Top Legal Headlines & Estate Planning Q&A

This week on Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, going to get into a number of different topics, including the latest on the Michigan school shooters. The parents have been charged.

We'll talk about that. And again, they've been sentenced as well. Arizona 1864 abortion ban has been reinstated and estate planning. We'll go deep on estate planning and things you need to know. That's all coming up next on Judica County Radio. Judica and Hamer presents 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. They're your host, your law firm for life.

They've got offices located conveniently for you in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. And again, just a reminder, Josh and Joe are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. We get into all kinds of different topics. When it comes to legalese and we'll start with some of the top headlines, guys, I know you want to get into this, but we're also going to venture into estate planning, things you really need to know. We'll also have some estate planning Q&A on the program. And we'd like to also promote the fact that we have five free consults when it comes to estate planning.

Again, they're complimentary. We'll tell you more about those as we move through the program. But again, those free consults are available today. If you're listening to the show and if you grab one.

Just leave your contact information and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And again, absolutely. Leave the checkbook at home. Complimentary. All right, Josh, what do we got first? We got a lot of stuff. We got a we got a meaty.

I would say we got a meaty show today. A lot of different topics we want to talk about. You know, me and Joseph, we get together. We always like to talk about estate planning. So we'll do that. We'll talk about estate planning. We'll talk about wills. We'll talk about trust.

There are a couple of stories in the news that I wanted to talk about that have legal significance. And so I figured we do that. And you'll have to excuse me if I get distracted. Baseball season started. So now I got afternoon baseball. I got that on in front of tough life, tough life, watching baseball and trying to do your radio show.

Focus. I got I got Braves Mets in front of me. And and so I have to keep up with that too periodically. But lots of stuff to do today. How are you, Joseph?

I'm good, man. I'm not watching baseball, but I'm looking at my wall and I get about the same enjoyment out of that as I do watching baseball, man. You know, I'm not personally a watch baseball guy.

I go to baseball in person. I can get behind that. But, you know, if it's not a big high stakes game, man, it's tough.

It's tough for me to watch and enjoy. Well, you know, we talked about it. We're a couple of weeks removed from from NC State's run to the to the Final Four. And and we had talked about a couple of shows ago how betting got started and how that made you personally rich. I won. I won quite a quite a bit of money on free bets. And Clemson, I spent a lot of free bets on Clemson and Clemson was Clemson was doing really good, too. And obviously we know how that that ended. The Final Four was the was the end of the run. But the point being, I built up all this money and I'm slowly losing it all betting on base.

So that's I've got I've got to really double down and watch my baseball to get off this losing streak that I've been on. And that's called the House Always Wins. I think that's the rule. Right. Well, you stay in it long enough. Well, you know, I took I took their free money and I made some money and I did take some money out, right, and put it in the bank.

So I'm up for a career. That's something that's important to understand. Betting isn't about winning or losing money. It's about the fun you have and the friendships you make along the way. And if you look at it like that, you can't lose. You always win. Yeah, you always win.

I'm going to start a betting hotline for support and it's just going to be like helping people that are addicted. It's all right. You should you should look at it this way. Maybe you've lost your family's money and you've mortgaged your house.

But did you have a good time? Yeah, you got it. You just got to double down to make up for your losses. That's what you have to do. I told you that's not the winning strategy. You don't chase.

You can't chase the dragon, as we said. So I've I'm trying to I'm trying to I'm trying to figure out and I put a couple of bets on golf. I don't usually I don't usually bet on on golf.

But anyway, that's not what I think. That's one thing I've always heard, man, that not a gambling show, not a gambling show, legal show, lawyers are hosting it. I've always heard that when you start betting on things that you know nothing about, that's when it's going really well for you. That's when you know you don't have a problem. Look, man, there's only there's only so many times NC State basketball is going to go to the Final Four.

So I can't you know, it's not always available for me to bet on. But well, we do want to stay for the record. What a magical run. Congratulations to all the Wolfpack fans on also women's basketball and basketball.

Really just impressive. Both making the Final Four. So congrats to the Wolfpack. I think I told you this will be my last betting story because I think I've already mentioned it. But I did put a free bet on the Wolfpack men and women both winning their tournaments. And that didn't happen.

We know that now. That didn't happen. But that would have paid off twenty nine grand if it had happened. Yeah, that would have been cool, man. And then you could have that have been nice.

I'd have taken a few weeks off from the radio show. I don't need this anymore. All right. All right.

I do. Morgan mentioned it, but we do we're trying to do this every week, every other week, every every two weeks or so. But we do try to open our schedules up for our state planning attorneys and offer our listeners that we usually say it's the first five to call in. But don't let that you know, we try to get everybody who calls in for a free estate planning consult. And that is not a pressure tactic.

That's not a sales tactic. Attorneys don't don't operate that way. But most of the time, if we get you in and talk to you, see what you have in place, see what you might need to do. We can make some suggestions.

And I rarely meet with people who don't need to do something. So you want to sit down with me and Joseph, talk about your state plan. We're always happy to do that. We'll be talking about estate planning a little bit more today. We have we always like these top 10 list of do's and don'ts and top 10 things to be on the lookout for. And I like these lists.

