What is an Estate Plan?

About the Video

The discussion emphasizes the significance of having a well-structured estate plan and the impact it can have on leaving a lasting legacy for your loved ones. Discover the essential documents needed for a comprehensive estate plan, including wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and more. Learn why NCH strongly advocates for establishing an estate plan, the advantages of professional guidance, and how it can contribute to your business’s success.

Prefer to read? A full transcript is provided below.

Cort: 
Hello and welcome to another edition of Wealthy and Wise. I’m your host, Cort Christie. And today we’re going to be talking about planning for your future. And we’re going into estate planning. And I know no one really wants to talk about what might happen after they pass away from this lifetime. However, with everything in life, you need a plan, and you want to plan ahead for your spouse. You want to plan ahead for your children, and your grandchildren. Who do you want to run things in your life? Who do you want to take over things in your life? And what’s the plan? And the biggest thing is for the people that you care, that you love, you want to make sure that you’re not leaving them with a mess. And that’s really the bottom line when it comes to estate planning.  

And so with us today, we have an expert, our resident expert here at NCH, we have Mr. Kurt Harris. Welcome to the program today. Kurt.  

Kurt: 
Thank you. It’s great to be on again.  

Cort: 
Yeah, it’s fantastic. We always love it when you’re here because you really bring it down to really simple terms. 

And Kurt is the managing partner of the Harris Law Group and works with our clients here at NCH and has been working with NCH clients for I think it’s been over 15 years now, maybe longer. 

Kurt: 

Yes. 

Cort:  

Quite a long time. And so we’ve had a really great relationship between our organizations and your support of the NCH and helping them kind of plan for the next generation and organize their affairs where their business, their real estate investments are set up in a way that when their time comes, things are smooth and roll on to the next generation. And really that’s what everybody wants, a smooth plan in place to really lay things out.  

So, let’s talk about it broadly when we talk about an estate plan, can you break it down? What is it in and why is it so important?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I do appreciate the fact that you are using the estate plan, because that really is what we are trying to do, planning for the future, planning to leave things to wear to our loved ones or to the charity or wherever we’d like it to go to. 

And the plan is to make sure and ensure that it gets there and that it not be derailed in the process. One of our main objectives here and our main goal is to avoid probate, to avoid governmental intrusion into your assets, into the distribution of your estate. And the way to do that is through a comprehensive plan. A will is just not enough. A single trust is probably not enough. You’re going to need some other ancillary documents, as they call them. Powers of attorney, a will, pour over will, a trust and a few other documents, a living will and a certificate of trust, and a few other documents that might help you to establish a complete plan so that you can designate where your assets are to go after you pass away, or if should you become incapacitated. 

Cort: 
Now, you know, from years of working with business owners, investors, individuals on their estate plan, you’ve seen the gamut. And we’ve had plenty of people that have come to us after a problem, meaning maybe their loved one or their parent had a challenge. What are some of the things that can go wrong without having a plan? 

Kurt: 
I think a lot of times some of the things that go wrong is that you might think that you have it all covered, are all taken care of. I know in my personal family we had a situation there where my grandfather thought everything was in a will and it was all taken care of, but he did not have a plan at all. 

The land was not taken care of, the ownership of the vehicles was not taken care of, and the ownership of many other assets just was not encompassed in that. Nonetheless, he had also become incapacitated at the end. And so, he didn’t have a power of attorney there. And his wife at that time was unable really to see to his needs. 

So, there was a lot of sprinting around trying to take care of these things last second, which were very difficult and required court intervention at some point. So you can have that type of situation and scenario where you had a few things in place but you didn’t have everything in place, and yet it may create and cause additional hassle and maybe entirely a complete breakdown of one item or another, which will require that you go into probate court where essentially if you die intestate, they say, or with a will that won’t work or some other document that is not adequate, then the judge there, the probate commissioner will essentially write your will for you and they will make those designations and termination as to who your heirs are and how the divisions ought to be made.  

Cort: 

And it is you know, it’s something that planning, getting ahead of it, laying it and organizing it can really simplify the lives of your heirs, whether that’s your spouse that outlives you or your children that will be taking over or even if you have, you know, other family members, that if something happened to you, you would want to step in your shoes and take over things and oversee your estate. 

Planning is so important, I think, of, you know, these circumstances, as you mentioned in your family, in my own family, you know, the ones that planned and the ones that didn’t plan. And the differences are incredible. The ones that planned, you are talking about maybe a few months to six months of unwinding and getting things organized versus the ones that did not plan. 

Sometimes it has been in one case, it was like two years of inter-fighting between, in this case, cousins of mine, and they could not get anything done. So, then they ended up doing nothing for so long and sat on real estate and sat on some vehicles just because nobody could get to the table and come to any agreement. 

Everything was so emotionally triggering that it became a mess. And here I was on the outside, including my sisters, we love our cousins dearly, but there was nothing that we could do for them. Had their parents actually sat down and done a basic estate plan and laid it out, they would have saved them pain, and suffering, the time, the expenses, you know, the assets were just depreciating because nobody was tending to their house and to the vehicles. So it was really quite a waste. And it is huge.  

Kurt: 

And that is one of the worst cases too, because if I am in a scenario where I might receive this home or I may not, I do not know, it is up to the courts, what’s going to happen. I have no incentive whatsoever to go in there and try and maintain it or keep it up for fear of the fact that I may just lose out on it anyway. 

And so, it leaves this indecision with people I know with so many more of the NCH clientele, we also have businesses and rental homes and things like that can easily be taken care of with a separate trust for a rental home or a separate LLC. And we can have our own kind of business succession plan out of those LLCs or out of that trust that goes to different areas or different beneficiaries, or with a business where I have another partner with whom I am not a family member, that other partner would want that plan in place as much as I would. 

What’s going to happen if my partner passes away and I have all the debt and my partner has a spouse out there who’s looking for some kind of compensation out of the business? We never, ever imagined that one of us would pass away just out of the blue. But those are the types of things in your business or in your real estate or at your home. You need to have a complete comprehensive plan that takes over all these scenarios because they do happen. 

Cort: 

Yeah. And when you think about, you know, the pieces that come together, this does not have to be overly complex. You just have to put a little time and energy into it. I think of like a business plan or, you know, planning out the path to maybe getting in a marathon. 

You just sort of run a marathon, but you’re going to build up and you’re going to train and you’re going to get there. There’s some work that’s involved in that, but it’s not a ton of work. It’s pretty simple. And there’s some components that make up the typical estate plan. What are the components that you put together to make up what you call the perfect plan for someone? 

Kurt: 

Yeah, for a perfect plan. You would start with a pour-over will, and then you would have a trust right behind that for a normal revocable living trust. And then you would also have a durable power of attorney for health care and a durable power of attorney for financial matters. And those would essentially encompass during your life, should you become incapacitated or after you pass away. 

And the trust can make the dictates as to what is happening should you become incapacitated. And where my assets go after I passed away and how my trustee should distribute those to my beneficiaries. That’s the fundamental building block. After that, we kind of branched out. If you have a rental home, I would really like to see a land trust or an LLC holding that. 

And if you have a business in place, I would like to see a business continuation plan sometimes known as buy-sell agreements in place with you and a partner so that you know exactly what happens should you pass away. A living will is really important. I know it’s much, much misunderstood, but living will is my ability to talk to my doctor after I become incapacitated, that I can dictate my wishes in that living well. And so all of those documents, I think, are critical to an estate plan.  

Cort: 

Yeah. And there is, you know, you mentioned these different components. They can all be done together in one plan. You do not have to, like, take on each one individually because some of it’s just some documentation that needs to be signed. You know, it is like a living will hear my wishes for how I would like things to be handled. 

I do not want heroics. I do not want to be on life support for months. You know, I want this. But then you put that plan in place and then who is going to actually make the final call on a lot of this stuff? And you have got to have a point person. And I think of, you know, my wife is a point person for her 95-year-old father but also on financial matters. Right. And so, she’s got a durable power of attorney to sign checks, to pay bills, to take over his financial affairs. But if you haven’t actually put this plan in place, then what happens at that point? So, you know, you’ve got to get ahead of it. You’ve got to put the plan together and get all these components done. 

