Hey, everybody. About to get started. Just getting all the computer and everything set up.

Gotta get the computer recording everything.

All right, I think I finally got all of that figured out. We should have a good show today, I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment at the bottom, like it, share it, all of that sort of stuff. That helps us out, so please do it.

Or you can put your question in the comments if you want, you don't have to call in.

Well, welcome, everyone, to "Aging Insight." I'm Lisa Shoalmire. I'm here live in the studio with John Ross. You know, John, we're recording this show, we're still, I guess, a little cool outside, a little February weather, but...

Yeah, it's a little cool outside but I did manage to get over to the Brengo Lake SP trail this morning and go for a nice multi-mile trail run.

Well, that's not even a humble brag, that's just a brag.

That's just straight-up bragging. inaudible 01:26

That's great. You beat everybody that was laying on the coach.

That's right. Hey, get busy living. It's good stuff out there, you know. Of course, we gotta get our... whatever we want done on a Saturday, we gotta either get it done early or get it done late.

That's right, because every Saturday, we're here at noon, or nearly every Saturday.

That's just about.

Yeah. But this is "Aging Insight," and on "Aging Insight," we talk about all kinds of things, legal things, financial things, health, and housing issues that affect seniors, that affect people who hope to be seniors someday, people who are retired or would like to be retired. And, you know, really, John, I don't know of any other focused source of information like this, I mean, anywhere.

Really, anywhere, yeah. No, that's exactly right. We've kinda got a corner on the market here, at least to my knowledge. You know, we do the show and we get comments from people all the time out in the community, and, you know, they tell us how much they like it. Of course, we can only do this show because of the generosity of our sponsors that make this show happen.

Right. So give a special thanks to The Barnett Agency, and Dierksen Memorial Hospice, Cowhorn Creek Estates, Christus St. Michael's. I know Christus has been pretty busy with all that flu stuff that's going around.

Yeah, no, that's right.

Texarkana Funeral Home, Red River Federal Credit Union, Heritage Plaza and Reunion Plaza Nursing and Rehab Facilities, as well as the Twin City Rehab, thank you very much. That helps us get the word out on Saturdays.

That's right. And, of course, you know, we do this live, you can call in, it's 903-793-1071. You can also go to the Ross and Shoalmire Facebook page, R-O-S-S A-N-D S-H-O-A-L-M-I-R-E, Ross and Shoalmire on Facebook, where we do this Facebook Live, you can see what radio looks like.

That's right. Well, John, so...

Hello to our only Facebook Live viewer we have right at the moment.

Right this second. Well, of course, John, the great thing is we've a lot of people go back and watch the shows, and I had a client just this week that was nowhere near retirement. I was doing some business stuff for him and he's a young man really blowing and going, and, you know, creating jobs and making the economy go good, and doing some stuff for him. And he said that he happened to come across the "Aging Insight" Facebook Live and he said, "I clicked on just to kinda see what it was all about," and he said, "I ended up watching for half an hour." He said he thought we had a good personality for it.

Awesome.

I appreciate that. But, John, this week, I had the opportunity to go speak at the Four States Ag Expo. That was this past...that was Thursday, Thursday out at the Four States Fairgrounds here in Texarkana. I had to speak to a group of people on estate planning for farm families, ranches. We have a lot of agricultural families around that run cows and chicken houses, and they timber and all kinds of stuff. So I got a chance to go out and talk to that group about it.

That's right. You know, a lot of times those...particularly those land assets mean so much more to people than a cash equivalent.

Right. Oh yeah. You know, I talk to people all the time that, you know, that land has been in the family for generations. And you know, it's not about the value of the dirt as much as it is about the sentimental value of the dirt.

Sure, absolutely.

So I just wanted to let folks know that we're always out there in the community, that's where I was this week. John, you got anything coming up?

Yeah, I guess I'm speaking on Monday over at the Texarkana Library, for an organization called Altrusa.

Altrusa, yes, they are a... Altrusa is a community service organization made up of ladies, and they are very active in our Texarkana area. I know they do a lot of things with opportunities and some other non-profits. But it's just a nice support. So those ladies... I'm sure they'll enjoy hearing you and seeing you, so that will be good.

