ChristiTutionalist Politics | Christian Perspectives on Constitutional Issues

CTP (S3EOctSpecial14) Guarding What You’ve Built

• Joseph M. Lenard | Christian Activist & Author in Politics • Season 3

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CTP (S3EOctSpecial14) Guarding What You’ve Built
[BOOKS / AUTHORS Weeks - Week 3 sub-episode 2 (Tue. 20251028)]
A practical talk with attorney-author Evan Turk on protecting family wealth before crisis hits, plus a look at his First Amendment nonprofit and why prevention beats repair. We share real cases, simple tools, and clear steps people can follow under stress.
• estate planning basics and why trusts must be funded
• titling property at closing to avoid probate costs
• coordinating beneficiary forms with the overall plan
• divorce exposure and designing separate property safeguards
• Medicaid planning timelines and long‑term care realities
• how to hire lawyers for value rather than hours
• examples of small mistakes becoming five‑figure problems
• free speech cases and the mission of American Rights Alliance
• funding challenges in public‑interest litigation
http://TurkLawGroup.com http://AmericanRightsAlliance.org  

A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Institute Politics Podcast, aka C T P. I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard, and that's L-E-N-A-R-D. C T P is your no must, no fuss, just me, you, and occasional guests, type podcast. Really appreciate you tuning in. Graham Norton will say, let's get on with the show. Hello everyone. Welcome to Books Authors Weeks. October of 2025. I had Health Weeks in February 2025. I had a Music Weeks, three of those in the month of March 2025. So here we are October. I have a lot of fellow authors I have the chance to have discussions with. So Books Authors Weeks, October 25. Without further ado, let's head into a discussion with a fellow author. Hello everyone. Welcome to another Christitutionalist podcast. Joining me today will be Evan Turk. He's coming on as part of Books Authors Week. He is an author of an asset protection book. So and other things to talk about. But since it's Books Authors Week, we'll start there. But before we even get to that, where were you born and raised and where are you now? Kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Of course. I was born in North Jersey, a suburb of New York City, a town called Rockaway. It's about 40 miles west of Manhattan.

SPEAKER_00:

People generally know that name following 9-11, the connection with Rockaway there. That's Rockaway, New York, though.

SPEAKER_02:

That's in Brooklyn. This is Rockaway, New Jersey.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, completely different. Oh, I just learned something.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. So all those songs by the Ramones, like Rockaway Beach and Rockaway, um, there's a couple of them. They're all talking about New York, not New Jersey.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Rockaway was like a um, it started out as like a weekend town where they had these like small houses around a man-made lake where people would vacation, and then um as commuting got easier, or people were willing to commute longer, they uh it became so you had mountains, you had uh hills, you had a little of everything. Plus, you had the uh great city of New York within an hour. And then I moved down to Boca Ratone, Florida in around 2003-2004. Um, I went to law school here in Fort Lauderdale at night. I ran a financial company during a day, and then I became a lawyer, and I'm admitted to practice law in Florida and in New Jersey.

SPEAKER_00:

So uh I'll try to avoid the Jim Carrey liar liar movie jokes. You can do whatever you want. I'm a guest on your podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Remember that you call the rules.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. So, indeed, what is the book title and what motivated you to the book to write the book?

SPEAKER_02:

It's called Asset Protection by Design. I um I would give you a much sexier explanation as to why I wrote it, but the truth is what the truth is. I uh I was a younger attorney at the time. If you could look at the picture on the book, um for those looking behind the scenes I was.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, those looking behind the scenes video, they could see you held that uh audio there. Ah, whatever. All right.

SPEAKER_02:

So so for people in the listening audience, uh I I'm now 48. I took that picture probably when I was 31, but I um I caught up to looking like I'm 48. But when I was 31, I didn't look like I was 31 yet. So I just caught up really quickly in my life. But when I wrote this book to answer your question, it was not towards the 1% of the population that owns businesses and multivarious businesses and they're sued and they want to be uh protected. This is for your your mom and your pop, your aunt, your uncle that has sacrificed their entire life and uh whatever their fortune is, however little it is or how great it is, it's everything. And if they uh go through a divorce or they go through a lawsuit, they can never replenish that money. That's my audience, and that's why I wrote it. And what I wrote it was in a format that I learned best in when I was in law school. Um, there were these uh books they called example, they were called example and explanations. So that's what I wrote. I took every concept that was a little complicated, I simplified it, and then I split it and broke it down into an example and an explanation. I think people learn best when they understand through through explanations and examples rather than just being reading what would be otherwise a boring textbook.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, broad, general hypotheticals, yeah. If you can somehow relate it in a way that at all relates to them, yes, it it obviously is easier to grasp then.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh being involved in estate planning, obviously you've run into examples of where people have gotten themselves into trouble and the estate isn't what it was anymore, and yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

