Judica County Radio: Surprise Legal Questions

Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. And it is surprise. Listener questions, and the gentleman, the attorneys, will ask each other. The questions and give the answers. That's coming up next on Judica County Radio.

Whitaker and Hamer presents Judica County. with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hayner. Welcome into Judica County Radio, another edition with Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They are your hosts of the managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and that is the power behind this program. They are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.

They have offices located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro. Fuque Arena, Gastonia, and Moorhead City.

So spanning the state, just for you. I'm Morgan Patrick. My pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We talk about a lot of different topics. Today, we're going to get into listener questions, but these are going to, it's a little bit of a twist on it.

It's surprise listener questions.

So the attorneys will ask the questions of each other and see what they come up with. We are going to have consults, complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you have not started planning, this is an opportunity for you to, complimentary, no charge, come in and talk about where you'd like to go with that estate plan. The number to call is 919-772-7000. That's 919-77270000.

You can also visit wh.lawyer, the website, for more information. Josh, take it away. Yeah, so, you know, it's the middle of July. It's hot. It's rainy.

It's raining every day. Joseph, have you already taken all your vacations for the summer? You still got vacations lined up? Or are you still? I think that's it for me, vacation-wise.

Maybe like an overnight trip somewhere with no children. Maybe I'll throw that on the schedule. But what are you looking at? That's it, man. I took my vacations, and it's tough, man.

It's so hot. It's so hot all the time. What are you eating there? I was going to say, just from a producer's stance on this program, try to eat before we do the show. Look, I threw it.

Look, I did do that. Let me tell you what happened.

So we had this lovely referral source. dropped in out of the goodness of their hearts and they and they dropped off like s a thousand Chick-fil-A chicken minis. Is it first come, first serve? Are you trying to eat them all? I get to eat all the ones I want, and then I let everybody else have them.

That's the way our office hierarchy works. But I did try to eat before the show, but I don't know if you've had chicken minis, but there's I think there's some kind of. Additive chemical crack. I don't know what it is, but alleging that out. Allegedly.

I had a couple. You know, I was going to have a couple before the show because just to get me charged up and and to get me the fuel that I need to uh To give the show that our listeners deserve, but I can't. Can't stop. I physically can't stop eating them.

So there's nothing. I'm powerless. And until this plate of chicken minis is gone, I'm going to keep eating them. And I'm going to be honest with you guys, there's nothing you can do to stop me.

Well, we could turn your camera off so we don't have to see it. Yeah, it's beautiful. I'm going to eat it as sensually as humanly possible. The more that I eat, the more powerful I get, and the better that the show is going to be. The more fuel I have.

It's already digested. I can feel the chicken mini molecules getting into my blood. It's like hearing, what was the old video game? You probably predated you. Streets of Rage.

Do you remember that arcade game? I played Streets of Rage. Come on, man. Who'd you play with? There was three options.

Who'd you play with? Uh, the red one? I don't know. Did you know their names? Yeah, Hagar was the big guy.

I always played with the guy. Yeah, I liked Hagar. That's how you got health in that game. There was chicken on the street. Right?

You just eat chicken and that's how you eat health, man. If you feel bad, you just eat some chicken and it'll make you feel right as rain. But the chicken would just be on the street. It'd be like just sitting on the street. You pick it up and eat it, and you're healthy.

Realistically, if I was walking down the street and there was a bunch of chicken minis on the ground, it'd be tough, man. It'd be tough not to. Like, I'd have to actively be like, it'd be like a struggle. Wasn't that video? The video game was Streets of Rage, wasn't it?

Wasn't that what it was? Yeah, it was. It was. After my time.

So, no idea. Yeah, that was probably early 90s, Bowlin Alley. Uh Anyway, I was asking about locations. Morgan, you all done? Vacations?

Actually, we go late. We go after Labor Day. We have a full week at the beach.

So basically just some golf weekends here and there. Run to the mountains, see the the folks here and there. We're going this weekend just to kind of escape the heat. But yeah, the the bi the big beach week comes after Labor Day. Nice.

You guys, if you, I know you guys. How about you, man? You gotta, you, you're supposed to answer, too. You hear about vacations. I'm heading to sunny Buffalo for my vacation.

That's awesome, man. Like everybody else. I can't wait. Like everybody else, that's really where you want to be in the middle of July. You want to head up to Buffalo and got to give us an update on the stadium.

I've seen some pictures, a couple of people. We're supposed to do some sort of tour. Of uh fancy, I can't remember what it was called, but we got some sort of tour lined up that they're doing. They give you that, they give you that through uh because they knew you from your hit radio show, Judica County, and they were like, No introductions necessary, Tush. Come on in, build you up.

Your North Carolina-based uh lawyer show has uh made its way up here, you know. It's super popular in Buffalo, man. We got uh, we do great with the Buffalo demographic, that's what I heard. Yeah, I think we got some hashtags. We use some hashtags: Buffalo this, Buffalo that, hashtag.

No, I like going up there and seeing the family, but there's not, you know, I can see your eyes. Is it your family or is it your wife's family? Is it your family or your wife's family? Morgan, I'm shocked that you asked me that. I mean Do you think it's my family?

Morgan, you know, Josh. No, I don't think inside and out. I don't think it's your family.

