Never lend your children money
Attorney Tom Olsen: You and I were talking earlier about our lessons that we've learned in life and through the law firm, and that is never, ever loan your child money or cosign a car loan for them. I was thinking about loaning your child and they don't pay you back-
Attorney Chris Merrill: Right.
Tom: -because we've experienced it through so many of our clients.
Chris: Exactly.
Tom: If you think about it, it is such a life-altering event loaning your money and not having that money paid back because, number one, it sours your relationship with that child-
Chris: Correct.
Tom: -for the rest of your lives.
Chris: Correct.
Tom: Then when you omit that child in your will and you pass away and that child finds out that they've been omitted, oh my God, double whammy.
Chris: Double.
Tom: This is the last thing that this child will ever think about you is that, "Huh, they didn't leave me anything,"-
Chris: Exactly. That's exactly right.
Tom: -and spoil their relationship with their other siblings who got something.
Chris: It's all the way around really heartbreaking. Again, it's a shame that it has to happen sometimes. Again, there are the right reasons. Meaning, again, the parents, they feel hurt because of the fact that they weren't paid back, but that creates this domino effect all the way through like you're saying so that it really is an unfortunate, sad situation for everybody in the family.
Tom: Over the years, there's often been times where I've given my client what I think to be very good advice. Let's just say, for example, the client comes to me and says, "Tom, my son wants me to loan him $50,000." I gave him all the reasons why he shouldn't. The client looks at me, goes, "Tom, you're right. How am I going to break this to my child?" I had these standard words. "Blame it on me. Tell them him Attorney Tom Olsen said
Chris: Don't do it.
Tom: -don't do it." I say that half joking and half seriously.
Chris: Absolutely.
Tom: They laugh, but I mean it. Blame it on me. "I'm sorry, son. My lawyer says there's no way I can loan you $50,000. It's just not good."
Chris: You're right on. Absolutely, is that it is we are happy to be the bad guy.
Tom: Uh-oh, we got our grammar wrong again. [chuckles]. It is lend your child money, not loan your child money. Oh my gosh. Thank you for pointing [chuckles] that out to us again.
Chris: It's lend.
Tom: Lend. Lend is a verb. Loan is a noun.
Chris: Right. In other words, or have a loan, but yes, the verb is lend.
Tom: Never lend your child money.
Chris: Thank you, listener,-
Tom: [laughs]
Chris: -yes, for pointing that out. Texter. Yes.
Tom: He's texted this to us before and I'm laughing. I appreciate it. Thank you, texter. I do appreciate it.
Chris: Thank you.
Tom: Slow learner, yes, I wouldn't say that. I would just say-
Chris: [laughs] Thank you.
Tom: -it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.
Chris: [laughs]
Speaker 3: One minute.
Tom: Thank you, texter.
Chris: Thank you.
Tom: You feel free to continue to remind me-
Chris: Oh, absolutely.
Tom: -that it is lend your child money, not loan.
Chris: Do you know something? Because we appreciate that you care enough and that you're listening and you're right, and we want to know because we do want to make it perfect, [laughs] what we're saying.
Tom: Let me say, I am a stickler for grammar, by the way. I'm not fooling around.
Chris: Yes, you are.
Tom: As a lawyer,-
Chris: That's what I'm saying.
Tom: -you have to be--
Chris: We want to make sure we're doing it right.
Tom: Exactly, so thank you about that. Hey, folks, my name is Tom Olsen. The name of the show is Olsen on Law.
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