The Personal Finance Podcast - How to Protect Your Wealth and Assets With a Will

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Starting point is 00:00:56 Find your advisor at IG Private Wealth.com. On this episode of the personal finance podcast, we're going to talk about wills and who needs a will. What's up, everybody, and welcome to the personal finance podcast. I'm your host, Andrew, founder of mastermoney.com. And today on the personal finance podcast, we're going to be talking about the fun-filled topic of wills. If you have any questions, hit me up on Instagram or TikTok at Master Money Co. Or you can reply to me directly on the Master Money newsletter. And if you're not in the Master Money newsletter, what does that?

Starting point is 00:01:47 you doing you got to sign up for the master money newsletter we are putting out content every single week and we are doing deep dives trying to make it fun entertaining for you with a bunch of memes and other fun stuff as well on the master money newsletter in addition we have the courses coming out very soon now we are on the final stages of building out our websites and we have the course coming out very soon if you are on the master money newsletter you are going to get a special discount code to be able to buy the courses at a discount for a couple of days when that course launched so i will announce on this podcast when the courses are launching. In addition, we're going to have one-on-one coaching so you can have one-on-one access to me directly if you want to have that. And so between those

Starting point is 00:02:26 two things, those will be launching very soon here. And the only way to get initial access is through the master money newsletter. So make sure you are subscribed. The link is down below. It should be the first thing in the show notes down below. So make sure you're subscribed to that master money newsletter. And you can ask any questions via the mastermind newsletter just by replying to me directly right there. So today we are going to be talking through the fun-filled topic of trusts and wills and all those good things. So we are primarily going to be focusing on wills today because the majority of people, 99% of people, are going to fall under that camp of that they need wills. And we'll talk about who needs trusts as well. And then we're going to have a separate

Starting point is 00:03:02 episode at some future date talking about trust because there's a lot of things that you can do with trusts, but you have to have a certain net worth to really make trusts worth it. So we'll talk about what that number is. And we will also talk about exactly how you want to set up your wills. In addition, we're going to be talking about the differences between wills and trust, and we're going to talk about who needs a will and why most people need a will and then what to include in your will as well. And I have 13 things you need to understand about will. So this is actually, I think it's going to actually be really interesting because if you've never thought about a will or you've never thought through, do I actually need one? How does it

Starting point is 00:03:32 protect me financially? This is the episode that will explain that completely to you. If you know somebody, maybe you know somebody who is even old or who doesn't have a will yet, and you don't want them going through the process of making their family go through probate and trying to figure out where their assets are going. This is the episode to send them as well, because we're going to do an all-encompassing simple breakdown. I'm going to make this as simple as I possibly can. We're not going to do a bunch of lawyers speak.

Starting point is 00:03:54 We're not going to do a bunch of legal speak. We are going to be making this as simple as possible. And obviously the caveat to this is I am not an attorney. So everything in this episode is stuff that I've experienced and stuff that I've gone through when creating my will. So this is one where I want to make sure that everybody understands this is something that you can do on your own. But if you feel a little bit overwhelmed and you don't want to do it on your own,

Starting point is 00:04:14 consultant attorney. There's no reason not to if you want to do that. It's only a little bit more expensive. So that is the process that I would go through. So that is what we're going to cover today. And we are going to go through exactly why you need this in your wealth protection plan. So we had to make it an entire episode.

Starting point is 00:04:30 So we are excited to share this with you. So let's get into it. All right. So the first thing we needed to cover is what the heck is a will. And a lot of people have a misconception of what a will actually is. But the simplest thing and the simplest way to put this is, a will as a legal document that puts in writing what you want to happen when you die.

Starting point is 00:04:49 That's the simplest way to put it. And the reason why it's so important is it outlines things that you want. And it makes it a lot easier for people after the fact if you have a will in place. Otherwise, if you don't have a will in place, you can have assets going to people that you do not want them going to. People have done this for years and centuries. They have scheme their way into wills. And so you've got to make sure that you get your stuff going where it needs to go. your money goes where it needs to go, your guardianship of your kids and pets go where they need to go, and there's a lot of other different things as well.