This is how I make a living. Um about one half of my living is preventing problems, and it's not that expensive. The other half is fixing problems. That, my friends, gets expensive.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I uh it's a sad seat, and and also I meant to say at the top of the show, this show is gonna be different because most of the books and the authors I've had on have been fiction. So we're dealing non uh nonfiction real-world kind of stuff here, uh very different than the other shows. And one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on is a variety from the all, you know, so it isn't just all fiction books. But you're right, human nature, unfortunately, we it's why is it a Christian show? I repeat over and over, it's why Jesus said the poor will always be among you. He wasn't trying to make an economic or a governance statement, he was making a human nature statement. We all are lazy in some aspects of our lives that we should pay more attention to and do more. And there are some people who will just do the bare minimum possible in any endeavor and expect others to take care of them. So human nature laziness is, ah, things are going okay. Let's not upset the apple cart. Let's just let things go. And as I say to people, hope is great, it's wonderful, we need more hope, but it's not a strategy, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh-oh. No, that that's for sure. And I believe when you uh you do God's work and you do the right thing time and again, um, you don't really need hope because uh you're blessed and uh you do the right thing, and uh the blessings are exponential. But yeah, once you start putting your own self-interest ahead of everyone else's, you then wonder why you can't get ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and even uh this is a fallen world. I mean, Jesus isn't meddling in all eight billion people on earth affairs every minute of every day. Bad things happen to good people at times, and as we were saying, indeed, if if you're not on top of things, you wait for it to go bad, it's exponentially more problematic to deal with once it's gone bad.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, very true. So I always say to people. I'm sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

No, go ahead and finish your thought. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

I always say to people, the one thing you could expect in life once a quarter, so every three months, is something you didn't expect to happen that was a lot worse than you could have anticipated. You got fired or checked bounced or a family member got sick, you're a car accident. But if you could understand it from a perspective that there's going to be four of those things every single year, and two or three maybe within a week. But on average, about four times, you just if you had a checklist, you show, okay, got into a car accident, wasn't expecting that. Am I healthy? Yes. My car totaled, yes. Is it gonna cost me money? Fine. But I'm healthy, I'm okay. Check, that was a bad moment. Now you can move on instead of playing the victim and say, Whoa, it's me, I can't believe that happened. The one thing that surprises me is that we are shocked that mistakes, accidents, uh problems do not happen.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I like what you said there. Exactly. Right. A lot of people, that's another part of human nature, right? It's always somebody else's fault, the victim mentality, right? Something goes wrong. It wasn't them. It couldn't have been them. It's always gotta be somebody else's fault. And as a lawyer, although, right, like a civil attorney, they're they're full of people always constantly wanting to blame somebody else for something they may have had a part in, why it went wrong, but oh, I gotta sue somebody else. Uh it's a matter of perspective, is what you were alluding to, right? The expectation, as I said, bad things happen to good people. It's and you've got to anticipate that at some point some things aren't always going to go your way. And have that perspective of understanding. When it does happen, as you said, then look at the other blessings you have rather than solely dwelling on the one negative thing there.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

So the book uh a chapter, how how you know, to get into the nitty-gritty, uh, I don't know if you want to share a couple chapter titles or what, but how did you develop and break down and deliver so that people will make sense of what you're trying to educate them on?

SPEAKER_02:

It's it's funny because I it's it's I kept this book as simple as possible. So the first chapter is the basics of estate planning. So that's just the basics. Everything you need to know. Um, and then you hear estate taxes and gift taxes. That's chapter two. So that you don't need to read the entire book if you want to learn about veterans' benefits. You want to really learn about Medicaid. There's chapters for it. Asset protection for divorce, there's a chapter in here that lets you know how to prepare for it or what questions to ask. So I had I had a meeting today, but this is a meeting I have every day, is people think that they know what they know, what they need. Meaning, I got this covered. I know that I have my estate in order, I know that my my wealth is protected. I will assure you that within five minutes I could find gaping holes in that strategy. And this book is there to understand what I do for my audience, but they it doesn't replace me. And what I realize is when you summarize uh a complicated subject in a way that you could understand it or explain it to a child, then you're making a difference. But if you're just writing to yourself and assuming everybody's gonna be as interested on this subject as you are, you have a horrible book. I am this book is not meant for people to um read on a Saturday night and be riveted. It's meant for somebody who really wants to make sure that they understand what's going on. Perfect example. Um often my mom is getting sick. I know I'm the beneficiary, my dad's past. But what happens if she needs to go into a nursing home? Or Susie Orman said, put everything in your name and your spouse's name. What happens if you're for asset protection? What happens if your spouse decides the second you do that that she no longer wants to be with you? You just gave half of everything.

