In this episode, Justin and Jared break down the truths and myths about trusts. We discuss how trusts can help with estate planning by avoiding probate, protecting assets, and managing distributions if you become incapacitated. You’ll also hear how trusts compare to wills and where people often misunderstand their role in a financial plan.

For more information and show notes visit: https://www.bwmplanning.com/post/110

Connect With Us:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BrownleeWealthManagement/?ref=py_c

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/brownlee-wealth-management/

Disclosure: This information is for informational purposes only. Nothing discussed during this video should be interpreted as tax, legal, or investment advice. If you have questions pertaining to your specific situation, please consult the appropriate qualified professional

Welcome to Financial Planning for Oil and Gas Professionals, hosted by certified financial planners Justin Brownlee and Jared Machen of Brownlee Wealth Management, the only podcast dedicated to those of you in the oil and gas profession to help you optimize investments, lower future taxes, and grow your wealth.

Learn more and subscribe today@brownlee wealthmanagement.com.

Welcome back to another episode of FPO, ING Financial Planning for Oil and Gas Professionals.

This week on the podcast, we're going to talk about trust accounts.

We're going to talk about truths versus myths and Justin, a couple housekeeping items.

Before we get into this episode, shout out to our listeners.

Got to say, we got this idea for this episode from a listener, so thanks to them for doing that other piece of housekeeping.

A listener also gave us feedback on our 529 episode.

We misspoke.

So.

So or probably it was me who misspoke.

So I'm gonna walk it back.

So one of the things in our prior episode, we talked about 529 distributions, me rooting against, you know, them because if your kid gets a scholarship, there's, you know, there's penalties associated with that.

There's not penalties associated with that.

So if, so if your child gets a scholarship, you could take a distribution up to the scholarship amount.

That's penalty free.

Right?

So that's kind of just a good point of clarification.

But again, if you take the distribution and let's say, you know, you get a $50,000 scholarship, the portion of earnings are still income, subject to income taxable, they're penalty free, but they're still subject to taxes.

And again, that's income taxes.

Compare that to a brokerage account.

If your brokerage account is mostly appreciation, that's going to be subject to cap gains, which cap out currently at 23.8%, income tax brackets, 39%.

So again, more valuable.

And I'm less concerned about Ellis getting a full ride scholarship to Princeton and how that might impact overfunding.

My529.

Great point.

But brokerage account, you're subjecting yourself to cap gains versus income tax.

So appreciate the listener getting back to us on that.

Just wanted to shovel that.

Throw that out there.

So with that behind us, Justin, one more housekeeping item we're going to introduce like a little micro segment, I think.

What are we calling?

Are we calling the surprise segment?

This is going to be a surprise segment.

So I'm just going to introduce a topic, a question to you, Jared, and you're just going to give your 32nd or 62nd opinion on it.

Okay.

And to be clear, I have no idea what this is.

So, listeners, you are going to be as surprised as I am.

So we'll see.

We'll see where it takes us.

And this really is out of left field, but here's the thing.

We are recording this in August.

We are a week and a half away from the official start of the college football season.

I think our listeners would all appreciate to know that the famed Kansas State Wildcats are actually kicking off the college football season with the game in Ireland versus Iowa State.

So interesting tidbit there.

We have Farmageddon is the name of that rivalry, Kansas State versus Iowa State, one of the greatest names of a rivalry game really, in all of sports.

I would say, unfortunately, it's.

It's not the most relevant rivalry, but the name is wonderful.

So we are starting off the college football year not this Saturday, but what is it, August 23rd or something in Ireland, that is the first game of the year.

So, Jared, this segment.

How much would you pay today if you knew guaranteed Arkansas would win a national championship in football, how much would you personally pay?

I think it depends on the year that number changes.

Right.

Mike?

The first number that popped in my head was $1,000.

Yeah.

But I think if Ellis were like 10 and could go to the game with me and enjoy it, that number is probably multiple.

