Estate Planning Questions, Understanding Inheritance Rights

Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm and practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina, getting into listener questions that involve estate planning, the HOA, also some real estate. We've got business law and probate. There's a large category here, so we are going to hit them all. Coming up next on Judica County Radio. Whitaker and Hamer present.

Judica County. with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hayner. Welcome in to Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. You can find them at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program. They're the managing partners there.

They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. It's a pleasure to jump on with the attorneys and they get into legal conversation. It's going to be listener questions today, but as we always do, gentlemen, we offer up consults on estate planning.

They're complimentary. We'll tell you how to get those through the course of the show. But we start off every show with how the week went. And of course, we're coming off a major holiday. Josh, start with you.

You know, I think I've been I've been self employed for a long time. I think when you've been self-employed for a long time It changes your views. on holidays. Right?

So if you're you're self-employed You know. The money that you make depends on the work That you put in, right? And so holidays aren't as fun, right? You know. Because you're not making money on holidays.

And so I think after you've been doing it long enough, uh You lose holidays lose some of the luster, which is sad. Right. But what I'm leading up to, I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer. What I'm leading up to is, I still like Thanksgiving. Right, because there's no there's not a lot of pressure in Thanksgiving.

Mm. You're not buying people presents. You don't have to get people all I all I got from that is The You care about money more than you care about your family. That's the only thing I took from that.

Well, I thought the first thing I thought was flash forward to the next big holiday and bah. Humbug. You know I mean, Christmas is a great holiday too. It's fun for the kids if you have children, you know, grandchildren. You know, it's a lot of fun.

It's the best one, man. A lot of planning goes into it, though, right? Like, you know, does it? I mean, if you have kids, right? You know?

What do you mean, man? What do you mean? You know, you gotta work with you just let the magic of Christmas. You just let the magic of Christmas take hold. You don't have to do anything.

You just wake up and you let the magic of Christmas handle everything. The the Thanksgiving's easy. You know, you got to prepare food, right? I think that there's an argument Thanksgiving logistically is more difficult than Christmas. I guess it depends, man.

That's baloney. Because you're still.

Well, if you're it depends on what you're doing, if you're just going to a function where your family's providing all the food, yeah, maybe.

Well, I mean, you're going to throw in an entree or something. But if you're cooking a lot of food, if you're cooking a lot of food, maybe you've got multiple family gatherings to go to. That could be more work than Christmas, man. But when it's. No, no, no, no, no.

So Thanksgiving. is the same as Christmas, except Christmas there's presents.

Okay. Christmas and thanks, you're still going to the same family events, you're still cooking the same. I don't know, man. It sounds to me like you come from a very privileged family when you get to have a Thanksgiving-style meal on Christmas, too, man. That's a blessing.

You're making my eye itch. Yeah. It's a good. I like the stretch, man. I like to look at this whole time from like Halloween through Christmas as just a stretch of holidays, man.

One after another. And it's a good time of the year. I feel like the work calendar and the work cycle is so messed up from like November 1 until like. Almost the end of January. Yeah.

Definitely mid-January because you're going for prep for Thanksgiving, and then all of a sudden you've got to go into overdrive for. The holidays, the present buying, the gatherings, and then by the time you get through New Year's, it takes you a couple of weeks just to get back into the throw. You've got to embrace it, man. Embrace the magic of the season, man. Who cares about money?

Who needs it? Can't we? You've got your children. Look, all I'm saying. Santa Claus, just a ray of sunshine.

All I'm saying is, Joe, I love that. All I'm saying is, can't we consolidate Christmas into one single weekend day? Can it just be a Saturday? Everything else keeps going normal. No, man.

And he got to raise all on a day.

So Josh can have more office hours, more appointments. And you know what I really don't like? And help more people. You know what I really don't like when New Year's Eve is like on a Wednesday. Yeah, it's coming.

And I don't know what it is. I haven't looked ahead. Is that what it is this year? I haven't looked ahead. I think it's like a Thursday, let me tell you.

Because I remember looking at that and thinking: well, that's. Because you've got to come. You gotta come to work like Yeah, it's Thursday.

So we work tonight. It's Thursday. We work Wednesday and then we work that Friday, man.

So we get this one day.

So I can give you a most company. I don't like that. Most companies are going to give you Friday too, I would think. I don't know about that. I don't know.

Courthouse is open. Courthouse is open. We're open, right? That's how it works. Yeah, we need to talk to the courthouse about that.

Because that's hogwash. Yeah. Well, anyway. Good Thanksgiving. How about you how about you, guys?

Well, what was the fare? Would you guys do traditional or did you do something a little different?

Some people food? Food. Oh. Yeah. Josh, when you're a fancy, cultured person like me and Morgan, that's how you refer to your things.

I was like, what's the fair have to do with this? We don't get all for the fair. No, we call it our fair. And we understand you're not high class like we are. But you can add that to your vocabulary.

