Fresh Listener Questions, What kind of Property Can be Placed in a Trust?

Coming up today on Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm will get into some random topics when it comes to legal, but also we'll catch up on the guys and we've got a listener question show that's coming up today on Judica County Radio. I'm Morgan Patrick and each and every week it is always about legal topics. Also, we're here to help. There's an opportunity for a complimentary consult.

We'll tell you about that as we move through the program. But before we jump in guys, how was your week? It was a good week, Morgan. We were coming off Thanksgiving and a big weekend of college football. I was about to say I went to a couple of games. I went to one game.

It was a lot of fun. Which game did you go to? We have some good friends who are Carolina fans. As you know, we're NC State people. We take turns every year going with each other to go watch the State Carolina football game during rivalry week.

We were down in Chapel Hill watching all the brouhaha that went with the flag planting, they say. I did get to see some of the highlights. Not the prettiest of football games, but it's always nice when the rivals get together at the end. Unfortunate to see the fisticuffs and the pushing and shoving at the end. Mac Brown's final game as far as regular season in Chapel Hill.

They'll go to a bowl game. Unfortunate to see that. Joe, how was your week?

Oh man, it was great. Josh, those people don't sound like very good friends the way you describe them. Carolina fans? Well, you know, we take it easy on the Carolina fans. Is Duke going to wait for us?

We like one Carolina fan for Morgan. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you for throwing that in, Joe. I was feeling alienated. That's all we can do.

That's pretty good. Did you go down to the Duke game? Did you do Duke?

No, no, no. I didn't do that. I watched it. I watched the game, but I took it easy, man. I had a laid back Thanksgiving other than going to Thanksgiving and eating the food, but I can't complain, man.

It was a nice break from the prison that is working with you, Josh. I think, you know, I have this bold idea that they should move Thanksgiving to like a March-ish, right? Like a March early, like...

I got a bolder idea. What if we go to Thanksgiving? What if we go March Thanksgiving and we keep this Thanksgiving and we just double up Thanksgiving? Because like, I'm trying to be thankful, you know, a couple times throughout the year. Well, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas always kind of bunch up, and I was always like, you know, there's a period there in the spring where you don't really have any holidays, and I think we should just... I guess you could do a second Thanksgiving, but you'd have to come up with like a good name for it, you know? It's just second Thanksgiving, man.

We ain't got to get super creative. Like, just be thankful for the fact that we have it, you know? I like keeping the thanks in there, you know? The thanks-taking, the welcomes-giving. I don't know, dude.

I don't know. There's a lot of ways you could go with it, but I think the idea... I think it's got legs, man. Yeah, we'll have to brainstorm that or whatever and see if we can come up with anything.

Yeah, I think we can start working on the legislation. But we were leaving... The legislature. We were leaving. What's the football field called down there in Chapel Hill, Morgan?

I always forget. Keenan. We were leaving Keenan, and we were almost out, and then that's when everybody started making a big noise over whatever was going on on the field, so then we kind of went back in to kind of see what was going on. It's like a train wreck, right? You got to go back and look. Yeah, I don't know how I feel about this new...

I guess that was a nationwide thing that happened, right? I don't know how I feel about that. You feel good about it, man. It was entertaining to you. You turned around and you looked at it, man. You got something out of it. Well, I was raised that Barry Sanders way, right? If you score, don't... Act like you've been there.

Yeah, you don't need to celebrate. But then it also is entertaining, right? So I think we're, as a nation, I think we're torn on whether that's a good idea or not. But I guess they're trying to put a stop to it now with the fines and things. Yeah, I mean, it's not a good... Let's be clear. For the sport, it's probably not a good thing, man. Things can get out of hand quick. But for the viewer, it's semi entertaining to watch, man.

I mean, any train wreck kind of is, as long as you're not in it, right? Who is the... So it was rivalry week. Who does Duke play? Wake Forest?

Is that who y'all played? I'm talking about football? Yeah, they play Wake Forest. Oh, and that's every year, last week of the season? Yeah, it used to not be that.

I mean, it's not really a... I mean, as a Duke fan, I wouldn't really consider that necessarily a super strong rivalry, but I guess it is technically. But yeah, man, they played Wake Forest and Duke had a great season, man, comparatively speaking to where I think most realistic Duke fans thought we'd be this year. You cannot complain as a Duke fan.

All you can do is worry that your coach is, again, too good and is going to lose school, which is a very natural reaction. Well, you guys were the what? They made it up, but now the state champion, right? You beat everybody, so you guys are the North Carolina... That's not made up, man. That's not made up.

You beat everybody. It's a real thing. It's a real thing, Josh. It's very real, Josh.

We're clinging to that right now. It's a really Thanksgiving celebration. Well, congratulations on your state championship. Thank you. Thanks, man. It was tough. I stayed the course.