Higher multiples higher than it currently is.

Yes.

So I would say at least $1,000.

But my guess is that's just for them to participate and win.

That is also doesn't cover.

I'm also thinking about, like, my ticket and airfare and travel.

So the total cost of me experiencing that because I'm not going to pay $1,000 for Arkansas to go to the national championship and win it and also not go to the national championship.

That's right.

So, you know, I'm thinking a total cost of like 3,000, with a thousand being what I pay for them to win it.

And then if Ellis is, you know, eight or nine, that number is probably double.

Triple, maybe.

Yeah, I like that.

Okay.

I love it.

Okay, awesome.

Well, let's get into it.

Justin, let's talk about trusts.

Right?

So I think, you know, trusts are kind of nebulous.

Clients will sit down to start their estate planning process.

And, you know, a lot of, like, automated software solutions will say, hey, do you want to do a will or a trust?

And a lot of people just get stuck there.

Yep.

Right.

Because there's.

They're pretty structurally different and there's a lot of interplay between the two and we'll kind of compare and contrast as we're going through trusts.

But also there's just a lot of like misinformation or kind of misconceptions about it.

But let's start with, let's start with the truth about trust.

Trusts can avoid probate.

What, Justin, what is probate and what does that mean?

And what nuance would you add there?

So that is true and it's really one of the larger benefits associated with trust.

So probate is, is the court process to pass down assets from a generation that has passed away to whoever they are leaving assets to.

And so let's just think about this.

In the state of Texas, probate is famously easier in Texas than other states.

It's also well known to be a little bit more affordable of a process to go through probate than other states.

So the conversation really the kind of prevailing thought there is it's okay to have a will in Texas.

If all of your assets are in Texas, it's okay to have a will.

You don't have to have a trust because a will, you still need to go through probate.

So if someone passes away and they have a bunch of property and assets and they have a will, they are going to go through probate to get in that probate process.

That court process is going to pass down their assets to whoever their assets are going to.

But a trust can completely bypass that.

And I just kind of accidentally made a commercial over the past minute for why you should maybe just have a will if you're in Texas.

I think it's important to mention to our listeners, I live in Texas.

I've been in Texas for, gosh, a decade about and I went the revocable living trust route.

So even though Texas has a better probate process than most, I still would rather skip it.

Love it.

Yeah, I mean, I, I definitely want to ask you at the end kind of how you came to make that decision because spoiler alert, I, I'm doing it now because I just recently moved to Texas.

I'm going the will based route.

So we could talk about that here in a little, I think one caveat and a point of nuance I want to add here.

Trust can avoid probate, but you can mostly avoid probate if you have a pretty simple balance sheet.

Right.

If you're an Exxon mobile retiree and you have a house, you have some cars, you have some bank accounts and you got $10 million spread across two brokerage accounts, an IRA and a Roth, you can actually make designations on those accounts at how they pass.

Right.

You can add a TOD designation to your bank accounts and brokerage accounts.

You can add IRA beneficiaries, you can add beneficiary deed transfers for your houses and property.

Right.

So you can actually spell out in these things and because you've spelled them out on the, on the specific assets, how they're disposed of that you're passing, those aren't subject to probate and nuance here.

Those actually, you know, whatever you put.

So whatever I make my IRA beneficiaries that actually it doesn't matter what I put in the trust, what I put on the IRA supersedes that.

So again, you'll probably have small amounts of artwork, jewelry, you know, personal effects that'll still kind of be subject.

So I don't, I don't think, you know, even if you have a simple balance sheet, I don't think you'll exempt everything without a trust.

But directionally you can accomplish most of what you want with the correct beneficiary designations on those accounts if you can add them.

And I know there's a piece of in Texas, depending on the estate size or the number, the dollar value of assets exposed to probate, you might have an even simpler process.

You might even get abbreviated probate.

And Texas probate is infamously or famously not infamous because famously easy to manage.

