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00:00:01
E44: When Non-Lawyers Offer Legal Services
8 Plays10 days ago
This week we're tackling the growing trend of non-lawyers offering estate planning services. Yep! You heard that right. Imagine financial advisors and real estate agents crafting Wills and trusts using online platforms... Scary, right?!
We'll unpack why this trend poses serious risks, so tune in to hear our review of one such DIY estate planning platform, where we expose the flaws in their service and highlight why their disclaimers are a big red flag.
Join us every Wednesday for new episodes! Subscribe now to get notified.
Where you can find Burch Law:
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- hello@burch-law.com
- (972) 385-0558
Visit burch-law.com/podcast to reach out!
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Transcript
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of One of Us Knows What They're Talking About and the other one is you. I'm Lori Burch, your host. Join us as we discuss and unpack wills, trusts, estate planning, and probate law in a way that's actually informative, interesting, and well, hopefully entertaining. Because if you don't have a will, the state of Texas has one for you.
00:00:27
Speaker
Let's dive in.
00:00:40
Speaker
I want to talk about something today and it's something that has been bubbling to the surface. And it's, it's similar to a topic that we cover from time to time here. And that's the DIY will sites and, um,
00:00:59
Speaker
doing it on your own, right? Like, so, Will Kitts and all of that. But this is something a little bit different, and I would argue a little bit more egregious, that I've been hearing rumblings of, and now it's just in my face.
00:01:16
Speaker
And that's these, basically these platforms or services that purport to draft trusts, wills, the estate planning documents, but that non-attorneys,
00:01:33
Speaker
would use And I guess some attorneys, but I'd really like to know attorneys who think that this is a good service. um But like financial advisors or real estate agents, where they basically can not only ah you know do financial planning or sell or buy homes, or if they're in the insurance industry, but now, well, hey, why don't i draft wills and trusts for people?
00:02:02
Speaker
And i just... I don't know how that just intuitively doesn't sound like a really bad idea to everybody. And when it comes to financial planners or advisors in particular, I'm most shocked at this because, and I need to start talking to some financial planner friends because I have a hypothesis about it.
00:02:23
Speaker
But through the 20 years of doing this, that's probably the type of professional I've met the most of, financial advisors. so And i i can't think of any off the top of my head that didn't really think it was so important that their clients had a solid estate plan and it was done properly and set up. and they really want to work with attorneys to make sure that they can do that as this kind of symbiotic relationship.
00:02:56
Speaker
Just like i hear me now, everybody would not want to provide financial advice.
00:03:07
Speaker
oh Unless all you want to do is apply for 0% interest to do home improvements. Like if you think that is the way to live your life, perhaps I could guide you on ways to do that. But it's the point is, is that i don't dabble in that space.
00:03:28
Speaker
I don't try to give tax advice. We do what we do and we do it really, really well. So the idea that some of these other professionals, particularly financial advisors, would say, hey, let's cut out the middleman here of an attorney and I'll just start offering ah estate planning services, wills, trust, all of that. And I just, i I need to start asking because we still have really great relationships with the number of amazing financial advisors. And I just think they probably...
00:04:00
Speaker
are like, ah no, that I would never do this. That's terrible. Like, I'm hoping that's the case. I'm hoping that it's not like, oh yeah, let's get on that bandwagon. Nevertheless, I am seeing um some people in the financial industry, but again, and you can, you know, it can be accountants, real estate. I mean, all of it, thinking that they can go through these services to to help people get their estate plans in place.
00:04:27
Speaker
Now I ask you, and i mean, to me, this is the ultimate kind of hearkening the name of our our podcast, which is what?
00:04:38
Speaker
One of us knows what they're talking about. and The other one is you. Right. great I didn't know what was going to happen, but you just did it, Sarah. You took a breath. You leaned in You could have done it, but you hesitated.
00:04:51
Speaker
did. Anyway, so... I'm just going to say it that to anybody who is not a licensed estate planning and probate attorney, you have no business advising people on how to get their wills, trusts, powers of attorney planning in place. You have none.
