The Currency of Grief

The Currency of Grief

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The Currency of Grief episodes

  • EP40: Trevor Youshak: Don't Delay: An Estate Attorney That Has Sat on Both Sides of the Table — Advisor and Father

    Most people wait until a crisis to think about who should manage their money, and by then some of the best options may be harder to put in place. This episode breaks down why a corporate trustee might be the smartest name you never considered adding to your plan.

     

    Justin Weidenfeld hosts this conversation with Trevor Youshak, J.D., LL.M., on The Currency of Grief. Trevor built his career as an estate attorney before moving to the other side of the table as a corporate fiduciary, where he now guides families through the probate process after a loss. He's a graduate of the University of Miami's Heckerling program in estate planning and has sat across the table from countless families at their hardest moments.

     

    Trevor admits he used to warn clients away from naming a corporate trustee, calling it impersonal and expensive. Then he moved to the fiduciary side himself, and he explains exactly what changed his mind. He also breaks down the three lifetime documents everyone should have by eighteen, starting with power of attorney, and why waiting costs families far more than money.

     

    Then he opens up about rewriting his own daughter's trust after her rare genetic mutation, building a path to a special needs trust that protects her future without anyone having to make that call under pressure.

     

    Don't delay the conversation. Press play and find out who deserves a seat at the table before you need one.

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Meet Trevor Youshak, Estate Attorney Turned Fiduciary

    04:17 From Law Firm Attorney To Corporate Trustee

    07:47 Why Sixty Percent Of Families Skip Estate Planning

    09:47 Power Of Attorney And The HIPAA Gap

    14:07 What Actually Happens In That First Meeting

    19:41 The First Two Weeks After A Death

    32:40 Testate Versus Intestate, Explained Simply

    46:56 Why Trevor Changed His Mind On Corporate Trustees

    53:59 Building A Convertible Trust For His Daughter

    1:04:09 Don't Delay, One Step At A Time

     

    Connect with Trevor Youshak:

    Connect with Trevor on LinkedIn

    Email Trevor at [email protected] 

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1 hr 9 min
  • EP39: Becky Robison Part 2: Learnings And Advice From Writing My Parents Are Dead, What Now?

    What happens to your stuff, your accounts, and your family if you die without a will? Becky Robison returns with answers nobody wants to need.

     

    Becky and Justin pick up their conversation on death and money by tackling the part nobody wants to think through in advance: what actually happens once someone dies. Becky offers practical advice on estate planning that goes well beyond a checklist, pairing the legal groundwork with an honest look at the emotional scarring that can follow when families skip these conversations. She lays out the three documents everyone should have before they need them, and explains why dying without a will hands your choices over to a court that follows rigid blood-relation rules, not your actual wishes. What happens to the people you love who aren't technically your next of kin?

     

    From there the conversation gets into the unglamorous reality of settling an estate: the weeks-long wait for death certificates, the hunt for a lawyer you can actually stand to work with for a year, and the special frustration of convincing a bank that you're allowed to touch your dead parents’ money. Becky is refreshingly honest about the parts that feel absurd in the moment, like carrying around what she calls her "Uber Death Notebook" or negotiating with Netflix over a subscription nobody remembered to cancel.

     

    Beneath the logistics runs a steadier question. How do you sort through a lifetime’s worth of someone’s belongings without confusing the objects for the person? Becky's answer draws on her training as a death doula as much as her own experience losing both parents, and it lands less on efficiency and more on grace. The paperwork will get done eventually. The grief deserves its own timeline too.

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Introduction to The Currency of Grief with Becky Robison

    02:19 The To-Die List: Estate Planning Documents Everyone Needs

    09:10 Dying With a Will vs. Without a Will

    16:15 What an Executor Does First: Death Certificates and Probate

    32:52 Why Banks and Investment Firms Make Estate Access So Hard

    51:15 What to Do (and Not Do) After an Unexpected Inheritance

    1:00:05 Cleaning Out a Loved One's Home Without Losing Yourself

    1:10:47 Avoiding Emotional Scarring While Settling an Estate

     

    Connect with Becky Robison:

    Visit the My Parents Are Dead: What Now? website

    Get a copy of My Parents Are Dead: What Now?: A Panic-Free Guide to the Practicalities of Death

    Create your free will now

    Get a copy of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter (The Swedish Art of Living & Dying Series)

    National Make A Will Month

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1 hr 16 min
  • EP38: Becky Robison: My Parents Are Dead, What Now?