They're good at creating conversations for for me and Joseph and talk about things. There's a couple of news stories I just wanted to touch on that were that were in the news here recently. The first one, you know, there was a the school shootings are always tough to talk about.

That's a disturbing trend. But there was the one in Michigan. I got pulled the people's always forget their names. What were the names of these folks? So these were the they're just they're called the Michigan school shooters parents, but they have names.

Jennifer and James Crumbly. They are the one they got charged with involuntary manslaughter in Michigan. Of course, their son had a gun. They bought their son a gun. Their son had there was a shooting.

Four people died. The son was found guilty of murders already in prison. This is the first time really that. Well, I think it's the first time we've seen a trial. I know some other states have charged parents of kids who who murdered folks at school.

But those have usually kind of settled. There's been like a plea bargain that hasn't really gone to trial. So the Crumbly's are the first parents that were that they got tried and they were convicted. And so this is a this is a precedent. You know, they got they got convicted of involuntary manslaughter for basically.

Well, a couple of things. Joseph, did you see this? I did see it, man.

I saw it. And, you know, if you hear it without the facts, it kind of strikes you. But then you hear the facts and think it makes a lot more sense if you hear the, you know, egregious nature.

I guess is the way I'd explain it in terms of the number of warning signs that were deliberately overlooked over a prolonged period of time. It kind of strikes you, you know. But yeah, very interesting precedent to be set going forward.

What? Yeah. And that's what it is, is it's a precedent.

So it's the first time this has been this has happened. I think you'll see some other states try to try to use this as a as a way maybe in their minds to kind of prevent school shootings, which is what we all want. Right. Nobody wants those things to happen.

It actually bothered me a little bit. I'm I'm the kind of attorney where I'm always I want less things to be a crime. Right. I feel like, you know, there's too many things that are that are criminal that maybe shouldn't be like sports sports betting. That's very different than what we're talking about. But that was a criminal. You could be charged with that. You know, you run your your football squares for the Super Bowl down at the bar or you you do your NCAA tournament. You could technically be charged with a crime because that's gambling. Of course, not now. Gambling is sports. Gambling is legal.

And not to compare that, but just I always feel like we should err on making less things criminal than more things criminal. But here these these parents, there were certainly some bad facts here, like Joseph said. Right. They their kid was struggling with with mental health and there were some really obvious signs. And the the kid was kind of crying out for some help that he didn't get from the school, from his parents.

And then, of course, the parents on top of that went and bought him a handgun. So, you know, there's definitely these are definitely what we would call bad facts, but bad facts often make bad laws. Right. So this is the first time this has happened. And it's probably a just reward for the crumblies.

But how's this going to be used? You know, how are prosecutors? How's the government? How are they? How are other states?

How's the federal government? How are they going to use this to make certain things? What are parents going to be held liable for down the road? You know, how bad does your parenting have to be to be responsible for your kids selling crack or your kid doing, you know, getting in an accident in your car or drunk driving or, you know, what does this expand to? And that's how my my attorney brain always works is like, OK, well, this makes sense here for sure.

These people deserve something. But anyway, I was just trying to think about that. And just when I read when I read the legal news. Right. I look at it. I look at it that way. Like here's the thing that happened. It probably makes sense here. But how is this going to be used in a way that maybe doesn't make more sense?

And is that a precedent? And it does. And you're looking at it in a vacuum. You look at these facts and like you said, there's bad facts. And, you know, any any reasonable person can look at these facts and be and say, well, this is this rises to a level of something needs to be done about it. Right. But it's like you say, how's it?

What's the application? And it's a slippery slope. We say it a lot. And like you said, may you use the analogy, you know, in this situation, you're talking about a school shooting, a true tragedy, the loss of life. But where do you draw the line with the parents liability, criminal liability for the actions of their kids? And that's not to say that there shouldn't be any in any case, you know, but that's something that how do you define it? Like what you know, what are the elements of whatever the crime is that we're going to charge you with?

And I don't have the answer to that. Judica County radio, we're going to take a short break. We'll come back with more discussion on that topic. Plus, we're going to get to Arizona.

Eighteen sixty four abortion ban has been reinstated for that state. And also we'll get into estate planning. We've got basically a list getting your affairs in order.

We'll talk about that as well. We've got Q&A coming up again, focusing in on estate planning. You're listening to Judica County radio. We're back right after this. Judica County radio.

Welcome back. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners. Whitaker and Hamer law firm. They're your hosts, your law firm for life. They're practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina.

They've got offices conveniently located in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. And there are going to be consults available and they are complimentary. You leave the checkbook at home if you've got any questions about estate planning. Josh will tell you more about it. But jot this number down. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. And you can grab one of those complimentary consults. Josh. Yeah, Morgan, the consults. Well, we like to do that. We like me and Joseph like to talk to folks, like to talk to listeners, figure out what their estate plan is.

