Welcome to the Faith Based Business Podcast with your host, Pastor Bob Thibodeau.

On this podcast, we interview fellow entrepreneurs who are willing to share their stories, their trials, and their triumphs in business, all in an effort to help you avoid the same obstacles and to achieve success faster.

But at all times, continue to rely on our faith to see us through to victory.

Now with today's guest, here is your host, Pastor Bob Thibodeau.

Hello, everyone, everywhere.

Pastor Robert Thibodeau here.

Welcome to the Faith Based Business podcast.

We are so blessed that you are joining us today.

Let me ask you a question.

What would happen if you passed away today without an estate plan?

I mean, most people don't even like to think about that.

But without a legally documented plan, it's the government who decides what happens to everything you own.

Your assets could be tied up in probate for months, even years.

Your loved ones could face unnecessary legal battles, costly court fees, as well as the emotional turmoil.

I mean, whatever you have of your estate that's left behind could be eaten up by lawyer fees, taxes, court costs.

If you have children, it's the court, not you, who will determine who raises them.

Even medical decisions, should you become incapacitated, could possibly be left in the hands of a judge instead of someone who you trust.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

Today, Oscar Vasquez, founder of Estate Docs Prep, is here to explain how Estate Doc Prep is revolutionizing estate planning while.

Well, let me just say what essential documents should every family have already done and how you can take control of your legacy before it's too late and do it all without breaking your budget.

Praise God.

Amen.

Don't shut me down.

I'm preaching good already.

Hallelujah.

Help me.

Welcome to the program Oscar Vasquez.

Oscar, it is a blessing to have you with us today to focus on this very important topic.

I do appreciate your time.

Well, thank you for having me, brother Bob, and allowing me to.

And participating in the crusade of bringing awareness to estate planning.

Thank you for that.

Amen.

Amen.

Oscar, the first question I always start with is this.

Other than that brief information I just shared, can you tell us in your own words, who is Oscar Vasquez?

Yeah, I can tell you.

Oscar Vasquez is a real estate expert.

Been in the business for 28 years that is tired of seeing homeowners getting taken advantage of or paying a large amount of fees for an estate plan that can be done at a fraction of a cost.

Yeah.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, how did you get started in this business.

I mean, what was your motivation in forming Estate Doc Prep?

Well, I tell you, the first thing is I started.

I got.

I've been in the real estate business, and as my clients got older and they started to go into probate, I started to educate most of them because most of us that don't have an estate plan, we're not aware that we need one because we don't know what happens or what our loved ones go through, the process, what they go through when we pass, when it goes into our things, what happens to our things.

And so I started to educate people in that aspect.

We started to get them.

And as fees went from $600 to $5,000 to create an estate plan with an attorney, an attorney gave me the most simplest terms of.

Of the education of it.

And he said, you know, Oscar, an estate plan is something very simple if you understand it.

And I said, give.

Break it down to me.

And he says, a living trust is a agreement or a contract between the parents, which are the trustees, and the kids, which are the beneficiaries or the loved ones that the courts enforce if they're not found by.

If they don't follow the wishes and what.

The agreement is basically the wishes of the parents of what they want to have happen to their things when they die.

And that is the only document that prevents the government or the courts from getting involved in making the final decision on what happens to your things.

And I said, wow.

So when I.

When I got that.

When I got that and the fee started to come out, I said, you know, I want to make it more affordable.

And we started.

When I read a statistic probably about.

About six months or a year ago, where 68 of homeowners do not have an estate plan because we all have an estate.

It just.

It has different values.

We all have things and that.

And people say, like, who should.

What is.

Like what is in the state?

And I said, in the state is everything you can't take with you when you pass.

Right?

And that's.

That's everything but our soul.

So.

And that's where I got started in that fact.

And I started to pay for legal provisions.

As we started to expand, we started to get referrals.

We started getting referrals from across the country.

And so then we started to invest in the resources back into the software to be able to get all the legal provisions.

Now we're in all 50 states that we have legal provisions already installed in the template.

So we add.

It's a simple software where you ask, answer a question and then it fills in the legal provision if you want that, if that's how you want your estate plan to be put in place.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, I know, you know, we talked before the recording started about, you know, my father, you know, I, I handled this stuff and, and no will, no estate plan, nothing.

And the lawyer just saying, you know, if he'd have just had a simple will, we'd be eliminating all these problems.

So is a will enough for a person to have in place or doesn't that often, doesn't that often list, you know, who gets what?

Yeah, you know, that is the, probably the number one misperception of an estate plan that most people because.

And if I can break it down, I'll give you some comparisons between the will and a living trust.

