The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – A Comprehensive Guide for Arranging Your Personal Affairs by Harold L Chappell Ed D

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

A Comprehensive Guide for Arranging Your Personal Affairs by Harold L Chappell Ed D Amazon.com The title of the book carries you to your final destination, but the most important items are how you get there. In looking at the table of contents, one can see how one of the early items, section 2, is selecting the executor of your estate. Imagine if the author selects you to serve in that capacity. Unfortunately, you would have no idea of what my requests would have been--but if I had filled out each of the sections, you would know, precisely, what I desired to be done. In addition, there are questions you could use in making decisions about the capabilities of specialists, such as financial advisers, attorneys, realtors, and others you may need at some time. Most importantly, in section 35, where you may want to move to a senior living facility, there are thirty-five questions you need to ask and three copies of the questionnaire for each of the three facilities you choose to interview.

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A Comprehensive Guide for Arranging Your Personal Affairs out August 21st, 2023 by Howard L. Chappelle. Chappelle, I believe it is. We're gonna get into some of the details with him in his book and all that good stuff. He is a US Air Force veteran, retired educator and author. He was born in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. He served during the Korean War in Okinawa and at the Strategic Air Command in Omaha,

Nebraska. Following his military service, he pursued a career in education teaching in Guam and Panama. He held various positions, including high school principal, professor and chairman of the department of education at Missouri State University at Springfield, Missouri. Him and his wife, Katzie, uh, have traveled extensively through the Far East, Middle East, Europe, Central and South America with her two children.

They currently reside in Sun City West, Arizona. Welcome to the show. How are you Harold? Okay. So basically people can go to Amazon and they can order up your book. So Harold, give us a 30,000 overview of what's inside your book, a comprehensive guide for arranging your personal affairs. Well, I don't know if you want first why I wrote it or be to that. Whichever order you want to go in, give us the why then. Well, let me do that. Let me start from the start and then maybe you'll have a better idea about me. I was a three-year-old.

My father and mother had a farm. And I had two sisters, one was three years longer than I am, and another one six years older. My father was injured in a situation where he was injured very, very difficultly and I don't want to go at it anymore. Sure. that anymore and ultimately died, went in the hospital, had a blood clot and died. And my mother was a farm girl, but had a high school education at that time. And so, he was left with three children, a three-year-old, a six-year-old, and an eight-year-old at the farm. And I think about that and say, you know, how would I feel if I were left in that situation as a female in that? So my mother had a high school education, as I said, and she ran for county treasurer, and I think

that was 14 to 16 times she was re-elected every two years. That's what really saved us. And if I looked at that, did she have something done like this if she lost her husband? And the answer was obviously no. She wouldn't have had anything like this if she lost her husband? And the answer was obviously no, she wouldn't have had anything like that. So then it goes to what do I do? And then it was a sell the farm, ran for county treasurer and was elected and that's what kept us above and board as young children. I'm very dedicated to her and what she did. She has passed away, yet she just did a good job for me and my sisters.

So what's inside the book? Give us an overview of what the book is about and what's it about? Well, it has 28 chapters and I won't, well, no, actually 35, I won't go into everything, but the executor of your estate, you need to have somebody that would do that and then would do exactly what you laid out as what you want done. This goes to that, Maybe this car goes to the son-in-law or whatever. Do you have a will? She didn't. Power of attorney? No. Last

will in the testament? No, she didn't have that. And obviously, she didn't have the obituary. So that is part of it, that it goes for special persons to be notified, the celebration of life, items that need to be canceled, items that insurance, as simple as a newspaper. You've got a paper, no longer, nobody's there. Stock holdings, and that was probably not a thing for them at that particular, but because that was during the Depression. I was born in 1973, so the Depression was on at that time. And so, it was items to be canceled. What about insurance? A financial advisor? Who's going to be the executor of your estate? An attorney you have? Who's your tax advisor? And, you know, any businesses you have or properties you have, any individuals that

you owe money to, the OATU, all of this is laid out. So then selecting an attorney, again, that would be one that you'd want somebody that knows a lot about how to handle that, losing an individual. If you own a business property, that needs to be sold probably. And so that's what happened to the farm. And then do you have credit cards, you have individuals that you owe money to, and others that owe money to you. So that, who's your tax person, and what businesses do you have, what type of ownership do you have in houses or other buildings that you own,

all of that is laid out. So I could be the executor of your estate, and care about exactly what you wanted done. Yeah. Oh, that's really the context of, of this book. And so this is really important because if people don't, if people don't plan, they kind of leave just this whole nightmare. The, um, they kind of leave this whole nightmare behind of, of, uh, you know,

the, the, the people that have to clean up, right? Say it was you and, and, and then you come to me and say, Hey, I, your dad owed me thousand dollars and the other side is going to say, well, do you have any proof of that? And then, you know, And the other side is going to say, well, do you have any proof of that? And then, you know, and so on. Well, that's another part of it, that not only people that owe you something, or you promise them, or vice versa, they're supposed to get these things from be a panop, might be whatever. So that would be laid out and there wouldn't be any arguing about it. It's laid out and said, this is what I want done. And you get