But it does not have to be what might feel like an exhaustive process for individuals. Now, one of the most important things I think that comes up with all of this is, you know, how do you begin? What’s the first step like? How do we, where do we go?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I think the first step really is trying to make a call to someone who can help you out with that if you don’t know where to begin exactly. I know at NCH they send a questionnaire to start filling out the questionnaire and then we can start to populate that and make a draft and then move from there. But if we do not get the people to put their names on the questionnaire to kind of get the ball rolling, it never really starts. But once it does, it starts to steamroll and kind of roll along and people start to see how the pieces fit together. 

So the first step, I think, is starting with a questionnaire, starting with your name and then your address, and then moving on to your beneficiaries. And before you know it, you’ve got it all filled out and you’re able to start with a draft of a trust and then, you know, itemizing and looking around and seeing who your beneficiaries are, who your trusted individuals are, who are going to be there. 

Hopefully for you and be able to manage your estate, finding the right people who are responsible to be in the right place. If you have pets, you may have those considerations as well. And there is this amazing document that NCH has that is to be filled out by the individual over their lifetime, essentially as to what, what goes where and what is where, you know, what account is out there, what’s the number on the account, what bank is it? 

Is it at or what brokerage account do you have or what life insurance policy is there? And as people fill those out, those are incredibly helpful as to tell my heirs where things are at. This is where it is all at.  

Cort: 
And I think what is so interesting about it is, you know, then what do you do with it? You need to get it to the people that might have to take over for you. 

And interestingly, people have hesitancy about that. My children and my wife have access to passwords that are critical, accounts that are critical, and names on those accounts who to contact. This is the part that a lot of folks have a hard time with, is if your heirs maybe have kids, adult kids, letting them know how much is in or what the value of accounts are. 

And for some of the generations that came earlier than me, we did not talk about money, we didn’t talk about what we had. We avoided all those conversations. That is horrible when it comes to legacy planning, thinking about what you are doing for the next generation and what you dump on them. As far as the problems of cleaning up your affairs, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from a client of NCH, somebody that we’ve been at an event or a seminar on, and they said, Well, I’m just going to leave it for my kids to figure out I’m not going to be here, what’s the big deal? 

And I’m like that is the most selfish thing that you could possibly ever do, is to dump all of your stuff on somebody else without a plan or clarity or having things laid out. Like they’re going to have to dig through your files at home. They’re going to have to guess at passwords. And if they do not have access to passwords, they have to go through a lot of work to get through the financial institutions to actually get access to your assets. 

You can make it so easy for someone. And how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as the parent or the spouse that left a mess? Because how is that going to sit with that person years later when they are thinking about you, thinking, you know what? It could have been so much easier, it could have been so much cleaner, but the selfish person just says, well, they will figure it out. 

I am not here; I do not have to deal with it. And it is like, Wow, that’s all I say when I hear that. So, what I think Kurt to the people listening today, as you mentioned, it starts with a conversation and it’s really that simple. And at NCH, we’ll have that conversation with you. We don’t charge anything for our clients to sit down and talk to one of our consultants and then, as you mentioned, get a questionnaire out so that we can identify how to help support your plan for your estate, for your legacy, for your heirs or whoever else you want to have your things. 

And especially for our business owner clients and investors, you know, you have to get a plan in place because somebody needs to step in because your level of message you’re going to lead. Somebody is far greater than the average person. So don’t do that.  

Kurt: 

Very true. Very true. And I know just simply, like you said, just naming beneficiaries and brokerage accounts and things like that is not done in the bank is not going to help you do that. But these are things that simplify the lives of your beneficiaries, your children, and reduce infighting and problems down the road and really leaves you remembered much more genuinely and happily. Should you follow that plan. 

Cort: 

And a positive light. And do not be so selfish that you cannot share where the assets are, what their value is. Let somebody know, let someone know, put it on a sheet, put it in a safe, send it, email it to your kids so they have it and they know where everything is. Just in case something happens to you. But if you are with your spouse and something happens to both of you at the same time, God forbid, you know, somebody has got to be there to clean it up. 

And again, if you want more information about how we put a plan together and the steps involved in that so that you can know that you’re going to be directed properly for medical treatment and you have a say in it before something happens to you and who you want to basically make the decisions for you. And then when it comes to being able to take over your affairs and signing checks and things that you might need, especially if you do not pass away, but you are incapacitated, unable to communicate, which happens a lot. 

And so, again, you have got all these things put together in a clear path and a clear plan for yourself. And we are here to help you. And we’ve got great people like Kurt Harris with the Harris Law Group right here to work with our clients’ day in and day out. So, thanks for all the great work you do.  

Kurt: 

Thank you. 

Cort: 

Appreciate it. Thanks for having for coming on the program today. And thank you for all of you once again for tuning in to another great edition of Wealthy and Wise. I hope you take this great advice and plan your legacy, plan your estate, work with our team, find out what’s involved in doing it.  

Simply click the link below to set up an appointment. And please like and subscribe so we can spread the message of how important it is for planning your estate and planning for the next generation and doing it right and not being selfish. Thank you again for tuning in. I’m your host Cort Christie. 

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DISCLAIMER: The above material has been prepared for informational purposes only, containing opinions of the provider, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Please consider consulting tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

Cort: 
Hello and welcome to another edition of Wealthy and Wise. I’m your host, Cort Christie. And today we’re going to be talking about planning for your future. And we’re going into estate planning. And I know no one really wants to talk about what might happen after they pass away from this lifetime. However, with everything in life, you need a plan, and you want to plan ahead for your spouse. You want to plan ahead for your children, and your grandchildren. Who do you want to run things in your life? Who do you want to take over things in your life? And what’s the plan? And the biggest thing is for the people that you care, that you love, you want to make sure that you’re not leaving them with a mess. And that’s really the bottom line when it comes to estate planning.  

And so with us today, we have an expert, our resident expert here at NCH, we have Mr. Kurt Harris. Welcome to the program today. Kurt.  

Kurt: 
Thank you. It’s great to be on again.  

Cort: 
Yeah, it’s fantastic. We always love it when you’re here because you really bring it down to really simple terms. 

And Kurt is the managing partner of the Harris Law Group and works with our clients here at NCH and has been working with NCH clients for I think it’s been over 15 years now, maybe longer. 

Kurt: 

Yes. 

Cort:  

Quite a long time. And so we’ve had a really great relationship between our organizations and your support of the NCH and helping them kind of plan for the next generation and organize their affairs where their business, their real estate investments are set up in a way that when their time comes, things are smooth and roll on to the next generation. And really that’s what everybody wants, a smooth plan in place to really lay things out.  

So, let’s talk about it broadly when we talk about an estate plan, can you break it down? What is it in and why is it so important?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I do appreciate the fact that you are using the estate plan, because that really is what we are trying to do, planning for the future, planning to leave things to wear to our loved ones or to the charity or wherever we’d like it to go to. 

And the plan is to make sure and ensure that it gets there and that it not be derailed in the process. One of our main objectives here and our main goal is to avoid probate, to avoid governmental intrusion into your assets, into the distribution of your estate. And the way to do that is through a comprehensive plan. A will is just not enough. A single trust is probably not enough. You’re going to need some other ancillary documents, as they call them. Powers of attorney, a will, pour over will, a trust and a few other documents, a living will and a certificate of trust, and a few other documents that might help you to establish a complete plan so that you can designate where your assets are to go after you pass away, or if should you become incapacitated. 

Cort: 
Now, you know, from years of working with business owners, investors, individuals on their estate plan, you’ve seen the gamut. And we’ve had plenty of people that have come to us after a problem, meaning maybe their loved one or their parent had a challenge. What are some of the things that can go wrong without having a plan? 

Kurt: 
I think a lot of times some of the things that go wrong is that you might think that you have it all covered, are all taken care of. I know in my personal family we had a situation there where my grandfather thought everything was in a will and it was all taken care of, but he did not have a plan at all. 

The land was not taken care of, the ownership of the vehicles was not taken care of, and the ownership of many other assets just was not encompassed in that. Nonetheless, he had also become incapacitated at the end. And so, he didn’t have a power of attorney there. And his wife at that time was unable really to see to his needs. 

So, there was a lot of sprinting around trying to take care of these things last second, which were very difficult and required court intervention at some point. So you can have that type of situation and scenario where you had a few things in place but you didn’t have everything in place, and yet it may create and cause additional hassle and maybe entirely a complete breakdown of one item or another, which will require that you go into probate court where essentially if you die intestate, they say, or with a will that won’t work or some other document that is not adequate, then the judge there, the probate commissioner will essentially write your will for you and they will make those designations and termination as to who your heirs are and how the divisions ought to be made.  

