Episode 11: Life happens—make sure you’re protected

Oscarlyn Elder:

Where do you see the risk in your financial plan? You might think of risk as not having the funds you need to reach your wealth objectives, but there’s a lot more to it than that. The risk in your financial plan can be as obvious as not having a will or as subtle as having mistitled accounts.

And the risks are often interrelated. A risk in your estate plan might affect your investments, taxes, and other elements of your plan. I’m Oscarlyn Elder, co-chief investment officer for Truist Wealth, and this is “I’ve Been Meaning To Do That,” a podcast from Truist Wealth, a purpose-driven financial services company. Thank you for joining us.

This episode is the latest in our “Life Happens” series. If you haven’t already, check out episodes eight and nine. That’s when we discuss planning for the unexpected and navigating pivotal moments in the life of your business. In this episode, I’m going to talk to two colleagues who have a lot of experience with the elements of wealth and the risks associated within each within a financial plan.

Before we get started, if you want to take notes on today’s episode, we have a worksheet you can download and print. You can find it by selecting this episode at Truist.com/DoThat.

My two guests today are Christin Kennedy and Bart Pyle. Christin is a Truist Wealth advisor based in Virginia. Hi, Christin, and welcome to the podcast.

Christin Kennedy:

Hi, Oscarlyn. Thanks for having me.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Bart is also based in Virginia, where he serves as a wealth planning strategist for Truist Wealth. Hi, Bart.

Bart Pyle:

Hi, Oscarlyn. It’s great to be here.

Oscarlyn Elder:

So great to have you both. Truist is a company that’s driven by purpose, so we like to start every episode by talking about it. Christin, could you go first and share your purpose?

Christin Kennedy:

My purpose is to uplift others and champion their why. I do this by listening to my clients, getting to know them, their families, and their businesses, discovering what’s important to them. And once I understand what’s important to them, I build a team of individuals to help meet their needs and accomplish their goals, because at the end of the day, my job is simple: It’s to make their lives easier.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Christin, that’s very powerful. And I know that you make a lot of folks’ lives easier. So you are truly living out your purpose. I know that. Bart, how about you?

Bart Pyle:

As a person of faith, that informs everything that I do. I want to make sure that I do the best job that I can for clients. I’ve been doing financial planning for about 30 years. And so, I appreciate working with clients and their families and really just helping them achieve their financial objectives.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Bart, that’s also very powerful, and I know that you’re living out your purpose every day. You’re very passionate about financial planning and how you connect with clients. So, I thank you both for sharing.

Christin, let’s talk about the general concept of risk. How do you think about it in relationship to your client’s financial planning?

Christin Kennedy:

So, typically risk is defined as the potential for financial loss to a person or their family. We start to work through risk through the financial planning process. We might look at things like titling. How is that account titled? How should it be titled? Then looking at your investments, asset allocation, risk tolerance. Have you taken a risk tolerance questionnaire? Estate planning: When was the last time your documents were reviewed and are they being implemented properly?

And lastly, insurances: What types of insurance do you have and what are the amounts of coverage?

Oscarlyn Elder:

How do you think your clients have an understanding of the risk to their financial plan? How do you think they’re evaluating it?

Christin Kennedy:

I think most of our clients have a general understanding of risk as it pertains to their financial picture. However, I’ll say once we start going through the financial planning process, we usually uncover areas of risk that they hadn’t either thought about or thought they had previously covered.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Are there examples that come to mind?

Christin Kennedy: There’s two examples. The first is a couple that came in. They were in their early 40s, several years ago, and they were looking to walk through the financial planning process with us. And as we were going through that with them, we got to insurances. And we asked them, do you currently have life insurance?

And they said, “Yes, we have a group term life with our companies,” and they felt like it was adequate coverage. And once we looked at it, we said, you know, it’s good coverage, but it’s not going to replace all of the income if something were to happen to you. So, we recommended additional term life insurance, which they did.

