Appointment First, Unannounced Later

Start the process by making an appointment to tour individual facilities. Once you have done this you can then select a few that you like and then, later, show up unannounced for additional visits. It’s typically best to do this around mealtime.

Private Discussions

The residents of an elder care facility will often be a good source of information, so you should try to talk to them as much as possible. You should always do this without a staff member present so you can be sure you are speaking in private. However, you should also take criticisms or even recommendations with a grain of salt, as each person’s expectations and experiences will differ.

Review the Rental Contract

Before you commit to anything you should always carefully review the resident contract agreement. These can often be rather long, so you should ask to be able to take it home and review it. You should also take it to your estate planning attorney and ask him or her to review it to make sure there is nothing potentially problematic.

Notification

As long as you remain mentally capable you can terminate your agent’s authority whenever you wish. In practical terms this means you must be able to contact the agent and tell him or her that the powers are terminated. This can be accomplished with a phone call, face-to-face meeting, or through written communication. However, the agent’s ability to act on your behalf continues until he or she actually learns of the termination of powers.

Incapacitation

If you granted a non-durable power of attorney, your agent’s abilities to act for you cease as soon as you become incapacitated. Essentially, if you lose your ability to make choices, your agent can no longer act on your behalf. However, an agent granted durable power of attorney does not lose his or her powers upon your incapacitation.

Death

All powers of attorney terminate automatically once the principal dies. If you want someone to represent your interests, or the interest of your estate, after you die, you will need to appoint an executor or personal representative through your last will and testament.

Jerry Garcia

The famous Grateful Dead singer died in 1995.  He used his will to outline how his assets and personal items would be gifted to his beneficiaries.  He chose to leave his personal items including jewelry, household furniture, books, and art to his wife.  He left some of his guitars to Douglas Erwin, the man who custom-made many of his famous guitars.  He also chose to leave a sizeable portion of his state to each of his children and to his wife.

Babe Ruth

Famous baseball player Babe Ruth died in 1948.  He left all of his personal items and household items to his wife, Clara.  He chose to leave much of his assets to friends and family members.  He also left some of his estate to the Babe Ruth Foundation, which he created during his lifetime in order to benefit underprivileged children.

You can choose to create a creative will so that your individual goals are met.  You may decide to leave your memorable creative items to a museum, family member, or friend.  Or, you may decide to leave some of your assets to a foundation or favorite cause.   You have a lot of options.

Make sure that you create a will so that your needs are met and you have a say in future matters.  If you have yet to create a will, or if you’d like more information on the benefits of wills, consult with a qualified estate planning attorney.

Avoid probate with a payable-on-death account

Setting up a payable-on-death account can allow you to keep your assets out of probate. In order to set up this account, you will need to fill out a form at your bank. This form will name an individual who will inherit the assets, automatically, after your death.

While you are alive, this person will have no control over your assets. After your death, the person will be required to show proof of your death along with proper identification in order to get access to the assets.

Avoid probate by naming a beneficiary

When you open a retirement account, you are able to name a beneficiary. When you die, this person is able to claim the funds that are left in the account. You can name whoever you want as the beneficiary, however if you are married, your spouse may have rights to the funds. Take note of the following rules:
• If you have a 401(k) account, your spouse must agree (in writing) to your naming of another beneficiary, otherwise your spouse is entitled to the funds.
• Texas law allows couples to sign an agreement which makes some property community property. If any money was contributed to your retirement account while you were married, the assets remain community property which means your spouse has half ownership.
Avoid probate by with a fully funded revocable living trust
A fully funded revocable living trust avoids probate, along with its many other benefits such as disability planning, federal estate tax savings, and asset protection for beneficiaries.

If you have any questions about avoiding probate, consult with an experienced estate planning attorney.

When a senior gets into a cycle of debt, it can be devastating due to the fact that most seniors don’t have the means to repay debt like they might have before retirement. Once you have retired it is far more difficult to just go out and work more in order to earn extra money to repay debt.

There are a number of services available that can help individuals that are having difficulties repaying debt such as credit-counseling services and  organizations that offer free debt advice. Some of these organizations will actually act as a go between for you and the debt collection agency. Although this is an alternative, it should only be a last choice due to the fact that it will have a negative affect on your credit rating.

The best way to handle debt, obviously,  is to make sure that you are not overspending what you can afford to pay in the first place. The sooner that you recognize that you are going in the hole financially, the sooner you can rectify this problem. It is for this reason that you should pay close attention to your budget.

Credit counselors and financial advisors can be a great help when it comes to coming up with a retirement plan and helping you to stay out of debt.

Many people complete their planning and then never take a look at it again.  It’s important to review your planning on a regular basis.  It’s also a good idea to make sure that you remain organized.

Take a look at some of the following tips.  If you have any questions regarding your estate planning or if you’re unsure if you need to make changes, meet with an estate attorney.

