Hi everybody.

Oh.

Yeah. Lisa is just playing on her phone. So we're about to start the show. We've got the intro music coming on.

Welcome to "Aging Insight" everybody. This is your host, John Ross, here live in the studio with my co-host, Lisa Shoalmire as always.

Yes, I'm here.

And here we are. Of course, we're "Aging Insight." We're the number one place to get information on health, housing, financial, legal issues. You know, we're just trying to address a wide range of topics.

Well, that's why we come every Saturday because, John, you can never know everything.

I mean, we don't know everything.

That's right.

No, not quite.

Not quite.

Not quite. Yeah, no, but there is a bunch of stuff that you can learn out there. There's a bunch of stuff that you can know. And a lot of times, you know, that little bit of knowledge, you may not necessarily know exactly how to do something or exactly what it is, but often, if you've got just a little bit of knowledge, you can spot something that is a potential disaster before it happens.

Well, and you know, a little bit of knowledge makes you be able to ask some questions to get you where you need to go.

Ask smart questions, that's right.

Well, John, you know, we are on the air on Saturdays thanks to our sponsors that make it happen. And so I wanna give a special shout out to a few of our sponsors including Texarkana Funeral Home, Red River Federal Credit Union, Reunion Plaza, Heritage Plaza...my gosh, I totally just lost it...the Barnett Agency. I'm sorry.

There you go.

Anyway, those folks help keep us on the air and we appreciate it.

Yeah, we appreciate them and of course, we appreciate all y'all that are listening as well as the ones that are watching us live on Facebook. You know, we do this every Saturday, and while we're doing it on the radio, we're also doing it on Facebook. If you haven't ever gotten on there, get on the Ross & Shoalmire Facebook page, check us out, give us a like, follow the page, and you will be notified every time when we're getting ready to go live.

Yeah. We get to your comments, and if we're live on the air, we can definitely address them then. If not, we'll pick them up after we're off the air if you make a comment later and we'll be able to answer or see what you had to say.

Yeah, that's right. So I got a few things coming up this week.

Okay.

You know, our now quarterly breakfast over at Trinity Church, "Eggs & Issues," that'll be this Saturday on the 26th, I mean, this Thursday on the 26th.

Thursday on the 26th over on Texarkana Arkansas side at Trinity, 8:30. Come on. We'll make sure you get a good breakfast and hear more information.

That's right. So yeah, I believe I'm gonna be discussing trusts, some basics.

Some basics. You know, I was talking to one of our friends, clients, the other day and he said, "You know, I can always use a refresher on anything that may have heard about before."

Yeah, that's exactly right.

So John, this week, I love getting out of the office. You know, it's nice to get out. But this week, I had to go do what I call a home visit, except it was at one of our facilities. And so I went to visit this gentleman and he needed to get some legal papers signed and he was not in good shape to come on over to our office, so I told him I will just come on over there. Anyway, got a change to go in, visit with him. And he and his wife were there. And his wife was talking about her granddaughter who actually worked at the facility and they've been so pleased with the care and everything. But John, I was looking around the room and there was an 8 by 10 framed photograph of a beautiful girl.

Okay, all right. Yeah, that seems reasonable enough.

And so of course, when there's an 8 by 10 framed photograph of a beautiful blonde...

In the nursing home, so, I mean, this is something they brought from home.

Yes. They brought it from home. It was on the nightstand. In fact, there were no other photos in there.

Right. So, yeah, so big deal, obviously.

And this photo was set up on the nightstand, it was kind of at the end of the bed where the gentleman was. So if he just, you know, looks over his toes, there is the photo, this beautiful blonde. And John, that beautiful blonde happened to be a Labrador.

Ah, yes.

But of course, I asked about the Lab and the gentleman, he just lit up. And started telling me, told me her name and, you know, all the treats and their little routines that they have and he was looking forward to get his rehab done so he can get back home. And of course, his poor wife, she was sitting there just kind of rolling her eyes. But she did say, she said, "Yeah, our dog, you know, it's Bud's dog and she's looking for him just as much as he's looking forward to coming back see her."

Yeah. You know, dogs are pretty important to folks. I got a call from our attorney Kristin [SP] down at our Longview office just this week asking...she said she had had a client that was wondering how to take care of their pet after they're gone. They wanted to include the pet in the estate planning.

Right. You know, John, it's like you say, especially, I have noticed that, you know, particularly, you know, seniors, they're not quite as busy as, you know, career folks who're raising young families. And so, you know, a lot of times, that pet, that special dog, cat, I've had people who've had horses and donkeys, I mean, just all kind of things, you know, that's their family. And of course, these days, John, you know, we have lots of folks to refer to their animals as fur babies.