You can use it to impress your family at Christmas. They kick me out. This fair I provided for you. What? What fair?

What? If they kick you out, you just get to go work more, man. That's what you want, right? That should be your goal, is just to ruin every holiday for your family. And they're like, oh, I guess this is ruined.

Got to go back to work.

So we learned our first Thanksgiving that we hosted as a couple. We learned a lesson because we were putting our turkey in the day of, right? Getting up early, putting the turkey in. and our filament in our oven busted. And so we couldn't.

We had to go to a neighbor's house to finish our turkey off, right?

So now we. Usually prepare something on the smoker overnight.

So that it's ready in the morning, and then do the turkey.

So you got like a you got two meats. That's how we roll. Yeah. A smoked meat. and then an oven roasted meat.

You would you would be a double meat fan. I could I would have pegged you for that.

So It's a good Thanksgiving, man. Good a lot of uh lot of Entertaining sports to watch, too. We talked about sports here. Oh, yeah, it was great sports, good sports. hilarious as a as a Duke football fan.

Yeah, yeah, I kind of back to it. Roller coaster of a year never expected them to be playing for the ACC championship and potentially destroy the entire ACC. They could hand the ACC a death blow. Yep, yep. This could be how it all is.

Don't think they will. Don't anticipate them winning. Who they play is. They play Virginia, and so the last time they were in the ACC Championship game, I went. They played Florida State, and they had zero.

They had like a negative 50 chance of winning that game. That was when Jameis was there. That was no. We knew going in it was going to be destruction. This is are they hosting it at Panther Stadium?

Yeah, it's in Charlotte. Got it. But yeah, hilarious. hilarious outcome. I watched that the the Cal SMU game.

Thought there was no chance of Cal winning that game. You watched that game instead of State Carolina? Yeah, State Carolina was boring. That was a foregone conclusion. Everybody knew it was going to happen there.

I didn't even know they played. Yeah, Cal jumped out to a huge lead. and was dominating that game and then they choked and blew it. And then they came back right at the end, scored a touchdown, held him off. Big win, big victory if you're a Duke fan.

So that was cool. You know, we're fortunate. We're on the radio, so we don't really have to get dressed up for this gig. And so you can't see our friend Joseph. But Joseph is in a.

is in a hoodie, but why do you have the hood up? You're indoors. Yeah, I like to s uh I've decided I like to try to sweat when I get on the radio, man. It makes me lock in harder.

So I'm going to do some push-ups in between during commercial breaks. Really get body temp up. Yeah. Really, you know, if I didn't have to practice law to pay the bills, if I was just on the radio. I don't know that I ever Where real clues, you know.

You look dressed nice today, mate. Like you really put a lot of effort in.

Well, I put on the shirt, right? I put on. Yep. Step one. That's step one.

Yeah, a lot of times we see uh no shirt. And while that is a visual treat for us, man, it's confusing sometimes.

Well this uh This week, I got a big list of. We kind of compile these listener questions, and every now and again, we like to sit down and kind of run through them. And kind of answer these listener questions. And like Morgan said, we've got a lot of different, you know, we've got some estate planning ones, which is kind of normal for us. We got some real estate.

HOA, no one seems to like their HOA, I guess. But we got some HOA questions. You know, neighbor disputes, business and employment law. Probate. And just kind of some odd Odd, odd, weird legal questions.

I put them in their own category there. But, um That's what we're going to do, Morgan. Today we're going to work our way through these listener questions. All right, I like it. From the weird legal drawer, we'll answer those questions coming up on the program.

I want to remind you that Judica County Radio is powered by Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. That's where you can find our host, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners of the firm, and also practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. We have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. Simply call 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000.

Ask for one of those consults. And again, there's no cost to it. There's no obligation to become a client. See if you're on track with your estate plan. You can also go to the website wh.lawyer.

Great resource for you. You can also sign up there, wh.lawyer. Again, listener questions coming up on Judica County Radio. That's next. Welcome back into Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind the program.

And they are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, and they've placed offices across our great state for your convenience. Down at the coast, Moorhead City, over near Charlotte, Gastonia, Fuquay Verena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Cleveland, Garner, and of course, Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to jump on. And we are in listener question mode today.

And Josh, you take it away. What question are you going with first? You know, before we get there, you know, we were talking about football over the holiday. And Joe, you brought up a good point. We had a lot of local teams in the high school playoffs.

Yeah, both of our local teams and alma mater, right? Yep, have done well. Garner almost pulled off the big upset. Um I was pulling for him. You know?

I got a soft spot in my heart for Garner. Clayton in the In the semis, man, final four of the 7-A playoffs. Who do they play in? Who do they play? Big deal.

They play Cardinal Gibbonson, who just. Barely squeak by garner. I've never really understood that. I never understood how the private, you know, schools get into the state. playoffs 'cause there is a private school.

Play all. And Cardinal Gibbons being a private Catholic school, I've never understood how they compete. And they're always really good, man.

