Dustin Taylor: Welcome back to financial foundations brought to you by Basewell Management where we are the foundation to your financial plan. I’m your host Dustin Taylor.
Kyle Howell: And I’m your co-host Kyle Howell, financial advisor in the Lutz office of Base Wealth Management. Today we have Anissa Morris joining us from Spinner Law and she is here to talk about personal injury and how that relates to wealth management.
Anissa Morris: Thank you, Dustin. I’m excited to be here.
Dustin Taylor: Can you start by telling our listeners about your role at Spinner Law?
Anissa Morris: Spinner Law firm is a small personal injury law practice and I am one of the attorneys there. So I handle cases on behalf of people who’ve been injured in auto crashes, slip and falls, anything like that where someone else’s negligence has caused them to be injured.
Dustin Taylor: Spinner Law has built a reputation in the Tampa, Ruskin, Lakewood Ranch area. How does Spinner Law’s company values kind of mirror or complement Base Wealth’s fiduciary responsibility?
Anissa Morris: Well, as I understand it, Base Base Wealth Management’s approach is more of a holistic approach. They take the whole view and look at the end goal and when they’re counseling their their clients and and customers. And we do the very same thing at Spinner Law Firm. We take a holistic approach, look at what the injuries are to our client, what would be the best for them as far as medical treatment and pursuing a case that end. We’re not focused solely on the dollars. We’re there for the person. We want them to get better and have a good result with that respect moving forward for longevity and and ongoing health.
Kyle Howell: So, Anissa, what sets you apart as far as Spinner Law Firm compared to other law firms in the in the state and then how do you protect the long-term financial security of the clients that you win cases for?
Anissa Morris: That’s a very good question, Kyle. As you know, when you drive down I-75, you see billboards everywhere. There are thousands of personal injury law firms in our state. And we differentiate ourselves from them by being very client focused. Our lawyers are accessible to the clients if they call and want to talk to the lawyer, they’re able to do that. And a lot of the bigger firms, if people call, they’re talking to case managers and they never have an opportunity to talk to the attorney or at least not until they get to the very end of a case when you’re getting ready for trial. We have a very, um, good system with keeping up with our clients and knowing what’s happening and touching base with them on a regular basis so that we’re able to walk them through every step of the way. We educate our clients on every step so they know what to expect. They’re never going to be too fearful after they’ve talked with us about what is happening in the process. We feel that more communication is better. Bad news is better than no news. So we will always, always call and reach out. Now, for your second question, how do we protect their financial interests? When we get a settlement, we partner up with people like you at Base Wealth Management so they can invest that money and be sure that it’s there long term for their for their health needs as they move forward. We also affiliate ourselves with the state planning attorneys who are able to help them put systems in place or a plan in place that would protect that money moving forward.
Dustin Taylor: Yeah, it sounds very similar, you know, to obviously what we do at Base Wealth, um, you know, constant communication, education, you know, and making sure that, you know, we’re all on the same page.
Anissa Morris: Right. We try to remind ourselves that even though we’ve been doing this over and over again, this is the client’s first experience with an an auto injury or a slip and fall injury and they don’t know. So we’re very sensitive to that. Right.
Dustin Taylor: Base Wealth Management obviously, as you mentioned earlier, takes into account a holistic approach to things and how that relates to personal injury, I think in a couple of different ways. One, you could get, I guess kind of a windfall from winning a case, right? And then the other would be to expect the unexpected. How do you plan for these types of things or if something happens, will you be covered? Like what’s what are the risks and stuff like that. With that in mind, we I want to talk about like distracted driving accidents and how those can lead to uh medical bills piling up, low wages, and things like that. So how can these types of things, whenever a personal injury happens, affect a broader financial plan? And maybe Kyle, you can chime in on this as well.
Anissa Morris: What do they say? Life is uh what happens when you plan other things, like things just occur. And one of them, especially in Florida, are car crashes. And there are a lot of people out there driving not paying attention, they’re eating, they’re drinking, they’re talking on their phones, and they are causing car crashes. And you need to expect that and anticipate it. And it’s a good idea to work with your financial advisors and know that you have an emergency fund set aside. Know that you have reserves in the event that you are injured in a crash and you’re not able to get to work right away. I mean, let’s face it, the the court system is backlogged and it takes a long time to get cases to the final resolution where people are getting settlement money and they’re able to move forward. So it’s a good idea to have those reserves in place so that you can move forward.
