Protecting Resources and Family Peace - Estate Plan Best Practices
Apr 25, 2024Episode 36
Sherri Lund & Jana McCreary
In this episode, we're diving into the essentials of estate planning. Estate planning isn’t just about protecting your assets after you’ve passed away; it's also about protecting your family and ensuring your wishes are honored if you were to become incapacitated. Join Jana McCreary, an experienced estate planning and probate attorney from Texas and Florida, as she teams up with Sherri to share invaluable tips and real-world stories. You’ll learn when it’s crucial to update your estate plan, how to create a comprehensive plan tailored to different life stages, and much more.
There's something new to learn every week, so subscribe, hit the like button, and save this video to a playlist. If you need help, visit https://willowwoodsolutions.com to contact Sherri Lund.
🌟 6 Reasons to Update Your Estate Plan: 1. Family Changes: Whether it's marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child, you'll want to make sure your plan is up to date!
2. Asset Changes: Buying or selling significant assets like real estate or a business can impact your estate plan.
3. Relocation: Moving to a different state or country can affect legal requirements and tax implications. Different areas may also have different succession laws.
4. Tax Law Updates: Changes in tax laws related to estate planning can influence how your assets are managed and distributed.
5. Health Changes: Any changes in health or personal circumstances may impact decisions related to medical care and financial management - You’ll want to make sure your estate plan is updated accordingly!
6. Shifting Roles of Appointed Persons: Changes in relationships or circumstances may require reconsidering appointed roles (e.g., guardians, trustees) within your estate plan.
🤝 Contact Sherri: Sherri invites you to explore her toolbox of resources on the Willow Wood Solutions website and encourages you to reach out to her through the contact form.
Disclosure: The information shared on The Probate Podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. We strongly recommend consulting with a professional for advice specific to your situation. If you need help finding a professional, feel free to reach out to us at www.willowwoodsolutions.com/contact.
Please consider kindly rating this show so others can find it!
In this episode, we're diving into the essentials of estate planning. Estate planning isn’t just about protecting your assets after you’ve passed away; it's also about protecting your family and ensuring your wishes are honored if you were to become incapacitated. Join Jana McCreary, an experienced estate planning and probate attorney from Texas and Florida, as she teams up with Sherri to share invaluable tips and real-world stories. You’ll learn when it’s crucial to update your estate plan, how to create a comprehensive plan tailored to different life stages, and much more.
There's something new to learn every week, so subscribe, hit the like button, and save this video to a playlist. If you need help, visit https://willowwoodsolutions.com to contact Sherri Lund.
🌟 6 Reasons to Update Your Estate Plan: 1. Family Changes: Whether it's marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child, you'll want to make sure your plan is up to date!
2. Asset Changes: Buying or selling significant assets like real estate or a business can impact your estate plan.
3. Relocation: Moving to a different state or country can affect legal requirements and tax implications. Different areas may also have different succession laws.
4. Tax Law Updates: Changes in tax laws related to estate planning can influence how your assets are managed and distributed.
5. Health Changes: Any changes in health or personal circumstances may impact decisions related to medical care and financial management - You’ll want to make sure your estate plan is updated accordingly!
6. Shifting Roles of Appointed Persons: Changes in relationships or circumstances may require reconsidering appointed roles (e.g., guardians, trustees) within your estate plan.
🤝 Contact Sherri: Sherri invites you to explore her toolbox of resources on the Willow Wood Solutions website and encourages you to reach out to her through the contact form.
Disclosure: The information shared on The Probate Podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. We strongly recommend consulting with a professional for advice specific to your situation. If you need help finding a professional, feel free to reach out to us at www.willowwoodsolutions.com/contact.
Please consider kindly rating this show so others can find it!
