Planning Across Borders: Caring for Family, Land & Legacy from Abroad (Replay)

Living across borders means more than booking flights home. It often means caring for aging parents, managing family property, navigating two legal systems, and preparing for the unexpected.

In this episode, Kerry-Ann is joined by attorney Renee Kendall of Caribbean Legal Solutions to explore the realities Caribbean families face when life spans multiple countries. Their conversation goes beyond wills to discuss elder care planning, powers of attorney, healthcare proxies, land ownership, estate administration, protecting yourself from fraud, and why organizing your affairs today is one of the greatest gifts you can leave your family.

Whether you're helping parents back home, own property in the Caribbean, or simply want to spare your loved ones unnecessary stress one day, this episode offers practical guidance for anyone whose life and family exist across borders.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why planning before a crisis matters
• How wills fit into a broader estate plan
• The importance of powers of attorney and healthcare proxies
• Common challenges of managing land and legal affairs across countries
• Practical steps you can take now to organize your documents, digital accounts, and family information
• How to avoid common pitfalls when buying or inheriting Caribbean property

Planning for the future isn't about expecting the worst. It's about making life easier for the people you love.

Renee Kendall is a New York attorney and founder of Caribbean Legal Solutions. Her practice focuses on estate planning, real estate, and helping Caribbean diaspora families navigate legal matters that span multiple countries. Through Caribbean Legal Solutions, she connects clients with trusted legal professionals across the Caribbean while providing guidance on cross-border estate and property matters.

Contact Caribbean Legal Solutions - https://caribbeanlegalsolutions.com/

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Support How to Support Carry On Friends

1. Donate: If you believe in our mission and want to help amplify Caribbean voices, consider making a donation. 
2. Get Merch: Support Carry On Friends by purchasing merchandise from our store. 

Connect with @carryonfriends - Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
A Breadfruit Media Production

Transcript

Copy

Welcome And Meet Renee

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Everybody, welcome to another episode of Carry On Friends, the Caribbean American podcast. I'm excited to have you. I'm excited when people I know meet a road and talk to a couple times, come on the podcast. So, my guest today is Renee. Renee, listen, we've been parring a couple times over the summer. So, welcome to the podcast. How are you? Thank you, Carrie. I'm well, thanks.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

I'm well. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Awesome. All right. So why don't you tell the community of friends a little bit about who you are, Caribbean country you represent, what you do, and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Oh, sure. Well, um, my name is Renee Kendall. I am an attorney. I am a native to New York, specifically Brooklyn, uh, descendant of Trinidadian migrant parents. Uh, so hence the Caribbean-American connection there, and uh deeply connected and committed to the Caribbean community uh based here in New York. So that's me in a nutshell. I have been in practice for a couple of years now, but have been a member of the legal community here in New York for quite some time. Uh launched their solo practice a couple years ago, focused primarily on estate planning, real estate matters, and assisting people with advocacy matters.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

