CODA won Best Picture at the 2022 Academy Awards. If you haven’t seen it yet, you’re about to have a really good reason to. On this episode of 82 Toothpicks, Ethan, Thad, and Amber sit down with the film — a story about a hearing girl caught between her deaf family’s fishing business and her dream of singing — and find estate planning for families hiding in almost every scene.
None of us saw it before. All of us score it a nine or ten. So the movie conversation runs deep here. But so does the estate planning discussion. The hosts cover healthcare proxies, business succession, guardianship, and what happens when a family business hits a legal wall.
If you’ve ever been the person in your family who handles things for everyone else, this episode is going to feel familiar.
In This Episode
- How a generations-old fishing boat raises estate planning for families questions about business succession
- The difference between being an interpreter and being a legal healthcare agent — and why it matters
- Guardianship considerations when a family includes both deaf and hearing children
- What happens when disability changes whether a family can legally run their business
- Starting a family business and the legal structure that protects everyone involved
A Fishing Boat Passed Down Through Generations
The Rossi family in CODA has fished the same Massachusetts waters for generations. Ruby’s dad got the boat from his father. His grandfather fished too. So when the estate planning conversation started, the boat came up right away.
That parallels the farm families we work with at Huizenga Law. “This tradition and livelihood that’s been passed down…it’s different from all the farmers in the farmland we work with here,” Ethan says. “But in an estate planning sense, really not.”
That’s a direct line from the screen to real life. A fishing boat, like a family farm, is more than a financial asset. It carries identity, history, and sometimes significant debt. And when a family has been doing the same thing for three generations without a formal plan, transferring it to the next generation doesn’t happen automatically. It happens messily, or not at all.
The movie also shows what happens when a business suddenly can’t operate legally. The Coast Guard boards the Rossi boat because no one on board can hear the radio. That triggers fines, and the family’s entire livelihood is suddenly at legal risk. Thad questions whether the family could even qualify for disability benefits in that scenario. His take: if a law is preventing you from doing work you’re otherwise capable of doing, that’s a different question than what the disability system was built to answer.
Learn More: Is Succession Planning Necessary for Family Businesses?
Estate Planning for Families With a Business — Does the Structure Matter?
When the Rossi family launches their co-op and breaks away from the auction house that had been underpaying them for years, Amber’s first estate planning reaction is direct: they need an LLC.
The family signs legal documents to form the business. The hosts question what they actually signed. A corporation? An LLC? A formal co-op structure? The specifics matter more than most families realize.
Because when a business involves multiple family members, the entity structure determines what happens if someone dies, becomes incapacitated, or wants to leave. Without a structure, a family business often dies with the person who built it. That’s one of the most common estate-planning-for-families conversations we have, and its one of the most preventable problems.
Who Speaks for You? Healthcare Decisions and Estate Planning for Families
The richest estate planning moment in this episode came from the doctor’s office scene. Ruby’s parents are deaf. The doctor is talking. Ruby is in the middle, translating, but also deciding what to say.
She edits. She softens. At one point she refuses to repeat what the doctor said out loud. And Ethan used that moment to raise a question that real families face all the time.
“We get a lot of children of adults calling us saying, hey, I want to make decisions for mom and dad. And a lot of times we have to say, okay, can you make that decision? We can give you the options, but you don’t get to make the choice.” — Episode 36, 82 Toothpicks
That’s the line a healthcare power of attorney is built to clarify. Ruby has no legal authority in that room. She just has access. And when someone with access but no legal standing starts making judgment calls, it creates risk for everyone involved.
So even if your family doesn’t have a communication barrier like the Rossis, the question is the same. Who has actual legal authority to speak for you when you can’t speak for yourself? And does the person you’d want in that role actually have it?
Guardianship When Disability Is Part of the Family
Amber raised a harder guardianship question: what would a will even look like for the Rossi family? One child is deaf. One can hear. Does the disability profile of each child change who you’d name as guardian? Does it change the structure of the plan?
“That’d be a hard conversation,” Ethan says. “As the planner, to sit down with a family and have to figure that out. Woof.”
But there’s another layer. Ruby already carries an enormous informal role for her parents: interpreting medical appointments, signing legal documents, managing the family business. Ethan points out that disability tends to become more demanding with age, not less. So whatever informal role a hearing child plays today could grow into a much more significant one over time.
Estate planning for families in that situation needs to plan for the long road. Who is the designated caretaker? Do they have legal authority? What documents does that require? And is the plan fair to both the parents who need support and the child who provides it?
How can Huizenga Law help provide for adults with special needs?
Questions Worth Asking After You Watch CODA
CODA doesn’t name any of these questions directly. But the hosts found them in almost every scene. Here’s the version your own family might want to sit with:
- Does your family business have a legal structure that protects everyone if something changes?
- Who has legal authority to make healthcare decisions for you — not just assumed access, but actual legal standing?
- If disability is part of your family picture, does your estate plan account for the specific roles involved?
- Who is already playing the informal caretaker role in your family — and are they protected?
These aren’t hypothetical. For the Rossis, they’re live crises. For a lot of families watching this movie, they might be too.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Estate planning for families doesn’t have to start with a crisis. CODA is a movie about a family already in one. You have a chance to plan before things get complicated.
If this episode got you thinking about your own family’s situation, a free consultation with Huizenga Law Firm is a good place to start. Call Now
And Ethan’s It’s Not Too Late book series is built for families who know they should have a plan but haven’t started yet. Download it and take the first step toward protecting the people and things that matter most.
Subscribe to 82 Toothpicks wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode with a fellow movie fan who might be ready to think about their family’s future.