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January 17, 2010

Jack, Sr. returned to Jerry’s Bar and saw Sally in the same spot. This time they didn’t stick around. Elmo drove them back to Jack’s house and they spent the day like a couple of high school kids kissing and holding hands and watching a movie on his DVD player. She memorized the directions to the house so they could go to the bar meet and then leave and meet up here so that any prying eyes would not see them leaving together. At the appointed time, Elmo returned her to the bar and she headed off.

Elmo called Jack, Jr. during Sally’s visit. “He took Sally to his house.” After he hung up, Jack, Jr. looked at the burley man in front of him. We need you to check up on a Sally Beaudine. She’s apparently caught my dad’s eye. The usual dossier please. “No problem, Jack” said the P.I. “Five Hundred bucks?”, he asked. “No problem”, said Jack, Jr. As the three hundred pound man left the room, Jack looked down at the locked file drawer in his desk where dozens of such files were kept. He knew the flaws of each and every woman Jack, Sr. had been involved with and he knew what was needed to get rid of them if need be. Luckily, his dad tired of them quickly. But this one was more worrisome.

January 30, 2010

“Here’s the file on Sally”, Marco said to Jack, Jr. “Here’s your Benjamins”, Junior responded as he eagerly tore open the large manilla envelope to see what mysteries there were about Sally. “Hmm, married, two kids, um hmm, hot headed husband, good, very good, police record for assault, owns guns, thanks Marco”, Jack said, I thought this one might be one that might be trouble for dad.

As he looked further in the file he saw the grainy photos of his dad and Sally doing things at his house that weren’t meant for family viewing. As Marco left the room, Junior locked the dossier in the file drawer. Things are looking up.

Later that day, Jack, Jr. and Jack, Sr. met at Lawyer Dobbins office to go over the drafts of the various estate planning documents. “Mr. Dobbins, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, I need to think about this plan some more, I’ve met someone.” Dobbins looked at Jack, Sr. with an inquisitive look? “Well, all these documents are revocable and amendable”, he responded. “I know, but I just need a little time to think it through” Jack, Sr. said shaking his head. Jack, Jr.’s face twisted with the look you get when you suck a lemon at the news. He’d have to move up his plan sooner rather than later.

Bo Beaudine saw his wife leave the bar shortly after arriving. A man left shortly thereafter in another car. He knew that face from somewhere, he’d figure it out soon enough. In the meantime, he’d have reason to beat his wife around a little bit for going drinking in bars.

Sally and Bo

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Bo Beaudine, well his name really was Maurice Beaudine, Jr., so he got the nickname Bo early on and it seemed to fit. Bo was a big kid who did poorly in school. Today, they might say that he had a learning disability, back when he was growing up, he was considered a daydreamer and goof off. He dropped out of high school at 16 and started to work at Quickie Taco, got fired, went to work at a local garage where he seemed to get interested enough to hold down a job. He was angry at the world for a number of unknown sins, but did his thing. While working at the garage a girl from his old high school Sally Hightower came into the garage to get the oil on her dad’s truck changed. She seemed nice enough and Bo was young. When she came back to pick up the car, she promised to buy gas there every time she needed gas and Bo told her she’d have full service even if the sign said “self service”. After a month, he got up the courage to ask her out to a movie. She accepted, he was after all a working man and she was in her senior year of high school and looking at a life of motherhood or low end jobs. After a few dates, they did the deed and Sally got in trouble. Bo did the honorable southern thing of marrying her, but he wasn’t happy about it. The last thing he wanted was two more mouths to feed. In short order another baby popped out and Bo was angry about that (as if he didn’t know how that sort of thing happened). As the years went by, Bo took out that anger on Sally and on the kids. He controlled by his fury. When he came home, if dinner wasn’t on the table, he’d get angry. After dinner if he couldn’t watch sports and drink beer, he’d get angry. After drinking for an hour or two if he didn’t fall asleep right away, he’d get mad at the kids for not going to bed fast enough, or at Sally for the house not being pristine and on most nights, he’d just scream at them and raise a hand or a fist and that ensured order. Once or twice Sally threatened to take the kids and leave, and Bo’s response was always the same he’d look at her with dispassionate eyes and say, the only way you leave is to die and he’d point to the locked gun case where he kept his hunting rifle.

An estate plan takes shape

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That afternoon, Jack, Sr. returned to Jerry’s Bar. There sitting in the same spot was the same woman, he met yesterday. “Hi Sally, back for more poison I see.” She touched his hand and said, “You know I really enjoyed our talk yesterday. You are such a kind and friendly man and well my life of late has been filled with a lot of abuse.” He smelled perfume on her that he hadn’t smelled the day before and noticed a little make-up where none was yesterday. They talked some more and he discovered that she had attended Alabama, but had to leave when her dad died. She then met this guy, got pregnant, got married and pumped out about three other kids over time. There was no doubt that he had been abusive, she seemed jumpy the whole time they were in the bar. She seemed to fear that her husband would appear at any moment.

