West Newsmagazine 2-7-24

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6 I OPINION I February 7, 2024 WEST NEWSMAGAZINE @WESTNEWSMAG WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM An Unexpected Tenant Law Matters The mother of a friend of ours died several months ago. Her mother had left her a house in Jefferson County by way of a beneficiary deed. A beneficiary deed is a real estate deed you sign during your life, but it isn’t effective until after you die. It’s a way to avoid probate. After the grantor dies, the recipient files an affidavit of death to make a record of the grantor’s death to complete the transfer. We prepared the affidavit, had the client sign it, and then recorded it. Our client also told us that a cousin had moved into the house. I asked why, and she didn’t know. The client talked to the cousin to tell her to leave, but the cousin refused, insisting that the house did not belong to our client’s mother in the first place. The grandparents had originally owned that house, and there were several children. We filed a petition to evict. After the petition was served on the cousin, I showed up in court hoping the defendant would fail to appear, and we would get a default judgement. No such luck. The cousin wanted a trial. She said she was going to hire an attorney (thank goodness). She also said that our client’s mother did not own the house alone but with the other siblings. Very curious. So, I asked my paralegal to see who had owned the house before our client’s mother. The problem was that the record was incomplete. So, we called the client to ask how her mother got title to the house. She said she wasn’t sure, but that the title company had prepared and filed the beneficiary deed. We normally check title before we prepare a beneficiary deed, but not here. The cousin has hired an attorney, and we have a trial date. I am worried that no one probated the grandparents’ estates. If that is the case, all of the children had an interest in the house. That just really complicates things. We’ll have to see where this ends up. I’m afraid we are going to have to do a determination of heirship petition. More court time! Everyone’s experience with estate planning is unique and you don’t always know what to expect. Fred has gathered some of the most interesting examples he knows into an entertaining and educational book. You Can’t Take It With You is available to order online at www.law-matters.net Fred L. Vilbig is an attorney with over 30 years of experience in the areas of wills and trusts, small businesses, and real estate. This column is for informational purposes only. Nothing herein should be treated as legal advice or as creating an attorney-client relationship. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. EDITORIAL Lessons from … a dog-cloning Argentinian? OK, so if you have only read the headlines about new Argentinian president Javier Milei you might come away thinking he is an odd duck. You would be 100%, unequivocally correct. Milei is a self-styled “anarcho-capitalist,” who sports a truly bizarre 1970’s drug kingpin haircut, and regularly communes with his dead pet mastiff. Oh, by the way, he had said mastiff cloned four times over and is routinely photographed with the herd of massive canines. So yes, Milei is pretty weird. He also might be the only guy who can save Argentina and maybe, just maybe, the entire Western world. The lessons he is teaching are stark, scary and hugely important. With that in mind, we are going to share some excerpts of the speech he gave at the World Economic Forum in Davos recently. But before that, let’s quickly recount where Argentina was when Milei took over a few months ago. Inflation stood at 143% and the country owed some $43 billion in unpaid import bills. Forty percent of the country lived in poverty. The Argentine peso had lost 90% of its value. Despite all that, Milei had the courage to stand in front of the world’s wealthiest people and say things like: • Today I’m here to tell you that the Western world is in danger. And it is in danger because those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism and thereby to poverty. • When you look at per capita GDP since the year 1800 until today, what you will see is that after the Industrial Revolution, global per capita GDP multiplied by over 15 times, which meant a boom in growth that lifted 90% of the global population out of poverty. • Far from being the cause of our problems, free trade capitalism as an economic system is the only instrument we have to end hunger, poverty and extreme poverty across our planet. • Those who promote social justice start with the idea that the whole economy is a pie that can be shared differently. But that pie is not a given. • But if the state punishes capitalists when they’re successful and gets in the way of the discovery process, they will destroy their incentives, and the consequence is that they will produce less. The pie will be smaller, and this will harm society as a whole. • Countries that have more freedom are 12 times richer than those that are repressed. The lowest percentile in free countries is better off than 90% of the population in repressed countries. Poverty is 25 times lower and extreme poverty is 50 times lower. And citizens in free countries live 25% longer than citizens in repressed countries. • It should never be forgotten that socialism is always and everywhere an impoverishing phenomenon that has failed in all countries where it’s been tried out. It’s been a failure economically, socially, culturally and it also murdered over 100 million human beings. • Do not be intimidated by the political caste or by parasites who live off the state. Do not surrender to a political class that only wants to stay in power and retain its privileges. You are social benefactors. You are heroes. You are the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we’ve ever seen. Powerful words from a man who speaks to his deceased pet. The full speech is available at weforum.org, search “davos 2024 milei.” Follow us on (636) 537-7884 | fvilbig@lawmatters.llc | www.lawmatters.llc
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Page 8 and 9: 8 I NEWS I February 7, 2024 WEST NE
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Page 20 and 21: 20 I SCHOOLS I February 7, 2024 WES
Page 22 and 23: 22 I WOMEN IN BUSINESS I WOMEN IN B
Page 24 and 25: Coldwell Banker Realty - Gundaker T
Page 26 and 27: Celebrating WOMEN www.westcountycha
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Page 30 and 31: CELEBRATING WOMEN in Wildwood April
Page 32 and 33: 32 I SPORTS I February 7, 2024 WEST
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West Newsmagazine 2-7-24

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