You Can't Take it With You

good evening afternoon afternoon morning. I love you, Agent Grading Danceler. I love you too, JL. I feel like people are going to just start calling you agent grading Danceler because it's fine. It's actually fine. It's actually fine because when I go into the streets, people already say things that we say on here all the time, and they definitely give me the three namers from Supremacy for me, it's right to the Tennessee. I get a lot of listens. I get a lot of I'm sorry, I'm mixed up

your phrases. It's black women for me. Yes, yes, always your black women. Also, here's my sister Layah sank clown. Yes. I just like to thank you for all your hard labor for our satisfaction. Thank you, Miss Jill Scott. I cannot wait to see the proofs of your labor. Yes, we're quite excited, baby, quite excited. We're turn off all the work, you dude, all the work that we do, really, all the work that we do. Everybody listening right now,

all the work that we do. It's like, you know, there's a moment where you're like, yeah, yeah, because you paid off your car note, or because you know, you paid your mortgage, or you paid your rent, or are able to to buy yourself something real cute and feel good about it. You know. We, you know here in the United States, were like super consumers. We buy shit,

that's when we do. We buy stuff. But maybe, just maybe we might want to consider buying some other things that will benefit our existence, not just our existence, dolling for for for our family and for the next generation of us because, as you know, this country is built off of the backs of brown people and indigenous people. We know these things and that money be long. There's a lot of millionaires in the United States now billion but wait, it's the billionaires that that that are blowing

my mind. Like when you can spend twenty eight billion dollars on a business or seventy three billion dollars maybe means that primarily like millionaires are coma broke. Wow. All this time, you know, we've been like, yeah, one day I'm gonna be a millionaire. So that's like middle class, like exactly, damn, and I just got sad. And I also got sad as well. It's fine as well. I'm doing say all all of the all of the real

ratchet things I want to say in my mind. I'm just gonna keep them in my mind for today because and find me a rich person to cuss out for no reason. That's what I'm I'm a person. There's definitely a big chasm in in finances. Huge. Wow. Well, we want to talk about some money, money, money, money today. Okay, So so put your seatbelt on and get ready. I would like for Agent grading Danzel to introduce our guests, because we got one. Are you ready you ship? We

all know ship. This is a beautiful thing. Y'all are going to hear us be as quiet, quieter than you are used to us being in general, because we don't know what the hell to do with this. As we're talking about wealth. It's a real specific kind of wealth. Okay, and this has been the big word across the internet for quite some time, this little generational wealth. When I tell you, there are times in which it makes my scalp itch that people use it in ways that literally

make no sense. So we're here to make this make sense for you. A quick thing before I tell you who our guest is. Seventy percent of Black families do not have a will or have any set up for if they were to leave this earth suddenly or even as old people. The fact of the manners that we are not prepared for said generational wealth and multiple ways, but today we're talking about a very specific way as it pertains to estate planning. And our guest today is

Miss Jennifer Norton. Now, before starting her own practic, this was a member of the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys, in which she worked for the CEO for almost five years before she started her own firm. Her practice is now concentrated on providing fully funded trust based because we know that the Blacks don't deal in trust too often

at all. Okay, there we go, trust based estate plans currently serving over three hundred and fifty client families, so that means that she has the receipts and how we are a full service estate planning firm providing wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health and financial living wills, guardianship, conservativeship assistance, probate administration something that many of us know a little

bit too much about, and strategic Medicaid qualification. Amen, ladies and gentlemen, Ladies and gentleman, once again, a black woman, because this is what we're here at the Jay dot il y'all give it up, y'all get it up our city, or y'all give it up for Jennifer Norton's right. You got you plenty of time to get your pins and paper, to get your pad out. Listen, thank you, thank you for having me. That was great. I need to take you on the road with me. This is what I do.

Just turn up. Let's get these families. Let's get these families straight, starting with mine. Though I got excited to hear myself speak. You know, we'll tell us how did we get here? Because I know that's a that sounds like a simple question, but black folks need to know where we're at, like how do you get here? And what is our current state? Like what are we looking at here? We got here because we are the We have the highest discretionary incomes in this country. And Ms

Jill Scott alluded to it. But we're consumers. We consume a lot of things, and so when the death occurs, we just are not prepared. Even though we may see things, you know, and social media, we'll see publicity and the news. We got here by sticking to the consumer mentality and believing that the American dream is unattainable. And even I don't even know what that means when you say that, what is that dream is? You know what I mean?

That's a dream is different for different folks, for different reasons. And so I think that when it comes to us in general, we just spend. And so you look up and we're just cyclical. We're on the hamster wheel and no one is getting us off. And that's I mean, there's no other explanation. Because we all know how to do better, we just choose not to do better. We know better, we just don't do better. I don't I

don't know. I mean, y'a saw Chad with Boseman. We've seen the Franklin, We've seen I think Whitney Houston was kind of are we too busy? Do we think we're too busy? Because when you bring that up, I'm like, yeah, there are resources, we know, Google, we know. Do we just think we're too busy and it's not gonna happen. I think it's also very uncomfortable talking about your demise, like and having multiple conversations about when you which is

inevitable for all of us. And the fact that the fact that the Blacks, the black folk, the diasporaic folk tend to have to face ideas about death and their own mortality quite a bit. Perhaps it's just all a real massive trauma response. Who knows, but rather than you know, at the end of the day, we could come up with a different a lot of different reasons, that's why.

