0:00 Who are you? [music] And where are you going? What do you want? Hello and welcome to Trust and Estates Weekly. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and I'm here every Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about estate planning and probate and trust administration, mostly uh for other professionals, but also for those of you who are dealing
0:37 with your own estate planning or or maybe you've been appointed executive or execut. So, um, you know, hopefully this will give you some thoughts on, uh, how to how to handle certain issues and and and if nothing else, allow you to, excuse [clears throat] me, uh, speak more intelligently uh, to to your lawyer and and and deal better with the court.
1:14 Uh it's it's the you know everybody's sick time of year. So uh so today I'm going to be talking about undocumented loans. Are they loans? Are they gifts? What do you do about them? And uh I it's it's not an issue I've I've heard discussed very often. And yet I think it's one that can cause a lot of constrnation. And in fact, it falls into the basket of issues that have to do with um you know, people taking certain
1:52 actions uh and not handling the formalities of them and just because we we normally don't, right? We don't worry about such things and then the unexpected happens. In this case, somebody dies and now there's a whole you know potentially at least potentially complicated issue that has to be resolved in in the deedence estate. So uh when I talk about an undocumented loan or an informal loan, what I mean is
2:28 money transferred from one person to another or could could be done in the context of a business uh from one person to to a business or some other entity. There's no promisary note. There's no repayment schedule or or written terms. Uh and um I mean this is most common between family members and friends, although it can happen in other contexts as well. Um I'm I'm you've probably heard of, you know, handshake deals, that sort of thing. And
3:06 uh you know then one party to that loan uh dies and you know is it a loan? Was it a loan? Was it really a gift? Um was it an advance? Was it an advance on an inheritance? How and how do we know how do how does the personal representative for the estate or for that matter even the trust how how are they going to to resolve that? So you know it's it the what was just a matter between two people based on personal trust you know
3:43 rather than formal documents now you know now it becomes like I said at least potentially a problem. So the the core issue here is uh without documentation okay the personal representative that is the the executive or executric or the administrator or the trustee of a trust okay they have to try and infer what the deedence's intent was based on context okay And
4:20 uh the the the burden of proof often falls on the person claiming that the transfer was a loan. Okay. So if the deedent was the lender, okay? So the burden of proof is going to fall on the estate to prove that the recipient of the funds was a borrower and it wasn't just a gift from from the deedent. On the other hand, if the lender was uh let's say a uh you know a
4:57 a person and lent money to the deedent. Okay. the estate is under no obligation to uh you know just declare it alone. Okay. The burden of proof will probably be I say probably because sometimes these issues get litigated but the burden of proof will probably be on the the lender in this case the the the third party who's still alive to prove somehow that this was money lent to the
5:33 deedent and not a gift or some other transfer of funds on on their part. Okay. Now, evidence can include emails. Okay, emails generally speaking are um accepted in court as evidence. It could include text messages, although it's less common for text messages to be accepted as evidence. There could have been a partial repayment of the debt. Okay? And that and in that case, you know, cancelled checks or at least bank records showing the receipt of funds
6:08 might work. There could be some other kind of bank memo. There could be a witness who was there when the agreement was reached and [snorts] that witness can make a a declaration of some sort and that declaration, you know, may stand as uh evidence that in fact the transfer of funds was a loan. Okay. Now, this list isn't exhaustive. It's just to give you some ideas on uh what what may be cons you know what may verify something as a loan. And by the way maybe over the years um the
6:46 deedent made a series of loans to to the same individual and there's a history of the making of loans and the repayment. Okay. And so this the if the estate is the lender in this case seeking to get the money paid back from the borrower and the borrower is saying no no no this was this one was a gift or this was a gift. You know you might evidence might be well why is this one a gift when there were five previous occasions over the last you know whatever three years where the
7:22 deedent gave you money that was then paid back. Right? So that may not be as strong as let's say a witness who was there who heard the deedent say I'm I'm going to lend you this money and you'll you know you'll pay it back to me when you can something like that. Um but it it may still suffice it as as evidence or it may it you know maybe more importantly it may convince the borrower that in fact look you're going to have to come clean. These other ones were loans. This one obviously was too. So
8:00 rather than fight this out in court, just, you know, in essence, stipulate to the fact that this was a loan and then we can move on from there and figure out, you know, how you'll repay it. Okay. So when the um when the estate is the debtor okay so a third party is claiming that the estate uh owes it money okay and this is whether it's a family member a non-family member okay it could be some
8:35 kind of entity by the way um you know u a so-called legal person, okay? If they claim it's a rightful debt, so you know, the the personal representative h has an easy way of dealing with it. At least in the at the beginning, there's an easy way to deal with it and say, "Well, you have to file a creditor's claim." Okay? And if and I did an episode on filing a creditor's claim, I think maybe two, three, four weeks ago, something like that. So, I I you know, check out that episode and you can get an idea of what that how that process works. Okay, I talked about
9:12 California, but the process is, I think, pretty similar in in in all the other 50 states and and then the and the territories. The the time limits may be a little bit different. The form may be a little bit different, but but in general, the process is fairly similar. Okay. So, if someone is claiming that there's a debt um and it was an informal loan, but nonetheless a debt, so then the response is, well, file a creditor's claim. Okay. the once the executive receives the creditor's claim so then or the once I should say the personal representative receives the creditor's
9:49 claim so then he he can accept it he can reject it or he can negotiate the claim okay and if there's no evidence that the loan that there was a loan um between the deedent and the person filing the creditor's claim you know the the the the personal representative is probably going to reject it for the simple reason that uh if if he were to accept it, the heirs could rightly ask on what basis are you saying that the estate is a debtor.
