0:21

Hi there. Welcome to the podcast. My name is Sherri Lund and my

0:23

guest today is Kyle Robbins.

0:26

He's a Texas attorney new to the Houston

0:26

area, but not new to Texas at all.

0:31

Kyle and I are going to be talking about

0:31

probate estate planning, but especially

0:35

as it relates to blended families

0:35

and how to avoid the issues that can

0:40

come up with that unique population. The podcast is here because

0:42

of Willowwood solutions.

0:46

That's a company that I formed to help

0:46

families navigate probate, and then it's

0:50

expanded to help families with seniors

0:50

in transition, finding appropriate

0:55

care and funding for that care. I'm excited to bring Kyle

0:57

to you today because he has

1:00

family at the top of his list. And he's incorporated his

1:02

values into his law practice.

1:05

So let me tell you a

1:05

little bit about Kyle.

1:08

Kyle Robbins is the founder of Robbins

1:08

estate law, a law firm that specializes

1:13

in estate planning and probate. He was raised on a farm and Kyle learned

1:15

the value of hard work and family.

1:19

And like I said, he incorporates

1:19

the principles that he gained

1:22

there in his law practice. He has a top tier law education

1:25

from the University of Texas, and

1:28

he has a background in business. So he blends The legal and the

1:30

practical sides of this issue when

1:35

he comes to work with families. Kyle's goal is to make estate planning

1:38

accessible and relatable, ensuring that

1:42

families are well prepared for the future.

1:45

In his free time, Kyle enjoys hiking with

1:45

his family, attending sporting events, and

1:49

volunteering at Special Olympics events.

1:53

So Kyle, welcome to the show. Yeah, so much for having me.

1:57

So if we were chatting at, say,

1:57

a special events, a special

2:02

Olympics event, and we hit it off

2:02

and I said, so tell me about you.

2:06

What would you say? This is not work related,

2:07

but, like, you as a person.

2:10

Oh, gosh. I mean, snapshot, you know, I grew

2:11

up on a farm, as you said, and uh,

2:15

actually the sticks of Oklahoma. And then my family moved during high

2:17

school to Texas and been here ever since.

2:21

So, I'm from the middle of nowhere,

2:21

but always enjoyed getting back

2:26

outside and, you know, out way and

2:26

into the trees as much as I can.

2:30

So my wife and I love to go hiking.

2:33

We just did a long tour of a few mountain

2:33

ranges over in Europe last summer.

2:39

So kind of a fun getaway. But for the most part, I spend my

2:40

days just chasing my kids around.

2:45

We've got little ones ages 2, 4

2:45

and 6, so the vast majority of

2:51

time and energy goes into that

2:51

whenever we're not practicing law.

2:55

So you graduated from college with

2:55

plans to help your dad on the farm.

2:59

And then plans shifted, and you were found

2:59

out you were expecting your 1st baby,

3:05

how did that tell us how that experience

3:05

kind of steered you in this direction.

3:10

My 1st daughter was born the day I

3:10

graduated from law school, actually.

3:13

So, it was obviously a

3:13

transformative experience for me.

3:18

And so at the end of the day, where I was

3:18

raised, the values that we have family

3:24

is extremely important, especially in

3:24

those smaller tight knit communities.

3:28

And so, the idea of being able to blend

3:28

what I do from a professional standpoint

3:34

with also ensuring that I'm taking

3:34

care of not only my family but other

3:39

families was very attractive to me. So, like a win win on my end.

3:43

And I read on your website that just

3:43

the feeling of knowing that your

3:48

family was secure, that the feeling

3:48

that you had when you drew your state

3:52

plan up, like, you wanted families

3:52

to experience that same thing.

3:56

So.. I think that having done this, you

3:56

know, several years now I will say

4:02

estate planning is kind of 1 of those

4:02

things that people torture themselves

4:05

over, you know, they don't get it done. And so they think, oh,

4:07

gosh, I've got to do that.

4:11

And that feeling just kind

4:11

of nags them for years.