So yeah, I would say trusts can avoid probate, but you can directionally accomplish some of the similar things with a will based estate plan.

Justin, what else is true about trust?

Yep, I think I would reiterate what you just said.

You alluded to this.

It's important for our listeners to know that when you list a beneficiary, for example, on your retirement account, I mean that is effectively a contract.

So your beneficiary on again let's say a retirement account, that is going to be exactly who gets that money.

So it's important to do that correctly.

It's.

And the reason I mentioned that you don't want to go through the process, create a new will, create a new revocable living trust, you have a whole new estate plan.

And then let's say that you are 54 years old and you went through a divorce two years ago and your maybe your ex spouse is still the primary beneficiary listed on a retirement account.

You want to make sure that you're very thoughtful to ensure that there's alignment between your listed beneficiary and what you actually want.

Yeah, no, I agree.

It's alignment Alignment is huge.

Right.

Like all the, especially one of the problems with trust is there's a funding process.

So you can't just make a trust.

And we'll get to this later.

But like, if you make a trust but don't put anything in the trust, you might be able to get into the trust after the fact with what's called a testamentary will, which we'll talk about later or pour over will.

But then you go through probate, so you've got, you've kind of null.

Avoided that spot.

So the next point I would say is trust can protect privacy.

Right.

So one of the benefits is wills become private.

You know, wills kind of can become public record trusts.

Again, don't you know, because they're, because you don't go through the probate process.

It's a government process.

You kind of have some insulation there.

I mean, so nuance, I would add, there is, you know, you want to think about titling of your property, right.

So if, so if you say, hey, I'm going to, I'm going to set up the Machen family trust and then I'm going to have a bunch of, if I have a bunch of real estate property that's owned by the Machen family trust, it's pretty easy to look up in real estate records who is the owner of the, of that property.

So if you have a real estate portfolio, you might want to think about and your goal is just kind of, you know, preserving your privacy there.

And there's property records that have kind of some data about who the property owner is.

You might think about the naming convention you use.

But generally trusts definitely offer more privacy because it's not going through the process and not being made federally available.

That's a great point.

And that can matter a great deal to some people.

It also may not matter to most obviously if you have a really substantial estate and no one knows who you are and you go through probate, well, you may not care.

And then I think that's also a good point.

Do you want to be findable at the end of the day, if your house is held in your name and again, you might care about this.

You also might not.

But if, if you own your home in your own name, well, someone can just go to the county, you know, assessor's office, look up the property search and they can, they can figure out where you live.

And again, is that a bad thing?

Well, maybe not, but that's something for you to consider.

Yeah.

Other, you know, thing that's true about trusts they can provide asset protection.

Justin, I think the way that's worded implies it can also not provide asset protection.

What would you add there?

Well, I think the key distinction there.

Is this a revocable trust or is it an irrevocable trust?

Let's also try to speak in the most plain language we can.

Is this a trust where you still have total control over the assets, or is this a trust where you put an asset in there and you no longer have control?

If you truly do not have any control over the asset that you placed in a trust, or we're talking about an irrevocable trust, there is likely going to be some asset protection with that because you don't have control.

But no, if you just put property in a revocable living trust and you still have total control over that property, don't, don't expect to get a whole lot of asset protection on that.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

And then the other thing too is right, like nuance, I would add here, if you want control.

But protection, depending on what the asset is, an LLC might be a better way to accomplish that.

Right.

Trust, I would say principally are an estate planning vehicle and they can be an asset protection vehicle.

But depending on the type of asset, trust may or may not be the best way to protect that asset.

That's a great point.

And then obviously, if there is a situation where you are sued, the opposing counsel is going to try and find a way to pierce the veil of whatever you put it in.

So that is kind of a much larger can of worms that I don't think we should get into on this episode necessarily.

Give me 10 seconds for the, for the listeners who don't know, what does it mean to pierce the veil?

So let's say that you do own something in an LLC and you are sued.

