Writing an Islamic Will Workshop

2 Views· 24/05/11

MECCA Media
Subscribers

In Lectures

Transcript

[0:00]e Mal [Music] [Music] [Music] the m [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter]

[2:15][Music] m [Music] [Music] un [Music] [Music] [Music] well [Music] [Music] [Music]

[3:59]h [Music] in [Music] muham muhamad Salam Alum everyone thank you for

[5:02]coming tonight for this very important topic writing an Islamic well um

[5:06]a topic that I personally have a lot of questions about topic

[5:11]that we don't often think about even though it's very important because

[5:14]there is a stigma around this topic that if you think of

[5:17]the well and writing well that means Cent is to establish the

[5:22]the Frameworks and the processes to protect their interests and Legacy both

[5:28]during their life and after they pass away in addition to his

[5:33]planning practice Muhammad has experienced advising clients on immigration nonprofit and corporate

[5:38]matters he has served in various capacities with several nonprofit organizations for

[5:45]15 plus years where he has been using his legal and analytical

[5:49]skills to advance his community we are honored to have you with

[5:52]us today um brother Muhammad and now without further Ado I would

[5:58]like to welcome Sam first to uh as I said discuss the

[6:06]Islamic aspect of writing well after muham Muhammad [Music] my dear brothers

[6:46]and sisters one of the realities that is often ignored and people

[6:53]try to think not think about as much as the reality of

[6:59]death this is a real real it that will happen to every

[7:01]single one of us and as Believers as of course we believe

[7:08]that death is not the end we transition from One Life to

[7:13]another life from one realm to another realm death is a bridge

[7:19]that we cross and everyone crosses this bridge with their deeds with

[7:24]their everyone goes with their own book of Deeds if your book

[7:54]is given in your right hand then you will be happy Allah

[8:01]subhana T then gives us the example of what the sadness and

[8:09]the the frustration that will happen to those who fail the test

[8:14]with Allah subhana wa tala so in our life we have to

[8:17]make sure that we pass that test and in passing that test

[8:22]we have to fulfill our duties and obligations in this life and

[8:29]before we leave we all have an opportunity to amend to fix

[8:34]to mend some of the struggles that we had some of the

[8:40]challenges that we had in this life and one of the ways

[8:47]to fix things once we leave for our children for the inheritors

[8:52]for people that stay behind is to leave behind the will leaving

[8:56]behind the will there's a lot in the will a lot of

[9:02]people think for example will is only about money no will is

[9:05]much greater than that will is about your beliefs the will is

[9:11]about your prayers and your fasting and your Hajj and yours and

[9:16]your your obligations towards God towards people towards the community and writing

[9:23]a will is something that is extremely extremely important from an Islamic

[9:29]perspective it's important and from a legal perspective we will find out

[9:33]how important it is because you live in a country that they'll

[9:36]come and they'll take half of your wealth or I don't know

[9:38]how much but if you don't have a trust if you don't

[9:42]have a will you haven't appointed and designated how you want your

[9:45]money and your assets to be spent the government will take a

[9:49]big portion of it there's ways to protect yourself I'm not going

[9:52]to talk about that we'll leave that to the lawyer but I

[9:56]will talk about the importance of writing a will writing a will

[10:00]and what do we write in the will what should we cover

[10:04]when we are writing a will so Allah subhah wa tala says

[10:10]in the Quran whenever you see what does that signify obligation however

[10:34]here Scholars they say it's not W to write a will why

[10:39]because at the end it says this is for the if you're

[10:44]a Pious person you will write a will and not not only

[10:46]a Pious person someone who's smart someone who thinks ahead someone who's

[10:49]futuristic they're going to write and plan ahead for what's going to

[10:56]happen at the end of the day we come in this life

[10:57]we live we eat we sleep we buy we drink we have

[11:01]businesses we do everything when you leave at least leave some document

[11:04]to say this person I want this to happen with my wealth

[11:07]I have I have this shortcoming I need to do this I

[11:11]need to do that leave some type of document so that when

[11:14]you leave now if you leave any what does mean if you

[11:24]leave any assets any wealth you put a so Allah subhana T

[11:34]says not only in your life you take care of your parents

[11:36]if your parents and what does this mean this means that some

[11:41]people we leave this life and our parents are alive so doesn't

[11:44]mean that only when I'm in a senior citizen and I'm so

[11:49]old that's when I write a will no write a will any

[11:50]anytime think of the W think of your parents and think of

[12:03]thein think of your family think of your relatives right give them

[12:07]something this is what the this is what the religion of Islam

[12:10]is telling us give leave something behind for your relatives and this

[12:14]is something very important there was a man there was a man

[12:17]during the life of the prophet he died and then the the

[12:25]prophet he came and he heard that this man his children are

[12:28]begging in the street so s alai he said what happened with

[12:31]their father their father had money what happened with it they tell

[12:36]him he gave all of his money away he became angry and

[12:43]he said if I had known earlier I would not have allowed

[12:46]him to be buried in a Muslim Cemetery meaning that you have

[12:51]to you can't make your children and your family become Beggars because

[12:55]you want to do sod no there's there's a portion for everything

[12:58]give your family but also give the poor do good deeds but

[13:04]there is there is a share for everyone to go around so

[13:07]now this is the was writing a was how can a be

[13:15]a could be an oral dictation for example there are there are

[13:20]witnesses and you say this is my I want I want such

[13:25]and such to happen this is this is a perfectly valid from

[13:29]an Islamic perspective does this apply right now no because we live

[13:32]in a government where they want to see legal documents and this

[13:35]is why and say this is what he told me so you

[13:40]need to have a document now Scholars say it is highly recommended

[13:44]but then we have many narrations from from the that talk about

[13:48]the importance he says Muslim every Muslim should write a was it

[13:56]doesn't matter how old you are you're young or you're old have

[14:01]some document and we will explain what you need to write in

[14:03]it someone might say I don't even have money should I even

[14:05]write yes everyone should write a was because there's a lot of

[14:13]a lot of things that could go in a in another Hadith

[14:17]says the one who is meaning the one who is basically taken

[14:22]away from him the one who does not have a or the

[14:28]one that has not been given an opportunity to write a to

[14:33]have a will now what should a person put in a there

[14:40]are there are four or five things four points that a person

[14:43]four things that should go in a person's was from an Islamic

[14:50]perspective the first is your was is your opportunity to declare your

[14:53]faith how beautiful is it that a person leaves this life but

[14:59]there's a document that says this person lived as a Muslim and

[15:02]this person Bears witness that there's no God other than Allah and

[15:07]that Allah is a prophet and that the IM the first IM

[15:09]is and IM the second IM is IM Hassan and IM Hussein

[15:14]and IM Z pointing out all your imams pointing out your belief

[15:17]this is a testament of Faith you have that opportunity to write

[15:23]it down someone says why because you want your children this is

[15:26]a legacy you're leaving behind let your children see this that Our

[15:30]Father our mother they testified this is what they left this duny

[15:37]after living for a long life this is what they believed in

[15:39]and this is this was a testament of their faith and Allah

[15:42]subhana tala describes and the prophet how prophets of allahim and under

[15:53]deathbed what do they say they gather their children and their family

[16:04]and they tell them this is the most important thing more that

[16:08]more important than money more important than wealth more important than the

[16:13]assets I'm leaving behind this Legacy of faith I'm leaving behind this

[16:17]Legacy of of IM he he was dying he gathered his children

[16:28]and he tells them who do you worship so this is the

[16:43]greatest Legacy if you were able to come in this life and

[16:45]live and leave behind the legacy of faithful children leave behind the

[16:51]Legacy where you have placed an imprint of Iman on your family

[16:56]and your children and you leave then you'll be in a good

[16:58]place this is more important than leaving behind the millions this is

[17:04]more important than leaving behind the assets this is the most important

[17:10]thing leaving behind a good Legacy of M why because if you're

[17:12]raising your children to be M then you're going to have someone

[17:16]who prays for you you're going to have someone who recites fat

[17:19]over your grave you're going to have someone who recites Quran for

[17:22]you so this is one thing that goes in a a declaration

[17:26]of Faith a declaration of faith and this is the last thing

[17:29]a person will hear before they shut down the grave there's there

[17:33]is it's done when a person is dying they come they tell

[17:39]him say this is one time another time is right before they

[17:46]close the grave it's must for a family or a person to

[17:52]come and they say even hold the person hold the person from

[17:56]their shoulders and shake them Yan fan when the angel of death

[17:59]comes comes to you when when the Angels uh from Allah or

[18:05]for the they come to you and they ask you about your

[18:08]lord about your about your Prophet about your IMS and tell them

[18:15]be very clear this is the last thing that a person hears

[18:26]and they say that the soul hears so write this down this

[18:32]is one second you write down in your will anything that you

[18:36]owe to anyone I borrowed a dollar from someone I have to

[18:39]write that down because I don't want I can't afford standing in

[18:44]front of Allah subhana tala and I have stolen $1 I have

[18:46]taken one one whatever it is taking something that is the hack

[18:53]of someone else taking it wrongfully I need to write it down

[18:56]some of us sometimes maybe I'm borrowing something and then I die

[18:58]you never know maybe I borrowed something very small very insignificant but

