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One of our goals as partners in life and business is to build a business that we can run from anywhere in the world. After a number of years in the “building phase” we decided it was time to take the plunge and start doing it even though everything wouldn’t be perfect. Our first try was a year ago in SE Asia. We spent five weeks there. Then in September/October we went to Peru for three weeks. [Read more…] about Working from Peru

What if the people you trust to help you or your family after your death aren’t local? Can somebody who lives across an ocean help you with your will goes into action?

Colin Ley is an asset protection attorney and the creator of the PREP Trust®. He is also the co-founder of LayRoots (along with with partner in life & business – Shreya Ley)

Want to protect yourself from stupid lawsuits? Schedule a free, quick call with me at livemorecarefree.com.

Transcript:

Can you name a non-US person as executor of your will?

Hello, I am Colin, I’m Shreya, with LayRoots and we are going to answer a question that we received on whether you can name a foreigner as your personal representative or executor in your will. Before we get into that though, if you have any questions about this or about your estate plan, you can book a free 30 minute chat with me or me.

Go to livemorecarefree.com. Livemorecarefree.com.

Boom. So can you name a non-us person or a person who lives outside of the United States as your executor or personal representative? The answer is yes, you can. Uh, in Washington. Great. The requirement for a personal representative is that they’re an adult over 18.  They’re not crazy. And. They don’t have a criminal past, basically. So what would be some of the cons of naming someone who’s not a U S person? So that’s a different question, right? Because whether it’s, what’s that? Isn’t there a superhero quote? It’s not a question of whether you can, it’s whether you should, I don’t know if that’s a superhero quote, but I like it anyway.

So yes, you can. Although if the person isn’t. Um, here in the County or probate is opened, they’re going to have to have a local person appointed to be the local contact. Is that like an attorney? It could be an attorney or someone else. Um, and then they can like travel. Maybe if they can get a visa.

I’m traveling if they want to do that. I mean, we’ve, we’ve done that for people who are named in California say, and they either the attorney is the local contact. Here in King County. Um, but yeah, the question is whether you should, I mean, if someone’s out there living their life in Spain, you know, they’re going to have to reach out to someone here in Washington and hire them to do their thing.

And I don’t know, is that good? I mean, I feel like it’s becoming less and less of an issue these days, if I’m being completely honest with you calling. Yeah, because it’s like global, it’s easier to get in touch with people across the globe and then like if someone hires an attorney to do their estate plan, then hopefully they have that person’s contact information and then they have the internet where they can like search them and stuff.

And so that’s true. Probably less of a hassle, but more of a hassle than naming someone local. Less of a hassle than it used to be. Like if you don’t know anyone, yeah, you don’t trust it. Could be either. It’d be either really, I feel like it’s probably more of an issue for people who maybe have like minor kids. And that’s just in Washington state, you know, if you have to open up probate and some other state, they might have different rules.

I think in California, I don’t know if they allow foreigners to do it. I don’t know. Um, so it depends on the state where a probate needs to be open. Yeah. What about having a perfect, I’m going down a rabbit hole. Nevermind. Don’t rabbit hole Shreya. Keep it simple. As they say. That’s what we’re doing.

Cool. So if you found this video helpful, what should they do it? Like, yeah, you got any questions, comments? Leave them down below and we would appreciate it. Like it while you can. I hear they’re getting, they’re getting rid of them.

Have you talked about the “4 Ds?” Can a creditor take your dog?

Colin Ley is an asset protection attorney and the creator of the PREP Trust®. He is also the co-founder of LayRoots (along with with partner in life & business – Shreya Ley)

Want to protect yourself from stupid lawsuits? Schedule a free, quick call with me at livemorecarefree.com.

Transcript:

In case of divorce

That’s Colin. That’s Shreya. And we are partners in life and business. Colin. Yes? I don’t know if you remember this… But? But when we were first moving in together. I was really nervous about it. I had never lived with a boy that I was dating before that, and Colin was very patient with me, and so we had to buy furniture.

We had to buy some furniture to furnish the place we were living in. And so I was like picking stuff out and Colin looks at me and he’s like, okay. I mean, it’s cool that you’re picking stuff out. I will give you money. Just tell me how much I owe you for like half of everything that you’re buying.

And I looked at him and I was like, no, I’m paying for the furniture because if we break up, I want to take it with me. I like this furniture.

Like the person who after taking a picture with the significant other, takes a picture by themselves, like when you’re on, you know, touring Europe or something, just in case all those photos aren’t ruined. Yeah. But it made me think about operating agreements for businesses and how you’re trying to make these decisions about who gets what in the business or how things go.

If for some reason the partners in the business don’t work out, and I feel like it becomes extra complicated emotionally when you’re partners in life and business. Yeah, it’s true. Are we going to confess that we don’t, we don’t have a, well, we did. Well, no, no, no. We don’t have it in the form of an operating agreement.

We had a prenuptial agreement. We did also have an operating agreement at one point. We have an operating agreement, but it doesn’t say what happens if we get a divorce. No. Well, I don’t know because it’s been lost now. It’s not lost. I have it, but the prenup is lost. Okay. So that’s pretty useless.

But the main point of our prenup is, I recall since I was very underwater on a real estate purchase at the time was that you didn’t want to lose your dog to my creditors. Is that a thing that can happen? Yeah. It’s a thing to put pressure on people to settle a claim or to pay a judgment. They could, in theory, take your dog. Attorneys out there,who have dealt in this situation. Have you ever demanded a dog or confiscated, so to speak? We know any low-down attorneys that would take someone’s dog? Well, maybe one. I can think of one attorney. Unfriended. Right now. Click! But anyway, so yes, we had that…that, but also I was just thinking about like LLC operating agreements and how we generally tell people to like think through a lot of these things when times are good. “Four Ds.”

Yes. Death, divorce, disability, and dastardly deeds. The best ones. Doesn’t that make it five really? Five Ds. Yeah. Dastardly deeds is like one topic, but I thought about how, you know, you write out all these things, but in reality, like we could have written out all, well actually we did write out all sorts of like procedures for how decisions were going to be made if we couldn’t agree.

We have never followed that. Yeah. You’re the boss. Yeah. But that doesn’t. Yeah, but that doesn’t actually happen in practice. I know what it says. Instead, we just debate endlessly until we figure out a solution that we can both live with. Yeah. It’s worked well so far. It’s carried us to this point and it seems like it’ll carry us well into the future.

Yeah. Thanks for being here today, Shreya Ley. Thanks for having me. This is my show. I know it is. I get it.

Hiring employees can be really scary. We’ve failed pretty hard at it before. Technology has let us bring on virtual support from all over the country, but we’re ready to have another go at bringing on our very own employee. The problem is we can’t agree on what role to fill first.

These days it’s free and easy to save your estate planning documents online. Be sure to use a fantastic password with two factor authentication.

Colin Ley is an asset protection attorney and the co-founder of LayRoots (along with with partner in life & business – Shreya Ley)

Schedule a free, quick call for us to talk about your asset protection strategy at livemorecarefree.com.