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SPEAKERS
Jason Fuchs and Eugene Choi
Jason Fuchs 00:00
Greetings everyone. If you're new here, I'm Jason Fuchs married Amber's father to a two and a half year old girl jewel. I'm also the managing director of sage path financial advisors and assays path. We're here to help you grow your financial future, the right way. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate all of you. Joining me is special guests, the estate planning magician, Eugene Choi, welcome to the show, Eugene. Thanks, Jason, for having me. My pleasure. We're happy to have you here. Eugene, did you know that trusts aren't just for the very wealthy or for the complicated estates?
Eugene Choi 00:43
Yeah, absolutely. I think trusts are for everyone.
Jason Fuchs 00:46
Exactly. Trust can be helpful for many average folks just like us to they help preserve the assets you spent a lifetime building Ladies and gentlemen, trust can help protect your spouse, your children or other heirs to ensure that your assets are distributed how and when you want them to be. Finally, trust help you manage the amount of estate taxes that may be due after your death. And I don't want to bring the mood down Eugene. And given the current climate though, I think it's so important for all of us to have our assets set up properly. So heaven forbid, something happens to us that money we've all worked so hard to accumulate, probably our entire lives can get to where we want it to go without any trouble. What do you think, Eugene? I could not agree anymore. Okay, so why am I bringing all of this up? Well, what's the point? Ladies and gentlemen, I
Eugene Choi 01:43
received a question from one of our dozens of listeners asking if she should create a trust. And we're going to get to the bottom of it later on in the show. And we're going to build on that through a neat topic. Our guest Eugene will be sharing with us right, Eugene, we are going to be talking about something called a special situations trust where it does exactly what you said, gives you control over how and when you can use your assets for your loved ones in a manner of your choosing. Perfect, good stuff. Good
Jason Fuchs 02:11
stuff. And ladies and gentlemen, what I'm going to do is I'm going to change up the format of today's episode. Typically, we cover q&a at the beginning of the show, but what I want to do is I want to start with the q&a, because it's going to create a nice introduction for Eugene's topic. Ladies and gentlemen, keep those emails coming. If you've got questions, concerns, comments what ever I'd love to hear about them. Email me at Jay Fuchs at Sage path FA comm You can also call me at 904-366-9388 all of that info can be found in the description of the podcast. I love what I'm seeing so far. Compliance does not like me to share names Eugene, but I can tell you that I've been receiving a lot of emails with pictures of entrepreneurs, dads, moms having fun with their kids enjoying summer while they still can. Just some really, really good stuff. I'd like to take a moment now and introduce our guests. Eugene and I we've been working together for quite a while now. Just an all around fantastic person. Eugene is the Regional Director for the South East region of Dunham and Associates investment Council. Eugene brings a unique blend of resources, analytical skills to independent advisory firms like Sage path and outside of his professional world, as a venture leader with the children of the nation's Eugene had the privilege of leading teams to Malawi to serve and teach the children of the Colombo village. Amazing stuff. Eugene, hope I got that name. Right. You got it right. Here's something really neat and I'm sorry, Eugene, I just couldn't resist. Eugene prides himself as a successful amateur game show contestant and he's appeared on let's make a deal. hollywood game night. And food fighters. So cool. Eugene, thank you so much for being on the show. We are so happy to have you here. On It's a pleasure to be here. So amateur game show contestant? I want to hear about that.
Eugene Choi 04:12
Yeah, so that's when I was living in Southern California, my friends and I applied for a game show that we did not get on. And so as a constellation, the directors gave us tickets to the first game show that just kind of turned into a snowball and that was let's make a deal. Okay, I was dressed up as grapes. And so saying with Wayne Brady, I ended up winning a motorcycle and trading that motorcycle in for a chance that the big deal didn't win the big deal. And I won this backyard retreat with a bunch of trinkets and knickknacks and stuff. That reticle started. Yeah, that started the journey of wanting to get on more and more game shows.
Jason Fuchs 04:55
So what has your game show experience? Been like since then?