But um, I think a big way to do it is communication because what happens is that it is when that one person that you trust and you know says to you, hey, have you done this? And then they say, well, I did it. And because we are a definitely a community driven people, we are a grio driven people, we want to know from others how they did it? One are their stories? How does that? Those are the things that validate things for us if we see a commercial

or we see somebody tell us something. And like I said, we trust base people. Now we don't tend to trust lawyers. And you know, we might buy a little product from them, but we don't trust them. We're a very secretive race. If you if you're talking about black folks, yeah, we're always talking about black folks. Okay, Well, then when when I get with families in particular, especially the black man, he's very close knit to the chest with about the finances.

I've even had families where they didn't even want to leave the money to the women, their spouses. They left it to their children by passing a spouse. So when it comes to you know, you do make it both all of you make a good point that when it comes to our community, we don't share. My granny when she died, she had a tin can under her bed, you know what I mean, Like nobody knew you know what was in it. You're back and not touch it, you know what I mean, And only a few people

knew where it was. So when it comes to our community, we are very secretive about finances. And I think that sometimes may even have a little to do with shame, you know what I mean, Because I feel like we always feel like we should be better, and sometimes we even portray ourselves as being more advanced and more financially well off than we are. And then you then the death occurs, and then everybody sees, well, she she looked like she had it all together and exactly got barely

two pennies to rub together. And so I think that that's what tends to happen, is the shame around money and the where we thought we were supposed to be and then we're just and sometimes unfortunately in our community, we're just very comparison driven. Right. I think what you said is like you're you're seeing these people aspired or

different things, and so we put on these masks. So when you come to see me, you gotta take that thing off, right, because I can't plan for you if you don't tell me everything you have or don't have, right, And I care either way, you know what I mean, Because the cards are gonna come out the way they're gonna come out, whether you tell me or not tell me. It's just gonna be worse if you don't tell me. Yeah, I mean, maybe maybe what you said about the American dream.

Aim is the American like illusion. People really want to have this illusion as if they have what they believe well to look like and they don't want anyone to know they don't quite have it. But can we just say this all so many sources of shame around this that would feed that, right music? You got music, be like, yeah, I got so, and so that means that I'm a better hustler than you. That means I work harder than you.

You got folks talking about I came from nothing and you can do it too, because I came from nothing. So it's like, well, if I came from nothing and I didn't do it, then what does that say about me? So I think a lot of times there's a lot of sources to the shame man. And also what is nothing? Because we came on this zoom today we were like we got friends. We mentioned this conversation and like, I gotta know a state, what a trust? Like? That's the

rich people. So maybe we need to really talk to about the kind of people and hop about this one too. I ain't got no family, I've got no kids, I ain't got nothing to leave nobody, So let's talk about the things student, start thinking this way, you're supposed to do that. Yeah, who is this for? That is a perfect question, because that's actually how when I do presentations, when I'm educating the public. That's the main reason I started my own practices. I didn't see many of my

people over there. I was servicing a firmness had almost three people, but I probably could count on two hands how many were the same color as me, and half of them with my people, you know what I mean. So the thing of that is so starting this practice helped me to get the word out because the issue is people didn't think they had a states. Everybody has in the state. If you have a bank account, a house, a car. If you have at a minimum a bank account and a car, you got in the state that

needs to be passed. And then if you have the other assets, if you have life insurance, retirement plans, you have businesses, then of course now your state is growing. But everybody in this world has in the state. If you have a bank account. Now, if you don't use banks in Okay, then maybe you got a car and we can get by, you know, some other avenue to get that car transferred. But yes, we have in the state,

and then two you you lead into another. One issue is a lot of single people think they I feel like they know they need planning, they just don't because they're just so independent. And if they don't have children,

they're thinking, well, what is my legacy? And so that word generational wealth really gets on my nerves because most people, and I say this all the time, everybody always talks about it, but rarely will anyone ever achieve it right one, because we keep having the conversation about wills and wills. They pass well from one generation to the next, but they don't preserve it for a generation that's more than two steps away from you, because people blow through the

money in the first five or teen years. And so when you talk about generational wealth, it's not only a conversation that should be about finances. We should be truly talking about legacy, like how do you want to be remembered when you leave this earth? Even if you don't have children, you could be scholarship fuzz. You paid the way to do X y Z. You know, um act in this world, and so you're gonna show other people

this is how you do it. And I'm gonna provide the finances to get there because I know most people can't get there without money. And so legacy in general is it's more than about wealth. I mean, I don't care if you put a tree, you know, in somebody's yard. You know what I mean, you better the earth could be better oxygen on this planet or something like that. But when you get when you're single, your legacy is more than just your finances. The same thing with married people.

Married people incorrectly believe that my spouse can handle all my assets and take care of everything. They cannot. Try calling Social Security, trying, you know, try calling some any government agency or any institution in your names out on the account. These institutions don't know if you're separated, you're got a divorce pending, um, you're really you know, got a protective just a if you I didn't want to

say that, they don't know. Yeah, there you go. But so when it comes to your point that I'll bring it home, is that everyone has an estate because you have something something that you cove it. Whether someone else covers it or not, it's a gift, it's a blessing. Someone's gonna take it, use it and and make it, you know, improve their life whatever it is, however large or small it is. And then too, as a single person, if you have no children, you still have assets, you