[19:04]I this is why we should always write it down always write

[19:07]it down and a a will could always be updated so you

[19:12]write down and this is why when the when the was when

[19:19]the inheritance is divided before it gets divided according to the laws

[19:24]of Islam according to the laws of the Quran Allah says meaning

[19:28]you have to come and take all of the D out all

[19:33]of the inheritance all of the anything this person borrowed from another

[19:36]person or any specific was and then they come and they divide

[19:42]it according to the laws of the Quran and sometimes D is

[19:47]financial and sometimes it's not sometimes I've hurt people with my tongue

[19:52]with other things so maybe it's very important to go and apologize

[19:54]or to write down any H that I have towards another person

[19:59]so this is the second so first you write down your faith

[20:02]The Testament of Faith write that down even if you don't have

[20:07]any money let your just have that this I bear witness that

[20:09]there's no God other than Allah and Prophet Muhammad and the imams

[20:11]of the this is sufficient second you write down if you've borrowed

[20:17]anything from anyone you've taken anything from anyone even a dollar you

[20:20]don't want to stand in front of Allah on the day of

[20:21]judgment third anything you owe to Allah we're all we're always worried

[20:28]about what we owe other people but what about God has a

[20:32]h upon us what are some things that I owe to Allah

[20:35]Salah a lot of people they have Salah they have not prayed

[20:41]write that down and write it down during your life maybe I'm

[20:43]starting to make it up write it down now someone might say

[20:49]this person they didn't pray their whole life why should it I

[20:52]should what's the significance of writing it down how's that going to

[20:55]be we don't know maybe Allah subhana wa ta'ala will be merciful

[20:58]with a person it's waj upon you to write it down and

[21:02]it's waj upon the eldest son to make it up and the

[21:06]family they could make it up later this will be something that

[21:08]will alleviate and remove the pain and the suffering you don't know

[21:14]Allah is very merciful and maybe someone at one point in their

[21:18]life they weren't praying they were fasting but now they decide on

[21:21]changing but once they decided on changing they did Toba then the

[21:27]angel of death came and visited them so Allah knows what's in

[21:29]the hearts the important thing is you write it down you're not

[21:31]playing a game with God that someone says I'm not going to

[21:35]pray and I'm just going to write it down no it's not

[21:39]like that it's for someone who is sincerely trying on uh planning

[21:45]on changing their life so write down your Salah of course there

[21:49]are certain things obligations that cannot be made up while a person

[21:54]is alive the only thing that someone could make on your behalf

[21:58]while you're alive is Haj Hajj you could give nyaba if if

[22:00]you're unable to go if you're unable to go you have an

[22:05]excuse you could pay someone send someone to go and perform the

[22:07]Hajj however Salah zakat HS fasting while you're living you can't have

[22:13]someone make it up but you write it down so write down

[22:17]if you have not gone to Hajj and Hajj became waj upon

[22:20]you when does Hajj become waj upon you when you're financially when

[22:25]you're physically capable when you have no legal issue blocking you then

[22:30]H becomes waj on you now it becomes waj and the moment

[22:32]it became waj it's waj every year so you write that down

[22:37]and this is something that is very important and the fourth point

[22:43]and the last that we write in the will is the distribution

[22:45]of wealth we come in this life empty-handed and when we leave

[22:53]how do we leave also empty-handed whatever I had in this dya

[22:57]this was just something that we were just borrowing we were holding

[23:04]Allah says in the Quran you come to you left behind what

[23:18]we gave you as a we gave you a brief time to

[23:21]use this this house you're living in this was just temporarily yours

[23:24]you were just borrowing it this car you were just holding it

[23:27]on for a short while this and you're just temporarily holding it

[23:31]then someone else will hold it and someone else will come and

[23:34]hold it and someone else so these things that we collect during

[23:38]this life we should we should write it down now how is

[23:44]the inheritance distributed when a person how is our wealth distributed you

