Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, your host Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. We're going to get into estate planning, getting the big decisions right, getting them all right. That's coming up next on Judica County. 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 Whitaker County Radio.
Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They manage the law firm Whitaker and Hamer. They practice law right here in North Carolina. They placed offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and down on the coast in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're going to get into some estate planning, estate administration, and trust decisions you need to make.
Some questions you need answers to. But before we do that, we always start off. Without the week was Josh, I, you know, in my old age, I can't remember. I can't remember your the week. Your name is Josh.
It blurs. It all blurs together, and. And I just can't. I just can't. It was Halloween.
This past weekend was Halloween, right? That's what it was. Yeah, I'll help you, Grandpa. You had a great week. It was a very good week.
A lot of good things happened for you and your family. That's good, man. That's good. I. Yeah, it was.
It was Halloween, and I didn't. I don't think I had to do anything. My kids were all old enough, or they got friends that do stuff, and so my days of like loading up a wagon and taking the kids, you know, through the streets to trick or treat. I think, I think I'm off the hook till I have some grandkids running. I'd like to see the wagon.
Is that an announcement, Josh? No, it's not an announcement. Grandbabies. No, we're not there yet. You just forget them.
I would like to see the wagon you're you're pulling, Big Mike around it. The but that's it for us, man. We got down to the. I think we're gonna get down to the mountains. Try to get down to the mountains and and that's that's all we got going on.
We watched a lot of basketball. We got college basketball back this week, so we watched a lot of basketball. Duke played. Did Duke play? Duke's played right.
Yeah, Duke played. Um, the Army. They were forty-four point favorites, weren't they? Yeah, that was too much, man. I told folks who asked it was too much.
They they've got too much respect for the armed forces. That's true. To do them the wrong way, so that's right. What it what ended up being the? You remember what it was?
I think they won by like thirty-four. That's still a lot. They started out, and it looked like that was probably a low ball estimation of what they would win by, and then, you know. They they took the foot off the gas a little bit, played a little sloppy. I Carolina struggled a little bit.
I saw Carolina was struggling a little bit, little bit for the money they're paying. Wow, yeah. State looked all right. We gotta we gotta we gotta play bigger, but yeah, basketball's back. Football's winding up.
Halloween's over, so now it's basically Christmas, right? As soon as Halloween gets done, it's Christmas. Yeah, Thanksgiving too, man. No, man, I don't think Thanksgiving matters anymore. Are you kidding me?
Matters to me, man. You don't like to eat. They can't. I don't think the. I don't think the people can make money off Thanksgiving.
So they don't like to give thanks for your blessings. I saw.
So the Thanksgiving football games, right? There's how many? There's like three. The Bills play one. Detroit always plays one.
Maybe it's the Cowboys. I feel like there's three games on Thanksgiving. I think you're right. Yeah. The Bills.
I saw the Bills announced they're going to have a special halftime show. Did you see that? You know who it is. A famous Buffalo band. It's a band from Buffalo.
You know who it is? I would love to know who it is. I do not know who it is off top of my head. What's uh the Goo Goo Dolls? Is that who it is?
Oh, are you talking about? Is that a famous Mr. Brightside? No, no, no, no. The Goo Goo Dolls.
I thought they they sang. I know they're from Buffalo. That's what I know. They sing some songs that were popular at some. Not a big, not a big fan.
Not a big Googoo Dolls guy. Josh, here's here's something from Radio Land. If you're gonna tease something like that, you need to kind of have the answer before you throw it out. I just assume if I throw it out there, you guys will figure it out. I'm not a Googoo Dolls historian, so I can't tell you where they're from.
They sing a song. I had a name in the title. I won't know your name, or you won't know my name. Yeah, a lot of real sad, soft music. Man, I think you are correct.
I think that is the Google. But I do know they're from Buffalo, and so they were like, "Oh, it's going to be the half." And then, did you see Detroit announced their halftime entertainment? After that, I can assume it's not going to be the Goo Goo Dolls. No, it's the Wu Tang Clan. I was like, "Oh, that's a big, that's a big step up there, you know." Go from all right, just to for our audience out there that's thinking ahead to Thanksgiving: Chicago at Detroit, one o'clock; Philadelphia at Dallas for thirty; KC at Buffalo, nightcap when everybody's in a food coma at eight twenty.
It's not a big day. Yeah, yeah. Don't skip.
Well, Chicago, Detroit—that'll be fun. Philadelphia, Dallas—that's just horrible. And then dessert's pretty good. Kansas City, Buffalo—I just don't want you to disrespect Thanksgiving anymore, man. I like Thanksgiving, man.
It's the—it's—I like Thanksgiving. I am just saying, like, from a media perspective, there is no. I mean, I guess there is a Thanksgiving. What there is a Thanksgiving peanuts show, right? I think Garfield had a good.
You ever seen the Garfield Thanksgiving special? You get a you get a parade. You like parades? You're a big parade guy. I don't like parades at all, really.
I thought you were. I thought that was your thing.
Okay.
Well, Josh hates parades. Yeah. The but anyway, today today. We're going to talk about estate planning, but we're going to start. We're going to talk about estate planning.
