes to your kids in equal shares. We'll call it poster beads. So
Unknown Speaker 15:46
then debt against it, say that term against those terms out here, y'all got your normal go back in and get some clarity because she because she hit on one that is confusing, right? Because people use the term and I don't think we really understand but what was the last person that first herpes first RPS per stirpes, per se, okay, got it.
Unknown Speaker 16:06
So if you have three kids, that just means if you have three kids, and one of them died, and they had before you did, and they had children, their 1/3 Share drops down to their children in equal shares. So your estate would go to 1/3 each of your children and 1/3 to the grandchildren from that deceased child.
Unknown Speaker 16:25
That's if you don't have anything in writing? That's correct. If we don't have anything in writing, yes. You mentioned community property, right. Big term. Yes. Big term. Define community property, if you can't Sure.
Unknown Speaker 16:41
Community property, I think there are about 13 states who have community property in the United States and in one of them, right? Yes, we are and, and it's just a way of holding your property. So there is a presumption whether the law is that prior to marriage, all of your property is your separate property. So it's either set your property is either separate property or community property. And prior to marriage, your property is all your separate property. And if it's your separate property you can do with it what you want. The minute you get married, you know, there's a presumption that everything that you're earning everything that you have moving
Unknown Speaker 17:19
forward, moving forward, moving forward, okay, because moving forward, correct. Okay. Is
Unknown Speaker 17:26
is community property. So, let's say the complicated part comes I bought a house, I'm living in it for five years, I decided to get married. I don't do a prenup, because I think that's not romantic. And,
Unknown Speaker 17:38
and I like the way you said that I don't do a prenup. That's not romantic, I guess a baby sign this. Right, please.
Unknown Speaker 17:46
Right. And it's and I just I encourage everyone who's getting married, do a prenup. It's it. There's nothing unromantic about being clear. If you if you haven't, if you have a discussion, if there's problems coming up in just a discussion before you get married. Maybe that's a sign Exactly. So it's I think it's a great idea for everyone to lay out. Here's what I have right now. Here's what you have right now. Here's my debts right now. Here's your debts right now. Right? How are we going to share these are we going to keep them separate? Just decide and put it in writing? It makes everything so much easier. If there's an eventual dissolution, divorce, dissolution, like dissolution of
Unknown Speaker 18:27
divorce, dissolution, we are no longer in partnership. Right? No longer partnership. Go ahead. Right.
Unknown Speaker 18:32
So, so a lot of people don't have it. So they get married. And, you know, maybe one had a business. This is always complicated, complicated, right? And then they're living in a joint house, and they're running the business together, or one's just helping the other one. So what's the contribution? So if there's a dissolution, you sort of have to tease all that out and prove that, you know, part of it was your separate property part of its community property. So it gets very complicated. So.
Unknown Speaker 19:02
So in prenups, and I guess, could because the misconception is that prenups are only for wealthy people. They're the only ones that need to do prenups. Right. But now that you're talking get through, it sounds like this is the contract. I mean, we're in love. We love you that out of that. But let's understand what we're doing. And let's put it in writing. Absolutely. Let's do a writing of it.
Unknown Speaker 19:24
Yeah. Because people get married later Now, generally. And then there's second, merit, second, third, my second, third, fourth, fifth. Right. They,
Unknown Speaker 19:33
you know, they run to the courthouse, like it's okay. Yeah, I don't like him today. We want to get a divorce. I'm gonna marry him. Right.
