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Epitope
Nov 27, 2006

Grimey Drawer

Evil SpongeBob posted:

Oh yeah, my lawyer also said that my kid should sign a health care directive when she turns 18. That way the hospital will share info with us and we can make decisions without having to go a legal route.

My wife has already said we can't do it on her birthday like I've done with her passport and some vaccines.

(Awaits comments as to why I don't need to do that.)

I revile my parents' involvement in my life as much as the next goon, but I can imagine a family where the child would want this. Like a reverse Terri Schiavo, maybe the parents are the ones who will carry out her interests. And at least in this case the child can say no, lots of this stuff is out of their hands.

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adnam
Aug 28, 2006

Christmas Whale fully subsidized by ThatsMyBoye
I work in medicine, and the more I think about this arrangement, the more I realize I've never actually seen this done, except when children have severe debilitating chronic illnesses diagnosed as a peds patient (< 18), like lupus or cancer and need their parents to monitor or act on their behalf if they're too sick to communicate to the doctor. That might be the case here.

Snowy
Oct 6, 2010

A man whose blood
Is very snow-broth;
One who never feels
The wanton stings and
Motions of the sense



I’m just starting to contact lawyers for my 85 year old dad. We want to protect his finances from the lookback period or anything else we need to worry about.

He has a house and some savings, pension, etc. He’s been good about making a will and having a living will, also giving me medical power of attorney, but after reading this thread I think we need to make sure it’ll all hold up. The family is just us, and my sister who lives in Europe so most of this is falling on me to handle now.

Besides a trust I’m not sure what we’d need, I guess I should ask about power of attorney? I don’t know if it should be me or the lawyer.

Someone earlier in the thread said “After you draft my estate plan, what are you going to do to make sure I have funded my trust correctly?"” And that sounds smart. Is there anything else I’m missing just going in for the first meeting?

Nonexistence
Jan 6, 2014
If you're concerned about lookback then you're looking for a medicaid spend down/general elder law attorney which is related to but distinct from estate planning

Snowy
Oct 6, 2010

A man whose blood
Is very snow-broth;
One who never feels
The wanton stings and
Motions of the sense



Nonexistence posted:

If you're concerned about lookback then you're looking for a medicaid spend down/general elder law attorney which is related to but distinct from estate planning

Ah ok thanks, good point.

We’ll try to do both at the same time I think, if possible. gently caress I obviously have more to learn

unknown
Nov 16, 2002
Ain't got no stinking title yet!


Quick rough for Canada :canada: goons (ontario specifically, but pretty similar). Talk to an attorney.

You need 3 documents:
  • Will (for when you're dead)
  • Power of Attorney for Personal Care (for when you're a vegetable and make health decisions)
  • Power of Attorney for Property (to allow someone to make financial decisions on your behalf).

And multiple signed copies of each POA since evidently every organization (hospital/bank/etc) want an original when the poo poo flies.

All (financial) institutions upon finding out someone is dead will lock the accounts until the courts say otherwise. I'd advise to do the same thing - someone draining an account between death and notice can be treated like criminal theft.

If you've got a kid, you'll need to figure out who gets to take care of your kid and put that in the will, otherwise it becomes ugly - roughly the government starts asking relatives is from close (siblings) to further away (3rd cousin) with the mandate to attempt to keep the family together.

We don't have probate, but we've got "final taxes" which is basically/roughly everything you own (ok, your estate now) gets tallied up and treated like you made that much money that final year and you owe taxes on that. Whatever is left over is handed out as per the will.

If you have no will that means it's the formula: spouse 33%, remaining 66% divided among your kids. No kids = spouse gets 100%. If no agreement is made on physical assets (eg: property), then it's liquidated and the cash is distributed.

The above has interesting consequences if you own a second+ property for a long time (think of parents with a cottage). If you bought for $100k decades ago and it's $1mil now, that final taxes is computed on the earning of $900k - so a tax bill of $300-400k is due. Unless the estate has that kind of cash in addition to the property, the cottage goes up for sale - this is one reason many cottage owners have life insurance policies.

All of the above has many loopholes (and many that have been closed in the past decade+), but the above is rough starting point.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

unknown posted:

If you have no will that means it's the formula: spouse 33%, remaining 66% divided among your kids.