[23:48]come and you take all of the wealth how much is all

[23:53]of the wealth this wealth is divided into three 2third of it

[23:58]two-thirds of it they say the moment a person becomes sick a

[24:03]moment becomes ill in their illness that they're going to die even

[24:07]before their death they come and they tell this person yaal no

[24:11]more using your money this money does you don't have the right

[24:14]to use this money anymore if the if someone is in their

[24:18]in their illness that they're dying in so they that way someone

[24:21]can't come and oh I'm dying I have 5 days left to

[24:24]live I'm going to come and give all my money to for

[24:26]example one person no at that time two3 of your wealth you

[24:31]can't you can't do anything with it anymore and once a person

[24:33]dies 2third of their money that is right away it's taken and

[24:38]is divided to the inheritors based on the laws of the Quran

[24:41]this is not a Sunni thing this is not a sh thing

[24:44]these are the laws of inheritance in the Quran you could find

[24:46]them in a wife she inherits 1/4 if she has children she

[24:57]inherits 1/8 and there there are certain law that are mentioned in

[25:00]the Quran that are very clear it's not disputed onethird of your

[25:06]wealth you could do whatever you want with it you want to

[25:09]give it to a charity you want to give it to one

[25:13]of your favorite children you want to give it to your neighbor

[25:16]you want to give it to your friend you want to give

[25:17]it to any person that onethird you could do whatever you want

[25:22]with it 2third their children they have fun with it they do

[25:25]whatever they want they go buy Lamborghinis and fast cars and and

[25:28]onethird of it onethird of it you could do something good with

[25:35]so this is this is um some I want to benefit from

[25:39]it and then two3 let the the inheritors do whatever they want

[25:45]with so this is these are the four things that need to

[25:47]be pointed out in a will in Islamic will one is your

[25:51]beliefs the second if you owe anything to anyone else the third

[25:56]is if you owe anything to God and the fourth is how

[25:59]you want your money to be distributed yes brother no I didn't

[26:16]say that no no no when it the not the medical I

[26:20]didn't say medical yes when a person becomes when a person dies

[26:27]23 of their money is divided amongst the inheritors but if a

[26:34]person they say that this doesn't have to be that when a

[26:36]person dies this is when a person is in their terminal illness

[26:39]they're going to die they come and they tell him that's it

[26:42]you have no right to use two-thirds of your money so the

[26:45]onethird you do whatever you want with it the one-third you could

[26:50]give it to one one person one daughter one son sometimes you

[26:55]know in Islam the boys they get double the girl so some

[27:00]fathers some mothers they come and they say no I want my

[27:04]daughter for example to get to get equal shares so from that

[27:06]one third they could they could compensate and they could make it

[27:09]equal um but the two-thirds it goes you you don't have a

[27:15]say in how it's divided it goes based on the laws of

[27:17]the Quran no the the money three portions 2/3 goes to the

[27:36]way it's supposed to be distributed the onethird is yours it's three

[27:41]portions yes when you're alive you do whatever you want with your

[27:47]money but when you become ill in your terminal illness then that's

[27:52]when you become meaning you don't have the Islamic right to to

[27:58]um spend it freely as you want yes oh if you don't

[28:14]if you don't do if you don't choose to do anything with

[28:16]your oneir it will it will all equally be so if you

[28:24]follow no so so basically if a person dies and they have

[28:30]not done a was you do no no no if a if

[28:34]a person dies and they don't have a was all of their

[28:37]money is divided based on the laws of the Quran and the

[28:40]laws of Islam the the the wife gets a share the husband

[28:43]gets a Share the Children get a share the parents if they're

[28:45]alive they all get a share but you have the right to

[28:50]take out onethird and do whatever you want with it you have

[28:52]the right but if say I did not do anything with that

[28:56]oneir I didn't even write I said let it let let them

[28:59]deal with it however they deal with the two3 then they will

[29:01]they will have it yes in the you could say for example

[29:23]the 2third I can't I can't come and say for example I

[29:25]want I want the the girl to get equal share of the

[29:29]the boy in the 2/3 but I could come and say where's

[29:32]the loss for example the boy is getting 10 and the girl

[29:35]is getting five so I come from the oneir I come and

[29:38]I give five to the girl now they're equal the oneir you

[29:41]do whatever you want with it you alive you give while you're

[29:46]alive it's not even a anymore I know some people before they

[29:48]died he came and he gave his daughter this he gave his

[29:52]son this and they gave everything when he died he was died

[29:54]in the clothes that he was wearing and this is the probably

[29:57]the most noble thing that a person could could do give it

[30:00]away while you're alive yes sister if you give you give during

[30:18]your life no once a person dies the wealth automatically transfers you

[30:22]don't have the right to give a you could give it during

[30:24]your life yes yes yes that would be a stage prior to

[30:49]the was prior to death even yes yes brother yes okay all

[31:01]all assets all assets yes everything in your assets gets passed on

[31:07]yes brother so you could you could give them ownership before your

[31:25]death give them ownership of it if you if they don't have

[31:28]ownership of it then it's your ownership so this is this is

[31:41]the tricky part because you're basically you're you might be playing with

[31:44]the rules of God because Allah subh says the moment you di

[31:47]this is how it's supposed to be so maybe we'll let the

[31:53]lawyer answer that so we'll let you come up here and you'll

[32:07]you'll go over the the legal aspect and then we'll and then

[32:11]if if there was a need for me to come up again

[32:14]I'll come up I ask you all to welcome brother Muhammad alanon

[32:18]lawyer with loud muhammedi Muhammad [Music] uh thank you say I think

[32:39]uh s did uh alhamdulillah an amazing job with covering uh not

[32:44]just the ethical moral aspects of the will but also some of

[32:49]the um technical legal aspects of the F part of it um

[32:51]let me start Salam alaykum uh everyone brothers and sisters uh of

[32:55]course I start with appreciation not just for uh say uh the

[33:01]brothers that put all this together but also everyone here who took

[33:04]two hours out of their Friday night uh to come and listen

[33:09]to something that a lot of people see as either boring or

[33:11]uh maybe even a little bit um um frightful in a way

[33:16]uh that you don't want to be thinking about uh these kind

[33:18]of topics but I think it shows everyone's uh character and their

[33:21]willingness to accept this inev inevitability and also to kind of do

[33:28]the wise thing thing in terms of planning for it uh and

[33:34]let me um I don't think it's working oh yeah work so

[33:43]don't need to do an introduction I think we're running a little

[33:46]bit short on time thank you H for for the uh generous

[33:50]introduction uh this is my information if anyone needs to get a

[33:53]hold of me take a picture of that or I have some

[33:56]business cards to pass along afterwards so um so what's the goal

[34:04]of our um inshallah session today it's to have a basic understanding

[34:07]of the laws of wills and States especially as they intersect with

[34:12]our Islamic laws with the Shar and have that as a starting

[34:16]point for us to start planning to start writing our Wills now

[34:19]at the end of this session I'll have a link up where

[34:24]everyone can go in there is a service that we're providing at

[34:26]laog group where everyone can get a free will you go in

[34:30]there's a portal you provide your information uh a little bit of

[34:33]information that will go through what information you need for a will

[34:35]uh once you have all that you'll be emailed a a will

[34:39]and you can take that print it sign it have it witnessed

[34:43]and notorized we'll go through that process that needs to be done

[34:45]to make a will formally effective so my Approach uh for this

[34:53]session inah will be try to try and cover these five questions

[34:54]first why should I have a will or a plan and happens

[34:59]if I don't have one how do I write a will uh

[35:02]what do I need to make sure that the will complies with

[35:04]Islamic laws with the Shar what are some other objectives that might

[35:08]I might be able to achieve through the process of Estate Planning

[35:11]and what are the different Vehicles trust was mentioned uh that I

[35:15]could use to achieve those objectives so inshallah I'll try to answer

[35:19]those questions one by one so first of all what happens if

[35:26]I don't have a will or I don't have a plan uh

[35:27]number one the first question that a lot of people ask is

[35:31]Will the government come and take all my money and sorry S

[35:33]no that's not usually the case unless uh unless you owe the

[35:37]government money then they're going to take it back if you owe

[35:39]them taxes or sometimes if you owe them uh Medicaid recovery so

[35:44]if you if you God forbid had to kind of be in

[35:46]long-term care Medicaid had to pay for your expenses they might come

[35:53]back and ask for that money back right um so unless those

[35:56]things are true government won't take your your money also unless you

[36:00]don't have any heirs so you don't have any living relatives then

[36:04]the government might come in if you don't have a will and

[36:08]take that money there's the other potential for losing money which is

[36:13]not that the government might come and take it but that it

[36:16]becomes unclaimed what do I mean sometimes there's money that we own

[36:20]that we have a right to that we don't necessarily um understand

[36:23]or are aware of or or maybe have forgotten about I have

[36:26]a lot of clients that come in and talk about retirement accounts

[36:30]from previous jobs that they don't necessarily know how much is in

[36:35]there how much how much it's grown who's entitled to it who's

[36:38]the beneficiary if you don't have all that information then there's the

[36:41]possibility that your uh your heirs might not be able to get

[36:44]access to that money and so it ends up going to the

[36:48]government the government will hold it so that people can come and

[36:50]look for it if you're if your heirs don't know to actually

[36:54]look for it it's going to eventually end up being um taken

[36:57]by the government so government doesn't just step in and take uh

[37:02]all the money there are fees uh there are probate taxes there

[37:07]are uh court fees that might uh be have to have to

[37:09]be paid in the probate process uh but we'll get through some

[37:14]of that information uh later on uh so if I don't have

[37:20]a will I don't have a plan who's going to take care

[37:24]of my kids I also get that question a lot which is

[37:25]first answer is uh the other parent whether you're currently married or

[37:30]or divorced the other parent if they're able and if they're available

[37:34]to take care of the kid they'll be given that right now

[37:36]let's say anything something happened to the other parent or they're not

[37:39]able they're not available to take care of your kids then it's

[37:43]going to be the closest to living relative or any other relative

[37:46]that stands up in front of Court the court and asks the

[37:51]judge I want to be a guardian of this child now again

[37:53]this is if you don't have a plan if you have a

[37:56]plan if you have a will you can assign any your will

[38:00]nominate a person to stand as guardian for your children so if

[38:03]you know who you want to be raising your kids how you

[38:08]want them to be raised then that's a uh that's a reason

[38:10]to take the proactive step towards having a plan having a will

[38:15]that allows for that who's going to take care of my funeral

[38:19]to take care of my assets and that's again the spouse if

[38:25]they're available closest living relative or any other relative or friend that