So I think whatever allows that allows them also to be consistently, very, very good.

Well, probably. I mean, they are consistently excellent. Right. And private school can recruit players. I think that there's some element of that.

for everybody. I don't know for a fact. I don't know enough about it. But, you know. There's a lot of bouncing around at kids these days, more so than there was back in my day.

And Morgan, you said your your your high school is still in the playoffs. Yeah, uh Watauga up in Boone, uh, they have they have made it uh another step and they're gonna host uh this weekend. It's gonna be cold.

So I'm not even sure who they I'm not even sure who they're playing this week, but uh they beat Sun Valley This past week, and they're undefeated.

So they've had one heck of a year, and they've got a chance, possibly. Uh obviously when this show airs um you know, they may still be alive for a state championship. We're pulling for them on your behalf, too. It looks like they play Northern Guilford. All right, that sounds right.

Pioneers against their 12-1. Yeah, it's going to be a game. Big game. Big game. Yep, we're big with Tauga guys here now that we know that you went there.

And the fact that you can pronounce the county is, we love that. Been working on it. Been working on it hard. And how about the Carolina Panthers being the best team in the NFL, too? That was unexpected, you know.

They're the consensus best team in the NFL. You know, watching them play the 49ers and then. You wouldn't have thought they had any fight in them at all. And then they beat the Rams, and they got some tough games coming up. But it's not.

Well, you go back a few weeks watching them play the Saints and. I mean, I think I I was ready to just disband the team for that. You just go from the highest of highs to just blowing it. Completely. And then they come, they bounce back and they look incredible.

And man, so. inconsistent but They clearly have the the capability to compete at the highest level on any given Sunday. And that's all you can ask for as a Panthers fan. What more can you want, Josh?

Well, if you tune into this show to get some legal knowledge. you can probably ask for a lot more 'cause we keep getting we keep getting distracted. But no it's just a slow roll. Slow roll into this is all very important. That's what happens.

Everybody blames it on the holidays. We've been very nonproductive for Nope. Entire part of the show up until this weekend. You've got a vendetta against Hollands, man. And let me just say, I mean, this show is highly rated on the weekends because I think we connect with the people because we talk about absolutely nothing sometimes, and that's what everybody does.

That's big. Yeah, that's that's you're getting sidetracked on the law, John. I think legals should be. I think somebody should challenge us to go the entire show without even talking about the law. That's not a challenge at all.

I could do that. I could do that as a producer. I don't think you should do that. I spend very little time talking about the law outside of. my job, so You don't talk about it at home to your kids?

Yeah, well, yeah, you know, I talk about No, I was like, I don't either. No. Excuse me, son. Do you know the legal precedent there? Do you?

Yeah, I just grab my kids and quote me this statute. And I tell me what this means. Constantly. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Go practice your Laddin. Do you want you want dinner tonight? You're gonna recite North Carolina General Statute, Section 32, to me in full. All right.

We got listener questions.

So here's our first listener question. It is. It is one that we come up a lot of different ways, but here's the question: I should have some, I should pre-record somebody else. Asking these questions.

So it's not just me reading the listener questions. I don't feel like I'm very believable. Here we go. That's big budget, man. Just read.

I can't plan that far ahead. All right. My mom added me to her bank account for convenience. Convenience has quotes around it. For whatever reason, my mom added me to her bank account for convenience.

She passed away. Do my siblings have any claim to that money?

Alright, so we've got a mom who has added one of her I'm just gonna say they're all daughters to make it easy. Mom has added one of her daughters. Um To a bank account. We don't have any facts there. Facts is going to, we're going to need the facts there, so we're going to have to talk about a couple different.

Things that could happen, she has since passed away. Do my siblings have any claim to that money?

And I think, Joe, the answer to that question depends on what added me to her bank account means, because there's a couple of different ways. Yeah, that's the relevant consideration, right? And so we could, you know, like you said, there's a couple of different ways. But let's just assume, for the sake of this hypothetical, let's just assume that This sibling is added as a joint owner, as someone who can sign, and also as. uh someone that has survivorship rights.

They're the payable on death beneficiary for this account. And if we make that assumption, then the answer is going to be no. There's not the siblings. That money is going to pass to the the named Payable long death beneficiary, which is this other sister in this case, and they're going to be cut out of that. They're going to be cut out of that.

And it doesn't matter how carefully crafted the the mom's estate plan is, if she's got a will that leaves everything to these other kids and excludes the daughter that's named on the account. That money is going to pass to that daughter. And it's a non-probate asset, so it's not subject. To any kind of uh of of estate documents. Yeah, so your banking accounts, your checking accounts, your savings accounts, your.

Investment accounts. You've got named owners, right?

So, in our situation, me and my spouse. You know, we have joint accounts. Um But let's say, let's say I had an account just in my name and I wanted to add one of my children. Your children need to be over 18, right? Whoever you can't add, you know, they need to be over 18 to be added to your.

to your accounts. But there's a couple different ways. You see it where maybe one of the kids is a power of attorney. And they get added as a as a POA. That's not ownership of the account.

