 Good afternoon, everybody, and I'm joined by Jason Bellin, the assistant director of DAV's personal philanthropy programs, and DAV member and fellow veteran Michael Kerr, who is an estate planning attorney with the law office of Michael Kerr. Gentlemen, thank you both for being here this afternoon. We have you both on today because this week is National Estate Planning Week. It's a perfect opportunity to talk about making a will and a plan to protect your family. It's also a good time to share how all of us can create a legacy to support veterans by making a gift to DAV in your will or plans. DAV has free, easy to use resources to set up your will and organize your estate. We'll talk about those in more detail in just a moment. We're also going to answer some of your questions at the end of this conversation, so please be sure to leave those in the comments below. And don't worry, if we can't get to your question live, we will be sure to follow up with you and reply to that comment afterwards. So everyone's questions will get answered today. This is a great opportunity. Gentlemen, again, thank you both for being here. Michael, to start off, just tell us a little bit about yourself and your connection to DAV. Yeah, sure. Thank you for having me. I appreciate this opportunity to talk to our veterans and other guests about Will's Trust and their estate planning needs. As you're all aware, just from the intro, I am a DAV life member. I spent six years in the Army as a satellite network operator and maintainer. I spent a lot of that time here in California and then I just stayed here. I was out of the Army for about six years and I didn't really have an active presence in the veteran community and then I was approached while I was actually at the VA on an appointment. I was waiting to grab a coffee and I was approached by actually a past national commander. I was invited to the next meeting. I showed up and then I've been showing up ever since I ran through all the chairs at the chapter. I've gone through the chairs at the department level here in California and now I'm having a little bit more presence at the national stage. And so I'm just hoping this opportunity here can bring more awareness to our community about the need for Will's Trust and the planning in general. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for your service and thank you for just all you've done for DAV. We're going to lean on your estate planning expertise today. Why is it such an important topic, not just for military veterans but for everyone? One of the things I think is funny is more people probably spend more time planning their vacations than they do deciding who will inherit their assets or take care of their minor children after they're gone. And it's unfortunate that a lot of the times it isn't considered until somebody has passed. And so the critical things we want to look at is who do you want to choose, who will inherit your possessions or your valuables? Like I've mentioned, who's going to watch over your children if you go on a date and don't come back? Do you have sizable assets and you need to have the tax ramifications managed? And I've dealt with it enough that not having a plan, even though you're not there, it can cause a lot of family strife and some ugly legal battles that can take quite a long time to resolve. So military and civilian alike, it's essential that you get a plan in place and put yourself and your family in a position to not have to deal with that turmoil in your timely passing. And you sort of touched on this, but can you go into a little bit more detail about some of the common problems? I mean obviously tragedy could strike or something back could happen if you don't have a plan in place, but what are some common problems that you see arise when people don't have this will or state plan? For instance, my brother has teenagers now and he and his wife have been married for 15 years and one of the things I told him is similar to what I just mentioned. You go on a date night, you have a great fondue and you don't come home because you're in an auto accident, you've got minor children. They obviously can't take care of themselves. So do you have a plan for somebody to step in and watch out for them on the short term? Do you have somebody who can watch out for them on the long term, whether that's financial, physical, and when do they get the money that comes from the estate? Do you want them to have it as soon as they're 18? Do you want them to have it years later? I know it can vary in different states with the statutes that are involved, but not having a will also means your family can't access your bank accounts. They can't register or re-register your vehicles. They can't access a lot of your financial aspects. They can't get into your PO box. So a lot of people, you know, they'll have their trust documents. Even if they do have them, they'll put them in a safety deposit box. But if your loved ones don't have a copy of that, they can't get to it either. So it's important to have something in place, you know, and that's like I said, that's a lot of it to do with the kids. But the will and the trust itself, it just gives you that peace of mind knowing whatever happens to you. The people you love aren't going to have as hard of a time because you're not leaving them with the big burden of figuring out your life and what you had going on. And honestly, especially in California, the cost of going through probate without having a will or trust in place is quite exorbitant compared to the amount it usually costs you to actually put a place in. Yeah, so it's peace of mind. It's taking care of the family. It's just making sure that that transition should something happen is eased for you. And if you're just joining us, I'm talking with Michael Kerr, who is the law office of Michael Kerr. He's an estate planning expert and attorney. He's also a DAV member, a fellow veteran. We're also joined by Jason Bellens. He's the assistant director of DAV's personal philanthropy programs. And we're talking to both of you today because it's National Estate Planning Week. Jason, he's just talking about all of these potential problems that could arise that can be mitigated with a will. Can you tell us a little bit more about how someone can set up a will and a plan for their estate through DAV? And do you have to be a veteran to be able to use these services? Absolutely, Brian. Thank you for the question. And you don't have to be a veteran