10:24 You're essentially taking money out of our future in out [clears throat] of our inheritance by paying this and and and you know the personal representative may be incurring personal liability by paying an un by agreeing to pay an unsupported creditor's claim. Okay. So, uh, claims, um, without, uh, a claim for a debt without quote unquote proper documentation, i.e. there's no note or,
11:00 you know, anything of a formal nature supporting it. Okay? They'll face scrutiny, but they can be they can be accepted if they're supported by reliable evidence. Okay? And again, I talked about that evidence. So it doesn't have to be adjudicated by the court if the personal representative thinks that the evidence is legitimate. So then the personal representative has a basis for accepting the claim and you know on we go with the administration. Okay. So, uh, this is
11:35 why, um, but this, but this but this is why I should say I'm talking about this subject because it's not nearly as straightforward as it would be if there was, you know, a note, for example, a promisary note. So, I'll give you an example. I'm handling an estate where a couple of the relatives paid for the uh funeral service and committ. Okay. Uh and they both separately sent me emails
12:12 saying they wanted to be reimbursed, right? And I said, "Gotcha." I said, "Just file a creditor's claim." Okay. And that's the that's the appropriate process. Now, one of the reasons I did that is because there's a lot of heirs in this particular to this particular estate and there's sort of two different camps fighting between them, right? So, anything that I do needs to be properly do.
12:50 Pardon me. I I may have cut off my last word. Anything that I do in a case where there especially where there's errors in dispute needs to be properly documented and and needs to go through the proper procedures. So they they both filed a claim. Um you know they handwrote the documents. That's fine. You know does you know the fact that they weren't typed out doesn't really matter. Uh but they provided receipts for what they're claiming and the receipts appear to be legitimate. Uh so you know so I didn't I didn't reject the claims. I I accepted
13:26 the claims and they'll get reimbursed and and and in normal procedure that's that's as it should be. Okay. No legitimate debt of an estate should be rejected. This isn't a a a you know probate is not a a function function is the wrong word. It's it's not a uh process of just you know trying to you know act sharply as we used to say. That's that's you know the the personal representative's obligation is to
14:03 collect the assets and collect and and determine the debts and see that the debts are paid and then the residual of the estate is distributed among the distributed to the heir or among the heirs. Okay. So there's no requirement for example that uh you know a personal representative should try and get a debt uh you know try and get out of having the estate pay a particular debt even if the debt is legitimate. That's that's not part of of of what we do. Okay. Um
14:40 so you know in in a way a personal representative a personal representative is is like a quasi officer of the court and so there's a presumed truthfulness and good faith in their actions. Okay. So uh you know let's let's let's take a break here and we'll we'll come back and talk about this some more. When life brings unexpected changes, managing inherited property shouldn't add to your stress. Magnum Properties
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15:50 Okay, so we're back at Trust and Estates Weekly. I'm your host Kevin Bemel and we're talking about undocumented or informal loans. So I I talked about what they are and how in general um they they will probably um be dealt with. Now I want to talk about some kind of specific cases or categories of cases may be a better way to describe it. So first let's talk about a situation when the deedent was the borrower. Okay.