still have an estate. Now what your legacy gonna be? Now that's internal, that's the thing you and that's my job as an estate planning attorney to help you uncover. How do you want to be remembered? Because I don't I mean, I don't want to be that person. I said this on one of my reels the other day. You can either be blessed or cursed, and I ain't trying to be cursed. I don't want nobody. Why did she have no life insurance? And we gotta do this? Go fund me. I don't want none of them parts

associated with my name. I'm just saying, you dropped the Mica couples times. I appreciate girl, you did more real talk after the break. If you don't have your your pencil and paper, please y'all politics and go get it, because I'm about to ask this question and I need to know because this is like this a state for dummies. Hear me, Okay, listen, that's what I'm here for. So what is the difference between a will and a trust? Okay? Great question. Okay, so they are both sets of instruction,

pieces of paper that tell your property or to go. Okay, so let me back up, if you do nothing. We all know that our states have statutory rules on how we're to distribute our assets. Right, So a lot of people, especially if you're married, you may think it all goes

to my spouse In Indiana, that's not the law. In Indiana, if you die in an asset is less solely in your name, with no joint ownership and no beneficiary designation, our state gets fifty to the spouse to the children when you die, right, So most people are not expecting that. But every state is different. So wills are state specific. So you have to check your state law about how

things are transferred when people die. And they say, well, my state didn't go through probade, my it passed immediately, We just gave a death certificate. Well, that happened because the person's name was either jointly on the account or listed as the beneficiary on a policy like life insurance, retirement plans and annuities. Those are contractual agreements. Right, So by law, the minute of death occurred, ownership transferred by contract to that person they were just waiting on a

death certificate. When you get a will, a will is saying, hold up, Indiana, I don't like you given fifty to my kids. This our money. I wanted to go to my bows, and then when my spouse dies, I wanted to go to my kids. So a will is a document that will help you alter the default. But this is important that most people one will's only control things in your individual name. So again, if it has something jointly owned or beneficiary, the will cannot control it because

it's already contractually spoken for. But if you say you had a straight bank account, so a lot of black women do this, this is my spending money. Or here, they ain't got worried about this, this account over here, this this is my play money, right, the play money. If you don't could have beneficiary and you leave it solely in your name, then the will can control that asset because will's only control things that are less solely in your name, and then they only instruct the probate

court how to distribute your assets. So people say, oh, he should have got a will, she should have got a will when they died, But they started to sit and saying why they had a court all in their business. They shouldn't have been going through probate. You just said, go get a will, will tell the probate court how to disturb your assets. So the public is either miss been misinformed or again we're just repeating things we keep hearing.

But wills, all wills go through probate court something. It's no Somebody try to argue about that with me the other day, and I said, ma'am, I paid a hunt at thun for this degree. So I don't know who you learn from, but I'll tell you right now. I paid good money to tell you you are incorrect, blatantly incorrect. So you're a girl. So funny because I told them the time, I'd be like, listen my library card exactly, it's function exactly exactly. Okay. Sometimes you gotta check people.

You gotta let them know that's right anyway. So, Jennifer, do you think that everybody shouldn't we should kind of know our little state laws when it comes to this word. Absolutely, because in Indiana, so I I put you read it in my bio. I do do will based planning. But in our state, in the state of Indiana, in my practice, I help my clients avoid probate. So the will is just a backup because our state allows us to put beneficiaries on not just your life insurance or tire plans

and nuties. Every state will allow you to do that because that's an institutional thing, right. Most institutions will allow you to put beneficiaries on your bank accounts, investment account. Now there are certain cryptocurrencies and certain assets and certain companies that may say no, we don't do beneficiaries, but they will move to that because they don't want their money at some other institutions, so eventually their their rules are changing. But the state of Indiana will also allows

to put beneficiaries directly on real estate. It's called a transfer on death deeds. So everybody knows the concept of t o D and p o D. That just means transfer on death payable on death, So you can put those payable on death or transfer on death designations on your bank accoun ount, on investment accounts, you can put them on real estate in Indiana. Like I said, it's called a transfer on death deed. Not every state allows you to do a transfer on death deed, like Georgia doesn't.

I think North Carolina doesn't. Yeah, so there's a number of states that don't allow that. And then in Indiana, we can also put beneficiaries on our car at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and we can put beneficiaries on businesses on LLC's. Again, those things are state specific on whether you can literally touch every asset and put beneficiaries.

That's one thing this good old state. It ain't good for a lot of things, but it is one thing they did here, right, is we can put beneficiaries on all of our assets so that we never need to use the will. Right because the minute the death occurs, everything trains transfer immediately. Immediately the will becomes like a backup. What if my long lost relative dies and I'm the beneficiary? Or these class action lawsuits, So y'all saw the class

action lawsuit for perms is coming around. So if you had a perm there's a class action lawsuit, find you a black person to go get it, get in line with there's a big class action lawsuit for a bunch of the one just for me, all of them. And so if you were to die before that class action lawsuit is settled, then the then your will is on file with the court. When the death occurs, we will it's called spread the will of record will spread it with the court. So when that check comes in, we

didn't know if we're gonna get something or not. The will says give it to whomever you had listed in your will as the beneficiary. But the goal is to never use it intentionally at your death, and that keeps us out of probate. And that explains will. I'm a pose for the cause. And now go ahead, I know you got something for me. We all look like we got a question, y'all. Yeah, I blew your mind. I know. That's my point. That's what I'm here for for for

everybody else too, doesn't know what probe it is? Can you explain what exactly that is? Great question? Okay, So probe is I always say when a person dies, this it's like a morbid scavenger hunt because most people do not know what you own, where is it, and what to do with it? Right, even in married couples, most especially in the black family, usually it's the wife that's the strongest one with the finances, making sure the bills are paid and all that. At least in my practice,

that's what it's it's been now again, there's outliers. So whoever it is in your relationship that knows where the finances is that the odds are, the other person does not. So the probate course says, we just want to make sure a person's final debts, taxes and expenses are all wrapped up and paid prior to beneficiaries inheritance. So we need someone to step up and be the executor or administrator of the estate because we can't be in everybody's homes.

