What happens to your money after you die? This episode of The Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast goes right to the heart of this sensitive question – one that lots of us squeamishly avoid.

Co-hosts Josh Bretl of FSR Wealth Strategies and Dave Schmidt (aka Vulcan Schmidt Todd Lopez) move us out of denial into a clearer understanding of what estate planning looks like and how assets are classified among partners and beneficiaries.

You’ll also learn why trusts and wills are so important to ensuring the things we’ve worked hard for in our lifetimes will transfer smoothly (and as inexpensively as possible) to exactly those loved ones we wish to designate as heirs.

The topic doesn’t have to be ghoulish or sad and the alternative (burying our heads in the sand) can mean family arguments or an unintended windfall for Uncle Sam – something no one wants!

This info-packed episode will put you on the path to peace of mind and not a moment too soon. “Because wherever you go (when you die),” says Josh, “Your money’s not going with you!”

This episode was fueled by Cometeer Coffee, both iced and hot!

Don’t forget to sign up for the show’s new weekly email at this link and definitely come join the conversation at our new private Facebook group, which you can find here.

If you’d like to learn more about or listen to previous episodes of The Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast, you’ll find them here.

Click here to explore the services that FSR Wealth Strategies offers and schedule a discovery call with one of the team’s CPAs. When it comes to living your best life, it’s never too early to get started!

We're gonna talk a little bit about estate

planning 101 and what happens to your money when you die.

Because wherever you go, it's not going with you.

What happens to your money after you die?

This episode of the Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast

goes right to the heart of this sensitive question.

One that lots of us squeamishly avoid.

Josh moves us out of denial and into a clearer

understanding of what estate planning looks like, and how

assets are classified among partners and beneficiaries.

The topic doesn't have to be ghoulish or sad.

And the alternative, burying our heads in the

sand, can mean family arguments or an unintended

windfall for uncle Sam.

Something, nobody wants.

This infopacked episode will put you on the path to peace of

mind and not a moment too soon.

Because wherever you go when you die, says Josh, your

money's not going with you.

This is the Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast.

Your host, Josh Bretl, is the owner of FSR Wealth Strategies.

For the last two decades, he's been helping fine folks like

you thrive in their retirement.

Me?

I'm Dave.

Josh's longtime friend, co-host, and fan of free food.

I'm here to keep the show lighthearted and fun.

So now let me, let you, let me end this introduction

so you can enjoy show.

FSR Wealth Management is a registered investment advisor

located in Elmhurst, Illinois.

Information and opinions contained in this audio

have been arrived at by FSR Wealth advisors.

All information herein is for informational purposes

and should not be construed as investment advice.

It does not constitute an offer, a solicitation or recommendation

to purchase any security.

FSR is not providing legal, tax, accounting, or financial

planning advice in this audio.

These views are as of the date of this publication

and are subject to change.

Ready to roll?

I got to stop looking at pictures of cake.

Ooh.

Okay.

Why are you looking at pictures of cake?

Because social media has an amazing algorithm.

I've talked about this with my wife.

I don't know if I've talked about it with you, but our

generation they say is the generation that knows the

world but is super comfortable also with the internet.

We're the analog/digital crossover generation.

Correct.

And I'm always amazed at the big data, all the

data they say they have on us and how valuable our data is.

Oh yeah.

But if I scroll Facebook or Twitter or

Instagram, now they have these little video snippets, and

everyone has different videos.

And they get to know me so well, just the random videos I see.

And they're so weird.

Like ships, giant ships being rolled into the

ocean for the first time.

I can sit there and watch that for hours.

And then, or like decorating a donut.

I don't know why I watch these so much.

So before we started recording, I started looking

at the internet, and-

About cakes.

I was like, oh man.

Look at that cake.

It's beautiful.

Well, we would not be drinking Cometeer had it

not been for an Instagram ad.

We know we're being sold to, but sometimes it's just so worth it.

I'm sorry to be dilly dallying around as

we're starting to talk here.

Yeah, because we never dilly dally around here.

We're right to business.

So you had a nice vacation last week.

Yeah, I was off most of last week.

I took the kids to Michigan.

Michigan is my happy place.

My wife and I, we've been trying to do this since

the beginning of COVID.