16:26 So, um the the deedent owes uh the money, okay? And someone else is seeking to collect it. Okay? Now, I'm I'm going to look at both when the the lender is a family member and when the lender is a non-family member. Okay. So, one of the first issues that's often raised in the case of an informal loan is uh and this is especially true when the loan was between family members
17:01 is uh was it really a loan or was it actually a gift? Okay. [snorts] And oftent times the presumption is because it's between family members that it's probably was a gift. Okay. especially if there's no documentation at all. Okay. Now, the size of it may uh be a part of determining whether it it was indeed a gift or a loan. Uh if it was a $100, I mean, was that was that a loan? Maybe it
17:36 was if the person who if the lender is someone who, you know, doesn't have a lot of money and so $100 is really a significant amount of money to them. and they wouldn't have given the deedent that money uh unless they knew that the deedent intended to pay them back i.e. it was alone, right? So, context is going to matter as well as evidence. Okay? But between family members, there is a we'll call it a rebuttable presumption, right? That a transaction
18:12 is a gift, not a loan. Okay. Now, non-family member lenders are more likely to be treated as true creditors um because the armslength uh nature of the transaction would tend to indicate that this was a loan. I mean, normally, you know, nonrelated third parties uh don't make, you know, gifts like the like family members make. Okay. Now, the obviously there there could be a
18:48 difference if we're talking about a a non-family member who is nonetheless a very close friend, okay, versus a non-family member who maybe they were a friend or an acquaintance, but there wasn't a very close relationship there. So, you know, the closer the friendship, the closer the third party was uh to the deedent, maybe the more likely it would trend toward this idea that it was probably a gift. And the less close the relationship would trend much more
19:24 toward the idea that no, this this this is a this was a much more likely to be a true loan transaction. And it's an armslength transaction and and and you know and and the the kind of presumption behind the evidence assuming there is some evidence right that that that can we that can weigh in and help the personal representative make a decision. Okay. So uh that's that's kind of one issue uh to to look at. Another
20:00 uh again would be whatever evidence is available. I' I've talked about you know emails, text messages. Now there might you know on on maybe there was maybe the money was lent by way of a check and maybe in the memo on the memo line of the check it says loan. Okay. And and maybe it's between two family you know maybe it's between the deedent and a family member. Well, the fact that the person sending the check wrote loan on the check and the deene went ahead and cashed it and didn't dispute it. Well,
20:36 that would tend to indicate that it was a loan, right? I mean, and that would re rebut the presumption that it was probably a gift. Okay? So, uh you know, the this is that's a second thing to look at. Okay? And then witnesses, especially neutral witnesses who heard the deceit, maybe they heard the deedent acknowledged that it was alone. Okay? So that's oral testimony, if you will, but that can be it can be put down into a document. Okay? And the person can sign the document under penalty of perjury.
21:14 uh they they can even have their signature notorized uh so that uh you know their identifi their identity is you know legally verified if you will. Okay. And and that could be strong evidence as well. By the way there may be a neutral third party who heard that no this was a gift. Okay. And that neutral party may come forward and say, "Now, I I was there when this was set up." And, you know, Bob said he was giving the money as a gift to Suzy. And so, you know, now that but now now
21:51 Bob is saying that uh that this was a loan, but I heard him say he intended it as a gift. Okay. So, then again, that can be put into a signed statement or sworn statement. and and and now you've got evidence to, you know, back up. You meaning the personal representative has evidence for making a a decision. Okay. So, um why is this issue so important? Well, valid creditors need get paid before beneficiaries or heirs receive anything.
22:28 Okay? and and especially if it's a large undocumented debt that could have a sizable impact on how much the heirs receive once the debts are paid, right? And so um that that becomes a big issue as well if the estate lacks liquidity. So then assets may need to be sold in order to pay the debt. So let's take a simple estate where let's say there's just one heir okay and the estate consists of a house and maybe you know
23:04 the heir has let the personal representative know hey all things being equal uh I don't I would rather just have the house I I would rather the house not be sold. So maybe there's enough liquidity in the estate to pay the, you know, the probate fees and and to pay the administration costs and that sort of thing. Um, but there's not a lot additional cash there. And then along comes this creditor's claim. And you know the to pay the creditor's claim there isn't enough cash because the cash that's available will pay costs of
23:40 administration which take precedence over paying creditors. Now the estate might be forced to sell that the property kind of against the wishes of the heir. Now, the personal representative has that authority, but it's kind of a shame, right? That that that the heir is not going to be able to keep the house. Okay? Now, there may be ways around it. Okay? Maybe the heir is willing for a loan to be taken against the house to pay the creditor's claim and and then he'll inherit the house subject to that debt.