All right, cool. We're gonna get into that. Renee, you really fulfill

Growing Up Trinidadian In Brooklyn

SPEAKER_00 1:30

your parents' dreams to pick from the top five career paths. I mean, you know, lawyer, doctor, you know. Yes. So tell me what it's like growing up second generation to Trinidadian immigrants in New York City. Tell me what was like that like.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Oh, wow. So although I am born and raised here in New York, I did spend a part of my formative years in Trinidad. So I think from the ages of maybe two to almost eight years old, I spent in Trinidad. So that is where my first memories were formed. That's where I learned to walk and talk and all of that. So it is poured into my foundation. When I came to New York, it was almost like I was a new person. It was almost like I was a migrant, even though I was born right here in New York. So many aspects of American culture are being introduced to me for the first time at the age of eight, which is sort of good because it means I remember most of it, right? So I remember what New York uh felt like and sounded like. And we're talking, uh, I don't want to date myself, but let's say Reagan was president and it was a unique experience, um, I think, uh, amongst my peers, because at that time I didn't have as many Caribbean peers or Caribbean-American peers. Uh, one distinct thing I remember my parents saying uh growing up is that outside is America. You come into this house, we're in Trinidad. And what that essentially meant was that we were uh, you know, under sort of Trinidad rules, right? Like my parents were migrants and they maintained and retained lots of their customs, heritage, practices. Uh, my parents spoke with fixed Trinidadian accents, although they lived and worked here in America, the values they believed they shared from their parents, my grandparents are what they used to raise us, although they were doing it in this environment. Uh so it was um a little bit different for me, I think, than some of my peers. There were the times where what we were learning outside, I mean, even sometimes in classrooms, was in direct conflict with what we were taught and knew to be the right thing from our home life. So that's a little bit about what it was like to grow up as a Caribbean American here in Brooklyn, New York, where sometimes the environment wasn't as friendly, and sometimes the experiences inside our home and outside our home weren't as cohesive, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah, I think that's an interesting point that you made, where I think a lot of people have experiences being born here and spent time growing up in the Caribbean. I know I've I've done that to my daughter. She spent at least a year living in Jamaica, right? And then I think that because we're in a place where everybody is flags everywhere, people don't remember when there was a time when it wasn't flags everywhere. And right, I understand that I moved to New York at a time when everyone wanted to be Jamaican and have flags everywhere. So I I do I think I want to do an episode that explores before Brooklyn was Caribbean, you know, because it wasn't always this like representative and proud out loud, you know, type thing. So um, let me write that down before I forget it. Um, because um I feel like in our conversations, unknowingly, we misrepresent that Brooklyn has always been this way. So people who do not live in the New York area or Brooklyn or anywhere else on the Northeast might feel like they're in the Midwest or in some other state and it's not like represent your flag, then you know, it's like something's wrong. But, you know, it wasn't always the case for us here on the um East Coast. So go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Definitely not. Um, I remember, you know, migrating from an environment like Trinidad at your eight years old. We wore uniforms to school. We wore ribbons in our hair. And um, I I was a child who loved ribbons, you know, and I love to tell my mom how I wanted my hair. And I remember coming home after we migrated to New York and coming home from school crying, telling my mom, don't put ribbons in my hair anymore. The children make fun of me. They torture me, right? Um, so this thing that I was once so proud of, this thing that was a symbol, right, of who you were, so to speak. Because remember, you had we did ribbons to match our uniforms. We didn't have uniforms in New York. So I did ribbons to match whatever I was wearing. I probably looked absolutely ridiculous, like probably a bit like a clown. But without my knowing it, it was carrying my heritage. And so I learned to hide that. I also uh masked my accent because again, I learned to speak in Trinidad, right? So by the time I came here, I'd have a thick Trinidadian accent. Um, and the kids were unkind as they were. They didn't mean anything by it. They were kids. Um, they didn't have a context for me, they didn't have a context for the ribbons and and the way I spoke and the foods I ate, you know. So, you know, what was born out of that was, you know, torture.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yeah, I think, man, we definitely have to go into that in a in another episode about the accent and before or before we became normalized. And there's still ways to go, but we weren't normalized for a very long time. So thank you for sharing that. Um definitely it's gonna be a list for 2023 for sure. Um, so one of the reasons why I've asked Renee to be on the podcast is because Renee has listened to the podcast and she heard the episode of me talking about my dad, and I was like, this is perfect. So if you're new to listening to the podcast, a few months ago

When Caribbean Pride Was Quieter

SPEAKER_00 7:45

um I talked about my dad passing in Jamaica and how challenging it was to plan a funeral from the US in Jamaica and having to deal with the affairs of a deceased person from afar. And one of the things that I had said at the end of the episode was don't wait until a family member passes. If you have family back in the Caribbean, wherever that is, get to planning, you know, whatever that is, you gotta look about your affairs. And so as I was talking to Renee, I was like, I should have have you come on the podcast. So before we get to that specific thing, let's talk about exactly your company, what your company does, and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Sure. So in I want to say maybe 2019, we created this company, at least conceptually, and named it Caribbean Legal Solutions. And our goal in that case was to connect the Caribbean Americans residing here in the United States and really out anywhere in the world outside of the Caribbean with attorneys that were based in the Caribbean. We found that there was a need for people to find reliable, trustworthy uh attorneys based in many times their home countries. And that because so many of us have migrated, you know, 10, 20, 30 years we've been here, but we retain connection to the countries either through landownership or family relationships or traveling back and forth. But in some way, um shape or form, you have a connection to the country that necessitates the need for an attorney. So we found that there isn't a whole lot out there in terms of resources. Uh, when clients don't use a company like ours, they're using the word-of-mouth network or they're jumping online and doing, you know, uh using a search engine to find an attorney. And we just figured there has to be a better way because through the word-of-mouth network or a search engine, you're not getting true vetting, right? Um, nor are you getting a sense of, you know, accountability or or peace of mind. And we wanted to create something that would give our clients just that. One, it took away the need to go searching, right? You contact our company, I almost immediately, from listening to you, um, know what you need and have a person in mind for you, right? And where where I don't, I do the search. And I'd like to think that, you know, my searching or the I work with a team of attorneys is probably slightly different than, you know, just using word of mouth or jumping online because we are attorneys that hire attorneys, right? Um, our methods are slightly different, our terminology is slightly different. So we thought that would be value add to our clients. We're we're reducing their work, right? And taking out a lot of guesswork out of it because we're doing it, we're standing in that gap between where you are here, let's