We're going to kind of dispel some some myths, right?
So a lot of these questions start out with, "Do I need a will?" And I'll give you the the answer to most is yes, you need a will, right? Or a will will make your life a lot lot easier. That's true. We're doing a lot of Yeah, so you can tune out now, just knowing that you probably need a will. But we'll go through.
I mean, we're already here, so we'll go through all the questions anyway. And have confirmed it is the Goo Goo Dolls. That is the halftime. There you go. All right, well, good stuff.
Now we do have complimentary consults, and it's appropriate—estate planning or personal injury case. Josh, kind of walk us through exactly what's going to happen if they can grab one of these consults. They come into the office. How's it going to go? Yeah, so you call you call us, you call Whitaker and Hamer, you contact us.
You say, "Hey, I listen to the radio show. I want to talk to somebody about estate planning, wills, trust." We'll give you a free consult. Right, you sit down with me or Joe or one of our other attorneys, and we'll give you our opinion on what you should be doing, what your estate plan should be. No cost to you. You can take that valued advice and then pursue your estate planning, or you can just.
Do nothing, right? But but we do that for free. And if you've been in a car accident, we have a lot of attorneys here at the firm. That's their main area of practice, right? Personal injury, car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents.
And so, if you've been in something like that, you want to talk to an attorney you can trust to value your case, kind of map out the road ahead. We do that for free too.
So if you if you have those issues come up, and you want to talk to an attorney, we can help you with that for free.
Okay.
Well, and to grab one of those consults, you can call at any time nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. No cost or obligation. nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also hit the website w h dot lawyer.
So all of the hubbub of the week past, you guys did not mention the midterms. Like a test, we talking about school. And so, did we? Did we early vote? Did you vote on the day?
How'd you do it? I always run down the street and and do the do the early vote. Man, it's pretty. They make. Did you usually vote a few times?
Right. Really want to make sure. Joke about that. Really want to make sure my voice is heard. I the early voting is pretty easy though.
Oh, it's so easy. I don't think I've ever. I mean, I mean a long time ago, but I mean since you could early vote, I don't know that I've ever voted on the well election day. Again, we'll have we'll have reports on it, obviously by our next show. But I would imagine.
I think a large, not a large, but I think a pretty good portion of the state went early.
So today might, you know, or I should say, actual vote day, election day, might be pretty, you know, pretty. Maybe this day is the day to do it. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, and again, I don't, I don't like you know waiting until the last minute and then hoping it goes well. I mean, it's just.
Yeah, you just don't know. Listen, the opportunity to get on the calendar with Whittaker and Hamers coming up. We've got a bunch of questions coming in, estate planning, and just getting that decision right. Everybody's going to be different, and and doing something cookie cutter. Highly, don't recommend that.
Having a an estate plan that's built for you. We're going to talk about that coming up on the program. And again, the complimentary consults in and around estate planning or a personal injury case you're facing, and you've got some questions. Grab one of the consults with Whitaker and Hamer nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. It's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
You can also visit the website wh dot lawyer. When we return on Judica County, first question up: We have a will. This is the category, but our children are still minors. We'll get to that question first as we lead off this edition of Judica County. When W.
H. Law says they're local, they mean it. Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Cleveland, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and Morehead City. They've built a footprint across North Carolina because real legal problems happen everywhere, not just in big cities. Whether you're closing on a home near the coast, planning an estate in the Triangle, or dealing with an HOA battle in a growing suburb, they've got an office near you.
Their attorneys live here, raise families here, and, as listeners know, suffer through the same local sports heartbreaks every season. That local knowledge matters more than people realize. Real estate customs, courthouse procedures, business norms, even probate timelines can vary from county to county. A firm rooted in the community understands those details. Call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit wh dot lawyer.
Your North Carolina law firm. We're back on Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, are your hosts. They're also the managing partners at Whitaker Hamer Law Firm. They practice law right here in North Carolina.
The offices you should know where they are: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. We are focusing in on estate planning today. We got some questions, some hypotheticals. First category, gentlemen, is this: we have a will.
But our children are still minors. Here's the question: My wife and I are both at 38 years old. We have two children, ages six and nine. We had a simple will prepared when our first child was born, and the documents name my sister as the person we'd want to raise our kids if something happened to both of us. But now we're wondering what happens to the money.
We have about 500K in life insurance, another 200,000 in retirement saving. Would our sister automatically control that money to raise our children? That's the question. And what happens when the kids turn age eighteen? And that's followed up by we don't necessarily want an eighteen-year-old receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What do you think?
Well, this you know, this question is is kind of designed to give us a couple of talking points, and here. Yeah, a lot of people are in this situation, right? A lot of people here, thirty-eight. I'll just round it up to forty, right? We got somebody spouses that are forty, two underage kids.
They said they had simple wills prepared. To really answer this question, we need to see the wills, right? Yeah. So I'm going to assume they don't. Have wills for our question because, anyway, so we got we got all kinds of things going on here.
It seems simple enough, right? But yeah, in your will, you do normally designate a guardian, right? If I die, me and my spouse both die with underage children, we want the guardian to be blank, and we want the backup guardian to be blank, and so that is normal. Usually in a will, you're also talking about a trust to manage funds. Like eight, you know, underage kids don't inherit things, right?