00:05:16
Speaker
You just don't. I don't care who are unless you also have a law license and you have practice in this area. Because some of my favorite clients are other attorneys because some people be like, oh, they would be the worst clients. No, they're some of the best because they say, i know I don't know this.
00:05:35
Speaker
I do family law. I do criminal law. I do contracts. I do acquisitions and mergers. I do immigration. And they're the easiest to take through this process because they understand how this works. And I cannot even fathom anybody who thinks that they could just like make this a side hustle.
00:05:57
Speaker
Like what the heck? seriously So here's my question. And, and we did not talk about this ahead of time, which is why this is probably a horrible mistake, but to, to Sarah, Sam and Cynthia,
00:06:13
Speaker
What would you think? Like, what what's so bad about it? Like, what what what could possibly go wrong if you've got people who not only aren't licensed attorneys, but they have no experience in doing a estate planning probate, which you have to be licensed attorney to do probate, by the way. um What could be some bad outcomes?
00:06:37
Speaker
The language in the documents could be for, like, a different state. Like, okay, that was good one, Sam. Wow. really Nice. Thank you. you Okay.
00:06:49
Speaker
One of my favorites is um cheap can get real expensive real fast. So if there's if you're trying to save money and you're just saying, oh, well, they'll do it. They know X, Y, and z But let's say they have correct state language, but they don't use a specific word like independent or something.
00:07:07
Speaker
And then it throws everything off whacked where you're dependent on the court. make decisions sarah do you have any contributions no oh come on what do you think could go wrong if you had somebody who didn't know what they were doing or didn't do it very much or ever doing this major planning for you i feel like so much could go wrong but what if like uh
00:07:38
Speaker
Like you're the somebody can't be your your. What am I trying to say? Like you have them designated as your power of attorney and they aren't allowed to, you know, make decisions or whatever, because.
00:07:50
Speaker
Because they're five years old. Yeah. Yeah. how some denies the um or Whatever. We do have that. We do have that where people want to name their minor children to make decisions.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah. um It's a lot of the same problems that we see with with DIY stuff, because essentially that's what you're doing. the The problem with DIY is not that people are morons.
00:08:16
Speaker
I mean, some of them are, but there are also attorneys that are morons. So um it's it's not that. The problem with DIY is these are people who are not licensed or experienced in the legal documents and planning that they are putting together to know what to do and what not to do.
00:08:34
Speaker
And so that's across the board, like all the same problems. can still occur. i actually, the true story, I was sitting, talking to a financial planner, and this was a while ago. This is not one that we do business with, by the way.
00:08:50
Speaker
But sometimes when you meet with them, and you're trying to establish a relationship, they're, they, the ones that try to solicit you at the end, drive me nuts. They're like, oh well, you know, do you have any financial planning? You know, who do you? What are you doing? And I'm just like, you know what, you met You wanted to meet me under the pretext of of having a resource for your clients. And now you're basically soliciting me for your business.
00:09:16
Speaker
And so you all have only seen the jaded Lori. um i was really nice first part of my practice.
00:09:27
Speaker
But I was meeting with a guy and i the jadedness set in. And once again, at the end, what did he do?
00:09:41
Speaker
He hit me up for financial planning. And so I said, I'm good, but hey, do you have a will? And he's like, well, yeah, i actually have one from the internet. I'm like, oh, really? Like from where? And so I started going through this and it was from one one of these sites that that we know.
00:09:59
Speaker
and ah And then I'm like, oh, how is it signed? And he said, oh, well, it's notarized. I'm like, you mean it's not witnessed? he's like, no, no. So just like all the problems that we see with a lot of the DIY stuff is that his will that he has won't even work.
00:10:19
Speaker
It's not even valid. Did he know that? Was that like brand new information? It was. Did he have young kids? He did. And of course, I never heard from him or saw him again because I think he was embarrassed.
00:10:34
Speaker
But that's the point. And so it's not only that, but some of the things that we see is ah one of my favorite examples, i was going to say favorite cases. One of my favorite cases is really terrible. But one of my favorite examples is someone who lost their homestead exemption.
