Participants: C.A. Murray (Host), Roy Hunt (Host), Senez & Sonia Rodriquez, Barry Benton
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY015084A
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00:01 I want to spend my life
00:05 Spend my life. 00:07 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:18 Removing pain 00:23 Lord let my words 00:27 Let my words 00:29 Heal a heart that hurts 00:34 I want to spend my life 00:39 Mending broken people 00:45 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:06 Hello, and welcome to 3ABN Today. 01:08 My name is C. A. Murray and allow me once again 01:10 to thank you for sharing just a little 01:12 of your no doubt busy day with us, 01:14 to thank you for your love, your prayers, 01:16 your support of this ministry, 01:18 because we realize we could not do 01:19 what we are called to do without your love 01:21 and your support and your partnership. 01:23 So we thank you from the bottom of our heart. 01:25 We want you to drop and give ear today 01:27 to this particular program, 01:28 because we're gonna talk about some things 01:30 that will affect your life here and now, 01:33 will affect your life in the near future, 01:35 will affect this ministry in the near future 01:37 and may affect us for all time. 01:40 That's pretty heavy stuff, Brother Roy Hunt. 01:42 How you doing, man? I'm doing just great. 01:44 Glad to be here, glad to be sitting next to you. 01:48 Roy Hunt is the director of 01:49 Planned Giving and Trust services, 01:51 which is a mouthful. 01:53 But we will walk and wade our way through that 01:55 air wish I had finished this program. 01:57 He does a very, very fine job. 01:59 He's a nice guy to hang out with too. 02:00 We appreciate Roy and Earlenne so very, very much 02:03 since they have joined us several years ago now. 02:05 Five years, hard to believe. Yeah. 02:08 In fact, it's over five years. Is it really? 02:10 We are approaching six, I believe. 02:12 You got to be used to the cold and the winter by now, I think. 02:15 Well, you know, when I first came, 02:17 the temperatures were fairly temperate. 02:19 But the last two years, 02:20 somebody did something to the weather. 02:23 Ten below is not what we came here for. 02:26 I don't think corn can grow in ten degree below weather. 02:30 I know, people don't grow much in ten degree below either. 02:32 No. 02:33 We are joined by Attorney Barry Benton. 02:36 Barry, good to have you here again. 02:37 Thank you. Yeah, I heard that-- 02:40 a little bird told me that he exercises everyday. 02:43 He looks like it. He is in good shape, man. 02:44 Everyday, you know, I'll call him for advice. 02:47 And he's out on the trail, 02:50 and he's not even huffing and puffing, 02:52 and he's doing his morning walk. 02:55 So that's how his mind stays clear 02:58 and unscrambles mind. 03:00 Okay, very good. 03:04 So he-- you need a level head in a room. 03:05 That's right, absolutely. 03:07 We're dealing with people's money. 03:08 And then two friends that you don't see 03:11 too much on this particular program, 03:13 but they are employees of 3ABN, 03:17 Senez Rodriguez, who works in our pastoral department, 03:20 an articulate gentleman, 03:21 good looking guy too, you know, yeah. 03:23 Yeah, he looks good. And his wife Sonia who is the-- 03:26 I was gonna say the D. Hildebrand of Latino. 03:30 Well, that's not fair to her. 03:31 She is the production coordinator for 3ABN Latino. 03:34 Good to have both of you guys here with us. 03:35 And they are a part of what we we're gonna talk about today. 03:39 Roy, aren't they? Yeah. Absolutely. Right. 03:41 They have jumped right in to the lifestyle 03:46 right here at 3ABN, 03:48 and along with that they've decided to do a trust. 03:52 And they are here to talk about that. 03:54 And tell us why, why they've done that. 03:57 Yeah, you know, before I go to the music, 03:59 I want to switch things up a little bit, 04:01 because we talk about these different instruments 04:03 and of course, you are very familiar with them, 04:04 Attorney Benton is familiar with them, I'm not. 04:07 I'm kind of a layman. 04:08 So this is kind of trust services for dummies, 04:10 you know, with me in the lead chair. 04:14 I'm not gonna respond to that. Yeah, praise the Lord. 04:17 I want to thank you, 04:18 you're a gentleman and a scholar. 04:20 But I want to ask you, why would one do a trust? 04:24 In the broadest possible sense, 04:26 what's the value of dealing with your money on this wise? 04:30 Why would one do a trust? 04:31 Well, the main reason is to protect your estate 04:36 when you pass away. 04:39 And you have usually a husband 04:42 and a wife that have property. 04:47 Sometimes it's separate, sometimes it's combined. 04:51 And the trust will tell at the end the trustee, 04:57 the one that takes the lead in dispersing the property, 05:02 how to do it. 05:04 It simplifies the process. 05:07 When you both pass away, 05:09 everybody knows what's going to happen. 05:11 There's no second guessing 05:13 as to what's gonna happen with the property. 05:16 And statistics prove that once the trust is done 05:19 and everything is finalized, 05:21 the old wives' tale is that you're gonna die 05:25 as quick as you do a trust. 05:27 That's not true. 05:29 Statistics prove that you live longer 05:31 because you have made that plan, 05:34 you are content with the plan and you can always change it. 05:38 As long as you are alive and in sound mind, 05:41 you can change your trust. 05:43 All right, Attorney, do you want to add anything to that 05:44 or has he handled that pretty well. 05:47 Pretty well, but I like to add that also, 05:49 the distribution is done 05:51 without having to deal through the court process. 05:53 It just goes without going through the probate court. 05:56 It just goes to whoever the beneficiaries are 05:59 without any ripples. 06:01 I see. 06:02 Is that what separates a trust from the will, 06:04 because can you get the same results with the will 06:06 or is a trust a little needed document? 