Cort: 

And it is you know, it’s something that planning, getting ahead of it, laying it and organizing it can really simplify the lives of your heirs, whether that’s your spouse that outlives you or your children that will be taking over or even if you have, you know, other family members, that if something happened to you, you would want to step in your shoes and take over things and oversee your estate. 

Planning is so important, I think, of, you know, these circumstances, as you mentioned in your family, in my own family, you know, the ones that planned and the ones that didn’t plan. And the differences are incredible. The ones that planned, you are talking about maybe a few months to six months of unwinding and getting things organized versus the ones that did not plan. 

Sometimes it has been in one case, it was like two years of inter-fighting between, in this case, cousins of mine, and they could not get anything done. So, then they ended up doing nothing for so long and sat on real estate and sat on some vehicles just because nobody could get to the table and come to any agreement. 

Everything was so emotionally triggering that it became a mess. And here I was on the outside, including my sisters, we love our cousins dearly, but there was nothing that we could do for them. Had their parents actually sat down and done a basic estate plan and laid it out, they would have saved them pain, and suffering, the time, the expenses, you know, the assets were just depreciating because nobody was tending to their house and to the vehicles. So it was really quite a waste. And it is huge.  

Kurt: 

And that is one of the worst cases too, because if I am in a scenario where I might receive this home or I may not, I do not know, it is up to the courts, what’s going to happen. I have no incentive whatsoever to go in there and try and maintain it or keep it up for fear of the fact that I may just lose out on it anyway. 

And so, it leaves this indecision with people I know with so many more of the NCH clientele, we also have businesses and rental homes and things like that can easily be taken care of with a separate trust for a rental home or a separate LLC. And we can have our own kind of business succession plan out of those LLCs or out of that trust that goes to different areas or different beneficiaries, or with a business where I have another partner with whom I am not a family member, that other partner would want that plan in place as much as I would. 

What’s going to happen if my partner passes away and I have all the debt and my partner has a spouse out there who’s looking for some kind of compensation out of the business? We never, ever imagined that one of us would pass away just out of the blue. But those are the types of things in your business or in your real estate or at your home. You need to have a complete comprehensive plan that takes over all these scenarios because they do happen. 

Cort: 

Yeah. And when you think about, you know, the pieces that come together, this does not have to be overly complex. You just have to put a little time and energy into it. I think of like a business plan or, you know, planning out the path to maybe getting in a marathon. 

You just sort of run a marathon, but you’re going to build up and you’re going to train and you’re going to get there. There’s some work that’s involved in that, but it’s not a ton of work. It’s pretty simple. And there’s some components that make up the typical estate plan. What are the components that you put together to make up what you call the perfect plan for someone? 

Kurt: 

Yeah, for a perfect plan. You would start with a pour-over will, and then you would have a trust right behind that for a normal revocable living trust. And then you would also have a durable power of attorney for health care and a durable power of attorney for financial matters. And those would essentially encompass during your life, should you become incapacitated or after you pass away. 

And the trust can make the dictates as to what is happening should you become incapacitated. And where my assets go after I passed away and how my trustee should distribute those to my beneficiaries. That’s the fundamental building block. After that, we kind of branched out. If you have a rental home, I would really like to see a land trust or an LLC holding that. 

And if you have a business in place, I would like to see a business continuation plan sometimes known as buy-sell agreements in place with you and a partner so that you know exactly what happens should you pass away. A living will is really important. I know it’s much, much misunderstood, but living will is my ability to talk to my doctor after I become incapacitated, that I can dictate my wishes in that living well. And so all of those documents, I think, are critical to an estate plan.  

Cort: 

Yeah. And there is, you know, you mentioned these different components. They can all be done together in one plan. You do not have to, like, take on each one individually because some of it’s just some documentation that needs to be signed. You know, it is like a living will hear my wishes for how I would like things to be handled. 

I do not want heroics. I do not want to be on life support for months. You know, I want this. But then you put that plan in place and then who is going to actually make the final call on a lot of this stuff? And you have got to have a point person. And I think of, you know, my wife is a point person for her 95-year-old father but also on financial matters. Right. And so, she’s got a durable power of attorney to sign checks, to pay bills, to take over his financial affairs. But if you haven’t actually put this plan in place, then what happens at that point? So, you know, you’ve got to get ahead of it. You’ve got to put the plan together and get all these components done. 

But it does not have to be what might feel like an exhaustive process for individuals. Now, one of the most important things I think that comes up with all of this is, you know, how do you begin? What’s the first step like? How do we, where do we go?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I think the first step really is trying to make a call to someone who can help you out with that if you don’t know where to begin exactly. I know at NCH they send a questionnaire to start filling out the questionnaire and then we can start to populate that and make a draft and then move from there. But if we do not get the people to put their names on the questionnaire to kind of get the ball rolling, it never really starts. But once it does, it starts to steamroll and kind of roll along and people start to see how the pieces fit together. 

So the first step, I think, is starting with a questionnaire, starting with your name and then your address, and then moving on to your beneficiaries. And before you know it, you’ve got it all filled out and you’re able to start with a draft of a trust and then, you know, itemizing and looking around and seeing who your beneficiaries are, who your trusted individuals are, who are going to be there. 

Hopefully for you and be able to manage your estate, finding the right people who are responsible to be in the right place. If you have pets, you may have those considerations as well. And there is this amazing document that NCH has that is to be filled out by the individual over their lifetime, essentially as to what, what goes where and what is where, you know, what account is out there, what’s the number on the account, what bank is it? 

Is it at or what brokerage account do you have or what life insurance policy is there? And as people fill those out, those are incredibly helpful as to tell my heirs where things are at. This is where it is all at.  

Cort: 
And I think what is so interesting about it is, you know, then what do you do with it? You need to get it to the people that might have to take over for you. 

And interestingly, people have hesitancy about that. My children and my wife have access to passwords that are critical, accounts that are critical, and names on those accounts who to contact. This is the part that a lot of folks have a hard time with, is if your heirs maybe have kids, adult kids, letting them know how much is in or what the value of accounts are. 

And for some of the generations that came earlier than me, we did not talk about money, we didn’t talk about what we had. We avoided all those conversations. That is horrible when it comes to legacy planning, thinking about what you are doing for the next generation and what you dump on them. As far as the problems of cleaning up your affairs, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from a client of NCH, somebody that we’ve been at an event or a seminar on, and they said, Well, I’m just going to leave it for my kids to figure out I’m not going to be here, what’s the big deal? 

And I’m like that is the most selfish thing that you could possibly ever do, is to dump all of your stuff on somebody else without a plan or clarity or having things laid out. Like they’re going to have to dig through your files at home. They’re going to have to guess at passwords. And if they do not have access to passwords, they have to go through a lot of work to get through the financial institutions to actually get access to your assets. 

You can make it so easy for someone. And how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as the parent or the spouse that left a mess? Because how is that going to sit with that person years later when they are thinking about you, thinking, you know what? It could have been so much easier, it could have been so much cleaner, but the selfish person just says, well, they will figure it out. 

I am not here; I do not have to deal with it. And it is like, Wow, that’s all I say when I hear that. So, what I think Kurt to the people listening today, as you mentioned, it starts with a conversation and it’s really that simple. And at NCH, we’ll have that conversation with you. We don’t charge anything for our clients to sit down and talk to one of our consultants and then, as you mentioned, get a questionnaire out so that we can identify how to help support your plan for your estate, for your legacy, for your heirs or whoever else you want to have your things. 

And especially for our business owner clients and investors, you know, you have to get a plan in place because somebody needs to step in because your level of message you’re going to lead. Somebody is far greater than the average person. So don’t do that.  

Kurt: 

Very true. Very true. And I know just simply, like you said, just naming beneficiaries and brokerage accounts and things like that is not done in the bank is not going to help you do that. But these are things that simplify the lives of your beneficiaries, your children, and reduce infighting and problems down the road and really leaves you remembered much more genuinely and happily. Should you follow that plan. 

Cort: 

And a positive light. And do not be so selfish that you cannot share where the assets are, what their value is. Let somebody know, let someone know, put it on a sheet, put it in a safe, send it, email it to your kids so they have it and they know where everything is. Just in case something happens to you. But if you are with your spouse and something happens to both of you at the same time, God forbid, you know, somebody has got to be there to clean it up. 