00:10:47
Speaker
And it was a simple thing really where if it's if it's if you're creating a living trust and then to avoid probate court, then deed your home, some type of deed. This was um this isn't advice, this isn't a one size fits all, but in this case deeded home to your trust. And amazingly they were able to get everything signed correctly and and achieve this, but unfortunately they did it correctly.
00:11:12
Speaker
Um, that in this case, the trust actually had the language in it that helped preserve the homestead, but the deed did not. And this is easy. Like this is a no brainer for us. Like we, well, I mean, for me, and then I've trained you all to know, to put this stuff in there, but,
00:11:31
Speaker
they lost their homestead exemption. And if you're, uh, in Texas, the homestead exemption is a huge thing, especially if you've got additional homestead exemptions, like over 65 homestead exemptions. So, um, I mean, that was, that that was a couple of years before they decided to talk to an attorney about it and we fixed it.
00:11:49
Speaker
um, um Does a financial advisor or CPA um or or a real estate agent or insurance professional know what what language preserves the homestead exemption?
00:12:04
Speaker
No. I'm going to guess no. I'd be willing to bet, and this isn't an insult to us, it's a commentary on how opaque the language I'd be willing to bet that most everybody in Birch Law doesn't actually know which clause is really preserving the homestead exemption, with the exception of the attorneys.
00:12:24
Speaker
I would guess that the case managers don't even know. Yeah, maybe Jordan, but no. because it's just called right to use personal or right to use ah residence.
00:12:38
Speaker
But that's what it's getting at. It's preserving the homestead exemption. Yeah, and doubt very few people actually know like the clause in the deeds that has like helps retain taxes and such.
00:12:52
Speaker
So how are they gonna know how to do that? i mean, I have so many questions. but i also don't want to talk to any of them that would have the audacity to think that they should be doing this.
00:13:04
Speaker
And so what what's the only motivation for someone who's a non-estate planning attorney or a non-attorney to to try and sign up with one of these services where they can also provide their clients with estate plans?
00:13:20
Speaker
what What would be their motivation? I feel there's two routes here. first Sarah just did gestures. Do you want to answer the answer, Money.
00:13:32
Speaker
I mean, surely. like i I mean, can see them deluding themselves by saying, oh, well, it's just more efficient because we don't have to get someone else involved. But I think those are just lies that they tell themselves to justify, ooh, I can start making a few thousand dollars more per client.
00:13:50
Speaker
Yeah. where Where were you going to go, with it Cynthia? Was that... Yeah, it was going to just pretty much that. And some, very small, small percentage think that they're actually helping, but misguided. so ah Yeah, i I think you've got to So listen to me, and i' am I'm directing this to any non-attorney but unfortunately seeing more financial advisors doing this.
00:14:21
Speaker
You have no business advising, guiding, and drafting estate planning documents for your clients. And in fact, it is arguably unauthorized practice of law.
00:14:39
Speaker
It's kind of a slippery slope, but it could happen because some of these DIY sites, and I actually looked this up recently, they've been sued in many in many states.
00:14:51
Speaker
It's not a lot of it has been necessarily decided on because they've settled out of court.
00:14:58
Speaker
And... You can try, like, I don't live in the gray. I'm a very black and white person, particularly when it comes to what is ethically, legally, and morally right. But if you like to live in the gray, that's that's fine, I guess, for you.
00:15:14
Speaker
But you are playing with people's lives. You are playing with things that you can't fix when you find out that they're wrong. That's the biggest issue when it comes to wills and trusts being done incorrectly.
00:15:29
Speaker
There's no fixing it. Because when you find out it was done incorrectly, it's when you're reviewing it when the person died. And how dare you have the audacity to play with these families' lives that way.
00:15:42
Speaker
Suck it up, make good relationships. There's great attorneys out there and go through the work and let them make the money on actually producing a result that is going to help people.
00:15:56
Speaker
So just stop, just stop. But since you're not going to stop, um let's talk about one that one particular site that I've seen some financial advisors promote. Oh, by the way, bankers are not exempt from this because we actually have a team member in our office who was outraged.
00:16:17
Speaker
I'm telling you outraged because she got an email from her bank and it's a big one. It's a big name bank who was saying they were partnering with one of these online DIY sites.
