Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, your host Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, getting into will caveats, special needs trust, and also the importance of a healthcare POA and a lot more. That's all coming up next on Judica County Radio. Whitaker and Hamer presents Judica County. With Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer. Judica County Radio, your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer.
They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in our great state of North Carolina. They placed offices for your convenience in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verena, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. My pleasure to go back and forth with the attorneys.
We do have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you've been thinking about it, just haven't taken the step, grab one of these complimentary consults and you can get the ball rolling. Again, the number to call is 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000 to secure one of those complimentary consults. You can also check the website out, wh.lawyer.
Josh, we've got a lot to get into. We do. We do. We have a lot to talk about today. But I'm tired today, man.
You know, we're getting close to football season, and my kids play football. My kids are football assessed. When I grew up, I was more of a basketball kid. I did watch football, but basketball was it for me. But my kids are football.
So, all we're talking about is fantasy football. Fantasy football in your household or on the show today? Because that could get bad. That's what we should do. That would help me personally.
The legal ramifications of who you draft in your fantasy football draft. And let me let me ask you this, Josh. I mean, is your household predominantly Bills fans? My two oldest boys are Bills fans, and my wife is from Buffalo. She's a Bills fan.
I'm a Panthers fan. The boys do root for the Panthers as long as they're not playing the Bills. We're going to the Bills Panthers game. They play. The Bills play the Panthers this October in Charlotte.
So we're going. I'll be the only one wearing Panthers. I'm going to try to convince my youngest son, who hasn't. Is not into it enough to have made a choice yet. I'm going to try to convince him to be a Panthers, a Panthers fan first.
What's wrong with your boys, man? I don't know, man. Josh Allen, Josh Allen got. They're learning to be frontrunners and have no loyalty to their home state. They don't know what it's like.
They don't know that I could respect that, man. They don't know what's on a human level. They don't know what it's like to suffer like we know what it's like. If you're a state fan. Is that true?
They're state fans. Oh, wait a minute. I mean, the Bills went to four straight Super Bowls and didn't win. They weren't alive through that. They didn't suffer through that.
I'm just saying it's history, though. You should make them go back and watch. The countless seasons prior to their current run where the bills were not that great and uh Let them experience that. Did you ever watch the ESPN 30 for 30, the Four Falls of Buffalo? Did you ever see that?
No. It talks. It's very sad. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure.
It's got like Thurman Thomas on there, and what was Bruce's last name? Ah, what was the defense? Smith? Smith. And um And they're like crying.
They're watching it. They're making them watch it. And they're just crying. It's kind of like the NC State 30 for 30. Let your kids watch that, and maybe we'll have some Panthers fans.
We. Yeah. Their home their hometown team. been around their whole lives. I think the Panthers are going to put it together this year.
I'm very excited. I'm going a lot of Panthers in the fantasy football. Yeah, I don't know that'd go that far, but uh all in I think they're going to be much improved. They've pretty much have to be. Yeah, I would say improved.
I don't know if I would go all in. There's hope for optimism. There's reasons to be optimistic. And. You know, you gotta be cautiously out.
It's kinda like you're You would state, Josh, like you're You always have optimism to start the year, but you temper it because you've experienced such tough times. I've been alive. Yeah, you've experienced some tough times. Yeah, but I'll ask you guys this: Do you find yourself Less interested in college football now that it's just so. The portal and the transfers and the money involved, and it's just like you don't know who's on what team.
I mean, they're switching. I I think I think in a way, yes, but at the same time, it's way better than now where there's no foot, you know, it's football still. Like, I can still get enjoyment from watching it and take interest in it. And, uh, You know, if you if if you participate in legal sports betting. It gives you another thing to, uh Gives you another thing to do there.
So, yeah, in a way, yes, it's definitely different. But at the same time, we'll all still watch, you know? We watch a lot of baseball in my household.
So we have baseball to get us through the summer. But not having the basketball, not having the football, I watched the Ice Cube three-on-three league the other day. Like it was real sports. Like I watched it. It's the big three.
What did I call it? You just said the Ice Cube 3 on 3. We've got to put some respect on the big three. I think you should just call it. I think it should have been better.
That should be the title of it. Ice Cube. Ice Cubes 3 on 3. It wouldn't last long. It would melt.
But anyway. Did you watch that movie? Did you watch the Ice Cube War of the Worlds movie? No. No, I heard it was abysmally bad.
Yes. I sat in it. The reviews were horrible, so no. I tell you what. If you play fantasy football.
You know, they have a lot of leagues now, and you can do the auction, you can do the snake draft, a lot of fun. I try to limit the amount of leagues I get in, right? Because if you don't limit it, you get invited to leagues and you're in. How many are you in right now? I'm only in two.
And one that matters. And one that's no offense to your other league.
Well, one my son runs. That doesn't matter to me personally.
Sorry, man. You want to be in a complicated fantasy football league, you join one that's run by a lawyer, first of all. It'll have a lot of rules and it'll be very complicated, which I think makes it more fun. And then the second most complicated one you can be in is one run by the son of a lawyer.