24:16 That, you know, again, there are ways that these things can be worked out. Um, but the bottom line is creditors have a claim in priority higher than an heir and so they have to be paid before the heir gets gets their share of the estate. Okay. and um non-family members, okay? Um they, you know, if they have what they believe to be a valid claim, um so they're more likely to litigate rejected claims. Okay. Um and and so you know these have
24:54 to be dealt with carefully um because litigation is costly under any circumstance whether it's with an estate or not. Okay. And on the other hand um a a personal representative who mishandles such a claim okay could risk personal liability. I mentioned earlier uh accepting a creditor's claim without any kind of evidence could likely res could not likely but could result in the heirs holding the personal representative personally liable for the amount that
25:31 would that the estate ended up paying um be based on a breach of fiduciary duty. Um but but as well uh you know a a a non-family uh lender um may also seek to hold the personal resident a personal representative uh liable if they believe that their claim has been mishandled. Okay. Okay. So that's one side where the the the borrower uh the deedent is the borrower. Okay. Now let's look at where uh the borrower is an heir and the
26:09 lender was the deedent. Okay. So now this the estate is essentially sitting in the seat of the lender. Okay. So, uh, loans to heirs, um, can now, you know, assuming that first of all, the estate is going to have to, uh, prove that if, if the, let me take a step back. if the debt is not documented. Okay, so the first step that the estate is going to have to take is to prove that it's a valid debt, okay, and not not a gift
26:46 because family members do give gifts. Sometimes they're very large, but they're still gifts, okay? uh by by the way uh if there was some sort of gift tax return filed based on the money transferred you know that would be evidence that indeed it was a gift. Okay. Uh whereas uh and and so there there may not be anything you know in writing this is a gift to you know my child or whatever. Okay. but it could be in the deedants's u you know prior year's tax returns and
27:22 it's documented there. That would be one place to look to to see if and indeed it's a gift. Okay. But let's say there wasn't it was either too small to need to be documented in a tax return or for whatever reason it wasn't. Uh so the estate is going to have to uh determine whether indeed this money owed by an heir is a loan, a gift or an early inheritance. Okay. Now if it's a if this the estate proves that it's a debt.
27:59 Okay. So it may be that rather than requiring the heir to pay it back, they'll just use it as an offset against that heir's share of the estate. So, let's say that the loan is for, you know, $10,000 and each heir is uh going to get uh um uh and the overall estate is is 300 or the overall I should say the overall amount uh available for distribution to
28:34 the heirs is $300,000 and there's uh and there's three heirs. Okay. So that means that each heir is entitled to $100,000. Okay. So how would the offset work? Well, uh you know the the heir who borrowed the money could pay the $10,000 back. Okay, in which case that $10,000 is available to be split three ways. Or the heir's share could be reduced by 23 of the $10,000.
29:11 Okay. Uh and so that air would get uh what? 93,333.33. Okay. And the two other heirs would get $13,333.33, right? And and and that offset would be the re essentially the repayment of the debt. Okay? If that makes sense. uh numerically if you if you write it down, you you'll see it works out. Okay. Um so
29:46 that's one way it could be handled rather than like I said the the borrower repaying the estate in cash. Okay. Uh now what what becomes problematic is where the borrower keeps asserting it was a gift and the other heirs keep you know they assert that it was a loan, right? And and you can it's easy to see why because, you know, they're saying, "Wait, wait, wait. This was not this was not a gift, you know, and and it could be exacerbated by the fact that maybe the the borrower is viewed as, you know,
30:21 mom's favorite, right? And now mom is gone and the other two siblings, maybe it's three siblings, they're they're finally going to get their revenge, you know, on the favored child, right? So even though in their heart of hearts they may believe it was a gift, they're just, you know, from their perspective tired of, you know, the baby of the family getting special treatment. And so, you know, they're going to, you know, push very hard to force to have the money paid back. Okay? And so this
30:57 this is the kind of conflict that comes up in the administration of an estate that you know makes the personal representatives uh job uh you know more difficult. Okay. So uh the bottom line is these kinds of conflicts where an heir is the borrower um you know minimally they can cause conflict and they can and they can cause delays uh in the estate being administrated and even if you know if if the amount is large enough they can they can lead to to
31:32 litigation. Okay. So let's take another break. Probate and Trust TV, your curated source for the most useful and insightful content on estate planning and trust and probate administration, featuring standout professionals like Bill Gross, Paul Bralet, James Cunningham, and yours truly. Whether you're a lawyer, accountant, real estate professional, or working on your own succession plan, this channel helps you quickly find the clearest, most
