Introduction:
Welcome back to another episode of “1715 Treasure Coast Financial Wellness Podcast.” Today, we have a distinguished guest with a wealth of expertise in the realm of estate planning. Our guest is none other than Geoffrey Langbart, a seasoned estate planning attorney dedicated to helping individuals and families safeguard their legacies and secure their financial futures.

A Trusted Guide in Estate Planning:
Geoffrey Langbart is not just your ordinary attorney; they are a trusted guide in the complex world of estate planning. With an illustrious career spanning over a number of years, Geoffrey Langbart has earned a reputation for their unwavering commitment to their clients’ well-being and their deep understanding of the intricacies of estate planning.

A Beacon of Legal Expertise:
As a beacon of legal expertise, [Guest’s Full Name] has not only provided sound legal counsel but has also offered emotional support to countless families during challenging times. Their dedication to crafting personalized estate plans ensures that each client’s unique wishes and needs are meticulously addressed.

Key Topics of Discussion:
In this enlightening episode, Geoffrey Langbart will delve into a variety of essential estate planning topics, shedding light on key areas such as:

1. The Fundamentals of Estate Planning: Discover the core components of estate planning, and understand why it is a critical aspect of financial wellness.
2. Mitigating Estate Taxes: Gain valuable insights on how to navigate the complexities of estate taxes and strategies to minimize their impact on your estate.
3. Preserving Your Legacy: Learn how to protect your values, your assets, and ensure a smooth transition of your estate to the next generation.
4. Nurturing Family Conversations: Geoffrey Langbart will provide guidance on how to engage in open and productive conversations with your loved ones about estate planning and end-of-life decisions.

Experience Meets Compassion:
What sets Geoffrey Langbart apart is not just their extensive experience but also their compassionate approach to the practice of law. This unique blend of legal proficiency and empathy has made Geoffrey Langbart a trusted advisor for those navigating the delicate terrain of estate planning.

Join Us for This Insightful Conversation:
Tune in to this episode of “The 1715 Treasure Coast Financial Wellness Podcast” and embark on a journey of knowledge and inspiration as we explore the world of estate planning with Geoffrey Langbart. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just starting to build your financial legacy, you won’t want to miss the wisdom and guidance that Geoffrey Langbart has to offer.

Stay Connected:
To stay updated with the latest episodes and financial insights, be sure to subscribe to “The 1715 Treasure Coast Financial Wellness Podcast” on your favorite podcast platform. Visit our website at www.TDWealth.Net and follow us on all our Social Media Channels to join the conversation and continue your pursuit of financial wellness.

Conclusion:
Estate planning is not just about preparing for the inevitable; it’s about creating a lasting legacy and securing your family’s future. Join us in this enlightening conversation with Geoffrey Langbart and take the first steps toward understanding the vital role that estate planning plays in your financial journey. We look forward to having you with us on “The 1715 Treasure Coast Financial Wellness Podcast”

If you're looking for a trusted source to help you stay on top of the ever-changing financial world of investing, retirement and estate planning, and asset protection, whether it's for you and your family or your small business, you're in the right place. This is the 1715 Treasure Coast Financial Wellness Podcast, where we'll keep you up to speed with the latest market news and conditions every week. Now here's your host, Thomas Davies. Well, hello, and welcome to another edition of the 1715 Treasure Coast Financial Wellness Podcast.

My name is Thomas Davies. I'm a wealth advisor here in Stewart, Florida, and welcome to the show. I know it's been a few weeks since I've been able to put out a podcast, so I do apologize for that, but thank you for tuning in and listening. A lot of things going on, and can't wait for today's show.

We've got a great guest on today's show, Jeffrey Langbart, who is an estate planning attorney. Estate planning is for everyone, not just the rich. It's for anyone and everyone, and Jeffrey does a great job today taking the time to really explain things in detail, so we look forward to that later in the show. Some recent news this morning, U.S.

GDP grew 4.9%, a lot higher than most people expected, so does that mean higher rates for much longer? Not just longer and later, but much longer, so we will see. Mortgage rates, they're up at 8%. Boy, those 3% interest rates, and even 2.5% I think some people got mortgages at.