I grew up, my parents had a place in Southwest Michigan.

This was our entire summer, we're always up there.

We're up at the Warren Dune State Park.

And as our kids have gotten older, they've been dying to go

up there more and more as well.

And during COVID we were up there all the time, because it

was the one thing you do, and it was a great, fun vacation.

And there's this little farm up there, and it's kind

of like an organic farm.

They have a restaurant where they do farm to table dinners

ad, and they on the weekends, they have their own farmer's

market on the farm property.

It's really kind of cool.

And a few years ago they started doing farm camps.

It's called Granor Farm.

G-R-A- N-O-R.

It's really a cool place.

They started doing these farm camps for kids ages five to 10.

And they are four day camps, half days.

And the kids get to learn to cook on the farm and harvest

vegetables and feed the chickens and do stuff like that.

All three of your kids were old enough to do it?

So we've been trying for two years.

And finally this is the third year we got them in.

Nice.

And so we went up last weekend and spent

a day with my parents.

My parents left, and we're in the house and

we had a week up there.

We'd get up, do something in the morning, we go

to the beach or go pick blueberries or do something.

We'd drop the kids off at farm camp, Missy and I would

go and have a wonderful lunch at one of the variety

of restaurants up there.

And we'd come back with the kids up, do something at

night, it was a fun time.

It was a great week.

Kids loved it.

Awesome.

That is so cool.

Now, didn't your kids also recently milk a cow?

They did also.

That was 4th of July, we went to a dairy farm and they learned

about, I don't know if I'd recommend that one as much so

I won't mention that name, but let's just say, they said it

was kid oriented and the farmer who was super knowledgeable,

and the farm looked gorgeous, but my eight year old didn't

need a 15 minute dissertation on artificial insemination.

Oh, I suppose not.

There's no demo of that.

So it was a little bit of a goof up, well, they

had a cow there for the kids to milk, and that was kind of cute.

So when should we expect you to

wear overalls to the office?

It was funny.

At every good kids' camp they have teenagers who are helping

run it and stuff like that.

And as they come out to meet the kids, and I said

to my wife, I said, this is a place where the overall's

actually look appropriate.

Like our daughter has overalls when she wears them,

she thinks they're cute.

Not because they're actually appropriate.

She's one of them down there, up there.

Maggie in her overalls.

That's good stuff, man.

You deserve the break.

It was fun.

It was a lot of fun, and I think we were all surprised at

how much fun it was up there.

That's cool.

Do you know the story of when my dad, when we

were younger, my dad was working in Crate and Barrel.

And we got home, my mom and my sisters and I got

home from a night out, and there was a message on her

answering machine from my dad.

Do you remember the story?

I have a small recollection, but

I'm not well enough to...

Okay.

It goes something like this.

He goes, "Guys, this is your father."

It's coming back to me.

Okay.

"The van has been stolen.

I've walked up and down the parking garage, and

I'm sad to say the family minivan has been stolen.

The police are on their way, but I just want to let you know.

I'm not sure I'll get home, but just want to let you know."

And he hung up.

And we're sitting around like, wow, well, what do we

do with this information?

And then no joke, it's like right out of a sitcom-

This was before cell phones, so

you couldn't call back.

Correct.

And this was a message on your

answering machine.

Think of the analog days, we grew up in that.

Yep.

Right.

And right out of a sitcom, five minutes later, he pulls up into

the driveway and he walks in.

We're like, uh.

He goes, "I was on the wrong level in the parking garage."

He apparently didn't look hard enough.

Well, so we got a message from my mom...

Hold up, hold up.

Before you go there, we're we need to have

your dad on the podcast.

Agreed.

But your sister Julie is so funny.

She might be funnier than you.

And when the two of you would make fun of him

for this, you could see him just get bright red.

It was so funny.

Remember when the car couldn't go forward?

He would drive it backwards on York road.

That's the story he tells.

I don't know.

Well, so anyway, we got a message from my mom this weekend

that she did like an overnight or a stamp camp thing, right?

For making her homemade cards and her stamping.

And she goes, my car was stolen.

And we're like, oh, she's pulling a dad.

But no, her car was actually stolen from the hotel

parking lot this weekend.

Really?

Yeah, legit.

She had the sheriff out, they were all looking around

the parking lot, just gone.