Do they need to trust? And the ones that we have done have been very productive and I've enjoyed it. So I want to keep doing that. So please, please call in. Like Morgan said, leave us your name, your number. You can leave us an email address.

We've got kind of an automated system that that will reach out to you and ask you some follow up questions and and see if we can see if we can help you with anything. But in that vein, you know, me and Joseph always like to talk about estate planning. We've got a list. This list came to us from the National Institute on Aging.

All right. So the National Institute on Aging put out a list called Getting Your Affairs in Order. It's a checklist, documents to prepare for the future. So getting your affairs in order. And so we got a little checklist.

We like to talk about these things. So number one on this checklist plan for your estate and finances. And so it's telling you, depending on your financial situation, you may need different legal documents. But Joseph, this always gets us back to talking about the documents in a basic estate plan. So we say estate plan. Some people think about wills.

Some people think about trust. Some people think about power of attorneys. But a basic estate plan. What documents would be in that?

Well, I mean, the answer kind of depends, man. You know, how do you define a basic estate plan? What I think I would define a basic estate plan as. I mean, how basic are you? Are we talking right? Like if we're talking about an estate plan at its most basic level, I think you're just talking about a will.

Right. Like a simple will. That's as basic as it gets.

You know, we're we're very careful when we do consults because we want to make sure that everybody has a full picture. No understanding because you could you could bring someone in and you could talk to him about the need for a will, obviously. But there's a lot of other things that, in my opinion, a basic estate plan and compass. You know, when you're talking general power of attorney, health care, power of attorney, there's more elements to it than just that will. But if we're talking at its most basic form, you're talking about just just a will. Right. Like that's that is technically an estate plan.

Right. So if you have a will, of course, the will is the document that when you're gone, that's what your heirs would take down to the courthouse and probate. And that kind of details who you want to have your stuff.

It can be as detailed or not detailed as you want. Most basic wills deal with real property. They deal with personal property.

And then if you have any specific requests, you'd get them in there. But that's going to be on that's going to be probated down at the clerk's office and you'll have an executor to get everything approved by the clerk. That's what probate is. But but yeah. And then you build from there. So, you know, once you once you.

Yeah. Once you figured out that maybe you got maybe you got some stuff you don't want to go through probate. And that's when we start talking about trust. And there's a million trillion different kinds of trust, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. But, you know, a trust can keep things out of probate.

But then, Joseph, like you said, then you got some power of attorney. So like if you're going to plan for what happens when you die, you can go and start planning for how you get medical treatment at end of life. Who's going to handle your affairs at the end of life when you can't? I mean, a lot of a lot of folks, you know, when a lot of folks think their estate plan, they think what's going to happen to my things when I die?

Because that's a big that's the most crucial component of it. But what it's kind of short sighted to think that way, because you also have to think what what about the situation where I lack capacity, where I lose capacity? My mind's not functioning correctly, whether I'm completely unconscious because of some medical issue or whether I just you know, I've got some advanced stage dementia, whatever it may be, your estate plan has to a good estate plan has to account for those situations as well. And that's where, you know, we talk about the most basic basement level estate plan being just a will. But I would argue that your most basic level of estate plan needs to also include some element of a general power of attorney and a healthier power of attorney at minimum. That's what number two on our list is plan for your future health care.

And so it talks about a living will, which we don't we don't really have a living will in North Carolina. It also talks about durable power of attorney for health care and advanced directive. And so we do that for a lot of folks.

Yeah. And that's kind of what I was touching on. You know, you're you're a good estate plan is going to plan for your future health care in those situations where, you know, you're you're unable to make those decisions, but you're not technically dead. And, you know, one thing about these power of attorneys, they can have value outside of your incapacity as well. So a general power of attorney can be a tool that is just a tool of convenience and can help you out.

If you're out of out of the country, you're not able to make it somewhere. And you've got somebody that you trust that you can appoint as your attorney. In fact, it can do a lot of good for you in that sense.

But but that is correct. The planning for future health care is an essential element of any any good estate plan. So number three on the list I really like, because this is not really legal advice necessarily.

It's just good, practical, common sense advice. Keep your important papers and copies of legal documents in one place until I call them your fiduciaries, your executors, your trustees, your power power agents. Tell them where your originals are. Put your put your life insurance there. A list of accounts that you currently have, like what banks they're at.

You know, everything's online these days, like you use Fidelity or, you know, Edward Jones or whoever those logins like. Don't assume people know. I represent a lot of states where we struggle to find your assets. And they're not always specifically listed in a will or trust.

You don't really do that a lot of times. So you need almost like a separate log of if you've got a lot of stuff like where is your stuff? And let people know where that's where that is, because people need those originals and your estate plans only as good as the, you know, the assets that we can identify that we know about. And, you know, if you if you don't if there's no way for your your fiduciaries, as you say, to know about these things, and it's how do we capture it? Right.

Like, so it's yeah, it's a big piece of the puzzle. I've had a lot of folks come in and someone is, you know, their father's passed away or their mother's passed away or an aunt's passed away. And they're like, well, we don't know if she had a will right or he had a will. We haven't found one. We're still looking. We're waiting for back in the day, used to wait for bank statements to come in the mail.

