S03E131 The Importance of Estate Planning with Chris Nudo

Most families don’t need more stress, they need a clear plan. Estate attorney Chris Nudo joins us to demystify estate planning, showing how a few smart documents can spare your loved ones years of court delays, confusion, and conflict. We talk plainly about what actually goes into a plan, where most people trip up, and how to protect the people you love with simple steps you can take this week.

We start by breaking down the essentials: wills, living trusts, and powers of attorney for health care and finances. Chris explains why a will alone often sends families to probate, how a revocable living trust can keep things private and efficient, and why funding the trust, retitling assets and setting beneficiaries, makes all the difference. For anyone thinking “this is too complicated,” we dig into real-world examples that show how a home, a few accounts, and an IRA can trigger a two-year court process if you don’t plan ahead.

From there, we look at who benefits most from trusts: business owners planning succession and parents with kids who may not be ready to manage a sudden inheritance. Chris shares practical guidelines for staggered distributions, choosing trustees, and preventing the classic impulse buys that drain wealth. We also touch on estate tax strategies for higher net worth families and why many institutions now want powers of attorney refreshed annually due to rising fraud.

The heart of the episode is communication. Training future trustees, organizing logins and subscriptions, and aligning expectations before a crisis can transform a difficult season into a thoughtful handoff. Chris’s advice is simple: schedule a no-fee consult, get educated, and make a plan that fits your life. 

Reach Chris here:
https://ntegritylaw.com
https://youtube.com/@ntegritylaw
https://www.instagram.com/ntegritylaw/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophernudo/
https://www.facebook.com/chrisnudolaw/

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Transcript

Welcome & Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Welcome to the Leadership in Law Podcast with host Maryland for the noise. And inspiring stories delivered straight to your ears, your ultimate podcast for navigating the ever-changing world of law firm ownership. In each episode, we dive deep into the critical topics that matter most to you from unlocking explosive growth to building a thriving team. We connect you with successful firm leaders and industry experts who share their proven strategies in hard law wisdom. So whether you're a teasing leader or just starting your journey as a law firm owner, the Leadership in Law Podcast is here to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Welcome to another episode of the Leadership in Law Podcast. I'm your host, Marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, Chris Nudo, to the show today. Chris is an attorney who spent more than three decades helping families, business owners, and organizations plan for the future with clarity and care. Since earning his law degree in 1993, Chris has built a practice focused on wheels, trust, business accession, real estate transactions, and nonprofit law. Chris is known for a very human approach to practicing law. He believes estate planning isn't just about documents and legal structures, it's about people, relationships, and making things easier for the ones you care about most. His work helps families reduce uncertainty, avoid conflict, and move forward with confidence when it matters most. Today we're talking about why estate planning is so important, why putting a plan in place is one of the most meaningful ways you can take care of your family. I'm excited to have you here, Chris. Welcome. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Appreciate it, Marilyn.

Chris’s Early Career & Values

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about your leadership journey.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yeah, really, it started way back in 1993, like you said, when I came out of law school and I went into a firm where estate planning was really one of the main areas that they practiced in. And they thrusted, they pushed me right in and said, you know, the old adage, learn under fire. And that's what they did. They threw me right into the middle and said, swim. And I'm sitting with these older people at the time, I was in my mid-20s. So you can imagine anybody 30 and older were older back then. And I had to somehow focus on what was going to be important for these people when they passed away. And that was day one. And you never forget day one when you're thrown into the middle of something. But fast forward now, decades, and really um it's your own life and your own experiences and your own journey, which is my journey, that I now pour into the clients that I have. So whether it would be my faith, and I have a very strong Christian faith. So that grounds me in the advice that I'm helping clients when they're making decisions. I have elderly parents. And so understanding that. So really the journey is this long marathon that started at one point, was very impactful, but now has really evolved over decades.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

And I'm sure the stories you could tell, the experience of the way you've been able to help people get increases just consistently.

