Answers For Elders Radio Network

Why would you want to set up a living trust? Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk about the basics and benefits of living trusts. Benefits include ease of management and they work in all 50 states.

Steve says, "I think it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said, 'Don't put your trust in money, put your money in trust.' What's behind that? Well, lots of reasons. I think, practically speaking, it's a great way to get organized. Who knows your assets better, you or your heirs? You just get to clean up how you own things... It gets you organized, and then you can make sure that anything that's in the trust is properly organized. And then other things that are outside of the trust can point to the trust and it coordinates things. Why do people want to do a trust? Because you avoid probate, you maintain privacy, you get strong incapacity protection. It's more thorough than will planning. You have more documents. It's easier during your life. It's easier if you're incapacitated, it's easier when you die, it's harder to contest. It works in all 50 states. It's more flexible. I mean, I could go on. There tends to be a few downsides. It tends to cost more, and be a little bit more work. I don't need to sell a trust. I just need to ask what people's goals are, and many of those things cause them to want to do one."

How much more does it cost? Steve says, "If you get a Michelin tire, it's the same tire [wherever you buy it]. Powers of attorney are very different between attorneys. Wills are different. Trusts are even more different, but in general it's from $1,000 to $3,000 more, maybe, to do a trust. I mean, it's hard to know. My father in law spent $7,800 doing a will plan. That's more than a trust that I would even do for a single person today. So, in general it's a bit more, $1,000 bucks or more."

What assets should not be in a trust? Steve says, "You don't want to have retirement funds. And the reason is, you don't want to change title on retirement period. If you take your IRA or your 401K, you take it out of your name and you move it into your trust, the IRS could consider that a distribution. You may say the beneficiary is the trust, or it's my spouse, then the trust, but that's different than ownership. So you don't want to change ownership on tax-deferred assets."

• Legacy Estate Planning at Answers for Elders
• Legacy Estate Planning website or call 425-455-6788
• More podcasts with Steve Waltar
• Find an attorney near you at the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys website
• Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trustees manage assets on a trust. Successor trustees do the same sorts of things that an executor of an estate does, but for a trust. Sometimes it's the same person. Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk more about living trusts, and this segment focuses on trustees.

Steve says, "A trustee is the manager. They're the ones that hold legal title and it's a fiduciary position, meaning they are doing it on behalf of someone else. In a revocable living trust, husband and wife are probably their own trustees, but they're going to have successors that work after they're incapacitated or when they die. So that's kind of what we're talking about: who who can do this job, how important is this job?"

What qualities should a trustee have? Steve says, "Trustworthy, honest, good communicator, fair, unbiased. I think that the knowledge base is, you want someone that at least understands your kinds of assets. If you're into lots of fancy buying and selling, if they've never had any stock accounts, they're probably not a good candidate. Now they can hire the financial advisors, the attorneys, the accountants, but they need to have a base level of understanding your types of assets. But as a person, or as an institution, they have to have really high values. They can't put their interest above the interest of the beneficiaries. They can't be disorganized.

"Frequently people are listing children... Sometimes you'll have co-trustees. 'Well, I know my son would be fair, but he's just not organized.' Well, do we bill them as co-trustees — they both have to sign — or is it and/or?

"It's a thankless job and if someone's an heir and they charge for doing the work, and it is work, then the other siblings don't understand it, don't appreciate it. They think it's being unfair. Sometimes there's tension between siblings, and sometimes it is better to have a trustee that's a bank. Banks are not known for being, you know, sensitive, but at least if they don't like the bank, that's a little different than disliking a brother or sister. I think clients often want to avoid the fees. That's actually the biggest problem. They want to avoid the fees, they figure the kids would do it for free. I'm saying, well, the kids could charge as well, or we might say in the event they act, they get a little bonus, they get a gift. It's not taxable because when you work, and you declare, that's gross income to you. They list the family because they figure they're the beneficiaries. They want to keep it private. They figure everyone gets along. There's a little saying in estate planning that the planners are the givers — those that do the wills and trusts — and then when someone dies, it's the takers. They want the money, and they want it now, and they don't appreciate who's doing all the work.

"I've handled hundreds and hundreds of estates and probates. One time, Bank of America said 'It's not big enough. We don't want to be the personal rep and will you do it?' And so I did it. I mean, I had to clean out the storage, I had to go get the car, I had to sell the car. I had to do all that stuff that usually an attorney doesn't do. There's a lot to consider. We've got some lists on things to consider on our website at waltar.com, and they can look that up... Sometimes I just think it's good for people to interview professional firms. It's a good idea to just kind of know who's there, who could do what?"