And now a lot of people get them by email so you can have to figure it out. But tell people just generally where things are. So people have an idea, you know, because once you're dead, it's hard for it's hard for people to figure out. That's one of the things that we we try to do here.

Right. Is educating you on what other you know, we're going to give you these documents, but we're not going to hand you these documents. And it's like we're throwing you to the wolves. We're going to give you some resources. We're going to give you some additional things that, you know, maybe we don't fill out an office, but that you can use to kind of help guide the folks who are going to have to navigate all this once you're gone. And that's the most important thing. Like the entire purpose of this is to make things easy on your loved ones when you pass.

And there's some information that you're going to have to get to them in order to make that that possible. You know, because otherwise you're you're you can spend all the money in the world. You can have the most incredibly complex, well-crafted estate plan. But without conveying certain information to the folks you're leaving behind, it's not going to make a big difference for you.

And it's still going to be very problematic for them. And with that information, you're also going to want to take an opportunity to let you know, let people know if you've made funeral arrangements. Right. If you've already prepaid for that or you've got certain things that you want to, you want your your fiduciaries to do for you after your dead spread. And that's assuming that you're you haven't come to our office or another office who does things similar to us, because, again, that's all going to be part of your estate plan. If you come see us, we're going to get you know, we're going to capture all of that information. And, you know, that's that's not necessarily the type of stuff that's going to appear in your your will itself or in a trust if you put a trust together.

But we're going to have some additional supplemental type of information that can be provided so that all of your wishes can be carried out. But without that, if you don't tell somebody or if it's not there, then you're again, you're you're you're they're going to play whatever music they want to at your funeral. They're not going to play that song that you specifically into the road, baby. Yeah. Yeah.

I want you singing that at my funeral. All right. I'll do that for you, buddy.

Judica County radio. We are talking estate planning and again, getting your affairs in order. It is a good list. We're going to continue the list coming up a little bit later in the program. But we are going to get to a question and answer portion of the program dealing with estate planning.

That's coming up next. Want to remind you, too, we do have complimentary consults on estate planning available. All you've got to do is call eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Leave your contact information.

Put your email address in there and they'll send you the information again. They'll set up that free consult. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. You need to have your affairs in order.

You need to do it obviously well in advance. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. When it comes to estate planning, we've got more Judica County with Q&A coming up next. Judica County radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.

They have offices conveniently located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. And if you are facing a legal situation, have a legal question, you can always call the firm and get some answers. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. Leave your contact info briefly what the call is about. And an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And you can email your questions to the show. We'll answer them on a future broadcast.

Info at Judica County dot com. We're dialing it in on wills and estate planning. Question and answer. What? Just just as a jumping off point, we were talking about what was the name of the band for Shiba's Pizza? Rockfire, something, something, something. I was like the express or. Yeah, right. Let's call it that.

Rockfire Express. What was the Chuck E. Cheese band called? It's funny you mention that because we are obviously very, very much in sync right now because I had looked up the Chuck E. Cheese band and they're called the Munch's Make Believe Band. Oh, I remember. And by comparison, there's no comparison, man.

There's no comparison inferior in every single way. The Chuck E. Cheese band? Yeah. And let me give you some of the names. First of all. I would like to petition that one of us, I don't care who it is, me, you, Morgan, somebody legally change our name to Duke LaRue. I want someone to do that. Well, you're a Duke fan.

I think it should be you. It's spelled Duke, but it's spelled like D-O-O-K, like perfect. Like Duke. Like Duke LaRue. Duke LaRue. Anyways, these are the names of the Chuck E. Cheese, the Munch's Make Believe Band.

You've got, let me find it. I had it. And then I started digging deeper because I was like, man, this is terrible. Well, Munch's was like a scary looking grimace guy. Yeah, he looks just like grimace. Yeah.

How do they not get sued for that? That's insane to me. But it was like Mr.

Munch, Pasquale, something another, Chuck E. Cheese, which apparently stands for Charles E. Charles Entertainment Cheese. And what a downgrade, man. Yeah.

The showbiz, I think you make up a band like that. You got to, you got to have fun with it. Yeah, I agree, man. I'm very disappointed. Jasper, like these are not, this isn't bring back. I hate I never experienced showbiz pizza because I felt like I was robbed of a crucial development point in my life.

And maybe I'd be doing something amazing right now instead of sitting here. I spent, I bet you I spent $10,000 worth of showbiz tokens playing that four player Ninja Turtle game. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

So they've got, you know, they've got those now too. It's not that expensive. You can buy a four player, the original arcade machine, put it in your house. You could do that.

I could. You've got three kids, man. You and your three kids could do that. Or maybe you and two of your kids you like and me. We can make the other one watch.

You'll get a turn later, Mikey. Here's my next question. Again, we're focusing on really wills estate planning in general, obviously, which really includes, you know, talking about power of attorneys and trust and things like that. And we're not. That's not our focus today.

