#407 The Business of Being Dead: How to Protect Your Family, Assets & Sanity with Ali Goff

 🌟 ⚠️ This is the episode you didn’t know you desperately needed. 💥
Wills, trusts, probate... sounds boring? Think again. This convo might just save your family thousands—and a whole lot of stress. 👀💸 

This week on The Less Stressed Life Podcast, I’m joined by estate attorney and certified performance coach Ali Goff, who’s not only brilliant but also shows up to legal talks in a T-shirt that says “Future Dead Person.” So you know we’re going to have fun while talking about something that usually feels… well, kind of morbid.

In this honest and surprisingly juicy convo, we’re digging into trusts, wills, and the documents every adult needs—but most avoid until it’s too late. I brought Ali on the show (and to our upcoming retreat in Salt Lake City 🎉) because she knows how to make complex stuff digestible and, dare I say, enjoyable. She also drops some wild stories that might just light a fire under your adulting.

Whether you’re 35 or 75, this episode will make you laugh and realize just how much stress (and money) you can save your family by planning now.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Why estate planning isn’t just for the rich or the retired
• What actually happens when you die without a will or trust (hint: it’s not pretty)
• The $50K+ mistake most families make without realizing it
• Why online legal templates might cost you more than they save
• The difference between a will and a trust—and why one skips court drama
• What documents every parent must have in place (especially for guardianship)
• How to make sure your family isn’t left scrambling in a medical or financial emergency

👯‍♀️ Want to hang with Ali and me in person? There are still a few seats left for the fall retreat. It's not just about health—it's about protecting your peace, your people, and your legacy. Apply now: https://www.lessstressedliferetreats.com/saltlake

ABOUT GUEST:
Alexandria “Ali” Goff is the founder and CEO of Goff Legal, a boutique California law firm specializing in estate planning and administration. A passionate educator and certified performance coach, Ali empowers fiduciaries and business owners to grow with clarity and confidence. She frequently speaks for professional organizations and serves on the UC Davis School of Law Alumni Board. Outside of work, Ali lives in Loomis with her husband, two sons, and their menagerie of pets. She’s also a Level 1 Sommelier who enjoys wine tasting, travel, and live music. 

WHERE TO FIND:
Website: https://gofflegal.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goff.legal/ 

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife

Transcript

[00:00:00] Ali Goff: That's pretty rare that you're talking about stress, right? What is more stressful not knowing where stuff is supposed to go as a family member, not knowing the things they had? Nothing is in place.

[00:00:12] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm your host, Christa Biegler, and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On the show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.

[00:00:41] Christa Biegler, RD: One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.

[00:00:59] Christa Biegler, RD: All right. Today on the Less Stressed Life, I have Ali Goff, and before I do her intro. A week or two or something ago, I asked on Instagram about trust and wills, and one of my colleagues and friends reached out and said, I'm so glad you're talking about this. And then went into an entire horror story about her family history of trust and wills and topics.

[00:01:21] Christa Biegler, RD: And I personally think all the things that fit under the less stress life include health and wealth and money. And relationships. So we're under that purview. So today I'm welcoming Alexandria Goff. She just goes by Ali. So that's how I know her. She's the founder. Yep. And CEO of Goff Legal, which is a fast-growing California boutique law firm dedicated to estate planning and administration.

[00:01:42] Christa Biegler, RD: She's passionate about building a values driven practice, cultivating a strong team, and creating a client experience that's both personal and impactful. Ali regularly collaborates with nonprofits and professional organizations across the state, sharing insights on practice growth and leadership.

[00:01:56] Christa Biegler, RD: In addition to leading her firm, she's a certified performance coach who supports fiduciaries and business owners in reaching their next level. Welcome to the show, ally. 

[00:02:06] Ali Goff: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

[00:02:08] Christa Biegler, RD: So I was introduced to Ali from a mutual friend or colleague that we both share, that I met at a different retreat.

[00:02:15] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Who I said, who owns a large company who supports people actually that go through kind of the crisis that you, I. Help people prevent going through. Yeah, and she referred me to you. 'cause I was looking for someone who was not very stuffy, but who could speak on trust and wills at our upcoming retreat, which is why we're interrupting June's q and a months.

[00:02:36] Christa Biegler, RD: Because I just thought we're just gonna pop this one right in the middle here. So today we're talking about. Estate planning trust and will stuff that we think is boring. But Allie makes not so boring as evidenced by, if you're listening, you can't see it. But her shirt says A future dead person. So she's a you gotta have some dry humor on this topic.

[00:02:54] Christa Biegler, RD: And Allie, how did you end up having a boutique law firm that focused on trust and wealth specifically? 

[00:03:00] Ali Goff: Yeah, no, I am a little quirkier and and very honest. It turns out. So that's where I live my life.

[00:03:05] Christa Biegler, RD: It's a 

[00:03:05] Christa Biegler, RD: coalition. We found out we were very kindred spirits when we got together.

[00:03:08] Christa Biegler, RD: We're like, oh, I think we would like each other very well. 

[00:03:11] Ali Goff: I think this is a, it's a good partnership. I'm very excited to be at Cheer Retreat, by the way. I'm really excited to me too, to meet these people and give 'em some really good information. But how I started this, so I graduated from law school.

[00:03:22] Ali Goff: I was interested in estate planning. I couldn't find a good fit for me. I wanted something very specific. I'm also, turns out really opinionated and driven, and so I ended up, after searching for a job for many years, not many years, many months, I think I tried a number of different places, did some contract work, and I was like, you know what?

[00:03:41] Ali Goff: I'm gonna start my own firm. I wanna do estate planning in Placer County. That's my community. That's where I grew up. That's where my family is. And so I just opened my law firm and said, I do estate planning now. And the rest is history, although I've been doing it for 12 years. And it has evolved greatly from when I started it.

[00:03:56] Ali Goff: But I got to do the thing I wanted, which was be in charge of my own life. 

[00:04:00] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Okay. So let's talk about, I think something important. And before I met our mutual friend, I don't know if I understood the gravity of what happens when you die without a trust or a will, what? Happens in general. I think maybe we could talk about that or we can start with a story, like something that has we can start with anybody's story about a fan, like anyone that failed to plan this and why it turns out to be a very stressful and expensive mistake that honestly this is, we'll just put this on the list of things we didn't know we needed to know.

[00:04:31] Christa Biegler, RD: After, I would say there are some skills in life we didn't, we don't know. We need to develop. Like changing your oil until you arrive there. And so today we're arriving at learning why this is a skill or a thing to develop. So however you wanna open it, I, maybe these will feed together.

[00:04:46] Christa Biegler, RD: What happens if you don't have an estate And Will in place might actually serve us best first, or if you think the story will lend itself. Yeah, we want both. So 

[00:04:54] Christa Biegler, RD: take it away.

[00:04:55] Ali Goff: Yeah. And I think people may be a little confused about estate planning. They think a couple things. One, it's for the rich and two, it's for when I'm dead.

[00:05:03] Ali Goff: The story that I bring actually is honestly really heartbreaking. It's this wonderful woman who'd been married to her husband for 40 years, or married for 30 and together for 40 or 50, like for a really long time. He was estranged from his kids and his sister and brother. 'cause it turns out they were challenging.