A will is a two page document that says, I love you, I leave you everything, but it does not prevent you from going to court or going through probate.

What it does, it's an instruction to the judge telling them what you wish to have happen.

The judge still, still as a human, has to make the final decision on what's fair.

And he still had.

The courts still have to publish your assets.

They still have to wait the waiting period to be able.

Now every state has a waiting period, so it has to be published to tell people what you have and if you owe them money.

And two, it also looks for any potential beneficiaries that feel that they're entitled to some of your assets.

Right.

And that's where they have the, that's where that one provision comes in that says I do not want to have X get my money.

This is where I want the money to go to.

And this is the only people I want my money to go to what I left for my assets.

Right.

I say that because that is the biggest provision or the biggest misconception that a will is enough.

And when you look at that two page document versus 140 pages that a living trust has, that is probably the biggest misconception that a will is enough.

And unfortunately in our country, in every state in the land now, I'll tell you who has to have one.

A living trust and a will may be enough.

Every state, every state has a minimum that a maximum of assets they have once they meet the threshold.

I'll give an example.

Indiana has 60,000 as a 60,000, $50000, sorry, $50,000 threshold.

So if your home or value has more than 60,000, then you have to go to probate.

Colorado, 60, 60 Utah is 100 and California is 184.

So I always tell people the minimum that you always think of.

If you own a home, a mobile home, a mobile home, a condo, a home, a house that meets that threshold, you're going to have to go to probate.

Now, if you don't have a will and you have, and you don't have an asset and you have assets, then you will go to probate no matter what.

Right.

I think California just put in a provision that if your father or the, the, the vehicle registration matches your registration and your, and the registration on your current identification card or your current driver's license, they will do the transfer if you can provide a certified copy of a death certificate.

They did that for vehicles because the probate courts were getting blogged, backed up, backed up from all of the probate and court orders that had to be issued.

So.

And I don't know about any other state, but I think California is the only one that does that today.

And that's, that's funny because.

Go ahead.

So a living trust basically ensures your loved ones will avoid the court battles and legal headaches and all that good stuff where a will doesn't do that.

That is correct.

And I'll tell you, I want to go into, like, probate.

There's, there's, there's a major.

I'll give you some of the main points of probate.

One, probate can take anywhere.

And I know this because of California, every state is different.

But California, just to get a hearing date to start the probate process, it takes about seven months to settle the estate.

It's an additional 12 to 18 months.

12 to 18 months just to settle the estate.

So that two probate attorneys.

Now, because probate attorneys were all fluctuating and they were getting really excessive in fees.

Now they say there's a minimum or a maximum based on the estate value.

And that in California starts off at $26,000.

If there, if that is a simple probate process and you have it worth of $500,000.

So one, you have to pay, you have to wait.

You have to have waiting period to the, the, you have to pay the maximum fees because I have never seen an attorney charge the minimum.

Right, right.

They're going to charge what the maximum allowed by law because they, you know, and then, and then the third thing that they, that they avoid that in probate is that of the, the tax, the tax consequence did not tax consequences, but you have a tax basis that is, that varies on your home.

When that happens so those are probably the top four reasons of why not to.

Why to have probate.

So it saves you money, and it's a very, very expensive process.

And then not just that, I think it should be number one reason to get a living trust.

But the court has the final decision on who gets and what they get.

Yeah, you know, what, who gets it and what percentage they get it.

Like, a lot of people put, put a, they put a nonprofit organization or they want, you know, my mother left a portion of it to, to the church.

She wanted some of her estate to make sure to go to the church.

That's what she wanted.

Because, you know, we had a very interesting story growing up.

My mother raised five kids as, as a single mother, as a widowed mother.

My father passed away in 1976.

And, and she always said, you know, you, when she always said, you know, you were never cold and you were never, and you were never hungry.

I said, you know, we never knew how poor we really were until she actually explained it to us, how we made it through.

Right.

We always go like, and, but she would always give her tithes.

She always gave.

And then she always said that because of that, I was able to raise all you five hungry kids because you guys would never stop eating.

But why is it so many people believe that estate planning is really only for the wealthy?

And what's the truth?

That that could save a family, you know, from unnecessary stress and financial burdens.

You know, everybody has an estate plan, everybody has an estate.

It Just to determine that.

And the government puts a value on it.

And because they, they want to be able to make sure that you can afford to pay the fees.

Right.

So I think that that's why they put a limit on it because they're like, well, we're not going to let the attorneys charge 26,000 on an estate that is, is worth, that is worth, you know, that you have two trucks and a trailer or a b.

You know, you don't, you don't have that.

They don't want you to.

To start paying that.

