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Breaking News! EXTRA EXTRA – Read All About It!

Gargantuan Globemaster C-17s
– Full Of Formula For Forlorn Foreigners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Never let it be said that The Reporter is a Gloomy Gus or Debbie Downer. At the slightest inkling of good news, you, good reader, will be informed. Today is such a day.

Our crackerjack squad of mild-mannered reporters were researching momentous issues of the day. By watching TV. One alert reporter (see photo) pointed out the newsworthiest item of the day. Details are still coming in, but clearly, the U.S. has stepped up to the rescue, yet again.

vintage family around television from smithsonian magazine
Our Crackerjack Team Gathering Essential Information Credit: Smithsonian Magazine

Apparently, somehow, some way, Ireland and Germany managed to botch production of baby formula. That’s the white powdery substance that you mix with water for infants to drink. Infants do not have teeth, so they need this liquid stuff. Also, they are infants and not good with silverware. Can you imagine such a thing? Modern countries unable to provide for their own baby citizens? Having to rely on the kindness of strangers to feed the most precious and vulnerable? It boggles the mind that any modern nation with a shred of self- respect could allow it. Red-faced embarrassment, indeed!

Anyway, our gaggle of reporters reported that the TV showed pictures of U.S. Air Force cargo planes just loaded with this highly nutritious, if not delicious, essential cargo. In Germany. And Ireland.

c-17 us air force
C-17 Globemaster Aircraft of the Foreign Country Charity Baby Formula Force
Credit: US Air Force

Lucky for them that the old ole US of A was ready, willing, and able to help out once again. Gosh we are just the best. Stay tuned as we bring you all the details…

And while we are waiting for those additional details, we must ask the question, “How could this have happened? To modern, well-governed, intelligent nation-states?”

Just guessing here, as we await further details, but the cause of this sad blunder is no doubt linked to their benighted nondemocratic, royalist histories.

It appears that two formula-drinking babies died of infection. So imperialistic, unthinking Irish and German bureaucrats, drunk with authority and power, ignorantly shut down the baby formula factory that produced some huge percentage of the national baby formula supply. Then, the factory proved scientifically and without question that the tragic deaths had nothing to do with the factory. Or the formula.

And this is where the superiority of the American Way blazes like a supernova beacon in the night! In America, kindly, competent public servants would have evaluated the evidence, made corrections where needed, and with a heartfelt concern for their fellow-citizens, reopened that factory lickety- split! That’s the can-do spirit! Let’s show the whole world how to get the job done!

Not so for those poor Europeans! Oh no, not so. Those folks puttered around for months while supplies ran out. Their second-string newspapers reported shortages last November 2021. Even their government-approved, Establishment-sanctioned, politically correct mouthpieces (the Euro- equivalent of the New York Times and Washington Post) reported impending doom in January 2022. And still their governments did nothing. Sad.

Stand By For Additional Up-To-The-Minute Reporting From Roving Reporters

Our A-Team of Reliable Sources continues to investigate Old Europe’s shameful tragi-comic failure of every government’s most basic duties. By intently watching more TV. This time in black and white because black and white is more serious.

Now reading our Truth Squad’s follow-up report… The Squad states that our initial reports were wrong… we were too optimistic. Situation far far worse than could be imagined. Oh, the Humanity! What have those Germans and Irish done? Uh oh…

It’s Howdy Doody Time!

Hmmm. Well, it appears that, as we have always said, because we are never to blame for any misstatements however gross or negligent, it is not our fault. Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates all agree: “Reporting means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Turns out those heroic Air Force cargo planes were loading infant formula from Germany and Ireland. For delivery to Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A. It was American bureaucrats who shut down factories, ignored scientific evidence, sparked panic buying, and moved with the charming speed of an exhausted three-toed sloth. A drunk, debauched, exhausted three-toed sloth. With the shakes. Dismissed the warnings from months ago. Pooh-poohed the damage and suffering. Gosh darn those unelected, unfeeling nabobs!

plane flying over crowd department of defense
Grateful Americans Anxiously Awaiting Generous Germans. And Irish.
Credit: Department of Defense

At least our elected political leaders have the good grace to be embarrassed, apologetic, and eager to set things right. They need our votes, after all. Certainly, they would never exploit parents’ anxiety or babies’ hunger for political expedience. Our statesmen and stateswomen have far too much respect for the intelligence of the American People and their own sense of honor and class to try covering up their failures and attempting to spin this humiliating episode as some sort of victory. Or not.

biden baby formula tweet

Records Set For New Regulations Not Just Inflation, Mortgage Interest Rates, And Gas Prices Anymore

U.S. politicians and government bureaucrats continue to set records that are unlikely to ever be challenged, let alone surpassed. In the last year, 69 brand new, major regulations. 72,000 pages of executive orders, regulations, and legalese. One think tank (probably evil or Russian or both) says this new red tape will cost over $200 billion. Another tank claims that 131 million more hours will be spent bending the proverbial knee to our do-gooding busybody federal potentates. No wonder it is tough to get good help!

boxes of paperwork
New Paperwork Required to Operate a 7-11 Convenience Store
Credit: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Did you know some say every 15% increase in federal regulations leads to a 1% increase in inflation? Me neither. Thank goodness inflation is so low we do not have to worry about that sort of thing. Whew!

Oh yeah. And the stock market is crashing too. Cheers!

Traditional Planning Is Death Planning

Avoid Probate, Save Taxes, Get To Kids?
And When You Die Broke, Drained By Long-Term Care, Probate Is Irrelevant

Traditional estate planning is supposed to avoid probate, save taxes, and dump your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.

When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.

Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?

Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?

Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

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Multi-Verse Of Madness? A Random Walk Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Incompetence

The Original Three Stooges, At Least, Were Funny

Why is our world run by 3 old men with health issues and questionable mental capability? Three geezers with sufficient atomic and hydrogen bombs to erase humanity? Two of them with sugar plum visions of long-lost imperial splendor dancing in their heads. Willing to slaughter other folks wholesale. Two greedy, stuffed-up potentates. Dozens of minor characters in supporting roles have similar grandiose cloud cuckoo land delusions. Complete the picture with a cast of thousands eager to murder for earthly paradise.

Is it surprising that totalitarian tyrannies spew forth thieving tyrants? Isn’t that pretty much what they do? Murder, conquest, plunder, looting, and pillaging are part and parcel of the tyrannical deal. Successful crime proves that the “mandate of heaven” rests on the tyrant.

A couple hundred years ago, a few, very few, people decided to chart a different course. To depend on one another. And vigorous, unrestrained debate. Government based on the consent of the governed. A radical idea that regular folks had something to say. A nation free of tyrants. Composed of free people. Thinking, speaking, and acting freely. Naturally, “smart” people have been desperately fighting against this dangerous idea ever since.

The good and the wise know that too much talking is bad for the peasants. Commoners need a Ministry of Truth, Commission for the Public Good, Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, “Disinformation Governance Board.” Intellectual leading lights from Ivy League universities must ensure you do not think the wrong thoughts or say the wrong words. Or hear anyone who does.

Can the third decrepit old gentleman really be blamed for much of anything? As a two-bit grifting politician, he sold out for cheap long ago. Enabling family members’ dirty dealing with foreign countries and powerful corporations. Selling influence and access. Kickbacks to the “big guy”. Penniless politician to Bruce Wayne multimillionaire. His only surviving son condemned to a maelstrom of drugs and paid-for sex. Pitiful really. Charley McCarthy in the White House. Merely a marionette. Pathetic puppet, dancing to strange tunes.

Yet this superannuated reprobate has performed a valuable service. He proved the obvious: when America retreats, tyranny fills the void. Ask Finland. Ask Sweden. Two countries with centuries of neutrality. Comfortably secure under the American umbrella. Until now. Today they frantically clamor to join the NATO Neighborhood Watch.

Harry Potter Is To Blame!
Or Maybe It Is Doctor Strange’s Fault

Remember the Marvel superhero movie, Ironman? A science guy builds himself a metal suit that flies and blows bad guy stuff up. Cool. Remember Spiderman? Radioactive spider bite, science-science, teenager with spider powers.

Beats bad guys up. Even Superman had the whole red sun/yellow sun science explanation for superpowers. Not anymore. Today superheroes are all magic.

Remember the Harry Potter books and movies? How about the vampire and werewolf books and movies? Say or think the right thing and stuff just happens. All magic. All the time. Magical!