Starting point is 00:05:19 And there's many different types of wills, but for most of you, 99% of you, a simple will is enough. In fact, for 95%, a will is really all you're going to need to establish a rock solid estate plan. Now, if you are building up a high net worth and you're getting to the point where you are over a million dollars in assets, then you can stop right there and you can go towards more than a will.

Starting point is 00:05:42 or if you have a lot of real estate assets, then maybe you want to trust. Or if there's a lot of other things that are complicated within your estate plan, then that's when you can consider some other options. But even if you have a trust, you're going to have to have a will in place within that trust as well. So there's no reason not to get a will up front. And then if you add the trust, then you can put the will under your trust. So these are just a couple of different things to consider as you're going through it. But unless you have over a million dollars in assets, then a will is just fine for your situation.

Starting point is 00:06:10 So a lot of people starting off in life, want to make sure that they're, even if you just have a dog or a cat or anything like that, you want to have a will in place just in case anything happens. Now, let's talk about the differences between a will and a trust because they are two very different things and they do very different things. So the one major difference between a will as a trust is a trust takes effect as soon as it's created in sign. So you can be alive and a trust is in effect.

Starting point is 00:06:36 A will does not go into an effect unless you pass away. So that's the major difference between the two of them. a trust is in effect right when you sign it, a will goes into effect after you pass away. There are some other differences as well. So wills will require probate in order to transfer items to designated beneficiaries, whereas trusts, you can avoid this. So this is one big thing that a lot of people get trust for is they want to avoid probate. And if you don't know what probate is, it's a process where your will goes to the courts

Starting point is 00:07:06 and the courts will allocate your assets based on what your will states. So it's just a legal process to where a deceased person's estate is properly distributed to their heirs. So that's the most simple way to put it. You can go into way more detail on it, but that's what the probate process is. A lot of people don't like the probate process because sometimes it get a little sticky. So their trust helps them avoid that process and it's in place as they're alive. Now, wills are also public record while trusts remain private. So that's another reason.

Starting point is 00:07:37 If you have a lot of assets, you're trying to create privacy so people don't know that your great-granddaughter, for example, is getting multi-million dollars, and you don't want them to know that, so people don't go after them, and a trust is a great situation for that. A trust is much more private than a will is. In addition, wills only take effect after you're passing,

Starting point is 00:07:55 but a trust is immediately effective. So it can provide direction. Even in the event when you're alive, like if you can't make decisions, say something happens to you and you can't make the decisions, you're not of sound mind, that trust is still in effect. So your wishes will go into effect.

Starting point is 00:08:09 It's not something that they have to wait, for you to pass away before anything goes into place. So those are some things that are the differences between a will and the trust. We will do a whole episode on trust because a lot of things that you can do with trust. Obviously, really ultra wealthy people have trust and there's reasons for that because there's a lot of loopholes and things that they utilize them for. But at the same time, a will is what most people need. That's what we're talking about in this episode.

Starting point is 00:08:31 We're going to keep it simple in this episode. And that's what the ultimate question is. Do you need a will or do you need a trust? Let's just make this as simple as possible. just get a will if you're the average person with a few kids in a house you won't need a lawyer unless something is super complicated in your situation and you can set up a will in just a few minutes online i'll tell you why i did mine or get a trust if you're older your kids are grown your estate is worth over a million bucks this way you can avoid probate in a way that wills don't allow so those are

Starting point is 00:09:00 a breakdown of the two if your assets are under a million dollars then don't even consider a trust at this point in time now if you're approaching a million dollars then fine you can consider that but if you're just starting out you're just starting out you're you're trying to get to your first 100K, maybe you have a half million dollars in assets, then you don't need a trust just yet. Now, all of you listening to this podcast, obviously, we want all of you to build wealth in this podcast. So our goal is for all of you to get over a million dollars in assets. The entire goal of this podcast, that's why this podcast exists. So the majority of you later on in life are going to be expecting to get a trust, am I right?

Starting point is 00:09:31 So that is what we're looking to do here as we go through this process. But we start off with the will. The will can go into your trust once that trust becomes active and you're at the point where you need that trust. So that is the process to kind of think through as we go through this. The majority of you, you're going to need a will. The rest of you, if you need a trust, then a trust situation, I would most likely talk

Starting point is 00:09:51 to an attorney to make sure it's done right. But a will is a very simple document. We'll go through a couple of other things as wills as well. So now, let's get into 13 things to know about wills. So the first one, a will includes more than just information on who gets what and who will care for your children or pets. It also addresses your feelings towards life support and what you want to happen to your body after you die. So a will is really comprehensive.