06:08 Well, you can get somewhat the same results, 06:11 but the court has to get involved. 06:12 It has to go to probate. 06:14 That's time and money that's not necessary. 06:18 I was involved in probate in a particular state. 06:22 And 100 percent was coming to 3ABN. 06:26 But there was one portion of it 06:28 that was not listed in the trust. 06:30 Even though 100 percent was coming to 3ABN, 06:34 we still had to go to probate. 06:36 It took nine months and about $5,000 06:40 to finish that part of it. 06:43 And if that part had been in the trust, 06:46 we wouldn't have to worry about it. 06:47 We could have gone right in, 06:48 made the distribution 100 percent to 3ABN 06:51 and been done. 06:52 Okay, so Roy, once you involve the legal process 06:56 and you are slowing down your time 06:58 and you are eating up your cash. 06:59 Eating up the cash. So-- I can relate to that. 07:04 You are taking my time and you are eating up my money. 07:07 We don't want to do that. 07:08 And for 3ABN, we were 100 percent. 07:11 So I was eating into what we were going to get. 07:14 But normally we don't get a 100 percent. 07:16 It's divided among other beneficiaries. Yeah. 07:19 So, you know, all those expenses come off the top 07:24 and what's divided is what's left. 07:27 So 100 percent of what's left. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 07:30 So I'm kind of begging the point. 07:32 So for smoothness of transaction, 07:38 staying out of a legal process, 07:40 the trust is just a better instrument. 07:42 Better instrument, yes. 07:43 If you have high dollar, if you have property, 07:47 you have real estate, by all means, you do a trust. 07:52 Especially, if you have property in more than one state 07:55 because if you have just a will, 07:56 you're going to probate in your own state 07:58 and you are going to also probate in the state 08:00 where you have other property. 08:02 And every time you are going to court, 08:03 you are whittling away at your funds, 08:05 that's another attorney, that's another... 08:06 Right. We love attorneys. You are right. 08:08 I was gonna say the same thing. 08:10 We are not trying to take any food out of your mouth, Barry. 08:12 We are not trying to take any bread off your table. 08:15 But I guess the less 08:16 that you can be involved with attorneys 08:18 and attorneys and attorneys and attorneys, 08:20 the better it is for you. 08:21 Absolutely. Yeah. 08:22 Now do you have to be filthy rich to do a trust? 08:25 No, no you don't. Okay, that's what I thought 08:27 Senez and Sonia were holding out on us. 08:30 I better get out of here then. 08:35 They had wealth that we know not of. 08:36 So we are not talking about-- 08:38 you don't necessarily have to have a lot of money, 08:39 but you just want to direct the money you do have. 08:41 That's right. And property, especially. 08:44 Property can get tied up in probate 08:47 if you don't have a trust, 08:48 and sometimes that can go on and on. 08:52 And it's not necessary. 08:54 When we do a trust, we make sure everything is in order. 08:58 The deeds are in order. Everything is in its place. 09:02 So when the time comes to disperse, it's done. 09:06 We don't have to spend a lot of time at that point. 09:09 And we make a lot of effort in-- 09:12 in fact, some people think we're being nosy. 09:15 And we ask all these questions. 09:18 I see Sonia shaking her head there. 09:22 You know, we had to ask a lot of questions, 09:24 and she's, "Do I have to answer that?" 09:26 And believe me, we are the trust department. 09:31 And what we do on the trust department 09:33 stays in the trust department. 09:35 So if there are personal questions, 09:37 there is information, you put it in the trust 09:40 and that's as far as it goes. 09:42 So if I asked you to get a little dirt on Sonia 09:44 and Senez, you wouldn't... I wouldn't tell you. 09:45 Will you help me out? No. Okay. Very good. 09:49 I like that because they needed some dirt on me, 09:51 you wouldn't pass it that way either. 09:52 I wouldn't pass that either. Praise the Lord. 09:54 Obviously, there's a lot-- 09:55 we were having a little fun here, 09:56 but there's a lot that we need to talk about. 09:59 We want to get into this. 10:00 We're gonna go to our music now 10:01 so that we can come back to Roy and our guests, 10:03 and sort of really mind these things. 10:04 Because this is the information that you need to have 10:06 that will help you here and now 10:08 and it will help you in the long term. 10:10 Our music today is coming from Jaime Jorge, 10:12 a great friend of this ministry, 10:13 a superior violinist and really a wonderful guy. 10:15 He's going to be playing "It Is No Secret." 10:33 Music 14:30 And Jaime Jorge, well done. "It Is No Secret." 14:33 I'm here in the company of Roy Hunt, 14:35 our director of Planned Giving and Trust services. 14:37 Easy for you to say. Attorney Barry Benton. 14:41 You're doing that very well. 14:42 Keep it up. Thank you. 14:44 And Senez and Sonia Rodriguez 14:45 of 3ABN Pastoral and Latino, respectively. 14:49 We were talking about the value of a trust 14:53 and how it makes things 14:55 just smoother and less simple than a will. 14:58 Particularly, as Attorney Benton said, 15:01 if you have properties in different states, 15:03 you got to probate or go through the court system 15:05 in every state where you have properties. 15:07 So if you have-- it can get messy, 15:09 it can get long and we don't want to do that. 15:12 No we don't. 15:13 And, you know, I repeated this many times 15:16 but repetition is good. 15:18 We learn through repetition. 15:20 Do you know what the hardest part of doing a trust is? 15:24 Any idea? Getting started. 15:29 It's as simple. We tend to procrastinate. 