Give me credit for that. Well, today, Morgan, we haven't done a complete listener question show in a while, and so we've got some listener questions that we're going to tackle. And when we do these listener question shows, we're taking questions that we've gotten from clients, kind of taking the facts out of them, kind of disinfecting them so they don't have any personal information. And we kind of throw them out there, and we attack them like we would a problem that came into our office during a consult, right?

I always say if people are asking me these questions in consults, there's people out there who probably have similar issues that they're dealing with. And I think that's a good use of our time, because that is what we try to do on the show, is we try to be useful. And, Joe, I got the ratings in for October, and we were tied. Yeah, we were tied for the number one show on 106.1 Talk over the weekend. In the world. In the world.

In the world. In the world on 106.1. So for the folks who were, I know some folks listen to us via kind of our podcast, I know we're on some other channels where you might hear us, but for the folks who are tuning in at four on 106.1 The Talk to hear us on the weekends, we really appreciate it.

And I was kind of surprised to see that, and I tell you, that was good stuff. We did it, baby. We did it.

Straight to the top. Well, Morgan, that's what we're going to do today, and as always, we always do the free consult, so if you are listening to the show, we've got a special phone number, and if you call in, we will get you set up with a free consult. We usually limit these to estate planning. That's what a lot of our listeners end up calling us for. So, Morgan, I think we're going to do that again, run it back this week. If you call in during our four o'clock show, we'll get you set up with a free estate planning consult.

All right, it sounds good. Again, complimentary consult, estate planning, everybody needs one. You certainly don't want to go to probate.

A lot of people don't want to think about the end, but this is an opportunity for you to have confidence as you move through your life and really kind of have things in place. So estate planning consult, these are complimentary. All you got to do is call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186, and leave your contact information, and an attorney with Whitaker & Hamer will be in touch and set up that complimentary consult. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners at Whitaker & Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina each and every week. It's always legal topics, and we are going to get into some listener questions here shortly. We want to remind you too, their office is located for Whitaker & Hamer in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City.

We're back right after this. We're back into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners at Whitaker & Hamer Law Firm. You can find their offices almost everywhere.

Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick at Each and Every Week.

It's always legal topics. Josh and Joe obviously in studio and leading the way, but we've got some special lead-in. Josh, why don't you kind of fill us in on what's coming up? Yeah, we, Joe got me hooked on the, you know, we like to play around with the artificial intelligence, the intelligence, all the tools that you have right now to kind of create things. And Joe got me hooked on the, the AI song creator tool. That's right. You're keeping me off the streets.

I'm not, I'm not, I'm not out there with the crack and the meth. I'm in the, but anyway, so we're playing, I'm playing around with this generator, you know, we generated a couple of theme songs, kind of like we were having like a mini contest among ourselves to, uh, to come up with a new theme song. And, uh, we had two country ones that, that Joe did for us and I did, I did a new one. It's a little lengthy.

I think the playtime somewhere around 50 seconds. Uh, but I want to throw this man. I'm so excited.

Yeah. I'm gonna throw, I'm gonna throw this one out there for contention. In Judica County, where truth pervades, George and Joe, lay down the lost nation. Outlawed lawyers with a tale to tell, their voices echo where justice wears. Outlaws of truth lying awake through Judica night and Judica day. In dusty courthouses where stories unfold, George and Joe fight against the lies sold with pointed voices. Justice in sight, they shine a light through the darkest night.

Outlaws of truth lying awake, learning how to order each word they say. All right. There you go. What do you think about that, Joseph? Well, look, man, full disclosure. I'm on my, I'm on my phone today. I got a Fivary set up on my phone. Can't hear great.

Um, I almost had the, it almost felt like I was sitting around like an old school FM radio listening to like an old station. Right. And, um, but what I could hear of it, man, she's just very strong, Josh. That's very strong, man. You really put those robots to work and, uh, I ain't gonna lie to you, man.

I'm very proud of what you put together. Well, it's, it's crazy, right? You go in there and you just, uh, I didn't give it any lyrics.

You just, you do a prom, just like, you know, you're doing chat GPT or whatever, and then it can just spit that kind of thing out. That seems, uh, that seems a little scary, you know? Yeah. I think what the kids would call that is that the kids would say that was a banger, Josh, that was a banger. That's what your children would say if you ever talked to your kids, man. I haven't, uh, I haven't played that for them yet, but I'll, uh, I'll get on that.

But anyway, all right. Legal topics. That's what we talk about. We have a couple of listener questions today.

