Welcome everybody. Thanks so much for joining us today. We’re going to be discussing legacy planning, estate planning, six steps to uh planning for the generations. My name is Christian Chaplua. I’m a financial consultant here at Alliant Retirement and Investment Services. So, we work with members throughout the United States. I work primarily with folks on the West Coast. So, that includes uh Southern California, also Hawaii, Washington State, uh but lots of other places as well. uh people relocate and uh so we continue to work together. I’ve been in the industry uh on the personal uh wealth management side for about 15 years. Uh so can um you know offer that experience uh help you with your financial planning uh investment u management questions all the above. You know, we we offer these topics to help you get uh smarter about financial planning, about all the important uh areas of planning, which can uh includes today’s presentation, but also budgeting, long-term care, Medicare, Social Security, uh investments, annuities, the list goes on and on. So, um I think uh if you’re interested in estate planning, then you’re uh going to get some great information today. uh be able to jumpstart that process and uh and get your estate planning uh completed this year. And uh it’s so important for all of us to kind of remember to get this done. Uh take care of ourselves, take care of our families.
Just want to mention uh this presentation intended for educational purposes only. So uh please do not record, reproduce, distribute any part of this presentation. uh no video audio screen screen capture AI tools um the presentation is proprietary and um uh hope you can understand. Thanks so much.
Got a couple of webinars coming up. So we’re going to be discussing webinar planning on Thursday June the 25th. Uh so if you’re uh Medicare age do join us. got some great information uh help you with understanding the deadlines, how Medicare works. And then we’re going to be discussing social security planning uh Thursday, July the 2nd, and uh talking about social security, uh different filing strategies, filing as a family, uh uh different ideas around um you know, whether to file early, uh late, delay, how it works with your overall financial plan. Lots of great information. and it’s one of our most popular webinars. Hopefully you can join us for that as well. In addition to our webinars, we’ve got our invest podcast which is available on our website. Uh so you can download episodes over 20 episodes available and then uh our website and blog has lots of good information as well. So that includes uh tools, templates, um financial articles, uh plenty of resources for you. Uh that’s at our website. Uh you can uh access our website through uh the aligned credit credit union portal um or directly uh at the ARS uh location.
And then just a quick reminder in terms of uh how we could potentially work together. So um a couple different areas. Um we always offer financial planning. Uh that’s no charge for clients uh no charge for members uh even for prospects. Um so that that includes a basic plan uh looking at source of income, expenses, assets and kind of a timeline, cash flows for the future. Uh so basic plans are are complimentary. Would highly encourage everybody to get their plan done. Uh in conjunction with that, you know, there’s things like estate planning and other things, long-term care, as I mentioned. Uh so estate planning available to clients. So, if you become a client, we can get your uh estate planning completed through our digital planning service. Uh advanced planning, which includes Roth conversions, tax planning, uh cash management strategies that’s also available to clients. Um and then there’s traditional investment management that we help folks with, uh thinking about uh feebased uh no fee products, lots of different choices. So, uh just a quick summary. I’ll revisit this topic uh at the end of the presentation. We always highly encourage uh folks to become clients. We think we offer a lot of value um and uh it’s cost-effective versus any other alternatives and we can show you that uh so please do consider it. I’ll give you a chance to uh sign up for a meeting uh throughout the presentation.