Eugene Choi 04:59
So I've been Not a total of five and wow, five make a deal was the first one. And then there have been some game shows that are no longer airing because they really couldn't get it up and running. And there's been some game shows like you said, hollywood game night that are still running. And it's a fun time to be able to meet some celebrities and get your five minutes of fame and you spend a day off work to for a chance to win, you know, 1000s, hopefully 25 $50,000 and haven't won that yet.
Jason Fuchs 05:31
Not yet.
Eugene Choi 05:32
I got a good feeling that the next one I go to go on. That'll be the that'll be the one.
Jason Fuchs 05:37
That's amazing. That's amazing. So any upcoming plans, any shows that you're targeting or?
Eugene Choi 05:43
So the most recent game show that I've been on actually is aired this past January, really? And we actually yeah, we actually did it January of 2020. And then obviously COVID happened and so they couldn't air it and they had to delay it for a year. But it's a game show called the hustler. The host is Craig Ferguson in the late night talk show. Yeah. And that's, that's a game show kind of a mix between mafia and the weakest link. Okay. And so that is right now, I don't know how long it'll be on there. But it's on abc.com. Right now, if you wanted to look at that. Alert. I don't make it very far. Okay. I do know, and I do correctly, guess who the killer is? And so I take pride, Matt, that's pretty neat. How are my minutes of fame?
Jason Fuchs 06:31
How are you getting on these shows you make it sound so easy.
Eugene Choi 06:37
It's super simple. So there's websites where that you just put in your email address. And whenever they have a new game show, they just send everyone an email and you apply online. As long as you have an outgoing personality and you know how to answer questions, online recommendations, and you anyone wanting to apply, use all caps, have a personality online when you're applying and be so excited. Let them see that through your applications with a bunch of exclamation points and lol and you'll get an interview. That's fantastic. Well,
Jason Fuchs 07:05
thanks for the tip. That's amazing. Well, very good. So
Eugene Choi 07:10
this gig doesn't work out for me, then I'll just you know, become a trivia game show contest. Let's get into say it sounds like you've got an unlock. It sounds like you got the process down pretty well. Yes,
Jason Fuchs 07:21
that's exciting. So tell us about your claim to fame with Dunham, what you're doing now.
Eugene Choi 07:28
My role as regional director of Dunham and Associates, I travel across the southeast, traveling about 45 weeks out of the year. And I meet with financial Yeah, it's a lot of travel. And I meet with financial advisors such as yourself and help them with their practice anything from practice management, to marketing to investment allocations to dealing with certain clients. And we get a lot of joy out of that just because I know I can help business owners such as yourself, ultimately help their clients. So it's kind of like a ripple effect for me.
Jason Fuchs 08:00
Oh, yeah. Yeah, indirectly. You're helping our clients. We appreciate all that you're doing with us. I love it. That's fantastic. What what exciting things are going on in your world now.
Eugene Choi 08:09
So non work related. My wife and I just recently got a puppy. And yeah, we got a golden doodle. She is four months old. Wow. absolute nightmare, but we love her to death. Man, I have so many cuts and scrapes on my arms and legs because I'm sorry to last and by No, it's I mean, it's the puppy phase which you love and you hate at the same time, but I'm going to train her to be a circus dog because she already knows so many tricks. poodles are really smart, but they're also really stubborn. And so at some point if she doesn't want to do a trick, she just won't do it. Okay, I mean, she'll just market Yeah. Yeah, she's she's the light of our world right now. We don't have any kids yet. But we are fully on board with the puppy and already looking at doggy day cat and board.
Jason Fuchs 09:05
Oh, yeah, baby steps no pun intended.
Eugene Choi 09:07
Exactly. Really. Weren't you telling me earlier too, that your dogs are pretty much teenager ages? Yeah, so
Jason Fuchs 09:14
Emma is the oldest jack Russells. She's 15. And then Lunas the younger jack, jack Russell, she's eight and then we have a Boston Frenchie mix. His name's bear. And that's why I was laughing when you told me about the cuts in the scrapes because he's only two. So I remember those days, you know, ankles, getting bitten fingers getting bitten. And it's fun, but it's a lot of work. So what did you and your wife named the dog?
