Power of attorney

gggg...@gmail.com

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Oct 12, 2018, 7:25:09 PM10/12/18

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Don't most people appoint one of their children?

What if you are single?

John Weiss

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Oct 12, 2018, 10:39:47 PM10/12/18

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On 10/12/2018 16:25, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:
> Don't most people appoint one of their children?

No. Appoint someone you trust.

> What if you are single?

See above.

Michael Black

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Oct 13, 2018, 10:07:05 PM10/13/18

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On Fri, 12 Oct 2018, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:

> Don't most people appoint one of their children?
>
> What if you are single?
>

Aren't you thinking of death, or incapacitation?

There's lots of reasons to give someone power of attorney, it can be a
temporary thing or longer. Until your children are of legal age, and maybe
not even then, do you want to hand over power of attorney to them.

Michael

Beaver...@live.com

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Oct 13, 2018, 10:54:32 PM10/13/18

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I don't have kids.

Who gets my money when I die?

John Weiss

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Oct 13, 2018, 11:11:14 PM10/13/18

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On 10/13/2018 19:54, Beaver...@live.com wrote:
> On Saturday, October 13, 2018 at 7:07:05 PM UTC-7, Michael Black wrote:
>> On Fri, 12 Oct 2018, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>> Don't most people appoint one of their children?
>>>
>>> What if you are single?

>> Aren't you thinking of death, or incapacitation?
>>
>> There's lots of reasons to give someone power of attorney, it can be a
>> temporary thing or longer. Until your children are of legal age, and maybe
>> not even then, do you want to hand over power of attorney to them.

> I don't have kids.
>
> Who gets my money when I die?

Whoever you designate in your will.

If you don't have a will, it depends on your state probate laws.

gggg...@gmail.com

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Oct 14, 2018, 1:25:20 AM10/14/18

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On Friday, October 12, 2018 at 1:25:09 PM UTC-10, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:
> Don't most people appoint one of their children?
>
> What if you are single?

Misconceptions:

https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/4-08-16-misconceptions-about-a-power-of-attorney/

gggg...@gmail.com

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Oct 14, 2018, 1:27:03 AM10/14/18

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On Friday, October 12, 2018 at 1:25:09 PM UTC-10, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:

> Don't most people appoint one of their children?
>
> What if you are single?

"Durable power of attorney vs. living wills":

https://www.aplaceformom.com/planning-and-advice/articles/living-wills-and-durable-power-of-attorney

Michael Black

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Oct 14, 2018, 5:31:02 PM10/14/18

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The taxman gets some of it. They actually come first. Though what you
state the money should be used for may cut the amount that taxes take
away.

Kids don't automatically get your money when you die.

You aren't obligated to leave it to them, though it might be appropriate.

A will allows you to specify how your estate gets dealt with, assuming
anything is left after paying off debts and paying for handling your
remains.

So you can give it to your cat, or more likely set it up as a trust to
leave your cat in luxury with someone paid to take care of it.

You can give it to someone you don't like.

You can give it to a cause you do like.

If you have enough money, you could donate to a university or something,
and get your name on a building. (Though that may later be erased, when
someone else comes along with a larger donation. My great, great
grandmother's siblings have some streets named after them in Wiinipeg, but
poor "Aunt Jemima", who had self-esteem issues, was renamed, after a
famous politician. There was a big chunk of land that was eventually
parcelled out, sold to the then new city of Winnipeg at a low price, on
the condition that it be used for "public good". A few years ago I found
a recent newspaper article saying the city of Winnipeg can't sell their
old police headquarters because it's on some of that land, and if they
sell the land, the money reverts to the cousins. Sadly it's off a branch,
so I'd not see any of that money, though there are still cousins who the
money could revert to._

You could set up a scholarship, to give someone of your specifications a
boost, hopefully keeping the capital intact and investing it so there's
enough income to pay a scholarship every year or whatever.

YOu could specify that the money be used to hold a big party, just burn
through the money in one big gasp.

You could set up some trust to buy tickets to rock concerts for the needy.

Of course, if you don't give the money away intact, you also have to allow
for someone to handle the money over the long term, or for while whatever
you specify is being done.

If you don't have a will, then a judge has to step in and figure things
out, likely a long argument from remaining relatives over who should get
money, and how much.

