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Estate Planning: General Power of Attorney

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Estate PlanningAs it is the middle of the month, my desk is once again beckoning me to sort, file, and toss paperwork that has built up for the last two weeks. If you are working through paperwork, then you understand. It really is never-ending.

When I used to work at my desk at home, I would get so distracted by the paperwork that I could not get much done. So, I typically blog and plan either at our dining room table or on the couch. Being close to the dishwasher and washer downstairs, I can monitor tasks while I check e-mail, write, and read.

Having a specified time during the month, allows me to concentrate on priorities knowing I will get to the paperwork twice a month. Visualizing a clean, organized desk motivates me to tackle those piles. Some stacks are larger than others, but what a great feeling when those items are all back in their rightful places.

One set of paperwork I rarely touch is our estate planning documents. Though definitely our most prized and important documents, our estate planning packages provide the details of our wishes when we leave this earth.

In beginning this category last week, I shared how I recommend hiring an attorney to create these documents for you. Having worked as a legal assistant for a few years, I understand the value of having the proper documents from your state of residence. If you do not have an estate planning package, then please start saving for one now. A little here and there will add up, but you must start somewhere.

For the estate planning package, both Paul and I have separate documents. However, the type of document is the same with the first document being our Last Will and Testament, and the second is our General Power of Attorney.

General Power of Attorney

Definition

A power of attorney authorizes one person to choose another person to act in their behalf. Each power of attorney is either a limited or a general power.

Limited Power of Attorney

This type is used when one gives someone permission to act for them in a particular matter. When I worked a private law firm, I frequently saw Limited Powers of Attorney.

If someone moved away and their home sold when they could not return for the closing, then the seller would give their representative a Limited Power of Attorney to transact the sale. Once the closing was over, then Power of Attorney was null and void.

General Power of Attorney

A General Power of Attorney is the whole kit and caboodle. This type gives full authority to the agent to act in any matter regarding finances and personal property. With a General Power of Attorney, nothing is limited. The agent has full, unsupervised reign over one’s property and possessions.

NOTE: The General Power of Attorney is only needed while one is alive. The value of this document allows me to name an agent to act on my behalf should I become incapacitated and unable to make decisions on my own.

The agent can make financial decisions for me (e.g., withdraw money, manage property, sign checks, etc.) At the time of my death, this document is void and my Last Will and Testament goes into effect.

Document Topics

Our General Powers of Attorney are 8 pages in length to spell out the exact powers given to our agents. These General Powers of Attorney are by far our most protected documents. A copy is just as powerful as the original.

With a General Power of Attorney, an agent can take possession of another’s life in acting on their behalf. These documents are necessary in the event one is alive and cannot make decisions, but keeping them safe should be a top priority. This information is not to scare you, but to caution you to choose your “home” for these documents and copies wisely.

My General Power of Attorney names my agent, defines specific powers relating to property, gives specific powers relating to personal affairs, and covers miscellaneous specific powers and other administrative and legal clauses.

Knowing that someone may need to step in to pay bills, collect insurance monies, and other financial affairs that I would normally do, I began this journey of gathering and storing our important documents. I have also chosen to record all the passwords I use for accounts, so my agent can carry on without disruption.

Though a General Power of Attorney is powerful, it is necessary for your protection. Choose your agent wisely as they will make your decisions without needing to consult you.

This document is limited to financial and property matter, not your health. Now, your agent can pay health bills, but she cannot determine the treatments you do or do not get. Those decisions are decided by your healthcare agent, but I’ll cover that topic next week.

As you consider these documents, the goal is to protect your investments and property to better help the ones you leave behind. You do not need to concentrate on dying when you are preparing for the worst. However, preparing will relieve your mind to know that your family will receive what they need because you invested your money, energy, and time into planning. Happy organizing!

Estate Planning: Last Will and Testament

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Estate PlanningGoing paperless is a great idea for curbing clutter. As I have lost digital documents, I prefer a paper version that I can hold in my hand. I do keep my files organized and down to the essentials, but they take up space.

If you prefer the paperless route for your important documents, then most of the items held in my file box 1 and file box 2 could be stored digitally. However, you will need access to your original paper-version estate planning documents.

Though each state differs slightly on their requirements for settling your estate, a typical estate planning package includes the following documents:

  • Last Will and Testament
  • General Power of Attorney
  • Health Care Power of Attorney

Depending on your state’s acceptance of the Health Care Power of Attorney, you might also need a Living Will.

Not wanting to spend more than needed, I pinch every penny to save my family money. However, when it comes to our estate planning, I do not skimp. Shelling out $600 was worth every penny we paid 10 years ago. Hiring an experienced paid-per-hour attorney will save you money and time.

