The Troubleshooter 1-14-25

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The Troubleshooter Show now, Tom Martine, Welcome.

Welcome, my friends to the only show of its kind. We're here to solve problems, answer questions, our goals, to make your life just a little bit better. In fact, to the tune of over three hundred million dollars in cash, merchandise, exchanges and refunds.

Directly due to this show.

You got a problem with the contractor, a problem with the landlord, a problem with an attorney, a problem with a dentist.

We really don't care what it is.

We want to help you either recoup money or try to at least get the problem solved. We've got a list of experts at referral lists dot com that help in this task. We call them up as experts. We have them in studio.

In fact, today in studio with me, we have.

A referral list member of a long time now attorney, Dan McKenzie.

In fact, I love your phone number.

Dan.

First of all, how are you doing this morning?

Man?

I'm good?

Are you I am doing good?

Sir?

I love your phone number. Eight three three co plans. How long have you had that?

A couple of years?

I think, God, that's it. That was incredible. You got that?

Yeah.

I guess after they.

Opened up eight hundred and eight eighty eight to a lot of other toll freeze, things started coming along and a lot of people could grab stuff like that. Hey, So when we talk about what you do for a living, we're talking probate, we're talking wheels, trusts.

What is the most you do? Meaning?

What is your average call? I might have asked you this before, but what is your typical job someone calls you up? Is it a couple that just had kids? Is it someone in their late sixties? Is it all of the above? But you still must have you know the top of the line. But hold on, I want you to die. Just sat real quick. But three o three seven one three a two five five. Anybody out there with any issues, don't forget three oho three Martino.

So, Dan, what is your average call?

I would say probably in addition to the family, so as people have had a baby or uh. It's funny people who have gone on trips recently are about to go on a trip, they start to think about, you know, what happens if.

The airplane courhouse boy.

That is kind of funny. Actually, I have thought that. In fact, Suzanne and I have definitely done that. We've been married over thirty one years, and almost every time we go on at least a long trip, you start going, okay, as every thing in order? Yeah, what do you think of people that make a list of everything forget about Let's say they do have a will, but they you

Yeah?

Does that happen quite a bit?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean you know, you're you're familiar with the what is it the great property thing at Colorado, like they know.

They have to Colorado payback.

Yeah, I mean that's just tons and tons of lost insurance policies and bank accounts and refunds from comcasts and everything else. So yes, it happens all the time. There's not really a centralized location for it.

It does take a bit of detective work.

Sometimes you're looking at credit card bills and saying like, Okay, I see they have this recurring charge. Where is this money coming from to pay this? So you can be in that.

So people who make the lists, I mean that, you know.

I mean, we can put together the will and the trust, but it's like if you don't tell people where stuff is, that's the other side of the coin, and it can be still really a big mess.

Yeah.

I was thinking of all the different accounts I have just with Schwab. I mean I've probably got like literally seven to ten accounts with Schwab, and I finally went over and listed them all out when the AMERI trade turned into Schwab because I didn't have them when they were amer trade accounts. And I started thinking, Jesus, Suzanne and I met our demise on a trip or something.

Our kids.

Know we have schwab accounts, but but where do they even start on that?

Then they might find one and not even know about the rest.

And some of them are LLC's that they're not even attached to our social Security number. Yeah, so, I mean there's probably a lot of money out there when people lose their parents and call you and they need help with probate. Do you is that part of your services to actually do some of that detective work.

I mean maybe a little bit, But there are companies that that is what they do. They go out and I mean it's private investigator actually, you think of private investigator forensic account Yeah.

Kin ah.

Yeah.

They have access to databases of people and stuff like that they can use to try and find this stuff.

So when people have kids, so they come to you a big time.

Yeah, that is a frequent source of people thinking about this and.

The biggest thing is who's going to take care of the kids? Right and generally speaking, is it their parents When it's a younger couple, Yeah.

It usually starts with the parents. Then they come back about ten years later and say, Okay, these parents are a little bit older now and not really able to keep up with a ten year old, so let's move it to someone else.

That's exactly what happened to us.

And then eventually then they become over eighteen or they get out of college, depending on the path they took, and now you have to go back and redo everything as well, or at least you should go back and revisit your will or trust.

I mean, I tell people when we're planning for little kids, like, hopefully this is a huge waste of money. You don't I mean, we don't want this plan to be the plan that you die with, all right. I mean it should be evolving over time as your kids get older and you get older, and the big accounts change and you move and all that kind of stuff of this keep going, all right, So you you got to keep it up to date.

Yeah, you have to keep it up to date. Now let's talk real quick on trusts. One of the benefits of a trust is most likely you won't have to go to probate.

Right, that's only if everything was put in the trust.

That is the goal.

So can you actually have like a one liner that says, anything I forgot to have in the trust automatically goes in the trust. I might say you still have a will, and the will says that, so really you can't miss anything. You would give me an idea of when you wouldn't go around probate not putting something in the trust, or if it's done right, you simply would not have to go through probate.

So, as we discussed before, it's like you, usually there are some things left outside the trust.

We usually do not put cars and trust for example.

Yep, Well, explain to people why is that? Why don't you put because it's titled it's.

Yeah, the insurance companies don't like having them titled to things that are not people.

They want to.

Track you, track your driving record, and I think that makes it harder if it's not titled to you.

And then this is a little bit.

Silly, but just practically speaking, if you get into an accident with somebody and pull out your registration to share that information with them and it says trust on it, you're rich.

Yeah, you're a really rich person. And that's of course not always thinking.

Yeah, that's a fallacy, but that's kind of funny that someone would think that.

I guess that's just how it goes. Yeah, So what else wouldn't you put into a trust bank accounts.

I mean a lot of people leave their day to day checking accounts out. It's just like you got to go through and figure out, Okay, I need less than eighty two thousand dollars in my name because that's the that is the point at which you do have to do a probate.

Because because well, or if it's property, right, really two thousand So but even if it's a parcel of land that's vacant, it's only worth a couple grand.

Yeah, you can have middle interests that are producing you know, a twenty dollars check once a year, and that's real estate, so you're probate.

Yeah, that's kind of crazy.

But anything else, if I I think I learned this from you, you could do a small not a day, small state AFFID, smallest state AFFID david so even like on a vehicle.

Correct and the call out of DMV has its own version of that form.

And how do you handle bank accounts? I had a very lengthy conversation with you about bank accounts. And when you have a bank account, you can just leave a beneficiary.

You can can you leave multiple most banks you can?

Yeah, like in order of preference.

Yeah, like in a chain. Correct, And why do that instead of put into a trust? I would say, because it's a pain in the ass. You got to order new checks, you got to do a lot of things.

Right, So yeah, I mean ideally everything's in the trust if you have a trust.

But to your point, I mean, sometimes it's just a pain.

Well, generally, do you when you do a trust for somebody, do you have them put the bank accounts into the trust?

I would say most my clients do not do that.

Do not?

How about like if they own a partial interest in an LLC or a company, yeah, anything besides something like a sea court.

Typically we would assign that interest to the LLC. You got to make sure that you're operating an agreement allows it.

But yes, that is.

And that's where it gets crazy. I'm going through that right now. In fact, Tom and I are both going through that right now because we did an operating agreement on a couple things, neither of us thinking of, you know, putting it into a trust. So now we have to kind of redo the operating agreement in order to get to where we want to be.

I mean that's kind of crazy. Does that happen a lot?

Oh?

Yeah, Yeah, most people don't have operating agreements. They set up the ALC and they don't do it, So there's nothing.

Dimitri, you own a business, have you thought about this? So, in other words, one of ours. We just took a boiler plate years ago and we have a company called lead Bin and lead Bin does some digital advertising. It does fairly well. So the problem with the operating agreement. If I die, it goes to Suzanne. But pretty much any side, anybody outside of Suzanne is where the issue comes in. I don't even think we talk about our

So what do you do in a situation like that?

If you didn't look at it prior, I mean, really, you Dan, this must come up, Oh it does.

Yeah.

People end up being business partners with people that they did not pick.

Yeah, and they're forced to do so.

Yeah, guys, isn't there some insurance policy that them can buy to buy out the unwanted business partner in case the primary partner died.

Yeah, but if they have operation agreement, they're not doing that.

Yeah.

If it's not in the operating agreement, it's not there.

I think they would do the operating agreement before buying the insurance policy. Yeah, they're sophisticated enough to buy an insurance policy, They're probably gonna do not.

But there's problems that come with that. Dimitri, I mean just age in general. So I mean you have a partner that's in a sevenventies or eighties getting in key Man insurance. It's just like it's life insurance. That's all it is. Think of how hard that is and how unfair that might be to the other person. Let's say my insurance in an example, you and I are partners. My insurance is two thousand a year. Your insurance is twenty thousand a year. How is that fair of me

I mean, so having the cash available is helpful that. Yeah, there's different ways to set it up. It could be a direct payment to the estate. That could be usually then injection into the company, and then the company buys the shaff the person who passed away.

God, it's complicated, and there's a lot of people out there right now that have partners that have never thought of this.

Oh yeah, I think most haven't.

I think most haven't either.

I'm literally looking at stuff and you know, we've been going through our trust. Here's the problem with the trust. Honestly, it's a pain in the ass, man. I mean, honestly, it's a pain in the ass. The kind of stuff that's the pain in the ass where we're at is stuff like this. He's operating agreements. Then you go, oh, man, we never even thought of this when we did the operating agreement. Now we got to go back and redo this operating agreement. Get that done. Then we can determine

Is it is the price of success, so I guess so gratulations.

Yeah.

Three oh three.

Seven one three eight two five five. We've got lines open. I want to hear from you. I got to take this break. Shannon's shaking his fist like an old man with kids on the lawn.

Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance pain too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance. Three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

All right, three oh three seven one three eight two five five. We do have lines open. You've been ripped off for taking advantage of I want to hear from you any comment you have. By the way, I was somewhat listening to one of the confirmations here. I kind of forgot how confrontational they are. It's kind of crazy. Man, I'm in very very political like everything in the world. But it goes from he's the best guy, he's the worst guy, he's the best cab he's the worst guy.

Well, this one was already up to this morning. Did you see the protesters.

I did not.

There was some guy, some weirdo in a pink suit and some lady that accompanied him.

They stood up and started.

Screaming in a pink suit, Yeah, in a pink suit.

And I couldn't tell what they were screaming, right, Yeah, but you could tell. And everybody just kind of stopped talking, and three or four cops came over and got those people out of the audience, and they went.

On, you know, I'm going up for the uh uh, well, I'm going up this weekend, wow to Washington.

Geez.

Yeah, you know, I think isn't Ryan going to Kelly. Yes, did he get tickets? Is he going in?

Oh?

Well, he's got a press pass.

He's actually going as a member of KAA.

Yeah, I'm going with some friends. But we've got tickets, but I.

Don't have a press pass for it. That would be weird anyhow, because my friends would be over in a whole different section. But it's kind of crazy, Dave Dan McKenzie three or three seven three two five five, We do have lines open three oh three, Martino, What other nuggets can you put out there for younger couples? I mean, if you don't have at what point do you cross over from a simple will?

Because you have kids and maybe you live.

In an apartment. I would assume that would be a simple will. I mean, is that part correct or that could still go either way?