A Funeral Planned From Far Away

SPEAKER_01 10:55

say you're in New York and let's say a Guyana and a Grenada. When clients come to us, they have a name and a face and a person that they can interact with, whether it's, you know, they physically walk in and speak with me or they're talking to me uh over the phone. It is for them, I think, a lot better, uh a lot easier sell to hire me than it is to hire someone abroad. So um we created the company for that and then and many other purposes. We have since evolved because we found that many clients, in addition to needing referrals to uh attorneys uh outside of the country, many of them asked us if they need to have someone right here, right, for their landlord tenant matter, for their immigration matter, divorce, whatever it may be. And I I did not get focused on um doing local referrals because I felt like there was just so many companies that did it, so many avenues, right? Uh but we found that clients appreciated that aspect. So there was this need for local referrals. We increased our local uh network of attorneys as well. And um here we are.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Awesome. So what kind of services are people coming to you for, not from a local perspective, but particularly, you know, the ones back to the region. And how far is the reach? What countries are you currently servicing?

SPEAKER_01 12:25

I could probably tell you about 90% of it falls into two categories land and around an estate matter. Someone died. Someone died here in the United States and has property or fares or beneficiaries in the Caribbean, or someone died in the Caribbean and the person is located, the beneficiary or the surviving loved one is here in the United States. So that's one. And then oftentimes people um own property or should own property, but they don't necessarily know where the deed is, or they want to, they're putting their affairs in order, hopefully and prayfully, that's what they're doing, and they're seeking to have that uh piece of property left to someone in a will, um, or to deeding it over to someone else. That's a bulk of what's done. We then have a couple of people who um need to necessarily sometimes get divorced from someone who's in a Caribbean country that they can't find, right? Um, so we have those matters, that those come up every now and then. We've had one or two persons who have um this one is a um one of these unpleasant uh matters, but I'll share it. Um sometimes we've had children that live in the Caribbean, and the parent is seeking um child maintenance from a person that lives in another country. Um we assist with things like that as well. So as you can see, it sort of runs the gamut, but a primary source of our business comes from land matters and uh estate matters. As far as our reach, we do quite a bit of work. We get quite a bit of requests for uh attorneys in Jamaica. We've done work in Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, Reneda, Barbados. Recently I did