Fast forward two years from that time. Unfortunately, one of the spouses died unexpectedly. And that additional term life insurance became so important because the family didn’t have to worry about finances. All they had to worry about was healing and grieving the loss of a loved one.

Oscarlyn Elder:

So, this was a risk that the client really had no understanding of, no awareness of, and you were able to help them address that, and that really has impacted folks’ lives after that event.

Christin Kennedy:

Absolutely.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Is there another story that comes to mind?

Christin Kennedy:

The other story I’m thinking about is, we had a couple come in several years ago. They were looking to change their financial institution. And through speaking to them, we wanted to, of course, start with financial planning. And on our first meeting with them and the financial planning process, they were talking about, of course, themselves and their family and their business, and I thought to myself, these are probably the most accomplished individuals I have ever worked with.

And I started to question, what value am I going to provide to them? And as we got through, walked through the planning process with them, we got to the trust and estate piece. And we asked them to start speaking about their trust and estate documents.

And they indicated they had a will-based plan, which I thought, OK, maybe they need a trust-based plan, but let’s get a copy of the will. When they went to go request a copy of the will from their attorney, there was not one. And then I realized at that moment, if something were to happen to either one of them, it’s very possible they would die intestate.

And that was a value that our team could add. And so we walked them through the trust and estate planning process, helped them get baseline documents with their attorney. And fast forward to date, we’ve done several advanced planning techniques with them that really have added much value to the family.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Thank you for sharing that. Bart, I’d like to turn to you. As listeners work through the risk to their financial plan, and that’s an ongoing process, how do you suggest they think about all that they should be covering or thinking about?

Bart Pyle:

Well, Oscarlyn, I have a visual that I put in front of people quite often. It’s a five-point star. And then as you draw it, it’s important to realize that it’s not just the points on the outside, but it’s all the lines on the inside that connect all of those different points. And so, as we’re talking about risk or as we’re going through a financial plan, we address all of these different areas, both individually—whether it’s taxes, investments, insurances, estate planning, or special situations—and we also want to look at, how do these different areas impact each other?

And so that’s kind of the purpose for this visual, kind of showing those individual lines connecting all the different points on the star. And then as that relates to risk, kind of as Christin was talking about, we will methodically address risk as we go through the financial planning process, and that will bring up things in all of those different areas that may need to be addressed further.

Oscarlyn Elder:

So, Bart: five-point star. Can you tell us what the different areas on the star are? Just give us the top line. What are the categories?

Bart Pyle:

Yeah. So, the categories that I use—and, you know, choose your own categories—but the categories that I use are taxes, investments, insurances or risk management, and estate planning. And then at the top of the star is where I put special situations. And that can be anything from you’re a business owner, and so that’s a unique thing, or some of our clients have special needs kids, and that’s a special situation. Or they’re going to retire tomorrow, right, and that’s a special situation that needs to be dealt with. And so there’s all different kinds of things that we look at as we go around that star.

Oscarlyn Elder:

This is a lot to take in at one time, and we know that. What I’d like to do now is, let’s walk through the main priorities listeners can focus on.

So, Christin and Bart, we’ve discussed how you view risk in the financial planning process. Where do you think our listeners should start in evaluating risk?

Bart Pyle:

Well, Oscarlyn, I think everybody just begins with the basics. So, first thing that we want to do is make sure that we’ve addressed the catastrophic risks that are out there. And so the first that we kind of think about is if I lose my job, I need to make sure that I have cash that I can pay the bills, because that’s a common thing that happens. People lose their job and they move on, so we’ve got to be able to address that. The other ones are things like health insurance. If there is a big health event in someone’s life, that can be a catastrophic event. And so we have to address health insurance, property and casualty, if something happens to their house or they’re in a car accident, those things can wreck a financial plan.