00:16:29
Speaker
And I know a fair amount of estate planning and probate attorneys. I don't know any of them that would ever try to partner with but one of these, um which is how some of them try and circumvent this unauthorized practice of law.
00:16:43
Speaker
But just before we completely move on from that thought where it's like, oh, but you can talk to a real lawyer and everything. We had one of those lawyers in our firm. We had a lawyer in our firm who was one of the website's attorney experts that you would call and get advice from.
00:17:04
Speaker
And she told us that she had learned so much just within the few months of working with us that, and she really didn't have any idea what she was telling people. That's scary.
00:17:16
Speaker
That is scary. It is. But they're like, ah you got a lot of great, just read the code and tell them what you want. And I think that's the other other thing. you know If you go to our checklist on our website of how to find a good, if not great ah estate planning firm,
00:17:34
Speaker
One of them is that you should look for a firm that also handles probate, which by the way, nobody but a licensed attorney in Texas can do probate. So you know the answer is none of them can can ah fulfill this requirement.
00:17:48
Speaker
If you don't handle probate, which is the legal court process when somebody passes away, And yes, a will does go through probate. Hopefully your trust doesn't.
00:18:00
Speaker
But again, if you're not getting the advice and how to properly set up your trust, you might just be right back in probate. Do non-estate planning attorneys know how to advise you on these things?
00:18:13
Speaker
I don't know how they would because i see many attorneys that don't even do it correctly. um But if they don't see how these documents get interpreted by courts, then they have no business doing the drafting because then they truly don't know what they're doing.
00:18:30
Speaker
um I would put some attorneys in that category. If you've got attorneys that are just doing the estate planning piece, just doing wills and trusts, but they don't handle the court process of it, they really have no business doing it.
00:18:42
Speaker
Because we've changed how we draft things based on trends and changes on how we see courts interpreting things. um It's why now we just do a ton of AKAs.
00:18:55
Speaker
Because now, it didn't used to be this way, but apparently it is a big mental leap. to assume that Lori L. Birch is the same as Lori Louise Birch.
00:19:06
Speaker
So if I've got my home titled as Lori Louise Birch, but my bank account is Lori L. Birch, you better make sure that you've got AKAs in your documents so that you don't run into any issues.
00:19:19
Speaker
Did I see this 10 years ago? No, I did not see this happening 10 years ago. But it's happening now. And the only way we know that is because we've seen how courts have started to change and interpret um these very issues.
00:19:33
Speaker
Or God forbid somebody gets married and changes their name from what it is listed as in the will. Because no, that's too far of a leap as well and will cause major delays. Like it's really basic everyday things.
00:19:49
Speaker
that are really causing a lot of problems. yeah Very basic things. So we've stumbled upon one of these services lately that we've seen some financial advisors promote.
00:20:01
Speaker
And we're not here to unfairly disparage anybody. We just thought we would do a review in the podcast of this one platform. It's called estate planning platform um that markets itself to financial advisors, attorneys, again, attorneys, you're not doing this, are you?
00:20:22
Speaker
Insurance brokers, accountants, HR and employers, oh, great. And real estate agents about how they can start selling estate plans.
00:20:34
Speaker
um Do we want to say the name of this site? we want to draw attention to it? No, we're not going to say it um But we've looked at it. what What are some takeaways? that you guys see from this?
00:20:46
Speaker
The first thing on here, to start selling estate plans today, it really makes me feel like it's an MLM. it really makes me like, it gives me that like, oh no what are you doing?
00:21:00
Speaker
Why would you do this? So that's already often not a great start, but also just thousands of business nationwide businesses nationwide and it has everything under the sun. and it's like, no.
00:21:13
Speaker
Remember whenever people talk about cure all's cure all's cure nothing. and like, you are working with and for so many places that this is just like, oh no, brought with danger.
00:21:29
Speaker
ah i don't know how I feel about this statement on about us. Let's make death better. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:42
Speaker
Death is hard. Our mission is to make it better. you can't really make it
00:21:55
Speaker
What?
00:21:59
Speaker
Let's make death better? Like, is that really? This is clearly people who have no experience doing this kind of planning or work.
