Author Topic: Get Your Shit Together! Wills, living wills, POAs, life insurance, etc.  (Read 57650 times)

Dicey

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Re: Get Your Shit Together! Wills, living wills, POAs, life insurance, etc.
« Reply #250 on: September 28, 2022, 12:54:56 AM »
I attended a seminar put on by an Estate Attorney I know via our library. I'm attending another this week courtesy of Zoom. I'm counting them as doing...er, something responsible.

oneday

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Re: Get Your Shit Together! Wills, living wills, POAs, life insurance, etc.
« Reply #251 on: September 28, 2022, 10:22:34 PM »
It counts! That's how I started (seminar on the topic w/ attorneys) (way back in May).

Onward!

oneday

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Smallest update ever: sent email to the lawyer requesting a meeting. The decisions are made, just need to communicate them to the lawyer, maybe talk about ramifications a bit.

Update: almost done! Trust doc is in place, most assets have been re-titled or beneficiaries amended. Waiting on 2 institutions to do their part & have that show up in the online accounts, but anticipate not problems (just the wait).

Need to change the i-bond registration with Treasury Direct. Not looking forward to dealing with the government. [sigh] At least the amount is relatively small potatoes.


Anyone else done/almost done/in process/getting started on their estate plan?

Fru-Gal

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No but I do need to do this. It may be an unpopular choice but am thinking of just doing online reputable service vs. lawyers. Our estate is just the house/contents, (very old car) and the savings. AFAIK we are under an amount that would trigger complexities. And in any case doing it this way with willmaker or whatever is better than nothing, right?

A few years ago I did consult with a lawyer who pointed some stuff out which is now moot as one child is an adult and the other very close to it.

So the other thing was doing TOD for the house title to the kids, I think.

All this possibly in lieu of a trust at the moment because from what I can tell under a certain amount of money and with TOD for all accounts you don’t really need it?

oneday

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IANAL! But here's some info to get you started:

In the cover letter of my trust, the lawyer writes, "assuming your trust is fully funded and no more than $184,500 of your assets are outside of the trust...your heirs should be able to avoid probate altogether."

So that $184K number is pretty low. Not sure if a state* limit of some kind? But if there's more than that, it implies that the estate needs to be probated.

I *think* the difference between a POD and a trust is that even with the POD, if the estate is over the limit, it goes through probate (read: red tape and public record). Again, IANAL, this is my layperson impression. The cover letter also says that probate is costly. Something to look into.

Trust contains real estate & other assets. Non-trust assets are insurance and retirement accounts, which name the trust as primary (insurance) or secondary (retirement) beneficiary.

I will say, when Dad died, his insurance paid out to Sis & I fairly promptly, and we didn't do anything through the courts, aside from obtaining a copy of the death certificate.

EDIT: the lawyer said not to put the car in the trust. It is considered personal property. Lawyer set up a "pour-over will" which gives the "residue" of my estate, including personal property**, to the trust/trustee to distribute.


*California, for anyone reading who may not know

** "such as jewelry, clothing, household furniture and furnishings, automobiles, books, objects of art [etc]"
« Last Edit: May 09, 2023, 08:26:43 PM by oneday »

Fru-Gal

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Ah thanks for that! Well part of what is informing this opinion is in my parent’s death, all the TOD and joint accounts just went over to the other parent. Then they redid the trust they had with just that parent, which had no bearing for them and is more for eventually passing real estate and money to us, the kids.

But I will look into it because that is a low number. I was under the impression — and based on my parent’s recent experience — that the state really doesn’t know what all you have unless you die and no one is there to either joint own the account or be the transfer-on-death beneficiary. Without that, then yes, it goes to probate. But IANAL either! Thanks and way to go!

oneday

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Ah thanks for that! Well part of what is informing this opinion is in my parent’s death, all the TOD and joint accounts just went over to the other parent. Then they redid the trust they had with just that parent, which had no bearing for them and is more for eventually passing real estate and money to us, the kids.

But I will look into it because that is a low number. I was under the impression — and based on my parent’s recent experience — that the state really doesn’t know what all you have unless you die and no one is there to either joint own the account or be the transfer-on-death beneficiary. Without that, then yes, it goes to probate. But IANAL either! Thanks and way to go!

It might be different between spouses than between parents & children, since CA is a community property state. I have neither spouse nor children, so wanted to be sure things went the go the way I want them to. Your circumstances are different, so your solution will be different, too.

No, the state doesn't automatically know what you have when you die. But during probate, all that info is supposed to be provided to the court by the executor, and then ??? IDK what happens then, lol.