Estate Planning In Times of Uncertainty

0:00Every day, excessive delays and denials from big insurers keep patients from accessing the care they need. And when care is urgent, these delays can be disastrous. These practices cost billions in wasteful spending, driving up costs for American families. But while big insurers put up barriers, America's hospitals and health systems are in your corner, navigating endless reviews and appeals to get you the care you need when you need it most. It's time to curb these harmful practices and put the focus back on patients. Brought to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Health Care. Welcome to Love, Death, and Money. I'm your host, Attorney Nas Barudy on Talk Radio, 790K ABC. If you have questions about trusts, wills probate call the station right now at 1-800-222-5222. That's 1-800-222-K ABC. If this is the first time you're joining the program, welcome. My name is Nas Barudy. I've been practicing law in California for the last 15 years. I make sure my clients have the proper legal documents to protect themselves from the

1:01day that they become either incapacitated or when they pass away. Now if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for you and trust me, you are not going to like it. So for the next hour, I'm going to share with you some information that will help you protect yourself, your family, and how to prepare for retirement, which is on many people's minds. And as always, this information is general in nature. You should always consult an attorney about your particular situation. So a lot to cover today. The new cycle every day has been extremely exhausting for the last two weeks because we are at war with Iran. If you haven't been watching the news, and it's really important to have a conversation about how the war is going to impact the economy and how it's going to impact you as an American. Now, when we are in a full force of war, the government's spending is going to shift to military.

2:03Military spending is going to rise sharply, funds shift from healthcare, education, and infrastructure. And this will cause higher government debt. It's going to increase our taxes, possibly, and it's going to possibly create inflation. So inflation and shortages, it's going to happen. Common wartime problems are supply chain disruptions, currency devaluation, and as we've been seeing in the news with the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran, gas prices are going to go up. So when prices rise rapidly, purchasing power falls for the country and living standards decline. And we will see a lot of trade disruptions because of block ports and shipping routes. It's going to trigger international sanctions, which we've seen in that region. And it's going to reduce exports and imports. And as a result, this is going to affect you.

3:03And many people are not having a conversation with their professionals like financial professionals or attorneys about how they can prepare to be safe in a situation like this. And I always say do not become an accidental philanthropist because many Americans don't know how money works, unfortunately, because when I ask clients how many times is your dollar taxed, they look at me and say, once, is this a trick question? And I have to tell them, no, it's four to five times because we got income tax, dividend tax, capital gains tax, the state tax, and tax on retirement accounts. There is clearly a war on wealth in this country. And if you don't know how to use tax codes or certain financial tools to help you, you're going to let the government decide where your money goes. And right now, our money is going to go to military use. The Pentagon just released today that in the first six days of the war, the US spent

4:07about $11 billion, and just six days they've spent $11 billion. So if you do not know how to use the tax code to your advantage to be able to put more money in your pocket, you are giving money to the government and the government is deciding how to use it. This is what I mean when I say you're going to become an accidental philanthropist. Now according to the National Institute on Retirement Security, the typical American worker has less than $1,000 saved for retirement, less than $1,000, that is crazy. So during periods of international conflict and oil crisis, like we're seeing right now, it's important for you to be able to manage sequence of returns of risk on your money. It's critical for those of you that are nearing retirement.

5:10So what options are available to you for those of you that are concerned? You're about to retire or maybe you're in retirement. And one of the types of accounts that we don't talk about as much is fixed index annuities, which can mitigate your risks and they can mitigate your risks in three ways. One, it has principle protection. So that means the money that you are putting in into the account, the principle of your money and any credited interest you are receiving on this account cannot be lost due to market decline. So that is huge. So principle protection is really important when you are close to retirement or you are in retirement. Two, guaranteed income, many of these fixed indexed annuities include optional income writers that provide a predictable lifetime income stream for you, regardless of how poorly the stock market performs during a conflict.