So, Mikey's, you have to draft. An entire defense. Oh, wow. You got to draft defensive line linebackers, cornerbacks. All right, so yeah, but it's a limited number, though.
It's like you've got a couple of linebackers, you've got a safety, and you've got a defensive lineman, and then you've got your overall D. I'm in a league like that. It's crazy. I mean, it's a lot of fun, though, because your D can absolutely save you on certain weekends. You guys are so fancy, man.
So fancy. I'm in one fantasy football league with the two of you guys. And that's when my sole focus and commitment goes. Yeah, you're in it. Yeah, after last week, Morgan got it.
We expanded to include, we added two teams, so Morgan got in. I always wanted you in there, man. I'm excited. I'm an expansion team in your league. I'm in three other leagues, and I was won two of those and finished third in the other one.
So, yeah, I'm coming for you guys. I wish you the worst luck. Good luck. Good luck. But.
Anyway, so fantasy football is all we're talking about.
So it's hard for me to focus. I have two drafts coming up in the next seven days. I just locked in on that. That's what I said. All right, if you had the number one pick right now.
Of course, we don't know the draft order. If you had the number one pick, who are you taking? I'm not going to tell you that answer, man.
So you can snipe my pick. Do your research, Morgan. Yeah, I've been plugging the numbers, man. It depends on your league. I guarantee you, the league that we're in, the first pick is going to be Josh Allen.
You watch. That makes sense. That makes sense. Didn't you have Josh Allen last year, Josh? Because your name is Josh and you love Josh Allen.
No, we had somebody's auction league, right?
So you get to bid. You could have anybody you want to. It doesn't matter where you pick. And I think Josh Allen went for the big bucks. Yeah.
The big bucks. I like to bargain players. I like to really get a bargain and leave the draft with a lot of money left over that I can't use.
So even if I lose, I can say I've got more. Fake money than you guys work for something. Yeah. The uh Well anyway, so this show this show You know, we always kind of lean heavy into estate planning. But I always try to bring some experience just from people I talk to, consults, things that have come up in my practice.
That's kind of what we do on the show because I figure if someone's paying me for this information, then it's probably worth talking about on the radio show because there's probably some other people who. Who needs that information?
So, we're gonna talk a lot about trust. We got a segment coming up about special needs trust. You know, we've talked about Joe, how there's a million different trusts. I remember there was a guy on TikTok. And all I did every day for like 150 days was talk about a different trust, right?
So, trusts are. These things that you can create for all different kinds of reasons: tax planning, estate planning, protect assets. You can do a million things with a trust. There's all different kinds of trusts, but today, It comes up a lot in my consults. You know, you have folks who have children, you know, who have autism or they have other disabilities that kind of.
That's going to change your estate plan, right? You're going to have to provide for them. In ways that you might not have to provide for your other children. And so there's a lot of things that go into that.
So we're going to talk a little bit about special needs trust today. We're going to talk about sometimes when a will gets probated, family might disagree on a will that gets probated. Anyway, we're going to talk about challenging a will a little bit, just hit the surface of that. And I know Joe had a couple of has had some consults in the past where people have learned out the hard way, kind of what happens when you don't have a healthcare power of attorney. You know, we talk about the healthcare power of attorney as part of an estate plan.
And so we're going to have a couple of, we're going to have a segment where we talk about the ramifications of not having one, how that limits, you know, how people can care for you when you when you need it. And, um, So, I think those are the legal topics that we're gonna hit on. But also, I know. I know we've got some other stuff to throw in there. This fantasy football thing is on the brain.
That's a recurring topic. We need to talk about the EOA for me to make your fantasy football picks for you.
So we got, we got, that'll be mixed in there.
So if you don't like fantasy football, I apologize in advance, but it's on the brain. Oh, come on. Who doesn't like fantasy football? All right, Judica County Radio. We're going to come back on the other side of the break.
Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, that are managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer law firm and practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina. The offices are located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. And the complimentary consult is in and around estate planning. You can grab one at any time, 919-772-7000. That's 919-77270000.
Or you can go to the website, wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. We're back right after this. Uh Welcome back into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer.
You can find them at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're the managing partners there. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices are located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. If you've got a question you'd like answered on a future program, you can always send it to the show: questions at judicacountyradio.com.
That's questions at judicacountyradio.com. And the complimentary consult is in and around estate planning. You can grab one at any time. Simply call 919-772-7000. That's 919-77270000.
You can also go to the website, wh.lawyer. Josh. All right, so today, today, the legal stuff, it always takes us a while to get into the legal stuff. Legal stuff, I wanted to talk about special needs. trust and these trusts Or Are still trusts.
So they have all the basic things that we've talked about on the show before. But, Joe, just real quick, you know. Take us through grantor, trustee, beneficiary, lifetime, take us through like. Every trust has these parts. All right, man, I'll take you on that journey.
