bruce
Lieutenant
Posts: 56
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Post by bruce on Jan 22, 2024 15:18:41 GMT
Last month, one of my closest friends passed away at the age of 72. He was a very active and competitive tennis player, traveling throughout the US to play in tournaments. We all thought he would be the last to go among our tight-knit group.His wife is wholly overwhelmed with estate issues. He managed his own portfolio and paid all the bills. Passwords, who to pay and when, what account the bills were paid from, auto titles, taxes, insurance policies, etc., were just some of the issues she had to spend excessive time running down.
T Rowe Price has an excellent online organizer, which I have used as a starting point. I have reviewed it frequently, but my buddy's wife's situation has caused me to add to my letter of instructions. It may be time for some members to review/update their instructions.
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Post by win1177 on Jan 26, 2024 18:31:41 GMT
Last month, one of my closest friends passed away at the age of 72. He was a very active and competitive tennis player, traveling throughout the US to play in tournaments. We all thought he would be the last to go among our tight-knit group.His wife is wholly overwhelmed with estate issues. He managed his own portfolio and paid all the bills. Passwords, who to pay and when, what account the bills were paid from, auto titles, taxes, insurance policies, etc., were just some of the issues she had to spend excessive time running down. T Rowe Price has an excellent online organizer, which I have used as a starting point. I have reviewed it frequently, but my buddy's wife's situation has caused me to add to my letter of instructions. It may be time for some members to review/update their instructions. Bruce, Been looking for the T. Rowe Price letter of instruction, can’t find it on their website. Do you have a link? Thanks in advance! Win |
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Post by johntaylor on Jan 26, 2024 19:11:31 GMT
Years ago, started a Word document and added/modified it. It has login and password info, as well as holdings and reasons therefor.
About 50 pages long (yes, needs to be compressed and simplified). Every year, print out a new hard copy and re-save file to a flash drive.
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Post by Mustang on Jan 26, 2024 20:03:19 GMT
We got into a habit years ago when I was in the military and didn't know when I'd be gone. Complete and open communication. We alternate paying the bills. She know where all the documents are. She probably does exchanges on investments more than I do. If you are in your 70s and your spouse doesn't know how to do these things then it probably is time for a little training. I have also written a succession plan for her for setting up withdrawals from our investments.
But there is still a considerable amount of work that will need to be done. It took her months to take care of everything when her mother died. There is no way around a lot of it.
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Post by archer on Jan 27, 2024 3:25:10 GMT
I've kept my affairs pretty simple. All my assets are TOD, and my beneficiaries are sharper than I am. The only real work will be utility bills which are on auto pay that will need to be canceled. I have the list of them all, less than a dozen, and the contact info. for them. It's easy to procrastinate on making these arrangements, but I would think for most of us it isn't a tremendous amount of work. TOD really makes things easy. I was motivated by my parents passing to get things in order. My dad had a trust which he thought took care of everything, but then I found out too late that he never got around to putting his assets into the trust.
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bruce
Lieutenant
Posts: 56
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Post by bruce on Feb 3, 2024 15:37:43 GMT
Win, Sorry for not responding sooner, just saw your post;
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Post by win1177 on Feb 3, 2024 16:58:27 GMT
Win, Sorry for not responding sooner, just saw your post;
Bruce, Thank you so much! This gives me a place to start, and I can add to it later. Our assets have (fortunately) grown and I’m trying to start organizing everything. Ultimately, we (wife and I) will have to meet with an estate attorney (again) to update/ revise things. We have one disabled son with significant disabilities (moderate intellectual disabilities, severe CP), a second “normal” adult daughter, and our third son that we adopted who has developed significant substance dependence. He’s currently in treatment (again, at least the 6th time now), and we’re thinking he cannot manage money on his own. So we’ll ultimately have to develop two trusts/ estate “devices” for the two young men. Win |
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Post by yogibearbull on Feb 3, 2024 17:10:02 GMT
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Post by win1177 on Feb 3, 2024 17:22:45 GMT
We’ve looked a little into it, but still have more to discuss with estate attorney. Will set up meeting some time in next few months with attorney. He’s been declared permanently disabled, so I now have him on my state health insurance (as a retired MD from our state medial school), with state Medicaid as his secondary insurance. He lives in a group home, run by United Cerebral Palsy, and overall we’re “reasonably happy” with his care. It’s NOT as good as we gave him when he lived full time with us, but not bad overall. When you go on Medicaid, he cannot own ANY asset's, or he will be disqualified. So we have to have assets in a “special needs trust”, set up to provide things that governmental programs cannot provide. We already have that S.N. Trust set up on paper, but not funded (yet). Not sure a 529A would provide any additional benefits? Win |
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Post by yogibearbull on Feb 3, 2024 17:46:21 GMT
win1177 , 529A doesn't interfere with Medicaid. It's another tax-advantaged/free pool of funds that can be tapped by the trustee/guardian for disabled beneficiaries. It really has nothing to do with college 529s, although college 529 funds previously accumulated for disabled beneficiaries can be rolled gradually into disability 529A. I wish it wasn't slipped under 529 numbering because that confuses people more. And, please don't leave the special-needs trust unfunded. A trust without funds is useless. You would be surprised how many make that mistake even with their living trusts.
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Post by win1177 on Feb 3, 2024 20:35:08 GMT
win1177 , 529A doesn't interfere with Medicaid. It's another tax-advantaged/free pool of funds that can be tapped by the trustee/guardian for disabled beneficiaries. It really has nothing to do with college 529s, although college 529 funds previously accumulated for disabled beneficiaries can be rolled gradually into disability 529A. I wish it wasn't slipped under 529 numbering because that confuses people more. And, please don't leave the special-needs trust unfunded. A trust without funds is useless. You would be surprised how many make that mistake even with their living trusts. Yogi, From what I have read, I don’t think an ABLE account will be needed by our 34 year old disabled son, for several reasons. I’ll discuss with the estate attorney when we meet with her, but it looks as if it would be redundant for his needs. He’s already in a 4 person group home for people with cognitive impairments and mobility issues, his social security disability checks are used to pay for most of the rent/ costs of the home (food, staff, transportation, going to an active day “rehabilitation” program, etc,). He comes home to our house on weekends, and we built a handicap accessible home (ramps, wider doors, etc.), when we built our retirement home out on Lake Murray in SC. We had to purchase a newer (used) handicap van last year, Medicaid only pays for two per lifetime. We used up one of those “options” years ago (2008), and were saving the other for later. I’m going to discuss the “special needs trust” with the Disabilty/ estate attorney when we meet with her. From what I remember, the Trust gets funded when both of us pass away (or are unable to manage our affairs due to dementia, etc.), and our daughter becomes the trustee. We set it up years ago, but we need to review it all now since we’re both getting older (65 and 64 and 1/2). Also, we’ll need to review estate issues, as our estate is larger than when we did the planning years ago. Also, will need to consider Trust for the other son due to his substance dependence. Win |
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