Archive for the ‘Wills’ Category
Living wills. I received a couple of great suggestions regarding living wills and trusts. One friend recommended posting the copy on the wall next to the person’s bed. Another friend recommended scanning a copy of important documents like living wills into your computer. That way, you can have access to them if you are away from home.
Unclaimed Funds. AARP recently had a blurb about unclaimed funds where they refer to two helpful sources.
Information found on this web site is for general informational purposes only based on personal experience and should not be construed as legal, tax or other professional advice. You should consult an experienced attorney , tax professional or financial advisor concerning your particular factual situation and any specific questions you may have.
Digital Assets. I remember when my parents got their first and only desk-top computer. It was in the late 1990’s and it was a hand-me-down from friends who were early technology adapters. At first, they were very interested in learning how to use it. For a while I believe they were spending more money on computer tutors than food.
When my father died, he had notebooks filled with instructions about how to log on. He wanted to use the computer for word processing and my mother wanted to learn how to use email. However, they both suffered from fear of deletion. That is, they were both terrified that they would delete what they had written, never be able to recover the text or the thought and some how break the computer in the process. Consequently, my father continued to do his creative writing in long hand and my mother used the telephone to communicate.
My mother ultimately overcame her diagraphephobia (can you believe there is a word for fear of deletion?) and became quite adept at playing bridge online, but she never did use email.
It is much more common now for people in my parents’ generation to use computers so that they can communicate with their children and grandchildren. These Digital Immigrants are amassing digital assets. Increasingly, digital assets are a consideration in estate planning. There are companies that have developed products that help to protect digital assets and assure that data is accessible to executors or named individuals after the owner passes away. Entrustet, Legacy Locker and DataInherit are three such companies.
Tips: Check the websites above to see what qualifies as a digital asset. Entrustet has a digital property search function for deceased people. So, even if it was not a consideration during estate planning, the executor can obtain the information. It is always best to obtain a list of accounts and passwords while your parents are still alive.
Information found on this web site is for general informational purposes only based on personal experience and should not be construed as legal, tax or other professional advice. You should consult an experienced attorney , tax professional or financial advisor concerning your particular factual situation and any specific questions you may have.
Eternity Leave. I recently heard the term eternity leave and like it a lot. Word Spy defines it as job protection and paid leave for people caring for dying loved ones. I would suggest that the definition be expanded to include “deceased loved ones” as well.
Being an executor is extremely time-consuming and for people with full-time jobs can be overwhelming. Increasingly, people are negotiating time-off to fulfill their responsibilities as executor.
There are many things that require time and attention during the normal 9:00-5:00 work day which could distract an executor from their day-job. Disposing of assets and property can often require additional work on-site. Many businesses that an executor needs to contact are only open during work hours.
Some executors are opting to focus a specific amount of time on their executor-duties and request time-off to do so. It can be as simple as a part-time arrangement that allows for a couple of hours a week, or it can be a complete hiatus from work for some period of time. One friend of mine quit her job completely to deal with the complexities of her father’s estate.
Tips: See if your job has eternity leave benefits. Negotiate with your employer for an arrangement that would allow you to complete your executor duties. Consider paying yourself from the estate to compensate for lost wages.
Information found on this web site is for general informational purposes only based on personal experience and should not be construed as legal, tax or other professional advice. You should consult an experienced attorney , tax professional or financial advisor concerning your particular factual situation and any specific questions you may have.
Co-executors. My parents always strove to treat my sister and me equally and fairly. In death, they wanted to continue the tradition and named both my sister and me to be co-executors of their will. I know that their intent was to have a fair and equal distribution of their assets and not to appear to favor one over the other with the assignation of executor.
My sister lives on the West Coast and I live on the East Coast. To jointly execute the will would have meant countless hours coordinating the signing and notarizing of documents and co-signing checks. It would have been a logistical nightmare.
Luckily, my sister and I have a wonderful and trusting relationship. Soon after my mother died, my sister agreed to formally renounce her role as executor, leaving me as the sole executor. She had no interest in the administrative minutia that is a large part of being an executor. I found being an executor to be extremely time-consuming and was grateful that I did not have the added burden of coordinating every move with my sister.
Tips: Parents should consider the skill sets and availability of their children when choosing an executor. If there is doubt that the siblings will treat each other fairly, consider a neutral party outside the family, like a lawyer. If the choice is to have multiple executors, understand that this will result in incremental time coordinating with each other. Finally, if you are one of multiple executors you can formally renounce your responsibilities.
Information found on this web site is for general informational purposes only based on personal experience and should not be construed as legal, tax or other professional advice. You should consult an experienced attorney , tax professional or financial advisor concerning your particular factual situation and any specific questions you may have.
Death Certificates. When my mother died, the gentleman from the funeral parlor asked me how many death certificates I “wanted”. Actually, I thought, I didn’t “want” any. I quickly snapped out of contrarian-mode and asked what he recommended. He said, one for every bank account and 5 was usually sufficient. I got 10. It was not enough.
It is not only bank accounts, but brokerage accounts, insurance policies, credit cards and all sorts of unexpected institutions and corporations that require an original death certificate and letters testamentary, which proves you are the executor. This “prove it” mentality on the part of institutions quickly snapped me out of the denial stage of grieving.
Death certificates are issued by the state in which the person died. So, despite the fact that my mother lived in NJ, her death certificate was issued by NY since she died in a hospital there. Getting extras is always possible, but it is tedious and time consuming and can disrupt the flow if you are acting as executor.