That's fine by me.
So, basically, a trust, when you set up any trust, when you set up a trust, just broadly speaking, trust in general, you're going to have the grantor or the settler, whichever term you choose to use, and that is the person who is establishing this trust.
So, this grantor is going to execute this trust. There's going to be beneficiaries who are going to be the intended folks that benefit from whatever these trust assets are. And there's going to be trustees who are appointed to manage these assets for the benefit of those beneficiaries. These trustees have a fiduciary duty to these individuals, whoever they may be. And, you know, a lot of times, a very common Example is the situation where the settler Is going to be both trustee and beneficiary of their trust, at least during their lifetime.
You know, it's not often the case, sometimes, but not often the case where a trust is set up by a grantor explicitly for the benefit of others and they kind of take themselves out of the equation. The majority of the time, you know, they're going to be the trustee so they keep control and they're going to be the beneficiary so they can continue to benefit from whatever those assets are. And then, and then there's going to be contingent beneficiaries that will take down the line, and that's where the estate planning piece comes into play. I like to, I like to, so when I'm talking about trust, I always use, I don't know if this is a good Metaphor. But you're going to use it anyways.
Yeah, I was still gonna throw it out there. But I like to think about the trust.
So, anytime you're talking about a trust, you're trying to get assets to somewhere else. You're trying to avoid probate, you're trying to protect them from creditors. You're trying to get these assets to the next generation. You're trying to exert some control over these assets as they get to the next generation.
So, a trust is all about. Getting assets protected and moved into the people you want to. And there's all kinds of reasons why you might be doing that. We talk a lot about estate planning.
So you're talking, a lot of times we're talking about getting assets. Making them avoid probate and getting them to your heirs, your next generation, your spouse, your kids, your grandkids. And so that's what we're using. But I like the thing about a trust as this magic legal. Bucket.
Right? Like a good solid Five-gallon plastic bucket. Everybody magic, magic bucket. Magic. We have to specify.
It's a magic plastic bucket. And so you create this. You get with your attorney. You create this magic bucket that can avoid probate, maybe can avoid some taxes, can avoid some regulations, can avoid getting taken by the government, right?
So it's this magic bucket. Bucket. And you always need a five-gallon bucket, right? Everybody needs it. Everybody needs it.
It's got to hold more magic, man. At least. You don't need a 10-gallon bucket. You just need a good, solid five-gallon bucket. We're not crazy people, man.
But you create this bucket, and you can make this thing, you can make it go wherever you want to. And so, like Joe said, you're always going to have. Fiduciaries, right? You're going to grantor is going to be the one that's making the trust.
So, in our scenario, it's me, right? I'm making the trust. I'm going to be the trustee for as long as I can be the trustee. Usually, there's reasons why you might name other people right out of the gate. And then you've got your beneficiaries, all right?
The assets in your magic bucket in your trust is going to benefit these beneficiaries in some shape or form during their life, after you're dead. All right. And a special needs trust comes up a lot of times when you're providing for someone who has disabilities or a diagnosis that's going to limit them. A lot of times, this means it comes up a lot with folks whose children have. Uh autism.
You know, to a point where they're probably not going to work 40 hours a week, or it's going to be difficult for them to pay their bills, or they get government benefits, right? Medicaid, disability, you know, things like that, where you can't just leave them. A million dollars when you're dead, because that's going to instantly disqualify them from those government benefits that they need. And so, a special needs trust kind of leaves them those funds that can be used in a manner that doesn't disqualify them from those benefits, right? That's a special needs trust.
And usually, there's a lot of laws. There's federal laws that kind of govern how those can be dispersed. There's state laws on what they can pay for, what they can't pay for.
So, a special needs trust is a very specific. Trust. And one of the biggest concerns about that trust. is one having an attorney who knows what they're doing. Create it.
That's right. When you get into this is a pretty specific subset of the law. And you're dealing with a lot of statutes that you know uh Okay. all attorneys aren't created equally, and not every attorney There's there's n no one out there that's Really has a complete full grasp on every single nuanced area of the law. There's folks that can do a lot of things and do a lot of things well, but as you get into these more very specific subsets of the law, you need someone who's familiar with the ins and outs.
And the last thing you want is to get into a situation where you pay a lot of money for a special needs trust that doesn't. Meet whatever the requirements are, and you end up in a situation where it's not doing what you intended it to do in the first place. Yeah, and Joe's right, we've said that before, and this is not to disparage. Other attorneys in the profession, but you know, just like Not every doctor is the same, right? You can, there's general practitioners, there's heart surgeons, there's cancer specialists.
You know, not every doctor is going to be good for what ails you. Not every attorney is qualified to slap together a special needs trust. And there's a lot of coaching that goes in that kind of trust. And one of the big things to think about, it's not even legal necessarily. is You need someone.
If you're not going to be the trustee, you're gone, right? You passed on. You need a backup trustee who knows what they're doing. And who can administer the trust in a way that will not. Harm again the benefits that the special needs beneficiary is getting.
