Estate Planning for Blended Families

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 practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And it's gonna be an estate plan. For a blended family. Think of the Brady Bunch that's coming up next on Judica County. Whitaker and Hamer presents Judica County.

with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hayman. Welcome into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, and practicing attorneys here in our great state of North Carolina. They placed offices for your convenience in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.

Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys talk legalese. We're going to get into estate planning for a blended family. Again, Brady Bunch is the key word there. We'll talk about that in just a second. If you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to approach on air, send it to us.

Questions at judicacountyradio.com. That's questions at judicacountyradio.com. Obviously, in the legal field. Not just open-ended questions. Questions at judicacountyradio.com.

Gentlemen, welcome in. And we always start off with how the week was and what's going on. Yeah, I don't want any of those open-ended questions you were talking about. None of those. That's what you just asked me, though.

You just asked me an open-ended question. I did. I did. Beard care, Josh. You know, what do you use?

I'm a coconut oil guy on the beard. That's all my beard gets. It's just. It's just some healthy coconut oil every morning. I I do oxygen on mine.

You like that? Yeah, I let it touch the air. Natural. Yeah, I go outside and just let it absorb air. I find in the.

I can't worry about coconut oil, man. We don't all. Yeah. Live your lavish lifestyle.

So, my wife always has, I don't know, you get your repeat Amazon order, right? And there's just stuff in there. I don't know how it got there. Yeah. And we're also we're always busting at the seams with coconut oil.

I don't know why that is in my house.

So you just put it on things just randomly? You're like, we gotta use it. And so my beard my beard, I don't know about everybody else's beard, my beard gets real um Coarse. Yeah, real coarse and bushy, real quick. And so one day I was just like, I was there.

The coconut oil was there. I was like, I wonder what this. I wonder how this would feel on the beard. Hey, it felt pretty good. And so now I do it every day.

Nice.

Well, we're proud of you, man. It looks great. It looked like it wasn't. I had somebody come through the office the other day who had a real, real big beard, and you could tell he took real good care of it, you know, but just huge. I'd say Santa Claus beard, but there was no gray in it and they kept it really well trimmed.

And he was telling me, you know, he gets this special Beard oil and it goes on like twice a day, and he has the heating brush that he does to straighten it out. I'm like, that's a good-looking beard. But I can't do that kind of. I can't take that kind of care of myself. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I gotta come out of the shower pretty much. Ready for action. You know, if there's any other. Product or procedure. It's all I can do to get out of the shower, get stuck in clothes on.

Get dressed.

Well, you look at it. I was going to say, if you're such a big coconut oil person, one of the big box stores, the membership stores that starts with a C, They've got a great deal on coconut oil when they have it.

So Yeah, I would check that out. If my wife stops getting coconut oil, I'll stop this. I won't continue. I'll never go to the bottom. You got a light oil.

I imagine that stuff doesn't go bad too far. I was going to say: does your wife prefer a softer. A gentler beard? We haven't discussed it, but I will tell you. If the coconut oil doesn't automatically show up at my house and that regimen, that care regimen's out the window, I have to go to something new.

Yeah, it's gotta be hand-delivered to you, and it's gotta be already on the counter, opened, and ready to go. I don't wanna see what your beard looks like without it, man. But I just uh but anyway, I um I uh I beat you in fancy football. Did you see that? I did see that.

I did see that. I was telling Joe, because just for our listeners, we're all in the same league. The attorneys invited me into their league, which just has some whacked out rules. But I'm actually doing okay. With the whacked-out rules.

And I was bound and determined to bench Flacco because we can start two quarterbacks in this league. And I just I didn't have any resources. There weren't any quarterbacks I could stick in there, so I left him in. And oh, wow, he's got a shoulder injury on his throwing shoulder. And what does he do in a loss?

Four TDs, 457 yards passing. He had a 50-point. He's one-third of my overall scoring and I barely lost to you. Yeah, it was uh I didn't have a really good week and then uh I had a horrible week outside of him. And the Cowboys' defense won it for me.

You don't really rely on the Cowboys' defense. Ironic, I'm a Dallas fan. Uh I'm proud of both of you guys. Excellent. I can't say I've done much.

You know, I usually like to tell you what I did this week, and I pretty much worked. My kids gave me a cold. And watching basketball, right? College basketball started, so that was good.

So, is football over for you guys? We got uh varsity playoffs uh this weekend.

Okay. And they're gonna dominate. I hope so. I hope so. The kids the kids worked hard and and it's a lot of fun and um Hopefully, they get rewarded.

But the playoffs are tough. We're the lower seed, so we're. We're going on the road. But we'll see how that goes. It'll be fun.

You just take that coconut oil, man. You get all the kids to just lather themselves up with it and. That'll give them the edge. Might be hard to tackle. Exactly.

I would think there's a rule against that. I'm just going to smell delicious. But it absorbs pretty quick. It does. It does.

It's a it does. I just gave you the seed, man. You know, I was thinking this weekend, you know, we talk about estate planning and we talk about things very. A lot of times we talk about things generally, like this is the trust, this is what a trust does, this is why you need a POA. And maybe we don't always do the best.