Family Dynamics And Money Tensions

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Absolutely. And from the family standpoint, everybody either knows that they come from a dysfunctional family, or they're lying to themselves. Because literally every family is dysfunctional. And then when you add, and let me explain dysfunction. You may love your sister, you may love your brother, but you guys grew up together, you know each other's flaws. And what happens is we take advantage of those flaws. We're not the nicest people to our own family, true, and we're honestly nicer to our friend base than we are to our family, and that's consistent in every single family. Now you add the complex element of money into the equation, and the dysfunction gets worse. And so, really, it's helping families navigate. I play part role sociologist, where I'm helping them guide their relationships, their expectations, and the things that are really crucial and important to maintain the family and not worry on the temporary, but think more on the eternal.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

I get that. Okay. And I know that estate planning is a very misunderstood thing and need. What do you think families really misunderstand about the purpose of an estate plan?

What An Estate Plan Really Is

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Excellent question, Marilyn. I would say you have the very technical and then you have the broad picture. We'll go with the technical first. An estate plan is putting together a group of documents that best take care of your family when you die. And so those documents could be trusts. People have heard of living trusts. That is an estate planning document. You have the will. The will's been around for probably 4,000 years. It dates back to Moses. I believe Moses, when they were in the wilderness, created the first set of wills as documented in the Bible. And so a will is a document that helps assets transfer from one generation to the other. And lastly, powers of attorney for health care and financial matters. These four documents are really the what people consider the core set of an estate plan. All of these documents designed to help the family when somebody's either sick or somebody dies in the family, getting the assets from one generation to the next. But that's on the hypertechnical side of things. And that is super important because people really don't understand that. But it's also a real love language. And so that's where it's getting away from the hypertechnical and saying, what should I be doing as a parent to put the things in place to care for my children the same way I've cared for my entire life? This is another act of love by putting everything in a very nice organized manner. So when I die, things simply are easily to be administered by my kids. And so those are the two sides of really estate planning.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Okay. I love that you describe it as a love language. You're just continuing to take care of them.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Absolutely. And making it right till the end. It's your last little care that you provide after you've left this earth. Wow. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Why do so many people delay creating an estate plan and when they know it's so important?

SPEAKER_01 7:30

I believe there's definitely two reasons, maybe three. The first one is the obvious. People don't want to deal with their own mortality. So I'm standing here today. There's absolutely no reason whatsoever that after this podcast I should drop dead. None whatsoever. But it's possible, hopefully not, but it's possible. And people are like, it's probably not going to happen. If I'm a betting man, after this podcast, I'm going to be just fine until the end of my life, whenever that is. And therein lies the problem. We don't know when the end of our life is coming. So people don't want to deal with it. They procrastinated. They don't know where the end is. They think they do. They hope they'll have time later. They put it off. So that's really reason number one. Reason number two, they think it costs a lot of money. They're like, you know what? They're afraid of spending the dollars. They're like, because really think about what we just talked about a minute ago. Is it's a love language. It's not designed to help me, it's designed to help my kids. I'm spending all this money for something that's not going to benefit me, it's going to benefit them. It remind reminds me a lot of life insurance.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

I was just thinking that.

Why People Delay Planning

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah. Life insurance, we don't receive the benefit. Our loved ones do. And I would say the third reason people don't do it is simply, Marilyn, your very first question. They don't understand it. And they don't want to bother to take the steps to get educated. So it's easier just to turn the other way.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

I see. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it is, it does seem very complicated, but I've had these conversations. It's not nearly as complicated as I thought it was. A little education goes a long way.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Absolutely. Half hour with anybody, and I can make them smart enough where they can ensure that they have put their estate in a good place for their kids. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

What kind of problems do families face when someone passes away without a plan in place?