From my experience, you want an attorney that charges by the hour rather than a fee-based attorney. Most fee-based attorneys have a standard form that they replicate for clients. The hourly attorney tends to start with a standard form and then customizes the forms to better meet their client’s needs.

If you use a form-version computer program or free resources, then your assets will probably end up in probate for at least a year. Most pre-made forms refer to California laws due to their broad interpretations.

What those forms do not tell you is that should you pass away in a state other than California, then your estate goes to probate in your state. The court will send your Last Will and Testament to California for verification, where it may take between 6 months and a year.

Once validated, your Last Will and Testament will return to your state and proceed through their approximate 1-year process. Meanwhile, your estate is frozen until those resources are verified and released by your state.

Having your estate planning documents prepared by a reputable attorney in your state is worth every dime you spend. Your attorney, who understands your state’s laws, will prepare the correct forms and expedite the process saving your family money, energy, and time.

Last Will and Testament

The first document in our estate planning package is our Last Will and Testament. Our documents are 11 pages in length and composed of 9 items each.

Our Last Will and Testament thoroughly covers all aspects of our estate, including how to dispose of our property, appoints our personal representatives and guardians, identifies the powers of our personal representative, and signature pages.

Attached to our Last Will and Testament is a marriage license as one of our named individuals had a name change due to a marriage. To expedite the process, I have attached a copy of the marriage license to prove that person’s right to our estate.

As Paul and I each have a Last Will and Testament, copies of these documents are kept within the 7th file opening of our file box 3. This second opening within the fourth category of estate planning contains copies of all of our estate planning documents. In three weeks (after our Summer Reading series), I will continue explaining these documents focusing on our General Power of Attorney forms. Happy organizing!

Question: Do you have an estate planning package? 

Estate Planning: Funeral Arrangements Checklist

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Estate PlanningAs a planner, I try to minimize the element of surprise in life changes. Though life is fragile and can fade in a matter of moments, I want to invest my time and energy into preparing for our future. Realizing that I may not have any notice when my life ends, I want my family to know (and not guess) my final instructions.

In addition to the What To Do When Someone Dies checklist, I also keep a Funeral Arrangements checklist in File Box 3 with our estate planning documents. Since we don’t talk much about our last wishes, we have our wishes noted for our family on our funeral arrangements checklist.

The nice thing about the funeral arrangements checklist is that you customize it and can change it as often or as little as you need. Even starting the checklist by including basic information will help your family during their time of grief.

Funeral Arrangements Checklist

The following resources are recommended as a guide. You can customize, create, or re-invent your own checklist or last instructions. I present these checklists from basic to thorough as examples of options.  If your family uses the same funeral home, then you may find forms and checklists through that director to have on file.

My family has used the same funeral home for the home-going of my aunt, grandfather, great uncle, great aunt, grandmother, and extended family. With an established relationship of trust, my family recommends this funeral home to others in their time of need.

Using their forms keeps the information uniform and saves time from transferring the information from one page to another. However, if you don’t know what you plan to do, then a basic or thorough checklist will give your family direction.

Basic Funeral Arrangements Checklist

    • Organized in chronological order, the checklist provided by Funeral Services presents the options for each possible phase of a funeral. Giving you choices, you can make an informed decision.

Thorough Funeral Arrangements Checklist

    • Should I find myself not able to think, I can turn to iMortuary’s checklist. This resource lists who needs a call and simple explanations to remind me why I need to follow this sequence. The information is simple, but thorough. I can do one task and mark it off. If I need to take a break, I can return and know where I left off.
    • My favorite funeral arrangements website is Funeral Wise. They offer an immediate Funeral Arrangement Questionnaire should you need to plan a funeral now. If a loved one passed away and you don’t know where to start, Funeral Wise offers a questionnaire for you to use before visiting with the funeral director.
    • Besides the Questionnaire, Funeral Wise also provides a 15-page Funeral Planning Guide to pre-plan your own funeral. I appreciate this resource because I can take that burden from my family by already having most of the items chosen for them.

The best gift I can give my family is detailed instructions. Without having to guess and make decisions, my family can concentrate on healing and adjusting without the pressure and burden of figuring out what I may have wanted.

By using a funeral arrangement checklist, I can indicate my wishes and place them within my important document file. Knowing the options, researching the differences, and making the choices helps me understand the process. Should I need to plan a funeral, I will have a better understanding of the procedure and know where to find the needed information.

Weekly Project: Print 1 or 2 funeral arrangements checklists.

In using time wisely, I need to update my funeral arrangements as I have basic information noted. Adding more details little by little, I can help my family even when I’m not with them. Though not an immediate concern, I consider this task important for the sake of my family. Making progress with you!

Question: Do you plan to leave final instructions?