Starting point is 00:10:17 And the cool thing about a will is you can make it as simple or as complicated as possible. But it's going to have a lot of things outside of just your financial life that you need to take care of when you pass away. That's why it's so important to have it as part of your wealth protection plane because A, your wealth is going to go in a bunch of different directions. But in addition, it's going to talk about who needs to take care of your children, who needs to take care of your pets, what your loved ones need to do if you're on life support. All those types of decisions need to be there. In addition, it'll leave any parting words or special requests or special wishes. It can be as detailed as you possibly want.

Starting point is 00:10:50 So if you have a really complicated situation or you have a situation that needs a lot of instruction, a will is absolutely necessary. Now, number two, is a will isn't just for elderly or rich people. This is what a lot of people think. It's actually for anybody over the age of 18. If you're over the age of 18, I would consider getting, will. I did not write mine until a couple of years ago when I hit 30. And by not doing that, it was just something I did it very late. If anything would have happened to me, all of my assets would not

Starting point is 00:11:17 have been in the right place. I should have done it much earlier than I did. This is one thing I waited too long on. And I really believe that most people, because it's so inexpensive to do this online, you can do it if you're over the age of 18. Because the earlier you have your will in place early on in life, it ensures that your loved ones are protected if something unexpected were to happen. That's what it does. Even if you just have a pet. And you want to make sure that pet's going where you want that pet to go. You don't want something to happen where either family abandons it or they don't know where your pet is. There's all different sorts of situations where that would happen, especially if you have kids,

Starting point is 00:11:49 you absolutely need to have a will. If you have dependents, you absolutely need to have a will. Every single person who has dependence needs to have a will. If you have a business partner, you need to have a will. It's the same thing with life insurance. These things coincide. But if you're over the age of 18, you have anybody depending on you or any being depending, any creature, depending on you, then you need to have that will in place. It's very inexpensive. Number three,

Starting point is 00:12:12 it's really helpful to have a will if you have special requests or non-traditional relationship. So if your wishes are straightforward, then things could pan out fine with the will. But if you have really unusual requests and you want certain things to go to friends or family, and that may be something where you definitely absolutely need to have a will. For example, we had a family member who passed away recently who had a ton of jewelry and they had very specific requests on exactly where each piece of jewelry is going to go to who. And it was a whole ordeal. It even made it complicated in the will to be able to distribute that jewelry in the right way. Because if you have very complicated requests, you have to have that will in place.

Starting point is 00:12:50 Otherwise, it's going to go to one person or two people or whoever gets there first. Who knows how it's going to work. But it's one of those things that you just have to have it in place, especially with very specific requests. If you have a lot of expensive things that you want to make sure that get distributed to the right place, if you have a lot of liabilities, then you want to make sure that those go to the right people. Number four is you don't have to hire an attorney to put together a will. You can write one on your own using an online service. So I used a service called Trust in Will.

Starting point is 00:13:18 It's a cheap online service. I'll link them up down below. That is an affiliate link, but I will link them up down below so that you can check them out as well. So for a simple will, they start at $159 to do it through there. They have all the language correct there. And they walk you through the process on exactly how to set that up. So at trust and will, it is by far the cheapest place that I've seen.

Starting point is 00:13:39 This is all they do is trusts and wills. And so it's by far the cheapest place. And they have really good education tools on there as well. If you wanted to go through and see what is the will, I want to die deeper into what I need to have in my will, all that kind of stuff. Trust and will has that. But this episode should cover enough for you to get understanding

Starting point is 00:13:55 that you need to have one in place. But you don't have to hire an attorney. Now, if you're just uncomfortable with the whole situation, you'd rather hire an attorney, more power to you. Nothing wrong with that. An attorney is going to cost you anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000, depending on what you're doing, or if you have an expensive attorney, it's going to be a lot more than that.