4:14

And so, it's always incredibly

4:14

rewarding whenever we finish someone's

4:20

estate plan and get them through it. And they go, gosh, that wasn't nearly as

4:21

difficult as I thought it was going to be.

4:25

And wow, I feel so much better

4:25

now that we have that in place,

4:28

you know, there are much less

4:28

consequential things to worry about.

4:32

So it's always nice to be

4:32

able to do that for folks.

4:36

Yeah, it's a tough topic, but you

4:36

don't have to go through it alone.

4:40

And in working with a professional

4:40

really makes a difference.

4:43

So, you hit Texas, you graduated, you

4:43

took the probate world by storm, you

4:49

landed in Austin and have rapidly grown

4:49

along the I 35 corridor, 2020 named,

4:55

like, 1 of the best let's see, the best

4:55

probate attorney in expertise in the

5:00

Austin area, or was that for Texas? A little bit of both a little bit of

5:03

we, yeah we've grown very rapidly.

5:08

We're amongst the largest probate firms

5:08

here in the Austin area now and have

5:13

clients all across the state though. And so a lot of my clients and

5:15

colleagues and advisors have really

5:19

been asking if we would had any

5:19

interest in expanding the Houston.

5:23

And so... And really, what did it for us was

5:24

during the coven years, we were able to

5:28

practice in different courts throughout

5:28

the state and we're able to go to court

5:34

without having the geographic restriction.

5:36

And so, we started, you know,

5:36

handling cases down there a few

5:41

years ago and it worked really well.

5:43

And it just made sense. So we actually this year opened

5:44

up our physical office there

5:48

and have staff full time now. So, yeah.

5:50

Yeah. So yeah, it's been fun. That's awesome.

5:53

And that's one of the reasons I'm super

5:53

excited to have you on the air today.

5:58

What do you think contributes

5:58

to your big growth?

6:00

What makes you stand apart? Yeah.

6:02

Yeah. So, I think the answer to that is

6:02

a lot of smaller firms or smaller

6:08

especially probate firms are not the most

6:08

organized is the word I'm going to use.

6:12

They're good, you know,

6:12

doing legal things, but.

6:16

Maybe not necessarily as good

6:16

at communication or setting

6:19

expectations or managing expenses.

6:22

And so, when it comes to probate,

6:22

you know, if you stop and think about

6:26

it you've just lost a family member,

6:26

you're going through 1 of the most

6:29

emotional, difficult times of your life. And then you also have to deal with

6:32

an attorney that you've never met or

6:37

spoken with, go in front of a judge, you

6:37

know, that you also have no, probably

6:42

never been in front of one before. And so on top of that, the last thing

6:44

we want to do is add questions of, oh

6:51

my gosh, how long is this going to take? When am I going to be able to sell the

6:53

house if I need to, you know, when will

6:57

I be able to access the finances to

6:57

pay all these bills that are piling up?

7:00

By the way, how much

7:00

is this going to cost?

7:03

And so we just really obsessively

7:03

created a process where when you

7:10

engage with us and begin this journey

7:10

through probate, you're going to know

7:14

the answers to all of those things. So I, I hate surprises.

7:18

So does everyone else, especially

7:18

when the stakes are this high.

7:21

So we quote flat fees. So that way, you know exactly how much the

7:22

expenses are going to be beginning to end.

7:26

We give a very accurate timeline of the

7:26

different phases of the case and exactly

7:33

what we're going to have done by when. Stick to it.

7:36

And then we're available

7:36

and we communicate.

7:38

We give our cell phones to the clients.

7:40

We give our email addresses to clients. We tell them, you know, we

7:42

promise we're going to answer your

7:44

questions within 24 business hours.

7:46

And so the ability to just give top

7:46

notch service and get people through

7:51

it predictably really has set us apart.

7:54

And so we've experienced really rapid

7:54

growth just from families that have

7:59

appreciated that experience with us.

8:02

Yeah, that's amazing. So, let's shift the

8:04

conversation a little bit.

8:06

Thank you for going into all of that. That was really helpful information.