Our focus really is really just the will, even though that's one piece of the estate planning question. But here here is the next question I had and I thought it was interesting. I don't think we've ever talked about this on the program, but I see it all the time. I see where people have done it or they ask me or they want to do it.

But here's the question. I want to disinherit someone. Do I need to leave them at least a dollar? So their question is they want to disinherit someone. Do they leave them out completely or do they have to?

Because I think that's a big it's a big urban myth. Maybe that's true in some states or maybe, you know, but do I have to leave them something? Can I completely just leave them out to disinheriting an heir?

Yeah. So, no, you don't leave them anything, man. Legally speaking, you can disinherit someone. You can expressly state I want to disinherit this person. And what you're doing, in essence, is you're treating that person as if they predecease you. And now you could you could you can just disinherit them. You can disinherit them and their descendants.

Like, again, if you're crafting your estate plan, you have flexibility. Right. Like, that's the beautiful thing about it. So if I like if I hate Mike, I love my kids. Right.

But let's pretend like I'm you or someone else. And I hate this kid. I don't like my kid, but I like my grandbaby that this kid gave me. I like the grandbaby.

He can't help his dad is terrible. Right. Right. I can disinherit one level.

I can disinherit both levels. Again, you've got maximum flexibility now. Now that you say that and you talk about the fact of do you want to give them something? There is what the law allows. And then there's the practical reality of of the fact that a will can be contested.

Sure. And so, you know, when we talk about a carefully crafted estate plan, there's nothing there's really little you can do. There's things you can do. But but still, one of your kids, if you disinherit them, they could potentially go after your death and try to contest your will and say you lack capacity. You lacked, you know, you whatever, whatever grounds they want to try to contest it on. So the important thing in drafting is just to be explicitly clear about what you want to do.

And like now. So there's really very little difference between giving somebody a dollar and then disinheriting them. Right. Like there's practically speaking, that person's not going to be very thrilled either way. And they could arguably contest either way if you.

Well, you know, I don't interrupt your thoughts. I think I know where you're going there, but I will throw this out there. You if you leave them a dollar, they're involved. Like if you if this will gets probated and you go down the clerk's office and they open up an estate file and you leave them a dollar. That means they're going to get all the notices that go out in the estate. Right. So they'll get they'll they'll be able to see your your accounting of what's what's in the estate, what other people are getting.

You might need them to sign a receipt. Right. To get the estate closed out. A lot of times people want to clerks want to see that, you know, your your executor, you know, whoever's in control of your state, they have to report to the clerk. Right.

So in this instance, nothing was in trust. Your will is is carving up your your estate. Someone's in charge of it.

They have to go downtown and open it. And a clerk is going to require a bunch of filings. One of the filings is a is a 90 day inventory that's going to list everything that's here in your estate. There's going to be a final accounting where the executor disperses.

Right. So if two kids are getting it 50 50 and your third kid gets a buck, they're going to have to talk to that kid. That kid is a beneficiary. So you're making them all have to work together to get your estate closed out. And I'm sure the kids you disinherited and left the buck isn't going to be super easy to deal with.

And all that for a buck. Good Lord. So it's it's definitely easier, I think, if you're going to disinherit someone. Like Joseph was saying, we usually are explicit. Yeah. Yeah. That's my you should be explicit. Yeah. You've definitely got to say you're doing it. So in your will, I mean, it can it can technically be a sentence. You know, I'm going to disinherit kid number blank, your kid, whoever you don't even love them enough to give them a name.

And but usually we we add language. So there's, you know, the instance like, hey, I've really had to help this kid out. He's pretty much gotten his inheritance while I'm alive. I don't want him to get anything else.

Or, you know, this kid, you know, moved to Canada and doesn't talk to us. And I don't I don't want him to benefit. And that's good. You know, that's that's the more obviously it's legally we talk about legal sufficiency, which just stating I'm going to disinherit legally sufficient.

The more of those details that you can put it in a carefully drafted manner, the more unassailable the will will be. Sure. Yeah, I like that word. Unfettered. Yeah, I like that word. We're really using our vocab.

We're keeping them coming. The you know, we've seen people like you may love your I mean, use this example because this came up not too long ago, but you may love your daughter. But your daughter may marry.

I do. Your daughter may marry someone you you despise. I can tell you that's exactly what's going to happen. That's what's going to happen. And so there's things you can do, too.

You can leave your daughter things or, you know, if the spouse is that bad, you can skip and just set up a trust for the grandkids, like their kids, you know, or you could put her money into a into a trust so that it's harder for a spouse to to get their hands on, put somebody in charge of it. But there's all kinds of way to exclude people. But yeah, I don't like that. I don't like you definitely don't have to leave him a dollar. That's that's not a law.

Nor has it ever been in North Carolina. We specialize in petty estate plans, right? Like you could be as petty as you want to be in administering this estate.

One hundred pennies. The but you can you can do that and you don't have to leave him a dollar. You just really a detail detail oriented because you're you're you know, those those kind of folks, the kind of folks that get disinherited are usually the kind of folks who who will contest things if there's any.

Yeah, those aren't usually the nice the nice reason. They just let it go. Yeah. Those are the ones. Judica County radio, we are going to take a short break. Remember, your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.