Starting point is 00:14:10 From the pricing that I got, that was around the range for my area of what it was going to cost for a very simple will. But you can make it as complicated as you want with trust and will, and it will still be a much cheaper rate there. So that is something else that you can do in addition. And also, you can talk to them and consult with them and go through the process. They will talk to you. So if you want to weigh out both options, you can talk to them and you can go through that

Starting point is 00:14:30 process as well. But it's a great resource. That's where I got mine done. So I will link it down up in the show notes. if you want to check that out. Number five, but you need to make sure that the document will hold up in court. So everything goes through probate, like we talked about. And you've got to make sure that you have the right language in there so everything will hold up in court.

Starting point is 00:14:48 So one big thing is something called a self-proving affidavit. And this helps establish validity of the will without the need of the court to call in and question a witness. So if you don't have this in place and trust and will puts this in place for you and walks you through the process, gives you the right language to do this, then you're going to have to have someone come into play who would be a witness, which just makes it more complicated.

Starting point is 00:15:11 So you're trying to take the complication out of the situation. So by doing this, you're taking as much complication out of that situation as you can. Number six, if you don't want to put your assets through probate, you'll need to write a trust in addition to a will. So if you don't want them to go through that probate process with a lot of wealthy people do not because they want it to be a process where they are,

Starting point is 00:15:33 talking through it maybe with a trust, a living trust, something along those lines, then you want to put a trust into place. But like we said, you only need to trust if your assets are growing very rapidly or you expect to have a very large net worth at any point in time. So hopefully all of you will have a will and a trust by the time you start to really build wealth and accelerate your wealth. So that is something to keep in mind as well. Number seven, this is an interesting one. Number seven, keep in mind that certain assets like life insurance and retirement are not distributed in your will. So this is a very big one.

Starting point is 00:16:06 We talk about this in Index Fund Pro in the course as well. One of the biggest things we talk about in that is make sure your beneficiaries are listed in your brokerage account or in your Roth IRA or in your 401K. Guess why? Because the distribution goes to those beneficiaries. It does not go through your will. So your will is going to have things like your savings account, your checking account, and your investment accounts.

Starting point is 00:16:27 Those are all listed in your will. But life insurance and retirement accounts adhere to the, their own terms. You've got to make sure that you have those beneficiaries checked off. Even when it comes to your investment accounts, you should always have the beneficiaries there. For example, mine are lined up in terms of if anything happened to me first, it goes to my wife and then it goes to my kids. And the reason why it's set up that way is because if anything happened, even on my standard brokerage account, if anything happened, that's directly where it goes. So that you have a backup plan. So if somebody's questioning it, the will and your beneficiaries line up.

Starting point is 00:17:00 There's no question there. They know exactly who it goes to. For most of us, that's going to be a very large asset. So making sure that large asset goes to the correct person is incredibly important. Now, this is one thing that you can do very easily. You just look for beneficiaries on your standard brokerage site. So Fidelity has this, Vanguard has this, M1 Finance has this. And when you set up your brokerage account, if you have not done one yet,

Starting point is 00:17:22 when you set it up, that's the first thing you should do. Now, you'll see it on Index Fund Pro. When we go through that process, we talk about this. We say, hey, here is the exact process. on how to open up your brokerage account. And guess what? What's the last step is to set your beneficiaries? Because you absolutely need to be doing that

Starting point is 00:17:36 so that your money goes to the right place. Number eight, once you have a will, you have to sign it, you have to have a witness sign it, and potentially you even have to get it notarized. So a lot of times once it signed, a will is just a piece of paper. But depending on the state that you live in, you may need to get it notarized

Starting point is 00:17:53 or you may have to have a witness in place as well. Sometimes it's two witnesses. So that is something to keep in mind as well and the witnesses cannot be beneficiary. So they have to be someone who is not a beneficiary. So that is just something to keep in mind as well. If you need to get something notarized, you can go to your local bank. For example, one of my checking accounts is that Chase Bank. So whenever I need to get something notarized, I just go over there. They can notarize something for you as well. Number nine, in addition to money in your savings account, you can include things like

Starting point is 00:18:20 family heirlooms and cryptocurrency in your will. So this is one that I just talked about like family airlooms like jewelry or things like that or if you have specific fine china that you want to give away to your family or anything along those lines those can be put in your will they will be passed out of the correct person is another big reason to have this stuff in addition crypto can also be put into your will now so that is one thing where if you have it set up correctly your crypto will go to the right person so crypto would go into your will but you can also set it up if you're on a exchange say you're on coin base or something like that then you want to make sure that the beneficiaries are in there as well just as backup because a lot of those crypto exchanges I don't trust fully.

