Unlocking Financial Peace: The Trust Factor

This week on 15 Minutes with Paul Ward, we delve into the world of Family Trusts with experts from Grennier Law – Todd Mannis, Christine Grennier, and Waldo Ybarra. Exploring the prevalence and advantages of Trusts over Wills, we tackle common hesitations surrounding Trust establishment, backed by real-life examples illustrating the consequences of neglecting one. From navigating Probate Court costs to addressing healthcare directives, our guests provide invaluable insights into the process’s intricacies and the importance of periodic Trust review. Join us as we empower listeners to take the significant step towards securing their financial future, emphasizing the crucial role Trusts play in asset distribution and ensuring peace of mind for loved ones.

Watch the complete episode HERE:

What you will learn in this episode:
0:00 Introduction of guests, Todd Mannis, Christine Grennier and Waldo Ybarra of Grennier Law
0:40 Episode topic: Family Trusts
1:15 What percentage of people have a Trust?
1:27 A research project done by Grennier Law to demonstrate the number of people who had a Trust
1:39 What is a “Trust?”
2:08 The Advantages of a Trust over a Will
2:24 With a Trust, you can dictate who will get what when you pass
2:40 Why do people NOT put a Trust together?
4:38 Paul’s real-life example of what happens when you do NOT have a Trust
5:33 The cost of Probate Court
6:29 The court will decide who gets what in Probate Court
7:03 Advice given to people who do not have a Trust yet
8:28 How long does the process to set up a Trust take?
8:44 Who you can choose your assets to go to
9:27 Complications of a blended family and another benefit to a having a Trust
10:35 What is HIPPA?
10:55 Trust also dictates if you want your life prolonged; the use of life support
11:14 The Chapters of a Living Trust and the “flow” of process to getting one
12:36 Who oversees the process once the Trust owner, or Trustor, passes
13:26 The more detailed the Trust is, the better
13:56 The Successor Trustee is given a time frame to complete the directives of the Trust
14:09 How often should Trusts be renewed?
14:39 The biggest leap is getting people to actually get a Trust for themselves
15:24 Grennier Law serves all of California and contact information
16:35 A special Thank You to our Sponsor, Opus Escrow

Related Episodes:
Home Sweet Covered Home: The Secrets of Home Warranties
Insure Your Peace of Mind: Navigating California’s Insurance Maze
From Confusion to Confidence: Securing Your Investment & Mastering Escrow

Grennier Law:
Offices in Oxnard and Ventura
www.grennierlaw.com
805-394-8833

How to reach Paul:
paul@homeandranchteam.com
805-643-3900

Check out our featured listings as well as other properties for sale in the area: www.homeandranchteam.com

Have ideas for future episodes? We’d love to answer your questions – leave a comment! For any home buying or home selling needs in the Ventura County area of California, please reach out to Paul@homeandranchteam.com or visit www.homeandranchteam.com

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Paul Ward (00:03):

Hi everyone, it’s Paul Ward here, and welcome to another 15 minutes. I’m very excited. Today we actually have three guests. It’s the staff at Grennier Law located in Ventura County, California. And we have Todd Mannis, the owner of the company, along with Christine Grennier, the director of Operations and Waldo Ybarra. Welcome to 15 minutes.

Todd Mannis (00:27):

Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, Paul. Pleasure to be here.

Paul Ward (00:29):

So I wanted to have you on today because I found out fairly recently, actually through Waldo, that it’s a, a very small percentage of folks that have a family trust. And you know, growing up I really didn’t know what a trust was, but I had certainly heard the term and you know, my grandparents and my parents both had trusts and it was just kind of a, a fact of life that when you got older that you would have a, a document that would protect your assets. And I realized that, or found out recently that the vast majority of folks out there don’t know what a trust is and certainly don’t have one. Is that that’s the case.

Todd Mannis (01:11):

Sure. That yes, it is.

Paul Ward (01:13):

So, so what percentage of folks out there have a trust?

Christine Grennier (01:16):

Probably 30%.

Waldo Ybarra  (01:18):

We did a research one time and of neighborhoods around 3000 homes. And out of those 3000 homes only like 300. So it’s maybe 10%. 10%.

Paul Ward (01:34):

That’s incredible. And for folks, and for folks that dunno what, what, what is a trust? Just so folks know what we’re talking about.