    You lose both parents. Then the legal paperwork starts, and no one hands you a manual. Becoming the executor of an estate after a parent dies feels like a job with no training. In this episode of The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld sits down with Becky Robison, author of My Parents Are Dead, What Now? and co-host of the Bitching and Mourning podcast, who went through this herself and wrote the guide she needed.

     

    Becky found her dad's will and living trust in a box under the Christmas decorations, then spent months guessing what came next. Her mom had died a few years earlier, so when her dad passed, the whole job landed on her with no roadmap. She learned the probate court process from scratch and explains how her dad’s lawyer failed to tell her that she needed to sign an acceptance of trust before acting as the successor trustee.

     

    You hear how assets left outside her dad’s living trust sent her to probate court, turning a few gaps in the estate plan into a years-long legal detour. Then comes the human side. Losing a parent flattened her, yet friends showed up with a Twister mat and kept her standing while she handled the accounts. Becky stays honest about the fear of settling an estate alone and the mistakes she made along the way.

     

    Nobody warns you what being the executor of an estate after a parent dies truly involves. If you are facing this road or want to spare your own family, press play. Becky gives you the plain, funny walkthrough no one handed her. Follow the show and start with the first real steps.

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Meet Accidental Death Expert Becky Robison, Author Of My Parents Are Dead, What Now?

    04:46 Losing A Mother To Alcoholism And A Long Decline

    07:55 Dad's Stage Four Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis

    16:19 How To Write A Parent's Obituary

    19:34 How Money Was Talked About Growing Up

    24:06 Becoming the Executor Of an Estate After a Parent Dies With No Instructions

    27:33 Best Help And Worst Advice During Estate Settlement

    32:56 Telling Her Dad He Wasn't Leaving The Hospital

    41:19 Assets Left Out Of The Living Trust

    45:51 The Ghost Car Titling Nightmare

    51:36 Feeling Alone As A Young Executor

    1:00:20 Questions She Wishes She'd Asked Her Parents

    1:06:42 Grief Mantras And Advice For New Executors

    1:07:54 Where To Find Becky's Book And Resources

     

    Connect with Becky Robison:

    Visit My Parents Are Dead: What Now? website

    Follow My Parents Are Dead: What Now? on Instagram

    Get a copy of My Parents Are Dead: What Now? A Panic-Free Guide to the Practicalities of Death book

    Listen to the Bitching & Mourning podcast

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1 hr 11 min
  • EP37: Michael Lodato: A Son's Crash Course In Death Certificates, Business Inheritance, And Estate Bureaucracy

    Nobody prepares you to grieve a parent and manage their affairs at the same time. On The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld sits down with Michael Lodato, a Brooklyn-based writer and owner of LiquorPermit.com, who became a co-executor of his mother’s estate in his early thirties after she passed away from melanoma just days before Christmas. 

     

    Michael and his sister stepped in as co-executors and got a crash course in everything no one talks about. A death certificate needs a raised seal or the DMV turns you away. A lender can repossess a car from the driveway as the estate paperwork sits in limbo. And a one-person consultancy can hold more value than anyone expects.

     

    Michael shares what losing a parent at a young age taught him about support systems, from grief groups created for people in their twenties and thirties to the friend who dropped off bruschetta on a hard night. He also tells the story of inheriting a business that many people would have walked away from. Rather than selling his mother's domain and closing her files, he digitized her archive and continued building on the specialized work she had developed throughout her career.

     

    Every estate executor faces choices that no checklist can fully cover. This conversation looks at those decisions through the experience of someone who made mistakes, kept the lessons, and found a way to carry his mother’s work forward. For anyone dealing with grief and financial responsibilities at the same time, Michael’s story offers an honest look at finding a way through.