So you're basically taking one with it for the team. Is that what you're saying? Josh was born in a dumpster in Garner, North Carolina, and he lived there his whole childhood, man. Grew up on the mean streets down here, but no, no, it's good to see everybody. We like getting up there.

It's just, you know, a lot of people are going to the beach or whatever. Try to save it, Josh. You go ahead. Try to save it. Why do you keep doing air quotes, man?

Every time you say, I like seeing you, I don't understand that. It's my pleasure. Oh blind listens to the show, man. But I was curious where everybody was going for vacation and whether you do it early or late, because a lot of people knock it out. July 4th, June.

And then everybody kind of gets back in that rhythm late July, August, getting ready for school or whatever. Yeah, we knocked it out in June and it wasn't deathly hot. Went to the beach, wasn't deathly hot, didn't. burned to death. Very nice weather.

This rain every day is killing me. Yeah, it's weird. It's weird, man. It's a weird thing. I don't like it.

I don't like it. Mm. But, yeah, that's what we're going to do today. We're going to do surprise listener questions.

So, Joe's going to ask me some questions. I'm going to ask Joe some questions. We don't know what's coming up. We're going to be answering on the fly. And uh And as always, you can call us and get on the schedule for a free consult.

On the radio show here, we always kind of focus on estate planning, because that's what most people We find that most people, everybody needs estate planning. The firm does a lot of other things too, but not everybody needs those things all the time, right? The firm practices personal injury. If you get in a car accident, we can help you. We do a lot of real estate.

You know, if you have real estate closings, we can help you. The firm handles a lot of civil litigation, a lot of other things that come up. But when me and Joe are here talking to folks and we hear people call into the show, a lot of people need estate planning.

So that's kind of always our behind the scenes focus when we're on the radio. Um But yeah, Morgan, if you give them the information again, that people can call in or You know, WH.lawyer is our website. A lot of people remember that easier than a phone number.

Okay, so the consults, they are complimentary in and around estate planning. The number to call is 919-772-7000. That's 919-772-7000. As Josh mentioned, if the website's a little bit easier for you, wh.lawyer, that's wh.lawyer. And you can sign up for one of those complimentary consults in and around estate planning.

All right, so we've got more Judica County Radio. It is going to be surprise listener questions. We'll see what the attorneys can do. They're not going to stump each other. They know the stuff, but they'll get into different areas.

But again, those questions coming up on the other side, you're listening to Judica County Radio. We are back on Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys right here in North Carolina, offices spanning the state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verina, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. My pleasure to jump on and again go back and forth with the attorneys.

And we've got surprise listener questions coming up. If you've got a question you'd like to submit to the show and have them answer it on a future broadcast, send it to us: questions at judicacountyradio.com. That's questions at judicacountyradio.com. And as always, the complimentary consults that we offer up on the program are in and around estate planning. To grab one of those at any time, just call 919-772-7000.

That's 919-772277007. 27000, or just go to the website wh.lawyer. Again, that's wh.lawyer for more information. Josh. Yeah, so I meant to ask you, Joseph, did you see the Superman?

Yeah. Yeah, I I caught it, man. I caught I caught the Superman film. I did. Did you like it?

Yeah, did didn't you? You saw it. Didn't you like it? I did. I did.

I enjoyed it a lot. It took the whole family. We were super pumped. We've been watching all the old Supermans. And uh all the old Supermans?

We didn't make it all the way through.

So you're just talking about like Christopher Reeves Superman. Yeah, yeah. Like you didn't go Brain and Ruth. I'm assuming. Who's Brandon Ruth?

Brandon Rude. That was Superman Returns. That was the uh. That was the the Superman between That was after Khalil and Man of Steel, the Henry Cavill. Yeah.

Cavill. He was like M3. Yeah. Yeah, I went back and watched the original Superman from 78 and that's tough That that's hard. I mean, I like the movie.

But it's just a tough movie to to watch from beginning to end, you know, with what we're used to now in 2016. What'd your kids think of it? Mm-hmm. They didn't make it. They didn't make it.

They didn't make it third. But then Superman 2 is good.

Okay. And Superman 3 is good. When I was in middle schools, when Superman 4, The Quest for Peace came out, you may remember Superman 4, The Quest for Peace. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I remember that being a great movie.

That movie is terrible. Yeah, well if it's great if you're a middle school boy during, you know, in nineteen eighty seven. And then I went on 'cause of course Rotten Tomatoes didn't exist back then. And so I went on Rotten Tomatoes and saw that Superman 4 has the worst rating of all the Superman movies. 14%.

It's a strong 14%. And that's the first thing. Which is pretty low. Middle school boys that they polled back in 1987.

So, flash forward, what's the new Superman rating? On I think it's at like 82 or 83 percent. I think it was pretty well received. It was pretty good. I've seen some uh the critiques are good.

I mean they did. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I thought it was good. I thought it I thought it did Superman right.

And uh I thought it was a good start. You know, this is the start to the whole bigger New DC universe, and I thought it was encouraging. I was left with hope. And optimism. And the kids liked it.

Ki my kids liked it.

Well, my boys enjoyed it. The new director on this, producer director, is coming over from Gar Guardians of the Galaxy. Yeah. And a lot of people say there is an obvious. Kind of a parallel or likeness to those movies?

A little bit. It's different but similar. And he's, you know, he's overseeing the entirety of all the whole upcoming filmography.