Not anymore. The average right now is about 8%. The market's been down off its recent highs, and the tech sector's really taken a brunt of the force as the NASDAQ heads towards correction territory. Speaking of the NASDAQ and tech, Mark Zuckerberg came out and said that next year's focus is on AI integration.

Does that mean the metaverse is not the focus anymore? So we will see. Some good news out of Detroit, the UAW said it reached a deal with Ford. That's moved the stock a little bit, but certainly good news for the auto manufacturer and all those people that were on strike and can get back to work.

Right now tax-lost harvesting is underway as we get towards the end of the year, but believe it or not, this can be done all year long and really should be looked at. I look at tax-lost harvesting every quarter to see if there's some places to take some tax-lost harvesting, you know, and sell those losers and buy the winners. So that's something that's certainly going on right now. Seeing CDs, over a one-year CD at 6%.

So if you're scared of the markets, there may be some place to hide out for a year and get 6% on your money with no concerns. As we have two wars going on now, one in Israel and of course the one still going on in Ukraine, which seems to have taken a backseat to Israel. But certainly the atrocities are happening in both countries. Bitcoin, top 35,000, finally broke out a little bit.

We'll see if that stays sustainable. It's been in that 20,000 range, but you know, does that mean that the Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock's ETF, finally comes to fruition? We shall see. Since I've been on, Apple dropped the new iPhone 15.

Not seeing a big improvement from the 14. If you don't have a 14 or 15 and you're still on that 12 and 13, then maybe it may make sense to upgrade as there are some new features between the 13 and the 15. The new MacBook is supposed to be coming out here shortly. Apple announced that they're going to be announcing potentially the new MacBook pretty soon.

For those of us here in South Florida, some big news. Ken Griffin is building the world's most expensive house. And where else? In Palm Beach.

It's going to be about a billion dollars. He's bought a bunch of adjacent properties and good luck to him and his adventures there. But kind of interesting news. So that's about it really on the forefront.

Looking forward to today's show with Jeffrey, learning all about estate planning and how we can use it in our lives. Well, without further ado, we have our estate planning attorney here, Jeffrey Langbart. And we're just so happy to have him on here. Estate planning is such an integral part of financial planning and a lot of wealth management planning that we do here.

Like I said, we're excited to have him here. And so Jeffrey, welcome to the show. Thanks. Thank you for having me, Tom.

I appreciate it. And just to get things started, let's start with the basics. What exactly is estate planning and why is it such an integral part of one's financial wellness? Well, estate planning is actually a lot of things for a lot of different people, depending on where they are in their financial journey.

But one thing that's really core between what it is for everyone is that it's a way of structuring your assets and doing end-of-life planning such that your overall financial well-being is protected and that the right people have the right powers at the important points in your life. Yeah. And now, you know, could you explain like some of the key components of estate plan? There's a lot out there.

What are some of the core documents and considerations that individuals and families should be aware of? Well, I'm happy you asked, Tom. I think really it breaks into two separate kinds of categories. One set of documents really deals with your financial well-being and the other set of documents really deals with your healthcare planning.

Now, the financial documents can range anywhere from setting up LLCs, partnership agreements, to trust planning and living and assignments of your assets, and of course, the last will and testament. On the other side of things, we have the healthcare documents that really deal with giving certain people power to speak on your behalf if you're not able to and making sure they know what the decisions that you would like them to make are, frankly. So you have the healthcare surrogate document, which is signing the authority, a living will, which kind of guides them in making those decisions, a declaration of pre-need guardianship, which tells the courts who needs to be appointed as a guardian if that becomes necessary. Hopefully, if we do all the planning correctly, it won't, but I always like to have backups in place in case something goes wrong or an unusual circumstance arises.

And I think all these documents really pull together to set up a set of situations where when something unfortunate happens and if you become incapacitated near the end of your life, the right people are there to make decisions on your behalf and they don't have to argue with the hospital or go to the courts to be able to facilitate that. Yeah, now that's a thorough list and it highlights the importance of planning for various aspects of one's life. Now, I often hear about the term probate. Can you explain what probate is and why many people seek to avoid it through estate planning?

