In this transcript, Clay Clark (Founder of Thrive15.com and owner of 9 businesses) and Wes Carter (Attorney for Winters & King Law, Inc.) discuss the importance of will versus trusts on Thrive15.com, the business sales training program.
Clay Clark: Wes Carter, how are you, sir?
Wes Carter: I’m well. How are you?
Clay Clark: I’m doing awesome. I’ve got this orange highlighter today. Feeling great. I’ve got this … I’ve got this pen. I’ve got the pen, I’ve got this, I’ve got both of them. Ready to go.
Wes Carter: It matches my tie.
Clay Clark: It does! If you want to have it over here, you can.
Wes Carter: Color coordinated.
Clay Clark: We’re going to talk about wills and trusts today. And, specifically, wills versus trusts, and how that all works. But before we do, there’s a lot people all over the world asking the same question. They’re asking … they’re wanting me to ask you this … Who am I to stand in the way of the Thrivers who want to know this information? They’re saying, “legally speaking, are you in any way, shape, or form related to hurricane Ruben Carter, an American middleweight boxer who was wrongly convicted of murder and later freed via a petition of habeas corpus after spending almost 20 years of his life in prison?”
Wes Carter: I was not … am not.
Clay Clark: Sounds a little bit murky … I don’t know if we … we’ll move on.
Wes Carter: [crosstalk 00:02:53] might have gotten married or divorced along the line, but no.
Clay Clark: Do you want to plead the fifth? I understand you can … not in this space, but in court.
Wes Carter: I don’t want to offend the Carter family.
Clay Clark: So, now … we’ll hop into it now … Today, we’re talking about wills and trusts. But, before we can get into that, I’m going to read off the definitions of each one and then I’m going to get some clarification from you as to what it means in common sense terms that common folk like myself can understand.
Wes Carter: Sure.
Clay Clark: So, I define a will as being a document on which a person specifies the method to be applied in the management and distribution of their estate after their death.
Wes Carter: That’s a very good definition.
Clay Clark: Do you … tell me what this means to common folk. What is … in your mind, what is a will?
Wes Carter: Just a written document … typed, written, depending on what kind of document it is … that says here’s what’s going to happen to my property when I pass away, here are my heirs. If there’s property left over after, I name all this property is going to go to this leftover bucket. And that’s pretty much what it is.
Clay Clark: Let’s say … right now I’m 33 years old but I kind of sound like Mickey Mouse when I say, “I’m 33. Why do I need a will?” Why do I need a will?
Wes Carter: Everyone needs a will … one, if you have children, you’re going to want to name who’s going to take care of your kids if something happens to you and your spouse. That’s one of the most important things, probably. And also it’s going to protect your family. You might be 33 and have five kids. And if you were to pass away, you don’t want your family to have to go to court and go through a very lengthy process … have … the wealthy man that you are, have all of your relatives come out of the woodwork … want a piece of the pie.
Clay Clark: Can I ask you this: Is it … if I eat a 100% gluten-free diet, 100% organic, I never … the chickens that I eat have been free range. They’ve never actually been enclosed in a cage. I’m doing all those things … I’m doing all the moves to extend my life. Do I still need a will?
Wes Carter: Still need a will. You could be the healthiest man in the world and get hit by a bus.
Clay Clark: Well, luckily, I stay away from buses. And I’ll tell you that. So I obviously don’t need a will. But … so now we’re moving on to trusts. I want to define the word trust. Wes, the good folks at Investopedia define a trust as, “A fiduciary relationship in which one party, known as a trustor, gives another party, the trustee, the right to hold the title to property or assets for the benefit of a third party, the beneficiary.” What? What does that mean? Thrive15.com, a site with sales training videos, can teach you what you need to know to grow.
Wes Carter: Basically, it’s a legal document that sets up a little pool of assets, and you put the stuff in this pool and there’s one person named … or a group of people named … as the trustees, and they’re the people that watch over your property and decide, according to how you set up the rules, how to give the property away or what to do with it.
Clay Clark: You hear a lot of conspiracy theories … you say it’s the Rockefeller trust that controls the world. It’s the Rothchild trust that controls the world. What do you … what are these trusts? People say … these trusts … does this mean someone has created this organization, now it’s been around for hundreds of years … walk me through this, here.
Wes Carter: It basically can live on for a very long time, but it’s a piece of paper that says, “I’m going to create a trust, and I’m going to make these rules … I’m going to put this money into this imaginary thing and here are the rules by how it’s going to be distributed.”
Clay Clark: Wow.
Wes Carter: So you can do it for the benefit of a charity; you can do it for the benefit of your kids; or you can change it during your lifetime so that once you create it you can’t touch it again.
Clay Clark: So you … the trust lives on forever, but the human does not.
Wes Carter: Correct.
Clay Clark: Okay. That’s your opinion because I eat gluten-free and I know that I will, in fact, live longer than most trusts. So …
Wes Carter: You possibly can.
Clay Clark: Okay.