15:33 And this program is kind of aimed toward the men. 15:38 We do a program that's more 15:40 aimed toward the women because of many reasons, 15:43 but the men in our group need to hear 15:48 what we have to say. 15:49 Because we feel like we're macho men, you know, 15:52 we're not gonna die. 15:54 Things just aren't gonna happen. 15:56 We don't need to do a trust right now. 15:58 We hear that all the time, you know. 16:01 Sometime later, we got some other things to do because, 16:06 you know, that's more important than doing a trust. 16:09 And we've had several instances 16:13 where the man of the house... 16:16 stung by a bee, was allergic, passed away. 16:20 Gone, yeah. 16:21 Another person was out trimming trees, 16:24 cutting a tree down, the tree fell on him, no-- 16:29 there was no trust, no wills. 16:32 The wife called us and said, 16:36 in one instance, she was hysterical. 16:39 "What do I do, what I do?" 16:41 She was under a lot of stress, 16:43 a lot of grief, which is understandable. 16:46 We saw her several months later still grieving, 16:50 and all we could do was listen. 16:53 We couldn't do anything at that point. 16:55 And the whole point of saying this is not to scare people. 16:59 That's not our intention. Sure. 17:01 But life is real. Things happen on a daily basis. 17:05 And when these things happen, if you have a plan in place, 17:10 the spouse, the surviving spouse can pick up 17:13 and carry on life as normal, 17:17 as normal as it can be after a situation like that. 17:20 Okay, Roy, let's go through the whole story 17:21 and try to get this out of the way, 17:23 and then I want to talk to Senez and Sonia, okay. 17:25 You have-- you die, you have no instruments, 17:27 you got a couple of houses, 17:29 maybe few hundred thousands dollars in a bank, 17:31 what happens to your assets at that point? 17:34 If you don't have a will-- 17:35 You have no will, no trust, 17:36 nothing, you have nothing, yeah. 17:38 It's called dying intestate, 17:41 which is a legal term meaning there is no distribution, 17:46 no plan has been made. 17:48 And the state becomes involved at that point. 17:51 And the courts become involved. 17:55 And it's up to the judge to decide, in most cases, 17:59 where things go. 18:01 They'll look at the family first... 18:03 Yes, I was gonna ask you, yes. 18:04 They will look at the bloodlines, charities, 18:08 if you want something to go to a charity, forget it. 18:11 The charity gets nothing, 18:13 because the courts do not recognize charity. 18:15 So if you are a church member 18:17 and maybe you have given to church all your life, 18:18 your church is probably last in line, 18:21 if in line at all, to get any of it. 18:22 If in line at all, that's right. 18:24 So if you have intent, and everything we do with 3ABN, 18:31 you have to have charitable intent. 18:33 People watch 3ABN and they know that we do plan 18:37 giving in trust, and you know, as long as they are willing 18:44 to share a part of their trust with us, 18:48 we are willing to write that trust 18:50 and not charge them a penny for it. 18:54 But the key word is "charitable". 18:56 We've had calls from people. 18:59 They've had a friend that says, 19:00 "Hey, you need to call 3ABN, 19:02 because they've got some good plans." 19:05 And come to find out, 19:06 they don't want to leave anything to 3ABN, you know. 19:11 And we want to work with them, 19:13 but we probably aren't the organization 19:16 to work with at that point, 19:17 because we are doing this to continue 19:21 spreading the Three Angels' messages. 19:23 That is our vision to the world, 19:25 is to spread that word. 19:28 And this is long-range planning. 19:31 So this department really exists to, kind of, 19:32 ensure the viability long term of 3ABN and its mission. 19:35 That's absolutely right. It's long range planning. 19:38 People say, "How does it impact 3ABN?" 19:41 Right now, in most cases, it doesn't. Yeah. 19:45 But everybody-- we call it maturity. 19:49 When they mature, when they pass away, 19:52 then the money comes to 3ABN, 19:55 and that all happens in different times in life 19:59 down the road. 20:00 So the long range plan is money will come in 20:03 just at the right time. 20:05 Understood. 20:06 So it's very important that you have a plan. 20:10 Don't let the state decide for you. Yes. 20:14 Because the people that you may want to have 20:16 some of your estate, they may not get it. 20:19 'Cause that judge and the state has the final say. 20:24 And I suspect if there is any kind of dispute 20:25 between the children or the first wife 20:27 or the second wife or whatever, 20:28 the worst it gets, the muddier it gets and it can turn... 20:30 It takes time and money, and again, attorneys, 20:35 you know, will charge for their services, and rightfully so. 20:39 Oh, no, they got to eat it too, 20:40 I'm not gonna be-- we are gonna be grudged, yes. 20:42 But the more attorneys that get involved, 20:44 the more costly it gets. 20:46 Okay. 20:47 Now Senez and Sonia are here because they wrote a trust. 20:52 Define for me what they wrote, what it is, 20:54 then I'm gonna ask them why they did it. 20:56 Okay, what they did right now, it's called a cash trust, 21:02 and we'll get into that in a little bit. 21:04 But in their planning, this is the next step. 21:07 They did this to kind of test us out, 21:09 to see if this department really exists, you know, 21:13 and they put the money with us and things flow right. 21:16 Then they're gonna go into a trust. 21:20 And if I-- am I right in that? Yes. Okay. 21:24 And I don't want to put too many words in their mouth, 21:27 but that's kind of the progression on this particular, 21:30 and we encourage people to do that. 21:32 Now you say a trust and a cash trust. 21:34 So obviously, there's a difference. 21:36 We-- now Barry and I disagree a little bit. 21:40 But how we do it here is you can do a cash trust, 21:45 which is strictly cash. 21:47 You are investing in 3ABN. Okay. 21:50 We keep that separate from what we call a property trust. 21:54 Which is your entire estate, 21:56 except the money that they put into a cash trust. 