Yeah, that's probably right, so lots of stuff going on. And, of course, kind of a just an interesting thing from today, Lisa, you were telling me about earlier this morning that from the time the Berlin Wall was erected...

Wait, is this gonna be our fun fact?

This is our fun fact of the day.

Okay, so fun fact, yes.

So from the time the Berlin Wall was erected...

So it was erected...and I don't have it up in front of me, but it was like 1961 or something like that?

Yeah, something like that.

And it came down... and I do remember this, the Berlin Wall came down in November of 1989.

Right.

So I was reading this article and it said that the Berlin Wall stood for 10,000-plus days. And of course, I know our listeners know this, but it was a wall that was built in Berlin to separate East and West Germany and the Russians controlled the East, and the West, you know...

That's right, for all our millennial listeners.

Yes, who, this is ancient history. But yeah, the fun fact is as of Monday, February 5th, the Berlin Wall will have been down as long as it had been up. So as many days as it was up, coming up on Monday, it will now have been down for the same amount of days.

Yeah, pretty neat, you know, and I bet that's a...I thought that was a pretty shocking little thing.

I know, your response is "Wow."

Wow, and particularly, I think, for a lot of our clients that, you know, probably both remember its erection and its destruction. The building of the Berlin Wall is history to me, but the taking it down part of something that...

You lived through.

Yeah, that I lived through.

Yeah, no.

So many of our clients lived through both.

Right, we have a lot of veterans that we visit with that I call Cold War veterans.

Yeah, Cold War era, seeing a lot of those right now.

And they were in service or they were activated if they were in the reserves because, you know, the Berlin Wall went up overnight, and the Bay of Pigs, and all that stuff. But that's just our fun fact.

That's just a fun fact, that's not what we're talking about today or anything. What we're talking about today is a little piece from some relatively local news.

That's right, John. You know, a lot of times we like to tell stories just because they're interesting and the players and the issues are interesting, but so many times those stories are from cases that happened out in California.

Sure.

You know, like the gentleman who sent his father in law off on a...

The exploding boat.

Yeah, a funeral pyre.

Yes, a Viking funeral. That was not locally.

Yeah, that was out in California. You know, and occasionally we even talk about cases that arise out of Dallas. I think we talked recently about a case where the largest jury verdict ever against a bank acting as a trustee and fiduciary was...

That was out of Dallas.

Was out of Dallas. But you know, sometimes some of our listeners go, "Oh, that stuff can't happen here," but they're so wrong.

Yeah, they're wrong.

Now, it doesn't always make the news but we see plenty of it happening here, so we wanna talk about a case today that is out of Ouachita County, Arkansas.

Yeah, up there in Camden way.

Up there in Camden. Funny thing, John, one time I was watching "Jeopardy," you know, with Alex Trebek. And the clue had something to do with Ouachita, and Alex Trebek said "Ouacheeta." Yeah, I know, Alex wasn't looking good to me. He looks so smart but "Ouacheeta."

Not there.

But the case we're gonna talk about today comes out of Ouachita County, Arkansas, and it's got all the elements, John. It's got money, it's got, dare I say, sex.

Dare.

I think that's okay to say on the radio.

I think it is.

It's got crimes and forgery.

It's got crimes, oh yes, got all kinds of good stuff.

And that was right here in our backyard.

Yeah, right up the road. In fact, I was in Magnolia just this last week, which is...

Yeah, where...

Not that far away.

So John, why don't you kind of set this up.

You know, here's the deal. And I just want you to kinda maybe put yourself in a situation, so I'm gonna spin a web here. And so let's say you've got a close person to you, maybe it's a spouse, maybe it's a child, maybe it's a boyfriend, or girlfriend, or close person to you, right. Somehow you have this close connection to this person. This person dies unexpectedly, very unexpectedly, and what you realize relatively quickly is... you know when a younger person dies, particularly unexpectedly, they probably didn't get around to doing any estate planning.

Yeah, I know getting a will done is not on top of most 30-year-olds' lists.

Right, and you've heard stories out there, you've heard that, geez, if you die without a will the state's gonna take everything, or maybe you know this person's situation and you're thinking you know, geez, they only have the one minor child, and the minor child's baby momma is a train wreck...

So, no, they wouldn't want that.

