Episode 86: Navigating Cross-Border Estate Planning with Lars Kushner: Insights for Canadians in the U.S.

Evelyn Ackah (0:00):

Good day, everyone. It's Evelyn Ackah from the Ask Canada Immigration Law Firm podcast, and I have the pleasure today of welcoming my new friend, Lars Kushner, to our podcast. Welcome, Lars.

Lars Kushner (0:12):

Hi, Evelyn. Thanks so much for having me on the podcast today.

Evelyn Ackah (0:15):

Thanks so much. I want to give people a little bit of information about you, so I'm going to share your background a little. Lars is the founder and owner of Kushner Legal Corporation, based in California. He has also been recognized as a lawyer of distinction. He is a well-established attorney and a member of the California State Bar, and he brings extensive legal experience in the area of estate planning and estate administration. His distinguished career includes starting a law firm in Vancouver, our mutual hometown in British Columbia, and then he also now started his own law firm in California. So, Lars, I want to talk to you about all the things, and specifically because we're talking about immigration and estate planning and cross-border activity. What led you to become an immigrant yourself? Let's start there.

Lars Kushner (1:01):

It's a great question. I have always wanted to be a lawyer, and it's not something that traditionally you can cross borders with. So, I had to work hard on thinking about that. But I always wanted to live in a warm climate. A little bit about my background is I kind of lived all over Canada. I was born in Vancouver. I lived in Edmonton, and then my parents decided we should move somewhere colder, and we moved to Whitehorse.

Evelyn Ackah (1:27):

Oh my God.

Lars Kushner (1:28):

And then down to Victoria. After that, I realized I was ready for a sunnier climate. So my best friend from Canada moved to California. I came down here a few times. I realized it was a place I really wanted to be, and I began the process of trying to get certified. I knew, you know, it's a close enough flight to Vancouver. I would still be able to maintain my professional relationships up there, and I've, of course, maintained my life, seen some British Columbia as well.

Evelyn Ackah (1:53):

That's so great. That is so cool. That's so hard. I mean, I think about doing the California bar, and I'm like, "Uh."

Lars Kushner (2:00):

Yeah, it was an undertaking. My percentage of passing, I think, was like well below or should have been well below 30%, or something like that, as a foreign-educated non-American student, but I'm glad it's behind me, and I'm glad I don't have to do it again.

Evelyn Ackah (2:15):

I'm glad too. That is so fabulous. So where in California do you live and practice?

Lars Kushner (2:21):

So I live in West Hollywood.

Evelyn Ackah (2:23):

Good.

Lars Kushner (2:23):

And my practice is just about two miles down the road in Beverly Hills. Now, in LA time, that can take anywhere between 20 to 40 minutes, depending on traffic. That's why we measure distance in minutes, not miles here.

Evelyn Ackah (2:36):

Yes. Lots of traffic. I know that from LA. Oh my God. So, listen, when you decided what kind of practice area you wanted to choose, what brought you to estates and that whole area? What was the motivation for that area?

Lars Kushner (2:50):

Yes. So that's a great question. I started my career. I articled under a firm that did a lot of personal injury work, and we shared space with family lawyers, and I thought the family law work was really interesting. I really like seeing the details of people's lives.

Lars Kushner (3:06):

So I started doing that, and then I realized I didn't really like being in the mess of people's divorces, and I got referred some estate work, and in Canada, I did primarily estate litigation. In British Columbia, we have the Wills, Estates, and Succession Act, which is a very unique piece of legislation that leads itself to a lot of wills variation challenges. I realized a lot of people could avoid this mess with proper estate planning, and I was a little tired of the grind of litigation. So I started switching my focus towards planning and helping people ensure that they are set up to avoid litigation and potential conflict down the line.

Evelyn Ackah (3:44):

And what I like about the planning field is you get to be someone's lawyer for life. You get to be with them through all the different exciting, sometimes tragic, but hopefully just exciting changes in their lives. Maybe they get married, maybe they have a kid, maybe they have a grandkid, and they get to come and see you. You get to be a presence in their life. You maybe assist their children as well, and you build these strong personal relationships.