Okay. So let’s get started with uh the topic for today. Um, so one question here, uh, you know, what wisdom would you try to impart on the world if it if you knew that was your last chance? Um, so that’s a really important question. Uh, it’s not something that we’re thinking about on a daily basis, but it’s it’s a good question to kind of reflect on. Uh, there’s two individuals here um on the screen that you can see. Uh, one you might know, recognize, the the other not so much. And the reason that we kind of highlight these two uh two individuals is because you know um it’s kind of a uh just looking at how they prepared for estate planning and the differences and um and just thinking about some of the qualitative aspects of uh you know our life and and thinking about you know our um you know our longevity. Um so it’s a really important question to ask in terms of you know if it was you know our last chance what kind of wisdom would we impart on the world. Um this um this quote came from um professor Randy Pouch. He was a computer science professor at uh Carnegie Carnegie Melon University. Um and the reason that he is famous for this quote um is because he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the age of 45. Uh so that’s obviously way too young for somebody um and so unfortunate for somebody so brilliant um you know rather than kind of uh getting stuck on the idea um and uh and just you know being quiet and uh not um you know not really picking uh or getting depressed about the situation. Um he decided to do something about it. He delivered what’s called the last lecture and it actually became a YouTube sensation at the time. It was made into a book. Uh he was on TV with Good Morning America, Oprah, all kinds of things. Um so, you know, he came up uh he did write a book um asking these questions um that he thought were very important in his life. Um you know, questions like um you know, what are we spending our our time on? uh about preparation where luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity and it’s a really good book. Um you know a lot of kids are reading this in high school. Uh so he did become famous and he took his unfortunate diagnosis and it turned it into something really special. Um again unfortunately he he died two years later. Uh but you know it’s just an example of how he kind of took charge of his life and and made a positive impact on the world. Um, in contrast, um, we’ve got, you know, Mr. Gandalfino, Gandalfini, many of you know him from the Sopranos. Um, so Tony Soprano, I was a big fan. Um, he made a huge impact on the world as well. Um, but you know, the unfortunate thing about uh, James Gandalfini is he died unexpectedly at the age of 51. Um and because he hadn’t planned um he left only about 20% of his estate to his wife. About 30 million of the 70 million went to taxes. Uh it went to other sources. But um you know this was just an unfortunate and kind of extreme situation. Many of us are not in this kind of tax bracket. But it’s uh just an example of the difference in terms of uh you know planning ahead um and thinking about you know what’s important to us and and making sure that we’ve organized our affairs. um um and you know the the importance of that both financially and qualitatively. So here we have kind of just a you know a really good example of two individuals that uh made a tremendous impact on the world but they handled their last days quite differently. Um you know the you know the gift that uh Randy Posh received was that he had advanced notice um kind of did something about it and made a positive impact on the world. Um James Gandalfini, he passed away suddenly. Um he didn’t have that chance, but you know, none of us know um you know, the day that we’re going to pass away unless we’re kind of sick, unless we’ve got a bad diagnosis. Um so this is just, you know, uh an example of two individuals um how they approached estate planning and kind of um their last uh last days uh in a different way and uh for us to learn from. you know, only 24% of Americans have a will. Um, and that number is actually declining. Used to be 33% in 2022. So, not enough of us are are creating a will. Uh, procrastination, um, it’s probably the biggest reason why we don’t get to our estate planning, and it’s understandable. We’re all busy. Uh but uh it is so important and uh an unfortunate diagnosis or a premature death could really kind of uh mess up our our plans for our families and and make things just very messy um in terms of the estate settlement process. Um if you get a bad diagnosis, um it’s going to be a motivator for you, of course. Uh but you know, we should all be planning for um you know, passing our states on smoothly to our family members or our charities, our churches, uh wherever those funds are going. Um you know, without without direction, uh without official direction, legal uh direction for your family, um there’s going to be confusion. Um there could be disagreements. Uh there could be probate which is going to be additional uh delays, costs, legal process. Uh if you’ve ever gone through the probate process, you know what I’m talking about. Maybe it’s for your parents or for another family member. Um and again, you don’t want to be in the situation where you’re not organized. U you know, things are um kind of uh disorganized. You, you know, nobody knows where your papers are. Uh all your different accounts, uh your beneficiaries are not squared away. Um all of these things are avoidable and we highly encourage you to get this estate planning done. Incapacity is also a problem. So sudden incapacity for health issues or an accident. Um that’s where nobody knows your medical wishes. And even if you’re going in for routine kind of uh you know checkups like a colonoscopy or anything you need to have your kind of medical directive completed u make sure that somebody’s appointed uh because mishaps happen. Even if it’s like 1% of the time uh or.1% of the time mishaps do happen. You want to make sure that uh you know your medical decisions are arranged for you. Uh someone has the authority to handle your finances and uh and making sure that everything is in good order.