Yes. Some of them do.

Some of them refer to them as fur baby. You know, they really, you know, personalize those animals. They add so much quality of life to our life.

And so of course, it's just natural to concern yourself with their care, you know, and how they're gonna be cared for. If you've spoiled your pets and you're worried that if you're gone, they're just not gonna get the level of spoiling, then, you know, you may wanna do something about that. So that's a big deal for folks and more and more people are including pets in their estate plans.

Sure.

Yeah. And this has been going on for a while. You know, of course, anytime something happens with a big name celebrity or something like that, it's often gonna make the news. You know, I've included animals and planning for animals in estate plans for years. I've done it dozens of times in some form or the other. I've had a contested probate case that related to a bequest to a dog.

To a Cocker Spaniel.

To a Cocker Spaniel. And so, yeah, this has been going on. I had actually pulled up an article that listed the top 10 biggest bequests to animals. And the first one was actually Michael Jackson. Now, listen, when I say first, I'm talking first on the list but not the biggest.

Not the biggest, but you know, Michael Jackson, yeah, he was fond of a chimpanzee.

He was.

The chimpanzee, I remember, name was Bubbles.

And, you know, they talk about Never Never Land where Michael Jackson lived in California and he had a big kind of zoo type environment there. But Bubbles, Michael Jackson was photographed with Bubbles quite a bit. In fact, so we drew one up on our Facebook page, you can catch the King of Pop embracing Bubbles.

Yeah.

Yeah. And he left Bubbles two million bucks.

Oh, all right then.

No, you know, that actually may sound like a lot of money. And I mean, it's a lot of money. I'm not saying...I imagine that the care and maintenance of a chimpanzee is pretty significant. And I don't know what a chimpanzee's life expectancy is.

Yeah, I think they're pretty long.

I think it's pretty long.

Yeah. Not all that different from humans.

You know, I mean, you'll see often a young couple, maybe they carry one $2 million life insurance policy because they're trying to provide for a lifetime's worth of care for their children. And so, you know, I'm not sure...Like, in this case, I don't know $2 million is necessarily that outrageous a sum given the kind of animal it is. Now, the next one on the list was actually, and I don't know how to pronounce the name Majel, Majel, but this is Gene Roddenberry's wife.

Okay. So Gene Roddenberry, that name rings a bell for me. He was creator of "Star Trek."

Yeah, yap. They left $4 million to their dogs. So we're getting up there. Now, number 8 of our top 10 list, I like this one, Myles Blackwell. He was a publishing magnate.

Okay. Not a name I'm familiar with.

But when do I get the moniker "magnate?"

Yeah, elder law magnate. Well, I think you could bestow it on yourself.

Yeah. I can be anything I wanna be these days. So okay, from here on out, I'm John Ross, elder long magnate. Anywho, Miles Blackwell, he left $10 million to a chicken.

To a chicken? That chicken better have all the secret recipe and the [inaudible 00:11:08] inside of it.

A chicken. He left it to a chicken, a chicken named Gigoo, I don't know.

Just crazy.

Yeah. So then we got number seven was...

Some lady...

Gail Posner. Don't know who she is but she left $11 million.

To Chihuahua and a Maltese.

Yeah. And, of course, I think one of the most famous ones that we get out there a lot is Leona Helmsley.

Yes. Leona Helmsley. You know, I think that was the first time I really became aware of crazy pet bequests. Because I think...that was...

2007.

Okay. And, you know, she was very famous because of her tax evasion, I think. She was a New York City kind of, I don't know, magnate, I guess, you would say.

Yeah, she was an heiress, I believe.

Yes. So she left...

$12 million.

Yeah, to a Maltese named Trouble, I think it was?

Trouble, and did, in fact, create such.

Yes. Because it seems like a niece and a nephew and everybody got involved because, you know, where there's money, especially when it's to an animal.

Yes, apparently, she had 2 grandchildren and I think she had left $6 million to the 2 grandchildren and $12 million to the dog.

Well, you know, the dog doesn't talk back, doesn't...you know. You know, the unconditional love of an animal.

Ben Rea, a British antique dealer, next on the list at $12.5 million to a cat named Blackie.

A black cat.

In fact, a black cat. And on the same note, Maria Assunta, an Italian real estate investor who left $13 million to her black cat. Oprah Winfrey, who's not dead by the way...

We don't wanna start a rumor.

Not starting a rumor.

There's no help here.