At giving you kind of like a real-world example of an estate plan, and you know, I was thinking, I know we've talked about before some of the challenges doing an estate plan with a blended family. and a blended family. you know, I use that term. That's uh You know, that's two spouses coming together, maybe in a second marriage where they each have children from a previous. A relationship, and then you're coming together as one family, and you want to make sure everybody's provided for.

And there's a lot of challenges there, especially if you haven't adopted Your stepchildren, right? You know, um. You need to provide for them. The law, if you die without a will, the law is not going to provide for any. Automatically, for anybody who's not, you know, blood-related to you.

That's kind of what the laws are based on: blood. relatives and so I came up with this idea. I think I came up with this idea. I might have stolen it from somebody else. I don't trust, man.

You own that. But I was like, well, let's take the Brady bunch. 'Cause when I think of blended family, I think I don't know. I think of the Brady bunch. And uh You're probably familiar with that TV show.

I know we're not all old like me, but the Brady Bunch is a thing I think people still are aware of. Marcia, Marcia, Marsha. Yeah, we, yeah. I'm not as old. Not many people are as old as you.

I'm old. Brady Bunch was huge, but I'm from Brady Bunch. Um So I figured we'd take the Brady bunch, a family that everybody knows, maybe, or knows of. or or faintly remembers or have you know heard their parents talk about but anyway And kind of talk about what their estate plan would look like if they came in the office and sat down and we know everything about them that we know from the TV show. Um and kinda kind of see what that that would that would look like.

I thought that would be a thing that people might enjoy. I think that's a fantastic idea, man.

So that's what we're going to do, and it's going to spawn other conversations about estate planning as we often have to do. And fantasy football. And fantasy football. College basketball. College basketball.

Mm-hmm. In my estate plan, I do want to leave my fantasy football strategies to somebody. Yeah, you're a big man. We can set you up just for that. All right, well, we will take a short break, come back on the other side again.

We're going to talk about estate planning for blended families, and we're using Brady Bunch, the Brady Bunch, the old TV show, as our example. Again, if you want a complimentary consult on estate planning, maybe you've been thinking about it, you've been sitting on that procrastination couch and not doing it, grab one of these consults. Again, you're not agreeing to become a client, it's free, but you get an opportunity to talk about estate planning with the fine attorneys at Whitaker and Hamer. Call 919-7727000. That's 919-77270000.

They'll hook you up with one of those complimentary consultations. Consults on estate planning. Maybe you've got one of these blended families, so listen up. Or maybe you've got regular. They can certainly handle both.

Go to WH.lawyer for more information there as well. Great resource, wh.lawyer. But to grab a consult, call the number: 919-772-7000. It's 919-772-7000. 7,000.

We're back with more Judica County Radio right after this. Welcome back in to Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices placed in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fiboi Farina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City for your convenience. I'm Morgan Patrick.

It's a pleasure to jump on with the attorneys and talk legalese. And today we're getting into, well, estate planning, but it's Brady Bunch style. Boom bump bum. Hmm. All right, there you go.

A little theme music. A little theme music. Josh, what got you? I mean, obviously, we do a lot on estate planning, but you wanted to talk about blended families. Yeah, I think you know as we meet You know, every estate plan is a little bit different.

You know, there's a lot of people. Like, me and Joe are kind of in the same age bracket. We kind of do the same thing. We have. You know, we have a decent amount of kids.

He's got more kids than me. It's not a competition, but if it was, I'm clearly dominating. It's not a competition, Josh, but I'm winning. Yeah, I'm equally retired. I've I've formerly retired from the child rearing game.

The uh But, you know, even our estate plans, you know, we're self-employed, right? We have a business, the law firm. And so we're very similarly situated. And once, you know, if an attorney sat down and talked with me and talked with Joe about our estate plans, our estate plans would still be different. Right?

Every estate plan is a little bit different because maybe I don't want my kids. Uh, you know, if I die before my kids are 18, I might not want them to get anything from my estate until they're 25. Joe may want The money handled a different way, but even, but everybody's a little bit different. And one of the ways that people are different is when you sit down with a blended family that wants to make sure children, you know, we talked about what a blended family is. It's, you know, two people coming together who have children from prior relationships, and now they all live together and care for each other.

And the two adults want to make sure the kids, even the kids that aren't. biologically their kids are provided for. And you need an estate plan for that because if you just die without a will, if you die without a trust, the law is going to leave all of your assets. to your biological children. And I have seen, you know, the fear is.

You know, one spouse dies and the other spouse inherits most of their property, and then the surviving spouse dies, and all the couple's property that that spouse has obtained. gets left to their biological children. And so the deceased spouse Children does not, they don't take in that situation. And so, most blended families, that's the challenge of the estate plan: making sure everybody is provided for. um in a in a kind of a timely manner.

And and Joseph, I know you see that too in your estate planning consults. Yeah, it's not uncommon, man. Um a lot of a lot of folks these days, you know, for whatever reason, uh end up Divorced and potentially they remarry. It's something we see a lot. It's something we see all the time.

And It's like you said, man, it's a tricky situation. Because the law Just because you marry somebody who has their own kids, maybe you love those kids a lot. Maybe you hate them. Who knows, man? I hope you love them.

I hope they're good. But no matter how much love you have for those kids, if you don't formally adopt them and you haven't gone through that legal process, then they're not treated by law, by the intestate statutes, as your kids. And so if you want them. to share in anything that you leave behind. You've got to account for that in your estate plan.