It could still go either.

I mean the issue that you have when you have little kids is not just their day to day care, but also the care of the money, like who is taking care of the money and what are the instructions to when to distribute to those kids?

Wudna be in the will though? Is that in a will?

I mean, so the will if you have kids, you can't leave money directly to miners, right, So you've got to put something in there about a trust. So if you have little kids, you're already into trust territory. Doesn't mean you have to set up a trust right now, but your will should at least have trust provisions saying here's the adult who's going to hold this money for

Okay, well then we won't go after it.

So so what would be the safest way to set that up so that doesn't happen?

In your kid's turn got to have a teen.

It's got to be clear that the brother is holding that money in trust for the kid, and it's like he's in control of it.

It's not legally his money.

So if the trust isn't there and just the will saying this guy gets the kids, the money's going to go to them anyhow. But the trust isn't set up to define what the money's for.

I mean, there's no instructions to the brother about what what's appropriate to use. And hopefully you know you have enough money that it actually gets them past eighteen when they have a guardian. And now the brothers having to decide, like the kids coming to them directly and saying I

Playing video games all the time, so I'm not gonna give it to you.

Now.

Do people hire companies? I know they do, but you suggest it where they hire companies to actually take care of the money or now we're starting to talk about a lot of money. So in other words, the kids go to the brother in law, but the brother in law doesn't have access to the money. It's really not in his account, if you will, it's sitting with a financial advisor, for lack of a better term, somewhere.

Well the courts, yeah, I mean the courts. The courts. That happens if you don't have a trust, you leave money directly to a kid who's five, for example, the court is going to have to appoint a conservator to manage that money.

For the kid.

But that can cost a fortune, right.

It's that big pain to get a conservatorship in place, and it gets monitored every year.

You know, you got to file reports.

You might have the money restricted, meaning you can't actually spend it until you get court approval to do so. So that's a pain in the butt. Se you want to avoid all this. You want to avoid all this if.

You set something up in the trust. We did when our kids were under eighteen. So in other words, if they wanted to spend money on college, they could have access to it. If they wanted to spend money on a trade school, they could have access to it. There was different things. And I assume this is pretty basic stuff. But when they hit a certain milestone, say twenty five or twenty eight, then they would have access to more. Then when they hit thirty one or whatever we had.

I have no idea what the justification is.

Is there a route they can ask a judge to give them the full amount?

You can always ask a judge.

So does it.

Happen a lot? A lot?

And the importantly not asking, but does it happen a lot they get it?

Oh?

Boy? It depends on a million factors.

So, I mean, sometimes the trustee is right that it's not appropriate to distribute, and sometimes the kid is right. I mean we've seen it go or the kid is asking for money and really live at hand in mouth and the trustee is just real hard about it and they're inappropriate.

You out, they're way too hard about it. So yeah, trustees sometimes lose that fight.

Yeah, and then it's totally up to a judge.

Yeah.

God, that's kind of scary because you would think whatever you put into the trust. Now, how about irrevocable. If it's an irrevocable trust and both parties, well, first of all, the difference is pretty straightforward.

One you can change, the other you can't change.

Yeah, if we're talking about a kid, a trust that was set up for a kid, that isn't irvocal trust. Like your trust that you set up for yourself during your lifetime is he revocable trust. But for the most part, any trust that has created after someone has passed away is known your vocal trust. Because if you're in let's change it, they would you know, we wouldn't do this.

Yeah, But if I create an irrevocable trust right now, like let's say I had a caretaker that was taking care of me, tell me if this is a reason people set it up and that person isn't getting paid. They live with me, But when I pass, I'm going to give them a lump sum of money.

That's kind of the deal we have.

That would be a reason to set up in irrevocable trust because at the last minute, I can't change my mind and not pay them for all the years of care.

Uh yeah, that uh, that caretaker might want to make sure that that I mean that you know there'd be a couple whether you could have a contract or a note or something like that.

Well, give me an idea of why someone would do I got to take the break, but I'd like an idea of why someone would do an erevocable trust old tight.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best Roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three, seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Three o three seven one three eight two five five three oh three Martino, don I promise I'll get to that question you have in a second, But we were talking during the break. If you go to YouTube dot com and type in Troubleshooter Network, you'll see the live show and we're talking during the break. So Dan mackenzie, I want to go back, first of all, define irrevocable

I mean, it's irrevocable because the trust says it's irrevocable.

So you can't change it.

You can, I mean there's stuff you can do to kind of indirectly influence it, Like you can deserve the right to fire the trustee potentially and replace them with somebody else. There's something called a trust protector that you can put in place. They can change, make the authorized to make changes, but you cannot directly revoke her, amend it.

You can't, okay, And that's why it's there. So even if every party that has to do with it, you simply still can't change it.

You're not supposed to do.

And I would guess one of the things that you used for Let's say someone's parents have a million bucks. I'm just throwing a number out there, so this million dollars is an asset they have. They're getting ready to go into long term memory care or whatever it happens to be. When you go to Medicaid, you know they're going to be looking at assets. So if you took that money and put it in an irrevocable trust, that asset is no longer theirs.

They could qualify for Medicaid.

Yeah, there's a lot of rules around that. So but got that like a look back period?

I mean, what what the five year look back periods? If you do it, then you know today and apply for Medicaid tomorrow, They're not going to say, oh, it's an ear of But this.

Is what literally, this is why we call you.

This is why people call you, is to talk about these kind of things and how to deal with them, right. I mean, you know a lot of people feel like, oh, well if they got money to pay for it.

Well, the other.

Side to that is, hey, I paid into the healthcare system my entire life. I believe at some point that long term care might be should be picked up by the government. But I mean, regardless of even politics in that, it's just really how people look at it. I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with being very smart and going to somebody like you and thinking about these things five years in advance so they don't become an issue.

Yeah.

I mean, it's the real commitment. I mean, you know, everyone who'd do it if it was easy. So, like I just said, there's a ton of rules around it, and a lot of people come in and ask us about it, and then we explain to that well, here's the commitment you're making, the way you got to do it, and they're like, oh.

Well, okay.

One of the negative sides is to that, is they're giving up. Let's say, in the situation I was just talking about, they get into a big fight with their parents or they the you know, the kid wants to sell the house, the parents want to stay there. All of a sudden, the parents don't have any options.

I mean, they.

Don't have any control over those funds anymore, literally no control. Right, So you give that up. I mean that's a big deal.

Yep.

Okay three three seven, one, three eight, two five five Any questions for Dan McKenzie. By the way, today's the data call. It's not often you get free advice from a great attorney when it comes to your estate. I mean, it's simply just the way it is. Hey, don thanks for holding man. What's your issue with insurance.

Yeah, I have a There are really a few different ones, but the same insurance insurance issuear. The first one is I'm a a snowbird, so I leave my car in my garage, you know, for a good portion of the year, like four months.

Yeah, and uh.

My insurance company USAA is saying that I need to keep it insured but away, which is half the price. Because if I if I discontinue my insurance, it will show me, will show a lapse of insurance, and then it will be more expensive when I try to reinsure.

Not only would it show a lapse in insurance and be more but the other side of that is if your house burns down, your car is not going to have any coverage to it. I mean, I don't know what kind of vehicle it is, but yes, most carriers have something that will cover it when you're not driving it. And I assume that's very cheap coverage. How much is that away coverage? What did they quote you on that? I can't imagine it costs that much.

It's fifty percent of what the normal coverage is.

Well, how much is the normal coverage?

The normal coverage is about twelve hundred about.

What is it?

Twelve hundred dollars two thousand dollars every six months?

Well, that seems high as hell. Hey, Kelly, get Brian Burns on real quick. What kind of vehicle is it?

It's Alexis twenty ten x seventy.

God, that just.

Seems go ahead to meause you probably know that's a rebadged Lands Cruiser. So don it sounds like you have full coverage on it, right, not just the liability. You really want to ensure it against compet collision. It's not a very expensive automobile anymore.

Yeah, but he shouldn't even My point to that though, Dimitri. Then I'll let you answer, don is when you have the insurance. We're talking about away insurance, I meaning the vehicle's not going to be driven, and if it is driven, I don't think you have liability coverage at that point. But we're going to ask our insurance expert. I would think that insurance. I mean, he's talking two thousand dollars a year to ensure a vehicle probably worth five That just seems crazy.

Yeah, I think he's got full coverage on it.

Yeah, but he does have full coverage on it.

He does you do, right, Don, Yeah, so maybe maybe knock it down to comprehensive and.

Yeah, but no, no, no, you're your I mean, hold on me. I got Brian Burns up. Hey, Brian, I've got a question for you. Don called up. He's got like a twenty ten Lexus whatever. I don't even know the value of it, nor do I care. Right now, he pays four thousand dollars a year for coverage on it.

It's basically full coverage. We'll call it to that for now.

So he's got comp collision, he's got everything on it, four grand. He's a snowbird when he is not here, and he's wherever in the warm sun where we all wish we were right now. They want to charge him for what I think he referred to as a way insurance. And I've heard of it and I know about it, but they still want two thousand a year for that. So the questions are, doesn't that seem kind of high

Yeah, it should.

I mean, it's be far less than that. I agree with you, But what it should be as comprehensive only. So it's just storage insurance basically. Yes, for a fire, basically exactly, or if someone stole it, that would be a comprehensive.

Yeah.

Of course, it's not covered for any kind of collision, and it's not covered for liability or uninsured motorists. But it should be a drastically reduced price. Fifty percent doesn't seem like enough.

Well, that seems ridiculous because if it wasn't a twenty ten Lexus and it was a twenty twenty four Tesla, I mean you could be you could be paying seven thousand dollars a year or something crazy. I mean, hey Don, what is the value of that vehicle? Well, Soline, let me lock you in. Brian, my bad, Hey Don, what is the value of that vehicle?

Thirty thousand?

Okay, so it's worth quite a bit more than I thought. But let's let's take him at his word to what it's worth. Now, does that number seem better?

Brian?

Two thousand a year? And what do you call that insurance? I'm sure each carrier has a little different name. But what what is the main name of it?

Away?

Yeah, I mean usually when you when someone calls your suspending coverage, it's what you say, you're suspending coverage on the car.

To component you're not going to be driving it. Now. If you do drive it, you have zero liability, right.

That's right, Yep, You've got to make sure that you have the coverage back and forth before the car's ever driven. But yeah, it should be. But to answer your question, no, that doesn't change my mind. A thirty thousand dollars car with comprehensive only should not be two thous not even close.

Hey, Don, who do you have for insurance right now?

It's USAA, which char I've always thought was the best.

You know what I'd like you to do, Don, I want you to be a guinea pig of mine right now, would you seriously? I want you to call up Brian and we'll I'll have Kelly exchange information and have him run the numbers on that, and then you call back up sometime in the next three hours and let us know. And Brian, I'd love for you to let us know too, because that just seems insane for me. And how often do people do that?

Don?

Hold on?

Well, Don, you said you had two questions. What was the other one?

While the other one it's the same vehicle and I had the hail. I had hail on May thirtieth, and they've totaled my car and we've cold. They've come back with a with a value on it, and we're worth three thousand dollars apart.