So she went through a whole rigamarole with the

sheriff and her insurance.

And we got a text message this morning now from

her, found my car.

Sheriff called at eight fifteen, catalytic converter

stolen, but drivable.

So they stole her little 2015 Hyundai, whipped

out the converter and just left it there.

Man.

Yeah.

I mean, lot of people who listen to this

are from Chicago and we've had a rash of carjackings

in the city recently.

Your mom's in Colorado.

Yeah.

And this happened in Denver proper, but outskirts of

Denver, suburban Denver, pretty much like our Oak Park.

Upscale neighborhood, but it happens everywhere.

Is she okay?

Yeah.

I mean, she's freaked out, right?

But she didn't lose anything valuable in there, and it's

just one of them things.

But I think it was funny that we all thought she

was pulling a prank on us.

She was the chick, who was the boy who cried wolf?

Yeah, she was the mom that cried stolen car.

All your dad's fault, too.

All my dad's fault.

All right, Josh, I'm excited today.

What are we talking about, buddy?

Today, I want to talk about something that

nobody wants to talk about.

I feel like I say that too often on this podcast.

I want to talk about what happens to your

money when you die.

Ooh.

Estate planning.

And we're just going to hit the higher points today,

but it's an important topic that if not planned for can

add a lot of headache to the people that you say you love.

Wow.

This is one of those things where being an advisor, you

are with people during their highs and during their lows.

And can imagine you got to plan for this stuff.

It is.

And for some people, this is the most important thing

that they think about.

And for some people it's an afterthought, but either way,

there's some things that need to be done, one way or the other.

So we're going We're gonna talk a little bit about estate

planning 101 and what happens to your money when you die.

Because wherever you go, it's not going with you.

Not going with you.

All right.

Let's pause here and do our segment.

Yeah.

What?

Okay.

Hey, Mr.

Josh, let's take a break where you've been talking for so

long and my ears are sore, but let's not be a bore because

this show ain't no chore.

So let's pull some cards, ask questions,

do some back and forth.

Oh yeah.

They're asking Josh, now ask Dave.

Let's get to know Josh and Dave.

What?

All right.

That's grown on me as time's

gone on, you know that?

Yeah.

I know.

Well, it's a work of art.

It's a masterpiece.

The first time you played it for me, didn't Carla

say that I would never let you actually put it on the podcast?

She sure did.

And look at now.

It's like episode three.

All right, Josh.

So today in our segment of get to know Josh and Dave,

the question is, if you had to pick a new name for

yourself, what would you pick?

If you had to pick a new name for yourself,

what would you pick?

If I had to pick a new name for myself,

and I'm going to give you a small story here.

I love stories.

I know.

I ramble on.

So this weekend up in Michigan at farm camp week, we're

sitting at the table for dinner.

And my daughter, who's a funny little girl, says

to us, "All right, for the rest of dinner, everyone

has to talk with an accent."

And so they try and do fake British accents.

And I am not an accent person, but Missy is

the worst accent person.

Worse than Zach?

Oh yeah.

Zach's not bad.

Zach's pretty funny with it.

So everyone had to talk with an accent.

So then the conversation came, what accent

would you want to have?

And no one could come up with one.

And we all think, Chicago must be the best accent possible.

But what name do I want?

I never really thought about that.

I think I'd want something like royal and regal.

Like, I don't know, like an Andrew or a...

I mean, you're a David Michael.

That's pretty strong.

You think so?

Yeah.

I think that's strong.

Landon says my name is boring,

like on a daily basis.

Well, his name's Landon.

Landon's really cool.

Every Landon you know is like some hot Instagram model.

That's what I'm saying.

I mean, we named him after our favorite MTV

The Challenge contestant.

So I mean, he's got some...

Yeah, I don't know.

I'm not a big name person.

Again, my daughter, Maggie yells at us, her middle name is Anne.

And Missy's middle name is Ann, my mother's middle

name is Ann, there's a lot of Anns in our family.

But we thought we'd be different, put an

E at the end of it.

A-N-N-E.

Well, she's mad at us because there's an E

at the end of her Anne.

She's going to revolt.

She is.

So I don't really know.

I think I'd want something powerful and

regal and something.