Now, you can leave whatever you want to anybody if you do the estate plan the right way. It doesn't matter what their relation to you is. You can. Anyone can be a beneficiary that you make a beneficiary, but in the absence of you affirmatively taking that action and making them a beneficiary. they ain't taken and they ain't gonna have anything.

So Those little little stepchildren that you you love so much may be left out in the cold. If you're not careful. And when I was thinking about that, we just talked about it for five minutes, but we had to talk about it very abstractly because we don't have names. And in the past, I tried to kind of create a fictional family to so you can say, hey, Johnny might get disinherited. I don't know that that really, you know, so I was thinking about.

The most famous blended family that I could think of, or at least the first one I remember, is fictional, of course. I know the Brady Bunch wasn't real life, right? But real to me. But it was the Brady Bunch.

So when I was coming, do you know, you might know because I just pulled this up, I didn't know this. Do you know when the first, what year the Brady Bunch started? 16. That would be like in the seventies, right?

Well, you got to guess you got to guess a year. I guess 1967, man.

Okay. It's 1969, but I think Joe looked it up. Yeah, 100%, man. I had to certainly. I got to be prepared for this discussion, man.

I don't know the Brady bunch children's names and lineage by heart. You don't remember the song? If you listen to the intro, yeah, but I don't know the song. Like, I just, when I do the song, if I'm singing it, which I don't, but if I was. I would just, you know, when it gets to those parts, I don't have to say the names.

I just do the, I know the tune. All right.

Well, the Ready Bunch was a sitcom, an American sitcom, in case you're confused. I always like how Wikipedia is. Yeah, for all of our international listeners. That are lost right now. They probably are.

It's not sweet. The Brady Bunch is everywhere, man. A Sri Lankan sitcom. Yeah. 1969 and 1974.

So I was born in 76.

So I saw this as reruns when you came home from school on TBS. That's where. came on before mamma's family, if I remember correctly.

So you got a good healthy dose of the brain punch. I just wanted to highlight that. You hadn't mentioned it in a long time, but I I feel like that used to be something you'd mention virtually every time. It was. I enjoy a good episode of Mama's Family.

Interjected into random conversations. It comes on one of those weird channels now, like Cozy or something. But I have it, I have YouTube TV taping it, so anytime I want to. Can just enjoy a couple episodes of Mama's Family. The beauty of technology.

All right, so the the setup is Mike Brady falls for Carol. They get married. Mike's got three boys. Carol's got three girls.

So it is uh Mike and Carol Brady. Greg Brady, Marcia Brady, Peter Brady, Jan Brady, Bobby Brady, Cindy Brady, and Of course, the housekeeper is Alice. She's a big part of the show, but she's playing Alice in this house. I know, you can't just leave Alice out of it. She's basically raising these kids.

She's the real ones. I mean, what are they doing? Here's something I didn't know: I knew they had a dog. But Wikipedia is telling me in the pilot they had a cat named Fluffy who never made another appearance. I don't remember that.

The one thing that really kind of. Made me go, what? They had astroturf in their backyard. They didn't have real grass. I mean, it's studio.

They shoot it in the studio, but they didn't have real grass. It was astroturf. Astroturf is pretty expensive. Yeah, but but it's very low maintenance, brother. It it is, but very and hot, very hot.

Very hot. Yeah. You have that at your one of your many mansions after? No, no, I stayed at a place that had it and I couldn't walk to the pool 'cause it was so hot. I had to put my shoes on to uh To walk to the pool.

It was a vacation. Not my house. Anywho.

Alright, so that's uh. That's the quintessential blended family is the Parady Bunch. And they were all happy, and they all got along, and they all loved each other, right? But Mike. as far as I know, on the sitcom did not adopt Carol's children and uh Carol did not adopt.

Mike's boys.

So they were. Step kids, stepchildren, steps. And uh I am sure Although there wasn't an estate planning episode of the Brady Bunch. But I'm sure if there was. Mike and Carol Brady would have wanted to make sure all the kids were taken care of.

You know what Mike Brady did, Joseph, without reading? He was. Did he sell insurance? He seems.

Okay. That was a good guess. He looks like a guy. I'd buy insurance from him. He was an architect.

Ah. He was an architect. He designed the house they lived in. Yeah, and it's a cool house with AstroTurf in the backyard. Yeah, split-level ranch.

1970s style, California. Man, you got a lot of Brady Bunch information for you out there, Corey. That house just recently came up for sale. I just saw that. I don't know if it's sold yet or not.

Crap, crap. But, um.

So we're going to say Mike and Carol own that house together. They own that house as husband and wife. That was their major asset. I'm sure he did very well as an architect. They lived in California.

back in the seventies and uh So, I'm going to assume they had some investment accounts and things like that. And then they had Alice, right? They had an in-hole mate.

So, I'm going to assume they. I don't own Alice, Josh. I don't think she's going to. I'm going to assume they were doing pretty good, that they could have. In-home help, right?

Paid in-home help. Yep. Um, so I don't and they took a lot of vacations. Yeah. Like like you.

That night, so they're doing pretty good. Yeah, okay. They're doing pretty good. And then they have six children. they want to provide for.