8:11

So, blended families, I hear

8:11

about that all the time.

8:15

Every attorney I talk to, you know,

8:15

it's like, oh, blended families.

8:19

Yuck. Not the families themselves,

8:19

but what they can.

8:22

The issues that can come up specifically

8:22

in probate for blended family.

8:27

What's the number one problem

8:27

for them, would you say?

8:29

First let's define a blended family. Usually what we mean when we say that

8:31

is two spouses that have married that

8:38

have children from a prior relationship. That's it.

8:41

So if there are stepchildren,

8:41

then in the legal industry, we

8:44

use the term blended family, but

8:44

essentially the Brady Bunch, right?

8:48

And so, you know, why does that

8:48

create complexity or difficulty?

8:53

Well, in Texas, a lot of people

8:53

don't realize, but if you don't have

8:58

anything in place at all, so if you

8:58

don't have a will, if you don't have

9:01

an estate plan, and one spouse passes

9:01

away, And the surviving spouse is left

9:06

to, you know, deal with the assets. Well, what do we have?

9:09

We typically have some financial accounts. We have a house usually

9:11

and a few other things.

9:15

In Texas, for the most part, Each

9:15

spouse owns everything 50 50.

9:20

So let's use the house as the example. Each spouse is on the deed.

9:24

Both spouses signed for it. Typically, whenever they purchased it.

9:27

And so each of them owns a 50 50.

9:29

But a lot of people are surprised to

9:29

learn that when you have a blended family

9:35

and one of you passes, half of the house

9:35

does not go to the surviving spouse.

9:40

That half of the house goes

9:40

to that person's children.

9:44

And so the situation we wind up a

9:44

lot of times is we have oftentimes

9:49

an elderly widow or widower who owns

9:49

half of their house now, and the other

9:54

half is owned by their stepchildren. And if they haven't talked about

9:56

it or understand, you know, what

10:01

needs to happen or have a game plan

10:01

in place, it gets really tricky,

10:05

really emotional, very quickly.

10:08

And so you lead to questions like you

10:08

know, do I have to pay all of the taxes or

10:14

the insurance or the mortgage if I don't

10:14

own all of it anymore, and what happens

10:20

if I need to sell it to move into assisted

10:20

living or work with end of life care.

10:25

And unfortunately, there's not an

10:25

easy answer to those questions because

10:29

what happens is we have multiple

10:29

people that now own property and they

10:33

all have to agree and work together

10:33

in order to manage that property.

10:37

You can imagine, much more

10:37

complicated than just.

10:41

The surviving spouse owning everything

10:41

and being able to do what they need to do.

10:45

Right? Yes. And I'm imagining, you know,

10:46

the step children in that case

10:51

might have families of their own.

10:53

They might want to start a business

10:53

or take a vacation or whatever.

10:56

So they're looking at their half

10:56

of that estate and thinking,

10:59

I'd like access to that, please. You know, so there's mixed mixed goals

11:01

and mixed expectations around that,

11:06

that house and the bank account and

11:06

whatever else is involved in that.

11:10

Absolutely. And from the kids standpoint of

11:11

view, you know, they a lot of times

11:15

folks get married later in life. And so, you know, they might be in

11:17

their fifties and have been around

11:21

their father for like 50 years and

11:21

he has a new spouse of 4 or 5 years.

11:27

And so a lot of times they go, well,

11:27

you know, of course dad would have

11:31

wanted it to pass to us, you know,

11:31

and so, every situation is different.

11:35

We don't always know. And unfortunately, when we don't have

11:36

a plan in place, we're just at the

11:40

mercy of the default rules of Texas. There's absolutely nothing that can be

11:42

done once somebody passes away without

11:48

estate plan that says what goes where.

11:50

or who's in charge, which

11:50

is an important right?

11:54

And then if this yes, oh, wow,

11:54

it just gets so complicated.

11:57

Doesn't it? So if the surviving spouse also

11:57

has children and they're thinking

12:01

about assisted living care

12:01

memory care, something like that.

12:05

Yes, it just it can explode.