22:00 Okay. Right. 22:02 So those are two separate items. 22:04 All right. 22:06 Sonia, Senez, why did you do the trust? 22:10 Well, first of all, I don't want to die. 22:15 I'm not planning to. 22:17 But the reality is that we all are human beings 22:23 and you never know when your turn is going to come up. 22:29 And so we really had this plan 22:33 in our heads for quite some time, 22:36 'cause we have been watching 3ABN for quite some time. 22:43 And at some point, we actually watched a program like this 22:47 and we began to think about it. 22:51 And it happened that, you know, we... 22:55 you know, came to work for 3ABN and so we made a decision that 23:03 we wanted to put our money where our mouth is. 23:10 And to make sure that the message of 3ABN 23:17 will continue bringing souls to the kingdom. 23:23 And when the times comes, that we pass away, 23:28 you know, we have been supporting 23:33 and we will continue to support in that way, 23:35 the mission of 3ABN. 23:40 So Roy alluded to that. 23:42 You are starting with a cash trust, 23:43 you got a-- kind of dipping your toes in the water, 23:46 and later on you are thinking about doing something 23:48 a little bit more, a little bit more... 23:50 That is our plan. 23:52 So we will come to that point 23:56 and we have been thinking about that too. 23:59 I want to say that we had choices. 24:02 We didn't have to do it with 3ABN. 24:04 We had other choices and we had a lot of prayer. 24:08 We did a lot of prayer and asking for guidance. 24:13 And we wanted to feel comfortable, 24:15 we wanted to do the right thing and we really felt that 24:20 this was the right thing, to go with 3ABN 24:22 and start working with the trust and office, 24:28 and see how things work and keep working in that way. 24:33 Very good. 24:34 I want to say right here 24:36 that the way we work in our trust department, 24:39 we don't come and twist your arm. 24:41 We don't say, "Senez, you need to do something with 3ABN." 24:46 We encourage husbands, wives to talk together 24:53 as far as what they want to do. 24:54 And a lot of times, 24:56 there is a dissension between the two. 24:58 Not these two, but other people. 25:01 There's dissention as how to do it, 25:03 who the beneficiary should be and so forth. 25:06 We always say, talk between yourselves, talk to God. 25:11 And once you've made the decision, 25:13 once God has led you in the way that you should go, 25:18 come to us and we are facilitators. 25:21 We will facilitate what you want to do. 25:24 Now here's a question. 25:26 For a cash trust, is the rate of return fixed or variable? 25:29 It's variable. 25:32 We've had a cash trust program, 25:35 and I've had a call from a lot of different entities saying, 25:38 "How does your cash trust program work?" 25:41 And that's a compliment to 3ABN 25:43 that we have such a program here. 25:46 But you are investing-- I'll just pick a number, 25:49 and don't let it scare you. 25:51 It's just a number that we pick to make it easy, $100,000. 25:55 Oh, that scares me. That scares you. 25:57 Actually it does, 'cause I don't have it. 25:59 You don't have it. So no need to be afraid. 26:00 I was hoping you'd say, "I've got it, I want to do it." 26:04 But the way we invest our money 26:07 is through pool funds with Morgan Stanley 26:11 out in California, Riverside, California. 26:14 There's two gentlemen there that know the 3ABN very well. 26:17 They have been very good to work with. 26:19 They understand the way 3ABN wants to invest their money. 26:24 We don't invest in any sin-type investments 26:28 like alcohol, tobacco, pornography. 26:31 If we find anything out there that we don't subscribe to, 26:36 in our theology and the way we preach, 26:40 that's not part of our portfolio. 26:42 And that's important, Roy, because people want to know 26:43 their money is not going to aid 26:46 and abet something that they would not stand for themselves. 26:49 And occasionally, 26:50 these gentlemen would call us and say, 26:52 "We just found out that 26:55 the account you are investing in 26:56 has another subsidiary over here 26:59 that is doing things that we don't go for. 27:04 And what you want to do?" 27:06 Invariably, we say cancel it. 27:09 Cancel that part of it 27:10 and invest over here instead of here. 27:13 So that part of the investment, 27:15 where you feel very comfortable with, 27:17 we've been able to offer. 27:22 And it's variable. 27:24 It's not a guaranteed rate, 27:25 but it's been somewhere between four and five percent 27:30 for the last several years. 27:32 Now that varies during the year, 27:34 and how we do it is to take 12 months of interest 27:38 and divide it by 12. 27:40 And that's our annual percentage rate. 27:43 In 2013, we paid 4.54 percent. 27:48 2014, we paid 5.40 percent. 27:54 In December of 2014, we paid 9.40 percent. 28:02 And I had calls from everybody saying, "You made a mistake." 28:06 We got twice as much as we normally get. 28:10 We say that was the return on the investment in December. 28:13 And, you know, you have a Christmas present 28:17 and so we can't tell you that's gonna happen. 28:20 Right. 28:22 But our history has been very good. 28:24 God is being good to our investment portfolio. 28:27 Praise the Lord. 28:28 Now let me pull in Attorney Benton. 28:30 How does those numbers, 4. x percent, 5.-- 28:35 how does that compare with just putting your money in a bank 28:37 and kind of letting it sit there in a savings account 28:39 or a passbook account or even a CD? 28:41 One and two, 28:42 if something catastrophic happened in my life, 28:47 my family, roof blows off, tornado comes through, 28:49 can I get that money back? 28:50 Walk me through that part of it. Sure. 28:53 Well, you know, the last-- since 2008, 28:55 the interest rate in this country 28:57 has been greatly diminished. 28:59 If you are getting one percent 29:02 from a bank for a savings account or a CD, 29:05 that's about what you're gonna get. 29:06 So here's-- the numbers for 3ABN are just outstand. 