Kyle Howell: And I would say one of the things that I always recommend to clients is making sure that they have enough insurance, you know, vehicle coverage. Um, I personally have max coverage and an umbrella policy if I were to get in an accident and hurt somebody really bad. I know my insurance is going to cover to where I’m not necessarily having to come out of pocket.
Anissa Morris: That’s a very great point, Kyle. Often times people will get the minimum coverage for themselves or they’ll not get any underinsured motorist coverage at all. And that means that if someone hits you and they have no coverage or very little, there’s no other insurance for you to pursue on to protect yourself. So that’s a very good point. People need to do that and educate themselves on those policies out there. Another one is with property damage. Often times, and it may be against a Base Wealth Management’s education because but some people go out and they a lot of people will buy cars and they’ll get loans to purchase the car. And often times they don’t know that there is such a thing as gap insurance that would pay for the damage to the car, pay off that loan if you have your car totaled. And so sometimes there are people out there who own a loan on a car. The car’s totaled, it’s gone, but they still owe that loan. And it’s it’s really, really sad when that situation occurs. And the loan is is more than what the car is worth. Exactly.
Kyle Howell: And that’s where that gap coverage comes in. Exactly. And so it’s it’s really sad when that situation occurs.
Dustin Taylor: You kind of briefly mentioned the cash reserves. Base Wealth Management works with clients to build like emergency cash reserves as you said. Legally, how does Spinner Law raise awareness about these distracted driving issues and how could financial advisors also help in that regard?
Anissa Morris: We are very involved in the community and have taken a grassroots approach. So we spend a lot of time with the high schools and talking with those teenage drivers about the dangers of distracted driving. We have partnered up with a lot of the sad organizations, the students against destructive decisions. When I was a kid, it was students against drunk driving. But it’s has changed and it’s encompassed a lot more bad decisions, so it’s a good a good move. We present on that, we blog on that, we do podcasts on that that topic and and just raise awareness in that way. Recently, we have created a pledge for the high school students to sign where they will under, well, not under oath, but they will promise to drive their car obeying the laws and not be distracted so that they don’t get hurt themselves and don’t hurt anyone else on the road.
Kyle Howell: I need to get one of those. I’ve got a 15-year-old that’s about to turn 16 in a few months, so you can I’ll probably get that for him. I’ll be. Say some prayers for you. Lots more gray hair. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Dustin Taylor: And in staying on this distracted driving issue, you’re one of your specialties to Spinner Law is to guide the people through these types of claims. Can you explain what the legal process looks like and how does a financial plan sort of I guess bridge the gap or or help during this time period?
Anissa Morris: Well, when a person has been injured in a crash, the first thing they need to do is the 3 C’s that they need to check for injuries, collect evidence and call spinner law firm to to help them out. But beyond that, once you do call us, what we do is ask for information about the crash. We gather evidence to to support our claim that the other person caused the crash. And then we help facilitate the case through medical treatment and getting records to to gather evidence to prove that the crash itself caused the injuries to our client. And through that process, that doesn’t involve the court system at that point in time. That is a pre-suit situation. So you’re dealing with insurance agents and adjusters and negotiating a claim. If after you go through that process and the offers that they are making to settle the case really are not commensurate with what the damages are, then we talk about what the next options are, which is usually to file a lawsuit against the at fault driver. And that initiates the process through the court system. So you go file a complaint. The defendant will be served by a process server with a summons and a copy of the complaint. And then you engage in discovery and go through mediation and ultimately you may end up having a jury trial to have a jury of your peers determine who was at fault for causing the crash and what is the value of the damages that you sustained. Often times, I’d say 95% of cases, if not more, settle without having to go have a jury trial. And through that whole process, we educate our clients and again, explain what to expect and and go through everything with them so they’re never caught flatfooted.
Dustin Taylor: There’s something called the 100 deadliest days for for teen drivers. Could you kind of talk about that a little bit? And then Kyle, could you talk about what risks parents should be aware of during this time and how a financial plan could help protect the family, I suppose.