But she has stated that she set aside $30 million for the protection of her pets, they're various dogs. Luke and Layla, a couple of Golden Retrievers, Sadie, here's another Cocker Spaniel, and Sunny and Lauren, which are Springer Spaniels.

Yeah. So, you know, Oprah has got the money.

Yeah, another chimpanzee, and then we jump up to the number one. And the number one, Karlotta Libenstein, who in 1992...

So '92.

...1992 left $80 million dollars...

That's an eight-zero.

...yeah, to Gunther, a German Shepherd. And I guess maybe this was some sort of perpetual sort of deal where it would continue on for the heirs...

The Gunther's decedents?

The Gunther's descendants.

So future litters of German Shepherd puppies?

Yeah. So we had Gunther III, who was the one at the time of death. By 2000, we had Gunther IV and the investments, that $80 million in investments, had ballooned to $372 million, part of which was used to buy Madonna's Miami mansion.

Because Gunther IV needed a Miami abode?

Yes, he needed a place to stay, you know.

Okay.

So obviously, it can get a little egregious out there.

Yeah. And so, yeah, we hear about the celebrities and the really wealthy, maybe slightly insane people that make these kinds of requests. But the bottom line is, like you said, John, it's a very common concern, even among folks on our little neck of the woods.

Yeah. This is perfectly normal. There are some good ways to do it. We're gonna get back into some of that here in a bit, but right now we have to take a break, so stick around. We'll be right back. Yeah, they're not sure if whether or not...that may have actually just been a rumor about the dog and the trust and buying the house.

Well, but it's on the internet. It's probably true.

That's right. It says the sale was part of a publicity stunt involving a European pop group leading many to question the credibility of certain parts of the story.

Well, you know, if you are the caretaker of the million-dollar German Shepherd, well then...you know, German Shepherds kind of look alike. So if the dog dies, you might be like, "Oh, wait. Here's another one."

Yeah, the little gold fish on the kid and flushing the old one down and throwing a new one in the thing before the kid gets home from kindergarten.

Maybe so.

Yeah, no, Mr. Bubbles is still fine.

And we're gonna talk about, you know, I mean, $80 million for a German Shepherd is just, you know, crazy. You know, I always think about when I see those big celebrities or really wealthy people doing that, I think, gosh, kind of like Oprah Winfrey, I mean, she does lots of charitable work and she supports schools and orphanages and things like that. But gosh, $30 million, I would rather see that invested in humankind, you know. Hey, dogs can get by with a couple mil, I would think.

Yeah. I would just think that that money could go to a better service.

But, you know, she earned it. One thing that's great about America is you can do what you want to with your money, your stuff.

That's right, even something crazy.

Yeah.

Within limits, of course.

Well, you know, and it's interesting that that was published and publicized that Oprah has made such a provision. You kind of wonder if that wasn't a kind of a publicity thing of its own to garner favor with the animal folks.

Well, very well could have been.

You know, not that she's not provided...I don't know.

Right. But she's still alive. So we don't know for sure anyway.

Right.

And we may never know because I bet she set her stuff up so it would be quite private at her death.

Yes. Yeah, on the Bubbles thing, I heard that the two million bucks never made it to Bubbles.

Is that right?

Mm-hmm.

Poor Bubbles...

Yeah, so Bubbles is lived apparent...

...just walking in the streets, pushing a cart.

And apparently, Bubbles lives in a chimpanzee rescue in Florida but is supported by the charitable contributions of others to the rescue. The two million bucks never made from Michael Jackson's estate, because if you recall at the time of his death, there was a lot of civil liabilities issues going on.

Yes, there was. So now, we're going back live. Here we go.

Welcome back everyone to "Aging Insight." I'm Lisa Shoalmire. I'm here with John Ross. Today, we're talking about pets and, John, while we don't have any pets of our own right now.

I mean, we have teenagers and they're like little Tasmanian devils.

Well, they'll be lucky if they get any...there's no millions in bequests going their way that I can think of at the moment. But, you know, I like animals. I like pets.

Sure. Yeah, we have had pets.

We have had pets. But, you know, it may be, and a lot of folks in retirement, you know, they get back on the...you know, a lot of my retirees, seniors, that come in talk about pets, a lot of times, it was an animal that they sort of acquired because a child, adult child, rescued dog. The next thing you know, the adult child could not take the dog with him somewhere, and then the dog came to live with Grandma and Grandpa. And, you know, now, they're just so attached that, you know, it's now the senior's dog.

You know, and before we kind of get into what you should do or can't do or anything like that, the interesting thing about, you know, the way the law works is animals, despite our...what do you call it when you...