And then life insurance—Christin mentioned earlier, the client that we visited with that had an additional need for life insurance and then that was realized. That was a big deal. And then as we get older, as we go through this, long-term care is something that can absolutely decimate a financial plan. And so long-term care insurance is another thing that we think about relative to, where are we in addressing our risks to the financial plan?

Oscarlyn Elder:

So, Bart, those are the basics. That’s kind of where we start with, and that’s thinking about the catastrophic risk that could happen to ultimately achieving the plan. Are there more advanced considerations—so you started out with basics—are there some more advanced considerations that you think folks should know about?

Bart Pyle:

Sure. And Christin talked a little bit about this earlier, but in the estate planning arena, there are some significant risks that we talk about. One is having the right documents. And so we talk a little bit about having a will-based plan versus a trust-based plan. And so we see many times people come to us with a will-based plan and because of the assets that they have or the amounts that they have, we want to move them to a trust-based plan.

Second to that is, people typically want to have protections in their documents that they typically don’t have. Oftentimes they don’t even know that they want these until we ask them, for instance, on a scale of one to 10, how important is it to you that the dollars that are with you, that you’ve accumulated over your lifetime, when they go to your kids and/or grandkids, that they stay with your kids and don’t go away to a potential divorcing spouse?

And typically, everybody—not everybody—but typically, most people will say that’s an eight or a nine. We do have people that will say, I don’t care, wherever it goes, it goes. But we also have people—most of our clients will say, “That’s an eight or a nine; I really want to protect these family assets for the family.”

Oscarlyn Elder:

Bart, I really appreciate that perspective that you’ve added around those advanced considerations. And what I’d like to do is take these advanced considerations one at a time, and let’s unpack them some more.

So, Christin, what are some of the main considerations that folks who are listening should think about, trust-based plan versus a will-based plan?

Christin Kennedy:

So, I’ll start with a will-based plan and the benefits. First and foremost, it’s simple. It’s easy to create. It’s great to use in less-complex estates. Think about a sweetheart will. When one spouse says, I’m going to leave you all my assets, and the other spouse says, I’m going to leave you all my assets.

And lastly, it’s less expensive. Some of the downfalls are all assets that pass through a will are subject to the probate process, and there could be significant administrative costs, also depending on the size of the estate, as well as additional settlement headaches. And lastly, it’s public. And this is how we, kind of, all found out what certain celebrities had, is they had a will-based plan and not a trust-based plan.

When you think of a trust-based plan, some of the benefits, it’s private. Only you and your family knows what’s in that document. If executed properly, it can avoid probate. There’s ease of management. Also, in the event of disability, a revocable living trust can provide solutions that are easier than a power of attorney.

Some of the downfalls though: It’s more costly in regard to the initial legal fees, and it may add additional complexity to estates that truly don’t need that additional complexity.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Yeah, those are good points. Help me understand, why might folks want to avoid probate?

Christin Kennedy:

So, good question. Probate, number one, could be very costly. Number two, it can delay when assets are received by beneficiaries. And number three, if a trust is established through a will called a testamentary trust, every single year, that trust has to go to a court accounting.

Oscarlyn Elder:

OK. All right. So there’s just additional process there. Ultimately, additional expense outside of the original probate expense, if you will, I think is what’s happening there. With the trust-based plan, an important element that folks need to know about, is that it’s really important that their assets be titled correctly. Why is that?

Christin Kennedy:

That’s a great question. So, many times clients come to us and say, “Oh, I have a revocable living trust.” And when we look at their assets, nothing is titled in the name of the revocable living trust. So, if you have a revocable-trust-based plan, and it’s not implemented or funded, it’s not doing you any good. And so that’s where it’s so important to actually fund those plans.

Bart Pyle:

Let me interject here real quick that on a will-based plan, you have a will. In a trust-based plan, you’re still going to have a will. It’s not that you don’t have a will any longer. And so what happens is, if people have a trust-based plan and they haven’t retitled assets in the name of their trust, and it’s in their individual name, then those assets, when they pass away, will go through their will, through the probate process, which is what we’re trying to avoid, and then into their trust and go the way they want it to.