And again, if you want more information about how we put a plan together and the steps involved in that so that you can know that you’re going to be directed properly for medical treatment and you have a say in it before something happens to you and who you want to basically make the decisions for you. And then when it comes to being able to take over your affairs and signing checks and things that you might need, especially if you do not pass away, but you are incapacitated, unable to communicate, which happens a lot. 

And so, again, you have got all these things put together in a clear path and a clear plan for yourself. And we are here to help you. And we’ve got great people like Kurt Harris with the Harris Law Group right here to work with our clients’ day in and day out. So, thanks for all the great work you do.  

Kurt: 

Thank you. 

Cort: 

Appreciate it. Thanks for having for coming on the program today. And thank you for all of you once again for tuning in to another great edition of Wealthy and Wise. I hope you take this great advice and plan your legacy, plan your estate, work with our team, find out what’s involved in doing it.  

Simply click the link below to set up an appointment. And please like and subscribe so we can spread the message of how important it is for planning your estate and planning for the next generation and doing it right and not being selfish. Thank you again for tuning in. I’m your host Cort Christie. 

With NCH, the state’s top business formation service, you can register your LLC in Nevada quickly and easily. Our specialists will help you choose the right entity for your company and understand why an LLC in Nevada is your best option. We’ll assist you with all necessary Nevada LLC forms, including the vital Articles of Organization, and help you comply with state regulations. In addition, we offer expert assistance with tax compliance, credit building, and payroll management. Schedule a private consultation to explore effective solutions to minimize tax liabilities and protect your wealth. Start unleashing your LLC’s full potential today with NCH.

DISCLAIMER: The above material has been prepared for informational purposes only, containing opinions of the provider, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Please consider consulting tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

Cort: 
Hello and welcome to another edition of Wealthy and Wise. I’m your host, Cort Christie. And today we’re going to be talking about planning for your future. And we’re going into estate planning. And I know no one really wants to talk about what might happen after they pass away from this lifetime. However, with everything in life, you need a plan, and you want to plan ahead for your spouse. You want to plan ahead for your children, and your grandchildren. Who do you want to run things in your life? Who do you want to take over things in your life? And what’s the plan? And the biggest thing is for the people that you care, that you love, you want to make sure that you’re not leaving them with a mess. And that’s really the bottom line when it comes to estate planning.  

And so with us today, we have an expert, our resident expert here at NCH, we have Mr. Kurt Harris. Welcome to the program today. Kurt.  

Kurt: 
Thank you. It’s great to be on again.  

Cort: 
Yeah, it’s fantastic. We always love it when you’re here because you really bring it down to really simple terms. 

And Kurt is the managing partner of the Harris Law Group and works with our clients here at NCH and has been working with NCH clients for I think it’s been over 15 years now, maybe longer. 

Kurt: 

Yes. 

Cort:  

Quite a long time. And so we’ve had a really great relationship between our organizations and your support of the NCH and helping them kind of plan for the next generation and organize their affairs where their business, their real estate investments are set up in a way that when their time comes, things are smooth and roll on to the next generation. And really that’s what everybody wants, a smooth plan in place to really lay things out.  

So, let’s talk about it broadly when we talk about an estate plan, can you break it down? What is it in and why is it so important?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I do appreciate the fact that you are using the estate plan, because that really is what we are trying to do, planning for the future, planning to leave things to wear to our loved ones or to the charity or wherever we’d like it to go to. 

And the plan is to make sure and ensure that it gets there and that it not be derailed in the process. One of our main objectives here and our main goal is to avoid probate, to avoid governmental intrusion into your assets, into the distribution of your estate. And the way to do that is through a comprehensive plan. A will is just not enough. A single trust is probably not enough. You’re going to need some other ancillary documents, as they call them. Powers of attorney, a will, pour over will, a trust and a few other documents, a living will and a certificate of trust, and a few other documents that might help you to establish a complete plan so that you can designate where your assets are to go after you pass away, or if should you become incapacitated. 

Cort: 
Now, you know, from years of working with business owners, investors, individuals on their estate plan, you’ve seen the gamut. And we’ve had plenty of people that have come to us after a problem, meaning maybe their loved one or their parent had a challenge. What are some of the things that can go wrong without having a plan? 

Kurt: 
I think a lot of times some of the things that go wrong is that you might think that you have it all covered, are all taken care of. I know in my personal family we had a situation there where my grandfather thought everything was in a will and it was all taken care of, but he did not have a plan at all. 

The land was not taken care of, the ownership of the vehicles was not taken care of, and the ownership of many other assets just was not encompassed in that. Nonetheless, he had also become incapacitated at the end. And so, he didn’t have a power of attorney there. And his wife at that time was unable really to see to his needs. 

So, there was a lot of sprinting around trying to take care of these things last second, which were very difficult and required court intervention at some point. So you can have that type of situation and scenario where you had a few things in place but you didn’t have everything in place, and yet it may create and cause additional hassle and maybe entirely a complete breakdown of one item or another, which will require that you go into probate court where essentially if you die intestate, they say, or with a will that won’t work or some other document that is not adequate, then the judge there, the probate commissioner will essentially write your will for you and they will make those designations and termination as to who your heirs are and how the divisions ought to be made.  

Cort: 

And it is you know, it’s something that planning, getting ahead of it, laying it and organizing it can really simplify the lives of your heirs, whether that’s your spouse that outlives you or your children that will be taking over or even if you have, you know, other family members, that if something happened to you, you would want to step in your shoes and take over things and oversee your estate. 

Planning is so important, I think, of, you know, these circumstances, as you mentioned in your family, in my own family, you know, the ones that planned and the ones that didn’t plan. And the differences are incredible. The ones that planned, you are talking about maybe a few months to six months of unwinding and getting things organized versus the ones that did not plan. 

Sometimes it has been in one case, it was like two years of inter-fighting between, in this case, cousins of mine, and they could not get anything done. So, then they ended up doing nothing for so long and sat on real estate and sat on some vehicles just because nobody could get to the table and come to any agreement. 

Everything was so emotionally triggering that it became a mess. And here I was on the outside, including my sisters, we love our cousins dearly, but there was nothing that we could do for them. Had their parents actually sat down and done a basic estate plan and laid it out, they would have saved them pain, and suffering, the time, the expenses, you know, the assets were just depreciating because nobody was tending to their house and to the vehicles. So it was really quite a waste. And it is huge.  

Kurt: 

And that is one of the worst cases too, because if I am in a scenario where I might receive this home or I may not, I do not know, it is up to the courts, what’s going to happen. I have no incentive whatsoever to go in there and try and maintain it or keep it up for fear of the fact that I may just lose out on it anyway. 

And so, it leaves this indecision with people I know with so many more of the NCH clientele, we also have businesses and rental homes and things like that can easily be taken care of with a separate trust for a rental home or a separate LLC. And we can have our own kind of business succession plan out of those LLCs or out of that trust that goes to different areas or different beneficiaries, or with a business where I have another partner with whom I am not a family member, that other partner would want that plan in place as much as I would. 

What’s going to happen if my partner passes away and I have all the debt and my partner has a spouse out there who’s looking for some kind of compensation out of the business? We never, ever imagined that one of us would pass away just out of the blue. But those are the types of things in your business or in your real estate or at your home. You need to have a complete comprehensive plan that takes over all these scenarios because they do happen. 

Cort: 

Yeah. And when you think about, you know, the pieces that come together, this does not have to be overly complex. You just have to put a little time and energy into it. I think of like a business plan or, you know, planning out the path to maybe getting in a marathon. 

You just sort of run a marathon, but you’re going to build up and you’re going to train and you’re going to get there. There’s some work that’s involved in that, but it’s not a ton of work. It’s pretty simple. And there’s some components that make up the typical estate plan. What are the components that you put together to make up what you call the perfect plan for someone? 

Kurt: 

Yeah, for a perfect plan. You would start with a pour-over will, and then you would have a trust right behind that for a normal revocable living trust. And then you would also have a durable power of attorney for health care and a durable power of attorney for financial matters. And those would essentially encompass during your life, should you become incapacitated or after you pass away. 

And the trust can make the dictates as to what is happening should you become incapacitated. And where my assets go after I passed away and how my trustee should distribute those to my beneficiaries. That’s the fundamental building block. After that, we kind of branched out. If you have a rental home, I would really like to see a land trust or an LLC holding that. 