6:10So that's also important. And number three, it avoids for sale of assets. So using the income from these annuity accounts, you're able to cover living expenses. It doesn't force you to sell other equity investments like your 401k or your IRA. And remember 401k withdrawals are generally taxed as ordinary income with a mandatory 20% federal tax. And if you are withdrawing this money before the age of 59 and a half, you have an additional 10% penalty. So that's about 30% that you're paying in taxes. That's a lot. And it was reported that more Americans are taking out emergency withdrawals from their 401 Ks than ever before in the history of America. That is concerning. That is alarming. And it is important to have this conversation about how can I prepare for retirement?

7:13I am in retirement. How can I protect my money? So again, these fixed index annuities in times where we are in a war and there's a oil crisis, these accounts can mitigate your risk again because it provides principal protection. It provides guaranteed income with optional income writers. And it allows you to avoid selling other assets or liquidating just to be able to cover your living expenses. So for those of you that are getting close to retirement or you are in retirement, maybe you have accounts from previous employers are just sitting there and the market is just destroying those accounts. Now is the time to work with professionals that can help you, that can mitigate your risks, that can reduce your taxes, but we can't help you unless you contact us. So the best thing that you can do is contact my office to make an appointment so that we can evaluate if these accounts, these fixed index annuity accounts are something, it's

8:19going to be beneficial for you. We have to look at many factors before we can assess whether this is a good account. To make an appointment with me at turning Nos Barudy, you can call my office right now at 424-465-9003, that's 424-465-9003, or you can visit my website Barudylaw.com-b-a-r-o-u-t-i-law.com. Now in addition to being in a state planning attorney, I'm also licensed by the United States Tax Court and because we are in tax season, it is important to remind you if you need help with IRS back taxes, if you have messy books that need help cleaning up, if tax season feels more like a nightmare than a refund dream for you, this is the time to get your team in place to help you navigate this season, and if you are worried about a potential audit, now is the time to work with our office. You have to make sure you are getting every deduction you deserve

9:24this year. Again, do not become an accidental philanthropist, and if I told you you could possibly save an extra $500 on your taxes this season, many of you would jump at the opportunity. But what you are doing is you are trying to save money by not working with proper professionals, by getting your tax returns done. Let's just say it like a puppy mill because these institutions are kind of like puppy mills, right? They just pump out tax returns. They're not really sitting with you and asking the right questions and trying to make sure you're getting all the deductions that are available to you. Millions of Americans are overpaying their taxes. Don't be one of them. The average American spends about 13 hours trying to do their own tax returns, and you got to get that time back. With 2026 tax breaks, you could boost your refund by $1,000 or more. If you are worried about these issues, you are worried about this current state of affairs

10:25in the world. You're worried about retirement. Now is the time to get organized. Again, to make an appointment with me, attorney Nazarrodi, you can call my office at 424-465-90003. That's 424-465-90003. You don't need to love death and money on talk radio, 790KBC. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. Stay with us. Welcome back to love death and money. I'm your host attorney Nazarrodi on talk radio, 790KBC. If you have a questions about trust, wills probate call the station right now at 1-800-222-5222. That's 1-800-222-KBC. We've been talking about how the war is going to impact the economy, and I'm sure MoTeC on money has discussed how the market is going up and down and people are concerned. Americans are extremely nervous at this point. Today, the Pentagon announced that we've spent in the first six days of the war with Iran about 11 billion

11:25dollars. Many Americans are concerned that the debt is going to keep going up. Our taxes will increase and many are getting close to retirement or they are concerned about retirement and their money and they don't know what to do. In situations like this where the market is up and down and you are concerned about your money, there are certain types of financial accounts that you can set up that can mitigate your risk in situations like this. Those are fixed indexed annuities. It helps you protect your principle. It provides guaranteed income with optional income writers and it avoids forced sales. You do not have to liquidate or pull out from your 401k or IRA because 401k's remember are generally taxed as ordinary income with a mandatory 20% federal tax and if you're withdrawing before 59 and a half you have to pay an additional 10% penalty. Americans are now taking more hardship with draws from their 401k's than any time in