So you will have missed a bunch of the benefits, the primary benefits of a revocable-living-trust-based plan if you don’t retitle assets, because it’s then going to just go back through your will.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Thank you, Bart, for that clarification. And I think we should point out here that we at Truist, we don’t draft wills and trust documents, right. Our clients work with legal and tax advisors in addition to working with us as wealth advisors who are part of usually the advisor team that helps bring about these documents. But the ultimate drafting and that legal advice really needs to come from a lawyer, an attorney, if you will.

Bart, what I’d like to do is now do a double-click into the strategies for trusts in the estate plan. So, again, we’ve talked about the will-based plan. We’ve talked about a trust-based plan at a high level.

Do you have any additional tips relative to how trusts are used within the overall estate plan?

Bart Pyle:

Absolutely. There’s a whole alphabet soup of advanced wealth planning techniques that are out there. And so I’ll start by just giving you—we’ll stick with maybe four, because we could go on and on and on. So, we won’t do that. But the first one I’ll talk about is a SLAT—a spousal lifetime access trust.

And people use a SLAT—and so my little tip about when people use a SLAT, is they have a taxable estate and they want to preserve both elements of income and control for their spouse. So, it’s a tool that you can get assets out of your taxable estate, but still retain income and control for your spouse.

Oscarlyn Elder:

And Bart, a SLAT we would view as really a complex type of trust strategy, if you will. I want to make sure that folks know that, that this is a complex tool, if you will.

Bart Pyle:

That is correct. So, we started talking about a will-based plan and a trust-based plan. And that trust-based plan is a revocable-trust-based plan. These trusts that we’re going to talk about now are irrevocable trusts. These are advanced planning techniques.

Oscarlyn Elder:

And what does that mean, irrevocable?

Bart Pyle:

Generally speaking—and, of course, there’s exceptions everywhere when it comes to legal documents, of course—but generally speaking, you would go into it with the thought that it can’t be changed. And so, that’s the primary difference. In a revocable trust, you can really change, as long as you’re not dead and still capable, you can change your revocable living trust. With an irrevocable trust, you would go into it with the thought that you can’t change it once you’ve established it and funded it.

Oscarlyn Elder:

And one of the irrevocable trusts that we see, I would say fairly often, is an irrevocable life insurance trust. And folks often call that an ILIT. Alright, so, your advisors may talk about an ILIT. Can you tell me what an ILIT is? An irrevocable life insurance trust. I can’t say it fast, so I’m going to say it slowly. Tell me what that’s about.

Bart Pyle:

So, lots of people have life insurance policies and believe those life insurance policies are tax-free. And they are income-tax-free. But the death benefit is includable for estate tax purposes. So, if you have a taxable estate, your family could lose up to 40%—the estate tax rate—up to 40% of that death benefit.

And so what we use an irrevocable life insurance trust to do is remove that life insurance policy from your taxable estate so that your family does not lose 40% due to estate taxes.

Oscarlyn Elder:

And I want to point out again, right, that we do not give legal and tax advice. These are solutions that we see often implemented, right? So, we talk at a high level with clients about these solutions and ultimately work with a tax advisor or a legal advisor in the execution thereof.

So, we have an ILIT. We have the other acronym you threw out, I think, was a SLAT.

Bart Pyle:

Yeah.

Oscarlyn Elder:

All right. And so what’s the third that you’d want to point out?

Bart Pyle:

So, I’ve really got two more I would like to point out. One is a GRAT, a grantor retained annuity trust, and this gives people the ability to sweep excess return on assets out of the taxable estate without impacting either their annual exclusion or their lifetime exclusion. So, this is an excellent tool for people who have actually used up their lifetime exemption and they have no more exemption left to give. This is a way to move wealth outside of that.