All right, hold on, hold on, I'm going to put you on Old. I got to take this break. I get the second question, we're going to go to that. Then after that, Brian, we're going to do this update with an hoa issue with Dimitri and then a Debue's got a question for our guest, Dan McKenzie. One line open, three oh three seven one three talk.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. Compare and call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot Com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

All right three three seven one three eight two five five.

You know, I used to think pickleball was for old people only, but I'm starting to realize everybody of every age is playing this sport. We took our first lesson yesterday, Suzanna and I and I was asking Dan mackenzie if he played, and sure enough he does.

It's crazy. Everybody plays pickleball.

It's like the new tennis racquetball, which I love and used to play all the time with Deputy Dan back in the day.

Just no one's playing it anymore. It's it's kind of crazy. Now.

I want to go back to don so don you have two issues. One we already talked about. You're gonna call Brian Burns up and see how much they quote you on that insurance. Say USAA is quoting you two thousand a year four the insurance coverage that is basically when you're away because you're a snowbird.

The other thing is the value. We have a company on our referral list. What is it? It's not Gaddy.

What is it.

It's I got I want to think of Gaddy Electric for some reason. But who's the guy that values the Carsu's in Petty. Yeah, I'm thinking of Gaddy Petty details. So these guys, here's what I would do. Don First of all, he's going to tell you if the vehicle, what it's worth. Okay, He's going to tell you what a fair offer is, because it's possible your idea of

What do you do? And I assume you've already fought with them a little right.

Yes, And in the in the contract, everybody has to agree that you will use you'll get a separate appraiser at your own costs, and then you'll go to an umpire. Yeah that is sure.

Have you gone to that yet? Have you gone down the appraisal clause yet?

Well?

I haven't invoked it because I can't get any information associated with what the process is.

And then if we if we do do that, what the cost?

Okay, listen, we deal with this. Listen, Don, we deal with this in the winter all the time. Let's try to get petty details on and go over the appraisal clause next hour. Kelly, a lot of people feel like their insurance companies are screwing them. When they're vehicle's total or the other insurance company, that's different. But when you're dealing with your own insurance company, which you are, right Don, we're talking about your insurance company. Yes, okay, hold on,

Don.

I want you to call him up when we're done three oh three nine nine six nine thousand.

We're gonna get petty details on. Educate people when it comes.

To getting the proper amount from your own insurance company. Brian's got an HOA issue, and Debbie, I promise I'll get you up to talk to Dan McKenzie after the break.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand estate man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three

As we can.

Shooter's gonna help, come man.

This is the Troubleshooter Show.

No Tom Martino, Welcome, Welcome, my friends to the only show of U kind. We're here to solve problems, answer questions, take complaints.

If you have been.

Ripped off, you need help recouping money, maybe a bad contractor maybe you're dealing with no heat in an apartment for over four or five days and the landlord won't do anything. We've helped out and so many of those. It's crazy. But this, my friends, is a show for you. Please don't forget three zero three Martino. That number works on and off the air. I want to tell you really quick. This hour brought to you by Paul the

You know what.

You can't get anything close to that anywhere else. He has decided to sell systems for less than anybody. That's what he does. He's Paul the Waterman. He's an actual master plumber, and he knows what he's doing, and he loves helping people. He lives and breathes water. Call waterpros today, go to waterpros dot net. That's waterpros dot net. Now listen, we've got a couple different.

Things going here. I want to get Justin Petty on real quick, Justin.

We just had a call and I want to just basically sum it up, so people on stand something. When an insurance company does not give you what you think your vehicle is worth, and we're talking about your own insurance company, you have a claim, maybe the vehicle gets stolen, maybe somebody with no insurance hits you. Whatever you're dealing

So, yeah, you send an official notice to the insurance company invoking first, and give them a chance to name an appraiser, so both parties have to pick an appraiser. You invoke that process once they name the appraiser. Typically that appraiser and myself, if I'm hired, will discus to claim within a couple of days and see if we can agree on a value. And if we do, we sign an award document and send it to the carrier and they're bound by that number.

And that's what they have to do because when you have that contractual agreement or the policy, you know, that's an agreement you have with the insurance company and in that language basically says if we disagree on the dollar amount, then we go into the appraisal clause. You hire somebody, I hire somebody, and then they go together. Now, you guys, what was that caller's name? By the way, does anybody remember? I forget the guy's name, don So, don I know

Correct, Yeah, I mean we look at any case that comes through, make sure it's a low offer, and if it is, we charge one fee. And we just handled that part of it for you.

And that first part, and I was telling Don then is free the most important part for anybody out there that's dealing with this.

The first part as simple as this. You ready for this?

You call up Justin Petty and basically say, hey, I have a twoenty fifteen blah blah blah, this many miles they're offering me this. He's going to ask for the VN. He's going to figure out all the add ons it has. He's going to listen to you if you just put tires on that day or something along those, something outside the ordinary, And basically he's going to tell you if you're correct, it's under and if it's not under, justin

Thing for sure.

Yeah, we don't want we don't want cases that were not valuable on So we tell you the truth either way.

So anybody would be crazy not to call at least for the free advice. And how much do you charge for this? How much is that flat fee? Five hundred bucks?

Right?

Well at five fifty five?

Got it it, man, I absolutely love it.

And that's it.

But if you're dealing with somebody else's insurance company, how would you help in that situation? Because you can invoke the appraisal clause? So how would you if you could help? What would you do?

We help a lot of people with with third party claims that you're talking about, and mainly it's free help I give you. I have a free ebook that we send that explains all the problems with insurance company automated valuation systems like their CCCS and auto claim. You know, there's all the ways that they come up with value. So it's tips and tricks is how we help. And of course we can write an appraisal, but it's typically not worth it to buy an appraisal on a third

Yeah, you know what drives me crazy, And I'm in the same boat. I've done this. You have a vehicle, you kept it.

Extremely clean, you drove it like you know, someone driving it to church on Sundays, only.

The whole thing.

It's just in great shape compared to most of them. And people think, and like I said, I've done this as well, people think that vehicle has more value than the average one, and typically it really doesn't. I mean, it's great that you kept it into good shape, but I mean, I mean, wouldn't you agree with that In general, they're all worth the same. A twenty twenty Santa Fe with twenty thousand miles and no previous damage is basically worth what every other Santa Fe is worth at that point, I agree.

I mean the condition of a vehicle is relevant, but it needs to be something that really stands out to change the value of the vehicle. It like it's got damage on it that's you know, bents on it, or a cracked windshield or something to that effect. That is really a big difference. Typically they're all They're all going to be considered in average condition and there's not going to be a huge change in value cause you can't it super clean.

Yeah.

The other one other thing I want to give out there is a nuggative information that Justin has taught and the calls have taught me over the years, diminished value. I just want to talk about real quick. There is so many people that are in an accident. Somebody runs a red light, hits some of the vehicles not totaled, but there's there's damage to it. I don't care if it's fifteen hundred in damage or if it's one hundred

When you go to sell that vehicle or.

Traded in, they're going to see the car fax or whatever report they run on it, and that vehicle is now worth less than a vehicle light. It's never been in an accident, even if it's fixed perfectly. That's just

I haven't seen one volunteer at No. Lots of people leave it on the table. They don't know that they can go after it.

I have no idea.

Wouldn't you say, over fifty percent or even higher leave the diminished value on the table?

Yeah, I would say it's even higher than that. It's still it's still something that people are just not aware of no, and.

The insurance companies don't. The insurance companies don't talk about it. In fact, they go out of their way not to educate people on it. Arguably, I mean it's understandably I should say why. I mean, you know they've got they're stockholders to deal with. Justin Petty Diminished valueexpert dot com Diminished Valueexpert dot com Free Advice. He'll tell you what that vehicles worth and then if you need to invoke that appraisal clause, he'll do it all for five hundred

Hi?

Thanks for protecting my call. Yeah, I have a question regarding the will. I have a very old will and it needs to be updated, I'm sure, but my daughter's been a joint tenant on my home for many, many years.

Interesting, so when I pass.

My home automatic is David's her, so there's no will needed for my home, correct.

Right, Your will would not control property that is held jointly.

I'm okay, right. And then my kids are my beneficiaries on my CDs, my IRA said, and that enough to make sure they get those funds and no will needed for that.

Correct, Those are also in front of the will.

Yep, good, okay, So okay, hey.

Really, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt, but both of you. A lot of people are sitting there going joint tenancy. What does that mean? So give us an idea of what she's referring.

You can own.

You can go own something with somebody, right, your house or your cars or whatever, and there's different ways to do that. Most of the time it is joint. Joint means that every owner owns one hundred percent of the asset. There's no separate shares, there's no you know, fifty to fifty it as you all own the whole thing. So one of you passes away, the survivors just keep going.

But if I want to buy a house with Dimitri as an investment, I don't think i'd buy it that way.

Right, So the other option is tenants and con meaning you actually do have separate shares.

And tenants in common, like he could own say thirty three percent, I could earn sixty seven or however we want to break it up.

And you could be back at the problem we discussed earlier that you could end up co owning that house at Dimitri's errors if you have not thought through that, Yeah, because his share is going to go to his air, is not you, Debbi?

What other question do you have for Dan?

Well, I just wanted to confirm those are my main assets, my little bit of money I have in my home. So why have a will? I have personal items that would just my kids would come in and take if stave and want them. So what would I need a will for?

Well, the personal items, you could still direct where those go and probably should in the will.

Yeah, okay, yeah, I mean there.

Might be a few items you have and it's it's good to say, here's who would be in charge of any issue that comes up. Uh, you know for people who have adult kids that they want to leave everything too, I mean, I don't know, you know, if you're it sounds like a most little kids and only one of them is on the house, and so she is going to.

Get that house.

Yeah, I've got too right, Okay, I'm already but yeah, so I'm a pretty simple person.

Well, hold on, Debbie, I have a question on that.

So if if the one person that you own the house with, are they going to sell it and share it with the other sibling or they're going to get it all together?

I mean, what's the plan.

The plan is she would move here because she loved my house. She stays here. My other my son lived out of the country. He's in Australia, so.

He wouldn't have anything to do with the house.

No, no, And I would make her sell it to give him half. She's the one that is here hanging out with me. She'll be the one taking care of me when the time comes. That's so, yeah, Dan.

Do you see any issues with what she's saying? Could that?

And I'm not saying your son would do this, That's not my point in this. It's more or less if if the son did want to go after that asset, there's nothing they could do because the house is in the name Imperial Heart.

I never say never.

You know, anybody can sue anybody, but it'd be hard Okay, you know the other thing.

So she's in a unique position where she doesn't think she needs will would you agree based upon what you've heard?

I mean, so here's the issue.

Your bigger risk at any point in your life is that you're going to have an incapacity event, not that you're going to die. And I don't know if you have powers of attorney in place to handle that stuff. But that is also important because those dosnated beneficiaries and joint ownership are not helpful in that situation. They're only helpful if you pass away. So most estate plans cover both of those. And then you know, some people want to make sure that their kids are receiving stuff in

Could they could what would for example, Medicaid. Let's say she does end up in long term and no one's got money to pay for it, and she ends up on Medicaid in some long term facility, but she's still alive. Can they go after her share of that asset?

That house. I'm just talking about the house.

Yeah, so that is complicated. It sounds like your daughter does not live there now, No, but.