Anthropomorphication?

Thank you. Anthropo...

That word.

Making them into human types.

Humanizing them.

Yes, humanizing them. Despite that, from a legal perspective, animals are chattel.

They're just simple property, at least right now in 2018, they're property.

That's right, they're property.

Wait. Let me just through in, there have been some lawsuits filed of late trying to give animals a higher elevated status of sentient beings and they would have the same rights or similar rights to humans. But so far, that hasn't happened.

That's right. And so they are property. And when it comes to estate planning and leaving property behind, the one thing you cannot a bequest property to is other property.

Okay, explain.

So for example, I cannot leave my home to my car.

Sure, okay.

Right? And my car is not a human. It can't have ownership interests in a house, right? It can't do anything with it. So I can't leave property to other property.

Okay. So you mean, you can't just leave dollars to a dog because...

Right, because that's the same, legally speaking, that's the same as me leaving my house to my car. It doesn't work. And so, you know, so there's been this problem for a long time. This is where, you know, they ran into problems with some of the litigation surrounding the Leona Helmsley, was because you start seeing a bequest of, "I leave $20 million to my Maltese, Trouble." Well, that's property being left to other property. And so it fails right on its face.

Yeah, okay.

So the first thing that you've gotta understand and we've got this fundamental problem in the legal world that you can't leave property. And on that same note, you might think, "Well, but what about like a trust, right?" You know, trusts have a beneficiary, a trustee, and the person that creates it. But the beneficiary of the trust also cannot be property.

Okay. So John, so why don't we just simplify this all? And if I have an animal and I'm concerned about their care, I could leave...let's say I leave $10,000 to my sister and I want her to care for my Labrador.

Right.

Okay. So in that situation, the 10,000 bucks is going to my sister.

It is. And that's often what they refer to as a condition subsequent.

A condition subsequent. Oh, my goodness. That's a blast from the property class, request class.

Yeah. So you've left it to them and then with some other stuff. But the way those laws have been interrupted is basically you just left it to them.

Yes. I left $10,000 to my sister, and whether she cares for the dog or not, 10,000 bucks is hers.

Yeah, that's exactly right. So those are the fundamental problems from an estate-planning standpoint. There have been some changes in the laws. We're gonna talk about some of that. We're gonna talk about the right way to do it, the right way to plan for those pets once we get back from the break. And of course, during that break, get on Facebook, check us out live there. You know, that way you see pictures of these dogs and things. So anyway, stick around and we will be back here in about five minutes. All right. Well, we're still live. Did you see that Annette commented? We will give her a shout out online once we get back on the radio about their pet directives so that they can get that out there.

I like it.

That's good stuff. And there's actually, there's several of those things. I actually had a client at one time where I prepared a card that had her pet information on it that she could keep in her wallet along with her, like, insurance card and driver's license and stuff like that.

Yeah. As I recall, she was a widow or a single lady and she was concerned that if she had a health crisis and she was, you know, rushed to the hospital, that nobody would realize that there was an animal at home that needed to be fed and taken care of. And so she put a little emergency card in her wallet to let someone know.

Yeah. So there's all kinds of stuff that you can do as far as that goes. Now, when it comes to the money, it's a whole different thing. You've gotta be much more careful about that.

Well, and I don't think we'll talk about this on the radio but I had a client who she wishes to put down her animals at the time of her death. And because she is so concerned that they will be neglected or not cared for to the standard that she cares for them that she's thought it through and decided that she wants those animals put down if she dies and she wants them put down and everyone cremated and mixed all together. And again, John, because it's property, you know, animals are simply property, I think she legally can certainly do that. You know, I know there's a lot of animal lovers who would really recoil at the idea of putting animals down just because their owner died. And I get it. But legally, there's certainly no issue with her making that directive.

Yeah, no. That's exactly right. And so, I still waffle on that one as to how I feel about it.

Well, I mean, how I personally feel about it, you know, and the bottom-line is, if all of this comes to pass, the lady, you know, will be dead, and whether or not her executor has the animals put down, who knows and who's gonna complain about it if they don't?

Right.

Anyway...

Yeah. Can you appoint somebody to be your animal executioner?

It's a little dicey right there, but again, it's property. You know, I guess it's kind of like if you wanted all your furniture stacked up and a match lit and burned up, you could do that too.

Yeah, no, it's the same concept. Of course, again, I've always, you know...if I go outside and break a couch in the backyard, nobody gives me any fits. But if you break a dog in the backyard, you get in trouble for it. And I'm fine with that, don't get me wrong, but it still doesn't mesh with the way law treats animals, because if they are property, then how can you abuse property?