If there are no immediate relatives, a search may have to be done and if
nobody turns up, the money probably doesn't go to a good cause. I suspect
the government just takes it in, maybe temporarily until relatives are
found, but then likely if they aren't found soon, they won't turn up
later.

You could always just spend it ahead of time, but the problem with that is
timing. You don't want to be 95 years old and rushing about madly
spending money so it won't revert to the taxman. But neither do you want
to spend it all too early and then be 95 without any money to cushion that
old age.

Michael

catalpa

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Oct 15, 2018, 9:53:41 PM10/15/18

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<Beaver...@live.com> wrote in message
news:f37fdba1-aa52-49e5...@googlegroups.com...

Depends on the state and who is alive. Without a will and no kids money goes
to spouse, siblings, parents, and first cousins.

tra...@optonline.net

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Oct 19, 2018, 2:07:17 PM10/19/18

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On Sunday, October 14, 2018 at 5:31:02 PM UTC-4, Michael Black wrote:
> On Sat, 13 Oct 2018, Beaver...@live.com wrote:
>
> > On Saturday, October 13, 2018 at 7:07:05 PM UTC-7, Michael Black wrote:
> >> On Fri, 12 Oct 2018, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:
> >>
> >>> Don't most people appoint one of their children?
> >>>
> >>> What if you are single?
> >>>
> >> Aren't you thinking of death, or incapacitation?
> >>
> >> There's lots of reasons to give someone power of attorney, it can be a
> >> temporary thing or longer. Until your children are of legal age, and maybe
> >> not even then, do you want to hand over power of attorney to them.
> >>
> >> Michael
> >
> > I don't have kids.
> >
> > Who gets my money when I die?
> >
> The taxman gets some of it. They actually come first. Though what you
> state the money should be used for may cut the amount that taxes take
> away.

In most states, for many people there is no tax. The federal estate tax
only starts in the millions. And many states there is no tax if it passes
between spouses or from a parent to a child. If it passes from to a
cousing, niece, etc then there is a good chance there is some state
tax.

Who gets how much is spelled out in state law and there usually isn't
a big fight, unless it's a big estate and who is or isn't a relative
is a subject of debate. If a person dies intestate with a modest
estate, has just a brother and two children, it's a simple process,
it's speled out by state law. With a will, you could leave it
all to one or divide it up as you see fit.

The other document that all people should have is a document that
spells out there wishes regarding medical treatment, if they become
incapacitated. That specifies who has the power to make decisions
for them and whether they want all measures taken to sustain them
or not.

gggg...@gmail.com

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Nov 3, 2018, 8:51:10 PM11/3/18

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On Friday, October 12, 2018 at 1:25:09 PM UTC-10, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:

> Don't most people appoint one of their children?
>
> What if you are single?

Is it advantageous to have a power of a. nearby rather than far away?

John Weiss

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Nov 3, 2018, 9:18:03 PM11/3/18

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On 11/3/2018 17:51, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Is it advantageous to have a power of a. nearby rather than far away?

It doesn't really matter, legally. It should be a person with whom you
have regular contact, and who YOU CAN TRUST!

tra...@optonline.net

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Nov 5, 2018, 3:23:30 PM11/5/18

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What do you think? Do you think it would be as easy for someone to take
care of your affairs if you were out of commission from 2000 miles away
as it would be if they were next door? Some things, like doing a financial
transaction online, it might not matter. But if it's entering your home,
getting into your safe deposit box, taking some legal action on your behalf,
then it matters a lot.

John Weiss

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Nov 5, 2018, 4:48:52 PM11/5/18

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On 11/5/2018 12:23, tra...@optonline.net wrote:
>>
>> Is it advantageous to have a power of a. nearby rather than far away?
>
> What do you think? Do you think it would be as easy for someone to take
> care of your affairs if you were out of commission from 2000 miles away
> as it would be if they were next door? Some things, like doing a financial
> transaction online, it might not matter. But if it's entering your home,
> getting into your safe deposit box, taking some legal action on your behalf,
> then it matters a lot.

But if the close person is not trustworthy, it will matter even more if
they do something you wouldn't want them to do...

Michael Black

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Nov 5, 2018, 11:28:29 PM11/5/18

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Has there been a morphing? You're right, but there's also the "executor
of the estate' or whatever. That is more likely to need to be local, or
involve travel. I suspect many a house belongings gets dumped outside
because the executor is from out of town, needs to clear things out, and
thus has no time to sort things out and deal with them properly.

