212: Childfree Wealth, Part 2: Pet Trusts, POAs, and Who Decides When You Can't?
Release Date: 09/29/2026
213: Choice in Aging: How Medi-Cal Programs Help Seniors Age in Place
Absolute Trust Talk
What if staying home as you age cost a fraction of what a nursing facility does? In California, a shared room in a skilled nursing facility averages about $130,000 a year. Choice in Aging's Medi-Cal waiver program works with about $6,000 per person per year to help people remain in their own homes, with the care, connection, and dignity they want. This week, Kirsten Howe sits down with Debbie Toth, President and CEO of Choice in Aging, a 77-year-old Bay Area nonprofit that helps older adults and people with disabilities live and age in community. Debbie explains how the Multipurpose Senior...
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212: Childfree Wealth, Part 2: Pet Trusts, POAs, and Who Decides When You Can't?
Absolute Trust Talk
Most estate planning conversations start with who gets what. For childfree adults, a harder question comes first: who makes decisions for you when you can't make them yourself? In Part 2 of her conversation with Scott Barnes, CFP®, CLTC, Director of Financial Planning at Childfree Wealth, host Kirsten Howe moves from financial planning to the documents themselves — and to the people named inside them. Scott and Kirsten dive in where many childfree clients start: pets, and why a line in a will leaving an animal and $10,000 to a friend doesn't do what people assume it does. From there, they...
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211: Childfree Wealth: Who's Your Long-Term Care Plan If You Don't Have Kids?211:
Absolute Trust Talk
Most people already have a long-term care plan. Yet they have never written it down, never funded it, and in many cases never said it out loud — it is simply the assumption that a son or daughter will step in when the time comes. Roughly 25% of U.S. adults do not have that assumption available to them. In Part 1 of her conversation with Scott Barnes, CFP®, CLTC, Director of Financial Planning at Childfree Wealth, host Kirsten Howe looks at what financial planning has to account for when there is no built-in safety net. Scott explains why disability and long-term care coverage move to the...
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210: Aging in Place, Part 2: How JoeyCo Home Sharing Actually Works
Absolute Trust Talk
Once a student is living in your spare room and working for your household, the questions get practical fast. Can they have a friend over? What did the screening actually check? And if it stops working, how does it end? In Part 2 of her conversation with JoeyCo founder Alison Donnally, host Kirsten Howe asks all of them — and gets straight answers, including who tends to apply for these arrangements and, just as usefully, who doesn't. Every JoeyCo match rests on two agreements that reference each other — a lodging agreement and a household employment agreement — and Alison explains why,...
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209: Aging in Place: How JoeyCo Matches Older Adults with Student Housemates
Absolute Trust Talk
What if the answer to aging well at home isn't an expensive caregiver --- but a college student in the spare bedroom? In this episode, host Kirsten Howe sits down with Alison Donnally, founder of JoeyCo and a healthcare innovation veteran of Amazon Care and Kaiser Permanente. After three of her own family members experienced major health events while aging alone, Alison asked a question that wouldn't let go: if the au pair system gives American families relatively affordable live-in childcare, why isn't there an equivalent for older adults? Her answer is JoeyCo, which matches older adult...
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208: Downsizing on Your Terms, Part 2: Buy First, Sell Later
Absolute Trust Talk
In Part 1, host Kirsten Howe and real estate agent Nathan Jines of Jines Real Estate Group talked about why more people 55 and up are choosing to relocate --- and how to make that choice on your own terms. Now, in Part 2, they get into the how. Nathan's first piece of advice flips conventional wisdom on its head: if you're financially able, buy your next home first, start living your new life, and let a full-service team handle the sale behind you --- decluttering, staging, repairs, negotiations, all of it, even from across the country. He shares how bridge lenders make buying first possible,...
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207: Downsizing on Your Terms: Moving After 55
Absolute Trust Talk
When most of us picture an older adult moving out of a long-time home, we imagine a crisis — declining health, a loss of independence, a move someone else decided was necessary. This episode is about the opposite. Host Kirsten Howe welcomes back real estate agent Nathan Jines of Jines Real Estate Group to talk about homeowners 55 and up who are choosing to relocate — not because they have to, but because they want to. Nathan explains why this is his favorite group to work with, and why the most important question isn’t “where should I go?” but “what do I want this next phase of my...
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206: Estate Planning Misses: The Mess You Leave Behind
Absolute Trust Talk
In this episode of Absolute Trust Talk, managing attorney Kirsten Howe shares an estate planning miss that has nothing to do with your documents — the literal, physical mess we tend to leave behind. Drawing on years of trust administration experience, Kirsten explains what really happens when one child is named trustee and inherits the job of emptying a home filled with decades of belongings: stalled home sales, frustrated siblings, and inheritances delayed by months. She also shares the story of a daughter trustee who nearly hauled a box of "trash" to the dumpster, only to find $2,500 in...
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205: Estate Planning Misses: How to Document a Loan or Gift to Your Child
Absolute Trust Talk
In this episode of Absolute Trust Talk, managing attorney Kirsten Howe tackles a quietly common source of family conflict: parents giving money to their adult children without documenting whether it's a gift or a loan. Drawing on years of trust administration experience, Kirsten shares a real family story where canceled checks sparked a bitter dispute among siblings after their parents passed, and she walks through the simple documentation steps that could have prevented it. She also addresses a second pitfall most families overlook: when a loan is properly documented up front but the...