They wouldn't want... whatever's about to happen, you just... you know with certainty that that's not what that person would have wanted.

Yeah, this close relation, this close friend, this close companion.

If they'd had the chance to plan for it they just wouldn't have failed, like they did. And you start thinking, "But surely it can't be too late."

So the person is dead, right.

They're dead, but you're thinking, "Surely it can't be too late. Maybe... I mean..."

To do it like they wanted.

To do it like they wanted. I know what they would have wanted, and maybe if...you know, if I just drew up a will, I mean, how hard can it be? I'll get the computer or something. I mean, I know it's gotta be witnessed and I've got some friends that...

They know just like I do.

They know me and they know I'm a good, honest person.

And they know this deceased person too, and they know that, you know, they would do it like this too if they could.

That's right. Maybe even one of them is a notary.

A notary friend, that's helpful.

Maybe even a notary friend or something, and you start thinking, you know, probably the best thing here is just to... even though this person died without a will, maybe you're thinking, "Well, I think maybe probably the best thing here is to just fake one."

You know, John, I'm sure people do think that. But you know, it's coming from the right place. I mean, you're trying to...

Sure, there's definitely no greed or anything else in it, we're talking pure wholesome values across the board every single time.

Trust me, if you have those thoughts then you should turn on the TV and mind numb yourself until you quit having those thoughts. But we have a story here where somebody did have those thoughts and decided to do exactly what John was talking about.

Yeah, because you might be thinking... you know, you might say, "Well, you know what, okay, look, I could forge this will," right...

Well, they're not thinking "forge."

For their benefit

For their benefit, right. So we're doing this for their benefit, of course after they're dead and they can't express what they want anyway, but this is what we're gonna do. But you might even start thinking to yourself... well, I mean, come on, really. "If we get this Will done and everybody buys it, well then it's gonna work out great, and if it doesn't, I mean, really, what's the big deal?"

Yeah, what's the big deal? But the big deal, John, is criminal.

Yes, the big deal is, in fact, a big deal.

State crimes, federal crimes, all kinds of crimes.

Yes. So, all right, so that's the setup. Now, when we come back from the break, we're gonna talk about the real facts of this case that...

From right down the road.

From right down the road. That will carry us probably through the next two segments of the show, and when we get to the end, we'll try talk about a little bit of what you oughta learn from this if you hadn't figured it out before this.

Right. I was about to say, spoiler alert, don't do it, but we'll get there.

That's right. All right, stick around, we'll be right back. All right, and we're clear on the radio, of course, still live on Facebook.

What could possibly be going through somebody's head to...I mean, unfortunately, I've known a person or two who have attempted to do this personally.

It does happen.

It does happen.

It does happen. We have...you know, Lisa, I mean between the two of us, we got, what, close to 40 years of law practice under our belts, and if you add the other attorneys in the firm, you've got 60 or so.

Sixty, yeah.

That much time talking to this many people as we do about family situations like this, we're gonna have seen just about everything. So every time we see these stories, although we look at them and we laugh about how dumb these people are...

Rocket science.

But we're never really surprised by it.

Not anymore, we're a bit jaded, you know, and...

You know, the bank robbing the folks in Dallas and getting sued, not surprised, somebody faking a will, not surprised, somebody loading their dad with dynamite and floating him out into a river for a Viking...

That was surprising.

That's surprising. Yeah, I was not expecting that one.

Yeah, we haven't had that happen locally. You know, obviously, most people get, you know, forging a legal document, not such a good idea, but we have seen it happen multiple times, not just once in our career but...

On multiple times.

Multiple times. Wills, life insurance, beneficiary designations.

Deeds, powers of attorney.

Debt forgiveness, loan forgiveness.

Loan forgiveness. Oh, yeah.

That's a big one. Yeah, so stuff like that happens. And, John, I guess the question really is, as many times as we've seen that it happened, how many times have we not caught it?

And that's the interesting question, is how many times did it just roll for...

Yeah, how many people got away with it?

Yeah, and we might even talk about that a little bit at the end, but, yeah, this case is a great example of how well it can go bad.

Yes, so inaudible 17:53 .

So it looks like we've got about 20 seconds, then we're gonna go back live on the radio, we're gonna start talking about the case here, and get into some of the facts, interesting stuff, all right. Let y'all listen to the intro music here.