Todd Mannis (01:43):

The trust is a document in which you’re going to list all the assets so that when you pass I is going to list who those A where those assets are going to be distributed when at the time that you pass. But in addition, it also will avoid probate. So in other words, a will, you would list all your assets and you would say, here’s who’s gonna get it and what have you. But a will would still have to go through the probate process. And the whole advantage of a trust is that it does not, it, it’s quicker private, less expensive less stress on everyone involved. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a win, win, win, win, win.

Paul Ward (02:22):

So if I have a house, a house and a bank account and a car, I can, I can dictate or stipulate who it’s gonna, which kid is gonna get what Or leads to less family squabbles.

Todd Mannis (02:37):

Exactly. Correct.

Paul Ward (02:39):

And, and why do folks not put a trust together? Do they just not know that it exists or do they not wanna spend the money? Or is it kind of a combination of factors? Is it cultural?

Christine Grennier (02:48):

So the, the, the main reason I feel that people do not have a trust as one. They’re not educated. A lot of people have a will and think that that will cover their home. If they’re a homeowner, it will not cover their assets. It still would have to go to probate. The other thing is procrastination. So if they do understand that the living trust will protect their assets, it’s not something that’s urgent that they feel. Especially for younger couples, they might, they think that, you know, they’re not gonna pass away in the near future and they’ll put that off.

Paul Ward (03:26):

Right.

Christine Grennier (03:27):

Somebody gets sick. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative> that’s a time that we seem to spike. ’cause If somebody is hospitalized or has some health issues, then they start thinking about their trust. Sometimes it’s not in time though.

Paul Ward (03:40):

Right.

Waldo Ybarra  (03:42):

So you did mention cultural and, and it is somewhat cultural as well. It’s a, a topic that families also don’t like talking about <affirmative>, it’s a source subject to bring up, oh, you’re going to pass away soon. You’re gonna pass away. What are you gonna do? Let’s not think about that right now. Let’s not talk about that. Right. There’s been instances with our clients where it’s been too late. You know, they, again, procrastinated on, they, they came in con did a consult with us. They, they’ve gone to seminars. They know what it is about, but it’s just actually doing it. And again, what Christine said is, when somebody gets sick, now let’s do it. And sometimes the price, the pricing, the oh, that’s too expensive to do that. Why do we have to do this? Why didn’t we pay this? Can we just do a will will is way cheaper. But again, as Christine said, the will, yes, the will can be contested. And it’s always best to do a

Paul Ward (04:38):

Living trust. You know, my father passed away in 99 and, you know, did not leave a trust. So we had to go through probate. And at that time, you know, I, I knew nothing ’cause I was just a kid. Oh, not really, but, you know, 30 and you know, had an attorney or found an attorney through a friend. And I think the cost of probate in 2000 was $15,000. Which would probably be, you know, triple that today. And then of course we had to wait for the courts to make, make decisions and fighting with my siblings, which I had never done before. Right. So that’s the only fight that I’ve ever had actually with my siblings, was when my dad died over, over money. So if he, if he had been organized, you know, we would’ve avoided that. Avoided that battle. Exactly.

Waldo Ybarra  (05:31):

Claim the the cost of probate, how it works. Yeah.

Todd Mannis (05:34):

If you’re going through the probate process, the, the, the costs besides court costs and procedural stuff, you’re gonna have attorney’s fees. And the attorney fee is set by statute. So it goes on a sliding scale. If the state on the first a hundred thousand dollars of the estate, it’s 4%. So if get a hundred thousand dollars state, it’s $4,000. That’s what the attorney’s gonna get. And then on the next a hundred, it’s three thou 3%. Okay. And then from 200 to 800 thou, excuse me, 200 to a million, it’s gonna be 2%. Okay. And then above a million dollars it’s gonna be 1%, et cetera. And like I said, it’s a sliding scale, but you can see that if you have a property that’s worth say six, 700, $800,000 Yeah. It’s gonna be up here, you’re gonna save four plus three. There’s the first 200, there’s 7,000. Right. Plus, yeah, exactly. So it’s gonna be 10, $15,000.

Paul Ward (06:25):

Right. And then the court, the court need to, needs to determine who gets what. Right. I mean, it might not be an even distribution and maybe it won’t even be what the, what the parent wanted.