There's too many people in this country, let alone in our state for us to run point on everybody's um de sea slow ones of state. So someone gets appointed in Indiana, you check your state requirements. They have to be over the age of eighteen and not commit a felony. And so once they're appointed, then we have to publish notice in the local paper because the court assumes if if you don't know what they owned, you don't know

who they owe either. So let's put you place. Let's run notice in the paper that says this person has dived, and it runs for a period called publication. So in Indiana, publication in the newspaper has to last for ninety days three months. Every state is different on their publication requirements. Some states or six months, some states are a year. So this is why probate can drag out in certain

states because they're longer. Indiana has a very short publication so three months now when you run it in the paper. Then the creditor has to file into the estate and say I'm old of debt, show evidence of the debt, and typically swear under panels of perjury on some type of affidavit. I swear on this affidavit this is the debt. Here's a copy. And then in Indiana, we have to pay a filing fee to the court because of course, like we're not working for free, so they send the

you know them, a bill. Now, the great thing about in our state is most creditors don't pay that filing fee. So guess what. The court will then issue a dismissal here and to dismiss the case, and they're aim After the ninety days runs, it's about thirty more days. If they do everything right, file evidence of that, swear on affidavit, and pay the filing fee, then they have perfected their can their claim and thus can pursue it civilly to

collect full reimbursement. Now, we typically will try to negotiate that down. We ain't got no money, it's it's very little. We got fifty cents on we got twenty cents on the dollar, fifty cents on the dollar, and see if we can get that amount reduced. And a lot of times they'll work with us, right and then we'll pay them. They'll file satisfaction of the claim, and then at the end of the ninety days we look to the statute

to see who to distribute it to. If you did a will, then we would look to the will to see who the beneficiaries are, and the will and the person. When you have no plan, we typically call the person that's doing the work the executor or administrator. When you have a will, they're called your personal representative because you personally selected them. But a lot of people will call them the same thing even if there was or wasn't a will. So if you hear personal representative, just know

it's the person doing the work. It ain't that glamorous of a job, but it's a person doing the work. Now, in in Indiana, the representative can get up to half of the attorney's fees, so they get a little bit of money, but it ain't a lot. And so every state there is also different on whether the personal representative can be compensated. They can always be reimbursed, but whether or not they can be compensated the great question. So

the estate. So what happens is whenever a death occurs, the beneficiaries and the representative are never responsible for any of the fees that are incurred. The estate is, which you think is kind of a conundrum because if I don't know how much money it is, why am I signing up, you know, to to for someone's services and I don't know if there's enough money to pay for everything. Well, a lot of attorneys will kind of you know, they'll play. They'll work with you to figure out what's going on

and try to work with you on the fees. And a lot of attorneys are either a billable our or their flat feet. Usually they'll be flat feet. If it's uncontested, meaning all of the people get along and we can run it what's called unsupervised meaning the court doesn't have to lord over us in Indiana versus if you run it supervised, I mean, get the petition everything, petition to

sell the house, petition to distribute petition. I mean, it's just petition, petition, petition, and that's why the fees go up. And then most attorneys want to be billable hour when it comes to that that approach um. But a beneficiary is never ever responsible for the funeral costs in our in our state, they're not responsible for the funeral. The estate is so people can be reimbursed for those expenses.

And then any time someone has cut life insurance, so this is this thing always happens to a lot of people in our community, will purchase life insurance for the funeral home. You gotta be careful about that because that's a contract and it says that it's the beneficiaries, meaning the beneficiary ain't got paid for your dag on funeral. And I've literally had people not come up off the money. No, and Mama said, use the money for the funeral, because

it's there's the check is written to them. If you're if you're buying life insurance for a funeral, you can irrevocably assign the policy to the funeral home so that the funeral gets paid. And then you make whoever is that contingent beneficiary, so then they get the excess, and that makes sure your funeral gets paid. Because we as black folks, we always do that. We give it to the oldest. But guess what if they got siblings, they always piss her ass off. The next thing, you know,

she keeping all the points. And the same thing goes when we put people's names on bank accounts, like oh, I'm gonna put my daughters and when the account because she's helping me. Well, if you put her on as an owner, it's her money when the death occurs and she gives that death certificate. If you just put her on as a signer, then she can just sign. But you just gotta be careful when you ask been of fishiary two accounts. You need to put who you want

to receive it all the people. If you just put one name, you gotta be comfortable with the fact that they may keep all the mon money. So that's you know, that's a lot about a lot, y'all ask me one question. But I just went I gotta tell you. I gotta tell you what I what's on my spirit? Get out. You guys can't can't see this, but I'm the excitement in this, Okay. The excitement is it's such a scary subject. Right, We're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be

right back. Okay, so we covered wills, can you cover the trust? Okay, great questions. Okay, so y'all might have to bring you back for apart two. Okay, but you can. You know, I wouldn't be I wouldn't be an owner in a business owner fight. Throw that out there, you know a little. You ain't wrong. A trust is just a set of instructions, just like a will. It can avoid probate. I'm still an attorney, can not will avoid probate. This is where you miss what a lot of people say,

Oh I gotta trust. I'm not going through. Yes you will if you don't re title all of your assets today into the name of that trust. That process is called funding to fund your trust. So, for instance, I have a trust. My bank account doesn't say Jennifer Norton. It says my my trust, Jennifer Norton Living Trust. You can name your trust whatever you want. That's irrelevant. People can name trust whatever they want. But the point is you need to put it on everything that you own.