[00:05:19] Ali Goff: And he had a stroke. Went into the hospital and she called his family and said, he's not doing well. I want you to come check on him. And they showed up and caused all sorts of havoc. They were questioning all of her decisions, and the doctors were like, we're not listening to anyone.

[00:05:37] Ali Goff: They didn't listen to his kids. They didn't listen to his wife. Anyways, we end up in conservatorship, which is what happens when someone doesn't plan and is incapacitated. 

[00:05:47] Ali Goff: She spent. It was so messy and she had to spend her money and his money to get control of her own husband, even though they'd been married for 30, 40 years.

[00:05:56] Ali Goff: And so it was one of those things where my family made a lot of money, but not like happy money. Not oh, let's plan and let's like make sure our kids are taken care of. It was like, let's make sure she can put him in the most happy place for him and stop them from coming and visiting.

[00:06:10] Ali Goff: They were coming and bugging him and yelling at him and like causing a ruckus with a care home. It was. Awful. Awful. And so that's the number one thing is like not, this is not just when you're gone, right? This is also,

[00:06:21] Christa Biegler, RD: it could happen 

[00:06:21] Christa Biegler, RD: tomorrow actually for any of us. I remember when my mom was incapacitated in the hospital and I don't remember how that all went down about the, like some decision making.

[00:06:31] Christa Biegler, RD: So I wonder if it varies from state to state, and I wonder, this word that you just used, I've never even heard of conservatorship.

[00:06:37] Ali Goff: Conservatorship. 

[00:06:38] Ali Goff: Yeah. If you Google it in California, you'll find Britney Spears all over the place, and everyone's oh, this is for like rich pop stars.

[00:06:44] Ali Goff: And I was like no. This is typically for people who don't have a healthcare directive or a power of attorney. It's designed to let someone make medical or financial decisions if someone's incapacitated, and none of us think we're going to be incapacitated, and yet people are living longer and longer.

[00:07:00] Ali Goff: That's great. And I think a lot of my generation is now dealing with their parents, not planning, going I just need to pay their bills. We get phone calls all the time. Hi, my mom has dementia, and I need to get a power of attorney. And we have to say, I'm doesn't work. So sorry.

[00:07:17] Ali Goff: It's too late. If she doesn't know what's happening, she can't sign a legal document. Our conservatorship process starts at $10,000. 

[00:07:25] Ali Goff: Now, 

[00:07:25] Ali Goff: some of 'em are different and every state is different, right? Every hospital is different, but HIPAA laws are more, this is the reason why a lot of this comes up is 'cause of HIPAA privacy.

[00:07:36] Christa Biegler, RD: These, 

[00:07:36] Ali Goff: they keep getting sued for disclosing information. And if you don't have something that says you can get information about your own kid or your spouse. They might not give it to you. 

[00:07:45] Christa Biegler, RD: Is that why with your client, who this lovely woman who's married to her husband for 30 years? Yeah. Was it mostly a problem because there was like dissonance and so the medical facility was like to protect ourselves, we're just not gonna tell anyone.

[00:07:58] Christa Biegler, RD: 'cause there isn't a plan or a directive in place, or do you think that. Do you think that like sometimes this slides every once in a while, I'm just trying to understand. Sure. 'cause it seems like crazy, right? Doesn't it feel a little wild that like the spouse of 30 years can't make a medical decision

[00:08:16] Christa Biegler, RD: without this what is it? Health directive. 

[00:08:18] Ali Goff: Yeah. So in California it's an advanced healthcare directive. Some people, some states call it a durable power of attorney for healthcare living will. You'll hear that word too. Oh, a lot of states have very different who makes medical decisions and what happens in my body after I'm gone, essentially the document.

[00:08:32] Ali Goff: So I get your question like, yeah, maybe you don't need it because the family's not fighting. But it doesn't always work that way, and you don't know which way it's going to go. More challenging than medical 'cause. Medical's very like emotionally messy financial.

[00:08:46] Ali Goff: If 

[00:08:46] Ali Goff: you are married, at least in California, and there's an asset that you have because you're, in a relationship, you just happen to not put your spouse's name on there and you are incapacitated.

[00:08:56] Ali Goff: If they don't have legal documentation, no bank is letting them in. They have to get documentation, power of attorney or a conservatorship, so there's no negotiating with banks. You might be able to. Sometimes negotiate with a healthcare provider or maybe they signed a form a long time ago that happened to give authority.

[00:09:15] Ali Goff: It's not all fighting. It's really just like access to information. And the more we know the less and less banks, even with powers of attorney, people have challenges with banks. 

[00:09:24] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm gonna get more granular before I jump out then, because you were just talking about banks and things, and it reminds me of a story I heard about if you're a spouse and something happens to your spouse and if you're a joint account versus.

[00:09:37] Christa Biegler, RD: There's other types of accounts you still sometimes can't even access the, there's like things that happen, right with the bank. 

[00:09:42] Ali Goff: Sometimes they'll freeze the account if the one of the account holders dies and you need, a death certificate and those sorts of things. Yeah. So not only conservatorship, then we've got what happens if you die?

[00:09:53] Ali Goff: We have other challenges, very state specific. Each state is very different. I'm based out of California. That's where my license is from. We have some of the most archaic and difficult probate laws in the country. Some states. Not so bad, right? You just walk in and you fill out some paperwork and you could have access to documents here.

[00:10:12] Ali Goff: It could take you six months or more just to get access to a decedent's account if they don't have a trust or beneficiary designations on those accounts. 

[00:10:23] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay, so let's start right there. 'cause that is what I learned from our mutual friend Maya, who owns a now nationwide company that helps people through this messy process.

[00:10:31] Christa Biegler, RD: And just the fact that her company is Nationwide says that pretty big problem, and it's everywhere. Everyone's gonna die. And so what happens when someone dies without a will or a trust? Do we even have a name for that? 

[00:10:46] Ali Goff: Intestacy. 

[00:10:47] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh, okay. I'm not committing that with to memory, whatever.

[00:10:50] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay, so let's pretend someone doesn't have an official, and what makes it official? Do they like, can you just write it on a piece of paper or do you have to do something else to make it really official? Technically 

[00:10:59] Ali Goff: Yeah. I love this. I love laws. They're fun, they're interesting, and of course lawyers are designed to like dig through them and get around them and create new ones.

[00:11:08] Ali Goff: That's what we do best. If you look up Aretha Franklin, you'll find when she passed, she had a bunch of handwritten notes all over the place that contradicted each other, and the one that they ended up admitting as her will was stuffed in her couch. She'd given like all these different, like someone who had millions of dollars and millions of dollars, went to the various lawyers to try and find this out.

[00:11:32] Ali Goff: All because she'd handwritten it. So yeah, you can have a will. Handwritten, I knew a lawyer who probated a napkin before that. I was wondering a will there's letters

[00:11:42] Christa Biegler, RD: been out myself?

[00:11:44] Ali Goff: No, like not, okay. Not best practice. So it will essentially in it's instructions. Here's where I want my stuff to go.

[00:11:51] Ali Goff: Ideally it is written with, you have executors listed and your beneficiaries listed and you have it signed in California to be valid needs two witnesses or it needs to be in your own handwriting. Every state has different requirements, so will just gives instructions. Wills are great. They don't avoid probate.

[00:12:09] Ali Goff: And so the trust is the thing. If you don't wanna be in court, if you don't like the court supervised process, the trust is usually the mechanism that keeps people out of the public eye and out of the public system. 