Have you noticed that magical thinking has taken over? Men become women by simply saying so. You don’t even need a fancy spell. Or surgery. Why tampons in the Mens Room? Because men now menstruate. And give birth. How does a man have ovaries and a uterus? Perhaps it helps to start as a woman. Astounding new world records in women’s sports? Perhaps starting as a man helps. Not even Supreme Court Justices can tell the difference. Abracadabra indeed!

Imagine an old, broken-down horse. Shabby. Weak. Shuffling. Re-living its days as a foal. Kept around from pity. Would you enter that horse in the Kentucky Derby? Or the county fair? You might if you believed in the power of magical thinking. You would just tell yourself, and everyone else, that your nag is really a thoroughbred racehorse at the peak of its powers. And if anyone disagreed, you and your friends could shout them down. Fairness requires hobbling all the other horses, since their actual talents and abilities are “unfair” to the nag. Who would enjoy such a race? What would the outcome be?

Is it ridiculous to think that magical thinking in the real world leads to disaster across the board? Would you like to drive across a magical bridge? Live in a magical apartment house? Why not? It’s only fair.

Magical Thinking: Consequences

BASIC PRICE INFLATION. In April 2022, the United States failed to set a new 40-year record high for inflation. At least it stayed above 8%, though, so all of you buying groceries on your credit cards… keep it up, you will have to…

Ivy League Necromancers first blamed the magic inflation on too many people buying treadmills. Then Congressional Conjurers claimed it was temporary. Next Sorcerers Senatorial blamed it on Russia’s Mad Monk Rasputin. Now our trusted Thaumaturges assert something else, but frankly, we have lost track.

Good News! The Ginger Oracle’s Replacement says Inflation will be cured! By raising taxes. We swear we are not making this stuff up. Here is what the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics says:

cpi consumer price index chart

MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES. Mortgage rates continue to astonish, but the American Dream lives! “Homebuyers continue to show resilience even though rising mortgage rates are causing monthly payments to increase by about one-third as compared to a year ago,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. Thank you, Sam! Great to see our public servants serving the public!

Hey Home Sellers! Interest rate increases caused monthly payments go up by ONE-THIRD… Could HOME PRICES be affected? What do YOU think? Can you pull a Homebuyer out of a hat? You may have to….

freddie mac mortgage rate chart

ONE MILLION DEAD FROM ELDER PLAGUE. Do you remember a politician who claimed he would stop COVID? Neither does the Washington Post. Or New York Times. Or the politician himself. He even forgot he was vaccinated. Oh well. Elections are supposed to be magic!

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a MILLION AMERICANS have died from the virus of unknown origin. Widespread hysteria about the kids was manufactured by people who did not go to work, but still got paid. Fortunately for the children, the virus of unknown origin DOES NOT (hardly at all) KILL KIDS, but it is deadly to older folks. Almost exclusively.

From the very beginning the Reporter has described COVID as the “Elder Plague.” And that has NEVER changed. Here’s the current official CDC chart. Notice anything about deaths among kids ages 0-17? 0-29?

cdc covid death by age chart

NEW RUSSIAN BEACH FRONT RESORT. In Ukraine, on the Black Sea, is a steel plant. You may have heard of it. Bombed for months. Blasted to smithereens. Now your best Russian friend and mine, Crazy Vlad, is repurposing this fixer-upper opportunity as beach resort. Come for Time Share Presentation, leave with new set of steak knives! Wow! Magic solves everything, no?

TOP 10 AMERICAN THEME PARKS. Because inquiring minds want to know, USA Today, a “newspaper” asked regular folks which were the BEST THEME PARKS. #1 is an aquarium which used to have whales in a tank, but not anymore. Winners include a brewery-sponsored park, another that smells like chocolate, and two with country music themes. But the “Happiest Place on Earth” was shut out. Maybe normal folks have had enough of rich people insults. Maybe, finally, “Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Children of All Ages!” isn’t the only thing headed for the garbage dump. Did they think they could magically wish away their customers? Guess so!

Why Can’t You Live In The Magic Kingdom?

Why are the magical thinkers so unhappy? Why does everything they touch turn to crap? Why are they angry? Why are they unable to hear anyone but themselves?

Are you opposed to living in the real world? Are you against your actions having consequences? Do you live to blame other people for your own faults and failings? Do the real abilities and accomplishments of others fill you with jealousy and rage? Are you so special that the world owes you a living? Are you a precious snowflake that all must admire? Are you happy and secure in your own talents and abilities and appreciative of others? Does Magical Thinking work for you? Do you think it would work for your kids?

Is it ridiculous to think that primitive humans, whose lives were “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” were still more grounded in reality than the politicians, intellectuals, and other talking heads who insist on one absurd foolishness after another?

It is a blessing to be middle class. No one worships you. You do not inspire fear, anxiety, or dread. Others will tell you the truth. And demand truth from you. We have our challenges to be sure. And the good news is that we are not surrounded by toadies lying to us about those challenges. Lucky you! Lucky me.


 

Traditional Planning Is Death Planning

Avoid Probate, Save Taxes, Get To Kids? And When You Die Broke, Drained By Long-Term Care, Probate Is Irrelevant

Traditional estate planning is supposed to avoid probate, save taxes, and dump your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.

When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.

Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?

Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?

Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

Read the Print Version

Crippling Inflation, Food Shortages, Gas Lines

Would It Be A Problem If We Talked About A Few Things That Are Top Of Mind For Middle Class Folks Like Us?

You grew up in a country that had surpluses of everything. So much food, the government paid farmers not to grow it. Or bought it and gave it to other countries. Or piled it up somewhere. Now you live in a country that cannot provide for her babies. Go. Try to buy baby formula. Good luck.

American education was so good, foreign students fought to study here. Colleges and universities got fat and happy charging full fare to foreign students. It was value for the money. Now schools pretend rigorous standards are simple oppression. There is an engineering school in Boston, called the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. You may have heard of it. MIT dropped its admission standards. No more standardized testing. MIT now has failing students. Lots of failing students. So many failing students that it just reinstated standardized testing. How oppressive! How obvious. How inevitable. Perhaps MIT should have learned from Harvard, another Boston school. “The median grade in Harvard College is indeed an A-. The most frequently awarded grade in Harvard College is actually a straight A.” says the Dean. That was in 2013. A more recent survey says that Harvard grades have gone up. By an additional half-grade! How is that even possible? Who knows? Who cares? Everybody feels better so it’s OK!

Do you remember the anti-war folks? People who were opposed to war on principle? “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism!” they said. They say a lot of things. What happened to those guys? Seems like now there is a war they can support. With billions of your money. Hmmm. Turns out they were never really anti-war. They were just on the other side. Feels strange to hear them agree with you now, doesn’t it? Makes you wonder what they’re up to…

Regular folks are drowning in higher prices. 40-year highs. Why all the newspaper, TV news happy talk? Inflation at the store went from an ungodly 8.5% to an excruciating 8.3%. Wholesale inflation from 11.5% to 11%. They think this is progress. When you are drowning, does it matter whether the water is 8½ feet over your head or only 8⅓ feet? Why are they trying to deceive you? Why won’t they tell the truth?

Don’t look now, but your retirement savings are tanking, too. Thank you, Wall Street. Look on the bright side! With skyrocketing interest rates, someday soon you might see a worthwhile CD. Even the New York Times and Washington Post admit the infant formula shortage. According to the Post, “The shortage ‘has been compounded by supply chain challenges, product recalls and historic inflation’.” “As of last week, formula stockpiles were 43 percent lower than normal”. You are not asleep, this is not a nightmare. You are wide awake. This is real: In America, American reporters force feed corporate-speak to explain why American babies do not have food. In America. Some people think this is just great. You deserve it. But why is that OK with you? According to the Associated Press: “The Biden administration is canceling three oil and gas lease sales scheduled in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska, removing millions of acres from possible drilling as U.S. gas prices reach record highs.” No comment. Nuff said. Is reality biting hard enough yet?

What about violent crime wave, Supreme Court leaks, employment woes, tax increases, student loan cancellations, border issues, COVID, and other unpleasant topics? No room.

There Is Nothing Wrong With America That Cannot Be Fixed, Quickly, If Americans Will Start Acting Like Americans

You know there are millions of ways out of this mess. The tried-and-true American way. You. Your friends and neighbors. Folks you go to church with. All part of the solution. Hopeful signs are there. School board elections. Growing recognition that something has gone horribly wrong. And now is time to fix it.

Pendulums swing back and forth, good and bad. When things are going your way, it is hard to remember the negatives. When things are going the other way, it is hard to remember the positives. Americans do not wait for magical changes. Americans make the changes happen. It is truly up to you. And you have to act.