32:07 practical content YouTube has to offer. Subscribe now to Probate and Trust TV. Spend more time learning, less time searching. Well, so we're back again with Probate and Trust TV. probably listen to me [laughter] with Trust and Estates Weekly. Uh, and we've been talking uh this morning or today, I guess it I should say today because it's not morning on the East Coast about uh informal or undocumented loans. I've t I talked about a couple of or I talked
32:42 about uh yeah, a couple of specific cases. I want to talk about uh a third case uh and um and and then we'll kind of wrap things up. So I want to talk about the a case where the borrower is an unrelated third party and the lender was the deedent. The the case I just talked about was when the borrower was an heir. Okay. Now the borrower is an unrelated third party and the lender was the deedent and so now the estate
33:18 purportedly is the the uh creditor. Okay. And how is that going to work out? Okay. So part of the personal representative's responsibility as I mentioned a little while ago is to identify all assets and debts of the estate. So if the estate is owed money that is an asset okay that debt it that that loan is an asset to the estate even if it's undocumented okay so the the personal representative may need to
33:54 review bank records uh emails there you know there he may get wind of some you know uh discussions that that you know ex ex person or ex entity owes owed money to the deedent. Okay. And he needs to follow up on those. They can't be just, you know, nah, there's no documentation. I don't need to worry about that. That that would not be proper on the part of the uh that would not fulfill the fiduciary obligation of the personal representative. Okay. So they'll need to minimally investigate and find out if
34:29 there's any legitimacy uh to you know what what may be nothing more than a rumor or you know an email. Okay. Uh if the personal representative believes there is grounds uh that that that a debt exists. So then the uh the estate uh has you know needs to pursue uh repayment like any creditor would. Okay, that may require demand letters, negotiations, even litigation. Now you know if the debt is small,
35:06 litigation may not make financial sense. Um I I'll give you a a very teeny example of this. One of the duties of the personal representative is to search for unclaimed property. And here in California, and this is true in other states as well, I know I've done it done it in Alabama. Trying to think. I think there were a couple of other states where I did it as well, maybe. Anyway, you can go online and you search the deedants's name to see if anything is owed to them. Okay? But what I found uh
35:42 at least a couple of times in California is the process for claiming unclaimed property includes sending in a form that's been notorized. And often times the cost of notoriization is more than the property that could be claimed. And so that being the case, it doesn't make economic sense. It doesn't make sense to spend, you know, $100 in notary fees to recover, you know, $328 in unclaimed property. Okay. Likewise
36:20 with litigation, right? Litigation is costly to the estate. If the debt is, you know, a few hundred, while litigation could be pursued, it probably doesn't make sense from a business standpoint. Okay. Now you say, well, you know, sue to get the legal fees recovered. Well, okay, yes, but in most jurisdictions, you don't get all your legal fees. So you So you know [clears throat] if it cost you $25,000 in legal fees to recover a $10,000 debt and you got
36:57 $10,000 plus half your legal fees, which isn't unusual. You recovered $22,500, but you spent $25,000 to get it. So you know, there in lies the the the challenge. Um, but any any way that it makes financial sense for the estate to pursue the debt, the personal representative should uh should they should pursue it. Now, one of the challenges is that third-party borrowers often assume that a debt essentially
37:33 died with the lender and this is not correct. the the deedence estate becomes the creditor in that case. The debt did not a debt does not die in that in that context. Okay. Now [cough and clears throat] maybe there was some provision that said you know if I die before you pay the money back then I I I intend to forgive or I'm going to forgive the debt. Okay. Maybe there's some kind of email to that in that respect. And so in this case,
38:09 the unrelated third party could present that email to the personal representative and say, "Hey, this is what I was told. Yes, it was a loan, but you know, the the the deedent said to me that if he died before the money was repaid, he would forgive the debt. So, I don't see where I'm required to repay this money." Okay. So there you go. I mean these are there's all kinds of per permutations that that that I could come up with but these are the kind of things that need to be investigated and pursued. Okay. [clears throat and cough]
38:46 Now if the if the deedent lent money informally once well it may be that he did so more than once. Okay, that may be the way the deedent handle that particular type of transaction. Okay, and the uh the personal representatives duty is to uh diligent act diligently to preserve the assets of the estate and that that would include collecting valid loans. So this can't be something that's
