The NEXT BIG THING with Keith D. Terry

Protect It, Grow It, Pass It On: The Power of Trusts with Attorney Vaughn White

• Keith D. Terry

Share episode

You’ve spent years building your family, career, or business. But here’s the question: what happens to everything you’ve worked for when you’re gone, or when you can’t make decisions anymore?

In this episode of The NEXT BIG THING with Keith D. Terry, I sit down with Attorney Vaughn White, who brings over 30 years of experience helping families and entrepreneurs protect their assets, avoid costly mistakes, and pass down wealth the right way.

Together we explore:

  • Why a trust can be more powerful than a will
  • The common mistakes that leave families vulnerable
  • How trusts can safeguard both entrepreneurs and everyday people
  • The risks of poor planning and how to avoid them
  • Why estate planning is about more than money: it’s about peace of mind and legacy

Attorney Vaughn White’s deep experience in estate planning, civil litigation, and wealth protection offers practical insights for anyone serious about protecting what they’ve built.

Whether you’re considering trusts vs wills, planning for asset protection, or thinking about generational wealth, this conversation will give you the tools and confidence to start planning your legacy today.

🎧 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and watch full episodes on YouTube: @keithdterry.

Send us your thought on this episode.

Support the show

Keith D. Terry and JJaed Productions, LLC produced this episode. www.jjaedproductions.com

Please Follow us on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@keithdterry

For podcast guest recommendations, contact kterry@keithdterry.com

Keith D. Terry:

Welcome to the podcast. The Next Big Thing. I'm your host, keith D Terry, a consultant, a coach and a serial entrepreneur. The mission here is to teach, inspire and to motivate. Today, we're talking about trust. Think about this you work decades, you save, you build, you sacrifice and then, in a moment, your family needs you the most, everything you've worked for is stuck in limbo, eaten up by taxes or lost to the wrong hands. That's a nightmare. Now the dream is to know that what you've built actually lasts. It supports your loved ones, protects your business and is passed down the way you intended it to be. Today's discussion is all about that, and that's why I've brought on someone who spent more than three decades helping families do the right thing Attorney Vaughn White. Now let me introduce you to Vaughn.

Keith D. Terry:

My guest today is Attorney Vaughn White, an advocate for change with over 30 years of experience in both civil and criminal law. His mission has always been to fight for his clients, restore dignity and help those to move forward with their lives. Vaughn has represented both creditors and debtors in estates ranging from nothing to stakes in the millions, successfully litigating in multiple states and federal jurisdictions. What makes him stand out is not just his legal expertise but his heart. As a fluent Spanish speaker, he ensures every client truly understands the process. Outside the courtroom, he's a committed volunteer supporting organizations like Hope Worldwide and the Chicago Skyline Afterschool Project. He's licensed in Illinois and admitted to practice before the United States check this out. Supreme Court Vaughn brings both depth of experience and a deep sense of purpose to his work, and today we're going to enjoy that conversation. And I might add, he's a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, incorporated Absolutely Von. Welcome to the show. How are you, my friend?

Vaughn White:

I'm doing well today, my man. Thank you for breaking up my day. You know I get to enjoy myself talking with one of my brothers, so I really appreciate that. Okay, and the community as well others.

Keith D. Terry:

So I really appreciate that, and the community as well. Bob, before we dive into trust and wealth strategies, I want to spend a little time in your personal story. What pulled you towards law and specifically estate planning?

Vaughn White:

I think what pulled me towards law is that I just always was a passionate person when it came to advocating and advocating for myself. Number one you know, being a middle child being in my house, I was always told that. You know, I talked back a lot. I had I had many explanations for things. You know always always having to justify things and speaking out for myself. Number one my parents always joked that I should be a lawyer one day. We never had one in the family. I should be a lawyer one day. We never had one in the family. I was actually the first one to go to college, you know. So, yeah, so you know I was just motivated and I did it. So I think, and particularly law, I see so much injustice in the world, I see so many people needing that. It's just a passion of mine.

Keith D. Terry:

Okay, so was there a personal moment in your life that made you realize that you needed to protect, help people protect their assets?

Vaughn White:

I think just in my professional capacity I think even before I focused on estate planning I just had so many people coming to me with issues, and then even friends of mine that I knew that didn't have estate plans where somebody passed away or they didn't pass away, they needed a guardianship because they didn't have anything in place. And so they came to me because they had to go to court just to be able to access money that's in an account because somebody is not able to speak for themselves because they're in the hospital. So even that, that's part of it too.

