Discover how to navigate the tricky waters of updating your estate planning documents when life takes you across state lines. Join me, Greg McIntyre, and the astute Attorney Jane Dearwester, as we dissect the complexities that come with interstate moves and the impact on your estate plans. We strip down the legal jargon to offer you a clear understanding of how varying state laws can affect trusts, real estate, and the essential documents that safeguard your legacy. Whether you're facing the practical challenges of dealing with local institutions or the daunting potential legal battles, this episode is your compass to ensure that your estate is managed without a hitch in your new home state.
Wrapping up the episode, feel the anticipation bubble as we share our excitement for tomorrow's engagement in Hendersonville. Reminiscent of old friends catching up, we bid our listeners adieu with a heartfelt thanks and an invitation to join us in the continuation of building strong professional relationships. It's not just about the paperwork; it's about the people we serve and the bonds we forge. So, tune in, and let's embark on this journey together, ensuring that your estate planning is as robust and resilient as the relationships we cherish.
Discover how to navigate the tricky waters of updating your estate planning documents when life takes you across state lines. Join me, Greg McIntyre, and the astute Attorney Jane Dearwester, as we dissect the complexities that come with interstate moves and the impact on your estate plans. We strip down the legal jargon to offer you a clear understanding of how varying state laws can affect trusts, real estate, and the essential documents that safeguard your legacy. Whether you're facing the practical challenges of dealing with local institutions or the daunting potential legal battles, this episode is your compass to ensure that your estate is managed without a hitch in your new home state.
Wrapping up the episode, feel the anticipation bubble as we share our excitement for tomorrow's engagement in Hendersonville. Reminiscent of old friends catching up, we bid our listeners adieu with a heartfelt thanks and an invitation to join us in the continuation of building strong professional relationships. It's not just about the paperwork; it's about the people we serve and the bonds we forge. So, tune in, and let's embark on this journey together, ensuring that your estate planning is as robust and resilient as the relationships we cherish.
Hi, I'm Greg McIntyre with McIntyre Elder Law and this is the Elder Law Report, and I'm here with Attorney Jane Deer-Western in our office in our Hendersonville office. Hey Jane, hello, thanks for joining me. Today we're going to talk about out of state estate planning documents. I am right now sitting in our Charlotte, north Carolina, office. You are in our Hendersonville office and I know that we both see people who move in from out of state all the time. You've got people I know in Hendersonville. Where are people coming from in that area? It's a big retirement area for the United States.
Speaker 2:Yes, a lot of people live between here Hendersonville, asheville area, western North Carolina and Florida. Tons of people go back and forth between Florida. We have a lot of people from the Mid-Atlantic, from New York State, everywhere up there in Massachusetts, maine. We had somebody come in last week, moved here from Hawaii two years ago I think. Especially with the pandemic a few years back, when people realized they could live anywhere, they all started moving to North Carolina because I mean it's a great place to be. We really have people moving here from everywhere.
Speaker 1:Hendersonville is beautiful, a huge retirement community, and, just yeah, it's not too hot in the summer and it can get cold in the winter, though it's not like Northeastern United States cold though.
Speaker 2:No, you're right.
Speaker 1:That's true when you sit down with someone who's moved in from out of state. First for me, I know I want them to bring their estate planning documents with them that they have. Yes, sit down, let's lay it out, let's talk about it. If I have a client that moves out of state, I tell them hey, I want to give you this recommendation of whom I know is reputable and I've worked with in that state that I want you to link up with to do a review sometime within the next year, right, yeah, and the reason I do that, jane, is because I want them to avail themselves of the favorable estate planning laws and tools in that state that might not be available in North Carolina, because we have 50 different states in the United States and all the state laws are different. There might be similarities, but sometimes there's drastic start start differences to the way they implement policies from a benefits perspective, the way they handle trust, the law surrounding trust, the way that real estate, all kinds of things right.
Speaker 1:In some states attorneys don't have to be, aren't? You know? It's title companies that do real estate closings. California is that way. There's a lot of different states that are that way. There's just drastic differences. But there's this thing, the federal constitution, that kind of holds us all together and that says, through the full faith and credit clause, that any legal civil document or civil order judgment, any of those that's good in one state, also has to be valid or legal in another state. When I cross state lines to make things uniform, or else it would be a nightmare. So if I do a power of attorney in New York state and I moved to North Carolina, it should be valid, right, but practically, jane, when you go to your local bank in Hendersonville and you take a power of attorney from Alaska, have you ever seen that before?