An eight year old can't take seven hundred thousand dollars, right? That's not. Think about what they do with it, man. You ever seen the movie Blank Check? No, this has come up before.
I've never seen that movie, man. But um. Right, so your your your pets can't inherit anything. Right, kids under eighteen can't inherit anything. The law would would create a trust for them, but but you don't want.
That to happen, you want to take care of it ahead of time, and so here, simple will would be like, "Hey, I want you know, I want Morgan to take care of my kids." Let's say Morgan's real bad with money, right? What? Just for just for purposes, Morgan, just for our purposes, okay. Morgan's terrible. It's terrible with money, horrible.
But you want him to raise your kids. You like Morgan? He's a nice guy, but he's not good with money. You create a trust with a trustee who's someone. Let's say Joe's very.
Reliable with money, yeah, but you wouldn't. That's what they say. Anywhere around your kids, right? Wait, let's get. I'd rather be okay with the children and terrible with money, man.
No, don't want Joe anywhere near your kids. Very good with money, though.
So you say, all right.
Well, Morgan, I want you to take care of my kids.
Okay, knowing how. Truly terrible, you are with money. Though I'm going to get Joseph to be the trustee of the trust. Right. So you got this trust where you would want to direct your assets to go, and in that trust, you could tell Joseph, like, look, I don't want my kids getting a bunch of money when they're 18.
I want them to get some of it. Right. I want them to get 20 of it, and then they can get another 20 when they're 25, and then when they're 30 or whatever you want to do. You you can draft a trust where you control a lot of things after. After you're gone, and so I think that's the point of this question.
The guardian, you and your wife both pass away, horrible tragedy, right? You can name a guardian that you trust to take care of your kids, and that guardian will work with the trustee, and they could be the same people.
So let's say Morgan is not horrible with money, and you trust him with your kids, and you trust him with the money, he can they can be the same. Right. Yeah. Yeah. They can be the same person, or they can be different different people.
Here, it looks like they probably want. In our question, it sounds like they may want different people to be those fiduciaries.
So that I think that's kind of what this question is. It's kind of setting up.
So, in a nutshell, you can. What you are saying is fiduciary. You can have as many distinct fiduciaries as you'd like doing the various fiduciary roles, and you are not shoehorned into having the same person doing the same thing. Yeah, and I and I think the other thing that I would point out here, and we don't have to go too far down this rabbit hole, but when we sit down and talk to you about estate planning, we talk to you about probate assets. Versus non-probate assets, right?
Things that would go to your beneficiaries in your will, and things that don't depend on that, right? And so they mentioned their assets are five hundred thousand in life insurance and two hundred thousand dollars in retirement savings.
So life insurance, you name that's part. Life insurance is a contract between you and the insurance company. It's part of that contract. You name who you want. To get the money when you die, right?
So for me, if I make a life insurance policy, I'm going to say, hey, if something happens to me, I want you to pay that five hundred thousand out to my wife, right? That's why I'm getting it. If you and your wife die at the same time, you have to tell them who the contingent beneficiary is, right? Your wife's not here. Who do you want the money to go to?
And if you have a trust, right? If you've set up a trust for your kids to manage this money after you're gone to have a trustee manage this money, you're going to want the trust. To be the contingent beneficiary, not the kids themselves if they're under age, right? That's a you know we we we talk and the same thing with a retirement savings account. You've got to name beneficiary.
My retirement account names my wife. If my wife's not here, my contingent beneficiary is the trust I've created for my underage children.
Now one day they won't be underage, and you can go back and fix that and just make it your kids or whatever you want to do. That's why you, you know, in a perfect world, you review your estate plan every couple of years because things. Change and you can always make it simpler or easier. It's a lot easier once the kids are of an age where you feel comfortable with them inheriting money. Or assets.
Well, it's important to be on top of all of this, and when we get into a estate planning conversation, a lot of you out there are probably thinking, "Well, I did this a few years ago, or at least I have a will." Really having a conversation about the bigger picture and what you may need moving forward is a very good first step.
Now, the opportunity to get on the calendar with Whitaker and Hamer and have these conversations about your estate plan, or maybe the fact that you've been thinking about it and you haven't done it yet, you can grab an appointment 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, let's get to this next question, guys. Category: My husband and I own everything together.
Do we really need a will?
So here's the question: My husband and I have been married 35 years. Our house is in both of our names. Our checking and savings account are joint, and we named each other beneficiaries on other, or basically, retirement accounts. We have two adult children, and get along with both of them. Our accountant told us that most of our assets would automatically go to surviving spouse anyway.
If that's the if that's true, what would a will actually accomplish? Is the first question, and wouldn't everything just go to our children? After the second spouse dies, well, you know some of that.
Some of that's true, right? You know, we sit down with folks, and you know they've done a good job getting their assets set up. They they truly do own everything jointly down to their car. Right, you know, the cars are titled to them as as as husband and wife, and and you do you can plan hard enough, depending on what your assets are, and get to a point where when spouse one dies, there's not much to do. Right, there's no probate; everything passes automatically.