Keith D. Terry:

Okay, so you work with people in all stages of life, and I'm curious to know what fears or emotions do you hear the most from your clients when they first walk through the door?

Vaughn White:

I think the biggest fear that they have is the unknown and the process. Okay, Because they're intimidated by lawyers, intimidated by the law, and they're intimidated by big companies, the can you know so that the trusted friend can advocate to me on their behalf. And then I have to tell them look, you know, I'm here for you, you can trust me, you know. And so the next time they come in, they come in by themselves, you know, because, okay, this is my guy, I can trust him, you know.

Keith D. Terry:

So I think it's a lack of trust, or just really hard to trust, you know, for many people especially when they just don't know A lot of people like me, like you, we're at that age where life's not promised and you work and you want to pass it on to your heir. Looking back on your own personal journey, kind of an interesting question for you. What does legacy mean to you? You?

Vaughn White:

know, legacy means to me, um, what I'm going to be remembered for. Okay, you know, and it's not just at your funeral, you know, with many of us think that's what it is, you know, oh, there were 200 people at my funeral, you know, or there are a thousand people at my funeral, or whatever. It's not that A year from now, five years from now, or even, you know, even talking to the people that never met you, you know, this is what your grandfather was like, this is what your great uncle was like, and to be remembered for. You know, what I did for my family and my community. So that's first and foremost, and then in that, protecting what you've built, you know, and not letting it go to waste. So that's what it means to me personally.

Keith D. Terry:

I concur, I like how you framed it.

Vaughn White:

It's how you're going to be remembered when you're gone.

Keith D. Terry:

I like that. I like that. I'm at that age now where I was having a conversation the other day where when you're young and you're youthful, you think you can do any and everything. I remember seeing Jaws for the first time. I thought I can swim inside the shark's mouth and survive man.

Vaughn White:

Now I'm Well, you're braver than me, brother, you're braver than me.

Keith D. Terry:

So let's get into it now. For someone hearing the word trust for the first time, explain it. What exactly is it?

Vaughn White:

A trust is a vehicle, it's a document, it's an instrument that is created that will own your assets. It might own your house, it might own your bank account. You put it in the name of the trust and it has direction in that document that says, in case I'm incapacitated, if I die, this is what will happen and that's better than a will. If I die, this is what will happen, and that's better than a will. It's way better than a will, way better. And we can get into that too. We do trusts and wills whenever we do estate packages for people.

Vaughn White:

Okay, because a will? If you do only a will and you say, when I die, I want everything to go to this family member, okay, okay, then, okay, then you die. Then what happens? That will gets recorded and you end up having to take that will to the courthouse, file it. Then you have to open a probate estate to get a judge to approve the will. So you still spend the money that you would have spent even if you had no will. I see, you see, and so what we do instead is a trust which covers death and incapacity. Okay, a will does not cover incapacity. So, for instance, if you've got everything you've built and you become incapacitated. Ok, which happens to many people, ok, they don't die is becoming incapacitated. It could be a stroke, could be you know any number of things, parkinson's, whatever. Right If you, if you only have a will, the will cannot cover what happens to you next have a will.

Keith D. Terry:

The will cannot cover what happens to you next. Gotcha, Gotcha, yeah. And so let's you know. I heard you when you said it's a part of estate planning. So let's rise above trust and help me and my listeners understand that when someone walks through the door talking to you about estate planning, you know, is the only element of estate planning the trust? No, or are there other aspects of?

Vaughn White:

it. It's more than that. It's helping them make decisions regarding managing what they have, protecting what they have, and there are many different kinds of trusts too.

Keith D. Terry:

It's not just, you know, one size fits all we're going to get into that because, you're right, there are a lot of them.

Vaughn White:

There are a lot of different kinds, a lot of options for people, and that's why you have to be careful. You know, going on these websites and saying, ok, let me, let me download a form that I can use. You know, when you don't know the effect of that particular form that you're using, you're just borrowing some legal language because it sounds good. Ok, let me create this document and now I'm protected, my family's protected.

Keith D. Terry:

And so what are some of the common mistakes that your clients or people make in trying to protect their assets.