12:30history and that's really concerning. If you are close to retirement or you want more information about how you can protect yourself, you should definitely contact my office. You can visit my website berudylaw.com, B-A-R-O-U-T-I-law.com. We've also been talking about how it's tax season and I'm also a tax attorney so if you need help with IRS back taxes, if you have messy books or you're worried about an audit, this is the time to get organized and get your financial affairs in order and with the new 2026 tax breaks, you could boost your refund by a thousand dollars or more. So this is the time to make sure that you are working with a team that can help you not overpay your on your taxes so that you do not become an accidental philanthropist. All right, let's go to some callers. Can we get Shannon? You're on the air on talk radio 790K. Be see what's your question. Hi, Shannon, you're on the air. Did we lose Shannon? All right, we'll get to Shannon

13:38in a minute. So one of the groups of Americans that I am very concerned about is baby boomers. Those of you born between 1946 and 1964 and I'll just say it right now, you baby boomers have ruined it for us millennials. I mean, we've been through so much as millennials. I mean, we've seen it all 9-11, the crash in the market and just war after war. We got COVID, camp by a house, inflation. I mean, it's just we've seen it all and you've seen it all too, but you baby boomers really need to get organized because social security is going to run out in the next couple of years. I mean, we cannot bank on social security and you baby boomers own about 41% of the US real estate, but 70% of Americans have not prepared for end of life. And if you as a baby boomer are not setting up your end of life plan or retirement plan, this could be very devastating for you. So many

14:41baby boomers come to our office or call us and they are worried about outliving their money. And the problem is is that they do not have a proper retirement roadmap because no one's really advised them. No one's helped them. They don't know how money works. And unfortunately, there's a lot of other things distracting Americans today. The rising cost of living, all the debt that they have to pay. I mean, consumers are burdened with almost $19 trillion in debt. Poor saving habits, Americans saved less than 4% of their income. Like I mentioned, that study that reported that the average American worker only has $1,000 saved for retirement. And so many Americans are going to retire in poverty. And it's time to make sure that you have a plan that is bulletproof to prepare you for retirement. All right. We got Shannon Backshan and you're on the air on Talk Radio 790K. ABC, what's your question? Yes, hi. I know this sounds really stupid. I am a peri-legal,

15:45but I do not know how to do a vote or trust. And I was wondering if you had time to go over that and what I would need to do to do that so it doesn't go into probing and how to protect my property in Nevada. Okay, sure. Yeah, I'm going to go over that. Thank you for calling. I'm going to go over that in the next segment. And I'll go through what you need to do to make sure that it's protected. Thank you so much for calling. So I just want to quickly go through the seven steps to building a strong financial future. And these are really important steps. You should write them down. And maybe some of them you are following some you are not. But the first step is to get connected with technology. Now I used to get my news by reading newspapers or watching television. Now I am constantly on X formerly known as Twitter. I'm getting live updates before the news is reporting it. Okay, so you got to get connected with technology. And unfortunately many baby boomers

16:51you're kind of stuck in the past. You want to do everything with paper copy. You don't know how to use zoom. You don't know how to use email. And with the advancement of AI, you got to get up to speed or you're going to get left behind. So number one is getting connected to technology. Number two, increasing your cash flow. You either have to learn how to earn additional income or you got to manage your expenses. And this is a big one managing expenses. Unfortunately, we just love to spend in this country. I mean, I can't tell you how many emails I get from Apple with the latest updates. I feel like every five minutes, there's a new iPhone. And I'm so behind because I think I'm on iPhone 12 and now we're on 17 E. And I'm like, does it really make a difference? What do you do? You just changed one little camera lens and now you're charging $3,000 for a phone. But we get sucked into bye, bye, bye, need, need, need. And we're not thinking of the future. So we really got to make sure that we're managing our expenses. And number three goes into managing debt. And with being able to access credit cards