The Mission Behind Caribbean Legal Solutions

SPEAKER_01 14:20

just one matter in Dominica or um Dominican Republic and St.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Vincent. All right, so land matters, estate matters, I think those are the typical things. Those outliers around getting child support or divorce, interesting. They're unique, but I do tend to find that a lot of issues, even before I was living in the US, there was always some family argument or mix up both land and dead left, you know? Yeah, so so it's like then all of this comes part of I shouldn't say all of it, because it's not all the time someone dying causes land matters, but it also feels like that's the only time it becomes an issue. So let us first talk about wills and what the Caribbean community should be doing to get into the habit or understand the importance of creating a will. And let's let's actually address some of the misconceptions around a will. So let's start there.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Oh, thank you. Let's talk about some of the misconceptions with the will. Before I do that, Carrie, uh, if you don't mind, I just want to state that nothing in this uh podcast should be communicated as legal advice. Nothing in here forms an attorney-client relationship. If you have specific questions about your specific matter, you please contact us and I will go ahead and provide our contact information towards the end or your own attorney. So that said, uh, let's talk about some of the myths um around estate planning. Myth number one writing a will, doing an estate plan, will in no way, shape, or form accelerate your death. You will not die because you created the will. I have seen this, I'm practicing my area of law. It does not happen. That's one thing. Um, and I say this because oftentimes I have not not myself, but I'll have clients come to me. They're trying to get their elderly parent, mom or dad to write a will, and the parent immediately says, Are you trying to kill me? Do you want to get the house before I die? You know, that sort of thing. That's number one. The other thing around um wills is, and depending on the country you're talking about, there are some countries that when you write the will, there are certain people within your family that you cannot write out of a will, right? They inherit regardless of what you write. And for some countries, that's a spouse, like the jurisdiction like New York, and in other jurisdictions, you can't disinherit a child. Again, nothing here is legal advice, but um feel free to give us a call and we'll talk about your specific situation. So I'm only mentioning it here to say that there shouldn't be a belief that if you're writing a will, if someone wrote the will, they're trying to disinherit someone, right? That's not necessarily the case. Uh the other thing is that wills or or creating an estate plan, it does not have to be as expensive as one might believe. I think that is a um uh a huge hurdle, mental hurdle, in seeing an attorney and having an estate plan put to paper. Um it's absolutely something that should never, should not be avoided. It should absolutely, you know, be prioritized. And I'll say this my firm and and and the company does quite a bit of what's called estate administration. Estate administration is a process offered to the loved ones of a deceased person who has not done a will. Unfortunately, we see a lot more state administration than we do wills because uh, you know, our community, there just isn't a lot of estate planning. So we're often forced to do go through the administration process. Uh that is expensive, but it is also time consuming. Now, I mentioned this to say because I deal with grieving families, right? So in many cases, my clients are the surviving loved ones of someone who died. They're dealing with trying to put affairs like um a funeral together. Hopefully, they're not trying to do it from another country, because again, I'll let Carrie talk a little bit about what that experience is like. So trying to do it from a foreign country is also extremely difficult. They're dealing with that. They themselves are grieving. And then oftentimes, unfortunately, fighting almost immediately starts when someone dies. So amidst all of that, right? Some of those things we can help with, some of the things we can't, right? Family dynamic is not something we specialize in. Um, but amidst all of that, you want to

The Cases Diaspora Families Face

SPEAKER_01 19:10

avoid having to also deal with unnecessary paperwork, right? If you have an attorney involved prior to, right, death is inevitable, everyone. I hope that's not a news flash for everyone. Um, if you have an attorney who you've been working with and someone dies unexpectedly, you have someone that you can almost sort of just sort of throw the ball to. They know exactly what to do. They're already in your family dynamics. You've put things in place. And they can take a huge burden off of you while you focus on, you know, the the emotional aspect of things. Um, so it is something I I absolutely encourage every single person to do and to please uh consult an attorney before you do so.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

You said something that, I mean, people might experience it, but you put a name to it. The idea of writing a will is confronting your mortality, and that's a fear, right? That that gives anxiety and is like, you you don't want to deal with this. You don't want to confront that one day you're going dead, even though you know it. The act of doing something towards it makes you want to. I don't, I don't want to talk about this. I don't want to deal with this. One of my first encounters with the wills that my great-grandmother passed away and she lived in Canada. And every winter she came to Jamaica or she went to Jamaica because, of course, it's cold for her. She's she was up in A. So, you know, she packed our multiple barrels, send them to Jamaica because she was going to be in Jamaica until it warmed up in Canada. And she so happened to pass away during one of those winter December trips. So she passed away in Jamaica. She had a will, and she had nine kids, plus 40 grandkids and great-grandkids, you know, myself included. My grandmother's one of her nine. But she had a will, and you know, there were some disagreements about what should be happening as always, even though in my mind I was like, my my family peaceful. We're not those people. But there was a disagreement about who should get something. And I don't know if it's the grief or the emotion that's taking over, but something very primal happens in that period. And so a will, you know, is important. And only because I worked in legal, so I know this other part. It's important because you don't want people to say, oh, you forced mama to write the will exactly and and convince her to push me out or give you more of this or give you more of that. And so I think having an attorney is a neutral party, and the attorney is going to assess if you're in your right state of mind and all these other things. Right. You don't want to. I mean, I guess you can rewrite a will if you're upset, but a good attorney may not want to say that's the best decision to make. Right. So talk to me a little bit more about, you know, for anyone listening, how they could go about making the first step, getting over that anxiety around confronting this mortality. What's the the first step that you can do that maybe is committed but non-committed, that you can do? Maybe it's calling you or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Um, it might be your first step uh calling the attorney. I think um for some folks, getting over it or getting to that place mentally is a first step. And here's what I would say to someone if they're not gonna call an attorney and they're not gonna do a will, at the very least, gather your documents. Gather your documents, have them in an envelope, right? One of the things I give to um my clients is a form that writes out the names of persons that you only you know. Means that if um something happened to you, I don't know, for example, who you deal with at the bank. But the person at the bank knows your affairs, um, they know you, right? So if you give me that, you write down that point person, I come and I say, hey, I'm Carrie Ann's sister. Now that banker has knowledge that I don't have, and you unfortunately Carrie may be incapacitated, unable to speak. Um, they can help. They can help and guide,

