We arranged and paid for our cremations. The funeral home gave each of us a book to record all other wants and wishes .Contact info for our sons. Insurance policy info , etc.

Don't let me vote Democrat.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
We'll miss ya, shipmate.

Glad to see the rooster is back.

Thanks!

I have no idea why the rooster suddenly re-appeared. I didn't change anything. Good to see ol' Foghorn tho!

quote:

Originally posted by Lunasee:
Don't let me vote Democrat.

We've had a living trust since 1998. It's being modified right now by our new estate planning attorney. Our personal property is incorporated into the trust.
We've changed the successor trustee to our daughter, because she and her husband have the most business experience AND common sense in the family.
We now have grandkids; they will each be getting a 1/10 share of the estate, the kids will get 2/10. The math adds up.
The grandkid will need to have the successor trustee be responsible for their inheritance until they reach whatever age we decide.
That's potentially a serious dispute between my wife and me: I think they should inherit gradually, say at 30, 35, and 40; my wife wants the parents to have control of their inheritance until the parent dies. Yikes!! I hate that idea.

I have an Ecel spreadsheet with all bank accounts, investment accounts, insurance, et.c With account numbers, contacts. I update it periodically.

Apple has a provision to give access to my data if the successor trustee produces a death certificate.

We have burial plots in Santa Rosa where a number of people in my family are buried.

Interestingly for SF members: the estate planning attorney has an FFL who can take care of sale or distribution of firearms.

I worked in the field of estates and trusts for a long time as an administrator, not a lawyer. My experienced view is that the more you can do for the administration of your estate the easier it is to for your heirs and family to handle the grief part.

By your expiration date you have already done all you can do for them, memories, life and all. Figuring out the details takes some time, you get to figure out whether it's worth it or not, but if you want a look at things to think about or do this website has some on-thew-mark thins to think about and do:

https://assistedcares.com/hospice-care-5-wishes/

If you are a serious enquirer and use this resource, read to the bottom where the Staes are listed that have made their '5 wishes' document, a legal document.

I've done it, my kids have seen it and know where the document resides among my papers.

If you’re going to leave any significant estate, consider a living trust with a “pour over” will as mentioned earlier. Everything that you own goes through probate, a process which takes time and fees to a probate attorney. Everything that the trust owns avoids probate and can get where you want it to go much more quickly. The purpose of the “pour over” will is to catch anything that you goofed and forgot to title in the trust name. Unfortunately, those items don’t avoid probate, but at least whatever remains after probate will go where you specified in the trust.

We have been working on this recently.

We had a TOD affidavit filed for the title to our home, so it transfers to our children with a step up basis, when we pass.

Our cars have the TOD designation as well.

All of our insurance, retirement, savings, bank and investment accounts have our children listed as beneficiaries, TOD, POD, or WROS.

We have been told we are doing the things required to avoid Probate.

We will be meeting with our Attorney soon, to create detailed instructions for our children to follow, upon our passing.

The only thing I believe we are missing is pre-planning our funerals. I have told my wife, I would like to be cremated and dropped in places I have ties to. I see no reason for me to take up any additional real-estate, once I am gone.

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
In addition to a will, all of the pertinent info can be put together here

https://www.thenokbox.com/?tw_...lEAAYASAAEgKUS_D_BwE

In a few more years a nobody will want to use physical paper to keep anything. It’s a neat idea but it is much easier to store electronically (like on USB stick) and put it in a safe.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Don't know if it's appropriate to ask, what would an attorney charge me to set up a will and power of attorney?

Probably location specific, but my attorney did a will, power of attorney, and living will for $400. I did write everything out and just dropped it off. Can't imagine it took a paralegal more than an hour to drop it in standard forms and add a little legalese.

I have a trust and will and I've given my oldest sister a copy of everything as well as passwords, etc., but I really need to do a better job. Both of my sisters are older than I am and I expect I'll outlive them. Who knows, but it's possible I'll die with no heir. And I wonder where my property and other assets will go? I think about it more and more.

@P-220

For the less legally literate among us, would you mind defining some of your acronyms please?

Also, what is a "pour over" will?

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:

I was thinking about selling my body to science. I heard a story of lady who sold herself to science for a couple thousand bucks and she ended up being sold to the military and blown up on a bomb range. That sounds kinda cool.

That was in AZ and they used her cadaver for testing an ejection seat. I would be happy to have that done with mine too.

I sell final expense life insurance, so I get a lot of questions and stories on this topic in my daily work. At least once a week I have to do beneficiary changes due to deaths or family spats. At least five times in 2024 I called to touch base with customers, found out they had died and their family had no idea they'd had life insurance. In a few of those the funeral costs had crushed the loved ones and they were in tears when I told them they were gonna get paid when they filed a claim. Minutes ago I got asked for an illustration for a single premium whole life policy because the lady has cash to throw at it and wants something that won't be subject to taxes or probate. She has two kids and only wants it to go to the responsible one.

Your will will likely have a paragraph that says “I may leave a list of personal effects to be distributed to certain individuals by my executor.” Leave that with your will and other important papers. This is how items of personal property are handled, outside of the “big” items going to your beneficiaries. I want my china to go to my friend. I want a specific piece of jewelry to go to my niece. I want my genealogy books to go to my DAR chapter. That kind of stuff that are not your house and financial accounts and “big” stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by pace40:

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Don't know if it's appropriate to ask, what would an attorney charge me to set up a will and power of attorney?

Probably location specific, but my attorney did a will, power of attorney, and living will for $400. I did write everything out and just dropped it off. Can't imagine it took a paralegal more than an hour to drop it in standard forms and add a little legalese.

Thank you. I was expecting about 1500.00.

My wife and I have a will, power of attorney, etc. All is kept in a safety deposit box. I have given executors of my will obviously the location of the will and where the keys are located in my house. In addition I gave them, and also in the safety deposit box, is a list of any special wishes, and all passwords and security codes to anything and everything. Some might not trust giving that much to someone but the persons I have given it to I trust very much. This reminds me that I do need to update the document as passwords have been required to be changed on a few things.

We are fortunate that we trust our daughter completely, and she considers her husband “completely trustworthy”. They are smart; son-in-law started up a business as an offshoot of another business; and they have a rental house in San Diego that has done well. So our daughter will be the successor trustee, her husband the alternate trustee.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:

I sell final expense life insurance, so I get a lot of questions and stories on this topic in my daily work.

Will they underwrite a policy if the person resides in an assisted living facility when they apply for coverage?

(A relative’s claim is being denied for this reason which seems wrong, as the agent was in the facility when selling the policy).

quote:

The purpose of the “pour over” will is to catch anything that you goofed and forgot to title in the trust name.

This is critically important. You think it won't happen of course, but it very well may. Here's looking at you, mom!

Had transferred everything and given specific instructions and forms to one brokerage account, which they failed to execute on and she failed to notice for 5-6 years. Until she no longer could.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Also, what is a "pour over" will?

slosig described the purpose right there in his post. It's used as an adjunct to a living trust.

The pour over will is your will, and it says via legalese "I intend for everything to be in my Trust, so anything that isn't in it yet is to be put in it".

Your trust should clearly state how you want all of your stuff and money distributed. The pour over will simply makes sure any other stuff not in the trust will be handled the same way without complication.

In my state, lawyers recommend not titling vehicles to the Trust so that if you're in an accident it won't appear you are wealthy.