17:58and spending and now, you know, they've done this on purpose where we just have Apple pay and we just scan it. It just seems like it's free. Like you're not really paying when you're not using cash anymore. You're not even getting out your credit card. Everything just seems free. Oh, don't worry. I'll just scan my like Apple pay. This is this is where people get into trouble. And I one time a financial planner did this YouTube video about how she saves and how she manages her finances. And she said, one of the biggest traps is like, when you go into a target and I set to someone the other day, they're like, what do you need from target? I'm like, I don't know what I need. Target's going to tell me what I need because you just go through all the aisles and you pick everything up. So what this financial advisor had said and it really resonated with me back in the day. And I hope it does with you too. You should just take cash for the things that you need. Do not take your credit cards. Take your credit cards off of your Apple pay. If you need three items at target or grocery store, take enough money for those three items so you don't

19:00like carelessly just pick up other things that you don't need. Okay. So that's really important. Number four, creating an emergency fund. You should have three months of expenses put aside. And I know this is very hard for people when most Americans don't have $400 for an emergency. Number five, ensuring proper protection. If you are the breadwinner of your family or you have minor children and you do not have life insurance, you are doing a disservice to your family. Because if something happens to you tomorrow, they will not be able to survive. They're going to have to liquidate everything. If you have a stay at home partner, they're going to have to go back to work. Then there's daycare. I mean, there's so many expenses. So not having life insurance is really irresponsible. And a good rule of thumb is you should have 10 times your income in life insurance, 10 times of your income. Number six, building long-term asset accumulation.

20:04And this is really important. Learning how to have your money work for you instead of you working for money. You got to have long-term asset accumulation that is designed to outplace inflation and reduce taxation. So the sooner you start saving and the sooner you start using financial tools and accounts that are giving you a high rate of return, the more you're going to have in retirement. So time is either on your side or is working against you. And there's a high cost if you wait too long. You got to start saving now. And number seven, preserving your state with a state planning or end-of-life planning, which I'm going to get to in the next segment. And Shannon, who called wanted to get more information about how you can set up a trust or will or how you can make sure you protect your assets to avoid probate. And I will be going over that. But this is really important because if you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for

21:05you. And it's called probate court. And you don't want to go through probate court because there's a lot of costs associated with it. So these seven steps can help you and secure you for your retirement. It can transfer wealth. It can bring about so many opportunities for you that you didn't even know were available. But sometimes you need a team of people to help you and guide you through this process. Again, the seven steps to building a strong financial future, getting connected to technology, increasing cash flow, managing your debt, creating an emergency fund, having proper protection like life insurance, building long-term asset accumulation and having an estate plan are key to your financial future. If you need help with creating a plan and you've been putting it off for way too long, I want you to give my office a call right now, attorney Noz Burrudi at 424-465-9003. That's 424-465-9003. Or you can visit my website BurrudiLaw.com. That's

22:14B-A-R-O-U-T-I-Law.com. Again, to make an appointment with me, attorney Noz Burrudi, you can call my office right now at 424-465-9003-424-465-9003. You're listening to Love, Death, and Money on Talk Radio 790KBC. When we come back, I'm going to teach you how to make sure your assets don't go through probate. Stay with us. Welcome back to Love, Death, and Money. I'm your host, attorney Noz Burrudi on Talk Radio 790KBC. If you have a question about Trust, Will's probate call the station right now at 1-800-222-5222. That's 1-800-222-K-ABC. To get more information about my practice, you can visit my website BurrudiLaw.com. B-A-R-O-U-T-I-Law.com. We've been talking about how the war is going to impact the economy, and many Americans are concerned about their financial futures and their