So I think there's hope on the horizon, man. I think we'll see cool stuff. I hope we will. Um But yeah, man, it was a good. I enjoyed it.

It was a fun time at the movies. Isn't that what you go to the movies for? To enjoy. Same reason people listen to this show to Yes. the peak of their lives and to really get a lot of enjoyment.

Well, you know, James Gunn, one of the things he does... you know, his movies have like they're hopeful, right? They're hopeful. They usually have a couple of scenes that are gonna. You know, make you get teary-eyed, right?

You know, so he.

So you cried during the new Superman movie? Is that what you're telling us? I'm not going to say that. I'm going to say. There were parts where I had to like, you know.

Really concentrate. I know it's parts, man. It was the dad dad the the dad and the son moments. Is that it? Yeah, you can't do that, man.

And, you know, with Gunn, if you get back to the last Guardians of the Galaxy, the scene with the grandpa at the end, I don't want to do any spoilers. Yeah. I guess that is a spoiler, though. But you should have seen the third Guardians of the Galaxy. It's been out a long time, man.

You can spoil it. After like a year and a half. Yeah, we don't have to say spoilers, man. We talked about that one time. There should be some sort of Congress should really get together.

And come to some sort of bipartisan agreement on when you can legally give spoilers. And fully criminalize. breaking that before with uh jail time. I think that that makes a lot of sense. All right.

I'm going to ask you uh I'm going to ask you our first surprise listener question. And this is one we touch on it here and there, um but we'll have a lot of people who go online and and uh do their legal research before they're doing their estate plan. And they'll come in and they'll say. I want a ladybird. Deed, right?

So that's a term that comes up a lot when you're searching elder law, you're searching estate planning. Um Ladybird deed. And so, my question to Joe. would be, well what is a ladybird deed? Different states kind of call it different things.

It's different in different places. But generally, what's a ladybird deed? And, um,. You know, it can be effective as part of Medicaid planning in general, but basically What is it, what is it, what is it trying to do? Yeah, well, I can only really speak to North Carolina, right?

And you touched on the fact that different states handle this differently. And I think a true ladybird deed. Doesn't really exist here in the sense that a lot of people understand it if we've got folks from other states. Because I think the ladybird deed. in the states that that recognize it in the way that we're talking about.

It it's it's something that You don't get here, right? Like, you could get the same effect through different ways of vesting, but generally speaking. And other states that have it, you're talking about Kind of an enhanced life estate deed where you have a life estate that allows the property owner to completely control that property during their lifetime, do whatever they want with it, and then have death beneficiaries that can take title after the fact. And so in North Carolina, a life estate deed. has benefits and you know you can you can deed property to someone and retain a life estate and you have the right to occupy that property to do whatever you want with it with the exception of you can't you can't You only have a life estate interest, right?

Like, you don't have what we call a fee simple interest, which would be the full interest that you can go and sell.

So, like, if I deeded away my property to my kid, I kept a life estate, and then later on, I was like, I wanna sell this property, make some money off of it. I don't have that fee simple ownership. All I can do is convey my life estate interest.

So all I can give someone is the right to occupy for my life, essentially.

So it. It's not the same as we see in some other states. And I've had a lot of times where attorneys reach out to me from other states and they've got clients that have moved here. They want this true ladybird deed. And we kind of have to go about it and approach it a different way.

So the ultimate goal, you can still accomplish that same goal that you get from it, but it's going to look a little different. And a lot of times the life of state in North Carolina isn't going to be, it's not going to give you the same benefit.

So you kind of have to go about it a different way. Yeah, you know, my law school professor who taught me real property was a good guy. He used to. I don't know if this is standard in law schools across the country, but he says when you get a general, that's what you get. Usually when you go buy your house and you go to the closing and you get your loan from a, you get your mortgage and you do all your signing, you usually leave.

The seller gave you a general warranty deed. They basically said, here's all my interest in the property. I guarantee that I have full fee simple and what have you. But when you get that, you have a, you know, owning property is like a bundle of sticks. And so you have all these different sticks.

when you get this general warranty deed like you could decide to lease your property out right you decide I want to rent this for investment purposes you're giving out a leasehold interest in your property but you still own it But somebody else has the right to occupy the property. And, like Joe was saying, on a ladybird deed, you can give a lot of those sticks away to somebody else and retain the right. to be there for your life. And we talked about that in a recent episode. That might work for state planning, for elder law purposes.

But when you want to get a reverse mortgage or get a home equity line or sell the property. You no longer are the full owner. You've given some of your sticks away, so you only owe this one stick, or these two sticks, right? The life estate. And you've given your kids all the other sticks as part of You know, this ladybird deed, and so they have to join in.

Um And so it sometimes works for people. It's real fact-based. A lot of estate planning. While some of the terms you can look up and say, Oh, I think I need a Lady Berdida, oh, I think I need a revocable trust, oh, I read up on the internet, I think I need an irrevocable trust, and it's great that that information is available and that we can all do our research before we meet with any professional. And say, hey, I read about this.

I think I might need this. And maybe that is what you need. But a lot of times for lawyers and doctors and CPAs and it's going to depend on your facts.

Well, what's going on? What might you need in the future? Is this your only asset? Um How do you want to provide for everybody in your estate plan? There's all kinds of facts that go into us deciding.

what our advice is for your estate plan. Um Yeah, and and and that's a it's a I think the the If you could take anything away from this, it's just make sure you understand what you're asking for and you understand the implications of that because. You know, this type of deed could be perfect for you, depending on what your situation is. But I think the main thing, and you touched on it, is the fact that. You no longer have that full stick bundle.