And this first question, I, you know, when I was thinking about these questions, this seems like a simple question. And, and I had, I had a client we were doing, uh, we had already done their estate planning. We were sitting down and we were, we were kind of doing, uh, uh, the estate planning signing, right? So we're getting the will signed in front of witnesses and the POA is done and making them copies and they had prepared a trust, right? So they had prepared a, uh, we had prepared for them a revocable living trust. That's kind of what they needed in their estate plan. And we were, we were putting the house, right? We were putting their main residence into the, into the trust. That was part of, uh, the estate plan for these folks. And, um, so there was a deed, right?

And that's what you do. And there's a deed, uh, from, from yourselves to yourselves as trustee of your trust. And we always talk about this trust being like a magic. I do anyway, a magic bucket that avoids probate, right? And the more you can put it in this bucket, uh, the less that you, that you have to worry about going through probate, you know, when your day comes and you pass away.

So, but they ask what kind of, what kind of other property can I put into trust? That was their, that was their question. And, um, what do you think about that Joseph? What a great question, man.

It sounds like we focused on the radio show. So they got some, uh, some profound wisdom out there, you know? Um, but, uh, answering that question, man, you know, putting your real property in the trust, obviously very, very important. And one of the primary benefits of a trust, you know, we may be less likely to recommend a trust to somebody if they don't own real property.

That's not to say that there couldn't be a great justification for having that trust, but, uh, but it goes beyond that, man. And really you, I look at it in terms of, you know, probate versus non-probate assets and what do you want to be subject to probate? And most folks, when they're putting the trust together, their goal and our goal in doing that for them is to avoid probate as to every single thing possible. So any property that doesn't make it into that trust is going to go through probate, meaning that you're going to have to involve the clerk. There's just going to be a much more protracted process with a lot more steps, a lot more, uh, things to do for whoever's administering your estate versus, versus if you put all that property to trust.

So to answer that question, any property, any kind of property, personal or real that you have can go into that trust. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, and that's for that client.

And that's what I started talking about. I talked about probate versus non-probate. Some, some assets, uh, the way the laws are in North Carolina, if you don't do anything, they're gonna, they're gonna go through your estate. They're going to go through probate. Um, and some are non-probate, right? So if you've got a 401k out there and you've got a named beneficiary, that's usually a non-probate asset. So it's going to, you know, life insurance. We talk about that being a non-probate asset.

That's going to, that's a contract, right? And that's going to go to whoever you've named as a beneficiary and is usually, uh, not part of, part of your estate. And so that's kind of conversation I had with that client.

But then I had another client later in the week who was in kind of a different position. You know, um, his, his, uh, spouse had, had died, you know, while, while the kids were under 18. So kind of a sad situation, but he was trying to get everything in order. So if something happened to him, you know, his kids, you know, he kind of told everybody who he wants the guardian of the kids to be, if something happens to him and they're under 18. And, and, uh, but he had some very specific, so he had a, he had, you know, if he died tomorrow, he would have had a decent sized estate. And so in his trust, he has a lot of guidelines about when the kids can get principal, right? You know, so obviously the interest is to be used, you know, there's a trustee and there's a guardian and the interest is to be used to take care of the kids and the kids can get into the principal if they need it for education or medical or something like that. So pretty, pretty standard stuff there, but he didn't want them to get the bulk of the assets at like 18.

So he had broken it up, you know, they got some at 21, they got some at 25. And I think 30, 35, there were the kids were getting the rest of the trust that was, that was still there. Um, but he had some interesting reasons to make, uh, you know, assets that you wouldn't necessarily have to put into the trust into the trust.

Right? So we were talking about life insurance and 401ks. And if he were to die, those right now go straight to his, his kids.

And he was trying to prevent that from happening. So that's one of those instances where you've got a non-probate asset. It doesn't have to go in the trust to be non-probate, but here it made sense to change the beneficiary and have it go into the trust. So the trust could manage those assets the way he wanted them to, to, to be managed. I thought that was, I thought it was an interesting, uh, you know, two clients same week and kind of had different reasons, uh, to talk about what should go into trust.

Yeah. It's very situationally specific, man. And we're going to advise depending on what you want, you know? And so there's a lot of times where we'll advise folks for these type of accounts where you can have a death beneficiary to just go ahead and distribute those funds directly to the folks. Having the trust kind of dictate what happens with that money and keeping some level of control over it is the right play. And, um, but it's all going to depend on your unique individual situation.

If only Josh, if only there was some easy, very free way to sit down with an attorney and discuss these things, man. If only we lived in a world where that was possible. Well, when you, when you come in and sit down with us for free, that's one of the things we do. We're like, well, yeah. And we kind of talk about a couple of things like what, you know, we talk about what happens if, you know, um, one spouse survives the other and kind of a two spouse situations. We talk about, well, what do you want to happen if both of you, you know, we always have the car accident or the plane, right?

Both of you pass away at the same time. Um, but yeah, I don't know. You said a dumb 18 year old and I get where you're going with that, but I think a smart 18 year old still doesn't need a ton of money dropped on them. Um, unless you've just done a fantastic job of raising your kids with some financial wisdom.