23:15retirement, and they're wondering how can I secure my finances? How can I make sure that with everything going on in the world, that I mitigate my risk because of the financial market? One of the best ways to do that is with a fixed indexed annuity account. If you're listening right now, and you want to get more information, or you have a 401k from a former employer, and it's just been sitting there, and it's just been being demolished because of the market, now's the time to get moving. A fixed index annuity can help you because it has principal protection. It has guaranteed income with optional income writers, and it avoids you having to liquidate from your retirement accounts just to cover living expenses. Again, to make an appointment with me, you can visit my website or call my office directly 424-465-9003. We've been talking about how its tax season and many Americans are paying way too much in taxes and not taking advantage of IRS tax codes that will

24:19help you save and in order to avoid becoming an accidental philanthropist, it's important to have a proper financial and legal team by your side to help you through this time. Again, I'm also a tax attorney, so if you need help with your taxes, or you think you're going to get audited, or the IRS, just the thought of having to do your taxes is just really overwhelming. Now's the time to call our office so that we can help you. We talked about the seven steps to building a strong financial future, and the final step was making sure that you have a proper estate plan or end-of-life plan, and this is an important topic to cover because 70% of Americans don't have an end-of-life plan, so what does that mean? When you don't have a plan, the state of California has one for you, and it's called probate court. Now, probate court is not a place that you want to end up. I don't want listeners to think that that plan that the state of California has for you is free. It's easy.

25:21You don't have to worry about it because many people do believe that. Probate court is a nightmare. Probate court is time-consuming. Your family on average will have to go through this process. I say six months to start in the time frame, but I'm going to change that, and I'm going to make it anywhere between a year to two years to go through this process. That is a long time, and for some, that may not be a long time, but what you need to remember is that when you are going through this process, that means all of your assets that you left behind are frozen. They have to go through this court proceeding before they can access any of your assets, so they have to get court approval before they sell a house, before they sell your car, before they access your retirement account, before they liquidate your bank account to pay your mortgage or all your taxes that are due. That time period can have devastating consequences because guess what? The mortgage

26:25company doesn't feel sorry for you that your father decided not to properly plan. You still have to pay the mortgage payments. If you don't have enough money to cover those expenses, what happens for closure? They don't want to wait around until you go through this process, so families either have to gather money to be able to cover these expenses or things get lost in foreclosure, or cars get repossessed, or the IRS starts filing leans on the estate. This is a really serious matter, and I think many people are not aware of how serious it is, and they just push it to the side because it's like, well, I'm not here, y'all figure it out, and that's a selfish mentality to have. Not only is this process time-consuming, but it's also expensive because you have to hire a probate attorney to help you through this process. If you're thinking, oh, I'm just going to put everything in chat GPT, and it's going

27:26to tell me what to do, you're sadly mistaken. Some attorneys don't even know how to file these forms that are non- probate attorneys, and you're going to use chat GPT to figure this out. Don't think on it. Now, the thing about probate attorneys is that they're not like personal injury attorneys where they just collect at the end and they settle on a percentage. probate attorneys get statutory fees, meaning based on the value of the state, they're able to take a percentage. And on top of statutory fees, they are also able to bill you hourly fees. So I have seen some estates get wiped out 50, 60, 70 percent of its value just in fees. So this plan that the state of California has for you is not cost effective. Everybody else is making money, but you, the family member, the wife, the child, the spouse, like you're not, you're going to lose a lot of money. And this process is also public record.

28:29So we all know what happens when things become public record. People find out you had a couple hundred bucks, or a thousand bucks, or you had a nice chunk of retirement money, they're going to come after it. And if you think, no, no, my, my cousin wouldn't do that, or my ex-spouse wouldn't do that. Or my child that I haven't spoken to in 20 years wouldn't come after my new wife, you're wrong. You're wrong. And guess what? You may intend for your assets to go to people that are not blood related. But if your assets go through probate court, your brother that you haven't talked to in over 25 years that lives in Tennessee and is the biggest hic you've ever met is going to come and claim everything that you've earned the rest of your whole life. And nobody can do anything about it because that's your living air. So when I tell you this plan that the state of California has for you is not good, I truly mean it. I make more money when you don't have a plan.

