If you are in the hospital, you or your family will be asked if you have any advance directives, such as a living will. If you do not have a living will or other advance directive, your healthcare providers may give you treatments to prolong your life. They may give you treatments you do not want. You could live for months or years with these treatments, but not be conscious or aware. You may want to limit your treatments, but your family may want you to have all treatments. If you have a living will, your healthcare providers can follow your wishes for treatment.
None of these situations are guaranteed to occur, but they are also not utterly improbable either. Once anticipated as a possible future situation, there are actions I can take such as changing beneficiary designations, providing that assets are protected for children or grandchildren who need that protection and to getting, or replacing, the value of my practice to my wife and children at my death with insurance. Some of these actions are documents, but some are not. In either event, for my clients in similar situations, using a basic will may save them some money today, but will not prompt them to anticipate the future. By not planning, they cannot avoid risking the loss of their assets during the administration of their estates.
Credit Reporting Agencies - Contact one of the three major credit reporting agencies to place fraud alerts or freezes on your accounts. Also get copies of your credit reports, to be sure that no one has already tried to get unauthorized credit accounts with your personal information. Confirm that the credit reporting agency will alert the other two credit reporting agencies.
The Texas medical power of attorney form allows a principal to name an individual to make all types of health care decisions on their behalf in the chance that they cannot do so because of mental incapacity. A physician can’t be an agent, and there are restrictions on choosing certain individuals professionally involved in the principal’s health care. When choosing an agent, local availability is…
You have the right to help plan your care. To help with this plan, you must learn about living wills and how they are used. You can then discuss treatment options with your healthcare providers. Work with them to decide what care will be used to treat you. You always have the right to refuse treatment.The above information is an educational aid only. It is not intended as medical advice for individual conditions or treatments. Talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist before following any medical regimen to see if it is safe and effective for you.
The requirements for a living will vary by state so many people hire a lawyer to prepare their living will. Most people can create this simple document - along with the other typical estate planning documents - without the high legal fees by using a quality software application that accounts for their state's laws. If you need to write or update a will or trust, you can take care of your living will at the same time.
When you're facing legal challenges related to criminal or family law in Grand Prairie or Mansfield, TX, turn to an experienced lawyer you can trust. The Law Office of David T. Gilchrist is ready to help you face your case with confidence. We offer two locations and can even bring our services to you. Take control of your case and schedule a free initial consultation with us today!
In their May 1998 testimony before the United States Senate, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) discussed the sale of Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers by credit-raters and data miners. The FTC agreed to the industry's self-regulating principles restricting access to information on credit reports.[37] According to the industry, the restrictions vary according to the category of customer. Credit reporting agencies gather and disclose personal and credit information to a wide business client base.
A living will is a legal document that tells others what your personal choices are about end-of-life medical treatment. It lays out the procedures or medications you want—or don’t want—to prolong your life if you can’t talk with the doctors yourself. This could be because you’re under anesthesia for a scheduled surgery and had a complication or are unconscious from an accident or other event.
A power of attorney can last, notwithstanding the incapacity of the donor, only if it is a lasting power of attorney: this is a separate and quite different type of power, which must be in a prescribed form, and, to be valid, once signed and witnessed must also be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian.[citation needed] This new type of power of attorney was introduced in 2007 under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. It replaces the former enduring power of attorney, although enduring powers correctly made before the law changed remain valid. Enduring powers were very different, as they only needed to be registered if the donor later lost capacity.
The Texas tax power of attorney form, also known as Form 86-113, allows another person to handle one’s tax filing. The powers granted to the tax representative permits them to perform a wide range of transactions on the behalf of the taxpayer. Such actions include providing information and discussing issues relating to an audit, receiving notices from the Comptroller, entering into written agreements, and providing…
In their May 1998 testimony before the United States Senate, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) discussed the sale of Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers by credit-raters and data miners. The FTC agreed to the industry's self-regulating principles restricting access to information on credit reports.[37] According to the industry, the restrictions vary according to the category of customer. Credit reporting agencies gather and disclose personal and credit information to a wide business client base.