[38:28]stands up in front of court and asks for that right so

[38:32]now you have to think about your family your friends who's going

[38:35]to take that step to go to court and make sure that

[38:41]they're fighting for for your um for your rights I I can

[38:47]take questions as we go potentially uh I mean again you don't

[39:00]have any documents you haven't planned for this a friend can step

[39:04]up if they if no one steps up then they're going to

[39:08]go through the foster care system even if a friend does step

[39:11]up then there's also going to be a process there's going to

[39:13]be cor dates there's going to be uh the judge is going

[39:16]to look at what's best for the child and they're going to

[39:18]decide based on that that's going to be timec consuming in the

[39:23]meantime they're going to be in the foster care system right uh

[39:25]so if you want to avoid the foster care system the best

[39:28]thing to do is to name a guardian for your kids through

[39:31]uh a well clear uh for your assets and for your estate

[39:37]again anyone who's willing to to come up and stand for that

[39:42]unless again you name uh an executive a personal representative in your

[39:46]will they'll be able to come up and do that on your

[39:48]behalf what will happen to my assets so the technical term for

[39:56]what happens to assets if you pass away without will is called

[39:59]intestacy so there are these laws in every state they're called the

[40:02]laws of intestacy and they govern what happens to your assets in

[40:08]Most states they look at the spouse and they give them the

[40:10]greatest rights uh so uh a spouse in the state of Michigan

[40:15]uh if they're a married couple no previous marriages potentially could uh

[40:20]have a right to the first 150,000 of the estate plus half

[40:23]the rest right so that depends on the state but in the

[40:28]state of Michigan that's the cas case say mentioned about the right

[40:33]of a spouse islamically which is um 1/4 or one8 for a

[40:36]wife with children uh that clearly contradicts with the laws of intestacy

[40:40]so if you want things to be taken care of in Terms

[40:44]of uh the way that the Quran States and the way that

[40:49]Allah T dictated uh then you would have to plan for that

[40:54]will there be family conflict and that's a question not for me

[40:59]but for you each one of us knows their family and knows

[41:01]if there's going to be any conflicts in any of these things

[41:04]that I mentioned uh is there going to be a conflict in

[41:06]terms of the division of the assets is there going to be

[41:09]a conflict in terms of who gets to raise the kids again

[41:11]if you don't plan for it then it's going to end up

[41:14]in front of a judge your family may be in agreement about

[41:18]what happens or they may be in disagreement and so if you

[41:20]want to prevent the disagreement you have to be clear you have

[41:22]to set out a plan and make sure everything is stated so

[41:26]that they know what will happen with every sing SLE point in

[41:31]those points another thing is what if I'm disabled or have some

[41:35]kind of medical emergency unfortunately I have a lot of people that

[41:38]come to me and say um my parents uh unfortunately uh are

[41:42]developing Alzheimer or or Parkinson's and now we need to be able

[41:47]to take care of them and usually what happens they go to

[41:49]a hospital hospital refuses for the individual to make those decisions on

[41:53]behalf of the disabled uh parent and they ask to go to

[41:57]court so you have to to go to court petition the court

[42:00]for guardianship or conservative ship and then through that process you end

[42:04]up getting the final say in how your parents are being treated

[42:08]medically and to avoid all of that we go back and say

[42:10]there's the potential for writing Powers of Attorney medical Powers of Attorney

[42:14]that state how you can or who has the right to take

[42:18]care of you in case of a medical emergency so those are

[42:25]the things that would happen if you don't have a plan now

[42:28]I call it a plan because there are different levels of planning

[42:33]we the say respected say spoke about wills uh one of the

[42:36]gentlemen asked about trust but I would categorize it as five different

[42:39]levels first a lot of people actually I think statistics say 50%

[42:45]of of Americans don't have a plan they don't have a will

[42:47]they don't have a trust they don't have any any of that

[42:51]the higher level than that is to have a basic well this

[42:55]is what I mentioned at the beginning that will have a way

[42:57]to create a basic will that will be sent to your email

[43:01]you'll be able to take it have it signed notorized and be

[43:03]able to assign in it a guardian uh assign in a um

[43:09]personal representative who would stand in court for you if you pass

[43:12]away um who you want to raise your kids how you want

[43:15]some of your assets to be divided and all of that in

[43:17]a simple will a level above that would be a more complicated

[43:21]will where you are actually dividing your assets maybe in more detail

[43:25]you might even be able to create uh some something for for

[43:28]for generations to come through a testamentary trust uh one of the

[43:33]kinds of trusts so the more complicated the more advanced you want

[43:37]to get with that the more you can through a will the

[43:42]next level uh would be a trust which would allow you to

[43:44]achieve some higher objectives in terms of what you want to do

[43:47]uh with your family or with your assets in terms of uh

[43:51]some objectives and we'll cover those objective later on in this session

[43:54]and then there can be more complex trusts for more complex strategies

[43:58]again that comes down to what your objectives are uh for this

[44:03]planning process yes again it depends on number one um your personal

[44:16]family situation your personal um assets and wealth uh and also your

[44:20]objectives for how you want things to to be handled uh post

[44:25]death or or even during life in case disability in medical I

[44:27]think that might be a little bit more clear if we pass

[44:32]through or if we go through the rest of the uh presentation

[44:33]if that question remains then I'll go back and answer it very

[44:51]good question um the will doesn't affect the Pod so uh you

[44:57]pod is a designation of beneficiaries that you say in your bank

[45:01]account or in your retirement accounts that if I pass away the

[45:03]money goes to for example to my wife to my children the

[45:08]will doesn't affect that legally speaking the will does not affect that

[45:11]the will handles property outside of that right so the world doesn't

[45:15]manage that that goes back to whoever you designated now um we

[45:22]can ask say if that money is a part of the full

[45:23]estate that needs to be divided 1/3 by 2/3 right so that

[45:28]money might still have to go 2third of it to your uh

[45:32]to your a islamically even though it doesn't go through well legally

[45:36]okay is that distinction clear so why don't people if these are

[45:43]if if a plan if a will is so important why don't

[45:46]people uh actually write a plan or write a will uh a

[45:51]lot of people say it can wait and we all know and

[45:52]that's why we're all here that sometimes we don't know whether it

[45:59]can wait sometimes things can happen suddenly unforeseen uh a lot of

[46:03]people say I don't have enough assets uh for an estate plan

[46:06]or for a will and again that's false because anything that you

[46:09]might have again from a moral perspective as well from a legal

[46:13]perspective you have the ability to direct uh islamically a portion of

[46:20]it legally all of it through a will some people say it's

[46:25]too expensive uh and again it might be more expensive to pass

[46:28]away without a will than is to pass away with a will

[46:32]okay so let's get to the formalities of writing a well yes

[46:44]I have a I have a slide on that I have a

[46:53]slide on that let me get to it and then you can

[46:57]ask the question again if I don't answer it okay so writing

[47:00]a will first of all a will is a very formal process

[47:04]legally speaking we want to make sure that people understand what a

[47:07]will is and that they're doing it with sound mind and they're

[47:10]not being forced into it they're not being taken advantage of so

[47:12]we require it to be in writing we require it to be

[47:18]signed that there will be two witnesses and in some states that

[47:20]it be notorized right and so it's best to kind of make

[47:25]sure that it's signed witnessed and notorized Wherever You Are in in

[47:28]any state make sure it's notorized so once you have that you

[47:34]have a will so who can write a will any adult own

[47:40]that they know who their relatives are uh and that they know

[47:42]that by signing a will they're allowing them to take possession of

[47:45]this property after they pass away so those are the kind of

[47:49]questions you ask a person to make sure that they have sound

[47:51]mind to be able to write a well and you can tell

[47:55]that it's not a very high threshold but again some people who

[47:57]are suffering from God forbid Parkinson's or or Alzheimer's they might not

[48:02]late to write a well uh also again a person has to

[48:07]be doing it freely so they can't be under the AR they

[48:09]can't be forced into it they can't be taken advantage of what

[48:13]should a will include uh first of all you have to identify

[48:18]yourself as the person writing the will usually we do that by

[48:20]writing the name but also writing some clear characteristics like address who

[48:24]I'm married to who my children are and then you can name

[48:29]a personal representative or you might have heard of it as an

[48:32]executive a person who takes the will and actually takes it to

[48:34]court and enforces it and that's another thing about wills it has

[48:37]to actually be certified by the court but we'll get to that

[48:41]yeah you can name a guardian for your kids if you have

[48:44]minor minor children you can nominate a person who would be able

[48:48]to take care of your kids and you can give directions on

[48:49]how they should do it you can make specific uh distributions of

[48:55]property so you can say I leave let's say my car to

[48:57]my to my son or uh 15% of my assets to my

[49:01]daughter whether it's an actual item or a percentage you can do

[49:07]that in a well uh and then you have to identify where

[49:11]everything else goes so you can say my car goes to my

[49:16]son 15% goes to my daughter and then the rest goes to

[49:20]my wife now again islamically speaking there are specific ways uh that

[49:26]these need to be divided 1/3 2/3 specific of the inheritance of

[49:31]the 2/3 the way I would suggest that a will be written

[49:33]islamically is to go through the inheritance go through your specific family