12:07

It's like a mushroom cloud.

12:11

Unfortunately, and when it does it's,

12:11

it takes a long time to sort it out.

12:16

It's very expensive. Both sides typically wind up hiring

12:18

an attorney to try to sort things out.

12:22

It's needless is what it is, but it's

12:22

extremely tough to navigate and watch

12:27

whenever we're in the actual situation.

12:29

And it just, it just takes one person

12:29

to disagree on what should happen.

12:33

That's it. Because everybody needs to sign.

12:36

So is there a case that you can

12:36

tell us about as an example?

12:40

I'll give you an extreme example. So 1 of my clients, she was married for

12:42

gosh, 20 years, something like that.

12:48

And she and her husband

12:48

purchased a house together.

12:51

She inherited from her father's estate

12:51

and wound up using several hundreds

12:56

of thousands of dollars from those

12:56

proceeds to pay off their mortgage

13:00

not knowing that when she did that,

13:00

she was actually creating a gift to

13:04

her spouse who, lo and behold, had an

13:04

estranged child, you know, from a prior

13:10

relationship and they had no Relationship

13:10

with them whatsoever and her husband

13:16

unfortunately passed away unexpectedly.

13:19

They were.. They were liquidating the house. They were even under contract

13:20

and moving to Costa Rica.

13:24

They had already signed a contract

13:24

for a new property to retire there.

13:28

He winds up passing. And the stepchild essentially said

13:29

great, you know, I'd like half of the

13:35

proceeds from that house whenever it

13:35

sells and she goes now, wait a minute,

13:39

you know, we paid on this together.

13:41

Yes, but I spent several hundred

13:41

thousand dollars to pay off the

13:44

mortgage and they hired an attorney.

13:47

They asserted their rights. We litigated for a year and a half.

13:51

The law was not in our favor and

13:51

we wound up losing and, you know,

13:55

that's just what the law was. There's really nothing

13:57

we could do about it. So, not only did she lose half of the

13:59

house and the equity that she had built

14:04

with her spouse over the years, She

14:04

also lost half her inheritance just

14:08

because they didn't have a plan in place.

14:10

And so, it was tough to watch, you know,

14:10

especially in such a big transitional

14:15

phase of her life when she was hoping

14:15

to kind of get away and enjoy her, you

14:21

know, years somewhere other than here.

14:24

So, yeah, what an emotional rollercoaster

14:24

to go from the excitement of Costa

14:28

Rica and looking ahead to all of this.

14:30

How sad. Let's get our pens and papers out.

14:33

This is a time for us to hear some

14:33

tips and strategies from you on blended

14:37

families and what they can do to avoid

14:37

that kind of pain and discomfort.

14:42

I mean, hands down having an estate

14:42

plan in place is how you avoid it and

14:48

that could be a couple different ways.

14:51

I mean, you could design a

14:51

simple will based estate plan.

14:54

Whether you go through an attorney

14:54

or we probate self done wills all the

14:58

time which people find all over the

14:58

place on the Internet or elsewhere.

15:03

Sometimes they go just fine. Most of the time they go just fine.

15:06

Sometimes they don't and those

15:06

situations are equally as tragic.

15:10

Because again, it just doesn't work

15:10

because a mistake was made somehow,

15:15

but having it in place is essential.

15:18

Beyond that, the also incapacity planning

15:18

documents, so having a sturdy financial

15:23

power of attorney so that your spouse

15:23

could manage financial assets if they

15:27

needed to or a medical power of attorney

15:27

to make medical decisions on your behalf,

15:32

HIPAA forms, director to physicians. These are all just basic documents

15:34

that everyone needs in place, but

15:39

especially blended families to make

15:39

sure we know exactly who's in control

15:43

if someone needed to be, as well as,

15:43

Where the assets are headed, you know,

15:47

those decisions have got to be made. And then beyond that I'm a big fan of

15:49

just avoiding probate in general for my

15:54

family's frankly, for folks that aren't

15:54

as familiar with what the process is,

15:59

I'll just describe it as quick as I can.