I'm more formal, I'm more traditional, but...

Got it.

That's cool.

Yeah.

Long boring answer for you.

That's what it is.

I have it all...

How about you?

Have you thought about this?

Dave Schmidt:

Maybe a little bit.

Dave Schmidt:

I think Vulcan Schmidt Todd Lopez would be my name.

Vulcan Schmidt Todd Lopez.

Why did...

So the most interesting thing to me there is that your last

name became your second name.

How did that happen?

So I was asked a while ago by my friend, Jackie,

what my vampire name would be.

And I'm like, easy, Vulcan Schmidt.

Except I said Vulcan Schmidt in like a Transylvanian accent.

So I would keep that.

And there is, one of our favorite Tik Tokkers is

this woman who owns a farm and she has an...

Is it an ostrich or an emu?

I think it's an emu who always video bombs her.

He'll come up to the camera, and his name is Emmanuel Todd Lopez.

And Landon, Carla and I just love watching the

videos and just crack up.

She'll be introducing a new animal on the farm, and he'll

just come under nowhere, look at the camera and start pecking it.

And she's like, Emmanuel, Emmanuel Todd Lopez.

So I just like that, that three name there.

Vulcan Schmidt Todd Lopez.

Thank you very much.

Ah, thank you, David.

I appreciate that that is a segment that you

made us do, and I really enjoy having it in here.

Yeah.

I hope everyone else enjoys it, too.

They might enjoy it more than talking

about what happens when you die to your money, Vulcan.

So it's actually one of the number one questions

we get from clients, is for people that come in, and

I'm not talking about taxes, there is no, none of that.

Hashtag tax nerd.

Yep, Alex is going to be upset, but this is simply

a ease of money transferring.

So when people get really worried that they're going

to run out of money, and the amount of money that's

going to be left to the next generation right now is huge.

And having that worry of running out of money is real.

Not trying to minimize that, but a lot of people are going

to die with substantial sums, especially right now where

people have retired with great market conditions and

they have more money than they've probably ever thought.

And the number of times we hear, I don't know how this happened.

I don't know how I got here.

I don't know how I accumulate this pile of money.

And you're probably not going to spend it, so

it's got to go somewhere.

And it's a good problem to have, it's not something

we should complain about.

So people always say, do I need a trust?

Should a will work?

How does this all apply?

And I will preface this, but this is an attorney, I am not

an attorney, but we deal with it enough that this is something

that we know the basics here.

But for anything complex, people should be

seeking legal help here.

Now, when we talk about estate planning, you have to

understand the different types of assets, because there's

different estate planning for different types of assets.

The first one, we would call ownership assets.

Ownership assets are where you have a co-owner, so like you and

Carla have a joint bank account, you own the house jointly.

If something happens to you, Carla, there's no

probate, nothing happens.

It just becomes her asset.

Oh, you don't need to put that inside

any type of writing or will or anything like that?

Okay.

Nope, the ownership of the assets states it.

Now, there's different ways to own things jointly, and that's

a whole other conversation.

But as long as you own something jointly, there's

nothing, no transfer necessary.

And there's all sorts of things you can own jointly.

You can own real estate, you can own bank accounts, you

can own all sorts of things.

The one thing we usually warn people against, do

not own things jointly with your children because

of liability issues.

So a lot of people will say, well, my kids are on my bank

account so they could help me.

There's other ways to achieve that, with powers

of attorney and trusts.

If you put your kid on your bank account, so let's

use your mom, for example.

David!

David, my car was stolen.

That's so cruel.

Sorry Becks.

But let's say she puts you on her bank account.

Now she went, her car was stolen at a card making convention.

So she's not going to the craziest places.

Your mom is pretty conservative, the odds

of her getting in trouble financially are probably slim.

But let's say you did something.

Let's say crashed a vehicle, heck, you hurt

something and you got sued.

If you were on your mom's account, they could actually

take her money for something that you did wrong.

So it's a little added protection to generally not

be on your parents' or your parents have your kids on it.

There's other ways to do that.

We've talked about my time at the bank

before, and this is a scenario that come up all the time.

sometimes we would be during a divorce, it's like

the first one to the bank would get all the money.

But we'd also see, I believe the IRS and other agencies would

actually take money from an account, even if it was a joint

account, because the kid's name or the parent's name was on it.

