Aug. 11, 2025

National Make a Will Month

wills, trusts, C-corps, legacy building Setting It Straight w/ Ms. Gray is broadcast live Mondays at 7PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio...

wills, trusts, C-corps, legacy building

Setting It Straight w/ Ms. Gray is broadcast live Mondays at 7PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Setting It Straight w/ Ms. Gray is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

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WEBVTT

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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are

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solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not

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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We

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make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or

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products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability

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explicitor implied shall be extended to W four c Y

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Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments

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should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for

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choosing W four c Y Radio.

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I'm telling you that musical score just it just takes

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you there. Man, I'm telling you, this boy is so creative.

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He just doesn't know, just doesn't know.

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Good evening, and welcome to another segment of Setting it

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Straight with Miss Gray and her fabulous co hosts. We

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just thank you for tuning in tonight. Trey Tray, how

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is it up there? What's the weather like? I see

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the fans the wind blowing in your locks there, so

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it must be really cool.

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No, the fan is blowing.

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Actually got something going on with the AC unit, so okay, okay,

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But that's okay, that's.

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Okay, that's okay.

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That's why we go get some fans and do a

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surround sound on the fans.

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You know fast, how are you doing?

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You great?

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Golly, he's smiling for the reason. I've never seen this before. Okay,

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we'll keep you right there. I keep it right there,

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right there. Let's pray.

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Oh my God, we just thank you and we praise you.

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We give you glory, for you alone are worthy to

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be praised.

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Lord.

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We just thank you for this opportunity, Papa God, to

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discuss this particular topic tonight for your people. Lord, we

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will say, have a moment of silence for the fatal

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shooting that occurred in Texas at the target.

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We will do that now.

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And this goes for any and any other situation that's

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going on, whether it's due to the weather or it's

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due to just people actions and everything else. Lord, please

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just forgive us, help us along this way, help us

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along the way. We just love you so much. Now,

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as always, we get behind the cross. This is your show,

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this is your opportunity. You do what you do best,

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and that set your captives free.

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In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

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Well, as you all know, it is national make a

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will month, and guess what we have a guest who

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specializes in wills and all that good stuff and estate planning,

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and so I hope that you go get grab a

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paid piece of paper or grab a tablet and a pen,

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because she's got some interesting things to say. I trust her,

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she's my trust and will attorney.

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She's bad to the bone. Please help me.

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Welcome Attorney Damaris Claude right here from the.

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Sound thing going, so we can get the cock and

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go and get it. Thank you so much for joining

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us this evening. And you know, I'm gonna let you

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do what you do.

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You've got that knowledge, and these folks need to really

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have a better understanding of the importance of having a will,

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the importance of you know, having a state planning and

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no matter you know who you're planning it for, uh,

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and what the state would do with your stuff if

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you don't have something written down, and things like that.

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So I'm gonna mute myself and let you have at it.

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Thank you so much, and welcome again. Appreciate this, Thank you,

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thank you for having me. I appreciate it. My name

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is Demarus Claude.

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I'm the senior principal at Fusion Law Pier and Ada Avida, Florida.

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I have been practicing for about twenty four years now

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in this area, so I'm pretty well versed in most

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areas of estate planning, probate, an elder law.

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But I'm just gonna keep.

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It interesting and try and hit some of the more

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common mistakes that I see made by people who haven't

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seen an attorney or you know, can't for whatever reason,

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to maybe try and avoid those help help you all

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avoid those mistakes. So I'll kind of start with what

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I first do when when people come in, which is

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talk to me about their current family status. Right, So

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one of the first things I'm looking for in deciding,

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you know, kind of what to advise you and what

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you need is what your family looks like.

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Whether you're you're married, whether.

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You're single, whether you're divorced, whether you have kids from

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a previous marriage and this is a second marriage, you know,

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if you have a child with disabilities. All of those

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things are minor children, All of those things are things

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that really will impact my advice to you. So this

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is gonna be very general kind of explanations.

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And then the.

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Next thing we kind of talk about is, uh, you know,

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whether you have real estate, whether you have a homestead,

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whether it's homestead in the state of Florida, because that,

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you know, my advice then also change depending on what

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types of what the character of your assets are, whether

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they're you know, real estate, whether it's cash accounts.