Tips: Get 20. If you are running low, another option would be to include a self-addressed stamped envelope and ask the institutions that require it to return the original to you after they have verified the information.
Information found on this web site is for general informational purposes only based on personal experience and should not be construed as legal, tax or other professional advice. You should consult an experienced attorney , tax professional or financial advisor concerning your particular factual situation and any specific questions you may have.
Safe Deposit Boxes. Remember Al Gore’s lock box and the SNL spoof? Lots of people have lock boxes where they store valuable items and papers. My parents had a safe deposit box at a local bank which they referred to as the vault. It was a tiny box at a local bank. It required two keys, one that my parents had and one that the bank provided upon request to enter. There were two sets of doors and it was all very secret and secure. The contents were far less mysterious, a pocket watch that my father inherited and some papers.
My parents’ bank had a manual system for recording box owners. It was a locked drawer filled with 3 x 5 cards with owners and signatures for each box. I was on the list to have access, but the bank had misplaced my signature card. I was able to gain access to the box using power of attorney before my mother died. I took everything out of the box as I did not know when I would be able to get back there.
I tried in vain to turn in the keys as I was leaving the bank and explained that the box was empty. However, the bank employee on duty refused to take them. She told me that in order to close out a box witnesses were needed and they did not have sufficient staff that day.
Several weeks later after multiple phone calls to the branch manager, I brought the box keys to a Virginia branch of the bank and they inter-office mailed them to New Jersey where the box was finally closed out. At that point, I received a frantic phone call from a bank employee who told me that when they opened the box “it was EMPTY!” For a moment I considered feigning shock and anger but thought the better of it.
Important things to note: If your parent is receiving Social Security, they will notify the bank of your parent’s death quickly. Boxes are sealed and power-of-attorney ceases upon death of the principal. While the executor assumes the legal rights and access to the box, there is usually a lag time between death and when the executor is appointed.
Tips: The easiest way to prevent ever being locked out of a safe deposit box is to open them in the name of a corporation instead of a person – as corporations never die. Whether the box is in a corporation’s name or individual’s, there are things you can do while your parents are still alive to prepare you for your eventual role as executor. Make sure that the documentation at the bank is up-to-date and includes all of the necessary signatures. If your parent has moved recently, check with them to make sure that they moved the location of their lock box to a more convenient branch location concurrent with their physical move. Finally, as executor you will have to close out the box and, you will be charged for missing keys. There are usually two keys, try to find them both. Get a receipt or other form of acknowledgement when you return them.
Information found on this web site is for general informational purposes only based on personal experience and should not be construed as legal, tax or other professional advice. You should consult an experienced attorney , tax professional or financial advisor concerning your particular factual situation and any specific questions you may have.
Advanced Directives. My parents completed living wills or advanced directives many years before they died. Their living wills clearly delineated what their wishes were in the event of a life-threatening event or illness. Appropriately, they discussed the living wills with my sister and me and we were named as executors. Despite all of this advanced planning, we ran into trouble with my mother’s living will.
My mother had given her living will to me and I had promptly taken it to Virginia and put it in our safe deposit box – per her instructions. When I went to New Jersey to take her to the hospital for what turned out to be the last time, I neglected to bring it with me.
My mother was really on the ball and she knew that we needed to bring the advanced directive with us to the hospital. Luckily, she produced a copy of it! We turned it in at the hospital and they put it in a binder with my mother’s name on it. As my mother’s condition deteriorated, my sister and I were poised to make some medical decisions and we instructed the hospital to follow the advanced directive which clearly outlined our mother’s wishes. It was then that they informed us that the copy which we submitted had not been executed or to put it in English, it was unsigned and therefore null and void.
We then began a series of tortured calculations to determine how we might get the signed copy. My husband could get it from our safe deposit box in Virginia and either drive it or FedEx it to me. Alternatively, we could speak with the in-house hospital lawyers during regular business hours to essentially create a new living will. When you are in a situation where minutes or hours matter, having the original FedExed or talking to the hospital lawyers really doesn’t cut it. As it turns out, we never needed to invoke the living will.
Tips: Keep the signed copy of the advanced directive with your parent and in a place that is easily accessible to you and them. Put it in a folder with all other important medical documents and have it handy for doctor’s visits and hospital check-ins.
Information found on this web site is for general informational purposes only based on personal experience and should not be construed as legal, tax or other professional advice. You should consult an experienced attorney , tax professional or financial advisor concerning your particular factual situation and any specific questions you may have.
Wills. My parents had a belief, common to their generation, that you should squirrel away your will in a place that was difficult to access. I’m not sure why this belief took hold – perhaps it was based on the fear that some unscrupulous heir would find the will and use white-out to change the will to their advantage.
Whatever the reason, people tend to hide or at a minimum store their wills under lock and key. As an executor, you do not want to be playing hide and seek with your deceased parent. If you can not locate the deceased’s will the estate will go into probate. This is exactly what a will is supposed to prevent.
Tip: You should determine the location of the original copy of your parent’s will before they die. This conversation is not about the content of the will and should not be contentious. If there is a safe deposit box involved, be sure to find out where the key is, the location of the box, and the number of the box.
Information found on this web site is for general informational purposes only based on personal experience and should not be construed as legal, tax or other professional advice. You should consult an experienced attorney , tax professional or financial advisor concerning your particular factual situation and any specific questions you may have.
Julie Rothhouse
The Executor Advisor 