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I specifically focus on teaching people in business
and in their family law matters or other matters
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Okay. So let's talk about this Gate’s divorce.
So I saw an article
and it was talking about Bill and Melinda’s divorce.
and this unusual thing that
one of the lawyers put into the petition
and it sent off some red flags
so I wanted to just break it down for you.
I love to use these things that are in the news
as they're interesting to talk about
and it’s also an opportunity
to learn about what's going on in,
maybe in your life. So… you know,
help you come up
with ways that you can actually think outside the box
and start creating your strategy and your
leverage and all that good stuff.
All right, so let's talk about Bill and Melinda.
So they have three children
and they have been pretty vocal. At least bill has been pretty vocal about the fact that
his children are not going to inherit billions of dollars.
He has said that for a while now.
They have three children who are,
let's see, Jennifer who's 25, Rory,
who's 21 and Phoebe who's 18
and apparently
they're only going to be getting only 10 million each
only, because it's really kind of pocket-lint
for anybody else,
it's like that for anybody else?
It's like finding change in their sofa cushion.
Since they're reportedly worth way over a hundred billion.
I don't know exactly how much but it's a lot.
So he proudly announced to the world that
the kids are only going to get 10 million
each and the rest is going to be left to charity.
Apparently, he said it in a 2016 interview
on a British morning show
That his children were not only okay with that,
but they were proud of him for it.
This is what he said.
He said, our kids will receive a great education
and some money, so that they will never be poorly off but still go out and have their own career.
Then he went on to say
it's not a favor to kids to have them inherit
huge sums of wealth. It distorts everything
and anything they might do
and he wants them to create their own path.
But the divorce might actually change that
because once Melinda
gets her share of the piece of the pie
and I've heard rumors that there's no prenup.
and by the way
I have another whole video breaking down on
what she will get.
You should definitely check that out as well
But anyway,
the divorce might possibly change that
because Melinda might have the opportunity
or she will have the opportunity
to create her own new estate plan.
So here's the unusual thing that's in their petition,
the petition which, is the document that is filed with the court that opens the divorce case
and gets everything going.
That's the document that you have to put
generalities, in big, broad brushstrokes
of things that you want in there.
So you don't specifically put: “I want this coffee cup”
but you would say: “your honor
or judge, court… divide the assets accordingly
divide them according to equitable distribution
or community property”
whatever the laws are in your particular area.
So you’re just going to say: “divide them equitably”
or whatever the language is.
So you're not going to break down each particular thing,
but you're going to address the fact that there are assets that need to be divided
and how you want to divide them
So you wouldn't say:
“I want $5 a month for alimony”
you were just specifically asked,
you would just, in general, say, “I want alimony”
and if there's different types of alimony
in your particular area,
you might reference each one of those.
So I'm telling you all of this
because it’s a document that
you ask for things from the court
and in general, the judge
or the court can't give you relief that you haven't specifically asked for in a pleading.
So in general
you can't just go into court
and start asking for alimony,
if you didn't ask for it in your pleadings, okay?
Sometimes there's exceptions to these things,
but I'm just giving you generalities here
and obviously
you have to consult with an attorney
in your particular State,
country or jurisdiction to get the laws
that are specific to you
and legal advice that's specific to you.
But here's the crazy thing.
So, her divorce petition
actually mentions America's top
trust and estate attorneys
and they're actually named in the petition
for dissolution of marriage
which is highly unusual.
You don't normally name
estate planning attorneys in a divorce petition like that.
But there's a number of reasons that
that could be happening
one is that, it could be that there was an irrevocable trust.
So it could be that,
maybe they put assets into an irrevocable trust.
She now wants to break the trust
and pull those assets back out
so that she can get access to them.
So I’ve had to engage an
estate planning attorney myself
in order to do that
and especially if one person
put the assets into an irrevocable trust
without the other person's permission,
then you even have more grounds to
potentially break that trust.
It's really hard to break
an irrevocable trust though, by the way.
But that's one reason.
It could just be that she's thinking,
she wants to change her estate plan
and she maybe wants to change it up
so that she gets more of the assets
and she may end up
down the road then
being able to give the children more
than what Bill had very proudly
told everybody that he was giving.
So, the point that I want to make though
is that back to what I was saying before
Is that:
I kind of called the petition sort of the
“kitchen sink”
because you want to make sure you ask
for everything that you might possibly want,
you can go back and amend your petition later.
But usually,
once the other person has answered your petition,
then you have to ask the court
for permission to amend your petition
and sometimes if you're too close to trial or too close to the end of the case,
or it's gone on too long or whatever
the judge will say,
“no, you're not allowed to add a claim”
but sometimes you can.
If there's anything that
you think that you might want
you generally put it in the petition
just so you cover your bases.
So, for example, if you don't want alimony
but you think maybe you might or maybe it'll end up being good leverage,
you want to make sure that you put that in there,
right from the get-go.
Sometimes people put in tort claims.
Sometimes they put in claims
to try to have the house sold.
Things like that.
So you are putting everything in there
that you might possibly want
because it’s a little bit harder to go back
and ask for something down the road.
If you get too far down the road
and you haven't asked for something that you end up deciding that you want.
So, it's a little bit unusual
to have estate planning attorneys,
be referenced in a petition,
but there are probably really good reasons for it
and if you are going to go
for what you want
I want you to put in the comments,
“I'm going for it”
and this is just like,
even for life, you know.
It doesn't even have to be a petition.
If you're going for it in your life
I want you to put
“I'm going for it”
and if you're getting ready to
negotiate with anyone,
make sure that you grab my free
Crush My Negotiation Prep Worksheet at
https://www.rebeccazung.com/worksheet
and join my free private Facebook group
Narcissist Negotiators with Rebecca Zung
and If you like this video,
make sure you like it
and you share it, and drop me that comment,
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and hit that notification bell.
I am Rebecca Zung.
I'm so glad that you stopped by today and I will see you in the next video.