Eugene Choi 09:41
Her name is mushy. mushy is I love it. Yeah, actually a nickname that my wife and I had for each other. Okay, when we are dating, and then we just decided to give it to our dog.
Jason Fuchs 09:50
Oh, that's so fun. Yeah. We had some family friends in from there from Virginia and a couple weeks ago, maybe even three as Fourth of July weekend. Whatever. And they name their dog mashed potato, which is, it's funny on the front end, but we were talking about it. And when you're screaming at a dog that's chewing on something or doing what it's not supposed to mess potato is not the best thing is say out loud. Don't call her mash or anything, I think. Yeah, I think that's what he was saying he abbreviated it to potato or mash. But
Eugene Choi 10:24
either way, I mean trying to yell at, you know, mashed potato or potato.
Jason Fuchs 10:29
I don't know, looking from the outside in, I'd be laughing hysterically.
Eugene Choi 10:33
I mean, I'd also be laughing if you were, you know, calling your your dog bear and yelling at you,
Eugene Choi 10:39
as well. Yeah. And I tell you what, he eats everything outside. So I'm always young bear, what are you doing bad? So my neighbors are probably thinking, What is wrong with this guy? That's hilarious.
Jason Fuchs 10:53
So, you know, I'm wondering, you're doing a lot of good stuff with these financial advisors, you're improving their practice, and indirectly, you're you're improving, you know, life for their clients, which is important. And you're all about giving great advice. I mean, I know I've received a lot of great advice from you. I'm wondering what is the best advice that you've ever received? Personally or in work, we could go either way.
Eugene Choi 11:21
So personally, my dad, on his 60th birthday, I recorded a video of him and I asked him, What advice would he gave to me being 60 years old? And he Wow, I love that. Oh, yeah. And he came from a very, obviously cold, like old Asian culture where parents don't talk about their feelings. You get up and you go to work and you don't complain. And so for him to be really take that question to heart and be vulnerable was something that I'll never forget. Yeah, huge. Yeah. He personally on if this my 60th birthday, or his 60th birthday, he told me at the end of the day, work, life status, money, none of that matters. What matters is your relationship with God, how you're going to be able to, you know, at the end of the day, at the end of life, that's what people are gonna remember is how you made them feel. And if you live the good life, not based off of the world, but based off of getting a little bit more religious, but based off of what God basically says how you should live your life. And yeah, I'm a fairly religious person. And that struck a chord with me personally, because my dad and operating his cleaners for 25 plus years, Monday through Saturday, wow, opened his shop. Wow. 7am and close the shop at 7pm. And he didn't complain once. Wow. And it was something that obviously I thought, well, that's what everyone does. When you actually get into the workforce. You're thinking, Wait a minute, it's crazy. Wait a minute. There's no way that's that's, you know, that's labor laws. That's not okay. But my dad was just, he's just, in the truest sense, a real hero and role model in my life. That's personal. That's incredible. Like, that was a long time ago that still stuck with me. That's amazing,
Jason Fuchs 13:13
though. I mean, as a you know, Faith is the foundation in my world, my family and I and I can definitely relate to that.
Eugene Choi 13:19
Yeah, I recently married so the most recent advice that he gave me, which this will stay forever with me as well was on my wife and I our wedding day on November 2019. We got very lucky before COVID happened. November was actually November 23 23rd.
Jason Fuchs 13:34
Oh, yeah. My birthday is the 28th Oh, nice. Joe's birthday is the 28th my dad's birthday is the 27th Really? My wife is Maria My wife is the ninth my brother's the 15th my sister's the 24th and my brother's wife is the 30th
Eugene Choi 13:53
Wow, that means your parents and your your your your families parents got real busy.
Jason Fuchs 13:59
Right. I usually think about but you know, thanks for the reminder.