[49:36]situation and say for example I have a single daughter she gets

[49:40]a half and so on and so forth and incorporate that in

[49:43]to the will other question I get asked sometimes is can I

[49:50]inherit disinherit my wife and my kids if you have minor children

[49:53]you can't disinherit them if you have a spouse you also can't

[49:57]disinherit themer means taking out of the yes taking them out of

[50:03]the world so that they don't get anything um yeah so you

[50:04]can't do that to minor children you can't do that to your

[50:08]spouse the spouse has what's called an elective share and that depends

[50:11]on state law so in the state of Michigan one example uh

[50:15]I think I already mentioned this which is if you're married no

[50:19]prior marriages you have children uh the spouse gets 150,000 plus half

[50:24]the rest okay so if you leave a will that gives the

[50:29]spouse less than that they have the right to petition to the

[50:32]court and ask for more uh you can potentially limit that in

[50:37]a will by saying that for example my wife can't get more

[50:40]than half of that elective share but there's always a potential for

[50:44]that to be not enough in view of the court and that

[50:48]the court will basically give them more now before that might sound

[50:52]a little bit uh kind of scary because it contradicts the Islamic

[50:56]Shar so much there is always number one the spouse doesn't have

[51:01]to uh kind of does they don't have to contest the will

[51:06]so if you're married to a Believer someone who fears Allah subhana

[51:09]wa tala they're not going to do that but also you can

[51:13]get a waiver of that beforehand and usually that happens in a

[51:17]prenuptual agreement where you wave your spousal right and that way that

[51:20]possibility isn't even there for them to go to court to contest

[51:22]the will and get more than that does that clarify your question

[51:30]okay can I change my will your answer yes uh you can

[51:36]completely revoke it uh you can uh toss it out you can

[51:40]write a new one you can just shred it and go back

[51:41]to not having a will um you can even edit it you

[51:45]can edit it by what we legally call a cisal which is

[51:48]a document attached to it that says I've made these changes one

[51:51]thing I'll warn against is don't go around Crossing things out and

[51:55]adding things in because that could put potentially create more confusion uh

[52:00]if your will was written in a specific way you might not

[52:02]you might not be able to or you might not you might

[52:05]unintentionally cross out the wrong thing or not cross out the right

[52:11]thing or uh create more confusion by doing that so so there

[52:20]has to be there has to be a hard copy because uh

[52:24]courts uh and that might differ from state to state but in

[52:27]michig michig courts require an an original ink signature on the document

[52:31]right uh so just having an electronic copy might not be enough

[52:35]right or electronically electronically signing a copy might not be enough so

[52:40]ink signature needs to be present and that's why we usually tell

[52:46]our clients to keep keep the whe in a safe place either

[52:48]next to their bed or even if they can and in a

[52:52]safety deposit box or something of the sort yeah yeah so so

[53:04]you'd have to have the original one um we usually as attorneys

[53:07]we keep a scanned file just in case there's something that that

[53:12]happens where we can't find the original but the court does want

[53:14]the original and if you don't have the original you have to

[53:16]justify it in some way and if you've lost it and you're

[53:19]still around to kind of make a new one then you should

[53:23]make a new one would not recommend that because there is the

[53:32]potential that again if you want it to change or if you

[53:36]want it to completely revoke then you yeah you exactly there's the

[53:40]potential for multiple Originals contradictory Originals to be floating out there that's

[53:45]going to create more problems than you've solved right clear on this

[53:50]one okay what a will can't do so it's important to realize

[53:55]what a will does and what it can't do so number one

[53:59]it can't avoid the probate system a will needs to be certified

[54:02]basically by a judge the judge needs to have it in front

[54:04]of him stamp it and say I give the personal representative the

[54:09]executive the power to act in accordance with the will right and

[54:12]that could be timec consuming and it could be expensive it can't

[54:15]avoid any taxes so if you're in a bracket where you're worried

[54:21]about uh estate taxes which most of us in well most of

[54:24]us AR inshallah some of us are which is around 26 million

[54:29]um most people don't have have to worry about that but if

[54:32]you're in that bracket I will can't change that for you there's

[54:38]a potential for estate taxes there's no estate taxes now that number

[54:43]changes and there are some states that have different numbers this is

[54:48]the federal number I have a slide on it uh the other

[54:51]thing I will can't do follow I'll get to it I'll get

[55:05]to it the other thing will can't do is affect joint property

[55:08]so in the US legal system Most states if you Jo if

[55:14]you jointly own property meaning that for example me and my wife

[55:17]both our names are on the deed to the house uh that's

[55:21]not affected by the will and what happens is that if one

[55:23]of us passes away the house is so me and my wife's

[55:29]names are on the deed I pass away my name basically gets

[55:35]uh scratched out and the house remains in her name uh now

[55:38]that's what happens legally again you go back islamically was that her

[55:41]right to kind of get that other half of the house um

[55:45]we don't see it as getting the other half legally but islamically

[55:49]it could be problematic then it goes into uh what would happen

[55:57]with either if they had a will or if they don't have

[56:00]a will you'd have to go through that hole but if it's

[56:01]jointly oned that's where a will doesn't affect it because what we

[56:07]say is your your property right got extinguished at death so you

[56:10]don't have a right to it anymore it was you couldn't have

[56:14]done anything with the will to change that so it doesn't pass

[56:17]through will it passes outside of probate yeah yeah if if both

[56:26]spouses die then it passes on to their ears if you have

[56:32]joint accounts that would be the same so if again if if

[56:35]one of the spouses dies they scratch their name out and it

[56:37]Remains the property of the other individual life insurance is different life

[56:47]insurance um I'm correct me if I'm wrong say it's from what

[56:51]I've seen from sayani it passes completely outside of that right so

[56:56]legally life insurance isn't your property but someone has a benefit to

[57:00]it right so for example if I have my kids on the

[57:04]life insurance if I pass away my kids get the money directly

[57:06]so it's not through the probate and it's not through uh even

[57:13]islamically it's not through the 1/3 2/3 division uh there is a

[57:16]potential just because tax laws are different than probate laws that it

[57:20]might be taxed if you hit that $26 million Mark but that's

[57:26]different uh ready went through joint property okay so how do I

[57:33]make sure that my will is Sharia compliant first of all we

[57:36]have to understand the Islamic laws and I think say did a

[57:40]great job of of doing that for us and then we should

[57:42]incorporate those laws into our will uh so first of all we

[57:49]have to understand that 1/3 2/3 division that onethird that we have

[57:52]the power to divide or to um allocate in whatever way we

[57:56]wish we write that in the well and then for the other

[57:58]2/3 we should also State how that division is going to be

[58:04]so my example if uh I'm right now I'm married I have

[58:08]a single daughter I have my parents are alive and well so

[58:11]one six to each of my parent 1/8 to my wife uh

[58:15]one half to my to my only daughter that's the division that

[58:19]would be according to the verses from Sur uh the complexities start

[58:25]to add up when when or when those fractions don't add up

[58:28]to 100% so what happens to some to a shortage what happens

[58:33]to an excess in terms of those fractions that's something that each

[58:37]individual should assess on their individual basis based on uh their personal

[58:43]family situation and incorporate that in the will because otherwise if I

[58:47]put a will in front of a judge that says divide this

[58:49]islamically just not going to know what to do with that right

[58:53]and they could potentially just throw the whole will out because they

[58:56]can't act on right um so that's why it's important to have

[58:59]that division incorporated into the will uh there aren't much differences because

[59:16]a woman is entitled to her own property so are you asking

[59:21]this from an Islamic perspective or a legal from a again from

[59:25]a legal perspective um depends on how they're titled uh are they

[59:29]titled jointly or not from an Islamic perspective she had the right

[59:35]to have her own property uh her property once she passes away

[59:38]is divided according to the same divisions the only differences is where

[59:42]in some instances in some cases where there is where there's a

[59:48]double for the male heirs and I think you can again assess

[59:51]on a personal basis Case by casee basis so there's nothing wrong

[60:11]with that except that it creates possible room for uh family conflict

[60:15]and for uh the wellbeing contested in court so if your family

[60:19]can't agree or if God forbid if you anticipate that one of

[60:25]your heirs might not be under understanding of the Shar that they

[60:28]might want to contest the will then they could potentially jeopardize all

[60:31]of that right so to reduce family conflict to make sure it

[60:34]happens the way you want it to happen according to the Islamic

[60:39]laws you incorporate all of that into the will uh I think

[60:47]say Sal did a excellent job of going through a lot of

[60:51]these um scenarios okay I I also want to make sure I

[61:00]have some time for question and answer in case I haven't answered

[61:03]anyone's uh questions so objectives to estate planning what are some objectives