She would, she would definitely move in.

Yeah.

I mean I'm just a mile from her really nice, great school district.

Yeah, but I'm more worried if Medicaid has has some kind of land grab and they're.

Gonna Yeah, if there is a Medicaid situation like the fact that a person is owning it but not living there, they might still require you to you know, sell that house or put a lean on it or something.

Yeah, so that can happen.

Yeah, yeah, okay, and my money too, as well as by sea. Then that with their beneficiary, they don't have access to that Medicaid correct.

It depends on what kind of access you have to it.

And again whether you know, again, Medicaid is pretty complicated, but they have rules and you know, they're going to make uspend your own money first before they take in.

Really, what I'm hearing, one WI what I'm hearing, and you know I'm not the attorney, But what I'm thinking here is you should have a conversation with an attorney. And the reason being is if you set up things in the proper way, and you do them early enough, like a three or five year look back, none of these things would be an issue if you did go into some form of long term care that you couldn't afford. And honestly, almost no one can afford long term care anymore.

What is like a memory What is like a memory care run?

Honestly the cheap ones or you know, probably ten thousand a month at the moment.

Yeah, ten thousand a month forever.

So so, Debbie, I got to take this break because I'm way over. Feel free to hang. If you have another question, you can tell Kelly what you want to do. And then three lines open in a second. Three oh three seven one three A two five five. We've got a great update coming up. Well, I don't know if it's great. We've got an interesting update coming up.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're contenth time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three, seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Right three zero three seven one three eight two five five three zero three Martinez, we got some lines open you've been ripped off or taken advantage of. We want to hear from you or any questions you have. We can get any of our experts on a referral list dot com.

Hey, I wanted to give this update again.

It sure looks like I've been emailed twice now that Don Eiley, the accountant that stole money from a lot of small businesses right here in Colorado, died in federal prison. I've been trying to figure out how we died, but I can't find anything on it. Zero In fact, I'm starting to learn when you die in prison, there's really not a lot out there. I mean, I don't know.

Or is there how about if you get drafted?

I mean really, I'm not saying you've dealt with this, but if it's been kept up today, why not?

Yeah, why wouldn't it pay?

Yeah?

If they issue the policy, it pays. Have you ever dealt with a policy that doesn't want to pay for one of your clients?

I have not. I mean, obviously it could happen.

But two sides. Generally a clause right in the first year or something.

Yeah, yeah, sometimes there just generally it needs to be some time that passes before the kicks in.

So yeah, it could happen.

Is that an important part of a lot of people's estate is a life insurance.

It should be. It should be.

I encourage life insurance because it's cash and it's creditor protected. People don't appreciate that like I've got my estate, I got my house and my cash and all that kind of stuff. But when I pass away, part of the process is paying people that I.

Owe money to.

And I could owe a lot of money, right, I mean I could get in an accident that leads to my death and that I caused, right, So my state could be getting sued for like millions of dollars.

But they can't go after that money.

Yeah, my estate is generally going to be liable for that if I lose. But life insurance money is creditor protected, meaning like my kids will get that money.

It's not there to actually pay.

It's also tax proof, right.

It is income tax free, so there's no it doesn't matter if you have a ten million dollar policy or two hundred thousand.

Yeah, you're not going to pay taxes. Your errors aren't going to pay taxes, right, wow, So it's.

Well worth the life insured.

Even if you feel like I got plenty and don't need life insurance, you probably do.

You probably do. You just have life insurance and I don't sell it.

I did not know that that did not go into the estate to where creditors could go after it. I did not know that part yeah, and that's period. I mean there's no real exceptions.

You want to be careful because some people will say the beneficiary is my estate or they won't put a beneficiary on it in some cases, and they can go into the state. Now creditors are there's going to be an argument. There's going to be an argument about whether they have access to that money or not.

I got you careful about that.

Where if you just listed the beneficiaries, yeah, that would never be a question.

Plus created for the beneficiaries if they're kids.

But the way you said that, even if they did accidentally or whatever they put it into the estate or put it into a trust for that matter, or anything, it sounds like there would be an argument. But most of the time they still can't get access to it or no.

It depends on how the fiduciary handled the executor handled that sit like did they just mix it in with everything else, because we usually tell executors like put that in a separate accounts. That's real clear what the life insurance money is. I gotcha, you know, so you gotta be care like sometimes executives gout there and just start doing stuff and kind of grabbing stuff and throw out a lot of retirement funds.

They start grabbing and throat like.

Retirement funds have tax consequences, so you know, I just want to run out there and grab those and same thing with life insurance.

All right, So listen, we're going to take Brian right after this. I went long on the last segment. So Brian and Dimitri have been working to help this lady out. This lady has been out of her condo.

For over two years and a half years. Two and a half years.

We've been talking about this, and right now the condo's basically gutted.

She had a lot of water damage. There's no drywall in there.

It's basically cement walls, literally cement, because that's the way the kindo was built. So Brian went out there and the whole thing boils down to this. The leak apparently is coming from the roof. Brian is a leak expert, no kidding, that's what he does. I believe he's a owner of the company.

Yeah, he's the leak detective.

Even has a shirt that says that that's it's crazy. So he went out there. The HOA is saying, Hey, it's not our problem, it's not our leak. So we're not going to pay for anything. But when the leak detective went out there, he found something different.

We're going to talk about it after this.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three O three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his own only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

All right, three O three seven one three eight two five five three oh three Martino.

Oh my goodness, we got some lines open.

You've been ripped off taking advantage of call now three oh three Martino. Now, Brian, Brian, what was the name of the company again, the leak Doctor, Leak Detector.

Uh, Colorado Underground Detection.

Okay, what's your website?

Use deetection dot com.

Got it, Kelly, if you would put that info up too, so I have it to give it out.

So were you actually Dmitri? Was he actually hired what was the caller's name?

Khaliah was the lady whose unit got flooded out two and a half years ago, And I went to meet her and Brian as well as three other leak detectors and the ho Wa. There's a contingent of about they're probably about eight of us over there, and that's what Brian and I met. And that's the day that Brian went up to the roof and I think I'll just we should just leave it.

Up to Brian the time.

Well, Brian, why I still want to understand why you were out there? Did she hire you? Did she call you up? Were you out there from her insurance company?

What? Why were you out there?

Now?

Koala called me out to figure out why water is still entering her home.

Awesome.

And when I showed up, we had it's stripped down to studs, so all the drywall, all the insulation is gone. It's been condemned by the Department of Health.

Oh my god, she.

Can't rebuild because the water is continuing to come in every time it rains or snows.

Well, how's that possible? Was someone living over her? How about how how come the person on top of her unit hasn't been condemned?

Oh, that the unit is getting flooded. But but the lady who lives there, you know, she's she's alone, and she's a she's an immigrant, and I'm sure she's kind of lost in the process.

You talk to her, Dimitri.

Oh, no, but Khalia has.

So but her unit's not condemned. Is this the only condemned unit we know of?

Yes, it's condemned because Khaliah called the health department in an attempt to get some help to force the HOA.

To fix the lead, and they condemned it.

And they condemned it.

They issue, well the word I met the guy from the city of Denver. He didn't use the word condemned. He said it was an thirty day order to repair or and it's been way over that.

Yeah, of course, so so over.

I still want to understand this over the unit on top of her, where someone's living, there's another unit or do we finally hit the roof.

Yes, it's just the two story building.

Two story Okay, So Brian, you went out there, and where is the water that's coming in to hers?

Well?

I mean, it's evident it's coming in from the woman above her, but beyond that, where's it coming in from?

Just to give an idea as to how the building is built. It's all constructions. So they pour these slabs in place and then raise them up and connect all four walls, so it's a big square block. And then they have a concrete roof that's poured, and then they have multiple layers of roofing material. And what's happening is

Well, why would it. Are you under the impression it's skipping that lady over her?

Well?

I did an inspection of the upstairs unit yesterday and was able to see a lot of mold growth between the actual roof and her ceiling. So I popped the ceiling tile up and looked up back there and I saw tons of mold growth. It's continuous.

And this woman's living there about a week, Yes she is, and she has a do you humidify in her home?

And yesterday I just checked them bot to humidity exterior was about twenty to twenty five percent. When I went interior, we're looking at about twenty three point nine percent, about forty one percent in the kitchen. So the humidity is not as much as you would think it would be

So this is incredible.

I have to say the roof is the issue, and I believe that stands in the you know, homeowner's responsibility to get it fixed. But my client cannot rebuild her unit until the water stops. I mean, otherwise she rebuilds it.

And they're just flat out. They're just flat out doing nothing. Dmitri.

I mean, I know we've talked about this numerous times, but did you give like a report, Brian, have you talked to anybody at the HOA or at least written something out.

Yes, I've given reporters to each visit that I've made out there and the evidence that I've seen. So my client has that information and I believe she has passed that off to the HOA. What they've done with it, I have no idea. It just looks like they've been sitting on it for far too long. And when I see a client in a situation like this, that's why I thought it was so important to bring it to your attention, because she really needs help. Kay.

We just I mean, this is one of these ones. It's over two years. Over two years, I have no idea what they're possibly.

She's going to teach her salary so she teaches music.

Did she get her did she get all the proceeds from insurance? Yet?

No, Farmers hasn't paid here, Farmers hasn't even paid her for the personal property that was destroyed in the flooding. And Farmers and by the way, Khalia has been seeing you on a bunch of these communications with her insurance company. Farmers just simply Kalia asked, Hey, when am I gonna get reimbursed for the personal property and there's no answer.

And well that's where a public adjuster could help.

Yeah, math for Paragon would be an awesome resource for her.

I wonder if it's even I mean, it's definitely worth a call over there, see if we can get mad on. But this is it's like when no one's doing anything. I almost feel like we're missing something, like are you sure she hasn't gone through foreclosure and doesn't even own it at this point, I mean anything like that.

Are they threatening foreclosure?

Yeah, she's so you know, she is not getting delinquency letters from the association for the past.

Two just from the ho way. Not for the mortgage.

No, she's been making mortgage payments. She's she she ran out of money a few months ago when her apartment when her insurance company stopped paying for her temporary apartments because that benefit ran out after two years. So Koleia is paying rent mortgage and now she's fallen several months behind an association.

Dudes, Oh my god.

And by the way, in addition to being a teacher, she took two more jobs to try to make ads met.

This is just nuts.

And she's got an amazing attitude too. She she's the sweetest woman I've ever met.

Old is she roughly? And not that it matters. I'm just curious you.

Starting to tell I think she's probably kind of what do you think Brian's middle aged?

I would say I would say thirties.

Okay, yeah, probably low thirties.

Is there any kids involved?

There?

No?

God, hold on a second, Brian. I had some other questions for you, but I got to take this break to Meitri. I know you've been working on this and we constantly bring it up on not even I'm not even sure where to go on it. We can see if Matt can get involved and help from the insurance part of it, but there's no reason to rebuild anything. To get her money for her personal property would be great,

So they've got to do the roof.

I mean, they have to fix the problem absolutely, and to make me what.

HAPs if the HOA doesn't have any money?

Yeah, I'm wondering if that's what's going on. I mean, what reason does that association have not to fix a leaky roof other than they can't afford to.

And then the lady above he said he found mold there. I mean it's crazy, it's absolutely bonkers. Hold tight, hold on, hold on.

Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three, seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Oh man, we were just talking about the Texas kids.

It's so sad. Mark.

Yeah, well, well we might talk about that a little bit next hour. Basically we were talking to Brian and I want to finish up with this, and Larry's got a question for Dan McKenzie. And you can get your calls and now we have two lines open three oh three Martino, three oh three Martina.

We have two hours ago. But here's the deal.

Brian We really appreciate how you've been helping this lady out, and she is going to see one of our real estate attorneys, Bradley O'Brien, who hopefully can help her get the HOA to step up and repair this room. It's evident there's water coming in with Brian's testimony or Brian's report, so there's no doubt about that. But Brian, really quick outside of this, how did you even get involved in leak detection? How does someone wake up and go I'm

Man?

Well, I've been in plumbing since eighty nine. I've been a master plumber since ninety seven. Nice and I moved my way up through on my own plumbing company to becoming a superintendent and then started working as a custom home builder and had to retire from that about twelve years ago due to a back injury.

Oh, I had.

Back surgery in twenty twelve. It was not fun, and it's like, what can I do to build on my knowledge? And a friend of mine suggested leak detection, which has always been interesting to me. But there's really it was very hard to get into because there's really no schools out there until now. So I got into leak detection years ago and just so in love with it. It's something new I happen to keep track of. I was looking

So a little innother words, a little drip can cause all the damage in the world.

That's the bottom line.

Yeah, And I was hoping to conserve twelve million gallons a month. So I said to myself about three or four years ago, what can I do to make a bigger impact? And I started at school. So now I'm actually teaching.

Is all that I'm up against the herdbreak? But is all that?

Is all this information on cudetection dot com. Yeah, true, All right, listen, anybody out there wants to learn more about that, or if you have a problem, more importantly a leak, check out seeudetection dot com. You've been very good helping Dmitri out on this case. Larry, Please hold on. I promise I'll bring you up next after the break. Three zero three Martino.

Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Leave time for an insurance check up free no obligation. Comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Ripped News need who you don't have? Run anxiousness as we can show. Shooter's gonna help.

Come man, this is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino, Welcome my.

Friends to the only show of its KINDRA here to solve problems, answer questions, take complaints. I got Dan McKenzie in with me, attorney at Law. I haven't given his number out enough, but it's eight three three co plans any questions you have on your estate or a trust or probate.

Anything you can imagine.

He is here to answer your questions today and one of the first calls will go is exactly that. But we have real quick I need to get to Matt with Paragon Services. He's one of the experts on a referral list at referral list dot com. And Matt, I'm gonna ask you some really basic, basic questions about a particular case we're working on here and basically for people out there at public adjuster is someone that helps you

The original claim was put in.

It's in a condo, so she doesn't have any control over the roof.

With the exception she pays into the hoa. So the roof.

Has been leaking for two years. It got really bad about two and a half years ago. It rained so hard it flooded the whole place. The insurance did accept the claim for her policy for the condo, so basically the dry wall or the cement out. So right now where it stands is they gutted the entire thing, Matt, and they can't rebuild yet. Remember the timeframe we're talking about two and a half years. So she puts the claim in, they agree they're going to rebuild the whole

Yeah, I mean typically they're going to say that that's been an ongoing issue and it should have been remedied. Now, if that was a house, that's a slam donkets on the homeowner. But because this is a condo, the HOA is responsible for, you know, taking care of that roof that's gotta be fixed before anything's done, obviously, and.

They're not doing anything. That's where we're to the point where everybody in a way is throwing their arms up in the air. We've had one deputy deputy, Dimitri, that's been trying to fix this thing forever man and they can't get the HOA to do anything. She actually hired someone. In fact, his name's Brian. He's still on but he is a leak guy. That's all he does. He's a master plumber. But he started a company that goes out

Who is the insurance company Farmer's Insurance.

Farmers won't even cough up the money for the contents at this point.

Yeah, well, I can dig in and probably get this escalated, and we can talk about the timelines. Normally two years as the magic number. And now I can tell you this getting a lawyer involved usually have three years to dispute. So we still got some wiggle room. If we go that room, I would need to just dig in and see what farmers, see what their intentions are, and do my best to get with the HOA and rattle their cage.

They simply decline to put a roof on her or fix it forgetting it about even putting it on it, just it seems crazy unless they're broke. And then if they are broke, I mean, that's not good for anybody.

Yeah, and another option too. We sometimes can get in the primary carrier to cover everything, and then they subrogate and go after you know, the hoa's insurance company or whoever they have to to get reversed. So that's an option too.

I like the idea of putting him in touch. I mean, she's basically what happens is she gives them power of attorney over this. He digs through it, he calls up Farmers, and he says, hey, man, you're not dealing with this poor woman anymore.

You're dealing with me.

I think that's right idea, And the other thing is too, Where is she staying in the meantime?

Oh man, So her insurance company rented her an apartment for two years. They paid, but that benefit just ran out a few months ago, so now she's paying for a rental.

So it sounds like Farmers is behaving because if they were offering two years, that's a pretty good sign that they they're just trying to do their best. But they're kind of stuck in this position too, I know, the HLA cooperating.

Yeah, they're still Yeah, they're stuck in the rebuilding part of this project. However, you know, she just recently made a claim for the mold infestation which developed in the meantime, and they told her to go pound sand.

Can you take a look at it.

She probably doesn't have much mold start interrupts. She probably does not have mold coverage beyond maybe five or start ten thousand anyway. But you're right, that's something that should be addressed. It's not your fault or her fault, or anyone's fault that other than the HOA is that unit's been sitting there and getting moldy, so that burden would fall into HOA in my opinion.

Yeah, But once again, we're hoping the fact they won't even repair this roof. And then the lady over her, that apartment is in horrible shape.

Man.

In other words, with that leak detector. Guy Brian was in there. Hold on, let me bring him up real quick. Hey Brian, you were in the apartment above her? Or I'm sorry, kind of above he yesterday?

Is that right?

Or really recent?

That's correct.

Listen to this, Matt, go ahead, describe the apartment above her. I keep say an apartment condo.

So thanks so much for listening. Yeah, I was researching because as a lead detective, I have to go through and evaluate every possible way water I can get into a residence. And when I was inspecting the upstairs unit, it looks pretty clean. But when I popped the panel to gain access between her ceiling and the actual roof, I saw mold growth coming down the walls. So there's mold on a concrete behind the two by fours in

And what's crazy, Matt, is this apartment complex. It's just not a stick building. It's literally cement walls.

Right, it's awesome.

Meant it's all concrete slabs, and Brian, you know, it occurs to me that maybe the roof is only a part of the We shouldn't discount the fact that the lady upstairs might have leaking plumbing too, in addition to the roof leaks.

I looked into that and did not see any leaks in her plumbing.

Yeah, that's a great sign.

And I love the idea that you know, he went up under the roof, started spraying with a hose and boom, it's leaking. I mean, how do you possibly argue that being the ho wa Hey, Matt, would you do me a favor and get with Dmitri.

In fact, Tomitri, why don't you put this together?

And Brian, if you could go back out there and meet Matt, you guys might be able to help each other in the future for sure. But I would love for you guys to all reconvene at her house and Matt, you go over the policy. I think you should do that first. Well, I'm not going to tell you what to do, Matt, you know what to do, but get involved and let's try to get this figured out for this woman.

I'm going to be at that meeting too, and so I'm going to start an email Chaine here in the next few minutes that's going to get.

All three of us.

And I think as a result of and I think that Khalia should hold off in her meeting with Brad O'Brien the real estate until we get the results of this meeting with Matt and Brian at her condo.

Do you think, Yeah, I mean it does as long as this can happen somewhat quick. But someone say, here's what I'm afraid of. Someone's gonna have to twist some arms to basically get.

The hoa to do the roof. I mean, really, that's what it comes down to, because my understanding is at this point, her insurance is going to pay for the rebuilding. Right, they haven't squawked about that, nor have they given her any money for that or have they?

No, they haven't given her any money for that.

So they haven't paid her a nickel yet.

Well, they did incur significant expense in getting everything.

Torn out, Yeah, but they paid the contractor directly. She didn't take the money.

That's right, that's correct. She hasn't pocketed it.

So Matt would you please look at everything. And then Brian, we really appreciate you being a part of this. And Dmitri send me his information to Brian for sure.

Yeah, I'll see see her.

Hey, Mark, real quick?

Is there a roof into is there?

What's her?

Is there a roofer that's been involved in this at all?

Not that I know of. In fact, that's a great idea. Why don't you get a commercial one of your guys out there?

I think.

Him access to the roof.

Ohoo, that's the bad size, hey, match you.

Hear that I did.

That's no point. It kind of sounds like they're broke.

That's what I keep I've gone back to that same point ten times. And if there's no money there, there's no money there.

Yeah, Mark, you know I did. Walker.

Actually I drove around the complex a little bit. It's a large complex. There are probably a dozen buildings with one hundred units or in Denver. Yeah, it's right over there at Islef and Parker, and it's like, you know, it's I don't the word dilapidated isn't the correct word, but it's kind of like like the place has seen better days.

You're not putting any money in.

Yeah, it looks like late sixties, early seventies, super cheap construction, and these are very value priced, very affordable condominiums, and it just seems oh yeah, it's like about to become seen.

Yeah, it's like living in a rainforest. I mean, it's insane.

Which leads me to together broke.

You wonder what asbestos Oh jeez, because of the year built very well could be.

Yeah, that's a problem too.

That could be a big well. Actually spee though. Oh the drywall is all gone, no no, no, yeah.

But if it's if it's if it's soaking the drywall above it and coming back in, now you've got to spill again.

Yeah. Is that an insurance claim in itself?

It is okay, good.

Hey, maybe the lad maybe the lady upstairs can use your services too, mat to me, if.

She's got insurance.

Ye.

That's the other problem. Some of these people don't have insurance on these units. I mean, really, you described these units as yeah, I mean.

I don't mean that in an insulting way.

It's just a technical observation about a place that has seen much better days.

Which means they have zero upkeep. They're not spending money on anything, all right, guys, I gotta I gotta move on, Dmitri. Stay on top of it, Matt with Paragon Services. By the way, if your insurance company's trying to screw you over, they owe you more money, that's where Mac gets involved. He makes sure he reads through that policy every single place to find out the most amount of money that

I think we're going to be between forty and fifty nice, that's exactly where we aim for.

Yeah, yep, yeah, very cool man. I appreciate it. Three oh three seven one three eight two five five three oh three Martino. I promise Larry, you're up Numero unocame Heller high Water.

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All right, three all.

Three seven one three A two five y five. You've been ripped off or taking advantage of I want to hear from you. We get some lines open.

Any questions for our guest, Dan McKenzie too would be a good time to do it. And as promised, I'm going to go to Larry first of all, Larry, I appreciate you holding so long. What question do you have for Dan?

That's okay? Thank you Dan, and there and Mark for being there. Uh my uncle, my uncle died. He left his IRA as to his trust, his trust and there is his IRA. And the lawyer said that was absolutely not the thing to do because it was immediately taxable. And so I didn't I missed part of your conversation this morning head for a doctor appointment, but I didn't know if you covered that aspect of what not put in a trust.