You know, we talked about you know if the wife, the spouse, is the beneficiary on retirement accounts, life insurance, they both own the houses and real properties, husband and wife, you can have it set up.
So that hopefully, when the first spouse dies, there's not much to do. The will doesn't do anything, right? You don't need the will because you've already jointly titled all the assets. But the trick is, you're both going to die. Spoiler alert!
That's right.
So the trick is, one, God forbid, something happens and you both you both pass away at or about the same time, and you don't have a will in place because now we've we've got problems. Because how's it going to get to the kids? It's going to have to go through probate. Everything's going to be slowed down. Are Kids over eighteen, is the court going to require a guardian to be appointed?
So if that happens, right, you can't control that. You know, we just saw that whole family die in that plane crash, right? And that doesn't happen all the time, thankfully. But when it does happen, it's it's a big mess.
So, so here, if you didn't have a will in place and something like that happens, car accident, things like that, your state's going to be kind of complicated.
So that's the one thing. And then the second thing is, you know, if the first spouse dies and the second spouse doesn't go and actually do the State planning, same problem, right?
So, like, like Joe said, you're both going to die at some point. And anyway, it's better to have taken care of it. Taken care of business. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. When it comes to your estate plan, complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer.
Call the number nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit wh dot lawyer. 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 are back on Judica County. Your host, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker Hamer Law Firm, offices all over the place: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, down near Charlotte, in Gastonia, and in Morehead City.
They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Estate planning consults available through the course of this show. Also, if you're facing a personal injury case, grab a consult at any time. Again, you're not obligated to become a client, but you can get some information if you. To roll forward, you can nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or visit wh dot lawyer.
All right, short sprint of a segment here, guys. And here's the question: We'll hit one of these category. My mother wants me to be her executor, but I don't want the job.
So the question: My mother, seventy six, recently told me she's updating her will and wants to name me executor. I'm the oldest of four kids, but I live in another state. I work full time, and I have three kids. I own. I love my mom, but I honestly don't want the responsibility of handling her estate, especially because my siblings don't always get along.
If she names me executor, am I legally required to serve, and can I turn down the job after she passes away? That's the easiest time to turn it down, man. You don't have to hurt her feelings. Yeah, yeah. You can.
No one can make you. Serve as you know, we we use the word executor when we're talking about a you know if there's a will involved, there's not a will involved, and it's an administration. We say administrator. And those two terms together, sometimes you hear attorneys just say personal representative, right?
So those all mean kind of the same thing. You're the one in charge with marshaling the assets of the estate and distributing the estate and dealing with the clerk, right? And here in the will, the mom here is wants to appoint appoint our question asker here. But yeah, you don't have to be executor. You don't have to accept the role.
Um, you can you can definitely turn it down. It'd probably be nicer to tell the mom now, right? Because, because the trick is, you know, if the mom makes a will and she says, "Hey, my executor is going to be my." Daughter, and she doesn't name a backup, and the daughter doesn't want to do it. Then the court has some leeway to appoint. They can appoint someone who's not related to you, right?
They just the the they just want to get it done. The clerk wants the the estate to be administered.
So if one of the other kids step up, they could they could potentially do it. But yeah, you don't have to. No one, no one, no one can make you do. No one can make you do that.
Well, and and the mom came to the oldest, and that's just kind of the way things go, right? You're the oldest in the family, and maybe just have that conversation. Maybe you're not comfortable doing it.
Well, you know, the the other thing I would I would the other thing I would say is you definitely want someone. I don't. I don't know. I won't say that. But yeah, you gotta say it, man.
You were. You have the sense of. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan. A lot of people coming here, they're like they'll have two kids and they'll have two great kids that they, you know, the family gets along, and they want to make both of the kids co-executors.
I'm not a big fan of co-executors. I'm a fan of just saying, hey, this one kid do it. You know, you can tell the other kid, "Hey, I just did it because they're the oldest," or "I did it because they were local," or "I did it because they have the time to do it." But just that's not what the question is asking. But just in general, I am not a fan of co-executors when we don't have to do it that way. You have options.
Certainly, have an estate plan if you do have a parent that you know is pulling you into this. I mean, have the conversation with them again. Opportunity to get on the calendar with Whitaker and Hamer and talk about these things. Again, a consult on estate planning, no cost, no obligation. Call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You're not obligated to become a client if you grab one of these appointments. Again, there's no price tag on this one. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Just get some information.
You can also visit the website; it's good resource, and you can sign up there as well. Wh dot lawyer. We'll continue with our questions to our lawyers on estate planning. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Back right 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.
Judeca County Radio. We are back, and your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners at the firm Whitaker and Hamer. They practice law right here in the great state of North Carolina, offices all over this state, down on the coast, Morehead City, over near Charlotte and Gastonia, but right here in the Triangle area, you got Fuquay, over in Goldsboro, Clayton Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with our attorneys and hit these questions.
Estate planning is our category today. If you've got some questions of your own, you can grab one of our complimentary consults. Meaning you're not paying for it, and you're not obligated to become a client. But you can get a you know it's a good jumping off point. You can ask some questions and see if you're headed in the right direction, or if you want to start that estate planning conversation.