You're just on the account as a. as a as a POA, but Uh that's one way. Um If you're an owner of the account, which that's how I interpret this question, is they went down to the bank and the mom added a daughter. As a joint owner of the account. And if that, and Joe's right, if that's the case, and that daughter, that's.

her money. Right. So as soon as the mom passes away, That's the daughter's money. That may not have been the intent of everybody. That may go against, like Joe said, her estate plan.

Uh but but that is a now a a non-probate asset that is just You know, our listener who asked the question, that's their money. And they may not want the money, right? The other siblings may think they're entitled to the money. But the law is going to say, hey, this is the daughter who was on the account. It's money, and there's no way around that.

And so I've seen that happen a lot of times, and sometimes. You know, the the the listener in our question, the daughter. Keeps the money, right? Because it's legally hers. No one else can make a claim to it.

Sometimes they try to redistribute it to try to make it. Do what the mother wanted, everybody knew wanted to happen. But I've seen a lot of families get in arguments over that, you know. Yeah, and that reiterates the point, right? That you're a well-crafted.

Estate plan is gonna consider all of your assets, and it's not just about. The documents that we provide to you. It's not just about your trust or your will. POAs because those things are Irrelevant in this situation, and you could have the best will in the world, and these non-probate assets they pass independently and They pass outside of your estate. And you yeah, like you said, man, there's that.

It needs to be w when you do this estate planning process, you need To look beyond just the documents being prepared for you, and you got to make sure everything is buttoned up appropriately. Yeah, and we when we sit down with you, we talk about all of your assets, we talk about probate assets, non-probate assets, what You know, and a lot of times I'll talk to people about You know what's actually going to be in your estate or in your trust when you die. Because a lot of your investment accounts, a lot of your bank accounts are going to be set up to kind of go to the next generation without. Need for a will. And so we kind of actually look at what assets are we trying to protect.

But anyway. That's the answer to this question. I assume this one child is going to get the benefit of these funds, and then that one child's going to have to decide. You know what they want to do with them going forward. But legally speaking, they'll be, you know, could be $1.8 million in there.

That's all the. the kid who got added to the account now.

So. Uh So that was our first listener question. This next one is is is is probably gonna take some discussion. Um So I don't know if we're I know we're coming up against a break More of that. Yeah, let's take a break.

Let's promote the. Again, consult the complimentary consult on estate planning. Josh, kind of run through exactly what's going to happen if they grab one of these. Yeah, if you have an estate planning, you know, one of the things the law firm, our law firm has a bunch of attorneys. We have a bunch of different practice areas.

On the show, we highlight estate planning because we get the most calls from the radio show about estate planning. And so we offer a free consult. For estate planning, so if it's something you've been putting off, this is something you want to get done before the end of the year, we have a big rush. you know, at the end of the year, then the very beginning of the year. I think that's a lot of people's.

Resolution, right, to kind of get estate planning done. And so we offer a free consult. with one of our state planning attorneys. to kind of meet with you and recommend. An estate plan.

Look at the specific facts of your situation, your family dynamic. Is it a blended family? Do you have a kid you've already given money to that you don't want to, that you want to disinherit? You know, do you have young kids you need to provide for? Do you want to provide for certain grandchildren and not the other?

We look at whatever's going on with you, and then we recommend an estate plan. And, like you say, Morgan, there's no obligation, this is a free consult. Um you get to pick me and Joe's brains for free. And, you know. We'll price everything out if you want to go forward.

Not hiding the ball. Um Yeah, and that's kind of that's kind of the the way we've approached it here on the on the radio show. Yeah, it's complimentary, meaning you leave the checkbook at home. This is a great way to kind of test drive Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. If you've got questions about estate planning and want to get started, or maybe have them take a look at what you currently have, this is complimentary.

Just call the number 919-772-7000. That's 919-772-7000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. You can sign up there. Again, these are complimentary consults in and around estate planning, 919-772-7000, or website wh.lawyer.

We've got more listener questions coming up. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Um Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, practicing attorneys right here in North Carolina. Offices placed for your convenience in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fukewave Arena, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City.

I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to be on with the attorneys. It's basically going over listener questions today, different categories. We want to remind you, too, there are complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you've got questions about estate planning, haven't started, or you're in the middle of something and want the attorneys to take a quick look.

Again, this is complimentary: 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000. To pick up one of those complimentary consults, you can also go to the website wh. Dot lawyer. Josh.

Okay, our next listener question: We're still kind of in the estate planning context. This is a. You know, estate planning and then a state administration, right? Estate planning is, of course, the planning you do before you pass away. And then a state admin is when your heirs are trying to execute your wishes, follow through with your trust, probate your will.

So it's kind of two sides of the same coin.