Yeah, you do have to be careful with IRA's going to trust because there are rules requiring you to pull those funds out within a certain period of time when you inherit somebody else's IRA.

Generally, you know, there are always.

Some exceptions, but generally you have about ten years to pull that money out, and as you do it, you're going to be declaring it as income unlike everything else. Right, So if I get process of the sale of the house or bank or whatever else, that's not income.

But wouldn't that be are well, I'm sorry, Larry. I'm sorry, Larry, but just for other people listening and for myself. So if it is a ten year window. In that ten years, when you're pulling money out of say a four to one K, it's basically being taxed, just like it would be if it was the actual original beneficiary, right, the person that died. In other words, there's no, it's not a bigger tax burden. It's still going to be it's still going to be deferred.

Now it's at the income tax rate of the person's receiving it.

Oh okay, okay, so I got you. It could it could be more or it could be less for that matter. Yeah, okay, go ahead.

The IRS says that a trust is not a human entity, and therefore if a trust inherits an IRA or a four one K, it is immediately taxable at the current tax rate of whatever applies under that situation. I know my uncle's estate had to immediately pay about thirty five thousand dollars in.

The on the.

IRA because it was left to the trust the ten year payout and those tax benefits do not apply to trust.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean an entity receiving an IRA, it can be crunched down to five years, and then there are ways to leave money to trust if you put what's called conduit provisions in there, just saying the trustees role here is to just take the money out as they're required to do, and immediately shoot it out to the beneficiary.

So there are.

Ways to have the money go to trust and still get that ten year benefit, but it does have to.

Be drafted specifically that way.

But why would someone want to do that? In other words, if why would someone want to do that instead of just naming a beneficiary or multiple ones, is there ever a time where someone would want to do it?

And if so, why, Yeah?

I mean, if I'm Leavis, if my beneficiaries five, I really am not going to leave them directly as the beneficiary. And there still could be some benefit to say, Look, that tenure is a maximum. You know, anybody who receives an IRA can pull it all out immediately, and I might want my trustee to kind of take full advantage of those ten years.

Right.

What happens if they weren't it retirement age and they would have paid some kind of penalty for accessing the four oh one K or the IRA money. Would the beneficiary or the trust the estate would.

They end up actually paying those fees or not?

No?

No, they have to take it and the RS wants them to, so there's no penalty. You have to take it, Okay, But yeah, if you take your own IRA early, of course there's gonna be pummel.

So Larry, it does it sounds like you you might have missed part of the conversation, but you're kind of on a different wave if I'm hearing you right.

Well, it's just that the lawyer and the distributed his IRA, and it was a pretty good sized lawyer for legal firm and They said that it was a big mistake for the trust to be to inherit an IRA because taxes were immediately due because the trust is not a human entity. A human would have the ten year benefit for you know.

Yeah, and I.

Don't want to beat a dead horse, but he went through that. There's certain things I believe you called a conduit that, yeah, certain things that could be in the trust.

If the IRS can tell who the human beneficiary is that trust, it is possible.

So it sounds like in his case, So or your brother's case, Larry, it simply wasn't written correctly.

Well, I'm sure that's you know, his trust was left to twenty two nieces and nephews. He didn't have any other relatives.

And so.

You know, it was well defined as to where the money from the trust was going to go. But it's just that the trust had to immediately pay the taxes on the IRA because the trust was not a benefit of well a.

Couple things here, A couple things.

When you're talking twenty two people or you know a large amount of people, Dan, and we are talking about a trust in some kind of retirement, I would assume they would all want the money, right then, and there. I mean, they're not gonna want it, even if they could stretch it out five or ten years. I mean, how do you divvy something up you're not gonna list? Can you list twenty two beneficiaries on a four oh one K with Schwab or something?

I mean, that's up to Schwab.

I don't know.

I don't know, but yeah, yeah, these are challenges when you've got that many beneficiaries.

How would you have written it in the case he's talking about.

I guess it depends on the age of those nieces and nephews. Is there are there miners in there? Are they all adults?

Yeah, Larry, give us a little more.

Okay. Probably the youngest is probably sixty.

Two, god dang, okay, and.

The oldest the oldest was ninety two.

Okay.

Wow, well then yeah, I probably would have just said to Schwab, here's he to'll leave this too, and gone directly to that.

He always he always kept his beneficiary list up to date. Boy, if anybody died, he changed the whole thing right then and there. Yeah, so the beneficiaries of his crust were very fixed and up to date always.

Yeah.

Well, apparently it just wasn't written right, or at least not to what you know, you guys wanted. But I guess I also don't understand, Larry, what the difference would be, because if everybody wanted access to their amount, they would ultimately have to pay.

The taxes on it.

It'd be the same taxes, and then it wouldn't just sit there. I mean, really, what else would have happened besides liquidating it and everybody pays their fair share of taxes on it.

I don't know. It just that the letter that the lawyer said out said that there was a big mistake, his CPA made the mistake of having him put the Yeah, I got iray into the trust. Yeah, and that that was a mistake because taxes were immediately due because the trust is not a human entity.

Yeah.

The problem is that trust tax rates here that the same percentages, but they're compressed. So a individual hits the highest tax bracket at two hundred and fifty thousand bucks, and a state doesn't have trust hits the highest tax back at about thirteen thousand. So you're getting you're paying the highest tax rate if you're paying through the trust.

Yeah, And the iray was about one and a half million dollars, so it was quite a big difference.

Wow.

That kind of sucks that it happened that way, but that's it. Hey, Larry, I appreciate the call man.

Okay, well, thank you very much.

You're welcome. I liked kaya.

You know, you're like me. I'm sitting here thinking nieces and nephews. They're like like kids. Yeah, four four years to two. When he when he led with the youngest is sixty, I was like, holy moly, all right, we got lines open three oh three seven one, three eight two five five three oh three Martino, you've been ripped off taking advantage of You have any questions, uh for Dan McKenzie a lot to come, hold tight.

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All right, three oh three seven one three A two five five. If you don't listen to the behind the scenes stuff, you're crazy. So uh, I mean, honestly, some days are a little different than others, but it's nuts. Hey, Dan, I want to ask you some Dan McKenzie McKenzie law. So the average person going to get I don't even know what average is anymore, because some people have kids, some people don't. I mean, there's so many different things now it's I guess there is no average. But let

Well, there's gotta be a trust to receive the money for them, right, So it doesn't mean you need to create a trust right now.

But they again, they cannot receive.

Money if they are receiving checks that they receive a million dollar if your five year old is going to get a million dollar check from life insurance company, Like, where's it going to be put?

Yeah, who's going to get it? Who's going to be in charge of it?

Yeah?

So either a court needs to a point an adult to be put in charge of that money, or you create that by creating the trust that will receive those funds.

Have you seen people that an eighteen year old has gotten a large amount of money because the parents passed away. Yeah, and it's just completely squandered that fast.

Most people squander it, right, I mean fifty year olds have had jobs their entire lives and have never really had like a ton of disposal income.

They spend it.

They just don't know, really, they don't have to manage money.

It feels like found money. So it's just like I've got six figures here. What harm is it in buying a car, remodeling my kitchen, Yeah, going and getting the ocean view room at the hotel instead of the you know ground.

You know.

So it's just stuff like that over a couple of years and it's gone.

How many how many people do you get Galaamo, I'll go to you in a minute. By the way, we get some lines open three oh three, seven, one, three, eight, two, five five, how many calls? Where basically you're more of the well, not just the estate planner, but the asset protection.

Let's get into that.

I mean, do you do is a big chunk of your job when it comes to clients that have a high net worth?

Is it the asset protection part? Is that a.

Big part of it takes us back to the irvocal trust question, which is why would you want to create an irvocal trust if you could create a vocal trust that you can just change. Well, the irvocal trust really is getting the asset out of your name, and so you really can tell people if they sue you, I don't own that thing anymore, your vocal trust.

So that's a protection.

Yes, I mean they're hard to do. They should be.

You know, you might be the one that gets hit by the car and you want to sue this person. You don't want them telling you I don't have anything because it's all in the trust that I created and then I'm the beneficiary of.

So yeah, you could be on either side.

Yeah you could be on the other site.

But that's part of your job, though, is asset protection sure, yep. Is that a big part of it.

I mean, it depends on who you're talking about.

So asset protection for the people creating the plan, that's the hard part. If I'm trying to get my own assets out of my name to avoid having to pay them out in a lawsuit, that is challenging, and that is an area of specialization. So we work with other people on that. So we do do it, but we do usually bring in other people.

Isn't there some offshore stuff people can do?

Yeah?

Is that a big thing? And I mean, now we're talking people hundreds of millions of dollars.

Not necessarily because if you have hundreds of millions of dollars, do you really care about getting sued? I mean, you know, you could write a five million dollar check and not even feel it.

That's a good point.

So but if you have.

Two million, that's a and you now you're a good target, and yet you don't have enough money to just be like, hey could this is Austin?

I don't care. So people who.

Have a lot less like enough to be interesting, but not so much that they're just like, I don't care about getting sued.

What do you think that limit is on an umbrella.

So let's take that two million dollar mark you were just talking, right, So somebody that's got two to three million, they have really no debt they have they literally have that NASA's house, paid for money in the bank, stocks, retirement accounts, whatever.

Yeah, should they have an umbrella at some point?

It doesn't make any sense to have an umbrella, Just like we were talking that hundred million. You're not going to go out and get an umbrella for a hundred million dollars.

It would cost you. First of all, you probably couldn't get it.

But what are your thoughts on people like that, because there's a lot of people like.

That, like what to two million?

Three million?

Oh for sure, I mean I'm not talking thirty years ago where a million bucks was massive.

Yeah, I'm always in favor of umbrella and maximizing your insurance. But insurance, I mean that has gaps, right, there's caps on it, there's limitations. The insurance companies draft those agreements, they're trying to not pay out. And you know that usually covers injury situations, not like breach of contract or you know, other kind of situations you.

Get involved in that don't really involve injuries.

You know, people filing their own probate. We talked about this a caller. It was either last week or this week. The day's run together. But she owned a house and had some money in a bank account and basically wanted to do probate herself. I think her mom passed away,

I mean, they can come after you directly, right.

Yeah, if you shot the money out and didn't do the notifications correctly, they're going to say, go get that money back.

How much time do they have to come after you.

It depends on if you notified them correctly. I mean, if you didn't do it correctly, that's no limit.

That's insane.

Yeah.

So, I mean.

Typically you have a year from date of death to make a claim, right, so if they have not made a claim for it, it's been more than a year since the person passed away, at that point you're probably safe.

How come credit card companies are telling me if this is a fallacy. Most credit card companies don't come after the estate. So let's say Joe Blow passes away. He's got a you know, he's got a visa with Wells Fargo that's got two grand on it. He's got something else, a Cohles card, it's got five hundred bucks.

Is it just not worth the money or do they come after it?

I mean, we see a lot of claims submitted by credit card companies, But the question is, like, if you get to a point where, look, I'm ready to distribute money here, but I've got this claim sitting.

There they got to deal with.

If you call the credit card company, are they really going to say, you know, you got to pay this whole thing and you negotiate. Yeah, you might negotiate, you might deny the claim and just see if they really have the time and resources. You think these enormous credit card companies do. But are they going to go to a hearing in Douglas County, Colorado for five and get there?

