Will & Your Children !

Lifestyle Relationships
1

This query concerns mostly the guppies with children residing in US or whoever has the knowledge. I was told sometime back that we (me and my wife) need to have a will in place just in case if both of us die and leave our kids (4 years and 1 year old) behind. From what I understand the children belong to the state at that point and they can place them in any home that they see fit. No preference is given to ethnicity and/or religion of the deceased parents. Also grandparents of the children are not given preference if they are not US citizens. We have been planning to have the will done for some time but for one reason or the other it gets postponed.

Anyone of you out there has done this? If so, any thing to watch out for?

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Re: Will & Your Children !

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ChaChoo: *
This query concerns mostly the guppies with children residing in US or whoever has the knowledge. I was told sometime back that we (me and my wife) need to have a will in place just in case if both of us die and leave our kids (4 years and 1 year old) behind. From what I understand the children belong to the state at that point and they can place them in any home that they see fit. No preference is given to ethnicity and/or religion of the deceased parents. Also grandparents of the children are not given preference if they are not US citizens. We have been planning to have the will done for some time but for one reason or the other it gets postponed.

Anyone of you out there has done this? If so, any thing to watch out for?
[/QUOTE]

A very Important thing to think about is NEVER, have your spouse as a Beneficiary, and I learnt this from a very good Friends Advice. I know they have an option of a secondary Beneficiary, but between you and me its just a delaying Tactic, The insurance company will not pay until it HAS to.

The husband and wife were travelling together, and unfortunately had a Fatal accident, and the worst part is they had each other as the Beneficiary.

The Insurance company would not even pay the Funeral costs, eventually friends, Family and Neighburs took the responsibility.

As for the Kids they didnt see a penny until a few years later when they won a case against the Insurance company. Filed by Family Friends and the Grand Parents.

After hearing that story, I immediatly changed the Primary Beneficiary as my mother (She is not a Citizen, and my kids are 11 and 13), as the secondary Beneficiary I opted for my brothers (Who are Both Citizens).

I am not so sure about the SSA issue about Grandparents Status, ie Permanant Resident as opposed to being a Citizen, but believe you me, if you are the earning member, you do want your kids and parents to be provided for. And I think Financial Stability would be one of the Major Concerns.

regards,

Aejaz

3

Well, I think it is very important to have your spouse as primary beneficiary - its more likely that one of the spouses will die rather than both of them so if the surviving spouse were not the primary beneficiary, they'd be left in the lurch financially. So use the spouse as primary and name as many secondary beneficiaries as you like.

As far as making a will, its very important especially if there are no relatives of the children who are US citizens and the children are. The courts ALWAYS want the children to be with family and use the foster care system as a last option when there is no family. I really dont know what the law says when orphaned children only have family out of the country...But by making out a will, you can specify who you want your children to go to, even if its out of the country. It should cost 2 to 3 hundred dollars to have a good will made although you can even buy a "will-making kit" or will-making software at staples. A cheaper and just as legal alternative.

Settling a will and getting insurance companies to pay up usually does take some time. But having a will and good insurance thru a reputable company will go far in helping to resolve the matter in a more timely manner. Last, if you dont have life insurance, get a policy before you turn 30!!!! Rates dramatically increase at that age and go up for every year over 30.

4

Aejaz & Mamaof3, thank you for your input.

I think spouse needs to be the primary beneficiary for the reasons Mamaof3 listed and I agree with her that if you have a good insurance company and a clear and legal will financial matters should not be that difficult. It does take time but that is to be expected, actual the insurance companies and other financial institution will take longer to conduct the transactions if the beneficiary was not the spouse and spouse was living. I have experienced this myself. Aejaz, the experience that you mentioned must have been an exception. I guess I need to see a lawyer to find out the rules on giving custody to non-residents, that is my primary concern since I don’t have any relatives in US.

5

That reminds me that I have to get my arse moving on this one too. My wife’s grandmother died a little over a year ago, and she left a huge estate, with bank accounts in Switzerland and houses in Greece. 3 sons started fighting over the stuff, and meanwhile, the Uncle who was living with her, was taken to dry cleaners by an ex girlfriend, who got her name on his bank accounts and took off with a lot of money and had her name on his will leaving everything to her. Now he died two weeks ago, but before he died, his brothers had him revoke his earlier will and redo it leaving everything to them. So now things are slowly getting better. I learnt a few lessons from this whole ordeal:

(1) If you want to do something for your kids, do it in your life. If I have money before I am too close to death, I will give it to my kids in my lifetime.
(2) Having a will is very important.
(3) Attorneys will suck every last ounce of blood out of you. My fatherinlaw’s attorney walked away with over 50K for doing less than 2 hours of work.