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Get Your Shit Together

getyourshittogether.org

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Re: Get Your Shit Together

#61

Post by vermontdevil »

courtewing wrote: post #13

This is great advice all around, but get a local lawyer involved to prepare your will. Even in US, there is not a single set of laws that apply to wills and power of attorney. It varies state by state. With a generic template pulled from the internet, you could just be doing a whole lot of work and ultimately be ending up with a document that has little legal basis. Do your loved ones a favor - hire a lawyer to do it…

Exactly! My dad remarried and moved to Georgia. He didn't change the will at all thinking all are set.

When he passed away, I found out that the will is invalidated because that's how it works in Georgia's legal system. Luckily my dad's wife is a nice woman and worked with me to ensure the estate went through probate properly.

But always double check when your life's circumstances change (new residence, etc)

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#62

Post by toomuchtodo »

__z wrote: post #59
toomuchtodo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Simple for banking, which doesn't support this, but Betterment (who manages my retirement accounts) does. My wife is my primary beneficiary, and I've submitted a feature request to them that they support specifying a 501(c)(3) as my contingent beneficiary (Watsi, in case you're wondering) if we've both died at the same time. I'm curious what their UX around it is; I should ask! Ideally, my wife would provide th…

The social security administration notifies banks of your death.

I'm curious how they do this. Do they provide a list of SSNs on a schedule to financial orgs through the Fed?

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#63

Post by PirateDave »

Red_Tarsius wrote: post #52
pzxc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few grammatical errors in these documents as well that do not inspire confidence. Also, you better be damn sure that you can trust the person you give power of attorney to -- the document provided here assigns power of attorney immediately, not on incapacitation/death, and allows the person you designate to gift themselves up to $13,000 a year of your own property without your consent. Considering the law…

> Frankly I don't see why the HN crowd would upvote a site like this -- I'd bet it was ring votes that got it to the front page. Or maybe it was just the snarky domain, who knows. Or maybe it's because the site is a useful checklist of what we should do to prevent death from completely destroying our family. I'm the original poster and I'm not affiliated with the author in any way. The core message is not " we offer…

I thought this is a great starting point. Also, after looking through the actual wills, they are already filled out with George Washington's information so the legal documents are used as an example, not for actual legal use.

Plus, I'm not sure my family would enjoy looking through my will upon my death with: Get Your Shit Together! printed at the bottom of each page :)

This site is helpful to let me know which parts I overlooked like simple things like passwords or account access.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#65

Post by __z »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #62
__z wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The social security administration notifies banks of your death.

I'm curious how they do this. Do they provide a list of SSNs on a schedule to financial orgs through the Fed?

The SSA has a death index. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Death_Index Banks probably register your SS number (which they are required to have) with the SSA for "notify if dead" (just a guess). Doubtful they give every financial institution the SS numbers of all deaths on a regular basis. Then again they might have direct access to such information since they can't open up an account for a dead person.

Of course it suck if you end up on it while you are still alive

http://consumerist.com/2015/05/04/being-declared-dead-by-the...

>She learned that she was dead when she received a letter from her bank. The bank expressed its corporate condolences, and locked her out of her account. The Social Security Administration also stopped her retirement checks, and her health insurance also stopped.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#66

Post by tomjen3 »

napoleond wrote: post #43
jobu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Frankly I don't see why the HN crowd would upvote a site like this -- I'd bet it was ring votes that got it to the front page. Or maybe it was just the snarky domain, who knows. My guess is it struck a chord with people similar to myself - young family and minimal EOL planning. (although the snarky domain definitely helps) For us, the biggest problem has been deciding who should take care of the kids if something h…

In the Roman Catholic tradition, this problem is solved with godparents. I'm not Catholic (and I don't have kids yet), but the model seems to make sense. Forgive me for stepping way beyond the bounds of "internet stranger's business" but if your close friends' lives are so full that they would not care for your children if you became incapacitated, you need better friends.

I strongly disagree with that view. I don't have children of my own and while I would open the door at 3 am to take friends in (or heck a neighbor) while we get things sorted out taking on children is a major life disrupting experience.

So yes saying no would be selfish, assuming that any of your friends would have their lives completely disrupted just because you have children seems quite a bit more selfish.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#67

Post by Spooky23 »

courtewing wrote: post #13

This is great advice all around, but get a local lawyer involved to prepare your will. Even in US, there is not a single set of laws that apply to wills and power of attorney. It varies state by state. With a generic template pulled from the internet, you could just be doing a whole lot of work and ultimately be ending up with a document that has little legal basis. Do your loved ones a favor - hire a lawyer to do it…

Great advice.

Even with a will, in some places the probate process is very expensive and onerous. In many cases, it's a lot easier to use a simple trust mechanism vs. a will. 3 hours of attorney time now can avoid 50 hours + lots of calendar time later.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#68

Post by tomjen3 »

__z wrote: post #31

I doubt these documents would be worth anything without getting notarized. Among other problems. Getting something notarized runs from free-around $2 so it's hilarious they expect you to track down two impartial witnesses but don't even mention a notary public. If you are familiar with the current pending Supreme Court case DeBoer v. Snyder (which for the Supreme Court was combined with 3 other cases) you'd know in m…

Unless you are in the complete bonies you can track down to impartial witness very quickly - your neighbors, or if you know them well their neighbors, etc.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#69

Post by dkhenry »

I can not agree with this advice. There are still a few area's where its worth it to have a trained professional, and their fee's are well worth it. I have a wife and three kids, I will not trust their future to some random page on the internet. I went to a reputable estate lawyer and I didn't just get some documents I started a relationship. That is what I am counting on. Every year I now have a professional that I go to not only review and update my documents, but to get advice for how laws change and what their inpact is to me.

Be responsible, don't cut corners.

Re: Get Your Shit Together

#70

Post by Symbiote »

stevewilhelm wrote: post #37

Another bit of advice, if you have prepared these basic documents, it is a good idea to review them periodically. It is particularly important to review and revise these documents after life changing events: getting married, having children, or when parents or executor becomes elderly, incapacitated, or dies.

And the step my parents forgot: when your eldest child turns 18, add them as an executor.
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