And so Mike on the show, Mike was a little older than Carol. And when I sit down and do an estate planning consult, you know, I always want to give people examples of how things would work. And unfortunately, it's usually the gentleman, right? If we're talking about a couple that's a you know a male and a female, usually it's the gentleman. That passes away first.

It's not always the case. It's not always how it works out, but usually the gentleman's a little bit older. And um In this case, he was. And in this case he did in real life. Of course he passed away.

Uh before the actress who played Carol. But um And so that's what we had. That's kind of our starting point. We know the family, we know kind of what their assets were. And so in our next segment, Morgan, what I want to do is actually get down to the The nitty-gritty and talk about what we would recommend for these folks.

All right, we are talking estate planning for the blended family with the Brady Bunch as our example. You are listening to Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker, and Joe Hamer. They're your hosts. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They have offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Kewcliffe, Arena, Gastonia, and Moorhead City.

To grab one of our complimentary consults on estate planning, simply call 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000. You can also visit wh.lawyer. Again, that's wh.lawyer. We're back with more Judica County right after this.

Welcome back into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, placing offices for your convenience in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquev Arena. Gastonia and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.

A pleasure to jump on with the attorneys, and we're talking about estate planning for the blended family, starting off the show with that. And we are using the Brady Bunch from the 1969 to 1974 sitcom, where the blended family was really marquee television at that time. Josh, take it away.

So, you know, we kind of set the stage in our last segment, this segment. I kind of want to talk about what the state plan they don't want. And so.

Well, I think before we do that, man, I got to. We we've got some more stage to set because this is a show that ran several years, right? And I think it's an important question to answer. Do we have any minor kids? at the point in time that we're meeting with his folks.

I think that's going to affect our recommendation. Yeah, that's right. Let's assume that we're meeting with Mike and Carol Brady in 1970 Four.

Okay. Okay, as far as I know on the show... I know the oldest brother, Mike, was driving, but let's assume he's under 18. Let's assume every child is still Mike's the dad. Greg's the oldest.

Get the names right, Josh. Yeah, come on. Come on. You're killing us. It's Bush League.

Take this seriously, brother. Take this fictional estate planning consult seriously. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

So if we're, what, one, two, three, if we're four years, are we four years? What did you say? 74? Yeah, let's do 74. That's the final year of the show.

So we're talking, I mean, Greg had to be college age at that time.

Okay, let's do 1969. All right.

All right.

Let's do 1964. No one's in college. Everybody out in that organizer for caring about the details, Josh. I mean, there are a lot of people out there that were Brady Bunch. He's a fan of Brady's.

And I want you to be held in the highest regard, guys. This is the show that's going to get us the most letters and responses. Just trying to help. Just a lot of fanatics out there, man. You guys don't even know the Brady's.

People take the bunch very seriously. Seriously, man. Oh, all right.

So here's what we don't want to happen. We don't want Mike and Carol Brady to come in and just get a simple, I call them sweetheart wills, right? And a lot of times, if you go to a website, Or you go somewhere besides an estate planning attorney, you'll get that recommendation: like, hey, just do a will. And a sweetheart will is what I call, you know, hey, if something happens to me, everything to my spouse. If my spouse dies before me, everything to my kids.

That's kind of a sweetheart will. And that would be disastrous, right, in this situation because, again, we know Mike Brady in real life passed away before Carol, so we're going to run with that. Um, so Mike dies, all they have is a sweetheart will. It says everything to my spouse.

So everything goes to to Carol. Um money, real property. All that stuff goes to Carol. And let's say Carol lives 25 more years, never remarries. Never does her will, never gets her will updated.

She passes away, she's gonna leave everything to the girls. Those are her biological children. If she dies. without a trust, without an updated will. That's what's going to happen.

In that situation, which is what we don't want to happen. Uh the boys, Mike's children. Basically, get de facto disinherited. There's nothing. Left to them.

And that's the real threat in a blended family is. You know, a very overly simple estate plan or no estate plan at all, and you've you know, one spouse has accidentally, not on purpose. disinherited They're children. A nightmare, man. It's a nightmare, and you're right.

It happens far too frequently. And. And this hypothetical, man, it's a it's a it's a bad situation for the boys. And it could work the other way, right? If Carol had died first, left everything to Mike.

Uh, and then Mike didn't do his estate plan, didn't update anything, and he died, then everything would go to the boys, and then the girls would have been uh disinherited unintentionally, and and so. That's the trick with blended families: you really need to sit down, you really need to think about, you know. Because the other bad thing that could happen, it's not bad in real life, but from an estate planning perspective, is what if Carol. What if Carol Remarries, right?

So Mike passes away. Mike's very overly simple will leaves everything to Carol. And then there's a Brady Bunch 2, where Carol remarries, and say Carol's married for another 20, 25 years to. to this husband. And then Carol passes away with a sweetheart will.

Now she's left everything. to her her new spouse. And then, if her new spouse, you know, if this wasn't all taken into account, her new spouse. Passes away, everything's going to be left to his biological children.

So, in this situation, the girls and the boys all get disinherited. It'd be a very unhappy episode of the Brady Bunch, right? I don't know, man. High drama, though. Like, it'd be very entertaining.

But, yeah, very sad. But that's the inherent, you know, it's just the way the laws are set up to favor. Your spouse and your biological children. And so if you don't do anything, to to change course That's the risk, right? And so You know, anytime we're sitting down with a blended family, we're going to steer you away from the sweetheart Wills, and we're going to say, hey, let's think about this, right?

