Have You Done Your Will And Power Of Attorney ?

[tjthemanto]

Make sure all you guys have one . You never know and its worth it , and not that expensive either.

My parent's just did the above.

2 wills ( one for each ) ..the wills are identical ..but its better to have one for each as opposed to a joint will..the names are interchanged..survivor , beneficiary etc.

2 Power of attorney's for Personal Care ( one for each )

2 Power Of Attorney's for Property ( one for each )

So in all 6 legal document's...3 for each ( 1 will + 2 PA's )

It cost them just 500 bucks to do all the above from a good reputed lawyer ..money well spent I guess.

I guess it could have been cheaper if they had used some do it yourself type of kit , but theY didn't want to take a chance as you never know the validity or accuracy of such wills

[Zonny]

If anybody knows the importance of this, it's me. My Mom got hers done years ago, and about 14 months ago she fell and broke her hip. Without that POA, I would not have been able to make decisions on her behalf. The surgery seems to have brought on dementia, and after a seven month wait in the hospital (which certainly assisted in her mental decline IMO), she finally got a placement in a nursing home.

Strangely it was the bank that gave me the most trouble with the POA. When I called them to make arrangements to have control of her finances, they had me make an appointment. When I came in and showed them my document, they wanted to call her to ask if I had permission to use the POA! I thought this was why we had the doc in the first place, giving me that permission? Anyhow, at that point she did not have the mental capacity to make decisions or tell them anything sensible. When I pointed out that she could not make any such call, they required a letter from her doctor to let me use the POA.

Even after all that, I made a call to them once to cancel her credit card or something. They told me that I didn't have the 'right type' of POA to conduct business over the phone. It was very frustrating! I think the thing that we should have done was make arrangements to have me on her account while she was still of sound mind. But I didn't know that at the time. Even CRA didn't require all this red tape, faxing the POA to them was sufficient.

[Angela273]

I agree, I have told dh that I want us to write up official documents...especially now that we have a young son.

[Zonny]

I agree, I have told dh that I want us to write up official documents...especially now that we have a young son.

Another important thing, if you have kids you need to appoint a guardian for them if something were to happen to you or DH. A coworker had a friend where the mother died in childbirth, the dad was raising the child - and when the child was five, the dad was killed in a car accident. They had made no arrangements for this possibility. Sure it doesn't happen often, but you want to be prepared if it happens to you.

[lilo0003]

We did all of this when we had our 1st and just revised it. Even though it specified any future children I wanted our secondion by name I also removed my brother and SIL as guardian because as we watched them raise their children we knew that was not for us. We chose close friends and have advised the familes just in case.
I agree about being added to aging parents accounts if you can. It makes life much easier.

[tjthemanto]

Plus if you don't have a will ..the amount of cut the government will take in administrative charges etc and the disputes that will arise after your death are a lot.

It will become much more expensive in the long run , so don't try to save afew bucks here and there..get a will and Power of Attorney done from a reputed lawyer.

Lot of these are standard rotine procedures which won't take much of your time or money, but worth doing it

[Ciel]

I thought POA for personal care applied to health decisions only and the POA for personal property covered assets, including bank accounts?

I know of friends who have such documents for their family situations but not my parents. Getting them to spend the money on a lawyer would be a big money discussion for them. I am on one parent's bank account while sibling is listed on other parent's account.

My worry about the absence of wills is that if the public trustee ever had to be involved with estate matters, I will probably not like the market or going rate plus expenses likely to accompany said involvement.

TV's Judge Judy has a POA for personal care for her friend, a newspaper columnist who did take ill over a year ago. The columnist has no family left of her own.

If I had the money available to undertake the process for myself and be able to offer money to cover one parent's paperwork, then the legal work would get arranged and be done. Not sure where I'd store the papers, though. A safety deposit box large enough to store legal papers can be a hard resource to locate in one's community-went through that last fall.

[coupon girl]

very very important -we got a will years ago when our kids were younger -now young adults 28 and 30 -my mom had a will and I was on both bank accounts(that makes life so easier too- trust me)-that in its self is important -she lived with us 6 and a half years til she passed in march -and personal care is so important too -I was the executrix and I followed her will to the "t"-good advise tjthemanto-my mom also had her funeral arrangements pre-paid -I made a fun day out of it about 4 years ago-we will go for lunch right after I told her -trust me at 87 she didn't even want to think she was going to die soon so I had to talk her into a fun day to do that-so glad I did that too-so if you have elderly parents try to listen to this advise -cause all of it makes life sooo much easier

[Zonny]

A safe deposit box may not be the best idea. I have a coworker who lost his father a couple of years ago. His mother was still living, but was suffering from mild dementia. The will was in the safe deposit box, and coworker would not have had access to it, or even known it was there if not for his father mentioning it. He immediately told his dad to get it out of there, and fortunately he did, as he passed away only about a week later. They didn't expect the dad to pass away when he did.