Oscarlyn Elder:

And Bart, is it fair to say, because of the mechanics of this GRAT, that the asset that’s used to fund it, you’re really looking for assets that are going to go up in value significantly so that that appreciation is then accounted for outside the estate. Am I thinking about that properly?

Bart Pyle:

That’s exactly right. You always want to gift assets that are going to appreciate, but especially with a GRAT, because there’s what’s called a hurdle rate, and if it doesn’t have a return above a particular hurdle that the government sets, then it will not be successful. There’s no harm, no foul to doing it, but it won’t move wealth to the next generation.

But if you do exceed that hurdle that the government gives us, then all of that wealth can go to the next generation income- and estate-tax-free. And that’s awesome.

Oscarlyn Elder:

All right, so that’s the third. GRAT. What’s the fourth?

Bart Pyle:

Well, the fourth is a little bit different, Oscarlyn. It’s in the charitable arena and I won’t spend a lot of time on it, but it is called a CRUT, a charitable remainder unitrust. And the primary idea here is for folks who have charitable intent, they can contribute assets to this charitable remainder unit trust and receive benefits during their lifetime.

They can have significant income-tax benefits and estate-tax benefits. They can also receive income for life. Usually, it’s for the life of the two spouses, usually. But when they would pass away, the assets in that charitable remainder unitrust is going to go to charity. So, the charity is the remainder beneficiary, clients are the initial beneficiary, and they receive tax benefits or income. And so that’s one that we see often as well.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Thank you for helping us understand that particular strategy as well. And I think we should point out, we’ve highlighted four. There are more. This is an area where there is a lot of complexity, and again, where often you’ll see a wealth advisor work with a legal and a tax advisor to arrive at what’s the appropriate solution for a client’s situation.

Something, Bart, that you said earlier brought to mind that we have an important deadline coming up at the end of 2025 related to the estate tax exemption. We’ve discussed this on a prior episode, but remind us, kind of, what we should be thinking about, what we need to know relative to that deadline.

Bart Pyle:

That is the 2025 sunset of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowers significantly—cuts in half, basically—the current exemption, lifetime exemption, that people have. So, today the lifetime exemption is $12.9 million per person. That’s going to basically go down to $7 million per person.

Oscarlyn Elder:

If Congress doesn’t act.

Bart Pyle:

If Congress does not act, that’s exactly right.

Now, you would have to have basically two houses of Congress and the president would have to all act together in the form of a new law for what I just said not to be true. It is current law that it is going to go reduce. So, that’s why many people out there are looking at, is there something that I should do to capture that exemption before it goes away?

Oscarlyn Elder:

Thank you for that reminder. I want to tell you both this has been a great discussion about wills and trusts. I feel like I know a lot more than I did at the beginning of this discussion. Next, what I’d like to talk about is protecting your assets so that you can take care of the people that you care about.

Many people are concerned about keeping the wealth that they have worked so hard to build. Christin, can you start us off by discussing how you work with clients around asset protection relative to their children and inheritance?

Christin Kennedy:

Sure. I like to think about it as who gets what, when, and how. So, parents with the right documents can leave assets to their children in an irrevocable trust that can protect those assets against a possible divorcing spouse or creditor. In general, these trusts can be as liberal or as restrictive as the parent wants in terms of the child’s ability to access the trust.

For example, you’ll see a lot of times HEMS used, which is health, education, maintenance, and support. And what that means is, that child can come to the trust if they have a health issue, for health. Education—let’s say they want to seek higher education. They can do that. Maintenance—maybe an air conditioning system broke at their home. They can come to the trust to get maintenance. Or support—their general living support that they have on a monthly basis, they can access that trust for.

You can add words like comfort, which makes it a little bit more liberal. You can add things like a certain amount for a wedding or to start a business or for a down payment on a home.