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That also makes an impact.

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And of course the amount what you what you have

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is important for.

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A state estate tax purposes.

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Florida doesn't have estate taxes, but federal estate taxes are

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still you know, uh in effect.

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So I think the.

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Federal estate tax cap is upwards of twelve thirteen million

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right now. So if you're under that, you're probably okay.

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But if you win the lottery, we need to we

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need to see right away. So the next thing we

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kind of talk about aside from the character of the assets,

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and you know, I'm going to ask you about your iras,

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your bank accounts, so you should have a general knowledge.

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And if you're married, this is one of the one

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of the things that I see people doing a lot

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is that one spouse is completely in charge of all

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of the financial stuff. So there's one spouse that pays

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the bills and you know, knows what the debts are,

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knows what the assets are, and the other spouse is

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kind of in the dark because you know, you have

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one that kind of does that, that's their job, and

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then something happens to that spouse that's paying the bills,

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that's doing all the financial stuff, and then you suddenly

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have the other the surviving spouse that's like, what do

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I do? I even know where to start. I don't

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know what we have, you know, so you know, that's

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one thing I would recommend is if you are the

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spouse that is kind of taking care of everything financially,

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make sure that your you know, your spouse has a

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general knowledge of what you have, where it is, who

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to talk to if they need to, you know, call

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uh like a financial institution. Those are all things that

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definitely I see people not doing. So that's the first

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piece of advice there. So after we look at kind

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of the assets. Reason I'm looking at the assets not

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so much for the monetary value, because I'm gonna ask

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you very generally you have over twelve million, and then

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we'll talk about taxes, but I'm not looking for the

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amount really at that point. I'm looking to see what

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assets we can put beneficiaries on is primary usually, and

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the reason for that is if you own something jointly

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in the state of Florida, if you own something jointly

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with another person, or you have a beneficiary designation like

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a POD, like a pay on death at the bank

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or a transfer on death, if you have either of

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those things upon the death, upon your death, it's going

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to go to the beneficiary that you named or the

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joint account holder, as the case may be. So if

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what happens if you don't have those though, and this

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is what this is where we get into the complex

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things that you can really be avoiding on your own

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before you even come to see us, and that is

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you avoid probate by having a joint account holder. And

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I would also recommend also having a pay on death

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or a POD beneficiary designation every asset you have, even

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real estate. You can put beneficiaries on real estate. There's

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a number of ways to do that. You definitely see

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in a state planning attorney for more information. But in

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the state of Florida, there's no absolutely no reason that

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you should have assets going through probate if you plan properly.

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So that's number one. So if you can't trust her,

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you don't need to trust. Number one, put beneficiary designations

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on everything. Life insurance is one of the biggest things

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that people miss designating and if your spouse dies, remember

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you had to redo those right because you're going to

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have your spouse as the primary and they're gone. So

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you want to make sure that your beneficiary designations are

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always up to date. And another reason for that is

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and what a lot of people don't know is they

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make a will and they think, okay, well my asset,

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they are going to go according to what I've what

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I've said in this will. Well, what they don't know

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is in Florida, the beneficiary designations and joint account.

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Ownership trumps the will.

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So if you have you know this twenty five twenty five,

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twenty five to everybody, but you only put you know,

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one daughter as a joint account holder with you, guess

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who's getting all the money in that account and then

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people get very upset. So, you know, just be very

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careful if if you have a specific estate plan you

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have certain beneficiaries, make sure those are the same beneficiaries

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you have named as pay on death or joint account holders,

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which I don't recommend for other reasons, but we'll get

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into that. So you know, the three things I'm kind

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of looking for when I'm asking questions at our initial

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meeting is whether you have probate assets, and then we're

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going to talk about how to fix those.

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Most of it you can do on your own.

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And the second thing I look for is whether there

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are any special needs. So if you have minor children,

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we're going to start talking about, you know, children's trusts.

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If you have a child that's.

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Disabled or a relative that's disabled that's a beneficiary, We're

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going to start talking about special needs trusts. So you know,

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it's very dependent on that, you know, what the character

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of your family is there. And then the third thing

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I'm gonna you know, be thinking about is taxes. But

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again these days, it's very rare that I have a

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client that needs it's you know, federal estate tax planning.

