Read Online If You Only Knew by M. William Phelps - Free Book Online Page B

Spending upward of seventy-one thousand dollars on two cars was not a sound investment. Sure, Don had a little over 1.75 million dollars in assets, but one could burn through that mighty quick if one wasn’t careful.
    â€œWhy not lease the vehicles?” Scott suggested.
    â€œNo,” she said.
    â€œWell, you don’t want to pay cash for them.”
    Scott could not convince her.
    Not long after she bought both cars, she went to Scott and asked him for a check written out to Vonlee for twenty-five thousand dollars.
    â€œDoesn’t matter what it’s for,” the widow said when questioned.
    Scott did as he was told.

CHAPTER 14
    IN THOSE DAYS AFTER Don’s wake, Scott continued in his role acting as the Rogers family financial guru. However, Scott later said he never considered himself the family’s “financial advisor.” Scott had convinced Billie Jean and Don’s siblings that he needed to have, at the least, limited power of attorney. With everyone’s blessing, Scott contacted Merrill Lynch and got the paperwork done so he could continue in his role as the family financial wizard and move Don’s money around without issue.
    â€œYou should go home to Tennessee,” Scott and Don’s siblings suggested to the widow. “Spend some time with family. Allow us to take care of everything.”
    It was one of the reasons, Scott later explained, he was in favor of having limited power of attorney. She agreed and wanted to go back home to see her family for a few days, and there needed to be someone back in Troy who could sign off on financial issues and pay the bills.
    So Billie Jean signed the paperwork, turning over power of attorney.
    â€œYou think I could get a look at the family records?” Scott asked.
    Billie Jean wondered why.
    â€œWell, Don has most of his money with Merrill Lynch, but I need to read through the life insurance policies and find out what else is going on.”
    Another important factor in handing over power of attorney to Scott, especially at Merrill Lynch, was that Billie Jean would need living expenses. She needed instant access to that money of Don’s in order to go about her day-to-day life. She didn’t want to have to call and wire money into her personal accounts. If her future son-in-law had the power, she could call him and have him get her cash or whatever she needed, whenever she needed it.
    Before she left, she signed about a dozen checks in case anyone needed to gain access to the money in the bank and pay bills or purchase items the household needed.
    As Scott dug into Don’s financial records, it became clear right away that Don was a tedious and thorough man in terms of keeping records. He saved receipts for everything. For Scott, this made it easy for him to “track everything,” as he later put it. Within Don’s records, for example, Scott found life insurance policies dating back to the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
    â€œOne of my objectives,” Scott later explained, “was to get Billie through this process with as little outside pressure as possible.”
    Peace of mind was Scott’s goal as far as Billie Jean was concerned, according to what he later said in court. He needed to work with Don’s ex-business partner and Don’s accountant.
    Just about everything, with the exception of the business, was in both spouses’ names as marital partners. Billie Jean could say what she wanted about Don and his drinking and how they fought and there was no love between them, but in the end, Don had included her as his life’s equal partner. Even regarding the business, as a probate lawyer advised, she would be required to make a decision about whether she wanted to continue in Don’s role as a board member or sell out. But as Scott had explained over the phone to her, “You don’t have to do that now.” He wanted her to take some time. By the end of the year, November or