Eugene Choi 14:06
Marriage advice that my dad gave my wife and I was Eugene, before you ask why that your wife is telling you to do things just know her deepest desire is to be connected to you and Lydia. Respect to your husband and he will honor and sacrifice himself for you. Asian dads don't say that very often right? Wow. Yeah, that's huge and took that time to say like he will honor and sacrifice himself for you if you respect him and then he said like I have not shown the type of love that you show Lydia because I'm obviously I'm a lot more Americanized but he basically said to my mom on my wedding day, hey, wife, honey, I don't say this enough. But I just wanted to say I love you. And wow, entire room was just like, Yeah, all cheering because you know, that's huge. Stone Cold you know, emotions kept close to his chest. And I was just awesome.
Jason Fuchs 15:02
Yeah, it's not easy for dads to be vulnerable. Yeah. And add on Korean data at that. Well, that's very neat. Very neat. So thank you so much for sharing, of course. Well, I'd like to start today's episode with a bit of q&a. What do you think? Sounds great. Fantastic. All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's get into it now. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're back. Thanks again for joining us. I received a question from someone compliance won't allow me to use her real name. So we're gonna call her Brittany, which happens to be my sister's name. So Brittany, if you're listening, thank you. Now, Brittany? Yes, I absolutely love your show. Jason. I'm not a dad, obviously. But I find your topics relevant. And I find dad since incredibly entertaining. Very kind of you, Brittany, thank you so much. I appreciate you. Brittany continues my question. I'm comfortably living in retirement, I have enough income and investments to supplement all of my expenses. I'm wondering what's next, though? How do I get this money to my family? When I pass away? Do I need a will a trust estate planning? Thank you for all that you do. I look forward to hearing from you. Great question, Brittany. It's our pleasure. We are happy to help you. a living trust is a popular consideration in many estate strategy conversations, but its appropriateness will depend upon your individual needs and objectives. So what is a living trust? Well, Eugene, I'm so glad you asked. a living trust is created while you are alive. Go figure. And it's funded with the assets you choose to transfer into it. The trustee typically you has full power to manage these assets. a living trust will also designate a beneficiary or beneficiaries, much like a will, to whom the assets are structured to automatically pass upon your death. If you create a revocable living trust, you may change the terms of the trust the trustee and the beneficiaries at any time. And you can also terminate that trust altogether. So why would someone create a living trust? Well, Eugene, again, I'm so glad you asked. You're asking such great questions today. Thank you. ESP, I'm asking you through my mind. And I think this will answer your question to Brittany. The Living Trust offers a number of potential benefits, and I'm going to cover four of them. So benefit number one, avoid probate. Assets are designed to transfer outside the probate process providing a seamless private transfer of assets. And that's something that we all want when someone's settling our state benefit number to manage your affairs. a living trust can be a mechanism for caring for you and your property in the event of your physical or mental disability, provided that you have adequately funded it. Remember, you got to put money into it. And you've named a trustworthy trustee or alternative trustee. Okay. Number three, ease and simplicity. It is a simple matter for a qualified lawyer to create a living trust that is tailored to your specific objectives. Ladies and gentlemen, should circumstances change. It's also a straightforward task to change the provisions that are in the trust. Now, lastly, benefit number four, avoid will contests. assets, passing via a living trust may be less susceptible to the short, the sort of challenge you might see with a will transfer for example. Now ladies and gentlemen, Brittany, I mean, Eugene, using a living trust involves a complex set of tax rules and regulations, it can get really complicated. So before moving forward with a trust, consider working with a professional who is familiar with the process, like me, for example, ladies and gentlemen, reach out to me, I'd be happy to help. Eugene, I think this is a great opportunity to build on the discussion of the trust. And you're here to help us with that, right? Yes. Okay. So let's get into it now. Ladies and gentlemen, we're back.
