The WAY to WOW Shows
Religious Obligations in Estate Planning
February 3, 2025
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[0:02] who are you and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and welcome to trust and Estates weekly I'm your host Kevin bemel and we're here every Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time time to talk about all the matters related to Estate Planning and Trust in estate Administration both

[0:38] from the perspective of those who need to go through that process and for professionals like me uh who help people deal with these various issues so unfortunately uh if you saw my social media promotions and got my email I was supposed to have a guest this morning um she wasn't able to make it uh and and her topic was one that I was particularly interested in engaging her uh engaging with her on and and that is uh religious aspects or religious obligations in estate planning um but

[1:13] you know as as many of you know um I I myself am am a rabbi and so I'm gonna talk about these these issues uh anyway because I think it is uh I I I've never seen the topic addressed anywhere and I think it is very relevant um you know in in both of the Realms like I said for us who are going through the process and for those of us as professionals who are helping people through through the process uh and so um i' I've I've made a little list here of of of issues that

[1:50] that that touch on this subject of of religion and estate planning um or for that matter estate Administration and um um you know gonna going to talk about those uh this morning so the the fact of the matter is uh and and I've spoken about this on in other shows um there are a number of issues related to the administration of probates in particular that date back to uh essentially biblical Concepts or

[2:25] biblical law what we call in Judaism halaka which is Jewish law and uh for example um according to Jewish law um the firstborn son gets a double portion of his father's estate when the father passes away right so if there's three sons the estate uh once the father dies will be divided into four parts the firstborn son will get two parts and the other Sons will get

[3:01] one part each as opposed to each of them getting oneir uh why was that the case there's there's not an explanation in in the Torah or the talmud that I've been able to find um and and I've been through um most of the talmudic um books that that deal with these kinds of business issues but one could imagine that as the oldest son he's taking over as as sort of the patriarch of the family and he'll have obligations that the younger Sons will

[3:36] not have and so because he has those greater obligations uh he gets a greater share of his father's estate that certainly sounds logical to me um and and and and by the way just because um I came up with a A logical basis doesn't mean that that's what it is the the the fact of the matter is that um religious law is is based on how God wants us to handle things in the world and and sometimes it just comes down to this

[4:11] is what God wants and as his loyal children we do what he wants so um there isn't always what what we might call A A logical explanation for these things so so that's just one example of where uh at least Jewish la um might um impact how an estate plan is done so I'm going to go through uh I think I've got seven or eight points here um and and this is by no means an exhaustive list and I'm not at least today I'm not

[4:47] going to get into the the the details um on some of these things but it's just to to kind of put the bug in your ear um to uh especially if you're a professional to help you be aware of these and so if you are in a situation where you have a client raise them you have a sense of oh yeah I I I I have heard about that before and and then you can you can dig into it you know as needs be so uh first on the list and and this is a typically a part of estate planning is uh

[5:22] charitable giving or what what is in called in religious circles tithing so in uh Judaism um there is a uh a requirement um to give what's called Meer U Meer is 10% of one's income to charity and there are various discussions about what qualifies as a charity um the poor um you know Torah institutions those kind of things and how much should you give

[5:57] to one category versus another again I'm not going to get into those details uh but in any event and and and of course what does income mean today me many uh what are called posix which are um people who decide matters of of Jewish law um would say that in in America one's adjusted gross income is the equivalent to what to what the Bible calls income right so 10% of that is supposed to uh be given in in in to charity

[6:32] so and and by the way uh Judaism is not the only faith that requires charitable giving Islam does it's called zakat um and uh Christianity has has a a requirement to tithe um Hinduism also um requires charitable giving I'm I'm led to understand and so there there may be a need in a in an estate plan to you know perform some charitable giving in

[7:07] order to comply with the with the the client's uh religious uh demands if you will okay so how that plays out how you know how it's done all of that of course will will vary depending on who the client is how really what the resources are it's etc etc and and and and um I would hasten to add by the way that of course charitable giving is not something that only that only religious