29:33So I've been coming on the air for over 10 years, repeating this story every week. Make sure to get a plan. Make sure to get a plan. Make sure to get a plan. And probate attorneys are like, stop doing this because you make more money when people don't have a plan. So how do you start? Well, the first step is call in a state planning attorney like Broody Law Corporation and we will put a plan in place for you. Now, the previous caller had said, how do I do this? How do I do a will or a trust? I want to be very clear that if you just create a will, a will still gets filed with probate court. Your state still has to go through probate court. You need to have a trust that holds all of your assets to avoid probate court. So if you have real estate, for example, your attorney sets up a trust and the title of your house has to be named under the trust name. So I'm going to give you an example. So let's say I create a trust. It's called

30:38Nos Barudy trustee of the KABC trust. Let's say I'm going to leave all my money to KABC one day. So I create a trust called Nos Barudy the KABC trustee of the KABC trust dated March 11th, 2026. That's the whole name of the trust. And I own property. And on the title of my property, it says Nos Barudy a single woman. Why don't want to hold it as a single woman? I need to transfer that title to Nos Barudy a single woman. Quick claims to Nos Barudy trustee of the KABC trust dated March 11th, 2026. That becomes the owner. So the county is put on notice that if I die, there is a trust in place. And that trust decides who gets this property when I die. Now, the beautiful thing about a trust is that it's not public record. It's a confidential document.

31:38Your attorney, yourself, whoever you name to manage the estate or it's called a successor trustee, usually has a copy. The successor trustee follows the instructions that you left behind for them, files the appropriate paperwork, transfers the property to your intended beneficiaries. And you do the same thing with assets that you have in financial institutions. You go to the bank, there's certain paperwork that they need. This is why it's important to work with an attorney so that they cover everything A to Z. They ask for certain paperwork and then the bank transfers all of my accounts to the KABC trust. So the KABC trust becomes the owner of those accounts. So again, my successor trustee is able to access those accounts when I pass away because it's held by that trust. Now, if you have properties in different states, you have to again record the titles in that county under your trust. That doesn't mean,

32:38let's say like Shannon said, if I have a property in Nevada that you need to go write a trust in Nevada, you are a resident of California. Therefore, you create a California trust, but your property in Nevada gets retitled to the trust that you created in California. So you can be a resident of California, have a trust in California, but own properties in different states. We just record the title of those properties in the trust that has been created in California. You don't need to create a trust in every state you have a property. So that's how you avoid probate. And within the trust, I like to call this document a document where you can still control from the grave. You can put restrictions on it. You could put time periods before assets are distributed. You can allow someone to live in the house or your home for a certain number of months or years before it's sold. There are so many restrictions you can put on it, but if it goes through probate, no one's there to monitor it. Everyone's just there to liquidate

33:40it, get paid, and call it a day. If you're just tuning in, you're listening to love, death, and money on talk radio, 790 KBC. If you need to create an end of life plan and you want to make an appointment, you can call my office right now at 424-465-9003. That's 424-465-9003. Or you can visit my website, berudylaw.com. That's b-a-r-o-u-t-i-law.com. And if you like to order a copy of my best selling book, Love, Death, and Money, you can get it on Amazon.com. This is a legal guide for you on how you can protect yourself during different stages of life. It's available in paperback and Kindle version. Again, it's called Love, Death, and Money. Again, to make an appointment with me, NazBerudy424-465-9003. You're listening to Love, Death, and Money on talk radio, 790 KBC. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Love, Death, and Money. I'm your host, attorney NazBerudy,

