Asset Protection Is The Best Protection

I don't want listeners to believe that they can just sit back and relax and let the state take over after they die.

Because this plan that the state has involves something that I would like to call probate court, which is a place that you do not want your loved ones to end up in.

Probate court is the court that administers an individual's estate when they do not have a written plan.

Now, 70% of Americans do not have an end of life plan, which means that their families are going to have to go through this process.

And every adult listening tonight, you're over the age of 18, you need to have an end-of-life plan.

Now, many people believe that they have to be millionaires to create an end-of-life plan.

You have to be rich and famous.

But the probate threshold is $208,850.

OK, so if your assets are at that level or more, your estate will go through the probate process.

Now, many ask me, OK, well, I have my biggest asset is real estate, but I have a mortgage on it.

I may not have that much equity because there's a loan.

does that mean that I can avoid this probate process? And the answer is no, because in addition to real estate, your bank accounts, your vehicle, your retirement accounts, these are all included as part of your estate.

And if you're living in California, you most likely have assets that total that amount or more.

So it is important for you to create an end of life plan to avoid probate court.

But why is probate court so bad? Why do I get on the air every week for the last 10 years and warn you about the downfalls of probate court? Well, for many reasons, but let's start off with the fact that this process is not a free process.

When I say that the state of California has a plan for you, don't believe that this is a free plan because your family and your loved ones will have to hire, most likely, a probate attorney to help them through this process.

Now, probate attorneys, unlike... personal injury attorneys, they do not work contingency.

They do not negotiate a fixed fee in the sense that they say, okay, if we win, then we'll collect.

How does probate work operate? Like an attorney operate in that process? Well, there's two ways they can charge you and they usually charge you both fees.

One is statutory fees.

The next one is extraordinary fees.

So statutory fees, very straightforward.

It's based on the value of that person's estate.

An attorney can take a percentage.

So very quickly, I'll go over what that looks like.

I don't want listeners to believe that they can just sit back and relax and let the state take over after they die.

Because this plan that the state has involves something that I would like to call probate court, which is a place that you do not want your loved ones to end up in.

Probate court is the court that administers an individual's estate when they do not have a written plan.

Now, 70% of Americans do not have an end of life plan, which means that their families are going to have to go through this process.

And every adult listening tonight, you're over the age of 18, you need to have an end-of-life plan.

Now, many people believe that they have to be millionaires to create an end-of-life plan.

You have to be rich and famous.

But the probate threshold is $208,850.

OK, so if your assets are at that level or more, your estate will go through the probate process.

Now, many ask me, OK, well, I have my biggest asset is real estate, but I have a mortgage on it.

I may not have that much equity because there's a loan.

does that mean that I can avoid this probate process? And the answer is no, because in addition to real estate, your bank accounts, your vehicle, your retirement accounts, these are all included as part of your estate.

And if you're living in California, you most likely have assets that total that amount or more.

So it is important for you to create an end of life plan to avoid probate court.

But why is probate court so bad? Why do I get on the air every week for the last 10 years and warn you about the downfalls of probate court? Well, for many reasons, but let's start off with the fact that this process is not a free process.

When I say that the state of California has a plan for you, don't believe that this is a free plan because your family and your loved ones will have to hire, most likely, a probate attorney to help them through this process.

Now, probate attorneys, unlike... personal injury attorneys, they do not work contingency.

They do not negotiate a fixed fee in the sense that they say, okay, if we win, then we'll collect.

How does probate work operate? Like an attorney operate in that process? Well, there's two ways they can charge you and they usually charge you both fees.

One is statutory fees.

The next one is extraordinary fees.

So statutory fees, very straightforward.

It's based on the value of that person's estate.

An attorney can take a percentage.

So very quickly, I'll go over what that looks like.