Life insurance payments came pretty fast. All came within 3 months. One sent a $15K advance within a week.
Feel free to ask more questions!
I believe this is true. You can use your dad’s funds to prepay his funeral costs. Maybe ask the financial advisor about that.
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Just called my sister to wish her happy birthday.
She said she needed to talk - updating her trust and establishing a family one for sue and her husband - they each have kids from prior marriages.
I said I’m going to send you a link - people are saying you don’t need a trust.
She said if they have significant investments and a home they do - or you pay probate, wishes will be challenged like her friend RA.
My sister lives in Nevada, not CA. She lives in an over 55 in my dad’s home but she has a rental property she and her current hubby own. Said it will be $2800 to create the new trust with hubby and $1200 to update hers. Not sure what she has in hers.
She said, similar to my neighbors, everyone has a trust.
It’s all I’ve ever known.
My SIL prepaid their mom’s cremation expenses (as POA, from MIL’s account) two years ago when she moved near SIL. I reminded them that I paid for my brother’s final expenses & had to wait until the estate was settled to be repaid. They agreed that it made sense to arrange for the cremation & we can transport the ashes to the city where she will be interred (with FIL). SIL asked MIL’s permission to prepay, but she broached it as, “This is what will make a difficult time easier on your kids.” Fortunately, MIL agreed that she would let SIL use MIL’s funds to prepay.
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My DH is navigating the funeral arrangements thing with his siblings…for their mother. At one point, she had everything all planned out…including reading and hymns. No one knows where that info is. So…hopefully they can tease this out…or find the info.
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A Trust can be contested, just as a Will can be contested. As long as the docs are written by a competent Estate attorney and the testator is of sound mind, a contest not likely to go anywhere.
Know nothing about Nevada probate timing or filing fees; it’s a community property state.
A Trust can certainly be easier, but whether it’s needed and worth the expense (vs a nice-to-have) is another question. (I certainly don’t need a Trust, but since my sister is in the business and I get a ‘friends and family discount’ I will get one anyway.)
Thank you, that’s encouraging. I wondered why Dad kept four policies after Mom passed, but it was because he’d paid them all off already. Such a blessing.
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Her friend in ca had an issue - no trust - with the brother.
Nasty
Frankly it’s sad kids live apart. Daughter living in home per mom’s wishes. Brother wanted it sold.
Why then do people in wealthy communities - where my sister is and where I am in TN - trusts seem to proliferate ?
I really don’t know hence the question
define wealthy? (With 8+ figure estates, Trusts definitely predominate. Trusts also allow one to pass assets to heirs and keep it away from their spouse.)
Hmmm. Mine will go to my spouse although I know my dad recently changed his to pass some to grand kids.
It’s just what I’ve been brought up with - and all I hear neighbors talk about.
I don’t know peoples net worth’s - I’m guessing 3-8 million but no clue.
Maybe it’s CA/NV.
What does that include? Their houses and retirement accounts…plus any other assets?
Maybe we need another thread on what wealth or whatever determines whether a trust is needed.
Back to the subject here…MIL just had her 92 birthday. DH and his siblings are getting all the paper work in order. My thought was…what took them so long? This should have been done years ago, and especially after FIL died.
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Our attorney had us set up a trust to protect our disabled son. If he inherited much money at all, he would lose his Social Security and Medicaid benefits.
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A excellent reason for a Trust. No question.
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Excellent and absolutely correct advice. A special needs trust is often also set up.
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I have a friend who established a trust to protect her assets should she die before her partner. They’ve been together for 20 years, never married and neither have kids. She is significantly more wealthy than him. As I understand it, her assets are in a trust (or will be I don’t really know the legal process) to which he will some limited access. I know he can remain in the house for as long as he wants.
However, she wants to make sure that her assets pass to her nieces and nephews and not any future spouse or children he may have.
This may be the reasoning behind your friends’ trusts. They want to ensure their wishes are carried out.
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No. My dad. And then she and I have always had trusts.
Maybe just a family thing I’m brought up with. But my neighbors. And in her over 55 community, they have a pickleball group - it’s crazy. They play every day but have parties, outings and more. She says everyone has.
I don’t know.
It’s all I’ve known. When I first got one I was young and not well off. Like religion, I guess I was born into it - don’t know the y. Maybe because my dad was a single parent. He just talked a lot about probate and yes we were in CA.
On this board is different. People seem ok with probate.
So different thought etc for different people.
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I think the hassles of probate are very state dependent. Huge pain in FL even when all the legal paperwork was well in order, and the attorney cost was ridiculous. In PA, it was a super fast and easy and that person’s will/estate was a hot mess.
We have trusts. We live in a state with a low threshold for inheritance tax. Our attorney advised us that trusts were the best way to ensure our wishes and protect our heir. We didn’t have a trust in our last state. No inheritance tax and we were able to spell out what we wanted in the will.
All states are different which is probably why there are so many differences of opinions.
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True. It’s funny we even are having this discussion.
Someone has passed. It should be clean and easy. All these complexities. Why ?
There are many kinds of trust, for wealthy, as an example. Many.
It’s mind boggling really.
Like the tax code, unnecessary yet it’s created an industry.
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It can be really easy. Elderly family member of mine… Modest income and assets. Military veteran in WW2. Will done by a strip mall lawyer for a few hundred dollars.
Heirs paid whatever small state taxes were required, went through probate with no lawyer required (one of the kids was executor and filled out a few forms, applied for whatever combat funeral payment he was eligible for) and a few months later all the remaining assets were distributed in equal measure.
I know other people with comparable assets who make it really hard. Spend thousands of dollars on a lawyer to avoid a few hundred in taxes. Spend thousands to create a trust to avoid a small probate fee. Create endless paperwork to make sure Aunt Sally can’t figure out how much money they left to Cousin Barry.
It can be really simple. If you aren’t Warren Buffett and won’t spend eternity in agony over paying some state level estate taxes it is not as complicated most people make it.
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In terms of helping our elders especially with items they might want given to certain folks…unless these are used and needed, we have urged them to make these gifts (things like jewelry, furniture, artwork, etc) now, while they are alive. MIL has placed notes on the backs of some furniture indicating who gets what when she dies. (Problem is…almost no one wants what she has chosen…but that’s a whole other issue).
MIL’s money really is being used for her eldercare now…and is needed. But she also has a house which will be sold when she dies. That will need to go through probate, but really, not a huge big deal.
I’ve been through probate a couple of times. Really, it’s not all that awful. Sure, it takes more time in some places, but so what?
And honestly, I don’t care about what MIL leaves her heirs. It’s her money, and so what if folks know.
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