Cause I think I was a decently smart 18 year old and I didn't understand. Hey, look, a shiny object. Let's buy it.

But you give me a million dollars cash as a 18 year old, Josh Whitaker. And, uh, things might've gone a lot differently, you know, than, than one million, 1 million natural lights. Um, but yeah, so there's a question where, you know, normally we're going to not worry about non probate assets going into trust, unless you have a, a reason for them. And, and again, we had one client who didn't have a reason and one client had a very good reason, uh, to kind of change how non probate assets were going to work. So it really just depends on what you're planning for. Um, I know we've talked about this on a, on a recent show, you know, you can treat heirs differently, um, depending on their needs and their ages and what you've done for one versus what you've done for other.

So the trust just gives you a lot of leeway on, on how to manage assets once you're gone for your heirs. Judica County radio. We're going to take a short break.

We'll be back on the other side. We'll have more listener questions for you. Want to remind you that we do have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. All you've got to do is call the number 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will call you back and set up this complimentary console.

You're leaving the checkbook at home. You're not agreeing to become a client. This is an opportunity for you to get on track with your estate planning or, uh, or possibly a second opinion. 800-659-1186. We'll grab you one of those complimentary consults again, powered by Whitaker and Hamer law firm. That's where you can find our hosts, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners. They have offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city. We're back with more Judica County radio right after this.

Music Judica County radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina. They've got offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city. Want to remind you, we do have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. All you got to do is call 800-659-1186. Again, you're not agreeing to become a client.

You're leaving the checkbook at home. That's 800-659-1186. Music Music I like the instrumental in the middle. It's almost like you've got a combination of Willie and Waylon. Yeah. When I typed the prompt, I made sure to include that, uh, I wanted it to be like outlaw country from the seventies.

That's kind of the prompt I gave it. And, uh, yeah, in my mind, me and Joe should be like racing around a dirt track. Right.

During that and, uh, getting some good shots of us, you know, cutting the turns hot on horses. No, man, no, like dukes of hazard, dukes of hazard. You know, you're running, you're running through your jumping stuff.

Yeah. I'm fun. At least like four wheelers, you know, let's go, let's go do that. Let's go run. Let's go. We should do that, man. Go run in the dirt. Just a good old boys.

I always thought I would do more, you know, I had a four, I had four wheelers growing up and it was a lot of fun and I always thought I'd be doing more four wheeling. And I just, it just doesn't happen for me. Well, that's a, you, you know, you know who can control that, man.

I don't know. Josh Whitaker can control that. You can, you can go out there. You're a grown man. You could, you could leave the show right now and go, come on, Joe, you know, he's got to ask permission. Come on.

Just throw my mic down and, and, and, uh, what, uh, you hear that song, that song about him that just played, I mean, it tells you everything you need to know about this man right here. You got a four wheeler, don't you? You still got the four wheeler? I got a couple. I got a couple of four wheelers, brother. You want to borrow one and we can go riding together, man.

We can, we can do it. You tell me when, you say the word. Cause, cause I don't do it a lot either. I have not gotten out there as much as, uh, as I once did, man. So maybe that's what we're missing in life.

Yeah. I got to change up my, I got to change up my schedule some. It's just the work and I get home from the work and do, you know, with kids have games or whatever. And then, uh, by the time I get Josh time, I'm just so tired.

You know, I just, uh, eat, go to sleep. We'll do the work. We'll keep doing the work.

Let's, let's reduce the kid thing some, and me and you can four wheel. How about that? We'll figure it out. We'll get it. We'll get it in there. All right. We'll take video and let your kids watch it.

And it'll be like, live streaming or something. All right. All right. So we're doing legal questions today. We're doing listener legal questions. We did one in the last segment about probate and non-probate property going into trust and when that might be appropriate.

And, uh, question number two is a little bit different. This is more a contract law, and this is a call we get from time to time. And it's, uh, anyway, I'm just going to, I'm going to read it the way it's written here, but basically, uh, the client's telling us I co-signed a note so that my partner could get a car.

Now he is in New York with the car and I can no longer contact him. He stopped making payments several months ago. The lender is threatening to sue me for the money owed on the car note here in North Carolina, where I live. And so the question they ask is, can the lender do that? And the secondary question is, don't they have to go after the vehicle first?

And I will go ahead and throw in another fact for this fact pattern. I'm going to say the amount owed on the note was under $10,000. So we're going to call it $9,000 owed on the car note. Can't, lender doesn't know where the car is. Uh, the person who has custody of the car, physical control over the car is in another state.

