Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio with Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. It is going to be legal questions. It's estate planning 101. You don't want to miss it. Whitaker and Hamer presents.
The Supreme Court has said. This was wrong. Fact-based. I'm still getting my Bitcoin lawyer certification. And now, Judica County, with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer.
Welcome into Judica County Radio. 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, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys before we dive in on topic number one, gentlemen.
I always ask how the week was. Anything interesting? Whatever pops into your head. Josh, I think the biggest thing this week, right? The biggest thing this week is we get we get NFL football back this week.
That's the big thing. Praise praise be to the television. Got college football back already. That's something. That's good.
Yeah, I don't know. It wasn't. It hasn't been great. No. What do you mean, man?
State's got a really really solid team this year. Have they played a game yet? They they did they played they played one Virginia okay that's right yeah they were supposed to be I think well they were supposed to be in Brazil and it didn't happen and they had to do it stateside and yeah yeah that was all that was always weird to me like I never got the explanation why Carolina was in Ireland and state was in you know state was in Brazil I feel like they never play every game in Brazil man they'd be. Brazil national champions for sure. Brazil, Brazil.
You have to pronounce it like Blanca. Like Blanca's about to come in and fight on Street Fighter Two. That's coming out. New movie, new Street. I know, man.
I keep there was. I feel like they've been advertising Street Fighter Two for like three years, and so I keep I keep getting to the weekend, and my kids are always, Hey, what are we what are we going to do this weekend? What's going on this weekend? And I was like, Hey, maybe we can finally go see Street Fighter Two. It's never out.
Like I still I still don't know when that's coming out. Even though I've seen the ads like a million trillion times, it's coming. Maybe I was just gonna say, Josh, that's nice that your kids. What you're like the cruise director, and they're coming to you. Hey, what are we doing this week?
A lot of pressure. When my kids were that age, it was like, "See you, Dad." Well, you know it is it is fortunate, you know, because when I was when I was growing up, that's what I tell my wife. When I was growing up, yeah, I went to work, I you know I did whatever, but I I rarely was at the house. But at our house, it's kind of like, hey, we got any we got any big plans? What what do we want to do?
And so you got to love your kids a little less, man, a little less attention. And if you do those things, they need to be more independent, Josh. Good. Look, man, I just want my kids to hang out with me. For the rest of my life, that's that's all I need right there.
And we are all in the the official Whitaker and Hamer fantasy football league.
So we've done our draft. Everybody's ready to go. Yep, ready to go, man. Rip roaring and ready to go. Are you in more than?
Are you in more than one? Oh yeah, yeah. I just have one other man. My my nephew. Wanted to start a league, so he did a six-team league with just his brothers and my my sister and people who have never played fantasy football.
My team in that league, unbelievable, man! Unreal, sixteen teams, yeah, unbelievable. I'm in four leagues, guys. That's too much. Obviously, I'm in your league, and being the defending champion, I got to come back.
And then I'm in another money league, won that one. And then in the non money leagues, I am in a radio goober league. That's old radio guys I've worked with over the years, and there it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. And matter of fact, our winner last year was one of our original.
Buzz babes, if you remember when we had the spokesmodels for the sports talk station in the area. Josh is a big buzz babe guy. Always has. Yeah, shout out to Erica. Congratulations, she won last year.
But and then my daughter has a league with a bunch of Disney. Employees and friends.
Okay, so I'm in I'm in that league. That's like a full time job. Being yeah, that's too much. Yeah, I've I've had several complaints lodged by my wife, and she's taken pictures of me during drafts, and it's not pretty. But I will say this: I've drafted many leagues over the years, and I've never gotten that post draft grade from the app or from the website that's appealing at all.
It's always been like a C minus to a D minus. I do okay, though. I mean, I win leagues, but I my my initial grade just shows you no more than the system. There you go, Joe. That's you're smarter than some.
Jang right. That's it. Stupid system, man. Yes. We used to.
I used to be in a league where they would the the site would give you projections for. They all do that now, but back in the day, the site would give you projections for the year. Right? You draft. Back in the day, you draft Barry Sanders, right?
And the site knows. He goes, okay.
Well, this is what we predict Barry Sanders will do this year. And I used to have this this fancy football league commissioner who would take those projections. And so, as soon as you finished drafted, he would add up all the projections and finish. Like if the projections were accurate, this is where everybody would finish. Predict, yeah.
And then we would bet on those. Predictions, right? Yeah. If it said you, anyway. Neither here nor there.
Well, I do want to add this, and you brought up Barry, which is just—he's one of my favorite all-time players. Can you imagine if we had Barry Sanders in the league today, what the bids would be? And to explain to our listeners, we have to wager to get a player. It's not like you just draft somebody. And I learned this the hard way last year.
And by the way, I did win that league that year. You have to bet, like you can nominate a player, and then the entire league will go after that player. If Barry Sanders is nominated, I mean, how much money are you paying for that guy? I don't know. It's not going to be cheap, man.
It's not going to be cheap. You know, back in the day, back in the day, you know, he he got he didn't he didn't he got a lot of yards, didn't get as many touchdowns, right? He wasn't like a a traditional short yardage. Back so that I think that hurt his I hurt I think that hurt his fantasy value, but he was still you know somebody that you had a highlight reel every time he touched the ball. Yeah, I remember playing.