[tjthemanto]

I thought POA for personal care applied to health decisions only and the POA for personal property covered assets, including bank accounts?

I know of friends who have such documents for their family situations but not my parents. Getting them to spend the money on a lawyer would be a big money discussion for them. I am on one parent's bank account while sibling is listed on other parent's account.

My worry about the absence of wills is that if the public trustee ever had to be involved with estate matters, I will probably not like the market or going rate plus expenses likely to accompany said involvement.

TV's Judge Judy has a POA for personal care for her friend, a newspaper columnist who did take ill over a year ago. The columnist has no family left of her own.

If I had the money available to undertake the process for myself and be able to offer money to cover one parent's paperwork, then the legal work would get arranged and be done. Not sure where I'd store the papers, though. A safety deposit box large enough to store legal papers can be a hard resource to locate in one's community-went through that last fall.

If its a joint account , you need not worry abt. The bank accounts...no POA etc necessary.

But the rest of the assets you need to worry about.

You can get a POA ( both personal care and property care ) done for 75 bucks , you can even do it yourself ..standard forms available on gov. Websites ..very easy to do.

Doing a will on your own is more complicated..would recommend a lawyer .

If u don't have the funds for the will ..then atleast get the 2 POA's for each parent done ..very easy to do on your own.

Take care of the will later on

[saundyl]

If anybody knows the importance of this, it's me. My Mom got hers done years ago, and about 14 months ago she fell and broke her hip. Without that POA, I would not have been able to make decisions on her behalf. The surgery seems to have brought on dementia, and after a seven month wait in the hospital (which certainly assisted in her mental decline IMO), she finally got a placement in a nursing home.

Strangely it was the bank that gave me the most trouble with the POA. When I called them to make arrangements to have control of her finances, they had me make an appointment. When I came in and showed them my document, they wanted to call her to ask if I had permission to use the POA! I thought this was why we had the doc in the first place, giving me that permission? Anyhow, at that point she did not have the mental capacity to make decisions or tell them anything sensible. When I pointed out that she could not make any such call, they required a letter from her doctor to let me use the POA.

Even after all that, I made a call to them once to cancel her credit card or something. They told me that I didn't have the 'right type' of POA to conduct business over the phone. It was very frustrating! I think the thing that we should have done was make arrangements to have me on her account while she was still of sound mind. But I didn't know that at the time. Even CRA didn't require all this red tape, faxing the POA to them was sufficient.

I've noticed that we do a POA here we let the Clients know that they should be filing that POA with the bank at the time so they have the document on file in the event of something occurring. That way it is on file for reference with the bank and the person the POA is for is the one filing it at the bank.

[blueeyetea]

Anyhow, at that point she did not have the mental capacity to make decisions or tell them anything sensible. When I pointed out that she could not make any such call, they required a letter from her doctor to let me use the POA.

Zonny, I wouldn't take it personally. In this sad day and age of elder abuse, I think it was wise of the bank to get proof that your mother was incapacitated.

[Zonny]

Zonny, I wouldn't take it personally. In this sad day and age of elder abuse, I think it was wise of the bank to get proof that your mother was incapacitated.

But this is why we had the POA done in the first place. You don't give this power to someone you don't trust or to someone who will abuse the privilege.

The document was good enough for CRA, was good enough for hospitals, nursing homes where I'm making decisions about her care. But not good enough for Royal Bank. In addition to having to have a letter from her doctors, they had to send the document to their legal department for review. At the time I was trying to get her taxes done so that we could get her on the waiting list for the nursing home, and I needed tax documents from the bank. No one gave me a harder time than the bank. They wouldn't even send the materials out to the address they had on file for her.

[Granger]

We recently did these documents and paid about $575 taxes in. After TONS of research going through a lawyer seemed best for us and is what I would recommend if asked.

[tocgal]

my father put his condo in joint names with me, with the understanding I would allow his partner to continue to live in it after his death. This was done with a lawyer, at the same time his will was written. I have one sibling and she had received financial help earlier - a unit was bought for her - so by having my name joint on condo it evened things out. Unfortunately for us, my dad died and then my sibling started action claiming she had a 50% right to it. I had to hire lawyer and spent approx. 50,000 of a 300,000 estate going to mediation so my dads wishes could be followed, and his partner would be allowed to continue to live in the unit- lesson learnt -- for anyone gaining more then sibling make sure your parent signs and writes a letter stating what they are giving you is a gift and explains why you are getting more. All the expenses could have been prevented had my Dad written me a letter explaining why my name was on title as joint owner, and how they had given my sibling her inherietance earlier. As this was not done, the joint owner on title did not mean much, as other money as stated in the will was to be shared equally with my sibling. End result it made more financial sense to settle and allow my sibling a percentage of the condo on the understanding his partner could live in it for as long as she wanted.