Lars Kushner (4:05):

Oh, I love that so much. I feel like that about immigration, because you start off and you're working for them, going to be getting them the visitor visa, the work permit, and then it's permanent residence, and then it's citizenship, and then it's their referrals. So it's a really great area, I think, for you. It sounds like you found your passion. I love the idea of helping people before the problems occur. Like that is that is the best kind of

Lars Kushner (4:28):

That's what we try and do. It's really about issue-spotting, getting to know your clients, doing really detailed intake work with them

Evelyn Ackah (4:34):

Yeah.

Lars Kushner (4:34):

And finding out what is personal and passionate to them. You're talking about people's legacies, especially if they don't have children, what charitable causes they might want to contribute to, what organizations they want to support. Things like that. And of course, people's pets. Pets always come up in immigration and, I'm sorry, estate planning.

Evelyn Ackah (4:53):

Estate planning. Oh my God. So, since you run your own firm, like I do, tell me about some of the principles and values that drive your approach to delivering personalized legal solutions, and how do you ensure you keep high-quality service, you know, at a lower price point because you're not necessarily competing with the larger firms. You offer something different.

Lars Kushner (5:13):

Yeah. So I think the answer is actually in your question, and it comes down to personalized service. I think people get burned out when they sign up with big firms when they're passed from paralegal to paralegal, from assistant to assistant, from lawyer to lawyer. What I try and deliver for my clients is really a start-to-finish total experience. I will personally do the intake with you. I will give you my email. Of course, you'll have my assistant's email as well, and my administration's email as well. But I will go ahead and work directly with you from start to finish, and I will be there signing your documents with you. I've taken it to the point that I actually got licensed as a notary myself, because I didn't like having to rely on in California we have to use notaries to sign these documents. Attorneys and lawyers do not qualify as notaries, as they do in British Columbia. So you have to bring in a notary. So I got licensed as a notary myself to ensure that everything can be taken care of. We try and offer our clients white-glove service from the beginning, making sure all of their questions are answered. And to your question about price points, what we do is we really try and use technology to our advantage.

Lars Kushner (6:12):

We use the top of the market planning software. It's called WealthCounsel. I think it's the best software out there. It's always up to date. We're always making sure that our documents are the highest quality documents, and that's the feedback we've gotten from our clients who have taken their documents to financial advisors, to their banks. They're always talking about how comprehensive our trusts are, how everything is drafted in clear, plain English, but we cover every possible contingency.

Evelyn Ackah (6:36):

I love I've heard great things about WealthCounsel. So my other friends that do this area that seems to be the top of the line, and you know, it's expensive, but it's a worthwhile investment for, you know, for a law firm that wants to provide this.

Lars Kushner (6:48):

Yeah, I completely agree with you.

Evelyn Ackah (6:50):

Yeah, good for you. So listen, given your expertise in estate planning, both in Canada and the U.S., how do you compare the two? What are your thoughts on like snowbirds in in California? Kind of give me a sense of who your international or immigration-related clients would be.

Lars Kushner (7:06):

Yeah. So there's sort of two different two different branches. There are the snowbirds who are Canadian residents who are just coming down and spending a few months of the year here every year. Typically, in areas like Palm Springs, outside of San Diego, those tend to be very popular here in California. They are typically not looking to become permanent residents or U.S. citizens, and their concern is primarily, "How does their U.S. asset work in tandem with their Canadian estate plan,"

Evelyn Ackah (7:33):

Right.

Lars Kushner (7:34):

"and how are they protected if they have a property in Palm Springs that is sometimes used as a rental? Is it in an LLC? What is their exposure? What happens if one of the partners dies? How is it titled?" These are all issues that come up. I recently had a consult with someone who, unfortunately, had not titled her property as joint tenants with right of survivorship. Her husband passed away, sadly, and there was an issue as to how to get it put into her name. The second branch of clients I have are Canadians who have chosen to become permanent residents and obtained a green card, or are in that process, and are potentially going to become U.S. citizens. That perspective, you sort of the question that I ask them, and it's a little morbid, but I am in a morbid-adjacent area of law, is, "Where do you want to die?" Because that's what we have to plan for. And what I mean by that is, where is your permanent residence going to be? Where is your home going to be? Are you planning on moving your assets from Canada to the United States? Are you planning on spending your life in the United States? Because where you do is going to affect the laws when you pass away in terms of probate and non-probate planning. In British Columbia, at least, it's not a trust-friendly planning environment. The vast majority of people use wills-based plans. There is something called an alter ego trust. It's really only available to senior Canadians. So for the vast majority of Canadians, they're still using wills-based plans. In California, it is the exact opposite.