16:01

Basically, when someone passes away,

16:01

if you have a will based estate plan,

16:05

well, you've got to probate that will. And what that means is you've got to

16:07

hire an attorney, a probate attorney.

16:11

Fill out and get all the information to

16:11

them, you know, the original will the

16:14

death certificate, a lot of information

16:14

about the family and the assets.

16:18

It takes 2 to 3 months for the

16:18

attorney to get you in front

16:21

of a judge, a probate judge. And that is.

16:24

You're a lot of it's just publishing

16:24

notice throughout the county and getting

16:28

your case ready, but then you physically

16:28

have to go in front of the judge.

16:32

You know, in a crowded room on a

16:32

weekday morning and testify about

16:36

your family testify about your assets

16:36

and present the will to the judge.

16:40

They might ask a few questions. Once they're satisfied, then they

16:42

would appoint you as the executor.

16:46

Then you have to take another three months

16:46

to prepare an inventory for the judge.

16:50

So you have to appraise your real

16:50

estate assets, your vehicles.

16:54

Your financial accounts, you

16:54

have to get statements from the

16:56

date of death from your spouse. And then once you've got that done,

16:59

the judge reviews it, signs off on

17:03

it, lets creditors have a chance to

17:03

present claims against the estate.

17:07

So think credit card bills,

17:07

medical bills from the hospital.

17:11

Things like that, and then once the

17:11

dust has settled, then finally you

17:15

have, you know, the privilege of putting

17:15

your stuff back in your name, right?

17:19

So you can prepare a deed to

17:19

transfer the house back into your

17:22

name 100%, but it takes 6 to 9

17:22

months at minimum to get through.

17:27

It usually, if everything goes well,

17:27

costs between 000 by the time you've

17:32

paid the probate attorneys, the court

17:32

fees, the deed work to transfer it.

17:36

And it's at the absolute worst

17:36

time that you would have to be

17:40

dealing with something like that. You know, you just lost a loved one.

17:43

People just don't want to go through it.

17:45

It's very invasive and they don't

17:45

understand why they have to.

17:49

And the short answer

17:49

is they don't have to.

17:51

For the most part for my

17:51

estate planning clients.

17:54

When we sit down to design a plan, we're

17:54

designing one so that they can avoid

17:58

having to go through probate and that

17:58

can be done in several different ways.

18:01

There's a an easy way is a ladybird deed

18:01

or a transfer on death deed, which makes

18:07

a lot of sense in certain situations. But by far, the most popular

18:09

1 is a revocable living trust.

18:13

Which without diving into too much detail

18:13

on it, I just think of it like this little

18:18

box that we put your real estate in. And the difference is that the county,

18:20

whenever they have the deed to see who

18:24

owns this piece of property, instead of

18:24

having 2 spouses on their 50-50 we just

18:29

have a trust that holds it and owns it.

18:31

When 1 spouse passes away.

18:34

We don't have to change anything with the county. It stays in the name of the trust.

18:38

The surviving spouse is still

18:38

in control of that trust.

18:41

They could sell it the very next day.

18:43

They could refinance it to whatever

18:43

they need to do without ever having

18:47

to deal with a probate attorney

18:47

or go in front of a probate judge.

18:50

So the benefit of that also with a

18:50

blended family is that it's crystal clear.

18:56

Who is in control who's in charge

18:56

and we're not even in court or

19:00

involved with anything messy. And so everybody knows exactly what's

19:02

going to go down and there's no time

19:07

to argue about it because you're done.

19:10

Yeah, and I would add to that the probate

19:10

when it's probate, it's public record.

19:15

So you can read the will you can read

19:15

the different aspects of the case when

19:20

it's presented, it's all right there.

19:22

And sometimes that inventory is

19:22

made public, too like, what's the

19:26

value of the house and what's the

19:26

value of the car or whatever it is

19:30

that they take the inventory of. So, very public very personal.

19:34

And so a trust would

19:34

also skirt that issue.