Oscarlyn Elder:

OK. So, that, kind of, lots of different nuance there. A lot of nuance. There’s some basics and then there’s some advanced that, kind of, constrict or open up the aperture of what the trust may be used for. That’s really good information.

I’m sure many people are concerned about protecting the wealth that they leave their children to make sure it’s always benefiting the family. You mentioned creditor protection. What can be done to protect assets our listeners may hold today, right now?

Christin Kennedy:

That’s a good point. I think for most of our clients, one of their biggest assets is their home. So, it’s very important to have the proper property and casualty insurance as well as umbrella policies.

So, first and foremost, we always tell clients they want to review those annually, especially in the market we’re in now. You’re seeing the housing market or the housing prices on the rise, which means clients’ homes are worth more than they had been when they purchased them. And they want to make sure that the replacement coverage has kept up with the price of their home.

Umbrella policy is something we talk about in terms of liability. We like to look at our clients’ net worth, and if they have a million dollars of net worth, we typically advise a 1X ratio. They want to have at least a million dollars’ worth of liability. However, if the client has more of an active lifestyle, maybe they have a lot of teenage drivers and things like that, we may recommend a little higher of liability.

And what this does, if something were to happen—we talk about creditor—if something were to happen, like a car accident, you have your car insurance and it does have a certain limit on it. But in the litigious society that we see ourselves in, if a lawsuit were to occur, this will kick in and help insulate the family and provide additional coverage to protect the family from a creditor.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Now, Christin, you mentioned specifically about a family that maybe has a million dollar net worth. Help me understand if that net worth looks more like $10 million. Is it a linear relationship? Is it still, kind of, one-to-one that we think about that umbrella coverage, or does it change? Are there some, I guess, some tips around that, that we can share.

Christin Kennedy:

Yeah, that’s a good question. And I think with our clients that have very high net worths—$10, $20, $100 million—you’re not going to see liability coverage offered at a $100 million level or a $50 million level. So, that’s where those advanced planning techniques that Bart spoke about are super important, to kind of insulate and protect them through those advanced planning techniques.

Those clients still need an umbrella policy, but it might not be in a one-to-one relation with net worth. And so, we typically see around $10 million, a break there.

Oscarlyn Elder:

That’s really helpful information. Thank you for sharing that. Bart, what are some of the legal strategies? So, Christin has pointed out some of the product-based solutions that help with creditor protection, asset protection overall.

Are there legal strategies that folks need to have an awareness of? And again, legal strategies, these are kind of high-level explanations. Obviously, executing a legal strategy requires an attorney, a lawyer, to be engaged in that solution.

Bart Pyle:

Absolutely. And I’ll tell you that one of the ones that we see most often is where an individual owns a piece of property out in the middle of maybe nowhere, and they’ve owned it for a long time, and people hunt on this property.

And so we’ll talk about this property—it’s, you know, 200 acres out in the middle of somewhere—and one of the things that they haven’t thought about is the risk that that property presents to all of their other assets. If somebody is on that property and gets hurt, gets shot, gets whatever, they can be sued for that. And so one of the things that we routinely recommend is that for properties like that, they would put that in what’s called a limited liability company, an LLC.

And a limited liability company does exactly what it says. It limits that liability really to the value of that land that is within that limited liability company. And so it’s really important, because people typically don’t realize that that piece of property and the risks associated with that property can create a tremendous catastrophic event across all of their assets. And so incorporating that LLC is a big deal.

I’ll give you one other quick example. We’ve had folks who have said, well, I have a vacation home. And if you rent a vacation home, that should be in an LLC as well, because you don’t know who’s in and out of that. I’ve had other people who have said, well, only the family is in our vacation home.

And so the next question is, well, I see you’ve got an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old. Do they go down there by themselves with their friends and have parties? And the answer is yes, they do. And so then the answer is, well, maybe we should consider, with input from attorneys and things of that nature, we should consider putting that in an LLC because it is a risk. And it’s a risk not just to that property, but it’s a risk to all of their other assets.