[7:42] people do it it it could be an aspect of any estate plan and and I would argue should be addressed as part of any estate plan no matter what the religious uh leanings or not are of a client uh but if you are dealing someone with with a client who has profound religious attachment so then I think you know there's no question that not only does it need to be addressed but it needs to be addressed within the requirements of of their faith practice right and that's that's really the the key so for example

[8:20] here in Los Angeles we have something called the Jewish foundation and one of the things that it does is it essentially acts as an agent for the giving of charitable contributions um on behalf of of trusts and Estates Etc right so uh not every Community has such an agency it's it's a private agency I would I would hasten to add uh but um you know again the mechanism and such all of that need would need to be worked out next are inheritant inheritance laws and

[8:55] religious Traditions so I I did mention um an aspect of of Jewish laws of inheritance where the firstborn son gets a double portion of his father's estate um that would by the way that would conflict with the laws of test testamentary succession the secular laws of test testamentary succession where the firstborn son would not get a larger portion than any of the other children it wouldn't even be Sons it would be children so sons and daughters have uh

[9:31] essentially equal rights under the laws of testamentary succession right so if someone has uh religious um beliefs about inheritance that they want to adhere to whether it's uh requirements under Sharia which which fixes the shares of of of different heirs spouses children parents Etc um it it is crucial that documents be created whether it's a will whether it's trust

[10:07] whatever so that the deedan of state is not made subject to the state's laws of descent and distribution which almost for sure are going to be in conflict with whatever religious laws there are okay so again if you have a client uh who who who has a profound religious U uh attachment or if you are someone with profound religious attachments and and you want your estate handled in accordance with

[10:43] the the tenants of your faith so it is imperative that you create an estate plan as opposed to just letting nature take its course okay because nature taking its course is not going to comply uh with with your um you know religious values um and as well it's unlikely that even knowing that you had such wishes that the court would would grant them after you have passed away okay uh next

[11:19] is Guardianship of children so we tend to think of estate plans as being only financial matters but indeed there is more to an estate plan than just the financial side there's also what happens to minor children children under the age of 18 should that child's parents uh die while the child is a minor okay and this is again one of those very difficult issues so you know God forbid that that you die and leave behind minor children

[11:54] and and you have religious you follow strongly a particular particular religious Faith so who is going to raise your child or children in the faith right and and and who can you trust to do so right uh here in the United States even among people who are uh closely adhering to their religious Faith there is still a very broad range of observance let alone the even broader range of observance are non

[12:29] observance among all Americans so you know how do you find someone who will raise your child within how you see fit to comply with your religious tenants very very difficult uh situation uh I I I know that when um I was still married and my wife and I uh put together an estate plan we really struggled as to who we would

[13:04] ask to raise our daughter who at the time was uh I believe 14 um if the two of us you know should die while she was still a minor uh and you know we we you know settled on a married couple that we knew and and respected and who we felt were raising good children and you know we talked to them and and they said they would you you know take that on um thank thank goodness at least up until now um my daughter still has two parents who are alive um but but it it's a very very

[13:40] difficult uh situation with which to deal with okay and the the reality too is um if something is not put in place in an estate plan to ensure that your child uh is raised in the type of religious setting that you want uh secular institutions will not in many cases consider that to be an issue so they they will Overlook that okay uh and so it's it's imperative

[14:16] again that in dealing with uh what happens with your children that the proper documents be put in place and the proper people consulted and and their consent uh received um to to raise your children and and with with as much Assurance as we can get that they will you know follow your wishes okay so that's that's another uh important uh aspect of of religious obligations in estate planning so um next there's there are issues of

[14:51] business succession um and compliance with religious values so if part of your estate includes a business okay and and and you've been operating that business in compliance with your religious principles okay so so for example um both Judaism and Islam do not permit the charging of interest to members of their faith so Jews cannot charge Jews interest if they loan them money uh Muslims cannot charge their fellow