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Meet Michael Lodato and His Mother's Story

    03:24 Melanoma Diagnosis and the Rush to Hospice

    04:42 Family and Friends Rally During Hospice Care

    06:44 How Friends Show Up During Grief

    10:42 Therapy and Grief Groups for Young Adults

    13:28 Writing a Eulogy for a Beloved Mother

    19:02 Taking On the Estate Executor Role

    21:37 Gathering Death Certificates and DMV Roadblocks

    25:03 The Car Repossession Ordeal

    28:47 Inheriting His Mother's Liquor Permit Business

    34:31 How Grief Reshaped Michael's Career Path

    37:35 Financial Inheritance and Selling the House

    40:45 Conversations Left Unspoken With His Mother

    47:00 How Loss Changed His Approach to Planning

    50:01 Inheriting a Dress Shop and Finding Humor in Grief

    52:26 Advice for Anyone Facing a Similar Loss

    55:56 Honoring His Mother's Legacy With a Park Bench



    Connect with Michael Lodato: 

    Visit Mike's website 

    Follow Michael on Instagram

    Visit the Liquor Permit website 

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1 hr
  • EP36: Nikki Sherman: Don't Die Overseas

    When your spouse dies abroad, nobody warns you that the paperwork battle might outlast the worst of the grief.

     

    Nikki Sherman was living in the UK with her husband Scott and their daughter when Scott died suddenly at 52 from a pulmonary embolism. Settling an estate after a spouse dies is hard enough. Doing it across two countries, during a pandemic, while raising a teenager, is another thing entirely.

     

    On The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld talks with Nikki about the side of widowhood that nobody prepares you for. Not the sadness, but the bureaucracy. The phone calls where you tell the same story over and over. The financial institutions with different requirements. The Medallion Signature Guarantee rabbit hole that took years to resolve. The guilt of not being able to work, while quietly being relieved you didn't have to.

     

    Nikki's experience with death overseas and probate in two countries lasted nearly three years. What got her through it was life insurance that paid out immediately, joint accounts that transferred without a fight, and a will that was recognized on both sides of the Atlantic.

     

    Her story is one of grief and growth in equal measure. She stayed in the UK, raised her daughter through it, built a new life, and came out the other side with hard-won clarity about what it really takes when a spouse dies abroad and leaves you holding everything.

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 When a Spouse Dies Abroad: Nikki Sherman's Story

    04:01 Scott Sherman: Life, Love, and 20 Years in the UK

    09:31 What Is a Pulmonary Embolism and Why It's So Deadly

    13:51 Making Decisions While Drowning in Grief

    14:17 Funeral Planning Overseas and Celebrating a Life Well Lived

    23:27 Traveling With Human Remains on an Airplane

    25:46 Settling an Estate After Spouse Dies: The Financial Reality

    27:45 UK vs. US Assets and How Joint Accounts Saved the Day

    31:34 Why Having a Will Across Two Countries Matters

    36:09 Life Insurance After Spouse Dies: The Emotional and Financial Truth

    37:17 When Grief Makes It Impossible to Go Back to Work

    41:37 Life Insurance as a Financial Lifeline for Widows

    46:53 Probate in Two Countries: UK First, Then the US

    47:23 The Medallion Signature Guarantee Nightmare for Expats

    53:19 What Nikki Wishes She Had Done Differently

    55:36 How This Experience Changed Her Relationship With Money

    58:11 Honoring Scott's Legacy and Finding Life After Loss



    Links:

    Visit the Widowed and Young website

    Apply to the Experience Camps programs

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1 hr 5 min
  • EP35: Emily Bouchard: The Slinky of Grief & the Purpose of Wealth

    Losing a parent at 14 does not just change your childhood. It changes every version of you that comes after.

     

    On The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld sits down with Emily Bouchard, family dynamics expert, TEDx speaker, and host of the Wealth Coherence podcast. Emily was 14 when her mother died suddenly at 44 from a brain aneurysm. What followed was decades of grief that kept showing up, in new relationships, in major decisions, and in a single year that changed everything.