And so it's just very precise. You just have to think that through. And that's tough for a lot of people because a lot of people don't have that person. And there's a lot of. There's a lot of quote-unquote professional trustees who do this for a living, who manage these types of trusts, and getting with them and exploring that and talking that through.
Because that is a tough position to be in when you have a child with Down syndrome or autism or something that's going to require lifelong care, and you're not going to be here forever.
So it's a really tough position to be in. And we work with a lot of people and a lot of different organizations who kind of. Try to carve a path forward for families who have to consider that. And so. This is basically our radio segment.
We can't give. Detailed legal advice. You know, we like to kind of broach topics that we get questions about. And this is just so that you know it's out there, you know, it's an option. And it's a little more of a complicated estate plan, but it's doable.
Because I know a lot of people in that situation sometimes feel a little hopeless, and you know, it's a daunting. You know, a task to have to kind of come up and figure that out, but it can be done. Yeah, it's that same it's the same point we've made before where It's a daunting thing to consider, especially, you know, there's some trusts where you set up a trust, you appoint your trustee, and that trustee is not going to do a whole lot. There's not a whole lot of burden on them. They don't have a lot of things to necessarily manage.
It can be an easier task for them. But then there's others, and this being a very good example where. It's it could be a A huge undertaking and a large responsibility. But again, I always make the point with the folks that kind of get paralyzed by that situation that. It's so much better.
To figure that out ahead of time and to put someone in that position that you feel good about, even if you struggle with the decision, versus the alternative, which is just a. A free-for-all, essentially. And there's a lot of nonprofits out there. Um, There's a lot of nonprofits there that kind of focus on. Caring for individuals with those types of disabilities after you're.
you're gone and so i've seen that help a lot of people who maybe don't have good Good family resources to kind of step in and help. But definitely a lot of folks. And that's somebody, Morgan. We might get someone on from one of those organizations to kind of talk about this one day because this comes up a lot in estate planning. I like that idea.
And again, it's all about providing the information and then you make an informed decision. But you need to have a plan and work with an attorney on your estate plan. And make sure you've got everything in there that you're going to need.
Now the opportunity to grab a complimentary consult. It's ongoing during the course of this show. It's in and around estate planning. All you've got to do is call 919-772-7000. That's 919-772-7000.
And again, it's a complimentary consult in and around estate planning. You can also check out the website wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. But again, this is complimentary. There's no charge to this.
You're leaving the checkbook at home. It's an opportunity to kind of talk about what you need in an estate plan and get rolling on it if you want to. 919-772-7000 or wh.lawyer. We've got more Judica County Radio coming up on the other side. Welcome back into Judica County Radio.
Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And office is located down on the coast at Moorhead City, over near Charlotte, Gastonia. Also, Fuguave Arena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the capital city, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick.
My pleasure to go back and forth with the attorneys. Most of the time, it's legalese. Every now and then, we do get into other things, I don't know, like fantasy football, but we do offer complimentary estate planning consults. And to grab one, you can call our number 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000.
Just leave your contact information. And they will be in touch with you about that complimentary consult. You can also check the website and sign up there as well. WH.LAWYER. Josh.
Yeah, the website's really good. You know, we've done a good job with that, I think. You know, that's wh.lawyer. Real easy to remember. WH.LAWYER.
No.com on that. People want to put a.com. It really messes people up, man. It does, man. If you put a dot com on it, you're going to be in the dark web or somewhere.
But you can, you know, we got a lot of information there. We got a lot of videos. We got a lot of stuff about estate planning. The radio show, there's a lot of the radio show podcasts are on there. And then you can just sign up for a free consult on the website, right?
So if you're someone who doesn't want to get on the phone and talk to us or try to manually schedule, you can just go right on the website, name. Email address, and we'll go ahead and get you started on your estate planning journey.
So, one of the other things that come up, and again, things that we see. That you know, I try to try to pass these on, but I know it's one Joe sees a lot. You know, we talk about a healthcare power of attorney and Joseph very quickly before we get into this subset of Healthcare power of attorneys, what we want to talk about today. Just in general, what's a healthcare power of attorney? Yeah, so basically, with a healthcare power of attorney, it's another situation where you.
As the principal, they're going to be granting authority to a healthcare agent to essentially be able to make healthcare-based decisions on your behalf.
So they're going to be able to. Talk to the doctors in a situation where you're not, you don't have capacity to make these decisions for yourself. And depending on whether you limit that authority or whether you give them full discretion, they're going to be able to dictate your care to a a health care provider. And that's basically what it is in a nutshell. Yeah, so it's part of any estate plan.
You go to an attorney and get a full estate plan done. Part of that is going to be a healthcare power of attorney. And like Joe said, that's basically you're going to appoint who's going to make your medical decisions if you can't. And, you know, most married couples will appoint their spouse to make those decisions. And then, really, the important stuff is the backup.