What do you think about that, Joseph? I think I got some bad news for this car. Not only has their partner run off with some other disgusting woman and living their life, their best life in New York with this car, but, uh, they're going to have, they're going to have, they're going to have what we call in the legal world, a problem Joshua, because they they've co-signed, they're obligated. They are obligated on this, uh, on this note, whether they have possession of the car or not, whether the lender goes after the car or not, like people, people, you have to understand if you, if you sign something and you obligate yourself to repay something, even if it's a secured loan and they can come back and they can take the collateral back, that doesn't mean that you're still going to have no financial liability beyond that. That doesn't mean you're going to be absolved from being sued.

That doesn't mean you're going to be saved from your credit being ruined. Uh, the lesson for this person is be careful what you do and who you, who you trust and who you assign things for, because this is the nightmare scenario that can happen. There's there, you know, it kind of, it's what I hate to do it, man, but there's a lot of times where we have to sit down and look at people in their eyes, deep in their eyes and tell them it is what it is. And that's kind of where we are here. Yeah.

Yeah. This is not a good position to be in, which I'm sure the, the, the person asking this question kind of already knows, but co-signing can mean a lot of different things in a lot of different States. In North Carolina, it means you're signing, you know, as a, as a borrower, right? So you're, you're either signing a note saying like, Hey, if these, you know, you're, you're, you're signing to say, you'll pay the payment. She'll pay it back. Um, or you can also sign something as a guarantor, meaning you're not a borrower, but you have agreed to pay the debt if, if the, if the borrower doesn't pay it either way. Yeah.

You've made a big decision there. Like you're, you're liable, uh, for that debt. And, and like Joe said, they don't have to go over, they don't have to go for the vehicle at all. A lot of times these folks don't want the vehicle. The vehicle's probably lost value. And that's the big thing about buying a car, right? As soon as you drive it off the lot, you've, you've lost some equity.

You might be upside down. A lot of times the car is really not the biggest concern. It's, it's the money and they required you to sign for him. Cause I'm assuming he didn't either have the credit or the income to justify the loan.

And that's why you had to step in and, um, yeah. And, and, and the other part of this is that there's not a lot of an attorney can, can do for you. And we put the amount owed at 9,500 bucks. Cause that gets you into small claims court. Um, a lot of times, you know, attorney might be able to help you negotiate what's due. Um, you know, some things like that, but a lot of times an attorney is not going to be super helpful in this situation.

Cause there's, there ain't much to do. You co-signed a loan it's due. You could sue your partner if you could find him.

Right. You could sue your partner cause you're out money in a vehicle and, and certainly you would probably win that. But I imagine your partner is the kind of person, you know, we talk about someone being judgment proof, uh, basically not having enough to collect if you were to get a judgment against them. So I imagine this, this client is just, just really in, in, in a bad spot. Um, and, um, hopefully this amount of money won't, you know, cause you, the client could think about bankruptcy, right? You owe a consumer debt. And so maybe meeting with a bankruptcy attorney, uh, might be helpful if this is the amount, if this kind of, if that amount of money is the kind of a money that can, can kind of wreck your budget and deplete your savings.

Um, so bankruptcy is always kind of an option if, if something like this happens, but beyond that, it's negotiating a payoff and, uh, and trying to keep it off your credit and, and then not doing it. I ain't co-signing nothing for nobody. I ain't married to, or I didn't birth, you know, like, or have a, have a hand in. Well, technically you didn't birth your, your, your partner. Yeah. Birthing was the wrong word, but I was struggling as to co-parent.

Like, I don't, I don't know what the word would be there. Is there any of these kids you were the midwife for? Or if I was in the room while they were being born, that's, that's still. Yeah. There's a proximity to these people. That's your co-sign.

You gotta be, you gotta, it's the same concept, right? You co-sign for anybody, whether you trust them, you feel great about it or not. You, anyone that you co-sign for, you need to be prepared to fully handle that obligation. No matter if they abscond with whatever the thing you purchased is, whether they cheat on you, whatever, it doesn't matter. You need to be prepared because if you do not pay, the consequences will be the same for you as the other person that signed as well.

Well, you know, and it makes a difference too. You know, we talked about co-sign kind of meaning different things in different states, but it's very important. If you are going to co-sign, are you going to be a borrower? Cause then that's going to show up on your credit. And if the payment doesn't get paid, that could, that could harm you in theory. If you're signing as a guarantor, somebody that's just guaranteeing the debt, and that's a little bit different now that won't show on your credit, uh, quite the same way. If it's, if it's not paid, there's still, but still it's consequential. You know, it's not like, you know, you, when you personally guarantee an obligation, again, you will have problems if it is not paid.

What those problems exactly look like is TBD based on various factors, but like, again, prepare to pay whatever is due and be ready. You got to accept that before you enter into it or else you're likely going to be disappointed. In my 20 some years as an attorney, I've had this conversation with folks, uh, a good amount. And I dare say a lot of folks don't really understand what co-signing really means, uh, you know, and, and, and kind of undertake this in the, in the goodness of their, or their heart and really, and really get burned. But, um, yeah, no good news for, for this potential client.