• Legacy Estate Planning at Answers for Elders
• Legacy Estate Planning website or call 425-455-6788
• More podcasts with Steve Waltar
• Find an attorney near you at the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys website
• Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk more about living trusts. This segment focuses on who does what when trusts are created and managed.

Steve says, "We need to identify the three parties. The first is the trustor. Sometimes it's called grantor or settlor, but I like trustor. For a married couple, it's both husband and wife. Then there's the trustee or trustees, and then there's beneficiaries. So those are the three parties. The one that can change it, the one that created it, the one who's taxable estate it is, that's the trustor. Do you have control over the trust? You can be all three people, that's the cool thing. My wife and I can buy, sell, lease, transfer. We have our condo in Sun Valley, Idaho in the trust, and our house, my business and all these things like that. So it's the trustees that have the authority. Anything you can do the trustee can do. Maybe we scale it back, to make sure that a trustee, especially a successor trustee can't do as many things as possible, but as long as you're the trustee, why limit yourself?

"After the trustor dies, or if they're incapacitated, someone needs to manage it. And it's really nice for it to be people and not have a lot of fees, if you're still alive. But upon passing, it's very common to pay a trust company or something. So the trustee is a lot like a personal rep in a will or an executor. It's their job to value all the items and read the trust and consult with an attorney and know things. And then it might be as simple as distributing, or it might be managing things carefully for a period of time. So they're the fiduciary, they're wearing the hat, that's the highest duty under the law. They're managing someone else's money.

"The one time you don't want a living trust is if what you're trying to do is qualify for Medicaid, because everything in the trust is your asset. They're not subject to creditors, or divorce, or taxes, but the state of Washington is a super creditor, so they can go after that. So for those clients, it might be a will with a Safe Harbor Trust is a better tool. That's an asset protection strategy. It's not an incapacity management strategy. So I would say from an incapacity management strategy, a trust is a stronger tool than a power of attorney for management. Powers of attorney often don't work. And when a trustee gets in problems with an institution, they just move the money because they're the legal owner."

• Legacy Estate Planning at Answers for Elders
• Legacy Estate Planning website or call 425-455-6788
• More podcasts with Steve Waltar
• Find an attorney near you at the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys website
• Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You want to have documents to protect your wishes, making sure that you leave a legacy behind for your loved ones, and if you become incapacitated — if you need help in your later life, if you're unable to speak for yourself — there is legal proof that honors your wishes. Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk about the value of trusts.

Steve explains, "There's pros and cons with everything. But I was [working with] a retired pastor and his wife. I was just doing a simple will plan. And the wife says to me, 'Steve, how come Suzie Ormond says some people should have a living trust.?' I said, 'some people are worried about avoiding probate, and he says, 'we're worried about avoiding probate.' And I said, 'Some people are worried about incapacity, and she says, 'we're worried about incapacity'. Then I said, 'well, some people are kind of worried about privacy. They don't want anyone to know who gets what, when and how.' They said, 'we're worried about that.' And I said, 'would you guys like a trust?' Trusts are beneficial for so many things, maintaining privacy, avoiding court, flexibility. If you move from state to state, they are essentially a will replacement tool. They're not for everyone, but they just, they do an awful lot of things.

"A living trust is a tool that was used more than 1000 years ago to get around the king's court, to get around probate. So it's a private way to own things, where you have a trustor or trustors that create it, you have trustees that manage it, and then you have beneficiaries. It's a lot like: you have a chest of drawers and you move things into it, and then you have use of them during your lifetime. Upon your death, depending on whether it's a married couple or a single couple, there's certain things that happen, and when all the trustors are gone, then it can be as simple as going outright to the beneficiaries, or you can still give them trusts with some protections for the beneficiaries.

"On the one hand, it's generally more cost and work to set up. On the other hand, it's more likely to work, because who knows your assets better than you? So frequently when someone does a will, they don't check their life insurance or their IRA, they don't look at anything, they don't retitle anything. A trust kind of makes you look at how you own things, what should be transferred into the trust? And once you have things in the trust, it means they can't be subject to a court process of a guardianship or a probate. They're in the trust, and you have backup trustees that manage things. So it's kind of peace of mind and organizational element."

• Legacy Estate Planning at Answers for Elders
• Legacy Estate Planning website or call 425-455-6788
• More podcasts with Steve Waltar
• Find an attorney near you at the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys website
• Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caregivers deserve some time for self-caring. Dr. Shawn Weiss joins Suzanne to talk about some ways to help care partners from becoming overtaxed and burning out.