34:40on talk radio, 790 KBC. If you have questions about trust, wills probate call to station right now at 1-800-222-5222. That's 1-800-222-K-A-B-C. To get more information about my practice, you can visit my website, berudylaw.com, b-a-r-o-u-t-i-law.com. And if you like to order a copy of my best selling book, Love, Death, and Money, which is a legal guide on how you can protect yourself during different stages of life, you can get it on Amazon.com. It's available in paperback and Kindle version. Now, for those of you, again, that need help with your taxes. You need help with retirement. You're interested in learning more about fixed indexed annuities and how it can mitigate your risk during economic turmoil and a war that we are in for the last two weeks. You can definitely give my office a call. These accounts help you with principal protection. They have guaranteed income, and it avoids you having to liquidate other assets to pay for

35:43your living expenses. And for those of you that need help with the state planning, you need to create a trust, will, power of attorney, medical directive. That's also something we can help you with. Or if you've had a loved one that's passed away and didn't have a plan and you need to start probate, we can help you with probate. Or if you are involved in a trust litigation, maybe a successor trustee is not giving you the proper legal documents that you are legally entitled to or not making distributions and you need help. We can also help you with trust litigation. Or if you've been named a successor trustee, and you need to make sure that you are following proper instructions and you need help with trust administration. That's also something that we can help you with. Now, we've been talking a lot about trust, and I think it's important that we differentiate the types of trust because that gets talked about a lot in incorrect ways. The trust that I was mostly talking about, primarily talking about in the last segment, I was referring to revocable trust because when we're talking about avoiding probate, revocable

36:49trust are key. And there are many individuals, I don't want to say professionals are attorneys or financial partners. I don't know what they are, what their qualifications are, but they create these really trendy click baity videos on TikTok and Instagram talking about how, oh, I'm so smart. I have this much amount of money or I bought this house and I just put it in a trust. The trust owns it. It's a revocable trust. If I get sued, then nobody can touch the revocable trust. This is incorrect. I don't care if they tell you, oh, the revocable trust has its own tax ID. You need to understand that even if you get a tax ID for revocable trust, the tax ID is registered under your social security number. And if you are the trustee and you have to manage the trust, then you basically own the asset. So if you get sued, it's a revocable trust,

37:54then a creditor can come after your asset. So revocable trust do not help you when we are talking about protecting your asset in a lawsuit. That conversation is based on a proper asset protection plan. Now, why is it important to have a conversation about asset protection? Well, every 30 seconds the lawsuit is filed in this country. You've heard me say this many times if you listen to the program. Just in 2023, there was almost 69 million lawsuits filed. And like everything else, just like a state planning, timing is everything. So we want to make sure that you have a proper plan in place before a lawsuit is filed. And there are certain groups of Americans that need to make sure that they have an asset protection before it's too late. So if you fall within one of these categories, I advise you, I strongly encourage you to call

38:56my office immediately. If you have paid off property, that means you have no mortgage on the house, you need to have asset protection. If you are a landlord and you have tenants living in your properties or you have a commercial space and you have tenants, you need asset protection. If you have children under the age of 18 that are driving now, you need asset protection. If you are a business owner or if you are in a profession where you're at high risk for getting sued, if you are a physician, a plastic surgeon, you are in the construction business, you have a huge target on your back. Now, when I meet with clients, I ask certain questions within 7 to 10 minutes, I've timed it now, within 7 to 10 minutes of questioning, I can tell if they are a target for creditors. It's that simple. I just ask, okay, how much money do you have in the bank? What do you own? What kind of setup is it is in your individual name? What kind of businesses

39:57you have? I immediately know. Most people, they're just holding everything in their individual name, five, six properties. They are sole proprietorships. They're not properly incorporated and they're just doing everything under their individual name. They have all this cash in the bank account. I'm like, dude, you're a target. You are just asking for it. So the first line of defense, there are many lines of defense that we want to set up in an asset protection plan. The first line of defense is making sure that my clients have bell practice insurance, umbrella insurance, but unfortunately with insurance policies, there's policy limits. So sometimes you get sued for way more than what your policy allows. Not only that, there are certain times where you are going to get denied from your insurance carrier. If you think that insurance companies are just in the business to pay out claims, you're wrong because they have strategically written certain policies where there's a gray area

