We open this week’s Ask the Experts with a heartfelt thank you to the LGBTQ allies among our listeners…and you know who you are! Our topic this week is estate planning, why it’s important and how to avoid a breach of fiduciary responsibility.
Why is estate planning important?
Everybody needs these estate planning documents. Whether you have a million dollars, whether you have $1 ultimately when you die, there is a legal process that needs to take place. And what the will does is appoint the person who will do that legal work for you, whether it means wrapping up the one dollar that you have or the million dollars that you have. The apartment that you’re renting or the house that you own. Landlords have such strict laws when a tenant dies.
So even if, you know, you’re sitting there thinking, I have no money, I rent an apartment, you know, this that the other. And we only die once, right? The other piece to this is, yes, everybody needs a will, but you’re only going to die once this whole life, your whole like 82 years, I wish you have. you’re going to do this thing called death once. So a will is important for that one time you’re going to die, but guess what? You’re probably going to break your leg a couple of times or experience some other injury. So having a will is important, and I’m not downplaying the importance of a will, but you’re only going to die once. So all of these other documents are just as important.
You will actually use these other documents in life if you get hit by a car on a bike or you have something legal like closing on a house. I had a couple needing to close on a house, and one is opening a hospital in Minnesota, and it was supposed to take two months, and it’s month four, and there’s no end in sight of opening up this hospital. So they closed on a house. 9/9, September 9, and one Scott went to closing for both Scott and Patrick because they had a durable power of attorney, so the one didn’t have to fly all the way in from Minnesota to close on a house. Scott went to closing for both of them. So that can happen in life.
What is a breach of fiduciary responsibility?
So as a lawyer, we are already at the level of a fiduciary by just having that license. But when you appoint someone as your durable power of attorney so, like when the example I gave with Scott going to closing for both he and his husband, right? He has a fiduciary duty at that moment while performing that act to act pursuant to the durable power of attorney statute and laws and be compliant with them. So if he had gone to closing and not signed his husband’s name and just bought it himself, that would have been a breach of his fiduciary duty that he had on that day. He was acting for himself and for someone else. You have to maintain both as a durable power of attorney and or as an executor and or as a trustee in the best interest of your principal or of the estate that you are representing. So Scott could have stolen the house and just bought it himself and not signed Patrick’s name and gone off into the wind, and that would have been a breach of his fiduciary duty in that moment. Or executors who if the executor fee is 10,000 but nobody’s watching because there’s no attorney involved and they pay themselves $50,000, that’s a breach of the fiduciary duty to the estate. You were due $10,000, but because nobody was really looking, you paid yourself 50. So it’s basically doing something that you’re not allowed to do when you’re in one of these appointed roles.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:31.610] – Speaker 2
Hey, good morning, Philadelphia, and welcome to another as the Experts radio show we’re here this morning with. We bring you the finest experts in the areas of legal, health, financial, and home improvement. And as we always do on our very first show is we start off with our attorney, Angela Giampolo. Good morning, Angela.
[00:00:58.600] – Speaker 3
Good morning, Steve. How are you?
[00:01:01.330] – Speaker 2
Hey, I feel good. Well, Angela, I got to tell you, we do shows in now, nine cities, and I got to tell you, we get more emails from listeners thanking us. Nothing pinpointing anything in particular, but just thanking us for bringing your show. People just love your show. And I got to tell you, I have learned so much because Angela works with the LGBTQ community when it comes to law. She practices estate planning, which we’re going to be talking about today, family law, employment law, real estate law, and business law. But I’ve never had a show that got so many letters of people just going, thank you. Just thank us for bringing this show to people. And I’m, like, amazed, because we do a lot of shows and we get thanks once in a while, but nothing like your show.
[00:03:06.090] – Speaker 3
That’s wonderful. I mean, I think it says a lot about what people are looking to listen to, to hear, to learn. Even if they’re not LGBTQ, they may know someone who is. And what I get from a lot of allies, especially, is that they just didn’t realize what difficulties their LGBTQ friends went through. I just gave a talk last week to a global Fortune 500 company for their LGBTQ History Month employee resource group, affinity group Talk. And so there’s about 500 people in that, and a lot of them are allies, and the majority of the feedback afterwards that the company sent me, they were almost all from allies. It was like 80% allies and 20% LGBTQ folks, because the LGBTQ folks know a lot of this stuff, and I’m preaching to the choir, so they’re grateful, but not grateful enough that they’re like, oh, my God, this was eye-opening, shattering information. But the allies are like, their minds are blown and their eyes are open. So given that this is AM FM, IHeart radio, I’m assuming 90% of the listeners are allies. And so I think that’s why a lot of the feedback is like, wow, thanks for this. This is eye-opening. This is educational.