And if you have a business in place, I would like to see a business continuation plan sometimes known as buy-sell agreements in place with you and a partner so that you know exactly what happens should you pass away. A living will is really important. I know it’s much, much misunderstood, but living will is my ability to talk to my doctor after I become incapacitated, that I can dictate my wishes in that living well. And so all of those documents, I think, are critical to an estate plan.  

Cort: 

Yeah. And there is, you know, you mentioned these different components. They can all be done together in one plan. You do not have to, like, take on each one individually because some of it’s just some documentation that needs to be signed. You know, it is like a living will hear my wishes for how I would like things to be handled. 

I do not want heroics. I do not want to be on life support for months. You know, I want this. But then you put that plan in place and then who is going to actually make the final call on a lot of this stuff? And you have got to have a point person. And I think of, you know, my wife is a point person for her 95-year-old father but also on financial matters. Right. And so, she’s got a durable power of attorney to sign checks, to pay bills, to take over his financial affairs. But if you haven’t actually put this plan in place, then what happens at that point? So, you know, you’ve got to get ahead of it. You’ve got to put the plan together and get all these components done. 

But it does not have to be what might feel like an exhaustive process for individuals. Now, one of the most important things I think that comes up with all of this is, you know, how do you begin? What’s the first step like? How do we, where do we go?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I think the first step really is trying to make a call to someone who can help you out with that if you don’t know where to begin exactly. I know at NCH they send a questionnaire to start filling out the questionnaire and then we can start to populate that and make a draft and then move from there. But if we do not get the people to put their names on the questionnaire to kind of get the ball rolling, it never really starts. But once it does, it starts to steamroll and kind of roll along and people start to see how the pieces fit together. 

So the first step, I think, is starting with a questionnaire, starting with your name and then your address, and then moving on to your beneficiaries. And before you know it, you’ve got it all filled out and you’re able to start with a draft of a trust and then, you know, itemizing and looking around and seeing who your beneficiaries are, who your trusted individuals are, who are going to be there. 

Hopefully for you and be able to manage your estate, finding the right people who are responsible to be in the right place. If you have pets, you may have those considerations as well. And there is this amazing document that NCH has that is to be filled out by the individual over their lifetime, essentially as to what, what goes where and what is where, you know, what account is out there, what’s the number on the account, what bank is it? 

Is it at or what brokerage account do you have or what life insurance policy is there? And as people fill those out, those are incredibly helpful as to tell my heirs where things are at. This is where it is all at.  

Cort: 
And I think what is so interesting about it is, you know, then what do you do with it? You need to get it to the people that might have to take over for you. 

And interestingly, people have hesitancy about that. My children and my wife have access to passwords that are critical, accounts that are critical, and names on those accounts who to contact. This is the part that a lot of folks have a hard time with, is if your heirs maybe have kids, adult kids, letting them know how much is in or what the value of accounts are. 

And for some of the generations that came earlier than me, we did not talk about money, we didn’t talk about what we had. We avoided all those conversations. That is horrible when it comes to legacy planning, thinking about what you are doing for the next generation and what you dump on them. As far as the problems of cleaning up your affairs, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from a client of NCH, somebody that we’ve been at an event or a seminar on, and they said, Well, I’m just going to leave it for my kids to figure out I’m not going to be here, what’s the big deal? 

And I’m like that is the most selfish thing that you could possibly ever do, is to dump all of your stuff on somebody else without a plan or clarity or having things laid out. Like they’re going to have to dig through your files at home. They’re going to have to guess at passwords. And if they do not have access to passwords, they have to go through a lot of work to get through the financial institutions to actually get access to your assets. 

You can make it so easy for someone. And how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as the parent or the spouse that left a mess? Because how is that going to sit with that person years later when they are thinking about you, thinking, you know what? It could have been so much easier, it could have been so much cleaner, but the selfish person just says, well, they will figure it out. 

I am not here; I do not have to deal with it. And it is like, Wow, that’s all I say when I hear that. So, what I think Kurt to the people listening today, as you mentioned, it starts with a conversation and it’s really that simple. And at NCH, we’ll have that conversation with you. We don’t charge anything for our clients to sit down and talk to one of our consultants and then, as you mentioned, get a questionnaire out so that we can identify how to help support your plan for your estate, for your legacy, for your heirs or whoever else you want to have your things. 

And especially for our business owner clients and investors, you know, you have to get a plan in place because somebody needs to step in because your level of message you’re going to lead. Somebody is far greater than the average person. So don’t do that.  

Kurt: 

Very true. Very true. And I know just simply, like you said, just naming beneficiaries and brokerage accounts and things like that is not done in the bank is not going to help you do that. But these are things that simplify the lives of your beneficiaries, your children, and reduce infighting and problems down the road and really leaves you remembered much more genuinely and happily. Should you follow that plan. 

Cort: 

And a positive light. And do not be so selfish that you cannot share where the assets are, what their value is. Let somebody know, let someone know, put it on a sheet, put it in a safe, send it, email it to your kids so they have it and they know where everything is. Just in case something happens to you. But if you are with your spouse and something happens to both of you at the same time, God forbid, you know, somebody has got to be there to clean it up. 

And again, if you want more information about how we put a plan together and the steps involved in that so that you can know that you’re going to be directed properly for medical treatment and you have a say in it before something happens to you and who you want to basically make the decisions for you. And then when it comes to being able to take over your affairs and signing checks and things that you might need, especially if you do not pass away, but you are incapacitated, unable to communicate, which happens a lot. 

And so, again, you have got all these things put together in a clear path and a clear plan for yourself. And we are here to help you. And we’ve got great people like Kurt Harris with the Harris Law Group right here to work with our clients’ day in and day out. So, thanks for all the great work you do.  

Kurt: 

Thank you. 

Cort: 

Appreciate it. Thanks for having for coming on the program today. And thank you for all of you once again for tuning in to another great edition of Wealthy and Wise. I hope you take this great advice and plan your legacy, plan your estate, work with our team, find out what’s involved in doing it.  

Simply click the link below to set up an appointment. And please like and subscribe so we can spread the message of how important it is for planning your estate and planning for the next generation and doing it right and not being selfish. Thank you again for tuning in. I’m your host Cort Christie. 

With NCH, the state’s top business formation service, you can register your LLC in Nevada quickly and easily. Our specialists will help you choose the right entity for your company and understand why an LLC in Nevada is your best option. We’ll assist you with all necessary Nevada LLC forms, including the vital Articles of Organization, and help you comply with state regulations. In addition, we offer expert assistance with tax compliance, credit building, and payroll management. Schedule a private consultation to explore effective solutions to minimize tax liabilities and protect your wealth. Start unleashing your LLC’s full potential today with NCH.

DISCLAIMER: The above material has been prepared for informational purposes only, containing opinions of the provider, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Please consider consulting tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

Cort: 
Hello and welcome to another edition of Wealthy and Wise. I’m your host, Cort Christie. And today we’re going to be talking about planning for your future. And we’re going into estate planning. And I know no one really wants to talk about what might happen after they pass away from this lifetime. However, with everything in life, you need a plan, and you want to plan ahead for your spouse. You want to plan ahead for your children, and your grandchildren. Who do you want to run things in your life? Who do you want to take over things in your life? And what’s the plan? And the biggest thing is for the people that you care, that you love, you want to make sure that you’re not leaving them with a mess. And that’s really the bottom line when it comes to estate planning.  

And so with us today, we have an expert, our resident expert here at NCH, we have Mr. Kurt Harris. Welcome to the program today. Kurt.  

Kurt: 
Thank you. It’s great to be on again.  

Cort: 
Yeah, it’s fantastic. We always love it when you’re here because you really bring it down to really simple terms. 

And Kurt is the managing partner of the Harris Law Group and works with our clients here at NCH and has been working with NCH clients for I think it’s been over 15 years now, maybe longer. 

Kurt: 

Yes. 

Cort:  

Quite a long time. And so we’ve had a really great relationship between our organizations and your support of the NCH and helping them kind of plan for the next generation and organize their affairs where their business, their real estate investments are set up in a way that when their time comes, things are smooth and roll on to the next generation. And really that’s what everybody wants, a smooth plan in place to really lay things out.  

So, let’s talk about it broadly when we talk about an estate plan, can you break it down? What is it in and why is it so important?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I do appreciate the fact that you are using the estate plan, because that really is what we are trying to do, planning for the future, planning to leave things to wear to our loved ones or to the charity or wherever we’d like it to go to. 