     

    That year was the death year. The age Emily turned 44, the same age her mother was when she died. She did not see it coming, but her body did. It stopped her, reoriented her, and ultimately freed her to live by her values in a way she never had before.

     

    Emily also shares her concept of “the slinky of grief”, and why loss does not arrive once and leave. It comes back around, hitting you at different points across your life, sometimes when you least expect it.

     

    The conversation turns to families and the weight of what goes unsaid. What does it cost when parents and children never talk about the purpose of our wealth, about wishes, values, and what they want their legacy to mean? Emily has seen those costs up close, and she knows how to help families start talking before it is too late.

     

    She leaves with two words that have carried her through it all. Grace and gratitude. Not as platitudes, but as a real practice.

     

    If any of this feels familiar, this episode is for you.

     

    Find Emily at emilybouchard.com or trustmoneyfamilies.com 

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Meet Emily Bouchard: Family Dynamics Expert and TEDx Speaker

    04:28 Losing Her Mother at 14: Emily's Story of Grief

    09:50 Who Was Joan: Remembering a Mother's Kindness and Legacy

    13:11 Finding Support After Loss: The Grief Cliff and Who Shows Up

    16:14 Family Dynamics After Sudden Loss: Remarriage and Rebuilding

    19:13 The Slinky of Grief: How Loss Resurfaces at Every Life Stage

    23:00 The Death Year: What Happens When You Reach the Age Your Parent Died

    29:26 No Plan, No Will, No Conversation: What Happened After the Funeral

    33:32 How Families Fight Over Belongings and How to Prevent It

    40:27 The Cost of Silence: Why Families Avoid Talking About Inheritance

    46:52 Legacy Versus Estate Plans: Knowing What to Do With What You Inherit

    49:15 How to Start Inheritance Conversations Without Talking About Numbers

    57:35 Aligning Values and Purpose Before Making Estate Decisions

    58:22 How Loss Changed Emily's Approach to Planning and Giving

    1:02:50 Grace and Gratitude: Words of Wisdom for Anyone Carrying Grief



    Connect with Emily Bouchard

    Visit Emily's website

    Get a copy of The Little Book of Trust and Money

    Listen to The Wealth Coherence Podcast

    Watch Emily's TEDx talk about inheritance

    Visit the Enlightened Philanthropy website

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1 hr 9 min
  • EP34: Vincent Valeri: Overcoming a Culture of Silence

    He was trying to be present for his father’s final weeks while carrying the legal and financial responsibility of what would come next.

     

    That's the reality Vincent Valeri faced in the winter of 2022, and on this episode of The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld gives him the space to tell it honestly. When Vincent's father Vincenzo was diagnosed with stage four bile duct cancer in December of that year and given six to eight weeks to live, Vincent had to hold two roles at once. He was the grieving son and the person legally responsible for closing out a complex, imperfectly planned estate.

     

    Executor responsibilities after death don't wait for grief to pass. Vincent learned that quickly. In the weeks that followed, he was simultaneously updating beneficiaries, getting the matrimonial home properly titled, meeting with accountants about holding companies and crossing fiscal years, and making legal decisions on a timeline no one plans for. By the time his father passed in February 2023, Vincent was facing multiple tax filings and what became a 26-month probate process.

     

    What makes this conversation so valuable is Vincent's candor about grief and estate planning from the inside. He talks about the invisible wall of cultural respect that made hard family conversations about death nearly impossible, the loneliness of being an executor, and the painful gap between what he knew professionally and what his father had actually put in place.

     

    The practical lessons here are real. Update beneficiary designations. Get both names on accounts before it's too late. Know what a bank will and won't let you do when someone can't come in to sign. Understand that executor responsibilities after death include decisions you'll be making without the person who should have made them.

     

    Vincent closes with something simple and true: It's going to be okay. Not as a platitude, but as something he had to find his way back to.