[61:09]that can be achieved through Wills trusts uh Powers of Attorney what

[61:14]are some things that we can do with this estate planning process

[61:19]first of all Let me give a little bit of a background

[61:23]on trust because again that that term has been thrown thrown around

[61:26]a little bit so what a trust is I usually say it's

[61:30]like a box so you create this trust and you put your

[61:32]property inside that box while you're alive and well you have full

[61:38]and absolute control to do whatever is you please with whatever you

[61:42]put in that box once you pass away that box automatically gets

[61:46]shifted to the next person over so whether it's your spouse your

[61:50]children that box just moves along and now they have complete ownership

[61:57]of that prod property okay so that's how a trust can be

[62:00]used that's the the way it can become beneficial talk about so

[62:05]what are some objectives that we can achieve first of all we

[62:11]can put in there some language to protect uh spouses and children

[62:14]so for example if I have an inheritance I know that for

[62:17]example one of my sons uh isn't great at managing money might

[62:22]be uh there might be an impending bankruptcy case I don't want

[62:26]them to lose the inheritance I'm giving them directly when they receive

[62:29]it potentially I could build in some creditor protections for them in

[62:36]the trust disabled beneficiaries if I have uh children or other beneficiaries

[62:41]that are disabled I don't want to give them that money if

[62:44]that's going to jeopardize uh their government assistance they're going to lose

[62:47]their Medicaid and now they're not going to be able to get

[62:50]the treatment that they want I want to make sure that I

[62:51]build it into the trust where I make sure that they continue

[62:56]to have the eligibility for government services um planning for my personal

[63:01]God forbid disability what happens if I'm disabled how should my assets

[63:04]be controlled who should be making decisions both financially and medically tax

[63:08]planning in terms of uh State gift and income taxes so um

[63:13]in terms of state taxes we mentioned the $26 Million number gift

[63:16]taxes is similar if you give gifts more than that number uh

[63:20]throughout your lifetime or more than 16,000 to a specific to a

[63:26]single individual during a year then it might be taxable to you

[63:29]right not to the person getting the gift but to you as

[63:31]the person giving the gift so those are some things to consider

[63:36]as well and then you could use the trust to kind of

[63:38]plan for that how can I save the most taxes by utilizing

[63:45]those taex oh I'm sorry okay yeah other objectives asset protection if

[63:55]I'm someone with potentially high risk for example medical doctors I want

[63:59]to make sure that no one can come and sue me and

[64:02]take all my property and I'm left with nothing my family's left

[64:05]with nothing there's a potential to have asset protection trusts that will

[64:10]save something for for your family uh business succession planning if you

[64:13]have a business and you want to make sure that it continues

[64:16]to operate successfully after you pass away God forbid then that's something

[64:20]to build in both in the business and in the trust ensuring

[64:24]F family harm Harmony so if there is potential conflict that you

[64:28]foresee uh between your kids between uh your heirs then how do

[64:33]you deal with that how do you make sure that everyone is

[64:35]happy and there's no chance not necessarily that everyone's happy but that

[64:39]everyone knows exactly where the lines are as well and there they

[64:43]won't be Crossing it in terms of contesting the will and things

[64:46]like that how do you preserve Family Values so I have clients

[64:49]that come to me and say I want to make sure yeah

[64:51]I have this this wealth that I want to pass down to

[64:54]my kids but how do I make sure that they don't become

[64:58]trust babies that they don't become just dependent on the trust that

[65:01]they go out and earn their own decent living how do I

[65:03]make sure that they got an education how do I incentivize them

[65:07]to get married for example on their own families expenses or the

[65:11]trust will give invest in your business all of these things are

[65:13]things that you can do to preserve potentially your family values there's

[65:18]also charitable planning so that ranges from for example saying uh one3

[65:24]uh of my assets in will saying onethird of my assets to

[65:28]my local mosque or saying that I have the sizable uh number

[65:33]of assets I want them to be invested and then they can

[65:35]be uh donated to charity during my life or after my death

[65:41]potential tax benefits of that thing in the US called uh pet

[65:43]trust so you can leave a trust aside for your pets to

[65:46]make sure that they're taken care of I only mentioned that to

[65:49]say that the possibilities are endless whatever objective you can come up

[65:52]with that you want to achieve through a trust there's probably a

[65:57]legal vehicle for you to do that depending on the kind of

[66:05]trust um money in the trust can be taxed on growth right

[66:08]so if there's a business in the trust if it's making money

[66:12]then that money uh could be taxed as income right so that's

[66:16]income taxes I would say so yeah so so so you can

[66:41]set up the beneficiaries according to the divisions uh islamically so again

[66:45]I have a single daughter she gets half I give her half

[66:47]in the trust my wife gets eighth uh in the will she

[66:52]would get eighth an eighth in the trust or potentially I can

[66:56]just build the trust if they're sizable assets build the trust with

[67:00]just my one third and then distribute the other two3 the other

[67:04]thing that trust can do and I'm not sure I don't think

[67:08]I have I have it in here which is actually going back

[67:10]to protecting um spouses and children so if you have minor children

[67:14]and you're passing things along to them by will they get complete

[67:20]access to it at that age right so it could be a

[67:22]5-year-old inheriting $100,000 right uh and and you don't want that because

[67:28]they could either misspend it who's going to be taking care of

[67:30]them who's going to who's going to be monitoring how they spend

[67:32]the money as opposed to a trust where you're building all of

[67:38]that in advance right so potentially if you take those considerations in

[67:41]mind the Trust might even be more beneficial because you're again establishing

[67:46]your values making sure everything is done correctly from an Islamic perspective

[67:51]answers your question um so I think I was asked about uh

[67:56]what's probet uh probet process so probet is basically opens a case

[68:04]um the family goes to the court they provide a an inventory

[68:07]a list of all their assets and then the court makes sure

[68:11]that number one that creditors are paid and then that the family

[68:15]divides everything else uh either according to the law or according to

[68:17]the will there is no uh abuse or misuse no one's taking

[68:21]advantage of anyone else after the creditors are paid so the that

[68:28]usually is a lengthy and a uh expensive to attorney fees in

[68:31]that process appraisers whatever it might be to make sure that the

[68:34]case goes through that system and that actually could last from at

[68:41]least at least six months stat based on the statutes in the

[68:43]state of Michigan there's a waiting period you can't close it before

[68:46]6 months just to get all your property across the probate core

[68:51]and make sure it's distributed to your hirs that's why I mentioned

[68:56]um avoiding probate as one important uh objective to be achieved now

[69:00]the other thing is if you have a will like I said

[69:03]it doesn't avoid probate for you uh so you could have a

[69:05]will the will needs to be presented to the judge the judge

[69:09]needs to approve it and ask the personal representative to act in

[69:13]accordance to the will only a trust through a trust or if

[69:19]your assets are small enough uh so in the state of Michigan

[69:22]if your assets are less than 50,000 um avoid probate also like

[69:29]I mentioned joint property isn't accounted as part of that so you

[69:34]could for example um H jointly own the house with with your

[69:36]wife um have assets over on top of the house less than

[69:42]$50,000 and then you would be avoiding probate the other thing that's

[69:45]available to you in the state of Michigan actually is what's called

[69:48]a ladyb bird deed so you can even in the uh deed

[69:52]of your house you could write uh this house belongs to me

[69:56]or to me and my wife as long as I'm alive and

[69:57]then when I pass away it backets and that way it doesn't

[70:02]go through the court system so from my understanding no so if

[70:15]they're owners on the deed uh then they would own whatever portion

[70:21]you have them as on the deed yes whatever is on the

[70:28]deed or or whatever either an equitable share or or whatever is

[70:31]on the deed then then it would have to go through the

[70:44]Probate Court it will still go to the children but it will

[70:48]have to go through the Probate Court after that process so so

[70:50]they might have to be yeah potentially because you'd have to figure

[70:55]figure out who's going to um who's going to handle that money

[71:00]on their behalf right so unless you've left a will assigned the

[71:03]guardian appointed the guardian all of that the court is going to

[71:06]have to consider uh yes for commercial real estate you can do

[71:16]that you could also through your um business planning so if the

[71:19]commercial real estate is owned by an LLC you would have an

[71:24]operating agreement that potentially you can make sure uh operates in the

[71:27]way that you want that's a question for the say maybe but

[71:33]I as far as I understand yes you would be because you've

[71:38]owned it during your life and so even though you've you've put

[71:41]in place an automatic trigger for it to transfer after your death

[71:46]you still owned it up to the point of death so if

[71:48]you've owned it up to the point of death then islamically it's

[71:53]within that one3 two3 division if you've given them ownership during your

[71:58]life by placing them on the deed then you should be fine

[72:08]yeah yeah so I think the bottom line is if if that's

[72:15]your objective then go back look at your objective and make sure

[72:18]that you VI done that also making sure that you haven't in

[72:26]yes go ahead M no they would be passing outside of probate

[72:48]for example life insurance uh if you have life insurance you have

[72:55]correct uh beneficiary design Nations they'll pass outside the probate process designations