So that's why I think they have the threshold.

So everybody should have an estate.

And I always put this like one.

Who should have one?

Google it.

What is the ma.

What is the maximum or what is the threshold?

So I don't have to go to probate in my state.

And if it meets that maximum, if you have assets that meet the maximum, that means your home, your retirement accounts, your bank accounts, your.

Your anything of your home, your value, anything of value, your assets.

You know, in Today's world now we're, we're becoming where we're seeing more and more digital assets getting put into a living trust.

They're getting that done because their assets, the digital assets become a gift that keeps on giving because they keep generating income time after time.

Yeah.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, can estate planning help protect your family if you become like incapacitated, it can no longer make decisions for yourself or would they just rely on the power of attorney for that?

That.

Oh yeah, no, it's you, you got to have.

It's called a health care directive.

There's, there's a comprehensive living trust that we.

That comes with, at Estate Doc Prep has, comes with several documents because an estate plan is like an umbrella that protects you for all the fine for the end of life documents that you would need.

But the, and I'll give you the first one that I talk about is a financial power of attorney.

That means if you become incapacitated, how are the.

Is going to be paid?

1, 2, who's going to do it?

But there's, and here's the thing I always tell people, don't worry, there is spendthrift provisions in there.

So they can't go sell the house and go write a check for $10,000 and go to Vegas.

Right.

They can't take all your money and be able to do that because there's spendthrift provisions in there.

The second document is called a health care directive.

That means if you become incapacitated, you need a procedure, that person will be making the final decision because you'll be incoherent to be able to make that decision on what's going to exactly have happen.

Now when you go into a hospital, they have you sign a health care directive and a HIPAA waiver.

These documents are if you show up incapacitated, you get into an accident and something happens, you get a heart attack and then you don't wake up from it.

You get, you know you're not awake.

That's what that health care directive also comes with a HIPAA waiver.

And many, many people don't realize that not even your spouse can get medical records if you have not signed a waiver for her to get your medical records.

So you.

That comes with the healthcare directive, the third document, which is they're all, they're all as important, I think if you had to label them which one's most important?

It's one of the, they're all those documents that you really don't want to think about, but you're happy you had them when you needed them.

Right.

And, and, and then you're like well I don't need that but yeah.

Or the documents that you think I'm never going to need that.

But hopefully you won't.

Hopefully you'll pass, you know, in your sleep right away and nothing go there.

But you know, we have a different path.

The third document is, it's called a pour over will that comes with a comprehensive living trust.

Pour over will is really interesting.

I think in, in my short, in my short career of helping and assisting I've only had one person use a poor have it.

The pour over will save them.

They went to Florida, bought a condo, never put it into the living trust.

And the pour over will says if I have anything of value that is more than and you put that limit.

I always say something, you know, it's worth $5,000 or more, you should put it in your will so it gets distributed if it's, if it's that important to you that the right person gets it.

And, and the pro rule says if I didn't put this, if I didn't put anything of value over X it should be put into, it should be put into the, the living trust and distributed accordingly.

And there is to make it a, a rubber stamp probate process or a court order because a cor process is a court order where the judge stamps it.

That's the order says that if there's any but any of the beneficiaries that object they are.

They are disinherited by objecting.

So the reason they have we had that provision in their attorney, one of the attorneys that helped us write all the legal provisions.

As he says there's some counties and some courts that will go expedite the probate process because it's not going to an individual, it's going into a trust.

So.

Amen.

That, that one you got the pour over will, the, the, the financial power of attorney, the healthcare directive and I think those are probably the, the top, the top documents that every comprehensive living trust should have.

Amen.

Amen.

You know we hear a lot of stories and stuff about, you know, how county state feds all impose all these estate taxes and often forcing the family to sell everything.

It could be a family farm that's been a family for generations or whatever just so they have the money to pay the death taxes.

Right.

Will having a living trust avoid most or all of those taxes?

Yeah.

You know what, in most states it does.

And I would say I don't think of any I can't think of any state, I mean, we've held customers now through, because, you know, people, the kids usually reach out, hey, you know, my dad just passed your names on the trust.

I had some questions, right?

And the, and I haven't had anybody that had to pay those estate taxes because it's usually the difference because of the value.

I'll give you an example.

A home that you paid for a hundred, for a hundred thousand, let's just say 30 years ago in California, now it's worth a million dollars, right?

And the difference, the difference of that is that is that tax is, is, is the difference.

So now when you pass the new tax basis becomes a million dollars.

That's why everybody that has a parent or grandparent in California and they live on the east coast or Indiana or I like to say Arkansas because Arkansas is the lowest priced real estate in the country.