Hi there, welcome to the Probate Pod,cast my name is Sherri Lund and I'm your host today. I started the Probate Podcast to be a resource for our community because a lot of people don't know about probate, end of life transitions all the things that families go through when they're trying to put a loved one into assisted care, making those plans for probate and making it a smooth transition into that next season of life when that comes. I'm here today with my guest, Jana McCreary, and she's an attorney in the Houston area. She also has an office in Florida. So, If you're in Florida, or the Texas area, then you're going to want to pay attention today. You know, probate is- estate planning is specific per state. And even within counties, things are done a little bit differently. So, It's important that you get your information correctly, and that it's current. We want to get information from friends on Facebook, maybe, but not always a good idea. And Jana's is going to talk to us about that. You're Going to want to grab a pen and paper and your favorite beverage because she's going to save you and your family thousands, hundreds of dollars, lots of money, and lots of heartache because we're going to talk about the basics of estate planning. My goal personally is to have 50 people make a plan this year. It's maybe not a huge number, but I'd love to be an influence for 50 people this year to have a plan and then to talk about that plan with your families. And I'm making a list, so if that's you, please let me know because I'm having a lot of fun watching that list grow. And I'm super excited to lay that foundation for you guys. So let's get started. So let me tell you a little bit about Jana. Jana McCreary is the only is the owner of McCreary Law Office. She graduated in 2002 with her law degree, and then she went back to school to get her master's degree from Southern Methodist University 2006. She opened her office in 2014. So there was a little bit of a gap there. She specializes in estate planning for clients. She focuses on plans that provide -I love this- peace of mind, protection for families and assurance for loved ones. Wow. That encapsulates a lot of what I'm trying to do here as well. Here's what filled in that gap. And I'm excited to introduce her to you for this. 10 years before she started her practice, Jana worked with adults and children with intellectual disabilities and mental illness in acute and long term care. She also spent three years as an attorney with the court of appeals in the Dallas area before she started teaching. So for eight years, Jana taught in Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. She's my first attorney that has taught other attorneys. So I'm excited about that. Her work in long term care, her devotion to education, And her personal experiences with estates and probate contribute to her passion and her dedication in planning estates for the public. Jana's a third generation Texan, and she returned to Texas in 2019 to be close to family. In addition to cheering on the Texas Aggies, Janna enjoys traveling, walking, and biking. Her golden doodle, Elliot, volunteers as a therapy dog. I love that. Janna, thanks so much for joining me today. I'm so glad to have you here. Sherri, thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. So if we were to meet, you know, you don't know this because when we chatted before I didn't tell you this but... but our little dog was going to school to be a therapy dog. And she did great in class. It was when she went to meet people that she froze. so she doesn't make, She doesn't make a great therapy dog, but she's, she's a great little house dog. So if we were at the dog park with our dogs and I, you know, we just chatted up some things and I said, Hey, tell me a bit about you, non work related, like you as a person, Janet, tell me about you. What would you say? So family is very important to me. I'm an aunt, I'm a grand aunt, I'm a sister. I, you know, a daughter, of course, but it's being that role of aunts and grand aunt that really has driven me a lot. I don't have children of my own and I'm especially close to my sister's girls. They are incredibly important in my life. And now, as their families are growing. I've got 7, 8, 8, well, 10 total grandnieces and nephews 7 in the Houston area. So that's what brought me back to Texas. When I moved back here in 2019 is I wanted to be a part of their life. I wanted to be closer and be able to be involved. Yeah, that's awesome. That's one. And then at the dog park, you know, that's one thing. Elliot, the golden doodle. He comes to the office when, when clients want, and it works out in his schedule. But I did some volunteer puppy raising for canines for warriors. And when I had, yeah, my goal was to socialize the dog. And so when the puppy I had for five months, I named him Austin. He came to the office with me and clients responded so well. I realized my next dog, I wanted to be a therapy dog who could sit with us in client meetings because sometimes it's a hard conversation. It is a hard conversation. Yeah. And I've seen Elliot just go lay his chin on someone's leg as we're getting into conversations. And, and it's, it's wonderful to see him bring that, whether it be peace or an icebreaker to our conversations. Yeah, I get that. That's a great, great point. Great idea, I hadn't thought about having a therapy dog in an attorney's office, but boy, just the texture, you know, being able to look at something, the mental break of what whatever is happening. Exactly. I think that's really smart. I'm also a traveler. I've been to over 41 countries and some of those was to visit nieces as they did their semesters abroad, but I've loved traveling and the experience of seeing other cultures, other places and getting to have those experiences in other places. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. So you worked with adults and children with intellectual disabilities in acute and long term care. Can you talk about that a little bit? So when I first graduated from college I moved to Houston and I worked in psych treatment. So these, I worked with children and adolescents in residential treatment, meaning that they lived there but, but it wasn't a locked hospital facility. Okay. These were kids who needed to be in a safe environment. And in a structured environment, so that they could work on whatever issues they had before they could return home right after that. Then I worked with group homes. So, When I, when I made the transition to work with group homes, I was working with people with intellectual disabilities and some duly diagnosed. Some intellectual disability with a mental illness, but in the group home setting, I worked with several different homes in the Houston area, and then move to North Texas and worked with homes in Tarrant county. And these were our clients were living in a group home. So, Instead of in a state hospital, they were able to live in the community, very often working in the community. But all the clients had very different levels of need. And levels of abilities. Getting to know the clients that, that we worked with, that was really special because understanding the, the challenges that exist, especially in paying for care. And most of our clients in the group homes, Medicaid paid for their care so, you know, I'll bring it back around surprise to me. It wasn't my plan to go into estate planning and then work with helping people, making sure that if they were Medicaid eligible, they kept that. But that's a crucial part of estate planning and we call that special needs planning for for the non elderly. It's elder law for those who are looking at nursing home care, but making sure that people have those resources to pay for that care. And more importantly, in estate planning that they don't lose those resources. Right. That's the biggest risk. If someone, if you have a family member with special needs. And you haven't done the proper planning, someone can lose their benefits. In a heartbeat with an, with an inheritance that's meant to do well, but if it's not passed along correctly, they'll lose those benefits. Yeah, this is when I'm so glad you brought that up. This is when ignorance is not bliss. It's not. And and you can have the best intentions and really mess things up for, for somebody who really needs it. Intentional care, right? Intentional, intentional thought. Was there, was, so were you, were you helping people in these homes as an attorney? Were you volunteering? I'm not, this was before I was, I went to law school. So this was my career before law school. I didn't go to law school. Yeah. Okay. So I worked 1st. With the children and adolescents in in residential treatment, I work direct care and then I managed a children's unit. And then I directly assisted the program director. Wow, homes, I, I was the, the person who was in charge of the programming for our group homes. So I had a house manager who supervised our staff. We had direct care staff who worked different shifts in the homes and then I would work with our entire team of professionals, including a psychologist, our nursing staff. To make sure that that people were learning independent living skills. So that's 1 of the biggest goals with with someone who's living in a group home is you're always wanting to make sure you're learning more independent living skills because the goal for anyone is independent. Right. And so whatever level that needed to be taught at, that's what we worked on. Yep. And then before the, before I left there, then I transitioned to being program coordinator. I trained staff, I trained staff in a variety of areas including CPR. So I was certified to teach CPR and then I became the business manager. So as business manager, I was in charge of accounts receivable, accounts payable, but also making sure that our clients stayed Medicaid eligible. So it, it, it was a surprise to me in a sense, like, like I said earlier, when I sat back and realize, oh, wait, now I'm doing that as an attorney and how full circle this is all come. Isn't that funny. Was there somebody influential in your life that turned a light bulb on for you to go into law or how did you make the transition from those group home settings into law? I wanted more career flexibility and opportunities and I did not know a lot about law at the time. Honestly, I looked at. Those admission tests for law school, and that that was my area, the logic questions. That's where I excelled. And I thought, okay, this is a calling them for me, because if there's something that wants logic and testing that analytical thinking, that's what I needed to do. And pursue that, not necessarily at the time to practice law, I was very interested in academia. Graduating law school, that's, you know, what I eventually went into was was teaching. And then, you know, as far as that influential person, not going into law, but in opening my estate practice was my father's death and that handling his estate really gave me a passion for making sure people had individualized estate plans. There's nothing like that personal experiences there. Right? And, and, you know, we've had, I don't know if you know this or not. I don't remember all the things we talked about before, but I've been through that 3 different times and each time is a little bit different. What I think about, and why I'm in this chair today is because I'm thinking about the man or the woman who is trying to juggle their personal life. Their