If you're, you know, if you and your spouse are in an automobile accident together and your spouse can't make your healthcare decisions, who does the doctor? Who do they go to next?
So, a lot of people, adult children, their brothers and sisters, you know, who do you want to make that decision when you can't? And, A lot of people will get that confused with um with some other documents that they think maybe take care of it and they don't. I know, Joe, you've kind of seen that recently. Yes. So where we see some confusion in is the situation where you've got someone who who whoever they're concerned with, that's receiving treatment.
Has already established with whatever the healthcare provider is, they've put them down as an authorized party. In terms of receiving information about that care and communicating with whoever this healthcare provider is. And so a lot of times we see folks think that a healthcare attorney is unnecessary in that situation because they'll say, Well, I've already, you know, they've already put my name down. I could talk to the doctors. We're good.
That's not something we need. And I think. It's important to make the distinction between that situation, which is The situation that a doctor can communicate what's going on, they can release information to you, they can tell you about the treatment, but that in and of itself does not give you any authority to dictate that treatment as if you were the individual receiving treatment. It's a much more limited scope. And so they may be able to talk to you all day and tell you about what's going on, but if there's a decision that needs to be made, that in and of itself.
doesn't grant you the authority. to make that decision and to direct care. Uh so i i it it's it's a limited version of of what Could be accomplished through the healthcare proper attorney. And it doesn't give you the whole. the whole bucket, the magical bucket of power.
Yeah, I had a couple come in. I had a married couple come in, and one spouse was scheduled for some fairly serious surgery. And. The doctor, uh, the surgeon. Kind of prepared them, had a meeting beforehand, and that was one of the things that came up: like, do you have your healthcare POA?
And they came straight to our office because they had signed the HIPAA releases and things like that that hospitals have where you can get medical records and you can know what's going on. But yeah, making important healthcare decisions, that's not included most of the time. And so the healthcare power attorney is, there's no substitute for having. That in place. And a lot of times, if it's not emergency surgery, right?
If you have a chance to talk to the doctors or the surgeon ahead of time, one of the things they're going to counsel you to do is, hey, go get this healthcare power of attorney squared away and give us a copy of it so we can come to you so that you can make those kind of Decision.
So it's kind of a limbo area that you don't want to find yourself in. And again, I know nobody wants to pay attorneys' fees when they don't have to. I'm one of those people. But, you know, especially if you, everyone should have a healthcare power of attorney, just like everyone should have a will. But if you don't have one, it's not.
an overly expensive Document to have produced. And talking about all, you know, there's no alternative. I mean, that's not 100% true because there are ways. It's just those ways are going to be far, far more difficult, more time consuming. They're going to require more legwork.
And it's a whole lot more difficult than just signing a document and having that in place and taken care of.
So, you know, the alternatives aren't great if you end up in a situation where. decisions need to be made. And it's too late. And I think another important thing to touch on is. The whole waiting game, you know, a lot of folks wait on these things, they procrastinate, but you have to have capacity.
in order to to delegate that authority. You can't sign a power of attorney if you lack capacity.
So you could get into a situation where a doctor is telling you, hey, you need a health care power of attorney. And if if You, as the person who is injured or who's dealing with whatever you're dealing with, lacks capacity at that point. You could be looking at a situation where no one's going to do that for you or it's not going to be valid because you already lack the capacity at that point to delegate that authority.
So, having that done when you're clear-headed, when you've, you know, you're not in the midst of any kind of medical struggle is always the way to go. You know, I have luckily haven't had to need it. You know, of course, I've got my healthcare power of attorney in place, and the doctor's going to look to my spouse to make the healthcare decisions. And then I have relatives after that.
So, let me ask you this, guys. Can I ask you this?
So, if you have this medical power of attorney, and Josh, it sounds like you have multiple people lined up. How do you go about that? You just obviously have, you know, your, it's almost like the fantasy draft, right? You have your first pick, second pick, third pick. How far down do you go?
I think that's a matter of personal choice. You know, I. Usually, I usually suggest you're going to have your primary, and then you need, I think you need at least one backup. Yeah, in theory, you and your spouse spend a lot of time together, right? That's the hope.
And you fly places together, you drive places together.
So, an accident could render both of you unable to perform that duty for the other. And so, you want at least one available backup who's over the age of 18. And that might even get you in a conversation about a living will. Living Will is a document, we won't go into it now, but a living will is a document that often is paired with a With the healthcare power of attorney, but making sure somebody knows. What you want to happen, you know, if you need assisted living or, you know, end-of-life scenarios, what you do want and don't want, you want hydration, you want nutrition, that kind of thing.
And it's beyond conversation, it's in writing. Yeah, the actual agreement itself has to be in writing. But again, a lot of times with a healthcare power of attorney, especially if you're giving broad authority to whoever you're giving it to. Making sure that person understands. You know, this is what you know, you've got the authority to do whatever, you know, but this is what I would prefer.
