Jeff Fouts: “Estate planning attorney, Jeff Fouts, here. You perhaps have heard me talk about “No-Fault” divorce. No-fault divorce is what we have in America. What does it mean when we say, “No-Fault” divorce? It means you do not have to have a reason to divorce your spouse.
Now, let’s take it one step down your family and let’s go to your kids. You have wonderful kids. They are the apple of your eye. Maybe you have a daughter that’s 27 years old. This is just a hypothetical scenario.
Your daughter is 27, and there’s nothing wrong with your daughter. She a fine daughter. She’s good to go – she knows how to manage money. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. Maybe she even has a master’s degree in finance from a good school like the University of Georgia, not Georgia Tech or any place like that.
Now, when she desire to get married, here’s the bad news. The bad news is that every year that passes, the pool of people that she could potentially marry gets smaller and smaller and smaller. Inside of that pool of people are people that have had life events – bankruptcy, mismanagement of money and maybe even divorce.
Now, I’m not trying to say that everybody that’s had a divorce is a bad person. That is not true at all. You can be totally innocent and have been in a divorce. But your daughter, when she finally marries someone, the person she marries will not come with a sticker on the shoulder that says, ‘I’m going to be a grade A spouse, and I’ll stay with you until death do I part.’
He also won’t have a sticker on his other shoulder that says, ‘You just wait until after your mother dies, I’m going to make a grab for the family money and divorce you.’
People do not come with stickers on their shoulders that tell us what kind of a person they are deep down. They don’t. I wish they did. Now, you could hope that these things don’t happen to you and your family, but I’ll be candid with you. Hope isn’t much of a game plan. Hope isn’t much of a game plan. You must plan ahead if you want to protect your love ones and keep your Family Money in your bloodline.
If you ever want us to help you, if you ever want to ask questions or review your estate plan, just let us know. Thank you.”