done that way by the executor of your estate. So it covers that. And, you know, do you have any business associates or other properties you own or debts, credit card that has to be shut down and so on. So it forces the family to know exactly what the feast wants done and what needs to be done. You don't want somebody calling and saying, you know, your dad owed me $15. Oh yeah, do you have some proof of that? Well, no, no. It keeps that from happening. I imagine too, you know, there might be, you know, I've, I've had family scuffles and the

mortgage company that we had when people die, they're trying to figure out who, who or what inherits who. And you know, you, sometimes you have that, uh, the, you know, the one sibling comes forward and said, well, dad made a will and I've got a copy here. He promised me half of everything, you know, and it's like an outdated will or something and and so you know then the other siblings like no it's not what's in the final will and they squabble over it and you know all that stuff that goes on so it's one way to prevent a lot of confusion because sometimes there's you know multiple wills that you know

confusion and then they're angry about they lied about this or did that and saw when it's written down and there it is, you just say, Hey, here it is. It says this, this, this, this what we're doing. So anyhow, I took me a while from age three of worrying a little bit about what's going to happen to us, you know, take care of us and get on and so on. But later in life, I looked at that and thought, you know, I don't really have this time myself. Yeah. Why am Iated here now and saying I think I need to kind of lay out some things and get some money who gets the house Who gets the cars who owes me money and who money?

There and you put that in there there's no question about it here it is on page 37 It says this, this, this and this, and that's it. Pete Slauson That's it. And so, you've laid yours out and you've written this book on how to help people do theirs and get it all going on. And what are some common mistakes that you see people make when they're preparing their affairs or when they're trying to get all this done. And how does your book help them in that? Dr. John O'Brien I don't know yet because it's been slow getting publicized because I had some

previous people that worked with it and was satisfactory. But I see it as the possibility not only for individuals to buy but but for organizations to buy, such as funeral directors. I go to them, if I'm selling the books, and I go to them and say, you know, I'd like to have these books, and they'd say, well, why would I want them? Because you can present them one of your books that you own and say, listen, I want to have your burial information and all of that. And I'll

do that. But I want you to use me and I'm going to give you this book. You can lay out everything and then I will do everything that you have said on here that you want done. So people can get into it with the book. They can learn how to do it. They can give as a gift to maybe a loved one or for themselves, get their personal affairs. What do you think is the most surprising overlooked aspect of personal affairs that you address in your book? That they never laid out anything about what they want to happen at their demise. Have a funeral director already because they go back to that funeral directors would be individuals who would take a $25 book and I go in and say, well, I'm looking to have a funeral,

I can go on. Well, look, here it is, I'll lay this out, that lays out for you what you need to do. I'll give you this book, it's a $25. I guess is I would be making maybe $2,000 that way and the funeral director then gets the job and he pays get paid 25 grand or something like that. $25 investment in the book. Yeah. Uh, do you market this towards a funeral directors then? Or how does this work? Well, I think that's just one, one group. If I'm a funeral director and I have a book and somebody comes in and says,

I'm looking to get things kind of settled because I'm now 85 years old or something like that. And then with that, I would seem that the funeral director makes 25 grand for a $25 investment. So I guess my my final rights lowered into the ground. I think everybody needs this. It negates any arguments among family members, that, well, he said this and all that. He's got to take this, you won't have any arguments after you demise. You've got maybe burial monies

that you've spent that, you know, take care of it. You don't have to do anything other than go to the burial ground. They'll say, here's how we're going to do it and we the pressure off of them. It leads to not individuals arguing about what dad wanted me to have this car, he told me that, you know. So it negates all that and keeps it out of there. What sort of, where do you see people you advise them they begin the process of planning their personal affairs? Where's a good starting point for them? I had a kid whose parent, one of the parents died and that was a father, and his father did not have anything laid out. The mother got in a big argument with his brother-in-law or brother or whatever it is, and he was just disappointed in the family arguing about what's supposed to be done here. So that kind of pushed me to, you know, the kid was just kind of roughed up, you know, because

his mother was getting ground by other relatives that they said, well, he promised me this or that or whatever. That was part of it. Along with going back to thinking about my mother. Yeah. Something that had quite an impact on you. Yes, it has. Yeah. What were some of the emotional ramifications of that? Do you, you, you know, did you feel insecure?

You feel left lost? Uh, what was it like to go through that experience emotionally? you, you know, did you feel insecure? You feel left lost. What was it like to go through that experience emotionally? Well, I think a lot, most people came in a little different on a, the most, once I got through talking to them, the feeling you got clear and said, you know, okay, fine. If I do this, take do this, I have it and I'm going to fill the thing out. I've done that. And so that negates any arguing or anything. Gaffer gave me the golf cart. No, there's nothing in here that says that.