Probate Explained With Real Numbers

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Excellent question, Marilyn. The biggest one is they're faced with probate. And probate is the court-administered process of getting the assets from one to the other. Say mom and dad pass away. Obviously, we hope they don't pass away at the same time. But often what happens is one dies, they do nothing, second one dies. Now the kids are standing there going, now what? And let's take a modest estate. Let's say they just have the family home, they have a brokerage account that has maybe$150,000 in it, they have a checking account with$35,000 in it, and a couple cars. So they're very simple people. These are not wealthy people by any stretch. They oh, and I forgot about their IRA. Everybody dies with an IRA. Let's say it's worth another$150,000. And okay, so possibly the parents have added beneficiaries to the IRA because the IRA manager had encouraged the parents to do that. So the IRA now gets inherited by the two kids. Everything's wonderful. The problem we have is we have a house that's worth five and a half, say$550,000, and it was just in mom and dad's name. How now can we get it to the kids? We had a checking account with$35,000 in it. It had mom and dad's name on it. Mom and dad are gone. How do we get it to the kids? We have a brokerage account with$150,000, same problem. Probate is the court-administered process where the court steps in, appoints somebody. We know this appointment as an executor or an administrator. Those are the same thing, different titles depending on the situation. And then that process gets the assets to the kids. Most people say, Chris, that doesn't sound so bad. Except for the average probate process lasts about 24 months, and the cost of it far exceeds$10,000 or more most of the time. Obviously, these things are jurisdictionally driven. I'm speaking really in the Chicago suburbs, different parts of the United States, the cost is going to be different, but the process is going to be the same. And whether uh a family prepared by doing a will, or they prepared with uh or they failed to prepare, as you had noted, if it's not thought all the way through, they're still forced to deal with this probate process. And that honestly is the biggest thing the majority of your viewers are going to want to reconcile with.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Two years is an incredible amount of time just to transfer assets. Yeah, for two kids. Yeah. That's yeah, and it just a simple document can fix that.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Absolutely. And Marilyn, we talked about the simple client, right? And I believe the majority of the United States are made up of those people, right? They're made up, they have their house, they have a little savings, they have those are everybody in our neighborhood. However, there are those one percenters, and those one percenters make up another big population where they're sitting on three, four, five, six, ten, fifteen, twenty million dollars. They look just like us. They're right in our neighborhoods, but they have tax problems. Note that I never talked about taxes at all as it related to the estate process. But taxes for the wealthy, and you define what wealthy is, is another huge reason why those people should be focusing on these things and not just ignoring it.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

And so then go back into taxes. So does the estate planning documents help you take care of those for your children?

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Absolutely. So when we recognize that somebody's gonna have a tax problem, meaning their wealth is so great that the government has the right to tax their money before it goes to their kid, then we have tools, different types of trusts that we use. And those trusts take advantage of various exemptions in the law that allow us to either minimize taxes or eliminate them completely.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Oh, wow. That's definitely worth worth giving you a call to talk about. Gosh, okay. Didn't know that. For families that feel a bit overwhelmed by all this, what are the core documents that they should at least understand and get started with?

Taxes And Advanced Trust Strategies

SPEAKER_01 15:10

I believe that a set of powers of attorney are really important, whether that's a healthcare power of attorney or a financial power of attorney. In today's day and age, a lot of people get sick, but they don't necessarily die and they become not competent to continue to manage their finances or even really make good health care decisions. In those instances, we want to make sure there is a family member appointed who can step in and help that disabled parent make good decisions. It could be your spouse, but it also could be a child. And we put people in line. That I'd say is really important. After that, you need to start looking at what's going to happen when you die. And having a will, I always say, is better than not having any documents at all. However, as we've discussed, trying to avoid probate is a worthy goal. And oftentimes a will won't avoid probate. So then that's where we start planning using trusts of some sort.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Okay. So when we look at trusts, I would think of something more along the lines of you've got a lot more assets, that sort of thing. Is that more like a business owner's coming to you and succession planning, that sort of thing? And can you clear that up? Absolutely.

Core Documents To Start With

SPEAKER_01 16:33

So a trust has a plethora of ways that it can be used. Let's first go with what you said. Absolutely. A trust is an excellent business succession tool if you own your own business and you need to ensure the viability of the of the business in some capacity after you die as it transitions to the next set of people who are going to be running it. Excellent tool for that. However, the other side of that is young couples that have young children because God forbid, parents pass away and they have children that are under the age of, I don't know, Marilyn, what do you think? Kids at age 30 become able to maybe manage hundreds of thousands of dollars? Not many parents would say, my kids are capable of managing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, sometime between the age of 29 and zero, zero to twenty nine, right? Obviously, after they come out of college, hopefully they're a little smarter. And if they've been in the world for a while, they're getting a little smarter. But really, when does financial adulthood set in? And so I always say if you have children under the age of 30, you probably want to trust because you're going to be leaving your whole wealth to these kids. Let's ensure we have some structure so that it can be managed in a very structured way so that these kids just don't get their hands on money and either have somebody bamboozle it away from them or they make bad decisions. For sure, I have the story of the 26-year-old mom died. Very first thing he did is he bought himself a yellow Lamborghini SUV. Like the like literally the first thing he did. And I'm like, Oh my god. Okay, there went$300,000. And those are not the things your average parent says, oh gosh, I hope my kid does that.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Yeah. Yeah, that's just too much at one time. I agree with having it pre-planned. And so this comes to my next question. What mistakes do you see people make when they try to do all of this on their own?