My sister was executor for our mother's will, and that required a few
tripos over time to deal with it. Some of it could be done from afar, but
not all of it. She took a lot of old paper files to deal with t her house.
I didn't look at the will, I'm not sure what was supposed to happen with
the belongings. I've not been offered any of the jewelry, not that I was
really that interested in it.

"Power of attorney" is pretty broad. I gave my younger sister "power of
attorney" so she could deal with something for me, but it was a specific
thing, not a long lasting thing. Institutions often need someone to have
"power of attorney" in order for them to deal with a third party. Of
course, for my mother towards the end, my older sister got "power of
attorney" and it was a more broad and long lasting thing.

So it often depends. Some of it may require being local.

Michael

The Real Bev

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Nov 5, 2018, 11:47:49 PM11/5/18

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I was my mother's executor, as well as the trustee of her living trust.
Her will and the trust documents were clear and definite. She
deliberately set everything up to make it easy for me. It wasn't. That
was the hardest year I've ever spent.

Estate tax was due, and that was a big part of the stress. Half an inch
of forms. Incomprehensible language (and yes, I used to read Pub17 and
do taxes by hand) so I paid her accountants a few $thousand to do it.

I would never do that again for anyone, no matter how good a friend.

--
Cheers, Bev
"The last thing you want is for somebody to commit suicide
before executing them."
-Gary Deland, former Utah director for corrections

ItsJoan NotJoann

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Nov 6, 2018, 1:07:13 AM11/6/18

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Why would anyone choose a nearby person for their power of attorney if they
knew they were not trustworthy?

Michael Black

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Nov 6, 2018, 3:12:17 PM11/6/18

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I gave my sister a cactus, I don't think she minded the work, but I'm sure
at the time she'd rather not have to deal with the stuff. YOu want to do
other things, or just vegetate.

Michael

Michael Black

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Nov 6, 2018, 3:14:17 PM11/6/18

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I think he's saying that the primary decision making here is
trustworthiness. Having someone local is best, but if the trustworthy
person is elsewhere, they get the job, even if not being local is a
hardship.

Michael

tra...@optonline.net

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Nov 6, 2018, 7:15:44 PM11/6/18

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On Monday, November 5, 2018 at 11:28:29 PM UTC-5, Michael Black wrote:
> On Mon, 5 Nov 2018, tra...@optonline.net wrote:
>
> > On Saturday, November 3, 2018 at 8:51:10 PM UTC-4, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:
> >> On Friday, October 12, 2018 at 1:25:09 PM UTC-10, gggg...@gmail.com wrote:
> >>> Don't most people appoint one of their children?
> >>>
> >>> What if you are single?
> >>
> >> Is it advantageous to have a power of a. nearby rather than far away?
> >
> > What do you think? Do you think it would be as easy for someone to take
> > care of your affairs if you were out of commission from 2000 miles away
> > as it would be if they were next door? Some things, like doing a financial
> > transaction online, it might not matter. But if it's entering your home,
> > getting into your safe deposit box, taking some legal action on your behalf,
> > then it matters a lot.
> >
> Has there been a morphing?

I was simply answering the direct question asked about the advantages of having a person with power of attorney be local.

You're right, but there's also the "executor
> of the estate' or whatever.

That isn't the question that was asked, they are two different things.

Beaver...@live.com

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Nov 7, 2018, 1:54:26 PM11/7/18

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So if I have like 600k in gross sales (not all profit) and my next of kin can't find or understand my accounting, then the government probably just takes it all?

John Weiss

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>
> >
> > What I mean is I am getting loads of electronic payments on a daily basis which are reported to the IRS but only a small part is profit which means without the accounting if they would consider it all taxable income then take all the cash I have left.
>
> If those payments are for sales, no competent executor would just take sales
> as income. There should also be similar records of payments for goods sold
> and other expenses. An executor would sort through all that, perhaps together
> with an accountant, or whoever does your tax returns, etc. They also should
> have previous years income tax returns available as a reference. If they
> see you did $500K in sales last year, had expenses of $X, paid $10K in
> income tax, no competent executor would report $500K in income to the IRS
> and state.
>

Gotcha. The records are digital, all on my computer, updated and emailed to myself once a week or so just so I still have them if there is a problem. Actually the whole business is mostly digital. And quite possibly almost impossible for anyone else to understand.