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204: Estate Planning Misses: Addressing Separate Property in a Joint Trust
Absolute Trust Talk
In this episode of Absolute Trust Talk, managing attorney Kirsten Howe tackles one of the most common — and commonly overlooked — estate planning scenarios: what happens when one spouse inherits money, assets, or real estate after a joint trust is already in place. Kirsten breaks down the difference between separate and community property in California, explains why adding inherited assets to a joint trust doesn’t change their character but does affect who controls them, and walks through the two practical solutions her firm recommends. She also reveals a lesser-known complication: that...
info_outlineMost estate planning conversations start with who gets what. For childfree adults, a harder question comes first: who makes decisions for you when you can't make them yourself? In Part 2 of her conversation with Scott Barnes, CFP®, CLTC, Director of Financial Planning at Childfree Wealth, host Kirsten Howe moves from financial planning to the documents themselves — and to the people named inside them.
Scott and Kirsten dive in where many childfree clients start: pets, and why a line in a will leaving an animal and $10,000 to a friend doesn't do what people assume it does. From there, they get into the fiduciary gap — siblings who are the same age as you are, nieces and nephews who may also be beneficiaries, and the reality that naming someone isn't the same as that person being able and willing to do the work. Scott also walks through Childfree Trust, the sister company to Childfree Wealth, which provides medical power of attorney services in all 50 states and D.C., and the care documents that tell a fiduciary which hospital you'd prefer, who your veterinarian is, and who walks the dog.
Time-stamped Show Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:40 Who Scott's clients are: adults who, by choice or by circumstance, will not be having children — and why that changes the estate plan.
1:20 Pets first. Clients with children assume a son or daughter will take the animals; childfree clients have no built-in pet sitter.
2:05 Scott: for a lot of childfree clients, the pets are the reason they do their estate planning at all.
2:50 Why leaving a pet and $10,000 to a friend in a will doesn't protect the animal — the money becomes that person's outright.
3:35 Nothing in a will stops that person from keeping the money and surrendering the pet to a shelter.
4:15 Scott's fix is a pet trust: a trust is about control, and control is what turns your intention into a guarantee.
5:00 Childfree clients often don't have obvious beneficiaries either — listen in as Kirsten weighs in on who struggles most with that list.
5:45 The question Scott hears more often than “who inherits” is: who will make decisions for me when I can't?
6:25 Why Scott pushes the medical and financial powers of attorney ahead of the will and the trust — incapacity is what actually happens to clients.
7:10 Childfree Trust, the sister company to Childfree Wealth, was built for people who have no one to name.
7:55 It operates in all 50 states and D.C., and it will serve as a client's medical power of attorney.
8:40 Most trust companies handle everything else but decline the medical POA role.
9:20 The exceptions: California's licensed professional fiduciaries, Arizona's fiduciary program, and a similar option in Washington.
10:00 Trust companies often won't take on the financial or legal power of attorney either.
10:40 Most people named in these roles don't actually know what the job requires of them.
11:20 The niece or nephew you name as your agent may also be your beneficiary — two interests that can pull in different directions.
12:00 Unless someone files a complaint, there is no practical way to enforce an agent's duty.
12:40 What a professional, objective fiduciary adds: your explicit written directions, followed.
13:20 Scott's caveat — naming a child isn't a guarantee either, because abuse of these powers happens in families too.
14:00 The blind spot in naming a sibling or a close friend: they're your contemporaries.
14:40 They won't be much help when you're 85 in a hospital bed, and Kirsten's suggestion to make a few young friends.
15:25 Naming someone isn't enough. They have to be willing to step up and get to work.
16:05 Scott served as financial power of attorney for his parents and grandparents, and deliberately declined the medical role.
16:50 Have the conversation while you can, so the person you named knows your wishes before the emergency.
17:30 What Childfree Trust clients receive: a will, medical and financial powers of attorney, and a revocable living trust.
18:10 Care documents: resuscitation preferences, a preferred CCRC or assisted living community, and which hospital to be moved to.
18:55 The pet section of the care documents — veterinarian, boarding, dog walker, cat sitter.
19:35 If a client never fills them out, the trust company hires care managers in the client's local community instead.
20:10 Why so many parents in their 70s and 80s keep their plans close to the vest, and what that costs the family in an emergency.
20:50 Knowing what the job involves makes it easier to accept, and why pre-planning a funeral is a gift to whoever survives you.
21:30 In the works, around the beginning of the year: the same service for people who do have adult children, including estranged ones.
22:10 Where to find Childfree Wealth, Childfree Trust, and Childfree Insights.
Take the Next Step in Your Estate Planning Journey
If this episode resonated with you, we'd love to help you with your own estate planning needs in California. Schedule a complimentary discovery call with our team at Absolute Trust Counsel. During this no-obligation conversation, we'll:
- Learn about your unique situation and goals
- Answer questions about our services
- Determine if we're the right fit to work together
Visit https://absolutetrustcounsel.com/scheduling/ or call 925-943-2740 to schedule your free discovery call today.
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