• Take note of where your estate planning documents are located. Make sure that all documents are neat and organized.  All of your planning information should be kept together so you avoid losing pieces.
• Make sure that your trusted helpers and loved ones have copies of your estate plan.  This will allow you to have multiple copies in case yours become damaged.  It will also make it easier for your loved ones to access to your information, if needed.
• If it’s been 3-5 years since you’ve done your planning, now is the time to review your plan with your estate planning attorney.  Everyone should review and make updates every 3 to 5 years to make sure that the information is still accurate.  Your attorney can make sure that your needs are still being met.  You may need to update sooner!  Especially if you’ve experienced a life change such as remarriage or divorce!
• Take a look at your beneficiary designations.  Certain assets are distributed after your death based on the beneficiary designations that you’ve made.  In many cases, people forget about these important decisions.  Take the time to make sure that your retirement accounts and life insurance policies have updated beneficiaries listed!

If you have additional questions or if you’d like to review or update your estate planning, consult with a qualified estate planning attorney.

Asset management is important

Failure to include property management in your estate plan could result in the allowing the wrong person to manage the property that you have left to your children. If no property management is planned, probate court will appoint someone who will serve as a property guardian.

Options for property management:

• Name a property guardian in your will. If your children are under the age of 18 when you die, the court will appoint (i.e. affirm) the person that you have named.

• Name a custodian. Under the law The Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, you can name a custodian who will be responsible for managing the property that you leave to your children. Texas law allows this person to manage property for children under the age of 21. These provisions can be included in your will.

• Set up a trust for each of your children. In your will, you can appoint a trustee who will be responsible for managing the assets that you leave in the trust until your child reaches a certain age that you specify. The trustee will follow your written instructions.

• Set up a pot (i.e. common) trust. This option allows you to set up a trust for all of your children. In your trust, you will appoint a trustee who is responsible for managing the trust. The trustee spends the assets according to each child’s needs. Once your youngest child is 23 or whatever age you instruct, the trust ends. Assets are then distributed to lifetime individual trust shares for each of your children.

If you have questions about asset management for your children, consult with an experienced estate planning attorney.

Start with medical conditions.

If your parent has medical conditions or problems that impact his or her ability to drive, this is a good way to begin the discussion. Obvious medical conditions, such as visual or hearing impairments, as well as loss of muscle control, should prompt an immediate discussion about driving and what other options are available to the parents.

Follow-up with ride a longs.

If there are no obvious medical conditions impairing the parents, or the parent does not have to take medication that could cause a loss of driving ability, it’s best for adult children to ride as a passenger in the parent’s vehicle as the parents drives. This will allow you to determine if the parent’s age has resulted in a decline in driving ability. These declines are not always easy to determine, and it’s best to take regular drives with the parent and pay special attention to reaction times, coordination, and other important driving skills.

The idea of common law marriage is one of the more widely misunderstood legal issues around. Only a minority of states allows people to get married through common law, and in order to do so you must live in one of those states and meet very specific legal requirements.

Though the requirements differ slightly, to become married through common law you must be at least 18, agree to be married, and hold yourself out to the public as married. Simply living together for a certain amount of time will not make you married through common law in any state.

Question 2: Do common-law married couples have the right to inherit from one another?

Absolutely. There is no legal difference between a couple married through a ceremony and one married through common law. If you are a common-law married couple you have the exact same inheritance rights as other married couples do. This means that upon the death of either spouse, the surviving spouse has the right to inherit at least a portion of the deceased spouse’s property. How much you are entitled to inherit differs depending on the state in which you live.

Question 3: What if I separated from my common-law spouse?

While common law marriage exists in a small number of states, common-law divorce does not exist. Once you are married, whether by common law or through ceremony, you can only terminate your marriage if you are divorced or receive an annulment. Until then you are still espouses and retain your rights to inherit from one another upon the other’s death.

One such option to consider is using a self-proving affidavit when you create your last will and testament. With a self-proving affidavit you make it much easier for your estate administrator to go to court and prove that your will is valid. Here is how they work.

Signing Ceremony

When you create a will you will have to sign the document, as well as have it signed by two adult witnesses. This is usually done in an informal signing ceremony where you and the witnesses gather together and sign the will. During the signing ceremony, the witnesses can also sign a sworn affidavit stating that they witnessed you sign the will.

Probate

After you die, someone will have to go before a probate court and ask the court to begin distributing your property to your heirs. Before the court will allow your estate administrator to do this it will have to be convinced that the will meets all legal requirements.

If you create a will that doesn’t have an accompanying self-proving affidavit, the courts will likely have to call the witnesses in to testify. However, if you create a self-proving affidavit and it accompanies the will, the court will use that in lieu of direct testimony. This allows your estate administrator to save time and money.