[00:04:41.370] – Speaker 2
I’m going to share something with the audience. I was a sports agent, and I just found out that one of my pro football players, 6’6 325 pounds, basically just came out of the closet. Five years ago, I would have gone, oh, my God. Now, with what I have learned over the years doing your show, I’m glad he’s happy now. So I have gone from one end to the other. I’m, like, so happy for him that he doesn’t have to hide it anymore.
[00:05:27.950] – Speaker 3
And how old is he approximately when?
[00:05:30.270] – Speaker 2
He’s probably about 38 now.
[00:05:34.090] – Speaker 3
Yeah. Can you imagine just starting to live your life openly at 38 years old? I mean, it’s just it’s unfortunate, but it’s the reality, especially in professional sports and sports generally, and then and then the corporate world, and there are just areas where it’s more difficult. But good for him. To your point that some people never come out. So even though 38, it’s like, oh, wow, that’s a long time. But at the end of the day, everyone has their own process. Everyone has their own timing, their own journey, their own families that they’re dealing with, their own friends, and their own career. Right. Michael Sam basically not getting drafted because he chose to come out before the draft so that the Cowboys knew that he was gay before they drafted him. And sure enough, that ended that. Right. So he could have not come out, waited to get drafted, secure a team, and stay in the closet and have a career, but not be open and authentic about who he is. So it’s something that we all still struggle with. And this month, we still have a week left in LGBTQ History Month. And National Coming Out day is in October.
[00:06:55.270] – Speaker 3
So it’s a good month to be celebrating coming out.
[00:06:58.790] – Speaker 2
What is the city of Philadelphia doing?
[00:07:02.070] – Speaker 3
Celebrating. Not necessarily coming out, but celebrating being in the World Series, for sure.
[00:07:12.730] – Speaker 2
Okay. You know what else, Angela? I think the way that you educate people makes a difference, too. I know it’s. One of the letters we got was, I don’t want to leave the show to go to the restroom because I’m afraid I’m going to miss something. Angela says that is a supreme compliment to what you’re doing.
[00:07:46.390] – Speaker 3
Yeah, I don’t know where I got this. It’s just like one of those things. It’s not a skill that you fine-tune, but I think because there were no lawyers in my family and I never thought that I would necessarily become a lawyer until later. But is explaining things in very layman’s terms. Right. Whenever I need to work with a different lawyer or there’s an aspect of what I’m doing that involves or requires the assistance of another lawyer, even the way they talk to me, I’m like, I don’t do this. Use English. Use better words. What are you talking about? I’m a lawyer. Yelling at a lawyer to use better words, it’s like you’re getting paid to do a thing, but that thing needs to be understood by the client, and the client should not have to concern themselves with how you do the thing. They just need to understand what it is that you’re doing and why and how they will be positively impacted ultimately. But, you know, there’s things like the rule against perpetuities in estate planning that I would never talk about to a client. But when we talk about their trust and how we’re going to do ABC, they don’t know that in that I am making sure that their trust is compliant for the rule against perpetuities.
[00:09:26.190] – Speaker 3
Like, I had to go to law school, stick a pen in my eye to learn what the rule against perpetuities is. So I’m not going to make my client have to do that. That’s why they hired me, is to make it easy, seamless, fun to the extent that I can, and save all the big words and the big books and whatever for. Not that I think that’s what makes me appealing to my clients, especially after that first meeting when they see the dog and no big words and laughing, and it’s like, okay, she’s a lawyer and we’re going to get this thing done. But she’s a human, too.
[00:10:08.210] – Speaker 2
And Angela is very well educated. So to come down to us laymans, you never talked about anything that went over my head, and you just make it everything so easy to understand. So if you can imagine being a client of Angela’s that you don’t have to go, OOH, should I say something and look like a fool? No, because you’re going to explain it to people where they will understand. And I think that’s what makes your show so interesting is the way you educate people.
[00:10:52.820] – Speaker 3
And I think you hit the nail on the head, too, with even the way that you phrased it naturally was you don’t talk down. And unfortunately, that’s the generalization. And generalizations exist for reason. Stereotypes exist for a reason. Right. And it’s because lawyers tend to talk down to everyone, other lawyers, humans. I differentiate between humans and lawyers because they are two different species. And so you wouldn’t say talk down if I weren’t a lawyer, right? Or a doctor.
[00:11:29.550] – Speaker 2
Yeah, right. Exactly.
[00:11:30.750] – Speaker 3
Professions tend to talk down, right? Doctors, especially, like, even to me. And so and the way that I view it is we speak horizontally. I’m just speaking to you as another human horizontally, but it is true that your average lawyer will feel that they’re above, and so therefore, they talk down. I think the whole profession would be a lot better off if lawyers viewed themselves on the same level as their clients. Like, I need estate planning. I could get hit by a car and need a personal injury lawyer. I have friends that needed immigration help. I had a best friend open bankrupt. We all use these services. We’re humans, and we’re lawyers. And when we’re talking to clients, we should just remember our human self.