00:22:11
Speaker
Because it's, or maybe they've never had a loved one pass away. Like it's just, there's nothing that's gonna be, like this is insulting, frankly.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah. Talking about like compliant documents in all 50 states, there's um a little graphic that's showing somebody like go through the options of no, do not include a spendthrift provision.
00:22:33
Speaker
Yes, include a special needs trust. Yes, do a joint trust. Oh my gosh, special needs trust. Like, There's little blurbs here. We won't even full. There's types of special needs trusts that we won't even do because this is what you're doing. Is it mechanically easy to possibly draft the legal structure? Potentially, but that's not what you're supposed to be doing.
00:22:57
Speaker
if you Whoever you put in as a trustee, if they do it wrong, they can disqualify somebody who has special needs from the aid that they're receiving. Yeah.
00:23:09
Speaker
Thanks. And like, there's so much of this that no one has any business advising on unless you are an attorney and you are meeting with these people. you They were explaining to you, this is our life situation.
00:23:23
Speaker
This is um our structure of family, pod, whatever. And you are actively giving them advice to them. a lot of this is big no.
00:23:34
Speaker
If you scroll down to the bottom, It says, while Redacted strives to ensure that its automated services are complete, they are meant purely as self-help forms.
00:23:49
Speaker
Self-help forms. I mean, that's what this is then, right?
00:23:54
Speaker
um This company is not a law. Listen to this. It is not a law firm. It does not provide legal advice. That's the what you said before, the self purely as self-help.
00:24:05
Speaker
Yeah. The materials and services are not substitutes for the advice of an attorney. Then what the hell is it? Like, why are you doing what? what What service are you providing with people?
00:24:17
Speaker
Self-help. Because they're boasting to start selling estate plans in less than a week. Average $1,200 per plan sold. And it's like, but...
00:24:30
Speaker
You're telling us here like, oh, it actually costs maybe $150 to produce it, but you can upcharge. Like there's things on here talking about how you can set the custom fees to what you want them to be.
00:24:45
Speaker
her um like right I mean, so that... um like no So this company charges the professional, like a startup fee, and then I guess a ah whatever fees they charge.
00:24:57
Speaker
But then the professional can turn around and sell it. So it's not necessarily money-saving mechanism for the client because the financial, I mean, unless they're just doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, which how much do you value a free trust in a state plan?
00:25:18
Speaker
yeah Just looking at a lot of this, it's very,
00:25:24
Speaker
I don't think that people understand how predatory and deceptive a lot of this is and how it's really scary. So it's talking about funding.
00:25:36
Speaker
but oh wait, here's some funding of a trust. But how much, don't know how much guidance they really give you. Because do you want a POD, a pay on death? Do you want to do a joint trust? Do you want to a transfer of death deed, a ladybird deed? Or do you want to a general warranty deed? If you do a general warranty deed, do you have the homestead protections in there? Or what if the appraisal district records it wrong? Do you know we had someone record a deed to a trust, a living trust as a life estate?
00:26:05
Speaker
Would a financial advisor know how to correct that situation? I'm curious. We've had people lose homestead exemptions, special, like other special exemptions that they need for disability, so many things.
00:26:18
Speaker
And this is all just, none of this is like defining it appropriately or to you. It's just throwing out a lot of terms and it's trying to define them in the most understandable way, but really There's no context.
00:26:36
Speaker
I can understand a word without context. Okay. i finish No, no lie. I don't know if this is me or not, but I'm going, I'm clicking this button that says get started today.
00:26:52
Speaker
and it's giving me a 404, the page you're looking for isn't there. Yeah. I've, I've been there a few times. I've tried to figure out how to get back away from it.
00:27:03
Speaker
The it's it's the yeah URL is is forward slash old home. so they Oh my gosh.
00:27:17
Speaker
Man.
00:27:19
Speaker
Oh, but I can create account for free. and upgrade at any time. Okay, well, know what doing later. I have a newsletter. I kind of want to sign up.
00:27:30
Speaker
There's actually a lot of 404 page not found. Wills made easy. is it? They have a newsletter.
