Life after the Lottery Ch. 75

"What did they say?"

"He said he was sure we could do it. But that money would be gone once that is done. It would be the property of the non-profit and irrevocable."

"How much would it take to fund the trust?"

"At least $10,000,000. Maybe fifteen. Right now, Joseph can get 8% to 10% return because it would not be taxable for the non-profit. But, down the road, that number may go down."

"With $10,000,000, that would be $800,000 to $1,000,000 a year," Dawn said. "That would cover expenses each year."

"If there was anything beyond that, we can always cover it, and it is a write-off. We would just end up writing a check to the non-profit when we use the helicopter. That wouldn't be tax-deductible. Any extra would be reinvested. That could help pay for bigger maintenance expenses down the road and any upgrades. I guess the question is, are we comfortable with giving away 10 or 15 million dollars?"

"How much would giving up 15 million save on taxes this year?"

"In total, probably around 5 million or more this year."

"So the net is really only 10 then?"

"Yes."

"Can we write off the cost of the hangar?"

"They are working on that. Since it is on our property, they have to look at several things. We may be able to write off part of it."

"Well, we didn't invest in a helicopter for a tax break. We did it so I could travel back and forth."

"We did, but if they can make some of it a tax break, I am for it."

"Are you comfortable giving away $15,000,000?" Dawn asked.

"I am. We will still end up with nearly $100,000,000 more than we had after creating all the trusts. And paying taxes. If this last thing Joesph is doing works out, there will be much more."

"I'm okay with that."

"One other thing...if we are going to set up trusts for our parents and family..."

"We should for Claire too," Dawn added.

"Yes. Our wives are our family."

"It would only be fair...but you have a concern..."

"Claire has never had that kind of money. She will fight us on it. I do have a concern with what she would do with that much money."

"You think she would run out and spend it."

"I don't know. We don't know her that well. We will have to rely on Samantha and Amy."

"How will money from all the trust be distributed? One lump amount each year or monthly, or what?" Dawn asked.

"The girls are set up to be paid quarterly. I think that is best. Most bonds pay monthly, but it can be held and paid quarterly. Once the trusts are set up, we would have little to no control over how it is invested. That would be set up with an attorney to determine, but we would be asked. We just can't take it back if it is set up as irrevocable."

"I know we set up the girls' trust, so they will have access to it when they graduate school. Should we have left it as just a distribution?"

"I am not worried about them. I think that the ones for our family should only be a quarterly distribution. That way, the trust will be passed down to their children."

"Not for Deb and Pete?"

"I know. We need to think about that," I said.

"And the ones for our parents?"

"They would pass to their children. That means the one your parents have would return to you unless they decide differently. They may want to leave it to a charity or something. My parents would be set up to pass to Brian and Deb. There are some things we still need to discuss. I think that Amy and Samantha can give us some ideas too."

"What about our children?" Dawn ask.

"That we need to decide. I hate to say "our" children. Your child is obviously taken care of from us. We have to set up legally for Amy and Samantha's...our children...by them."

"I think our estate should be divided equally among all our children."

"I agree. We just have to do some of it legally."

"James...I haven't brought this up...but now I guess I should. Do we need to adopt Sam and Amy's children?"

"We will have to discuss that with our attorney...and Samantha, and Amy. But, that creates a problem."

"They are our children."

"We will have to see what that means legally."

"If you are listed as the father on the birth certificates, that should take care of it...I would think."

"I think you are correct, but..."

"But what?"

"They will not be your children."

"Hmmm. I guess you are right. Not that it would change anything..."

"Neither of us can adopt them...if that is what it took. That would take away Amy and Samantha's legal rights."

"Shit..."

"I'll discuss it with our attorney. It needs to be taken care of before they are born in case anything were to happen to us."

"I guess that is something we have to consider now. I think that needs to be taken care of ASAP," Dawn added.

"I think the four of us need to meet with the attorney."

"You're right."

"I'll call him Monday and set up a time as soon as he can see us."

"Good."

"When I hear back from the tax people, we will sit down with Amy and Samantha and go over all this."

"Okay. I hadn't thought about all this."

"I'll send Ted an email in a few minutes and give him a heads up so he can be thinking about it. I already sent him a lengthy document explaining everything else."

*****

I was about to walk to the dinner table to sit for dinner when my cellphone rang.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Smith. This is Ted."

"Hey, Ted."

"I just finished looking over the email you sent me..."

"I wanted to give you a heads up before we come in. Can we come by next week?"

"Yes, when is best? It will take two or three hours. Can you be here Monday?"

"Not until about 3:00."

"Good enough. I'll be at your house by noon tomorrow."

"Why?"

"James, what happens if you and Dawn get killed on the way to the office Monday? I didn't realize that you had...children on the way."

"Oh..."

"Yes...oh. I'll type up something simple and bring it by for you and Dawn to sign. I'll bring my wife to notarize it. It will not be exactly what will be final, but it will establish the intent and executors. I'll type up something for Amy and Samantha also."