So my investment accounts say that Jennifer Norton Living trust, my life insurance, the beneficiary is a living trust. My retiring assets, the beneficiary is coordinated with the trust. Even my house, any real estate I own is needed in the name of the trust, even if it has a mortgage. A mortgage just a lean on the property. So if I sold it, they get paid back first. But I own my house. So your deed needs to reflect the name of your trust. If you have a business, oh

I went him on show some media about this. Your your business does not own your trust. Your interest in your business should reflect the name of your trust. Meaning, say all of us have a business together. How would you feel if I told you, y'all, unfortunately this business

is in my trust. Y'all, just sit back. I'm gonna put it in my trust and I'll take care of you in No, you don't want to hear that, because if you all have trust, then you would say no. If we're all one fourth interest owners of this business, then I'm gonna put my trust. Just gonna put her

twenty you see what I'm saying. Everybody's gonna put there in the name of their respective trust, so that if we sell the business in the future, when the check comes in, they're gonna cut it not to me personally, because when you do a trust, you still get a will, but it's only known for its formalities. It's called a poorrible will. If I leave something outside of my trust, remember with no beneficiaries, no joint ownership. Remember wheels only

get things in your individual names. So if I forgot my business interest, I left it in my own name, go get it, but poured over to my trust where all my terms are. But remember all wills go through probate. So that's why I say, when you do a trust, the only way to avoid probate is you have to re title everything that you own. So the instructions in this document the contract right, courts don't get involved in contracts like life insurance and entire plans. The trust is

a contract. The contract controls those assets. Thus the course like, oh, we don't need to get involved, just collor out of us. If you leave something now and you got to use that their will to get it over there, then we're gonna pay attention. And even just as a side note, every state has a threshold for probate because they don't want say this never happens, but say you do do a good job. And spend up all your money so there's nothing left. You got ten dollars to split. Never happens.

But every state does have a threshold. They don't want that ten dollar case coming in. So in Indiana prior to July one, so last year three, if the estate was under fifty thou dollars, they didn't want to see it.

They said, just do an alfa David, the estate is too small, so it's called a probate administration as of July one, moving forward to the president, if they've upped it to a hundred thousand dollars, because they were tired of seeing us with our houses being our major asset, and we're coming through a probate for one thing because we got a mortgage and it's and it's very you know, the equity is barely over fifty thou dollars, So they raised the bar. Every state has that bar. I believe

Illinois is like dollars. So you look at your state to see if the estate is too small, it won't go through probate. But you don't want to leave anything out. You never want to leave it to chance, because who knows what could be uncovered or what you forgot so trust are just documents that explain where property goes, just like a will. The beauty of a trust are the terms.

There are two ways to draft a trust. The first is you can draft it so that the outcome is very similar to a will, give the money to my beneficiary outright free of trust. What happens when you do a trust and you set it up a revocable living trust, everything stays under your social Security number. So to the I R S it's like you take money from one pocket and put it in the next. Nothing changes. You

still file your same TIM forty. When you do a revocable living trust, you're just pre positioning all of your assets so the instructions can control it. When your death occurs, your social Security number dies with you. And so what the I R S says is what are you gonna do with the assets? If you give them to a beneficiary, then they're gonna put them outright free a trust. Then they're gonna put it in their bank accounts, their investment accounts,

but all under their social Security numbers. So if they have lawsuits, creditors, divorces, there a state is available at creditor there are state is tied to their Social Security number. So when you less to them. If ever you set up a trust in the terms give the money outright, free of trust to a beneficiary, whether it's left and trust for a spouse, and then you gave it out right to the kids, or you gave it out right to a spouse, there's no protection they called asset protection.

The beauty of doing a trust is the way that I do it right, which is in most um families. Think the Rocket Fellers, they left assets in trust for people. And what I mean by that is when the death occurred, they said, I'm not gonna give it to the beneficiary outright. I'm gonna set up little trust lets for my beneficiary. So if I if I'm married, I have one trust left for my spouse first, and then my spouse dies, say I have three children, it breaks into three trust

lets for my children. But those trust lets have their own e i N Federal Employee Identification number, just like when you're setting U LLLC. So these trust lets have their own ei N. So if the beneficiary has a lawsuit, a creditor, a divorce, then guess what. These aren't their assets, they're your assets. You just gave them the right to use them for the terms that the i r S sets up, which our health, education, maintenance, and support. Not

that money doesn't get penalized. That's what you're saying, right, that money doesn't get penalized. No matter how much in debt or anything that I'm in, it doesn't get penalized because right it's not there, so it's able to support. Even if your beneficiary has some massive lawsuit or massive divorce they wiped them of their assets, then your assets they're not there's under the law a matter of fact, when it's divorced. Divorce splits marital assets, not inherited assets.