19:38

Yeah, and even beyond just people

19:38

being nosy a lot of my clients have

19:42

to deal with cold call salesmen,

19:42

you know, that reach out to them

19:45

because they see, oh, this person just

19:45

inherited a house, or this person just

19:49

inherited, you know, these assets. And so they get a lot of calls

19:51

from realtors, they get a lot of

19:54

calls from insurance salesmen, life

19:54

insurance salesmen, they get a lot.

19:58

Just a lot of chatter and noise that they

19:58

really an attention that they don't want.

20:06

with a revocable trust, it's private.

20:08

And again, you just avoid

20:08

all that nonsense and

20:13

.. Go ahead. I was just going to say, so you

20:13

mentioned, you know, 6 to 9 months

20:18

of probate and then maybe 6 to 7000

20:18

dollars to go through that process.

20:23

I don't know if that's including

20:23

the prepping of the will or not,

20:27

but trusts can be formed a lot for

20:27

a lot less than that, would you say?

20:32

Absolutely. Depending on what your goals are.

20:34

The problem with just using the

20:34

word trust is that there's 100

20:38

different types of trust, right? So, if the goal is just to avoid probate

20:40

and that's it and we're done that's going

20:44

to be a relatively simple type of trust.

20:47

I would say. 3900 would be kind of your entrance as far

20:48

as a trust based estate plan, which would

20:52

also include the deed work to transfer

20:52

it into the trust that ranges up to on

20:58

average 5900, somewhere in there, just

20:58

depending on the complexity of the assets.

21:02

And then if we go beyond that,

21:02

then we're factoring in other

21:05

things to consider, like. Asset or divorce protection for

21:07

the children when they eventually

21:10

inherit estate tax planning.

21:12

If we have a large estate, then there's

21:12

a lot we can do to reduce assets or

21:16

in the situation of blended families. Potentially, we want to leave, you

21:18

know, all of the assets to the surviving

21:23

spouse, but eventually lock in the

21:23

children as the beneficiaries when

21:28

the surviving spouse passes away.

21:30

That way, you know, you know, you're

21:30

taking care of your spouse, but at

21:34

the end of the day, nobody can change. That your children will eventually inherit

21:36

when they pass away, such as the house

21:40

is a big item we frequently do that for.

21:43

So those different goals and situations

21:43

sometimes require more than one trust.

21:50

It's all within the same document though. And that all of that, of course, affects

21:52

the amount of work that goes into it.

21:56

Sure. The bigger the trust, the bigger the

21:56

probate problems you're avoiding.

22:00

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yes.

22:03

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%.

22:06

So what is the hardest part of drafting

22:06

a plan, estate plan for a blended family?

22:13

The situation that I just described is

22:13

usually the most complicated because if

22:17

you stop and think about it, we've got

22:17

a house and we've got maybe a couple

22:21

that have been married for a few years. And they want to leave that and

22:23

other assets to the surviving spouse,

22:28

but then when that surviving spouse

22:28

passes away, you know, usually their

22:33

will leaves it to their own children

22:33

and their own, you know, and so they

22:37

don't want to just disinherit their

22:37

children if they pass away first.

22:42

That's usually not. You know, not necessarily fair, or

22:43

at least my clients don't think so.

22:47

And so, a lot of that leads to complex

22:47

situations where we have to make sure

22:53

the surviving spouse is provided for,

22:53

but also make sure that the first

22:58

spouse who passes away, their children

22:58

don't accidentally get disinherited.

23:02

Right. I would say that's the most complicated.

23:05

Beyond that. Who's going to be in

23:06

control of the assets?

23:09

You know, do we want the surviving

23:09

spouse to be completely in charge of

23:12

making sure all of that is taken care of?

23:15

Or do we want maybe to name 1 of

23:15

the 1st bus who passes away children

23:19

to also be involved immediately?

23:22

That's kind of a delicate

23:22

situation with a lot to consider.

23:24

So every family is different and

23:24

unique and has different goals and

23:29

different dynamics from that standpoint. Right?

