According to Google Maps, the trip to Andrew’s office in Poole is only 58 miles but will take an hour and a half to two hours depending on the route. The meeting was scheduled for noon, but I planned to leave at nine so I could have a leisurely trip and have time to stop for lunch (which tends to come a bit earlier when you break your fast at 3 or 4 am).
I got involved in doing stuff around the house, so by the time I headed out it was around 9:30. In the UK this is expressed as half nine, as in half of the nine o’clock hour. When Phil told me he would pick me up at half eight, I assumed he meant 7:30, but his plan for meeting Rose for breakfast didn’t quite make sense then…so I asked and was set straight. I just looked it up to confirm this is right, and the article points out that in a lot of other countries half eight would mean 7:30. Maybe this goes along with driving on the left side of the road…though when I comment on that people usually say no…we drive on the right side…most other countries drive on the wrong side. And then they laugh a lot.
GM was routing me over some small roads going almost due south from Scott’s, to avoid an accident on a larger highway that heads east out of Bath then turns south.
I realized later that there isn’t a major motorway between Bath and Poole, but there is a maze of small roads, and GM finds what it thinks is the fastest route. But some lines that are called roads on the map are more like semi- paved (paved, unmaintained, and now potholed) versions of narrow forest service roads in the Olympic National Forest, that I used to ride on a dirt bike. They are wide enough for one car, and every couple hundred yards there may be a place wide enough for two cars to pass. I had only 4-5 miles that were that extreme, but even the two-lane roads had one-way bridges where a stop light at one end would be triggered by someone coming onto it from the other. Many were twisty and hilly. With stone walls or hedges about a foot from the edge of the road. Motorcycle heaven. So it was a fun, and sometimes exciting, drive. There was no easy place to stop for lunch on the way, so I got to Andrew’s office just a few minutes before noon, still hungry. He called Gary, whose office is across the street, and he joined us a few minutes later.
The meeting went very well. I delivered a stack of neatly organized papers about 5” thick, along with a 4-page overview of the assets and liabilities they represented.
We spent the first half hour or so getting to know each other and telling Gary a bit about Scott and the things he had done. He connected with Scott regarding his dyslexia, as one of his boys has the same thing, and like Scott has other abilities that compensate for it.
I then turned my little digital recorder on and Gary did a quick review of the process of filing for administration, and the ideas we had discussed. This was for Kelly, and I posted it to a site where she could download it.
The critical points were:
- We need to have the court appoint an administrator ASAP.
- Gary can push that through without the complete valuation of the estate being done…because we won’t have access to some of the information until after the administrator is appointed.
- Once we have an administrator, that person can appoint the board of directors of Info Express.
- They think that you and Nigel and I should be on that board…Andrew doesn’t think he can add much as a director, but would like to continue being the accountant (he technically lost that position when Scott died, so we would have to re-hire him).
- Gary will charge by the hour for what he does and will hand off what he can to lower-level employees, to reduce the cost. He doesn’t collect a percentage of the estate, and he doesn’t bill until the estate is settled.
- Gary’s primary job will be to accept information from Andrew, me, and any other sources and use that to guide the probate process in the direction that is best for the estate.
- Gary does not think that the court will appoint Kelly as administrator, as she is not familiar with Scott’s business. But he does think that when he presents all the information I have already gathered, there is a good chance they will agree to appoint me, if I have Kelly’s blessing. Otherwise they would appoint a local solicitor.
- We discussed the possibility of setting up a trust over here that the inheritance would go into. Kelly would be the administrator of that trust, and could distribute money to her mom and Denny, or use money to buy things for them that are allowed by Medicare. This might be a little tricky, but it is something to explore. The other alternative is to set up one of the special trusts in the US…something I need to explore more.
- If we can keep Info Express going, Kelly could be paid a salary as a director…this would be separate from the inheritance. She would have to pay income tax on that, but it wouldn’t impact her mom’s Medicare status.
- Info Express would also make a profit (we hope) that could be reinvested in the company or from time to time distributed to shareholders (you, or your mom’s estate, would be the only shareholder, unless you issued shares to anyone else).
They both agree that I should be administrator, if the judge will go along with it. Gary has been a lawyer for over 30 years and is taking this on mostly because he is interested in it. I liked both of them and will be happy to work with them.
My role would be to continue tracking down what I can and providing that information to Gary to use in his negotiations with the court. Of course we need to get Kelly’s approval for this plan. But he assured me that the court will not appoint here, as she has no knowledge of the business.
I tried to take a different route back…longer but with bigger roads. Andrew gave me directions: Leave the parking lot, take two lefts, and follow the signs to blah blah. I immediately forgot what blah blah was, but figured I could just tell GM to take me from whatever my current location was to 21 Carlton drive in Bath, head in the direction Andrew indicated, and after a bit click the Start button. But no such luck…GM kept re-routing me back the way I came.
I was hungry so stopped at a gas station, bought a sandwich, and asked the attendant how to get to the motorway to Bath. He was a nice guy…I’m guessing from Pakistan…but had no idea what or where Bath was. But he asked a young English fellow who came in to pay for his fuel what the best way was. “Bath eh?” Eyes flitting back and forth. “Up north is it?” More thought. “Never been there…but must be some signs.” I decided to give up and just follow the route GM suggested.
That worked out ok, as I recognized a lot of the work areas and tight spots. When I was a vew miles from the turnoff onto the on-lane-road that I was routed onto on the way down I was delighted to be told to turn left at the next intersection. I did and within 100 yards was approaching an even smaller two-track rutted road. There was a young farmer-type fellow sitting on a massive quad with a small trailer behind it, just pulling out of a side gate, so I stopped and asked if this trail really led to the highway I wanted to end up on. He looked shocked and told me I didn’t want to go that way. Go back to the main road and go north a mile or two. I agreed, but asked if it would take me there if I had continued…it would, after about five miles of rutted road that he didn’t think my little car could survive. So I did a U-turn, turned left back and the road I was on, and was delighted to come to a round-about in a mile, with an exit heading in the right direction. I took it…and a mile later GM directed me back on to the same small road I used coming down. Fortunately a large red van came up behind me, so at the first wide spot I pulled over and let him pass. After that he seemed to always have the right-of-way when there was oncoming traffic, so the other car had to back up and to the last wide space…and I just hung on to his bumper.
The rest of the drive was easy…in the same sense that there can be only one worst storm in a sailor’s life, and all other storms are judged relative to it. Now I will judge all other roads in the UK relative to that one.