Right. Yeah, there's a lot of nuance.

Right. On the other hand, if you start granting them anything other than property status, you open up a whole nother world of potential issues. And it becomes pretty odd in there as far as, you know...

Yeah. No, I remember, earlier this year, there was a video in our community of a gentleman abusing an animal and, yeah, he got investigated, arrested, jailed. I mean, the whole...

Yeah, no, yeah, they threw the book at him.

And if I put my couch on the front pouch and it gets rained on, nobody is gonna come, you know...

Yeah, nobody is gonna come [inaudible 00:28:23].

...complain about it. Well, maybe my neighbors, but that's not a legal thing.

Right. Yeah. It's not an abuse of couch kind of claim.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've always found that a little strange. It just doesn't match up with the law or with the way it [inaudible 00:28:40]. Again, I get it from a personal standpoint. You're out there beating the dogs, then somebody else ought to come out and beat you. I'm fine with that. I just don't get it from a legal standpoint.

Yeah. All right. Well, we're about to head back on live on the radio, so let's see.

Welcome back to "Aging Insight" everybody. This is your host John Ross here with Lisa Shoalmire for the second half of today's "Aging Insight" program where we are talking about estate planning as it relates to your animals, whatever those kind of animals are. And Lisa and I are gonna get into some stuff here, you know, when it comes to leaving money and things like that. But in the meantime, you know, we are doing this live on Facebook and I got a comment from Annette over at Derrickson [SP] Hospice.

It was a sponsor, by the way.

Who is the sponsor, by the way. And they wanted to pass along that they have a complementary pet directive. It's part of their hospice services. You can list out what your wishes are for the animal, any pets that you might have. If you'd like, it's a free copy. All you've gotta do is give Derrickson Hospice a call. Phone number is 903-793-6350, that's 903-793-6350, and just ask for Annette and she will hook you up with one of those.

Well, what I need to ask Annette is, you know, has she filled out one of these? Because I know that she is an animal lover, owner.

To that big-eared Corgi of hers.

So, yes. Okay. Shout out, Annette.

That's right. So let's say you do leave on money to...

You wanna set aside some funds because you don't wanna burden someone with the care of your animal, because you know that is a thing, John. Animals do cost money.

That's right.

There's vet bills, grooming bills, you know, feeding. They get ill. They get into accidents.

Sure. They're an expensive process.

Yeah, and if you go on vacation, you gotta board them or get somebody to take of them. So a lot of people, they just acquire a pet and they don't really think about the cost. But if you are contemplating your end and they're concerned about your pet, many people want good care for their pet, but they also don't wanna burden that pet caretaker with the costs.

That's right. And so, of course, one way to do this, one very simple way, and simple in legal terms doesn't necessarily mean good. It just means simple, right? But this would be, you know, just leave the dog or cat or capybara or whatever it is, and just leave it to a person with some money, right? So, you know, "I hereby give, devise and bequest my platypus, Frank, to Lisa Shoalmire along with the sum of $10,000."

Okay.

Right. So now, it's a bequest of property, both the platypus and the money, they would go to Lisa. They're yours, but there's no requirement on you that you use the money for the platypus. There's no requirement that you maintain the platypus. You could take the platypus straight to the animal shelter the next day.

Release it back. I think I would take the $10,000, fly with the platypus to Australia...

To wherever platypi live.

...release the platypus back into the world, enjoy vacation, and nobody can stop me.

And that's right. So that's the problem with making just a direct bequest is you're not insuring that anything is gonna happen for the benefit of that animal that the animal's care or maintenance is gonna be taken care of or anything like that. So this brings us up to something that may sound a little strange out there but that is the animal trust or pet trust.

Pet trust. Yeah. It's a, gosh, pretty well-settled type of little tool that we're using now.

Yeah, yeah. You know, in Texas we actually even have a statute on animal trust. It's part of the trust code.

So your Texas legislature has spent some time and drafted some laws and passed it through committees and legislative processes to have a pet trust statutory provision.

That's right, a statutory provision for leaving money. And of course, again, like, you know, as we've said on this show before, you know, all trusts have three things in common. You've got the person that creates it, that's called the grantor. You have the person who's in charge of it, which is the trustee. And then you have the beneficiary, and that's the person that receives the benefit of the trust. Now, you know, going back to what we had talked about earlier, normally, you couldn't have a beneficiary be an animal because that's leaving property for property. So by creating these animal trusts, they've essentially modified that very longstanding rule. So that you can have a trust where its primary purpose is the care and maintenance of an animal.