[15:27] Muslims interest for Lending for for you lending them money right so if if that if you have a uh some sort of lending business okay and as a part of your business you do not charge your co-religionists interest okay how is that policy going to be maintained after you pass away okay here's here's another one so among um Jews who keep a traditional Sabbath they

[16:02] are not permitted to receive the profits of that business if it operates on a Saturday so I'll give you an example of something that I looked into a number of years ago let's say that you own a bunch of vending machines right well vending machines just operate whenever somebody uses them so if someone buys something from the vending machine on a Saturday okay if you are a a Sabbath OB observant Jew you are not permitted to receive that profit so what do you do

[16:38] right so there are mechanisms that are put into place for understanding how much that profit may be and who will get it okay um the business may have to have a mechanism where every sat every Friday night at sundown it's sold to a non-jew and every Saturday night at sundown it's sold back to its um Sabbath observant Jewish owner right and so for that 25h hour period a non-jewish person owns the business and then it's a matter of um being able to

[17:13] calculate what the profit is from the business during those 25 hours and then that that money is given to the non-jew right that that would be a business that's structured to comply with Hala with Jewish law right so what's going to happen to that business and that practice when the owner dies is that practice going to continue to be carried on well the answer is it'll be up to whoever is administrating that business owner's estate and if if the requirement

[17:51] is not documented properly to have that practice carried on there's a good chance that it won't be okay uh and and so again this is why in in your estate plan if that were an issue for you or any similar uh the or the adherence to of any similar religious value is important to you it needs to be part of the business succession plan okay so uh there there like again there's any number of issues like this uh and and so

[18:28] uh you know look there are there are um uh ethical concerns as well this kind of it this kind of dovet tales with business succession but uh for example um uh Islam does not con does not permit the consumption of alcoholic beverages so uh you know if if if if a uh a Muslim owned a retail business and it didn't sell alcohol in in compliance with Sharia okay what's going to happen to

[19:06] that business when the owner dies right if it's maybe it's taken over by uh or or maybe the the members of his family that are going to inherit the business they are not interested in a strict compliance with Sharia so are are they going to be permitted to sell alcohol now um now the decedent may take the the position look I'm dead and gone I don't care on the other hand he may feel that as part of his legacy he wants the business to continue uh Sharia compliant

[19:42] and so then how will the business sucession plan be set up to comply with this ethical concern or this religious concern on the part of of the the Muslim founder right so all of these things are are important uh you know here here's another one um for a a Jewish business let's say it was a Jewish Market okay that only sold kosher food so are they going to sell non- kosher food afterwards are they going to sell pork are they going to serve you know

[20:17] shellfish not serve are they going to sell pork are they going to sell uh shellfish U and and if not um what are the um rules that are going to be kept in place and or and how are they going to be kept in place in order that that kosher market remains kosher right so these are these are all questions that need to be addressed within the larger estate plan and in this case specifically with a business succession plan okay uh next are uh end of life medical decisions so

[20:56] in many faiths um the withdrawal of Life sustain sustaining treatments would not be prohibited I mean would would not be permitted I should say they're prohibited euthanasia prohibited okay organ donation prohibited right and so when um uh living wills or or medical directives are being created for the estate plan and again these are the nonfinancial parts of an estate plan uh

[21:32] when uh I'm sorry not living wills I didn't mean that I mean um uh um power of attorney for health care and other health care directives when these are being drawn up are they going to be drawn up in accordance with the religious principles of the person who's creating the estate plan and who is going to be appointed to decide whether any particular decision that needs to be made does comport with those religious

[22:08] decisions okay so uh you know in in Judaism one in in traditional Judaism to be specific uh one typically looks to one's Rabbi to give advice on whether a particular action does or does not comply with ala so is that that person going to be the deiser in some sort of medical directive that then the relatives of the person who's ill uh would look to to get that advice