Well, the opposing attorneys could say that even though these assets or this property is held in an llc, it should still be.

What's the right term here?

Gettable for the opposing.

Includable.

Yeah.

And so there are, there, there's absolutely an element where one, you do want to have a thoughtfully, a mindful, just a very well thought out plan to protect your assets.

But there's also an element where if you were to ever get sued, there is going to be a little bit of a battle on that front.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, let's get into the next benefit.

So trusts can manage assets during incapacity.

Right.

I guess a better way to word that would be trusts can articulate your wishes for asset Distribution after you're in capacity.

Justin, what would you kind of add there?

What nuance would you clarify?

Yep.

So if the trust creator becomes incapacitated, the successor trustee can manage the trust assets without court intervention.

Gosh, I think maybe it's worth just mentioning.

There is, you know, certainly reason on this general topic to make sure that you have appropriate power of attorney measures established within your estate plan.

And especially I think that's a good topic to think through if you are maybe not at retirement age or older, but you're more thinking through, hey, my parents are getting older.

What is their power of attorney situation?

And so Jared, what would you add there?

Yeah, I mean, just kind of additional clarification.

Financial power of attorney authorizes people to make financial decisions on your behalf.

Right.

And so I would say what the benefit of trust being managing assets.

During incapacity, you get a greater functionality and determination of what can be distributed and when.

Right.

With, with financial power of attorney, you don't really spell out the terms of distribution.

You're just giving somebody permission to make decisions.

Right.

In a trust, you could say, hey, here the, here are who the trustees and the decision makers are.

But on top of that, you can also make bequests or certain parameters to which, where is the money distributed, at what interval?

So I would say financial power of attorney really covers handing off the baton so this person can make decisions.

So with a trust, you hand off the baton of, hey, you can make decisions and it's A, over this trust, but also B, I can include specific parameters and bounds of disposition.

That's good.

One interesting point of clarification here.

Right.

So trusts can manage assets during capacity.

You want to be really clear in how your trust documents are written.

Right.

There's a vernacular in a lot of trust distribution.

There's a vernacular in a lot of trust.

It's called hems, Health, education, maintenance and support.

And depending on who your trustee is and what they expect the lifestyle of the beneficiary to be, they might come to very different conclusions about a $80,000 car purch for a beneficiary for a 19 year old.

Right.

So, you know, so like you can spell out how you want it articulated, but again, also it's, it's, it matters who you appoint as your successor trustee.

And you can select somebody from your family, you can select a friend you're close to or if you, you know, you kind of want a third party to kind of mediate that or, you know, it, it could be a contentious position.

If you have three Kids inheriting your assets and one of them is the trustee, they kind of have.

It creates a weird power dynamic.

So also you can nominate a corpor trustee that's a corporation to kind of be the independent third party.

But you know, again, trust may spell it out, but the interpretation of how it's spelled out could, could result in different distribution plans depending on, you know, what they're trying to accomplish, how much liability they're managing, their process for approving.

Yep, that's well put.

Okay, so final thing that's true about trust is you can control distributions over time.

Justin, we talked a little bit about that earlier, but what does that mean and how does that different from, from what we can do in a will?

So if you have your assets in a will, I think it's just really important to be mindful of how old are your children and how capable are your children of inheriting significant assets.

So, you know, and this is really true across all spectrums of wealth.

If you have a child that is 18, 21 and you know an event happens and they are now inheriting money, well, whether they're inheriting 200,000, 2 million or 20 million, those are all really big numbers to a 21 year old.

And so with a will you need to kind of understand, hey, do I have kids that are at an age where they may not be ready?

If so, there may be a reason to either go the trust route or just have springing testamentary trusts that have some rules in place that specify my 22 year old son or daughter is not going to have free reign over these assets.

They need to turn 30 or 35, whatever the age that you want to specify.

They need to turn a certain age before they get liquidity, before they get access.