And again, we have offices located Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. If you are looking at a legal situation, if you have questions about what's going on, you can always call the firm and get answers to those questions. The number is eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about. An attorney with Whitaker Hamer will be in touch and you can always email your questions to the show. Info at Judica County Dotcom will answer them on a future broadcast. We've got more question and answer when it comes to wills.

Don't go anywhere. Welcome back into Judica County radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm offices located Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina, Gastonia and Moorhead City. They are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And the motto is Whitaker and Hamer, your law firm for life.

If you've got a legal situation that you are facing, you've got some questions. You can get some answers by calling Whitaker and Hamer. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And you can always email your questions to the show and we'll answer them on a future broadcast. Info at Judica County Dotcom. That's info at Judica County Dotcom.

Josh. All right. Well, we're going to keep on keeping on with the estate planning theme, specifically questions about wills. And so I've got my next question queued up here. I'm adding a little bit to it.

So the question is, I thought having a will avoids probate. And then I'm adding a little question. I'm adding, what's the deal with that? That's what I like. I like that.

I like how you did your hands. I thought having a will avoids probate. What's the deal with that?

Yeah, no, no, that's the deal is that you thought wrong. Theoretical question asker person. You know, we would refer to probate as the involvement of the clerk of court having to go down to the courthouse in any fashion and having a will in and of itself. That avoids intestacy. It avoids intestacy.

Exactly. So it avoids it avoids everything passing by statute. But you still have to take that will and you literally have to probate that will. That is the term for what you're going to do with that will. So, you know, even in an estate plan where if we've drafted your estate plan and we've crafted it super carefully, and we say we've made sure to take care of all of the conveyances of everything that you own outside of probate, meaning that everything's in a pass, you know, whether it's already in a trust, however that may be, we're still going to craft a will for you, right? Because it's kind of a catch all.

It's a fail safe, right? Because, you know, you could have some things that you acquire after the fact that aren't titled in the trust name. There's all sorts of situations where you may still need that will to be probated to get everything where you want it to go. So, no, you know, having that will does not in and of itself avoid probate. And a lot of times you are, even if you've done everything you can to avoid probate, you're still going to want to have the will just in case. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I always make the joke, you know, we'll have people come in and really just plan everything they can. And a lot of times that involves getting things into trust because, you know, trust don't die, you know. So getting things into vehicles or situations where upon your death or automatically going to go to where you want it to go without probate. But there's still always a will because there's always like a, I make the joke, boat trailer. No one ever remembers to get their boat trailer titled into their trust name, right?

That's right. So everybody has like a boat trailer or like, you know, a car they inherited or something that has a title to it that has to go through probate. So the will in a perfect estate plan, the will is just there just in case. And in a perfect estate plan, you're not probate, right? Right. In a perfect estate plan.

You ball it up, you throw it in the trash. Yeah. In a perfect estate plan, your heirs are just going to keep on moving.

Nothing really changes for them. I mean, you can plan it to that with that level of preciseness isn't a word. But yeah, but it is now. If you say it on the radio, it's a word.

We should make up some more words. Precision. Yeah.

Precision. Yeah. Yeah.

I like that. But yeah, the will, that's what the will controls. The will controls probate. And we talk about a lot of times, you know, people will talk about like a blended family situation where, you know, two spouses get married and they have kids from prior relationships.

And so it's a blended family. And maybe one of the spouses want to make sure upon their death, their children get certain things. And so they'll make out a will leaving certain things to them. And then when they pass away, none of that stuff is available. And the will, there's nothing going into probate. And then they accidentally disinherit their children.

So that happens. But the will can only control what's actually a probate asset. And the goal is, by the time you pass away, you don't have any probate assets. Those are all in other places that don't need anything to be probated.

That would be my recommendation. Maybe you're a person that just loves probate and loves to go down to the courthouse and visit your friends and the nice ladies in the clerk's office. And in that case, by all means, let's maximize the probating of your estate. But probate, you know, probate's slow.

Probate is a slow process you're dealing with. It doesn't matter how good the clerks are down at the courthouse. And they're fantastic. If you're listening, you're a clerk. We love you to death.

We love you. You're the best. But wouldn't it be easier not to have to report, not for your executor, not to have to report everything that you own? It's a public record, right?

My grandma's probate file, I pulled it the other day from the 90s just because I was down there. Just for fun. Yeah, just because it was there.

Just for fun. It's there. It's a public record and it's there forever. And if you get everything over into a trust, you make everything non-probate, then it's not.

You don't have to go through it. Well, now you're making me want to have an estate so my grandkids will go back and pull my estate file and remember it. Yeah. Do you remember grandpa's boat trailer? He forgot to put it in his trust.

Yeah, he didn't put it in his trust, man. Those boat trailers, man. Boat trailers and like, oh man, I was trying to think. I had a good example and it left me. But trailers in general never make it into the trust. They never get it.