Can You Be A Force For Good If You Die Broke?
Does Death Planning Champion Your Values?
Do You Want Government Bureaucrats Deciding Your Care?
Should You Throw Your Lifesavings Out The Window?

Conventional estate planning supposedly avoids probate and dumps your leftover stuff on the kids. After you die. Don’t they care what happens to you while you are still alive? Stupid.

Is it ridiculous to see that most estate planning fails? Do you reject the facts: the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care? 70% of us. Three years on average. More for some. Do you doubt we will go broke paying for it? Are you surprised that thousands of properties are lost to pay for long-term care? Cottage – poof! Centennial Farm – whsssht! Hunting property – flussssh! Homestead – pffft! Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? Evil intent? Stupidity? Just does not know? LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society, When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, my parents’ estate plan preserved their home and lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad lived his last years without anxiety, enjoying security and peace of mind.

Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?

Perhaps you think you already have all the answers. Maybe you deny there’s any problem. Do you even believe in the passage of time or its effects on you? Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family? Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers? Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones. The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

Read the Print Version

D-Liver, D-Letter, D-Sooner, D-Better

(Not Edited For Spelling Or Punctuation Or Anything Else) (Warning: Not Legal Advice!)

Question:

How do I evict my mother-in-law who lives in my home and it’s causing problems between my wife and I?

My mother-in-law is 86 years old and only brings in under $2,000 a month Social Security she has become very belligerent and mean argumentative and causing trouble between my wife and I she needs to move.

Short Answer: How does your blushing bride feel about this? Not as a domestic relations matter, but strictly from the Perry Mason perspective. Do you lovebirds own the nest together (“tenants by the entirety”)? If so, your helpmeet can give Mommy Dearest permission to remain. Forever. You wish to stab yourself with the nearest sharp implement (like Juliet)? We do not advise it, but we understand. You are stuck.

What if your Till-Death-Do-Us-Part’ner agrees: her sainted forbear must seek a happier haven? Face facts: Legally, mother-in-law is a tenant. You are a landlord. Meaning you will have to go through the usual eviction process. Begin by serving her with a 30-day Notice to Quit, Termination of Tenancy. If she does not vacate, move on to a Summary Proceeding in District Court. Now it is strictly by-the-numbers.

Longer Answer: On the other hand, what if the sweetest, kindest, gentlest, nicest person in the world became “very belligerent and mean argumentative and causing trouble” due to a disease process? Radical personality shifts are common in persons suffering from various forms of dementia. Dementia is often accompanied by depression. Depression frequently manifests as anger, paranoia, vindictiveness. Vascular dementia victims can be especially cruel. Even without dementia, for many older people, aging itself triggers disagreeable moods and behaviors. Is it foolish to consider all possibilities before reaching a conclusion? Would you think it a bad idea to explore various options before suing a family member? Or maybe your in-law simply is the most weak, cranky, crabby, argumentative, testy, provocative, petulant, grasping, grumpy, grouchy, irritable, ungrateful, bad-tempered wretch to ever urge its squat, thick, ungainly bulk across the surface of a complaining earth.

Question:

How do I remove a non-rent/non-bill paying adult child?

My friend (good friend of the homeowner) has durable power of attorney. We’re trying to empty the house and make extensive repairs to, then sell the home very soon. There is an alcoholic borderline psychotic adult son (42 years old and employed) that has been living there 5 years or more that has contributed zero dollars to the household. The mother has asked him several times to vacate and he has excuses why he’s just not going to do that right now. We’re looking for an immediate legal remedy.

Short Answer: “We’re looking for an immediate legal remedy.” There is no immediate legal remedy. The Law frowns on “self-help.” Putting Psycho Son’s stuff in the driveway feels great!

Then come the triple damages for anything you broke, lost, or threw away. More damages for his hotel room. And then he is back in the house! Once somebody has taken root in your home, it is darn tough to get them out. Except through the traditional legal process that applies to any other tenant.

If Psycho Son agrees to leave voluntarily, well and good, maybe mom can convince him to go. But it seems “he’s just not going to do that right now.” Don’t wait, get him served with a 30-Day Notice, Termination of Tenancy and get on with it.

Even Shorter Answer: The typical financial power of attorney will give you the necessary authority to evict this ungrateful child. However, you will save much in the way of blood, sweat, and tears to retain experienced counsel. A power of attorney is only as good as the words it contains. It is not inconceivable that the power of attorney may be insufficient. Get it checked out.

Possible Answer: Has the “alcoholic borderline psychotic adult son” threatened or carried out any physical or psychological abuse of mother? Threats? Actual abuse? If so, a Personal Protection Order may be sought from the Family Court Division of Circuit Court. A PPO, among other things, may prohibit the son from: “entering onto the property where [mother] live[s]” “entering onto [other] property” “assaulting, attacking, beating, molesting, or wounding [mother]” and “stalking as defined under MCL 750.411h and MCL 750.411i” among other things. SCAO Form CC375, Rev. 1/21.

The PPO can be obtained without notice to the “respondent” son. And it can be obtained quickly. Again, consult with counsel. Some folks have exaggerated the grounds for the PPO. Some folks have bitterly regretted the exaggeration.

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now.
(800) 317-2812

Read the Print Version

Like Driving Past A Car Wreck… Glad It Did Not Happen To You (Not Edited For Spelling Or Punctuation Or Anything Else) (Warning: Not Legal Advice!)

QUESTION: Can our disabled brothers legal guardian (also a family member and remainderman) terminate disabled brothers life estate?

Disabled brother is now in nursing home and will not return to family home which he has life estate in and is also in an irrevocable trust. There are many remaindermen, (large family) and all are in agreement to sell family home including our disabled brothers guardian. Another family member/remainderman wants to buy us out and move into home, hoping that we can all just sign off of house/ trust and quitclaim the property to her. Not sure if this is “allowable” or advisable. We also have concerns about potential “Medicaid recovery” if life estate is terminated while life estate holder is still alive.

Short Answer: Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice elder law without a firm grounding in the fundamentals. Imagine sorting out this fact pattern after the family house was sold, money distributed, Medicaid denied, recriminations on all sides, nursing home lawsuit against disabled brother, allegations of fraudulent transfer against siblings, and a family feud ripe with recriminations echoing through eternity. In other words, the usual case.
Is it crazy to think it is not too late? Is it impossible for sweet reason and angelic actions to save the day? Must this family suffer?
Long Answer: There are several threads here that need to be disentangled. Let us begin with brother’s life estate.

LIFE ESTATE
In Michigan, “life estate” means that the person can use and live on the property for their entire lifetime. A life estate is valuable. How valuable?

Back in the day, we used to have hearings with expert witnesses and do future value projections based on life expectancy and then present value regression analyses. But in today’s modern world, Michigan makes it easy to figure out how much a life estate is worth. Get a copy of the Bridges Eligibility Manual 400, Exhibit II – Life Estate and Life Lease Factor Table (BPB 2022-07) (available online!). This Table lists ages from birth to 109 years old. For each age, there is a 5-digit life estate factor. You look up the factor that corresponds to the age of the person. Multiply the factor by the value of the real estate. Voila! That is the value of the person’s life estate.

IMPORTANT POINT: Life Estate values have nothing to do with the actual health of the Life Estate holder. Life Estate Value is all about chronological age. Birth certificate and calendar. Healthy or on hospice? Irrelevant.

A few examples. Let us suppose the family home is worth $100,000.

At age 2, the life estate factor is .99017. So, a two- year old’s life estate is worth $99,017. ($100,000 X .99017)

At age 109, the life estate factor is .04545. That means that the 109-year-old’s life estate is worth $4,545. ($100,000 X .04545)

At age 70, the life estate factor is .60522. How much is a 70-year-old person’s life estate worth? Correct! $60,522. ($100,000 X .60522)

What this means is that “if life estate is terminated while life estate holder is still alive” the life estate holder must be paid the value of the life estate as determined by the BEM 400 Life Estate Factor Table. Easy!

Let’s consider the flip side… the remaindermen.

If 70-year-old disabled brother’s life estate is worth $60,522, what are all the remaindermen’s interests worth, collectively? Correct again! $39,478. ($100,000 – $60,522) Divided by the “many remaindermen” of a “large family.” Betcha didn’t see that coming!

DISABLED BROTHER’S GUARDIAN
Disabled brother has a guardian. Does that mea we are in probate court? Yes! Does that mean that any sale of the property must be approved by probate court? Yes! Does that mean that we will have to pay an attorney to help us ask the probate court for permission to sell? No! Like plumbing and electrical work on your home, probate can be a “Do-It-Yourself” adventure. Emphasis on “adventure.” Can you steer your automobile with your feet? Sure! But that does not make it a good idea. Like do-it-yourself electrical work, plumbing, or probate. Jes’ sayin’.

