That may not be a clear title :) We have finished all the legal work with the attorney, but I just thought of a question this morning and figured some of you have probably already faced it.
All our income goes directly into our checking account, then all the recurring monthly bills, as well as transfer to saving, are auto deducted on their due date. Our income continues until both have passed, then usually the last payment has to be returned. I'm wondering about those auto payments, utilities etc, that will continue even though no money is coming into the account. Will our agent need to immediately have those stopped? Put enough money into the account to cover a few months? I expect it will take a while for insurance to be paid out. In the past we've always had to have death certificates to send to various places.
There will be enough money to cover the expenses but I know you don't necessarily feel like taking care of those mundane tasks immediately. I guess if there is time many of those can be handled prior to death?
Still having a break from our hot, humid summer which is wonderful. I just need to be at least two people to do what needs to be done. I go between hiring a housekeeper or hiring someone to take care of the outside.
I gave my trustees a list of bills, how they are paid, and contact numbers for each of them. Most are automatic. I have a savings account/emergency fund enough for several months. My checking account generally has more than enough for a month of bills. Some banks let you set things up to cover overdrafts from savings.
He has contact info for the finance companies. He is listed on the “pertinent pages” of the trust that the finance companies have. He’ll need the death certificate to become the trustee. If you don’t have a trust, then make the bank account pay on death so your agent can get control of the money quickly. They’d have to get the bills paid from a new account.
I have read that many companies will waive any fees that get charged. Once the trustee or agent has the death certificate and takes charge of accounts they can call and ask about that. Or they could open estate accounts and switch bills to be paid from there. If you live paycheck to paycheck then it might be best not to have automatic bill payments. Then the balance will just grow til someone takes care of it and they can probably get late fees waived then too.
Hmmm... I need to think about this. I set up automatic bills so the house would be taken care of if something happened to me and Jim was still alive. Now that it’s just me and things are a little more difficult for a non-spouse to take care of, I think perhaps I should not have automatic payments. But perhaps it doesn’t matter. He’ll have to contact the billers anyway. He could report my death, tell them to stop automatic payments and tell them where to send the bills.
If I am dead, then I think he needs to get a tax ID for the estate. I didn’t have to do that since I was the spouse. He will have to file an income tax return for me for the year in which I died, and an income tax return for any income received by the estate between the date of my death and when everything is transferred to the heirs. He will probably also have to file an estate tax return. (I filed one when Jim died in order to take advantage of “portability” of his exemption which was more than $11 million in 2018. When I die I will have that and whatever the estate tax limit is then. I remember the exemption being less than $1 million so anything can happen. I figured better safe than sorry.)
Yes bhv*, everything is on my computer and accessible to our trustee, plus she can access funds anytime since she is already on our account. I keep a floating balance in my checking account and I guess after thinking about it, the retirement checks would have be issued - then there would be a process to return any funds once they receive a death certificate. So probably the best thought is for her to just transfer enough money into the checking account to cover anything till there is time to go over all the details. She can then contact the companies to have the bills stopped and where to send a closing bill.
I hadn't thought about filing the taxes, dang - they keep after me even once I'm dead, LOL.
Halfway through August and we're still paddling the same canoe up the same stream. Seems like there is never an end in sight. Dr says dh is following the typical AZ progression, however, I think he has stabilized for awhile, he's peaceful and happy. The fast drops would take me by surprise and by the time I got used to it, he slid down more.
On the up side, we have all our estate papers in order, signed, sealed and delivered. Not sure our kids on the west coast are happy with our decisions, but it was our decision to make. We only gave them a brief idea of what we did. Not sure what they expected. We've made arrangements for monies to be set aside to take care of us if necessary, and hopefully be able to remain in our home. They all live 2000+ miles away, have jobs and could not - even if they were willing -drop everything and come back here and stay long enough to take care of things.
I developed an ear infection the first part of June and it continued to get worse - I thought it was an allergy from all the mold outside. Wasn't till my youngest son and his wife were here earlier this month and I commented how I was having trouble with my balance - my son said, Mom, maybe you have an inner ear infection. Had never, ever crossed my mind it might be an an ear infection. I knew my ear hurt but we were having terrible weather and my asthma was acting up plus I was busy getting ready for their visits. Called and made an appt, but then my doctor went to the hospital herself so they rescheduled, and rescheduled and the third time I said I think I'd better see one of the other doctors, my ear had started bleeding. I did see a doctor he prescribed a medication but when I went to pick it up it was not covered by my insurance was over $200 to buy - plus they didn't stock it. They faxed the dr for a different prescription - was just a generic and still not cheap. How could ear drops cost so much? I assume it will eventually do the job just take longer.
Anxious to see my own doctor and get new test results. I too have a vitamin D deficiency, second time in the last few years. I didn't think that was possible in this day and age but learned as you did Charlotte that it isn't that unusual. That deficiency caused my parathyroid hormone to increase and we needed to get it down.
As many of you have mentioned, who takes care of the caregiver?