29:10 I mean, you are getting four times 29:11 of what you are getting in the rest of the market. 29:14 So right now, it's the best place to put your fixed dollars 29:20 there's none that can beat it. 29:21 Now the other answer is, can you get it? Yes. 29:25 I mean, it's not a savings account as such, 29:30 but you are expected to leave it there, 29:32 but yes, if you have an emergency, 29:33 you can get it anytime you want to, period. 29:35 I just want to add something to what Barry just said. 29:39 He says you can get it anytime you want. 29:41 There is one clause in the contract 29:43 that confuses people sometimes, and I need to mention it 29:47 because a lot of people misunderstand 29:50 and we don't like misunderstandings. 29:52 That's the worst thing that can happen to us. 29:55 There is a clause that says 29:57 if you become incapacitated, or... 30:01 not able to make decisions in anyway, 30:04 that the trust becomes irrevocable at that point. 30:09 And people see that as 3ABN taking the money at that point. 30:15 We say, no. It's not what happens. 30:18 The money belongs to the cash trust 30:23 and to the individual that put their money in. 30:26 Until they pass away, that money remains with them. 30:30 And the power of attorney... 30:33 attorney, in fact, same thing, cannot ask for that money. 30:37 They cannot make any changes to that trust. 30:40 And the reason we do that 30:42 is because you might be in a car accident 30:44 and for six months you might be in a coma. 30:48 And then you come out of the coma 30:50 and you regain your senses and live a normal life 30:53 and you say, "What happened to the money?" 30:56 My money, yeah. 30:57 Well, the power of attorney took it. 31:00 And we know this doesn't happen very often, 31:02 but occasionally, it happens 31:04 and the money is used for something else, 31:06 other than that individual. 31:09 So this is a protection for the individual, 31:12 as long as the money is there, we will pay the bills. 31:16 The power of attorney works with us, 31:18 and we pay those bills out of the trust 31:21 as long as there's money in the trust. 31:23 And we pay a lot of things. 31:25 Earlenne takes care of a lot of that. Yeah. 31:27 So all they have to do is notify us, we pay the bills. 31:32 But we don't send money out of the trust 31:34 to the power of attorney. 31:35 Got you. Got you. So I need to make that clear. 31:37 That's the only exception. 31:39 Okay, so Senez, Sonia, Attorney Barry has said 31:44 this is not a savings account. 31:45 So this is not the money you are planning on 31:46 needing next week or next month. 31:48 Barring something catastrophic, 31:49 this is not something you want to be going in 31:51 and nibbling and then going back and forth. 31:53 You put it in with the intent of leaving it there. 31:55 That is a plan. 31:57 And when we do trust like this, 32:01 most of our documents, the trust, 32:04 property trust and a cash trust, 32:06 the minimum to 3ABN is 25 percent. 32:11 You can give a 100 percent if you want. 32:13 But the minimum is 25 percent. 32:16 That leaves you 75 percent to divide 32:18 among family members or other ministries. 32:21 However you want to divide the money? 32:23 This works with the cash trust as well as the property trust. 32:27 Now that's part of the signed document, 32:29 minimum 25 percent? 32:31 Yes. You can go higher, of course. 32:32 Oh, you can go higher. Okay, okay. 32:34 Yes. Is there a great-- 32:35 If you wanted to give us 100 percent of your estate, 32:37 we'd say, okay. 32:39 Praise the Lord. Yes, praise the Lord. 32:41 And sign on the line. 32:43 All right, we've kind of looked at what seems to me 32:46 to be the simplest of the documents, 32:47 which is the cash trust. 32:49 Right. 32:50 Does it get much more complicated 32:51 when you are dealing with property? 32:53 It really doesn't, because you're naming beneficiaries 32:56 and usually that's the most difficult part. 32:59 People have a hard time, sometimes trying to figure out 33:02 who those beneficiaries should be. 33:04 They might have grandchildren, they might have children and, 33:08 you know, where do you they that money to go. 33:10 So a lot of the arguments that happen 33:12 between spouses is who gets money. 33:17 And that's usually, you know, 33:20 once they come to a decision on that, 33:22 it usually runs pretty smooth. 33:25 Land, the deeds sometimes we find 33:28 when we go to put the deeds into the trust, 33:31 there's problems with the deeds. 33:34 And here, lately we've discovered a lot of situations 33:38 where we've got a clear up 33:40 before we can complete that trust 33:42 and make sure everything is... 33:44 So you do that on the front end to make sure that 33:46 there's not a lot of hindrances or impedance 33:48 to moving this thing along. 33:50 For the trustee at the end, that's all done upfront, 33:53 it makes the distribution smooth. 33:56 They don't have a thing to worry about. Okay. 33:59 So we've talked about trusts that are revocable. 34:02 What kinds of trusts are irrevocable? 34:05 Well, we don't get into too many of the irrevocable trust. 34:11 We do have something called 34:12 a Charitable Remainder Unitrust. 34:16 It's called CRUT. 34:17 Yes, I... I hate to say that word. 34:19 I do too. 34:22 It just has a hard sound to it. It does, indeed it does. 34:25 But it's a Charitable Remainder Unitrust. 34:28 The key word is charitable. 34:30 And I would defer to our attorney, 34:33 because sometimes these things can get pretty complicated. 34:38 And Barry, probably, can give it to us 34:42 in a very succinct manner, better than I-- I can do it. 34:46 But I like to hear it from our attorney. 34:48 Very good. We pay him good money. 34:52 Sure, I'll be glad to do the unitrust. 34:56 I have one myself. 