to take advantage of the services that DAV provides to our members, to our supporters, those that are passionate about supporting veterans' causes. We have a free estate planning kit that can be downloaded from our website, DAVplanmygif.org. Once you access that, it'll literally walk you through the steps of being able to know the process of creating a will, putting your affairs and orders, and be able to make sure that that plan is established. We also can create a will through freewill.com backslash DAV that literally in 20 minutes, you can help create a will that would set up a plan for you and your family. And then again, we have a team of gift planning advisors throughout the country that can be a resource, and you can access or talk to them at any point. If you go to our gift planning or email them at giftplanning at DAV.org, or you can call them at 1-800-216-9802 and then press 1. And we can get you connected to a gift planning advisor or donor advisor in your particular area that can help get you started in that process. Great. And you said 20 minutes. Michael was just talking a little bit about how some people spend more time planning their vacation than they do planning for through their will. They're planning their estate, but 20 minutes, even there's a little bit of that, and it's a free resource. That's incredible. I wanted to ask you, though, a little bit about taxes. How can someone save on taxes, say, if they're setting up their estate and will through DAV? I'm more than happy to answer and then turn it over to Michael. But when you're transferring assets, maybe real estate is a good example. If you just transfer it to a son or a daughter or a family member, they might have to pay taxes on the capital gains that are achieved once they actually sell the property. If it's transferred within a trust that those taxes can be mitigated. So if you're going to be transferring substantial assets, such as real estate or large financial accounts or just financial accounts in general, then it's good to have that setup in the trust to be able to take advantage of tax-wise giving. Michael, would you like to elaborate on that? Yeah, sure. In that vein, the step-up basis, a lot of times with real estate and your investments, your gains on those, like you said, the capital gains, can sometimes be quite significant depending on how long you've had those assets. I know if you're out here in California, your property probably went up 25% to 50% in value depending on how long ago you bought it with how everything changed over the last couple of years. Sometimes the people in your life aren't prepared to take on those kind of assets with that kind of financial responsibility with how much they cost now. And to donate to a quality organization like the DAV, who's a qualified non-for-profit, helps alleviate a lot of that tax burden with your family because they don't have to worry about any of that. And it'll bypass them directly and go to the non-profit. So they won't be impacted in having to deal with all that, especially if you've already put it in place. It's in your trust and the DAV can just run with it. They've got quality people on staff who can help make sure that process goes as smoothly as possible with the least amount of pain to your loved ones. And so, I mean, this is definitely something that can benefit the family. But also, Jason, I mean, this can, when you leave, when you include DAV in your will, this can help others too. Can you talk about some of the kind of services DAV provides when someone does include us in their will? Yeah, absolutely. DAV is more than one million members benefit from the programs and services that are offered. Those that aren't members have the ability to connect with DAV to get help with benefits assistance. Last year over 200,000 claims were filed at the VA on behalf of veterans that were looking for the benefits that they had earned through their service. We have a transportation network that provides over 500,000 rides to veterans to get to their medical appointments at the VA. We have an employment or a career network that puts on career fairs, both virtual and in-person throughout the country that helps provide veterans with employers that are looking to hire veterans and their family members. So, DAV really doesn't leave any bases on or any boxes unchecked as far as the services that we want to provide to veterans. A gift, a legacy gift in their estate plans helps to ensure that that will happen for another century of service to our veterans. That's great, yeah. Folks, if you have any questions for Jason or Michael, please feel free to ask them in the comments. We'll get to those in just a couple minutes and if we don't get to your question during the live, we'll certainly follow up with you via chat and via messaging. But once someone creates their will or their estate plan with DAV, what do they need to do? What's the next step? Again, I'll chime in, but Michael, if you'd like to elaborate on it, the biggest thing is to get it notarized. Make sure that it is filed in maybe the county that they live. It's notarized, it's witnessed. Each state might have a little bit different requirement as to how many witnesses need to also sign it with a notary present. And then keep it in a safe place, whether it is a PO box, a fireproof safe at the house, that those that might be included, that someone who is the executor might have a copy of it and then keeping it in a safe place, so that everyone knows not necessarily everything that's in the will, but the executor is familiar with it. They're willing to do, I guess, a difficult task, and they are aware of that as well. And then there's no surprises. Michael, would you have any additional information? Yeah, that was putting it in a fireproof box or in a safety deposit box. I always recommend making sure you give a valid copy to your trustee or your executor and they can hold on to it too because if something were to happen where they can't access the box or they don't have access to your house, something were to happen, then they have a copy that is in effect. I will agree that having it notarized and properly witnessed is a key, but one of the other fundamental issues is funding the trust. You actually have to transfer the assets to the trust in order for the trust to hold the assets and for it to be passed when you pass. So making sure if you have real estate, you go through the county recorder and you record it with them, make sure you get the