"Thanks, Ted. We hadn't thought that far ahead."

"That is what you pay me for. And, if you and Dawn are going to be flying helicopters, you have to do this now."

"It's safer than driving."

"I know. Don't drive anywhere until after tomorrow."

We laughed.

"Thanks, Ted..."

"I'll see you all tomorrow, and James, your other two wives, will need to sign a quick will also."

"I guess you are right. I'll tell them tonight."

"I know I am right."

I went and sat with them to eat.

"What was that?" Dawn asked.

"Nothing. Ted wanted to ask me something."

Dawn knew I wasn't going to talk about it in front of everyone.

We all talked and ate. It was nice to hear Claire getting more comfortable and settling in. After dinner, she helped Amy clean up.

Amy and Samantha went to Claire's room with her, and I heard them explaining how to use the TV. About 8:00, they all came out and sat with Dawn and me as we watched TV.

*****

"If we are going to be flying tomorrow, we need to get to bed early," I said a little after 10:00.

Dawn looked at me a moment.

"You're right...we need to go to bed. Claire, we'll see you in the morning," Dawn said and got up and headed up the stairs.

Samantha looked at me for a moment then she told her mother good night. Amy and Samantha went up with me, and I followed all of them into our bedroom.

"You three need to sit. We have something to talk about before tomorrow," I said.

They all sat on the bed, and I pulled up a chair.

"I have been working with our lawyers about setting up trusts and taking care of everyone financially. Dawn and I got stuck on something. My name will be on the birth certificate for all our children, so I am legally their father. That means if anything happens to me, all our children are taken care of."

"We know that," Amy said.

"But, that leaves one problem. Amy and Samantha...your children, are not legally Dawn's. That creates a problem if something happens to both of us. Eventually, all this will be taken care of with our wills and the trusts that will be set up. I have been working on all this. Our attorney pointed out something to me today, and it has to be taken care of immediately."

"What?" Amy asked.

"Until all the legal documents are created and signed, if anything happened to Dawn, me, or either of you before that time, it leaves things in a mess."

"What kind of mess?" Amy asked.

"A big mess. We have to do something tomorrow just in case something happened before our children are born. Amy and Samantha, you two have a big trust that you must designate will go to your children. That is not a problem but needs to be addressed. I have to acknowledge now before our children are born that I am the father and make a provision for all of them in case something were to happen before everything is finalized legally."

"I don't like talking about things like this," Samantha said.

"I don't either, but we must take care of this. Our attorney is stopping by in the morning with something simple we can sign. It will basically say what I just said. We cant get the trust set up quickly, but it will outline the intent Dawn and I have. Dawn and I will acknowledge that...your children are our children. And that any children born will be taken care of if anything happens to Dawn or me."

"Okay...I guess," Samantha said.

"Also, the two of you will have to sign a simple will, stating what you want down with your assets."

"They would all go to our children...your children," Amy said.

"We know that...but it has to be in writing until we get everything legal. Also, each of us has to appoint an Executor of our estate."

"What is that?" Samantha asked.

"An Executor is the person that we want to handle the distributions and other things that would need to be taken care of if something happened to one of us. Dawn and I would appoint each other as our Executor, but we haven't decided who it would be if we are both gone."

"I would think your parents would be," Amy said.

"They could be, but we should outlive our parents. We can address all this in detail on the final documents, but we have to pick someone until then...just in case. Who would you two want to do that?"

"You and Dawn," Amy said.

"Yes," Samantha added.

"That's fine, but think who else if something happened to the four of us at the same time.

"That's sick," Samantha said.

"We will have time to think about this in detail. We just need to designate someone tomorrow. For now, Dawn and I will designate our parents. What about you two?"

"I don't know. Our mom wouldn't know what to do," Amy said.

"What about your parents?" Samantha asked.

"You can do that. For the near future, that may not be a bad idea."

"How long will it take to get all this finalized?" Dawn asked.

"Probably a month or so."

"Who is the Executor for your parents?" Dawn asked me.

"Deb, Brian, and me. Do you know about your mom and dad?"

"I am. I guess we will need to work this out with our parents and your brother and sister too."

"Once things are set up, we will. You two, now that we have a lot more money thanks to Joseph, Dawn and I are setting up more trusts for our parents and my brother and sister. We want them to have money without asking us for it. We all need to sit down and talk about it."

"It's your money," Samantha said.

"Samantha...it is our money...the four of us. We have to think about taking care of our immediate family together. Our parents, my brother, and sister, and our children. That makes our finances all of our concern. Which brings up one more thing we need to discuss. Since Dawn and I are taking care of our parents, we need to take care of your mom too. You are our family, and she is your mother. This money belongs to all of us, so your mother is to be included. No argument."

Amy and Samantha looked at each other a moment.

"What are you thinking?" Amy asked.

"We will be setting up a $10,000,000 trust for each of our parents and one for Deb and one for Brian. The same should be set up for your mom."