23:32

And then if you've got. The new wife has younger children and

23:33

then are there going to be, you know,

23:38

are there going to be gifts made to

23:38

them as stepchildren from the first

23:42

one to just the jealousy, all of that.

23:45

So it can be a lot.

23:48

Tell us about your how you would

23:48

approach the blended family.

23:53

What is your process like? When do they have special?

23:57

Are there special questions

23:57

that you're going to ask them?

23:59

Are there special things that they

23:59

need to bring to their appointment?

24:03

What is that? Like, Without getting too far

24:04

into the weeds of that..

24:08

Sure. Usually what I like to do

24:09

is hop on a discovery call.

24:12

So we'll jump on the phone for 30

24:12

minutes with within a state attorney.

24:16

And we don't charge for that. It's just a free

24:17

consultation where we say.

24:19

You know, here's what

24:19

we're going to recommend.

24:21

Here's the different options you have.

24:24

And I usually just ask the question,

24:24

I asked the hard questions right then

24:27

and there, like, have you talked about

24:27

this you know, where you want the

24:31

assets to go after you've passed away.

24:33

who you want to be in control of it. Usually you can tell whether or

24:35

not the couple's talked about by

24:38

then and sometimes they're, they

24:38

haven't, and they're not ready.

24:41

And so, at the end of that phone

24:41

call, we typically will offer an

24:45

in person consultation for about

24:45

an hour and a half to just come in.

24:49

We draw everything out. We discuss it. All we design it.

24:53

And at the end of that meeting, if

24:53

they want to move forward, we put

24:56

a flat fee at that point in time. How our processes is we just ask for

24:58

a half up front and half whenever

25:02

they finish when we sign the document. So, just about 2 to 3 months, roughly,

25:04

depending on what we're doing, but

25:08

before we come into that in person, hour

25:08

and a half meeting you know, if they

25:13

haven't talked some of these tougher

25:13

questions out, I always assign them

25:17

homework and say, you know, your job

25:17

is to at least have discussed this and

25:23

thought it through and be close to an

25:23

idea, you know, nothing's in stone.

25:27

You don't have to have it decided by

25:27

the time you come in to see us, but.

25:31

It helps if you've spoken about it

25:31

and talked it through, and that way

25:34

we can kind of help get you there

25:34

to that final decision with good

25:38

educated questions when we get there.

25:40

So, and it's, again, nothing's also

25:40

in stone throughout the whole process.

25:45

So, you know, you've got two to

25:45

three months to kind of think

25:47

through and work these things out. And then once the documents have

25:49

been signed they're relatively

25:53

simple to adjust as well, so we can always change your estate plan

25:55

as your life and dynamics change as well.

26:01

Correct. Right and just to be clear that

26:02

just because the will is drawn

26:04

up, it's not executed until it's

26:04

signed or the trust or whatever.

26:08

So, oh, absolutely. That follow that last meeting

26:09

is a really important meeting.

26:13

Okay, Kyle, so let's assume that someone

26:13

is listening and they're on the fence.

26:18

They have a blended family. And they're like, I'm

26:20

going to be dead and gone.

26:23

You know, I'll let everybody

26:23

that's going to work itself out.

26:27

What would you say to that person? If, you know what you're leaving

26:29

my, my thoughts are just how

26:34

do you want to be remembered? I mean, at the end of the day,

26:36

it's going to be a tough situation

26:40

when your family loses a loved one.

26:43

And if it's. That quick and easy.

26:47

Many of my clients, many of my family

26:47

members are very grateful that their

26:51

parents, you know, took the time to

26:51

to set it up and make it easy on them.

26:56

It's one of the best gifts that you can

26:56

give to your families when the time comes.

27:00

And so they're, very fond

27:00

and grateful of that.

27:05

And then I have other situations

27:05

where it's a total mess

27:08

and the surviving family.

27:10

You know, they knew it was going

27:10

to be a total mess and they have

27:13

to cope with the fact that their

27:13

loved one was okay with that.

27:16

And so, it doesn't leave a

27:16

very pleasant final memory.

27:21

And so it's really my question is

27:21

just, how do you want to be remembered?