[22:43] or is it going to be somebody else okay if your Rabbi is a lot older than you you may not want to appoint someone who's likely to have predes you to be the person giving advice in those situations right so you may need to find somebody else okay now uh so there are also other types of um uh sort of advanced directives that um one may want to make in order to comply

[23:18] with um religious principles so for example Jehovah's Witnesses um they may reject a blood transfusion okay um I know when I was a boy scout uh we had a couple of Scouts in our troop who were I Believe Christian scientists and we were told that if one of them got hurt we were not allowed to render first aid to them the the one brother could only render it to the other and vice versa um because of their

[23:53] religious principles so uh you know I didn't think a whole lot of it back then I was whatever I was 11 12 years old and if that was the how the way it was going to be that was the way it was going to be right uh now now is a an older guy who helps people with these kinds of issues so how are these things going to be dealt with you know again who is going to be giving advice as to whether a particular uh treatment conforms to religious practices or not so all of

[24:28] these issues need to be dealt with they need decisions need to be made about them and they need to be put into paperwork that's properly executed in order for these proceedings to be binding on the people involved with the situation okay otherwise if there's no medical directives you know doctors are going to do what they think is best from a medical St point and they're not going to take into account the religious beliefs of the person and indeed they

[25:05] may not be able to because there may be legal issues of legal liability with which their hospital is telling them they have to comply and and that may preclude uh compliance with a a religious principle so for example a Hospital May demand that a blood transfusion be done uh because that is standard medical procedure even though the patient is a Jehovah's Witness and for for religious reasons would reject it but there's nothing there's nothing

[25:40] in writing there's nothing that requires the hospital to comply with the patient's religious principles and so there now you have this conflict and without anything in writing uh the the relatives of the person at best could potentially go to court and ask for the judge to issue an injunction against the transfusion before with the hopes that the judge would do so before the transfusion uh was performed right and so that's really leaving open to chance

[26:16] whether the patients religious principles will be adhered to so this this is why these issues become so important and then finally there are funeral and barrial preferences so I remember when I was stationed in okanawa Japan uh I had someone who came to my classes quite often who uh initially was a Roman Catholic and then she converted to Orthodox Christianity and we were talking about end of life decisions and uh so

[26:52] she um had decided that after she died she wanted to be cremated okay fine and and the question I asked her was does she was she was still a Roman Catholic at the time I said does Roman Catholicism permit cremation after death because traditional Judaism does not okay so in traditional Judaism uh the deceased has to be buried in a plain wooden casket in the ground in compliance with a es to ashes dust to

[27:29] dust so um cremation is the complete destruction not only of the body but of the soul and that's prohibited uh by by halaka so we had a conversation about that and and to be honest I don't remember what she told me um I think she told me that indeed Roman Catholicism did not permit cremation but she didn't care because she wanted to be cremated she thought that was uh a better thing than taking up ground uh for you know in

[28:05] order to be buried so and and that's fine look whatever whatever her beliefs are are her beliefs it was it was a just a discussion between two people uh you know exploring their faiths if you will um but had she uh felt differently about it where she didn't want to be cremated uh and and perhaps her husband and son felt like well you know after she's gone she should be right that could have potentially been a problem or maybe I I mean in her case neither her son nor her

[28:42] husband were uh as religious as she was so it wouldn't have been a conflict for them for her to be cremated but if if they if they had been more religious than her and and did not want to see her cremated and she but nonetheless she wanted to be cremated so you know without some sort of written directive uh it's it's unlikely that you know that her her wishes would have been uh complied with so these are the kinds of uh when it comes to burial and

[29:17] funeral procedures or preferences um all of this uh needs to be thought out um in advance so um and I'm just reading here on my notes something that I looked up so in in Hinduism uh by contrast with Judaism requires cremation right so uh so again if if if that's but I I I suspect that it has to be done in in a particular particular particularly um ritualistic way right so if someone is a devout Hindu uh living here in the United States um you know it they would