Let's make them. I don't know how old they were on the show. I assume they were, what, in their 50s in that show? Sure. Morgan.

Yeah, can you give us their birth dates so we can calculate those and not use that internet research so you can get fictional birth dates? Yeah, I don't have it, but I would think when the show started, Mike's probably mid to late 40s. Yeah. Mid to late 40s. You know, that's the trick.

When you say, I'm like, what do you want to happen? You know, if Mike, and I usually take the gentleman, if there's a gentleman and a female, like I said in the last segment, because the guys usually do. pre-decease their their their wives.

Okay, if something happens to the mic tomorrow. What do you want to do for the boys? Do you want them to get something when Mike passes away? Do you Carol need that money to live?

So we're going to have to make some other arrangement for the boys, but we specifically talk about that. What arrangements can we make now so that they either get something at Mike's death? or that they're provided for at at your death, Carol. Um, you know, if we can't with life insurance or investment accounts or rental property or other assets that you don't need to live, if we can't provide for them at Mike's death, their father's death. How do we do this?

And there's some thinking that goes into it. Um But we usually do that with a trust. And you can have assets in a trust, and when the first spouse dies, the trust can become irrevocable so that those kids are protected. Um and not that And not that Carol, in our situation, Carol would do anything to disadvantage the kids. It's usually just by accident.

And not thinking it out, you know, not knowing the law and not thinking it through. I think you touched on something important before we get back to the the nuts and bolts of the Brady Bunch's Estate Plan is anytime you have a a major life change and We can't give you an exhaustive list because that could be its own show. But one such change would be divorce. and remarrying. contact Someone to sit down and talk about your estate plan because, like you said, man, you can see changes that have unintended consequences, and it's always.

It's always smart to just take a look at everything and make sure that it's all going to function the way that you want it to. Yeah, and you could have situations, you know, um. that require more thought.

So like in the Brady Bunch. if uh you know if one of the kids Um You know, let's say one of the kids needed more. Structure than the other kids.

So you have one kid who wasn't Great with money, right? Or one of the kids. Um, you know, god forbid had like a medical condition, or you know, you know, maybe a drug issue or. or um something like that where they needed special attention, you know. You can plan for that ahead of time.

You can go ahead and make that a part of Of your estate plan. And so we did that, especially in families that have six children. When you have a lot of children, a lot of times there's one child who needs some special. Considerations, or you have some special concerns for, and that you can always do that too, and it. Estate planning is hard when you're in the thick of it, right?

When we when we're watching the Brady bunch. They're raising six kids. Did Carol work? Carol worked, didn't she? What did Carol do?

Uh don't know I can find out for you. But there's a lot going on. It's hard to sit down and put a lot of thought into an estate plan when in your Daryl Brady did not have a job.

So they had Alice at the house and Carol stayed at home as well? But she was very per per Google, she was very busy with household and PTA activities. Florence Henderson, the actor, wanted her character to have a career, but the producer said no. Wonder if there's any box wine in the fridge. She did a lot of PTA stuff, man.

The PTA is no joke, brother. It puts him respect. No, no. On the PC. It's a big deal.

Yeah. Do they still have PTAs? Is that still a thing that happens? Yeah, it's a thing. Oh, yeah.

Just because you don't love your kids and participate doesn't mean that's not. I've got my PTA tattoo. Are you kidding me? Yeah. Yeah.

Me and Morgan, big, we got a separate PTA podcast we do that you're about to do where we talk about. Yeah, running the PTA. Yeah, that along with our HOA podcast. Yeah, it's no one listens, but we enjoy it. You know, you have four listeners, and one of them's your mom's.

Yeah, it's the other members of the PTA. That's it.

So that's what not to do. All right, so in our next segment, Morgan, we'll talk about. How to do it right. All right, we'll uh clear your throat there, Joshi, and uh we'll come back. Juda Judica County Radio will roll on.

Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuclav Arena, Cleveland, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City for your convenience, the opportunity for a complimentary consult on estate planning. Maybe you've got a blended family situation, you want to have this conversation. Call and grab one of these: 919-772-7000. That's 919-772-7000.

You can also visit the website, wh. Dot Lawyer. We're back with more at Judica County right after this. Yeah. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.

They have offices all across the state, down on the coast at Moorhead City, down near Charlotte in Gastonia, Fucuave Arena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and Raleigh. To kind of cover the middle part of the estate for you. If you've got any questions about estate planning, we're kind of focusing in on that today. We have complimentary consults on that. 919-772-7000 to grab one.

Again, there's no cost, no obligation. 919-77270000. And you can also visit the website, wh.lawyer, great resource for you. But we've been talking about the blended family and using the Brady bunch from the 70s sitcom that was very, very popular. But two divorcees, three kids apiece.

Carol had three daughters, and Mike had three sons. And how are you going to handle the estate plan? And we've kind of been jumping off on that point, Josh. Can you? Is I don't think the Brady Bunch is on TV anymore.

I don't think you can watch it on TV. Surely it's somewhere out there in the ether. I would think YouTube. I mean, they're. It it's out there.

It's on me TV. Is it really? Yeah, what about TV Land? I mean, there are all these different channels. Yeah, I don't think TV Land's around anymore.