And the plan is to make sure and ensure that it gets there and that it not be derailed in the process. One of our main objectives here and our main goal is to avoid probate, to avoid governmental intrusion into your assets, into the distribution of your estate. And the way to do that is through a comprehensive plan. A will is just not enough. A single trust is probably not enough. You’re going to need some other ancillary documents, as they call them. Powers of attorney, a will, pour over will, a trust and a few other documents, a living will and a certificate of trust, and a few other documents that might help you to establish a complete plan so that you can designate where your assets are to go after you pass away, or if should you become incapacitated. 

Cort: 
Now, you know, from years of working with business owners, investors, individuals on their estate plan, you’ve seen the gamut. And we’ve had plenty of people that have come to us after a problem, meaning maybe their loved one or their parent had a challenge. What are some of the things that can go wrong without having a plan? 

Kurt: 
I think a lot of times some of the things that go wrong is that you might think that you have it all covered, are all taken care of. I know in my personal family we had a situation there where my grandfather thought everything was in a will and it was all taken care of, but he did not have a plan at all. 

The land was not taken care of, the ownership of the vehicles was not taken care of, and the ownership of many other assets just was not encompassed in that. Nonetheless, he had also become incapacitated at the end. And so, he didn’t have a power of attorney there. And his wife at that time was unable really to see to his needs. 

So, there was a lot of sprinting around trying to take care of these things last second, which were very difficult and required court intervention at some point. So you can have that type of situation and scenario where you had a few things in place but you didn’t have everything in place, and yet it may create and cause additional hassle and maybe entirely a complete breakdown of one item or another, which will require that you go into probate court where essentially if you die intestate, they say, or with a will that won’t work or some other document that is not adequate, then the judge there, the probate commissioner will essentially write your will for you and they will make those designations and termination as to who your heirs are and how the divisions ought to be made.  

Cort: 

And it is you know, it’s something that planning, getting ahead of it, laying it and organizing it can really simplify the lives of your heirs, whether that’s your spouse that outlives you or your children that will be taking over or even if you have, you know, other family members, that if something happened to you, you would want to step in your shoes and take over things and oversee your estate. 

Planning is so important, I think, of, you know, these circumstances, as you mentioned in your family, in my own family, you know, the ones that planned and the ones that didn’t plan. And the differences are incredible. The ones that planned, you are talking about maybe a few months to six months of unwinding and getting things organized versus the ones that did not plan. 

Sometimes it has been in one case, it was like two years of inter-fighting between, in this case, cousins of mine, and they could not get anything done. So, then they ended up doing nothing for so long and sat on real estate and sat on some vehicles just because nobody could get to the table and come to any agreement. 

Everything was so emotionally triggering that it became a mess. And here I was on the outside, including my sisters, we love our cousins dearly, but there was nothing that we could do for them. Had their parents actually sat down and done a basic estate plan and laid it out, they would have saved them pain, and suffering, the time, the expenses, you know, the assets were just depreciating because nobody was tending to their house and to the vehicles. So it was really quite a waste. And it is huge.  

Kurt: 

And that is one of the worst cases too, because if I am in a scenario where I might receive this home or I may not, I do not know, it is up to the courts, what’s going to happen. I have no incentive whatsoever to go in there and try and maintain it or keep it up for fear of the fact that I may just lose out on it anyway. 

And so, it leaves this indecision with people I know with so many more of the NCH clientele, we also have businesses and rental homes and things like that can easily be taken care of with a separate trust for a rental home or a separate LLC. And we can have our own kind of business succession plan out of those LLCs or out of that trust that goes to different areas or different beneficiaries, or with a business where I have another partner with whom I am not a family member, that other partner would want that plan in place as much as I would. 

What’s going to happen if my partner passes away and I have all the debt and my partner has a spouse out there who’s looking for some kind of compensation out of the business? We never, ever imagined that one of us would pass away just out of the blue. But those are the types of things in your business or in your real estate or at your home. You need to have a complete comprehensive plan that takes over all these scenarios because they do happen. 

Cort: 

Yeah. And when you think about, you know, the pieces that come together, this does not have to be overly complex. You just have to put a little time and energy into it. I think of like a business plan or, you know, planning out the path to maybe getting in a marathon. 

You just sort of run a marathon, but you’re going to build up and you’re going to train and you’re going to get there. There’s some work that’s involved in that, but it’s not a ton of work. It’s pretty simple. And there’s some components that make up the typical estate plan. What are the components that you put together to make up what you call the perfect plan for someone? 

Kurt: 

Yeah, for a perfect plan. You would start with a pour-over will, and then you would have a trust right behind that for a normal revocable living trust. And then you would also have a durable power of attorney for health care and a durable power of attorney for financial matters. And those would essentially encompass during your life, should you become incapacitated or after you pass away. 

And the trust can make the dictates as to what is happening should you become incapacitated. And where my assets go after I passed away and how my trustee should distribute those to my beneficiaries. That’s the fundamental building block. After that, we kind of branched out. If you have a rental home, I would really like to see a land trust or an LLC holding that. 

And if you have a business in place, I would like to see a business continuation plan sometimes known as buy-sell agreements in place with you and a partner so that you know exactly what happens should you pass away. A living will is really important. I know it’s much, much misunderstood, but living will is my ability to talk to my doctor after I become incapacitated, that I can dictate my wishes in that living well. And so all of those documents, I think, are critical to an estate plan.  

Cort: 

Yeah. And there is, you know, you mentioned these different components. They can all be done together in one plan. You do not have to, like, take on each one individually because some of it’s just some documentation that needs to be signed. You know, it is like a living will hear my wishes for how I would like things to be handled. 

I do not want heroics. I do not want to be on life support for months. You know, I want this. But then you put that plan in place and then who is going to actually make the final call on a lot of this stuff? And you have got to have a point person. And I think of, you know, my wife is a point person for her 95-year-old father but also on financial matters. Right. And so, she’s got a durable power of attorney to sign checks, to pay bills, to take over his financial affairs. But if you haven’t actually put this plan in place, then what happens at that point? So, you know, you’ve got to get ahead of it. You’ve got to put the plan together and get all these components done. 

But it does not have to be what might feel like an exhaustive process for individuals. Now, one of the most important things I think that comes up with all of this is, you know, how do you begin? What’s the first step like? How do we, where do we go?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I think the first step really is trying to make a call to someone who can help you out with that if you don’t know where to begin exactly. I know at NCH they send a questionnaire to start filling out the questionnaire and then we can start to populate that and make a draft and then move from there. But if we do not get the people to put their names on the questionnaire to kind of get the ball rolling, it never really starts. But once it does, it starts to steamroll and kind of roll along and people start to see how the pieces fit together. 

So the first step, I think, is starting with a questionnaire, starting with your name and then your address, and then moving on to your beneficiaries. And before you know it, you’ve got it all filled out and you’re able to start with a draft of a trust and then, you know, itemizing and looking around and seeing who your beneficiaries are, who your trusted individuals are, who are going to be there. 

Hopefully for you and be able to manage your estate, finding the right people who are responsible to be in the right place. If you have pets, you may have those considerations as well. And there is this amazing document that NCH has that is to be filled out by the individual over their lifetime, essentially as to what, what goes where and what is where, you know, what account is out there, what’s the number on the account, what bank is it? 

Is it at or what brokerage account do you have or what life insurance policy is there? And as people fill those out, those are incredibly helpful as to tell my heirs where things are at. This is where it is all at.  

Cort: 
And I think what is so interesting about it is, you know, then what do you do with it? You need to get it to the people that might have to take over for you. 

And interestingly, people have hesitancy about that. My children and my wife have access to passwords that are critical, accounts that are critical, and names on those accounts who to contact. This is the part that a lot of folks have a hard time with, is if your heirs maybe have kids, adult kids, letting them know how much is in or what the value of accounts are. 

And for some of the generations that came earlier than me, we did not talk about money, we didn’t talk about what we had. We avoided all those conversations. That is horrible when it comes to legacy planning, thinking about what you are doing for the next generation and what you dump on them. As far as the problems of cleaning up your affairs, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from a client of NCH, somebody that we’ve been at an event or a seminar on, and they said, Well, I’m just going to leave it for my kids to figure out I’m not going to be here, what’s the big deal? 

And I’m like that is the most selfish thing that you could possibly ever do, is to dump all of your stuff on somebody else without a plan or clarity or having things laid out. Like they’re going to have to dig through your files at home. They’re going to have to guess at passwords. And if they do not have access to passwords, they have to go through a lot of work to get through the financial institutions to actually get access to your assets. 