One of the greatest obstacles in estate planning is just you know it’s death denial. You know most people don’t want to think about it. Um so that’s the reason that we uh procrastinate. Um it’s scary to think about also. Um but again uh you know the confidence and and kind of the um um the ability to sleep at night after all of this is done uh is just worth the effort. So we highly encourage it. It’s really a gift to your family. Uh so you want to just uh you’ve been taking care of your family potentially your whole life and you want to keep doing that in the future. Um again avoid any added stress during a highly emotional time uh if you were to pass away suddenly. Uh so the common estate problems that you know we see sometimes um and it’s happened we have clients that have passed away uh suddenly it could be a um you know a diving accident in Hawaii um it could be a health issue it could be a car accident uh this happens all the time. Uh so again you want to think about you know your will, your uh trust, your living trust, advanced healthcare directives. Make sure u that any uh minors are taken care of in terms of guardianship. Uh thinking about tax planning depending on what tax bracket you’re in. Um and also cash management planning. These are all the common problems that we come across. The benefits of estate planning are basically that you know it spells out your healthcare wishes. Your possessions go to the people that you choose. um you avoid those unplanned legal expenses and delays and just basically protect uh your family and your loved ones. And then you also want to think about, you know, other things, things like uh you know, your values and how to pass those on. Maybe it’s to grandchildren. Uh maybe it’s to, you know, your kids. Um it could be your life experiences, your talents, um lots of different things. So when you have time on your side, you’re able to prepare, pass these things on. could be um just character assets, intellectual assets. Uh again, lots of different things that we can share with our family uh both from a financial perspective and uh these qualitative topics. So again, we just highly encourage people to to think this through. It’s going to be different for everybody. Some of us are kind of very um you know, focus on the financial side, others u on the qualitative side. But uh you know, it is a two-step process. Um you just want to kind of you know again think it through organize everything uh and make sure that it’s uh kind of in place legally so that the transition can be very smooth. Again uh both done uh you know the uh the tangible assets and you know the intangible assets just both passed on for the benefit of the next generation. So who are the people that we typically take care of? So, it’s our spouse, our children, uh grandchildren, future generations, the world at large, could be our community, our church, again, um all of the above. And then, uh I’m just going to share kind of a quick sixstep process to think about and I’ll give you a chance at the end to answer uh to ask any questions. I’ll do my best to answer it uh so that you can kind of, you know, take advantage of the resources that you have available uh and make sure that you’re getting everything done in good order. So two important documents again uh the advanced healthcare directive and your power attorney for finances. So uh the two um kind of uh things that you want to look at is you know the financial stuff and the health stuff um at a bare minimum. You want to also get organized. Uh just making sure that you know you are um you know things are in the right folders. Um you have shared information with loved ones, trusted partners, um family members so that they know how to access the information. Um they’re not kind of going on a scavenger hunt. Uh if something were to happen to you, if you were incapacitated or if you were to pass away prematurely. Um you want to identify all the property that you have. uh make sure that your beneficiaries are up to date. Make sure that um you know you understand the uh the estate settlement process and u whether or not estate taxes will be uh potentially applied or income taxes with your final returns. And then also thinking about you know uh your your children or your spouse inheriting all those um you know important accounts and and financial assets. Making sure that they are prepared for that. um you know, just giving them access to uh the paperwork, uh passwords potentially, uh instructions on what to do with pets, uh mail, etc. Um if you’re incapacitated or if you do pass away, uh and then any any other special instructions. Uh so these are all the things that you kind of need to think about.