Anissa Morris: So, the 100 deadliest days for teen drivers starts on May 26th this year, which is actually my birthday. And it’s a Memorial Day and it goes through Labor Day. So that’s 100 days. And statistics have shown that there is an increase in fatal crashes involving teen drivers during that that time. I think to prevent that or educate your children about that, you need to be sure that they know the rules of the road, that they comply with them. It’s important, I believe, to take advantage of that full year where they have their learner’s permit from age 15 to age 16 and get them out driving as much as possible with you in the car. Utilize those tools where you’re able to monitor what their speeds are because most of the time the traffic infractions that teens commit are speeding and then followed by careless driving. And that increased speed, you’re not able to react, cars get out of control and and crashes happen. So you want to be sure that they’re aware of that. The distracted driving, we all do it. We’re all guilty of it, but you need to talk with them and be sure that they are aware that driving distracted is just as bad as driving under the influence of alcohol. It it causes just as many crashes and your your reaction time is not not the same. With respect to financial things, Kyle, one good thing that or one thing that people need to realize is that if your teen driver is driving a car that you own and they go have a crash and they injure someone else, that injured person can sue the your child as the driver, but they also can sue you as the owner of the the vehicle under the dangerous instrumentality law that we have here in Florida. So one way to maybe separate that is to have separate insurance policies for the young kids or and if you’re in a position maybe where you could have the child own the car separate from you owning it, that might help insulate you.
Kyle Howell: So Anissa at Base Wealth Management, we pride ourselves on high net worth individuals and families and helping them, you know, protect their assets. From your experience with wrongful death and serious injury cases, what legal tools do you have that are maybe underutilized in comprehensive wealth protection?
Anissa Morris: We find most often, Kyle, that people out there driving around who become our clients will purchase car insurance to help someone that they’ve potentially injured in a car crash, but they never think about educating themselves on the insurance that may be available to protect themselves. They often will decline underinsured motorist coverage or uninsured motorist coverage, which is very essential, especially if they’ve been hit by someone who doesn’t have any insurance at all. So on the defensive end to protect yourself and your financial security, I I think that that’s the biggest thing is people are not properly insuring themselves. To protect their own assets if they happen to go out and hurt someone else, it’s good to keep in mind that in Florida, our homes are if it’s your homestead property, it is protected by our state constitution from creditors. So people don’t need to be worried about people coming and taking your house away if they they sued you for injuries from a car crash. And with situations where you’d be able to help clients, most retirement accounts are protected from creditors as well. So if they have their uh investments in the proper accounts, for the most part, those should be protected if they’ve hurt someone else in a car crash.
Kyle Howell: Yeah, and just kind of piggybacking on that and I know you guys don’t get a whole lot into estate planning. But just for instance, somebody has a million dollar trust account. Is that something if they were to get into an accident that somebody could come after.
Anissa Morris: It depends on how the money in that trust account is invested as well as what type of a trust it is. If it is a revocable living trust where the grantor or the person who’s created the trust is in control of that money, they’re also the trustee and it’s their money, then that would be available to creditors again, depending upon how that money is invested. If the grantor is not the one who caused the crash and is separate and apart from that person, then that would be a protected trust.
Kyle Howell: Yeah, and would you say that’s kind of a common misconception when it comes to estate planning.
Anissa Morris: Totally. Everyone thinks they need a trust to protect themselves and they all want to talk about revocable trusts and and those do not protect the person who’s creating the trust from any creditors. It will protect your beneficiaries once that money trickles down to them, but it does not protect the person who created the trust.
Dustin Taylor: We’ve talked a lot about protecting assets that you have, but what happens when a distracted driving accident occurs and someone gets paid out a settlement. How do you coordinate with a financial planner or adviser to make sure that the settlement is tax efficient and optimized?
Anissa Morris: That’s a great question. Personal injury settlements in Florida and most places are not um taxable for income purposes. So the minute that you get that money, it you don’t have to pay any income taxes on it. However, once you invest it and start earning interest and things like that, that interest is taxable as income to you. And at that point in time, it’s important to talk with your financial advisor and be sure that you put those moneys in appropriate places where you might be able to shield some of that or restrict some of the growth or different tricks that you all at Base Wealth Management know to do to help people grow that investment. Sometimes people, you were asking about having cash reserves, if you lose your wages, if you receive damages for lost wages, that portion of your settlement is taxable as income to you because it’s not replacing any of your health or not paying you for injuries that you sustained.
Kyle Howell: Is the personal injury settlement different from other types of windfalls?