You can make it so easy for someone. And how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as the parent or the spouse that left a mess? Because how is that going to sit with that person years later when they are thinking about you, thinking, you know what? It could have been so much easier, it could have been so much cleaner, but the selfish person just says, well, they will figure it out. 

I am not here; I do not have to deal with it. And it is like, Wow, that’s all I say when I hear that. So, what I think Kurt to the people listening today, as you mentioned, it starts with a conversation and it’s really that simple. And at NCH, we’ll have that conversation with you. We don’t charge anything for our clients to sit down and talk to one of our consultants and then, as you mentioned, get a questionnaire out so that we can identify how to help support your plan for your estate, for your legacy, for your heirs or whoever else you want to have your things. 

And especially for our business owner clients and investors, you know, you have to get a plan in place because somebody needs to step in because your level of message you’re going to lead. Somebody is far greater than the average person. So don’t do that.  

Kurt: 

Very true. Very true. And I know just simply, like you said, just naming beneficiaries and brokerage accounts and things like that is not done in the bank is not going to help you do that. But these are things that simplify the lives of your beneficiaries, your children, and reduce infighting and problems down the road and really leaves you remembered much more genuinely and happily. Should you follow that plan. 

Cort: 

And a positive light. And do not be so selfish that you cannot share where the assets are, what their value is. Let somebody know, let someone know, put it on a sheet, put it in a safe, send it, email it to your kids so they have it and they know where everything is. Just in case something happens to you. But if you are with your spouse and something happens to both of you at the same time, God forbid, you know, somebody has got to be there to clean it up. 

And again, if you want more information about how we put a plan together and the steps involved in that so that you can know that you’re going to be directed properly for medical treatment and you have a say in it before something happens to you and who you want to basically make the decisions for you. And then when it comes to being able to take over your affairs and signing checks and things that you might need, especially if you do not pass away, but you are incapacitated, unable to communicate, which happens a lot. 

And so, again, you have got all these things put together in a clear path and a clear plan for yourself. And we are here to help you. And we’ve got great people like Kurt Harris with the Harris Law Group right here to work with our clients’ day in and day out. So, thanks for all the great work you do.  

Kurt: 

Thank you. 

Cort: 

Appreciate it. Thanks for having for coming on the program today. And thank you for all of you once again for tuning in to another great edition of Wealthy and Wise. I hope you take this great advice and plan your legacy, plan your estate, work with our team, find out what’s involved in doing it.  

Simply click the link below to set up an appointment. And please like and subscribe so we can spread the message of how important it is for planning your estate and planning for the next generation and doing it right and not being selfish. Thank you again for tuning in. I’m your host Cort Christie. 

With NCH, the state’s top business formation service, you can register your LLC in Nevada quickly and easily. Our specialists will help you choose the right entity for your company and understand why an LLC in Nevada is your best option. We’ll assist you with all necessary Nevada LLC forms, including the vital Articles of Organization, and help you comply with state regulations. In addition, we offer expert assistance with tax compliance, credit building, and payroll management. Schedule a private consultation to explore effective solutions to minimize tax liabilities and protect your wealth. Start unleashing your LLC’s full potential today with NCH.

DISCLAIMER: The above material has been prepared for informational purposes only, containing opinions of the provider, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Please consider consulting tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

Cort: 
Hello and welcome to another edition of Wealthy and Wise. I’m your host, Cort Christie. And today we’re going to be talking about planning for your future. And we’re going into estate planning. And I know no one really wants to talk about what might happen after they pass away from this lifetime. However, with everything in life, you need a plan, and you want to plan ahead for your spouse. You want to plan ahead for your children, and your grandchildren. Who do you want to run things in your life? Who do you want to take over things in your life? And what’s the plan? And the biggest thing is for the people that you care, that you love, you want to make sure that you’re not leaving them with a mess. And that’s really the bottom line when it comes to estate planning.  

And so with us today, we have an expert, our resident expert here at NCH, we have Mr. Kurt Harris. Welcome to the program today. Kurt.  

Kurt: 
Thank you. It’s great to be on again.  

Cort: 
Yeah, it’s fantastic. We always love it when you’re here because you really bring it down to really simple terms. 

And Kurt is the managing partner of the Harris Law Group and works with our clients here at NCH and has been working with NCH clients for I think it’s been over 15 years now, maybe longer. 

Kurt: 

Yes. 

Cort:  

Quite a long time. And so we’ve had a really great relationship between our organizations and your support of the NCH and helping them kind of plan for the next generation and organize their affairs where their business, their real estate investments are set up in a way that when their time comes, things are smooth and roll on to the next generation. And really that’s what everybody wants, a smooth plan in place to really lay things out.  

So, let’s talk about it broadly when we talk about an estate plan, can you break it down? What is it in and why is it so important?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I do appreciate the fact that you are using the estate plan, because that really is what we are trying to do, planning for the future, planning to leave things to wear to our loved ones or to the charity or wherever we’d like it to go to. 

And the plan is to make sure and ensure that it gets there and that it not be derailed in the process. One of our main objectives here and our main goal is to avoid probate, to avoid governmental intrusion into your assets, into the distribution of your estate. And the way to do that is through a comprehensive plan. A will is just not enough. A single trust is probably not enough. You’re going to need some other ancillary documents, as they call them. Powers of attorney, a will, pour over will, a trust and a few other documents, a living will and a certificate of trust, and a few other documents that might help you to establish a complete plan so that you can designate where your assets are to go after you pass away, or if should you become incapacitated. 

Cort: 
Now, you know, from years of working with business owners, investors, individuals on their estate plan, you’ve seen the gamut. And we’ve had plenty of people that have come to us after a problem, meaning maybe their loved one or their parent had a challenge. What are some of the things that can go wrong without having a plan? 

Kurt: 
I think a lot of times some of the things that go wrong is that you might think that you have it all covered, are all taken care of. I know in my personal family we had a situation there where my grandfather thought everything was in a will and it was all taken care of, but he did not have a plan at all. 

The land was not taken care of, the ownership of the vehicles was not taken care of, and the ownership of many other assets just was not encompassed in that. Nonetheless, he had also become incapacitated at the end. And so, he didn’t have a power of attorney there. And his wife at that time was unable really to see to his needs. 

So, there was a lot of sprinting around trying to take care of these things last second, which were very difficult and required court intervention at some point. So you can have that type of situation and scenario where you had a few things in place but you didn’t have everything in place, and yet it may create and cause additional hassle and maybe entirely a complete breakdown of one item or another, which will require that you go into probate court where essentially if you die intestate, they say, or with a will that won’t work or some other document that is not adequate, then the judge there, the probate commissioner will essentially write your will for you and they will make those designations and termination as to who your heirs are and how the divisions ought to be made.  

Cort: 

And it is you know, it’s something that planning, getting ahead of it, laying it and organizing it can really simplify the lives of your heirs, whether that’s your spouse that outlives you or your children that will be taking over or even if you have, you know, other family members, that if something happened to you, you would want to step in your shoes and take over things and oversee your estate. 

Planning is so important, I think, of, you know, these circumstances, as you mentioned in your family, in my own family, you know, the ones that planned and the ones that didn’t plan. And the differences are incredible. The ones that planned, you are talking about maybe a few months to six months of unwinding and getting things organized versus the ones that did not plan. 

Sometimes it has been in one case, it was like two years of inter-fighting between, in this case, cousins of mine, and they could not get anything done. So, then they ended up doing nothing for so long and sat on real estate and sat on some vehicles just because nobody could get to the table and come to any agreement. 

Everything was so emotionally triggering that it became a mess. And here I was on the outside, including my sisters, we love our cousins dearly, but there was nothing that we could do for them. Had their parents actually sat down and done a basic estate plan and laid it out, they would have saved them pain, and suffering, the time, the expenses, you know, the assets were just depreciating because nobody was tending to their house and to the vehicles. So it was really quite a waste. And it is huge.  

Kurt: 

And that is one of the worst cases too, because if I am in a scenario where I might receive this home or I may not, I do not know, it is up to the courts, what’s going to happen. I have no incentive whatsoever to go in there and try and maintain it or keep it up for fear of the fact that I may just lose out on it anyway. 