Gotta find someone new to do my taxes, he misunderstood something I gave him, seriously underreporting last year's income by like 50k and I still haven't dealt with that yet.

(I am like seriously financially retarded, barely competent, unemployable, etc ... I just got really lucky on a few money making opportunities recently)

Gotcha.

I kinda got started when I felt sick this time last year but then got really busy again and just let it go.

I tend to spend like every waking moment trying to make money I hope I never have to spend and let everything else fall to the wayside.

And it's not just the money but ongoing business concerns which no one would know how to handle except maybe one friend. It doesn't help that I also really have no idea what I am doing.

tra...@optonline.net

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Nov 17, 2018, 7:24:56 PM11/17/18

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On Monday, November 12, 2018 at 9:39:12 PM UTC-5, Beaver...@live.com wrote:
> On Monday, November 12, 2018 at 9:20:20 AM UTC-8, tra...@optonline.net wrote:
> > On Monday, November 12, 2018 at 10:53:08 AM UTC-5, Beaver...@live.com wrote:
> > > On Friday, November 9, 2018 at 6:46:15 PM UTC-8, tra...@optonline.net wrote:
> > > > On Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 4:11:52 PM UTC-5, John Weiss wrote:
> > > > > On 11/7/2018 10:54, Beaver...@live.com wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > So if I have like 600k in gross sales (not all profit) and my next of kin can't find or understand my accounting, then the government probably just takes it all?
> > > > >
> > > > > Nope. Your state probate laws prevail.
> > > >
> > > > And if he has a will and executor, then the executor has to make as best sense
> > > > of it as he can, prepare any tax returns, and disburse the assets per the will.
> > > > Without a will, the probate court will appoint an executor and like you say,
> > > > who gets what will follow what is provided for in state law.
> > >
> > > No will or executor (I have like no close friends and family is scattered).
> >
> > It's better to have a will and executor at a distance, than no executor
> > at all. A will is essential in determining who gets what, unless you're
> > OK with state law, which governs that, absent a will.
> >
> >
>
>
>
> Maybe I will just appoint my roommate and hope he complies?

You should ask him if he's willing and capable. If it's a simple estate,
just some bank accounts, maybe some stocks, and personal belongings,
it's not hard to do, at least here in NJ. The executor takes a copy
of the will to the surrogate's office, gets it entered and they give
the executor certificates of executorship which the executor can then
use to close bank accounts, get to safety deposit boxes, sell cars,
etc. The executor follows the will, divides up whatever there is to go
to the various recipients and prepares an estate tax return, if needed,
pays any tax, submits an income tax return if one is required, etc.
A competent person can do that and save thousands. I've seen attorney's
really rip people off, charging thousands for doing very little and the
above can be done by an executor without an attorney.

>
> He's about as functional and capable as me, living way below the poverty line, etc. I was going to leave him something just so my untimely death doesn't end up putting him and his cats on the street.

You can leave the executor some compensation for their trouble.

>
> My mom is in another state and guardian of small children. And my dad, something is not quite right there.
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > >
> > > What I mean is I am getting loads of electronic payments on a daily basis which are reported to the IRS but only a small part is profit which means without the accounting if they would consider it all taxable income then take all the cash I have left.
> >
> > If those payments are for sales, no competent executor would just take sales
> > as income. There should also be similar records of payments for goods sold
> > and other expenses. An executor would sort through all that, perhaps together
> > with an accountant, or whoever does your tax returns, etc. They also should
> > have previous years income tax returns available as a reference. If they
> > see you did $500K in sales last year, had expenses of $X, paid $10K in
> > income tax, no competent executor would report $500K in income to the IRS
> > and state.
> >
>
>
> Gotcha. The records are digital, all on my computer, updated and emailed to myself once a week or so just so I still have them if there is a problem. Actually the whole business is mostly digital. And quite possibly almost impossible for anyone else to understand.
>
> Gotta find someone new to do my taxes, he misunderstood something I gave him, seriously underreporting last year's income by like 50k and I still haven't dealt with that yet.

Oh no, that isn't good.

I'm sure you're not the only one.

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Jan 18, 2020, 9:24:25 PM1/18/20

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And I want to maybe leave everything to my sister's kids.

One is in the military and haven't talked to him in forever. One is 20 and likes to party. One is 5.

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