Evelyn Ackah (8:56):

Oh.

Lars Kushner (8:57):

California, if you at the threshold right now, for a small estate is $184,000. So if you're over $184,000, or you own property, you want to set up a trust.

Lars Kushner (9:08):

So it is really quite different, but interesting to navigate the complexities of both.

Evelyn Ackah (9:13):

Oh, that's so fabulous. It's great that you have that experience because some of our clients move down there, and they don't think about things like planning a new will, or, "What are you going to do with your assets?" You know, for us, it's always partnering and finding people that we can refer them to because it's not what we do. So in your line of work, Lars, who is part of your circle in terms of who you work with? Like, you just mentioned something like, you mentioned financial advisors, or financial planners. Who else do you kind of work with as a team to be able to provide that that full service to your clients?

Lars Kushner (9:43):

So definitely financial advisors, bankers

Evelyn Ackah (9:46):

Yes.

Lars Kushner (9:46):

Real estate agents. Those are kind of the big and CPAs. Those are the big three, to make sure that everything is tied up. I always say to my clients, "Take your trust to your CPA. Take your trust to your financial advisor. Get them to look at it. Get them to look at it before you sign it, even, so that they don't have any questions, because they're the ones that are going to be interacting with it at all as well." And we want to make sure that everyone is on the same page as to what's going to happen. We want to give them a copy. Obviously, it's up to the client to do that because of confidentiality reasons, but we encourage our clients, if they're comfortable to do so, especially if it's someone they've had a long-term relationship with, just so if something happens, an unforeseen tragedy. You know, the thing that we're we're most concerned about here is if there's an unforeseen tragedy where, you know, a couple both perish in the same car accident. That's where you really the planning needs to be there, because if one partner passes, you know, you can make adjustments, you can make changes, but you're really concerned about those circumstances. So you want to make sure that everyone is looped in and everyone is on the same page, and everyone knows what's going on, and that everyone's documents are up to date, right? The amount of times I've had someone come in with a will or a trust that needs to be reviewed, and it's like 20 years old

Evelyn Ackah (10:53):

Oh my goodness.

Lars Kushner (10:54):

And then I ask them, "Is this the most recent one?" "Well, I might have actually done another one." And it's like, "Oh, no, no, no. Let's get let's let's start let's start here and revoke the old one and—"

Evelyn Ackah (11:02):

Bring everyone up to speed and send this to everyone."

Lars Kushner (11:04):

Yes, I think that's great advice. How often do you think that clients should, you know, review their wills with you?

Evelyn Ackah (11:10):

Yeah. So that's actually a great question. What typically, we always say, every three to five years, you should pull it out, have a look at it. If it still looks good, put it away. If not, give us a call. But we're actually now proactively initiating complimentary three-year reviews for all of our clients, bringing them into our office, getting the chance to update their contact information, update their successor trustee's contact information

Lars Kushner (11:31):

And just get a chance to chat with them, and find out, are your life circumstances the same? Are there grandkids now? Do you have a new passion? Or, in the case of people who who don't have large families and they've decided to leave their estate to their friends, "Are you still friends with this person?"

Evelyn Ackah (11:46):

Oh my God. Can you imagine?

Lars Kushner (11:47):

No, it's not an "imagine." It happens all the time.

Evelyn Ackah (11:49):

Being friends and they're getting everything left over. That would be crazy.

Lars Kushner (11:52):

Don't forget, you know, especially if you have a large estate, you don't have a traditional nuclear family. You may leave 10% to 10 people, and two of those people you're not in contact with anymore. You know, as our lives change, our relationships evolve. People come in and out

Evelyn Ackah (12:04):

Yes.

Lars Kushner (12:04):

And we want to make sure that our clients are

Evelyn Ackah (12:06):

Happy, and that their plans are up to date.