But when people receive money outright free of trust, they mix their money with the inherited and marital money. It's called co mingles. And the i r S and the

judges say, listen, this ain't we ain't accounting firms. We're not doing first then last out you know why I would like to tell y'all something that I knew this because and this is this is just because and um, I have a good cousin that she for fun since in these um good cousin I got a good cousin who since in these um forums, and one of them

is these rich divorced white ladies. And that's why I know about that, because there was a woman in the forum that talked about how she had gotten divorced and found out that her husband's money was not actually his money, and that she would not be able to draw her alimony or anything from his income because the money he had, the rich that he had, was coming from a family trust to which she could not at any party. I'm bringing it full circle for you. I'm needed, I needed

a really got it. So it's imperative that not only do we get a will, but we get a trust as well, so we could be exceptionally specific about who gets what. I'm sorry. You all know how our families go. You want to leave it to somebody. You love your kids, you know you got that one kid. You love them. But you know what I'm saying, and that's what happens

with us. We'll have some wealth, but it won't make it to the grandkids or the great grands because before you know it, someone so done gotten too a car accidental. They doesn't marry. You know, Pookie's nephew from down the street, and he doesn't took all the money like you wanna do that, and I'm gonna take that further. I gonna push you out a little bit more, which is then when the kids inherit to make the money move for generation to generation, you you put stipulations on their access.

So now they get interest only, no principle because money typically So I don't know if I told you, but I got to find my my background. I have a finance degree from Indiana University's Color School Business. So this is a perfect marriage my profession the money, and then the rules, the laws and what happens is when you leave assets and trust. Most people blow through the inheritances in the first five or teen years. So what you could do if money typically doubles every nine years. I

always take my son. He's ten, so whatever I lead to him by the time he is twenty will have doubled. By the time he's thirty, it will double again. So and you can't do that, Matthe You really gotta say it out loud. So say my state is two million dollars. We have we have a bunch of commercial real estate. Say my state is two million dollars. Two becomes four, four becomes eight, eight becomes sixteen. The world's wealthiest individuals didn't believe that their children are ready to run their

own finances until age forty. So guess what age my son runs his money forty. So what you'll find is a lot of people when they set up these trusts. So, Jill, you made a good point. When you go ask someone for an estate plan, you're either asking for a will based plan, which means you only get a will, or you're gonna ask him for a trust based plan that includes a will right the poor overwill. So you're doing

either a will based plan or trust based plan. And if you have minor children, you're always gonna name who the guardian is and and in the will. So that's why trust also have wills, because you gotta name the guardian in there. But what happens is when you get wills and people say, well, I can just set up trust for your children, right one. Just know that because the will goes through probate. That's how we fill up

the trust. If you get a will based plan, what they call testamentary because last will and testament testimony after death. So if you set up that testamentary trust under the will, then you've gotta go through probate to fill it up and then typically if you look at the will, you'll see they phase the checks out at certain ages. Eight. When they do that, they're passing the money outright free of trust, meaning no more asset protection, no more control

over the inheritance. What you can do as just a tip a pro tip is my son's ten, so he's a minor. He cannot own things his own name. So I set up a trust. I have trust, let's underneath it for him. While he's under the age I pick. You can pick whatever age you want. I picked twenty two. While he's under the age of twenty two, I pick who runs his money? And then at twenty to think of he's in the back of the plane, he comes to the front of the plane. He can become a

co pilot. He don't run it. He can work with them. Because another big issue in our community is teaching financial literacy. We're not teaching our children and so we but we're just giving them the money and hoping that they're going to be successful. So what you can do it would trust to say, why when you become twenty two tied, you can come only accounts with my trusted co trustee that I think you should work with and for how

long I said, from twenty two to forty? Are told you to forty and so, and then at forty he can press eject on his co pilot. But he's still in the air, right, so he's still flying towards my map on my map, And so my map says no principle because that money when it doubles, right, So it's I doubled it to sixteen million by the time he get access. If I died in the next two years. You multiply that number by four percent. The stock market

typically does four percent. And why do I say the stock market is because people when what you have, people are gonna cash all that in. They're not gonna come move into your house. They're not going to take over the same investments. They're gonna cash it all in and invest how they want to invest. So you've multiplied by four percent, and that shows you how much income would be produced each year. That's a lot of it. Yes, that's our next episode with you. So that there you go.

So so you can do things to set your children up for success, but you have to leave the assets in trust. Yes, this ain't nothing that I knew coming into this conversation when they tell you you don't want to grow up kids, I know, right, this is the ship.

This the ship we'll be talking about. And I just want everybody to know whoever reposted that meme about a goddamn passport and not buying Jordan's as your key to generational wealth it I'm going, yes, but I have nothing to do with nothing really at the end of the day. You know, I'm really hells no. Well, I don't mean like I'm saying literally no, no, no, no. I agree with you. You know when you said you get a passport for somebody, you know that that is like world

travel and experience. You know, so it is, but it is, it is valuable. But I think that people have a tendency to give the want like give a co equivalent or code whatever the word is. That makes stuff to slam fair false equivalents to certain things. And it's like, it doesn't mean it doesn't have value, you know what

I mean, It doesn't. Earlier, earlier in its oversimplified earlier in the conversation, we we we admitted to and acknowledge the fact that we are very much consumers and so the consumer mentality is problem at it, but it doesn't mean that by simply not consuming or and some people will tell you, hey, because we want we're fine with you consuming. We just want you to consume with a black owned business, or this business wants to be a

part of that one percent. So just because you're spending with a black business, is it a black business that doesn't care about exploiting other people? So so it's very very it's complicated. Now, what I will say is that these are some very clear instructions about how to value what you have, how to first of all, know that everyone has something of value. That's number and number two, how to value what you have, how to utilize what you have in order to plan for your family generations

down the line. This is very clear. There's a lot of detail, but it's worth it. It's worth it to understand it so that you can actually achieve this hashtag that's been running around here that nobody has actually giving you any real clear pathway to it. More conversation after the break, I want to flip it on your real

quick Jennifer. I want you to tell some of these, some of us grown ups, what we should be having in place for some of our parents in that way who have the same education, Like if it's a top three list or something, just okay, So that's great because I like to leave people this is achievable for everybody. This is a project. So you just need to clear your mind that this is a one and done thing, right, and then it's doable, and then you're gonna check on it.

