Near the end my attorney said we, my brother and I, should get my father to sign over the car to us. I was going to let my brother have the car. Neither one of us ever asked him because it just seemed too distasteful to ask him sign something while in the hospice. He was still mentally sound (at least as much as you can be in that situation) but to us, asking a dying person to sign over a car seemed unsavory.
Maybe my view would have been different if it involved a living spouse and the signature would have ensured the spouse avoided some tax issues or got things easier but for a car and neither of us in financial difficulty was not a last memory I wanted to have.
I like to think I would be happy to do all that stuff for my family if I were in hospice. I mean, if youâre in hospice and youâre of sound mind, you know whatâs coming.
Also be sure to get phone unlock codes, computer unlock passwords, etc. No one will ever be able to get into my sonâs iPhone or iPad because we donât know the codes. The only way we were able to get into most of his financial accounts because was fortunately he had left his phone configured to show the content of texts from the lock screen, so we could get the âforgot passwordâ codes.
Itâs important to have all this information available to your family when youâre healthy, before thereâs a problem.
I mean, if youâre in hospice and youâre of sound mind, you know whatâs coming.
The only person I remember leaving hospice alive was Art Buchwald.
That said, I can only speak from the experiences Iâve had and sound mind may not be that likely in hospice.
We actually have a family pin and itâs not a family date so my son and I can get in each otherâs phones if it came to that. That gets to most of the rest. We have an annual discussion of end of life wishes. He needs to get the health care doc done so I have back up if need be. He also needs a will but has most of his assets with beneficiaries. Mine are done.
For cars in Colorado, the easiest & cheapest way to transfer to a family member is add a name to the title and eventually take it off.
OP: {For cars in Colorado, the easiest & cheapest way to transfer to a family member is add a name to the title and eventually take it off. = rad}
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âSame here in Texas. Also can do the same with deed to real estate so I did that too.â
bhm, I am not exactly sure what you did with your real estate but I hope that you consulted with your attorney before doing so. Real estate and deeds are assets where DIY estate planning can make things worse than doing nothing, let alone getting and following good advice.
bhm, I am not exactly sure what you did with your real estate but I hope that you consulted with your attorney before doing so. Real estate and deeds are assets where DIY estate planning can make things worse than doing nothing, let alone getting and following good advice.
Regards, JAFO
Yep. When I did my vehicles the Texas DPS website had standard forms for title revisions including a section for beneficial designation, so I handled that myself. When I checked into Deeds, there were no standard documents and there were examples galore of sample documents, some of which we down right comical. I had my attorney draw up the revised deed and it looks professional and proper as it should. $250 well spent and he even paid the $10 fee to have it recorded.
bhm: âWhen I checked into Deeds, there were no standard documents and there were examples galore of sample documents, some of which we down right comical. I had my attorney draw up the revised deed and it looks professional and proper as it should. $250 well spent and he even paid the $10 fee to have it recorded.â
Good to hear (or read). I read too many horrow stories WRT real estate and DIY planning and conveyancing.
One day I went to my bank for something and there in the lobby was my attorney who set up my will and other things. I asked why he was there, and he said he was trying to get information about a deceased clientâs account because the client had set up things on bill pay and he was just finding out about it because there was no information(paper) aboutâŚ.numbers, passwords, account names. He has to go on a fishing expedition to get this information.
My wife handled the bills and had them all set up on Bill Pay with our bank. When she died I had to take it over, but even though all the accounts were joint the Bill Pay feature was tied to her specific ID with the bankâs on-line system. I could not simply keep using what she set up, I had to set it up all over again with my own on-line ID. Thankfully I had her password so I could see what she had and copy it, but I think the bank screwed up when it designed it that way.
but I think the bank screwed up when it designed it that way.
For privacy reasons, it has to be set up that way.
Some spouses/partners do not share their spending habits, much less all their accounts, with their partner. If she was secretly paying/sending money to another entity, you donât have the legal authority to get to know about that absent a durable POA, and of course that ceases at passing.
Even accessing her on-line ID should not have been permitted (though I know it is very common).
See Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) for more info.
An executor no longer has authority over the content of electronic communications (private email, tweets, chats), unless the deceased person explicitly consented to disclosure.
An executor can get access to other types of digital assets, but now he or she must petition the court and explain why the asset is needed to wrap up the estate.
If a fiduciary does not have explicit permission through a will, trust, or power of attorney, custodians can look to the terms-ofâservice agreements to determine whether to comply with requests for access to a deceased personâs account.
Custodians may: Request court orders; Limit their compliance by providing access only to assets that are âreasonably necessaryâ for wrapping up the estate; Charge fees to comply with requests for access; Refuse unduly burdensome requests.
Custodians may not provide access to deleted assets or joint accounts.
but I think the bank screwed up when it designed it that way.
For privacy reasons, it has to be set up that way.
Some spouses/partners do not share their spending habits, much less all their accounts, with their partner. If she was secretly paying/sending money to another entity, you donât have the legal authority to get to know about that absent a durable POA, and of course that ceases at passing.
The accounts were joint. The transactions were visible to both of us. All transactions. I could see the payments from the payments system, just not the system itself.
Even accessing her on-line ID should not have been permitted (though I know it is very common). ⌠An executor no longer has authority over the content of electronic communications (private email, tweets, chats), unless the deceased person explicitly consented to disclosure.
I can understand that. Since she gave me her password I considered such consent to be clear.
The accounts were joint. The transactions were visible to both of us. All transactions. I could see the payments from the payments system, just not the system itself.
All accounts you could see were joint. If she had an individual account, you would not be able to see it absent having POA on that account. That is why they donât all you to see all that activity even though you can see the joint account activity.
Since she gave me her password I considered such consent to be clear.
No. Consent ceases at passing (and if your bank knew she gave out her user name and password, they might have required her to change it). This part, âexplicitly consented to disclosure.â; that consent would have needed to be established in the related estate documents. Verbal consent she gave you while she was alive would not stand up in court.