Anissa Morris: Similar to life insurance, um, you know, life insurance is also tax-free. But as far as, you know, other settlements, there are going to be other settlements that will be taxable to you. So we got to be, you know, extremely careful as, you know, what type of investments we’re going into once they receive those windfalls.
Kyle Howell: So it’s important if you come into any type of money, any any windfall to talk to your advisor or accountant or both.
Dustin Taylor: So we have our own systems in place as far as how we communicate with our clients and maintaining relationships. We send out weekly emails, quarterly newsletters, um, you know, periodic phone calls throughout the year. What does Spinner Law Firm do in regards to communication with clients?
Anissa Morris: For active clients, we have a case management software which tickles us to contact them every two weeks. One time it’ll be the attorney reaching out, another time it’ll be the case manager and we alternate that. And it’s documented so that we know that we’re we’re actually doing it. If there is any new information that comes in on a case, that also prompts us to reach out and let them know what’s happening. So often times it’s a phone call and if we can’t reach them over the phone, we we have a text system where each client has a unique uh telephone text number that we’re able to text them and they can reply and it gets into our case file so everyone can see what’s been happening.
Kyle Howell: So, Anissa, we obviously help, you know, a lot of individuals and families, you know, building emergency funds, building savings for the future for specific reasons like this that may or may not ever happen, right? We don’t know when we’re going to get in a car accident or if we’ll ever get in a car accident, get hurt, hurt somebody else. What types of trends are you seeing in this day and age, especially being in Florida with a lot of movement to Florida from from out of state?
Anissa Morris: We are seeing a lot of people who are driving around with not a lot of bodily injury or liability coverage, which means that when people are injured, there’s not any insurance money really available to them to pay for those injuries unless they have purchased underinsured motorist coverage or underinsured motorist coverage. And often times people don’t do that. So that’s a big trend. Also back in March of 2023, they they there was a big tort reform law that went through here in Florida. Part of that law shortened the statute of limitations to file a lawsuit on personal injury cases from four years to two years. So we need to look move a little bit more quickly with these cases, but in addition to that change in the law, they also changed the comparative fault part of our law, which means that if now the new law is that if anyone had personal responsibility in causing the crash or causing their injuries, if that percentage is 51% or higher, they are not entitled to any type of damage at all. Before, it didn’t matter. You always would be entitled to damages for the percentage of fault that the other person had towards causing your injuries. With that 51% being there, often times people may have not worn a seatbelts or they may have somehow contributed to the accident occurring. They will no longer be entitled to any damages whatsoever, which creates a bigger financial burden on them, which would bring you in and and helping them out with preparing in advance for that situation occurring and having the reserves set aside and and being properly funded.
Kyle Howell: Yeah, and again, going back to the insurance and making sure you have proper insurance, not only for people that you may hit, but also proper coverage if you get hit and you’re hurt. And making sure that you have, you know, the reserves in place with you have to go through a situation like this.
Anissa Morris: Exactly.
Kyle Howell: So Anissa, all of this has been incredibly insightful. What is one thing that you would encourage any Basewell listener to do right now, whether that’s meeting with their financial advisor to model out the the risk of having a teenage driver or, you know, signing a distracted driving pledge. What do you think?
Anissa Morris: As we’ve talked about several times today, I would urge people to evaluate what insurance coverages they have. And if it’s not enough to take steps to purchase that coverage. And then work with their financial advisor to be sure that they have the reserves set aside in case something happens. You don’t want to be caught flatfooted. You want to be able to take care of yourself, relax, have peace of mind and focus on getting better and not be worried about paying bills.
Dustin Taylor: So, as you can see, there are not only obvious risks to your retirement, but there are things like personal injury, distracted driving and things like that that can also upset your finances. So it’s important to stay on top of that, make sure you build up your cash reserves and stay informed. You can do that by visiting basewealthmanagement.com, listening to our podcast, checking out the rest of our videos and reading our articles. Anissa, it was great to have you. Thanks for coming.
Anissa Morris: Thank you. It was great to be here. I enjoyed my time.
Dustin Taylor: If anyone wants to reach out to you for anything, whether they need advice or or thoughts or they want to sign that distracted driving pledge, where can they reach you?
Anissa Morris: They can reach me at Spinner Law Firm, 813-991-5099.
Dustin Taylor: So be sure to follow us on all your favorite social media platforms. And if you have any questions, send them to question@basewealthmanagement.com.