Unknown Speaker 19:39
So, so that's, so it's just a way of holding property. Community property means look, we're in this together. We are a community, the two of us and so half of it's yours and half of it's mine, and and separate property. You can you know, for example, I have a business if I were to choose to get married again, then I would Do a prenup where the business is mine. So any future revenue earned on the business is, is my separate property and, and just keep everything separate because then it's just easy later if something happens and you want to dissolve the marriage, then you can just say, This is mine, this is yours for more to the point for my business when you die, so becomes important, what separate property and what's community property. So for example, I have two spouses, one purchase a home lives in it for 20 years, and then the spouse moves in, they live in in another 20 years. And they never changed it change title on the house. So when when that first spouse dies, the second then the spouse who's lived in it for 20 years has been a spouse for 20 years is always surprised to know that they only get, you know, a third of the house and the kids get two thirds, because it was separate property. You know, unless there's some sort of litigation over, you know, contribution to it. So
Unknown Speaker 20:57
unless they change the deed, and that's, we won't even get into that, because that's a whole different conversation about the wording. Right. On the deed, right. Yeah, though, the wording on deed, and that's why you want to, when you do things, you just want to be careful. You want to do as much research and research as possible, right? Because PNL people want to move fast. Yeah, especially when they know we want to move fast. We're gonna jump No, no, no, no, no, before we go to the courthouse. Let's have a conversation. And let's talk about this. Because I need to know, because I don't I don't know. I mean, they're the number of women that I meet. When after they get married, they find out about child back child support. Oh, that's a huge one. Yeah, we know back child support, or other liabilities that they weren't aware of. And I know for on our end, it becomes you know, are you injured spouse? Or are you innocent spouse, and then we have to, you know, show improve. So what's alive, but a lot of Atlas had a cop, y'all. Let's talk. No, let's talk with Leah, Rhonda. You know, let's talk about it in a healthy way. Absolutely. And a healthy way. Right. All right, y'all. Y'all have no you listened to the last talk while you're on to show. Again, I have attorney Pam Jones here with me. And I can tell you, she's dropped a lot of nuggets on us this morning. A lot of stuff, just some things that that you can do. Let's just run through it. Again, on the estate side, What documents do I mean should we have in place, right?
Unknown Speaker 22:25
So during your lifetime, you needed an Advanced Health Care Directive and a financial power of attorney. And then for when you pass, when you pass, you also want to put a will in place. And if you have real property or other assets that are non probate, double, you should have a trust, some type of interest, some type of interest. And if you put it in the trust, it's a nice way to avoid probate and what we're talking about what I'm talking about right now is a revocable trust, something you can change this, the main purpose is just to avoid probate court when you pass because if you do pass with just a will, or without any documents in place, you have your estate has to go through probate, which is, you know, takes can take how
Unknown Speaker 23:08
long even doesn't even take to even get a date? Because you have to get a date? Yes. You had to have a date with the judge? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 23:14
Gotta get a date. Right. And it depends. Well, in Clark County, are probate commissioner has done a great job of of streaming the AI in the AV that used to be four months, you'd have to wait four months just for here for your hearing. And then now I think it's about it's about 60 days. I mean, it's it's changed short.
Unknown Speaker 23:31
I mean, well, that's that goes from, you know, no 120 to 60 minutes, that's a substantial investment of time. Well, because it's emotional. Absolutely. It's very emotional, and if the stuff isn't in place, so if I have the Will I have the estate set up? I can bypass probate.
Unknown Speaker 23:50
If you have a trust, if I have a trust, yeah. Okay. If you just have a will, that's going to be submitted to probate that same thing. So but if I have a trust, right, and and when I'm saying you have to have a trust, if you have probate double assets, so Okay, a probate double asset is real property and type of real property, or any asset that has just an individual name on it without any beneficiary designations got so, so that then the court has to decide where it goes. But if you have a beneficiary designation, let's say I don't own a home, I just have a bank account, I can name a beneficiary on that. And that just goes that's outside of probate, it's a contract with the bank. And so when I die, my beneficiary goes to the bank, gives them a death certificate, and and they get the money. So that's all taken care of. So
Unknown Speaker 24:37
I'm gonna ask Pamela to do a quick fact sheet she needs to do a one sheet and on the one sheet, on the one sheet, once I just if you do this, do this, if you're here, do this, because you don't want to do this. And just to lay it all out, because it was a lot gave us a lot of information. Okay. A lot of good information, a lot of good information, and probate So the other side is probate protecting the creditors, protecting the creditors of the estate. And then intestate succession. I wrote that down so I can I can vote that down so I won't forget. You know I'm bringing you back in a couple of months you know I am you can contact attorney Jones at 702-370-6102. Again 702-370-6102. So, again we want to bring you good information. I want to thank you again for accepting our invitation. Thank you to come on the show is always amazing having a conversation with you. And she is such a pleasure. Oh my such a pleasant spirit. Very easy to be around. Well, that will end our show for today. Again, you've been listening to the let's talk with Leah and Rhonda show. I am Lea Crawford. And stay hydrated Las Vegas. Let's get those tips. Stay hydrated. It's hot out here. Electronics, please take them out of the car. Please keep them with you. As they say anything with a lithium battery. You want to keep Do you don't want that in the heat. You don't want it to overheat. Again, I will see you next week we'll have another amazing guest and attorney Jones. We are bringing you back because we're gonna have this conversation again want to have it again until we get all of our documents or documents in order. And so next week in Las Vegas Peace and blessings. Bye
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