So these have been. Kind of a combination of those two, but um The next listener question I have is. Um the listener asks, Can my parents disinherit one child, without telling them why, And can that person Contest it.

Alright, so the listener asks, Can my parents disinherit one child. without telling them why and can that person Contest it. Is this listener one of your kids, Josh? No, not that I'm aware of. Sneaking one in?

Okay. I'm going to take that. I'm going to take that. So, can my parents disinherit. one child.

I'm going to break it down at a second time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. All right.

So that's the first question. And the answer to that question is. Yeah. Yes. All right.

If you have a child, and we see that happen, that's not uncommon. There's a lot of different reasons. You know, some people have and there doesn't have to be a reason. That's right. Like, you're jumping ahead.

You don't have to have a reason.

Well, I'm just trying to help you, man. I'm trying to give you an assist. You know? So You know, like Joseph said, you can. Have a reason.

I'm sure you do have a reason to disinherit it. You're not doing it willy-nilly, but your reason doesn't matter. Legally speaking, it doesn't matter. You can disinherit a natural heir. But you can't How do you have to do it, Joseph?

So, yeah, that's right, man. The reasons are relevant. I mean, it might be relevant to you. It may be relevant to the person you're disinheriting. That's not to say that it's it's completely irrelevant from a practical standpoint, but legally speaking, You don't have to, there's no requirement that you state the reason for disinheriting someone.

What matters is language, sufficient legal language that states your intention. to disinherit someone and that has to be explicitly stated, right?

So you have to have a property properly executed you know, will in this case, and you have to explicitly spell out I am disinheriting this individual. You know, essentially what you're doing in that case is you're treating them as if they pre-deceased you, right? Um And you can go farther than that. You can disinherit their issue, their kids, as well.

So, the main thing is: you just have to state it. It doesn't happen automatically. You can't just. Cuss out a kid, tell them you don't want anything to do with them. And that hold up, because if you do that and you don't take it out of your pre-existing will, or you have no will, the law is still going to provide for that kid.

You have to Put it in writing. Execute it the appropriate way. And that's what gets it done. But you don't have to give a reason. Yeah, and you don't have to tell anybody.

Right?

I mean, there's no notice requirement. Yeah, yeah, so you could have it in your will, you know, in a way that me and Joseph, you know, your attorneys, sign off on. And then you can just die, and people find out when they probate your will. I don't know that that's the smartest thing to do, but just to go to the point that you don't have to tell anybody. Um So this so our listener question was, can my parents disinherit one child?

Yes. Without telling them why, yes. And can that person contest it? Sure. You know, potentially there there is a Contesting a will Is its own subject, man.

Like, that's its own. That's right. That's its own subject. It's not something we're doing. It's a very deep topic.

And And The way that these things are contested, like it's a fairly complex subject, but generally speaking. A will can be contested, right? And there's certain grounds and bases that you can bring these claims on. Um And Just You know. One of those grounds is not like I'm actually a really cool guy.

I should have never. You know, I'm actually really cool and I shouldn't have been disinherited. You know, it can't be on that basis of like. You can't challenge the basis for the disinheritance because, again, you don't have to have a reason. There there doesn't need to be a reason to do it.

But that doesn't mean you can't challenge on some other basis, you know, undue influence. um diminish capacity. I I think the easiest way to say it is If you disinherited someone correctly, There's not much they can do to contest it. That's correct. And that that's not to say they can't try, but they're going to be unsuccessful in their attempt.

Yeah, anybody, I always tell that, I give that advice all the time. Like, people will come in and want to know. We do a lot of like risk management liability.

So I'll have a lot of business owners come in and be like, hey, this happened. you know, do I have any liability? Can I be sued? And, you know, I'm Well anybody can sue anybody. Is it frivolous?

What are their chances of success? Those are all things that we can. talk about, but you know, can it can the will be contested? Sure. Anybody can try to contest the will, but if you've done your planning correctly and you've disinherited correctly, then there won't be much.

there won't be be much there. But that's a pretty uh These have been short listener questions? I'll stretch this one out and we'll go another direction that that's kind of tangentially related. This is going to be considered bonus information, right? And when we talk about contesting wills, You know, you're talking about it in the context of someone who's completely disinherited, but you could have a situation where you've got an heir that's named in the will, but they're just taking like a dollar.

They're taking virtually nothing. And they're still named. They're not specifically disinherited. They just get a drastically different distribution. And they may want to contest in that case.

But I think it's important to. Talk about the fact that a lot of these wills are going to have what's called a no-contest clause. And it's going to basically state that. If you contest this will and you're unsuccessful, you're going to take nothing.

So you're going to be cut out completely at that point.

So I think that's a. It's another important thing to keep in mind. And that's a very common clause that we see included a lot of times. Yeah. Absolutely.

Um Alright, well. I'm gonna at least start our next question. Our next question. Um I'm just kind of reading in my mind. This could take us a lot of different directions, too.

