Estate Planning 101

Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:00
Welcome to Dental All-Stars. I’m Alex Nottingham, founder and CEO of All-Star Dental Academy. And with me is Michael Wilde, Esquire. We got an attorney, another attorney in the house. And he is a trust and estate lawyer. And we’re gonna talk about estate planning 101. Welcome, Michael. Oh, thanks. Thanks for having me. You were highly recommended by a good friend of the family, Uncle Jay, we call him.

00:27
And he is a very successful medical consultant. And he said, Alex, and he knows money. He’s good with it. And he says, you gotta get your stuff in order. You gotta put things in trust, do this. And not just him, but all of, in my mastermind group with our dentist, I hear a lot about this, about the importance of protecting your wealth and about making sure you’re building trust and things like that. Now I had a will.

00:56
I had a few other instruments, but you gave me a gold star, not a platinum, but a gold star, but it wasn’t enough. So I got a great honor of working with you, and you did a wonderful job not just building the trust for me and my wife, but also teaching us of how to utilize it to protect against liability. Because part of the premises with estate planning, I assume, and then I want you to say it in the…

01:23
more educated way, which is what you do. But my understanding is it’s how to protect your wealth. Oh, ultimately, not just making money, because I know a lot of dentists and those who know my story of my father, he made a lot of money, that doesn’t make money, but you got to be able to keep your money. Invest properly. That’s another discussion. But also whatever wealth you have, hold it from being student. So tell me a little bit about, well, actually, before we get into Michael, I mean, why? Why did you even get into let’s give me a little bit of background about

01:53
you and how you got into the states and trusts. Why? No, absolutely. You’re 100% right when it comes to not just making your money but keeping it. That’s why I always say the death rate is 100% but the litigation rate is just under that. One way or the other, you’re going to need asset protection for future generations and for yourself while you’re earning your wealth. Myself, when I started, I started this law from 15 years ago.

02:21
But I knew I was gonna be an estate planning attorney when I was in law school. I had this great estates and trust professor. He was hysterical. He would come up with these scenarios. And I still remember one of them. This was a real true scenario where a husband and wife without kids, got their car stopped on the train tracks and they get hit by a train and they both died. And the parents of both of spouses were trying to fight over who got the inheritance. Because if the husband died first, the wife got it. And then it went to her parents. If the wife died first, it went to the husband and then to his parents.

02:51
and an eyewitness saw the husband get decapitated and blood was squirting in the air, which meant that his heart was still beating, so his parents inherited. So it was such an interesting story. I think I remember that case in law school. Yeah. Yeah, it was, I mean, it was, it’s crazy. He used to give these scenarios of like, oh, his mother doesn’t like his son, so she wrote her grandson out of her trust, but that way when they fly, he always puts her in first class.

03:18
and himself and coach so when they hit the mountain, he inherits and then it goes down to his son, and all these different scenarios. And even on the final exam, the essay was about a guy who was trying to hide money from his soon to be ex-wife. So it was very interesting. And then after that, I enjoyed that so much, and then after that I took Intro to Income Tax, which sounds like it’s a snooze, but it wasn’t about learning the tax code, it was about how to get around it, like the maze and figuring out solutions. And so,

03:45
That’s always what I wanted to do, the creative part of it. You know, I was a litigator for a little while, but litigation’s boring. Everyone thinks litigation is what you see on, you know, Boston Legal or LA Law. It’s not. It’s just sitting in a room writing paperwork. It’s horrible. It’s research and writing. It’s boring. But what I get to do is I get to have, like you and your wife, when you came in, we talk about, you know, what do you have? Where is it going? Who’s gonna help it get there? Show me how your structure’s set up right now. And I look through it, and with business owners especially, I look and I say, oh,

04:14
here’s where you’re going to get sued. I can just pick it out. So how do we do, how do we fix that? How do we plug the hole so that way the dam doesn’t break? So that type of creativity really always lent itself to my personality and I love it. I love coming up with solutions to problems that clients don’t even know exist yet. Yeah, I really enjoyed, we were geeking out a little bit. I had so much fun flashbacks from law school, but I loved estate planning, wills and trusts. I loved…

04:44
the exactly the federal income tax. You can’t learn the whole code, but just the philosophy behind it. And it’s fascinating. And because I did the JD MBA program, mine was more oriented to business. And much like what you’re talking about, this is a business oriented endeavor. And it’s really the whole thing about law, once you get past, I mean, when you’re law school, it has to be this way, right? But then it really, as you get into practice, it’s about how do we use the law to get your outcome?