Grab one of the consults nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven Seven two seven thousand or the website great place to sign up as well as a resource for you wh dot lawyer. All right, so here's your next question, gentlemen. We just had another baby. Does that make our old will invalid? That is the category.
So here's the big question. My wife and I signed wills about seven years ago when we had two kids. Since then, we've had a third child, bought a different house, and changed jobs. Our wills specifically name our First two children, and leave everything to them equally. If we're both gone, we assumed our youngest would automatically be included because she's our child.
But a friend told us that might not be true. Would North Carolina law protect our youngest, or could she accidentally be left out? Most when you when you go in when you go in to meet with an attorney to talk about estate planning. Afterborn children is a topic that that comes up. Are you still building your family?
You know, but but most wills are drafted to include. We call it afterborn children, children born after you've done your your estate plan.
So most wills are drafted in a way so that that afterborn child is is included, just like the ones that are. Named a lot of wills don't even name kids specifically. You know they'll just name your children. Like a lot of people got a will twenty years ago, and you know it just has generic references to kids who don't exist yet. But there is a statute too that that can help out.
You know, if that if that happens and your will's not drafted in such a way, but I think for most estate planning attorneys, they're going to include afterborn children because you talk about afterborn children. You talk about children that might be adopted later. That's a little trickier of a of a legal quagmire if you do your estate plan, and you later adopt adopt a child.
So anyway, we usually ask those questions. That's usually something you think about, but your will should take that. Possibility into account and and draft for it. Yeah, I think good drafting, a hallmark of of a well drafted estate plan. And we talk about this with folks all the time is make it as future proof as humanly possible.
And that's not to say that you can't have some kind of significant life event that you know warrants revisiting it. But for the very most part, we're going to do everything we can to to make it so that. We account for these situations, and that's the exact type of situation that we can certainly account for. You know, I'm going. You know, I'm this year.
I'm hitting the big, the big five zero, right?
So this year I'm hitting the big five zero, and I'm, I'm, I'm going through and I'm revisiting. You know, a lot of things that I put in place five, ten, fifteen years ago. Um, am I in there? You put me in there, Joshie. You keep playing your cards right, Morgan, and you got to yes, yes, adopt me, yes.
But but I'm reviewing things that I haven't you know touched in a while, just because you get busy time. You know, I'm I'm literally doing estate planning every week, but still doing my own estate planning is is still something that I can easily put off, like like we all do, even though I deal in that. And so you know, I have I have a kid about to be eighteen. Just, just trying to think things through and and and get everything situated.
So, you always need, like Joe said, you always need to be thinking about it. You know, if you have a if you have a new kid, that's a really great reason to go update your estate plan or to get an estate plan if you don't if you don't have one already. But Most most attorneys are going to draft for this kind of thing ahead of time. All right, let's move to our next question, gentlemen. Again, estate planning opportunity to get on the calendar with Whitaker and Hamer.
No cost or obligation. You've got questions about estate planning? Maybe there's a personal injury case that you're facing. This again, no cost, and you're not obligated to become a client, but you can get some information that can help you proceed. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
The number to call. That's nine one nine. Seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit wh dot lawyer. Grab one of those complimentary consults, estate planning or a personal injury case you are facing.
All right, here's our next category. Can I leave my house to one child and everything else to another child? And here's the question: I'm a widow with two adult children. My daughter has lived nearby, and she has helped maintain my house for the last ten years. My son lives in another state and rarely visits.
I want my daughter to inherit my house, which is worth around three hundred and fifty k, and my son to receive my investment accounts worth around three hundred thousand. My concern is that the value of these assets could change dramatically before I pass. If the house doubles in value, could my son challenge the will because he received less? You know, the the answer is probably not. Right.
the the The answer is, you know, you have dominion to leave your assets to whoever you want to leave them to. The only caveat here is, if you were gonna, if you if this if this widow was going to disinherit one of her kids, you have to expressly state that in your will. Right, you have to have a statement of disinheritance, and if if you are, that's not what's happening here. But just as a again as a caveat, it's presumed to be a mistake if you leave one of your natural heirs out of your will without a statement that you did in fact do it intentionally.
So here, she's not disinheriting either one. She's got she's got reasons why she wants to lead people the things she does. This isn't something that can usually, without other facts or something else happening, it's not something can really be challenged.
Now I will point out, you know, both both the will and the investment account are non-probate assets.
So her estate planning needs to really take that into an account. A will won't won't do a great job. Getting these assets to the will by itself, so she's got some things to think about. But to answer the question, no, this isn't really a good opportunity to challenge the will without some other facts that we don't have. Tell you having answers to these questions, and look—you've got your own scenario, and you need something customized to you.
An estate plan—it's you know something that's a lot of people are putting off, kicking the can down the road, so to speak. But an opportunity to at least have the conversation—you can do that nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit wh dot lawyer, get signed up for one of those complimentary consults. All right, let's just. At least start this next one. Here's the category: Dad died, and someone is still using the debit card.