00:27:46
Speaker
Are you getting on the news? Oh, Sarah's like, don't tempt me with a good time. oh my gosh. forty three percent 43%. Many families report conflict due to poor planning and communication.
00:28:01
Speaker
How about 100% the people that use these services? What I don't get is why they have like the different business ones you can do because it's just the same for every single page.
00:28:15
Speaker
It's just saying to start sell estate planning. Yeah. It's literally all that. They have a contact us, but it just opens like a new Outlook window for me to send an email.
00:28:27
Speaker
There's not really... Oh, $1,200 average profit per estate plan sold for current professional customers. Three days, average time to complete onboarding for a new white label account. So it takes them three. It took me three years of law school passing a bar exam, three-day bar exam, by the way. Well, two and a half days, thank you, Texas.
00:28:52
Speaker
um And then but the last 20 years, 15 hours of the continued legal education every year. But hey, you guys, we can onboard you in three days.
00:29:03
Speaker
I found one the co-founders on LinkedIn. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Surprisingly, he's not an attorney. Never went to law school. Hold on. I need to read you
00:29:18
Speaker
ah just a sentence. It's real good. Death gets a bad rap. Writing for it is morbid. Talking about it is taboo. Blank aims to give it a good rebrand.
00:29:28
Speaker
I'm sorry, you're trying to rebrand death? Rebrand death. Rebrand death. Listen, i don't know that this is the way to go. Does death have a brand?
00:29:40
Speaker
ah Well, it depends on which death you're talking about. They also have a blog, Sarah. Remember the TV show Adventures of Grim and Mandy?
00:29:53
Speaker
That's a brand.
00:29:57
Speaker
They even have stuff about grant or retain unit trusts.
00:30:04
Speaker
now it's doing estate tax planning.
00:30:08
Speaker
I'm looking at a lot of this and i'm like there's attorneys who practice certain parts of estate planning who don't use some of these things because they they don't focus on it. They don't specialize in it.
00:30:23
Speaker
And this is one of those things that I like they're trying to make it more size fits all and even more. oh it's super easy and broad when it's not, though.
00:30:34
Speaker
This is something even whenever I used to work for a family law attorney, there are some family law attorneys that are so much more skilled at high net worth clients because they're better able to decipher through all of the assets and properly divide them.
00:30:49
Speaker
and properly award things where they need to go. They're good at making sure that it all goes together. There's some attorneys that are much better at SAPSAR suits affecting parent-child relationships because they know how to navigate that better with courts, with if there's any need of like ah home studies or any facilitation like that.
00:31:12
Speaker
Estate planning is the same. There's different niche parts of out of estate planning. And not everyone needs these big, fancy titled trusts.
00:31:25
Speaker
Everybody needs something. And you just can't just go to a website and figure it out. ah Question. ah Sarah, anywhere on our website, does it say that we're not a law firm and we don't provide legal advice?
00:31:41
Speaker
um No, it does not. Is there anywhere on our website that says that our services are not substitutes for the advice of an attorney?
00:31:51
Speaker
No, because our services are literally the advice of an attorney.
00:31:58
Speaker
You know what else is not what's getting missed here by say is that it's not establishing attorney client relationship. Do you know that there are not the same ethical standards when it comes to these other professionals, financial advisors, realtors, all that? They don't have confidentiality rules.
00:32:18
Speaker
They don't have attorney-client privilege. They don't have an ethical obligation to advise you properly so that if they don't advise you properly, then you can be they can be held liable by you. There's no getting in trouble for this.
00:32:31
Speaker
So if they do something incorrectly, they lose your homestead exemption. Or if they ah tell everybody in town that you've had three women that you've knocked up and have five different kids.
00:32:48
Speaker
Like they could they could share all of that. That you're excluding estranged father. your ah estranged father Like they, all of the things that people tell you in private that we have to guard and keep secret.
00:33:05
Speaker
How many times do we get family members who call us, family members of our clients who call us and want to talk to us about something? And we know that that's not a family member that our client gave us permission to talk to. Can we talk to them?
00:33:18
Speaker
No. Could these people talk to them? I don't see what's stopping them. Why not? Yeah, it's crazy. And another piece that people don't realize with us or any law firm that you go to, the second that you're having a conversation, we have a duty to have confidentiality.