certified copies. I tend to put a whole packet together when I do this process with my clients and I have everything attached. You can do a county record search online and you'll see that information, but I always like to have that backup copy in the file just in case something were to happen. The same with your bank accounts and any other kind of accounts that you want to make sure are properly handled and transferred to your loved ones that you have those documents at the ready and in that same binder. What if I don't have any significant possessions? Do I need this? I mean, if you have a retirement account or savings account or will earn a state plan is a great way to determine what will happen with those items. I know in California, the threshold to qualify for probate is rather low and if you own any property really whatsoever you almost always qualify. Obviously, I would talk to an attorney or your estate planning representative on whether or not that specifically applies, but it's important for everyone regardless of whether you have a family or not. In fact, it is even more crucial for individuals who's immediately family members or without immediate family members because then it'll go through probate and it's kind of an up for grabs based on what the judge determines your assets to go. So if you have specific things you want to go to somebody you need to have that in place, you know, you have grandma's jewelry or, you know, you have your grandfather's pocket wash World War II. If you don't put any of that in a document, then who knows what your state is going to determine when the probate process runs through. So it doesn't have to be significant assets. Honestly, any assets even if they're sentimental value, you want to make sure you have a plan in place so they go to the person that you want them to go to. No, it's great. Great point. Claudia from LinkedIn is asking she's she's asking if there's a company we could recommend. You know, Jason, can you tell us a little bit about DAV's plan my gift option and what we can do and reiterate that point that we made a little bit earlier. Yeah, absolutely. I guess on DAV plan my gift org, you have the ability to download in a state planning kit. The other opportunity that we have on DAV plan my gift is we have a partnership with free will where you can go on to free will and in about 20 minutes create a will that is legally binding in the state that you live. And they also have the opportunity to create a revocable living trust on free will.com backslash DAV if they if that is something that is of interest as Michael mentioned sometimes putting things into a trust and then funding that trust and turning your house to in the trust name, other possessions in the trust name. It is a great opportunity, depending on the state that you live in that as an opportunity there. The other thing is, is recommending to talk to an estate planning attorney if you would like in the area where you live to be able to get that expert advice attacks advisor is always good as well. Right. Justin's asking us, what are thoughts, what are your thoughts and I'm sure that I'm assuming might this is directed to you Michael on IULs and trust and we were Jason is just talking about them there but what are your thoughts about those. I guess I need a little bit more understanding of what we're trying to accomplish this kind of seems a little broad to me so I don't know how to specifically answer that and I know we have a limited time. But we could take that offline and any other questions that may require a little more explanation just, I think that's a limited scope. Yeah, audience that we're dealing with and I think we're trying to keep it a little broader but I'd be more than happy to answer it offline. Fair enough. Yeah. And do you have an email address he can reach you at. Yeah, Michael at Michael Kerr law.com is an easy way to get a hold of me. Okay, so it sounds like you know, maybe it's not it's not one size fits all with with those and plans and trusts and different plans so. But I do have one more question and we're going to wrap it up there is that you know if something happens in the future can I can I change my plans. I highly recommend people review their plan every two to three years, or when they have a significant change to their life they, you know, they, they add a family member, you know a lot of younger families they'll have another kid. And their state plan doesn't take that into account you know they buy another property and although you don't necessarily need to change or will you do need to change the ownership of the property to the trust and make sure everything as we discussed is properly notarized and documented with the county recorder. So any major life change is always an opportunity to review it. And, like I said, you know every two to three years is probably a good opportunity to have it looked at, just to make sure the laws hasn't haven't significantly changed, you know, hopefully they change for the better for your particular instance and we'd like to be able to capture that if possible. And, if I can add one thing about that. If an individual logs on to or creates a will at freewill.com, you can always log back in, add possessions to that, change real estate information similar to what Michael was saying, edit that, and then be able to print out a new copy. So you have the ability to change that over time. If utilizing the freewill.com backslash DAB in the creating of a will at that point. Okay, great. And I know we're just about out of time here, but and there's a couple more comments that came in we'll be sure to get into those after this live stream is over we'll go in and respond to those individually. Point you in the right direction with those resources. Again, it's DAV plan my gift.org, and it's free will.com slash DAV correct Jason, they get that one right. That is correct. Yeah, and you can go there to get all the information about about planning a will and planning your estate for the future. Gentlemen, Jason, Michael, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us about this and topic and and thank you all for tuning in. If you would like to learn more about how you can create a will and plan your plan your assets and your estate for free. Please visit DAV plan my gift.org will leave a recording of this live stream up on our social media channel so feel free to share it with others and who may benefit from this so thank you all and have a great day. Thank you.