[72:58]or if you designate it to for example my wife who passed

[73:05]away before me or or at the same time then it could

[73:06]end up in the probate process the other thing to consider I

[73:10]think I mentioned this is that the probate process is one thing

[73:13]and then estate taxes is another thing which I'm getting to which

[73:16]is it could potentially be taxed even though it's outside of the

[73:19]probate process if you get to those numbers so the current numbers

[73:25]for state taxes federally is $12 million per individual 24 um for

[73:29]a couple I think that changed as of the beginning of this

[73:31]year it's adjusted for inflation so it's um basically where you live

[73:37]and where you own your assets that might also be triggered in

[73:39]terms of having to pay estate taxes so for example if I

[73:44]own property in in Maryland I might have to pay estate taxes

[73:47]on that property because I might be subject to their laws similar

[73:52]thing is gift taxes which is if I give a gift uh

[73:59]that's substantial it might be taxable to me so if anyone has

[74:02]assets that add up to these amounts I know they sound ason

[74:05]astronomical to most yes so uh for them right so if I

[74:12]give say Sal $16,000 or $188,000 I might have to pay taxes

[74:19]on that personally not you me right yeah so and then there's

[74:24]a believe that's 30 or 40% estate tax is 40% I believe

[74:29]gift tax is 40% too yeah so there's a there's an per

[74:35]person per year limit which is 16,000 and then if you go

[74:39]above it then there's an annual there's a lifetime limit of again

[74:42]it's 26 million for a couple right now so then if you

[74:46]go over 26 million for a couple this is significant and important

[74:50]for billionaires but not most of us ta mhm yes so income

[75:06]taxes is one thing because there are different kinds of tax so

[75:10]you pay you pay sales tax and then you pay income tax

[75:13]and then you could pay estate tax and gift tax the IRS

[75:16]gets their money gift taxes yes yes yeah yeah so there's a

[75:37]yeah there's a perear limit and then there's an a lifetime limit

[75:40]so if you hit the Pere limit then it's going to count

[75:44]against the lifetime limit then if you pass the lifetime limit then

[75:47]it's it's taxable to you so sounds like tax evasion to me

[76:01]if you structure right potentially um giveness and then they might be

[76:08]text on it themselves but yeah okay I think we talked enough

[76:11]about taxes jointly owned property uh life insurance and retirement accounts um

[76:17]so mentioned that also briefly which is life insurance passes outside of

[76:22]um probate same thing with retirement accounts as long as there's a

[76:26]proper beneficiary designation on them there are potential tax advantages to having

[76:31]your spouse named as the beneficiary uh so if if it's not

[76:34]your spouse that's named as as a beneficiary retirement accounts could potentially

[76:38]be taxed uh that's a complicated question for your accountant okay yes

[77:00]yeah yeah so so according to company policy I guess you would

[77:07]get their signature to be or you would have them as beneficiary

[77:09]or if you got their signature and they've said I don't want

[77:12]to be the beneficiary the kids can be the beneficiary that could

[77:17]potentially become taxable to the kids when they get that pay out

[77:23]right I insurance I so so it's going to go to your

[77:36]estate which means court is going to open a file they're going

[77:38]to look at the life insurance and they're going to see where

[77:40]it goes most likely to the kids right um exactly so so

[77:47]what you can do is you can name a primary beneficiary and

[77:53]then you can name secondary beneficiaries which is to say if if

[77:57]that contingency happens then they would be the ones uh uh to

[78:00]take that money so there is potential survivor benefits on the Social

[78:41]Security side uh but those are they're very spe specific in terms

[78:45]of the rules so with retirement accounts you're putting money in and

[78:49]you're going to end up getting that money back either to you

[78:51]or or to your spouse or to your kids with Social Security

[78:55]you're putting money in you don't know how much you're getting out

[78:59]of it you're not getting the same amount and then there's your

[79:02]benefits there's potential survivor benefits for your spouse uh so there might

[79:07]be money out there there might not be money out there you'd

[79:11]have to kind of look at the specific scenario for Social Security

[79:18]it's it's not it's not really your property what's in Social Security's

[79:22]hand it's not your property it's a government benefit right exactly exactly

[79:27]now your spouse should know um whether there's a Survivor benefit or

[79:32]anything like that again going back to one of the first slides

[79:37]I I did there's something called unclaimed funds agencies in the state

[79:41]so if your kids if your wife if your kids they don't

[79:44]know what you own and you pass away um then that money

[79:50]could potentially be lost right so it's important to communicate to them

[79:54]that hey this is what I own if something happens to me

[79:57]make sure life insurance pays you make sure my retirement account they

[80:00]get paid out to you right so it's important to have that

[80:04]clear communication if you if you keep connections with the previous state

[80:24]for example you keep your assets there then you don't have to

[80:29]do that but if you move completely move all your assets sell

[80:31]your house buy a new house then potentially you might want to

[80:33]do that because again there's potentially different laws now there might be

[80:37]just you might have to amend things instead of doing things from

[80:39]scratch but that that would depend on the case by case scenario

[81:09]to come up with a fair Division if there isn't a fair

[81:15]division then for example if it's joint if me and my wife

[81:19]are both on the on the deed then it's assumed 50/50 because

[81:21]it's just two people on a deed right unless there is a

[81:25]fair way otherwise to divide things yeah I mean probably the same

[81:32]answer and this always comes up when it comes toes as well

[81:37]sometimes people you know couples they have a shared account and they

[81:41]don't know whose money is which and that's why it's advisable you

[81:46]could still love one another you could still respect one another and

[81:50]cherish one another but it's advisable to kind of know where's your

[81:54]money and where's even though you live your life in a way

[82:00]where myone is her and you should know you should know where

[82:07]it is so that when it comes to homes and when it

[82:10]comes to inheritance you'll yeah so maybe you could see for example

[82:28]how much how muches estimate I think the we had some questions

[82:37]over here first and and children are living He they have sh

[82:49]he has other relatives that might be alive they might have Islam

[82:56]Shar so that's why it's important to have this for example you

[83:00]could say I want or you during your life give it to

[83:06]them say for example this is for you or out an agreement

[83:08]where example I know some sometimes they would have to sell that

[83:13]and some I've heard stories where the kids and the mother the

[83:17]dad died and the kids and the mother had to sell the

[83:19]house because for example the in-laws asking for their rights and it

[83:26]becomes your right the moment a person passes away the money is

[83:31]transferred the way the way the way the Islamic law has legislated

[83:35]so it's to come and forbid someone and stop someone from taking

[83:47]their he could give it to the wife or he could give

[83:51]it to the to the children during his life out so you

[84:09]could basically say my house I I give it to my wife

[84:14]or I give it to All My Children equally of so one

[84:35]that is I've seen in the Middle East for example in some

[84:39]countries what they do is a TR right basically yeah is a

[84:47]has to stay in this family this has to stay this children

[84:53]so you could do that um they do countri uh before before

[85:05]I answer more questions I do have time right yeah yeah okay

[85:08]uh one thing that I want to mention is uh I mentioned

[85:12]the free will if you want to scan the QR code or

[85:15]go to the uh web page basically it'll prompt you to go

[85:18]through uh a list of questions you're going to answer about your

[85:23]personal information spouse's personal information children's personal information who you want appointed

[85:29]as a guardian as a um personal representative if there's any specific

[85:33]gift that's to be made uh you can do that now this

[85:39]is a what I call a basic will so you can make

[85:40]a basic gift for example let's say to to your kids or

[85:44]or to a friend but this will is going to say the

[85:48]rest goes to my wife and that's because there's legal reasons and

[85:51]I can't I can't advise you all personally on whether you can

[85:56]do something different right now or not um so so I don't

[85:59]give General legal advice to to the whole group that's the that's

[86:02]the best I can do so go through that get that done

[86:06]uh if that's to your to your needs and fulfills your needs

[86:12]that's great uh if not if you want to go further uh

[86:14]also available for that I should mention that this will achieve some

[86:19]important uh objectives which is uh it will again appoint a guardian

[86:25]for your kids in case you you want that in case you

[86:27]have minor kids uh it will assign a person to be your

[86:32]personal representative to standing core and make sure everything is done properly