So the question is: My father passed away about six weeks ago. My younger brother was living with him and helping with groceries and bills before he passed. We recently discovered that my brother has continued using my father's debit card after his passing to pay the electric bill, buy groceries, and even make a payment on his own truck. He says he was just. Keeping everything running until the estate gets opened is that allowed?
Could he be required to pay some money back? Hit that real quick. Yeah, he is not allowed. Yeah, his his you know when someone passes away, that that's it for you know check writing, debit cards. You're supposed to give notice to everyone that that the principal, the father, has passed away.
You know, if the son was using a power of attorney to do this stuff, your power of attorney it it dies with you, right?
So, if I give Morgan my power of attorney to manage my affairs, if I can't make my own decisions and I pass away, that's it. And we see that from time to time, where somebody's acting as power of attorney, and and maybe the truck payment's kind of weird here. That's borderline fraud, but we see that a lot, where people are trying to keep everything going, keep the utilities on, and anyway, it happens. But no, that's not allowed. You got questions about your possible estate plan?
Maybe you need some just a second look, second opinion. Call and grab one of our complimentary appointments: nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit. B. H. Dot Lawyer.
More questions coming up on Judith County. 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 Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker Hamer Law Firm, and they practice law right here in North Carolina. Offices right here in Raleigh, also Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, down on the coast in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with Josh and Joe and hit these different topics. We do want to remind you: complimentary consults on estate planning or maybe a personal injury case.
That you're facing, you got some questions, don't know how to proceed, you can get some answers, and again, it's not going to cost you anything, and you're not obligated to become a client. We are here to help, estate planning and personal injury case. Call the number nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit wh dot lawyer get signed up there as well, and that's a great resource for you. Wh dot lawyer.
All right, next category. My father left me his car, but there's still a loan on it.
So here's the question. My dad passed recently. It left me his pickup truck in the will. The truck is worth about thirty-eight thousand, but he still owes about twenty-two thousand on it. I assume the estate would pay off the loan and then transfer the truck to me.
My sister, who is the executor, says if I want the truck, I need to take responsibility for the debt. Who is right in this scenario? Does leaving someone a vehicle mean they receive it free and clear? This is another. This is another one of these questions where we would really benefit from seeing the will.
Typically, typically when you draft a will, the I think I think the. Default for most attorneys is going to be if you're left a truck or you're left a house or you're left something that has a, a loan like this truck, tied to it, secured by it, a house with a mortgage or an equity line or a reverse mortgage, you're usually going to take that asset with the associated debt, right? The debt. The debt comes with it, you know.
Sometimes people will draft wills and instruct the executor to to pay off debt before these things are transferred. Most of the times, that's not the case. Most of the times, if you inherit this this nice truck here, you're you're getting the loan, and they're both your responsibility.
Now, here's the the other trick to this is. The the the truck lender, the person who has the loan on the truck, may not be super psyched about you just continuing to make payments if the loan was in your deceased father's name. They may want you to refinance the truck into your name. And maybe you don't. Maybe you're not working when you get this inheritance.
Maybe you can't qualify for for a loan, and so you you might actually not be able to take this truck. You might have to. You might have to sell it. But yes, I think I think this is pretty much the normal scenario. your Your father leaves you his truck, unless he's instructed the executor otherwise in the will.
You are getting this this loan too.
So, some people would just sell it and and the equity is would be what they have left. Other people will, if they want the truck, they'll refinance it or pay it off. But I think it's pretty normal.
Okay.
All right.
Well, opportunity to get on the calendar with Whitaker and Hamer and have a conversation about what's going on with you, your possible estate plan. Maybe you currently are in the middle of something. You got some questions, or you need to start down the road of estate planning. This is a great way to kick the tires with Whitaker and Hamer. It's no cost, no obligation.
Appointment nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Meet with one of the fine attorneys here at Whitaker and Hamer and have the conversation nine one nine seven seven. Two seven thousand, book one. Today, you can also visit w h dot lawyer. All right, so here's a question: My aunt left me money, but she died before my grandmother.
That's an interesting category.
So here's the question: My aunt signed a will, leaving seventy five thousand dollars to my grandmother, who was her mother. Unfortunately, my grandmother died before, about three months before my aunt. My aunt never updated her will. I'm my grandmother's only surviving grandchild. Good God, man!
I'm wondering, I'm wondering whether that seventy-five thousand would now pass to me, or whether it goes somewhere else. What happens when someone named in a will passes before the person who made it? Holy moly, man! Ungodly brain teaser is this that you've gotten, us Morgan? I don't know, Morgan.
The that is a curve. You read that? Like my no offense to you personally, but you read that. My eyes crossed. You know, sometimes we come.
Sometimes we come to the studio and we all sit down. I feel like we have a lot of fun. Yeah, right. You know, like I get to talk to Joseph. I get to talk to to Morgan.
I feel like we have a lot of fun. And in some weeks, I come here, and I feel like I'm just taking the bar exam. I feel like I'm just sitting down, taking the bar exam, getting these getting these questions. But this question, this question, is designed to talk about what happens when a gift in a will lapses, right?
So that's that's a legal term, but basically, that's what happened here. Aunt was leaving thousand dollars. To her mom, I think that I think that makes it sound better, right?