Welcome to "Aging Insight," everybody. You're back listening to John and Lisa. Today, our topic on "Aging Insight" is why you shouldn't forge a will.

Lisa; Okay, if you needed some reasons, we're gonna give you some today.

We're gonna give you some. And from a great case, an interesting case from right up the road in Camden, Arkansas, and...

Yes, a beautiful place, Camden. Pretty rural setting.

I think a lot of that area is pretty nice up there.

There's a great...just a little aside, there's a great wedding barn out there called Whippoorwill owned by some people we know, so check it out, Whippoorwill. So there, we'll give that shout out. But this case comes out of Camden, Arkansas. And so, John, we have a young man, and by a young man, I mean he's in his 30s, early 30s.

Yeah, early 30s. Matthew Seth Jacobs.

Yeah, Matthew Seth Jacobs. So we're gonna call him Jacobs, but he was in...you know, sadly, he's deceased now, but, you know, he survived the 2010 Deep Horizon well...

Explosion.

Yeah, the Deep Water Horizon explosion, he was there, was injured, apparently, from this.

Explosion down the gulf.

Was injured but survived, but you know, because there's a lot of litigation that went on with that well explosion down there, a lot of people died, terrible oil spill, all that. He received a sizable settlement a couple of years after the explosion. So explosion happened in 2010, he received about a $2 million settlement for his injuries in 2012, so...

So pretty good little chunk there.

Yeah, especially for a young man his early 30s there. So he decided to buy himself a home, and also buy some other investment property, so other houses.

And at this time, he was apparently engaged to a woman, and he had a child although, I don't know that that was the same person.

So he did have a child, so he already had a son, but the engagement thing didn't work out.

It didn't really work out, but in buying the house and getting into some of these rental properties, he apparently got to know his real estate agent pretty well.

Yes, his real estate agent, gosh, Herring, was Donna Herring. She was a real estate agent in Camden, Arkansas, and she helped Jacobs locate his home and get that purchased and the investment properties. And apparently, you know, she was well known, well regarded in the community and became kind of a guide here to Jacobs.

And Herring had a daughter as well.

Yes, real estate Herring had a daughter, although she was quite young, she was a teenager.

Yeah, at the beginning of all this, about 16 or so.

Her name was Alex.

About 16.

Yes, so the real estate agent decided when Jacobs' engagement broke up, so I've got this 30-plus-year-old man, his engagement is off, well, the real estate agent said, "Well I have a 16-year-old daughter..."

Yeah, why don't you get involved with her?

Yes, that's a whole other crime, perhaps, but that's not our topic today. But apparently...

It is Arkansas...no, that's too easy.

Yeah, too easy. So apparently there was...and I don't know when this relationship exactly started. Apparently, the teenage girl became Jacobs' housekeeper and I don't know what.

Yes, and in fact, I think the real estate agent ultimately ended up even living in one of Mr. Jacobs' homes, so one of his rental properties or something.

All of this leads up to basically January 19th, 2015.

So Jacobs ends up dying in a car wreck in 2015, and John, that's where your setup comes in. So we have a young man who had not made a will, who has this close connection with this fiancee, whose, you know, mother is greatly involved in all of his dealings, and there's no will.

That's right, and I'm just telling you, 34-year-olds die without wills, most of the time. In fact, most people die without a will anyway. But it's it's almost impossible to get somebody that age to do any estate planning.

So anyway, mom here, Herring, she's not dumb, so she figures, "Hey, there's $2 million sitting on the table here."

"Something's gotta be done with it." Stick around, we'll be right back. So our lady here, Donna...

It's always the little real estate pictures, you know, with the hair and the lighting and all that.

Yeah, a lot of real estate agents have a look about them.

Yeah, so there you go.

So this is our this is our lady, this is Donna Herring, I don't have a picture of the daughter. I do have a picture of the other one there, Mr. Jacobs.

So yeah, there's Mr. Jacob. What a tough run. I mean, of course, he's deceased now, but he survived 2010 disaster of national proportions.

Yeah, making a movie out of it or did make a movie.

They did make a movie.

Made movie out of it.

And get a settlement, and of course, $2 million goes a long way in Camden, Arkansas.