Dr. Weiss says, "Emotional wellness affects every single foundational principle. It's very similar to the coaching I do with the pillars of health and emotional, mental health. It's at the top because... attitude is huge. You're not going to accomplish things or, or have a growth mindset, if you're stuck in a negativity pattern, or depression and sadness... If you're a family caregiver or care partner, that can cloud everything.

"If you think about what's happened since COVID, we just saw a tremendous increase in the amount of caregiver burnout, and you see the that term quite a bit. But if you're a care partner, what I see is you're exhausted, you don't even take time for yourself. You're burning the candle at both ends, maybe you're still working, and then you're coming back to take care of a spouse or a mom or a dad, or traveling to their house to give them care and help them with A, B, or C, and you just are spent.

"And when that happens, not only is it affecting your mental state, it's affecting you physically. You become more prone to illness, you become more prone to develop disease. You get weak, you're not exercising, you tend to not eat well. When you're emotionally burnt out, it's critical to start with that self care concept to get your emotional health back on check. And that's when I talk about making sure that you start with finding time for yourself every day... You can't take care of anybody else very well if you don't take care of yourself, because then what happens, you start getting angry, you start getting frustrated, you start getting short tempered, and that's not serving yourself or the person that you're helping at all.

"If you know somebody who's in that situation, take the time to try to pull them away. Honestly, it could be coffee, it could be a book club, it could be uh a spa day, get your nails done. It does not matter. You need to take time for yourself."

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Are you where you want to be at your age? If not, what are some strategies to improve? Dr. Shawn Weiss joins Suzanne to provide four key ways we can improve how we feel emotionally. 1) Move your body; 2) Have gratitude; 3) Journal positivity; and 4) Try new things.

Dr. Shawn says, "Start our day with reflection. The best way to do that is get outside and get moving. Move your body in whatever way you can.

"Getting outside and combining that movement with meditation is just so uplifting, because you can go through your gratitudes. Sometimes I take a walk and I'll say it out loud like, 'oh, thank you so much for this beautiful day.' It's setting me up to feel good in my heart... What am I grateful for? Who are the people I love in my life and what do I want for them? And what do I want for myself? 

"Find positivity in every single day. Write it down. You can [also] speak these things out to yourself.

"I'm a big believer in trying new things. Some people think, 'It's just too late for me to try something new. I'm too old to try something new.' Baloney. It's just not true. You have to believe in yourself and have the confidence to try new things. This is the perfect time. I know so many people in their 50s, 60s, even 70s that have gone to take classes, that have gone back to school, that want to make a change, to do something that brings them joy... It's a growth mindset."

• Dr. Shawn Weiss
• Senior Health and Wellness website
• Hear more podcasts with Shawn Weiss
• Vitality Revolution
• More podcasts on Emotional Wellness
• Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

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If we don't have our emotional or mental health in a good place, it will affect all of pillars of our health. We'll have a hard time making progress. Dr. Shawn Weiss joins Suzanne to talk about emotional wellness, a pillar of the eight foundational principles of wellness, part of the summer Vitality Revolution podcast series.

Dr. Weiss says, "Emotional wellness is your sense of self worth, your confidence, and certainly we each have a story. As I've gotten older, I've had a business for over 20 years. My kids are now out of the house and grown. All of these life things are going to affect how emotionally well I am, and that's going to change, and then understanding that that's ok. But you have to have a sense of self worth and that's going to be hard for some people. Let's say you 50, 60 years old, maybe you're approaching retirement age, having an idea of what you want to do next. Some people think, 'oh, it's over. I'm just gonna go downhill from here,' when it's just not the truth and it doesn't matter where you are physically or financially or spiritually, you have to believe in you, and you have to believe that there are better things to come once these life changes start."

Dr. Weiss adds, "The idea of self care on a daily basis to me starts with routine. I coach and treat patients 50, 60, 70, 80+ years old. There's always room for self care and you have to get into that habit, and that starts with how you start your day."

"They've done brain scans. Just the act of thinking about what you're grateful for rewires the brain to positivity. When you start out your day with positive information, and feeling self-worth, and knowing that 'I am worthy of good things come to me. I'm going to put A, B, and C aside, and I'm going to feel good about my day.' It's amazing what can happen. So again, the self-care piece starts with you taking time for yourself, involving other people in your life, reaching out to friends and family.

"If I had to pick one thing to do in the morning to help you set yourself up emotionally, it's get outside. Because it kind of is two-fold. When you get outside, even for 10 or 15 minutes in the morning, it really is uplifting, and then if you take a walk — no headphones, nothing — feel nature, look around, observe your surroundings. It's a walking meditation. That's one of the best ways to start your day."