So the aunt didn't have any kids, and and she did a will, and she said, "Hey, I want to leave seven seventy five thousand dollars to my mom." Um, and the aunt dies, right? The aunt was the last one of that generation, right?
So all of her siblings were were gone, and um. You know, then then the grandmother passed away, and and so our our question asker is the only one left, right? He's down the chain a bit, he's down the family tree a little bit, but everybody else has died, and he's wondering if he's still going to get the seventy five thousand dollars, and and the answer is, probably. He's probably he's going to get a piece of it, right? It just depends on who's alive, who's not.
You know, if I leave if I leave seventy five thousand dollars in my will to Morgan. Cause I like Morgan. Thanks. Hey, I was like, Hey, Morgan. When no takebacks.
Congratulations, Morgan. It's on the record. Was this starts? This question starts off good, right? Seventy-five.
But then Morgan dies. Ah. See, that's I have to kill you off. I give you seventy-five, man. Wait, wait, wait.
But then in our example, you die, and only one of us is left. And then I then I then I pass away. I haven't updated my will, so my will still says seventy five thousand dollars to to my good friend Morgan.
Well, Morgan's passed away. Does that seventy five thousand dollars go to his heirs? Right? And the answer is probably yes, unless I've drafted the will where I say if that bastard Morgan dies before me, whoa, whoa, whoa, bless. What's up with that?
Come on, man.
So. The answer to this very convoluted, mind-numbing question is yes. This guy probably still gets some share, if not all of the seventy-five thousand, depending on the facts. But this is just supposed to, you know, it's supposed to talk about laps. That's what it's supposed to talk about: laps and anti-laps statutes and fun things like that, which I'm sure are very boring.
On the radio, I loved it, man. Do more. There is a phone call for you, Josh. It's my parents. The opportunity to get on the calendar with Whitaker and Hamer.
A serious subject, though, is estate planning. It's a complimentary consult. Meet with an attorney. It's not going to cost you anything, and you're not obligated to become a client. But you are going to have have your questions answered.
See if you're headed in the right direction. And a lot of you out there have been thinking about estate planning, but you haven't pulled the trigger, so to speak.
Now's the opportunity to come on in and at least start the conversation. Grab one of the consults nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. The website too is there for you. You can sign up there.
Wh dot lawyer. That's wh dot lawyer. And if you're facing a personal injury case, this is an excellent opportunity to get some questions answered and maybe get a direction to go in if you're kind of confused or just don't know how to proceed. Grab one of the consults as well. Again, personal injury case nine one nine seven seven two seven.
It's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit the website wh dot lawyer. We've got more Judika County with Josh and Joe coming up. Again, powered by our good friends at Whittaker and Hamer Law Firm. We're back right 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 Whittaker 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. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker Hamer Law Firm, and they practice law right here in the great state of North Carolina. Offices placed across our great state for you and your convenience: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on. And again, complimentary consult, estate planning, or maybe a personal injury case you're facing. Grab one of the consults with Whittaker and Hamer and get some questions answered and maybe a direction to proceed in. Again, it's not going to cost you anything, and you're not obligated to become a client.
Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit the website wh dot lawyer. All right, attorneys, here we go.
Next one up, category. My parents made me trustee, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do. That's the category. Here's the question. Parents created a revocable living trust.
About twelve years ago, named themselves as trustees. They named me as successor trustee, but we never really discussed. What that means? My father passed last year. My mother has recently been diagnosed with dementia.
The trust owns their house and several investment accounts. Am I supposed to take over now, or do I have to wait until Mom passes? How do I prove to the bank that I have this authority?
So this question is a lot more manageable than the the question we had before. Yeah, man. Yeah, no name calling, Josh. No, no name calling this time.
Well, so this is this is this is good for a couple of things.
So one, you know, when we do your estate plan and we finish it up, you usually will leave the office. Like we're all done. We came together to sign. You'll. Hopefully, understand the documents you signed.
Right? That's that. I hope we've done that job where you understand what the trust is, when it comes into play, how you you utilize it, and then we're going to give you your docs, and we'll give you a digital copy. And we usually tell you, hey, your successor trustees forward this to them, so they know that you've done it. They know what attorneys did this for you, and then.
You know, kind of talk to talk to your here, talk to your kids about it so they know what's going on. This is a tough spot to be in, right?
So the mom is, and we talked about this last show. Being diagnosed with dementia doesn't necessarily mean that you can't handle your own affairs. It probably means there's going to come a time where you can't handle your own affairs, and so here. The the the is this the son or daughter? Doesn't tell us.
The son is saying, "Hey, I'm I'm a successor trustee. What should I do now?" And and the question is, the trust should tell you what to do, right? If if the mom usually the trust will say if the mother, you know, has been is it been deemed incompetent? Usually, there's language in there about a treating physicians or two physicians, or you know, there's some there's some level.
So that as a successor trustee, you can you can prove like, hey, here is the trust. I am the successor trustee. I am supposed to step in if this happens. Here is the letters from the physician saying that hey, this has happened. Um, but it's a difficult situation to be in.