[00:12:20] Christa Biegler, RD: We need to find probate, right? Because I mean that, we don't assume that anyone knows what probate is.

[00:12:24] Christa Biegler, RD: So we're a podcast Allie, so let's go back to poor stress and health. Yeah. What's probate's? What happens if you don't have a trust. So what is trust? If you don't have a trust, it's court. 

[00:12:34] Ali Goff: Yeah. Essentially it is a court supervised process whereby someone collects the decedent's assets, pays their debts, and distributes the remaining stuff, whatever there is left to the beneficiaries.

[00:12:46] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Some random person, assigned by or like some state person. 

[00:12:50] Ali Goff: If you don't have instructions to the court, they're going to have to go through down this line of who might be your beneficiary, and it may or may not be a family member that you like, or if you don't have any family members, technically it could, we call it a sheet that's with an E anyways to the state.

[00:13:05] Ali Goff: That's pretty rare that you're talking about stress, right? What is more stressful not knowing where stuff is supposed to go as a family member, not knowing the things they had? Nothing is in place. Okay. How about every time you get on a plane, right? People get on planes, they're like, oh, I should really, what if I should probably have an estate plan?

[00:13:25] Ali Goff: If you had an estate plan, you wouldn't worry about it. When you got on the plane, you go, okay, I got everything dialed in. I don't need to worry about that particular thing on this particular adventure.

[00:13:33] Christa Biegler, RD: My brain's having a little bit of a playground in the background. If there isn't a trust and someone has to go through probate, that just means like literally your.

[00:13:43] Christa Biegler, RD: Parents' house, if they don't have a trust, it has to, like someone else has to do has to figure out and settle their estate more so than you, like I'm thinking in my head like, you shouldn't even be able to touch. Isn't that what happens? Like you can't even touch their stuff. Is that kind of

[00:13:57] Ali Goff: Yeah, it's frozen.

[00:13:59] Ali Goff: Frozen.

[00:14:00] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Interesting.

[00:14:00] Ali Goff: You 

[00:14:00] Ali Goff: can't sell a house unless you've got legal authority. And oftentimes it takes months to get legal authority, so someone's gonna have to pay all the bills out of their own pocket or risk foreclosure. There's so much at stake when you leave it up to the court.

[00:14:16] Ali Goff: Some. Okay. Some really small.

[00:14:17] Christa Biegler, RD: Someone doesn't really care 

[00:14:17] Christa Biegler, RD: about you, right? Yeah. 

[00:14:20] Ali Goff: People are going, I don't care. I'll be dead. And I go, okay, fine. Then don't get your plan done. And the next thing outta their mouth is. But I don't wanna do that to my family. Yeah. Awesome. Here's some options. You can have a will, you can have a trust.

[00:14:32] Ali Goff: Here's some options that you can, and I always pick something that actually makes their family's life easier. And also I. Them sleep at night. That's what a lot of people get out of it. Actually, 

[00:14:41] Christa Biegler, RD: that was the conversation with the friend who reached out to me when I asked about Will and Trust. She said, I'm glad you're talking about this 'cause this is the best gift you could give someone because it is such a nightmare if you do not have these things in place.

[00:14:53] Christa Biegler, RD: So far we covered that a will could. In theory be written on a napkin. It could be written handwritten, but depending on the place you are, it might need to be, have two witnesses. So that's a will. Like here's where I want my things to go. It might have executors and beneficiaries, but what is a trust?

[00:15:07] Christa Biegler, RD: How is a trust different than a will? 

[00:15:09] Ali Goff: Yeah. So first tip, go find a lawyer if you want to write a will, right? You might come with your wishes, but have someone actually make it enforceable in the state you're in. 

[00:15:17] Christa Biegler, RD: Yes. Don't actually write it on a napkin. 

[00:15:19] Ali Goff: Don't write it on a napkin. That's not my advice.

[00:15:21] Ali Goff: Yeah. I'm not giving legal advice. I'm just, we're just having a friendly chat today. Yeah. Trust. So a trust is like a contract essentially. Someone creates a trust. They're the trust makers, trust stores settlers, they have trustees managers. Those are the people who are in charge. And then we have beneficiaries.

[00:15:37] Ali Goff: And so what's nice about a trust, the standard, we call 'em revocable trusts. They don't do much during your life. You're still in charge of your assets. You can buy stuff. You can sell stuff. You can put stuff in, you can take stuff out. It's really actually very flexible. It only really comes into play when you're incapacitated or you pass away, in which case that trustee, that manager role switches from you to someone competent and they either pay your bills or you're dead.

[00:16:04] Ali Goff: They will give it to your beneficiaries. And so it really becomes a very a business entity really, except for you don't have to deal with tax returns every year until you're gone. 

[00:16:12] Christa Biegler, RD: Interesting. So a trust and a revocable trust are the same thing. 

[00:16:17] Ali Goff: Oftentimes, you'll find a revocable living trust grantor trust.

[00:16:22] Ali Goff: Anything except for irrevocable trust. That's a whole different land in which we're probably not gonna go into today. Relating to tax planning, Medicaid planning, Medicare planning. There's all sorts of different types of trusts, but the type of trust that we need to avoid probate is like the most simple trust that gives you the most flexibility.

[00:16:41] Ali Goff: You can change it while it's revocable, so you get a revocable trust and you go, I wanna give it to my kids when they turn 30 and then your kids turn 30 and you go. No, I don't think that. No. Not ready. I'm gonna change it so they get it when they're 40. Wait, great. You can do that and your kids won't know.

[00:16:56] Christa Biegler, RD: It feels like the same thing as a will.

[00:16:59] Ali Goff: Yes, it is. Except for avoids 

[00:17:00] Ali Goff: probates.

[00:17:01] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh, okay. Got it. So will, if you have a will, you have to go through court, but if you have a trust, you do not have to go through court and a trust is more out of an official document. Is that correct? 

[00:17:11] Ali Goff: Yeah, it's a mechanism, it's a tool that we use to avoid the court process.

[00:17:15] Ali Goff: Essentially we're doing this because. Title Companies need proof of who is the owner. 

[00:17:20] Ali Goff: And either 

[00:17:21] Ali Goff: you're gonna go through the court system to prove it, or they've allowed this sort of trust mechanism to bypass that system and it's private, right? People don't, sometimes the costs are probate is an issue.

[00:17:32] Ali Goff: A lot of people don't understand that a probate is a public process. We publish in a newspaper. Your debts, your expenses, your family's addresses. By the way, trust, if no one's fighting, it's private. No one even knows. Ideally it just says, oh, the trustee sold this house to these people, and all the inner workings happen behind the scenes.

[00:17:54] Christa Biegler, RD: Interesting. Okay, one more question about trust and then I am curious about the cost of probate. Because just this, when I look at like property and real estate, property, sometimes people have things written, trustee of blah, blah, blah. And so is this just mean that they have their trust set up and so all of their properties and assets also have this kind of listed as such?

[00:18:13] Ali Goff: Yep. Generally speaking, yeah. If you see tr or trustee of the whatever, so and so trust. They're in their representative capacity. So all of our real estate investors. Yeah. Or it'll be in an entity. That's another way to hold title. 

[00:18:25] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Okay, cool. Alright, so I'm thinking about that probate.