05:13
How do you utilize it? And it’s an unforced error for those that are listening. If you’re not, if you have a level of wealth and you’re not having conversations of how to protect it. And I think that was the hardest fun, but also most of the, a lot of the work is having those conversations about what’s gonna happen, how does it work, how do you, and it also, what’s nice about the questions that you asked is helping to frame what you want in life and then having the legal instruments support you to do that.

05:43
That’s exactly right. A lot of people think the documents are what’s important. You’ve kind of alluded to it earlier that documents aren’t the hard part. You know, it’s funny. A lot of times clients would be like, oh, well, it’s just some paper. I go, you want the paper? I’ll give you the paper. Like you could have my documents. It’s fine. It’s the concepts, the concepts of how do we formulate your plan? Because not there could be two people that seem like they’re the same two business owners. They’re each married. They each have two young kids. And you’re like, okay, same plan. Not necessarily.

06:12
one of the children might have special needs, one of the children might have a gambling problem, one might have a daughter-in-law that they hate, something like that, and those nuances to the documents have to be addressed because the document itself is a contract, it’s just a contract with yourself. You’re gonna be gone when this contract actually is administered, and so when it’s administered, it needs to be clear.

06:37
There needs to be no ambiguity. There needs to be no surprise. It needs to be, okay, this is what I want done. This is how I want done. And just as simple as what we did for you and I’ve done for my kids, okay, kids are too young. Kids, if I died now, I don’t want the kids getting all the money right now. We have to protect them from themselves to a certain extent. We have to protect them from future dangers like divorce, creditors, litigation, bankruptcy, anything they might face. And those are conversations we have during that consultation. So ironically, the free consultation is the most valuable part of the plan.

07:07
That’s true. So tell me, I have some questions prepared for you because it’s good stuff. And I think you addressed it, but in like a nutshell, what, how would you define estate planning in 30 seconds or less? To quote my professor Douglas Miller in University of Florida, estate planning is what happens to your shit when you die. You know, so the idea of how does your stuff move to the next level? Now, a lot of people and yourself included when you came in, think a will is enough.

07:37
The problem is that estate planning, everyone focuses on the word estate. They’re like, oh, I don’t have an estate, I’m not rich, I don’t have a palatial mansion, but really it’s death planning. It’s planning for what happens to your stuff when you die. And that could be as simple as your house. It could be as simple as your baseball card collection. It could be as simple as your cash accounts, your retirement accounts, your life insurance. All of those things make up your estate. Now, the smallest estate that I’ve administered is probably $50,000 net worth.

08:07
biggest one is $2 billion. Now, I have concepts for each and everything in between because sometimes like I had a client worth $100 million, no wife, no kids giving everything to charity. It wasn’t really, really much for me to do. Like he needed a power of attorney and healthcare surrogate and stuff like that. But there was not going to be any tax issue and he didn’t need to have any restrictions because it was all going to charity. But then I have other clients that maybe their net worth is a million dollars.

08:33
but including their house and they’re worried because they have a son that’s addicted to drugs and we need to make sure that that son isn’t going to inherit everything and then kill himself with the money that he inherits. So everybody has different desires, everyone has different worries, everyone has different concepts of what they believe their estate to be and what they believe their beneficiaries to be. And we have to kind of talk through what that is. So estate planning encompasses incapacity,

09:02
It encompasses death, but most importantly, it’s about the beneficiaries. It’s about who are you looking to protect? If you don’t have any beneficiaries and you have a bunch of assets, maybe it’s not as important. But if you have beneficiaries that you care about spouses, kids, parents, siblings, whatever it might be, then you need to focus on at least some some basic estate planning. And with respect, so we said is a will. Well, you said.