You don't have fee simple ownership.

So there's a lot of things that you may want to do down the line. And the most common of those, like you said, being potentially a reverse mortgage, just a cash out refi to get some money, or putting the property up for sale. And you don't have the right in this situation to do that yourself. You've got to bring in. Anyone who you've given that remainder interest to, or that you've deeded the property to and retained your life estate, they've all got to join.

And maybe they're great. Maybe your kids love you, like I'm sure your kids love you, Josh, taking them to a Superman movie and to Buffalo for vacation. I know your kids love you. Buffalo. Yeah, I love Buffalo.

And in that scenario, you're probably fine. But I'll tell you, we see it every day, man. You can't anticipate how things will go all the time. And with situations like this, you'd be surprised how many times you can have a sibling. That you felt real good about, and you thought you knew exactly how they would respond to this situation, and they flipped the script on you completely, and you're stuck.

You can't there's no take backs in in real estate in the sense that Once that's done, You, you know, there's got to be some kind of written documentation recorded to change things back. It's not like you can say, psych. Or cross your fingers. It's just it is what it is at that point.

Well, and you you add anybody to to title, right?

So you have a deed, you've let's say you've paid your property off, you're the sole owner of of the real property. Any time you add anyone else to to the title, Get the property retitled into your name and someone else's name, you're subject to whatever problems they may have, right?

So if they get an IRS lien, right? If you didn't know that they weren't really paying their taxes and they get an IRS lien, well, now that's your problem. Because that's going to attach to their interest, whatever it may be, in your property. You know, if they get sued, if they file bankruptcy. you know if them and their spouse have have a have an issue or going through a divorce Um You know, all their issues are now your issues, and sometimes people aren't worried about that because you know, they know their kids, and/or they know, you know, this happens a lot of time when people add a non-spouse, you know, if they have a You know, a girlfriend or a boyfriend or whatever, short of a spouse, and they add them.

to title and it doesn't work out, you know, we see that, we see that go south. A lot of times. It works out a lot. Me and Joe just see the bad side, right? We see when it doesn't work out.

And that's why we're so. We're jaded, man. We live a very jaded existence. But yeah, you touched on it perfectly, man. And we're bouncing around to a lot of different things, but.

You made a great point, and it's a conversation we have a lot of times with folks during their estate planning consultations because there's a lot of different ways in estate planning to accomplish the same goal. There's pros and there's cons, and there's no one-fits, you know, there's no one-size-fits-all solution.

So, a lot of times we're presenting folks with all these various options, and we have to give them. The benefits and the drawbacks to those options. And it's not to say that you can't accomplish some valid estate planning goals. By adding folks to title and avoiding probate that way. But you touched on it perfectly, Josh.

When you add somebody to title, you are opening up. Yourself to any liability that that person incurs.

So, whether you have nothing to do with it, if they're on title and they have some kind of issue, they get a judgment, bankruptcy, whatever it may be, it's going to impact your property because you've put them on title and you're stuck with it and they got to fix it, you know, or you got to step in somehow and fix it on their behalf.

So, you got to just be careful. Inform yourself. Arm yourself with knowledge and know what you're doing before you do it. That's my recommendation. Important information, and you heard right there at the very end, and Joe brought it up.

Josh has mentioned this too. Make sure you have a plan. Sit down, have an estate plan, talk these things out. Everybody's path is going to be a little bit different, so you need that customized plan.

So, the estate planning consult that we offer up is complimentary. Call this number and you can secure one: 919-772-7000. Again, you're leaving the checkbook at home. This is an opportunity to get to know the attorneys, but also kind of get on the right track when it comes to estate planning. 919-772-7000.

You can also visit the website wh.lawyer, and you can leave your information there, and that consult will be lined up. That's wh.lawyer, or call the number 919-77270000. We are in the middle of surprise listener questions. We're back on the other side. You're listening to Judica County Radio.

Uh Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina. They're practicing attorneys in the state. They have offices all across North Carolina: Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fugue Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Always a pleasure to jump on and kind of be the go-between between the attorneys, but they also go back and forth quite well.

If you've got a question that you'd like to have answered on the program, You can always email it to us, questions at judicacountyradio.com. That's questions at judicacountyradio.com. And again, our complimentary consults in and around estate planning. To grab one, call the number 919-77270000. No charge here, 919-77270000.

You can also go to the website, w.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. Surprise listener questions. Joe, you're up. All right, Josh.

I'm going to throw you a softball because I care about you. Nice. And I can tell you're not, you haven't had any chicken minis for breakfast. I'm running on. I was going to say it's like MLB's home run derby.

It's just meatball after meatball after meatball. I've had since. Since the beginning of the show, I've had several more. I think I'm working on a world record at this point. I don't know what it is, but.

I'm working on it.

So I can tell that you, though, have had none, and you look sad and depressed and lonely on the screen.

So I'm going to give you an easy question, man, because I don't want to bring you down.

So here's my question to you. I'm going to be the person here, right? I'm going to be the person in this hypothetical. And so I. I was a single person.