But here's the question: so the listener says. Is it illegal? to have Excuse me, is it illegal to leave an inheritance with quote unquote conditions. Like graduating college or staying sober, right?

So, here's our question again: Is it illegal? to leave an inheritance with conditions. For example, graduating college or staying sober. And um Well, it's not illegal. Yeah, I'll take that.

I'll take that question. No, it's not illegal. Thank you guys for listening. This has been our show. We're all going to.

Close the book. Yeah, yeah. No, it is not illegal. It's not illegal to condition inheritance on, you know, to, to, to. Apply conditions.

Now, whether it's enforceable is going to come down to how well it's drafted and the vehicle by which you. go about doing this thing, right? Yeah, so this isn't something.

So you're, you're, I mean, I don't know how old your kids will be, you know, like graduating college. You know, you're, this is something where, you know, if you come sit down with us and this is important to you, we're going to talk to you about a trust. Right, we're going to talk about you getting your assets into a trust and having a trustee that you know. Um Who's gonna be in touch with the beneficiaries, your kids?

Somebody's gotta figure out they graduated from college.

Somebody's gonna have to hold whatever this inheritance is. and be alive and be able to determine Hey, I want my son. to get $25,000 when he graduates from a college. And so there's got to be someone, a fiduciary, that you leave behind that's going to see that this is done. And normally that's going to be a trustee and someone, you know, that you.

No. Yeah. Staying sober is a difficult one because what is that? mean, right? How long?

How are we going to determine they're sober? You know, this person that you're making trustee of your trust, how are they going to determine this? And that's what it boils down to, right? If you're depending on how you How you implement these conditions, you've either got to be extremely explicit. with you know parameters, testing, dates.

You've got to be really, really specific or you've got to give discretion to your trustee. And let your trustee make that determination. It's one of those two options, or some combination of both. But it's not uncommon. It's not something that we don't see Pretty much.

Second one, that would be a difficult situation that you would need to talk to your estate planning attorney about because that's a lot to put on.

someone else, right? You know maybe if your spouse survives you and your spouse would be in that position, that's Different, but other than that, who are you going to ask to be the one who who who does that. That's a real tall order. holding someone's inheritance under the condition that they stay sober. Um That's gonna be I think that's gonna be almost impossible to find someone to do that in a way that's that's meaningful, you know.

But we do talk about that. We do talk a lot of times with people who have kids who have addiction. issues, medical medical issues and uh how to take care of them and provide for them without Giving them all their inheritance in one lump sum. And that's the reason a lot of folks, that's one of the main factors that pushes folks to having a trust. and just preventing heirs who you don't feel good about taking lump sums of money from kind of orchestrating their own destruction with that money.

You are locked in to Judica County Radio. Your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They are managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. We're taking some listener questions and expanding on those.

The opportunity to get a complimentary consult with the state planning in mind is ongoing during the course of this show. Simply call 919-7727000. Say I'd like a complimentary consult, and they will throw that on the calendar. That's 919-77270000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer.

That's wh.lawyer. We've got more Judica County Radio coming up. Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners of Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina. That's where they practice law. They've got offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City.

I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. They are taking listener questions and expanding on those. We also have complimentary consults on estate planning. And simply call our number 919-772-7000.

That's 919-77270000 and get signed up for one of those. Again, you're leaving the checkbook at home and you're not obligated to become a client. But certainly, if you've got questions about estate planning, want to get rolling on it, you can do that. Or if you have a current estate plan and you've got questions, come in for that second opinion. 919-77270000.

You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. Josh.

So, our next listener question, this is going to be the easiest one of the day, I think, Justin. Nice, nice. Give that one to our next listener question. Yeah. All right, our listener asks.

Do stepchildren inherit anything automatically If their step parents Without a will. All right, question again: do stepchildren inherit anything automatically if their step parent dies. without a will.

Alright, so first we gotta we gotta we gotta decipher What stepchildren means in this question?

So a stepchild is, okay, we're talking about a blended family situation. We're gonna, in this scenario, Josh, we're gonna divorce you from your wife. We're not gonna kill her. We're just gonna get you guys divorced, okay?

Okay. And then you're gonna remarry. You're going to remarry a 19-year-old fresh out of college. Look, this is getting disconcerting. What if we just use the Brady bunch?

Why don't we just define to the budget? That's fine. But you're the dad in the Brady bunch. And okay, that's fine. We can.

We can use the Brady bunch.

So I think it's getting a little risque. I think we've got to go back to the Brady bunch. All right, man. I mean, I think people were following. I think people were following, but that's totally fine, man.

So you're going to be. Mike Brady. That's right. His spouse passes. He's got several children.

What's his spouse's name? His spouse that passed? Did she pass? I can't remember. We did this the other day, but I'm not.

I'm not our our Brady Black aficionado. Carol, Brady. We're talking about his ex-spouse, right? Oh, his ex-mother spouse. Oh, yeah, I don't know that we know.

Sorry.