Touching on the number of backups, you know, what I tell folks is. You're not going to have unlimited people that you would feel good about making this decision. But at the same time, if you run out of folks, like we never know what's going to happen. And you hope that your kids outlive you. You hope that whoever you appoint outlives you.
But anything can happen years down the line when you need this document.
So err on the side of caution and appoint as many folks as you can that you feel good about. Because the alternative is you're left with no one. And it's another one of those situations where someone's having to scramble and potentially start a guardianship proceeding for you, which is a whole can of worms that you don't want to get into in those scenarios if you can avoid it.
Well, here on the program, we do offer up the complimentary consults in and around estate planning. Josh, can you kind of walk us through what that's going to involve if they can grab one of these? Yeah, yeah. We're going to reach out to you. We need some basic information from you.
You know, we me and Joe have talked about this on the show. We try to streamline it and make it as easy as possible to get people doing their estate plan.
So, usually, we're going to send you a little question. Once you've expressed interest, we're going to. Um get some information from you. And, you know, we need to know: do you have kids? Do you have stepchildren?
Do you have adopted kids? A little bit of a snapshot of your assets. We need to know what you're trying to get to the next generation. But we've got a little questionnaire that kind of asks you all those questions. And then, once you've answered, one of our estate planning attorneys can take a look at it.
And then when we talk to you in person, by phone, by Zoom, whatever's the easiest for you, we're going to take that information and we're going to talk to you about what we think your best estate plan would be and kind of go over that with you. And then obviously tell you, there's no cost up to this point, but then we're going to tell you, hey, this is what we recommend. This is what it would cost if you wanted to do it. And if that's something you want to proceed with, great. If that's something you want to sit and think about or come back to, that's fine.
You know, we're not trying to sell you a used 99 Camry, right? We're not. We're not applying the pressure. We're going to talk to you about estate planning. We're going to lay out what we think makes sense in our experience.
And then we're going to go from there. And me and Joe, we're nice to talk to. That was such a specific. Reference there. I agree.
Camry. He had a bad experience. What's going on with that? 99 Toyota Camry. What happened there?
No, no, we bought a used car for one of our kids who's learning how to drive.
So we just went through that. And that made me think about somebody putting the pressure on you to get the. Because there's 99 Camrys out there still running, man. Oh, yeah. Oh, gosh.
Yeah. For all right, so complimentary consult available. All you've got to do is call 919-7727000. 919-7727000. Just leave your contact information.
An attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch for that complimentary consult on estate planning. 919-77270000. You can always visit the website, w.lawyer. We're back right after this. We are back on Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer.
They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on, go back and forth with the attorneys on so many different topics. They have offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City.
If you'd like a compromise consult on estate planning, call 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000. That will get you one of those appointments. Just leave your contact information and they will take care of you. 919-77270000.
You can always go to wh.lawyer.
So we've talked about special needs trusts, also the importance. Of healthcare POA. And Josh, what's up next?
Well, I've had a couple of consults here over the past couple of months where someone has set up their estate plan.
Okay. And they have a will and they pass away, it gets probated, and maybe someone, a kid, one of their kids, or a spouse, or somebody doesn't get. Mentioned in the will, or they don't get exactly what they thought they were going to get in a will, or They have a copy of their earlier will, and the person who passed away changed it right before they died. You know that That happens, and you know, we've had people who thought they were going to inherit. And then come to find out they get left out.
Or it gets changed very late in life for the person who's passing away, and then come to find out they don't get anything.
So these would be beneficiaries. Who kind of get left out and they want to challenge the will. And so that comes up from time to time. And just generally, there's a couple of things that have to be. In place for you to do that.
But Joe, I know you've had that where people come into the office and they're, you know, they only have a certain amount of time left. And so maybe they've had a will in place for 10 years. Um, And then I'm thinking about a couple in particular where people come in, and like maybe one of their adult children hasn't really helped them out. And they kind of want to change the will now so maybe that child doesn't get anything. Disinheriting a child, but I know it's a thing that happens, and it's you know.
It's unfortunate in a lot of ways because it's a situation that we we see happen. All too often. And there's times, you know, there's plenty of times where we come in and we sit down with folks and they've got very justifiable reasons for doing so. There's times when they come in and. You know, life changes, man.
I think that's the most important thing to to keep in mind. And we tell folks all the time, it speaks to the idea that you really need your estate plan to be in order because Far too often, we see families just completely ripped apart when the head of that family or a mom or a dad passes away and they don't have everything set up. Appropriately, and it's just that free-for-all situation. And when money gets involved, you can see very strong relationships just get completely destroyed overnight. And you'd be very, a lot of times, folks would be surprised if they were still around to see how their family members.
Treat each other and react in their absence when assets come into play.
So you're right, man. It's not super uncommon for someone to come in and want to change their will. And For whatever the reason may be, we see it. You touched on one that's very common. It's the situation where someone's older, they need a lot of help.