34:57 My son-- my wife and I have one. 34:59 It usually starts when someone has 35:02 a greatly appreciated piece of property, real estate, 35:05 or they have stocks, bonds or mutual funds 35:07 that have appreciate over the years. 35:09 If they sold those, either the real estate 35:12 and or the stocks and bonds and mutual funds, 35:16 they will be paying a large capital gain. 35:18 So there are four things that really-- 35:21 CRTs, the Charitable Remainder Unittrust can do for you. 35:26 Number one, you can get a lifetime income, 35:28 either for 20 years 35:29 or lifetime income, your choice. 35:32 Number two, you get a large tax deduction 35:35 at the very beginning of the trust. 35:39 Your capital gain that you would have paid is differed 35:44 and you only pay it as you get money from the trust. 35:48 You get lifetime income or 20 year income 35:50 for you and your spouse, as long as one of you is alive. 35:53 And the fourth thing it does is it really provides a mechanism 35:58 to show your belief that 36:04 Three Angels Broadcasting system 36:06 is doing what you wanted to do. 36:07 It reaffirms your support for them. 36:09 So at your death or the death of your spouse, 36:13 the death of the last of you, it would go to 3ABN 36:16 and you would pay no state tax or gift tax for that money. 36:23 So the CRT is valuable because it does those four objectives, 36:30 and it does it really well and fairly simply. 36:32 Yeah. It seems though... 36:34 The catch is that 36:36 it's permanent, it's irrevocable, 36:38 doesn't come back, once you write it, it's done. 36:39 It's done. Yeah. Right. 36:41 And you know when you write the trust, 36:44 how much money you are going to get within reason, 36:48 it can fluctuate a bit. 36:50 But it's fairly consistent as you go through. 36:53 And you know the tax benefits right upfront, computation... 36:58 The attorney actually does the computation. 37:01 And that computation shows you everything you need to know. 37:04 You can hand that to your tax person 37:07 and they can see exactly how it's to perform. 37:11 So if you bought a piece of property, say, 37:14 out in the swamps of Florida 37:15 and one day Disney World pops up next to you, 37:19 that thing is appreciated a lot. 37:22 So you might want to get that taken care of so that... 37:25 Because if you sold that, 37:27 you would pay the difference between what you paid for 37:28 and what it's selling price is, and that's all capital gain. 37:31 That's capital gain. Yeah. 37:33 So you don't want to take that yet? No. 37:34 So you want to... Okay. Okay, that makes sense. 37:36 There's many people that tell me 37:39 they would rather pay Three Angels Broadcasting 37:43 than the government. 37:45 You know, that's just the statement they make. 37:47 I'm not making that statement, they are making... 37:52 To which I say, amen. 37:54 Now I'm looking, our time is getting away from us. 37:56 We've talked about trust. 37:58 Let's walk through annuities, what they are? 38:01 Why would you do them? What benefits there are? 38:04 You want to take or you want to give it to your attorney? 38:05 I'll go ahead and take it, because it's a simple document. 38:10 It's probably the most simple document that we have to do. 38:13 There's a one page application, and it all depends on your age 38:18 as to what your fixed interest rate is going to be. 38:22 When you are 90 years old, 38:24 you get a fixed rate for the rest of your life at 9%. 38:29 And we have to pay you that until you pass away. 38:33 What happens to the money when you pass away 38:36 is the balance comes to Three Angels Broadcasting. 38:40 Now the Adventist lifestyle tells us that, 38:44 you know, we tend to live seven years longer. 38:49 So a person of 90 years old might live to be a 100 plus. 38:54 So they know they have that money coming in. 38:57 And we can't deviate. 39:00 They get a tax deduction for it. 39:02 If say-- let's use the 100,000 again. 39:05 I'm gonna get that out of you yet. 39:09 That 100,000 they put in and they are going to get 39:13 a one time tax deduction in the year 39:15 that they do the annuity that they write it. 39:20 And then from then on, 39:21 the only payment that fluctuates is the first one, 39:24 because it depends on the time of the month that it's written. 39:28 And then every month after that 39:30 you're gonna get the same payment, it doesn't... 39:33 So you know precisely what your payment is gonna be, 39:36 because it doesn't... the interest rate is fixed. 39:39 Right. 39:40 And we have, you know, people say, 39:42 "How does that help 3ABN right now?" 39:45 Again, this is all a long range planning. 39:49 When the time comes, the money comes to 3ABN. 39:53 Now the money that you're earning from the interest rate, 39:56 we have a lot of creative people out there. 39:58 Some people say, we're gonna give it back to 3ABN 40:02 and that portion is totally tax deductible. 40:08 One thing I forgot to say 40:10 is you get a one time tax deduction. 40:12 Oh, okay. 40:14 And the interest payment 40:15 the majority of that is tax free. 40:18 And you don't hear the word free too much anymore. 40:21 No, you do not. But it is tax free. 40:23 We do a computation that shows you exactly 40:27 what part of that is gonna be tax free. 40:30 But getting back to our creative people... 40:34 We have people that say, "You know, I have grandchildren 40:39 and I want to make sure they have Christian education." 40:43 And they say the interest payment that I earn 40:46 is gonna go to their school 40:48 to help fund part of their education. 40:51 We have people that say, 40:53 "You know, someday I'm gonna be in assisted living." 40:57 And we have people that buy several annuities over time, 41:02 and the money that they are earning on those annuities 41:05 helps pay for their assisted living. 41:07 Now can that cheque be directed 41:09 to a particular account, or do we have... 41:11 It has to go to them 41:13 and because there's tax benefits. 41:16 So we have to pay that individual, 41:18 and then they in-turn pay whoever they want to pay. 41:21 I see. I see. 41:24 But people use the money for a lot of things. 