Probate is required even if disabled brother also has a conservator for management of his assets.

MEDICAID RECOVERY
Remember how disabled brother got the money from the sale of the family home? If disabled brother was already on Medicaid, getting the money will boot him off. Until the money is all “spent down.” Or until the money is stashed in a Medicaid payback trust. Or a charitable pooled income fund. Or somewhere else where the other family members will not benefit.

Are there worse ideas than selling the family home before disabled brother’s death? Sure! You could invade Ukraine, expecting a liberator’s welcome. You could dump trillions of dollars into the economy, expecting no inflation. Spit into the wind. Tug the mask off the ole Lone Ranger. Mess around with Jim. Bad ideas.

When disabled brother dies, his life estate is over. No compensation. No estate or Medicaid recovery. The remaindermen get the remainder. All the remainder. Yay!

But in the meantime… You want to keep the family house occupied. Vacant houses have a way of burning down. Vacant house insurance is hugely expensive. Plus you still have to pay the taxes. And utilities. Mow the grass. Plow the snow. Paint it.

Why not let sister move in now, provided she pays all expenses? Subject to a written agreement? Give her a right of first refusal (not an option) so she may purchase the place after disabled brother’s death?

There are other possibilities. Leasing/subleasing.

Etcetera. But do not accept the assertion that it must be sold pronto. The family has options.

IRREVOCABLE TRUST

What’s going on with this?

Somehow there is an irrevocable trust blended into the mix. It is not obvious how that trust is being used, if at all. There are several possibilities. But a review of the trust would be essential to knowing what is going on.

Question: Can my father’s caretaker accept his entire estate? Can she be sued for selling everything? He is still alive. My dad signed over his house to his caretaker before she put him into an assisted living home. She then quickly sold it. He has 2 living children. Do I have any recourse now?

Short Answer: No, you do not “have any recourse now”. Sadly, a properly executed deed has consequences which cannot be undone. Even a deed that reverses the prior transfer has real world consequences that cannot be ignored. What consequences? [WARNING: LAWYER ANSWER TO FOLLOW] It depends.

Longer Answer: Is it possible that the caregiver may be sued or prosecuted for financial abuse of the elderly? Is it possible that Father was incapacitated or mentally incompetent at the time he signed the deed? Could those be grounds to throw it out? What if Father was coerced into signing by undue influence, would those be grounds as well? Perchance. Maybe. Possibly. Mayhap. Hmmmmm, tugs at goatee…

How can you prove that Father was consistently and continually mentally incompetent? Or coerced? Were you there the whole time? When he signed? These are difficult cases. Difficult to forget about apparent injustice. Difficult to remedy the injustice. Difficult to know if there was any injustice at all. Difficult to reconcile when the “bad actor” is a family member.

Is it crazy to think that it might just possibly be helpful to have had some professional assistance in this sort of situation? Maybe possibly a few bucks and hours now to avoid big bucks and years of woe in the future? Asking for a friend…

Father, it seems, was mentally competent and had the legal ability to sign. Adults can choose. Poorly. With disastrous consequences.

You may not believe it, but some folks with signs of developing dementia are propped up by gangs of greedy grasping gargoyles intending to gorge on ill-gotten gains. Despicable devils who deny demonstrable incoherence, impulsiveness, and inconsistency. For their own putrescent purposes. How can such evil exploiters exist? Trust the evidence of your own eyes if you doubt it.

Actions have consequences.

Question #1: Can my durable POA withdraw from my IRA and sell my home if I become incapacitated?

Question #2: Can I specify what accounts he can access?

I have two stepchildren. I will probably make one of them my durable POA—but I don’t want them to be able to access certain accounts that I have… if I become incapitated-nor do I want them to sell my home. Hopefully, I would have enough in my bank account to cover medical bills.

Question #3: Can I specify in my will what accounts the POA would have access to withdraw from? I am concerned about abuses as I have heard some horror stories and I have no children of my own or close friends. Question #4: Would I be better off getting a bank to manage my affairs?

Answer #1: Powers of Attorney always depend on the authority you write into them. You can limit the ability of the Agent under the POA however you choose. Generally, to be effective, you want your Agent to be able to access your Individual Retirement Account and to deal with your home.

Answer #2: Yes, you can limit the Agent’s access to specific accounts.

Answer #3: Horror stories are real. Financial abuse of older folks is also all too common. The good news is that there are professional trustees and fiduciaries who will not steal your money. So if you do have some question about the stepchildren, do not appoint them as your trustees or executors or agents or patient advocates or any other position of responsibility.

Answer #4: You may “be better off getting a bank to manage [your] affairs.” Professional trustees vary widely in their commitment to service and delivering value. Your friendly neighborhood elder law attorney (should) have plenty of experience with a range of professional trustees and banks. Why not ask? However, do not use an attorney as your trustee. The trustee function is fundamentally different than the lawyer function, in my opinion. A focused, professional trustee will do that job with much greater efficiency and at less cost than the typical attorney. But you still need to take care that you have the right trustee, and your attorney can be very helpful in that regard.

Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

Read the Print Version

I’m As Mad As Hell And I’m Not Going To Take This Anymore!

—Howard Beale, Network, 1976

We’re Not Gonna Take It, No, We Ain’t Gonna Take It, We’re Not Gonna Take It Anymore!

—Dee Snider, Twisted Sister, 1984

USA! USA! USA!

It was not that long ago. A year or so? America was recovering from the COVID. Economic growth was rebounding. Interest rates continued at historic low levels. Minimal inflation. Energy affordable and secure. Americans doing what Americans do. Getting on with it. Making the best of the situation. Recovering.

Remember before-COVID? Best economy ever for working Americans of all ages and racial groups. Record employment. At the highest real wages in history.

COVID and the response to the pandemic was a body blow. Confronted with a virus of mysterious origin. COVID deaths were 90+% among older folks with other ailments but affected us all. Lockdowns, economic paralysis, “No gardening for you!”.

Yet there was some desperate pride in adversity. Frontline healthcare workers’ extraordinary courageous efforts. Army field hospitals established overnight in Central Park. Navy hospital ships designed to treat battle-wounded soldiers converted at incredible speed to COVID treatment. Car factories suddenly manufacturing complex ventilators. Personal Protection Equipment production ramped up. Scientific research and vaccine development at “warp speed”.

Some sought political advantage. Blame Game. Extraordinary stresses resulted from lockdowns, masking, different therapeutic and preventive approaches to dealing with the pandemic. Some violence was excused. Other violence exaggerated and hysterically condemned. Rules for thee, but not for me? Raise your hand if you are surprised by politicians’ hypocrisy. Me neither.

And yet. Despite all the blame-gaming. Whatever your personal politics. Whomever you think is at fault. Let’s look over the edge of this foxhole. Aren’t there are some undeniable realities, some inconvenient truths?

Inflation is at 40-year highs. And getting worse.

Interest rates doubling, tripling. Home ownership out of reach. What do you think higher interest rates will do to the deficit?
Energy dependence is our future. America pleads with oil potentates who refuse our President’s phone calls and verbally abuse his envoys. “Strategic Petroleum Reserve” is pumped out to temporarily mask reality.

Crime and murder rates are skyrocketing back to the bad old days. Carnage in the streets.

Economic gains erased. Recession talk is back. Recession reality about to bite. Stagnation looms.

No borders for the U.S. Millions already crossed over. Given a joke legal document. And a cell phone. And a ticket to your town. To compete with you and your neighbors.

America is on edge. Agitated and anxious. Withdrawn and passive. Contradictory emotions and impulses. Remember Jimmy Carter? Malaise? Anything feel familiar nowadays?

How did we get here? Where do we go now?

Russia Russia Russia

Early 2022. Russia’s main rival (that’s us!) dazed and confused. Some American politicians and partisans credit Russia with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Russia chooses America’s president. Some believed this. Others said it for political advantage.

Russia riding high. Europe, with fresh America approval, agreed to new pipelines from Russian oil and gas fields. Europe cast away its independence. Europe invites the Russian boot upon its neck.

Russia’s Chief Crime Boss believed the American politicians. And the American newspapers. And his generals. Russian Chief Crime Boss thought he was really something. Also thought he had a real military.

Chief Crime Boss thought, “Now’s the time!” And invaded another country. Threatens others.

How’s that working out? Tens of thousands of dead or missing Russian soldiers. Thousands of dead Ukrainians. Billions of destroyed civilian and military property. Sunk ships. Millions of wrecked dreams. Years of effort demolished overnight with artillery shells, missiles, and bombs. Medieval brutality. Standard Operating Procedure for Russia, from czarist times to the time you read this. No surprise to anyone familiar with any ancient or modern Russian military adventure.