Eugene Choi 19:26
I think this is a great opportunity to build on the discussion of the trust, and you're here to help us with that, right? We are going to be talking about something called a special situations trust where it does exactly what you said, gives you control over how and when you can use your assets for your loved ones in a manner of your choosing Dunham and Associates investment Council is an investment firm, and we're also a trust firm. And so we deal with trusts every single day. The one extra benefit that I'll add to the benefits that you gave on why a trust is also the time that you save upon you passing away probate and you want to avoid probate at all costs only because it's made public and it's not private, and it can be contested. But also because of the time, I haven't seen any probate process last under a year, these things usually, if you pass away, and the executor of your estate are the people who are surviving, you have to deal with your estate, it takes over a year, very, very commonly, for all the dust to settle
Jason Fuchs 20:31
well, and right now, with COVID.
Eugene Choi 20:33
I mean, it's beyond a year. I mean, I have clients that are settling estates for their parents, and it's been, I don't know, 1617, in some cases, 18 months and still not settled, having it, having it in a trust is a fraction of the time it's all it is, is a title change in most cases, and the trustee of that trust is able to distribute everything out in not 16 1718 months, but I would say 16 1718 days. Wow. Okay, much quicker, so much quicker conversation of trusts. One of the trusts that Dunham Trust Company has that we actually been keeping ourselves very busy with in talking with our financial advisors. And we you mentioned earlier on this call is that trusts are for everyone. You I think a common misconception is you need to have millions and millions of dollars in order to have a trust. That's not true. No. One of the trusts that we have is called a special situations trust, okay, but let's just assume we all have IRAs, and we all have 401 Ks, and more than likely, if we're married, our spouses are beneficiary. And if we have kids, our kids are our contingent beneficiaries, right? Yep. If instead, you have the kid, or the wife be the beneficiary, and you wanted this special situations, trust that we have to be the beneficiary. So there's a couple of advantages there. And this actually is the real life case example. Let me let me give you an example of what happened and what could have been avoided had we used this special situations chests perfect. I have a good friend of mine in Nashville. Her name is Rachel, unfortunately, a couple years ago, had her father passed away to a heart condition. And she received a very, very large inherited IRA. So
Jason Fuchs 22:24
sorry.
Eugene Choi 22:26
Yeah. And she wasn't very savvy with financial matters. And she lives in Nashville. And this was a couple years ago when the housing market was booming in Nashville. And she decided against my recommendation against a lot of other people telling her I want to use the money that my dad gave me in this IRA to buy a house. Oh, boy. And so she took all of the money out of that inherited IRA. Oh, boy purchased a house with it. Now. Great. She has a house. Yeah. But she didn't realize all of the things that would happen after the fact of closing out that IRA and taking out all of the money, oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh, not only is it a tax implication, but taking out all of that money. You know, you don't have the time value of money working for you if you don't need the house, and you just kind of wanted an impulse sighs there was nothing unfortunately that Rachel's dad could do about it because he was no longer here. But had Rachel's father wanted some input on that. Having the current setup right now, which is pretty much all of our setups where we have our spouses, our beneficiary, and then our kids as our contingent beneficiaries. That's the way the cookie crumbles. Yeah. And so this special situations trust. If that was the beneficiary of Rachel's father's IRA, instead of Rachel. Rachel's father has control from the grave over how those assets get used. Wow. Okay,
Jason Fuchs 23:57
I see where you going with this.
Eugene Choi 23:58
So Rachel's father, let's call him Bob, I don't remember his name, but let's call him Bob, Bob would have been able to say, when I pass away, Rachel is going to be my ultimate beneficiary. But I'm going to place those assets into a trust, like special situations trust, okay. And what I only want to have happen is that I only want Rachel to be able to access these trust assets at, let's say, $1,000 a month. I see $1,000 a month over the next 10 years. And then at the end of the 10 years, because it's an inherited IRA, right with changes in the law and habits stretch out for that many times. At the end of the 10th year. She'll be old enough, she'll be in her 40s. Assuming that you know what, if you were to pass away tomorrow, assuming that she'd be in her 40s she knows what to do with the money then you can give the rest to her. right but it puts guardrails on the account so that Rachel doesn't have access to it. Right on On day one that she can do whatever she wants with it.