Well, I mean, it might not be, but I just I threw that out because it used to be. Everything's streaming, man. If you want to go to the Pretty Bunch, you can go home and watch the Pretty Bunch.

Well, I was flipping around the other day, and I mean, you can Little House on the Prairie was still on T I never watched that, but that's still on T V. Gunsmoke, you can still see Gunsmoke. You can still see anything you want to see, man. What are you talking about? It's easier than ever.

There's um Well, maybe.

Well, maybe.

Well, anywho. The perfect solution. You know, we talked about what estate plan the Brady's would not want, right? And we talked about. Accidentally disinheriting one set of the kids, depending on which spouse survived.

Um. But You know, what you really need to do as a blended family who wants to make sure they provide for both. I'm saying sets of children here because that's how it worked out in the Brady Bunch. You know, three girls belong to Carol, three boys belong to Mike. Um You want to provide for them in a trust.

That's the easiest way to do it so that when that day comes where Mike passes away, there's a Brady family trust that provides for Carol while she's alive. And then kind of reserves assets that she doesn't need. You know, or at the end of her life, it is still there to go to the six children. And of course, when Mike dies, you know, Carol's going to. live her life, she may get remarried, she may have to kind of sit down with an estate planning attorney to make sure she provides for her spouse if you know at the time if that if that's a thing But, you know, one thing I was going to mention, Joe, all these people need.

POAs, right? We haven't talked about that. We've talked about getting assets to the next generation. Hey, Josh, let me jump in and just correct. I don't want the Brady Bunch fan club to jump on me.

They were not divorcees, they were widowed. Widowers, yeah. And there's some speculation that Carol killed her husband. That's what I saw online.

So just a heads up. I saw a real thing I saw, you know.

Well, I mean, you could talk about, Josh. I mean, I'm sure there are life insurance policies, there are previous assets from the previous. Um, marriage, they both w you know, are now widowed and there are a lot of assets that they bring into this relationship and they both have three kids. I mean, do you keep that separate? Do how do you blend that?

I don't know, but this made me think of You know, did y'all? I didn't watch the show in the 80s, but you watched the show My Two Dads. You remember what that show was? I think that's a show you made up. Nah, it's a real show.

I think that's Paul Richard. I think Paul Rice made up when you were a child.

So I have never seen it, never heard of it. Where is the show?

Well, this is the internet rumor. I don't know if this is true or not. But there was a sitcom, and the God, this had to be. Was it the early 90s? I can't remember.

Is this my two dads we're talking about? Yeah. There was a check on. My two dads had two stand-up comics that were the father to this girl and the other uh their daughter and then um There was this lady in there who was like the judge that that was that was like the main cast. But the rumor was that it was supposed to be it was pitched as a show where these These two dads were a couple, right?

They were a homosexual couple, and they were raising one of their daughters together, and that was the pitch. And I guess the studio didn't think America was ready. This was 30 years ago, right? They didn't wasn't ready for that.

So instead of making them a gay couple, They made them both best buds. No. They were both guys. Who had at some point been married to or with the same. woman who had since died and this was her daughter.

And they didn't know who the dad was. Oh. And there was before we don't have DNA? Yeah, I guess it was. It was before DNA existed.

And they were just her two dads. The judge ordered that they both had to raise her together in the same apartment. That was back, that used to fix a lot of holes in sitcoms. A judge just orders it to happen, you know? Yeah, yeah.

But you're talking about internet speculation and internet rumors. That was always a. I always wonder how that show got made, if that was really the. The way it got made, you know. Yeah, it did not get made the way that they intended, if that's the truth.

That's it.

Save that for a future episode of these things planning for the Mighty Dads. A future Family Law episode of Ejudica County radio. Yeah, so.

So, kind of like our judge example in my two dads, a trust. can really fix Most issues that you would run into in kind of a blended family. And so that's kind of what I was talking about. And then I just, before then, I talked about. There's other parts of the estate plan, right?

We still need to talk about. Powers of attorney and healthcare powers attorney and living will and and um You know, this brings up something that I run into a lot, Joe, and every attorney kind of has their own preference. But here You got six kids, right? And so when Mike's putting his power of attorney together and he says, Hey, I need to. I need to get my power of attorney in order so someone can handle my affairs.

If I can't handle them, then obviously he's probably going to name his spouse as his attorney, in fact, right? If I can't handle this, I want Carol. to handle this. But then who's the backup? Yep, we gotta have successors.

And and and in this case we're talking minor kids, right?

So all the kids are minors and are hypothetical. And so you know, you could potentially name a a successor as a minor in anticipation of them Coming of age and being able to hold that position, but if they're a minor, you're going to have an issue.

So, my guess. Is we're going with the maid. We're going with Alice, right? I guess in our show, using what we are limited Memories of the show. She's super trustworthy and a rock-solid human being.

So that'd be my recommendation. Can't see the rest of the family. A lot of life lessons from Alice. Yeah, she knows a lot. She knows a lot.

There's a lot going on with that family, and mom and dad can't handle it all, and Alice is there. She probably knows the kids better than they do, honestly. Yeah. You know?