Trusts For Business Owners And Young Families

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Oh, so the biggest so I am a proponent of the do-it-yourself model for very simple estates. And when I say simple, I'm talking about like your bank account is not going to exceed$50,000. Like that, you just don't have it. You're living on Social Security, but you have a little tucked away and and you don't own your home anymore. Whatever, you're either living with your kids or you're renting, or and in this case, spending a lot of money with a lawyer probably isn't going to gain you anything from doing it yourself on, say, trustinwills.com. I I don't mind endorsing them. I think they have a great DYI product. Now, what are the problems that I see? I see two. The first one is in the execution of the documents. A will is has to have a very strict execution style. It has to have two independent witnesses. It has to, it should be notarized. There's lots of little details that if the document's not either prepared right or executed right, makes the document fail when we go to use it. And and this is the problem, Marilyn. When we go to use it, the person's dead. So we can't go back and fix it. And so the do-it-yourselfers, when they execute the document improperly, and we don't know that it was done improperly until they're after they're dead, there was no value in that plan. Second, are the people who really are like, say that real simple family we described, but yet they had probably eight, nine hundred thousand in assets with a$550,000 home,$150,000 in an IRA,$150,000 in a savings count. You know what I mean? Like it adds up quick. And those people try to do it yourself. And they can get the basics down. And let's assume they even get the execution part, they're still probably going to end up in probate because they didn't understand what was going to be necessary to ensure that the estate stayed out of probate. Or if they try to avoid probate, and one of the ways to do that is by doing a trust and trustandwills.com. Obviously, you can do a trust and it's right in their name, but they don't fund the trust. What does that mean? I understand that this looks like my coffee mug, but let's pretend it's the family trust. And the assets need to go in the trust. And that's metaphorically speaking, right? Because nothing can go in a trust. But it means that the assets are connected to the trust, and that's called funding. And so people might go to trustandwheels.com and do a trust, but then they fail to put the assets to the trust. And therein lies the DYI fail. And like I said, I'm a proponent for people doing it themselves when they fit the proper size, if you would, or simplicity. After that, I really advise that you hire a professional.

DIY Pitfalls And Trust Funding

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Okay. So a trust is basically an umbrella that owns everything that you own.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah, that's a great explanation.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yep. Okay. And so if you get a trust, but you don't like put their your house in the trust, it's not protected.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

It's you're not going to get the benefit. So the trust is a vehicle that takes care of everything, right? So this is going to take care of everything once you've passed. And so you You pass and you're relying upon the trust to administer your estate the way you drafted it. Goes to my kids, goes to my grandkids, right? I want Susie in charge. All of these things. If the house, in your example, is not titled in the name of the trust, then the trust can't control it because the trust must have the authority to control the asset. And the only way that can happen is by the trust being named in some capacity with the asset. So if you have a brokerage account at Merrill Lynch, you want it to be the Suzy and Jim trust as the account holder, not Suzy and Jim jointly.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

Okay. All right. That's making a bit more sense. Okay, so clearly it's it is more complicated, but it's not as complicated as many of us were are led to believe or just are afraid to think about. So I love this. You've been very helpful. Now, say we have that in place. We've got all of our paperwork in place, we're happy, go lucky. How often should we renew that or review it?