"Oh, my, god. She wouldn't know what to do with that much money," Amy said. "We were just going to take care of her out of our money."

"That is what we need to discuss. We want you two to tell us how to set up payments for your mom and if you think she can handle that much money."

"Don't do it yet...we are still working through things," Amy said.

"Understandable, but you two think about it, and we will decide."

"We don't know what to do with the interest on teh$10,000,000 we have," Samantha said.

"$20,000,000 now."

"James!" They both exclaimed.

"We will talk about that too. The first $10,000,000 is yours when you graduate, but you can leave it in the trust. The second $10,000,000, the four of us will decide if that will be yours when you graduate or if it will be left to pay out quarterly as it does now. We will need to address that in the morning too. Regardless, your trust would go to your child if something happened to you."

They looked confused.

"Don't worry about this all night. Ted will have suggestions tomorrow. This is just a short-term thing until we work out all the kinks. We'll discuss it in the morning and let your mom give us ideas too."

"Okay."

"Also, until after we have this taken care of tomorrow, no flying."

"Okay..."

"One more thing. When the babies are born, there will be a $10,000,000 trust set up for each of them. By the time they are 18, the trust will be significant," I said.

*****

We got the girls up with us at 7:00 Saturday morning. When Dawn and I went down to start breakfast, Claire was in the kitchen cooking.

"I think I timed it right. I heard you all get up," Claire said.

"Thank you, Claire," Dawn said.

We got coffee and sat.

"Claire, we need to talk to you about something this morning. It involves some legal issues, and we want your input," I said.

"Oh...I don't know anything about stuff like that."

"You need to know about this. Once the girls are down, we will discuss it. It's something that needs to be taken care of this morning."

"Okay...I guess."

After we finished eating, Dawn said to leave the dishes so we could sit in the den and talk.

"Claire, now that everyone is pregnant, we have to make some legal plans before the children are born," I said.

"Mom, we want you to hear what is happening so you will know and so you can give us some ideas," Amy said.

"Okay."

I explained everything about the finances minus setting up the trusts. I just wanted Claire to know we were making sure that our children and Amy and Samantha were taken care of if anything happened.

"Claire, do you have any questions?" I asked.

"Sounds like you have thought through everything."

"I thought I had, but our attorney called after I sent him this information. He will be here this morning. He said that since none of this was made legal yet, we should sign a simple will outlining all this...just in case."

"Oh...I see."

"He also said Amy and Samantha needed to sign one today also, just to be safe. Obviously, none of us want anything to happen, but we wanted you to know about it just in case anything did."

"I think that sounds like a good idea. After...since my husband died...I have thought that things like that should be taken care of before..."

"They should. Dawn and I have already updated our wills since we married Amy and Samantha, but we have not made provisions for the children. We have to discuss some of that with the attorney this morning. I'll be listed on the birth certificates for Amy and Samantha's babies, so they would be taken care of if anything happens to me. But, that is not true if something happened to Dawn. We will be discussing that with the attorney."

"I guess your arrangements do have some legal issues," Claire said.

"They do, but we are going to take care of all that," Dawn said.

"Mom...when all this is set up properly, sis and I need to make provisions for if something happened to all of us," Amy said. "We want you to think about being the one that would look out for all of our children, not just mine and sis. Obviously, James and Dawn's parents would too, but will you think about that?"

"Sure. You know I would be here for them."

"Thank you, mom."

We talked for a while longer then Dawn went to clean up after breakfast.

About 10:00, Ted buzzed us from the gate, and I let him in. All of us sat and talked through everything, and he made some changes on his portable computer. About noon, I printed out the documents, and we all signed what we needed to sign, and his wife notarized it all. I made copies, and Ted and his wife left about 12:30.

"Well, that is taken care of for now," I said. "We will need to be at his office at 3:00 Monday."

Samantha asked her mom if she could go with us to get some hours in. Amy said the two of them would go out and do some shopping. I asked Amy to take Claire by a car dealer and let her look at cars, though Claire protested.

Dawn went up with the instructor in the big Bell Ranger while Samanth and I flew in the smaller Ranger. About sunset, we all were heading back to the house.

"Samantha, do you think your mom is ready to look at a house?"

"I think she is."

"Judy has a nice house about 7 miles from our house I think she would like. She has to list it Monday. I can call her, and we could see it tomorrow," I said as I drove.

"Sounds like a good idea."

"I'll check with her and see what time."

When we went into the house, Amy and Claire were in the kitchen cooking dinner. Samantha went to her and asked her about looking at a house tomorrow. She finally agreed, and I called Judy while Dawn and I sat in the den.

"Hey, Judy."

"Hello!"

"Can we have the girl's mom look at the house tomorrow?"

"Sure, but I was hoping just you and Dawn would come."

"Another time. What time tomorrow?"

"How about 2:00."

"Sounds good. Have you found any other property you like?"

"That house is a good deal. I don't have anything else that size and that new."

"Okay. We will see you there at 2:00."

"Okay. See you then."