And so a trust does give significantly more just, just control to a parent in terms of when is my child going to actually have access to these assets.

Yeah, and one thing to call out, right, for our average oil and gas retiree who's got the generous match with the pension and skews pre tax assets.

Remember we've talked in other episodes about the IRA tax time bomb, Right.

So non spouse beneficiaries that aren't designated beneficiaries have to the stretch no longer exists.

So you have to take the balance over the next 10 years.

So if you have a, you know, let's say you have a $10 million portfolio, half is in brokerage assets and half is in qualified, half is in retirement plans, your kids are going to need to deplete the IRAs in 10 years.

Right.

So giving them free range of the of the brokerage accounts or what's in the trust might not be necessary because the IRA legislation mandates that you take that income on an annual basis.

Right.

So you also want to think about your order of operations of and ideally you have small IRAs because that's a, you know, probably not a tax optimal asset to inherit as a pre tax ira.

So you kind of want to think through, okay, what does the cash flow plan not only look like for me but for my future heirs?

Because that might determine the parameters you set forth.

Because there's hey, how much competence does that person have and at what age thresholds do I trust them to have more competence?

But also what does their distribution plan look like in light of how tax law exists?

That's right.

And I'm just going to mention this real briefly.

And the only thing I'll mention there is pretty shocking to see the statistics of how many people inheriting money one have no idea what they're inheriting, where the assets are located, how to get them.

But then even those who do, there's still vast majority of people inheriting money.

Have a ton of questions on what do I need to do?

What's the process here?

What's the protocol?

So yeah, the entire topic, it's just something that we can dive into much more.

Yeah, certainly.

Okay, so the only nuance I'm going to add controlling distributions, you touched on this, but I'm just going to articulate it, just put a fine point on it.

So you don't actually need a trust to set parameters of age based distributions.

You can use what's called a testamentary trust, which basically you have a will and in the will it spells out at your death a trust is created.

Right.

Spring up from the will and testament.

So your entire existence you only have a will and at your death or second to die death for spouses or however it's spelled out in your will, a trust is created.

So again, trusts are how you make these distributions.

But if the only reason you're skewing hey I want a trust is so that I can make these age based distributions, you might be able to accomplish that with a will based estate plan with a springing trust provision.

Yep.

Awesome.

Justin, let's talk about some of the myths related to trusts I think this one is just so important, and we've kind of touched it tangentially earlier.

Our trusts are not an estate plan.

What would you say about that?

So they're not an estate plan.

It's also possible that you could have a trust.

And, Jared, it's possible that it could literally play no role in your estate plan if it's not funded and.

And stuff.

But I think the points that we've discussed here, trusts do not tell me who can make decisions on my behalf if I'm incapacitated.

Power of attorney is relevant there.

What medical preferences do I have?

Medical poa, health care directives.

Trust is not always going to say who is the guardian of my minor children, who gets access to my medical records.

And so I think that the point in this is you don't just go create a trust and think, okay, my estate plan is done.

You need every facet of the estate planning process complete.

Yeah.

HIPAA's authorizations, guardianship, medical directives, power of attorney, provisions for digital assets, because I don't think those are probate property.

So again, all of the trusts might be part of an estate plan, and you might use a will.

Even if you have a trust, you'll probably also have a will.

And we could talk about that here in a little.

But I think an estate plan is a comprehensive plan and strategy of what happens and who's in charge.

At the end of my life, Justin, trusts are only for the wealthy.

Is that a myth?

I'm glad we got to this point because, Jared, this is really the single point that I wanted to talk about most.

This is just emphatically not true.

And I think this is the biggest misconception in society.

So how many times have you heard the fund, oh, that's a trust fund kid, or that's a trust fund, baby.

That can mean a million different things.

It could mean you are just incredibly wealthy, or it could mean that you're really not wealthy at all.

It's really just a vehicle and an option within your estate plan.

And I mean, you could be a trust fund kid with one trust with a very small amount of assets.

