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If you are old and retired, in all honesty you could die anytime without notice!
When my last surviving brother died alone it was quite a job to get access to his financial records and his money. He had no central file for his brokerage accounts, bank accounts, life insurance, etc. We had to turn his house upside down to find this information and later found out many of his financial documents were only on his computer, which was locked with a password. Then accessing his money was not so simple, we eventually had to get court orders. I was in his will but accessing his money was not so simple because my name was not on his financial accounts.
So, do you have a file cabinet of documents that would give your next of kin access to your money and financial records and could they access the money without a court order in case you died suddenly?
(I am not talking about your spouse. Lets assume you are not married or die with your spouse together.)
If you are old and retired, in all honesty you could die anytime without notice!
When my last surviving brother died alone it was quite a job to get access to his financial records and his money. He had no central file for his brokerage accounts, bank accounts, life insurance, etc. We had to turn his house upside down to find this information and later found out many of his financial documents were only on his computer, which was locked with a password. Then accessing his money was not so simple, we eventually had to get court orders. I was in his will but accessing his money was not so simple because my name was not on his financial accounts.
So, do you have a file cabinet of documents that would give your next of kin access to your money and financial records and could they access the money without a court order in case you died suddenly?
(I am not talking about your spouse. Lets assume you are not married or die with your spouse together.)
Last year I put my older daughter on my bank accounts and she has access to everything. I also went to the funeral home, made arrangements and paid for, my 'final' expenses. I have my computer passwords in a safe place that she knows about. I don't want to leave anyone a 'mess' to clean up. My younger daughter is listed as next in line if something happened to her sister.
The brother that died did not have a spouse and he did not trust his siblings with all that information and assumed we would clean out his bank accounts.
The brother that died did not have a spouse and he did not trust his siblings with all that information and assumed we would clean out his bank accounts.
You don't have to have joint (dual ownership) accounts. Set up POD (pay on death) for any accounts that are not named in a trust. Even if accounts are passworded they can be accessed at death if you set it up that way.
Having access to information/documents and having access to money are 2 different things.
We have wills. They are in our house. The personal representative of our estates (if both of us are dead) has a key to our house and knows exactly where the wills are. I also send him a summary of what's what and where every few years. It contains lots of other information too. Like how income comes in - how bills get paid - etc. It's very comprehensive (about 6-7 pages long). Everyone should prepare a summary like this. For a personal representative - a spouse - etc.
A personal representative named in a will must get a court order appointing him/her as PR before he/she can access accounts - dispose of money and property - pretty much do anything. Even if someone has access to passwords and accounts on computers - it is illegal to deal with a decedent's property unless you're a co-owner of the property or have been duly appointed as personal representative. If someone has been handling your affairs under a power of attorney - that power of attorney terminates when you die.
For most people - it is not a good idea to make people other than spouses joint owners of your accounts/assets. Joint owners *own* accounts. Even if you're not worried that a joint owner would "clean out" your account (which they can do) - the money in the joint account is subject to claims against the joint owner. Arising from things like divorces - lawsuits - etc.
Payable on death provisions on bank accounts and their analogues in brokerage firms? Well that varies a lot from person to person - estate to estate. In general - the larger and more complicated an estate is - the less desirable it is to use provisions like this. For a number of reasons. Like amounts in various accounts can vary from time to time. If you want X to get half - and Y to get half - and accounts have POD provisions - that may interfere with your intent unless the POD provision is half and half.
One also has to remember that beneficiary provisions in IRAs and the like govern the disposal of these assets. People often get into trouble with retirement accounts when they forget to change beneficiary provisions after a divorce - a death - etc.
There are other considerations. But - overall - in general - it's best that your personal representative should have all the information necessary to do what you want done after you die. But not immediate access to all of your accounts while you're still alive. What's the hurry? Robyn
1) ANY one could die at any age (The victims run over at the OSU parade or killed in a movie theater didn't think they'd die that day)
2) No they don't. I've thought about copying records for them, or setting up a separate account for them, or putting them on accounts as POD/TOD, and they are on things as beneficiaries of 401K and insurance, etc. But are they on my accounts now, or do they have access? No.
I do have a DPOA. But it would also be nice for them to have immediate access to SOME money, without having to go through that extra step. But I don't want to set up another, extra account just to put their name on it to give them immediate access to a few thousand dollars. So the DPOA will just have to do for now. Plus, I'm blessed that my POA is in decent enough financial shape herself that if a few thousand is all that's needed for what ever reason until she invokes the POA she can just take care of that and deal with the POA later. Basically:
-- if I'm alive but just laid up in the hospital, but CAN communicate, I can just tell people where everything is
-- if I'm alive but CAN'T communicate I have a DPOA, medical directive, will etc
-- if I'm dead I have an executrix, and beneficiaries and TOD/PODs named for most things
-- the DPOA/executrix knows about all this
Last year I put my older daughter on my bank accounts and she has access to everything. I also went to the funeral home, made arrangements and paid for, my 'final' expenses. I have my computer passwords in a safe place that she knows about. I don't want to leave anyone a 'mess' to clean up. My younger daughter is listed as next in line if something happened to her sister.
"Put" your older daughter on the bank accounts? Joint owner? POD? That means all the money in the bank accounts is hers when you die. Assuming you want your daughters to split things 50-50 - what provisions have you made to accomplish that? Robyn
"Put" your older daughter on the bank accounts? Joint owner? POD? That means all the money in the bank accounts is hers when you die. Assuming you want your daughters to split things 50-50 - what provisions have you made to accomplish that? Robyn
Yes, it means all the money in the accounts is hers when I die...at least temporarily till all is taken care of. I also have a Will spelling out how things will be divided but I don't worry about her trying 'cheat' her brother and sister out of anything. I just felt I needed someone who would be responsible and be able to access things if I were to die unexpectedly. The only 'real' asset I have is my house and that will either be kept, and shared, by them or sold and the money split. Most likely the latter.
Just FYI, your daughter may indeed honor your wishes and split the account money.
But will or no will, if she's TOD/POD on your accounts, once you're gone that money is hers. Period.
And depending on how much it is -- IF she wants to GIFT it to them in one shot, if it's over a certain amount if could bring gift issues into play. Likely not, but it could happen.
(You may not be concerned about those issues. Just wanted others to know. there could be issues.)
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