And every you know, every bank's probably going to be a little different about what they they want to see. But but usually, trust the bare minimum in trust is treating physician. Has deemed her to be, you know, incompetent to handle her own affairs. But just like anything else, when we talk about wills or trust or leases or contracts, me and Joe are always like, well, we'd actually like to see the document, right, to answer this question.
So here to answer this question, we'd really need to see the trust that was created 12 years ago, because in that trust, it will tell you exactly. It should, right? It should tell you exactly what's needed for the successor trustee to step in while one of the Original trustees is alive, and what proves incompetency? Because that's that's all in, and it should be super clearly spelled out, like you said. Assuming a well drafted trust, which I think we assume we drafted these documents, which means they're incredibly well drafted, right?
I've I've seen I've seen. I have seen trusts drafted by attorneys. I assume attorneys. I've seen some templates, right? I've seen people have brought in a lot of stuff once someone's dead, and yeah, some of them aren't very clear, right?
Or some of them are meant for other states, and and there needs to be some interpretation or. But yeah, if we if you if you go to a reputable attorney and you get an estate plan drafted, this is something the trust should cover pretty extensively because really that's the whole purpose of the trust.
So, all right, let's get to this next one. It might be our final one. Here's the category: My mother put me on her bank account. Is that money mine when she passes? Category there.
Here's the real question: My mother added me to her checking and savings accounts, and this was about five years ago because I was helping pay the bills. There's approximately ninety thousand in the accounts. Mom recently passed, and my two brothers say the money should be divided equally among the three of us. Because her will leaves everything equally, the bank says I'm listed as a joint owner. Does that automatically mean I get to keep the entire ninety thousand?
So I want to I want to use this question for maybe a way that it's not necessarily intended to insult Morgan. Is that? Yeah, you've got that going on today.
So when we talk to you about your estate plan. We've already talked about it several times this show. We talked about, hey, what's going into probate? What will the will actually control? And what's non-probate, right?
Because we've talked about assets that don't really care about the will, right? We talked about life insurance doesn't care about your will. Right. If if my will says split everything with my wife and my kids, but then I have a life insurance policy that just names my wife, my wife's getting the five hundred thousand dollars of life insurance. My kids aren't getting anything because the will does not control.
Non probate assets, right? And so, here I think we have a good example. Right now, that bank account with just the mom's name on it. Let's say the mom hasn't done anything. The mom doesn't have any payable on death beneficiaries.
No one's been added to the account. That account is just in the mom's name. If the mom dies and there is ninety thousand dollars in that account, it goes through probate. For better or worse, it's going to be controlled by the will. If the will says, "Hey, split this with my three kids," that's what's going to happen.
Okay.
Here, the mom has made a change. She's added someone to the account. She's added the daughter to the account, and we don't know how she added the daughter. Right? I think that's the point of this question.
There's all kind of different ways you can quote unquote add somebody to your account. Right? Maybe the daughter's her POA, and she's just noting on the account that my daughter is my power of attorney, so my daughter can sign checks. If that's the case, then this ninety thousand still goes via the will, via probate, split up between all three kids. If she adds the daughter as a joint owner, or she adds the daughter as a payable on death beneficiary, beneficiary, or she adds the daughter in any other way, now this money that she, I'm sure, the mom intended to be split between all the three kids, that's not gonna happen anymore.
Now the daughter just gets the ninety thousand dollars. The bank's just going to see, hey, you added your daughter; she's a joint owner. You are dead. This is the daughter's money, and they're just going to. And now the daughter can do whatever she wants to with the money.
Maybe the daughter still splits it up. Even t here is probably some tax consequences for doing that because the daughter has technically inherited the money. Yeah. Or the daughter could be like, "Hey, I deserve this ninety thousand. I took care of my mom, and I am just going to keep it.
and T here is nothing you can do about it. That's true. T here is not really much the other kids could really do about it. And so, I've had all kinds of folks come in, and they want to make all these provisions in their will, and they want to make sure certain things get split up, but they're not probate assets. They're not going to go in the will.
The will's not going to control these things. And so, I think." An experienced estate planning attorney should see that, should recognize that, and give you some ideas, some workarounds, some some things like that. But that's that's kind of how I see this question: is somebody's taking a probate asset, they're gonna they think it's gonna get split up between all their kids, and in and accidentally, probably without knowing it, making it one kid's asset after she's gone. And I think this happens. I see this happen a lot.
This happens a lot. Yeah. Well, and and again, we. Families sometimes they don't get along. You'd love it if everybody came to the table and just wanted to take care of business and do it in a nice way.
But that's why estate planning is so important, and you need to get on top of this. And the opportunity to get the ball rolling again, cost-free. You're not obligated to become a client, but these are important steps to take. Grab one of our consults with Whittaker and Hamer nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. It's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
The website too is a great place to go. W H dot lawyer. You can get signed up there. It's also a resource for you. W H dot lawyer.
But the complimentary consult, estate planning, or if you're facing that personal injury case and got some questions, grab one of the consults. nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or W H dot lawyer. Another edition of Judica County is in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick. See you on the radio next week.
I don't wanna be your Judecca 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@mwhlaw.com.