They've gotten a lot of help from one of their kids, and the other kid hasn't stepped up or hasn't done anything to help them, or hasn't been there. And, you know, they may have had an estate plan in place that divided everything 50-50, and they say, We want to cut this person out because they're not here for me when it matters. And that's something they can do, man. You have the right, again, as long as you have capacity, you've got the right to revise and change your estate plan. At any point prior to your death.
And as long as that is done appropriately and you meet all of the legal formalities that are required for executing your estate plan. It's not something that is easy to challenge. And that doesn't mean you can't challenge it. Like you said, there's situations where we can touch on. There are scenarios where wills can be contested.
But it's not an easy It's not just an easy thing to do. And there's an a a huge burden to overcome if you're the person that's actually making that challenge. Yeah, usually as attorneys, we want if we're going to take on a beneficiary who wants to challenge a will, if that's a case that we want to take on. usually there needs to be like um An older will, you know, where we see a change right before the, we see a new will right before they pass away. Um, you know, sometimes you see fraud where you're like, Well, that's that's not my dad's signature, you know.
Um. You know, sometimes you see kind of fraud.
Sometimes you see where there's multiple wills, and maybe the most recent one didn't get probated. And you're like, hey, I have the new will that revokes. The old will Um And there's a lot of times where you see an executor, somebody who's in charge of the estate, come in and maybe not handle assets very. Fairly, or, or, you know, there's all kinds of reasons to, um, To kind of challenge a will, but yeah, if a will's been done correctly, there was no undue influence, right? Caretakers weren't forcing them to make a change.
Um, And you're competent, you know. There's, but there's, it's very factual. All these are very factual specific. What's going on? What was the estate plan?
How did it get changed? Was it the same attorney they used in the past, or this is a new attorney? Um So we see that come up all different kinds of ways, but that's a complicated. Issue when it comes up. It's complicated.
And like you said, it's very fact-specific. And there are some scenarios where if you find yourself in that situation, say you are. An intended beneficiary, and you find yourself needing to contest a will, there's you know. It's very fact specific, but The main thing to keep in mind is that you're ultimately going to have the burden of proof of. proving whatever this allegation is.
And so if you've got fraud, You know, you could know all day that this is something that was done fraudulently, but you got to be able to. to you've got to be able to express to a fact finder Why that's the case. And I would say the more common scenario that we see, which is a little more difficult for the folks. Who are making the allegation is the undue influence. Because that's the, I don't know about you, but that's the number one scenario that I see this in: is where you say, where you have someone come in and say, look, this.
My sister's been taking care of my mom. She's in her ear all the time. She's convinced her to do these things that she doesn't want to do. And that can be a completely true statement. You know, that can be something that is actually happening.
But again, It's it's establishing that and proving that to a to a level to which you can actually invalidate An otherwise completely valid will. That is it's a difficult thing to do. Yes, that's and the attorneys that handle that, you know, we talk about free estate planning consults, and on the show we talk about how attorneys get paid. That's going to be something that an attorney is going to meet with you and You know, that's that's litigation. And litigation, you know, a lot of that's you're paying an attorney hourly.
Sometimes you can have contingency arrangements where, like, the personal injury attorneys, you don't get paid. Attorney doesn't get paid if you don't win your case.
So that that's that's a That's a whole different thing to think about, too, when you have one of those issues. But again, Not every attorney is cut out to do that. Not every attorney has seen those.
So make sure, you know. Whoever you're talking to has done that before. Yeah. Complimentary consult available on estate planning, and this can be part of the discussion. 919-772-7000.
That's 919-7727000. Leave in the checkbook at home. Leave your contact information at that number, and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. 919-772-7000. Again, complimentary consult on estate planning.
You can also check out the website, wh.lawyer. We've got one more segment to go. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Judica County Radio, your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and they practice law right here in the state of North Carolina. They put offices all over the state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City.
I'm Morgan Patrick, and it's my pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. They talk legally, so we also have a lot of fun on the program, but there are some serious subjects in here, so stay tuned. Listen up for those. And again, a complimentary consult on estate planning is available during the course of this show. All you've got to do is call 919-772-7000.
That's 919-772-7000. Leave the contact information, and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be. Be in touch to line up that compromise consult on estate planning. And always, the website wh.lawyer. Josh.
Yeah. What was that movie you saw this weekend? Me? Yeah. I wouldn't I wouldn't solve the uh family The family film.
Be sure to take all your underage kids' weapons, was the name of it. That's a horror flick. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, a little s I mean, I guess it could scare some people. New Age horror flip.
Better suspense than horror. It was probably horror, honestly. Yeah, it wasn't the scariest movie that I've ever seen. It actually had a lot of funny, a lot of. a lot of moments of comedy in it too.
But If you like scary movies, I would highly recommend it. It wasn't the best ever. It won't knock your socks off, but it was very entertaining. I enjoyed it.
Well, I was going to say, if you go buy Rotten Tomatoes, they loved it. Yeah, it's good. It's good. It's definitely worth a watch, you know. Um,.