Oh man, what was the PlayStation? What was the PlayStation football game that competed with Madden? Game Day. Was that it, guys? Boy, no, no, no, no.
PlayStation, yeah, maybe so. Maybe it was. There was a. There was a back. There used to be other football games besides Madden.
Right? It was Two K. It came out. Two K was on Dreamcast. Yeah.
Fantastic game, yeah, yeah. But I think Game Day was the one on the original PlayStation that competed with Madden. If you got Game Day, there was a juke button, and Barry Sanders, you just hit the juke button all the way down the field, and like nobody could touch him. He was like some kind of weird ghost football player. Yeah, like when Saquon Barkley.
Turned and jumped over the guy backwards last season. Crazy stuff. Hey, real quickly before we take our first break, Josh, kind of walk us through. We have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. We are going to do estate planning one on one today, so stay tuned for that.
Got some questions for that. But estate planning consults. Also, if you're involved with a personal injury case and you really kind of stuck, you got questions there. We've got consults, but just kind of walk us through what's going to happen if they get in touch. Yeah, today we're going to.
Focus on estate planning. I call it estate planning one-on-one. We're going to hit the basics of estate planning, what the docs are, what kind of the default settings in North Carolina are, and so to kind of give you a good a good base to build from. But here at the firm, if you want to talk about estate planning with one of our attorneys, that's a free consult. If you've been in a car accident, if you've you know been injured in a car accident, you have questions, you need to value your your personal injury claim, your accident claim, you're having problems.
With insurance adjusters, we talk to you about that for free too. You know, if we, if we, if you like us, right? If you like us after we talk to you and you want to retain us, then you're a client. But for these consults, this is just free. This is just for you to meet an attorney who knows what he or she's talking about to give you some good, solid advice, and that's what we do with these free consults, Morgan.
All right, it's a lot of. I mean, we have a lot of fun on the show, but obviously the serious. Part of this is if you've got legal questions in and around estate planning, which we're going to focus in on today, estate planning 101. Got some questions in and around that category? You know, grab one of the consults.
Now, if you're in a personal injury case and you just don't know a direction to go and you need some questions answered, grab one of the consults as well. Simply by calling nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Again, nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, and the website. Is a resource for you. You can also sign up there.
Just go wh dot lawyer, type it in, and again the information will be coming at you, and you can sign up for one of those complimentary consults, estate planning, personal injury case, one of those two, and you can always call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. When we return on Judica County Radio, we're gonna get into it's estate planning one hundred one. Here's your first question category. I'm married. Doesn't my spouse automatically Get everything.
So here's the question: My wife and I have been married for 18 years. We have two children, own a home, and have checking, savings, and retirement accounts. Neither of us has a will because we assumed everything automatically goes to the surviving spouse. Is that probably what happens?
So that's the question. All right, hold on to that. When we come back, we will answer it. You're listening to Judika County. When W.
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We are back. It's Judika County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the Managing Partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and they practice law right here in North Carolina. They placed offices across our wonderful state.
Down at the coast, Morehead City, over near Charlotte in Gastonia, you got Fuquay Varina, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. It's a pleasure to jump on during the course of. Today's show, we have complimentary consults in and around estate planning, which is appropriate. We're doing a estate planning 101 today with our questions, and also if you're involved with a personal injury case and you've got questions, you can grab a consult, nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
Leave your contact information, and attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch and set up one of those complimentary consults. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit wh dot lawyer. All right, gentlemen. Here's your first question: The category of married, and doesn't my spouse automatically get everything?
So here's the detailed question: My wife and I have been married for 18 years. We have two children. We own our home. We have a checking, savings, and retirement accounts. Neither of us has a will because we just assumed everything automatically goes to the surviving spouse.
Is this probably what will happen? It's not a very safe assumption to make. No, and I think I think a lot of people kind of think this this will happen, right? They're married, two kids, own a home, you know, have some retirement accounts. They kind of think everything's just kind of will take care of itself.
And and and and it's not it's not it's not always the case.
Sometimes you get lucky. Right.
Sometimes, sometimes you get lucky. You know, when the first spouse dies here, I'm gonna say this is a husband and a wife. They have two, they have two kids. I'm gonna say the kids are under age. They've been married for 18 years.
I'm gonna say the kids are under 18, and and they own a home. You know, if if they own the home as husband and wife, we've talked about that on the show. There's different kinds of ways you can own homes that you own real property. I'm assuming they bought this house when they were married. They own it as tenants by the entirety.
And if that's the case, when the first spouse dies, you know they're they're going to have a pretty easy you know estate plan. But there's all kinds of things that can throw hiccups in there. You know, we see people who, um. They own the home in their sole name, right? They bought the home before they were married, and that that would be a big problem here.
So, like if if the the let's say the husband had bought this house when he was a single man, they have since all you know kind of cohabitated together. If he were to die, his his Property doesn't go directly to the wife, right? The real property doesn't go; it's a probate asset. It doesn't go directly to the wife, and that would be a big problem here, Joe. Yeah, you know, if you're if you're married, you have no kids.
There's a chance you can structure. Your situation, where you have you know essentially nothing but non-probate assets, and everything kind of passes between the two of you fairly, fairly easily. I mean, that's a doable goal, depending on what your financial situation looks like. But the you know that gets more complicated when you add kids into the equation. And you know, even if everything is is correct as to the two of you, you're still putting the kids in a bad scenario if if and when you pass away.