Lars Kushner (12:08):

That's really helpful. That's so great, Lars. I mean, I agree with you. I have a great person here in Alberta. We visit every three to five years. Anything changes. I think people don't think about that when they move over the border, you know, whether they're coming to Canada or the U.S. That's one of the first things we say is, "You need to get a will because you don't know where you're going to die, you know. You don't know where things are going to happen." I have a family friend who has a cross-border immigration and tax, and wills, and it was a whole thing. He had a U.S. trust. He died in Canada. He was a permanent resident, and moving that U.S. trust to Canada where the widow was, it was brutal. He did not plan it properly. It took two years to kind of get that into a Canadian trust, and you just think, like how significant that that those funds would have been for her in that

Lars Kushner (12:57):

Especially in that time.

Evelyn Ackah (12:58):

Exactly. Yeah. I think what you're doing is so important. Do you have a lot of clients that are dual residents, that maybe are both Canadian and U.S.? And in that case, what do you do?

Lars Kushner (13:09):

Yeah. So again, it really comes down to the question of, "Where do you expect to be?"

Evelyn Ackah (13:14):

Okay.

Lars Kushner (13:14):

"Where is where are the bulk of your assets? Where are you planning on passing away?" I know that's hard to sort of plan, and, but for the dual citizens, the real question is, "Where are you spending the majority of your time?" "Are you a U.S. tax resident?" is a great question, right? Like, "Are you spending more than six months of the year here?" Then we should be planning for the U.S.

Lars Kushner (13:36):

If not, and you're only here sort of temporarily, and your plan is to return to Canada for whatever reason, then you should be looking at planning from a primarily Canadian perspective.

Evelyn Ackah (13:45):

Okay.

Lars Kushner (13:46):

The other issue that comes up also is, where are your family members located? Where are your children located? Because, at least here in and I can only obviously speak to California law. I know there's snowbirds in Florida, and snowbirds in Arizona, and all over kind of the sun belt, but from a California perspective, when we draft trust, we need a U.S.-based trustee. So do you have the option to have a U.S.-based trustee? If it's not a family member, because maybe your family is still overseas, or in Canada, do you have a financial advisor you can use? Would you be comfortable naming your bank? Because there are tax consequences to having non-U.S.-based trustees that are quite substantial.

Evelyn Ackah (14:24):

Wow. Yeah. I think the tax piece is so huge when it comes to estate planning. It's really coordinating those two to make sure that you're cutting taxes as much as possible, you know? You're actually giving what you want to give to people as opposed to it's all going to the taxman.

Lars Kushner (14:38):

Yeah.

Evelyn Ackah (14:39):

Yeah. Do you do any probate, or is that very separate?

Lars Kushner (14:42):

It's a it's a small part of my practice. I mean, our plan is to avoid probate at all costs, right? Planning avoids probate.

Evelyn Ackah (14:48):

Yeah. Okay.

Lars Kushner (14:49):

So we also in California have something called a Heggstad petition, which is I don't want to get into the nitty-gritty here, but essentially, if you intend to fund an asset in your trust and you don't do so, but there's documentation that you had intended to fund it, you can go to court on one of these petitions and have it put into the trust, essentially, retroactively.

Evelyn Ackah (15:07):

Wow.

Lars Kushner (15:08):

We're trying to avoid probate. If you had someone do a trust for you and you end up in probate, something has gone wrong.

Evelyn Ackah (15:14):

Something has gone wrong. Absolutely. So in terms of I was just going to ask you a question about your experience when you came to the States, you know. How how different was that for you, kind of starting all over again? How was that? Because I feel like that really relates to a lot of our clients, whether they're professionals like yourself, business owners, starting all over, which means starting a new credit rating. Everything is different, right?

Lars Kushner (15:36):

Oh, wow. Yeah. It was a challenge. I will tell you, I went to go and get a credit card from the Bank of America. Great great relationship with him now, and he gave me a card, and he gave me a card with a $500 limit. And then he asked me if I wanted a second card. I said, "For who? I'm going to spend this in one dinner." And then assured me not to worry, it was the same kind of card he had when he was in high school. Now, I was in my 30s at this point. So

Evelyn Ackah (16:04):

Crazy. Yeah, it is.