And they'd be like, what's going on?

I'd be like, I don't know, but it's bad.

Yeah.

The less you could involve other people, the better off it is.

Except for your spouse and there's reasons to have joint

ownership there as well.

So ownership is the first one, and by the way, ownership

supersedes everything else.

So it's supersedes whatever else is out there.

The second one is beneficiary.

So there's certain assets like life insurance, like

retirement accounts, so 401ks and IRAs, that when you open

that account up, you list who your beneficiary is.

So there's certain states like Illinois, Illinois requires your

spouse to be the beneficiary, unless you sign off on it.

Unless the spouse signs off on it, or?

Spouse signs off on it, yeah.

Oh, okay.

So there's certain things like that.

But you could name whoever you want as a beneficiary.

And it doesn't matter what your will says, what your trust says.

If you have Vulcan Schmidt Todd Lopez written as your

beneficiary, account's not going to your kids.

It's going to Vulcan Schmidt Todd Lopez.

He's worked his butt off.

He deserves it.

He probably does.

But beneficiaries will supersede anything other than ownership.

And then it kind of goes to everything else.

Oh, wow.

It's a big bucket.

It's a big bucket.

It could be your house.

It could be your stock accounts.

It could be your bank accounts.

It could be your cars, your jewelry, whatever doesn't

have a beneficiary and isn't owned jointly now

falls into this bucket.

So if there was a situation where my wife and

I, we own a house, but only my name is on a mortgage.

This would fall into that category?

Correct.

Because she's not technically

an owner of it, right?

Correct.

Okay.

Correct.

Anything along those lines.

Or for a lot of our clients, one spouse will pass and one spouse

will live for a long time.

And then now we no longer have joint ownership, but

something happens, this house has to go somewhere.

Right, right.

Okay.

And if bank accounts are true and things like that.

Now for that, that's where wills come into play.

So a will, all a will is is a legal document that

tells the court system, this is what I want to

have happen after I'm gone.

And you state it all out there.

And who signed, does a lawyer have to sign

off that, or just a notary?

No, to be a legal will, again, some attorney

may yell at me on this one, but to be a legal, will you

just have to sign it yourself.

Okay.

I see.

Now to be a well done legal will, you

want an attorney to draft it for you because every

state has its own laws, every county has its own nuances.

But you want that law that comes into play.

So the will is going to govern that.

Would you recommend people look at

a LegalZoom, or do you just say fork over the

money and see an attorney?

You know, one of our last podcast was, is it

worth it to pay an advisor?

And finding an attorney is kind of a...

I always tell people, a lot of for my clients, the money

you pay an attorney is well worth it because of the

fact that you have so little control of what happens post

death, because you're gone.

That person is kind of making those decisions for you.

So hiring an advisor, they're going to help you during

your lifetime and if you don't like what they're

doing, you can fire them.

Hiring an attorney, a lot of times if you don't like what

they're doing, you're ever going to know because you're dead.

So you have to find someone who you trust.

And LegalZoom doesn't get to know you in that same way.

Unless your situation is super, super, super,

super, super, super simple, LegalZoom could do it.

But for most people with any level of complexity,

it's not a huge expense.

I think what we did before we went on vacation,

we jumped on LegalZoom, did a quick little will, just in case

whatever something happened.

It's better than nothing.

I mean, having nothing is bad.

And the amount of people who are listening to this

that probably have nothing is going to shock you.

Dave Schmidt:

Yeah, it's a shame.

I mean, I know people who have farms, and a

farm is a huge asset, who have no will and trust in place.

My goodness.

So it's a big deal.

Yikes.

Having that attorney is important.

So now let's get to the biggest question I get asked.

Do I need a trust?

People come in and say, do I need a trust?

And there are some attorneys out there, I think, that are

kind of bad apples where they're doing seminars and they're

just trying to sell trust work.

They say, everyone needs a trust.

Everyone has to have a trust.

And I would say it kind of depends.

It depends on what your asset structure looks like.

If all of your money is inside of retirement accounts and

you have one kid, or you know who you're leaving it to,

you really don't need the complexity of the trust, the

money to administer the trust.

Because the beneficiary's

already listed out.