You know, yeah, they're ten thousand.

Bucks, they'd be crazy too.

Yeah.

In fact, a lot of the small claims cases.

I do.

They're very valid, at least to me, they're very valid.

But the reason I end up winning before we even walk into court is they have to first of all, petition the court in order to bring an attorney in. And then they have to bring an outside attorney in generally because they're you know, located in California. And I mean, I don't care if you're fresh out of law school, You're not going to show up in small claims court

Point, yeah, i'd probably I'd probably refer them to a litigator at that point. Yeah, it's hard. I mean that the issue is they don't close the estate. You got to close the estate. You gotta tell the court. I really took care of the creditor claims.

Yeah, and if you.

Didn't like, you better not say that, Yeah, because you're lying to the court. Yeah, all right, hold on, galaremo am I saying that?

Right?

It looks like we're gonna come to you after this.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

All right, three oh three seven one three eight two five five were up against the hard break. But I want to unless you at least start out with this one guy, A what is going on with you?

Hey, good afternoon, Thank you for taking my call. This is more like kind of like a follow up, or more like a guidance. A couple months ago, I had an issue with my well, it's been longer than that. But the last touch that we did was on October twenty second, where well, what.

Was the initial problem? Helped me out with that?

Oh yeah, of course I hired him to replace my roof. Yeah, who's him after you know, talking gosh as foundable?

Oh go, who's using somebody? Some other roofing companies contract?

Yeah, okay, I remember this one. So basically, what was the problem with your roof? A hell storm or what?

And they'll starm me up.

And then basically it gave him a five thousand dollars check for materials, never provided receipts nor like port you never did anything.

Never did anything.

And then on October twenty second, to take the heat off of him, you told you guys that he's going to be basically gave me five hundreds tenmans every two weeks. I waited for like a month and never I never heard back from it, and never received another check or anything. He still own me four thy five hundred I took. I submitted the paperwork to take him to court, and we have court on January thirty first, which.

Is in three weeks.

You know what he's going to do to get my probably counter to counter suit me or.

I don't know what he countersue you for. I mean the guy took five grand? How long ago was that?

Again?

How long ago? Did you give him the five grand.

On July second?

Yeah, I mean that's a long time ago. What are we talking there? Eight months? Yeah, but he's taken him to court. Now that's a good sign.

It's a great sign. But I mean, I don't see a counterclaim. I see the guy not showing up to me. Sounds like a bum.

Totally is I just wanted to know, like I guess some guidance. I've never really done this before. So I have the paperwork.

Okay, I love it, So hold on, I'll talk to you. I can give you.

I'm not going to give you legal advice, but I have brought so many people to small claims court at this point it's crazy. I know where the paperwork is that you can fill out in the instructions, and of course Dan McKenzie attorney of law, and chime in with some legal advice if he wants to everybody, hang tight, we got one more hour to go. I got three lines open, three zero three.

Martino. It's been a slow day. I want to hear from.

You go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

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Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance. Pay too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three O three, seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two news.

So you don't have.

As a cam shooter's gonna help.

Come man, this is.

The Troubleshooter Show.

No Tom Martinez, welcome my friends to the only show if it's kind of We're to solve problems, answer your questions, take complaints.

You have to listen to the show behind the show on YouTube. Go to YouTube. You can do it all the time. You can do it tonight whenever.

A lot of people watch the show afterwards. It doesn't matter if it's on the ihearved app. There's a lot of people that just listen to the show either the podcast, the iHeart app live or six thirty g h A w KRDOS got numerous FM and ams down and around from Pueblo to Colorado Springs and Monument. Lots of ways to listen to the show, but the only way to listen and get the behind the scenes stuff during commercial breaks is YouTube.

You can also see our beautiful faces. You could see my guess, Dan McKenzie's face. He is basically the.

Attorney at eight three three co Plans, that's the phone number, but he's an estate planner. But you could see his face when Deputy Dmitri asked him if he was interested in partnering into what is it, Dimitri? A cell phone thing?

Class actions? A class action cell phone? What was it?

Just you know, some just some normal regular consumer related issues and a couple of ripoffs that you know that I've been subjected to.

Yeah, I know you take this stuff very seriously.

Yeah, I do, and especially since there's so many others who are similarly situated. So I just want somebody to stand up for us regular consumers.

And I think he would be a marriage made in heaven.

But dear see, I think what happens is attorneys are funny. Tom and I sued a company. This wasn't that long ago. It was during COVID and we we had to Oh my god, I had no idea. Once you start getting billed hourly, you really start realizing how hard this was an intellectual property case. And we were probably we were one hundred and fifty grand in probably within six or seven months. Six or seven months and get ready for this. We didn't even go through discovery yet. Can you believe that? Dan,

What I'm talking about is the labor.

Just the depositions we probably deposed I want to say, twenty people and each one, Oh my god. I had no idea because both attorneys go. I mean the depositions were crazy. I mean maybe three to five hours, depending on who it was. I mean, just getting through that was month. It was absolutely nuts. But I'm not going to get into that case. So when we talk about an attorney getting helping us out, I mean I think

Tell everybody what you did.

I mean, really, coming out with your law degree, you got into what, Yeah, I was.

A consumer fraud class action attorney. That's primarily so. I mean, class action attorneys kind of have a not great reputation because it's like that's where you get those coupons in the mail saying you get ten dollars off your next oil change because there was this class action settlement and all that. But really, you know, you got to ask yourself, are we okay with huge companies basically taking fifty sixty bucks off of every client or every customer.

No?

And really, what I think is the reason for class action isn't necessarily to get everybody rich, not just to punish the cost.

To stop it, like because otherwise, what is the incentive for companies to not do that? Because there isn't one, right, Yeah, because you can't. Individuals aren't going to sue them over sixty bucks.

But on that side of the ballgame, I mean you're out there going after these companies, I mean, how do you you're representing sometimes what thousands? Tens of thousands?

What I mean?

Usually, Yeah, the class most classes are quite large. If it's a national company, they're going to have you know, thousands of people in them.

In the bottom line is what your job was. I mean as one of the attorneys. I mean basically you're just putting the whole thing together. I mean all you're doing is working at a desk with paperwork for the most part.

Yeah, lots and lots of paperwork. You got to go through probably customer service records. So like if we had a case like, okay, give us all access to every customer service note you've ever made for the last five years, well as you can imagine that, it's thousands and thousands.

Of thousands and thousands, it had to be boring quite frankly.

Right, Yeah, that's why you got out of it.

So, but how much time and money would go into it?

So let's say, I don't know, take one of the medium size once or one of the larger how much did the firm basically invest in it? And I'm talking about advertising to the class, I'm talking everything.

Oh yeah, it would be nothing to put five million in it.

Yeah, it could be millions, yep, for sure, easily and before you even know, right, So, as it's telling Dimetrie like you've got to get that class certified, and that's not easy. You got to show he is a turds similarly similarly situated, and defense attorneys just live off of showing how all these people did not suffer the same injury.

Right, It's very hard to do, actually, and.

The reason they want to do that is that everybody needs a separate attorney in a separate court case.

Yeah, we can't have a class here. All these people got to be individually investigated.

Oh my goodness, that sounds like just so much work, honestly, But you're right, there's nothing. And I'll say this, if any, if if any attorney that we deal with, and we have great attorneys and refer list, but if any really kind of aligned with the show. Really, your background is quite incredible because when you came out of law school, seriously, you wanted to go after these injustices. You wanted to go after the bad guys. But I mean, you know,

Yeah, it's you know, it's being alligator is a it's different.

It's a pretty stressful life.

So yeah, it's some people are really up for that kind of adrenaline and that kind of fighting every day wasn't really my Did you.

Take a lot from that going into a state planning because you're one of the best out there.

You got it?

I mean yes, I mean so we had a case that was not a class action, that was just a fight between a couple of families that had a business together, that was a couple of generations in and it was not It was one of the lest pleasant cases ever did because we had all the personal emotions involved on top of the business stuff.

So is there a lot of times in estate planning?

And I promised Garama, I'm going to get back to you John, and then Deputy Bo's got to comment out of one line open three ord th Martino, we talk about family businesses of state planning. I'm not going to say who, but we know somebody that basically owns automotive shops and they have multiple locations and it's all one family, but different ones run and own each location. It's kind

Yeah, you want to be thoughtful about that, for sure. But closely held businesses are a real challenge.

Especially when you go into business with someone. I guess really it doesn't matter family member or not. It's a marriage yep. In fact, for lack of the better words, that's all marriage is. I mean, you're entering into a business. I'm being serious. So when people come to you, whether they're coming to you for a simple will, I liked how I saw.

That look from Susanna. It's a business.

So when people come to you and they sit down, I mean, generally what's happening.

You're gonna go, okay, you know, why are you here.

They're going to say, hey, we just had a baby, or we haven't updated our will forever. You kind of go over their needs while we're there, and then I assume at that point you kind of sit on it, you think of different suggestions, then you approach them with your ideas and have kind of a Q and a yeah.

I mean we like to just tell you here's your options.

I mean, you talked about avoiding probate and does everybody need a trust earlier?

And you know, I really don't take that position. We do a lot of.

Plans that have no trust planning in them at all. It just comes down to your priorities. Do you care about avoiding courts? Some people don't, you know, probate process unlike litigation, where it's like this is going to be a fight, there's no this is a fight, but it probates. A lot of probates are not fights, right, it's not necessarily critical that every single person avoided I.

Get to But but at that point when you give them the different options, I mean, you're not going to be billing someone hourly to write the will. You already understand what they want. You're going to say, hey, that's going to be this, and you're going to tell them then if you want to go to the next step and do this, it's going to be that.

So I mean, it's not I.

Don't want to say ala carte, but in a way it is ala carte or different options, correct, and then you give them a flat rate price.

Now, what wouldn't be a flat rate price.

So there is some stuff you stay on the funding side. And by that I mean like, Okay, you've got the estate plan and now, like we've talked about, like you could have an estate plan with all this beautiful trust planning in it, and then you've got your life insurance policy directed at a person and maybe you didn't want that.

So getting I want to go back to the trust.

So Suzanna and I have had one forever, but we have not moved everything into it.

It really is kind of a pain. Do you do this for people?

Not only can you set up the trust the way they want it set up, or tell them how it should be set up however you want to look at it, but do you actually go the other step and offer, once again ala carte, if you want me to move the house into the trust, I'll do that. If you want me to look at the operating documents for this particular business and get all of that in there, So that's moved into the trust.

Do you go to that level?

Yeah, I mean when we set up trust, we usually put the house in there for them. Well, usually take care of that. We have signed the personal property, we sign business interests into the trust, so I'll do it all.

We don't do. I mean, it's not like your Schwab accounts, like you got to do that, right.

Yeah, but once again, that's not going into the trust.

Why because they're iras.

It would be beneficiary, wouldn't it. Well, no, we've got okay, I don't mind talking about it. We've at multiple accounts I call trading accounts. Some of them my day trade, other ones long term stuff. It doesn't matter. But there's lots of assets and they just sit there and I do what I do with them.

I trust because I mean, if they're not IRA's, they should be in the trust because the trust covers the incapacity events too.