27:26

Yeah, that's really good. The 6 to 9 month period of working through

27:27

that, if they choose to get well, it would

27:32

be longer than that if they don't have a

27:32

will, probably would be longer than that.

27:37

And that whole time they're thinking. Oh, why didn't they?

27:40

Why did they do this? Oh, you're right.

27:44

Ooh. Well, Kyle, I so appreciate you taking

27:45

time out of your busy schedule to be

27:48

with me and to chat on this podcast.

27:51

How can people reach you

27:51

and find your information?

27:56

Oh, gosh. My my website, hands down,

27:56

Robbinsestatelaw.com tons

28:01

of resources on there. We even have a tool for people who

28:02

have lost a loved one to answer a

28:07

few questions and find out if they

28:07

have to go through probate or not.

28:10

If they can do it on their own

28:10

for small estates worth less

28:13

than 75, 000 with no real estate.

28:16

They can just fill out the forms. It'll give them, you know,

28:17

for free and take care of it.

28:20

And then, if they do need to go

28:20

through it, it'll tell them what

28:23

type they need to go through and give

28:23

them a rough estimate of the fees.

28:26

So, just different items like that

28:26

are sprinkled throughout it for, you

28:30

know, the different things that we do. So, hands down, the

28:32

website is the place to go.

28:36

And then always, of course, if you're

28:36

in a situation or you're thinking about

28:40

getting a plan in place, or you need to

28:40

go through probate, just give us a call.

28:43

I mean, we we don't charge.

28:45

It's free consultations. If we can answer your questions and we

28:47

tell people straight up whether they

28:51

need an attorney or not, and if they

28:51

don't, we'll point them in the direction

28:54

to the resources that that they need

28:54

to get their stuff taken care of.

28:58

So, yeah. Right. And so for the Houston office, is

29:00

that a different number than the

29:04

office that you have in Austin? Yes, and no, we have various different

29:06

numbers, but they all ring the same girls.

29:10

So you'll reach Stacy is

29:10

my main point of contact.

29:13

She's in Salado. She doesn't even live in Austin.

29:15

So, you know, just any from Google, if

29:15

you type in Robbins estate law dot com,

29:21

any of those numbers work just fine. You're going to get the same team.

29:24

Okay, great. And that's Robbins with two B's, Robbins.

29:27

Correct. Yeah, R O B B I N S. Yeah.

29:30

And you're on Facebook and all the places.

29:33

I'm everywhere. So, yeah. So is there anything that you feel

29:35

like we didn't talk about regarding

29:38

blended families that is on your

29:38

heart to say before we end this?

29:43

You know, my attitude is just

29:43

at the end of the day, it is so

29:48

chaotic and so expensive Whenever

29:48

the situation goes wrong..

29:52

I don't care if you go on the Internet

29:52

and download it, just get an estate

29:56

plan in place at the end of the day.

29:59

That's going to be so much better than

29:59

leaving a mess with nothing in place.

30:05

And sometimes it's okay, but

30:05

sometimes it's very much not.

30:09

Okay. So just get it done. What are you waiting on?

30:12

Yeah, there you go. Okay, Kyle, you have a great day.

30:16

Thank you again for joining us and

30:16

we'll stay in touch with you for sure.

30:20

Hope to see you in the Houston

30:20

area in the near future.

30:23

Anyway listeners. Thank you so much for

30:25

joining us here today.

30:28

We hope that you learn some

30:28

things and that you're motivated.

30:31

My goal for this year is to have,

30:31

influence over 50 people that

30:35

will start a new plan or trust

30:35

or will or something like that.

30:38

So if that's you, if you decide this year

30:38

is a result of something you hear me on,

30:43

please let me know because I've got a

30:43

list going and I can't wait to get to 50.

30:48

So, okay, that's it for today. You guys have a great day.

30:51

Know that you matter and that

30:51

you're not in this alone.

30:54

People like Kyle and myself are here to

30:54

help you and we want to help you be better

30:58

on the other side of this transition. Take good care.