Jason Fuchs 25:02
Yeah, and ladies and gentlemen, the reason we're mentioning that 10 years is because recent developments actually shortened us to be able to stretch an inherited IRA, the distributions out over your life. Now, the IRS has said, the government has said, well, we're not going to let you do that anymore, you've got to distribute all of the assets in the account by the end of that 10th year, so you have 10 years to take those distributions from the inherited IRAs now.
Eugene Choi 25:32
And so, in addition to the special situations, trust, being able to provide guard rails specifically for Rachel, someone that wasn't as financially astute, there's a lot of other ways that you can use this trust. And so for instance, let's say you and Amber have a child, and jewel is the light of your guys. Well, she's going to be an A student and take over the world someday. But not everyone has a family that is in that situation, right. And so some of us if or if it's not us, we know someone that have children, or that have family members that have some problems in their lives, whether it be substance abuse issues, whether it be gambling issues, whether they're just irresponsible with managing money, whether their screws aren't, you know, screwed on all the way. And so they're prone to financial manipulation, having the assets in a trust, whether it be your IRA or 401k, or your non retirement brokerage accounts, having those assets in a special situation is trust, protects against any type of those creditors going after those.
Jason Fuchs 26:45
Okay, okay, so problems with money, creditors don't matter, because that trust is protecting those assets.
Eugene Choi 26:52
For someone that has a gambling issue, let's say Rachel, going back to her example, she's an awesome, awesome friend of mine. And so I'm not picking on her. This is not true at all. But let's say she had some gambling issues, right? Having those assets in a trust, or let's say she had some alcohol issues, having those assets in a trust, where she is simply the beneficiary, Bob racial stad has now put guard rails on those trusts. Okay, I'm only going to allow you to take X amount of dollars from this trust every single year, okay, I want to provide for you, but I want to provide for you for the rest of your life in the manner in which I want to. And then obviously, when you reach a certain age, or let's say at the discretion of the trustee, if you can prove to them that you know, you got your life together or whatever, then then obviously, you can have everything. Right. And so the great thing about these trusts Jason, is that the revocable, okay, reversible means that you can change your mind. And so when you have this trust set up, and if you decide, you haven't set up for the purposes of protecting Rachel, five or 10 years later, if Rachel has turned over a new leaf and has her whole life together, all you need to do is rip up the trust and change the beneficiary back to Rachel and the whole thing never happened.
Jason Fuchs 28:14
Ah, okay. Okay. So it's not a one and done thing, you have the ability to make adjustments as you need to.
Eugene Choi 28:20
Absolutely, then the other way you can use a special situation is trust and not to get too deep into it. But if you have any family members have special needs. Having those assets in a special situations trust where the special needs individuals is the beneficiary. And you have a an appropriate qualified trustee, like Dunham Trust Company, we are able to make sure that your family member, your friend with special needs continues to maintain and receive their government benefits. Because this is where it can get really, really tricky. If you just leave it outright to someone that really doesn't know what they're doing, then you're not making the best use of what the government has freely available, because these tax laws can get really, really combo
Jason Fuchs 29:10
change all the time. It's
29:12
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And so that's our job as a trustee and what we can offer but, again, the special situations trust is very, very unique in the sense that you can tailor it pretty much however you want. Okay, and for assets that you have worked really hard for whether it be your IRA, 401k, or just a non retirement account, anything where you can assign a beneficiary, this gives you control. Ah, okay,
Jason Fuchs 29:39
so so let's say and again, no judgment, Rachel wonderful person. But let's say Rachel's Dad, let's say Rachel's dad passed away, and she had those gambling issues and her dad's out of the picture. Now she's receiving income over those 10 years. What happens if Rachel gets upset and decides You know what, I'm going to get that money Right away.
Eugene Choi 30:02
Is that something that's possible? No, this is the beautiful thing is that Rachel is simply the beneficiary of that trust. Okay, so the there is a trustee that Bob assigns during his life, and it can be a trusted family member, which not all the time, we would recommend, because he creates some family attentions with Rachel and let's say, Bob's brother, right. And so now Rachel and her uncle have a issue and then also puts headaches on Bob's brother as well. If Bob's brother as the uncle now needs to serve as trustee on this, it's just more work for them. Okay.
