Legal Papers/ Last will/Living will/etc.

[Indian Creek]

Hi all,
We've been full timing for 2 1/2 years and we're loving it. We think we have the bases covered except we have a question about things of a legal nature.
Last will and testament, living will, durable power of attorney, etc. We're all over the country, anything can happen at anytime or any place.
The question is this. What do people, who live like we do, do about these legal documents. Does the state you have these documents made up in have any bearing on if they are honored, or not, 2000 miles away from your legal address? If our legal address is in South Dakota, our assets in Kansas and we're hospitalized in San Diego, is our living will good? Also, how about the "do it yourself" documents? Are they legal as long as they are notorized? I hope to hear some very good answers on this one.


Thanks in advance,

Dave and Linda

[KC1BUD]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Indian Creek Hi all, We've been full timing for 2 1/2 years and we're loving it. We think we have the bases covered except we have a question about things of a legal nature. Last will and testament, living will, durable power of attorney, etc. We're all over the country, anything can happen at anytime or any place. The question is this. What do people, who live like we do, do about these legal documents. Does the state you have these documents made up in have any bearing on if they are honored, or not, 2000 miles away from your legal address? If our legal address is in South Dakota, our assets in Kansas and we're hospitalized in San Diego, is our living will good? Also, how about the "do it yourself" documents? Are they legal as long as they are notorized? I hope to hear some very good answers on this one. Thanks in advance, Dave and Linda

Sounds to me that these questions are best answered by a lawyer. You could try Living Will Overview - LegalZoom.com, they may be able to provide the info you are looking for.

[Jim Stewart]

Ok, let me start by saying if you have much in the way of assets, you should only have a Pour Over Will, not a Last Will and Testament. In most cases you should have a Revocable Living Trust. A Pour Over Will places any assets not in your trust into your trust upon death. That way, if you meet your demise or become incapacitated, the person you appoint as Successor Trustee of your Trust can make decisions and take actions without the State becoming involved.

If you were both to meet your demise at the same time and had a Last Will and Testament, the State you claim as a residence would have jurisdiction to probate your Will. You never want the State to decide what to do with your assets and it generally takes money and time to probate a Will.

A Living Will, the document that makes your intentions know about life sustaining measures is recognizable in any State. A Designation of Health Care Surrogate, the document that grants decision making powers about your health care to someone else you designate, should you not be capable of making those decisions yourself, is valid in any State.

A Durable Power of Attorney, the document that grants someone else you designate to make either limited or all financial decisions for you either if incapacitated or at will, is recognized by all States. The Durable Power of Attorney is more of a problem for the entity the person is dealing with like a bank or brokerage, they all have their own individual requirements and can be a PITA.

A side note: When someone you love is ill and you are the person to make decisions on their behalf, never provide that documentation or give authorization for a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) until you are absolutely sure that you are willing to let that person die. If you provide that documentation, medical facilities may force you to take action even if you disagree!

And that's all I have to say about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DonnaB]

Hi Dave & Linda,

We are full timers and thought about this a bit before we started this lifestyle. We are TX residents and have had an atty in TX draw up our wills, POAs, Revocable Living Trust, medical directives and medical POAs. She did state that if we changed residences that we might need to redo these for the other state as rules change......No matter where you are you would hope that the documents from your state of residence will win out. However, if that is not the case, we refuse to let that be a damper on our lives. We have done the best we know how to take care of the circumstances, but we are living the dream....spending our children's inheiritence and hope to continue to do so for many years.

[LindaH]

If your state of domicile is South Dakota, as you alluded to, then all legal work should be done in SD. It doesn't make any difference where your assets are...there are lots of people who own property all over the U.S., maybe even the world...but the legal work has to be done in their state of domicile.

(Note that I use the term "domicile" rather than "residence." People can have several "residences" -- common for Snowbirds who own a house up north and one in the south -- but only one "domicile.")

[Dr4Film]

Dave & Linda,

The state in which you have established residency and your domicile is the state that you will want all of your legal documents to originate in. You can use an attorney that specializes in what documents you need or you can choose a variety of DIY ones. I chose to use what Suze Orman recommended and I ordered the CD with all of the documents I needed. It included making a Living Revocable Trust, a Will, a Power of Attorney, a Durable Power of attorney for Health care, and many others. It is called Suze Orman Ultimate Protection Will & Trust Kit. You can buy one on Amazon.com for $10. What’s really great is that you have personal support from both Suze and her attorney in answering any questions you may have in filling out the forms. The best thing is that these forms are good in all 50 states. So you don’t have to worry about going from state to state. The only thing I had to do afterwards was to print them out and some had to be notarized and others just had to be witnessed. She also gives you free automated on-line updates, and all of her instructions are very clear and concise. The disk is good for either a PC or Mac application.


I hope this information is helpful.
Richard.

[Indian Creek]

That sounds good, Richard, thanks for the help. I'll look at that in the morning.

Dave