[00:18:28] Christa Biegler, RD: Is there like an average amount of time? I know it probably can be like quite broad, but. Isn't the minimum quite, isn't it At least six months, but I'm sure it could be years. What's a, the amount of time that like usually people are stuck, I dunno if stuck is the right word, but go through probate.

[00:18:43] Ali Goff: Stuck is the right word.

[00:18:44] Christa Biegler, RD: Stuck is the right word. Okay, cool. How long are people usually stuck in this public process where everything is tied up and how much money? I'm sure again, you've seen like such a diverse, but I'm sure it only starts in the thousands, I would imagine.

[00:18:55] Ali Goff: Oh yeah. Absolutely,

[00:18:57] Christa Biegler, RD: like the minimum is thousands to go through probate minimum.

[00:18:59] Christa Biegler, RD: So in theory, if you're creating a trust, even though it costs, it may cost a little bit of money upfront to validate and verify, you are only saving a crap ton by avoiding probate or like your family is saving crap ton by that. Is that correct? 

[00:19:14] Ali Goff: Yeah. Average time period stuck in probate is 12 to 18 months.

[00:19:19] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay. 

[00:19:20] Ali Goff: Now that means from the time you filed to the time they distributed, sometimes it takes another three to six to nine months to get into court. So two years depending. Wow. And don't forget, in a probate. Nobody gets any money except for creditors in the courts and a bunch of referees, not even the lawyers until the very, very end.

[00:19:41] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. 

[00:19:41] Ali Goff: So not super great. Now you can Google, at least in California, I think many states, some states are, you just pay the lawyer by the hour, call the lawyer up and say, hi, my family member died. I'm nominated as executor, or I'm their only child. What does this look like? And they'll say, hand me some money.

[00:19:59] Ali Goff: Here's what I'll do in exchange. Here's how long that takes. California is a special state. We have statutory fees, which means the state of California decides how much the lawyer get paid gets paid. 

[00:20:09] Christa Biegler, RD: Interesting.

[00:20:10] Ali Goff: Let's say, I'm gonna put in here an, let's just call it a million dollars. Fun fact, at least here in California, the value is not your as like the equity, it's the total value.

[00:20:21] Ali Goff: So if you have a home, let's call it a million dollars, and you have a mortgage of $750,000 

[00:20:27] Ali Goff: The fees are based on a million dollars. So I just ran a calculation. Yeah. Calculation for the attorney fee. 23,000 calculation for the executor, another 23,000 calculation of fees, probably not 3000. So you're looking about $50,000 for.

[00:20:43] Ali Goff: $1 million worth of assets in California. 

[00:20:46] Christa Biegler, RD: Damn. Isn't there like a documentary about the business of being dead or something like this? You're like, be holy crap. Okay, so right out the gate, there's, and this gets passed on to the people who are alive, right? Like the people that you

[00:20:58] Ali Goff: Yeah.

[00:20:59] Christa Biegler, RD: Love or don't love. There's not enough. 

[00:21:00] Ali Goff: Yeah. There's not enough cash. They're gonna have to sell assets. So what if you would like a family home? No one has enough money to write a check for $50,000 plus pay all the debts and expenses, funeral costs, mortgage, insurance, taxes, whatever needs to be paid off.

[00:21:17] Ali Goff: If someone can't pay that, they're gonna be selling that home. And that sort of, that's some of the heartbreak that people don't think about or you'll just sell it, pay runoff, and then everybody gets a chunk of change, which I mean better than nothing. But still, it could have been done a lot.

[00:21:30] Ali Goff: Better. And a lot less stressful. 

[00:21:33] Christa Biegler, RD: I know when we were talking before this, you said one of the biggest myths is that people think estate planning is for rich people, but you just pretty much demonstrated like actually you're gonna spend so much money by now doing any estate planning is what you just essentially said.

[00:21:47] Ali Goff: And this calculation doesn't include that conservatorship process I talked about. God forbid you become incapacitated, you are looking at least five to. Depending on more $25,000 in conservatorship fees before you even die.

[00:22:01] Ali Goff: And then of course, if you under conservatorship, it's really hard to get a trust.

[00:22:04] Ali Goff: So you're gonna go through probate, you're gonna go through two court supervised processes.

[00:22:09] Christa Biegler, RD: Wild.

[00:22:09] Ali Goff: Which just, they're just literally just sucking the money out of all of your hard earned money is going to the wrong people. I get so passionate about this because yes, I make a lot of money when people don't plan.

[00:22:20] Ali Goff: I don't like that money. I like the people who plan because I want to be able to look the family in the eye and go, your family gave you this gift. Let's fill out some paperwork. It's gonna take a few months, but don't worry. We've got you. Here's the process. We're gonna support you, and then we go, here you go.

[00:22:35] Ali Goff: That's a better experience for everyone, including my team. They'd much rather plan and administer something easy than make more money on messy stuff. That's not fun. 

[00:22:44] Christa Biegler, RD: No, no one's happy money. 

[00:22:45] Ali Goff: No one's happy. 

[00:22:46] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Okay, so we'll go to inheritance stuff next, but I just, wanted, before we put a bow on trust and wills for the moment.

[00:22:54] Christa Biegler, RD: Is there a reason why having an online template might be a starting point, but why would that not be enough in this case? Because I think a trust is much more like official. Technically. But like why in general, what do you see going on here? 

[00:23:09] Ali Goff: Yeah. Unfortunately, when I review, or my team reviews, estate planning documents that they've created online, either they've selected the wrong forms, I've reviewed forms from that are from the wrong state, so they therefore have the wrong language and are not gonna be effective in the right state.

[00:23:23] Ali Goff: They filled them out incorrectly. That's one of my favorites. I go, why do you have this? I didn't want that. I wanted this thing like. But you have this thing and you sign this, and this is what's a, this is valid. And they're like, I didn't want that, but they don't sign it, right? I had some clients, I swear you guys, it's just you but your audience.

[00:23:41] Ali Goff: I have clients that I sent them a document set of documents to sign instructions, and this is from a lawyer, and I said, here's how you sign them. Do you know what they did? They signed them wrong. 

[00:23:52] Ali Goff: Thank goodness they 

[00:23:53] Ali Goff: have me because we read those and said, oh, those are wrong. Come in, let's sign them correctly, because otherwise they would've been totally invalid.

[00:24:01] Ali Goff: Not to mention there's no lawyer eyes on those things. Those online templates, they're not the worst, but I don't know that they're gonna work. That's the problem. And yeah, 

[00:24:09] Christa Biegler, RD: I probably better than nothing. Right? 

[00:24:11] Ali Goff: Yeah. And the other thing that I maybe don't tell you is they don't work unless you put assets in them.

[00:24:16] Ali Goff: You have a trust, right? 

[00:24:17] Ali Goff: Let's create a trust. The all go trust dated June, 14th, 2023. I created my trust that day, right? I have to put my house in the trust. We do that for clients. I have to put my bank account in the trust. I have to update my beneficiary designation. 

[00:24:32] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh my gosh. It's like investing.

[00:24:34] Ali Goff: You have to do all the homework.

[00:24:35] Christa Biegler, RD: You could open the 

[00:24:35] Christa Biegler, RD: account, but you have to actually put the thing, you actually have to turn it on. Yeah. 

[00:24:39] Christa Biegler, RD: To make work.