Will Myths And Estate Planning Reality

SPEAKER_01 23:35

right? So I have a form, you write down things like your banker, the person you deal with, your insurance company, um, the person who holds forms, you know, people that you deal with that your friends and family don't know that you deal with, and these are like business partners, so to speak. Each of us has a team, right? Um, your affairs should be in order, best you can, in an envelope, right? All together. Um, if you have a safe deposit box, that's also very helpful. Um, account numbers or oftentimes when people come to me, they don't even know where their mom had money, right? So even if you're not going to get all of that in a succinct document like a will or trust, if you wrote it down on a piece of paper, um, so that if something happens to you, uh, your family then knows at least where to start, it's extremely helpful to us once we get involved. When I think about important documents, people tend to will have, will have an envelope, but they'll have things like their birth certificate, a passport, their permanent resident card or their naturalization certificate, things like that. But they don't think about putting those things in an envelope like that that others don't know or don't have access to. It's their internal knowledge, right? And then we we forget that if something happens to us, not just death, but incapacity, right? As we age, we forget things that other people don't know that, right? You could potentially die with that information that others need. Uh something else I recently started adding, um, well, lawyers uh started adding to estate plans are passwords, passwords and access to your digital devices. I write into Wills. If something happens to me, my daughter, you know, if she has to go to T-Mobile or wherever, she is permitted. I give her access to whatever, all of my information. That's extremely helpful if if something happens to you, because we can start putting the pieces of the puzzle together if for some reason you did not leave an estate plan. So that's a first step. Step two, which really should be step one, speak with an attorney, someone like myself. Um, and I think what's important for our community in coordinating with a firm like mine or a company like Rutman Legal Solutions is that we understand the nuances of doing estate planning across borders. So I don't necessarily write a New York will to dispose of property in Grenada, right? I know that I need to do a consultation with my Grenadian counterpart to figure out the best way to dispose of that property if someone dies. Because what we don't want is to have someone write a will based in New York law, probate that will in New York court, and then take that document to Grenada and try to get the property that's left. It's just there are better ways to do it. Let's say that.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Yes, yes, yes. As you were talking, I was so glad you got to the digital part because when my little brother used to work at the Apple store, he would say that people would come to the Apple store to try to get a device open, the laptops open because of the death of a family member. So, you know, as you were saying that, I was like, yeah, you know, family members have access, you know, I have access to my mom's account. Um, but the other point that you said is that we keep everything in our head and we take it's because it's so second nature and knowledge, we're not thinking of it as anything. And I used to think like, oh, people have unclear money with the government.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

I want my money, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:20

The government keep my money, but as I get older, I'm like, it's easy to see how the government have unclaimed money. You forget that you had money, you had money there. So that's the number one thing. You forget, and it's not intentional. You feel you take for granted that you remember everything. And I think that is like the simplest and one of the best advice. Like, gather everything. Gather everything. As you're saying, I was like, wait, I think I had a bond, a saving bond two years ago. We would never be able to find that if it would not be found.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

We would have no record of it.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

And and not only that, the savings bond issued by the US government, it is hard to get into that account. Like it had like 10 layers just to try to log into the account. So that is such a good point, everyone. Listen, I know we're talking about wills, and I know land matters don't only exist around death. Um, I'll get to a question later. But, you know, fortunately for myself, my cousins and I weren't squabbling. So they were able to handle some things like coordinate, and my brother and I took care of what we had to take care of. But it was still hard, even though we didn't have that. I was just like, this is rough. And not only that, just the banking across borders is a whole different beast. All right. The verifications, you know, you know, for us in the US, we're like, why the bank can't just do this? And in the Caribbean, they're like, no, mm-mm, we need it snail mail, you know. Right. Do this.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