00:33:36
Speaker
We like at that point is whenever whatever you tell us that is in between you, the person who spoke to the firm and the firm and we don't divulge it.
00:33:48
Speaker
That is a really big thing that happens whenever people call us. and Sam's got some. It's secure place. Oh gosh. I'm reading the terms of service. Oh no.
00:34:00
Speaker
While efforts are made to keep the documents and other materials current and up to date, they are not legal advice and are not guaranteed to be correct, complete, or up to date.
00:34:11
Speaker
Oh no. Wait, where's the for this? Wow. um Here, let's... Just send me the link to the to the site, please. Thank you.
00:34:24
Speaker
What if we put that we're not guaranteed to be correct on our website? Yeah, well, we're going to try, though. ah We have concepts of protecting your documents.
00:34:35
Speaker
We have information that um like you, third-party platform providers and redacted, are protected by their privacy policy but not by attorney-client privilege.
00:34:49
Speaker
They mentioned that multiple times. We... We've got a privacy policy. i wouldn't say that we have any sort of like ethical bounds that could get us like licensed or barred to do business in the state, like attorney client privilege, but we have a policy.
00:35:07
Speaker
Yeah. Also, i love that there's one for professional users and all customer and clients. The services provided by third-party platform providers and Redacted are neither legal advice nor the practice of law, and the documents and materials are not customized to your particular needs.
00:35:26
Speaker
like it So look, look, this isn't an authorized practice of law because we're not even practicing law, Yeah.
00:35:40
Speaker
yeah We provide provide online tools and maintain and materials to assist customers, clients, and users with the preparation, execution, and storage of their own legal documents and related information.
00:35:52
Speaker
This is right after this is on a law firm and does not provide any legal advice. They also say that they don't provide any financial advice or tax advice. And if there is any third party that's on their website that ah gives you like an inaccurate or invalid financial insight that they're not responsible for.
00:36:13
Speaker
Disclaimers. Love it. That's wild.
00:36:23
Speaker
i I didn't realize. i Now you've really, this is a treasure trove, the terms of service. Like we can probably go line by line. We've got to wrap this up, but holy schmoly.
00:36:34
Speaker
but
00:36:37
Speaker
Why are there so many different fonts or size of fonts? Hold up but You want to go first or you want me? I don't know what section you're on. I'm under user submitted content. Yes, I'm under user submitted content.
00:36:51
Speaker
Redacted does not own any user submitted content. You shall have the sole responsibility for the accuracy, quality, integrity, legality, be reliability, and appropriateness of old data that you submit.
00:37:05
Speaker
you you' enjoy your legality of the Furthermore, customers, clients, slash any users are fully liable if such user submitted content is infringing upon third party rights, violates any laws, regulations, or violates any third party rights.
00:37:25
Speaker
So, man.
00:37:28
Speaker
man
00:37:31
Speaker
That's crazy. um I just want to add this one. They assume no refunds. refunds. They also said that um they don't accept and so andollicit unsolicited suggestions and or ideas.
00:37:46
Speaker
Oh, can wait wait a minute. Wait a minute. Can we add that to our terms of service? I actually like that. Say that i again, Sam. Okay. I'm just going to say this whole thing because it's kind of crazy. We do not accept unsolicited suggestions and or ideas or inquiries, feedback, suggestions, ideas, criticism, or other information that you provide to us concerning the services that will be be treated as non-proprietary and non-confidential by transmitting or posting any submission.
00:38:18
Speaker
You hereby grant us full ownership of the submission as we as if we had created, developed, and posted the submission for its own purposes, with no obligation to pay you royalties or any other compensation.
00:38:30
Speaker
That's crazy. I don't feel part of that, though. But that's the thing, though. If you come to Birch Law, you're going to get something customized for you by licensed experienced attorneys and you won't be subject to a lot of liability. Like we're not just like, whoop.
00:38:53
Speaker
This is great. Guys.
00:38:57
Speaker
Ooh.