The beneficiary's listed out.

Dave Schmidt:

There's no gray area.

Yeah.

Now, there's other reasons to have a trust.

There may be some tax savings.

There may be some more control.

The SECURE Act that went through a few years ago, if you have

some substantial assets, by substantial, anything over

a couple $100,000, the trust could be beneficial there

for a variety of reasons.

I always tell people, trusts are going to do a few things.

One is they're going to give you control from the grave.

So if you want your kids to inherit the money and you want

them to not have access to it all at once, or if you want them

to use it for certain things, or you want it to protect it from

liabilities, maybe your kids are in a high risk profession, maybe

your kids have IRS troubles.

Maybe you don't like your kids' spouse, or you're worried

about what happens there.

Or you want it all to go to the grandkids.

A trust allows you to have those handcuffs from the grave.

But I will tell you the more handcuffs you implement,

the more expensive it is to administer the trust.

So now a trust, what happens when you put money into a trust?

The trust, the asset is no longer one of those

everything else assets.

It's now an ownership asset.

Because a trust is, think of a trust like a box,

and you can put whatever you want in this box.

And once you put it in there, the trust now owns that asset.

the asset might be your house, you could put that in the trust.

It might be some stocks you have, you could put

that into the trust.

Could be puddin' cakes?

It could be, if you are really concerned about

puddin' cakes, you're taking the box reference very literally.

Yes.

But yes, it could be.

Maybe you have a right to buy a thousand puddin' cakes

at a really cheap price.

You could put that right in there.

It's probably more likely.

But what happens is, as opposed to controlling that

asset, you still control the trust while you're alive.

I see.

You can change it at any time.

You can change it any time you want,

but the trust can't die.

So that ownership is there.

Can the trust have multiple owners?

So can a husband and wife both have a trust?

We're getting into some deep terminology here.

Maybe not quite for this podcast.

Yeah.

Ownership is the wrong term.

There's grantors, and there's the grantors

who creates the trust.

There's exec, not executors, there's beneficiaries, that's

who the trust is set up for.

There's trustees, those are the ones who make the

decisions on the trust.

And there's reasons to have more and less.

But for that, if you're going to have a trust

done, without a doubt you should see an attorney.

I mean, there's no...

Yes.

LegalZoom can do it, all those online places can do it.

See an attorney.

Sure.

There's lots of nuances, and I will say

this, if you haven't updated your trust since the SECURE

Act went through, the SECURE Act was a big thing that

occurred back in 2019, 2020, make sure you revisit that.

Now is the time to do it.

The SECURE Act.

Okay.

Isn't that fun?

Isn't estate planning fun?

Oh my gosh.

I mean, I know it's important, but it's so doom and gloom.

It is.

And it's cloudy outside and

overcast, and I'm just sad.

Every now and then, and I've said this

before on the podcast about taxes, where people will

say, that's my kids' problem, I'll let them deal with it.

And sometimes it's...

I mean, not sometimes, every time I hear that, that's

fear talking just because they don't know how to do it.

If you need a good reference for an attorney, there's

lots of them out there.

You do want to make sure you find one who specializes

in estate planning, but it's not that hard.

It's something that's very doable.

But the hard part is they do ask you those questions.

They ask those questions of, what happens when you die?

What happens if this, and...

One of my favorite lines from episode 16, this is

the episode about, is paying fees for an advisor worth it,

you say something like, if you're truly scared about paying

fees, you could be potentially missing out on quite a lot.

I know paying a lawyer is one of those things where everyone's

like, oh man, it's a lot.

But like you're saying, it's just so worth it.

There are so many times that is worth

every penny you pay.

And the problem with this is, you quite often don't get to

see that benefit yourself.

Quite often it's your heirs, your loved ones who

are reaping the rewards.

But if they don't, somebody will.

And someone, most likely it's going to be Uncle Sam.

It may be family members you don't like or care for.

But the only way to make sure what you want to have happens

actually happens is to take this planning proactively.

Okay.

That sounds like kind of an uplifting, positive

way to end that message.

[singing]

what are you trying to sing?

I don't know.

Is this the Full House moment?

Oh no, no, no, no, no.

Not quite yet.

All right.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was something that I've had that

question multiple times recently about estate planning for

people to come in the office.