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It just doesn't happen. And again, Florida doesn't have a

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state taxes. So next, the next biggest mistake I see

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people make is with their real estate, with their homestead

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property in Florida. So homestead property is absolutely protected in

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Florida from creditors. Right, So if you have homestead in

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the state of Florida and you get sued nine times

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out of time, there's no way they can get to

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your house. And my first answer when a client calls

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me and says, hey, can this creditor get No, they can't.

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They can't. They cannot touch your house. They can't touch

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your homestead.

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If it's a rental property, if it's a second home, yeah,

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my advice is going to change. But if it is

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homestead property in the state of Florida, and that is

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why it is so important to be very very careful

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of what you do with it, and you should always

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talk to an attorney before you.

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Do anything with homestead.

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I've seen so many huge litigated issues from people just

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like doing a deed wrong. You know, something as simple

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as just not signing it properly and everything's messed up,

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Just go see a lawyer. It's not the cost you're

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going to pay them to do it right. If you

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mess it up, it's going to be ten times that.

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So make sure that anything dealing with real estate you

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go to see an attorney before you try and DIY

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with that said, one of the guess mistakes I see

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people make from the d i Y is they think

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that by putting their children on the deed, they are

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doing something good to avoid probate to you know, I

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don't know what what what they're thinking.

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What this does is a few things.

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One, it's not your children's homestead generally, right, So what

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happens if they get sued and their name is now

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on your house, Well, now you've just opened your house

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up to their creditors. So if they get sued, you're

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getting sued and they're gonna they're gonna go after your house.

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So never do that.

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There's other ways to achieve that, just as simple that

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don't include putting the kids directly on the house. Uh.

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It also limits your ability to sell. Obviously, you have

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to get their permission if you ever want to sell

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it or refinance or whatever. So the other thing that

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it does is they will get your tax basis and

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the property when you put their house, when you put

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their name on it before you pass, they're going to

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get your tax basis. So let's say if you purchase

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the thousand for one hundred thousand, at your death, it's

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worth two hundred thousand, right normally if it just passed

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by operation of law or other methods, they're going to

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get the two hundred thousand dollars basis, which means when

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they go to sell it, they're not going to have

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capital gains to realize. Right when you put them on

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the deed before you die, they're going to get your

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basis of one hundred thousand. So then when you die

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and the house is worth two hundred thousand, they're going

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to have to realize some capital gains. So it has

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tax implications. Just don't mess with real estate. If you

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remember one thing from this, don't touch real estate without

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a lawyer. We do have in Florida, and people you

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know ask about this all the time because real estate

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is very hard. They think is very hard to put

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a beneficiary on, And we have in Florida, and I

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think there are several other states that do now as well.

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Enhance what we call enhanced life estate deeds, or most

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people know them as ladybird deeds. That's a more common

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common terminology. But these enhanced life estate deeds are meant

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to one avoid probate and two make sure that the

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children don't have to do anything other than record a

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death certificate at the time of your death, well, whoever

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your benefit is. All they would have to do is

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record a death certificate in the clerk's office. And around

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here it's about ten bucks and title is in their name,

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so one simple deed, no probate. And the other benefit is,

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of course they get the stepped up tax basis. So

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they're going to get that two hundred thousand dollars basis

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in the property upon your death.

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Did you have a Yes, we have a few questions

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and we're going to get to you. Guys, don't worry

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about it. But I'm in a situation right now where

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somebody has wrap their uh inherited property around in this

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ladybird life estate thing. But she's got a lean on it.

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It don't affect the lean, you know, and people need

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to understand that. They think she thinks she's doing something

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to protect but you're really not because you're really putting

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your kids and then you put your children's names in

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there and everything. There's still a lean on the property

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and that lean will be settled satisfied first before anything.

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So I just wanted to put that in there.

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But we do have a couple of questions, so we'll

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just face some time towards the end.

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Okay, thank you so much so.

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So the Lady birdies are a very very efficient way

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to avoid probate without all of the negative consequences of

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just putting somebody on the deed with you. And the

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other good thing is you can still it's revocable, right,

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so you put them on as beneficiaries, you get mad

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at one of them, we're gonna take them right back off.