career, their family, their divorce, their illness, like whatever, wherever they are, doesn't stop just because now they're in this situation and need to transition a loved one into care or manage their estate if they're into probate. But you drop into this situation and you think, who, why didn't somebody tell, why aren't we talking about this, you know? Books are few and far between and they're not very fun to read these books on estate planning, And probate and it's not always accurate. It might be out of print. I mean It might be dated information. It might not be pertinent to the state that you're in.. As a teacher, can you talk a little bit about from your standpoint, the education and also what it's like for the attorneys that are going through the classrooms. So absolutely, and in 2 ways that I look at 1 is working with clients. So we always start with an initial planning session for estate planning. And that's where we sit down together for up to an hour. Part of that is getting to know each other. Part of that is for me to learn about their situation and their goals so that I can best advise on the proper planning for them. But part of that is that education opportunity. Because a lot of people, they think, okay, estate plan means I need a will, and they don't realize all the other parts and pieces that could make up a comprehensive estate plan, or even just the essential pieces to an estate plan. I definitely want to use that opportunity in the initial planning session to educate clients. I also, you know, that heart of the teacher, I have a big passion of educating the community. I love to speak at events. I spoke at the Heights Neighborhood Association recently. I've spoken at several of the different precincts around Harris County to be able to educate people. What is estate planning? What is what does it mean? What do you need? Because the more information someone has, the better a decision they can make. Right. And it's something like you said, we don't always talk about and it's a hushed conversation sometimes and it doesn't need to be. It just needs to be out in the open. Right. I think a lot of it... when I first started learning about probate was the language is so foreign and you know, y'all use terms in the legal realm that the rest of us don't use. And so what seems normal to attorneys is not always translated to what people need. So can you explain just the basics of what an estate plan is? So an estate plan is, it's a roadmap for, and there's two pieces to it. Most people consider an estate plan about what happens after you pass away. So what happens to your belongings, to your assets and who's in charge of that? But the other bigger piece of an estate plan is what happens if you're incapacitated. So what if you can't make decisions for yourself, who will make those decisions for you? And that's so crucial to be able to identify that up front. I say the estate plan is one of the biggest gifts you can give to your loved ones because you making those decisions in advance is much better than anyone having to make that decision in a time of tragedy or grief or stress. Most people talk about an estate plan with what you said. They have that in mind that it's after I'm gone. And so they want to avoid all that. But what if you are in a car? I was talking to someone last week in a car accident, broke their nose super easy to go unconscious with an accident like that. And then you could be incapacitated for some time. Who knows? But so who's gonna pay your car bill? Who's gonna pay your apartment bill? Who's gonna pay for or make those decisions medically for you? You know, if those things are not there. So I think I agree with you. That's a bigger topic to focus on for estate planning, especially with what we know now in dementia and and all of that. It's not just when you're gone. It's when you're not able to make those decisions for yourself. We have a plan for young adults because just like that, you know, you don't know when something might happen. There's a car accident. There's something such as that. And parents think, Oh, but that's my baby. Of course, I'll make those decisions. But that baby is 18 or older. And so even someone who is 18 or 19 needs to put something in place to identify who will be the person making those financial decisions, who's going to make those medical decisions. And then sometimes some will think, well, of course, it would be my parents. But what if the parents aren't married to each other? What if they disagree? Making clear which one has that final say just takes that argument away from them because they know one person has the final say. Yeah. And you don't have time to argue when someone's on the table and they need attention now, you know, like we need to know who that person is. I think it used to be whoever's paying the bill, you know, but that's not it anymore. And, talking about 18, 20 year olds, 30 year old, you know, like that's when we're our most reckless, you know, we need to plan in place because we don't have our head all on straight all the time. So.. That can be true! Yes. Oh, my gosh. So what do you consider essential then when you're thinking about.... let's start with the big one. Let's start with the pre planning, not the probate, but the estate plan for if you were incapacitated. What's essential for that? So we look at an essential plan having 4 things. It's going to have a will, a durable power of attorney, a medical power of attorney, and an advanced directive. So that will, you know, identifies who's in charge, your executor, and then what happens to your belongings, your assets. A will can do a lot more, but at its very basic core, those are the key things that will needs to do. Of course, it needs to be executed