[86:36]and it will hopefully if there's a chance for family conflict this

[86:40]will reduce that chance so there's important reasons to have that even

[86:44]though it's basic even though it's simple uh but it's a first

[86:46]step so I advise everyone to go through it is this something

[86:50]that you fill out print and then bring it to you so

[86:54]so you fill it out you you fill it out you print

[86:55]it uh and then you can come to my office it's just

[86:58]going to need a uh basically your signature with Witnesses and a

[87:01]notary so you can come to my office you can go to

[87:04]a local bank and you'll be able to finalize it and everything

[87:07]will be set so someone could basically fill out a without lawyer

[87:13]winess yeah yeah you don't necessarily need a lawyer yeah yeah exactly

[87:20]there are forms available online trust is different the trust is different

[87:24]this is a basic simple will if you need legal advice to

[87:29]a group this probably best thing that you I would say yes

[87:59]except that uh it depends on your personal family circumstance and your

[88:03]assets so I I think I may have forgotten to to mention

[88:07]it it was on there but in the state of Michigan if

[88:10]your assets are below 50,000 actually I think I did mention it

[88:14]if your assets are below 50,000 then you might not need to

[88:15]go through probate so you don't necessarily need a trust as long

[88:20]as things are figured out with the family um but yeah if

[88:23]you have assets you you want to make sure that they're passed

[88:28]on correctly then uh yes find an attorney make sure that they

[88:30]do it for you uh the other thing I'll say excuse my

[88:33]uh I'll be able inshallah I'll be able to guide you through

[88:39]the Islamic side as well I have some background in that uh

[88:41]but if there's anything that I I might not be able to

[88:45]answer for you then say is available uh the scholars in we

[88:51]can refer to legally 18 but depends on again family Dynamics who

[89:01]you trust to be the guardian is an 18-year-old going to be

[89:04]qualified to look after a 2-year-old that's that's depends on the person

[89:10]up to your family I think there are some questions over here

[89:13]let's be kind of eal yeah for a will if there's a

[89:22]notary it would be called a self short answer answer is it's

[89:25]best to have to have not necessarily required but best to have

[89:30]a notary for a while uh okay so legally speaking the the

[90:17]house is owned subject to the mortgage or or to the lean

[90:19]so that transfers with the house so the wife would get the

[90:23]house as well as the mortgage on the house right uh so

[90:25]then she'd be liable to pay the mortgage if you can't then

[90:30]potential foreclosure and so on um but I hope that answers your

[90:35]question from a legal perspective then again it would be divided to

[90:47]her hirs right so her husband would be one of her airs

[90:52]but also her parents her her kids so it depends on again

[90:55]family makeup composition oh I'm sorry legally yeah if it's just her

[91:00]name then it would uh go through the probate process to go

[91:04]to her heirs the husband would have what's called a spousal share

[91:08]uh which would be 150,000 plus half potentially if family looks different

[91:12]that might be a different number but very similar but with different

[91:16]numbers than the Islamic s yeah yeah no no they won't be

[91:25]evicted in the meantime but but if God forbid more there are

[91:28]so again less than 50,000 there's a different process if it's even

[91:32]less then depending on what kind of assets there might not be

[91:38]any process uh to go through over 50,000 uh then um there

[91:40]you'd go in front of the the judge you would um basically

[91:45]submit what's called an inventory listing all the property um and then

[91:49]how it's going to be divided right if you have a trust

[91:53]then like I said it's put in the box and the Box

[91:54]transfers automatically so yeah no courts nothing except that if you miss

[92:00]something out of the box again it's a box you put whatever

[92:04]you own in it if you missed putting something in the box

[92:06]then it's going to have to go to court so can you

[92:09]put all my Assets in that box you'd have to name the

[92:14]specific assets what if you're money now but then started that trust

[92:18]a year ago you want everything your account so you you would

[92:22]name the bank account in the name of the trusts so then

[92:27]everything in the bank account would be in the trust um the

[92:30]only thing is the biggest thing I'd say is real property so

[92:36]houses um houses or or real estate if they're not named in

[92:38]the trust then they're going to have to go through the apprpriate

[92:39]process because you you want to be able to sign over the

[92:45]deed to the trust otherwise it's going to have to be uh

[92:49]a judge who signs over the deed to your kids exactly so

[93:00]Powers of Attorney could be useful in that if something happens to

[93:03]you they could act on your behalf Powers of Attorney are no

[93:08]longer valid once a person passes away so they're completely uh invalid

[93:12]if someone passes away so they might not be useful uh in

[93:16]that in some scenarios even in terms of passing away yeah power

[93:24]of attorney is no longer valid once a person passes away um

[93:28]that's where a will comes in that's where trusts come in but

[93:33]Powers of Attorney are only valid as long as the authorizer is

[93:55]so they can be and I would I would suggest that they

[93:58]should be and and I've I've done wills and I've done trust

[94:02]to for some CL there's tabs in it and like one of

[94:04]the first tabs is a statement of faith where it l I'm

[94:08]a Muslim this this is my Creed this is I believe in

[94:12]that Allah is one Prophet Muhammad the Quran the imams and like

[94:16]the S beautifully said we're talking a lot about property but ultimately

[94:20]passing along your values your your religion that's more important so even

[94:25]though there is legal aspect to passing along property that should be

[94:31]a a greater concern for for every believer make sense there there's

[94:45]a big range uh so there's a big range um from I'd

[94:51]say like a a complex will uh where I just sit down

[94:55]and kind of write a more complex will for you something more

[94:57]than just the simple will might might cost you 1,200 bucks me

[95:04]or other attorneys similar range um up to complex tax savings or

[95:09]asset protection strategies those could be over um as attorneys especially as

[95:14]state planning attorneys we usually represent each couple so I would represent

[95:20]you and your wife you and your husband and so I'm both

[95:25]your attorneys and so there isn't I'm not planning for one side

[95:28]against the other or if if the husband tells me something I'm

[95:33]going to share it with the wife so uh one funny thing

[95:37]some people come to me and be they're like I have these

[95:39]assets I want to hide from My Wife and that's not something

[95:42]I can help you with ladyb bird did a ladyb bird did

[95:54]or sometimes it's called the technical term it's called an Enhanced Life

[95:58]Estate Deed so what I do is for example the house is

[95:59]in my name I write a deed and I say this house

[96:03]that's in my name I'm going to keep it in my name

[96:07]but if I pass away it goes on to this individual or

[96:12]or or these individuals right and then that's registered with the county

[96:18]Wayne County or whever it is then once you pass away instead

[96:20]of going to court all your heirs or whoever named in the

[96:25]deed has to do is take the death certificate to the register

[96:28]of deeds and now they own the property so that kind of

[96:33]simplifies uh transfer of real estate there are I'd be able to

[96:39]help with that but I should mention that there are potential complexities

[96:41]with that especially if there are Medicaid considerations then you'd have to

[96:47]see whether Medicaid would want to go after the house or not

[96:51]and that's could cause complications okay I I think that was it

[96:55]uh thank you again thank you all for coming taking two hours

[96:59]of your time to have me put you to sleep with this

[97:04]uh subject uh thanks again thank you everyone for coming I would

[97:14]like to thank uh brother Muhammad this was very helpful and uh

[97:19]it was a lot to absorb but this is I think very

[97:21]helpful overall thank you uh just just a reminder we we're going

[97:25]to do salot right after this uh probably in another two or

[97:28]3 minutes so if you want to stay with pray with us

[97:31]thank you don't yeah so that's no but with life insurance yeah

[98:51]I don't want my to yeah so you just have to play

[98:58]with the fractions and make sure that happens usually I I I

[99:12]I mean I'm here on Friday uh you're Wednesday spe

0 Comments

Up next

Writing an Islamic Will Workshop

Transcript

Up next

Explore more

Please note that if you are under 18, you won't be able to access this site.

Up next

Writing an Islamic Will Workshop

Transcript

Up next

Explore more

Choose a payment method

Language