Vaughn White:

I think number one is and it's through ignorance, and we all suffer from ignorance of some kind. Yes, we do, Me included, you included. You know there are things that we don't know and we don't know that we don't know. Right, you know and so, and then we hear different misconceptions. There's so many of them, you know. There's a misconception that if anything should happen to me, everything automatically goes to my wife. That's not, necessarily true.

Keith D. Terry:

That is a lot of people. A lot of people have that view.

Vaughn White:

Exactly, exactly. If I'm incapacitated, my wife can always call the pension board and find out what's going on with my money, not true?

Keith D. Terry:

Okay.

Vaughn White:

Not true, because you don't have the right document in place.

Keith D. Terry:

I see, I see so, but doesn't the spouse have some kind of protection?

Vaughn White:

Usually, I see, I see so. But doesn't the spouse have some kind of protection? Usually, okay. But you know, if you're not dead and gone, if you're incapacitated, that protection is not there Okay. And then if you pass away without making sure that proper beneficiaries in place, or you know, or the assets are properly, you know, disposed of, it could end up costing you money just to acquire those assets. Okay okay If there isn't proper direction given. Okay, okay. Yeah, and so it's not that the spouse won't get it.

Keith D. Terry:

What'll happen is that they'll end up sometimes spending money on people like me to help them get to where they need to be, where they didn't have to spend that money, Gotcha gotcha, if you had had the trust in place to help them get to where they need to be, where they didn't have to spend that money, gotcha, if you had had the trust in place, there's a clear roadmap that you can do what you need to do. Yes, gotcha, so if you don't have money? I mean because when you think about, you know, the average American, you start thinking about the different tribes of people across this land. Some folks have, you know, a nest egg of a couple hundred thousand, some millions, some, you know, 20,000. Is a trust only for the upper middle class? How would you delineate a trust placement?

Vaughn White:

Do them for people who have very little and for people who have a lot. And I tell them look, you need to make a clear roadmap for your legacy, regardless of the size of that legacy. I recently did one for a lady who had she didn't own any real estate and she um, she's a, performs and writes music and so the main thing in her trust is her musical equipment. Oh, you know, there are no other. You know huge financial assets or anything you know, but we wanted to make sure that that stuff was protected. Gotcha, you know. Now you might scoff at that and go, oh really, just, you know speakers and you know mixing boards and equipment and all that stuff you know. But that's important to her, you know. So we set up a plan for her that works for her family.

Keith D. Terry:

Yeah, I like hearing that everyone should consider you know a trust. You know because, let's face it, another man's trash is another man's treasure and I'm just sitting there thinking that you know, when you're not around you, really the trust can protect the little assets that you have and they can direct it to where it needs to go. Can trust really protect you from creditors?

Vaughn White:

or lawsuits, and that's another misconception as well. I have in my 30 plus years I have sued people who had assets in trust and gotten to those assets. Okay, so a regular living trust does not protect you. Okay, the standard one. You would have to do a special kind of trust. And then, even if you have property in trust, if you have money coming to you your creditors there are ways that your creditors can still get to it if you're not creative enough, okay. So yes, we can do it, but you have to do it far enough in advance before you get in trouble. Number one, because you can't just say oh my goodness, I'm about to be sued, let me transfer everything into some other trust or LLC or something, and then nobody will know what I have and then I'll be good to go.

Keith D. Terry:

So now I understand. I did my research. There's several different types of trust. There's an irrevocable trust. There's a special need trust yes, there's several, and what I'm also hearing you say is that there's a skill level to the lawyer or the person helping to set the trust up. Now, why is that?

Vaughn White:

It's because of the complexity of it. It's just naturally complex. Okay, you know, and that's why you can't just say, okay, I need this form. Somebody can't just contact me and say, hey, do you have a trust form that I can use? I can't answer that question because I don't know what you need. I see, okay, it might be a special needs situation. It might be a Medicaid asset protection trust. Somebody might be old, okay, or not even that old, but they know that they're getting up there in age and they don't want Medicaid to take their home, you know, if they need long-term care. So at least five years prior to the time that they get sick, transfer it into an asset protection trust and you know the house is still yours, but that's happening to my aunt right now.

Keith D. Terry:

My aunt is suffering from dementia. She needs to be in a nursing home and she didn't have her beautiful house and now they have to sell it or rent it or do something. And I did not know you talked about ignorance. I didn't know that you can just, you know, put it in a trust, like two weeks ago, and protect it. It has to be five years. So they're in the process of selling her house right now.