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Welcome to The Currency of Grief with Vincent Valeri

    03:30 Vincenzo Valeri: An Italian Immigrant Who Built a Life in Canada

    06:25 Getting a Terminal Diagnosis and Knowing the Estate Wasn't Ready

    10:21 How Italian and Canadian Culture Shapes Family Conversations About Death

    20:34 Executor Responsibilities After Death: What No One Tells You

    30:16 The First Financial Steps to Take After a Terminal Diagnosis

    34:36 Holding Companies, Blended Families, and Complex Estate Situations

    47:15 When Siblings Have Unequal Information About the Estate

    58:12 Why Family Meetings Are the Foundation of Good Legacy Planning

    1:09:33 Words of Wisdom for Anyone Facing a Parent's Terminal Illness



    Connect with Vincent Valeri:

    Visit the Valeri Associates website

    Connect with Vincent on LinkedIn

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1 hr 13 min
  • EP33: Richard Wood: "He’s Only Gone Physically," Honoring Spencer’s Legacy of Kindness

    Grief after losing a child doesn't follow a script, and no one knows that better than Richard Wood.

     

    Nearly 20 years ago, Richard's 22-year-old son Spencer died in a sudden unexpected loss that changed everything. There was no warning, no goodbye, and no roadmap for what came next. In this episode of The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld sits down with Richard to talk about how a father carries that kind of loss forward, through marriage, through raising daughters, and into a season of life where seven grandchildren now grow up hearing Spencer stories.

     

    Richard is a father who held his family together while quietly falling apart. His wife grieved through anger. Each of his daughters found their own painful path. Richard himself never went a single day without telling someone a Spencer story. He didn't move through the stages of grief in any tidy order, and he's honest about why that is. Grief after losing a child is shaped by the relationship you had, and no two relationships are the same.

     

    The conversation gets into what people get wrong when supporting someone who is grieving. Richard has heard every well-meaning platitude and he handles them with patience. His advice is straightforward. Show up. Say you're sorry. Then stop talking and listen. Not just in the first week, but for months afterward when everyone else has moved on and the person grieving is left alone with it.

     

    Faith played a quiet but significant role in Richard's journey. He didn't expect to find it the way he did, but losing Spencer revealed a depth of belief he hadn't known was there. It didn't erase the pain. It gave him somewhere to put it.

     

    A fraternity brother once said that Spencer was not just someone people knew. He was someone who changed the way life felt when he was around. That comment became the foundation for something Richard has kept alive for two decades. Every year at Cal Poly, a student is anonymously nominated by peers for how they live and how they treat others. They never apply for it. They simply get chosen because of their kindness. Richard has watched that scholarship outlive an entire generation of Spencer's college friends because it stopped being about Spencer specifically and became about everything he represented.

     

    This episode is for anyone who has experienced losing a son, a daughter, or any person they weren't ready to live without.

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Welcome to The Currency of Grief

    02:22 Richard Wood's Story and Why He Shares It

    06:40 Who Spencer Was and the Family He Left Behind

    08:59 Grief After Losing a Child and Why Time Does Not Heal

    16:23 How Every Family Member Grieves Differently

    19:05 What Not to Say to Someone Who Is Grieving

    22:28 The Grief Cliff and What Happens When Support Disappears

    23:32 The Lifestyle Scholarship and Honoring Spencer's Memory

    42:14 Financial and Practical Advice for the First Year of Grief

    47:28 Faith, Hope, and Love as Pillars of the Grief Journey



    Connect with Richard Wood:

    Visit The Compassionate Friends Org Website

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    59 min
  • EP32: Davis Wilkinson: The Brother He Lost and the System He Rebuilt, Heirloom

    Estate settlement after death is one of the most overlooked burdens grieving families face, and on this episode of The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld sits down with Davis Wilkinson, CEO and founder of Heirloom, to talk about why that burden exists and what it actually costs families to carry it alone.

     

    Davis's story starts with sibling loss and grief. His older brother Adam died of a methadone overdose in 2009, when Davis was just 14. He spent the next decade in emotional repression, not out of indifference but out of sheer incapacity. It wasn't until his mid-twenties, after leaving the Mormon church and losing the theological certainty that he'd see Adam again, that the grief finally caught up with him. What followed was years of intensive therapy and a hard-won understanding of what it means to grieve on your own timeline.