09:30
A will and a trust is not enough. You need supplementary documents. But in a sense, a will has to be executed and probate by a court, right? Whereas a trust, if you do it right, probate’s not initiated. Absolutely. In fact, will-based plans are, we don’t even create will-based plans because will-based plans are meaningless except for the fact that if you have a minor child, a will will appoint a guardian for your child. But if your children are adults and you have a will,

09:57
the will will still go through probate. A lot of people think wills avoid probate. They actually, the definition of probate is the proving of the will. So what happens in that process is the will gets filed with the court, it becomes public record, anyone can see it, so everyone can see what you have and where it’s going. And then with your death certificate, and we start that process of appointing an executor. Just because you put down who you want to be the executor doesn’t mean they become the executor. They have to meet certain thresholds. The court has to approve them.

10:26
Once they become the executor, they get a letter of administration, they can step into the shoes of the deceased person, and that’s where the fun begins, because then they have to deal with creditors. They have to deal with beneficiaries that are fighting. They have to deal with ambiguities in the will. They have to deal with all these different things. The probate process usually takes between six and 18 months if it’s not contested, and it usually costs somewhere between seven and 10% when we talk about including all the.

10:52
filing fees and the lawyer fees and the creditors and things like that. So we can avoid all of that with a revocable trust. And the revocable trust is so important because it does exactly what you were saying. It avoids all probate and can provide some protections in addition. And when you die, the revocable trust becomes irrevocable and there’s a trustee. Now I don’t get too much in the weeds, but is the trustee still subject to probate or contesting or things like that? I mean, I guess you could file a lawsuit.

11:22
That’s the great thing. So the trust is a private document, not a public document, and the trust can’t be contested because, unless the trustee is actually doing something wrong. So the trustee can be watched over. But your wishes cannot be contested. So once your trust is set and it becomes irrevocable, and you say, well, I want my son to receive 30%, and I want my daughter to receive 70%, your son can’t contest that now.

11:48
unless he can show that there was fraud, you know, fraud, duress and undue influence are always aspects of it. Like he didn’t, it wasn’t his signature. There’s a presumption that this is settled, and they would have to be a separate lawsuit to try to unwind it or something like that. But it’s not whereby probate a will, I like what you said a will is executed in probate. So in this case, there’s a presumption that the trust this goes on and then they have to go and break it there. So

12:17
What for the listeners is becoming more ironclad. And if you think about it, you’re like, do you want this ambiguity when you die to create more suffering for everybody around you and to also have lawyers get a lot of the money at that point and fighting and things like that, or get it set up be very clear as you talk about with it. And also just a note, which you’ve talked about is as long as when it’s revocable, meaning before you die,

12:45
You can make changes whenever you like with it. Absolutely. As long as you’re in capacity. We talked about probate, OK? So that’s what happens when the will is executed. That’s why trust helps with that. What about estate tax? OK, so we have estate taxes and things like that. How do you build in the tax stuff? And then we’ll get to the protections from creditors. Tell me about that. Sure, absolutely. So

13:11
The estate tax exemption changes year to year. Right now, it’s the highest it’s ever been. So a lot of people think like, oh, well, it’s so high, I don’t have to worry about estate planning at all. But in reality, the estate tax is not the number that people should worry about. The number they should worry about is $75,000, which is where probate starts. $13 million is right now where estate tax starts. But the biggest nuance to the current estate tax exemption is the fact that there’s a unified

13:41
A lot of people don’t realize, but in the past, you weren’t able to give things away over the $18,000 a year that it is now used to be, you know, 17 and 15, 14. Everyone remembers that annual exclusion that you have, but you had a lifetime gift exemption of only a million dollars. So if you accidentally gave your house or gave a house to your daughter for a wedding gift, you would probably even have to pay gift tax on it.

14:03
And I say accidentally because anyone who talked to an attorney would say, don’t do that. Don’t, you know, you got to either sell it to her or put it in the trust or do something like that. But what you can, what we have the ability to do now is we have the ability to address future estate tax concerns by using, you know, spouse a lifetime access trust or family limited partnerships. Anyone who is above a net worth of 15 million really needs to take.