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So if you the only the only caveat I would

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say is that they if you have to refinance your house,

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title companies don't really like them, so we kind of

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undo it and then redo it after you refinance. But

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that is really one of the only negatives we've found,

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and we've been using them for many, many years, I

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think since two thousand and six, two and seven, so

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they've been pretty well tested in court.

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So definitely something I recommend.

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The other mistake I see made frequently is people lawyers

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love to sell trusts. So there are a lot of

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you know, I will say, you know, there are a

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lot of valid reasons for a trust, and maybe some

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attorneys just think, you know, everybody should have one, but

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not one of them. So nine times out of ten

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you'll come in and you'll be like, I want to trust,

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and you'll leave and you don't have a trust, not

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because I don't want to do a trust for you

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or sell you a trust, but because you really don't

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need one. So what I look for when I'm looking

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at really whether to create whether we think we need

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a trust, is again family situation, right, that's the most

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important thing. If you have kids that have special needs

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or beneficiary that has special needs. If you have some

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tax issues, if we need to avoid income tax or

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federal estate tax, we're going to talk about trust. If

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you have property that is very hard to designate a

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beneficiary on, again trust, you have kids from a previous marriage, trust,

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So all of those things are things that I kind

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of look at to determine whether or not you need

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to trust. If it's just a very simple case where

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husband and wife, you know, no significant income tax issues,

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no significant estate tax issues, We're just going to do

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very basic state planning. We're going to do a simple will,

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a durable power of attorney, a living will, and a

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health care surrogate. Those are the very basic four basic

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estate planning documents everybody should have, at the very least,

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the power of attorney being number. If you have to

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do any one of those, the power attorney should be

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the one you do. But in any case, I'm not

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going to try and sell you a trust if you

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don't need one. So those are those are kind of

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the things I look for. All of the assets generally,

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of like a husband and wife with let's say two kids,

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all of the assets are usually jointly titled. The ones

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that aren't usually the spouse is the primary beneficiary, and

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you know, usually the pay on death are the kids.

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So if we're kind of sticking with that, we want

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everything fifty. You know, we want everything fifty to fifty

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between the two kids. You know, the death of the

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second to die. Well, it's going to be very very easy, right,

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We're just going to create very very simple documents the will,

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even though the beneficiaries, like I said, the beneficiaries trump

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the will. The personal property and there are several other

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things personal representative things that are covered in the will

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that you will need. So if you want to have

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the power to dictate what happens to your assets in

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the event you don't have a beneficiary on them, a

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lot of times we'll have litigation after you pass and

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then we got a bunch of money where you wanted

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to go. Do you want Florida to decide in the

359
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statutes or do you want to decide, And that's why

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we do our last will and testament.

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That's why it's so important.

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So going back to the documents, we were talking about

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another issue. I see, the big issue, big mistake is

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going to Office MAX or Office Depot and printing out

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a power of attorney or a will or whatever, a

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state planning document. I used to have a calculus teacher

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in high school. He used to say garbage and we

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used to have those graphic calculators used to say garbage in,

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garbage out. And if you don't know what you're doing,

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you're putting garbage in, You're gonna get garbage out. And

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then the other thing is you don't know how to

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sign right. We had a we had a whole class

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in law school where the estate planning guy had a

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skeleton and showed us how the witnesses had to look

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at the test stator in order for the will to

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be valid.

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It is very, very specific.

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In Florida, they just had a case where they said

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the banker was witnessing and she walked away for a second.

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Guess what invalidated the whole will. Just don't do a

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will on your own. The powers of attorney also in Florida,

382
00:21:16.519 --> 00:21:19.440
are very very specific, I think minor about forty pages long.

383
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So if you're spitting out a two.

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00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:23.799
Page, three page power of attorney, it is not going

385
00:21:23.880 --> 00:21:26.359
to work when you need it. And like I said,

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that is the most important thing, because what happens if

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00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:29.400
you don't have.

388
00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:31.880
A power of attorney. We have to go through a

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court appointed guardianship if you become incapacitated, which runs upwards

390
00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:40.519
of fifteen thousand dollars. No one can do anything.

391
00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:42.480
For you if you're incapacitated and you don't have a

392
00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:44.160
power of attorney, No one.

393
00:21:44.039 --> 00:21:44.920
Not even your spouse.

394
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So I've had to tell and I've had to tell

395
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a number of very you know, very sad cases where

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