And as Christin said, in this litigious society, that’s one of the biggest things that we want to avoid, is creditors.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Bart, that is a very powerful observation. I want to make sure listeners hear it. So, in essence, if you have property—you’re maybe not at the property a lot, or it’s being used by numerous folks—you really need to guard against the risk that a downside event, you know, a risk that you don’t anticipate happening—maybe someone is hurt, they miss a step off the deck, or like you said, they’re hunting and maybe they trip and fall—whatever the situation, there’s a risk that you need to mitigate potentially that if something bad happens on that property, it could actually impact other assets.

You need to limit the risk there. You need to at least know of the risk and evaluate if you need to ring-fence it with a legal strategy.

Well, we’ve had a lot of discussion about several points of that star, Bart, that you talked about, that five-point star. Before we wrap up our discussion, I want to mention another point on that star, and you talk specifically about investments. And when we start talking about investments, there are a lot of risks.

You know, when I think about it, you’ve got market risk, which we can break down into equity risk and interest rate risk. There’s currency risk. Liquidity risk. The list really goes on and on and on. There’s reinvestment risk. We’ve got credit risk, specifically. Inflation risk. Horizon risk. And I haven’t listed them all. So, lots of risk. I don’t want to scare people, but there are a number of risks associated with investing, which is really why we focus so intensely, and I would say intently, on the solutions and advice that we deliver.

And I want folks to know that we’re going to start unpacking investments and investment risk in a future episode. So, stay tuned and listen in, because we haven’t talked specifically about investments or investment risk in detail so far on this “I’ve Been Meaning To Do That” journey. But it is coming.

Christin and Bart, thank you so much for joining me to talk about risks and potential solutions to them within financial planning. I want to make sure that listeners come away from this episode really thinking about that star that Bart told us about where each point represents a specific discipline that has risk that should be intentionally addressed.

So, taxes, investments, insurance, estate, and special situations. And especially about how each of these areas and their risk factors are often interrelated. It can be overwhelming, and our best advice is that addressing risk is a journey. And the key is just to start the journey. And what we believe is that a trusted advisor can help you design the road map and also be a guide on that journey.

And so we’ve come to the end of this episode. But before we go, I’d like to ask each of you a question: What’s the one thing you’ve been meaning to do but haven’t done and will commit to do in the future? Christin, why don’t you go first?

Christin Kennedy:

Sure. So, I’ve been meaning to obtain long-term care. A couple of years ago, a family member had a massive stroke and needed to receive care outside of the hospital. He did receive that care, but very shortly Medicare ran out and the family had to start paying monthly for his care.

And fast forward several months, almost a year into that, it became very hard to make those payments. And we had to file for Medicaid for him, which was a very difficult and lengthy process. I’m now happy to say he is getting wonderful care. But it was a lesson learned how important long-term care truly is.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Thank you for sharing, Christin. Bart, how about you?

Bart Pyle:

For me, the thing that I really need to do is update my estate planning documents. As much as we’ve talked about estate planning today, that’s my area. The last time I did my wills and trusts was when my kids were minors. Really probably toddlers. And now they’re adults and so some things need to change. And so I need to commit, Oscarlyn, to getting my documents updated.

Oscarlyn Elder:

Wonderful. Thank you both for being vulnerable and sharing. I’m going to check back in with you to see how things are going on your to-do list. So, again, thank you both. Both Christin and Bart, thank you for joining today’s episode. This is really why I wanted you on the podcast, because I knew that your expertise would really help our listeners on their journey as they move forward.

Christin Kennedy:

Thank you for having us.

Bart Pyle:

Yep. Thanks, Oscarlyn.

Oscarlyn Elder:

And for you listening, thank you for joining me today. If you liked this episode, please be sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast, and tell friends and family about it. If you have a question for me or a suggestion for the podcast team, email me at DoThat@Truist.com.

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Talk to you soon.