14:30
all of the advantage of all of the options that are available today for estate tax elimination. The bonus to that, and you kind of just alluded to it, is that by addressing the estate tax concerns, you’re also gaining asset protection because each one of these nuanced plans, whether it be a limited partnership or the irrevocable trust or whatever it is, they’re all shielded from outside creditors. So they shield you from the IRS and they also shield you from anything that

14:59
you know, be it a lawsuit or sometimes even a bankruptcy. Interesting. And, okay, so we talked about the tax exemption and tax protections, which are now so it with a trust, just to kind of put a button on this, if the house or a couple million is being bequeathed towards somebody else, is, is that considered a gift or no? That’s a state after you die, it’s

15:28
It’s a bequest, it’s not a gift. So it’s great, it’s an inheritance. And what you can, the great thing about if you have your house like you do and you’re your house in your revocable trust and then you die and then the house goes to your beneficiaries in trust, what happens is not only are you avoiding probate, but also you’re avoiding capital gains tax because the…

15:51
the house will get a step up in cost basis at the time of your death. And then when your kids go to sell it or your trustee goes to sell it, they don’t have to pay any capital gains. Whereas- Wait, so if you bought it for half a million and now it’s a million and it’s given to your child, the cost basis is a million? Yes, if it’s through the trust, if it’s at death. As opposed to what happens a lot, a lot of older people do this, where like, let’s say your mom says, “‘Okay, I don’t wanna go through probate. “‘So Alex, I’m gonna put your name on my deed right now.'”

16:21
Well, now what happens is you violate the homestead exemption, so property tax goes up. And when you go to sell it, you only get a step up on half the property value because you own half and she owned half and you got it during her life. And there could be a gift tax implication depending on what the gift tax exemption is in that year and how much the house is worth. So it’s a triple tax whammy. And I’ve had people call me up and I couldn’t even help them because

16:45
They called me after the fact. They said, oh, my mom, she had this house since 1975 and her property taxes just went up like from 1000 to 10,000. And I said, well, what happened? She said, well, she put my name on the property. I was like, well, you’re done. You know, that’s it. You gave away half the property. You violated the homestead exemption. You don’t get that cap anymore. So it’s, you know, I always say the biggest mistake people do is putting someone they’re not married to on title.

17:12
to either an account or a piece of real estate. And I want all those that are listening that love to do it themselves. I’m a lawyer. I did the will myself. I got a silver and gold star. You did an OK job. Yeah. But you’re a lawyer. You did an OK job. But still, there’s a saying we learned in law school multiple times. The foolish lawyer is the one that represents themselves. But I am not a specialist at a state and trust law, whatever. And I can learn about it.

17:40
But even still, I don’t have the years, I don’t know all the case law, I don’t know what’s specific to my state and all those things. So it’s considering the, it’s a drop in the bucket to use a professional to oversee and make sure it’s there. And hey, if you’re more educated like me, it’s wonderful. I had a blast just talking shop. But still I wanna make sure somebody who knows what they’re doing is overseeing it. Okay, so what about creditor protection with trusts?

18:10
There are two different types of trusts. There’s revocable and there’s irrevocable. And there’s subcategories in each one, obviously. But a lot of people think revocable trusts on their own give you creditor protection. They do not. Revocable trusts are pass-through entities. So basically, they’re disregarded entities. They have your own social security number as the tax ID number. You are the grantor, you are the trustee, and you are the beneficiary. On their own, they don’t really do anything to protect assets. Now, as a side note.

18:37
A lot of attorneys even don’t realize that. And so sometimes civil litigators or even personal injury attorneys, what they’ll do is they’ll see that there’s a trust and they’ll be like, oh, I can’t touch the assets. Okay, I’ll leave it alone. So, you know, but in reality, the revocable trust is there to protect your loved ones after you’re gone. An irrevocable trust though, is completely creditor protected. Because an irrevocable trust, you are only two of the three or one of the three.

19:04
roles. So you are the grantor definitely always. If you’re doing an irrevocable trust for your kids, then you might be the grantor and the trustee and you might have your kids as the beneficiaries. I actually have a structure that I have created for myself years ago where because when I got divorced, I no longer had marital protection. So I don’t have a wife that I can use to joint assets, to jointly own assets with. So what I did was I created an LLC. That LLC has my revocable trust listed as a 99% owner.