So that brings me to um another

Documents Passwords And First Steps

SPEAKER_01 28:55

point I wanted to bring up. So oftentimes one of the ways I get people to do and commit to an estate plan is that even if a person can't mentally deal with the their mortality, they can often deal with the fact that one day they are going to get old and forget things, or that something could happen to them, a tragic accident that leaves them, you know, without an arm, without vision, without it does happen, right? For some reason, being hurt is more realistic, right? Um, advanced directives is something I want to talk to your audience about. And we probably know about advanced directives, but we probably don't know that's what they're called. A power of attorney is something I recommend for every single person above the age of 18. It is a document that allows someone else to act on your behalf in the event that you are unable to, or if you just don't want to. For our community, it becomes especially important because we we almost exist in two worlds, right? We are here in the United States or we're in Canada or we're in in the UK, and then we have affairs like a bank account or retirement or land in the Caribbean. So I um encourage my clients to appoint someone now, while you're young and coherent and sober-minded, in that foreign jurisdiction where you may not necessarily be able to travel to handle your affairs. And there are ways in which you can do it to limit it, so that you know people are often sort of, oh, someone's gonna steal my money. The very person they're trusting, their cousin or something, may steal their money. So there are ways in which you can limit it. But why it's um of value for Caribbean jurisdictions is that unlike power of attorneys within, let's say, New York, in a Caribbean country, the power of attorney is filed with the court, right? It's on record there that it exists. So it holds a little bit more weight when you're trying to access like a banking institution and you have this document that says Kerry has given me authority to transact on her account. Um, especially when we're having like, you know, elderly folks, right? We like Kerry gave the example of an older grandmother who lived in Canada. What if something needed to be done for her in Jamaica and she's now 86, you know, traveling there isn't as you know feasible for her. Um, having had a person appointed in advance to take care of something is of a great value. The other um advanced directive I would recommend for every single person is a healthcare proxy. You assign someone to speak on your behalf in the event that you are unable to speak. Let's again think of uh tragic car accidents. They happen all the time, unfortunately. Um and someone to make a decision, this is the person that will speak to your healthcare professional, um to whom your healthcare professional will take instructions. Um if you don't put it in place, there's a default sort of uh familial chart that it goes through, right? If you're married, the doctors take instructions of your spouse. If your spouse is unavailable, the doctors take instructions from your adult siblings and then adult children and so on and so forth. What happens is that many people, their default person is not the person they want to communicate to the doctor. Oftentimes, when we select someone, when I tell people to think carefully about who you want as your healthcare proxy, remember that this person is making a decision in a high stress, sometimes highly emotional context. So you want to think about the person who can think clearly in that sort of context and appoint them now while you're feeling fine and put that on record with your healthcare professional, with your union, with your health insurance company. You want to do that now. So these are two key things our community can benefit from. I do a lot of work on the other side of it. Um, when I have clients that come to me with elderly parents who didn't put anything in place and they're forgetting things and they're, or they are missing, or you know, they uh left the fire horn or something, and they're trying to get assistance for this elderly parent, but they're unable to do things like just get come in and make decisions for them, right? Until someone has been designated by the court that they're no longer able to make decisions, no one else takes decisions about them. Oh the the bank will only take instructions from an account holder, no one else. You can go into a bank and scream that your 85-year-old parents should not be making these decisions. They'll give away their money, you know, or something like that. They still will not listen to you. So it's best to put these things in place sooner rather than later. And those are the two key advanced directives that we would recommend.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Renee, thank you for that. But also, you know, when I was in paralegal school, the minute I left paralegal school, I had a will in place, you know, and I was pretty young. Um, so I don't want us to all feel like we should do this for elderly parents and grandparents, you know. You know, regardless, like you said, once you're over the age of 18, once you're working, once you have children, you know, these are documents that should be in place. Yes. And it's it's very important. You know, my father was fairly young when he died in January. So, you know, it's not something that's limited for the old, you know, you know, young and anyone over the age of 18 as an adult should be thinking about their affairs in this way. So

Power Of Attorney And Healthcare Choices

SPEAKER_00 34:40

I want to shift a little bit because with land, you know, I know a lot of members of the audience they're looking to go back to Jamaica or anywhere else in the Caribbean to live or to work remotely temporarily. Some people even want to buy land and they want to do all of that. Um, is that in some of the land matters that you handle?