I like I like the horror movies. I watch a lot of those and uh You know, you can have there can be horror movies that get a lot of hype and a lot of critical acclaim. You see the movie Long Legs. You see that one? That was one that got a lot of critical acclaim.
I was actually had a similar hype level for that, and I was very disappointed by that. Actually, didn't love it. Can I ask a lot more? Can I ask a real quick question? You say you watch a lot of horror movies.
What would a lot be? What would you do? Like everyone? I don't know. I do the horror movie marathon leading up to Halloween.
So, like, starting. Late September, I start watching like one a day at night, going to bed. Do you have a favorite genre, like a favorite theme, a favorite? Like a subgenre of horror? I don't know, man.
I'm real weird about favorites. I don't have many favorite things. Uh, you know, 'cause I can see the beauty in all things. But uh, it's very mood specific, man. You know, I like I started my my dad, he's a great dad, but he got me watching the scary movies from a very early age.
Very traumatic, but you come, you get desensitized eventually. And so, like. It's very there's not a lot of movies that are really scary necessarily, but they're very entertaining to me, man. I don't know. And and Weapons was very I was very I was thoroughly entertained.
My youngest, you know, we were talking about how bad the Ice Cube, War of the Worlds, was. I think it's a zero or was a zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes. My youngest, since he got his phone, anytime we're talking about a movie, he goes to Rotten Tomatoes and he looks it up. Yeah, that's a tough way to go. I mean, He can't, but he.
We were talking about the 0%. And so he did a search and he was like, what are all the movies that have 0%? And he was reading me the list. And a lot of them are bad. Yeah.
But on the list was a movie that I like, but it was, I can't remember, is it the Fourth Police Academy Citizens Patrol? Which I love. The fact that you said four in front of it. Yeah, the fourth. I think it's Police Academy 4.
I can't remember how many there were, but I think it was Police Academy 4 Citizens on Patrol. They gave it a zero. As a zero. It's a funny movie. It's not like.
Maybe they didn't have enough reviewers. Because, you know, those aren't the type of movies that the critics. love, you know, they can't see the beauty of it like you can, Josh, with your very advanced intellect that they lack.
So uh it's too police Academy Four is too smart for the critics. It's too smart, man. It went over their heads. It's too highbrow. Yeah.
But weapons, man, check it out. If you like scary movies at all, It's not the scariest movie, but I laughed a lot during it. That's what I do. I laugh when other people get scared. It makes me laugh.
I don't know why, but. You know, one of the movies that I can't I can't stand. I've never watched it. But I hate I hate the avatars. And they make like a bajillion dollars.
The next one's going to make like a bajillion dollars as well, man.
So there's nothing you can do to stop the avatar train. It's just keep coming. Yeah. Yeah. So you hate my kid.
Yeah, my kid wanted to watch, one of my youngest wanted to watch. I was like, I'm not watching the Avatars video. I don't have enough fatherly love. Such a nice dad. But have you seen him?
No. You just hate him. You just hate the concept. I just don't like the. I don't like the.
Graphics or whatever. That was the big deal for the first one, right? It was how they did the characters and stuff. But they look exactly the same now, still, right? I don't know, man.
It's hard. It's hard. It's hard to say they look. I think there's been some improvements. Look, man, it's pretty incredible, dude.
The technical achievement of it's pretty ridiculous, man. And if you didn't go when the first one came out, it was such an event. It was IMAX 3D. And I still remember we made like a whole thing of it. And I didn't love the movie itself.
Eh, it was all right. I mean, it was a movie. But the spectacle of it was pretty ridiculous, man.
Well, the backstory on the original one, when you found out that Matt Damon turned down the lead role, I think it was Sully and he turned it down. And the 10% he would have received from the box office and other sales would have made him $350 million, $400 million on the all the money that they lost from the Whitaker family, not seeing avatar. They made a billion times over in China. I saw, I said that. I can't remember.
Me and my wife were out with some folks, and I said, uh. I said that in front of somebody. We were just talking about that. And I was like, oh, Avatar, garbage. Can't stand it.
And they were highly offended. Highly offended. I'm not the biggest fan of it, man. I can appreciate the technical achievement, but like, it's very, the stories, you've seen the story a thousand times. Like, it's nothing unique.
I mean, the first one was what? That was, what was that? Basically, Dances with Wolves or Last of the Mohecans, one of those. It's just like a repeat of the story. But technically, man.
You can't really hate on the technical achievement of it, Josh. That's not something you can do. Uh Yeah. All right, another edition of Movie Talk, at least in our last segment, or movies not to see, if you're with Josh, would be Avatar or the sequel. If you've got a situation when it comes to estate planning, you like a complimentary consult, call the firm 919-77270000.
They'll sign you up for that. That's 919-7727000. Leave your contact information. An attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch for a complimentary consult on estate planning. And you can always go to wh.lawyer for more information there as well.
Another edition of Judica County is in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, your hosts and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina and managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. 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.
