Wills and Living Wills Article
Staying in Charge of Your Future
You can only stay in charge of your future affairs if you plan ahead. Tax laws allow you to build a retirement nest egg in special tax-deferred accounts. The law allows you to prepare written instructions regarding medical treatment in case you become incapacitated. It allows you to appoint someone to make decisions for you if it ever becomes necessary. And it allows you to decide who will inherit your property someday. But the right to have your wishes carried out later is worthless unless you act now - while you still can.
Decide now who you want to help you in case you become disabled. Meet with an estate planning attorney to review your goals and wishes. The attorney can prepare powers of attorney for you to sign that handle health, mental health, and/or financial matters.
The financial power of attorney can be effective now or upon disability. The health power of attorney allows the agent to act when you are unable to communicate your wishes. The mental health power of attorney allows an agent to act once a doctor has determined that you are unable to make your own mental health decisions.
Make sure that you understand all of the terms before signing a power of attorney. Be absolutely certain that your chosen agent is both capable and trustworthy. Despite your trust and thinking it cannot happen to you, there are cases of family members stealing.
If someone’s address has changed, DO NOT write on the document. Simply note it on a separate page called “contact information.”
All powers of attorney are void at death. Powers of attorney can also be revoked. If your agent needs to start acting for you, you may want to record your financial power of attorney in your county recorder’s office.
The attorney can customize the paperwork so that the following issues are addressed:
- Who is to make decisions if you cannot (please list 2 or 3)
- Who you do not ever want to make decisions if you cannot (only if appropriate)
- Is the agent able to act alone or does the agent have a co-agent; if co-agent, can either act or do they both have to agree
- What powers you are giving your agent/fiduciary
- What powers you are NOT giving your agent/fiduciary
- What you DO or DO NOT want regarding your care
- Who has authority to pay your bills and expenses
- Whether you want your agent/fiduciary to be paid for services rendered and/or costs incurred
- Statement of your goals/wishes/values
Be careful when deciding who you want to name as your agent. Make sure your agent realizes there can be criminal and civil penalties for abuse of the power of attorney. If you have a power of attorney and realize that money has been stolen from you by your agent, please call Adult Protective Service and/or the police. Consider revoking that power of attorney.
Go over all gifts that you want to make to your agent with your advisor(s). Please realize that unless you specifically allow gifting, your agent cannot make gifts on your behalf.
If you choose not to sign powers of attorney and then become disabled, someone will need to ask the Court to become Guardian (makes decisions regarding the person) and /or Conservator (decisions about assets) on your behalf.
You can also make choices on organ donation and autopsy. You may want to pre-arrange final arrangements to authorize cremation so that no one has to sign after your death (especially if your heirs are not in agreement with cremation or could be hard to reach).
Make sure the paperwork is properly executed (sign in front of witnesses and notary public as appropriate).
DO NOT add someone as joint tenant to your account if you want someone to be able to help you write checks; instead name them as power of attorney on your account. This way there is accountability by the agent and the agent must spend the money on your behalf. There have been problems of misuse by the joint owner and problems when the joint owner is sued.
Comments:
QUESTIONS
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How do I file a complaint against a lawyer?
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My husband is POA for his mother, 90 yrs with dementia. She has a bank acct with approx $200Kin a major bank. Approx 6 weeks ago, after submitting the POA to their legal dept we were advised not to withdraw/close the acct as a transaction that large could be questionable and "raise a flag". Today we returned to the bank to withdraw $5K to cover her expenses. They said that they did not have the POA on file and need to submit to legal again. A note on the acct from Feb 2016 states that she (MIL) wants to make sure 'nobody' can touch her money. As such, the bank now DECLINED the POA. Can they?
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My mother passed away 5 weeks ago. She didn't have a will. My sister and I both were on a few bank accounts for wells fargo of hers but not on her IRA account and a US bank account. My mom had no debt, no house, no cars just these bank accounts. I need help, do I get a lawyer? I am unsure of how much the IRA is I am pretty sure it is under 75,000 but what if it isn't? Do you have advise of what type of lawyer to get.. any recommendations?
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I am on a fixed income. we need to setup a will or trust. My wife is older than I and we want to have our wishes setup in legal order for our benefactors. We have grown children from previous marriages. Since AZ is a survivor right state, God forbid, if something were to happen to us both, we want legal docs in place for the kids to be governed by. How can we proceed in setting this legal process in motion?
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What is a living will?
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I need a revocable living trust packet with forms and instructions. Where do I find one?
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Is there a way to read a will without contacting the surviving spouse and/or immediate family?
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My parents have passed away and in their Trust and Wills I am listed as their representative. What do I have to do in order to sell their properties?
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I need to go into court and file some emergency paperwork because MerrillLynch USTRUST are doing some really bad things and after giving me monthly distributions for last 2 years of $3000 and paying all my expenses they just Stopped and I haven't seen my statements in a few months and I couldn't even get a letter from trust officer to give DES for emergency food stamps. My Aunt is reason behind this. My Dad adopted us girls therefore she did not consider us family. She sits on board with former CEO of merrilllynch ustrust of this mutual fund they invested all of our $ in afterDadpassed.
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Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I have 2 siblings and a step sibling who are sole beneficiaries of a trust. My step dad passed almost a year ago. We have heard nothing about the status of the trust. All of his personal property has been sold and presumably those funds have been added to the trust. None of us are contesting the distribution of funds. How long should it generally take for us to hear when we may receive our inheritance and how can I follow up on the courts progress? Kindly, Sharon D.
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