I purchased property. I purchased real property, had it deeded to me. in my sole name, Then I got married to my beautiful girlfriend, whatever her name is, and now I'm selling this property and The the attorney who's handling my closing is telling me that my spouse has to sign this deed. That doesn't make any sense, Josh, because I own this property. I had it before we got married.

What's going on here?

Well, we'll talk about that. You know. As a I feel like we've talked about this on the show. I feel like I'm aging. I'm aging at a very rapid.

You don't say, Josh. And, you know, I'm in that meaty part of my legal career, right? When you first start out. And you get out of law school, you don't have all the answers. You haven't seen a lot of stuff.

And then you get into that middle part that tended that year 10 to year 15 where you've seen some stuff but you're still Learning, you know. But then once you get over once you get over twenty years You've seen a you've seen a lot of stuff. Yeah. And and so I was gonna tell I was gonna tell people When you When I want an attorney... I want the oldest, crustiest attorney I can find.

Right. Like so you're saying you're busy, Josh? Is that what you're saying? Josh is working on just getting older and more decrepit and skills and like. Just to do something.

New slogan: We're crusty. Come on. We're the oldest, most washed-up attorneys. I want to just be, I want to go find a guy. He's almost like a wizard, he's just in a back room with a lot of books.

Yeah, smoke filling the air from dandelions off pipe. Yeah, too busy reading and like I'm bothering him by asking questions, you know, like that's and before any time before he speaks he goes, Ugh. It's like he's mustering the strength to even get the words out. Like Secret of Nim style. There's a.

Anyway, I almost forgot your question, but I just remembered it. All right. So if you're a single person and you buy property and you get it titled into your name, You have Josh Whitaker, unmarried person, single person. We always do that on deeds. We always try to put your marital status on deeds.

So, when people are looking back to do a title search, right, when you're selling the property, that whoever's buying the property is going to go get an attorney to do a public records check to see what liens are on there. See if you've been married, see if you've been divorced, Um And so we always put your marital status on there, but we know marital statuses can change, right?

So just because I took title as Josh Whitaker Unmarried Man, if I then get married, In North Carolina, we we talk about this, your wife has a spousal interest in all the real property you own. And we call that a marital interest. And in North Carolina, that might not mean. Your spouse is entitled to any money. Right, so you might that property might be individual property.

Maybe you inherited it, all these kinds of things that can happen that makes it your separate. Property, but that doesn't mean your spouse is not going to have to join in. Your spouse is going to have to join in and sign the deed to your buyer to release. their marital interest. And that surprises people Daily.

Right. I feel like several, yeah, several times a week we have people, and people a lot of times when they Yeah, real mad about it. Yeah, it's bad news to a lot of people 'cause their spouse doesn't know about the property or, you know, their their spouse, they don't really share that information. They maybe they don't get along. Maybe they've been separated.

You know, we find a lot of people who've been you know, I had this one time where someone had been separated for like 16 years but just never got divorced. Yeah, I've seen the situation where the spouse literally just vanished, like went to another country, and they don't have contact with them at all anymore. Yeah. And they're trying to sell property. And it's interesting to me.

Well, in North Carolina, North Carolina, every state's a little bit different. North Carolina, you're either married for real estate purposes, right? You're either married or you're not married. There's no legally separated Designation, you know, really in North Carolina, you're married or you're not married. And there's things that can change that.

So, right, if you and your spouse, before you get married, sign a prenup. That happens a lot, a prenuptial agreement where you say, you know, Josh, everything you had before we got married is yours. And everything I got before I got married is mine, and then we'll make joint assets if we want to, right? That solves the problem. That's getting more and more popular.

We're seeing more and more. Prenuptial agreements. Not a bad idea at all. You can get married and then make a post-nuptial agreement, right?

So you can have been married for a little bit and say, you know what? We want to operate. Business-wise, you know, monetarily, we want to operate as separate people. We're going to be married, and maybe, you know, maybe you have a great marriage. You just decided you want to handle your assets separately from your spouse.

And a lot of people do that in like a second or a third marriage. Got to learn some hard lessons before you do that.

So you'll do.

So a lot of people, you know, once they've, or they get married for the first time, but just later in life, after they, you know, when I got married, I didn't own squat, diddly. I was worth negative dollars when I got married.

So there was nothing to nothing to protect back then, you know. You're worth a lot, Josh. Don't sell yourself short. Just because you didn't have much money. That smile is worth at least.

That's true love. That's true love. Nice job, Josh. Nice job. I uh But we, but you know, you've got to think about that.

You know, the thing that I try to tell my kids. Is You know, we we make we make unknowingly A lot of kind of legal decisions. Like uh Without really thinking about them as legal decisions, right? Because when you go buy a car, that's a contract. You don't necessarily, the car may be under warranty, but a lot of people don't read what that covers.

You don't know what really happens, right? Getting married is a huge. Legal decision that sometimes people may take very seriously, and sometimes people. We'll do it on a whim, you know, but We make all these legal decisions throughout our early years, borrow money for law school, not really knowing how that gets paid back or the rules. And I said law school, but any.

Any college or any school. That seemed like a very personal statement. I talk to a lot of lawyers who have a lot of law school debts. That's why I thought about that. Anytime you're interviewing attorneys, You know, it seems a lot of times it'll come up, you know, law school debt and things like that.