Except for when you're dealing with the law firm of Whitaker and Haymarket. That's one of our questions. Trailer specialists. How many boat trailers you hold on to? How many trailers you got, big man? If you don't have at least two boat trailers, you're going to have a tough time getting in the door for a consultation. I tell you what, man. I got one boat trailer and every year I have to do something to it.

I got to put new tires on it this year. That's your mistake. That's your mistake, man. Having nice things. Nice things. Yeah. I don't know, man.

The other folks out there can probably, but your boat trailer is never ready for your boat when it comes to winter. Like, my boat's still in the water. I got to get it out.

Keep it in there, man. What's the worst that can happen? Oh, it gets dirty. It gets so dirty. Uh-huh. You got to change the oil. You got to do stuff. I don't know boats very well, man.

I don't know boats. All right. Here's a question. I don't like this question, but I'm going to read it. Yeah. That's the spirit.

Do I really need an attorney to draft my will? Yeah. Come on.

I mean, technically speaking, you know, technically speaking, not really. So I was in it. No, you don't. You do not have to have an attorney to probate your will in North Carolina. To draft your will. You asked draft. You didn't say probate.

Oh, what did I say? You said draft. To draft your will. I'm pretty sure you said draft.

Let me look at my question. Do I really need an attorney to draft my will? You're right. Yeah.

But we could ask both questions. You don't have to have an attorney to draft your will. There are statutes that allow you to draft what we call holographic will, which is one that you've written yourself. Sometimes the statutes allow you to even do a verbal will, right? If you're on death's door, certain circumstances are met. So you don't have to have an attorney, but you probably want one.

Yeah. We spent this entire show talking about avoiding probate. I was in an estate. I was in an estate. Somebody was trying to sell a house here recently, so we were representing a buyer who wanted to purchase property. I went down and pulled an estate file.

It was about 15 years old. Handwritten will. We call that a holographic will. So a handwritten will. Nonsensical.

It made no sense. Anyway, this person had died with real property. And the clerks couldn't even tell what she was trying to do with the real property. So it was basically treated like the will. We see that all the time with deeds too, man.

You have folks who come in. I mean, I've seen this happen where we'll have somebody who comes in and they want us to prepare a deed for them. And the preceding deed in the chain of title is one of those self-help ones where somebody's just done it themselves.

And I've had to tell people straight up, like, you don't even own this property, brother. This isn't yours. The deed that you put together isn't a deed. This is invalid.

I don't understand how the clerk let you record the register of deeds, but they did. But it doesn't matter. It means nothing.

Yeah. People have a tough time with that. And I am all for, God forbid, I don't want to pay anybody money when I don't have to pay someone money. But you also can't, you're talking about your most valuable assets. This deed example, you're talking about a house or a will example, you're talking about a house. Usually your house is the most valuable asset you have. And even if you have a lot of assets, it's still one of the most valuable assets you have. And just to, like, dial up a website and do a self-help deed, hoping.

A lot of times they use legal terms that the state doesn't really use or they try to create remainder interests that the state doesn't honor or they leave out legal descriptions. It's like playing Russian roulette, my brother, like you don't have to have an attorney to do your will. Like I could come to your house and I could fix your septic tank for you, but you're going to have poop everywhere. I was going to use the dentist example. I can come to your house and pull your tooth out. I couldn't say you're going to have poop everywhere though if I used that example.

I guess I could have, but kind of dentist for you. The answer to that question is you absolutely don't have to have an attorney to draft your will. But I would not advise it.

Yeah. Attorneys wouldn't advise you to do that. Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm.

We are talking about wills and the importance of having them. And again, a question and answer show for you today. If you have your own legal situation you're facing, need answers to those questions, you can always call the firm, 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact information, briefly what the call is about. And an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And you can always email your questions to the show, info at judicacounty.com. We'll answer those on a future program.

We're back to wrap it up right after this. Welcome back in to Judica County Radio. Your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, the power behind this program, your law firm for life.

Offices conveniently located, Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. And on today's show, complimentary consults on estate planning. We just got through with Q&A involving estate planning. But remember this, call the number 800-659-1186. You leave the checkbook at home. Leave your contact information.

And again, you can also leave your email address and they will contact you that way as well. For one of those complimentary consults on estate planning. You need to have this in place as you move through life. It's just a smart thing to do. 800-659-1186. Gentlemen, we are getting ready to wrap up the show.

We're going to talk a little bit more estate planning, but you can go any direction you want. Go ahead. Well, you know, I got this Braves Mets game on the background here. Braves aren't doing very well, but it's distracting me. I should just turn it off. You know what? No, man.

I think you should leave it on. I'm going to remind you, Josh, that the season is very short. They only have 162 regular season games. I always wondered, you know, Raleigh, what, Raleigh is at least in the conversation for expansion baseball, right? MLB is supposed to expand and Raleigh is at least, and I guess Charlotte, In the conversation, yeah. Yeah, we've got the stuff, the 919 stuff, I can't remember what the name of the group is.

It's kind of spearheading the Raleigh one, but they've got some cool gear. Anyway, you get season tickets to baseball. 162 games, home games is what, like 80? 80, 81 home games?