Let’s consider, you know, contingency planning. Um everybody’s got special circumstances. You know, maybe it’s a special needs child that you need to look after separately from your other children. Um, you want to think about preparedness to uh handle an inheritance. Um, you want to think about, you know, how you’re going to split up your assets among your children potentially. Do you divide them equally? Um, do you divide it according to need? Um, so these are all questions and you know it can take several months or even a year or longer uh just to kind of come around to what’s right for you and your family. Kind of discussing it with your spouse, making sure that you’re both on the same page and kind of putting it together legally uh so it’s executable uh you know for the state that you reside in. we can help you with this. Uh and uh and then you know the the legal process whether you work with an attorney or take advantage of uh you know a digital estate planning process um that’s going to help um you know get your assets and uh will living trust everything executable so that it can be um you know put in place uh if something was to happen. A will is different than a trust. you know some assets can be trusted uh transferred through titling uh you know beneficiary designations uh trust management those are all uh different things different tools that you can utilize uh in addition to your will uh again coordination across your accounts is important um and it really depends on uh you know complexity some estates are simple very straightforward uh if you own real estate um then you should definitely be thinking about a living trust if um if your estate is complicated because of a family business, because of uh a large family, because of extensive real estate holdings, then you definitely want to kind of make sure that everything is current and up to date, all of your planning is completed. Uh because it can get ex extremely messy. We’ve seen it happen um you know where there’s five six kids uh lots of disagreements um or maybe it’s complexity with a family business and then all of a sudden people are in court for a year or two and you want to avoid that at all possible. Um so again please you know learn from those examples and uh you know highly encourage you to kind of take the first step and get things done. um work with an attorney if uh if your estate is complicated. Um but if if it’s more simple, then you might be able to kind of uh work with a a digital process, something that would like uh uh our clients uh are able to work with uh to get all these important papers uh completed.
In switching to the the family legacy, uh, in addition to all your assets and everything, you want to write down your memories, put together scrapbooks, potentially just some ideas here, uh, you know, favorite recipes, uh, special skills, you know, passing that on to kids and and grandkids. These are all just ideas for you to take advantage of. Once you put the, uh, the plan together, you want to monitor and update that plan. U, make sure that, um, you know, it’s it’s accurate, up to date. uh you know, families change, families grow, um you know, sometimes they get smaller, relocation happens. Uh so you want to, you know, uh understand all of those things and and make sure you’re keeping up to date. Uh it could be a long-term care event where all of a sudden you’re uh you’re in long-term care because of an accident. Uh you know, this happened to a client of ours. They’re in Europe and then uh all of a sudden they were uh incapacitated for 6 months in long-term care because they had an accident. they actually just fell. Um, so it can happen to us at any point in time. Uh, and we want to make sure that we’re uh ahead of it and making sure that we’re we’re updating our plan accordingly. Like I mentioned, you know, families grow. Uh, you know, people do unfortunately get divorced, pass away. Uh, sometimes we change our mind about things. So again, uh, monitoring, keeping things up to date is so important. And then again, we can help you with this. we can help you with uh understanding the right questions to ask u making sure that uh all your important paperwork is completed. Um and then you know whatever uh schedule that you decide to uh take whether it’s uh you know getting everything done in the next couple weeks or getting everything done in the u next few months or a year depending on again your goal circumstances your age um your health status all of the above. uh you know we um we’ve seen people get um their estate planning done in a in a morning um you know with uh if you’re focused you can get it all done actually in a few hours um using just uh one of our digital services but if again if it’s more