Lars Kushner (16:06):

It was definitely a challenge. I will say, and this isn't a plug, I'm not sponsored by them, but using a company like American Express, which has offices all over the world and all over the U.S. and Canada, for any of your

Lars Kushner (16:17):

Clients who are considering moving from the U.S. to Canada, is extremely helpful because they will be able to grant you a card. Maybe not the same card that you had, but they'll be able to grant you a card, and within a year, you'll be able to be back to where you are and have that same level of card. So if you do have clients who are considering that, I would encourage them to get an American Express. The other thing, you know, is establish a relationship with a bank. You need a permanent address when you move here. It doesn't have to be your address forever, but you need an address. It can't just be a PO box. No one's going to deal with you without an address.

Evelyn Ackah (16:53):

You know, go and get your social done.

Lars Kushner (16:55):

The one for me that was, from a practical perspective, being a Canadian was the most confusing, was the health insurance.

Evelyn Ackah (17:02):

Oh yeah.

Lars Kushner (17:03):

Oh, wow. Like it must make you miss a little bit of Canada.

Evelyn Ackah (17:07):

Oh, definitely. Just trying to sort through the different plans and what's an HMO, what's a PPO

Lars Kushner (17:11):

It's expensive. It's different. I mean, obviously, there are pros and cons, because I hear in the States, you know, and I've been sick in the States. I think we went to Disneyland once, and I had this awful hacking cough, and finally, my family was like, "Go." So I went to a clinic. You walk in, the first thing they ask is for your credit card.

Evelyn Ackah (17:28):

Right. Exactly. Exactly.

Lars Kushner (17:30):

And I went in and out in 15 minutes with a puffer and I was healed, you know. So it's like, I think that's great, but I mean, not everybody can do that. So there are some benefits of Canada, but I think the the the speed of things in the U.S. is just unbelievable, right?

Evelyn Ackah (17:45):

Yeah. The speed is remarkable. If you have good insurance, and you're fortunate enough to have good insurance, and you you can get treated and done in a day, you know. It's quite it's quite amazing. I had a a knee injury and I had to get a cortisone shot, and I was in and out, and

Lars Kushner (18:02):

Makes a big difference. You're not waiting weeks and weeks, like sometimes we do.

Evelyn Ackah (18:05):

Exactly. Exactly.

Evelyn Ackah (18:08):

Oh my God. So are you planning on becoming a U.S. citizen? Are you going to do both?

Lars Kushner (18:12):

Yeah, down the line, for sure. I mean, my practice is now I would say 90% here. I've been living here for over five years. It's my expectation that I'll be here for the rest of my life. So

Evelyn Ackah (18:25):

Sure. That's excellent. I remember during COVID hearing from all my friends who do estates work that the whole notarizing of things and getting certificate, you know, things signed how did you deal with that? Does does California allow for virtual signings or no?

Lars Kushner (18:41):

So they don't, but a virtual notary in another state can e-notarize a California document. It's a little complicated. It's a little We are on our way to allowing for online notarizations. There are some exceptions. But as a general rule, no. But a funny story about that, actually, is I had a good friend from Toronto who is moving to Houston

Evelyn Ackah (19:04): Yep.

Lars Kushner (19:05):

And bought a house virtually. Toured it, never was there. And there was an issue at the time with getting documents across the border. He couldn't get documents across the border. They had to get them signed. So he had to do a power of attorney, and I had to buy his house for him and sign all the documents. And he just sold his house. I just saw him a couple of weeks ago and he said, "We're keeping all those documents as a memento because your name is on all of them."

Evelyn Ackah (19:29):

That's hilarious. I think that is incredibly

Lars Kushner (19:33):

It does bring me to a more serious point, actually, which I wanted to bring up.

Evelyn Ackah (19:36):

Yeah.

Lars Kushner (19:36):

Which is, to your question about, if someone's planning on moving, one thing to consider doing let's say you're going from Canada to the U.S., like I was is putting a power of attorney in place in Canada for your Canadian assets. Naming someone who can handle that stuff on the ground. I had to sell a condo. I wasn't able to come back up and deal with it, so I granted a power of attorney

Evelyn Ackah (20:00):

Yeah.