[00:24:39] Ali Goff: And a lot of people who go, oh look, I got this account this, it was 303 49. I got my trust done. And we go. Okay. What did you put in it? And they go, I don't know what you're talking about.

[00:24:50] Ali Goff: And I'm like you paid money for nothing. It's not gonna do anything for you. You have all these steps to do. And they were like, I didn't know that. And I'm like,

[00:24:57] Christa Biegler, RD: so glad you brought this up. I have no idea.

[00:24:59] Ali Goff: It's complicated. The reason why we have jobs, it's because it's complicated and we want to help people do it right.

[00:25:05] Ali Goff: That is where the money savings is. 

[00:25:08] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. 

[00:25:08] Christa Biegler, RD: So for sure. Yeah. It's super interesting. 

[00:25:10] Christa Biegler, RD: I know. It's oh, actually this is, there's a lot to cover here for sure.

[00:25:14] Ali Goff: There's a lot here. Yeah.

[00:25:16] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about some inheritance things. This kind of got opened up a little bit before where Yeah, maybe you wanna hand something down.

[00:25:24] Christa Biegler, RD: So what are some of the things that come into play when someone dies and there are. Gains or inheritance. And so some of the words that come up are capital gains, which is a term that's might not be appropriate here. I think it is a term. 

[00:25:37] Ali Goff: Oh, that's right.

[00:25:37] Christa Biegler, RD: Used like with the sell of assets, so not even having to do with death.

[00:25:41] Christa Biegler, RD: But it's like a very taxed process. I think that's always my concern is like, man, there's probably also, it's not just the cost of. What you just shared before, but I think my concern is like death by tax as well

[00:25:52] Ali Goff: Yes.

[00:25:52] Christa Biegler, RD: With some of this. So let's just walk through, just walk us through what happens with the inheritance process and some of the considerations around that.

[00:26:00] Ali Goff: Yeah, so every state, so federally, there's an estate tax exemption, right? Everyone can give away about $13.99 million per person during their life and after their death and not pay taxes on it. Gold stars, most of us don't have that much money.

[00:26:13] Christa Biegler, RD: You mean people inherit it?

[00:26:15] Ali Goff: No, this is people giving it away, right?

[00:26:17] Ali Goff: I ally that I sit here. If I have $15 million,

[00:26:19] Christa Biegler, RD: oh, you wanna give me 

[00:26:19] Christa Biegler, RD: $15 million or 13.9, then you don't have to pay taxes on it.

[00:26:23] Ali Goff: Yes.

[00:26:23] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay, got it.

[00:26:24] Ali Goff: And neither do 

[00:26:24] Ali Goff: you. 

[00:26:25] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay. Interesting.

[00:26:26] Ali Goff: It's not awesome.

[00:26:26] Christa Biegler, RD: That's way more than I thought. I thought it was like 40,000 or something like that. 

[00:26:31] Ali Goff: Fun fact.

[00:26:32] Ali Goff: Every state has their own laws about how much the state death taxes or estate taxes. California, strangely enough. It doesn't have one. Zero. You don't have to worry about estate tax here, Oregon, I think it's a million. That's when they start taxing you. Anything above a million that you give away during your life and after death.

[00:26:53] Ali Goff: So you can't just be like, oh, I'm gonna write a check right before I die. IRS is like no, this is a lifetime gift. This is anything you've given away during life after death. 

[00:27:02] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh, 

[00:27:02] Christa Biegler, RD: I see.

[00:27:02] Ali Goff: And so each state has these very specific rules about how you give things away. 

[00:27:08] Ali Goff: One of the things that I think people miss, the capital gains, that is such a good question because.

[00:27:13] Ali Goff: If you, this is we're digging into the tax code. If you give someone an asset during your life, let's say I give you stock that I bought for $5 and it's worth 500,000. If I give it to you during my life, you sell it. You have to pay capital gains with the basis of my $5 that I bought it for, but if I die and I give it to you either by will or trust or beneficiary account, right?

[00:27:39] Ali Goff: It steps up basis to 500,000 and you pay $0 in capital gains when you sell it. 

[00:27:47] Christa Biegler, RD: Interesting. 

[00:27:48] Christa Biegler, RD: So many little tweaky. 

[00:27:50] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, 

[00:27:50] Christa Biegler, RD: little tiny things. Yeah. 

[00:27:52] Ali Goff: Yeah. People do that with real estate all the time. They go, I'm gonna avoid probate and I'm gonna do that by giving, by adding my child's name to the deed of the house.

[00:28:01] Ali Goff: I've solved all my problems. Sure. You saved a couple thousand dollars from an estate plan. You have just cost your child hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital gains tax unknowingly. 

[00:28:13] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay. I wanna make sure I understand that so lemme summarize what I heard from you so far. Federally, people can give away $13.9 million in their life without tax coming or going.

[00:28:23] Christa Biegler, RD: However, each state has their own little rider, which would be interesting for us all to go look up. And we would, it would be a state tax, right? For our individual state. We would just be looking that up and I'm trying to like. Understand fully the capital gains with respect to death, because capital gains, how I perceive it or understand it is the gains made from selling a property and then you're paying taxes on that.

[00:28:46] Christa Biegler, RD: Normally, if we're not talking about death, right? So if you, I was like, I'm gonna type it. I'm, I like to take notes, so I'm trying to type as you talk. I'm like, did I understand this? If you give someone an asset during your life and that person sells it, they have to pay capital gains. But if you get it via Will trust, et cetera, then there's zero tax on it.

[00:29:03] Christa Biegler, RD: Is there a limit to that? 

[00:29:06] Ali Goff: No. Now remember, it's not that they never pay tax on it. It's that the basis resets on death. So let's say on my death the stock was worth 500,000 and you inherited it and then you sold it at seven 50

[00:29:19] Ali Goff: you 

[00:29:20] Ali Goff: would still have capital gains of two 50, but you didn't have capital gains of $5 to seven 50.

[00:29:25] Ali Goff: So it's sort 

[00:29:25] Ali Goff: of, it'll do this with married couples too in some states, depending on, so sometimes we wait for one spouse to die. Then sell the asset because we reset the basis. This is why having professionals is so important. 

[00:29:37] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. 

[00:29:37] Ali Goff: CPA financial advisor, estate planning attorney, those online forms are not gonna tell you any of this stuff.

[00:29:44] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah.

[00:29:44] Ali Goff: And you can cause a lot more problems than you're solving by trying to save a few dollars. 

[00:29:49] Christa Biegler, RD: And especially I think if any assets are involved, which I think probably everyone has some, not everyone, but many people have some assets of some sort. And so what you just also said that. I'm, I don't fully get, but I'm thankful you said it.

[00:30:02] Christa Biegler, RD: It is if you add your child's name to a deed, you can accidentally cost them a lot of money. It's not the best way for them to save money on taxes. 

[00:30:09] Ali Goff: Now that fun fact. 'cause Congress is fund that 13.99 is set to expire at the end of 2025. They're, and it might go down to, I think 7 million per person.

[00:30:21] Ali Goff: But Congress could choose to extend that law and it could stay up there. So this is one of those things that you have to be paying at your, okay, this is why you have advisors. They pay attention for you. But being a good, educated human, you should be paying attention. If you're anywhere near there, you should be paying attention.

[00:30:38] Ali Goff: What does that law and asking your attorney

[00:30:40] Christa Biegler, RD: so many things to pay attention to.