But Europe has had enough. Petroleum extortion blackmail is okay but killing people and breaking things… too much!

Henchmen of Chief Russian Crime Boss lied to him. Military was for show, not go. Crime Boss losing. But Crime Boss can never lose. Now Chief Russian Crime Boss threatens nuclear weapons.

How did this happen? What now?

USA vs Russia

There is no easy way out. No effortless solutions. We are past that now. Yet there is hope. America still has Americans. People who do not like being lied to. People who want to say what they want to say. We are a talkative bunch. We do not like to be shut up. We like to irritate our betters. We like to shake things up. That is what the First Amendment is all about.

Russia has the Russian system. Shut up or die. Shut up and die. No way out. No Exit. No solution when your country is run by a Chief Crime Boss and his henchmen. For as long as the Crime Boss lives. History provides countless examples. Napoleon: France. Hitler: Germany. Idi Amin: Uganda. Pol Pot: Cambodia. Franco: Spain.

Sadly, some Americans like the Russian Way. Some Americans are afraid of other people talking. So afraid that the government is setting up a “Disinformation Governance Board” staffed by political appointees. To govern “Disinformation”? Who decides which information is true blue, all-American, reliable, sanctified, and Government- Approved Information? Who decides which is evil, bad, horrible, no-good Disinformation? How can anything like this be consistent with the First Amendment? Can it be reconciled? Of course not.

Fortunately, many American immigrants seem to understand the importance of free discourse better than some of us born here. One immigrant, naturalized American has even spent some of his own money to buy a communications company. He promises to make it available to all. We shall see.

And that is the difference. We have our troubles, but the American Way of free speech, without fear or favor, will eventually enable us to solve our problems. If we continue to believe and act as Americans.

This is not a new issue with us. About a hundred years ago, in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927), the Supreme Court upheld a conviction for dangerous speech. Forty years later, the Court, in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969), overruled that precedent and forcefully upheld free speech under the First Amendment.

Who wants to turn the clock back? Who wants to suppress, prosecute, and imprison their fellow Americans for speaking on political issues? Why do they fear talk? Are their ideas so weak? Do they have no confidence in their fellow citizens? Are they so smart that no one else need express any thought? Who are these people? Why do they reject the American Way and embrace the Russian Way?

Although it appears nowhere in his writings, Winston Churchill is often credited with saying:

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.

The Russian Way leads to death and destruction. The American Way leads to disagreement, discomfort, annoyance, and a better future and outcome for us all. We tried a mild variation on the Russian Way. And threw it out. Let’s stick to the American Way!

Is Now A Bad Time For A True Estate Planning Solution?

LifePlanning™ Is A Real Solution Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries.

After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long- term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.

When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.

Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?

Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

Read the Print Version

Another Missive You Are Glad You Did Not Have To Write
(Not Edited For Spelling Or Punctuation Or Anything Else) (Warning: Not Legal Advice!)

Question: Do I have any legal rights as an Heir to my father house?

I have lived with my father in the house that I grew up in for more then 10yrs now. I care for my father and his needs. I take him to Dr. appts, I cook, clean the house, do his laundry, and always make sure his needs are taken care of. I have 1 sister its just her and I. My father owns his home free and clear. Back in 2002 while i was away my father had some legal issues that concerned his house which at the time he was the only person on the Deed. Because of this legal issue my father put my sisters name on his house. It is a Grant Deed with my father and my sister as Joint Tenants. My father is in the hospital at this time and not doing very well my sister says the house belongs to her and she has recently served me with Eviction 60 day notice to Quit based on a No-Fault Just Cause. I pay my father rent every month and have receipts to show. My father has no Will in place. Do I as his son have any legal rights as his Heir and if so what can I do? My sister and I dont get along for the past few years all she has done is take advantage of our father financially and otherwise. She has no concern for his health or well being she only wants his house and will stop at nothing.

The Short Answer Is: No, you do not “have any legal rights as an Heir to [your]fathers house.” You are totally out of luck. Sister gets the house. You get evicted. “Do Not Pass GO, Do Not Collect $200.” You may get a share of father’s other assets, but not the house. The house is gone. Transferred. That is what a deed does. That is what deeds are for.

Gee, that was rather harsh, wasn’t it? Yeah, but also accurate. Lamentably, this is a very common “plan.” And a very common situation as well. The out-of-towner child gets the gold mine. The do- gooder child gets the shaft.

The Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, however, offers some consolation for you, at 5:12:

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for
great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Makes you feel better, right?

And if you desire vengeance… Sure, sister may be rejoicing now with her ill-gotten gains. But let’s consult Dante’s Guide to Satan’s Suburb, the “Inferno.” Here we learn that the Ninth Circle of Hell, the one “lowest, blackest, and farthest from Heaven” is reserved for Traitors. Including those who betray their family members. So, your sister will spend Eternity right next door to Lucifer, frozen in an icy lake, tormented by demons. Unless she repents. At the last minute. On her deathbed.

Observation #1 Is it crazy to think that the Deed’s actual language might make a difference? No? In fact, there is a huge difference between “Joint Tenants” and “Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship.”

If the deed says: “Conveys to Dad and Evil Sister as Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship”. Then there is nothing to be done. And nothing that can be done, unless both Dad and Evil Sister work together. Evil Sister gets the property if Dad dies first. And vice versa. Unless… see Observation #3, below.

If the deed says: “Conveys to Dad and Evil Sister as Joint Tenants”. Then either Dad or Evil Sis can break the joint tenancy by conveying their joint interest. Even if they only convey that interest to a trust. POP! Goes the joint tenancy and now Dad owns one-half and Evil Sister owns one-half. And now when Dad dies, Evil Sister does NOT get his half. Dad could have sold to a stranger or given it to Brother. At death, Dad’s half goes wherever Dad says it should if Dad has done a trust or will. If Dad has done nothing, then the Probate Code (also known as the Estates and Protected Individuals Code) will dictate who gets Dad’s half when he dies.

If the deed says: “Conveys to Dad and Evil Sister.” Or “Conveys to Dad and Evil Sister as Tenants in Common.” Now Dad and Evil Sister each own a one-half interest that they can sell or give or otherwise transfer to someone else. Just the same as if there was a busted Joint Tenancy.

Observation #2 Remember those folks who told you to “Just put the kids on the deed! It is so simple and easy!”? Remember them? Wouldn’t you like to give ‘em a bust in the chops right about now? [DISCLAIMER: The Elder Law Reporter does not advocate or condone violence. Except metaphorically.]

Observation #3 When is a deed not a deed? When it is a “Ladybird” or “Transfer on Death” or “Enhanced Life Estate” deed. Then it is not a “Deed” at all… until Dad dies.

The Transfer on Death deed means that Dad retains all control over the property during his lifetime. Dad can give it away. Dad can mortgage the property. Dad can sell part and keep part. Dad is in total control. While Dad is living.

After death, if Dad has not transferred it while alive, the property then goes to Evil Sister.

Observation #4 Blast from the Past. Back in the day, it was accepted practice to deed real estate to parents and one or two favored children, all as Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship. Okay, you say… “Done deal!” Mom and Dad just gave the property to those two kids or their survivor. And you told me in Observation #1 that that was the end of the story. Which is true… pretty much.

Sometimes, after signing the Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship deed, the parents would require the kids on the deed to sign a Second Document.

The Second Document was a trust. A very short, one-and-a-half-page trust. The kids signed the trust as Trustees.

The kids signed to recognize that the Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship Deed was not really a deed to them, but a deed to the trust. And the trust said that they (or the survivor of them) had to split the property with the rest of the family.

Why? Why? WHY?

Deed plus Mini-trust is “simpler.” Also, these deeds helped to disguise the actual ownership. Also, these deeds were very confusing.

The worst part of these deeds is that well-meaning family members are turned into criminals. After Mom and Dad die, the family does not really know what is going on. One result is tax fraud. Another is federal farm price support and other agricultural program fraud. Frequently, this sort of arrangement results in Medicaid fraud. These crimes are innocent. The kids named on the deed had no idea that they were trustees and had to report. And remember: Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

And it is not just tax, agricultural, and Medicaid laws that are violated. The kids named on the deed often breach their fiduciary duties to their brothers and sisters.

Observation #5 Wouldn’t it be a great idea if all the kids are made Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship? Let’s put ALL the kids’ names on the deed. Now we don’t have to worry about anyone being left out! Everybody feels great.