:psyduck:

Nonexistence
Jan 6, 2014
That's close to the rule in Virginia for blended families. Always a fun call when a stepparent who treated their stepchild like crap suddenly finds stepchild owning 2/3 of their house.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

I live in a community property state, 100% of someone's stuff is their spouse's stuff so like, it's weird to think of someone seeing two thirds of their wealth going to their children when their spouse dies. As if it wasn't all theirs. How do you even determine what stuff belonged to the deceased vs. their surviving spouse?

unknown
Nov 16, 2002
Ain't got no stinking title yet!


Leperflesh posted:

How do you even determine what stuff belonged to the deceased vs. their surviving spouse?

Lots of leeway in that determination by the executor (first, and if contested then the courts make the decision).

Muir
Sep 27, 2005

that's Doctor Brain to you

Leperflesh posted:

I live in a community property state, 100% of someone's stuff is their spouse's stuff

50%. You can bequeath 50% of your community property and the other 50% is your spouse’s.

Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

Is there a good site that will create a power of attorney for me to print and bring into the notary?

Nonexistence
Jan 6, 2014
You really don't want to do that. It's worth doing it at an attorney's office for credibility on the principal actually wanting this and having capacity to sign.

If the principal has anyone in their family who would challenge the validity of the POA if it meant they would make a lot of money, you've most of the way guaranteed they would win that fight because you have no credible witnesses to the contrary. That means when the principal dies or has a guardian appointed, said family member can undo any estate planning, beneficiary designations, and joint account ownership you did with the POA, and get a money judgment against you for every transaction you did with the POA you can't prove was for the principal's benefit, and you have to reimburse their attorney's fees. If you're a presumptive heir of this person, the #1 place for them to collect against you is your inheritance. This is true in every jurisdiction where I practice, and I've never seen anywhere that substantially differs. Estate litigators are happy to take these on contingency because they're so easy and so lucrative.

A couple hundred bucks on an unimpeachable POA now may save you tens of thousands to millions later depending on what you're using this for. Don't be pennywise and pound foolish.

Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

It's for me and my wife, and I was planning on getting it notarized. Does this change any of the above advice?

raminasi
Jan 25, 2005

a last drink with no ice
I am currently life-partnered to someone who has a very good chance of requiring very expensive end-of-life care (strong family history of Alzheimer's). We are starting to sniff around the house-buying process - nothing imminent, but we'd like to be able to do it within the next several years, if possible. Neither of us have any particular inclination either way about getting legally married; we'll do it if it makes practical sense.

We would like to start talking to professionals now about the best legal structures for managing and protecting our finances and life going forward, given that we want to own a home together, we're open to either getting married or not, and she might spend the last decades of her life as an incapable money pit. But I don't even know which professionals to look for! I'm assuming some kind of attorney followed by some kind of financial planner (or maybe the opposite order)? But I don't know which flavor of attorney I want.

Nonexistence
Jan 6, 2014
An estate planner should have referrals to associated professionals who render related services. You just need an entry point to getting this all worked out. Congratulations on exercising the foresight to get this handled!

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

raminasi posted:

I am currently life-partnered to someone who has a very good chance of requiring very expensive end-of-life care (strong family history of Alzheimer's). We are starting to sniff around the house-buying process - nothing imminent, but we'd like to be able to do it within the next several years, if possible. Neither of us have any particular inclination either way about getting legally married; we'll do it if it makes practical sense.

We would like to start talking to professionals now about the best legal structures for managing and protecting our finances and life going forward, given that we want to own a home together, we're open to either getting married or not, and she might spend the last decades of her life as an incapable money pit. But I don't even know which professionals to look for! I'm assuming some kind of attorney followed by some kind of financial planner (or maybe the opposite order)? But I don't know which flavor of attorney I want.

I would start with an estate planner.

We ended up with a non married cohabitation agreement. Lays out ownership and what happens if we split or die.

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unknown
Nov 16, 2002
Ain't got no stinking title yet!


Harriet Carker posted:

Is there a good site that will create a power of attorney for me to print and bring into the notary?

Just get the lawyer to do it (they'll also handle the notary part) since it's a fairly standard type of document (but slightly different for each area), so it's cheap to do. As Nonexistence said, this is one of the few documents that you want to be right. (Also, the lawyer has a lot more insurance if they screwed up)

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