41:26 We even have people, and this is exciting. 41:30 You have heard of "The Blessing Is On The Go"? 41:33 Oh, yes. 41:34 We had a lady call in and say, "Danny sent me a certificate. 41:39 I'm a evangelist now. 41:42 But I need materials to hand out. 41:45 I want to do a trust, a cash trust and earn money 41:49 so I can take the money and go buy literature, 41:51 so I can go be an evangelist." 41:53 That's exciting stuff. 41:54 Yeah, it is. It really is. 41:56 You know, I get goose bumps 41:57 every time something like that happens. 41:59 Now on that annuity, 42:01 you are placing a sum of money with 3ABN 42:04 and you are drawing interest from it. 42:05 That interest is paid monthly? 42:08 Fifty thousand or less, we pay quarterly. 42:12 Unless you twist my arm. Yeah. 42:13 I've been known to acquiesce to 42:17 a little bit of arm twisting. 42:19 But the rule of thumb is that anything under 50,000, 42:23 we pay quarterly, 42:24 anything over 50,000, we pay monthly. 42:27 You pay monthly. Right. 42:28 Can that money be... Is that an irrevocable thing? 42:31 That is irrevocable. 42:32 You can't add to it 42:34 and you can't take away from it. 42:36 Okay. You just took my next question. 42:37 So that I cannot take my dividends 42:40 and roll them back into the annuity? 42:43 No, you can't take your payment from an annuity. 42:46 It's a fixed instrument. 42:48 So what's decided at the initial writing of the annuity 42:54 that says what you're going to get. 42:56 You can't turn it back into the annuity. 42:59 But you can take the money and donate it back to 3ABN 43:03 if you choose, but that's your choice. 43:06 That payment is gonna go to you. 43:09 Okay, now is there an age minimum or maximum 43:12 for the writing of an annuity? 43:14 Well, when you look at the charts, 43:16 there's really no age limitation. 43:19 But we do put an age limitation on it of 65. 43:24 And the reason is if you go anything less than that, 43:28 you're gonna be earning for the rest of your life 43:30 maybe 2% or 3%. 43:32 And it's really not fair to tie you 43:34 into that percentage for the rest of your life. 43:37 What we do encourage you to do is to start a cash trust. 43:42 And when the time comes, 43:44 you can be earning the interest. 43:45 You're gonna earn more interest on a regular basis. 43:49 Still I have to say it's not guaranteed, 43:51 but our history shows that 43:53 you can earn more in that cash trust. 43:56 And every year we send out a letter to each individual 43:59 that has a cash trust that says, 44:03 you know, you have a cash trust, 44:04 in that cash trust, 44:08 you can take 50,000 of that amount, 44:11 turn it into an annuity and earn this much more. 44:16 So when you get older... Right. 44:18 That's where I was going, yeah. 44:19 Yeah, so if you're older it is to your benefit 44:21 to go with the annuity, 44:22 because the older you are the higher the return is. 44:24 That's correct. And it's fixed return? 44:26 Right. 44:27 And we still have you as a client with 3ABN 44:31 with that cash trust. 44:33 So your charitable intent is there. Yeah. 44:36 And we just help you down the road 44:38 and we never force anything. 44:40 A letter comes to you, here's the information, 44:43 you make the decision. 44:44 Wow. Well done. 44:46 So when you call the department and you're like men, 44:49 you have no idea about anything. 44:52 You guys are patient and loving enough 44:53 to kind of walk us through it without applying any pressure. 44:55 Right. 44:57 And we answer questions over and over again. 44:59 Sometimes, you know, as we get older, 45:02 we have to ask questions. 45:03 I have to ask questions more than I used to, 45:06 and that may be a good thing, I don't know. 45:10 But whatever it takes to answer your question, 45:14 we will do it. 45:15 And people will call us back the next week and say, 45:18 "Would you repeat?" 45:19 They apologize for calling back. 45:21 We say, don't worry about it, we're here to help you. 45:24 And there's never any arm twisting to do it. 45:28 Now the only time we may arm-twist a little bit 45:31 is in the preparation of documents. 45:34 If something goes out there for long periods of time, 45:37 you've got a document that needs to be signed. 45:39 We'll call and say, "Hey, you know, 45:41 if you really want to do this, you got to sign the document." 45:45 Yeah, yeah. And sometimes that happens. 45:48 People procrastinate on both ends, 45:51 beginning and getting things done. 45:54 So we might arm-twist a little bit there, 45:56 but not during the document. 45:57 Yeah, now let me ask you this question. 45:58 And it may be an ignorant question, I don't know. 46:01 We of course are located in Illinois. 46:04 Does it matter what state I'm calling from 46:06 or where the beneficiary lives, 46:08 is there any variation state to state? 46:10 Okay, that's an interesting question, 46:13 because on the annuities, 46:16 we cannot write annuities in the State of Washington, 46:19 in the State of Alabama, and outside the United States. 46:25 And I say that carefully, 46:27 because we have a lot of 46:28 American citizens living abroad. 46:31 If they have a social security number 46:33 and they have an American bank, 46:35 then we can do the trust, I mean the annuity. 46:39 Because the annuity, you get tax benefits, 46:42 and it's IRS that dictate how we operate with an annuity. 46:48 So that is government, 46:50 you know, every country out there has different laws. 46:53 And the laws on the annuity 46:54 are governed by the United States. 46:57 Oh, I see, I see. 46:58 Let me ask this question, 46:59 and this just popped in my mind, not in my notes. 47:02 What if a person has a piece of property 47:03 outside of the United States? 47:06 Is there any way they can get the benefits of that 47:08 to 3ABN by trust or by...? 47:10 We encourage them to call. 47:12 And that's when I say, they tell us what it is, 47:15 where it's located. 