Well, probate is a legal process whereby the courts divvy up and distribute the assets of a person once they've passed on. Now this process is not only kind of time consuming, or at least it can be if there's over $75,000 of assets, taking nine months to a year often, but often is very public. I don't know about you, but I don't want my assets being entered into the courts from all of my creditors and the public to be able to access. Now, there's ways to avoid that and make it less public.

You have a trust, for instance, in place. Most of your assets can be marshaled through the trust and never have to enter the probate estate, and this keeps it more between the family. Now, technically, your creditors still can go after the assets in the trust. I won't call it a magic bullet, but it's much less likely that they attempt to.

You see, if you end up having to go the route of the formal probate, you end up having to literally publish in the newspaper for going on two weeks that this person has died and that their estate is open for claims of creditors for the next 90 days. This process is, again, very public, and often the major creditors out there, your credit card companies, your banks are watching those publication lists and will, if there's a claim to be made, make such a claim. I often see Home Depot making claims on their credit cards, Macy's, JCPenney's, and they're usually stupid, a couple hundred dollars, a couple thousand dollars maybe, but it takes time to deal with those. And if the bulk of their assets had been in a trust, I think it's unlikely that those creditors would have realized that anything had happened at all.

And if they had realized it, it's very unlikely they would have filed the probate on their own initiative if all that had been required to be filed was a notice of trust, especially not if we're only talking about $2,000 or $3,000. That's practically their legal fees right there. But if you already have the estate, having to go through the whole process, they're not going to miss the opportunity to send you a one-paged claim, which you'll end up paying or at least negotiating at some point and paying someone like me to have that conversation with them. You know, it's avoidable for the most part.

You know, there's a couple very limited circumstances where probate becomes necessary. If you need to have a special needs trust for your spouse, for instance, there's statutory reasons why it becomes necessary. But those are rare. That's the exception to the rule.

For most people, you can entirely avoid the probate process with a little bit of planning and not even just setting up a trust or an estate plan. Simply, if most of your assets are bank accounts and financial accounts, they can just talk to their financial advisor and have beneficiary designations set up, something I'm sure that you regularly do with your clients. And it's just simple things like that go a long ways for someone that doesn't have a lot of assets. And if you have more assets, it requires more planning, obviously.

And someone like me is very well capable of helping them avoid the pitfalls. Well, that leads us into our next question. It's clear that estate planning can have a significant impact on the distribution of assets and the ease of the process after someone passes away. But who should consider estate planning?

Is it only for the wealthy or is it something that everyone should have in place? And I'd like to add that the health care directives are probably one of the most important things that someone can have. I completely agree. The health care directives and the living wills are absolutely crucial for everyone.

I don't think there's anyone in any part in their life that shouldn't have these in place. And in fact, I often throw in health care surrogate forms for people's kids when they're getting off to college. You know, if they're doing the rest of the documents anyways, you know, it's good to have in place. Hopefully, it's unnecessary.

No one wants to think about a young person dying. But if they end up in a situation, you want to make sure the right people are in place to be able to make those decisions. Now, that's not the only type of person. That's not the only part of the estate plan that works for people at all ranges.

I think there's different solutions depending on where you are. You know, I have solutions for somebody that's, you know, and they're a little old lady in their 80s that's got a bank account and a condo. That's, you know, maybe we'll do a ladybird deed or maybe we'll set up some beneficiary designations on her bank accounts. You know, that might be an easy solution to take care of her situation.

And then you get someone a little bit more sophisticated that's got kids and a wife and maybe a small business. We set up a trust. We set up some health care documents. And that covers, you know, most people in that kind of a bracket.

You know, but on the other side, we end up with someone with a mixed family. I think it's irresponsible for them not to have a fairly complicated trust. You know, you have a new wife and kids from previous relationship. You want to make sure everybody feels that they were treated fairly.

And frankly, the statutory solutions don't work well in those situations. You know, if you don't have any minor children and you have a new wife, she's getting everything. And maybe that's what you want. Maybe that's the right outcome.

But maybe it isn't. Maybe you want to make sure that your 23-year-old kid gets a couple hundred thousand dollars out of your million dollar business. These are conversations need to be had and discussed and deeply considered and considered alongside any prenuptial or postnuptial agreements that have already been signed. And then you have all the way on the extreme side of things where you have multimillionaires, you know, someone who's 20, 30 million dollars.