This is a bad spot to be in. I would try to negotiate the settlement down. There's probably some attorney's fees in there too, and, uh, unpaid interest and penalties and things like that.

So you usually have some, some room there, but yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna have to pay it or think about bankruptcy or some other way out. Next time I run into the situation, man, and I'm sitting with somebody and I have to give them that bad news, like tell them something terrible, what I'm going to do is I'm just gonna let the room go silent. And I'm going to put your song on. I'm gonna let it play all the way. I'm gonna give them a back pat and that's going to be it.

That's the end of your console. In Judica County, where truth pervades, Josh and Joe, lay down the law of state. Our law of lawyers with a tale to tell. Judica County radio.

We will continue coming up on the other side, more listener questions. Want to remind you, we do have complimentary consults available in and around the state planning. You can call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information, uh, briefly what the call's about. You want one of the consults and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. You can call the number 800-659-1186.

It's complimentary. You're not agreeing to become a client. This is an opportunity for you to test drive Whitaker and Hamer law firm when it comes to estate planning. Again, office is located in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. We've got more Judica County radio coming up. Music Judica County radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina and they've placed offices convenient for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City.

I'm Morgan Patrick. Each and every week the attorneys go at it when it comes to legal and it's questions today from our listeners and they have come in and they are answering them. We've talked about already what kind of property can you put into a trust, but also a co-signing situation when it comes to a car. Be careful there. And again, we are doing listener questions. Now during the course of the show, there are complimentary consults available with Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning. Very important to have one.

And this is an opportunity for you to get started on it. And again, you're leaving the checkbook at home. Call this number 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. And just leave your contact information and you want to grab one of those estate planning consults and it will be complimentary.

800-659-1186. Back to our listener question show. You know, over the break here, I was kind of thinking about our last question, but you know, the law, the law is the law and there's not, there's not a lot of shortcuts.

You know, an ignorance of the law is not a, is not a defense, right? I didn't know what co-signing meant. That doesn't, that doesn't matter, right? You know, I didn't know I could put that into my trust. That doesn't, that doesn't matter.

You doesn't, you don't get the benefit if you don't take the action. So there's, you know, there's not a lot of shortcuts and that, you know, I started thinking about that because of our next question. And we get this question a lot in a lot of different ways. It can come up a host of ways, but this is the, this is traditionally how it, how it comes up. And so this potential client said his dad, his dad died 10 years ago. And I need to get the D to the house into my name. Right.

And so that's the question. His dad died 10 years ago. I'm guessing there's some family land, some family property here. The son has been, has been living in the property, paying taxes, maybe paying the mortgage. And now he needs to refinance or get an equity line or sell it. And he can't do it because the property is not in his name. The deed still has his dad's name on it.

His dad's names on everything, even though his dad's been, has been dead for, for 10 years. And so Joseph, when that, when that question comes up, where do you, where do you, where do you get started? How do you start that? I start with, I'm sorry for your loss. That's where I'm going first, man. Cause you know, we are attorneys and counselors.

That is what it says, right? Attorneys and counselors at law. The, uh, you know, and I will add, you know, if you, if you ever hear me and Joe talking about these fact patterns, you know, we'll talk about fact patterns where someone has died, right. Or someone is going to die, or we've got kids under 18 who've lost their parents. You know, we're always talking about these really, uh, kind of terrible situations and we don't ever mean to be flippant or, you know, disregard the emotional toll behind it.

But, you know, we look, this is, we do this every day, you know, this is like, uh, the New York detectives who are at the murder scene and they've seen everything there is to see and, you know, uh, it doesn't bother them as, as much as maybe folks who don't, who don't deal with it every day. So we've, we've seen all this play out and, and here, um, you know, a lot of people will call us with this issue and just basically, Hey, you guys just draft up a deed. And, uh, and it's just not that, it's not that simple because, uh, the law, the law wants to see an estate for the dad, because you're calling me to tell me, Hey, I was the only son I've lived in here.

I paid the taxes. Well, we don't know you're the only son, right? You know, the, the way you, you demonstrate who the heirs of a deceased person are, as you go to the clerk's office and you, you know, if there's a will great, right?

You probate the will, and that tells us who the heirs are. Cause your dad would have said, Hey, I want this property to go to my, my son. Or if there is no will, the clerk's going to ask a lot of questions about, well, were you the only son? Oh, no, we had, I had a brother, but he died when he was 21. Oh, did that, that brother have kids?

