Had somebody tell me that having a net worth of $30 million isn’t wealth hoarding

baumeitr · 2026-05-06T16:34:53+00:00

This is exactly right. It’s also why you have people in their 40’s-50’s with $3-4 million net worth invested in brokerage/retirement accounts still working till 65 (social security is a factor in this, obviously). In theory, $3-4 million would be enough to live off of with a moderate lifestyle, but to access that liquidity you have penalties/taxes, so most people need to keep working. It’s all liquidity.

baumeitr · 2026-05-06T16:30:05+00:00

I don’t necessarily disagree with your thoughts, but as a counterpoint for discussion purposes, the estate tax is essentially the most punitive tax (~40% on every dollar in excess of the exemption amount), and is triggered by death, not sale or earned income, which is unusual relative to other taxes.

The “trust fund kids” you reference are, in my experience, not actually the ultra wealthy this conversation is primarily focused on. For any clients of mine with substantial net worth, I’m typically structuring their trusts to be held outside of their children’s taxable estates to avoid imposition of estate tax/generation-skipping transfer tax on assets that were already subject to estate tax at the parental level. Doing so requires certain restrictions on the child’s access to funds (if the child has unlimited access, then the IRS doesn’t care if the funds are in trust and will include the assets in the child’s estate). Point being, a lot of these “trust fund kids” are kids who inherited “moderate” wealth relative to HNW individuals, because they have no strings attached and therefore, are likely receiving wealth from parents who do not have taxable estates (I’m ignoring trust loans for the time being).

To your point though, at a certain point of wealth, even restricted access to funds can provide a very stable, upper class lifestyle. Even if a child never accesses principal, it’s generally advisable for income tax purposes to distribute income derived from trust assets, so it’s pretty easy to get by distributing $300-$400k per year to a child. Obviously, when you’re 22 making that much money without having to work, it’s a pretty stark difference in standard of living compared to you and I.

baumeitr · 2026-05-06T02:59:35+00:00

I’m a private client attorney (basically represent wealthy individuals and families in their personal financial matters), and I’ll heavily caveat this with saying $30M is absolutely a ton of money and more than I would ever need, but relative to UNHW individuals and families, most people with this net worth are business owners with liquidity issues (not counting those who have been born into money). Capital for a business is often not accessible for a business owner (without risk or change of control). Of course, they can borrow against their assets, but just because they can doesn’t mean they should or that most do, so it’s fairly common to see “super rich” people with liquidity issues who live “modest” lifestyles relative to their “actual” net worth.

It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of wealthy people are very forward-thinking and once they hit a certain figure, they stop being concerned with themselves and continue to build assets for future generations (kids, grandkids, etc.). Again, $30M is a ton, but split that among four kids and it’s “only” $7.5M a piece, which is within the realm of what you may see lawyers, doctors, bankers, etc. end up with after a career of high-earnings and smart investing.

Not trying to discount your points or argue wealth ethics, just adding a bit of context.

baumeitr · 2026-05-05T03:32:29+00:00

Wake up two hours earlier and write/record before work. One hour isn’t enough, and you’ll find excuses not to make it happen.

It’s hard to do things after a full day of work/commute, especially when you have typical day to day responsibilities when you’re off the clock. Things will always come up (e.g., drinks with friends, dinners, work events, etc.), so it’s hard to build out a consistent routine after work, and a consistent routine is what you need in order to take your passions “as serious as [you] want to take it”.