SPEAKER_01 35:01

Lots of it. Beyond estate matters or land around when someone passes away, are real estate, right? We have a lot of um people based here in the United States who either own property or are looking to own property uh in their home countries. So we get involved. Um, if you're looking to purchase property or sell property, we get involved at the um point of where there's a contract. Something that I want to mention that I think will be important for this audience um is deep fraud. Um, if you are you know looking to purchase property back home, I've just seen so many of these stories where a person is, you know, purporting to be the owner of property somewhere in a Caribbean island and they're selling it, and this person who lives here has been sending money back home, they're paying for it in installments. Uh, when we get to uh a certain point, we find that the person who was collecting this money doesn't own the property, or that the property is somewhat embroiled, it's it's sort of wrapped up into some other legal matter. One of the ways in which we can be helpful is producing a deed search, right? You want to have clear title before you enter into an agreement to purchase property and start sending money to some person who claims that they own the property. So that's that's important. We do a bit of that, and then we help once there's a contract between seller and buyer, uh, that's the point at which we get involved.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

I think that's the number one concern. People don't want to be defrauded, and that is the the thing that they're most concerned about with anything, you know, doing across, you know, across borders. And because the Caribbean just operates very differently from the Americanized way of how we do things via. That's one word, differently. Yes. We're terrified, you know, of it. You know, I say differently because it doesn't, it doesn't make sense for me to say it's wrong, because they'll just they'll just look at me as like it's just because in America everything goes fast. You need to slow down. They'll tell you that. Right. Right. I'll just say differently at this point. But I really feel like the information you shared is just so valuable. You know, my brothers, my husband, they have the passwords, you know, what happens? I have this podcast, you know, what happens if something happens to me? You know, can they log into my website? Can they, you know, do all these different things to effectuate, like, okay, something's wrong with, you know, Carrie Ann. And yeah, you know, I don't want to think I'm gonna pass next week, but you know, it's also part of life. And it's very important to consider, you know, these options and alternatives. And like I said, when my father passed away, it was the number one thing I said to the audience. If you have family still living in the Caribbean and you're caring for them back home, you have to have something in place, whether

Buying Land And Avoiding Fraud

SPEAKER_00 38:05

it's life insurance, whatever it is, you're already paying medical bills or whatever it is, might as well get the legal documentation in place and continue the relationship with a professional that can help you navigate what happens when this person transitions. So Renee, I thank you so much for being on the podcast to share. Is there anything else you'd like to share before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_01 38:30

I will just share with the audience. So if you or someone you know has a legal matter, whether it be here based in the United States or abroad, whether it be a legal matter that crosses more than one jurisdiction, uh, know that a company like ours is equipped and ready to help. Uh, we understand these issues, um, we understand the nuances, and we have a full team in place to assist you. Beyond uh just legal matters, people can feel free to reach out to us for questions, um, international burial questions, real estate questions, questions with respect to birth certificates and death certificates and those types of questions. Um, we're here to help. And we also work closely um with some consulate offices based here in the United States to get folks the help that they need. You can visit us on our website. We're at www.caribbean legal solutions.com. You can contact us via phone at 718-887-6141 or via WhatsApp because it's the Caribbean. So feel free to contact us via the WhatsApp and any of our social media handles.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

All right. Thank you so much, Renee. I mean, okay, a good part of the conversation is about wills and deaths, but I

How To Get Help And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 39:55

I just love when we have as much information to make more informed decisions, you know. Yes. That is what we are trying to do. You know, I'm getting to the point where not only am I taking care of my kids, you know, you start having to take care of parents. Yeah, you know, and a lot of us are in that place, or there's some segments of our audience that have their or parents are taking care of their parents or grandparents. So we're seeing these generational shifts and the management. So, you know, as as long as we're giving the audience to help another member of the family do what they need to do, I'm happy about that. So thank you for being on the podcast. And as I love to say, at the end of every show, walk good.