Now your property is subject to all of the kids’ liabilities.

Now all of the kids can use all of your property whenever they like. With whomever they like. Including their mud-wrestling motorcycle gang. And you cannot stop them because they own the property same as you. Same as you.

Observation #6
Ignorance is bliss.

Conclusion A: Is it unimportant to plan your estate? Should you be careless about who gets what? Are you happy to leave confusion, tax liability and potential criminal responsibility on your kids? Do you want your legacy to be wreckage?

Then maybe you should take this stuff seriously. Is that a ridiculous notion?

Conclusion B: “Everything should be as simple as possible. But not more simple.” Albert Einstein.

The most expensive thing you can do is to cheap out on your estate planning. It is very attractive to get the free steak dinner that comes with a free trust. “If it’s free, I’ll take three!” Words to live by… But the consequences can be… severe.

Conclusion C: These various deed tactics were employed for generations. Today, it is the Ladybird Deed that takes center stage. If the past is a guide, the Ladybird Deed will soon come home to roost. And it won’t be pretty.

Actually, Ladybird Feuds are already happening. What we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg, early Ladybird Deeds. When the bulk of these deeds transfer property, it’ll be “Katie bar the door!” Which will be great for the lawyers fighting these cases.

Sometimes these deeds work well enough. Maybe there are great relationships among the family members. Maybe no one has died. Maybe no in- law is obnoxious, obtuse, officious, or offensive. Maybe the stars align perfectly! Maybe you get lucky. Is luck a plan?

It’s not that “deed planning” cannot possibly work. That’s not the point. The key is that you have no reason to think that it will work. It might. But it might not. And any little problem can cause great, unforeseen disaster.

Is it crazy to think that a little flexibility might preserve your intent while weathering the storms of the future?

Conclusion D: Stupid planning does not survive. As time goes by, faulty planning techniques are abandoned. But because lawyers and clients typically do not communicate, strategies that were dumped long ago continue to show up and cause havoc today. Properties worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Farms held in the family for over 150 years. Cottages and hunting land. All of these, as well as your traditional family homestead, are needlessly put at risk.

Conclusion E: Maybe you should go to a LifePlan™ Workshop. Just saying.

Traditional Deed Planning Is Dangerous To You And Your Family

Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.

When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.

Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?

Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?

Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

Download the print version

A Confederacy Of Dunces?
Are The “Best And Brightest” In Charge?
Did We Elect The Most Arrogant and Stupid?

Five Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Setting New Records For Pitiful Stupidity?

Every day in every way, we are getting better and better! Who believes that? You try and try, but isn’t it getting more and more difficult to keep the faith? Just look around. Or in a grocery store. Or any kind of store. We are #1! Setting records every week… ain’t it grand?

BASIC PRICE INFLATION. In March 2022, the United States set a 40-year record high for inflation. April 2022 says, “Hold my beer.” And catapults past March, with a new 40-year record high. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Let’s blame Russia.

(Don’t you just love this chart which pretends you can ignore food and energy prices? Excellent!)

cpi change

MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES. Not to be outdone, mortgage interest rates also jumped to new highs. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, known to its friends as “Freddie Mac,” proudly proclaims prodigious price proliferation. “Well done, Freddie!” say us. You want to buy a house? Ha ha ha. Renting is good.

freddie mac

FEDERAL FERTILIZER FRACAS. Is it ridiculous to observe that large quantities of cow-based organic fertilizer are produced by government operations? Do you doubt that the highest level of government work product consists primarily of bull-based fertilizer, also known as “BS”? Verily, the highest praise from one bureaucrat to another: “That is total BS!” How can there be a fertilizer shortage with all this manure and BS? Our “public servants” find the way.

BONUS QUESTION: Will skyrocketing fuel and fertilizer costs reduce food prices? What do you think? Asking for a friend…

fertilizer price index

IT AIN’T JUST FERTILIZER. Is it crazy to think that raw material costs have something to do with store prices? Do manufacturers get everything for free? Is the cost of steel and rubber and aluminum and a whole bunch of other stuff irrelevant to the price of your new car?

ppi 12 month change

Let’s look at overall raw material costs. Remember that store prices are up 8.5%. How about raw material prices? Any good news there? Nope. Those prices are up 11.2%. Unexpectedly.

RUSSIAN INVASION. Everybody feel bad for murderous thieving Russian crime boss. Crime boss unhappy because neighborhood victims no want murder or stealing no more.

Is good club in neighborhood. Nice neighborhood people make good club so murderous Russian crime boss no murder them and steal stuff. But Russian crime boss like murder and steal. Sad now.

Other neighborhood folks name Sweden and Finland want join good club. Russian crime boss no like that idea! So, Sweden and Finland not join good club so Russian crime boss not get very sad then start murdering and stealing again.

Nobody to murder or steal from. Russian crime boss sad, so sad. And bored. Russian crime boss get angry. Say no one even think about join good club. Then Russian crime boss start murder and steal from neighbor.

Sweden and Finland see Russian crime boss murder and steal. Sweden and Finland now say, “Hmmm, maybe good time join good club.”

Russian crime boss get many Russians killed. Russian crime boss lose lots of Russian stuff. Russian crime boss get many neighbor people killed. Russian crime boss wreck lots of neighbor’s stuff. [By the way, there are very few Russians healthy and young enough for military service. And this idiot is feeding them wholesale into a meat grinder. That’s how stupid he is.]

Russian crime boss gets nothing good, loses lots. Russian crime boss neighbor gets nothing good, loses lots.

No good. All bad. Very bad.

Russian crime boss evil, yes. Very evil. Russian crime boss worse than evil. Russian crime boss stupid.

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

—Robert J. Hanlon, Hanlon’s Razor, 1980

The Five Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity

Carlo M. Cipolla stated that there are 5 basic laws of Human Stupidity that help to explain the world around us. Do politicians intend to harm us? Are they doing it on purpose? Some are, probably, but most are just stupid. They actually believe that creating more money will cure inflation. Well.

Last week we visited the first 3 of Cipolla’s Laws:

The First Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

Always And Inevitably Everyone Underestimates The Number Of Stupid Individuals In Circulation.
There are more stupid people hanging around that you can possibly imagine.

The Second Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

The Probability That A Certain Person Be Stupid Is Independent Of Any Other Characteristic Of That Person.
Rich people, poor people, Harvard graduates, elementary school dropouts, artists, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, lawyers, doctors, politicians. All are equally, proportionately, stupid.

The Third and Golden Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

A Stupid Person Is A Person Who Causes Losses To Another Person Or To A Group Of Persons While Himself Deriving No Gain And Even Possibly Incurring Losses.

BANDIT. It is possible to be an almost intelligent bandit. The bandit always harms others. Bandits are evil. But not necessarily stupid. An intelligent evil bandit steals your car. And keeps your car. You are down a whole automobile. Bandit is up by an automobile. You lose. Bandit gains. Gains and losses balance. The whole is not worse off, even though evil stuff happened.

Most bandits are not intelligent. Most bandits are stupid. Most bandits cause far more harm to you than they benefit themselves. Bandit carjacks your car. Shoots you. You lose automobile, pancreas, kidney, and part of your left lung. You are way way down. Bandit does not get to keep stolen car. Bandit sells for cheap to chop shop. Bandit is now Public Enemy #1. Bandit gets caught, goes to jail. Bad things happen.

Bandit hurts you and hurts self. Stupid.

BANDIT POLITICIAN. Politician wants to be liked. Pumps up trilllions of money from nowhere. Gives to friends. Lots of friends. Would print up and give away even more, but spoilsports say “NO!”. Politician sad.

Price inflation takes away more money than Politician gave to friends. Friends now unhappy. Much more unhappy than before. Cannot buy house. Cannot go on vacation. Cannot buy food.

Politician now unliked by all. Popularity in the toilet. Most people say “Big Stinker!”. Politician loses. Friends lose. Everybody loses.

Politician hurts you and hurts self. Stupid.

The Fourth Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

Non-Stupid People Always Underestimate The Damaging Power Of Stupid Individuals. In Particular Non-Stupid People Constantly Forget That At All Times And Places And Under Any Circumstances To Deal And/Or Associate With Stupid People Always Turns Out To Be A Costly Mistake.

Did you think Russia would be threatening thermonuclear war against Sweden and Finland (and the rest of us) in the Spring of 2022? Did you guess that the United States would be fighting a land war in Europe right about now? Did you foresee the highest inflation rates in 40 years? Did your crystal ball foretell that testicle’ed humans would be celebrated for beating uterus’ed humans in athletic contests? Did you predict that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would give up the most effective screening tests available to admit unqualified students who flunked out at astounding rates? And so on and so on and so on…

Stupid people endanger us all. With nuclear war. And conventional war. Murder. Destruction. And the acceptance of preposterous positions that no one with a grain of common sense could countenance.