complicated then you might need to seek an attorney and it’ll take maybe 3 months to 6 months or even a year uh depending but um if it’s complicated then it’s uh even more important that you get all that work done. You want to work with your um you know tax advisor. You want to work with your estate planning attorney potentially uh with your financial advisor. Uh those are all the team members uh to help you get to your goals. Um you want to again keep things on track. Um making sure that you’re, you know, checking in, have a timeline, making sure that things are, um you know, moving forward in the right direction. And then the whole idea is just to to feel better about it and um and making sure that you know trusted people are on your side, your records are organized, accessible, your loved ones are provided for and uh all your contributions to the world are are included um in in your estate plan. So again, you know, this is not hard. It’s like many things in life. It’s just about discipline. Uh so highly encourage you to get started. Um you can you know start with a free kind of assessment. Um and then it kind of goes through all the different um you know um uh parts of the estate plan. Uh so that could be your portfolio um that could be uh again all the um you know the living trust, the real estate um advanced healthcare directive, everything else. And so, you know, this is a quick snapshot of, you know, different milestones and events that can trigger an uh change in your estate plan. Um, so, um, this is a service that we offer. Um, it’s called trust and will. If you’re interested, uh, please do sign up for a meeting. Uh, take us up on the offer. Uh, if you become a client, there’s no charge for this. And like I said, you can get this done in an afternoon, um, within a couple of hours. And many of our clients have done that. Once they’ve prepared it, all they get it um all they have to do is get their paperwork notorized and they’re off and running and their estate plan is completed. So, if you’re interested in kind of taking advantage of this service, uh please do um reach out. I’m going to launch a poll in a minute and uh you’ll be able to sign up for a meeting and we can get this done for you. at the same time um if you’re interested in any of our other services. So um you know financial planning you know thinking about social security uh investments Roth conversions like I mentioned a basic plan is complimentary um you know we could talk about estate planning we could talk about um you know investment management whether that’s um uh active portfolios uh passive portfolios dividend strategies uh we have no fee products lots of different choices for you to take advantage of to get to your goals. uh fixed income alternatives um all the above. So if you’re interested in uh financial planning, estate planning or investment management um you know please do reach out. So with that um I’ll open it up for any questions. I’ll give you a chance to uh post any questions in the chat or the Q&A. I’m going to launch the poll. Uh if you’d like to schedule a meeting with me to kind of go over some of these topics, uh just please do sign up. I set an appointment. Uh hopefully you see the screen to set an appointment on your uh on your monitor. Um but again, you know, so important for everybody to get their uh estate planning completed and uh you know, think about all these topics and just uh you know, work together as a team, you and your spouse, so that uh you get this work done and then do it in a cost-effective manner. um you know sometimes people relocate from one state to another and they have to uh update their state planning because it’s executable in the state that you reside. So, um, if you’ve got a relocation happening, um, gone from, you know, the West Coast to, uh, the Midwest or the East Coast, or you take advantage of, you know, a tax move, something like that, you want to update your estate plan, and this could be a terrific way to do it. Um, because again, you can save money on cost. Um, you know, working with an attorney, that can, um, you know, that can be a few thousand dollars depending on which part of the country that you live in. Uh but uh you know our digital estate planning service is just you know tremendous value. Okay with that I just got the the poll open for any questions. Um we got people signing up for an appointment already. So thank you very much for uh for signing up. Uh and then again we’ll just kind of you know wait for any questions to come up.
I’m going to kind of uh realign things here. um wait for any questions to to come in as I set things up. Here’s my contact information. By the way, feel free to give me a call. Uh so my phone number is 213320860.