So we're not talking about Carol. Everybody knows the Brady Bunch, Mike and Carol. Got married, blended family. They each have three kids of their own.

So their kids, their biological children, are the stepchildren of the new spouse, right?

So they are not their biological kids, they are the biological kids of one parent. That's right. But they are not the biological kids of the other. And in that scenario, in the absence of a will, if they die intestate. those stepchildren will not take.

That's right. We're assuming The stepchildren have not been formally adopted. Right. Because we would say adopted children. Exactly.

That's right. Right. So we're assuming the stepchildren. Are loved, right? Oh, they're loved.

They're good kids, man. They got a whole T V show about 'em. And maybe, maybe the step parent who died intended to have a will where he treated. Maybe Mike, in our situation, maybe Mike Brady intended to have a will drawn that left. his estate split by six, right?

But Carol passes away. He doesn't get around to making a new will before he passes away.

So he passes away without his will. His three boys are going to inherit his estate. The girls are not going to take anything. Yep. That's right.

And that might not be what he wanted to happen, right? But that's what's going to happen. And where that gets real tricky is in situations where you don't have a good estate plan. And your, you know, your spouse ends up taking the bulk of your estate. And that spouse again has No estate plan themselves, and then your kids are cut out.

The spouse gets it, and then their kids get it. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the real danger, right? You know, again, using the Brady bunch, you know, Carol came to that relationship with three kids and her own. Money in her own assets, and Mike Brady came to that relationship with his own assets. And they got married.

Um And to the extent that everything gets combined if something happens to Carol, You know, if Carol doesn't have a will, most everything is going to be a lot of stuff's going to go to her spouse. Her spouse remarries. And dies, and then things are a lot of things are gonna go to that spouse that were supposed to go to his kids. And so you really have to sit down. And kind of just think about it.

You know, what do you want to happen? You're in a blended family. What does Mike what does Mike Brady How does he want his assets distributed if he dies first? Right?

And Carol survives him. What does he want to happen if he dies second? And you really have to put some thought into it. It's not, you know, what happens automatically by operation of law in the absence of an estate plan is not. Usually what you want is generally not going to be what is what is desired, right?

And in the absence of an estate plan, that's what's going to happen. You can't avoid it by just talking to everybody. It's kind of like the disinheritance situation. You can't tell your kid they're an idiot, you hate them, you're disinheriting them. without putting it to writing.

Because it doesn't It's going to hurt their feelings. but it's not going to accomplish anything legally. All right. Those are all kind of depressing questions. I like that, man.

You know, you started us off being depressed about. Christmas coming and we're just transitioning into full blown depression now. Joe was trying to pick you up with the nineteen year old second wife. Yeah, I tried to give you your own Jordan Hudson man, and you didn't. That's weird.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right, let's uh let's move along. I'm gonna get out of the estate planning, estate probate arena. And so here's something we've seen come up a lot here over the past couple of years.

So, this listener asks. Can I Air B and B My house. If the HOA rules are silent. All right, so the listener asks: Can I Airbnb my house if the HOA rules? Rules are silent here.

They're using Airbnb as a verb, but I'm going to call it short-term rental, right? Can I? Can I offer my home as a short term rental? I'm also we also know they have an HOA.

So they have covenants and restrictions and bylaws.

So the home is has an HOA and they're telling us the rules are silent, which I'm going to assume means, and neither the covenants or the or the bylaws Are the rules that the HOA issues, none of them speak to? short-term rentals. Yeah, sure, you can. There you go. There's your answer.

Very straightforward. Yep. Yeah, in the absence of some. County requirement or city requirement or HOA requirement, you can, as long as you're not creating a nuisance, you can, you can. Offer your home up for short-term rental.

I like the fact they used Airbnb as a verb. That makes more sense. Yeah. But. We would call that a short-term rental.

And a lot of HOAs do limit. Rentals. And that's a tricky thing, too, right? You know, that's something that. It can be frowned upon.

And again, that's like another separate radio show in and of itself. Yeah. Yeah. We do see a lot of HOAs who are really trying hard to limit rental. home rentals for under six months.

That's a short term rental. And so you see a lot of HOAs that are moving to limit that with the popularity of Airbnb.

Some go even further. And don't want to allow rentals or will only allow a certain amount of homes to rent. And like you said, that's a sticky situation, enforcing that, and is it done properly? But we don't. We don't have to um We don't have to get into that necessarily.

Um Here's another depressing question. Yeah, bring it. Bring it. Say it in the best voice you possibly can. This listener asks.

We should start getting AI to read these questions in like cartoons. Saddest AI we can possibly muster. This is like, it wasn't Deputy Dog. Who's the sad dog from the Looney Tunes? They always said every.

Droopy Dog. Was that a guy? Droopy Dog? I think that's the guy I'm thinking about. I don't know.

Deputy Dog, wasn't he. Deputy Dog was like a Tom and Jerry. Maybe. It was Droopy. I don't know if it was Droopy Dog.

