IdeaSagar: August 2021

Trusting and then Entrusting our Care and our Descendant's Care & Assets to Trusts or Whatever and However [1]

As I was seeing a number of situations where people are living happily and are busy with their lives. Good! They have good families and great jobs and gain good wealth. In most cases, life goes on quite well and ends well.

But, unfortunately, in the case of some families, things take a bad turn. I am neither an expert nor even a specialist in managing one’s finances and family affairs, but had suggested a few things by looking at reference sources. More importantly, I think I foresee potential problems and alert people to take due steps while the sun is shining. I know and they also know that rainy days will come but they are too busy earning and spending that they do not think of the rainy and snowy seasons.

With so many bad things happening in the world and the amount of kindness bestowed by people, even close relatives and friends, is becoming severely limited, one has to take care of things for oneself. By and large, it is possible.

For example, I had suggested that young people going overseas for higher studies should take life insurance coverage so that their parents are not left with a big loan to pay, minus a child on whom they had all hopes for a bright future. It is worse if the child is severely ill in a foreign country. With the recent COVID-19 virus and the resulting restrictions and quarantine requirements, traveling to a foreign country is nearly impossible.

Now, let us discuss some situations.

1. One is doing well and has good assets. What happens if that person falls ill and is incapacitated? Can one’s spouse help? Does the spouse have access to the funds they have? It is very difficult to get help without cash to pay for services.

2. If one is single but falls severely sick, who will take care of that person by accessing that person’s assets and previously expressed wishes to get healthcare? Young, middle aged, persons take life and health for granted. It is okay most of the time but should a disaster strike them by way of an accident or an incapacitating illness, their money does not come to their aid if they had not made appropriate arrangements ahead of time.

I had heard people telling stories about what a miserable life a highly popular and talented Telugu movie actress led when she fell sick despite the fact that she had acted in scores of movies and earned considerable wealth. She died in a poor shack with no medical help. An identical story is told about a highly popular Hindi movie actress also.

Some people live on their own and contact their friends and family sparingly. Should something happen to them, their end will be miserable.

I know of the case of a colleague who was in fine health. His wife was in the travel business and was once on a business trip. She returned home after a few days of her trip while wondering with some anxiety that the husband had not answered her phone calls and would not come to the airport to receive her. When she reached home, she found him dead. He had died after a severe heart attack.

A few years back, an acquaintance of mine returned home from a business trip. He did not have the key to his home. When he knocked on his door, his wife did not respond. He decided to go to a fast food place, have a sandwich for lunch. He returned after an hour and knocked on his door. They had a small dog that was barking. He went to the back side of the house where they had a large French door and knocked on the door. Their dog continued severe barking and fortunately pulled the drapes a little from which gap he could see his wife lying on the floor. He called 911. The emergency responders came, broke the lock, opened the door, and found that the wife had suffered a stroke several hours earlier. She was admitted to the hospital. She was in coma and had severe health problems. Fortunately, she survived and has been recovering slowly. One would never know when a serious jolt hits us. This gentleman was in a gig business and had only a few weeks back joined a permanent job that offered good medical benefits. If he were in his gig job with no health insurance , he could not have paid the medical and therapy bills for his wife’s long recovery and rehabilitation.

It is not my intention to recite a number of such bad incidents here and spoil your day. I want to merely emphasize that unfortunate things can happen anytime. The question is, “Can we protect ourselves so that we do not suffer unnecessary consequences.” Particularly with some emerging and existing excellent technical devices and systems, some situations can be protected. But we do not have personal robot-valets yet. That is for my bio-medical technologist friends to explore.

For the rest of us, we should have some friends and/or relatives to take care of our status and assist us with our own assets, insurance coverage, wills, and trusts, if the need arises.

Some precautionary steps are critical for seniors living on their own. It is equally critical for those who have adult children who cannot take care of even themselves. Complicated government regulations and procedures do not help much. Things are much worse these days with continual phone calls and other communications from both domestic and international scammers who make life and living even more complex. I hope my friends with expertise in financial affairs, ethical accounting procedures, and technology will address the issues stemming from the current and emerging life in the society such that we take care of ourselves and our loved ones and leave this world with little unnecessary suffering when the last call comes for us.

I cannot and may not advise anyone on this topic as I have neither the licenses to do such practice nor the knowledge to teach anyone.

So, I collected some links with information on how to address some financial situations with wills and trusts in response to someone’s question about how to take care oneself as well as an adult child currently suffering from some health problems.

I also hope that my knowledgeable friends would add more links as comments.

I would like someone with expertise in this area to write a nice paper explaining the choices and which choice best fits someone with certain conditions and the whole process. It should be almost like a cooking recipe with the nutritional and allergy implications.

Once a good document is posted and I am advised about it, I will consider deleting this document and post. If this document does not help or if it is more confusing than not having it, please let me know.

There are very likely to be variations from one country to another and it will be nice if some knowledgeable people post such country or state specific information.

Information should be ultimately actionable.

[1] I do not take any responsibility for this post as I am merely providing some links with information with no obligation. I do not vouch for the information at these links but, as a lay person, feel that these links give us some education. Some of these links are for information from companies that may be in the business of setting up trusts. There will be some advertisements at the websites at these links and please beware and not fall for scams. Please read the information. Try to understand the particulars. See where you may get some good, honest, appropriate, and affordable help.

Here are some links:

https://www.caregiver.org/resource/where-find-my-important-papers/

https://mentalillnesspolicy.org/coping/estate-planning-mentally-ill.html

http://www.courts.alaska.gov/shc/probate/probate-trusts.htm

https://www.utcourts.gov/howto/family/gc/options.html

https://www.osbar.org/public/legalinfo/1196_RevocableTrusts.html

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2013/11/how-to-create-a-bulletproof-estate-plan/index.htm

https://www.consumerreports.org/estate-planning/what-to-know-about-making-an-online-will/

https://www.consumerreports.org/elder-fraud/ways-to-prevent-elder-financial-abuse/

https://www.aarp.org/money/estate-planning/info-09-2010/ten_things_you_should_know_about_living_trusts.html

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/09/legal-diy-websites-are-no-match-for-a-pro/index.htm

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/how-special-needs-trusts-work.html