Yes, I think this question is designed to say. You know, is is the question? Does everything automatically go to the surviving spouse? Probably not, right? There's a chance you can get lucky if you've happened to set up everything right along along the way, but we've seen the horror stories where where it doesn't.
You know, and and and you know, if your underage kids inherit, because that can happen, right? Your underage kids can inherit in this situation where you've got a spouse and two kids underage. Kids could inherit fifty percent of the estate.
Now, be fifty percent of the house, and if you want to sell the house or you want to refi the fine of the house, and someone under eighteen is inherited a share, that's a difficult thing to do. That's not. That's not. That's not an easy thing. You got to get other people involved.
Guardians have guardians have to be appointed.
So anyway, the answer to this question is a very simple question. Does everything go to the surviving spouse in this situation when they have no estate plan? They've done no estate planning. Our answer is is probably not. Probably not.
Yep. And and the simplest estate plan in the world would have solved this issue, and we could have said, okay, everything's going to go exactly where you where you want to. It wouldn't have taken a lot of planning to to get this one squared away. Estate planning one hundred one. We're having conversations in and around a lot of questions that come up with estate planning.
We also offer up the complimentary consult on estate planning. You can call it any time. There's no cost or obligation to become a client of Whittaker and Hamer, but certainly you get some questions answered. And if you want to roll forward, you certainly can grab one of the consults nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit wh dot.
Lawyer, estate planning, or a personal injury case you are facing, grab one of the consults nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or wh dot lawyer. All right, next question category. We don't have enough money to need an estate plan. All right, so here's the question: My husband and I are in our late thirties. We have a mortgage, two cars, modest retirement accounts, and two young children.
We're definitely not wealthy. Do people like us really Need estate planning? Yeah, yeah.
So this, yeah. If you you know, I I would argue everybody needs some sort of estate plan, right? Yeah, everybody. Your your level of wealth, I mean that could that could change the the ultimate complexity of your estate plan or how you want it to function, but that doesn't mean you don't need one. Yeah, every you know when we when we talk about and we'll get more into this when we talk about estate planning, we're talking about a lot of different things.
Like yes, we are talking about how do do your assets get to the next generation. That's part of estate planning, but the other part of estate planning is having a power of attorney in place, right?
So someone can take care of your day to day if you fall ill or you know can't can't handle your day to day affairs. You know, we talk about a health care power of attorney so someone can make your medical decisions for you if you can't. We talk about a living will.
So people know what kind of treatment, medical treatment you want, you don't want. We talk about how you want your remains disposed of. Do you want to be an organ donor?
So when we talk about estate planning, a lot of people just think that means and getting rid of your assets, getting your assets to the next generation, and that's different for super wealthy people. And regular people, right? That estate plan can be, like Joe said, it can. It gets more. The more stuff you have, the more complex your estate plan can be for tax planning, all kinds of different things.
But everybody needs a basic estate plan, you know.
So, so that to answer that question, I think wealth determine maybe determines the complexity of your estate plan, but it doesn't. It doesn't, you know, having not much wealth or not many assets doesn't absolve you from the need of of some sort of a plan, you know. Especially when you've got minor kids, especially. And here, these people have a mortgage, so they have a home, they have real property. They got two cars, man.
They got two cars, a mortgage, and and retirement accounts. Like they're living life wealthy, you know. Yeah. Yeah, they're they're they seem like humble folks. If nothing else, I give them that.
Well, can I ask a question, guys? And this just comes from you know somebody that's outside your profession. And I get to hang out with you on the weekends and do these shows, and we talk about a lot of legal topics. But you know, on average, when you guys are doing estate plans, I mean, I mean, we're talking to people that feel like they don't have enough. But when you're sitting down with you know current clients and clients you've had for years.
You know where where is that range? I mean, I'm sure it starts with very little, but goes to a bunch. Range wise, yeah, yeah. I mean, I've I've talked to to folks who don't don't have a spouse, don't have kids, you know, are are renting their home. They don't own they don't own real property, but someone still has to wind up your estate.
T here is still value there, you know, and t here is still you still need to be taken care of. Like if if nothing else, you know, if you if you don't have, you know. Kids, or like, if you don't, if you don't have a spouse, you still need to have a plan in place where someone can. How are you going to get taken care of when you can't take care of yourself? Who's going to make those decisions?
How are you going to fund, you know, healthcare at that point?
Somebody has to have that and those instructions, and that's and if you don't have that, and you get into a scenario where you're incapacitated, you can't make those decisions, then someone's going to have to figure that out, and it's going to be infinitely more complicated for them to do. All right, complimentary consults available with Whitaker and Hamer. You can call right now nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Talking about what we are talking about: estate planning or a personal injury case. It's a complimentary consult.
nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand You can also visit the website wh dot lawyer. We got more Judika County coming up. Life doesn't follow a script unless it's a Judika County episode, where estate planning, fantasy football trash talk, and coconut oil beard routines somehow coexist. That's the beauty of having Whitaker and Hamer as your law firm. They handle the legal parts of life, real estate, family changes, business decisions, probate, injury, and everything in between.
They're honest, practical, funny when it helps, serious when it matters, and always on your team. They don't do scare tactics. They don't do legalese just to sound smart. They give you clear answers, real guidance, and a long-term relationship, not a one-off transaction. The attorneys say it all the time on the show: the goal is to be your law firm for life.