As George Orwell once said:

“Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.”

The Fifth Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

A Stupid Person Is The Most Dangerous Type Of Person

Traditional Planning Is Stupid Planning

Traditional Planning Is Dangerous To You And Your Family

Stupid people are unpredictable. Totally and completely unpredictable. You cannot protect yourself, or any part of what you value, from the stupid person.

For example, you can calculate how a bandit will operate. An “intelligent” bandit wants your stuff. If you give the “intelligent” bandit your stuff, the bandit will (probably) not harm you further. It is evil. You have lost. But you live another day.

Stupid bandits shoot you. You lose. They wind up in a bad place. Everybody loses. See, Ukraine. Intelligent people are quite predictable.

Intelligent people see what is good for them. You can understand why they want what is good for them. Intelligent people do not want to hurt you, because you can benefit them again in the future. Also you get good things from the intelligent person. Cooperation! Even competitive cooperation, where both persons actively and intelligently strive for advantage, without gratuitously harming the other. What a wonderful thing!

Middle class folks may be proportionally as stupid as any other groups. But, middle class people act more intelligently than any other group. Murderous thieving Russian crime bosses, grifting politicians, overbearing tech oligarchs, and other persons in positions of power are tolerated because of their power. They do not hear the truth because they are feared.

Who fears you? Who lies to you rather than tell you the truth because of your awesome, terrible power? Nobody.

Powerful People are just as stupid as we are. But we get better information than the Powerful People who are surrounded by fear-ridden toadies. Do you want to be the one who tells murderous thieving Russian crime boss that his big missile boat was blown up? Me neither.

Stupid Powerful People unpredictably, do harmful things that hurt all of us and benefit them not at all.

Thank God that you are middle class. You have the power to do good. And nobody lies to you out of fear.

Traditional Planning Is Stupid Planning

Traditional Planning Is Dangerous To You And Your Family

Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.

When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.

Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?

Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?

Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

No Poverty. No Charity. No Waste.

It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

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We Create Value, Fix Things, Make It Happen… We Help The World Become A Better Place They Are Helpless Or Thieves Or Stupid… Why Are They In Charge?

IS THE WORLD RUN BY IDIOTS?

Is now a bad time to reflect on the state of our world? Are you opposed to taking an honest look around and assessing the situation candidly? Have you given up making a positive contribution? Is it ridiculous to think, yes, the sun is going down, in the late innings, between a rock and a hard place, in a tough spot, jammed against the wall, but we can fix it yet, we can bounce back, all is not lost, is that ridiculous?

Remember a few years ago? Drilling skyrocketed. Energy prices plummeted. So much oil hit the market that prices went through the floor. All Americans had job opportunities. More Americans, of all races and genders, were providing for their families than ever before. Even so-called “unemployables” were working. Peace was breaking out in the Middle East. Countries that had been blood enemies since WWII decided to get along with all the benefits of warm peace rather than cold war. Inflation and interest rates were low. No new foreign wars were begun. Old wars were being wrapped up. No more Americans killing other people for inexplicable reasons with no end in sight. Now what?

COVID PANDEMIC. Viral pandemic almost exclusively kills older folks. Reaction: Force toddlers to wear masks. Empty the schools. Crush small businesses. Poor families and kids hurt the worst. Suicides jump.

Washington Post headline: “Colleges scramble to recruit students as nationwide enrollment plunges”. A million college students are “missing.” And the kids who show up? More bad news. The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Post-Lockdown Higher Education: A Stunning Level of Student Disconnection”. New college students are “by and large tragically underprepared to meet the challenges of university life — both academically and in terms of ‘adulting,’” such as understanding the consequences of missing a lot of class.”

AFGHANISTAN BUG-OUT. Ignoring the most basic military concepts, the Commander in Chief insists on immediate withdrawal. Hundreds of American citizens abandoned in a foreign land. Billions in weapons, ammunition, equipment, and training delivered to those sworn to kill us. Death and destruction follow. Economy derailed. Hope denied. Violence results. Riots described as “mostly peaceful protests.”

MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES. Another headline: “US mortgage interest rates hit 5% for the first time in a decade. That’s great news.” QZ.COM, April 6, 2022.

Do you think that doubling the home mortgage interest rate is a good thing? Is it “great news” to your children or grandchildren buying a starter home that the interest rate has increased over 100%?

PRICE INFLATION. Across the board price inflation is at 40-year highs. Everybody knows this is the inevitable result of dumping trillions of stimulus dollars into the economy. Rising prices devastate middle class plans and dreams. And still, Presidential spokespersons variously claim that inflation is good, inflation is bad, inflation is Russia’s fault for invading Ukraine. Even though inflation happened before Russian invasion.

RUSSIAN INVASION. Chief of Russian oligarchs decides to invade small neighboring foreign country. Chief is a corrupt crook who leads cabal of corrupt crooks stealing national wealth to buy superyachts, gold toilets, and jet airplanes. Chief is surprised and disappointed that everyone else is a corrupt crook too. Russian army, Russian equipment, Russian tactics, Russian discipline are suicidal embarrassment. Russian soldiers die. Lots of them. The rest torture and kill civilians. Unexpectedly.

Russian mechanics supposed to maintain equipment steal the money instead. Mechanics pay off their sergeants. Sergeants pay off lieutenants. Lieutenants pay off captains… and on up the chain. All the way to the top. And then they all lied about it.

So, let’s invade! Two weeks, tops! But. Half the bombs and missiles are duds. Tires fall apart. No food. No gasoline. No bullets. Lousy tanks. One hit, tank goes boom! Airplanes fall out of sky. Now Russia losing. Russia doubles down. More dead Russians. More dead Ukrainians. More wrecked stuff.

TWO QUESTIONS: A certain former President claims he warned leaders of Russia and China that if they invaded Ukraine or Taiwan, respectively, he would immediately bomb Moscow and Beijing.

Q1: Do you think the former President made these threats?
Q2: If the former President had made the threat, do you think would Russia and China take it seriously?

You can easily multiply the examples offered here. Again and again our senses are assaulted with arguments, images, reasons, and acts which seem stark, staring madness. What explains this? How can we understand what is happening, so that we can remedy the problems and move ahead?

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

—Robert J. Hanlon, Hanlon’s Razor, 1980

The First Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

Always And Inevitably Everyone Underestimates The Number Of Stupid Individuals In Circulation.

Carlo M. Cipolla, University of California, Berkley, 1987

As a middle-class person, don’t you do your best to attain ambitious goals? Wouldn’t you like to have a comfortable retirement? Don’t you try to make situations better for yourself and others, too? Are you against sharing your good fortune with others? With your family?

And yet, try as you might, reality kicks you hard. As Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan, until he gets punched in the mouth.” Is it a ridiculous idea to think you are surrounded by stupid people? Cipolla challenges you to ask yourself whether the following has happened to you, again and again:
a) people whom [you] had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid.
b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, [you are] harassed in [your] activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.

You have encountered these frustrations so often, you no longer notice. You have become used to outrageous levels of stupidity that now threaten our existence as a free people and, indeed, the life of humanity on this planet. How many stupid people are there? Any estimate would be too low. Your good faith and belief that others operate as you do blinds you to the overwhelming stupidity you encounter daily.

The Second Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

The Probability That A Certain Person Will Be Stupid Is Independent Of Any Other Characteristic Of That Person.

Id.

The “80/20 Rule” or Pareto Distribution is a generally accepted observation about humanity. The 80/20 Rule says that 80% of results come from 20% of causes. Twenty percent of any workforce does 80% of the work. Twenty percent of workers get 80% of the results. Twenty percent pull all the rest along. But it doesn’t stop there. Twenty percent of the 20%, get 80% of the 80% results. That means 4% of workers get 64% of the results.

This ratio holds across cultures, races, numbers, professions. The Second Law of Human Stupidity says that Stupidity has a Pareto Distribution. The size of the group doesn’t matter. Education level of the group is irrelevant. Wealth has no bearing. Stupidity is equally distributed.

Politicians are stupid. Communist dictators are stupid. And they surround themselves with other stupid people. Who tell them stupid lies. So they do stupid things.
Unfortunately, the more we rely on powerful individuals to be smart and honest, the more likely they turn out to be stupid. And dishonest. And with more power to act on their dishonest stupidity.