properly and not leave any... Any Thing hanging where I'm going through a probate right now at the will that was drafted by an attorney, but I'm, I suspect that this is not an estate planning attorney because there were so many pieces left out there, not covered, so a will needs to be properly drafted. We need a durable power of attorney that identifies who will be your agent to take care, I say, of all decisions other than medical. This is a person who can buy and sell property, who can sign a contract on your behalf, who can manage your banking, your investing, who can talk to your insurance company on your behalf, social security on your behalf, who could file a lawsuit for you or defend a lawsuit, you know, going to that example of something injured in a car accident. And let's say someone needs to be sued for that, or that person who was injured is being sued. You need a representative who has the legal authority to act in your in your place. Yeah, I say that the agent under your power of attorney steps into your shoes and manages the business side of your life. Not necessarily your business. I mean, they could, if you have 1, but the business side of your life. And then the medical power of attorney makes your medical decisions for you. And the advanced directive, this is that biggest gift. This is where you identify in advance to your physicians, your
family, your loved ones:
what are your choices for end of life care? So if you have a terminal illness, an end stage. Is issue or disease and there's no medical probability of recovery. Death is essentially imminent within 6 months and you cannot speak for yourself. So if all of those things are in place, that's what's happening. Then would you want your life to be extended through artificial means? Or would you want to be allowed to die naturally? And neither choice is, is the right choice for everyone where you can't make both. But key is that it's your choice. Right. And you take that out of the hands of your family who are dealing with grief and stress at that time. And especially if they disagree with what to do, when they need each other most.. Yes. It can break them apart. There is a book that encourages families to have these conversations. And so when we did this and we had our directives and all of those things, those essentials that you just mentioned, drawn up, we had a family meeting and we let them know who was going to be in charge of what. And we said, we're doing this because we don't want squabbles. If you, you know, she, you can have a conversation, you can ask for a second opinion, but you need to support her because her decision is not going to be an easy one to make, but she needs to know that you guys have her back. And and they all thanked us, you know, it was a hard conversation for us to have. They were nervous about what we were going to talk about, but they were all and we have 5 kids. They were all in agreement. Thanks for, you know, doing this mom. And so it was really, really good. Have you got some examples that you could share with us of what. You know, a situation, maybe that ended up being good because they had a plan in place that could have been disastrous if they didn't? Very often we get the other examples, right? I think of when things go poorly because when things go well, we're not calling the attorney and talking to the attorney about it, but.. That's true. But that said, you know, my own mother, honestly she was in assisted living and she was in and out of the emergency room in ICU. Her health would deteriorate. They would take her to the emergency room because that's what they had to do. She would be admitted to the E. R. to the I. C. U. should be stabilized and discharged back to the assisted living facility. Right? There came a point when her physician talked with my sister, who was her agent, my mom's agent and said, you know, she's not going to recover. And this is hard on everybody. This revolving door of the emergency room in the ICU. Yes. And mom had an advanced directive. Years before she had 1 where she said, keep me alive, whatever you do, keep me alive. But she had changed that, and she had updated it as she got older and. She decided this was the her decision at this point. And so my sister talked to her physician and they agreed this was time to follow mom's wishes in her advance directive. And that meant that if her health deteriorated in the same fashion, they would make sure she was kept comfortable. You know, we also got hospice care involved. Who could help also making sure she was kept comfortable. Now, of course, had mom falling out of bed and broken a leg. She would have gone to the emergency room. You know, we're only talking about those other issues that were happening at the time. But it meant that we got to have that time to know, "okay, we need to make our preparations," not just for planning, but for emotional issues. Yeah, we're going to say, but our, our mother. And because mom had that plan in place, we were given more time to, to, to handle that. I, I can attest to that too. When my parents had cancer, a lot of people said, Oh, so sorry, you know, cancer is so bad, but for us, it gave us that time. And we were intentional with the time that we had. And so it did end up being very meaningful. How often should I update my estate plan and why would I want to. Oh, that, that favorite lawyer answer. It depends. Yeah. So I say we should, we should take a look at it every three to five years. Make sure this still reflects your wishes. But whenever big life changes happen, we should update a plan marriage and divorce are the keys. Okay. If somebody marries, or they do divorce, we definitely want to update their plan. In fact, someone who is going through a divorce