SPEAKER_00:

I know a story like that. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. And it never happens to the person that like you always say, look to your left, look to your right, one of you may have cancer, but you never look in the mirror. So you have to realize that statistically speaking, these issues are gonna occur in your life. You may miss a bad accident, but you may get cancer. You may miss heart disease, but you may get sued. One of these things inevitably it's gonna happen to you. So not to be the bearer of bad news, but the best defense is a good offense to be prepared and not to have to get an advanced degree or pay an attorney an excessive amount because that's the other thing is what are you paying an attorney for? You should not know the value statement. A lot of it that doesn't mean you're being billed correctly, it just means that this is how quick or how long it took your attorney to get your needs handled. If I can do your work because I automated the system in a fraction of my competitor, and my work product is much better, why is my work, my competitor, charging three times as much because he or she is being less competent, um, less productive than me. I never agreed on working based on a clock. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And yeah, so yeah, what I'm gathering and understanding here is like the book. You said yeah, it's certainly not a light read yet you casually do. It's kind of an education tool, a research tool. People may need part of it, but not another. But I would like to urge, as you said, it's best to be prepared, whether you think you need a section of the book or not, immediately, to at least peruse every chapter and section, to have at least an inkling and understanding. If it does creep up overnight is unanticipated, you have a basis of understanding to start with, at least, rather than being completely clueless. And then, of course, if they need more detailing, they can go back to the book in that chapter and dig deeper. Make sense.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. And also, instead of me just telling you, you know, you should create a trust because it will avoid probate. It's much better to say, I'm working on a case since this morning that the mother created the trust, she sold her real estate, was buying a new new house, didn't have the trust at the closing, so she figured since she has no mortgage, she'll just do it after the closing. She just got into a car accident, it's no longer uh living. So we have to handle the probate, unfortunately. So people do this all the time. And that cost that mistake, even with most basic reasonable attorney fees, time and everything else, it's at least the$20,000 mistake. That's not my legal fees, that's just all the other issues. Little things. So if you read my book, you would have seen that right here. Like closing on a house.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you need to do?

SPEAKER_02:

So it's not meant to read from cover to cover. You could read this chapter pertaining to your needs to the next chapter when it pertains to your needs. As long as you have the table of contents, here's the book. As long as you have the contents here, you're fine. Estate planning, age-related needs, creditors, divorce, alternative planning, alternative investments, private insurance, and captive insurance. Over the years, there was seven subjects, eight subjects that I constantly got asked on. So rather than showing the world how smart I am, I just became smart by showing the world how easy this topic could be understood by getting rid of the uh extra fluff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's detail.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't have to write this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm sure a lot of other lawyers don't like you very much because you have tried to simplify some things and they like things complicated. They make a lot of money at it that way.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah, the more you complicate, the more you build, the more you make. It's an unfortunate system. But if you do good work um and you constantly focus your efforts on good work, you don't have to search for new clients as much, as often. So you get the money, you got a better client base, and you sleep at night. What a concept.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so that was asset protection by design, which covers a whole lot of other things. One other thing I seen on the uh we came across each other through a service called Podmatch. Guests and podcasts come together to find guests or find a podcast. In fact, in your case, I think you reached out to me rather than me reaching out to you, which I'm glad you did. Uh or or maybe I'm thinking of somebody else. I I don't they all get scrambled at times, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, no, my office, my office um likes to schedule like one or two podcasts a week. So um they probably reached out, someone from my office reached out to you. And uh I'm blessed because magically shows up on my computer, so on my calendar. But I've installed ahead of time that uh you better do an extra job on this one. He seems extremely nice.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh well, I actually understand the importance and value of communication. I've communicated with them several times via PodMatch versus some other guests who their profile test usually responds within four weeks. Like, you know, not interested past, right? If you can't communicate there, you're probably not going to be able to communicate very well during the show. Uh, you know, if you're not able or willing to stay on top of things like the services with you and passing information back and forth. But anyway, that's off the beaten path. On the pod match thing, there is a guest tag, freedom of speech and politics. Well, the freedom of speech part obviously kind of what caught my additional attention. What aspect or regard or what made that seem such an important thing and concern for you that it's listed on the profile?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I was asked to um with a generous donation from somebody who's really well known nationally or internationally, absolutely, um to create this charity for freedom of speech because of what was going on in the political world. I don't know uh about your podcast if you want me to go uh political.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't want to um it used to be called Christitutionalist politics. I took politics out because the constitution, as part of Christitutionalists, automatically implies politics. So, yes, by all means, uh I've had communists on the show. I expression show, I've had atheists on, so hey, any and every opinion is welcome. I don't censor guests. So, and I I see this as leading up to right, founder of a movement, the American Rights Alliance. That's what we're talking about here.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, yes. So we are uh First Amendment focused uh 501c3, national, that we take on cases that are affecting all of America, and um we try to be um focusing not on a political ideology but more on a moral one. And um we believe that a fundamental right of a society is the freedom to speak your mind that differs from a freedom to offend others because if you do not offend others, you do not have the freedom yourself speaking your truth because you have to speak into the confines of someone else's uh ways that they are offended. Some people, especially yes, and especially in society now where we're getting to become it's political correctness, is the end of a society because when you can't speak the truth because the other person who may not have a truth, but it's their they call it now their truth. There is not their truth, there's not your truth, there's just the truth.