Todd Mannis (06:40):

It could be. Yeah. It could be. I mean, for instance, if there’s a will, the will still gets probated. But at least with the will, the court will have some indication of what the the decedent’s intentions are. But if they died in test state and it’s going through through probate, yeah, there’s, it’s gonna be up, it’s gonna be up to the state’s and test state succession laws and no one has any control of anything.

Paul Ward (07:02):

So what do you, what do you recommend or what, what do you suggest to folks out there who, you know, obviously don’t have a trust, that’s our, our topic. They’ve kind of bantered it around, but they’ve, they’ve put it off. What, what do you say to them to really kind of bring home the message that this is, you know, this is important.

Christine Grennier (07:23):

The, the, the number one thing that our families say to us during the consultation is, my kids won’t fight. Well when there’s money involved, as you know, Paul, there is a fight and probate is very, very harmful to families. The, the trustee the parents do are not the ones who make the choice. It’s the judge. So what I have to say is that this is one thing that is so crucial. If you do care about your family, you do care about where your assets go, you need to just stop procrastinating and get the trust done. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> it should be done at the time of purchase. And if it wasn’t done at that time, it should be done now. And not, not not waiting until somebody gets hurt. You know, as you know, Paul, I lost my husband in a scuba diving accident. That’s not something that we could foresee that could happen. Right. Things happen, life happens and gets in our way. So to be prepared, this is one of the most important things. And yet people don’t treat it like that.

Paul Ward (08:26):

Right. How long does the process take? It

Christine Grennier (08:29):

Takes usually an hour consultation. We go over all the, the named beneficiaries and players in their trust. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And then within the week we have it prepared for them and ready to go.

Paul Ward (08:43):

So if you have three kids, you could leave your assets equally to them or, or choose to even go to the grandkids or whoever you want.

Todd Mannis (08:53):

Exactly.

Christine Grennier (08:54):

The good thing about a trust is you are the one who’s dictating where your assets go, where your hard work went into to, to build up your assets. Right. You can decide, but in probate, you do not, it doesn’t have to be your kids. And to, to be honest with you, not a very good percentage of our clients do not give an equal shares to their children for whatever reason. Right. But yes, you name who your beneficiaries are gonna be, and that’s the benefit of having a trust.

Paul Ward (09:25):

And, and families are complicated. I mean, I have a blended family. I, I have a, a stepdaughter who I, who I, you know, got when she was 10 and she’s still, you know, invo, you know, part of her dad’s life. But that made it a little bit complicated for my, my wife and me because she’s my stepdaughter and I, I do love her, but we also have a son. So we had to kind of figure out, you know, that piece of it and what we purchased together and what we own separately when we got married. So it’s, it, it can be a little bit complicated.

Christine Grennier (09:58):

And that’s the other good thing is in a living trust, the married couple that has has uplifted family do not have to do the same thing. You know? ’cause You have your own will. She has her own will. You have your own power of attorneys, you own, you have your own HIPAA waivers, and it doesn’t have to be the same players. So you are designing what you see your future to look like. Should you not be here, you’re the one who, who earned that money, the assets, and you’re the one who can dictate where they go with a living trust. Without that it goes to probate. They decide.

Paul Ward (10:35):

And for the folks that don’t know what is, what is hipaa, you mentioned hipaa, what is that?

Christine Grennier (10:38):

That is a waiver for the hospitals to be able to talk to your, your loved ones because there’s privacy policies. So if something were to happen to, my parents and I were, were not on the hipaa, I wouldn’t be able to talk to the doctors once, once they were in

Paul Ward (10:54):

The hospital. And then the trust would also dictate if you want to prolong your life or you want the plug pulled. Is that correct? That

Christine Grennier (11:00):

Is correct. So you’re, you’re pretty much designing your life after you’re, you’re not here. What happens to everything? So you, you’re the one who, who can state what you want. Right. What, what are the the chapters in a living trust? So there’s a bucket. So we have the, the living trust, we have the declaration of trust, we have the certificate of trust, healthcare directive. That’s what you’re talking about. Durable power of attorney. There’s two power of attorneys. One’s the durable, which is the financial one is the health, the HIPAA waiver and the personal property.