[00:30:42] Ali Goff: So many things to pay attention to. Yeah. That's why we send out. Letters and newsletters to our clients going, hi, this thing changed. If it affects you, you should come in. 

[00:30:52] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay. Crazy. Okay. That is feels like such a, I was following bonus appreciation, but this feels like next level.

[00:30:59] Christa Biegler, RD: Like we've decided to cut this in half.

[00:31:01] Christa Biegler, RD: A big cut. Anyway, just interesting.

[00:31:03] Ali Goff: It can 

[00:31:04] Ali Goff: be, yeah. Especially with we're talking farmland property they bought a long time ago. That's appreciated. Bay Area and even metropolitan areas are growing. We're like. Crazy. There could be a lot of value in there, but they're cash poor, right?

[00:31:17] Ali Goff: It's not just like people who have millions of dollars in cash, right? Sometimes it's their family, like legacies we're talking about, 

[00:31:23] Christa Biegler, RD: right? I think that's like probably the really tricky part. Okay, so I think you just covered, I had a question about what should people know about capital gains tax and they inherit property, but if it's in a trust or will you are at much of a tax advantage is how we can say it.

[00:31:37] Christa Biegler, RD: I think. 

[00:31:39] Ali Goff: Yeah, I would say if you inherit assets, ideally, if you could know that in advance and plan for that. But if not, don't sell anything until you talk to an advisor. Hi, I inherited this thing. Sometimes you just need to get the basis so you can say, listen, IRS, this is what it was worth on the debt.

[00:31:54] Ali Goff: This is what I sold it for, versus, I don't know, I just sold it and they're gonna go. You're loss our game. 

[00:32:01] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. I didn't even know step up basis was a thing. I'm like learning new language. So fun. So glad getting together. So glad we're getting together in a few months so you could help me with, get this all, get us going on this whole process okay.

[00:32:16] Christa Biegler, RD: Anything else you wanna say that comes up all the time around maybe minimizing inheritance taxes in advance, or do you feel like we covered some of the big ones right there? 

[00:32:26] Ali Goff: Yeah, not really to taxes. I think those are the biggest things you need to know in terms of your own situation.

[00:32:31] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Cool. Okay. Let's talk about some things that you talked about earlier which was living will, durable power attorney, et cetera, et cetera. So we talked about wills that can be written on napkins, et cetera, but that's gonna send you through probate. And we talked about the cost of that, whereas a trust is a much more.

[00:32:48] Christa Biegler, RD: Fancy document version of a will that requires an attorney essentially. This is

[00:32:53] Ali Goff: exactly

[00:32:53] Christa Biegler, RD: interpretation, this is my understanding level so far. And then we've got this durable power of attorney, which can be different than the healthcare directives or whatnot. You use multiple terms. Okay, so let's talk about what's a durable power of attorney in general.

[00:33:06] Christa Biegler, RD: Let's actually just redefine this. 'cause we may not have Clearly. Yeah. And then what happens if we don't have one of those? Because this is we're almost making a checklist of documents. We need to have, and a trust isn't necessarily a document, but it's like an account with your stuff in it, so it goes to the right 

[00:33:20] Christa Biegler, RD: place.

[00:33:20] Ali Goff: It is a document. No, it's a, actually it's like this many documents. It's like a lot of pages. But yeah,

[00:33:24] Christa Biegler, RD: it's a small 

[00:33:25] Christa Biegler, RD: book. Got it. It's a whole binder, small book. Yeah. It's

[00:33:27] Ali Goff: the biggest,

[00:33:28] Christa Biegler, RD: a binder of things. Okay. But a durable power of attorney is a couple of pages, right? 

[00:33:33] Ali Goff: Yeah, somewhere between one or two pages to, could be 20 pages, depending on the complexity of the document.

[00:33:38] Ali Goff: So there's three words that are important, but let's break them up. So power of attorney, right? That is the legal document that lets someone make decisions for you related to transactions. So anything but healthcare, real estate, bank accounts, investments, buying, selling. All that sort of fun stuff.

[00:33:56] Ali Goff: And then the word durable that indicates that it continues on after you're incapacitated because you can have a power of attorney. I could execute a power of attorney today that says I want my spouse to be able to buy real estate and it, he could go buy real estate today with a power of attorney.

[00:34:16] Ali Goff: If I say durable, it's obviously in the document. If I become incapacitated. He can also use that document. But, so that's, everyone uses durable power of attorney because it means basically incapacity planning. 

[00:34:29] Christa Biegler, RD: What are some of the wishes? So I know we were mixing this together 'cause we were using a, an unfortunate event where someone was hospitalized and.

[00:34:36] Christa Biegler, RD: Couldn't respond, make decisions for themselves, which I truly think can just happen to anyone at any moment. That's literally like that. I'm speaking from my own experiences, obviously, where I saw this happen to my own mother. And so what are some of the wishes that might be in a durable power of attorney overall?

[00:34:52] Christa Biegler, RD: 'cause I think earlier we were saying we were using this term a little bit interchangeably with a healthcare director, but they could be separate or they could be under one. Is that possible? 

[00:35:00] Ali Goff: They are separate. They're always separate. Yeah. Okay. You can have a durable power of attorney for healthcare and a durable power of attorney for finances.

[00:35:07] Ali Goff: So in California we just call 'em an advanced healthcare directive and a power of attorney for finance. But yeah. Essentially one, and they're usually not gonna crossover. I don't think many states would have those crossover usually because there's different governing sections of the law that says, okay, here's the healthcare law, here's the financial law, so let's pick apart maybe the healthcare directive a little bit.

[00:35:28] Ali Goff: What might be found in there. 

[00:35:29] Ali Goff: Agents, who are you going to make, let, make decisions when you can't? You are going to talk about sometimes end of life decisions. Maybe this is in your living will, might be in your private attorney, but it says, if I'm in a coma. Do I wanna be left on life support? Do I want extenuation like measures to keep me alive or save my life?

[00:35:49] Ali Goff: Or do you want me to let's just let me go. Let's just not, we're not gonna play that game. Sometimes it's disposition of your body, right? Burial, cremation. You can be turned into a diamond, turned into a tree, shot into space, sprinkled in the ocean. 

[00:36:02] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh, 

[00:36:03] Christa Biegler, RD: I learned

[00:36:03] Ali Goff: so many choices right there. I didn't have so many choices.

[00:36:06] Ali Goff: Organ donation. If you're passionate one way or the other about whether you'd like your organs to be used for science or to save someone's life, that would be in a healthcare directive as well. And the biggest challenge, and I think the thing that's really stressful is if you don't have these in writing or you haven't explained, and you haven't explained this to someone, they have no idea what your wishes are.

[00:36:26] Ali Goff: Do you really want your family guessing whether they want, do you wanna be on life support or not? Or if you wanna be an organ donor, they have to make that decision for you. Either way, if you don't leave them with instructions. 

[00:36:36] Christa Biegler, RD: Hinging back to the original story that kind of happened before you and I had a conversation where my friend and colleague reached out and shared her story with me.

[00:36:44] Christa Biegler, RD: Was she a little side note? She said was that her family now has like a digital copy of things readily accessible because sometimes you create these documents, it's no one even knows where the hell they are.

[00:36:56] Ali Goff: Yeah.

[00:36:56] Christa Biegler, RD: So you have some

[00:36:57] Ali Goff: Oh yeah.