And I thought, okay, let's address this overall.

And people have questions, it is an individual topic.

It is not a general, this is the rule for everybody.

Yeah.

Yeah, I gotcha.

There was something I was trying to think about.

It goes something like, I think something like,

Dave relates to retirees.

Yeah.

That's what I was trying to get off my chest.

Yeah.

Josh, I can relate to retirees on this.

Good God.

Estate planning.

All right.

So Carla and I have had some discussions about this, but

more importantly, I've had deep conversations with Landon.

You and Al talk about taxes at bed.

Landon and I talk about estate planning, specifically, if

and when I pass, he has the right to receive up to four

free meals from a Bretl, any Bretl, for the rest of his life.

Could it be Zach, Al, Maggie, combination of the three.

So we have seen several lawyers, and we have that in writing.

Now, you don't know about it yet, but I said, Landon,

when I'm gone, buddy, don't pay for that sushi.

Give Zach a call, it's his responsibility.

So with that, Josh, what do you think?

It's part of my estate planning, man.

I'm not going to make my son pay for his food,

that's the Bretl legacy.

Where am I going to take this?

Now, you said something there that I'm going to on.

And we'll assume that there's some sort of signed document,

and it was the right to receive.

When you have the right to receive, that's

technically an asset.

And Landon's really cute, so I would assume that someone

from my family would say, oh, something happened to your dad.

Let's buy you some sushi.

Or maybe Maggie and Landon are

an item in the future.

You never know.

You never know.

When you have that asset, it's wanting to take advantage of it.

You never want to have that happen, you never

want to have something happen to you, God forbid.

And you want to see Landon grow up, and you'd rather

I buy you sushi than him.

That's true.

But you do want to, if something were to happen,

you want to put your family in the best situation possible.

And I think your recommendation of Zach

is a good recommendation.

He'd be a lot of fun to have sushi with.

I bet he would be.

Yeah.

And probably the most likely to buy.

Right.

So that's a good chance there.

Yeah, because Al would walk into the Sushi

Nest here in Elmhurst and be like, I have $60 to spend.

No I don't, because of taxes.

And he'd go table to table asking how much tax did you pay?

How much tax did you pay?

Hashtag tax nerd.

So no, Landon, let's hope nothing

happens to your dad.

But being proactive is really good in your

dad's point of view.

And on his tombstone when it says Vulcan Schmidt Todd

Lopez, Landon, I'm sorry.

We just had a mini staycation, and we

went we were staying like on the Magnificent Mile, right?

We hit up Water Tower Place and we got him a Build-A-Bear

and we had to name it.

And our show at the moment is Holey Moley.

I don't know if you ever seen it, it's Joe Tessitore and Rob

Riggle, it's hilarious, like ultimate minigolf challenge.

And I convinced him to name the bear Blake Sledge Rob

Riggle Todd Lopez, because it's like the name of all our

favorite things right now.

The poor Build-A-Bear people

put that on the name.

No, they made Landon write it.

He just wrote Blake.

So it's just Blake, for short.

But yeah, I do kind of impose my will on my kids.

That was cute.

Yeah.

Josh, can we ask our listeners for a favor?

What favor would you like them to do, Dave?

We are starting to see more and more people sign

up for our podcast email club.

And that is a sure fire way for you, dear listener, to know

when we release new episodes.

I send these out every Friday, we air our episodes on Thursday,

but I send these out on Friday.

Just in case you're not subscribed to our show on Apple

Podcast or Spotify, this is a way for you to know about it.

So please go to fsrwealth.com/podcast, enter

your name and email, it's the very bottom of the page.

And you, friend, will be the first to know of new episodes.

The other thing on that page, and as we build it

out more you're going to be able to see all the show notes and

all this stuff will be there.

So it's a great spot to go to reference back if you want

to know more about what we're talking about, or links or

references, we have all that on that fsrwealth/podcast page.

We got all that, and then some.

Thanks, Josh.

Estate planning, I think we ended on a happy note.

I'm not super depressed.

I came in happy, I went depressing, and

hopefully we're all leaving here a little happier.

Excellent.

And I think we want to give another shout out to Deb.

And with that, a special...

Debbie.

Debbie, bye.

I added a little extra aye aye aye.