Anyway, to answer your question, Joseph, spouses will always have to join in. It doesn't matter when you got the property, whether it was inherited, how it was titled. If you get married without some other type of arrangement, some other type of agreement, Spouses are going to have to sign. And I wish I could scream that from the rooftops because, literally, several times a week. We have a contract for a closing come in, and sellers are just blown away that their spouse is going to have to join in.

to sign their the first townhouse they ever bought that they are now selling, you know. You should do that. Just go on your roof twice a day and just scream that. And maybe that'll help. Maybe that'll help the cause.

But yeah, just take it on. Just. Touching on a few of those things that you said, just just to kind of reiterate the point, you know. Being separated in and of itself has no relevance in terms of real property interests. Like you guys can live separate and apart, and it doesn't matter to us.

We don't care. Without some. Recorded. Statement that says that you are what we call, for legal purposes, a free trader, meaning that you can individually own property separate from your spouse without that being on record. You know, it doesn't matter to us.

You're married, period. No matter how long you've been apart, no matter how much you hate each other. And you got to have that in place. And it's got to be on record as well, right?

So, um. If you have that, great. If you took title by yourself and that's on record, you can do whatever you want to with it, as if it's yours. Your spouse doesn't have to sign, but without that. Spouse has to sign.

And, um You touched on the fact that the spouses in this situation have a limited interest, but they have a marital interest, and it may not be worth much value. Again, it's calculated as whatever the appreciation in that property is. If there's any appreciation in value from the time that you guys get together until the time that you dispose of it, that's what the interest is valued at.

So that could be nothing. It's just one of those sticks that the spouse gets, whether you understand they get it or not. But they got a sign, man. They have to sign, and the quicker you understand that before you get into the situation where you're selling property and the The more prepared you are for that, the better, because folks get caught off guard and they really freak out and they get real angry at us as if we wrote the law. But uh We didn't write the law, man.

We just have to abide by it. Judica County Radio, your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners of the firm and their practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. We are doing surprise listener questions. We've got more coming up on the other side. We want to remind you that we have complimentary estate planning consults.

Make sure you have your affairs in order, less headaches down the road. How do you grab one of these appointments? You call 919-772-7000. Just ask for that complimentary estate planning consult and you'll get one: 919-772-7000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer.

Information there for you as well. WH.LAWYER. Again, we've got more coming up on the other side. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina.

That's where they practice law. They've got offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquave Arena, Gastonia, and Moorhead City. Just like Superman, they're spanning the state of North Carolina. Again, opportunity for you to get a complimentary consult in and around estate planning simply by calling 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000.

You can also visit the website if that's easier, wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. Reach out to the firm. Say, I'd like one of those complimentary consults, and bingo, you're going to get one. Again, wh.lawyer.

So we're going. Going back into our surprise questions from the listeners, and I believe, Josh, you've got this one, and it's five by five. It kind of makes me think of basketball five on five, but five by five. Yeah, I was going to let Josh ask me the next question, but. I got a couple of chicken minis left, and honestly, I just want to take the time to eat these last few on camera to get me through the day.

So I'm going to ask you this question, Josh. I'm going to go ahead and throw this out and just say that you are the Joey Chestnut. of chicken minis. I am man. I tell ya and um I uh Probably not real good for me to eat this many, and be honest with you, in the grand scheme of life and health.

But uh, I'm gonna do it anyways, you can't stop me.

So, uh, just see this question: Hold on, before you ask me this question, I haven't really ever watched like the hot dog eating contest. I never really watched it. Like, I'll see the highlights or whatever. You're just not an American, I guess. Yeah, it's it's it's reverse vomiting.

That's what it is. Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah, but uh, but Mikey showed me, uh, Mikey showed me, I've never seen Joey Chestnut enter. Right, and I guess they have like a wrestling-type entrance for him, and he's got the voiceover guy. I just saw that today for the first time.

That was pretty good.

Sounds like you're about to get into watching some hot dog eating videos, man. That's the right way you're at. Motivational. Yeah. The more you're gonna be able to do it.

I'm gonna watch them right now. The more you can make anything like wrestling, the better it is. I hope one day, we've talked about this, but I hope one day, like, that's how court is, right? You're coming in for trial, you and your client get your own music, your own pyro on this bench. Yeah, yeah, corporate sponsors, you know.

I'd actually want another court. I'd start with a game. If they let us do that and One day, man. M maybe you can join the the the bar association, get it some kind of leadership position. And you can make those changes, make those highly controversial changes.

I don't even think they'd be highly controversial, man. I think you'd have a lot of groundswell of support, at least for me and Morgan. Let one of our interns. Let one of our interns walk in with us with a boom box, man, like NCAA pyramid style. Yeah, I love that, man.

All these are fantastic ideas. I mean, judge robes will be sponsored, different colors. Yeah, man. Like a NASCAR jacket, just patches everywhere. That's good.

That's good. This motion to dismiss brought to you by the Home Depot. Brought to you by Chick-fil-A Minis. Just like. Just click on my QR code now.

I like that, man. That's all great stuff.

So, uh, question for you, Josh. I like to Google, and uh, as many of our clients like to do. And, you know, I've been thinking about a trust. And in the process of Googling this, trust, I keep coming up on this five by five rule. Can you just give me a a a brief Brief summary.

of of what they're talking about, because I'm an idiot and I don't understand it. Right. So we have a lot of folks who come in and uh They want to talk to us about estate planning, which is great, and they've done some research, which is great. And a lot of the times when you're searching trust on Google or Chat GPT, people start thinking about Alright, I'll maybe I need a trust. How are my beneficiaries going to get money?