Uh here’s my email address and just you know happy to answer any questions that you might have uh on any topic uh you know regardless of uh um you know you know what it might be. So again whether it’s social security or if it’s Medicare you know join us for our webinars but at the same time if you have another question uh then this is my contact information uh you have a chance to reach out. So one question that came in u was on Roth conversions. Uh so we had a webinar on uh on Roth conversions a little a few weeks ago. Uh but the person is asking um whether or not they um we offer that analysis. Um so uh the answer is yes. Um we offer uh Roth conversion um you know planning uh so you can look at you know your different tax brackets and um you know all the different factors that might um uh might lead to a a decision around a Roth conversion. Uh it’ll depend on you know any opportunities that you have for um kind of a low tax year. Um, so would uh, you know, encourage, uh, anybody that’s interested in a Roth conversion to, uh, to reach out and give me a call. Uh, we can kind of go over all the steps, go over all the the factors that you might want to consider, um, in terms of a Roth conversion and, um, and kind of get that that work done for you. Another question that we have um if the person doesn’t have any real estate uh is a will along with beneficiary assignments uh for a monetary account sufficient for legacy planning for all the tangible assets and the answer um is is yes. Um so if you don’t have any real estate um you know with beneficiary designations and with titling uh titling your assets um you know having joint accounts possibly or um you know making sure that uh you know you just have beneficiary designations up to date. Um the difference there is that um you know with your real estate there’s no line item um on your trust or sorry on your deed that uh shows who’s going to inherit your assets you know with the c in the county that you reside in. So, if you is uh reside in LA County or Orange County, um you’re not going to have a line where um it says my assets, my real estate are going to um my you know, my children or or whoever else might inherit those assets. Um in a with a financial account, especially um you know, for a retirement account, there is a line and you’re required to designate a beneficiary. So, you know, with a beneficiary designation, the right person is going to get your assets. Uh, if you were to pass away and so, you know, that’s the big difference. Um, if you don’t have any real estate, um, you know, you do want to will, um, you do want to make sure your beneficiaries are up to date. Um, if you have bank accounts, you want to put a, uh, beneficiary on those accounts as well. So, that will be, um, a transfer on death, a to designation. Uh, but that that could be sufficient for you. Um you want to make sure you itemize all your assets um and make sure everything is uh taken care of. But um what you need to do also is your kind of medical uh directive uh your power of attorney for financial uh accounts in case you become incapacitated. So those are some other things that you want to take care of. Uh but um if you don’t have a uh a real real estate uh you don’t need a living trust which is kind of the primary vehicle that uh most most folks use in order to u pass along assets uh when it comes to real estate. Thanks for the question. Another question that came in um what does titling mean? How is it different from um designating beneficiaries? Um, so titling is uh the ownership of the account. So it really depends on um kind of where you’re at and your family uh situation. Uh you know classic example simple example is a parent and their children. Uh so sometimes um you know the ch the children will become joint account holders um with their parents. Uh so that kind of uh especially if there’s a health issues for the parents um when there’s a joint account then both people have power uh over the account and um and can manage that account. One of the uh the if the parent passes away for instance. Uh so that’s a common thing for uh children to do is become joint account holders with their parents. um as as long as everything else is okay, you know, as long as they uh of course the the parents trust the children, you know, the parent the children are going to become the beneficiaries anyway. Um so that just makes it easy for them to kind of, you know, uh shut things down and uh become joint account holders. Uh because when when somebody passes away, the estate settlement process looks at titling, you know, who owns the account first. uh because whoever owns the account is going to have power over the over the account and uh titling is another way to kind of uh allow for transfer. Um beneficiary designation is a is a second way. Um you know that way the you know the individual maintains total and complete control. There’s no joint titling. Uh but the beneficiary designation is if you pass away. So that’s kind of the difference um between the two. You know, the most common example is kind of joint titling. You know, you have that with real estate sometimes. You know, husband and wife are, you know, joint owners of uh of their primary residence of their home. Um but again, if you have real estate, you want to kind of think about, you know, opening up a a living trust uh so that you can provide for transfer uh in the estate settlement process.
uh just give another minute in case there are any other questions or um feel free to to put it into the chat. Feel free to put it uh into the Q&A. Uh I’ll just give another minute here.
Okay. Um, looks like there’s no more questions, so we can um uh kind of close things down for for the long weekend. Um, you know, thanks very much for for joining us today. I hope we’ve kind of give you a good introduction to estate planning. Uh, remember, you know, the first step is the most important step. Uh, you know, take advantage of uh trying to get this done. Um, and and and make it a goal, make it a priority. Again, here’s my contact information. Um, so feel free to give me a call if there’s any questions whatsoever. Look forward to hearing from you. And again, I hope to see you at the next webinar next week. Um, and we have them every Thursday. Um, and uh, we’ll be discussing Medicare, I believe, on the next one and then Social Security afterwards. Uh, with that, thanks again and take care.