Estate Planning Academy: Recent Episodes
Gary DeWitt
Show all about estate planning, retirement planning, life insurance, financial planning, life insurance, legacy, charitable giving, estate taxes, taxes, IRA, 401(k), business, business succession, family owned businesses, and everything in between.
A Last Will and Testament is a good starting point but isn't everything you need in a plan.
Estate planning without the help of a professional can be more dangerous and expensive than you know.
There is 1 mistake made more often than any other that will expose you, your family, and your money to danger and may cost you dearly.
The state has already written an estate plan for you, and you probably won't like the details!
Picking guardians for your children is a difficult decision. Here are some tips and pointers.
You could save your own life or the life of a loved one by taking 5 minutes to signup for Smart 911.
I'm going to walk you through the steps to create your estate plan so you can get peace of mind and your family avoids hassles.
If you haven't written you own plan, the State has a plan already written for you. Most people don't like it.
The choice of using a Will or a Trust as the heart of your estate plan is not always an easy choice or a straightforward decision.
Trusts are commonly used, but rarely understood. They are a very powerful estate planning tool that avoid probate, protect assets, and protect children from themselves.
An estate is a big fancy house, but that isn't all it is...
Traditionally estate is defined as the interest you have in property. Property is anything you can own including, but not limited to land, houses, cars, patents, money, stocks, bonds, and more.
You can also think of an estate as a collection of stuff. Your stuff. The stuff you own individually and with others. Wherever it is and whatever it is.
If you think of an estate as a collection, it can be divided up multiple ways, just like a collection can. Think of a record collection. You can divide it by artist. You can divide it by producer. You can divide it by year. Your estate can be divided too into separate parts. For Probate, you have your Probate estate and non-Probate estate. That is, the property subject to going through court oversight, and the property that passes outside of Probate Court.
But, in addition to just being stuff, your Estate can be thought of as including your choices. You financial, legal, and healthcare choices are part of your personal estate just as much as any tangible property is. You often don't think about these things until it is too late and you end up in court. Then your family ends up in court to get permission to make decisions for you. And it might not be the person or people you would have picked.
Estate Planning Academy Episode 1: About Gary & Overview https://youtu.be/VYLMKM_qwwQ Hello and welcome to episode 1 of the estate planning academy. I'm your host, Gary DeWitt, and this is the internet's most passionate show about estate planning. Today’s topic is About Gary and an overview of the academy.
I want to spend just a few minutes telling you why I do estate planning. I wasn’t always a lawyer. Until 2010, I worked in information technology, mainly writing computer programs and trouble shooting problems.
I had a pretty normal life for a boy growing up on a ranch in Northeastern Oklahoma. I spent my days going to school and my mornings, afternoons and nights working on my family’s farm. At an early age, I learned the importance of hard work. My family raised me with strong values: Perseverance, Honesty, Integrity & Service.
However, everything changed in February 2010. One morning in February 2010 I got “the call.”
Mom and I went through Probate after that. For mom and I it just added extra work in a time when we really didn't need it. Probate was mentally tiresome and emotionally draining, not to mention expensive.
Although, not many people go to Law School with the goal of becoming an Estate Planner, that’s exactly what I did! I attended the University of Arkansas Law School, graduated, passed the bar and was reborn as an attorney.
My education, coupled with my valuable life experiences, gives me a unique perspective and allows me to bring Estate Planning and Elder Law solutions to your family, in a way that goes beyond the traditional lawyer/client relationship. I don’t provide canned, one-size-fits-all plans.
I opened the DeWitt Law Firm and I limit my practice to the areas of Estate Planning, Elder Law & Probate. Growing up on a farm, it was understood that during the good times, you should prepare for the not-so-good times (accidents are not uncommon on a farm).
And, I wrote the book “Secrets of Excellent Estate Planning” because I see so many people that have misconceptions, or just plain wrong information, about planning. They needed a source of good advice.
What are we going to cover in the academy?
- Definitions and concepts
- Estate
- Estate Planning
- Probate
- Guardianship
- Benefits
- Consequences
- Overview of the documents
- How to decide between and Will and a Trust
- And Much More
How Will the Information Be Presented
- I’m thinking about doing a lot of slide decks like this one so I can give you an easy to read transcript. It’s easier to turn a slide deck into a document than to transcribe live face-to-face video.
- I’ll do some live video on the whiteboard if that is the best way to explain the concepts
- Occasionally I may even do a live video…