[00:12:24.830] – Speaker 2
I want to put this out there because it is so important, and I see it every day. Angela, there are more and more attorneys on their website are stating that they handle LGBTQ cases. And you know what? I got to tell you that you live this. This is your life. It’s not just your profession. And I got to tell you that I think that if you live in the LGBTQ community and you have a legal problem, go to someone who understands. And I think that’s what’s so incredible about you because I’m seeing more and more attorneys put that on their website, and I don’t believe it. Angela, you care and you understand, and that is an incredible trait to have.
[00:13:34.870] – Speaker 3
Yeah, there are a lot of places in the country where it’s unsafe to be out. Right. And we have new don’t say gay laws popping up all over the country. It’s not isolated in Florida by any means. So it’s important to have lawyers all over the country that whether they’re fully experienced or not, that if they’re truly allies and truly care for the LGBTQ community, that they put that out there, that they make that known, and then they should work to get the education they need in order to service the LGBTQ community well. And then there are the lawyers that just do it for pure marketing purposes. And I get it, and I feel like the LGBTQ community is used to people catering to and pandering to them and trying to get their business if you will. So we can usually see through that. Like, if someone is just throwing up a shingle but doesn’t really care to serve the LGBTQ community, we can typically see right through that.
[00:14:52.750] – Speaker 2
Well, this leads up to a perfect time. We’re going to go to break. Maybe you have a family member, a friend that is part of the LGBTQ. You want to share the phone number for Angela with them? We’re going to give you the phone number and her website right now before we go to break.
[00:15:17.590] – Speaker 3
So phone number is 215-645-2415, and the website is Giampololaw.com.
[00:15:25.770] – Speaker 2
We’re going to go to break, and we’re going to be talking estate planning today when we come back, we’ll be right back with attorney Angela Giampolo.
[00:16:58.230] – Speaker 2
And we are back. We are here with Attorney Angela Giampolo. She works with the LGBTQ community in the areas of estate planning, family law, business law, and employment law, and we’re talking about estate planning today. Angela, I just want to start off with something really easy. Just explain to people the importance of having a will.
[00:17:30.930] – Speaker 3
Yeah, I would say even more basic than that is that estate planning. I just had this conversation with a couple that recently divorced, and I did their joint estate planning as a married couple, and now they’re divorced. And I emailed them both and said, you want to update your estate planning documents? And they’re like, Why would we do that? And I was like, you’re divorced, but your husband is still your healthcare power of attorney, your durable power of attorney. And the one said, like, I have nothing, and I have no assets. I have nothing but debt. And I text them back and said, even a bum needs a will, right? Like, everybody needs these estate planning documents. Whether you have a million dollars, whether you have $1 that ultimately, if you die, there is a legal process that needs to take place. And what the will does is appoint the person who will do that legal work for you, whether it means wrapping up the one dollar that you have or the million dollars that you have. Right. The apartment that you’re renting or the house that you own. Landlords have such strict laws when a tenant dies.
[00:18:50.000] – Speaker 3
So even if, you know, you’re sitting there thinking, I have no money, I rent an apartment, you know, this that the other. And we only die once, right? The other piece to this is, yes, everybody needs a will, but you’re only going to die once this whole life, your whole like 82 years, I wish you have. you’re going to do this thing called death once. So a will is important for that one time you’re going to die, but guess what? You’re probably going to break your leg a couple of times. My neighbor just went over her bike and messed up her jaw and had her draw wired shut and had surgery on her arm and all messed up looking. So if she were renting, how do we go in and get the dog, right? She was in the ER, she’s 52, and didn’t have a healthcare power of attorney. The parents are like 90. They were all out of it. So having a will is important, and I’m not downplaying the importance of a will, but you’re only going to die once. So all of these other documents are just as not more or less just as important.
[00:19:59.150] – Speaker 3
And you will actually use these other documents in life if you get hit by a car on a bike or you have something legal like closing on a house. I had a couple needing to close on a house, and one is opening a hospital in Minnesota, and it was supposed to take two months, and it’s month four, and there’s no end in sight of opening up this hospital. So they closed on a house. 9/9, September 9, and one Scott went to closing for both Scott and Patrick because they had a durable power of attorney, so the one didn’t have to fly all the way in from Minnesota to close on a house. Scott went to closing for both of them. Right. So that can happen in life, right? So all to say, I sort of answered a question I felt like answering, and not the one you asked, but a will is important, but an estate plan with all of the documents is even more important.