SPEAKER_00:

There's reality and then there's delusion, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. And you know what it's like? It's like the kid who uh pushes the uh big the little kid that keeps pushing the big kid, and the big kid says, you know, you're a little kid, I'm not gonna touch you. And after a dozen times, the kid thinks he's invincible and he just embarrasses the big kid, and then what happens? The big kid one day decides to show that he is not gonna take it anymore, right? We live in a society like that, and we understand we don't understand why people like Charlie Kirk just got assassinated, it's because we allow over time to happen, and those that free speech is anything that is anti-Judeo-Christian values, and when you hear someone like Charlie Kirk getting assassinated, well, he was sexist, he was biased, he was this, he was that. No, he was a devout Christian.

SPEAKER_00:

Give an example, and and an example is always right. You don't support gay marriage. Well, I support civil unions, I have gay and lesbian friends. They're not what I coin gate of engaging in gate of vism. That's a red line biblically that I do not abide by crossing, right? If you're pedophilic and attempting to recruit rather than just, oh, I'm a person who happens to be gay, please tolerate and accept that. I've got no right, because final judgment is for the Lord, not us. Condemn that lest he be condemned. But there are indeed red lines. So uh yeah, it uh I forgot where I was gonna go with this, but that that's where the homophobia comes in. If you won't support the destruction of marriage that's been around forever between a man and a woman, you're somehow sexist or homophobic or right, and that's where those terms come in. They don't know. It's like I um gays and lesbians attacking Chick-fil-A for wanting to support traditional marriage. They're not against civil unions, which give gay and lesbians rights under the law regarding asset sharing, uh, health care is a big issue because of HIPAA laws, right? A spousal benefit without destroying marriage, but yet they will literally promote Hamas terrorists who would literally throw them off a building for being gay. The disconnect is just amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

It makes no sense.

SPEAKER_02:

Zero. And that's what the essence and the core of what we're doing. Um I'll talk about um cases that we're representing. We have a woman by the name of Tina Peters. Uh, I don't know if you're familiar with her her case, but she was um charge of elections in the state of Colorado. And after the 2020 election, they um basically were the state of Colorado insisted that they updated their Dominion machines, which would have erased all of the voting status. And because of the allegations that there was um irregularities at best with the elections, she didn't think to get rid of all the evidence that can possibly prove that there were irregularities would be the best course of action. So she sent that data to a whistleblower, and for that, for following the federal law, because if she didn't, she would have broke the federal law. The state was compelling her to break federal law. And what did she get? She got seven or eight years in jail. She's in jail right now.

SPEAKER_00:

We're trying to get her out through a presidential pardon or some other uh at least a commutation of the sentence to let her out.

SPEAKER_02:

It's just a 70, I think she's 76 years old now, 76, and she's spending the later years of her life in in a horrific situation. It's not like you're she's in a male institution where um they separated by low level, medium level, high level. Um, there's not as many um prisons for females, so she's stuck there with murderers and you know, all all questions. Um figures of society, all there within the same household. For what? For exercising her freedom of speech and for not wanting to um you know look the other way when others would because it's easier. Rather than to promote these people being heroes, they're villainized and demonized. And just to give you perspective, the person who tried to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh, um, they're seeking the same amount of time as this patriot. So you could try to kill a U.S. Supreme Court justice and get the same amount of years and trying to uh protect data that can show irregularities of a federal election that can expose corruption. Now that's why why I wake up every morning doing this.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm glad we ferreted this out. I'm glad we ferreted this out. I want to wrap it up because I try to keep my shows shorter. So hopefully I call it today's Twitter attention span or TikTok extension. Right? Everybody wants short. Yeah. Uh I'm glad we ferreted it out, though, because I see, you know, defending civil liberties. And a lot of time that's code word for protecting the bad guys. So I'm glad we cleared it up that you're on the side of the good guys here, like the ACLJ, uh, as opposed to the ACLU, which has become nothing more than just a leftist arm of the DNC. Is there a website where people can reach out, find out more about the book, reach out to you, whatnot?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so for the book, it's Turklawgroup.com. That's my website. T-U-R-K lawgroup.com. That's how you find me. Uh to what look on the cases we're working with the charity. It's the American Rights Alliance.org. Um the American Rights Alliance.org. Um please look at if you agree on the help. We could always use fundraising and nice generous donations because or or as much as you can give, because at the end of the day, uh there's three things in life that's uh guaranteed. There's really four things in life that's guaranteed. And you know what the fourth thing is? Lawyers will never be anything but expensive. So when we have to fight for civil rights, I as a lawyer can't do it myself. I need a whole army of legal minds, the best of the best throughout the nation.

SPEAKER_00:

Especially if something's gonna potentially go to SCOTUS, like ACLG. A ACLJ has been involved with teams, several cases that have gone to SCOTUS.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, because we just filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court um over the weekend, and uh that's another example of a case that we're just allowing as a friend of the court um case law and rational thinking that amazing legal minds brought to our attention that was missing in certain cases, and those violence, they're not ex they're not inexpensive, they're costly.

SPEAKER_00:

But money can be made. Freedom yeah, that's another case that can be found under American RightsAlliance.org.

SPEAKER_02:

Correct. Yeah, we have plenty of cases. Uh we're just not short of cases, we're just short of funding because each case could cost us in excess of a hundred thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_00:

And the other side, often you're fighting, has access to taxpayer stolen monies. They have endless supply, they don't care how much they spend, they waste. And they purposefully, like with all the Trump uh law fair, it's meant to cost our side our personal funds money. They want to bleed you dry as part of the process and hope you'll go away or hope you'll knuckle under, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

That is the process. That is that is the playbook. And we try to uh you know look at their playbook and defeat their playbook. And the only way we can do that is with um, and this is why I do these podcasts, with an audience that understands and supports, that promotes the values that we have as an American country, uh as a Judeo-Christian principled country that has a um a higher authority than our own personal emotions and feelings. And I have two young children that I was born during the 80s. I tell this every single day I make this statement. I was born into the Ronald Reagan rope, looking at him and looking at America, looking at Rocky IV and Russia as our enemy. Right now, we can't agree as a nation on who our enemy is. We look, we're looking internally.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, um, we've got a whole lot of people that are allied with our enemies. I mean, I often say a lot on the left have more in common with Al-Qaeda than fellow U.S. citizens, right? They can't try to call us theocratic, but they have more in common with the Taliban wanting to impose their immorality as opposed to Taliban's supposed morality upon. They are dictatorial by nature and psychological protection. They try to call everybody else a Nazi, though they want more, more, more government. It takes more government regulations, more laws, more intrusions on our lives. Anyway, that's a good place to end it. Thank you, Evan Turk, for coming on. I appreciate you stopping by.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you. I appreciate your time and thank you uh for allowing me to spread my knowledge to your audience. I greatly appreciate that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for tuning in to books. There will be several different books, authors, several different authors, books, authors, weeks for October of 2025. And remember, you can check out my books at josephmleonard.us slash shop. And again, Joseph M. Leonard, it looks French, it's French, it's not Lennard, it's Leonard without an O. And I have to put the middle initial in there because there is a Joseph Lennard, who is also a Christian author out of South Carolina, so I have to make that distinction. And going in line with books authors weeks, I've joked as guests on other shows. I am not he, he is not me, and neither of us will be confused for Shakespeare. And frankly, most writers out there are not going to be confused for Shakespeare. They're not trying to be. There might be a few that, you know, looking for that Renaissance era feel, but hey, it's a new millennia, people. Right? This is the here and now. It isn't Shakespearean Renaissance area. If you're looking for Shakespeare, reread Shakespeare. Take care, God bless, love you all. Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and Care Episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned in for Christitutionalist Politics show. If you haven't already, please check out my primary internationally available book, Terror Strike. Coming soon to a 15-year-old. Available anywhere books are sold, all stuff and no book, just straight to Tiscops Boy. A show that opens a variety of topics mostly politics to a Christian US top 5. So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Take care. God boy.

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Joseph M Lenard

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