Estate Planning: What To Do When Someone Dies Checklist

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Estate PlanningLast week, we started with an overview of the estate planning category. This category takes up 5 file slots in my File Box 3. The first file slot contains checklists. The first type I keep is the What To Do When Someone Dies checklist.

Thinking about someone close to you passing away is tough. I do not want to think about what would happen should Paul pass away. However, should that happen, I will be a mess.

My emotions will get the better of me, and I will not be able to think. So, I need to prepare BEFORE something happens, so I can just follow the instructions.

I know I won’t be alone, but I will know where all the documents are and whom we have partnered with for our financial, insurance, and medical well-being. Having a checklist to follow will focus my brain on completing the next step without trying to figure out where to start.

WARNING: Before I share some resources that I find helpful, I want to preface this information with a warning that these checklists are for informational purposes.

Should Paul pass away, one of my first calls will be to our attorney. I will confirm with him the order in which I need to proceed per our state’s laws. Having a legal partner is the key to completing this process thoroughly, completely, and legally.

What To Do When Someone Dies Checklist

The following checklists offer anywhere from basic to extremely detailed instructions. Personally, I like to know all the information.

However, I keep simple and detailed checklists in my estate planning file slot because I may need something really simple in the first days just to get through the initial shock. Keeping a couple checklists will give you options should a loved one pass away.

Simple Checklists

    • Created by Barbara Repa, a California estate planning attorney, this checklist, with boxes to mark off the items, gives practical advice based on the following time frames – within the first hours, within the first day, and within the first days to weeks.
    • Designed by an attorney and his wife, who are caregivers, this printable checklist allows you to mark off the items as you complete them. If you are a caregiver or have aging parents or grandparents, then you might want to keep this checklist handy.

Detailed Checklists

    • Prepared by Virginia attorney, Dan Newland, this checklist provides 34 items in a sequential numbered format. 
    • Specifically designed for California residents, this checklist includes boxes to check off as you complete each item.

In keeping a printout of two or more checklists, you will have a starting point should you find yourself asking, “What to do when someone dies?” Though I don’t like to dwell on what could happen, I prepare should the worst take place. I do not take out these checklists to read them, but I keep them filed – just in case.

Weekly Project: Print one or more What To Do When Someone Dies checklist and file within your estate planning category.

One benefit to having these checklists is learning some tangible ways to help those who lose a loved one. I have stayed at homes twice during a funeral to distract any thieves, who prey on families during their time of grief.

Next week, we will continue with another checklist that I keep filed within our estate planning documents. Getting your important documents organized will make retrieving those documents quick and efficient when you need them.

The process takes lots of time and energy, but in using time wisely, you will save time in the long run. Happy organizing!

Question: Do you prefer a simple checklist or a detailed fully-explained checklist?

Estate Planning Documents Overview

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InvestmentWe have reached my favorite section of our important document organization – the estate planning documents. This is actually the section where I disagree with Suze Orman.

She is a financial planner, and I appreciate her financial advice. However, estate planning is legal based, and Suze, Love Bug, is not an attorney.

Having worked in the legal field as a legal secretary and then a legal assistant, I learned the value of a great attorney. For our estate planning documents, we hired an attorney. When we purchased our estate planning package, we paid around $600 almost 10 years ago which was worth every cent.

Before we dive into the estate planning section, let me give you a quick review of how far we’ve come, and an overview of where we are going.

Review

For those of you just joining our document organization or those who just need a reminder, we have organized File Box 1 and File Box 2. We are plugging away at the 5 sections of File Box 3. Having covered our Social Security documents, retirement plan documents, and investment documents, let’s turn to estate planning documents.

Overview

Located within 5 file openings, I keep the following documents in our Estate Planning section:

    • File Opening 1: Checklists
    • File Opening 2: Estate Planning Documents
    • File Opening 3: Copies of Estate Planning Documents
    • File Opening 4: Correspondence
    • File Opening 5: Research

As we cover the contents of each file opening, I will share the choices Paul and I have made. Our situation is different from yours, and a reputable, local attorney can best advise you on your state’s laws and your estate planning options.

If you purchased a Suze Orman Protection Portfolio, please do not use her estate planning documents. The only exception would be if you live in California, but even then, you would want to hire a local attorney to review the documents for you.

Creating these estate planning documents is too important to go the easy, cheap route. You definitely need experience when putting your house in order.

Please do not ignore this section because you do not have $600 to fork over to an attorney. Paul and I saved for almost 2 years before taking the plunge. Knowing what you need and what documents the attorney needs will empower and give you confidence when you seek an attorney.

Next week, we will begin the checklist section of our estate planning documents. Feel free to ask any questions. I will do my best to point you in the right direction, but I am not a legal expert or an attorney. Happy organizing!

Question: How much did you pay for your estate planning documents?