I think it was just Droopy. Yeah, but he's the one who always came on and said everyone's side. I've got to spend time with my kids. I can't work. Yeah.

Alright. What if, this is the listener question, our listener asks. What if two heirs Die. in the same Accident. There's not a lot of information in that question.

All right, now let me interrupt and just say: let's continue that. On the other side of the break, you guys can wrap up the program with the answer to this question: what if two airs. Are killed in the same accident? And that's the question that we'll broach when we come back from the break. Want to remind you: we have complimentary consults on estate planning.

You can grab one at any time, 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer, sign up there, 919-7727000 for that complimentary consult on estate planning or go to the website wh.lawyer. We're back to wrap up Judica County right after this. We are back for the final segment.

Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts. They are the managing partners. Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program. They are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.

Offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to be on with the attorneys. We have one final segment and one final question. Josh.

Take it away. Joseph, I'm going to read this question again. I don't. I don't quite understand what they're getting at here, but the listener asks: what if two airs.

So I'm assuming you have an estate plan. These are your heirs. What If two heirs die. in the same accident. We can talk about what happens when an air Your natural heir pre-deceases you.

Yeah. But I don't see what I don't get. And maybe I'm missing something in the question. What if two heirs?

Well, I think you almost more commonly see it in a situation where the person. lea you know, the person leaving that has the will And their beneficiary die simultaneously. And most of the time, that's handled in. The language of the estate planning document itself. It'll contemplate that situation.

And you know, simultaneous death is a thing that is dealt with a lot of the times in the drafting of the document. But if we assume that It's silent to that point. There is a uniform simultaneous death act in North Carolina that touches on the situation, but. I think that's almost too complex of a question to answer in the absence of some. Clarifying information, right?

Like you'd almost need more. Information about the nature of the state and things like that to really advise. Yeah, so if you have two heirs I mean, the simple answer to that question: if you have two heirs, you know, you've made an estate plan, these are your heirs. I'm going to assume, like, they're your. You know, I think I'd have to put like relationships with it for it to make sense, but I'm assuming, let's say you got two adult children who, God forbid, they're your heirs.

And they're killed in a car accident or a plane accident. I mean the short answer is nothing really happens, right? They're whatever they were left in your will. would would if you don't change it would would just go to their issue. Like your grandkids or it would get split up among their class, the other Anyway, there's not enough facts there to answer that question.

It's a terrible question. Terrible question. If you were the listener that asked us that question. Um If you came in and asked me that in the street, I would just be asking you a lot of follow-up questions. Because what would really happen is a terrible situation.

But you're still alive, so you would just change your estate plan, right?

So if you had two heirs die. You just update. Yeah, you would just update your estate plan 'cause you have you would in theory have time to do that. We'd have to add in a third death being the person who is leaving the inheritance. That that would that would make this a relevant question, but Yeah.

Shame on you. person that asked that. I just, I just, uh, we need facts.

Sometimes we don't get facts, and we need, we need the facts. Um. I was going to say you got time for one more quick one. This is the listener question. I like this question.

Is it uplifted? Debt. Can you inherit debt?

Well, in the sense that anything you inherit, any assets you inherit that is encumbered by debt, keeps that debt. Arguably. Inherit real property and that has a mortgage, that mortgage is coming with the real property, it didn't go away, so yeah, in that sense, yes. Um Otherwise, like if you just have credit card debt. Um you don't necessarily inherit the debt in the sense that you're personally li personally liable for it, but it could be it could impact whatever assets are left through that estate to you.

That that debt will generally have to be resolved. Secured debt stays attached to collateral. and unsecured debt like credit cards, They have a claim process through the estate that, if you haven't properly prepared for, can deplete the estate assets and deplete what you might inherit. But yes, like Joe said, you're not going to be it's not your debt. You're not personally liable for it.

But you don't get to The estate doesn't get to necessarily walk away from those debts. That's right. That's right, Josh. That question went faster than I thought it was. You said be fast, man.

Yeah, well, you listened and you got it done. All right. So, this edition of Juga County Radio is in the books. Listener questions. And again, we've talked about estate planning, HOA, business law, probate.

And some interesting questions along the way. Plus, we talked about holiday cooking. That was a lot of fun. And also, a whole bunch of football. I want to remind you: there's an estate planning consult waiting for you.

It's complimentary. If you've got any questions about estate planning, maybe you wanted to get rolling on it or at least kind of dive into it early on, you can grab one of these consult. You're not going to pay for it. 919-772-7000. And you're not agreeing to become a client.

This is certainly kind of a get-to-know you. See if you like Whitaker and Hamer. And then talk about the actual structure of an estate plan.

Now, if you're in the middle of something and want that second opinion, you can grab one of these as well. 919-7727000. Bring the estate plan in. They'll take a look at it. 919-77270000.

You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer, sign up for it there. Another edition of Judica County Radio in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick. We'll see you on the radio real soon. I don't know how to do it.

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.