Speaker 2:Probably not.
Speaker 1:No, they're not used to practically dealing with that legal document. So you're talking about giving the agent who might need to do work for you for health care decisions or as a trustee of a trust, an executor in a will or an agent under a general durable power of attorney for financial or legal purposes. You're asking them to have trouble everywhere they go, to get stopped right there, to go to the legal team, to take two weeks to a month to figure out if this is valid and what should be done, to ask for work, or a judge at the courthouse in Henderson County to interpret a will under the laws of Alaska or wherever you're coming in from, instead of the laws of North Carolina, which they're not used to doing. Yeah, asking for problems all the way around.
Speaker 2:Most of the time when people get here they're saying this is it Like? Now that I'm in Hendersonville, asheville, western North Carolina, I'm done, I'm going to live here the rest of my life. So a lot of people this is like they're in destination. This is the last place that they're going to live, they're probably going to die here. So I think for a lot of people at least those of you know we've looked at and those I've looked at with Brenton it's about 50-50, maybe 50% of those people they have their documents in order, they're pretty recent, they feel comfortable, they may be they have what they need as far as the protections in place. And then others, you know, those documents may not be up to par. And then we have a lot of people come in that have North Carolina documents drafted but when we take a look at them again, they are just not very carefully or thoughtfully done.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I don't know. You know, when people come in and they bring their dots, I don't know the attorney that drafted these things right. I don't know if they're a general practitioner. I don't know if they're a specialist in estate planning and elder law, I just don't know. Yeah, I don't know their level of expertise, you know, in just this area. I know that we are focused solely on estate planning and elder law. That's all we do. That's what we do. So when we look at those documents I'm going to be looking at that, at those documents, with years of experience, yeah, and I know what I'm looking at and I know what I'm looking for. I'm making sure that there there aren't restrictions that shouldn't be there in a power of attorney that you actually I read you what you have, so you understand it. Very few people, jane, actually understand the estate planning documents they have.
Speaker 2:They don't have no clue, yeah.
Speaker 1:They don't understand it and nobody's ever taken the time the attorney maybe never sat down with them and took the time to explain it. Yeah, we want to make sure they understand what they have and then if it checks the box boxes for me I might say it's good to go. But I'm also going to talk about the practical concerns about the out of state legal documents. But what they still haven't done is avail themselves. North Carolina is a very retirement friendly state. There's also a reason why people move here. It's because our economy is decent and we have a kind climate. We have a good climate. You can surf or ski. It depends on what you want to do that day right and really reach both ends of the state within a day you wanted to. And also our laws and our legislature and our policies are kind to seniors, because we want you to be able to keep what you've worked for your entire life. Jane, what's a great example of a tool that we use that saves something huge, like a huge asset for a client.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think this is what we were discussing that the Lady Bird deeds are really just such a powerful tool and again, having former experience in real estate, I mean that is just. It's huge. And seeing the effects of people who come in when one of their loved ones has done a Lady Bird deed and they come in, they're grieving, they've just lost someone. They're like what do I do now? How do I get the property in my name? It's done, it's already been done. Your loved one, your husband, wife, aunt, uncle, whoever it was. They set this up so that you're done. There's nothing that has to be done. So that's just a huge sense of relief. Yet it gives the person during their lifetime, all the authority to do anything they want with the property, but it has that immediate past to who they designate at death without having to go through probate. So that's just such a powerful tool. It's great.
Speaker 1:I agree the Lady Bird Deeds. There's so many other great estate planning options that meeting with an estate planning or elder all attorney in North Carolina are going to be able to afford you and your family. Jane, I would love to offer a free console for people to sit down with you in the Hendersonville area and Asheville area and for you to get to know them and their goals and help them accomplish their estate planning goals, review whatever out of state estate planning documents they have and start a tradition for them of meeting with you, maybe regularly, with a check-in, a check-up, to make sure their own course and if their life takes a turn, we want their estate plan to take a turn, so I would offer a free console. You can schedule that free console with Jane by calling 1-888-999-6600 or by going directly on our website, mclderollcom slash scheduling and you can schedule directly right from that link on Jane's calendar and sit down with her. So thank you, Jane, for talking about out of state estate planning documents with me today.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. Okay, thank you. You have a great day there in Hendersonville. We'll see you tomorrow. I'll be there tomorrow.
Speaker 2:All right, okay, see you then.
Speaker 1:Bye peace.
Speaker 2:Thank you.