And we need to do some extreme planning in those situations to avoid the estate tax or maybe mitigate it at least. It's often not entirely avoidable, but it certainly can be minimized. Yeah. Well, that's an essential point to emphasize here because now we often hear about that term estate tax.

Could you briefly explain what estate taxes are and how proper estate planning can really help mitigate them? So, the estate tax is a tax that is put onto the overall assets of an estate that has surpassed a certain limit. Everyone that's alive today has a lifetime exception for right now it's 12 million dollars and 24 if you're a married couple between the two of you for gifts that can be made over the course of your life without having to worry about the estate tax or the gift tax or the GST tax. Now, these are actually three separate taxes, but they all are paid against the same exemption.

So, they kind of, you know, if you make a gift and you don't have to deal with the estate, it's a comprehensive spectrum of taxes. And like I said, 12 million dollars is a lot, 24 million dollars is a lot. That said, in 2025, that was double back when the Trump tax cuts went through. And in 2025, they're going to sunset, going back in half to 6 million and 12 million, respectively.

And I mean, that might be upwardly adjusted for inflation a little bit to 7 million or something. But still, that's fairly achievable for most business owners. If you're in a situation where you have a nice house and a reasonably sized business, you're very well looking to have a taxable estate in 2026, you know, if your business is doing well. And there are things we can do to avoid that 40 percent tax on everything over that 7 million dollar point.

Just for an example, early in my career, I worked on a client that had about a 20 million dollar medical practice. And we did some planning and we got some valuations and we submitted it all to the IRS so that, you know, they would look at our valuations and they had two years to object. And at the end of that, about three or four years down the road, he actually ended up selling that medical practice after growing it a little bit more. And for 160 million dollars, we probably got 30 million dollars of tax savings just from those one transaction.

And now that's not that's not an everyday occurrence. But if you have a large practice or a large business that you've grown and it's very difficult to value at this point, but you expect it to be worth a lot of money in the future, but we can probably value it for a lot less right now because we only know what you put into it at this point and you haven't tried selling it yet. There's a lot that can be done to limit your overall exposure. Now, this doesn't help you while you're alive directly, but it does help your kids.

It makes sure your kids don't end up paying 30, 40 million dollars in taxes, 40 percent of whatever above the 6 million dollar mark. That's a lot of money. And that can go a long ways, making sure your kids and maybe even your grandkids are in a situation that you feel comfortable that they aren't going to have to struggle. I frankly, I think that's the American dream, right?

Setting your family up to be in a situation where they can learn and grow and laugh without having to worry about where their next paycheck is. Yeah, and that's really some great advice, especially for our higher net worth listeners. You know, it can really like you said, I mean, 20, 30 million dollars, 40 percent taxes. You know, I don't think anybody wants to pay the government that kind of money.

It's excellent. So, I'd like to kind of touch on the emotional aspect of estate planning. You know, it's like you want a clear room, talk about life insurance and estate planning. And but, you know, discussing end of life decisions in estate matters can be difficult for some people.

What advice do you have for individuals and families to make these conversations and decisions a little more manageable? Well, that's always the hardest part of my conversation with a client. I usually say for the end of a set of documents is the living will, the health care surrogate. And they're really important conversations to have, not just while you're in the planning stages with me, which they are important.

And it's important to have your decisions and your objectives sort of laid out so that the people you're putting in charge know what you want them to do. But it's also important to take them aside occasionally and make sure that they understand where you think the line is. You know, is it I'm having my first heart attack, but I'm really old and I don't think I want to deal with recovery. So just, you know, DNR.

Or is it, you know, put every single penny that I have to making sure that I live for a couple more months. I let's every even doctors say I might not make it. I won't make it. Push forward.

Maybe we'll get a miracle. And I think that's a really integral decision for everybody to make. And it's it's difficult for your children or your loved ones, your spouse, your health care surrogate, whoever that is, to make that decision if they haven't had that conversation with you. So maybe at Thanksgiving or something after after most of the celebration is settled down, maybe take them aside to the backyard and have a private conversation.

Look, I know this is a hard conversation, but these are my wishes. This is how you're going to be the one that makes these decisions. And I need you to understand where I think they should be made and how they should be made. And another thing that I think is really useful that I often advise people to do, especially as they're getting older and we were setting up documents is to write a letter.