Lars Kushner (20:00):

That person took care of it. Having someone to be able to do your banking has to be someone you trust. And, of course, you can impose restrictions on it, but that would be, I think, my number one piece of advice to your clients would be, execute a power of attorney before you leave the country just so that you have someone there who can tie things up so that you don't have to physically fly back

Evelyn Ackah (20:18):

Back and forth. That is great advice. I've not thought about that before. I mean, even if you're planning on moving, or a lot of our clients do the cross border, and they're going to be working for, you know, in Houston, or California, or whatever, for three to five years, that's a great idea. That's a great idea.

Lars Kushner (20:32):

Yeah. I mean, it's something I would consider recommending to all of your clients. It's not an expensive thing to do, and it just gives gives you that peace of mind and the security that, okay, if I need to get some funds transferred, I need money moved, I need a wire of my Canadian funds

Evelyn Ackah (20:46):

This is a way to get it accomplished with minimal disruption to your life.

Lars Kushner (20:49):

That is wonderful. So, listen, Lars, as we're starting to wrap up, is there anything else you want to share about your firm and how people can reach you, connect with you, and what the experience of being a client would be like if they reached out to you? What would that look like?

Lars Kushner (21:03):

Yeah. So great question. The best way to reach out is via our website. We have a contact form on the website. The website is www.kushnerlegal.com.

Evelyn Ackah (21:14):

Great.

Lars Kushner (21:15):

If you reach out on the website, I will probably reach out to you directly. Typically, the way the process works is we will bring you in for a complimentary consultation in our office in Beverly Hills. There's free two-hour parking just a few blocks away, across from Jon & Vinny's. I always tell people that; parking in L.A. is a challenge. And then, if you're interested in retaining us, we will go ahead and discuss our fee structure. We use a flat fee, transparent pricing for everything, exactly what you're paying.

Evelyn Ackah (21:43):

Yeah.

Lars Kushner (21:44):

And then we'll go through the steps. As I said, the one thing we offer is personalized white-glove service. We will take care of everything from start to finish, setting up your trust, answering any questions that you have. If you have some property, we'll go ahead, and we'll go and get that recorded and retitled in the name of your trust, because that is a critical step that some people miss.

Evelyn Ackah (22:02):

Yeah. No, that's fabulous. I love that free parking. So you have to see your clients in person, then? Is that what you're saying?

Lars Kushner (22:09):

No, not not necessarily. Happy to serve clients and meet with people over Zoom, or over the phone. I personally I like face-to-face meetings. I like getting to know people in person, having the chance to sit down with them. But a lot of introductory meetings are conducted over Zoom. I have clients that are super busy and just don't have time to come in. I'm happy to do virtual meetings, but if I have my preference, I'll bring you in my office and give you a coffee and we can sit down and chat.

Evelyn Ackah (22:34):

Yeah, no, I think it's great when you can, but I was thinking, since you service all of California, if somebody's in Northern California, you know, maybe not till the last signing that, you know, maybe you can do some of it like this, right?

Lars Kushner (22:46):

Yeah, no, of course. And also, listen, we can I overnighted documents to Santa Barbara last week for one of my clients. You know, we can send you a binder. You can bring in your own notary if it's not possible for you to come. We'll send you a perfectly tagged binder with "sign here" stickers everywhere, and make sure that it gets done properly for you, and we're happy to get on a call or on a Zoom with you during that signing, just to make sure no questions come up.

Evelyn Ackah (23:07):

That's great. Well, thank you so much. This has been really interesting. I love hearing about your immigration story, Lars, but also starting over and, obviously, being successful, and finding and creating the life that you want, and the practice that you want. I think it's so important, and I want to just thank you so much for sharing your story and your expertise with our listeners.

Lars Kushner (23:26):

Thank you so much for your time, and for having me on. If you're ever in California, let me know.

Evelyn Ackah (23:30):

I will. Looking forward to seeing another Vancouverite, right?

Lars Kushner (23:33):

Exactly. Exactly.

Evelyn Ackah (23:34):

Thank you so much.

Lars Kushner (23:35):

My pleasure. Have a great day.

Evelyn Ackah (23:36):

You too.