Yeah, he's got two kids. Well, they, they inherited half the property, you know, and, and, uh, and so that's usually what we, we're going to start talking to you about is like, well, why didn't you, why didn't you open an estate? For your dad, you know, was there some debts? What were we worried about? We just didn't need to, uh, you know, but that's kind of the conversation we, we typically have, but I assume that's kind of your experience too, Joseph. There's so many factors that play into it.

And you touched on some of those factors, depending on your situation and the person who, who passed away and whether they had a, had a will, whether they died intestate, whether they had heirs, whether they didn't. All of those things are going to play into the equation. And the answer could be, this is a relatively simple solution, or the answer could be, man, this is going to be a complicated fix. So again, there's a sliding scale of complexity and difficulty. You could, you could have it fairly easy and we could resolve that relatively easily for you, or it could be a pretty difficult fix. It's just going to depend, man. And I feel like we say that about a lot of stuff, but Josh, it's the truth. It is.

It's it's, it depends on the facts. And here, if you call an attorney and you ask him this question, the attorney just drafts you a deed, you know, that you, that you sign it and it puts it in your name. That might help you with the tax bill, right? The tax office might see this new deed that was drafted and put the tax bill in your name.

If there's a mortgage lender that still has your dad as the borrower, that, that might satisfy them. Uh, but that's not going to satisfy a lot of people, right? Anybody doing a title search on that property, this, this new deed that got drafted without an explanation of how we determined who the heirs were and why the dad didn't have an estate. There's, there's a lot of questions out there. So, and a lot of these problems compound, you know, uh, we had, we had somebody come in and that family property that had been inherited by like 10 or 12 kids in the seventies, right? And those kids had kids and their kids had kids and all kinds of people had died in between and title gets so convoluted.

Um, and there's ways to clean up title, but title gets so convoluted. It's, it's, it's hard to figure out who the owners are and where did this grandkids one 28th interest go when, um, you know, he passed away and, and, um, you know, their spouses that are estranged and now won't, won't sign deeds. And so it can get complicated.

I'm hoping for our question asker here. It's, it's not that complicated and you could easily just go open up on a, an estate and it, you know, shows that, um, this, this kid is the only heir and this one, this one might not be too, too bad. Uh, but the longer you let those things go in a lot of families because you're busy and, and it just happens, but you let, let these things ride for like generations, you know, and, and, uh, cleaning them up is not always the easiest thing. But yeah, so this, this question, what seems like a simple, uh, deed issue, which, uh, if that's all that he needed would be a relatively simple issue, but it looks like, you know, if I sat down with this person, we'd have an estate administration conversation. Uh, you might have a petition to partition conversation, right? If he had inherited this with some other folks, um, and might need to split up the property if it's raw land or might need to sell the property with a court order. You know, there's, there's all kinds of directions this could go in, but assuming he's the sole heir can get an estate opened. Uh, there's other ways around it too, but, but hopefully this wouldn't be too bad for, uh, for our client.

I don't want to give two clients in a row here on the show, bad, bad news, right? So this is a workaround here. There's things you can do.

Um, but it'd been nicer to do it 10 years ago. Judica County radio, your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm right here in North Carolina. That's where they practice their law.

They have offices located convenient for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city. And today, uh, in and around the show, we have complimentary consults for estate planning. If you've thought about doing it, haven't pulled the trigger yet.

This is your opportunity to get started. There's no obligation. Again, you're leaving the checkbook at home. All you've got to do is call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186 contact information.

Leave it there. And an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch with you about that complimentary consult when it comes to estate planning. We are in the middle of a listener question show. I want to remind you, we'll come back.

We'll recap the questions we've done so far, and then we'll wrap up the program. Again, you're listening to Judica County radio. We are back on Judica County radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm. Again, your law firm for life. They have offices located convenient for you.

Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city. Complimentary consults in and around estate planning. All you've got to do is call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact info, and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch about that complimentary consult when it comes to estate planning. I'm Morgan Patrick. We have been in listener questions, and we're in our final segment. Josh, I thought it'd be a good idea maybe to recap the questions we've done so far today.

Yeah, Morgan, I think that's a good idea. Before we get there, though, I always want to remind people, our law firm is set up to be statewide, right? So we've got offices in a lot of different places across the state of North Carolina and a lot of different practice areas.

Here on the show, we end up talking about estate planning a lot, estate administration a lot, real property a lot, because those are the kind of questions that we get. But we've got our personal injury attorneys, right? If you're injured in a car accident, we have our personal injury attorneys who practice across the state. We've got family law attorneys that deal with divorce and alimony and custody and things like that. We've got our civil litigation attorneys breach a contract, things like that. So again, the firm is built to help most normal people with the legal challenges that they would normally face. There's some things we don't practice.

We don't practice bankruptcy, we don't practice immigration, but there's some special areas that we don't practice in. But you can call us again, and we talk about estate planning consults here. But yeah, same thing with if you've got a personal injury issue, you've been in a car accident, you've been injured, you have questions, we do that too. We rather do the radio show and talk to you than have commercials on the news.