Vaughn White:

Yeah, yeah, and it happens to so many people that have your head spinning. You know, when I use the word ignorance, it's not even to offend people, it's just we just don't know so many things and I think the system profits off of people not knowing. You know the ignorance of people. It lends to the ability for so many to make money off of the process. Okay, I like that because you know, ignorance by definition is a lack of information, right, people?

Keith D. Terry:

it lends to the ability for so many to make money off of the process. Okay, I like that because you know, ignorance by definition is a lack of information, right, but people hear that word and they get so offended, like my wife. Yeah, they think I'm calling them ignorant Right right, right right right or ignorant let's kind of stay on the protection side. But, vaughn, we've all heard stories about trust going wrong, funds being mismanaged, families being devastated. From your perspective, what is the biggest risk people should be aware of?

Vaughn White:

I think it's who they nominate in their trust and letting them know that they're being nominated, and I think you know, just knowing that you can trust the people that you're entrusting yourself to Okay, the typical, most common trust. You actually manage your own trust.

Keith D. Terry:

You are the initial trustee of that trust.

Vaughn White:

Yes, that's typical of my my trust. I'm the initial trustee, then after that, you know, then my wife, you know, is the trustee, then after that my children in, then my wife, you know, is the trustee, then after that my children, in a certain order. Okay.

Keith D. Terry:

So you're really educating me now. So in a trust, the most common is the person who's setting up the trust and upon that person's death they can assign who goes. Who's the executor next?

Vaughn White:

Not just death, but also their incapacity. If something happens to them and they need somebody to manage their affairs, that's also included in the trust.

Keith D. Terry:

Okay, yeah, okay. And so how can families protect themselves from some of the dishonest folks that exist on the setup side of trust?

Vaughn White:

Well, I think number one you know, whoever you choose as an attorney, first of all check them out, make sure that they're legit and that it's not just some side hustle, it's not just something that they do occasionally. You know you want somebody that that, that that knows what they're doing and that has done several Okay, and then if they're not asking you detailed questions and getting proper information from you, it kind of will tell you that they don't know what they're doing. Okay, they need to be thorough. And then you need to trust the people that you nominate and that you entrust yourself to.

Keith D. Terry:

So that's interesting. So I would assume that it's less risky with the lawyer versus having the proper trustee. Is that a accurate statement?

Vaughn White:

Yeah, because the lawyer is going to make sure that things are written up in such a way that even your trustee can't abuse anything. Okay, that certain permissions are required, certain contingencies are in place and there's so many contingencies. That's why I cannot give somebody a form and say use this form, okay, it's impossible.

Keith D. Terry:

And how long does it take to set a trust?

Vaughn White:

up, I usually, typically, will see somebody um an initial meeting. Then maybe two weeks later, you know, unless there's no if, if there's no emergency, you know happening, if they're not, you know, close to their deathbed or something, and you know. Or if they're not leaving the country, you know, in a week, and they absolutely need to do this and we want to be thorough. We want to be thorough. We're not rushing through and spitting something out as fast as we can. It's actually just doing what's best for the client and having them review it and make multiple changes so we can come up with a great product.

Keith D. Terry:

Okay, okay. So let's shift a little bit. You know I the way I have this title. I have a title protected. Grow it and pass it on. Is it is it accurate that trust can also be used to grow your wealth too? You know it it it.

Vaughn White:

Uh, it's part of the vehicle as you're growing it. It's just the entity. The trust is really an entity, okay. So it will not by itself produce any growth. You still produce the growth. Or your company produces the growth, or your financial advisor helps you produce the growth, or your investment vehicle produces a growth, but your trust would own that vehicle, or your trust would be who your financial person is going to report to as you're building your wealth. So it's part of the growing process, but it's not going to generate the growing process. I got you, I got you.

Keith D. Terry:

So let's talk, let's talk. You have two groups of people. You have a regular husband and wife and now you have an entrepreneur. Should they be thinking about trust differently? And break that down for me and my listeners?