Paul Ward (11:34):

So, so, so the client would come in, consult with you, provide you with a list of assets if it’s real estate, bank accounts, cars, maybe, you know, jewelry and art, if they have that. And then you would put this in a, in a legal document, and then they would sign that, right? And then certain folks would have access to that document. I would assume that you would keep a copy. And when that, when that person passed away, then the, the the family would know how to distribute those assets. All your

Todd Mannis (12:08):

Properties going into your trust. So you’re going to wanna go ahead and transfer the ownership to your house into the name of the trust, which isn’t to say that you don’t own the house, it’s just putting it in the name of the trust. Okay. You are gonna put vehicles, you’re gonna put bank accounts yeah. Wanna make sure you, you don’t miss anything. Maybe later on you acquire another piece of property. You’re gonna wanna go ahead and and put that in the trust, but you wanna make sure that something doesn’t get omitted Correct. Does it?

Paul Ward (12:37):

Who’s, who’s in charge? Once somebody passes, who, who makes, who kind of oversees the process when

Todd Mannis (12:44):

The, when the trust is created the, the trust or who is the person creating the trust? He’s going to name a, a successor trustee who will administer the affairs after he’s passed away. And generally speaking, they’ll also name an alternate successor trustee. So for instance, Paul, you might name you, you have your own trust. You might name your son as the successor trustee, but if your son shall not be living or is unable to or unwilling to perform on those duties, then my daughter shall be the ultimate successor trustee, et cetera. But it’s, that’s the person who’s going to administer the trust and distribute the assets and take care of your affairs after you’ve passed away.

Paul Ward (13:26):

And I would assume that the more detailed the trust is that person being in charge, and obviously they’re, they’re going through their own grief process. I would think in a lot of cases, the more detailed the trust is, the less animosity there is among the family members, because the person who passed made the directive very clear.

Todd Mannis (13:49):

Right. The name of the game is intent. And as long as the, the testator’s intent is clear, we, we’ve done our job. Mm-Hmm.

Waldo Ybarra  (13:55):

<Affirmative>. And the success trustee does have a timeframe of when that has to be done by.

Paul Ward (14:02):

Okay.

Waldo Ybarra  (14:02):

But she said they might have take some a week, two weeks, three weeks to grieve, but they do have a timeframe.

Paul Ward (14:08):

How often should somebody renew their trust? I mean, you, you know, people buy new cars and they move and, you know, open bank accounts and close bank accounts. How often should you

Christine Grennier (14:18):

Update? I say every five to 10 years, sometimes sooner, depending on their situation. If any of the major players in their trust change, then they should, they should definitely amend their

Paul Ward (14:31):

Trust. But it sounds like the, the biggest challenge is still getting folks to take that leap and actually do what needs to be done and, and get a trust done. Yes.

Christine Grennier (14:39):

Oh, I was just gonna say that once, once the, we call ’em the trustees, they’re the owners of the trust. Once the trustees pass, then the revocable living trust becomes irrevocable. So the successor trustee that is in charge of administering the trust cannot make any changes. And I think that’s where a lot of people get confused as well, is that they, they, they don’t have a successor trustee or they don’t know who they could trust. Well, anybody could be the successor trustee because they cannot change anything that they put into their living trust.

Paul Ward (15:15):

Interesting. So the, so the person who, who, whose trust it is once they pass, no more changes. Correct. And you guys serve all of California, correct? How, how, what’s the, what’s the best way? You have multiple offices correct? In Ventura County? Correct.

Christine Grennier (15:29):

With Oxnard and Ventura.

Waldo Ybarra  (15:31):

And both offices offer Spanish speaking services as well.

Paul Ward (15:36):

Wonderful. and

Christine Grennier (15:38):

We’re also notaries in both offices.

Paul Ward (15:40):

You’re also notary notaries motorized, yes. Okay. What’s the best way, and we’ll certainly we will put it up on the, on the channel, but what’s the best way for folks to, folks to reach you? Do you have a general number that’s the best for, for folks to reach out? Yes.

Waldo Ybarra  (15:56):

It’s 8 0 5 6 4 3 3 9 0 0. They can also go on our website, grennierlaw.com

Paul Ward (16:04):

So thank you guys for joining us today. I hope, I hope our watchers and listeners learned about and about trusts and you know, we’ll, if they do not have one, they’ll, they’ll reach out. Because I think you’ve really stressed the importance of, of putting your affairs in order and so there’s not, not chaos in the family after you go on to greener pasture. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank

Christine Grennier (16:29):

You.