Call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit wh dot lawyer and make that partnership official. Whitaker and Hamer presents Judika County with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer. We're back on Whitaker County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts of the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and that's the power behind this program. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, offices all over our wonderful state.
Right here in Raleigh, also Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, down near Charlotte, and Gastonia, and over at the coast, Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on, and we. We are in the middle of a estate planning 101, and these are some questions that come in. These are hypotheticals, but these are questions that they see almost every single day when it comes to estate planning.
Just the importance of having that estate plan, Josh. The you know before we get to another estate planning question, you know, there's been a lot. This has been a busy week. For legal news, right? It's been a busy week.
There's a lot of big stories that are all related to injunctions or you know trials, and and and so I've been kind of drinking that in. I like to read briefs when they get filed in these cases. You've been following the LSU SEC, yeah? It's like a soap opera for people like us, people like you especially, and it's been pretty. Yeah, it's been pretty interesting, man.
And a lot of like it's new developments every day. And I don't know, man. I'll be very interested to see what the the end result is. You know, the most recent as of us talking today development is the fact that you know they're meeting to discuss expulsion from the SEC. Yeah, yeah.
There's a meeting, and and how how many politicians have gotten intertwined in this? Like, it's been it's been very different. Adds a different element to to college sports. Yeah, this LSU. This you could teach a law school class on conflict of laws using this LSU SEC.
You know, because there was some Louisiana state court stuff, and now there's going to be some federal stuff. Federal court. You know, usually controls over over state court. And there'll be a lot more coming out this week about it, but it's it's crazy, especially in the college stuff and the NCAA cases, like these injunctions. You know, you got these competing injunctions on the state level and and the federal level.
You know, we're we're middle of the week, so there's there's an injunction hearing coming up. The SEC heads, presidents are gonna are gonna meet.
So who knows where we're at? You know when when the weekend comes, but what is gonna happen? Do you think they're gonna kick LSU out?
Well, they've taken they've they've officially taken the two pros off the roster, if I'm not mistaken. As I don't think they ever made it to the roster. Yeah, but but they've officially removed them. Like I think they've, and I don't know if that changes the equation at all. But well, let me let me just jump in and say when it was thirty-one to three at half.
Apparently, they leaked the halftime.
Somebody taped Lane Kiffin, who just. F bombed his team. Yeah, this game's not over. You're acting like we won the game. It was thirty-one to three, and the game was basically over.
But yeah, this is going to be a story that will last, you know, all year. LSU will appeal. You know, they'll they'll do what if they're going to get kicked out of the SEC? That's not happening. That speech sounded like one of the speeches Josh used to give my team.
Yeah, our eight U basketball team. That's what Josh and the families around the the football team this year. That's what they want at halftime. They they want. I mean, yeah, arguably, motivation.
Without the style of coaching, for me personally, is is more effective than like clap your hands. Like, hey guys, we're doing great. Everybody's doing. You guys are doing really good. Let's do the arm bridge.
Let's run under that. Yeah, but I was trying. Yeah, I was. I was trying to think. You know, if they do kick, if they're able to legally kick LSU out of the league mid-season, do they put somebody else in there?
Right? No. Is there another team that just steps into that? I don't know. It's been.
It's been interesting to play out the legal scenarios that that. Maybe the Dallas Cowboys are available. Yeah. There you go. Third row team.
We're going to take a short break. We'll be back on the other side again. We're getting into estate planning one on one. These are questions. Again, this is Judika County Radio for a complimentary consult, estate planning or personal injury.
Give us a call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or wh dot lawyer. Go there, get signed up. We're back after this. Life doesn't follow a script unless it's a Judika County episode, where estate planning, fantasy football, trash talk, and coconut oil beard routines somehow coexist. That's the beauty of having Whitaker and Hamer as your law firm.
They handle the legal parts of life, real estate, family changes, business decisions, probate, injury, and everything in between. They're honest, practical, funny when it helps, serious when it matters, and always on your team. They don't do scare tactics. They don't do legalese just to sound smart. They give you clear answers, real guidance, and a long-term relationship—not a one-off transaction.
The attorneys say it all the time on the show: the goal is to be your law firm for life. Call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit wh dot lawyer and make that partnership official. We are back on Judika County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm.
They practice law right here in North Carolina, and they put offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're going to get into more estate planning 101, and these are some questions. They're hypotheticals, but these happen every single day, and you may.
Have a situation with what you're going through that you need questions answered. You could benefit from a complimentary consult. We offer those today on estate planning, but also personal injury cases. You can call at any time nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit the website wh dot lawyer.
All right, gentlemen. Our next question: Who gets the kids if we both pass away?
So here it is: My husband and I have children who are now four and seven. We've talked about who we would want to raise them if something happened to both of us, but we've never put anything in writing. Would our parents automatically get custody? That's the question. You know, this question makes me, you know.
This is the biggest reason I think a lot of young, younger families, people with young children, put off estate planning, is because they don't they don't have a good person to name. You know, when you when you do your estate plan, you're preparing, and you're married. In this situation, we got a we got two spouses and young kids. You're you're trying to make sure that when you pass away, everything goes to where it needs to go. But you're also You're also saying, "Hey, if me and my spouse spouse die at or about the same time, this is what we want to happen, right?
Because most everything, if something happens to me, I want everything to go to my wife, right? But if something happens to me and my wife, car accident, plane crash, you know, something horrific, who do we want to raise the kids? Who who do we want to take care of the money for the kids? Right? You're making these contingency plans if something happens to both of you.