Starting point is 00:19:01 So that is another one to consider as well. Number 10, the hardest part of the will is selecting guardians. And at least for me, that's how it was. So when you're selecting guardians, this is one thing that you really want to think through. Obviously, you and your spouse have to be on the same page. You're going to have to have conversations about this. And sometimes you both are on the same page and sometimes you're not. In our situation, we were on the same page.

Starting point is 00:19:24 so that made it very easy, but in some situations, and I can imagine why, a lot of people are not on the same page. So you got to make sure you have this conversation in a calm, relaxing way. This is something that you definitely want to make sure that you both agree on

Starting point is 00:19:39 so that everything goes to the right place. This may be a conversation you have to have over time, and guess what? If it changes, if something changes drastically in the person's life who you were anticipating being the guardian for your kids and pets, say their life went in an opposite direction of what you think it should have gone,

Starting point is 00:19:54 then you can only, always change your will. And that is something where you can always change it. It always can make adjustments. So don't worry about that. It's just not set in stone once you sign this once. You can always make adjustments because that is something that's going to be very, very easy to change. And especially through trust and will, they have it all there and it make changes very easy. Number 11, this is something that you really need to know when you're nominating someone as a guardian is it is a lot harder to nominate someone who lives out of the country or even out of the state that you live in. So a lot of times maybe you have family members that live out of state.

Starting point is 00:20:23 that's a little bit easier than someone who lives out of the country because obviously there's different laws in different countries, there's different laws in different states. This is a state-specific thing that you're doing here. So it can make things a little bit tricky. And what also can make things tricky is if you nominate a non-family member. So both of these things can make it a little bit tricky if you go through probate. So if you're looking to do that, you really want to consider the nomination

Starting point is 00:20:46 and make sure that it is the best person for your children or your pets or whatever else you're doing. Because what the court asks is certain questions like, is it in the child's best interest to be uprooted and moved out of state? So that is where it just gets a little bit tricky. So just think through that and know that in the back of your head. It usually is okay if you have it set up the right way. And that is something where you just want to make sure that you think through. Number 12, and this is what we're just talking about.

Starting point is 00:21:10 A will is adjustable. As life changes, you can update or rewrite your will. See, a will is an evolving document. It's not something that's set in stone. It's not like your Fred Flintstone putting together a stone tablet. This is something that can change very easily. It can be an evolving document. It's flexible.

Starting point is 00:21:26 So if you change your mind, it does not have to stay the way that you set it up at the beginning. So don't let that discourage you. Maybe you don't know who your guardians are yet. Don't let it discourage you from actually putting together your will. Maybe you're worried about maybe the guardians that you want to elect are, you know, getting up there in age. Then you want to make sure that over time you are adjusting the guardianship over time. That's something that you could do as well.

Starting point is 00:21:48 Maybe you have aging parents or something like that. And you want to give it to the aging parents if something happened. now, but maybe in 20 years down the line, you don't want to give them to the aging parents. And usually they're older by then, obviously. But that is something where the guardianship would obviously adjust. So that is another situation. Just know that you can make these adjustments. And then number 13.

Starting point is 00:22:05 Writing a will is obviously difficult, but it is necessary for most people because it's not a fun thing to do. It's not something you're going to sit down and have a little wine, high five each other while you're writing out your will. But it is something that you're going to have to do. And it's something that you need to face. and it's something that the earlier you do it, the easier it is, because then you can just add little things to it over time.

Starting point is 00:22:25 If you're setting this up and you're 60 years old and you have a ton of assets all the way across the board, it's going to take you a long time to do this. But if you're doing it and you're 18, 20, 25, 30, 35, and you just have a few assets. You have your kids in place. Putting this together now is going to be the easiest thing, and then you can change it and adjust it over time.