00:39:00
Speaker
o um that i I had no call. You know, we need to do more research before we do this because I really just thought would go to a couple of pages and talk about this. i we're We're probably going to do some more reviews of just pure DIY ah ones. and And let's make sure that we take time to look at the terms of service yeah and other of things because this this one's blowing my mind. And I know that we're not even able to scratch the surface on a lot of this stuff. Wow.
00:39:28
Speaker
Um, but in the interest of time, I think we've made our point. I hope at least to each other. i lets to But ah you know, you need to, you need to isolate that one clip, Sarah, or it's like, but I think we've made our point at least to each other.
00:39:50
Speaker
That sums up a lot of this podcast. um And I don't mean this particular episode. I mean the whole thing. But I didn't, I really thought it would be entertaining for us to go through, um for Sam and Sarah, to also talk about other businesses.
00:40:06
Speaker
Other things that people do that they have no business doing. Do we want to take time to do this? Are we going to do rapid Yeah, we can do rapid fire. Okay. um Do you know who's going to start first?
00:40:17
Speaker
Yes. We do. Okay. Tee it up, though. I just introduced it. But again, for purposes of outtakes, ah introduce this and then go. All right. So here's a list of some things people do that they have no business doing whatsoever.
00:40:33
Speaker
Number one, being president. but Number two, trying to sell me off. Sam, you got to allow for things to hit. You said rapid fire.
00:40:47
Speaker
yeah that's still there are still sentences at the end. i mean, there are still periods at the end of sentences, all right? ok yeah Okay, next. Okay. Number two, trying to sell me a phone or electricity plan in Walmart at 7 p.m. at night on a weekday.
00:41:02
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair. Please leave me
00:41:06
Speaker
See, I'm sad that I can no longer use the excuse, oh, my mom pays for that. Yeah. Because they leave you old so quickly. mean, you still could. and just see that Yeah, but I seem sad as 30-something-year-old, but I'm always for everything.
00:41:21
Speaker
All right. Number three, giving legal advice when you don't have a law degree. I think we nailed that. Yep. Number four is selling extended car warranties.
00:41:34
Speaker
Number five. Oh boy, getting into a relationship with the inmate in prison who's there for crimes we cannot say that you were pen-palling with and then you go to the prison and get married and surprise, you're pregnant.
00:41:49
Speaker
Your toad was great. I have a fun story about that. Yeah, yeah, I would. have fun story. And then lastly, things people do that they don't have any business doing.
00:42:01
Speaker
ah Specific religious groups that we will not name, um to be nice, ah coming to my door on a very rare for me work from home day and then getting me personally lectured by my boss who is here ah because I opened the door to Sid religious groups because I felt bad that they were going door to door and freezing temperatures even though I'm not religious and I live alone by myself as a woman.
00:42:25
Speaker
It's all fair. That's pretty accurate. um Soon a big burly roommate is going to move in with Sam so she will no longer be living alone. Correct. as a Right. Yeah. Wait, what?
00:42:38
Speaker
For all listeners. For all listeners, she does not live alone anymore. Oh, she does not live alone. can't believe Dolly if you want to be... She met someone who was selling an electricity plan at Walmart who also was but in the market for roommate. there Yeah, they... Yeah.
00:42:57
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds about right. He left his birthday. I don't want to assume anything, Sam. He left his um previous significant other because they were quitting their job to become a DJ and he wasn't supportive. And on this podcast, we've said, that's okay.
00:43:15
Speaker
That's right.
00:43:18
Speaker
All right. Well, I think we've proved our point that there's a there's lots of people out there that have no business doing what they're doing. Whether that applies to hosting a podcast or not, we will let our fans decide.
00:43:31
Speaker
yeah Thanks for listening. And just to cover all our bases about what you just heard, I'm sorry and you're welcome.
00:43:42
Speaker
Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode and tell your friends about us. We do webinars and live events. The best way to stay up to date is to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
00:43:56
Speaker
Links are in the show notes. If there's a topic you'd like us to cover, maybe you have a question you'd like us to answer, or maybe you just want to say hi, hit the link in the show notes or go to birch-law.com forward slash podcast and fill out the contact form.
00:44:19
Speaker
Much better. Yeah, I thought that had a lot of energy.