should update their plan. They can actually update it during that process. So that's very important. When I draft a plan, if I draft a plan for someone who has one child, we've made arrangements in that plan, even as her family is going to grow. We don't have to update the plan every time a new child is born, but very often parents want to. If anything happens to any of your agents that you've named, your agent under your power of attorney, your medical attorney, or your executor, then we should update that as well. Now, this is my 1 sports analogy in estate planning. I like a deep bench when we name agents. I ask clients for at least 3 names. And that way, and I tell him, you know, something happened to 1 of your named agents. And you only gave me 1 name. Now we have no 1. If you gave me only 2 names. Now you don't have a backup to your person. And if something has happened to 1 of your agents, that's probably someone very close to you. So I want you to spend time with the family, deal with all of this. Then let's come back and add a new number 3, but we've got a backup to the backup. Yeah, good thought. Can you explain to me what a living will is and how it differs from a standard will last will and testament. Yes. And I'm, it's almost frustrating that they use the term living. Well, because it is so confusing for people. They think, oh, that's a will. And it's just a will that I draft when I'm alive. And that's not what it is. So a will. Addresses, you know, who you want your executor to be and what you want to happen to your belongings after you pass away. A living will is that advanced directive is your advanced directive to your physicians and family and healthcare surrogates. Okay, thank you for that distinction. So we talked about. The advanced directives and that important part of, if I'm incapacitated... What are the essentials? What are the important things to include in a will that would make probate smoother for my family? Well, making sure, first of all, that the will is properly drafted and properly executed. Again, yeah, I'm working on a probate right now where it was not properly executed. It was not signed correctly, and people think, oh, that's the easiest part, and it should be, but it, it gets messed up. There are rules about, you know, who can witness, who can notarize. In different states, the rules are different, but making sure that it's properly drafted and properly executed. Things that we want to make sure of for most. Not every situation, but that the will specifies no bond is required. I mean, maybe you want your executor to have to post a bond because they're going to be responsible for the assets in the estate, but typically we don't want that. So specifying no bond is required. In Texas, we want to specify if you want your executor to have independence, that your executor is going to be an independent executor. That one is frequently left out if someone tries to DIY a plan because they're pulling something off the internet, which is not Texas based, you know, in Florida, where I'm also licensed, we don't even use the term executor. It's called a personal representative. Okay. And we don't have independent in that sense, but we do clarify there's no bond. So, When someone tries to pull things off the Internet, or copy of friends, well, it can really mess things up because it may be based on a different states law. Two key things to make probate smoother is an independent executor and no bond if that's what the family or that's what the person wants so that there's not the oversight on the probate, right? That oversight would come in the case of a judge of a judge. Exactly. Right? So it's more time waiting for the docket to be open and to. Well, any, any will that or anytime there are assets in a person's name that don't have a beneficiary name or a designee, such as a transfer on death designee or pay on death designee. Are there any other assets in someone's name? And I say, think about, you know, do, do you show you own something with your name on a piece of paper or on, on an account? On a computer, right? Because some people don't get paper bank statements anymore. A bank account, an investment account, a piece of real property. Those are the key things that, that are most common in people's estates. And if you have that, we have to have somebody with the authority, the legal authority to transfer that asset. So that's that process of probate, where if there's a will, the judge says, yes, this is a valid will, but then appoints that person named as the executor, if they qualify. To serve as the executor and they get letters, if there's no will, they get letters of administration and they use that to show that they have the authority to go close that bank account or to sell that piece of property. We have to yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. It's just a really good point. It's another reminder. I, just because someone is listed as the executor on the will doesn't mean that they are going, they cannot start to act on that authority. They have to go through the proper channels and to get those letters testamentary from the court. That gives them the authority to act on the behalf of the person who passed away. Exactly. Exactly. And that does take time, you know, from the time that someone passes away until they meet with an attorney. And then they get the information to the attorney that the attorney needs to start drafting everything. The drafting process happens. The attorney files everything with the county. Then we have to wait for a hearing, which it's getting a little bit faster in Harris County. Some counties that's taking an exceptionally long time, but it may be 4 to 6 weeks before we get a hearing. And in the meantime, there's