Nothing legally binding, nothing that's going to require your descendants or your health care surrogate to act in a certain way, but sort of a letter of intention and direction. You know, I I think that these are my values. These are the I'm not going to be able to have cognitive clarity. I don't want you to push forward or I believe strongly that God wants me to do everything I can to live because he gave me this life and it's precious.

And I want to every single cent, every single moment that I can have is a blessing. And I want you to pursue that with everything that I and every part of my network. And that's, you know, again, a very personal decision and a very difficult one. And it might even change over time as you know, you see new things and your friends go through situations.

Maybe one of your older friends go struggles for months and months and they come out of it out of a coma and they're they're just they're not there anymore. And that maybe that changes your views. That's a good time to have a new conversation with the people that you're making responsible and going, I don't want to end up like Jimmy. You know, if I want you to do what you can, but if it looks like I'm going to be Jimmy, please pull the plug.

And those it's a it's a it's a dynamic process. And it's part of a decision and a conversation that families need to have amongst themselves, you know, on major holidays or get togethers. It's a good time after the celebrations have died down, like I said, maybe pull people aside and update them on how you're thinking and where you are in that process. You know, you don't want it to be a surprise and you don't want them to have to make a decision without ever having talked to you because you probably won't get what you want.

Yeah, and I think, you know, like you said, it's a great time at the holidays where families are together, you know, at somewhat of a full capacity to have those conversations. You know, I got to tell you, thank you for those valuable insights. You know, we've covered so much ground today, and I believe my listeners will benefit greatly from this conversation. Before we wrap up, you know, is there anything additional advice or maybe a key takeaway you'd like to leave our listeners with regarding estate planning and something maybe we might have missed or just, you know, something that's like you really just want to, you know, that key takeaway?

Absolutely. And frankly, on the heels of that last question, cherish your family. We're coming up to the holidays at that time of the year that everyone needs to get together and really evaluate the things that are important to them. And that's the people in your life.

You know, we come to someone like me and we can deal with the stuff and how that's going to work and make sure that there's someone that can make the pay bills for you if you're becoming capacitated with the trust or, you know, or someone that can make medical decisions if you're not able to with the health care surrogate. And that's all very important. And those are conversations that need to be had. And I know it's difficult to come talk to someone like me to make those documents, but it's important.

But it's equally as important to make sure you spend time with the people that it's all about that make life worth living. And that's, I think, really what it comes down to is talk to someone like me to get this set up so that the people that you care about don't have to make hard decisions. They know what decisions you want them to make and they can just follow your direction and they can make sure that you are in a position where you're well taken care of because they love you, too. And that's how that's what family is about.

And that's what this whole thing is about, is taking care of yourself and your family in the hardest times of your life. Yeah, probably. Thank you, Tom. I appreciate you having me.

Yeah, well, I appreciate you being on. It's also about keeping a little money in your pocket and not put it in the government's also right? Of course. I mean, look, who do you want?

Who do you want to get that couple million dollars? You want that going to your grandkids or Uncle Sam? Uncle Sam can print money. Your grandkids can't.

Well, I'll tell you that it's excellent advice. And thank you again, Jeffrey, for sharing your expertise on estate planning to our listeners. I encourage you to consider the importance of estate planning in your financial wellness journey. If you have any questions or need further guidance, Jeffrey's information for my YouTube listeners.

They're going to be in the comment field underneath in the description. Don't hesitate to reach out to Jeffrey, who's a qualified estate planning attorney. Thank you, Jeffrey, for joining us on the 1735 Treasure Coast Financial Wellness Podcast. We'll be back soon with more insightful discussions on managing your financial well-being.

And thanks again, Jeff, and we'll talk to you soon. Well, that was some great information from Jeffrey. And as I mentioned, please reach out to him. His information, contact information will be in the description to reach out for any legal questions that you may have.

Thanks again for tuning in to the 1715 Treasure Coast Financial Wellness Podcast. We hope to see you here next week. Thanks for listening. And I am out.

Thank you for listening to the 1715 Treasure Coast Financial Wellness Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend who might like it. And please rate, comment, and subscribe. If you'd like to contact us, find more information.

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