[00:36:58] Christa Biegler, RD: So I'm sure you have some recommendations about how to store things and all those pieces as well, but not that we have to cover that, but I just bring that up here oh yeah, actually being able to access the document that helps give your directives isn't a bad idea in this day and age now.

[00:37:12] Christa Biegler, RD: And I think probably on the positive side, like it's never been easier, in my opinion, to like access a document at any time. That's how I feel about it.

[00:37:19] Ali Goff: If 

[00:37:20] Ali Goff: they have portals, you've got all sorts of like online servers. You've got your computer, your thumb drives, heck you probably on your phone.

[00:37:26] Ali Goff: I recommend people give a copy to their healthcare provider so it goes in the whole system. So if anything happens, no one has to bring it, they'll just have it on file, but also bring it. 'cause you never know when you're gonna need your piece of paper to. Stick around.

[00:37:39] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay, so we talked about wills and trusts, and then we're talking about the durable power of attorney and the other version for healthcare.

[00:37:45] Christa Biegler, RD: Is there any other must have documents that people need to work with, someone to plan or create that should go on that overall checklist as they're starting to think about this? 

[00:37:56] Ali Goff: Yeah, sometimes in the will, but sometimes separate guardianship nominations. Anyone with minor children has gotta be writing down something of and giving information to the court that something happens to them.

[00:38:06] Ali Goff: Who's gonna raise their kids? Maybe 1, 2, 3. I love Free's backup list, but making sure that we've got a list of who would care for your minor children, who's in charge of them, who's in charge of their money that would be inherited by them. 

[00:38:18] Christa Biegler, RD: I honestly, I really don't even know if I wanna ask this or get the answer to it, but what happens if you don't have that?

[00:38:25] Christa Biegler, RD: What happens to kids? I suppose it depends on the state, but 

[00:38:29] Ali Goff: yeah, essentially the court is going to decide based on the information they have at the time where they think the most appropriate places, and it may or may not be what you wanted. Chances are it's not going to be strange. Things happen when people die.

[00:38:43] Ali Goff: Families show up from nowhere sometimes going, we had the best relationship and I know them and they told crazy. So you really want to give as much information to the court because they're making determination on where your kids will spend the rest of their, adolescents. 

[00:38:59] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, that's crazy.

[00:39:00] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay. Any other documents or you feel pretty good about that? Those are the ones you would start with essentially, right? Will, will. Power of attorney. Will trust, 

[00:39:09] Ali Goff: yeah, will power of attorney Healthcare Directive Trust is a good one. And then, yeah, guardianship. There's some other like ancillary documents.

[00:39:17] Ali Goff: Those will be state specific in terms of how we fund those trusts. But those are the biggest, the most important ones. 

[00:39:22] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay. All right. So what age life stage is the right time to get serious about this kinds of stuff? And I grouped this under when we had a conversation about what you would bring to the retreat.

[00:39:34] Christa Biegler, RD: I was thinking about this in terms of like asset protection overall. And we talked about okay, plan A is if you're gonna. Live your ideal life till 90 and then things are gonna happen the way you want. And then the plan B is and if things go south or if you get incapacitated, that's a thing.

[00:39:48] Christa Biegler, RD: But anyway. What age or life stage is, I don't know. I feel like this is a very subjective question, but when do you see people getting serious about, or what is your feedback around this? 

[00:39:58] Ali Goff: Yeah, I think the majority of our clients come to us in retirement ish age. I call them the golden years.

[00:40:03] Ali Goff: They've gathered some wealth, they've probably seen some loss. They're starting to think about their own mortality a little more and are ready to get serious about it. I don't know that's the ideal time though, because like you said, that's great if you're just gonna like live to 90 and then die in your sleep, which we all hope to, right?

[00:40:21] Ali Goff: Maybe a hundred. I dunno what everyone's goals are. But that doesn't account for what you said, the plan B. And the next sort of chunk of clients that come to us are the two of minor children, they're now going, oh, I have created humans that I love so much and I have assets now and I know that I want them to be well cared for if I'm not here.

[00:40:40] Ali Goff: And that's when you start having kids and going, oh, you have life insurance, you probably have a house, you might have some retirement accounts. And the thing about that we didn't really go over, if something happens to the parents, two parents, it doesn't happen that often, but it does happen.

[00:40:55] Ali Goff: Unfortunately, something happens to both parents. With no planning. All of it goes through probate. You're like that was pretty bad. I. It gets worse because then it goes through a guardianship and it's stuck in the courts with them being supervised until they turn 18. And the second that kid turns 18, they do a final accounting and boom, they get a hundred percent of the money in their account.

[00:41:17] Ali Goff: Can you imagine what an 18-year-old is gonna do with a bunch of money?

[00:41:20] Christa Biegler, RD: I 

[00:41:20] Christa Biegler, RD: can only make guesses. 

[00:41:22] Ali Goff: It'll, yeah. And so we've got like double and so I think anyone who has minor children, really it don't, you don't need a crazy, fancy plan, right? Let's just talk about making sure that we avoid probate in the event of something happening to one.

[00:41:37] Ali Goff: Either or both parents, if there's only one parent, even more important. Check it, pay attention to it, and then maybe do some more sophisticated planning once you get in those other ages. Most people don't need sophisticated planning in their twenties or thirties or even forties, but they need something.

[00:41:52] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, you can start with something. So I was talking to our finance expert this morning for the retreat and she said something that I think applies completely to this area of conversation as well. She said one of the biggest problems I see is that women. Don't take action around something or don't do something because they don't know everything yet or they don't have all the pieces yet.

[00:42:10] Ali Goff: Oh yeah.

[00:42:10] Christa Biegler, RD: And actually I think I see that in health too sometimes. But in general, I think, I feel like they're really married here. Not only 'cause we were talking about. Investing stuff. And this is kind of asset protection overall, big picture things. But I think it would be very easy, 'cause I think I might be that person as well.

[00:42:27] Christa Biegler, RD: It's oh, I hadn't really thought about where I wanted that stuff to go. 'cause I hadn't even thought about that at all. So it wouldn't take action if I didn't know everything yet. Where it's yeah, we suddenly think that like when we're 60 we're just gonna know where we want everything to go magically.

[00:42:39] Christa Biegler, RD: Exactly. Oh yeah. And so I just think it's oh, we have to start somewhere. And that's actually leads to my next question. So it's if someone's listening to this. Or they're a little overwhelmed by the idea of it. What is your advice for starting? 

[00:42:53] Ali Goff: Yeah, listening to this is great. Maybe doing some self-education.

[00:42:56] Ali Goff: A lot of attorneys will have, a specific attorney, get a referral, see if they have a webinar or a seminar where you can learn from the expert online can be a wild and crazy place. Sure. Also has. So much misinformation and a lot of crazy town on there, but finding really good reputable sources doing some education.

[00:43:16] Ali Goff: But I would actually meet with a professional who can say, okay, based on your situation, here's what I would recommend, or, here are your options. You can't, as I said to a group of, I was presenting to a group of teachers, wonderful humans, and I said, you can't learn this. You can't learn yourself into an estate plan.

[00:43:34] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah.

[00:43:34] Ali Goff: Sign up so we can help you. And they laughed and they went, okay, fine. And they signed up and we got their estate plan done finally. 'cause they've been trying to figure it out for years. And I was like you can't learn anymore. You've done it. But if you're just starting out, I think I, a YouTube page, it's very California specific.