Right, as they get older. Maybe I have underage kids now. Maybe I have kids who are older but who aren't very good with money. Maybe I'm fortunate enough where I'm leaving them quite a bit of money and I want to make sure it's managed properly. And so we talk about things like, well, how much do you want your kids, your beneficiaries, to get stuff when they're 18 or maybe when they're 25 or maybe when they're 30 or when they get married or when they go to a four-year school, you can, you know, it's your money, you can reward or dish it out, however you want to do it.

So we talk about all those things. One of the things that comes up is the five by five rule, meaning, you know, In our example, let's say your underage kids turn 18. The trustee is already going to be providing for them. But you can have a five by five rule where they can take out five thousand dollars or five percent of the trust every year on top of what the trustee's already doing. And so I'll have people I have people just bring that rule up and it all goes back to How'd How How do you want to provide for your beneficiaries of your trust once you've passed?

And it's just another way to kind of slowly dole. the money, the support out over Tom. Right, because that's the that's the big thing about trust.

Well, there's a lot of things about trust, but one of the big things is: you know, if something happens to you and you've got like an 18-year-old. And you have a well, you're wealthy, you have a good estate. You don't want that 18-year-old just getting.

However, much money, all you know, right upon your death. And a trustee of a trust can invest it. And then kind of give it dole it out over over time. And so that's that's the way I see it come up. the most and it's I'm not a huge fan of it.

Joseph, to answer your question, I'm not a huge fan of it, but it's.

something to talk about. Yeah, touching on just the benefits of trust in general, there's tons of benefits, right? Depending on what you're looking for, we could give you... A lot of reasons why the trust is going to serve whatever that interest is and it's going to help you in that way. But one of the great benefits of a trust, if you're looking for it, is That additional level of control to your estate after you're gone and maintaining control of the distribution of those assets, especially, like you said, if you don't want to just give a lump sum to somebody, you don't feel good about having it.

If you want to make sure that they don't blow through it or you can provide for them over an extended period of time, that's one of the beautiful things about a trust that you don't get with a will that's just going to give you lump sum distribution to someone. And uh, There's a lot of folks out there that don't need that, man. They don't need that much money, and they can't manage it. They can't handle it. And whether it's because they're not.

Real smart or savvy, or they don't make good decisions, or whether it's because they're a minor, they're a kid. You know, there's. There's a lot of benefit. To being able to know before you go that that situation is going to be taken care of exactly like you want it to be. Judica County Radio, we are in the middle of surprise listener questions where the attorneys are trying to stomp each other.

It's not happening. They're getting some good answers out of this. There's going to be an opportunity for you during the course of this show to grab a complimentary consult. When it comes to estate planning, you've got some questions. You can get those answers.

Again, call this number 919-772-7000 and request one of those complimentary consults on estate planning. Again, you're not paying for it. You're leaving the checkbook at home. Get to know the attorneys: 919-772-7000. You can also go to the website wh.lawyer.

That's wh.lawyer. And you can contact the firm there and just say, hey, I'd like a complimentary consult on estate planning at one of their offices: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verina, Gastonia, and Moorhead City. We have one more segment to go. You're listening to Judica County Radio. We are back on Judica County Radio.

Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm right here in North Carolina. That's where they practice law. They've got offices located across our great state, Moorhead City down at the coast. Then closer to Charlotte, you got Gastonia, Fuquay Verina, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and Raleigh, all with Again, office locations for Whitaker and Hamer.

I'm Morgan Patrick. My pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're in the middle of surprise listener questions, and the attorneys are handling those. We're also offering up complimentary consults in and around estate planning. You can always call 919-77270000.

Say, give me one of those. 919-7727000, complimentary consult in and around estate planning. Also, visit the website, wh.lawyer, great resource for you. But also, you can leave information there, and they will get in touch with you for one of those complimentary consults, wh.lawyer. Josh.

Hey, you know what I figured out the other day? Wow, that's a wide open question there. I'd love to hear, man. You were talking about Superman and how James Gunn just kind of has this style that he brings to his superhero movies. But I was talking with the boys the other day.

I didn't realize. I knew he did Suicide Squad 2, but I didn't realize he was still doing Marvel movies and DC well, he was doing them at the same time.

Well, it was Guardians Galaxy 3 it was Suicide Squad Suicide Squad. Like, it wasn't Suicide Squad 2. It was like a remake. It ignores the first movie essentially completely. And he got in trouble, man.

You don't remember this? He got in trouble. Tweets came out. Me too. And they were going to get rid of him.

I don't know if it was Me Too. I think it was less. I can't remember exactly. But. I mean, obviously, it wasn't anything completely terribly, horribly tragic because he's.

Recovered quite nicely from it, but uh, but they were gonna can him from the Marvel movies. That's why he did that. And, um, oh. And that's yeah, that's the way that that whole thing went down.

So uh So yeah, man. He's doing fine though. He's doing he's doing just fine and dandy. We still got to see this summer's got a lot of movies. We're going to see Fantastic Four and what we got, The Naked Gun.

I mean, we got spinal tap. The end continues coming out in August. I'm excited about that one. Oh, yeah. How your kids, your kids like they're fans of the old naked gun movies.