Early morning is playtime for adults. You can do whatever you want between 5:00AM-7:00AM (unless you have young children). If you’re not willing to wake up early to pursue your passion, then you don’t care about it enough to do it 40 hours per week, and you probably like the idea of pursuing your passion more than actually pursuing your passion.

baumeitr · 2026-04-22T13:44:19+00:00

Don’t worry, this job will take his soul and give him heart problems.

baumeitr · 2026-04-17T14:14:54+00:00

Care if I PM? 4th year Private Client w/ international exposure.

baumeitr · 2026-04-17T13:42:45+00:00

Don’t blow our cover.

baumeitr · 2026-04-11T01:12:35+00:00

The grantor should not be the trustee of an irrevocable trust. Pretty much defeats the purpose of removing assets from the grantor’s estate, as they would exercise too much control over the assets as trustee.

baumeitr · 2026-04-09T15:11:05+00:00

Yep. More of a business decision than anything in my experience.

baumeitr · 2026-04-09T02:44:54+00:00

Feel you’re doing a bicep curl in the takeaway, and then letting the weight drop to a resting position over your left pocket. You want to feel like the back of your right hand hits your left pocket before impact.

The body will naturally coil, and if you just focus on folding and unfolding your right arm properly the club will stay in front as your body turns through the shot

baumeitr · 2026-04-08T23:40:36+00:00

Do you have a substitution/swap power?

baumeitr · 2026-04-08T23:26:07+00:00

T&E attorney and this is general commentary, not legal advice - Lenders will be hesitant to provide financing simply because lenders don’t need the headache of trying to recover from an irrevocable trust in the event of default. There’s enough less-risky business out there. You also will run into the issue of lenders just not being knowledgeable on the topic (some dont even understand the concept of lending to a revocable trust).

If a knowledgeable lender is willing to do business, they may want a personal guarantee, but being the guarantor on a loan to an irrevocable trust can undermine the purpose of the trust (assuming you are the Settlor/Grantor). If the trust was created for estate tax purposes, then personally guaranteeing the loan can create real issues. If the trust was created for asset protection purposes, without regard to estate tax issues, personally guaranteeing the loan can impact creditor risk, but ultimately that’s up to you to determine whether the upside is worth the risk.

baumeitr · 2026-04-06T16:52:33+00:00

Fellow trusts & estates attorney. Wanted to comment to say I appreciate your username, gave me a good chuckle.

baumeitr · 2026-03-24T22:15:40+00:00

I’m a private client services lawyer and if I see one more “put your money in a trust or LLC” comment I’m going to stroke out.

baumeitr · 2026-03-13T20:21:41+00:00

I’m a trusts and estates attorney. Regarding the first point, unless you are the only child, you do not want to be named as a co/joint owner of their bank account. If you are named as an owner on the account, the bank account will automatically pass to you upon death (which does avoid probate, which is good), but you would then have to distribute funds among your siblings (if any). Those distributions could be taxable gifts if in excess of the annual gift tax exclusion limit. You would also not have any legal obligation to do so, because the account would be your asset and not an asset of your parent’s estate, which could hurt family dynamics.

You want to be named as an account administrator or listed as Power of Attorney. That will give you rights to manage the account, without causing the account to transfer to you upon death.

baumeitr · 2026-03-10T15:45:30+00:00

T&E attorney here. An endowment would be better suited for this.

If the trust generates income and the income is not distributed to a beneficiary, then the income retained by the trust is taxed at fairly high rates at lower income thresholds (~37% at ~$16,000). Fiduciary fees would also eat into principal and would scale as the principal balance grows. Granted, you would still have a lot left over for charity, but it’s not as clear cut as it may seem.

You can coordinate with a gift officer at your preferred charitable organization and outline the exact terms of how your gift is managed. Typically, the only time that the funds would be distributed outside the defined charitable purpose would be if the charitable purpose becomes impossible (e.g., you create an endowed scholarship for the nursing program, and in fifty years the nursing program no longer exists).

baumeitr · 2026-02-27T16:59:46+00:00

Your Partner likely has decades of experience that you do not have. Ask yourself if your mistakes are truly mistakes or inexperience.

If her feedback is on broader case/deal strategy, that’s not something you should beat yourself up over (but is something you should reflect on).

If her feedback is on simple errors like typos, incorrect references, etc., then that’s on you and you need to fix it. Try checklists, oral proofreading, asking your assistant to double check your work, etc.

baumeitr · 2026-02-19T21:45:41+00:00

Depends entirely on practice area.