[00:43:50] Ali Goff: But like I said, find a referral for someone that you like in your area. See if they have some educational information on there. And then. Don't wait until, oh, most people go I don't know who my guardians are, so I'm not gonna plan anything. I was 

[00:44:04] Ali Goff: like,

[00:44:04] Ali Goff: but now nothing is planned. 

[00:44:05] Ali Goff: That's not a good solution either.

[00:44:07] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. For me, I think about, like before we get together and I understand it more from the attorney, I'm just waiting for this retreat to unlock this next piece for me so I can take the next piece. But what I think about even from hearing this conversation is literally just taking pen to paper and what do I think are some of the answers to some of these questions?

[00:44:25] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Do I have any opinions about. My organs. Do I have any opinions about who should take care of me when I'm sick? By the way, it's my sister-in-law. A hundred percent. Thank you, Helen.

[00:44:34] Ali Goff: And but in writing,

[00:44:36] Christa Biegler, RD: right? Yeah. Just those little pieces, and I only say that just because man, it is from the health.

[00:44:41] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh, let me share a little something. If you don't have someone, something that kind of sucks about healthcare right now is that if you don't have someone who has some healthcare background, sometimes you can get walked all over. And you probably have this in your industry as well, it's like it would be very easy to get walked over if you don't know.

[00:44:56] Christa Biegler, RD: And so my experience has been time and time again that these people with a health background are able to really advocate for their family. And it's both of my parents would probably would be like completely incapacitated, but my mom would be dead if it wasn't for like the healthcare providers in my family advocating for her a hundred percent.

[00:45:11] Christa Biegler, RD: And my dad would be paralyzed if there wasn't. And

[00:45:13] Ali Goff: right. 

[00:45:14] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah.

[00:45:14] Christa Biegler, RD: It is unfortunate. And it's not meant to be fearful based, but that's why I say my sister-in-law who's like a lovely nurse and human who has saved both of my parents' lives, thank you very much for that. By just being a very good advocate.

[00:45:26] Christa Biegler, RD: Right? And so I only say that because it's I can also choose my husband somewhere in the lines as well, but he doesn't really have a health. Background at all. I'll be a great, I would be a great person for him to put down because I will be a good advocate for him. But sometimes you don't know he's the right people.

[00:45:39] Christa Biegler, RD: It's not just oh, I love him, so I'm gonna choose him. I'm gonna choose someone who's got. Some know-how in the background on purpose, I suppose you wanna ask that person as well. Usually. Also,

[00:45:48] Ali Goff: it's a good 

[00:45:49] Ali Goff: idea to check in with them and go, Hey, I'm considering this, but that's why you do backups, right?

[00:45:53] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. 

[00:45:53] Ali Goff: But if she's not around you want a backup, you want a third, and most online forms aren't gonna say that. The lawyer will go, did you know you could have three people in a row? And you're like, okay, let, or, and they have two fine. Let's do two. You can come and update these later. Give it five years.

[00:46:10] Ali Goff: You'll change your mind anyway. That's fine. 

[00:46:12] Ali Goff: Yeah. But at least 

[00:46:13] Ali Goff: you'll have that protection, for that time period. 

[00:46:16] Christa Biegler, RD: I feel inspired from our conversations just to put some pen to paper so that way I can like, 'cause I'm sure the right attorney will give you a list of here's the things you're gonna need to fill in to start to,

[00:46:25] Ali Goff: yeah.

[00:46:26] Ali Goff: I can give you some, like in a two minutes the basics that you need to decide. So first, who would make financial decisions for you if you couldn't name three names. Second, medical decisions. Who's gonna make medical decisions for you if you can't make those three names? Medical decisions. Do you want your life prolonged or not?

[00:46:44] Ali Goff: Do you wanna be an organ donor or not? What do you want to have happen to your body on the, what happens to my stuff? So who's gonna be in charge? That's your gonna make financial decisions? Where's your stuff go? If they're not around? What's your backup? If you have minor children, who's gonna raise them?

[00:47:01] Ali Goff: Who's gonna watch their money? And at what age do we give control of the money over to the kids? 

[00:47:08] Ali Goff: That's like the, some of the biggest decisions you have to make. If you have even half of those made, usually a really good advisor can help you fill in the bubbles or fill in the blanks of the other things.

[00:47:19] Ali Goff: Okay. You don't have that. Oh, you don't have a trustee? I have a professional. Oh, you don't know what prolonged life means. Let me walk you through the options. Let's place some scenarios and you can make a decision. Yeah. Like usually we can get the thing to the end. If you come with even half of those made.

[00:47:34] Christa Biegler, RD: That's really great. I love that so much. And Ali, where can people find you online? I know you said your YouTube channel is a little bit California specific, but I still think it's a starting point 

[00:47:43] Christa Biegler, RD: potentially.

[00:47:43] Ali Goff: It's got good information. Yeah. So Goleal, GOF as in Frank, F as in Frank, legal dot com's.

[00:47:48] Ali Goff: Our website. I think if you just Google Goffle YouTube, you'll find it. I'm sure there's a link on my website there. We've got social medias that nobody pays attention to. 

[00:47:58] Christa Biegler, RD: It's fun stuff, it just real translates real easily and single slide information, right? 

[00:48:03] Ali Goff: Yeah. We get most of our clients from referrals and return clients, so although we have a presence, and I do a lot of educating, most people come to us who already know us, partially because it's a sensitive topic and they want someone they can trust.

[00:48:16] Ali Goff: Even as the lawyers, like there's some shady people out there, or they don't do only estate planning, we only do this. We don't do personal injury. We don't do criminal law. I'm not gonna divorce you. 

[00:48:28] Ali Goff: Dead people. Future dead people. 

[00:48:31] Ali Goff: That's what we do.

[00:48:34] Christa Biegler, RD: I feel like the shirt lands better after the whole conversation too, so it 

[00:48:38] Christa Biegler, RD: does.

[00:48:38] Ali Goff: You're like, oh, that makes more sense why she's so dark.

[00:48:40] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Like I'm not even sure if I should listen to this actually right at the beginning.

[00:48:45] Ali Goff: Oh, she knows what she's talking about. If they're in California, they're welcome to fill out a thing if they're not in California and you find my website and go.

[00:48:53] Ali Goff: I like you. I know a ton of attorneys. I'm happy to connect you if I can. I'm happy to do that. So I think in the show notes, you'll have some sort of website they can click on and go, yes, I heard her on a podcast. I live in this state. Please help and we're not gonna charge you anything.

[00:49:06] Ali Goff: Just say if we can't find you a good attorney in your state. 

[00:49:09] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. How lovely. If you wanna come hang out with Allie and I, there's probably also a link in the show notes to apply for the retreat, which is very well curated of cool humans and we're gonna have a great time how we talk about

[00:49:21] Ali Goff: this few spots left, right?

[00:49:22] Christa Biegler, RD: Yes, that is true. So do it now.

[00:49:24] Ali Goff: Available.

[00:49:25] Christa Biegler, RD: Exactly. I'm so glad to have met you. Thank you. Shout out to our mutual friend Maya for this introduction. And I hope that people found this helpful today and I can't wait for it to come out. So thank you so much for coming on today. 

[00:49:38] Ali Goff: Thank you.