Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:51 — 44.7MB)
Legal Line broadcast from October 29, 2011
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:51 — 44.7MB)
Legal Line broadcast from October 29, 2011
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:53 — 44.8MB)
Legal Line Broadcast for Oct. 22, 2011
If you have minor children, you are being irresponsible as parents if you don’t make a will that names a guardian for your children and establishes a trust for their inheritance. On this Saturday’s broadcast, Ted and I discussed wills and why you might need one. A child under 18 must have a legal guardian and the court will appoint one whether you have named one in your will or not. But, who will be appointed? The judge may be picking from several candidates and may or may not name the one you would have chosen, unless you take the time to name the guardian in your will. Unless you pick Jack the Ripper, the judge will more than likely appoint the guardian you have named.
What about your assets? Age 18 is not safe for anyone to inherit anything, except maybe bus fare. In your will, you need to call for the assets to be held in trust for your children. It’s really pretty simple. In your will you leave your assets to your children, but if they are under a specified age, then the assets are held by someone you name as trustee (usually not the guardian) and the trustee helps kids out with what they need until they attain the age you select. Education expenses – the trustee covers them. Housing, food, health care – the trustee takes care of the necessities. I remember asking one set of parents when their son should receive his inheritance. They thought and thought (and thought) and finally said, “65 should be about right.” What do you think? Sometimes, we split the inheritance into two or three installments, like 25, 30 and 35. Think about it. And then take action.
While you are at it, sit down and write a letter to your children’s guardian. What is important to you that you want the guardian to know? The guardian can’t call you with questions. You’re dead. So work on your letter, update it from time to time, and keep a copy with your will. If nothing else, you and the kids will have fun reading the letter when you don’t die. But, if you die before they are 18, your guardian will put extra flowers at your gravesite (and stop trying to call your cell phone).
In a later blog posting, we’ll talk about putting Saran Wrap around your children’s inheritance, to protect them from loss of their inheritance to a lawsuit or failed marriage. How would you like to wrap up your son or daughter’s inheritance so that the bad guys can’t get it?
On this week’s edition of Legal Line, we started up a weekly IQ test and tried out a lawyer joke of the week. We’ll see what the reaction is. Ted and I are on the air each Saturday, taking your general legal questions. Check it out.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:49 — 65.7MB)
The first broadcast of Legal Line with Bob Pittman and Ted Barr, live on the radio Saturdays at 10am PST and put up online as a bobcast.
Criminal defense attorney, Ted Barr, and I cranked up a new edition of Legal Line on Saturday. Although Ted and I had not been together on the air for about 10 years, it seemed like yesterday as we eased back into the groove we had cut so many years ago. A few bumps in the road, like Ted’s headset not being hooked up, some uneasy transitions by a board operator not used to Bob and Ted, but all in all we had a good start to this new venture.
A caller brought up a question worth commenting on involving creditor problems. It looks like he may need to file for bankruptcy, but he is starting a new venture. Will his new business be safe from attack if he indeed files for bankruptcy protection? Here is the simple advice we all need to heed: if you have any inkling that you might need to file for bankruptcy, don’t just sit around and think about it. Run, don’t walk, to the nearest bankruptcy lawyer and engage in a strategy session to discuss your options, the pros and cons, and how to arrange your affairs, legally, to be in the best possible position to move on with your life. Do not wait until you have spent every last dime, drained your retirement account, and cashed in your life insurance. I’m not saying just to file for bankruptcy either. I’m suggesting that you have a strategy session early on with a bankruptcy attorney to understand your options and to put yourself and your family in the best possible position, all in a legal manner.
On a lighter side, here is what a caller to the online edition of Legal Line asked about. A caller recently explained that her family is living on the edge. “There is just too much month and not enough money.” We talked a little about the times and how tough they are for most of us. Then she told me about her husband’s method of picking up a little extra cash. It seems that when he goes to Lowe’s or Home Depot or maybe out to lunch with his buddies, he picks up the bill for everyone (on his credit card of course) and then gets the cash from his friends. Somehow the cash never ends up on the credit card bill, just in his pocket. He always seems to have a little extra spending money. What should she do?
Here’s where my extensive legal training really pays off. There is a little legal term called “precedent.” When a case is decided by a court of appeals, such as the Supreme Court, we say that the case sets a precedent for the particular set of facts and courts must follow the precedent in the future when they decide cases that involve substantially similar facts. Pretty slick, huh? In our caller’s case, there is a precedent. In Episode 100 of I Love Lucy (from the fourth season, airing on October 4, 1954), Lucy, who is in charge of the household, ends up on a budget administered by a business manager hired by Ricky. With only $5.00 in spending money for the month, but armed with an account at the grocery store, Lucy starts doing the grocery shopping for her neighbors. She charges their groceries to her account and pockets the money from the neighbors. The bill won’t come until the next month and will, she figures, be paid by the business manager. Luckily, a stock market windfall based on Lucy’s participation in the “market” saves the day (and Lucy). You can pretty much find the answer to most legal questions in an episode of I Love Lucy. Stay tuned.
And, check out Bob and Ted’s new edition of Legal Line next Saturday.