Now, I've only seen We've been say I've been doing this what twenty three, twenty four years at this point. I've only seen a couple, a husband and a wife, pass away in a car accident. I've only seen that happen twice, and both times it was they were older. They didn't have any young young children. But, but the point I am trying to make here, the depressing point I am trying to make here, is that that doesn't happen very often.
You certainly need to be prepared for it, but it's not something that needs to keep you from doing your estate plan because the chances that you and your spouse both die at or about the same time are very low. It's like those those memes you see when like an angry duck's looking around the corner, and they're like, "Your chances of being killed by a duck is." Is never zero, right? You know, or like a chihuahua or something like that. Have you seen those? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
So the point the point of that story is, you know, get your estate plan done. Name a guardian, right? You you and your spouse may may not agree on who that guardian is. You can name a backup guardian. You can change it later, you know.
If you if you guys want to change it later, but don't don't let that that hang you up. Because who gets the kids if you both die, and you've left no written instruction, then it's it's going to go to court, right? It's gonna it's going to go to court to determine who the guardian of your of your kids are going to be. If you don't leave, you you can leave written instructions and say, "Hey, I want my parents to take care of my kids, or I want my brother to take care of my kids, or whatever it is." So you can you can solve all that ahead of time with a simple writing, right? A simple will.
But if you don't, then the court is going to decide who it's going to be, and maybe you've got different people in your life who are all want custody and think they should have custody, and you know they lawyer up and all this stuff. But but you can easily just say, hey, if something happens to me and my spouse, I want this person to do it. If this person can't do it or isn't willing to do it, I want this person to do it. Yeah, and kind of touching on the points you made earlier too, Josh. Just in general, don't let.
A single sticking point that that that gives you pause about your estate plan prevents you from making an estate plan completely. You know that's that's something a lot of folks get that kind of paralysis by analysis type of thing where they just get stuck and instead of moving forward with anything, they do nothing because they can't figure out one point, and then they they're in a Infinitely worse situation than they would be otherwise, and and it happens to everybody. Like me, me and my wife, you know, we had an estate plan when we got married, and then we didn't talk about guardians because we didn't have kids when we got married, and then we later had kids, and it took us a long time, much longer than it should have, much longer than I tell our listeners to to take to kind of kind of update our estate plan to have the guardian in there, and then and this always leads into the conversation too, Joe. You, you and your spouse are both gone. You've named a guardian.
Let's say, let's say you've named. You know somebody's named their parents right? Like hey, or no no no. Let's say somebody's named a sibling and said hey, I want this person to take care of my kids. You know you may want them to take care of your kids because they you think they'll raise the kids with the same values that you have.
But maybe those people aren't really you don't view them as being very good with money. Yeah, right. You can name somebody different to be in charge of the the trust or to be in charge of the the funds that you leave behind to help take care of your kids.
So. the the guardian, the one who has physical custody of the kids, and the trustee, the one making financial decisions with the assets you've left for your kids, they can be the same person. They don't have to be the same person. And I say that because sometimes that helps.
Sometimes that helps people say, "Okay, well, that can be a reservation. I really want." This relative to take care of my kids, but they've got a bad history with money. I want someone else to be managing the life, you know, the life insurance proceeds and the house and and the things like that. And so, those people can be different people. And so, I think that's important for people to know going in; they don't have to be the same.
Well, a little slice of life from just my perspective when I was in my early 30s many moons ago. In my first marriage, we were invited over for dinner to one of my closest, dearest friends, and in the middle of dinner, this conversation happened, and they said, "Look, we both travel quite a bit, and." Something may or may not happen. Obviously, we want to plan for it, but we want you to be the guardians. We want you to be the godparents. And I mean, we were in our early 30s, and we had just had our first child.
And that conversation was a heavy one, but it was also it was it was it was a wonderful conversation because they felt like we would raise their kids. The way they wanted, if indeed they were not here, sure. And I, you know, their oldest daughter still calls me her second dad, which I just think is, it's really sweet. Yeah, that is that is that's uh those people were definitely thinking ahead and and and I don't know what they were thinking, guys, but it was nice at the time. I'm gonna make it mine a surprise, right?
If something happens to me in Charlotte, who knows who the guardians are, right? You got that rule. Three kids just shut it up behind door number three. But spend the spend the dice and. But yeah, if if you have kids and you have no estate plan, then you have not named guardians if something happens to both of you, and and that's what that's the answer to this question.
A court. You know, there's a process for the court to determine who the guardians are, and and a court might think, you know, the people that you think would have been nice guardians aren't fit, can't take care of the kids.
Somebody could come in who's not family.
So that's a really important, a really simple part of of a of an estate plan, but a really important one.
So that's a that's a good question. All right.
Well, we're going to take a short break and come back on the other side and get to some more of these questions. Again, estate planning. One hundred one. These questions come in every single day. They happen all around the country.
How are you suited for an estate plan? Do you have one? Have you thought about maybe getting started with one, or maybe you need a second opinion on what you are doing? There is a complimentary consult available with Whitaker and Hamer, and you can grab one at any time during the show and any time really afterwards. Just call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
That's nine one nine. Seven seven two seven thousand. They'll sign you up for that. Just say, "Hey, I'd like to come in and talk about estate planning." There's no cost and no obligation. Obviously, if you want to roll forward, you certainly can.
Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. And there's the website. You can always go there, kick the tires. W H dot lawyer. That's W H dot lawyer.
Well, we've got more Juca County coming up.
Next question coming out of the hopper is this: Can I just put my daughter on my bank account? We'll get to that question. Up next, you're listening to, Judica County Radio. Buying a home shouldn't feel like trying to speed walk your way through campus in humiliating shorts, but sometimes it does. Contracts get confusing, deadlines pile up, and suddenly you're wondering why real estate didn't come with a red zone style highlight reel to show you what actually matters.
Whitaker and Hamer Law handles thousands of closings across North Carolina, and they make the process calm, clear, and predictable. Even if the market isn't, they review your contract, clear your title, coordinate the closing, and translate that legal jargon into normal person language. They don't do surprises unless you count Josh arriving with more caffeine than sleep in his system, which is basically every show. When you work with Whitaker and Hamer, you get a legal team that treats your home purchase like a major life moment, not a paperwork chore. And yes, they really do have offices almost everywhere.
Call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or visit wh. Lawyer. We are back on Judika County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and their practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, offices all across the state. Right here in Raleigh, but also Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, down near Charlotte in Gastonia, and over the coast in Morehead City.
I'm Morgan Patrick. It's a pleasure to jump on with the attorneys and the complimentary. Consults available through our radio program are in and around estate planning, which we are discussing today, Estate Planning One Hundred and One, and also a personal injury case. If you got questions, you're involved with one, and you just don't know how to proceed. Grab one of the consults.
Call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit wh dot lawyer Whittaker and Hamer, your law firm for life. All right, so here's the next question, guys. Can I just put my daughter on my bank account, and that's the question.
So I'm seventy two, and want my daughter to be able to pay my bills if I get sick. A friend told me the easiest thing is just add her as A joint owner on all my bank accounts. Is that probably the best solution?
Well, there's a couple. There's a couple of ways to to attack that question.
So the the question was title. We title that question. Can I just put my daughter on my bank account? And so the answer to that question is, you certainly can. Right.
I mean, you can add. You can add whoever you want as a To your account, and then the the follow up question is: Is that probably the best solution? And probably not. And and we'll talk about why. You know, when you make when you make someone a joint owner of your account, they own that account, right?
That account can be used for. A lot of different things that maybe you don't intend for it to be used for, right?
So, if you got a joint account, you add your adult daughter, that can be used against your your daughter in in family court, right? For child support alimony, they're an owner of the account. Um, they can empty that account one day if they decide they want to, right?
So, you got one hundred grand in there. They're a joint owner. They can go in there and withdraw a hundred grand. It's and they haven't done anything wrong, right?
So adding, adding, you know, and the the other thing is when they when you pass away, no matter what your estate plan is, your estate plan might be, hey, I want to leave everything evenly to my three kids. That only governs what's actually in your estate.
So if you if you add somebody as a joint owner to your account and you die, that's their account now. Right, so if you got a hundred thousand dollars in that account, it was always your thought that would go into your state and it would be split up three ways to your kids.
Well, that's not going to happen now, because that was left to your adult daughter. You added to the account just to sign checks and and kind of manage your affairs. And so the the appropriate way to do this is to have a power of attorney, name your daughter. Your power of attorney to take care of your affairs when you when you are unable to, and then you add her to the account as a power of attorney.
So that's not her money; she's, you know, she's got to manage that money for your, you know, as a fiduciary to you. That that changes, so she's still on the account; she can still sign checks. She's got the access she wanted her to have, but you haven't just basically given her. Access to the to the money, and so that's probably the best way to do it. You know, when you when you a lot of times when you open these bank accounts.
I'm still using a credit union account I opened when I was 14. Right, I don't use it a lot, but but when you open these accounts, a lot of times you've done it way in the past and things have changed. You've got married, you've gotten kids, and so it's really important when you do your estate plan. A lot of times we'll ask you about your bank accounts, and one of the things we want you to do is to go back in and update. You know, hey, is this an account you want to go and add your spouse as joint owner?
Do you want to name your spouse as contingent beneficiary? Payable on death. You can add adult daughters or spouses or things like that.
So there's a couple of different ways. The point of this question is there's a couple of different ways to add someone to an account, and making them a joint owner doesn't always make Sense, but at the same at the same time, that can be a good tool to get your get done what you want to get done in the most efficient way possible.
So, it's not like you never want to do it; you just want to do it in the right situation. You don't want to do it in a situation that's going to have essentially the opposite effect of what you want to have happen. Yeah, and you know, it's like it's like you know we talk about from time to time. The question comes up adding adding an adult child to title in some way at to the title of your real property, the title of your home, your land. And we don't always like that either, right?
Because once you make someone a joint owner of something, it's hard to get rid of them. Right, and you and and you're and you're. If they've got a spouse, you're adding their spouse to title. If they've got judgments, you're adding their judgments to title. And so, you know, there's a lot of pitfalls that can come along with that.
But, but again, it's another thing that under the right circumstances, it may make sense for you. But you just need to understand what you're getting yourself into, and you know the pros and the cons of it. I have seen personally a lot of estates where, you know, there's a couple of kids, dad, moms getting up in years, and there's one kid who lives close by, and that kid helps them out with stuff, and so it makes sense to them to add that kid as a joint owner. But then they die, and then that kid's now the owner, right? If they were on the deed, now they own the property.