My kids. Yeah. It's right up there down the kids' alley, you know?

So, yeah, it's going to be good, man. That's uh I think, man. I think that's August. I think August 1 is. I think Nakigun got pushed back.

I never know how these movie dates work, they keep getting pushed back. I think it's gonna be good. Yeah, Liam Neeson, right? Liam Neeson's playing the lead role. Lee Neeson particular set of skills.

You got Pam Anderson. Hadn't seen her in a long time. You know? She was a very popular lady back in my day. What are you talking about, Joe?

Yeah, back in my day. She was a popular actress. But it's again, I don't remember a summer movie season that had this many things that I wanted to see. I usually ignore the movies. I only watch comedies which had fallen out of favor.

I guess Happy Gilmore 2 comes out, too. That's Netflix, though, I think. Yeah, that's the Netflix. That's the 25th. But you can.

Bet your bottom dollar. I'll be catching that one, gosh. Yeah. Yeah. Bet your bottom dollar.

I don't remember ever being this excited about this many movies in the summer before. They're usually kind of garbage. This is the summer of Josh, man. They're really catering to you. Specifically.

And uh I'm happy for you, man. You know, we talked before, you don't watch a lot of movies, you know? You spend a lot of time reading your books and gathering knowledge like a true scholar. I'm gonna have to g I gotta grow a big long wispy wispy beard. You're working on it, man.

You just got to let it keep going. Like, what do you. What are you afraid of? Just let it happen. It'd be too thick, man.

It wouldn't give me the wizard-type appearance that I'm gunning for. Yeah. I think you can do it, man. I think that. The attorney that you're envisioning, the Gandalf-like attorney in the corner.

That could be you, man. You just have to. When I give people legal advice, I don't want to be stroking a long beard when I do it, you know? Like, really. You don't want to or you do want to?

No, I do. I do. Yeah, I think that makes people more confident in my legal advice. If I could be. Just, you know, yeah, I mean, yeah, striving a short beard is weird.

Yeah, how about it? Have a throne in your office, have a scepter, have all that. You know, just stroke the beard and give advice. I like that. Maybe have a big stick I found, you know, like a big.

Just a stick? Yeah. I found this stick early today. Don't explain it to anyone either. Just have it.

And you hold it. You're carrying a club. Why is that? Make people ask you. Dare someone to ask you about it.

Yeah. Do I need the store? I like this. I like plastic. This is my law stick that I use.

If you start working on this now, man, you lose a lot of weight. You got to lose a ton of weight, man, because you got to be like emaciated for this to work. It's got to look like you don't leave this room ever. Maybe you don't leave the room. Maybe you stay there.

And um I like that, man. I think that'll work for you. I think it'll work for the firm. I think it'll work for the show. I think you owe it.

I think you owe it to every all of us. Yeah, make this your life goals. Acquire the stick, bring it on the show next time. Let's see it. We haven't told you this, Morgan.

Uh but starting next week, we the firm has a new Paid spokesperson. And we can't talk about it. We can't talk about it this week. But start next week, we have a paid. spokesperson who who's going to do our first commercial.

And so we'll have it here. Big fan of the firm. Big paid fan. A big paid fan of the firm. A huge fan of the law firm.

Probably didn't even need to get it. Probably would have just done it because they were such a big fan of the show.

So is this? Did you acquire this person through Cameo? What did you do? Yeah, yeah. You are secrets, Morgan.

You can't put that out there to everybody. Is it AI generated? Are we talking about it? This is the law firm. We talked about estate planning a lot on the radio.

Earlier, I was telling you, we do personal injury.

So this is our first. uh personal injury, car accident, negligence. This is our first advertising. Targeted at that.

So is this still likely? Is this going to be some big, scary Hollywood dude that's. Kind of s scaring us through the T V? What's going on? I don't know man, maybe a little bit scary.

Maybe scary, but uh, you know, uh We'll have it. We don't want to give too much away.

Okay, what's the release date? I feel like we've given it.

So, what? No, you haven't given anything away. What's the release date?

So it's coming up in a week or so? Yeah, we'll have it on the radio show next week. We'll play it. We'll play it on the radio show next week. But yeah, it's kind of geared towards social media.

But I'm excited. I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. Could be interesting. All right, so we're wrapping up the show.

Surprise listener questions. If you want a complimentary consult on estate planning, give us a call, 919-772-7000. That'll get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer. And it is a complimentary consult on estate planning. That's 919-77270000.

You can also go to the website wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. And of course, follow your nose, and you can find your way and certainly send a message, and they will get you lined up for one of those complimentary consults on estate planning. Again, the number 919-7727000 to call it, or you can go to the website, wh.lawyer. Another edition of Judica County in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer.

I'm Morgan Patrick. We'll see you on the radio next week. Judica County is hosted by attorneys licensed to practice law in North Carolina.

Some of the guests appearing on this podcast may be licensed North Carolina attorneys. Discussion on this podcast is meant to be general in nature, and in no way should the discussion be interpreted as legal advice. Legal advice can only be rendered once an attorney, licensed in the state in which you live, has the opportunity to discuss the facts of your case with you. The attorneys appearing on this podcast are speaking in generalities about the law in North Carolina and how these laws affect the average North Carolinian. If you have any questions about the content of this show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at jmw at mwhlaw.lawyer.