House In Order, day 21

[cjsmith]

Advance Health Care Directive (medical power of attorney and living will) DONE. Need to print it out, get it signed by some witnesses, and hand out copies.

Insufferably proud of self. I had procrastinated this one for years.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ouch. That is a sad, sad reason to have all that stuff up to date... although it's good you have it. *hugs*.

(Trust? What do you use a trust for, if you don't mind the question? I haven't set one up for anything.)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

yup, it was a pretty crappy way to go about things, but getting to see how things are done when you DON'T have health care POA, etc, really drove home the point.

i set up a Revocable Living Trust for my nephew. when i die, the money goes into trust for him, administered by a bank. i did it because his parents are divorced, and i didn't want there to be squabbles about money, and with his mother as the custodial parent, if the money went straight to him, she'd actually control it, and i didn't want that. but the trust only applies if i die before he's, oh, 30 or something. after that, it'll go to him outright.

(not that i'm wealthy, but i do have life insurance, enough that there'd be money left over after paying off the house and dumping me in the ground).

that makes me think that i should check the working ... just in case my brother and his wife-to-be have kids (which i think they will).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ouch - yes, that's really rough.

Cool about your nephew! I didn't know you had set that up for him. That's great. It's a good idea to do a little estate planning whether you're rich or poor. As you say, life insurance can make a difference.

Yeah, changes like gaining more nieces and nephews can mean redoing some of that stuff. If I do a will now I may have to revamp it completely in a few years when my brother and his wife, or my sister and her husband-to-be, start a family.