If they were on a bank account, now they own the bank account. None of that goes into the estate, um, and you're hoping that child. You know, takes care of everybody else, but the will isn't important anymore. Your estate plan's not important because none of that is going to happen if you if you make someone else a joint owner.
So anyway, I think that's what that question was designed to talk about. Is there's different ways to add someone to your bank account, and and you know, a couple of questions to an attorney probably get you the best. Result there, so that is something we talk about during an estate planning consult. We're going to hit a couple of power of attorney questions. We'll try to get to one of them during this segment, probably the second one in our following and final segment.
But here's the question, guys: the category. What exactly does a power of attorney do? And the question is: My attorney says I need a financial power of attorney. I'm healthy and handle my own finances. Why would I give somebody else control of my money?
Well, I mean, there's a there's a couple of reasons, you know. The power of attorney is something you sign when you're healthy, right? Once you're incapacitated, once you're unconscious, once you're, you know, you've got advanced dementia, you know, once you're in a position where you need the power of attorney, you can't sign it anymore. You don't have the capacity to sign a power of attorney, so you need to set a power of attorney up. Why you can, and and and that's a springing document, right?
So it's set up to only come into play when you're unable to take care of your finances.
Now I've met with people who don't really have a good option for power of attorney. You know, their their their sole heir is not good with money. You know they're gonna. They might ask their CPA. They might ask their attorney.
They might ask their investment advisor, somebody to fill that role.
So it's not always the easiest because it is a lot of responsibility, right? If you get in a car accident, you're unconscious for two weeks. You know, in theory, somebody could step in your place and and and if they're acting as your fiduciary, but that doesn't mean people are always honest.
So who you put in that role is very very important. But yes, you want to do that while you can. You you want to do that while you're you're physically able, you're mentally able, and so in our example here, our guy saying, "Hey, I'm healthy, I can do everything. Why should I give someone else control of my money?" Well, you're not giving anybody immediate control. You can, but most people don't.
You're giving control to someone to do it when you when you can't do it, and when you can't do it, it's too late to it's too late. You know, it's um, and we all fall into that trap. You know, we all it's like we're programmed to think we have. All the time in the world. Yep, right.
We will continue the conversation on Judica County Radio after a short break. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, are the attorneys that host this show. They practice law right here in North Carolina. They put offices all over the state for your convenience: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and Morehead City. Complementary consults available: estate planning, personal injury.
We're focusing in on estate planning. One on one. Today, but if you've got questions about your own situation, maybe you wanted to start an estate plan, maybe you're in the middle of something, need a second opinion, or you're involved with a personal injury case, give us a call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. It's a complimentary, no obligation consult nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit the website wh dot lawyer. Back with more Judica County after this.
Buying a home shouldn't feel like trying to speed walk your way through campus in humiliating shorts, but sometimes it does. Contracts get confusing, deadlines pile up, and suddenly you're wondering why real estate didn't come with a red zone style highlight reel to show you what actually matters. Whitaker and Hamer Law handles thousands of closings across North Carolina, and they make the process calm, clear, and predictable, even if the market isn't. They review your contract, clear your title, coordinate the closing, and translate that legal jargon into normal person language. They don't do surprises unless you count Josh arriving with more caffeine than sleep in his system, which is basically every show.
When you work with Whitaker and Hamer, you get a legal team that treats your home purchase like a major life moment, not a paperwork chore. And yes, they really do have offices almost everywhere. Call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or visit wh dot lawyer. We're back on Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, are your hosts.
They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and that, of course, the power behind the program. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, in offices well, pretty much everywhere. Down at the coast, Morehead City. They're over near Charlotte and Gastonia, but right around the triangle in Fuquay Varina, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. Complimentary consults, estate planning, personal injury, always available during the course of today's show. You can call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Just say, hey, I'd love to come in and talk about estate planning, or maybe I'm involved with a personal injury case and I need some help there.
Grab a consult. nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit that website wh dot lawyer. Sign up there as well.
So we were talking about guys. What exactly a power of attorney does, and why you need one.
So you can finish up your thoughts there. But then let's shift to the healthcare power of attorney, and is that you know is that different? Yeah, it is.
So these are two very important documents in your estate plan. And so yeah, before the break, we were talking about a financial power of attorney, a business power of attorney, very very important document for allowing people to take care of your day to day. Finances and longer term things too. If you were if you were to become incompetent, right? That can be incompetent.
Can be a lot of different things: advanced dementia, unconscious, coma, a lot of different things. And so, the power of attorney becomes pretty important because you, again, like we said before the break, can't do it after the fact, right? You can't do it once you've lost competency. You have to do it ahead of time, and so. You know, we were talking about how we we all just kind of don't think about there may be a time where we're not able to to take care of things, but you know.
Anyway, so that's that's you know we call that a financial power of attorney. North Carolina, you also can have a or should have a healthcare power of attorney, and that says, hey, this is the person that needs to make my healthcare decisions if I'm unable to make my healthcare decisions. And your health care power of attorney, your health care, you know, agent, your your your financial agent, you know, your your attorneys. In fact, they don't have to be the same person. You can have someone in charge of your financial affairs, and then a different person to make.
Healthcare decisions.