19:34
And the 1% owner of my trust of my LLC is another trust that I created for my children. So my kids are the beneficiaries of that trust. And my ex wife is the trustee of that trust. And that’s a trust just for them. And I have no control over it. And that is a new revocable. It’s irrevocable. And the only thing it holds ownership in the LLC. So and we talked about this. And again, this is in the weeds. I just want to clarify. Not sure those who

20:03
want to know more, talk with you. But if you are married, there’s a level of protection. And then and then you there the backup is a trust. What I’m saying is, there are certain ways then once you get the trust done, there’s a lot of steps. And that’s what a attorney like yourself helps with and guides of how to execute it properly. So you’re getting the protections of the documents, because let’s say you have a trust, but your assets are not in the trust, that’s going to probate.

20:33
Absolutely. If it’s not clear where everything is not accounted for. Yep. Correct. So not just getting it, then the next step from there. So we wanted to clarify, but there’s a lot of, and you’re just touching the surface, but there’s a lot that you can talk about in terms of ways to protect assets and you’ll use whatever you can that’s appropriate under the law. Yeah. And Florida is a great state for that. Florida has wonderful asset protection laws, also has a high litigation rate, so we need them. Both they go in hand in hand.

21:01
Right. And I want to clarify, you are a Florida lawyer. And I asked about that earlier. So for those that are listening, because I have a few more questions, but that reminds me now, if you’re in Florida, you can do everything for them. If people are not in Florida, what can you help them with? We can still help with asset protection. We just can’t help with estate planning. And the reason is that when it comes to death, every state has their own rules about first, during life, like pulling the plug and making decisions in capacity, things like that.

21:29
And then when it comes to state inheritance tax, there are differences. So Florida has no state inheritance tax, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey. They do have inheritance taxes. So you’ll want to use an attorney in that state. When you’re talking about a state tax or what happens when you die, things like that. From a creditor standpoint though, we can work anywhere. And in fact, we do. I mean, not only do I set up Florida LLCs for out of state residents, I set out out of state.

21:57
LLCs for Florida residents. So we can do we can go to Wyoming or Delaware. So we can we we can use what state offers us the best protection.

22:08
I see. I see. Okay. Now is the trust, is the trust have to be in your state? The trust, so if it’s a revocable trust, it should be in your state. Now, if you do create a revocable trust in Florida while you’re a Florida resident and then you move to Missouri, it’s still valid. It’s still a valid trust. Got it. So even. Got it. Okay. So there’s some things that have to be done locally, but there’s also some things that can be done abroad. Yeah.

22:35
When we end the podcast, we’ll get your information and I’ll put it available for the listeners So if they’re in Florida, definitely green light if they’re not definitely they can reach out and see what can you help them with? Or answer and so on and you’re very generous with your responses either way So what are do we cover? And I guess this goes into the non Specifically just the local trusts, but what are some other ways you can protect assets? So there are three levels and so on

23:04
No, sure. And there’s three types of asset protection in the state of Florida that are most prevalent. So the first is statutory and constitutional. So what we’re talking about there is like Homestead. Homestead is always protected in the state of Florida from outside creditors. The only creditors to a Homestead. Let me just clarify because, let me just clarify that. Oh yeah, some people don’t have Homestead. That’s true. Right. Exactly. They’re not Florida. So let’s just kind of, we can say Florida and non-Florida. So like, for example, in Homestead, I don’t know if all…

23:33
States do that, but homestead, there’s a certain tax protection. If you own the home, you get a tax break. All right. So I’m sure there are other states that do something like that. They have different levels, but you’re saying there’s statutory protections that are out there. Are you talking about level one? Yeah. And some states have partial homestead. Florida is probably one of the strongest full homestead protections. And not just from a tax standpoint, but…

23:59
your primary residence in some states, Florida specifically definitely, but some states still have the protection where the only creditors that can put a lien on your property are creditors that arise from the property. Like you didn’t pay your homeowners association or you didn’t pay the plumber or you didn’t pay your property taxes. Those can still be on your primary residence. But if you get in a car crash, your primary residence is protected. Now that’s again, specific to Florida and some states, depends on the state that you live in, that’s something that you’d have to…