40:58where they can at any time deny your claim and who's going to go up against these big corporations in these insurance companies. So that's your first line of defense and we need a second line. Many of you are not maximizing your ability to put assets in exempt accounts, meaning that there are certain assets that are protected by statute where creditors cannot touch it. So retirement accounts, for example, like 401Ks or defined benefit plans, those are pretty much to some extent protected from creditor claims. IRAs have certain limits of how much your creditor can access, but what is happening is many of you are overfunding taxable accounts and underfunding protected vehicles. So you're putting everything in like a checking account or a savings account and you're calling it a day. Either you're just too lazy or nobody has told you what you need to do.

42:00So that's the second line of defense. Third line of defense, you got to set up proper business entities. If you are a business owner or you're doing any kind of business and I mean having proper corporations and limited liability companies, you want one entity that is going to earn the income and you want one entity that is going to own equipment or have owned the real estate. For example, we have many clients that are gas station owners. So they own the gas station, but they also own the land that the gas station is on. So we separate the businesses. The gas station becomes a corporation. The property is owned by the LLC. The corporation pays rent to the LLC to use the land. Do you see how we separate things? We don't want to put everything in one vehicle. We want to make it difficult for a creditor to access these assets. The next line of defense is having proper asset protection trusts. These are not revocable trusts. These are irrevocable trusts. This shifts the asset out of your estate and out of your control. You've got to give up control.

43:06Many people call me and they're like, I want to create asset protection and I'm like, okay, this is how you set it up. But somebody else has to manage it for you. No, I don't want to do that. I want to manage it myself. Then that's not asset protection. You're controlling it again. We want to show a judge or a courtroom that you have no control over this asset. You've essentially gifted it away. Somebody else is managing it for you. That's how you separate your ownership with the asset. And unfortunately, another line of defense is making sure that you're avoiding common mistakes, but many of you are making them. You're putting too much wealth in personal accounts. You're guaranteeing everything personally instead of under a business, a limited liability company. And you're waiting until a complaint is filed before you're doing anything. So now's the time. Again, if you fall within one of these categories to create an asset protection plan paid off property. If you're a

44:06landlord and you have tenants living in your property that you own or in commercial spaces, you have children under the age of 18 driving. You're a business owner or you're in a profession where you're at high risk for getting sued like a plastic surgeon physician or you're in the construction business. You got to make sure before a lawsuit is filed that you are secure and nobody can touch your assets. This is really important. Timing is everything. Not having an estate plan, not having an asset protection is like driving in your car without your seat belts on. If you get into a car accident and the paramedics come and they have to take you to the hospital, you can't tell them, hey, I want to go back into my car and put my seat belts on. It's too late at that point. So if you want to make an appointment with me, attorney Nas Barudi, give my office a call right now at 424-465-9003. That's 424-465-9003. Or you can visit my website barudilaw.com. That's

45:08B-A-R-O-U-T-I-Law.com. Again, to make an appointment with me, attorney Nas Barudi 424-465-9003-424-465-9003. And again, if you'd like to order a copy of my bestselling book Love, Death, and Money, you can get it on Amazon.com. It's available in paperback and Kindle version. Again, to make an appointment with me 424-465-9003. You're listening to Love, Death, and Money on Talk Radio 790K ABC. The expectation and the norm is to win and that is what we will be able to do here. I believe in the power of UCLA. It's a new day for UCLA football with new head coach Bob Chesney taking charge and we need you to be a part of it. The right man is at the Hellman Westwood and the time is now for you to put your support behind the Bruins. UCLA football is ready to win and we can't wait to see you this fall. Visit UCLABruins.com slash tickets for more info on how to secure your seats

46:12for the 2026 season. Go Bruins!