So again, they don't have to be the same person, and some and a lot of people will will take advantage of that. They don't have to be the same person. But I know you see that too, Joseph. Yeah, you know, and and that's another one of those things where folks sometimes can get that that paralysis on the decision making, and in terms of you know not knowing exactly who they want to appoint or getting getting stuck on having two folks and not knowing which one they want to put in the first slot and. I tell folks like, would you rather have any insight into this and have any control over it, or would you rather have none?
And and someone has to go to the court and get a guardianship over you. You know that's an infinitely worse situation, in my opinion. Yeah, and that's that's what has to happen. You know, and and I don't know that people always realize or think about that.
So if you if you for whatever reason you know you procrastinate, you don't do it, and and and that happens all the time. You don't have your power of attorneys in place, and then something happens, then that's what's going to have to happen. The people who want to take care of you, make your healthcare decisions, pay your bills, they're going to have to go downtown and apply. To be your guardian, to get a guardianship, and and there's going to be a hearing, and if you know your kids don't agree on who it should be, or you know there's different people who want to do it, they're going to have a basically a court hearing where they argue about who should be your your your guardian of your financial affairs and the guardian of your the person your health care.
So, um, you know if you it's it's so easy. To set up ahead of time, it's very so difficult if if you if you don't.
So it's it's it's it's a big part. And you know we talked about this earlier. You know the the the question we had where the people don't consider themselves to be wealthy, they don't consider themselves to have a lot of assets. They need to get the next generation. That's only a part of the estate plan, and and this kind of stuff is the other part.
Right, planning on on on things like this. Who's going to take care of you when when you can't?
So that's a you know the the financial power of attorney, healthcare power of attorney, very different. Can be different people, can be the same people. The important thing is just to have them in place, to have them prepared. We are in the middle of a show just about estate planning, estate planning one hundred and one. We've got time for one more question, gentlemen, and here it is.
I made a will twenty. Years ago, isn't that good enough? And that's the question.
So, my wife, here's the scenario: My wife and I had wills prepared when our first child was born back in 2004. Since then, we've had another child, bought a different house, changed jobs several times, and now have grandbabies. The wills are still valid, so do we really need new ones? I'm gonna. I'm gonna answer that question.
That's good, man. I've been waiting for you to answer. I'm gonna. You know, we've both been sitting here. I'm gonna.
I'm gonna. I met with a lot of people here recently. And we're talking about your estate plan, right? We're talking about your estate plan is more than just the will, or more than just the trust. It's more than just getting assets to the right people—the people you want to have them in the next generation.
It is, it is planning for when you're not here. And a lot of that, I've I've had two I've had two consults here over the past couple of weeks where we have a spouse who dies unexpectedly, and that spouse was the one that handled logging into the bank. Accounts knew where the mortgage was getting paid. Do the car notes had to be paid? What, what credit cards they were paying off?
You know, there was one person who pretty much handled all of the financial affairs for the for the family, and they unexpectedly lost them, and. You know we we've been working with the surviving spouses on trying to figure out like we you know you know we we run into people who don't know who their mortgage servicer is right they don't know who the mortgage goes to because they haven't they haven't been the spouse that dealt with it and there's just a lot they don't passwords they don't know logins and you can get through all that but part of planning is putting all that in one place that you know kind of creating like a playbook so if something happens to you someone can pick it. Up and they at least they have something. It might not be freshly updated information, but they know where everything is, right? They know who the retirement accounts are with.
They know who to call when when something happens. And so a lot of the estate plan is just getting all that together. And here in this example, hey, they did it twenty years ago, but they haven't done it in twenty years. A lot changes in twenty years. Yeah, you know, twenty years is a You know, is is a lot of time, and so yeah, you have an estate plan.
That's great, right? That's something. GI Joe, right? The old cartoon would say that's half the battle, right? You've got got an estate plan put together.
This one probably needs to be updated. Yeah, I was going to ask a question, guys. I mean, you deal with this on a daily basis. When should an estate plan? Obviously, you want an estate plan, but when should an estate plan be reviewed?
I mean, are there things that happen where you go, you know, what I need to meet with my Attorneys, I need to update my estate plan. Yeah, there's there's plenty of things that happen, and I don't know that I'd necessarily you know you you could look at that as like a time period, right? Like every five years, just just reassess and look at your situation. But there's definitely triggering events, right? You know, having a kid that'd be a big one that I'd throw out there.
Any any kind of substantial changes to your financial situation, remarrying, there's plenty of scenarios that you need to come sit down, look at everything, because you could get into a situation where everything gets thrown off by by this one life event happening to you. Closing thought, Josh, and we'll wrap this one up. Yeah, like Joseph said, you know, having having a kid that that that usually does it right. Divorce, remarried, buying and selling a house. Self-employed folks, you need to you need to have that business.
You know your estate plan goes into your business planning. Who's going to run the business if something happens to you? All those things are you know anytime anything like that changes, you need to revisit. Even if you've got a, and you may not have to make many changes either. It may be something as simple as as changing one thing.
But those are all good examples. We've had some really good questions about estate planning today. You've got questions about your own situation. Maybe you're in the middle of something, or maybe you wanted. Estate plan.
Grab one of our complimentary consults. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer. Leave your contact information. An attorney will be in touch, and they'll set that appointment up.
And again, no cost, no obligation. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit the website wh dot lawyer. Another edition of Judica County in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick.
See on the radio next week. Judeca 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 Whittaker at jmw at mw h law lawyer.