39:22 just left to sit. Um and and and then you know the loans become uncollectible. Okay. So best practices first of all to pres prevent these problems. First of all, anytime you're going to borrow or lend money, there should minimally be a note, okay, to prevent these kinds of disputes. Okay? So, I know that uh o o o
40:00 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o over the last kind of year and a half, maybe almost two years now, um for personal reasons that I won't get into, um I borrowed money from a couple of friends of mine and they were perfectly content to, you know, give me the money and they trusted me to pay it back and all of that and and I said, you know, I appreciate your trust and I'm going to give you a written note, okay? you know, God forbid I were to die without and you know, before I paid you back. So, you
40:35 know, you could potentially have difficulty collecting the money from my estate and I don't want you to have that difficulty. You shouldn't have to uh, you know, go through a lot of trouble proving that you have a valid debt. Okay? And I think and and I in some ways I think it's more important to do that with friends because presumably we care about them more than we care about sort of you know not not strangers or [snorts] acquaintances. Okay. So business matters between friends should
41:11 be handled in a businesslike way. And if you have a friend who doesn't want to handle something that way, then maybe you want to give second thought to whether you're going to do this or if you are, let's say you have a friend, you've agreed to lend them some money and but they don't want to sign a note. So then maybe rethink it or maybe just Okay, so it's not going to be a loan. Maybe just decide it's going to be a gift. If you happen to if they happen to pay it back, well, you got lucky. But otherwise, you know, don't bother. Uh,
41:48 you know, that was that was my policy for many years for small amounts of money. Um, somebody say, "Can I can I borrow $100? You know what? Look, here's the $100. If you want to pay me back, fine. But as far as I'm concerned, it's a gift." And and that way you you know, you're not going to potentially damage the friendship. There's there's, you know, no no need for dispute or whatever. Okay. Um, even if you don't do a formal note, and these days it's so easy, you can just find them online. Um, but at least [clears throat] they do an email that acknowledges the
42:26 debt and and and what the terms are and what happens upon the death of the lender or the borrower. Okay? And just specify that, put it in an email. you know, one party sends it to another with the request that they acknowledge receipt back. Okay? And that that and that that can be perfectly fine in terms of documentation. Okay? If there's any change of circumstances, update that update the change, document it if part of the note was paid back but not all of it. Okay? So
43:01 create a new note and cancel the old one or something like that or give a receipt for the part that was paid back so that you know maybe the personal representative hey he sees this note for $10,000 and he he sends a demand letter to the borrower for $10,000 and the borrower can say hey here's a receipt showing that I paid $5,000 of it back. I only owe $5,000 more dollars. Okay or something like that. Again, they can be relatively simple. They can even be handwritten, okay? But at least document them, okay? And the final thing is talk
43:38 to family members, okay? Keep them aware of what's going on is especially if you're the let's say you're the parent. So, it's it's, you know, more likely that parents predesce their children. So, keep keep the children advised. if you made a what what is considered a loan to one child. Okay? So, a document the loan and b let your other children know you made this loan. On the flip side, if you gave a gift to one child and you don't intend it to be a loan, document it as a gift, okay, and let the
44:13 other children know, okay, I don't want there to be any dispute about this. It's my money. I can do with it what I want. I've given, you know, Tina a gift of $10,000 and I don't want there to be any dispute over this after I die. It's it's I gave it to her freely. This is not intended to be paid back. Okay? And that simple. Okay? Uh you know, your children may not like it, but they're better off knowing this the situation than being in a fog once, you know, once you pass away.
44:48 Okay. So, that's that's kind of my my business advice, if you will, about dealing with informal or undocumented loans. And and hopefully it'll it'll help it'll help you uh administrate them better, and hopefully it'll help you deal with uh disputes should they arise. So, let's see. Coming up tomorrow at 10 a.m. Pacific time, my show uh Business Lessons from the Military. On Wednesday at 10 a.m. Pacific is my show, People Making Money. And on Thursday at 5:00
45:26 p.m. Pacific time is my show, Jiggers' Place. We'll have a cocktail and a smoo as we head to the end of the week. So, I thank you very much for joining me, especially my live viewers. Always a treat. If you have any thoughts, comments, questions, criticisms, links to the show to links to social media will be in the show notes. Always glad to hear and and if appropriate respond to your your comments and criticisms. And that leaves me just to say once again, thank you so much for watching. Signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell. Courage at all
46:04 times, my friends.