So even just like you check on your finance, you're gonna check on the plan. So the thing that you need to do if you have older parents, the first thing you want to do is you want to find where do they own their assets? Let's avoid morbid scavenger hunts. So I always and you're welcome to email me help out of state dash planners dot org. Send me an email. I'm happy to share with you this personal information form.

But you want to know where they bank, where their investments, Do they have a safe deposit box, who's their primary care physician, who has their mortgage on their property, who's their property and casualty insurance agent? Do they have valuables in the house that are you know, family sacred items that they want to pass. So knowing where the assets are, the financial and the non financial. We didn't talk about that. You have one form with all these questions. Yes, man,

I love this. I would love like post this on our social like that. Yes you, Jen said, yes, yes, yes, of course I wouldn't send you. I wouldn't send you down a dark alley with no light at the end of the time. So I have a form. I will send it to you all, and yes, you can post it on whatever you want to. So this form helps you to organize your assets. Okay, and then it also even like I said, it gets into even who your people are working with. Okay, to maybe go another way,

but I'm not gonna do it to y'all. Number two, um is the second thing you want to have, probably the most important, and we didn't talk a lot about this, but we need to make sure we have powers of attorney. More people are likely to become disabled prior to a death than anything, so having a financial power of attorney sometimes they call it a general durable power attorney. Durable just means it last, meaning when the death occurs, y'all, stop trying to use this power attorney. It don't work.

Durable medical life so like medicals, thing, medical emergencies and whatnot, correct, so you can have there's sometimes the general durable will will include the health care side of things, and sometimes you can get a separate health care power of attorney. So I'm a fan of separate separation because sometimes one person is your money person and these people are your compassionate persons. So you want to be able to bi

for kate the two. Don't be forced to say, oh, I gotta pick one person and they gotta be it at all things. No, you can separate them. So you need to get healthcare power of attorney, financial power of attorney. Some states call it that advanced healthcare directives. Same thing, and they always always have a backup. So can I just say this real quick. I knew of a very nice older lady that was um the power of attorney

for a friend of hers. So her this man's children took care of the medical power of attorney, but she was the financial power of attorney. She was not a spouse, nor was she a child. She was a friend of the deceased because he felt that she as a person who he knew would be capable of doing this. I don't want to put that out there. Person ain't got to be amen, And you know what. I just again, did a girl here in my brain come? I can say, going to row with me. But essentially the person don't

be aspirational about these people. If they don't pay their bills on time, they okay, we're paying late fees. They forget their bills. They not. They don't manage their own money, well, do not put them in charge of your money. So, like she said, this is not a message for only children. I hear y'all, but I'm like only children like well, but you know what, even if it is even if your only child, that's a good point to Even if your only child, you can name other people to work

with you, because it is a lot of work. Someone becomes disabled, h you you can well, as the agent, you can always enlist. Sometimes um powers of attorney have what's called a delegation, so you as the agent can delegate other people to work with you or be your succession if something should happen to you. But if your parents are still alive in the right mind, just have them appoint to or tell you who they could, who you could look to for help, a guide into assistance

right for the health care power of attorney. So I guess assets power of attorney um. And then three we said that at the top of the meeting communication of those who you believe will cause trouble, I'm here to tell you you are absolutely correct. Okay, So those people will be drama. So it's better to have the family meeting today. Get that drama all out on the out on the table now, let him know who the boss is.

You're not in charge. Have the meeting if you feel like you need to record it or videotaping, because it's gonna be that much drama. You just need to have it right now and and split it right. Even when it comes to the assets, like if you have like who gets Grandma's Bible, who gets the cookbooks? Who gets the jewelry? Make make the list because people always tell you they don't want anything. That's a lot. Everybody won't something.

So just make the list and share the list, and then you'll find out real quick where the drama is and you then you can nip that in the But those will be my three takeaways. Are you a family okay? Almost cut? Almost cursed? What do we already paper work through? Oh lord? Listen, okay, listen, listen, listen to this. Okay, I'm not gonna say I'm not a fan of it

because it's better to have. Somebody asked me to say that it's better to have something, So it ain't the worst thing to have, but it definitely ain't the best. So if you're walking around, ma'am with Gucci Louis, you gotta passport, and you're going to do to buy and you're going to you buying new cars, and and you're telling me you can't afford to protect those assets with a little bit of money. You gotta pay an the state plan and attorney. Something is wrong. You're priorities are

messed up. I like a good edge snatcher, Like we'll say stuff like, well, I ain't gonna be here, so I ain't here. You should. You spent a lifetime acquiring the things that you have a life time. Some of those things have our great value in resale, and some of those things are great value for your for your legacy, for the history of who you are. You know that

counts as well. We have to think about the things, and that's the hard part to really consider what happens after I asked just one funny, last weird old question for me, Is there any state that a client comes to you from and you like, oh, fun, No, this is gonna be hard. Yeah, California one of the reasons I left. One of the reasons I left taxes alone. Wow, I live in the worst state in the my mother, my mother just said, yes, and you're gonna say Pennsylvania next.