So, Alice would be the backup. And then, just to play it out, you know, if they're doing this and the kids are older, let's say all the kids are adults. Let's say they're coming back and they're doing an update and you know Alice is retired. And they're like, hey, I need a new backup. All our kids are over 18.

And let's say, Joe, let's say Mike comes in. He goes, Hey, look, my three boys, they're all over 18. I want them to be co- Agents and make decisions unanimously together. And we tell them that's a bad idea. We typically will say that's a bad idea.

Anytime someone wants someone to be co executors, co trustees, You know, there's some people that that that that that's what they they truly want. But it's important to understand the pitfalls of that, right? And The the primary pitfall is people disagree potentially. There's logistical issues that it presents because you have to have two those two individuals have to be present. They have to sign.

They have to do everything in conjunction with one another, which a lot of times is not the most. Practically sensible option.

So we will typically discourage that unless there's really no other option. And there's some folks, like I said, that are just married to the idea. But but generally speaking It's not a great idea. Potentially if you've got just two, but if you're talking about three, four, five you know, the the more you add to that equation, the more difficult it's going to be for anything to actually get done. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't like... I don't like three people or two people. You know, having to sign off on checks or agree to anything. And then, of course, A lot of times it's two people, it's kind of the situation. They have two kids and they want them to both be involved.

And um I I don't I don't like that 'cause if there's a disagreement, then You're kind of at a stalemate, right? If you've got two people acting as co- and they disagree on something, then you just. Nothing's getting done. And then you're talking about a situation where you're having to litigate your estate plan, and that's the ultimate nightmare that you want to avoid. Yeah, I don't.

I don't like co-executors. I don't like co-agents. I don't really like co-trustees. I want someone to be able to just make the decision, and you can certainly urge them. There's things you can do to make sure they're talking and what have you, but especially as families age.

It's it's better just to have someone who's making the decisions, you know, and and um But that's something they'll have to think about. And then. You know, in the same vein, and we might get to the same answer because we don't have a lot of people to choose from. I was just looking at all the guest stars that have been on the Brady Bunch trying to find someone else. Um Vincent Price was on three episodes.

That's a solid backup right there. But um You've got to figure out, these are all underage kids. If something happens to Mike and Carol at the same time, you've got to figure out who the guardian's going to be. And I guess we're gonna I guess Alice is going to be first up. Alice, man.

She is got to be out of it. This isn't really. Do we decide, were they divorced or was Carol and Mike were they divorced? Or are they widows? Widowed.

So there's no other parent. No. Involved? No. Now you've got grandparents out there probably, but I mean that's beyond the scope of the show.

Stupid show. Not giving us enough facts. Um So, yeah, they're going to have to figure out who's that. If something happens to Mike and Carol, God forbid, in a car accident, a plane crash, who's going to take care of these six kids? That's a lot to put on somebody.

Hey, if me and my husband die Take these six kids. Man, if you and your husband both die, your kids are going to be destroyed, Josh. 'Cause they love that guy.

Well, I mean my wife's gonna be upset. Yeah, yeah, your wife's losing her best friend. Yeah. I mean, we're ha we're having we're having a little chuckle with the Brady bunch, but think about I mean, six kids. And six different personalities, and six different ways to do things.

I mean, If you don't have an estate plan and you have this kind of blended situation, it could be an absolute chaotic mess. And you're probably not going to have all six of the kids being super cool and nice, like all the Brady Bunch kids, because that's a fictional thing. You're going to have at least one or two terrible kids in there. Most likely. Take my five good kids and my one terrible kid.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um It's a lot to think about, you know, and that doesn't happen. I've really only seen that happen like once or twice in my 20-some years of doing this, where we have a car accident and you lose. you lose both parents, you know. Um And and um But if it happens and you got six underage children, it's not something you can just thrust onto somebody.

You need to have talked. to those folks and 'Cause I mean If somebody said, Hey, Josh, take care of these six kids, I got to get a new house or something. I ain't got a house that can take six more kids. Maybe you do. I do not have that type of house, Josh.

So, you need to think about that in the trust. And you don't want to split six kids up. Like, how does that? It's a lot to think about.

Well, that's why you need an estate plan. That's what we talk about. Again, Judica County Radio, we are focusing in on estate planning for a blended family using the Brady Bunch as our example. We've got one more segment to go. We want to remind you that we do have complimentary consults on estate planning.

Simply call the firm. You're not going to pay for it, and there's no obligation to become a client. 919-77270000. See if you are in that stage of your life where you want that estate plan put together. 919-77270000.

And if you're a blended family situation, we've given you a lot of things to think about. 919-77270000 to grab one of those complimentary consults on estate planning with Whitaker and Hamer. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. We've got more at Judica County. Final segment coming up.

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. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They put offices across the state for your convenience: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuke Grave Arena, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City.

If you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to handle on one of our future shows, just send it to us: questions at judicacountyradio.com. That's questions at Judicacountyradio.com. We've already answered the question: what does Josh put on his beard to make it so soft? It's coconut oil. It's maybe the most important question we've ever answered.

That's good information. We are talking about blended families and how to handle the estate plan using the Brady bunch as the example. And we've had, I think, a very lively discussion on it. If you've got a situation where you're thinking, you know what, I need to have an estate plan. I've got my own stuff going on.

You can grab a complimentary consult with the firm by calling 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000. Again, there's no cost, and there's no obligation to become a client. Just see if you're in the right spot to do an estate plan. And you can also visit.