     

    The conversation moves naturally into grief and money when Davis describes watching his mother navigate the estate administration process after Adam's passing. That experience became the foundation for Heirloom, a platform designed to support executors through one of the most logistically overwhelming roles a person can be asked to fill while also managing loss.

     

    Davis talks about asset discovery, the staggering volume of unclaimed assets in the United States, and the systemic gaps that leave families without clear guidance at the worst possible time. Right now, there are no enforced standards for how banks treat executors during estate settlement after death, and he makes a clear case that this gap is costing grieving families more than just time.

     

    This episode is for anyone who has ever wondered why handling a loved one's affairs feels so impossible, and for anyone who needs to know they are not alone in finding it that way.

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Introduction to The Currency of Grief

    02:02 Davis Wilkinson and the Story Behind Heirloom

    03:45 Sibling Loss Grief: Losing a Brother to Drug Overdose

    09:54 Childhood Grief and Emotional Repression

    17:29 Finding Support and Coping After Loss

    19:55 Leaving the Mormon Church and Facing Grief for the First Time

    21:57 Estate Settlement After Death: What Davis's Mother Faced

    45:04 How to Fix the Estate Administration System

    49:16 Unclaimed Assets and What Families Are Missing

    51:44 What Executors Need and How Heirloom Helps

    55:50 How Loss Changes Your Approach to Life and Planning

    58:35 Words of Wisdom for Anyone Navigating Grief



    Connect with Davis Wilkinson:

    Visit the Heirloom website

    Connect with Davis on LinkedIn

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1 hr 4 min
  • EP31: Who’s Got Ball? Building Your Roster and How to Have That Hard Conversation

    Most people spend more time planning a vacation than choosing who will manage their estate.

     

    In this solo episode of The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld, your grief financial officer, walks through the roles that shape what happens to your estate, your medical and financial decisions, and your family dynamics when life changes without warning. This episode is about the people you put in charge and what saying yes to that role means.

     

    Justin breaks down each role on your planning team. The executor who carries out your wishes after death. The trustee who manages assets over time. The POA who steps in during incapacity. He is also clear about something people often avoid. The right person for each role is rarely the person you love most.

     

    You will hear why naming co-executors often creates delays and conflict, why emotional closeness does not always mean someone is equipped to make hard decisions, and why putting every role on one person can lead to burnout. Understanding the difference between an executor, a trustee, and a POA can change the way you think about estate planning.

     

    Justin also gets into the part people do not talk about enough. How to start the conversation. Whether you are a parent trying to prepare your heirs or an adult child trying to bring this up without making it feel threatening, he shares practical language you can use.

     

    These roles do not fill themselves after loss. The people who love you deserve more than guesswork. If you want your estate plan to feel clear, thoughtful, and easier for the people you love, this episode is a strong place to start.

     

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Estate Planning Basics and Why Roles Matter After Loss

    02:21 Medical Power of Attorney and End-of-Life Healthcare Decisions

    04:48 Financial Power of Attorney, POA Types, and Incapacity Planning

    07:08 Executor Responsibilities in Estate Administration After Death

    09:29 Trustee Duties, Successor Trustee Roles, and Trust Management

    16:43 Guardian Selection and Estate Planning for Minor Children

    21:34 Common Estate Planning Mistakes That Create Family Conflict

    31:10 Why Families Avoid Estate Planning Conversations

    35:46 How to Talk to Heirs About Estate Roles and Wishes

    45:05 How Adult Children Can Ask Parents About an Estate Plan

     

    Connect with Justin Weidenfeld:

    Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

    Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram 

    Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok 

    Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube

    Visit Justin’s website bio



    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    58 min

About The Currency of Grief

From the publisher's feed

Death and money are two of the most taboo topics in our society yet they are inevitable for all of us. So why don’t we talk about death and money more? The fact is, we’re all going to have to face our mortality and the mortality of the people we love. During the toughest times in our life, we will also be faced with an overwhelming amount of financial and logistical decisions. These decisions have the power to bring people together or tear families apart. That’s why our mission is so important!