47:17 And I will call Barry and say, "Barry, can we do this?" 47:22 And in one particular case, 47:24 there was property out of the country. 47:26 And he looked, he says, "Yes, we can." 47:28 And I love that kind of news, you know. 47:31 I love when an attorney says yes. 47:34 And he's enthusiastic about it. 47:37 It's a double win. Yes, indeed. 47:40 Yeah, I know someone that has some property 47:42 that they want to send it to 3ABN. 47:44 They are outside of the country. 47:46 And I don't know if it's better for them to just sell it 47:48 and send the money or just deed it 47:50 or put it in a trust and just do it that way. 47:53 Right, sometimes it is better, 47:55 and we tell people this all the time. 47:57 Sell the property and then we can possibly do a document. 48:02 If not, they can always donate. 48:04 They can go online and donate through PayPal. 48:07 Okay. That's very easy. 48:09 That's not really in our area, 48:11 but when people want to donate, that can be done. 48:14 Praise the Lord. 48:15 So Senez, Sonia, when you're ready 48:17 to unload that 100-room mansion 48:18 you have there in Puerto Rico on the water, 48:20 we can do something with that. I will think about it. 48:24 You have to have that property first though. 48:29 Is there any other thing that we left out? 48:31 Because we tried to walk through the major ones 48:34 that would benefit the viewers and supporters of 3ABN? 48:39 We get a lot of calls, people have their 401(k)s, IRS, 48:45 and they want to take the money 48:46 from those financial institutions 48:50 and they call it rolling it over to 3ABN. 48:54 Unfortunately, IRS doesn't allow a commercial IRA 401(k) 49:00 to roll over to any charity. 49:02 It's not only 3ABN, it's to any charity. 49:06 You know what the reason is? 49:08 Because they haven't paid taxes on that money. 49:11 And the government says, 49:12 "Hey, if 3ABN gets it, they still don't pay taxes." 49:16 And we want a piece of that action. 49:19 So the answer is, no, you can't roll over. 49:23 Now some people choose, and we don't encourage it, 49:26 but people make the decision. 49:28 We'd rather pay a little bit of penalty to the government 49:33 in the form of taxes, have that money come to us, 49:38 and they in turn do a document with us with that money. 49:42 But it can't be rolled over. 49:44 We don't encourage it because the taxes are high 49:47 when you take money out of a document like that. 49:51 So-- but some people say, "We want to do it." 49:55 And somebody is bent on doing something, 49:58 very seldom that we stand in their way. 50:00 Yes. Yeah, yeah. 50:01 Let me lay something on you, man. 50:02 It's not in my notes, and Attorney Benton, 50:04 please weigh in on this because we're hearing this a lot, Roy. 50:07 The reverse mortgage, 50:09 is that something that we involve ourselves, 50:11 and the look on your face says we do not. 50:13 Because I don't understand it to be honest with you, 50:16 but I hear it advertised over and over again. 50:18 Is that something that we even touch 50:20 or get involved with or-- Walk us through that. 50:22 I'll answer first and I'll let Barry follow up. Yeah. 50:25 Because a reverse mortgage 50:27 pretty much takes it out of our hands. 50:29 If it's in a trust, 50:32 we have to take it out of the trust 50:34 for that reverse mortgage company 50:36 to be able to process the paperwork. 50:40 We let people know to make... 50:44 We tell them, make sure you understand everything 50:48 there is to know about that reverse mortgage. 50:51 It's costing them a lot of money. Yeah. 50:53 I'm finding out people are saying, 50:55 "I wish I had not, 50:56 and I didn't know when I was signing." 50:57 That's right, and I had one lady telling me, she says, 50:59 "I'm in a reverse mortgage, can you get me out of it?" 51:02 But we can't do a thing. 51:03 Maybe an attorney can, I don't know. Yeah. 51:06 But, Barry, can you elaborate a little more? Yes. 51:09 I have done a number of reverse mortgages for clients. 51:13 And because they have looked at it, they say, 51:17 "You know, right now, we need this money now," 51:19 for whatever reason that they give. 51:23 But you are paying a high price. 51:25 I figured you're paying at least 9% or 10%. 51:28 Oh, wow. Yeah. So it is reversible. 51:31 But it costs serious damage to do so. 51:34 In the way the reverse mortgage works, 51:37 you know, a normal mortgage is, 51:39 you are paying down the principle. 51:41 So if it's $100,000 mortgage and you pay $500, 51:46 there's something coming off of that principle. 51:48 With a reverse mortgage, 51:50 you are adding money to that figure. 51:52 Oh, wow. 51:53 So it continues to escalate over the years. 51:55 Most people don't understand that part of it. Yeah. 51:58 I don't see something that benefit, 52:00 so we'd want to even get entangled with. 52:02 We've brought a lot of stuff to you 52:04 and thrown a lot of stuff at you. 52:06 Our Planned Giving and Trust Services department 52:09 is open during regular business hours. 52:11 This is a good bunch of people. 52:12 They are kind, they are patient. 52:15 This is a good face. You can deal with that face. 52:17 And, he's a nice guy, as is his wife, 52:20 as is everyone in that department. 52:22 Should you want to make contact with our 52:24 Planned Giving and Trust Services department, 52:26 here is the information that you will need. 52:30 If you would like to know more about Trust Services 52:32 or if you have any questions, then you can write 52:34 to 3ABN Planned Giving and Trust Services, 52:38 Post Office Box 220, 52:39 West Frankfort, Illinois, 62896. 52:43 That's 3ABN Planned Giving and Trust Services, 52:46 Post Office Box 220, 52:48 West Frankfort, Illinois, 62896. 52:51 You can call 800-886-4800. 52:55 That's 800-886-4800. 52:58 Or email them at trustservices@3abn.org. 53:04 That's trustservices@3abn.org. 53:09 Call or write to them today. |
Revised 2015-11-19