24:28
look up the same thing with retirement accounts. And when we talk about IRAs, annuities, life insurance, those are statutorily protected in the state of Florida. That’s not in every state. California, for instance, has no protection of any for any kind of those assets. But in Florida, those assets are all creditor protected. Yeah. So if you live in California,

24:53
move. You know, so that’s the only thing I could suggest. It’s a great place to visit. But not necessarily. I mean, couldn’t you I mean, even for the cow? Well, some of their some assets can be protected by irrevocable trusts and other areas like that. Where you’re gonna have to be more creative. Correct. And because listen, there’s a lot of wealthy people in California, and I’m sure they got a smart lawyer like you that can hide and protect some things.

25:21
Well, it’s funny you say that because that is true. The next level are those irrevocable trusts, those limited partnerships, those LLCs. And this is why Nevada makes a ton of money. Nevada attorneys make a ton of money off of California residents because Nevada has very good asset protection laws, but California does not. So everyone in California moves their assets into Nevada trusts or Nevada LLCs. Now, Nevada does a great job marketing this to the United States.

25:49
as basically like, oh, we have this unique irrevocable trust that protects your assets. It’s called the Domestic Asset Protection Trust and we have it in every state. It’s just a matter of what allows it or not. So Florida, we can do that. Sometimes for anonymity, we’ll go to Delaware or Wyoming. But the idea is to create an irrevocable trust, which is an intentionally defective grantor trust. That way it’s not negative from a tax standpoint, but your assets are protected, anything you put in there. Now an irrevocable trust on its own though.

26:18
is not always the best idea because you have to give up control of the asset. So that’s why I had that next level of creating that multiple member LLC. So I could still be in control and have the protection. For the LLC or limited partnership, either one, a multiple member LLC or a limited partnership are both going to receive the same type of protection. We have general partners or managing members and we have limited partners or junior members and it all has to do with control and voting rights and things like that.

26:48
as long as the structure is honored, you get protected. Now, people hear the term piercing the corporate veil. When that happens, it’s because someone decides, okay, I know how to go online to the Department of Corporations and fill out my own LLC form, I’m fine with that. So they do, and they go, look, I’m gonna put my name, I’ll put my kid’s name, and now, boom, multiple member, we’re good. But they take all the money for themselves.

27:12
They, when they file a tax return, it’s just themselves listed as 100% owner. They don’t have an operating agreement or a buy-sell agreement or a partnership agreement of any kind. And then they get audited or they get sued. And then they’re told, this is a single member LLC. This is not a multiple member LLC because you’re not honoring it as a multiple member LLC. So just like you said with the estate planning, there’s more work to be done after. Setting up the LLC is not why I charged for the LLC. It’s because

27:38
Once the LLC is set up, then we need all the paperwork that goes along with it. And we need to follow the structure. We need to honor the structure. All right. So last question. And I almost think this could be a part two in the future because we’re just going to cover for a few minutes. But our audience is mostly dentists. We do have some non dentists for sure that that listen because it’s just great business and mindset and leadership and marketing advice. But what if I own a business, particularly with the dental business, dental practice or so on?

28:07
What do I, how does that relate to my estate planning and what do I do about that? Absolutely, and it’s from an estate planning and an asset protection standpoint. So it’s funny, I had, I just recently, I did an estate plan for a dentist that came in and it was a father-daughter dental practice and part of their estate plan was that they wanted.

28:30
They had two kids, but only one of them was a dentist and he wanted the dental practice to go to his daughter at death and they tried to set it up. And they told me she’s a partner now, but they want to get it. And when I looked into it, they had never set up any entity at all. All it was was he was just practicing. He had a DBA, like he was promoting himself under a creative name, but never had established it as an actual business. And it was just their mom was doing all of the taxes. So they had a lot of pitfalls to worry about.

28:58
Now, assuming that all of the people that are on the call right now actually do have legitimate businesses that are established, what we need to do is figure out what’s gonna happen to that business after you die. So there’s a couple different things. Number one, do you have someone that is legally allowed to run your office? So for instance, as myself as a lawyer, I can’t just give my law practice to my brother who’s in sales. I need someone who has a law degree, who has passed the bar.