Starting point is 00:22:42 So check out trust and will. They are a great option. That's where I didn't mind, like I said, link down below as well. Now, let's see what a will should. include. I remember when I needed to hire someone fast, but finding the right person quickly felt impossible. And if you've ever been there, you know how stressful this can be. That's where Indeed comes in. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Instead of struggling to get your job post noticed, Indeed's sponsor jobs help you stand out and hire faster. Your post jumps up to

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Starting point is 00:26:06 And then if you want more information on there, I'll link up an article from Trust and Will as well on exactly what a will should include, so you have that information as well. The first thing is your personal information. So you obviously must include your basic personal information in a will, like your name, birthday address, all that good stuff. And you're going to put in all your family members as well. So everybody who's related to you or has a relationship to you, those are all going to go in at the very beginning.

Starting point is 00:26:29 The second thing is something called a testamentary intent. So this is proper legal language that just declares this document as a will. It's a fancy way of saying this is a will. Then you're going to put in your assets and beneficiaries. So this is the big one. this is the one that we care most about is the assets and beneficiaries. So where are your assets going to go, which beneficiaries are going to get those assets, and it could be anything. It could be a family member. It could be a friend. It could be a charity. It could be a business or a trust could even

Starting point is 00:26:57 be willed some of this stuff as well. So it's also good to include a contingent beneficiary in your will. So it's the person who would receive the assets if the primary beneficiary passes away or is unable to receive it. This will allow you to have a backup plan if anything happens. And that will allow you to just make sure all your bases are covered. The next thing is the appointment of executor. So the executor is the representative who's going to carry out the terms of your will. You're going to have a conversation with this person beforehand. Make sure they understand your will as well. You want to make sure it's a person you obviously trust. And you'll see this in movies all the time where someone is handing down a really wealthy family is handing down their will and the lawyer comes in

Starting point is 00:27:36 and they're the executor of the will and they're telling everybody who's getting what and that type of thing as well. So in one example of that would be if you saw the movie not. knives out and knives out, they go through the process of the entire family is just a really greedy family. And the family heir passes away and they're really wealthy. And he gives it away to his in-house nurse and they all get upset. But the lawyer who was telling the family that the nurse is getting the majority of the assets, that is the person who is the executor of the will. The next one is the appointment of guardians. So if you have any minors or children or pets, then you're going to have your guardians in place on the appointment of

Starting point is 00:28:13 guardian. Then signatures, obviously you're going to sign it. Everybody's going to sign it. You're going to have the two witnesses. If you need a notary, you're going to have a notary in place. And then everything else falls into place there as well, depending on your state. So that is the gist of what would go into a very simple will. And then you're going to have special requests, all that other stuff in there as well. And that is going to be the simple process of doing this. Now, every single person, like I said, should have some sort of well. Even if you are 18, you're like, I don't have time to get to this, but you're thinking about it. Maybe you have 30 minutes on hand. Just write it down on a piece of paper. Even a piece of a paper written down can be a form of a will. But then you want to make it official and you want to make sure that it becomes official, but at least write down your thoughts, have that document somewhere, sign it, all that kind of stuff so that people at least know where it's going at the very, very least, especially if you have minimal assets, maybe you're just renting an apartment, you're just

Starting point is 00:29:00 getting out there in life. That's something you could do as well. But making sure that you just have some document in place early on and then getting an official will as early as possible is something you definitely want to do because obviously it's an evolving document over time. And as you make it evolve and as your assets grow and as you listen to this podcast more and those assets grow over time, which I expect each and every one of you to do, then this will be something that you definitely want to get into over that time frame. Well, listen, I hope you guys learned a ton about how to write your will. If you guys have any questions, make sure you hit me up, get on that master money newsletter, reply to the newsletter so that we can answer your questions and go through

Starting point is 00:29:36 that process. And don't forget to leave a five-star rating and review in this podcast. That really does help out this show. It helps us grow and expand this message so we can teach as many people as possible how they too can build generational wealth. I truly appreciate each and every single one of you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and we will see you on the next episode. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play Ojo. The online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep. With no wagering room. requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws. Hey, I just won. Woohoo!

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The Personal Finance Podcast - How to Protect Your Wealth and Assets With a Will

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