And so, it leaves this indecision with people I know with so many more of the NCH clientele, we also have businesses and rental homes and things like that can easily be taken care of with a separate trust for a rental home or a separate LLC. And we can have our own kind of business succession plan out of those LLCs or out of that trust that goes to different areas or different beneficiaries, or with a business where I have another partner with whom I am not a family member, that other partner would want that plan in place as much as I would. 

What’s going to happen if my partner passes away and I have all the debt and my partner has a spouse out there who’s looking for some kind of compensation out of the business? We never, ever imagined that one of us would pass away just out of the blue. But those are the types of things in your business or in your real estate or at your home. You need to have a complete comprehensive plan that takes over all these scenarios because they do happen. 

Cort: 

Yeah. And when you think about, you know, the pieces that come together, this does not have to be overly complex. You just have to put a little time and energy into it. I think of like a business plan or, you know, planning out the path to maybe getting in a marathon. 

You just sort of run a marathon, but you’re going to build up and you’re going to train and you’re going to get there. There’s some work that’s involved in that, but it’s not a ton of work. It’s pretty simple. And there’s some components that make up the typical estate plan. What are the components that you put together to make up what you call the perfect plan for someone? 

Kurt: 

Yeah, for a perfect plan. You would start with a pour-over will, and then you would have a trust right behind that for a normal revocable living trust. And then you would also have a durable power of attorney for health care and a durable power of attorney for financial matters. And those would essentially encompass during your life, should you become incapacitated or after you pass away. 

And the trust can make the dictates as to what is happening should you become incapacitated. And where my assets go after I passed away and how my trustee should distribute those to my beneficiaries. That’s the fundamental building block. After that, we kind of branched out. If you have a rental home, I would really like to see a land trust or an LLC holding that. 

And if you have a business in place, I would like to see a business continuation plan sometimes known as buy-sell agreements in place with you and a partner so that you know exactly what happens should you pass away. A living will is really important. I know it’s much, much misunderstood, but living will is my ability to talk to my doctor after I become incapacitated, that I can dictate my wishes in that living well. And so all of those documents, I think, are critical to an estate plan.  

Cort: 

Yeah. And there is, you know, you mentioned these different components. They can all be done together in one plan. You do not have to, like, take on each one individually because some of it’s just some documentation that needs to be signed. You know, it is like a living will hear my wishes for how I would like things to be handled. 

I do not want heroics. I do not want to be on life support for months. You know, I want this. But then you put that plan in place and then who is going to actually make the final call on a lot of this stuff? And you have got to have a point person. And I think of, you know, my wife is a point person for her 95-year-old father but also on financial matters. Right. And so, she’s got a durable power of attorney to sign checks, to pay bills, to take over his financial affairs. But if you haven’t actually put this plan in place, then what happens at that point? So, you know, you’ve got to get ahead of it. You’ve got to put the plan together and get all these components done. 

But it does not have to be what might feel like an exhaustive process for individuals. Now, one of the most important things I think that comes up with all of this is, you know, how do you begin? What’s the first step like? How do we, where do we go?  

Kurt: 
Yeah, and I think the first step really is trying to make a call to someone who can help you out with that if you don’t know where to begin exactly. I know at NCH they send a questionnaire to start filling out the questionnaire and then we can start to populate that and make a draft and then move from there. But if we do not get the people to put their names on the questionnaire to kind of get the ball rolling, it never really starts. But once it does, it starts to steamroll and kind of roll along and people start to see how the pieces fit together. 

So the first step, I think, is starting with a questionnaire, starting with your name and then your address, and then moving on to your beneficiaries. And before you know it, you’ve got it all filled out and you’re able to start with a draft of a trust and then, you know, itemizing and looking around and seeing who your beneficiaries are, who your trusted individuals are, who are going to be there. 

Hopefully for you and be able to manage your estate, finding the right people who are responsible to be in the right place. If you have pets, you may have those considerations as well. And there is this amazing document that NCH has that is to be filled out by the individual over their lifetime, essentially as to what, what goes where and what is where, you know, what account is out there, what’s the number on the account, what bank is it? 

Is it at or what brokerage account do you have or what life insurance policy is there? And as people fill those out, those are incredibly helpful as to tell my heirs where things are at. This is where it is all at.  

Cort: 
And I think what is so interesting about it is, you know, then what do you do with it? You need to get it to the people that might have to take over for you. 

And interestingly, people have hesitancy about that. My children and my wife have access to passwords that are critical, accounts that are critical, and names on those accounts who to contact. This is the part that a lot of folks have a hard time with, is if your heirs maybe have kids, adult kids, letting them know how much is in or what the value of accounts are. 

And for some of the generations that came earlier than me, we did not talk about money, we didn’t talk about what we had. We avoided all those conversations. That is horrible when it comes to legacy planning, thinking about what you are doing for the next generation and what you dump on them. As far as the problems of cleaning up your affairs, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from a client of NCH, somebody that we’ve been at an event or a seminar on, and they said, Well, I’m just going to leave it for my kids to figure out I’m not going to be here, what’s the big deal? 

And I’m like that is the most selfish thing that you could possibly ever do, is to dump all of your stuff on somebody else without a plan or clarity or having things laid out. Like they’re going to have to dig through your files at home. They’re going to have to guess at passwords. And if they do not have access to passwords, they have to go through a lot of work to get through the financial institutions to actually get access to your assets. 

You can make it so easy for someone. And how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as the parent or the spouse that left a mess? Because how is that going to sit with that person years later when they are thinking about you, thinking, you know what? It could have been so much easier, it could have been so much cleaner, but the selfish person just says, well, they will figure it out. 

I am not here; I do not have to deal with it. And it is like, Wow, that’s all I say when I hear that. So, what I think Kurt to the people listening today, as you mentioned, it starts with a conversation and it’s really that simple. And at NCH, we’ll have that conversation with you. We don’t charge anything for our clients to sit down and talk to one of our consultants and then, as you mentioned, get a questionnaire out so that we can identify how to help support your plan for your estate, for your legacy, for your heirs or whoever else you want to have your things. 

And especially for our business owner clients and investors, you know, you have to get a plan in place because somebody needs to step in because your level of message you’re going to lead. Somebody is far greater than the average person. So don’t do that.  

Kurt: 

Very true. Very true. And I know just simply, like you said, just naming beneficiaries and brokerage accounts and things like that is not done in the bank is not going to help you do that. But these are things that simplify the lives of your beneficiaries, your children, and reduce infighting and problems down the road and really leaves you remembered much more genuinely and happily. Should you follow that plan. 

Cort: 

And a positive light. And do not be so selfish that you cannot share where the assets are, what their value is. Let somebody know, let someone know, put it on a sheet, put it in a safe, send it, email it to your kids so they have it and they know where everything is. Just in case something happens to you. But if you are with your spouse and something happens to both of you at the same time, God forbid, you know, somebody has got to be there to clean it up. 

And again, if you want more information about how we put a plan together and the steps involved in that so that you can know that you’re going to be directed properly for medical treatment and you have a say in it before something happens to you and who you want to basically make the decisions for you. And then when it comes to being able to take over your affairs and signing checks and things that you might need, especially if you do not pass away, but you are incapacitated, unable to communicate, which happens a lot. 

And so, again, you have got all these things put together in a clear path and a clear plan for yourself. And we are here to help you. And we’ve got great people like Kurt Harris with the Harris Law Group right here to work with our clients’ day in and day out. So, thanks for all the great work you do.  

Kurt: 

Thank you. 

Cort: 

Appreciate it. Thanks for having for coming on the program today. And thank you for all of you once again for tuning in to another great edition of Wealthy and Wise. I hope you take this great advice and plan your legacy, plan your estate, work with our team, find out what’s involved in doing it.  

Simply click the link below to set up an appointment. And please like and subscribe so we can spread the message of how important it is for planning your estate and planning for the next generation and doing it right and not being selfish. Thank you again for tuning in. I’m your host Cort Christie. 

With NCH, the state’s top business formation service, you can register your LLC in Nevada quickly and easily. Our specialists will help you choose the right entity for your company and understand why an LLC in Nevada is your best option. We’ll assist you with all necessary Nevada LLC forms, including the vital Articles of Organization, and help you comply with state regulations. In addition, we offer expert assistance with tax compliance, credit building, and payroll management. Schedule a private consultation to explore effective solutions to minimize tax liabilities and protect your wealth. Start unleashing your LLC’s full potential today with NCH.

DISCLAIMER: The above material has been prepared for informational purposes only, containing opinions of the provider, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Please consider consulting tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.