No's not bad. Yeah, he's not bad. I got my first p A client the other day. Um, New York is kind of but I think we can work around it because they're New York and Florida are friendly states because of the wealth, right, But California is the word. Yeah. My mother just asked me to ask you about the irrevocable trust definitely part two. But you know what I did, though, Go on my social media, go to go to it's

on my law firm page, Norton Estate Planners. I do have a page called the Legacy Strategists as well, but the real is on Norton Estate Planners. I did Alive yesterday, which would have been what's Today's day? That had been a twenty one January twenty one, and it talks towards the end. Someone asked me about irrevocable trust and we went we went deep that's an hour live, so you can fast forward if you want. But it does talk about business owns. There's a lot of good content in there.

But we talked about irrevocable trust on my live yesterday. Mama, thank you so many notes. I have so many you don't have. This don't have to be one and done. Listen, I'm your b at F. I'm gonna tell you exactly what you need to know. You all need to beff like you because you just got your second Pennsylvania. Okay, come on, guys, six kids, I'm telling you right now. And I know who's gonna wipe my ass, and I know who's gonna pay the bills. Hey, that's very important.

And I know who's gonna be crying so bad they're gonna be good for ship. This is this is one thing. I guess my parting words would be when you go into an office of an attorney, remember you have all the power. This is your family. We're talking about everything

you own, everybody you love. Don't be rushed. If you don't like them, leave You're never tied to this person, right you need to feel good about this person and they need to be asking you question and knowledgeable yes, because what tends to happen is a lot of people go in and just give up all their power. They're just like, well, I guess, I guess I gotta do that. Is that the only ages you got, you know what I mean? It's like, no, no, no, this is your stuff.

And so don't lose your power when you walk into that office. Where here to help you make good decisions? And so you don't come in so stubborn. I want this and then you you can't open your mind and someone trying to tell you what you know, what your options are. But but you have the power when it comes to your family. I want to say this too

before we do wrap that. Just really again the importance of communication people, communication when you were talking to someone who gives you this service, communication with your family members, and the conversation that you have to have with yourself. I will never have now both of my parents have passed on. This is not an issue that I'm dealing with from that aspect of things. But one of the one of the beautiful things and gifts that my mother

gave me was that she handled her business. We were able to go in there and very easily find what her stuff was use it for the purpose that it was supposed to be there for. And also too, we had guidance from my aunts and uncles who know legally that's not what was in place. But when I tell you, do it legally so that you don't have to worry about that, not have that, because having assistance is everything. They helped us with things that gave us feedback about

their process with their own mother, my grandmother. So that kind of thing makes every a hard situation much easier. And those of you who followed this podcast know that my mother's death was a transformative time for me, a very emotional time for me, and I can only imagine how much more difficult it would have been had her business not been in order. And this is a woman who didn't own a home. This is a woman who

did not have a degree. This is a woman who did not have a lot of wealth in money, but yet in still there was business to attend to. And the gratitude I have for her for making it easy for me and my sister to simply just grieve her and not have to go through that drama. I'm saying that to y'all now just as a personal story. So this that as we listen to all of these things, you understand these things have personal and very real life implications.

I don't, she said, I have gotten all emotional. And I'll tell you why that is. That is the kindest thing that you could do for somebody that you love. Like we're talking, we're talking about death, which is inevitable. I don't mean I want to let I want to be around for a long time. I want my mom to be around, my family and people I love to be around a long time. But that's not up to us,

is it right? And and because it's inevitable and not up to us, the kindest thing that you can do for somebody you love is to handle your fucking business. I said it. Like I said it, I thank you so much for being with us here today, Miss Jennifer Norton, you are very well. Thank you for having so much. We got to have you again, please because it's super important. Gee whiz, and it feels it feels like a lot,

but it's not. Know what you said, Jill, that reminds me of I saw your podcast off listen here podcasts about love letters. The estate planet is the last love letter you get to write. I mean literally, it's the last one on that. Thank you so much for listening to Jay dot Ilga podcast. We love to have conversation that sparks conversation and guess what else, conversation and action. Bless y'all, peace. How do you eat an elephant? One? By?

It time? Hey listeners, it's Amber the producer here this episode. Wow, there's so much information to unpack here. I am leaving all of Jennifer's information in the show notes as well as her socials. We will also link the document that she mentioned in the episode. Like I said before, there is so much information to unpack here, So I'm also going to drop a link to an article outlining ten steps to start estate planning. But please please look up

jennifer socials. She is dropping gems on the regular. Generational wealth means having a plan in place for the next generation. Jennifer also pointed out that Black Americans are the highest discretionary spenders. I really want to recommend making a date with your bank accounts and really seeing where your money is going and if there are any places you can cut back and redistribute your income. I personally use mint dot com to track my spending and plan my budgets.

It's great and it's free. Let's continue to change the trajectory of black wealth in this country, one transaction at a time. Hi, if you have comments on something that he said in this episode called eight six six, Hey, Jill, if you want to add to this conversation that's eight six six nine five four five five. Don't forget to tell us your name and the episode you're referring to. You might just hear your message on a future episode. Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Presents Jay dot Ill.

The podcast JA dot Ill is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.