The website, wh.lawyer. Josh. I know this probably, I've got a few bits of trivia here, and it's probably not gonna be very good because you guys have been probably reading the same Wikipedia page I've been reading. But I didn't know this. You know what the original name of the Brady Bunch was in the pilot?

I do say that I do not. I don't know the answer. The Brady Brood. That's a terrible name. That's a terrible name.

Here's another one: Gene Hackman was considered the frontrunner. to play Mike the dad. Hmm. Interesting. I love you.

Do you know the name of the band that sang the theme song? You don't. Nobody does. I don't. I don't.

And I'm not going to Google it.

So, why don't you just tell us what the camera is?

Now, I want you guys to guess. Got to be some kind of psychedelic 70s. Yeah, yeah. The Peppermint Trolley Company. Yeah, okay.

Can you name any of your other companies? I'm not going to get that far. Josh? No, but I can click on them. Hold on.

I wonder what they made off of the Brady Bunch theme song.

Alright, we don't wanna get sued for music now. Peppermint Trolley Company was an American sunshine pop band owned for the 1968 single Baby You Come Rollin' Cross My Mind. Oh man, that was a that was a that was a classic and I we we would that's one that we would play. Baby You Come Rollin' Cross My Mind. Yeah.

They performed live on Manix. and the Beverly Hill Billies, and performed the original theme song for the Brady Bunch. That's great. It sounds like Kenny Rogers in the first edition type music. That's what I picture.

Yeah. Do you remember Baby, you come rolling across my mind? Wasn't that your wedding song? No, but I'm going to pull it up later and give it a good listen to.

Okay. I bet it's terrible. May maybe. Maybe. Maybe it's great.

Maybe it's a hit, man. You never know. Maybe this show brings it back, puts it back in the top 10. One last time. In 1969, the Peppermint Trolley Company left.

They changed their name to Bones. I like that, man. They went a different direction, didn't they?

Sounds like the edge. They were a rock soul group at that point.

So I was trying to see how they all were doing now. It doesn't tell me. I'm trying to check out how bones did. Doesn't seem like bones did great. Oh, wait, I can click on bones.

Yeah, you can click on bones. This is what the show should be. It should just be us reading. Going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. Yeah.

Yeah. Bones was an American power pop band. They charted in 1972. With a cover of Huey. Interesting, man.

This is all interesting stuff. I wish we could just name the firm something different, like every two years to coincide with our new phases. What's stopping us? I think the bar. I think the bar game.

It's made. And signage costs. Signage costs. Yeah, those signage makes. You start replacing signs, it gets pricey.

You don't think about that.

Some poster board and some markers and some tape. That's all you need. We should go through a sunshine pop phase and rename ourselves and redo our logo. The Peppermint Trolley Firm. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh Judica County Radio, we are wrapping up our discussion on blended families and estate planning. And if you have questions about your own estate plan, you can certainly grab one of our complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer, 919-772-7000. That's 919-77270000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer.

Again, offices are everywhere for your convenience: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquayfarina, Gastonia, and Moorhead City. But simply call the number and say, hey, I want one of these consults. There's no cost, no obligation to become a client. 919-7727000. We're here to help.

919-7727000. Gentlemen. Maybe some closing thoughts. Just so you, in case you were curious, I was reading while you were talking there, and bones also broke up. And the main members of bones went on.

They fractured. Is that what you're saying? They formed the Farager brothers. Yep. And started doing.

Blue-eyed soul music.

Okay. Yeah, you're down a rabbit hole now, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Very good information, man. I don't know how. My day would have been without that information, but I know for a fact it's going to be a lot better now that I know it's always nuts when you stumble on something like, I mean, why would you know that, right? But this is, you don't. I had no knowledge of any of that before now.

And now I know it. That's something I know. You're a better person. If it comes up on Jeopardy, right. Or.

someone asked me in passing.

Now there's an answer. There's clearly going to be a spike in bones downloads now. Our listeners are going to go out and they're going to go out and say, you know what? I got to hear this. You probably can't download this song.

I'm going to go home today, Josh, and instead of yelling at you, they're out there normally. I guarantee you they can find them. You can't find some stuff, man.

Some stuff's just not out there anymore. It just disappeared. We'll put together the bones collection and just play it. People are going to think they're ordering the show. They're going to get.

I don't think anyone's going to be around to copyright us for doing that.

So we're just going to roll with it. I think all these people are still alive. I was looking to see if any of them had passed away, and I think everybody's still alive.

So you start bones live forever, man. You start pirating some peppermint trolley songs and The Farger brothers might show up. All right, okay, we are now a wrap, the Judica County Bunch. Is putting another show in the barn, so to speak.

Now, we do have complimentary consults on estate planning. If you have a blended family, if you have a normal family, you need to be thinking about estate planning. 919-772-7000. And I'm not saying blended families are not normal. It's just, it's more of a thing now.

So make sure you have an estate plan. 919-7727000. A lot of things to think about. You can also visit wh.lawyer. These appointments are complimentary.

No obligation to become a client. Get your estate plan in order. 919-77270000 or WH.lawyer. Another edition of Judica County is in the books for Josh and Joe. I'm Morgan.

We'll see you on the radio next week. But Yeah. 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.