Think about one of your children. You make think your child is not so bright. Or, you make think your child is the smartest person you have ever met. Your opinion does not matter. Now imagine that your child was a habitual drug user. And paid other people to have sex. And took pictures of himself having sex and doing drugs. Imagine further that your child approached rich foreigners and offered to intercede with you, to arrange dinner for them with you, or perhaps to play a round of golf with you. And your child would try to get those rich foreigners to pay your child millions of dollars for your “friendship.”

Is it crazy to think your child would fail? Who in their right mind would pay $20, let alone millions to make your acquaintance? Nobody. Your child would be laughed out of the room.
Now imagine that you are a prominent, national politician. You are stupid. You lied about your family history and athletic ability. You lied about your dead wife’s fatal car accident. And your law school experience. You lied so much, you had to drop out of running for President. But you got over that. And now you have power. And you want money. More money. Much more money. You also have a stupid child who does drugs and pays for sex. Now those foreigners are standing in line, checkbooks in hand.

The Second Basic Law of Human Stupidity holds that stupidity is equally spread through the population. Maybe so. But you have to get up in the morning, deliver value, and get paid. You cannot spend the day getting high, paying for sex, and cashing foreigners’ checks.

Do you have teams of highly-paid professionals covering for your every gaffe and blunder? If you say something incredibly stupid, will squads of public relations experts send out tweets, press releases, emails, TikToks and whatever else to explain away your obvious dementia?

We middle class folks may be stupid in the same proportions as politicians or rich folks, but we cannot get away with it. Consequences for us are real. Like months of solitary confinement after being waved through a building by police officers, staying between the velvet ropes. Getting the same treatment as those who actually assaulted and injured 56 police officers. Will their charges be dismissed like those who rampaged through the streets of D.C. and other major American cities, firebombing police stations, federal buildings, and other folks’ property?

Plus, our stupidity does not wreck economies, or spike teen suicide rates, or invade other countries. Our stupidity does not wipe out years of saving through hyperinflation. Middle class stupidity does not explode home mortgage interest rates, then pretend that pricing families out of homes is a good thing.

The Third And Golden Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

A Stupid Person Is A Person Who Causes Losses To Another Person Or To A Group Of Persons While Himself Deriving No Gain And Even Possibly Incurring Losses.

Stupidity is hurting others without helping yourself and sometimes even hurting yourself.

Is it reasonable that someone would hurt others and themselves at the same time? Or that they would hurt others with no selfish benefit? It makes no sense. That is why we rational people call that behavior stupid.

There are two more Basic Laws of Human Stupidity that we will discuss next week, stay tuned!

The Fourth Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

Non-Stupid People Always Underestimate The Damaging Power Of Stupid Individuals. In Particular Non-Stupid People Constantly Forget That At All Times And Places And Under Any Circumstances To Deal And/Or Associate With Stupid People Always Turns Out To Be A Costly Mistake.

 

The Fifth Basic Law Of Human Stupidity

A Stupid Person Is The Most Dangerous Type Of Person

 

Traditional Planning Is Stupid Planning

Traditional Planning Is Dangerous To You And Your Family

Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long- term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.

When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.

Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?

Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family? Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now.
(800) 317-2812

carrier lifeplanning cottage comic strip

Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
I’ve been around for a long, long years
Stole million man’s soul and faith

—Sympathy For The Devil lyrics © Mirage Music Int. Ltd

We had a wish list. A bit of calm. Some basic decency. Dignity. A modicum of competence. Peaceful progress. Contained inflation. Continued defeat of unprecedented pandemic. Permission for middle-class America to restore the best economy in history. Demolish barriers. Uplift for regular folks. Normalcy. World peace. Not all were deceived. Still, we trusted those with “wealth and taste.”

What did we get? What do you see when you look around? Happy now?

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

Id.

Home mortgage interest rates explode. Supermarket necessities skyrocket. Gasoline gone wild. Inflation at 40 year highs, as far as the eye can see. War in Europe. Threats of nuclear war. Government policy undermines working Americans with floods of cheap labor. Credentialed experts of “wealth and taste” splintering America into selfish, shattered, hostile factions. As government policy. Walt Disney died over 50 years ago; now his company refuses even to say “Boys and Girls.” Wall Street money competes with young families, pricing homeownership out of sight. American Dream crushed: a nation of renters, not owners. Weak, grifting politicians. Squandered respect, phone calls refused. Money, power, and information piled up by the few “of wealth and taste.” Is what’s puzzling you the nature of their game?

Jerry, just remember. It’s not a lie if *you* believe it.

—George Costanza, Seinfeld

Honest people lie sometimes. You’re embarrassed for it, fess up, apologize, make amends. You lose credibility and fight to restore integrity. Humility, forgiveness, kindness, redemption. Human weakness accepted and acknowledged. Denial rejected. Virtue vindicated.

Ever catch a liar in a lie? Stand by for a volcanic eruption of words, explanations, limited admissions, diversion of blame, insistence that there was really no lie at all. After years of deceitful denial, major media are forced to admit the authenticity of a laptop, one of several, containing genuine evidence of corruption at the highest levels of our national government. Videos of drug-fueled debauchery, emails of corrupt deals, military encryption codes, it is all there. Any regret? Apology? Amends? No. Instead, the habitual liar’s halting, reluctant, misleading admissions of the absolutely undeniable dribble out erratically. Clutching their Pulitzer Prizes for peddling prevarications, they spin new lies to cover the old. Integrity is a joke. To them.

Good Deeds Should Have Good Consequences

You accepted the challenge of doing the right thing. You live a life of integrity. Responsibility. Old fashioned notions of right and wrong. It’s a free country, I can say what I want. Fundamental concepts that are under constant, violent assault. By those of “wealth and taste.” Does it make sense that those who have benefited the most from American values are the very people who are most destructive?

Your American journey has brought you American success. Not flashy nor flamboyant. Your victories have come one at a time. Modest. Measured. Step-by-step. Building brick by brick. Solid. Common sense.

Today’s turbulent reality challenges yesterday’s success. Our world has changed. We wished for respite, a break, a rest. We thought, “What could go wrong?” Seduced by falsehoods. We chose leaders. We chose poorly.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the
whirlwind…

—Hosea 8:7

Your life’s journey goes on. With all the trials and tribulations of today. How best to continue your success? Are you opposed to sharing the achievements of your lifetime with family members in the future? Is it a bad idea to fight against the rising tide of dependence and depravity?

Thousands of families have rejected traditional estate planning. Thousands of hard-working folks, just like you, have recognized that unless you take care of yourself and your spouse, there will be nothing left for the future. Thousand of families have embraced LifePlanning™.

Traditional Estate Planning Is Death Planning

Traditional estate planning is all about what happens after you die. Traditional planning ignores long-term care. Traditional planning ignores the single greatest threat to your financial security. You are welcome to take advantage of 32 years developing, testing, and implementing practical, realistic, effective methods to secure your future. Reject traditional notions of estate planning. Traditional planning is failure planning.

LifePlanning™ means: No Poverty: You will not go broke. No Charity: Caregivers get paid. No Waste: Your gift to your family will be honored.

LifePlanning™ has always focused on preserving your lifesavings so that your lifetime of work and thrift will serve you until the very end. And then carry your legacy on to future generations. Is now a bad time for a real solution?

What Is Your Cottage?

For many families, a cherished dream is to leave a cottage, farm, or hunting property to future generations. These families know that special places, like a cottage, are unaffordable and beyond the reach of their children and grandchildren. They act to preserve and protect these special places now, so their descendants may benefit.

Not everyone has a cottage, farm, or hunting property. Not everyone can give such gifts. But everyone can do something.

When you and I grew up, it was possible to work your way through school. When you bought your first house, you haggled on the price and the bank financing came through weeks later. It was possible to raise a family without sacrificing everything to the job.

Today, a single semester of college is tens of thousands of dollars. Wall Street money prices homes out of reach. Wages today and demand for workers are higher than ever. Only prices are growing faster. Your children must run to simply stay in place.

You can help. You can make the American Dream a reality for your children, grandchildren. Not by sacrificing yourself. By smart, hard-nosed, eyes-open LifePlanning™. Not everyone has a cottage to leave their kids. But everyone can make a difference. You must take care of yourself first. Then, your options to help your family succeed open wide.

What is your Cottage? What will you leave for tomorrow’s family? Is it ridiculous to think that your family needs you now more than ever?

It does not take much to have an enormous effect. The avalanche begins with a few snowflakes. Rockslides begin with a few pebbles. A few dollars in the right place are powerful. It does not take much.

Your goal is within reach. Follow the steps to continued success. Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now.
(800) 317-2812

carrier lifeplanning cottage comic strip

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