It does, yeah.

But it probably did make him quite the eligible bachelor. But it kind of makes you wonder why that other engagement didn't work out exactly, but for whatever reason. But apparently Miss Herring, the real estate lady, maybe she saw an opening to make a social introduction to her daughter, so that that money could stay right there, you know, in the family, so to speak.

And I'm sure she had all kinds of justifications, but we'll get a little bit into that here in a second once we get back on the radio, but...

Apparently Jacobs died in a one-vehicle accident, and he was driving his jeep down the road, he was not far from his house, he...

The statement from the police rec was, "On the night of the fatal auto wreck, the police report indicated that Matthew was driving on a 'dry, clear, and straight road that was only a few minutes from his home.'" And then there the police report goes on to say that "There were no signs of braking prior to impact with a tree." I mean, sounds to me like fell asleep.

Yeah, sounds like he fell asleep. Does it say he crossed the line?

Says yeah, he crossed the line across incoming traffic and then hit a tree, none of the time braking. I mean, to me, that's like probably falling asleep.

Yeah, there's not been any...

And as somebody who travels some of the back roads of Arkansas, it's easy to fall asleep out there.

And those roads...of course, that was a straight road, they said, but gosh, there's no shoulders, there's, you know, you're right there so... Yeah, there was no indication about any foul play or anything like that in the car wreck that took Jacobs' life, but obviously very unexpected. The other part, John, is that at the time of his death the engagement with the young lady, the Herring's daughter, had allegedly been called off. I don't really...it's hard to tell.

It's hard to tell, but there was some indication that he was at least maybe dating somebody else at the time of the death.

Well, maybe he decided that an 18-year-old and his 34-year-old didn't have a lot to talk about.

I can understand that. All right we got 10 seconds and we're going back live on the radio. Appreciate you all sticking with us during our radio commercial breaks.

Well, welcome back, everyone, to "Aging Insight." I'm Lisa Shoalmire here with John Ross. And today, we're talking about a...what do they call it? A titillating story that comes from right down the road in Camden, Arkansas, Ouachita County. And so we set up the players in this deal, we have Jacobs who was a young man who had come into some money because of his injuries. He had received a couple million bucks. We have Donna Herring, who is his real estate agent and perhaps future mother-in-law.

Perhaps.

We have Donna Herring's daughter Alex, who is a romantic interest, by the reports.

Although quite young.

Very young. And then we had Jacobs dying very suddenly, unexpectedly in a car accident in January 2015.

Right, and remember that Mr. Jacobs had a child.

Yes he had a son who was a teenager himself.

Right, a 17-year-old son named Jordan. And essentially, you know, if you die intestate...

Which means without a will.

...which means without a will, in the state of Arkansas, essentially all of your property is going to your child.

Yeah, if you're not married and all that, just like in the Jacobs case, all of his estate would have gone to his son Jordan.

Right, and that makes plenty good sense, the idea that if you dy without a will that everything's gonna escheat to the state, that's just...

That's just wrong.

That's just wrong.

So following his death, Jacobs' 17-year-old son and his brother go to his home and search his home, including... he had a gun safe where he kept, you know, important things. They searched his home and gun safe looking for a will, but did not find one. And so Donna Herring, the real estate lady, she claimed to know there was a sealed envelope.

Yes, a magic sealed envelope.

Which...

Which she had seen before and it had some initials on the outside.

Yeah, with the initials of M.J. for Matthew Jacobs on it. And so she arranged to go back into the house to go look at the same gun safe that had already been reviewed.

That's right.

And there was a will!

Tada!

And the great thing about it is, John, I love this, is that Herring had a family friend or whatever come over and take pictures of the opening of the safe, and seeing the envelope in there, that should have been everybody's first red flag. She had told this family friend that she needed...that her lawyer had told her that she needed to have a disinterested person there to see all that. And that's just...you protest too much.

Yeah, that's exactly right. People often ask whether or not they should videotape the execution of a will so that there will be some record of it later. And the answer is no.

Yeah, no, I do not recommend this.

In large part, there's...well, there's a million things, we can go into it, but just having it on video does not provide any veracity to it because at least in theory, the person standing on the other side of the video camera could be holding a gun at you.