[29:55] be well advised to make sure that that their preferences for uh funeral and burial are put into paper um and are put onto paper and properly executed so that they are um so that those wishes are complied with uh a after they pass away right and and um uh you know this goes beyond um you know buying a a funeral plot or or paying for you know this kind of casket or that these really get down to how how funerals are conducted um for example in

[30:35] in in my own faith tradition Judaism from the time someone dies until they're buried by tradition the the Goof the body is not supposed to be left alone so you have something called the KRA kadisha um it's it's it's essentially that means the holy Society it's a group of men and women who sit with the body but between the time that the person dies and is buried and typically they read Psalms in in in um um Praise of of the deceased Soul uh and

[31:12] and and they do this voluntarily um you know as as as an adherent to the religion right so is that something that you definitely want if if you're you know a traditionally religious Jew or is that something you don't care about right so all of this needs to be dealt with now you may want to comply with your religious principles uh with respect to any of these issues that I've raised and yet you may not exactly know what they are M you know maybe you've never confronted these issues and so uh you know there's no

[31:49] time like the present to get educated on what the uh religious demands are in the estate planning Arena and that would be a good if you know if if you are concerned about this but you're not really sure you know what do I need to do or not do so the first thing to do would be to learn about them so I know in Judaism there are a number of books on the subject um Maurice Lamb's Book uh comes to mind because I know I read that um when when my father passed away um

[32:24] there are other books and I and I assume with other Rel face there are books on the subject as well so I would encourage you to to to you know get one of those books and read it to reach out to people of your faith who are knowledgeable about these topics and find out you know what are your obligations religiously in this you know large realm of Estate Planning and and and then you know have the discussions if if you're a single person you may not have to have the discussions with anybody other than you know yourself an internal discussion if

[33:00] you're married probably it's a discussion you need to have with your spouse and if you have children especially children who are I should say in particular with children who are old enough to be consulted on these issues have the conversations with your children as well so there is nothing like planning for the future and I and I know I've said this before man plans God laughs this maybe is particularly a particularly apt time to remember that particular saying

[33:35] uh but in in this case um the reality is if you do not plan and get your plan into writing it is unlikely that your wishes will be carried out uh in the face of the secular nature of American society so I encourage you to look into these uh and and and make sure that that as well as you can that your wishes will be carried out so that that's that's the the message I bring to you today I'm sorry my my guest couldn't make it we'll

[34:12] hopefully I'll um be able to rebook her for another time we'll go into some of these topics in in more depth uh but in the meantime we've we've gotten a start on this important issue so if you have any thoughts comments criticisms my uh Social Links to my social media will be in the show notes after this episode posts on uh on on my YouTube channel so please feel free my email address will be there as well if there's something private you want to contact me about uh now as I noted at the beginning I am a rabbi however I am not a posic I do not

[34:50] make halakic decisions for other people so um you you can send me your questions uh on on Hala but uh um I'm I'm I'm not qualified to answer them specific to your situation but I will do my best to help you find someone who who can uh and I I think that's that's all we've got for this topic so tomorrow at 10:00 am Pacific time Tuesday is my show business lessons from the military and I'm going to be talking about business lessons

[35:27] that can be learned from the great Sir Winston Churchill most of us think of Churchill during his time as Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II uh Churchill had a military career before that and and we're going to focus on on that and see what we can learn from one of the greatest individuals from the 20th century and then on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. is my show uh people making money and I'm

[36:02] going to be talking about a book called The Art of negotiating this is a skill that if we are in whether we're in business or professional practice we we need to be continually developing uh continuously developing this skill and so this is a wonderful book it's actually been around for quite a long time it's really a classic and if and if you've seen my shows before you know I love Classics uh so I do invite you to tune in on Tuesday at 10: a.m. Pacific time so thank you so much for joining me today especially my

[36:37] live viewers always a treat to have you on board and signing off as I always do Marie darling you are my bell courage at