29:24
to manage it, otherwise it’s gonna go away. Now maybe what I need to do in my estate plan is give a right of first refusal to another attorney that works for me and just say, okay, you know, one of the attorneys that works for me might wanna take over the practice. If he pays my family X dollars per month over a 12 month period, he gets to keep the practice or something like that. For every type of business, it’s different. For every client, it’s different. And what we wanna do is we wanna go over what makes the most sense for the way that.

29:52
practice is run. Some dentists have practices that are very similar to like a super cuts where people rent chairs, right? So they’re of counsel. They’re not really employees. But the main thing is we want to separate assets from liabilities and the biggest liability is whenever you’re touching someone. So if you have hygienists that work for you or if you have a periodontist or an orthodontist that’s coming in and using your office

30:19
any lawsuit that’s going to happen, you’re going to be included on. So we need to separate the dentist from the dental practice as well. We need to make sure that every place there is a chance for being sued, that is isolated from the assets. So the cash can be protected, the building can be protected, the equipment can be protected. The only thing that’s being sued is this entity that is there solely for the purpose of serving. So the entity is a service business, similar to my law office.

30:48
is my PA. It’s a business that’s- So the dental, do you recommend, certainly the dentists that are working will be contractors that will have their own liability insurance, they’ll have their own entity, and then you have the dental practice, would you recommend the dentist have an LLC for them personally as well as the entity that owns it? Yeah. So there’s a double level of protection potentially? Exactly. Exactly. And in fact, if they’re partners, even more so. So if you sue the doctor, they have an entity.

31:16
and then you have to break that entity to get to the mother entity that that exactly that. So those partners have entities that own the mother entity, which is the practice. So I get and again, we can this could be a whole nother. There’s a whole nother discussion about about that. But I think that you can go. But it’s important for those that are listening. Personal is important. Your business is critical. And we talked about All-Star Dental Academy we have in the trust that we have a plan to be able to deal with something

31:45
myself and Heather, the co-founder, co-owner, like, what’s going to happen? And so that is all laid out and protected. And what’s nice for dentists and entrepreneurs that are listening, it’s not just for yourself. If your entrepreneurial venture fails, dental practice, what have you, all the people that rely on you, there’s a problem. Their livelihood is interrupted because they can’t legally operate without that authority. If a trust is in place, and not just that, but you have thought out.

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these questions and you have the action. This is equally as important as you have, what is next step? Is there a dentist that back it up? Is there already a potential backup buyout or process to be able to do that? We have that in our agreement. There’s a way that it can continue. We need to think about those things. And it happens. It’s rare that something will happen where you don’t expect, meaning, you know,

32:42
What I’m saying, it’s rare that everything goes wrong, but something will go wrong eventually. But my point is, it’s always better to be prepared and do it right. It’s safer, you’ll feel good about it, and it’s a smart thing to do with respect to it. So Michael, give me some information about you, your website, your email. If people wanna contact you, what’s the best way? Sure, absolutely. So my website is wfplaw.com, so that’s wealth.

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fami My email address is MWild, so M as in Michael, W-I-L-D, at wfplaw.com. And the phone number is 954-944-2855. That’s our office number. I’m personally at extension one, but we have four attorneys that are at each of the four extensions that can all assist with any…

33:36
estate planning needs and for some of the asset protection needs, I’m really the go-to for the asset protection component. But we also give free consultations and everything we do is flat fee. So there’s never any surprise bills. There’s never any charges for meetings or phone calls. It’s the project-based. So we discuss what the project’s going to be. I quote you a fee, give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down and we move on from there, but there’s never any surprises. So I think clients usually like that, especially business owner clients.

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because business owner clients tend to call me or text me, often with just simple questions and rather than receive a little bill at the end of that, once you’re my client, you’re my client, my advice is free at that point. Well, good to know I’m your client. I’m gonna have some questions for you. Exactly. Michael, thank you so much for joining us. And for those that are listening, remember to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, get the episodes as they release, share with your friends, and until next time, go out there and be.

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and all-star.