30:37
So that's why you use it third party as a trustee to kind of create correct, okay, and
30:41
if Rachel is simply the beneficiary, she can pout, and she can do whatever she wants and complain, but we are the trustee on that account where or anyone else is the trustee on that account where Rachel really can't do anything about it. Now, okay, that begs the question, well, what if the trustee isn't really doing what Bob wants? Right? Because Bob is no longer here. And Bob dictates what happens to the money and how Rachel can receive it. And what if Rachel is following the rules, but the trustee isn't?
Jason Fuchs 31:13
Yeah, I mean, it's ultimately up to the trustee to follow the rules Bob laid out.
Eugene Choi 31:17
Yep, exactly. And so there's something out there called a trust protector. Okay, which a trust protector has no say in the matter of what Rachel gets. But their job and their sole job is to make sure that the trustee that Bob hired is doing their job. Okay, another layer of accountability, so that the trust protector, let's say it's Bob's wife, or, or an attorney or a Trust Company, or anyone, they can make sure that Bob's brother is actually fulfilling Bob's wishes. Ah, okay. So that protects Rachel, in a sense, okay.
Jason Fuchs 31:55
And so how does that work? Is there something that that they'd have to complete? Or what is that what is the trust protector do to enforce that?
Eugene Choi 32:05
So the trust protector gets a copy of the trust as well. And assuming that the trust protector has a relationship with the beneficiary, they should, then if the beneficiary is complaining to the trust, protector, and my uncle isn't giving me the money that is laid out in the trust, I'm supposed to be getting $1,000 a month, then the trust protector can then investigate and rather and say, Hey, are you giving $1,000 a month or not? And let's say Bob's brother isn't, then the trust protector can have the authority to sign a different trustee. Yep. Yep. And the trust protector is not something that you do just on a special needs trust or right. No, it can be on any any type of trust and on not even just this special situations trust, but on any trust that you have, you can assign the trust protector to make sure that the trustee is doing the job that they've been assigned to for the benefit of the beneficiaries, then one very important thing to know about this special situation is just that I haven't mentioned, Jason is we've been talking about Rachel, we've been talking about giving her money on a monthly basis, you can definitely do that. You can also do if you really want to put the guardrails on because you just don't trust that if you give Rachel $1,000 a month that she'll use it in the manner in which you want him or her to use it. You can have the trust just pay directly to the mortgage company. Let's say okay, house already interesting. Let's say that you want to leave a payments behind so that she doesn't ever have to worry about Okay, have the trustee in laid out in the trust documents, pay the mortgage bill every I love that. Okay, that's a neat feature. You don't need to you don't need to give cash to the individual, which is another misconception there Is that really you can get as creative and flexible as you want in these types of trusts. Got it. Okay. So the control from the grave really is control from the grave. I like that.
Jason Fuchs 34:05
So is this something amber and I could potentially use for, you know, our family with jewel?
Eugene Choi 34:12
Absolutely. You can. If you if you guys decide to change your mind because jewel is a jewel, and she thinks in fly spreads and just change the beneficiary back to jewel or rip up the trust then the whole thing never happens.
Jason Fuchs 34:27
Got it. Okay. And imagine working directly with you. Since you and I are working together, we could probably save a lot of time a lot of money for our clients.
Eugene Choi 34:38
Yeah, so the traditional route and creating trusts is normally a client with their financial advisors such as yourself or with their doing it themselves. If they want to create a trust, they have to go through an estate planning attorney and so they call a law firm to say I want to trust I don't know what I'm doing but i've i've heard like need one At this point in my life, my my situation is getting a little bit more complex, we save a ton of the time I've done them Trust Company because we essentially get the attorney out of the picture. Okay, create that ourselves with you, the financial advisor, and then the client and interesting, kind of like a one stop shop place where you don't need to pass the client around, or are you the client, if you might be listening don't need to go different places, different place, you can just do everything through Jason.