During their meeting Elmo slipped out to make a call on his cell phone. “Mr. Jenkins, your dad is talking to some women he met at Jerry’s yesterday. They’ve been talking a long time, just like yesterday.” “Keep your eyeballs peeled and see what you hear”, Jack, Jr. replied.

As she started to leave, she looked at Jack, “Same time tomorrow?” “It’s a date”, he shot back.

On their ride back to the dealership, Elmo started chatting with the Senior Mr. Jenkins. “Mr. Jenkins that looked like one nice piece of ass you was talkin’ to in there.” Jack smiled, he liked that Elmo noticed that he was talking to a younger attractive woman. “She is pretty isn’t she?” Jack, Sr. said obviously distracted in his thoughts. “Poor thing, she’s got a dirtbag for a husband who’s beating her around and calling her names”. “What’s her name?” Elmo asked matter of factly. “Sally, umm, Sally Beaudine”, Jack, Sr. responded. “She seemed nice, Mr. Jenkins.”

When Jack, Sr. arrived back at the dealership, he and Jack, Jr. hopped in a car and headed to lawyer Dobbins office to further discuss Senior’s estate plans.

At Lawyer Dobbins office, the counsellor laid out his plans for Jack, Sr. “You prepare a straight old fashioned revocable trust into which you put all your assets in that trust are two sub-trusts. The first one is the charitable lead trust into which all your real estate is to go upon your death. The second one is the family trust which will provide for Junior and his progency. We have a provision that if you die in the year 2010, the family share will become a dynasty trust which will go on for generations since there is no generation skipping tax for the year 2010 as well. As you can see this is a great benefit to your family. After the year 2010, the trust will revert to leaving everything to Junior since the Generation skipping tax would be huge as would the estate tax to some degree. We also have a new 30 year lease for the dealerships to sign with the land holding LLC which will ensure that the cash flow will be covered long term for the lead trust. This will have the effect of devaluing the dealerships to some degree. There is a mutual ten and twenty year option for both the dealerships and the land holding LLC, to terminate the lease. This allows for each party to terminate if the lease terms fall well below market or are so far above market that it is killing the dealerships.”

Jack, Sr. asked, “can I make gifts to my son until I die?” “Yes up to a Million Dollars and twelve thousand dollars per year without incurring any gift taxes. So you can make gifts up to a Million Dollars, but given the size of your estate, that’s like a grain of sand in the desert. After the year 2010, it might behoove us to look at a gift giving strategy”, the lawyer replied seriously.

At that point Jack, Sr. looked over to Jack, Jr. and asked if this made sense. Jack, Jr. said, “yes, but I am not comfortable with that Dynasty Trust. I have no wife, no children, and it kind of limits what I can do with things before I die”. Dobbins jumped in, “we can write the Dynasty Trust to give you something called a limited power of appointment in which you can appoint assets to anyone other than yourself or your estate and it will stay a dynasty trust (although that could by subsequent legislation be over-ridden)”. “But that means that I can’t just liquidate everything and blow it all on wine, women and song, you know like Dad”, he said smiling.

After listening to the exchange, Jack, Sr. sat for a moment. “Let’s do the Dynasty Trust, its only for one year, son, and I hope to live a lot longer. How long will it take to draw all this stuff up?” About a month, Dobbins responded. “Good”, let’s all get to work.

A drink at the bar

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After leaving the lawyer’s office, Jack, Senior stopped back by Jerry’s Bar and nursed a bourbon and soda. He had to let all that sink in and a quiet drink was what he needed. His driver sat at the end of the bar sipping a cola and resenting the fact he couldn’t have a cold beer. At the other end of the bar was a delightful looking thirtyish looking woman drinking alone. She was not dressed like a pro, but rather like a housewife who just needed some time away from the day. Jack slid over, “Hi, I’m Jack Jenkins, can I buy you a drink.” At first she demurred, but Jack ever the salesman said, “I really don’t like to drink alone, that makes one an alcoholic, and you wouldn’t want me to be an alcoholic would you?” She smiled, “Of course not, but I’ve had my limit, is it okay if you buy me a ginger ale?” Jack smile, “no problemo, Jerry fix this fine lady up with your best ginger ale.” She giggled. Despite her modest attire, she was attractive. After much flirting and an afternoon of talking, she had to leave to go pick up her children. He promised himself, he would come the next day for a drink to see if she returned.

That evening Jack, Jr.’s phone rang. “Hi, Mr. Jenkins, this is Elmo, you Dad went to some lawyer’s office today for a long time.”

January 16, 2010

“Hey Dad, how are you doing?” Jack, Jr. asked as his father walked into the dealership. “Great, Son, but I do need to talk to you. I met with a lawyer who specializes in Estate Planning. He went over my options and we are looking into creating something known as a Charitable Lead Trust. What that does is reduce my death taxes and gives a bunch of money to the University of Alabama each year for 20 years. After 20 years, whatever is leftover is yours. I don’t understand it all, but he is sending me some projections. Then, you and I need to look at them and go over to the University of Alabama President and see how they would spend the money. We need to make this a priority. If someone is out there to kill me, we need this plan in place.”