You could be a trust fund kid with one trust with an enormous amount of assets.

You could also be a trust fund kid with dozens of different trusts established for different purposes.

And so, yeah, it's.

Maybe this is a bad example, Jared, but also maybe it's a really good example.

You know how sometimes TikTok financial advisors will say, like, a Roth IRA is a good investment?

Well, a Roth IRA is not an investment, it's a tax registration in a kind of a bucket that can hold investments.

So I would kind of compare it to that.

Anything else you'd add before moving on here?

No, I would just say, I think like you said, hey, it matters what you are solving for.

And if your goal is privacy, you don't have to have a big estate.

And I would just say the costs of estate planning have kind of come down.

I think the cost of a lot of things have come down.

So, like, maybe 50 years ago, that was more true because trustee fees and the cost of creating a trust was so materially different.

But like, in this day and age, you know, mileage may vary.

So if you're going to find that.

If you're going to find somebody to make a trust for you for $200, I probably wouldn't recommend that trust based on what I know.

But if you, you know, you don't need a ton in terms of assets to do that.

So, Justin, let's go on to the.

Go on to the next thing.

So once I create a trust, I lose control of my assets.

I think that's a big myth.

I think it's a big myth because we delineated, there's revocable trusts where you determine the disposition of your assets but still retain control and the ability to revoke whatever you declare.

If I say, hey, Ellis, you're going to get the money at this date, this date, this day and five years from now, I learned something about them that makes me change those parameters.

I can do that.

Irrevocable trust, it's kind of set in stone.

Those decisions become memorialized, and there's not as much change I could make.

What would you add to there?

I think that's a really good point.

And so you don't necessarily lose control of your assets.

Now, one of the reasons you have a trust in the first place is more control after you die.

So another point to discuss there.

But yeah, what else before we move on?

No, I think.

Right.

Like when you say, hey.

When you say, hey, oh, I'm going to put it in a trust.

Even in irrevocable trust, I lose control of my assets.

Yes, you lose control of your assets today, but the reason you built the trust in the first place is to spell out the parameters for distribution well beyond your lifetime.

And if you're funding an irrevocable trust, you know, there is less control than an irrevocable trust.

But it's probably a legacy planning, estate planning opportunity.

If you're funding these Irrevocable trusts.

And if it's a legacy estate planning thing, you're memorializing decision future generations.

So I would actually argue even if you're funding an irrevocable trust, you're setting parameters for future beneficiaries.

So you're relinquishing control today, but it's giving you future control in a weird way, if that makes sense.

I also think the idea that trust will reduce my income taxes or that it's an income tax play, I think.

That'S pretty much a huge myth, maybe some small exceptions.

Pretty big myth though.

Yeah, I mean, right.

Like revocable trust, like it doesn't offer income tax advantages.

You know, revocable trusts generally have the tax ID of the person and because you can functionally make decisions, it's not excluded from your estate.

So all the assets there.

So I mean one caveat is, you know, if you're a trust may not reduce income taxes, but it could help from an estate planning estate tax perspective.

So there could be, could help in a huge way on that.

So like, you know, trusts can impact taxes, but I don't think estate income taxes aren't really the reason you fund a trust.

But if you gift a bunch of income producing assets into an irrevocable trust, then it could indirectly reduce.

Yeah, but that's a very niche application.

But if you're really.

And again you're relinquishing control so there's a trade off to be analyzed there.

But if that's why you're doing it.

So technically you can, you know, a trust can reduce income taxes, but the, but the, the principal application and the primary use case of a trust.

That's not, that's not the case.

Yeah.

I think another way is like a quick example.

Let's say that someone is making $2 million a year and they have 40 million in assets.

So they're doing very, very well.

Well, setting up a trust isn't going to necessarily do anything on that $2 million, let's say it's W2 income but massive trust applications for future estate tax.

But those are just two very different things.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think one of the other big myths is trusts eliminate the need for a will.