But you know, so it takes, takes that out of family arguments about what, what I wanted or the individual walling of death. Pete So, good handy advice, you know, this is something people have to, what do you say to people who are afraid to think about this stuff? They're afraid to, you know, I don't want to think about my death. What do you, what do you say to people who put that off because they just want to save for another day? I talk to them, or I've talked to you, then they see the value of it and say, hey, yeah, I'll take one. What role does communication with family members play in the process of ranging their personal affairs

Not certain I understand the question So do you do you set forth in the book about how to communicate to your family members your loved ones? What your intentions are like my mother keeps a special folder of all of her stuff that I'm supposed to Check in to if anything were to happen to her, God forbid. David Erickson Yeah. I don't actually go into that because I think families tell their kids, here's what we're doing. And we selected Joel and be the leader on this and be the executor of the estate. And these are the things that we've said that we are concerned about and we've done and money we owed in a newspaper reading, whoever it is that cancels that, cancels the phone,

all of that. That is going to be in here where you go and you think about if you total three brothers and three sisters say, well, I wanted to do that, think how easy this is for one person to go to those individuals and say, hey, here's what my folks want and so it should it should negate any arguments really that happens a lot I think in that and that would be that this is what mother and dad wanted. With the book what advice you'd give to someone who is thinking they're too young, maybe? You know, like, well, I'm in my 20s, I don't need to think about death and prepare for death. Dr. Craig Larson I think you run into that quite a bit. Maybe

in the 40s, they're easier than the 20s, or just less interested in it. I think corporations, I would say a corporation who would have this book, and when anyone finished and said, I'm resigning and so on, you gave them that book. We appreciate what you've done for us. You work well, you're honest and above ground and on time and all of that. And this is a person to you. That then, and then I think you can go back to a 25 year old who's married and had three kids and so on. But he then knows what directives the parents want taken and how it's gonna be done. And he doesn't have to go through that

and try to figure all of it out. I know what people want, I'll follow their directions instead of me trying to think what burial unit are we going to use? What about the cars? There's three cars, a plane who gets this, you know? So it's all taken care of. Yeah, I tell them I have in my will that only certain people get the plane, but I don't own a plane. So I'm just fucking with them. They're going to spend the rest of their lives trying to figure out where the plane was. You know, by the way, a lot of planes, uh, coming in from, uh, West West coast to Phoenix, uh, have, uh, I think like three crashes on them last weekend.

That's crazy what's going on there. Yeah, and I suspect probably none of those people have that laid forth. That's a good point. There was just the Indian airliner, sadly today, I think 240-ish people and survivor went down from going from India to things. You know, things happen in life. You know, I think a lot of times we kind of con ourselves. I know I do a little bit too, where they go, we go, hey man, you know, I'll probably have some advanced notice. I'll probably get declining health and stuff and all that good stuff. So yeah, that's the big picture.

So fun is fun. Yeah, what do you hope people come away with on your book? What do you hope that they see and come away with? Attitude pretty much is, I wish I had thought of this before on that. I never, I just figured that when we're gone, they will figure out what to do. It's not going to work. So for that older age group, you can sit back, relax and say, hey, and go over with the kids before that's what we're going to do. And relax and not have to worry about any arguments that might come about me by virtue of at our demise. What's the arguments going to be if we don't lay this down?

Oh, okay. I just think it is something that every family has to, should do. And it gives a piece with the family, I think about we know exactly when our parents die, this is what's going to happen? I get that you get the airplane and you get some horses and whatever. That's that's why I think it will sell. Well, that's what we'll do with the book. We'll put up for sale there on the podcast and, uh, get, tell people to take a buy it.

Any further thoughts as we go out, anything we missed? Uh, well, uh, have you seen the sections on this? I haven't no each section. No. Can you tell us about it? It's pretty, you know, uh, selecting an attorney. Most people do not have an attorney until they have to have one. You better have one that you can go into, you know, you're going to

get in there and he knows what your situation is. And that would be helpful. So I don't care if you're 21 years old, probably ought to have an attorney because at some point you may need one real quick because of some violation or so on. Do you have residential ownership of other houses and so on? So what about who gets that, who takes it over, do you sell it or so on. I'm facing that right now and the area is going to about 400,000 a house. If they know approximately what the house is worth and so on, then the children who are the executors or whatever don't get sliced by some skimmer who comes in and says, hey, I think you've wasted at least $2,000, $200,000, you know. So that forces them to not only cover themselves that way, but to get all these other things

covered. Who gets the car? Who gets the airplane? What about the horses and the dog and this and that? I could do it for you. If you had all that, I could do it for you. And I don't really know you, but I know what you want done.

And I'd find out who the individual is that you wanna get the airplane whatever. So it's, it's almost a, a no, no loser. Mm hmm. A very positive thing that one can do to make things very well or orderly. That's where demise. Well, it's been wonderful to have you on the show. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you for coming on and sharing all the great details with us.

I appreciate that you asked some good questions and I hope I resolve the answers to you. But yeah, I think we got it. So well, thank you very much for coming on the show folks to order up his book wherever fine books are sold. It's called a comprehensive guide for arranging your personal affairs on August 21st, 2023. Thanks for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, Fortress, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress, Chris Foss, Chris Foss one on the tick tockety and all those all those crazy places in it be good to each other stay

safe we'll see you next time and that should be it