It's a pretty even split. Yeah, that's right. 81. How do you do that? It seems like so much, man. I remember we had like, you know, college football, we get season tickets and it's hard to make it to what, like six, seven games? That's hard to do. And that's on the weekends. That's not even like nights.

I just don't see how you do it, man. That's some real dedication. I bet it's a lot of fun.

I'm sure it is, man. It's about being committed. I mean, you love your team. You're going to go 41 times if you're a hockey fan, and you're going to go 60s, 80s sometimes if you are a baseball fan. Crazy. You've got to be a big fan.

And what if it's season, like they're supposed to be pretty good, but then they tank early and then you've got like 70 games to go? You've just got a lot more room to stretch your legs out. That's what it is, man. You just really stretch.

Get comfortable. I don't know. I guess you just do it.

You do it because you're a fan, I guess. It's kind of like the stock market. You can't get too high.

You can't get too low because it's going to go up and down. Same thing for a baseball season. It's going to be crazy. Because if they get awarded the baseball team, which I think Raleigh, I hope this isn't the case, but I think Raleigh is kind of a long shot in this discussion. But they said the stadium would be like right south of downtown, like you're going into Garner.

So it'd be kind of a cool area where there's not really a whole lot of stuff. Sounds like it's very close to Shady's. That's what it sounds like to me.

Sounds like it is, brother. I could just squirt from the office and catch a day game. So maybe we can make this happen.

Are you catching 81 of them, though? That's the question. Don't. Just set up an office at the stadium. The satellite office.

I like it. But no, like Morgan said, we're going to do the complimentary free consults to our listeners. We always say the first five to call in when we announce it, but we've gotten most everybody who's called, I think we've been able to get them worked in and get them that initial consult for free so we can take a look at what they have, what they're dealing with, what assets are kind of unprotected and kind of get them in a good plan. Because once you get an estate plan set up, then you're just maintaining, right? Maintenance, baby.

It's just maintenance. So if you have a new kid that can kind of change things, right? Or ask kids to get older, get married.

Maybe you want to provide for some grandkids that are that are new. So you can there's things to always tweak and change. But once you do it, it's it's there. And if you never look at it again, you at least got an estate plan. You know, so getting it done is important. You know, drawing that line in the sand, saying, OK, things may change. I may get new assets.

I want to provide for different people in different ways. But the bare bones, it's you got something in place. Well, and procrastination is it's sorry to use the word.

It's a killer. I mean, yeah, I can't wait on this stuff. You really need to get it in place. I love what you said earlier in the show about, you know, everything's digital now. So you have to have all your passwords, your access. You know, people need to know where that stuff is, because if, you know, heaven forbid something happens to you. I mean, people are going to be scrambling and you don't want that.

No, you don't. And we have a lot of listeners who are self-employed. We have a lot of listeners who run their own businesses.

And that's just kind of another layer to be concerned about. You know what, especially if you employ people or you employ your family, what does your succession plan look like? What who steps into somebody have to be licensed to run the business that you run?

You know, is it set up to be sold right? If you run a business and you die and your family is not in a position to run your business, is it set up in such a way where it's attractive to a potential buyer so they can liquidate it? Or, you know, if you don't set up a succession plan, your business could just go out of business, right? If you're not there and it's set up around you and everything just tanks, then this valuable asset that you once had is worthless to your heirs. It may cost your heirs money to wind it down. It may eat up your other assets.

So you just really have to take a look at what you have and just plan. Because, you know, me and Joe, we had an ad one time, we like to say that, you know, you're going to die. We are all going to die.

No one has figured out how to beat it yet. And so it's going to happen to you. Maybe it happens when you're 111 and you have whiskey every day and that's your secret to longevity is whiskey and cigars and you make it to 111. But more than likely, it's going to happen before you're ready.

I think that's what happens to most people. And you just, you got to have things in place. You got to have, you got to be ready for it. You want your life to be like Josh's weekends, you know, whiskey and cigars, right? Watch a little baseball. Weekday mornings, maybe?

Oh, okay, guys. Another edition of Judica County Radio is in the books. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer. Again, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, the power behind this program, your law firm for life. And again, consults are available on estate planning.

They are complimentary. All you got to do is call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information. Shoot us an email in that message and they will send you information, set up that consult for you.

Again, very important to have your end game in mind when you talk about estate planning. Make sure you have it. And if you don't, this is your opportunity. 800-659-1186.

That's 800-659-1186. Again, another edition of Judica County is in the books for Josh and Joe. I'm Morgan.

We'll see you on the radio next week. Judica County is hosted by attorneys licensed to practice law in North Carolina. Some of the guests appearing on this podcast may be licensed North Carolina attorneys. Discussion on this podcast is meant to be general in nature and in no way should the discussion be interpreted as legal advice. Legal advice can only be rendered once an attorney licensed in the state in which you live has the opportunity to discuss the facts of your case with you. The attorneys appearing on this podcast are speaking in generalities about the law in North Carolina and how these laws affect the average North Carolinian. If you have any questions about the content of the show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at JMW at MWHlaw.lawyer.