Reviewing Documents And Preventing Fraud

SPEAKER_01 23:55

You know, the trust, probably the trust in the will, probably every five years, I like to say. Definitely every life event. I really like life events as triggers, although the older I get, I really think a cycle of five years is a good idea. But life events, you got a kid that just graduated college, you just had a new child. If you're a young couple, both kids are out of college. You have kids that got married, you now have grandkids. The people you appointed to be in charge, your trustees, you no longer want those people in charge because they either died or you lost the relationship. These are life events that really should trigger you to consider updates to your plans. Now, with that said, in most jurisdictions these days, people are advising that your powers of attorney, your healthcare and your financial, those should be regul, those should be updated really as often as ready for this every year. Really? Yes, because what we're finding is, and what the jurisdictions are finding, is that there is a tremendous amount of fraud with powers of attorney. And so banks and other institutions are not wanting to rely on documents that are older because of because of the amount of fraud. And a lot of areas now say if you want your document to be most effective, and that's we're talking about powers of attorney, they should be updated every year. Matter of fact, it's so important here in Illinois that we've implemented a subscription program that allows our clients to update their powers of attorney annually if they're part of our program.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

Interesting. Wow, that's pretty amazing. So it sounds like a lot of this is it's being very clear on what your wants and needs are beyond. And then clear communication. How do you coach on clear communication and making the estate plan work as it was intended?

Train The Trustee: Family Communication

SPEAKER_01 26:03

I believe getting your children educated and involved in the documents that you've had prepared is very important. So much so that we actually do a webinar. One of the names of the webinar is called Train the Trustee. And we actually invite the children to sit and listen and understand the documents and what's going to happen and things they need to consider when they die. And listen, we're only talking about the major assets here in the transfer of those, but people really need to understand that you need to have access to the credit cards, access to the checking account, access to the internet provider, how many streaming services did mom and dad pay for? And how do we get access to those? Like, I have just this huge list of things that you should really get your arms around before mom and dad die. And so I think taking adult children and educating them as to things they need to consider before mom and dad are gone and getting those things in order just make the process easier. And this is even beyond the major assets we've been talking about.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Yeah, I love that. Just getting them on the same page, having them understand the things that we that that need to happen and their wishes, whether they agree with them or not. But the communication. So for somebody listening today who want who keeps putting this off, what is the first simple step that they can take to get started?

SPEAKER_01 27:44

I believe it is find a reputable law firm and make a no uh a no-fee consultation. So many law firms will offer you anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes at no charge. And most good reputable law firms will educate you and propose a solution in that time frame. And I I am a strong proponent of Google reviews. And so just, you know, when you're going to buy anything, a new stove, you're reading the reviews. Law firms are no different. Read the reviews, see what they have to say. Go to the one-star, two-star, three-star and hear exactly what went wrong in those situations, and then make an appointment and educate yourself. It should cost you nothing to get the education.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

And I know a lot of estate planning attorneys in the past uh do webinars or do a lot of education to get people to a level of comfort to contact them. And you said you do webinars.

First Steps And Finding A Firm

SPEAKER_01 28:54

We do a ton of webinars. As a matter of fact, integrity law, our firm, has a YouTube channel where we have hundreds of videos that people can watch and educate themselves.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

I love that. Integrity. Okay, we're gonna have to make sure we have a link to that. This has been very educational. I've I really enjoyed having this conversation with you today, Chris. If my listeners want to reach out to you, where's the best place that they could do that?

SPEAKER_01 29:19

It's really going to our website, and you'll have a link here in the podcast, but it's integrity law, and it's we drop the I in integrity. So it's n-t-e-g-r-i-t-y law.com. And from there, they can reach us. You got the phone number, you got the chat, you have email, you got everything.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Awesome. Fantastic. We'll definitely have that in the show notes. And again, Chris, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciated having you here. And this has been such a great episode. Got a lot of great information.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Thank you, Marilyn. I really appreciate being on.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Thanks for joining me today for this episode. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. And if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, you can connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take the next step with a digital strategist to help you grow your law firm, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to Lawmarketingzone.com to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, thanks for listening to Leadership in Law Podcast, and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode.

Resources, Contact Info & Host CTA

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Leadership in Law Podcast. Remember, you're not alone on this journey. There's a whole community of law firm owners out there facing similar challenges and striving for the same success. Head over to our website at LawMarketingZone.com. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources, and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us to review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep bleeding with vision and keep growing your firm.