• Dr. Shawn Weiss
• Senior Health and Wellness website
• Hear more podcasts with Shawn Weiss
• Vitality Revolution
• More podcasts on Emotional Wellness
• Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Shawn Weiss joins Suzanne to talk about the eight foundational principles of wellness. The Vitality Revolution podcast series kicks off this summer with an overview of the eight foundational principles of wellness as designed by the University of Colorado at Pueblo.

Suzanne says, "Let's lighten it up this summer. Let's focus on wellness on a higher potential and really think about how we can live a better quality of life, no matter what you're doing. These principles can help everyone. 

"Number one is emotional wellness. And we're going to talk about that piece today. So I'm gonna go past that. Number two is physical, and it's interesting they're put together in order. How do we keep our body healthy and vibrant? Number three, occupational wellness. Now it's interesting that we have occupational wellness after physical. But when we go through it, it makes total sense. Number four social wellness: how do we build connections and why are connections so important in the world? Then the next one, spiritual wellness, sets the stage of having a sense of well-being, of higher purpose, of contentment with the world, and being in congruity with our values. After that, intellectual wellness, which has to do with brain health. Are we utilizing our cognitive function in our brain appropriately, and to keep us level? Then we have environmental wellness. How do we build an environment that supports us? And then at the end is financial wellness and our resources. Do we have the resources to sustain us? 

"We're going talk this summer about all eight principles."

• Dr. Shawn Weiss
• Senior Health and Wellness website
• Hear more podcasts with Shawn Weiss
• Vitality Revolution
• More podcasts on Emotional Wellness
• Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's important to stimulate our brains in new ways as we grow older. A growth mindset means believing what you're doing, training yourself to believe that new tasks are possible and doable, and uses our brain's natural neuro-plasticity to continue to rewire itself and continue to grow. Cultivating a growth mindset is self-motivating and brings us a sense of accomplishment. Positive Wellness Coach Debra Kane joins Dr. Shawn Weiss to talk about what a growth mindset is, and how we can use it to become happier. This episode on emotional wellness: mindset over 50 is part of the Vitality Revolution summer podcast series on Answers for Elders.

Debra Kane is a certified life coach specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming with a goal to empower you to reclaim control of your life and unlock the joy that lies within. She offers one-on-one and small group sessions tailored to your unique needs and goals that focus on your overall well-being, integrating mental and physical fitness to help you thrive in every area of your life. She has online courses, webinars, and the "Lead to Succeed Masterclass." Check out her book, "Do You Parent With Leadership?" on Amazon.

* Debra Kane's website
* Schedule a call with Debra Kane

* Dr. Shawn Weiss
* Senior Health and Wellness website
* Hear more podcasts with Shawn Weiss

* Vitality Revolution podcast series
* More Podcasts on Emotional Wellness

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Everyone wants to plan ahead. Sometimes you have a parent trying to prevent a crisis, but if something happens, you want to be prepared. Though life care professionals like to help people prevent a crisis, helping families navigate a crisis is the nature of their work. Lisa Mayfield, CEO and founder of Aging Wisdom, joins Suzanne to talk about how life care professionals help.

Lisa says, "I think the first thing is knowing that there are people like us. And even though we love to help people prevent crisis, crisis is really the nature of our work. So that's what we're doing, day in and day out, is helping families navigate these situations and they're typically a fall. A parent falls, they end up in the hospital because they broke a hip. So families are needing help: how do I navigate the hospital? Hospital stays are so much more confusing these days. You might never see the doctor, the discharge planner is a different one every day... You don't know what to ask. You don't know who to ask... They'll make recommendations but they don't explain what it means. So, helping families navigate that whole hospital stay. But then also helping them figure out what happens next, if rehab is recommended. Why would that be a good thing? Why would you do it? How do you find one? What will happen then? And how much will your insurance pay?"

Lisa adds, "I'm working with a wife right now whose husband had just landed in the hospital. He's now in rehab. She really wants him to come home. He's not yet walking again after a significant fall, where he hit his head on the floor. At [home], they have a lot of stairs to navigate. So, is that going to be realistic? And if you really want to make that work, what are we gonna need to do to the home to get [him] more help? So [we're] helping her navigate those options and those difficult decisions. Because if you're at a point where your spouse or partner can't come home, that's devastating and heartbreaking, and the adult children might not agree. This is a family where there's stepchildren. Then you're dealing with stepchildren and the current wife, and they might be at odds at what should happen. So [we're] helping families really make tough choices and navigate when they're not on the same page."

Aging Life Care Association
Aging Wisdom website
More podcasts with Lisa Mayfield

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

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