Well, okay, I get that part, which we did do in the trust. I mean, you know, we named our daughter of you know, if if we can't think for ourselves, basically, she's over our health and our financial But but if we die, if they're the beneficiary, why would that go into his trust? Just like a bank account. Why would our personal bank account, I'm asking.

It depends on have you put any restrictions in place on how she can access that money?

If we're no, we haven't, okay.

So if you have a car at this point in both of our kids' lives, they split the money, they can do whatever they want with it.

So probably not.

You probably would name her as a beneficiary again, like she's using powers of attorney if you are incapacitated to access to those funds.

Yeah, I mean those sometimes you hit barriers with those.

Okay, So it's not the best way to do. It's basically what you're saying, yeah, okay, and you don't know everything.

Like why wouldn't you put it in there?

Well, okay, why And I asked that same question, why wouldn't you put a checking account in there? I mean, it's kind of crazy to go out and rename our joint account, you know, Major Trust one, two three, whatever it is, and now we're writing checks on Major Trust instead of Mark or Suzanne Major when we could just name a beneficiary for the cash. So I don't see the difference between that and the trading accounts.

That's that was just my logic.

Because in a checking account, as you mentioned, a lot of times, the banks will say, okay, well set up this trust account for it's gona be a differ account. You're gonna have a different account number, different debit car, different checks. Yeah, a little bit of a pain to get that set up, but then it's no different. But most people don't want to go through that pain because it's like I got ten thousand bucks in my checking account in any even time.

It's not.

Yeah, it's not.

Yeah.

That's the other part on the checking I'm in your slave accounts. I assume you're not pulling money in and out every day, right, like a checking account. So I just feel like that is not quite as much of an issue must with most people's brokerage accounts.

Okay, no, I appreciate that. That sounds like solid advice, sir.

And Garamo, I promise, well, God, dang, I'm way over all right, Garamo, I'm gonna come back to you. John's got a question for Dan McKenzie. Real quick, John, just say it real quick so he can think about it. What is the question for John? All right, I'm sorry for Dan.

If my son, so my house isn't paid for I'm nearly seventy years old. So if I die, I want to be sure that my daughter gets my equity in my house. Is that just a basic wheel?

All right, hold on, we're gonna, We're gonna nothing's basic these days.

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All right, three O three seven one three eight two five five Because we do have a guest in Garamo. I promise I'm dying to hear that update. But I want to ask John real quick, John, what is your question? For Dan mackenzie?

So if I'm if I don't live long enough to pay my home off U and I want my daughter to get my equity, which is uh, you know it's around seven hundred thousand dollars. Wow, So how do I sure that she is going to get that? What kind of wheel would I need?

And I want to add something to that, Dan, and I the reason I am interjection. The interjection is this is very important. There's different ways to leave it, which I want you to talk about. But he's not bringing up tax consequences at all, and that's a very important part of his question.

Yeah, because you do want to make sure that she inherits today your death if possible, So we'll hold onto that house because you probably have a lot of gain built up in it and you want to avoid that capital gains tax. But that was not your question. Your question is how does she get the equity? If she's the one who in Arisida. It sounds like she's probably your only.

Child and that you are not married.

So you could leave it directly to her through a will. You could record a beneficiary deed transfer the house to her at your death. There's a couple of different ways to do it. But whatever you do, she is going to receive it. The mortgage company will require her to refinance as soon as they find out that it's not owned by you.

Anymore or sell it. Yeah, usually it gets so old. But yeah, yeah she will get the equity.

But the one way I do not want you to do and chime in, Dan if you don't agree with me, would be a quit claim before you die.

Yeah.

People do that a lot, and that does get rid of that capitol gains step up and then the person who receives the house potentially has to pay you know, six figures at capital gains tax they could have avoided.

Yeah, that's a big part, John, that is a massive part. We have so many people after the fact and there's not a damn thing you can do, Dan, that basically they quit claimed it thinking well, I want to give it to my daughter, I don't have any other kids or whatever, and before they die they quit claim it, and then all of a sudden when they died, like you said, you know, of if they got a million bucks in equity, they'redihed out one hundred and fifty grand.

They didn't have to.

Yeah, we've seen people around here that bought their houses for one hundred thousand dollars or less and they're now a million bucks.

Right, So, John, you got any other questions?

I know, No, that that pretty much ansed it.

Do you have a will set up? Do you have anything like that?

No, I don't. I don't have anything.

Right now, you should really call Dan.

I mean, you're talking seven hundred thousand dollars to be quite honest. Okay, I'm going to say something, and there might be two rules of thought, because I don't know how much money people's kids have. But you know, I'm an only child. I paid for my parents live in Florida. I paid for all their stuff. I paid for their estate planning because ultimately all it does is benefit me,

I just don't know why. Do you see that a lot?

It certainly happens, and it is weird that that is the weird part about state planning is the people making the plan and the people receiving the benefits of the plan are not the same people.

So, yeah, they might have a difference of opinion.

Yeah, but you're still going to be dealing with the parents in most cases.

Yeah, you just got to be careful as the lawyer receiving money from somebody who isn't the client, that they understand that.

Well, it's not even so that's not even how I did it.

My parents found somebody that they were comfortable with that my dad dealt with professionally in his life at one point, and they did the planning. I just paid the bill on it. Yeah, I mean, that's more or less what I'm saying. I see what you're saying, though, that could get a little tricky. If I called you up and said, you know, my parents are fine, they live over here in Centennial, and I want you to draft all this up and I'll have them sign it. I mean, that

To have what somebody else drafted?

Yeah?

So no, no, no. So let's say I come to you and I say here's what I want, Yeah, and I and I basically create their trust for me, and then I tell you I'm going to go out and get it signed.

I mean they're gonna have Yeah, they're going to have to execute it. They're gon have to have capacity and not be pressured. And you know, there's no undue influence, there's they know what they're signing, like there's so that is the limitation on it. But yeah, as the attorney, if that situation came up, I'd be like, I got to meet your parents.

It is.

So it's really anybody out there. Any questions you have after the show. First of all, you can find Dan on a refer list. He's been in studio with us for years and years and years. But the phone number eight three three CEO plans, if you haven't had the will looked at, if you don't know, if you need a trust, if you just had a baby, if your kids just turned over eighteen, there's so many reasons to go back and look at things.

Did you know this?

And once again Dan, if I say this incorrect, but I'm basing this off, calls people forget to update the trust. And let's say Uncle Fred's on the trust and he gets one tenth of whatever, and you don't update it. When Uncle Fred dies, uncle Fred's kids will end up getting that portion.

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All right, three oh three seven one three eight two five five. I've got to tell you about Wave eight.

Look.

Tom started this. This is one of those companies. Tom Martino, by the way, he's a very wealthy man. If you didn't know that, yes, and I don't. He hates when I say stuff like this.

He goes.

People don't want to Yeah, they do. He flies a helicopter. You know how many people privately fly a helicopter in the state of Colorado.

Two? Okay, so let let let's talk real world.

Who's the other one?

I have no idea.

I have no clue, Dimitri, I really don't know. So he got sick and tired of paying what he refined first who as a middleman? So he literally years ago, right about towards the end of COVID, he started diving into this venture and he started Wave eight. And what Wave eight is basically financial advisors, but it's in house most financial advisors. Ask yours, I don't care who it is right now, Ask your financial advisor, you know, do

Why do that? No one should have to do that.

So we started Wave eight and you can call him up, you can talk to him. Your money is going to be with Tom's money. Anytime you want to talk about your investment and talk to Tom about it, you can talk to.

His entire firm down there about it. They'll update you every.

Month on what's going on with your money if you want. They are literally changing the way people invest. It's direct investment management, customized to you for every client. No one's the same you might not be because of your age or your financial situation. You might not be right for certain investments. They're gonna talk to you about it, and they're gonna talk to you all the time on it. They're committed to doing that, and it's an incredible company.

You know it.

The man's going to take care of your money better than anybody else out there.

All right.

I said my piece with that, and I mean it. I mean every word of that. I have personally known. Time coming on thirty years, I do want to finish up with Gierra Guillermo.

Notice how I had to look at my fanatical spelling to get it right. But Guerremo, here's the bottom line. This roofer came out. He took five thousand dollars from you. He's only paid five hundred back. You called a while back. You've got a court case coming up. I assume it's small claims, right, correct?

Yes?

Do you have the PaperWorks? You have the two forty eight and do you have the two fifty the PDF two forty eight and two fifty?

Uh bottom? Since two fifty did EF two fifty.

Two forty eight? The instructions? What questions? What w what specific questions do you have?

Well?

I guess one of the first one is to well. In one of them, it says J of the JDS document two fifty, it says visual officer, a magistrate or judge may may hear your case. I thought a judge wasn't going to hear the case overall? Well, so do I have to do?

Well?

It doesn't matter. I mean, generally most counties Denver ironically is not one, but most, including Douglas County a rapo, you generally have to go to mediation first. But if he doesn't show up, none of that's going to matter. And if you don't agree to what he says. Let's say he does show up for mediation and he goes, well, i'll pay him five hundred bucks a month. You're going to look at the mediator and said he already agreed to that six months ago, when he hasn't done it,

No?

I mean a magistrate is employed by the they're they're not really an official judge. They are employed by the judiciary to help alleviate the caseload of the judges. You have to consent to using them or if they are assigned. If it is assigned to a magistrate, you can ask that to be assigned back to a judge. But a lot of magistrates are great, and uh yeah, it's no you know, I got some magistrates who are great and some judges aren't.

Yeh exactly, so so really it doesn't matter. But with small claims on that form, they're basically telling you if you go the route of small claims. You're agreeing right now. It could be a magistrate. So I highly doubt they're going to let you change it. But I have no idea why you would.

Gerimo, is that is that magistrate judge's name Garland?

Well we'll see the thing is that?

Okay?

So I went in there. I went to the Adams County Justice Center, submitted all the paperwork. They gave me, this stalk me and the sit for you for me to review, and one of like, I think it's like it's like the instructions but it's a different name, but it's just information for plaintiffs and small quaims. Yeah, and it says on J, ABC, BF whatever through J And then it just threw me off on that part. I just thought, I guess overall, we're just going to be

Yeah, mediation is generally generally first, just go up. I don't think he's going to show up, and then basically you'll go in front of a judge. In fact, if he doesn't show up, you should ask some mediator. If the judge is there, if she can or he can go in and basically just get the judgment right then and there if they don't show up.

But then the hard part comes. I got to put you on hold because I'm running.

Give him my email, Kelly, give Gierramo my email, because getting the judgment when someone doesn't show up, and that happens all the time, that's the easy part. Then, believe it or not, you're gonna have to start all over again. And what I mean by that is now you've got to go serve him with interrogatories and you got to track him down, and then you got to serve him again.

Then you got to go back in front of.

That judge and you got to tell the judge to hold him in contempt because he had a certain amount of time to fill out the interrogratories. Then guess what, You start all over again. Then you take that contempt order and go serve them and then you bring it back to the judge.

That's the good part.

Once you go through all that, most likely he's going to have a bench warrant out for him for forty five hundred bucks. So if he gets picked up speeding or robbing a liquor store, or gets arrested at all, he's going to sit into the can. He's gonna sit in the can until you pay it. That's just the way it works. I gotta take this.

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