no 1 with that authority to act on behalf of the estate. For Yeah, a lot of people will use a revocable living trust instead of a will because the successor trustee in a trust can begin acting almost immediately we don't have to go to probate in order to give that successor trustee the authority to act. Okay. So here's a random question that's not so random. Okay. If, if I inherit, you know, if I'm the executor named in mom's estate, and mom has a car that my nephew wants. But courts not gonna, you know, we're not gonna officially become an executor or be approved or whatever. Maybe never. But if everything were to go smoothly, 6 weeks down the road, can I give that car to my nephew before I get that those letters from the judge? Please don't, please don't. Please don't. Can you? Well, you can say here are the keys, but he doesn't legally have title and the estate could have some responsibility and then you acting without authority could have some responsibility. What if there are debts to the estate that need to be paid and the value of that car would be used to pay those debts. Now, what have you done by giving it to someone else and, and in any of just handing over the keys doesn't transfer legal title. I mean, we could peel away so many issues that that with the yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then somebody could complain about that. And, and yes, that's it. It opens up a whole another can. What are some things that you feel like? We should have talked about today and. And haven't yet. Is there anything burning on your heart that you would like to bring up? Two things. One is how important it is for everyone to have an estate plan. And we touched on that. You know, even if you're 18, you need a plan, but I can, I mean, if I had a nickel for every time I talked to people about estate planning and the answer was, Oh, my parents need to talk to you. And it's like, well, you do too, because they can, they put it off and it's just something that you need after a certain age and everyone should have a plan. And the other thing is I briefly touched on revocable living trust. Those can be such a great tool, especially for blended families. So there's the third thing that I, yeah, blended families. Blended families can add complexities and too often an unintended disinheritance because if you've got people, you know, you've got two people who've come to a marriage with children from before they got married, they marry, they might have their own children together.. If they don't properly plan their estate. It is possible that some of those kids will be left out eventually. And so it takes very careful planning. Yeah, that would be super important. Oh, they would, that would be hard to get over, wouldn't it? If you were left out, that would be sad. Okay. So how can people get in touch with you, Jana? So our website, McCrearyLawOffice. com, M C C R E A R Y lawoffice. com. Facebook, we're under McCreary Law Office. Instagram, we're under McCreary Law Office. LinkedIn, I think is Jana R. McCreary. But our, our, our website is, we have a lot of information on our website. We strive to publish information, new information every week. Again, that the heart of a teacher, you know, we try to push publish information every week about important areas of estate planning. We talk about everything from, you know, if a celebrity passes away without a will to what happens with the D. I. Y. plan what happens with your social media accounts, you know, different things that we cover and then we've got other pages and they're just about estate planning. On that website also, you can schedule a discovery call and that discovery call is complimentary. So the discovery call is not for legal advice. That is just where if someone wants to try to understand what our process is, you know, what is what is that initial planning session? What do we talk about there? So we can schedule that discovery call and explain that process. Perfect. And then, and then what's the follow up like with you? Once we have an initial planning session, it depends on the plan. If it's just a potential plan, we probably have enough information then that I can draft everything and then we can meet to sign. Those those items, if it's more comprehensive planning, we'll meet for a design meeting. So that design meeting will send some online worksheets to complete. We'll meet for an hour or 2 to talk more details about someone's plan. Then we'll meet to sign it. And then, you know, in Houston, we're doing our planning in the office, but we also offer remote services. All my Florida planning is now done remotely. I've got clients in Dallas, San Antonio, Austin throughout and even some of my outlying, like Montgomery County clients. We might do all of our, our meetings via zoom and then they come into the office to sign things. Nice. Well, Jana, thank you so much for your time today. I just always enjoy my time with you. You're so fun and I enjoy following your Facebook account. You're so positive and and very informative in what you share on social media and, and I, you know, I appreciate that. I always appreciate that. More information is good information. Yeah. Yeah, I just really appreciate your time and I really hope that your office just gets lots of calls from this that people are understanding more as a result of our conversation here today. And I know your heart is to help people when they're really struggling. So I appreciate that. And you too. So thank you so much for joining Jana and I today on the probate podcast. We want you to know that you're not alone and we're both encouraging you to make a plan and to talk to your families about your plan and then reach out if you need any help. We're here to help. Take good care.