The Legacy Hour With Andrew Cohen On KHTS - May 23, 2013 Part 3

Yeah, I think what's important to understand of the financial situations that could be accomplished with a parent moving back in. You know, you can show support, and in showing that support and qualifying for the 50% dependency test, then it also allows Mom to be able to save more money. She doesn't have to spend every dime that she gets on Social Security to show support, right? And that just makes her more and more anxious with every dollar that goes out. Anyway, it gives her more feeling of independence. She's got a little bit of extra money in the bank when she was on her own she might not have had it. So now it's a win-win for everybody because, you know, you get the dependency right off, you can throw a little bit of support that direction, and at the same time Mom can put some money in the bank and feel good about going to the... which is important. I mean, even if value is on paper - everyone saw, you know, five, ten years ago values of your home - it's not necessarily cash in the bank, but that whole concept of you feel it and you feel better, and you know if you're taking care of and you have good people looking out for you, it just really affects you so positively mentally. And that's just that. I can't stress the importance of that.

You know, when we first started talking about the concept and the name of this hour, it made me realize that I first started focusing on mom because of my age. You know, somebody that you know 70, 80 years old, but you look good. Moms end up in a position where you know they could be 45, 50, 55 and have health issues and be divorced or have a deceased husband, and they can be really young too to move back in with the family. So you have to look at all the aspects of it, not just think of a mom that's, you know, 85 years old and looking at the actuaries. Yeah, exactly. I mean, life expectancy for women is a little bit longer than men, and maybe traditionally women are a little bit younger than a husband when they get married, and if something happens, figured that out? Have you? Yeah, no, it takes all kinds, all kinds. So it's you can have a long time without a spouse. You can get remarried, but there's anything can happen in life. We all know that. You know, when you're young, you think you're invincible and nothing's ever going to happen. And I know I counsel my clients every single day, answer questions, talk about the importance of getting a plan in place, talk about the importance of life insurance and doing it properly. And interestingly enough, you know, when it comes to me to do it for myself and I have to put pen to paper and sign off on those documents, there's some sort of anxiety level. And you know, in my office we understand that, and I fully relate to people doing that because it's just a natural normal thing.

Yeah, and there are so many clients that come across my desk, new clients that own their house and own rental property and have absolutely no idea how to protect their future and the future of their kids with inheritance and things of that nature. And that's why my goal in looking at a client and protecting a client, giving them something, I turn around and I refer them to individuals like you that can establish a future for them while they're living but also create something, a legacy as you're referring to it, you know, a legacy for the rest of the family when they pass on. And that's important. It's really important, and it changes over time, but you get that basic structure in place. And you know, birth, death, marriage, kids getting older. Even when your kids are, let's say your kids become 19 years old, they're an adult, they're off in college, something happens to them and you need to make some decisions with them, finance, health care, etc. They're not your little kid anymore, and you actually need proper paperwork in place then, or you can put yourself through the court system, and it's just a traumatic experience, and public, embarrassing, expensive. Yeah.

And I have a client right now that's out of state, and her husband just was given six months to live. And now she's trying to find out how protected are her assets in California, right? And that's not my expertise, but that's your expertise. And so, you know, so that's what becomes important because we represent clients in multiple states, but they moved from here, so they still have a lot of assets here. And how do you protect those assets when you're in another state and leave those? There's different ways to do it, but if you have it in your trust and the trust owns the assets, almost all of it can be controlled from one central point wherever that trust, the trustee is based. If you don't have it in there, you might have property in three, four different states, you might have accounts. You're going to have probate in California, which is a borderline nightmare experience. And for each other state that you have real estate in, you have to have a different attorney and an ancillary probate procedure. Or we can plan it all ahead of time and, you know, work with you if there's tax issues, tax implications involved. A lot of different things. So, RJ...

I'm a stone's throw from the studio here. I'm right across the street. 25167? We're on the corner of Camp Plenty in Soledad. Been in this location since 1999. As I said before, I've been in practice for many many years and sold my practice in Encino back in the late '80s and kind of played around, but I think I like punishment, so I came back. Yeah, you got to keep busy, got to keep busy, do it, help people. And all that is... There a website? If people want to get in touch with you, what's the best way to do that? Yeah, they can go to, they can email us with any specific questions at... intax hotmail.com. And then we have international tax network dot com. Go to the website. And the phone number one more time: 661-25167.