But they always say, you know, I don't have to pay any taxes, please sell the house and send me the money because there's no more taxes.

They get 100% of that money without paying taxes by getting, having the living trust.

And that can, that can change the trajectory of any family by having a windfall of money like that.

What if there's still a mortgage on the house?

What happens in those situations?

Well, when, when we help people create an estate plan, one of the questions is that do you want the mortgage to be paid off or do you want to leave six to 12 months or a year's worth of mortgage payments to be able to let the family mourn and be able to get that.

But the once, you know, transfer can't be titled transfer and title cannot be exchanged until the balance is paid.

And so it went when the home sells a desert.

And you know, when you come up with that, I came up with this.

I have a story of a family that came, came to me, that was a customer of ours.

Their kids came that I didn't realize the lady died.

She lived in Los Angeles, which is just south of us.

They reached out and said, hey, my mom, you know, we just, my mom passed away a few months ago.

We're trying to refinance the house.

We have to go to probate.

And the attorney said it's going to cost $50,000 and that we can pay them when we sell the house.

We don't want to sell the family home.

What do we do?

I said, well, one, you have to agree to it with the provision that he will allow you to refinance it after, because if you don't have title, you can't do, you can't refinance it, you can't do anything.

And he goes, so that means if I don't, what about if I don't qualify to refinance?

I said, then you have to sell the house, right?

Because the attorney's got to get paid.

And that's, that's what I think one, one of the things that as a parent you think of, wow, what about if my kids don't have a place to go?

What about if they're staying there and they, and that's, that's what the, the family home is, right?

So that, that's, that's a, that's a provision that I always tell people that we have to.

So yes, everything needs to be, everything needs to be paid off.

But there's always protections and, and suggestions that we always tell people and say, hey listen, put, you know, to bury somebody in California right now, it's 15 to $20,000.

I know it's crazy.

My mom died about 14 years ago and it only cost 6,000.

I don't know where the heck happened.

I go, you know, I didn't know burial plots went up so much.

Anyways, the, so we always tell them that these are things that, that you should really, really take into consideration.

So we always say get a fifty thousand dollar burial policy, use that to get buried.

And then the difference leave instructions.

So the kids use that to make payments while they decide what happens.

Because what you're doing is you're buying by doing the living trust, you're providing peace of mind to your loved ones.

That's what you're doing.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, what's the typical cost of setting up a living trust compared to the cost of probate?

Okay, I'll give you an example.

Right?

There's, I, I say there's three levels to creating a living trust.

The first level is the attorney level, which is the highest level.

And right now the national average is 3, 500.

They advertise 3,500, right.

But then if you want a healthcare directive, it's 500.

If you want another will, it's this.

If you have three or more properties, it's, you know, they just start tacking on.

So the average cost is 3,500 all the way up to $10,000 that I've seen published as an attorney.

And that is what I call a done for you.

Where you, they, they talk to you on the phone, you answer some questions, they prepare it, they send it to you and you're done.

Then the second provision, and I just.

When, when we decided to be the middle.

Because the second provision, the second one is you can get a living trust, do it yourself.

Living trust, where you walk through it in its entirety by yourself is the lowest possible.

And I've seen those.

Anywhere from a comprehensive living trust is anywhere from 1800, I mean, sorry, from 800 to 1500 to 1800, where you do it yourself.

But here's an interesting statistic.

95% of people that start a living trust honors by themselves, don't finish it.

And the reason why, because it's an intimidating and confusing process of questions of like, what happens?

Where do I put this?

And where do we put that?

So that is that cost.

Now we're in the middle.

And the reason why we're in the middle, we do it with you.

And we have what's called estate planning coordinators.

We get on three calls with you.

The first call is to kind of tell you where everything is on the software, where you want to have provisions, make sure if you have any questions.

And then we say, these are the important points that need to be discussed between you, mom and dad, you guys, not your kids, and try to have this conversation by yourself so you're not influenced on what to do.

One, the second call is to make sure that, make sure all the checks and boxes are there.

And we teach you how to print the documents.

Then the, the third call is after the ceremonies.

We help you get a digital copy so that way you can upload it to the vault.

Because with our services, you have a vault, you upload it and then the.

And then we help you.

Because here's another provision that, or another thing that attorneys don't do is they do not transfer the assets into the living trust.

And that's called funding the trust.

What they do is they give you a nine page document.

They hand you the nine page documents, say you got to go do this or your trust is not going to protect you.

You got to go fund the trust.

Here's nine pages.

Good luck.

And I've always asked attorneys, why don't you do that?

Because that's the most.

If you don't do that, it doesn't this.