[00:20:58.930] – Speaker 2
This is really strange. I do a lot of reading publications on newspaper publications, and I don’t know, something is going on in this world. People are dying at a faster rate. I mean, I just saw four people that I knew who they were, have just passed and they were anywhere from their late fifties to mid-sixties. I don’t know what’s going on. I have an idea, but this is not the right show to do it on. But we just never know when we’re going to die.
[00:21:43.170] – Speaker 3
No, I mean, I completely agree with you in my thoughts on why we consume non-foods. Like everything that we put in our body, just even walking through society and touching things disinfectants. If you fly, on average, they say we come into contact with 243 toxins. And as far as food goes, a great book that I’ve read once said, if your grandmother at this point, great grandmother. If your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it, don’t eat it. Right? So what’s a Fruit Roll-Up like? No, you don’t roll fruit up into like a congealed thing and suck on it. Like, that’s not fruit, okay? It’s like 90% sugar. So if your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it, don’t eat it. And that would eliminate a lot of things down from like Cinnamon Toast Crunch to Fruit Rollups. We can’t even get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich anymore. They make it in the bag. Like, you can just buy preserved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches anyways. We’re dying much younger, as are our animals, right? It’s similar, like what you put in the body, the body has to process it, and if it’s not able to be processed, then you’re not going to process it.
[00:23:01.770] – Speaker 3
So same. I just found out about a friend who died of cancer at 38. Another friend, like at 23. Cancer, cancer, cancer all over. So, yes, a woman that I was in a networking group with had a stroke at 47. Obviously, COVID is its own thing, but you take that out of it and just natural whatever, things are happening to people much younger and something like the stroke, where it doesn’t necessarily kill you, but it changes your life forever.
[00:23:41.580] – Speaker 2
Right.
[00:23:42.230] – Speaker 3
Her husband is her durable power of attorney now forever, until the day she dies and her healthcare power of attorney, and has so many more health appointments. And so it’s very important, like I said, to have all of these documents.
[00:23:58.250] – Speaker 2
You never know, do you, Angela?
[00:24:00.440] – Speaker 3
No.
[00:24:00.880] – Speaker 2
When that day is going to come and to say, you know, hey, I’m young, I’m healthy, I don’t need a will. That’s just not true anymore.
[00:24:09.250] – Speaker 3
Right? I mean, my friend had who had the stroke. She was on vacation and just woke up, got out of bed, and realizes, like, she was in the midst of having a stroke. But if you had asked her the day before she was in the prime of her life, about to go on vacation 24 hours prior to her stroke, she never in a million years would have guessed that she would have had a stroke. So you never know. And you could be totally young and feel fit and all of the things and still have something happen.
[00:25:01.970] – Speaker 2
No, but I guess what I’m just saying is don’t wait, it doesn’t matter your age and don’t think that you’re indestructible. We’re all in a position where we just never know. And with all crazy drivers out there, there’s so many things out there. And I just read a thing that there’s a lab in Philadelphia that has a new working on a new strain that has already killed like 80% of the mice that day. What effect? What I’m trying to say is am I trying to scare you a little bit? Go get a will done. There’s people who have a lot of money that thought they would live forever ever, Prince, and they ended up with no will. And you don’t want to do that, especially when you have someone like Angela who can sit down with you and make you feel comfortable about this because there’s nothing comfortable about death. Angela, I also wanted to get out there because I don’t understand it, but you have a fiduciary responsibility. But when it comes to a breach of fiduciary duty claim explain that.
[00:26:36.350] – Speaker 3
So as a lawyer, we are already at the level of a fiduciary by just having that license. But when you appoint someone as your durable power of attorney so, like when the example I gave with Scott going to closing for both he and his husband, right? He has a fiduciary duty at that moment while performing that act to have to stay and act pursuant to the durable power of attorney statute and laws and be compliant to them. So if he had gone to closing and not signed his husband’s name and just bought it himself, that would have been a breach of his fiduciary duty that he had on that day. He was acting for himself and for someone else. Right. And you have to maintain both as a durable power of attorney and or as an executor and or as a trustee the best interest of your principal or of the estate that you are representing. So Scott could have stolen the house and just bought it himself and not signed Patrick’s name and gone off into the wind, and that would have been a breach of his fiduciary duty in that moment. Or executors who if the executor fee is 10,000 but nobody’s watching because there’s no attorney involved and they pay themselves $50,000, that’s a breach of the fiduciary duty to the estate. You were due $10,000, but because nobody was really looking, you paid yourself 50. So it’s basically doing something that you’re not allowed to do when you’re in one of these appointed roles.
[00:28:22.340] – Speaker 2
We got to go. Angela give everybody your phone number.
[00:28:33.970] – Speaker 3
215-645-2415. And you can go to my website, giampololaw.com.