So like we kind of laid out a false dichotomy at the beginning of this conversation.

A trust or a will, your trust.

Is just not going to be fully funded.

Almost vast majority of examples there's going to be some sort of asset that is just kind of left over.

And so having a pour over will to Catch those assets is almost certainly necessary.

Jared, we mentioned I have a revocable living trust.

I still have a pour over will in that.

Yeah.

And basically a pour over is kind of the catch all of, hey, if.

If there was anything I didn't put in my trust or it was difficult to put in my trust, that property goes into the trust, but with a will creates that.

So, so a will's a catch all.

So you never have a trust and no will.

Yep.

But you could have a will and no trust.

It's kind of the every.

Every.

Every rectangle is a square, but not every square is a rectangle.

Chicken or the egg?

Chicken or the egg.

Not a great example there, but I wanted to say it.

Okay, so I want to wrap up.

So one other final thing.

So trusts automatically protect.

Protect assets for Medicaid or nursing homes.

Just anytime, unequivocally, people say trusts do this or trust don't do this.

Probably, as you've learned from this conversation, there's nuance there.

It is rarely ever.

It always does or doesn't do and is really a function of the trust.

So there's specific types of irrevocable trusts that can help with Medicaid planning, I. E. You know, if you create a.

If you create a trust for your parents but still want them to have Medicaid eligibility, there's ways, or, you know, for.

Even for yourself, there's ways you could fund that, but just by setting up a trust, especially a revocable living trust, that doesn't guarantee it.

But Justin, I. I guess you don't have anything to add there, but want to wrap up with just curious, like, you know, 60 seconds or less.

So you chose to do a revocable living trust.

Curious how you came to make that decision and what kind of led you to do that.

So even if the probate process in Texas is easier than most, I still don't think it really makes sense to go that route when you could pursue the revocable living trust route.

And so I just kind of like the idea of just checking that box.

But then the real kicker, and this answers your question more succinctly, the real reason why I was pushed over to the edge to do that, it's just the thought of at some point I like the idea of owning property outside of Texas, and at that point it really behooves me to go more of the trust route rather than will.

And so that was kind of the kicker.

That said, okay, at some point I like the idea of doing this.

It's not true.

Now I don't have property outside of Texas, but I'm interested in that idea at some point and so that's what I did.

How would you answer?

Yeah, so I'm currently going through the process now since we just moved to Texas and again when you move every state is different so you have to update your estate plan.

So I had documents in Arkansas, but now I'm trying to get Texas documents.

There's kind of a question mark as to how long I'm going to be here and then also just kind of I'm a big fan of simplicity.

If I think about my balance sheet, the vast majority of assets, I can determine disposition via transfer on death designations and so I could see myself upgrading later but but it's less work I would say to fund a will than set up a will than a trust because I don't have to fund the trust or think about all that age based distributions.

And with a two year old at home I don't really know yet what disbursements I want to make and when.

So I could see myself upgrading to a trust but will seem like a best quick cost effective way to get something in place while I kind of develop further clarification about what is my balance sheet going to look like 10 years from now, how's my kid going to grow and develop and things like that.

Love it.

Cool.

Well, awesome.

That's where we will wrap it up.

Here again, massive shout out to our listeners today for giving us lots of great ideas and things to talk about.

If you have any ideas for future episodes or feedback on what we're doing, we always love to hear from y' all and we try to incorporate all of it into how we think about future episodes, what we create, and what we serve up for you.

So subscribe, share with a friend and send us an email podcastoundleywealthmanagement.com thanks.

See you next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the podcast.

You can subscribe or connect with us at brownlee wealth management.com or send ideas for future episodes to podcastrownleewealthmanagement.com thanks and we'll see you next time.

This podcast is for informational purposes only.

Nothing discussed during this show or episode should be viewed as investment, legal and tax advice.

If you have questions pertaining to your specific situation, please consult the appropriate qualified professional.