Vaughn White:

I think I don't see a huge difference between the two. If you run a business, you want to make sure that that business is protected and you want to have succession planning. Most of us don't think about succession planning at all in our business. We're going to live forever, man. Think about succession planning at all in our business. We're going to live forever, man. You're going to live forever and you know if you drop dead or if you're in the hospital all of a sudden what happens to your operation. You know who handles the accounts, who handles the receivables. You know the bills that are due, property that you have that belongs to someone else. You know all of those things. Those are all considerations. So part of my estate planning that I do with people also is for their business, to make sure that those things are all laid out, mapped out, and so it would differ in that sense from a typical maybe family or something, and some people are in both. Some people are in both camps at the same time. How is that?

Keith D. Terry:

possible, thinking about their family, yeah, yeah, Now, how is that possible?

Vaughn White:

Well, if they're a business owner, but they're also a family person, so for many people they're doing multiple parts of estate planning as one person. Yeah, oh, okay, providing for different scenarios like the two you mentioned.

Keith D. Terry:

Okay, if I'm sitting question correctly.

Vaughn White:

Okay, and so right now, do the laws or the legal structure for setting up asked is well, I'm thinking of moving to Florida, or I'm thinking of moving to North Carolina soon, or whatever. Should I wait till I move to the other state to set it up? Because, no, it doesn't work like that. Typically, states are copycats when it comes to estate planning law and there's also a uniform code that they pretty much use and they tend to stick to the script and mimic each other with our estate planning laws. They're not all exactly the same, but if your trust was valid in one state, it gets respected in the next state.

Keith D. Terry:

You know that's a very good. That's an interesting point. You know in one of the companies that I was a part of a startup we were incorporated in Delaware and so I never, when I think of a trust because I need to set one up myself. I don't have a trust. I have a will, of course, and I didn't think that the trust law was pertinent from a state perspective. So what I'm hearing you say, the only trust you can have is in the state you physically live Right and that's not true.

Vaughn White:

You set it up in the state that you live in, right. Okay, please explain Right.

Keith D. Terry:

Okay, yeah.

Vaughn White:

So, for instance, I'm an Illinois resident, so I'm going to set, I'm going to set up my trust here in Illinois, um, but, and, and and. I don't want to get too complicated, but you can have multiple trusts.

Keith D. Terry:

By the way, no, please do Just like. You can have multiple companies you know.

Vaughn White:

Okay, so you can set up a trust, uh, you know that, uh, that your, your wife's assets are protected in that trust. You can set up a trust for your children, separate from your own trust. You can set up multiple trusts for one person. It's not very common, okay, you don't do that, but it is still possible. It is still possible.

Keith D. Terry:

It is still possible.

Vaughn White:

Yes, it's still possible and you're not limited Like, ok, you have a trust, that's the only trust you can you can have. That's not true.

Keith D. Terry:

OK, and so.

Vaughn White:

But there might be situations where somebody might set that up, just like you can set up multiple LLC.

Keith D. Terry:

Yes, and a lot of people do that. Yeah, a lot of people do that. And so why would someone have a living trust if it doesn't protect you?

Vaughn White:

Is it in the case of sudden you die, the moment you die the new trustee will have direction pay this person, pay that person, divide my assets. You know, do this, do that, okay, without seeing a judge, without seeing a lawyer which is beautiful, yeah, saving you thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. If I get incapacitated, if I get sick, something happens to me, I can't function. My successor trustee will do X, y and Z, will manage my affairs, will secure the interests of my company, will do this, will do that without seeing a judge. I'll give you an example, okay, and out of a couple that came to me and, uh, the gentleman was very, very sick and had a really bad dementia and he had some money tied up with his um, with his pension, and they needed to get to that money and they wouldn't talk to her. She's a beneficiary, she was a beneficiary on the account, but he's not dead, see. So they would only take effect if he was dead. Then she could talk to them and say, hey, you know, we need access to that money.

Vaughn White:

So I went to the, I went to the hospital to see him from the rehab center to see him, and he was in bad shape, couldn't even understand anything I was saying to him. So I looked at her and I said we have to go to court. And so I filed a guardianship petition on his behalf and it cost some good money for me to do that. I filed it, did everything that I was supposed to do the day before we were going to go to guardianship court to get that guardianship order so that we can talk to the pension board order, so that we can talk to the pension board, so that we can get his money. Then he passed away right before, you know, the day before. So we went through all that wheel spinning and they spent a lot of money and I felt bad because I was like, wow, you know, um, I mean, you know I still provided an important service, but it's a step that could have been avoided. Gotcha With, you know, with proper planning.