Jason Fuchs 35:31
I like that. The I like the fact that everybody's collaborating together. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Wow, fantastic. Anything else you'd like to add? Anything we missed?
Eugene Choi 35:45
On the special situations trust, I think that pretty much covers it. The the again, the the important thing that I want to hit home is that trusts are a very, very valuable tool. Just to hit home. Again, the four points that you're making of why a trust, saves time, saves money in the long run is private is non contestable, or a whole lot more non contestable. Those are really, really key points to hit. And if you've worked really hard for the money, to raise up that money and to build a big nest egg for yourself, it would be wise to have a plan to make sure that those assets are being transferred properly.
Jason Fuchs 36:25
Yeah, yeah. You know, so many people prior to working with me, Eugene, they come in and we sit down, we review their, you know, financial plan and what have you. And we talk about legacy, you know, what, what do you want to leave behind? What do you want to do from beyond the grave, and they just stare at me blankly most of the time, you know, most people don't realize that they can control the distribution of their assets from beyond the grave. And I think that's incredibly important. Because again, you know, people like your dad, Eugene, you know, he's working six days a week, 12 hours a day. And he's, I mean, he's earning every penny that he's saving for retirement. So the last thing he wants to do is have that money to transition to someone that that doesn't appreciate it or appreciate him for that matter.
Eugene Choi 37:09
And the importance of trusts are in for for us, individuals who aren't multi multi millionaires are millionaires. There are if you just Google celebrities without an estate plan, B celebrities died without a will and the battles are still going on. When Michael Jackson passed away, he died without a will. When Prince passed away, he died without a will. Amy Winehouse, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Aretha Franklin, all of these famous celebrities that died without a will. They died anywhere from five to 10 to 15 to 20 years ago, their estates are still getting handled right now. And there's battle still going on. And so I can't imagine that they would ever have wanted to have their relatives have to deal with this headache. Right. And so, if we can do it now, that's going to save us a lot of headache in the future and save our beneficiaries. A lot of headache and time and privacy in the future as well.
Jason Fuchs 38:13
Yeah, I agree. Well said, Wow, good stuff. Good stuff. Anything else that we missed a gene?
Eugene Choi 38:22
There's a lot of trusts out there that you know, you can you can we do at dental Trust Company, we have trust for pets. And so I don't know. create one for me, but that's pretty neat. Yeah, no kids, great one for the dog. Right? Exactly.
Jason Fuchs 38:37
And ladies and gentlemen, this is why it's so important to work with a professional like Eugene OR like myself, lean on me for support, you know, we can discuss more ways to protect your assets. And we can figure out the best way to get those assets to your loved ones in the most efficient way possible. Ladies and gentlemen, head to our website, www dot Sage path FA comm click the calendar link at the top of the page, schedule some time with me pick a day and time that works for you. You'll find that I'm freely giving of my time. And if that doesn't work for you, call me. Email me all of that info is in the description of the podcast or the website. Eugene, man's great stuff. Thank you so much for being here. Oh, thanks for having me, Jason. I appreciate it. It's my pleasure. And to all of our listeners, thank you so much for sticking around. I appreciate all of you. We'll see you in three weeks for another episode of dad cents. Enjoy the day. And now the part we all love the disclosures. Securities and investment advisory services offered through FSC securities Corp member FINRA, SIPC. FSC is separately owned and other entities in our marketing names, products or service referenced here independent of FSC. This show is not meant to provide legal or tax advice, nor is it a recommendation for any specific investment. Jason Fuchs, Eugene Troy, sage path and FSC are unaffiliated. This episode is sponsored by Donovan associates investment Council, Inc. Thank you for listening. Have a great day. Jason Fuchs here, and thank you so much for taking the time to listen to dad cents. If you like what you hear today, would you please share with a friend or better yet, leave us a positive review if you can. We'd love to reach more people just like you. And hey, if you don't like what you hear, drop us a note. We produce this podcast for you. And if it's not something you're enjoying, we'd like to know how to make it better. Thanks again for listening.