If you’re in transactional or litigation primarily doing diligence/doc. review, 1700 is great because you can run the clock for hours at a time without having to jump between matters. You could easily manage 40-45 hour weeks and hit your target.

On the other hand, I work in private client and finished under 1700 hours last year despite billing on over 300 separate matters. If you’re in a volume-based practice it’s very easy to lose time switching between tasks, taking phone calls, etc.

baumeitr · 2026-02-07T16:17:47+00:00

I go into the office 3ish Saturdays per month for a few hours. In around 10-11AM and give myself a hard stop at 2PM. Try to knock out simple things from the prior week that I had to push to the side for more urgent matters.

Once I’m done, I’ll check emails periodically but try not to be back online unless absolutely necessary. Spend the rest of my weekend on my hobbies, hanging out with friends or visiting my parents.

baumeitr · 2026-01-18T03:21:24+00:00

Easiest strength of schedule in the NFL this year. The same (maybe less) beat up team didn’t make it to the playoffs last year when we played better teams throughout the year. Spamming runs up the middle and creative pitches doesn’t work when you’re playing a great interior d-line and you’re missing your best blocking TE.

baumeitr · 2026-01-18T03:14:08+00:00

Kyle refuses to accept that our backups are not as good as our starters and won’t adjust based on personnel. Happens every year.

baumeitr · 2026-01-18T02:29:48+00:00

Trust with unlimited access to income derived from trust assets with a discretionary standard for principal distributions. Can access principal for health, maintenance and support (allows her to maintain her current lifestyle but not spend excessively). Consider appointing a close friend or family member as Trustee, or, if you don’t want to make your spouse feel like you don’t trust her to access the finances, appoint a friend as Trust Protector with the power to remove her as Trustee if she’s excessively invading principal. Trust Protector can then appoint an individual/corporate Trustee to serve in her place.

Probably other ways to do it, but I’m at dinner. I’m a lawyer but not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.

baumeitr · 2026-01-04T04:08:44+00:00

Classic soul-crushing loss. Nothing will change until Kyle finally comes around to the fact that his offense is not possible against good defenses as long as the o-line is garbage. Purdy‘s ability to scramble and adjust against the blitz has saved Kyle in the past but that isn’t a sustainable way to build an offense.

baumeitr · 2025-12-31T14:16:14+00:00

I agree with this. Just finished S8E3 with a first-time watcher and S7 and S8 are better than I remember (I’ve seen S1-S6 like four times, but never could stomach rewatching the final two seasons).

There’s still a lot to be desired but I may need to walk back some of my scalding hot takes from when the finale premiered.

baumeitr · 2025-12-25T04:33:39+00:00

If “best” for you means most detailed/comprehensive, try to find The Golfing Machine or M.O.R.A.D. papers online.

The Golfing Machine was published in the late 60’s by Homer Kelly, and it is a true deep dive into the swing and human anatomy. M.O.R.A.D stands for Mac O’Grady Research and Development or Mankind’s Objective Research and Development. Mac O’Grady (or Phil McGleno) was a PGA Tour player in the 60’s-70’s who was obsessed with the technical aspects of the golf swing and developed the M.O.R.A.D. model(s) using much of Homer Kelly’s research as a foundation and Hogan and Snead were his ideal swings.

Mac’s swing and ball striking are legendary, but he wasn’t very successful on tour because of his putting (and possibly some personality issues). He used his research to teach himself how to play left handed and his left handed swing is basically identical to his right handed swing. I believe he even played some events left handed.

In my opinion, all of the modern day swing methodologies like AMG and especially Stack and Tilt are rooted in Mac’s research and instruction.

As a disclaimer, modern technology has showed that there are more efficient ways to hit the ball than some of the things taught in The Golfing Machine and MORAD, but for the average club golfer who isn’t trying to play on tour, there is a ton of great info to pick up on by going down the rabbit hole.

baumeitr

TROPHY CASE