Scott Webb (Host): Welcome to Stoughton HealthTalk. I'm Scott Webb. It's never too late to start planning for the future. My guest today is Attorney Matt Roethe, and he's here today to explain the differences between wills and trusts, and explain how we can help folks to plan for end-of-life care and decisions.

 Matt, it's so nice to have you here today. We're going to talk about and help folks to plan for the future. And I'm 55, and I'm in the midst of sort of planning for my future. Maybe I should have started earlier, but maybe it's never too late is certainly my theory, but it's something that's on folks' mind, right? At a certain age, maybe some people start sooner than others do, but I always want to know, and I am glad to have your expertise here. Do I need a will? And what happens if I don't have a will?

Matt Roethe: Never too late to start planning for an estate plan. Let me kind of explain some basics. So what happens if you don't have a will, and I'm licensed in the state of Wisconsin, so that's what applies here, so what happens with a will is that there's a statute, if you die without a will, it's called intestate. And they have kind of a formula picked out on what happens if you don't have a will. So if you don't have a will, everything will go to your spouse., Except for if you have stepkids. If you have stepkids, half go to the spouse and then half go to the kids. If you do not have a spouse, it goes to your children or grandchildren. If you do not have children or grandchildren, it goes to your parents. And if you don't have parents, then it goes to, to your siblings And then if you don't have any of that, it goes to your maternal and paternal great grandparents and their descendants. So essentially, what happens is the court picks that and the court has some procedures. So, it works, but most people like to choose how their assets they've worked so hard for their whole life where it ends up going.

Long-winded answer, but let me explain, the probate process. The probate process is that if a will gets admitted to probate, and probate is the court that supervises the transfer of a decedent's their assets to the beneficiaries, their named beneficiaries. And if it's $50,000 or more without any assigned beneficiaries, then it gets assigned a probate. And probate, everybody gets notified about these court hearings. A personal representative is appointed, and you probably know that as an executor, but a personal representative administers the estate, reports to the court the assets, pays any bills, then reports the estate expenses, and then after that distributes it to all the relatives to complete the tax return, and then the estate is closed.

Now, there's a couple of ways of avoiding estate process. So, one of them is to create a trust where you have a trust dictate everything that goes on. That's a good idea if you want to stretch things out. You might have a spendthrift, you might have a child or a relative with special needs, then you tend to use a trust. A lot of times people designate beneficiaries, they create like life insurance policies or investment policies, they leave it that way. But a good estate plan should have either a will or a trust, a healthcare power of attorney, a durable power of attorney, a HIPAA document, and naming beneficiaries for your assets. Attorneys help with the process to cut down the costs, help avoid probate, and also try and determine what the people want. It's all about what they want and how they want to distribute it. I've had a lot of times people are afraid to come in and see me. People don't want to confront their own mortality. But what ends up happening, it's like any responsible endeavor. Once you complete it, people are relieved and they're usually quite pleased that they've resolved something that they've been meaning to do. And they've been able to basically set forth what they want and express their wishes in a document.

Host: Yeah, I wanted to ask you, God forbid, of course, but accidents happen, of course. So, what if I'm in an accident and I can't make my own decisions? How do the laws or, you know, how does that work exactly?

Matt Roethe: So, what happens is if you can't make your own healthcare decisions, hopefully part of the estate planning process is drafting a healthcare power of attorney. In a healthcare power of attorney, two medical professionals determine that you're incapacitated, and you point somebody else to make healthcare decisions for you, basically what treatments you should receive and how to go about your daily life. But the healthcare power of attorney either allows you to permit or deny people the right to put you into a nursing home or assisted living or, if you're in a persistent vegetative state, your brain dead, you can grant your authority or grant the power of attorney authority to either pull the plug or turn off the respirators. And I think, in my opinion, it's such an important decision that every American 18 or over should have a healthcare power of attorney.

