End of Life Financial and Legal Planning

If I'm the partner on a friend's checking account, is it legal for me to distribute the funds after death?

My neighbor asked me to be a partner on his checking account. I typed up a document stating what he wanted and had him sign it; I signed and had a witness sign, too. We went to the bank and he told the bank officer what he wanted done. The bank officer assured both of us that no one else could contest this arrangement...

1 Expert Answer

Revocable Living Trusts: A Beginner's Guide

A revocable living trust is one of the single most important documents for your parents to have in their estate plan. It functions as a will, allows their estate to avoid probate, makes a potential guardianship process unnecessary, and gives them control of their assets for as long as they'd like or are able to manage them...

10 Things to Consider Including in a Will

Wills are generally the centerpiece of an estate plan, allowing people to direct how their property should be divided and who should get it after they die.

Conservatorship and Adult Guardianship: A Beginner's Guide

If your parent is in good health, you may not be thinking about her possible need for a conservatorship, or adult guardianship. But if you are considering this step, you're not alone. The unfortunate truth is that many elders have long periods toward the end of life when they're not able to make decisions...

8 Things to Know About Power of Attorney for Finances

A power of attorney for finances can be a valuable tool for your parent. He can use it to help him manage specific transactions, to assist him for just a short time, or to regularly manage his everyday affairs. And what's called a durable power of attorney for finances sets up a simple, relatively inexpensive...

What's the emergency procedure for obtaining durable power of attorney for finance or health care?

During a recent visit, I was dismayed to see how much my mother has declined mentally. She's refusing any help from me. What can I do to ensure that I can help and protect her when the time comes that she can't do it herself? I'm worried that if her faculties continue to erode, it will be too late.

1 Expert Answer

Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills: A Beginner's Guide

Helping your parent prepare for end-of-life medical decisions can be of great comfort to both your parent and to others in your family. The document that helps you do this is an advance health care directive or living will -- what it's called and what it includes depends on where your parent lives -- sometimes paired with a power of attorney for health care...

Planning for End-of-Life Care

Besides deciding how to pay for long-term care and estate planning (topics covered in the last two chapters), it is important to decide how future health care decisions will be made before things reach the crisis stage. These decisions should be recorded in legal documents for two reasons:

Do I still have power of attorney over my mother's bank accounts even though she's passed away?

I had power of attorney over my mother and her bank accounts when she was alive. Now that she has passed away, I'm trying to obtain the bank statements to determine suspect activity by a sibling. Do I still have a right to view those statements?

1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer

Choosing Hospice Under Medicare

Medical treatment during a person's final months of life can be extremely -- and unnecessarily -- invasive. People move from home to hospital to nursing facility and back again, often without any realistic hope of slowing the fatal illness...

Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills: A Step-by-Step Guide

Few decisions are more personal -- involving both health and death -- than those embodied in an advance health care directive or a living will, or a similar document. Some individuals want their lives prolonged by any means necessary, while others want medical treatments withheld, allowing for a natural death...

How do we preserve my deceased father's estate when my mother remarries?

My father died last year, leaving a sizeable estate. He handled all the finances, so I took over with power of attorney to handle finances for mom. My mother is now already contemplating remarriage. A pre-nup has been discussed. What needs to be included to preserve the estate for my sister and myself as my father intended...

1 Expert Answer

Estate Planning Basics

If your parents haven't yet done any estate planning -- finalizing legal documents to manage and pass on property and set out wishes for end-of-life matters -- it's likely on their list of things to do.

6 Estate Planning Questions Your Parents Should Answer

In deciding whether they need to do any estate planning, the key questions your parents should answer are whether there is any property they would like a particular person or charity to receive after their deaths and whether they have strong opinions about their medical care and final arrangements...

Probate: What It Is -- and How to Avoid It

Probate is the legal process that includes filing a deceased person's will with a court, locating and gathering the assets owned at death, paying all final debts and taxes due -- and, eventually, distributing the property that remains as the will directs...

The Generation-Skipping Trust: A Beginner's Guide

Generation-skipping trusts are not just for the very wealthy -- they're a way to save any family's assets from excessive taxation, ex-spouses looking for money, and creditors. Plus, they protect assets like stocks that are likely to grow considerably over time.

7 Important Instructions to Include in a Health Care Directive

An advance health care directive -- a legal document that tells caregivers and care providers how your parents want medical? matters handled -- should be as specific as possible. Help your parents think through all of the issues that might come up in connection with their future medical care.