Keith D. Terry:

So help me to understand the cost of setting up a trust. How costly is it? I mean, I know there's a range depending on the complexity of your assets.

Vaughn White:

Yes, there is a range and with anything, with any kind of service, one of the things that you always have to watch out for, just like any service that you get you order for your home or personally or anything if somebody comes in really, really, really low it has to raise an eyebrow. A true professional, you know it is.

Vaughn White:

if somebody is worth the service, you know it will end up sometimes being a little bit more, but I would generally say you can expect the range to be somewhere around, you know, 3000 to maybe $7,000 or more, depending on the size of the trust. Yeah, it could also. It could. Also. This is dependent on the size of the trust. It could also depend on the size of the assets. It could go even beyond that sometimes. It's just very complicated. Well, I know it's not Now. Contrast that, though, with going to court and paying lawyers and paying a retainer.

Keith D. Terry:

I have, I have. I mean, the one thing in life I've realized is you pay for what you get, and I agree with you. I just know that, incorporating some of my companies, you know people, you can do it online or you can go to a professional who's asking you a number of different questions, which kind of segues me into. You know, are there generational differences that you're seeing? We've got millennials, we've got Gen Z, baby boomers. Are they thinking differently about their legacy, about their assets? Because there are some very wealthy millennials and there are some very wealthy Gen Z-ers. What are you seeing?

Vaughn White:

You know I'm going to speak to that. I recently talked to a group of young people there's this young professional group in our church that met and they like to talk about topics sometimes and they asked me to come and speak to that. They were just so attentive to what I was saying and taken in very, very seriously. And I've spoken to groups of older folks sometimes and I get the opposite and it really surprised me that it was flipped in my mind. You know, I thought the very thing that the you know, the older folks like my you know I'm 61, you know and you know people in you know our more mature age group and above you would think that this is kind of stuff that they would think about more. But we can sometimes be more stubborn than the younger folks, you know, and we don't need it because, guess what? It hasn't happened yet. So because something hasn't happened, it's not going to happen.

Keith D. Terry:

Yeah, you know that's interesting and I'm going to pause there for a moment, which is why I kind of brought in legacy. I think you have some folks who don't really care about their legacy and let me phrase that because if you disagree with me, let me hear from you. But this is what I mean. I generally think people care about whether they're considered nice or mean, but to me, when I think of a component of legacy is how I leave my family, the strength of my family, if my children are down and out. And it hits me. I think I shared with you when we were playing golf.

Keith D. Terry:

I lost my youngest child and that changed me. It changed me because you know, in my mind I never thought that I would outlive any of my kids. So as I think about legacy now, I think about, yes, keith's done some good work, vaughn's done some good work, but if I've left my family destitute upon my death, then I don't think my legacy is so great. Now, that's my definition. I don't know if other folks have it, which is why I asked the question about the differences in generation, because earlier I said at 18, full of piss and vinegar, that I could swim inside of the mouth of a shark and survive.

Vaughn White:

Now I don't even want to go into the water, so that's where I am no-transcript who tell me, vaughn, I don't have anything, so I don't need to do this. Literally, they say they have nothing, and I talk to them further and it turns out they have a house.

Keith D. Terry:

Yeah, and it turns out they have a house.

Vaughn White:

Yeah, okay, they have cars, they have a retirement account, they have life insurance, they have children, they have grandchildren. Sometimes, you know, and I'm like what do you mean? You have nothing? Okay, they think that they're not wealthy. Yeah, and I didn't say anything about being wealthy, I just said about protecting what you have. Okay, so your mindset needs to be I am blessed and I want to make sure that that blessing is protected and to bless my family with that blessing. So I think that's the approach and then reach out, reach out, don't, don't. Don't be afraid of the process. People are genuinely afraid, or they just think it's way too complicated and it's not.

Keith D. Terry:

Well, I appreciate that. I think if people understood the punitive component of probate. So help frame that, if you could for a typical American family. Help frame that, if you could for a typical American family. How much of a tax implication is it if you don't have these protections in place? That might help people to understand why you're such an important part of their wealth protection plan.

Vaughn White:

You know, it's not even about the estate. Taxes is a very high threshold and most Americans don't even have to worry about that. It's more of the punitive part of it is more of having to pay lawyers to go to court and then having, and so you're going to pay your lawyer, then you're going to pay. Sometimes you pay a guardian ad litem, which is a guardian appointed by the court, which is another lawyer, so now you're paying two lawyers on the same estate, I see. And then you're spending and the estate might not be that big, I see, but it would be devastating to that estate if there's like $100, blowing, you know, $20,000 of it on legal fees just to get to the money.