Host: Yeah. And of course, when you're 18, these are things that you either don't think about or don't want to think about, but older folks like myself, 55, yeah, probably something to think about. And Matt, I've been meaning to ask an expert, so I'm glad you're here, what's the difference between a trust and a will. And in your opinion, which one is better?

Matt Roethe: Either one is better or worse. It just depends on your circumstances. So, a will basically sets forth how you want your assets to be distributed if you pass. Will gets submitted to a probate and the court kind of supervises the process. A trust is where you list out all your assets. Basically, you're creating almost like a separate entity. You put all your assets in the trust, and the trust dictates what happens to your assets after you pass away.

Now, trusts are very good for people with that might own a business or want to continue a farm or maybe they have a spendthrift child or a special needs child. Those are all very good ideas for a trust, but a will can also work. The main advantages of a trust is that if drafted properly, they can avoid probate and avoid estate taxes, but a will can do that the same if you also nominate all your beneficiaries, either through insurance forms or a transfer on death document. So, either way works. That's why it's always a good idea to consult with an expert which is better for you, a trust or a will.

Host: Yeah, I appreciate that. And I wanted to ask you, as we kind of wrap up here today, is just, you know, not necessarily to do a commercial for yourself, but just in general and broadly speaking, maybe why you recommend, you know, seeking the advice of someone like yourself, a professional who does this for a living. There's so many things we can do online and we read so much in the media and social media and everyone thinks they're an expert at everything. But the reality is folks like yourself really are experts with this type of stuff, trusts, wills, and so forth. So, what are really the advantages to working with a professional?

Matt Roethe: Ben Franklin always said, if you represent yourself, then you have a fool for a client.

Host: That checks out for sure, Matt.

Matt Roethe: And the idea being is that if you're involved with it, a lot of times you can't make clear headed decisions for that, but a professional will be able to determine what's best for you, what works, because everybody's a little bit different, and it always helps to have somebody take a look at it. And some people are always afraid of the cost, but if you find the right attorney and all that, you actually will save money. And a lot of times you can find a good attorney for the right price. And it will save you headaches for you in the future and streamline the process. Now, as far as that goes, it's always a good idea to consult with anybody. Like when my breaks go out, I'm not going to try and fix my own breaks. I'm going to take it to a mechanic. You know, if I have a leaky faucet, I'm not going to try and fix that myself. So, sometimes attorneys can actually help out. You know, professional realtors are very good at selling houses. A good estate planning attorney will help you streamline the process and avoid future problems, because the worst thing is when people haven't planned or their family ends up fighting because the decedent didn't set forth a clear plan in writing. So, it's always a good idea to hire an expert to have just somebody else review it. And sometimes people can figure that out on their own, and it always helps to just have a second opinion on everything.

One other document that we should probably consider is a durable power of attorney for finances. And that's somebody who can actually make financial decisions for you. Now, a normal durable power of attorney does not have any incapacity requirements. So somebody can write checks and all this. And this is for people that maybe the beginning stages of dementia or they might have a physical ailment, they can't write their own checks. It's always a good idea to appoint somebody, but you have to be careful with it because it has to be somebody that you can trust, or you can take a durable power of attorney and actually put a requirement in that you have to be incapacitated. Because one thing I've been impressed with the number of people in their 80s and 90s that I've met in the last decade or so, we're aging in society and it's good. It shows us our healthcare is working, but sometimes they need a little bit of help making healthcare and financial decisions and both the healthcare power of attorney and a durable power of attorney.

Host: Well, that's perfect. As we've sort of established here, you know, there are folks who do this for a living, you know, mechanics fix your brakes, plumbers fix your leaky sink, and attorneys like yourself can help us with planning for the future. So, thanks so much.

Matt Roethe: All right. Thank you very much, Scott. I enjoyed it.

Host: And for more information, go to stoughtonhealth.Com and search Health Talk Podcasts. And that concludes this episode of Stoughton Health Talk. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other Stoughton Hospital podcasts. I'm Scott Webb. Stay safe and be well.