Contingency planning... Sigh
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At the (rather persistent) urging of the man who manages my IRA account, I have initiated the setup of a trust. I am finding it difficult to think about some of these things. Cremation or burial? Ugh. How morbid. I'm leaning towards cremation and having my ashes scattered in the woods (which I own) in back of my house, with the stipulation that Cielo is buried out there, or cremated and ashes scattered as well. Interesting discovery while looking at NH laws... it's legal to be buried on one's property as long as certain requirements are met. So I could create a private cemetery, but I won't... who would want to buy a house with a newly interred corpse? One need not be embalmed either! Oddly enough, the composting option is illegal. Go figure.
Thinking about arrangements for the birds is also difficult, as is finding a trustee. I just want it all to be done with then I can forget about it except for an occasional update.
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We
have been putting offare in the middle of doing the same thing. And have been for several years. Inertia, doncha know?I'm not as worried about figuring what should happen when I'm dead. But I'm trying to figure out how to set things up so that everything rolls along merrily if neither of us is able to manage our own affairs. We have no children, and have given up naming friends as successor trustees on our trust; they keep dying on us, and they were younger than us.
Even naming agents for a health care power of attorney is a quandry. The medical system is so messed up and I don't want to get caught up into an endless cycle of being fed all kinds of meds I would be likely to refuse if I still had my marbles about me. I actually considered asking our veterinarian if he'd consider being named an agent. He'd be perfect.
I'm glad you started this thread; I've thought about doing for quite a while to share ideas.
Would love to hear what other people have done.
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We have done this, and updated, too! An elder law attorney can help you. I just had her update my mom’s trust. Now I have to retitle some of her accounts at the bank. I now have power of attorney, too.
We have kids, so they’re in the lineup. I don’t know what I’d do if we didn’t have interested parties.
Would your attorney be willing to be a successor trustee? Is that legal?
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Not sure about an attorney doing it.
The successor trustee would need to manage our financial life. Paying bills and managing our investments. A trust company could probably do that and I think might be cheaper than an attorney but I haven’t done any in depth research on this. We asked about this when we revised our trust probably 20 years ago and named a bank that our attorney recommended, but that bank no longer exists because it was acquired/merged.
I also ran into some people from a service that sort of steps in and does a lot of things that family might do. They were representing a resident in the place where my Mom was and they seemed to do a pretty good job. I need to find the business card and see if they are still around.
With boomers aging and families separated by distance, I’ve got to think there are businesses out there filling these gaps
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I learned some new terminology from this article. Trust Protector and Professional Fiduciary.
This outfit is in California. I need to figure out if there are equivalents in Illinois.
Related:
Now I kind of know what to ask an estate planning attorney about…
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I just updated all my trust stuff last year so I’m just in a cycle of having to updated every couple years now. in the past I’ve actually had friends without kids name me as their successor trustee because I’m experienced in tax and investments and am/was intermittently honest. As I got near retirement age, I had them all move to professional trustees as the odds of me being around for many decades decreased.
generally, for finding a trustee they liked, I suggested they start with wherever they held most of their investments. I generally prefer the trust departments at the investment companies over the banks, (no problems with honesty or ethics with the banks, just continuity questions of who the hell they will actually be dealing with by the time they’re needed.) At least one friend has been very happy with the trust department at Fidelity, who works closely with their investment advisor.
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Hmm, "arrangements for the birds" made me stop and think, what about our two dogs if we had a fatal car accident today?
Two adult daughters inherit equally and our sisters are executors; but could any of our immediate family take even one of the dogs? Extended family perhaps. Otherwise they'd have to be found homes and I'd like to think attractive kennel club border collies would be snapped up for breeding if nothing else.
Hmm.
I guess trusts & investments are best left to solicitors. Certainly one of my childless Aunts who left the usual house & cash, also had a million in shares; so she appointed her solicitors as joint executors who were instructed to deal with those shares, the tax, and all prepaid funeral arrangements.
This ensured the nephew's executor part of the job was a doddle. -
I just updated all my trust stuff last year so I’m just in a cycle of having to updated every couple years now. in the past I’ve actually had friends without kids name me as their successor trustee because I’m experienced in tax and investments and am/was intermittently honest. As I got near retirement age, I had them all move to professional trustees as the odds of me being around for many decades decreased.
generally, for finding a trustee they liked, I suggested they start with wherever they held most of their investments. I generally prefer the trust departments at the investment companies over the banks, (no problems with honesty or ethics with the banks, just continuity questions of who the hell they will actually be dealing with by the time they’re needed.) At least one friend has been very happy with the trust department at Fidelity, who works closely with their investment advisor.
@DougG said in Contingency planning... Sigh:
I just updated all my trust stuff last year so I’m just in a cycle of having to updated every couple years now. in the past I’ve actually had friends without kids name me as their successor trustee because I’m experienced in tax and investments and am/was intermittently honest. As I got near retirement age, I had them all move to professional trustees as the odds of me being around for many decades decreased.
generally, for finding a trustee they liked, I suggested they start with wherever they held most of their investments. I generally prefer the trust departments at the investment companies over the banks, (no problems with honesty or ethics with the banks, just continuity questions of who the hell they will actually be dealing with by the time they’re needed.) At least one friend has been very happy with the trust department at Fidelity, who works closely with their investment advisor.
Thanks, @DougG . Good info.
I'll also check out Bogleheads; they have a lot of good discussion on topics like this. Here's one thread:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=406170
And there's a subreddit about the services:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fidelityinvestments/comments/1c5p260/personal_trust_services/
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Hmm, "arrangements for the birds" made me stop and think, what about our two dogs if we had a fatal car accident today?
Two adult daughters inherit equally and our sisters are executors; but could any of our immediate family take even one of the dogs? Extended family perhaps. Otherwise they'd have to be found homes and I'd like to think attractive kennel club border collies would be snapped up for breeding if nothing else.
Hmm.
I guess trusts & investments are best left to solicitors. Certainly one of my childless Aunts who left the usual house & cash, also had a million in shares; so she appointed her solicitors as joint executors who were instructed to deal with those shares, the tax, and all prepaid funeral arrangements.
This ensured the nephew's executor part of the job was a doddle.@AndyD said in Contingency planning... Sigh:
Hmm, "arrangements for the birds" made me stop and think, what about our two dogs if we had a fatal car accident today?
We don't have any pets these days, but when we did we worried about this, too. We asked a very close friend and our vet (they knew each other) to work together to find new homes for our pups should something happen to us.
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I posted about a product called Nokbox a few months ago: https://wtf.coffee-room.com/topic/2009/nokbox?_=1760715024543
Although there nothing magical about Nokbox, it's nice that someone else has put some thought into what needs to be addressed. It's not a bad alternative to jump start organizing all this "stuff". Definitely look out for deals, especially around Black Friday. The regular price is crazy.