You know what it's, it can get too convoluted, takes too much time.

And nobody's going to pay us to do that because it takes time to follow up.

You got to fund it.

You got to make sure the title's held correctly, got to make sure you get a stamped copy.

All those things have to be done to be able to move the asset into the trust so it's protected.

So working with us, working with us and I think this will be a good opportunity to be able to give out our first gift and the first gift that we have for you is we have a discount code for all the listeners on our website.

We sell our living trust for 2497.

Now that comes with a lifetime access to the Living Trust.

That means you have any time that you make a provision, a reinstatement or you change something in your Living Trust, an attorney would charge you $1200 1800 to make the provision and then it goes on top with us, you pay that the one time fee covers it for life.

So the younger you are, the more benefit you're going to have.

But we have a disc, a discount code that's called Kingdom.

If you use the word kingdom, you will save $1,000 for the first 10 listeners.

The first 10 listeners that take action use the word kingdom and you will get a $1,000 access.

You'll still get the full service, we'll still get the white glove service where we'll get on a call with you, we'll get on a call with you, we'll walk you through the entire process until you have it funded and you are protected, we won't let you go.

I mean, I say three calls, we can do it as little calls, but I've done up to nine different calls with some people because it's been, it goes in because you know what, we really truly care.

And then if it's okay, I love to give out a little.

A little.

Another.

I have two other things I'd like to.

The second thing that I like to give out is a Comprehensive Living Trust guide.

And the reason why I say a guide because everybody that gets this guide, it's going to.

There's a human element to creating the Living Trust and this is why we went in to help people and assist them and do it with you.

Because the human element is the delay of the questions that you never thought about that you need to answer.

Like you go, wow, I didn't think of that.

How do.

Wow.

I mean, so the, the, the Comprehensive Living Trust has a lot of those questions on there on what you have to have to be able to answer it.

Now, full warning.

Just because you can fill out the Comprehensive Estate Planning Guide doesn't mean you have a Living Trust that is only a guide to help you.

And you can get that copy at Estate Doc Prep, an estate.prep forward slash guide.

Okay.

And, and the third thing is we want to be able to offer somebody a.

No pressure, no pressure.

All questions answered with no time limit and no fee.

You could call our artificial intelligence, Lisa.

She is so educated on estate planning in all 50 states and you could ask her any questions.

She won't.

She'll ask you at the end of the call, is there any other questions?

And would you like to talk to a human or would you like to book a call with a human?

Well, she'll can do that.

And that Phone number is 805-909-4689.

That's 805-909-4689.

And that.

And, and you know, we've had some, you know, and this.

And we do that because we don't want people to feel intimidated.

We don't want to feel people that.

You're going to be sold.

This is only for you.

If you want it for your kids.

This is it, right?

Amen.

That is awesome.

That, that is awesome.

That's good.

Oscar, this has been so interesting.

I know, I know somebody out there has some questions and they look, they want to find out more.

So how can someone get in touch again, give us that information so they can find out more information?

Yeah, this I would say call Lisa directly because if you want to talk to me or you want to talk to human, she'll transfer you straight to us and we should be able to do that.

Just call the number and we'll be able to assist you and get you that.

I mean that's, and the website, obviously, estate prep.com.

you can get that.

Thank you.

Amen.

Amen.

I'll put links to all this down the show notes below.

Praise God, folks.

Don't leave your family's future to chance.

I mean, without the right estate plan, you've heard your loved ones could face costly probate, legal battles, unnecessary stress that you or them really don't want them to go through.

And Estate Doc Prep makes it simple, affordable, hassle free to secure your home, your assets, your legacy with attorney drafted documents that you can complete really from the comfort of your own home.

Amen.

Take control today before it's too late.

Contact Oscar Vasquez and his team over at Estate Doc Prep.

To protect what matters most.

Go to visit estatedocprep.com right now and get started.

The links are set are down below in the show notes.

Reach out to Oscar right now, today, while you're thinking.

Tomorrow, unfortunately may be too late for some.

Don't be one of them.

Contact Oscar today.

Don't wait.

Drop down the show notes, click the links right there.

Receive your free download of Oscar's Comprehensive Estate Guide too.

And as you heard, for the first 10 members of our audience that responds to get their own living trust, you'll receive a 1000 discount for your own comprehensive living trust.

Amen.

Praise God.

Just use discount code Kingdom at checkout.

Oscar, I appreciate you coming on the program and sharing all about the importance of having these documents ready.

We pray they're not needed soon, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing they are already in place, that that just can't be measured.

Amen.

I appreciate you coming on the program, folks.

That's all the time we have for today for Oscar Vasquez.

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