But I always want to put that out there. We talk about things that we get asked, and we just don't get a lot of personal injury questions. But that's a big practice area for us too, statewide.

So keep that in mind, if we can help you give us a call. But Joe, we had three pretty diverse legal questions today. Yeah, we try to keep I thought they were fantastic question, kind of covered a few, a few different, a few different topics. So you know, we started out with the trust question, the good old fashioned estate planning based trust question, and talking about what kind of property we can put into trust and, you know, kind of cleared up some misconceptions there in terms of whether it's just real property and kind of what the benefits are, and the reasons why you may, may or may not want to do that.

May or may not want to put what we would call non probate assets into a trust. So that was question number one. I'm going to give that question a 7.3 out of 10. Josh, that's my official rating. I feel like that's low.

I feel like it's low for that one. Yeah, yeah. Our answer our answers to that question again. Right. Okay.

All right. The question itself, just the seven point whatever number I said. So the so that was yeah, that was that was kind of an estate. Estate planning question and then question number two, we had our we had our client who had co signed on a loan for a car and our client there again may maybe some room from for negotiating that debt and getting it paid off or paid over time or a payment plan, but not a lot of great options for for the for that client. So that was, but that's kind of what we call attorneys would call that contract slash consumer law, right?

So that's, that's something people can can find themselves in. And then the last question is kind of real, real property law. It was a, you know, a deed question. We had a we had a dad who had died and and and a son who was trying to get the property retitled, redeaded into his name. That kind of was an estate administration real property law questions, but we get we get a lot of calls from from across the state every day wide range of matters for our attorneys to to consult with and and but those those were the those were the three most intriguing questions of the week.

And I like doing I like doing these shows, Joseph, I hope they're helpful to people when they when they listen to it, you know, a lot of time as as attorneys, we get we get kind of lost in the weeds and in the minutia and how that affects our answers and and and here I really try to do like, you know, above above the above everything like I try to do. Yes, I was about to say hot balloon, hot air balloons. And I wonder why that would come into my head before bird's eye. I've never been on a hot air balloon, but they do exist, man. They are real.

They're real things. I'm going to give you points for it. But like the time we spent talking about what a cosigner actually is doing, because I know for a fact, a lot of people don't completely understand what they're doing when they when they cosign and and, you know, you'll do anything for your kids. All right. Your kids need something. I'm sure you're going to you're going to do it. And that's the way it goes.

But for other folks, maybe not not the not the best thing to do. You know what your kids need, Josh? Four wheelers? Your kids need for you to know they don't need a four wheeler. They need you to ride a four wheeler. You'll be a better dad to them if you can spend two to three hours a day letting the wind blow through your hair, turning that four wheeler, that ATV through the mud in the backwoods. And it'll give your kids time to grow and become independent without you too, man. So it's two birds with one stone.

Two hot air balloons with one stone type of situation, brother. I'm sure I'm sure they'll they'll understand and and appreciate that. But we do need an official Whitaker and Hamer four wheel excursion. We've got to put that on the books for 2025. I think we should do it. I think we should do it and do the show from the four wheelers. Who cares if you won't be able to hear us? And it just sounds like it's rather.

People will really appreciate the authenticity. You can do like a four wheeler meetup, you know, you get you get groups of like minded people that like four wheeling, like to go. Are you mud bogging? What are you doing on the four wheeler? Everybody who doesn't like four if you don't like four wheelers, man, if you're a three wheeler person, I don't want to. Can you still buy a three wheeler? Can you like are they still buy a three wheeler? But you can own one if you have it.

They can't come. The government's never going to come take my three wheeler job. Well, you know, I grew up I grew up and still living in kind of south Raleigh and growing up, there were all kinds of trails like behind all these neighborhoods and off a 401.

And if you had a four wheeler or three wheeler or dirt bike, you could go just about anywhere you wanted to go. I ain't like that anymore. Down in the two, seven, six or three. It's a little different these days.

But I remember that was a big deal. I had it dropping zip codes. I love it. Another edition of Judica County Radio in the books. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners. Whitaker and Hamer law firm. Again, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.

Offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and Moorhead City. We have the complementary consults in and around estate planning. Again, opportunity for you. You leave the checkbook at home and call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about. Obviously, you're going to grab one of those estate planning consults. Again, opportunity for you.

Call 800-659-1186. In Judica County, where truth pervades. Josh and Joe lay down lost estate. Outlaw lawyers with a tale to tell. Their voices echo where justice dwells. Outlaws of truth lying awake through Judica night and Judea day. And that's another edition of Judica County Radio in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer.

I'm Morgan Patrick. We'll see 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 MWH Law Lawyer.