Keith D. Terry:

I want to. I want to. You know, pick your brain on Prince. Prince died suddenly, but he left. He had a whole lot of money. And so do you know much about that that you can kind of help claim that?

Vaughn White:

And full disclosure. I haven't dug deep into it, I just have a glancing reference as to what happened with that estate and from what I know or I think I know is that Prince did not have a proper estate plan, did not put a trust, all that stuff, and so it was just left to. You know, whatever the legal system said, you know needs to take place and people's interests and chaos. You know, if he had literally had and I don't want people to go, well, I'm not Prince so yeah, no, no, no, but it's a good lesson in if he had written all of that stuff out right as young as he was, he wasn't expected to die. No, he wasn't. No, you know, like 50 something or what was he?

Vaughn White:

54, 55 something, yeah, exactly even malcolm ball warner. I mean, you know you know, we can go on and on about people who die suddenly you know. Yeah, so you know, it's this mindset that it's something that I don't have to think about right now and we just get rid of that mindset. And if he had changed his mindset and I don't know if there are other reasons why, I don't know if there- were religious reasons or other reasons why he didn't do that.

Keith D. Terry:

I don't know if there were religious reasons or other reasons why he didn't do that, and I'm going to make an assumption as well that a trust can help a family be more harmonious than having a bunch of conflict as well. Is that?

Vaughn White:

an accurate statement, absolutely. There's nothing better than clarity, like I did my wife's aunt's estate plan recently, and she didn't have a whole lot. She didn't have much of anything, but I did a simple letters of direction and powers of attorney, things like that, and what her wishes were when she passed away. And it's amazing how, when people see this stuff in writing, they don't fight, they just don't. They just don't Because it's the absence of it that makes people fight, because they think you're hiding something or they think that because it's not addressed, hey, it's my opportunity to say what I want or what I would do as it relates to that person and what they have. But it is very clear this person gets the car, this person gets this, this person gets that. Divide this account in such and such a way you know, or lump everything together, dispose of it and then divide it among my children, whatever. Then your children are not going crazy. Or one's seeing this lawyer, another one is seeing this other lawyer. It's very clear. So it actually brings harmony.

Keith D. Terry:

Get it now, you know you brought a lot of clarity to the picture here.

Vaughn White:

That I forgot to silence the phone.

Keith D. Terry:

So we're, we're, we're, we're getting to the end here. Von, if someone is listening and feels overwhelmed kind of a generic question how should they start? Just pick up the phone and give you a jingle.

Vaughn White:

Or should they?

Keith D. Terry:

go to a financial advisor first.

Vaughn White:

You know they can go to their financial advisor, especially if they really trust you know somebody they really trust. But I encourage people I talk with so many people, keith, that I give free advice to you know, and I probably do it too much, you know, and I probably do it too much, you know I probably could make more, you know it. Just, it's just how I'm wired. Okay, I probably do it too much and that's okay All right, because I believe that I'm blessed when I just give more. So I talk to people and I and I just give as much information as I can so that they can make those decisions I see. So I just encourage them reach out, call the phone number, call 630-429-9010, 630-429-9010, or they can go to vwhitelawcom.

Keith D. Terry:

One final question for you. Question is what do you want your legacy to be?

Vaughn White:

Wow. What I want my legacy to be is I want them to know man, my family and my community to know this was a hardworking brother who left his family in a better situation than they could have ever been in and took care of his family and provided for them even in his death, you know, and then left a mark and impacted many, many souls. That's what I want my legacy to be.

Keith D. Terry:

Great, thank you. Protect it, grow it, pass it on. That's the blueprint Von White. Thank you very much for bringing clarity and wisdom to this show. I really really appreciate it For everyone listening. Don't just think about your legacy Start building it now. Thanks for listening to the Next Big Thing. I'm your host, keith D Terry. If you've enjoyed this episode and you'd like to support this podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media or leave a rating and a review. To catch all the latest from me, you can follow me on my YouTube channel at Keith D Terry. If you want to recommend a guest, please email me at info at terryperformancegroupcom. This has been produced by your host and Jade Productions.