• Report missing identification cards. Most criminal identity thieves get your information from stealing your personally identifiable information (PII) from physical cards like your driver’s license, Social Security card or Identification card. If you report a missing driver license, your state might flag your license number and in the event that another driver is pulled over by law enforcement and presents your license as their own they could be questioned for further information
A Living Will typically has a more narrow focus and directly communicates your end-of-life healthcare decisions, while a Durable Power of Attorney grants authority to an agent to make decisions and take action on your behalf, such as managing your finances, your real estate, or your business. Similar to a Living Will, a Durable Power of Attorney is valid even after you are no longer able to communicate or make decisions on your own.
CPR and DNR: Healthcare providers use CPR to try to restart your heart if it stops beating. Sometimes electric shock is used. Consider when and how long you want CPR if you have a terminal disease or are in a long-term coma. If you do not want CPR, you can add a DNR (do not resuscitate) order to your living will. A copy of the DNR order must also go in your medical records.
An agent is a fiduciary and as such has multiple duties when acting for the principal. These include an overriding duty to do only those acts authorized by the power of attorney, and when performing those acts to act in accordance with the principal’s reasonable expectations, to act in the principal’s best interest and to attempt to preserve the principal’s estate plan. The preservation of the estate plan is dependent on a number of factors, including the agent’s knowledge of the plan and the needs and desires of the principal. If the agent assumes responsibility for the principal’s investments, the agent has a duty to invest and manage the assets of the principal as a prudent investor. This standard requires the agent to exercise reasonable care and caution in managing the assets of the principal. The agent must apply this standard to the overall investments and not to one specific asset. An agent possessing special financial skills or expertise has an obligation to use those skills. The agent is required to keep careful records and may be required to provide an accounting. Everything the agent does for the principal should be written down, and the agent should keep all receipts and copies of all correspondence and consider logging phone calls so if the agent is questioned, records are available. Agents should consult with lawyers to be sure they understand all of the duties applicable to them.
This is another strategy that can be used to limit death taxes. It involves an individual locking in the current value and thus, tax liability, of their property, while attributing the value of future growth of that capital property to another person. Any increase that occurs in the value of the assets in the future is transferred to the benefit of another person, such as a spouse, child, or grandchild.
Credit Reporting Agencies - Contact one of the three major credit reporting agencies to place fraud alerts or freezes on your accounts. Also get copies of your credit reports, to be sure that no one has already tried to get unauthorized credit accounts with your personal information. Confirm that the credit reporting agency will alert the other two credit reporting agencies.
In recent years[when?], commercial identity theft protection/insurance services have become available in many countries. These services purport to help protect the individual from identity theft or help detect that identity theft has occurred in exchange for a monthly or annual membership fee or premium.[32] The services typically work either by setting fraud alerts on the individual's credit files with the three major credit bureaus or by setting up credit report monitoring with the credit bureaux. While identity theft protection/insurance services have been heavily marketed, their value has been called into question.[33]
The principal may hold the power of attorney document until such time as help is needed and then give it to the agent. Often, a lawyer may fulfill this important role. For example, the principal may leave the power of attorney with the lawyer who prepared it, asking the lawyer to deliver it to the agent under certain specific conditions. Because the lawyer may not know if and when the principal is incapacitated, the principal should let the agent know that the lawyer has retained the signed document and will deliver it as directed. If the principal does not want the agent to be able to use the power of attorney until it is delivered, the power of attorney should clearly require the agent to possess the original, because copies of signed powers of attorney are sufficient for acceptance by third parties.
• Shred all sensitive documents, both online and offline. While shredding physical bank statements and other sensitive documents can help prevent offline identity theft, it’s also important to “shred” sensitive files as well like PDFs of tax returns and bank statements should a hacker gain access to your PC. Typically, when you delete a file, it isn’t entirely gone; instead, that part of your storage is marked as available to be overwritten with new data. Unfortunately, this means that a savvy hacker could reconstruct the file even if it’s been deleted. Fortunately, antivirus suites like McAfee® Total Protection include file shredding capabilities, which effectively make deleted files unrecoverable, often up to military-grade deletion standards.
Both a Medical Power of Attorney and a Living Will act in the same way in that both cater towards a person’s medical wishes. A Living Will specifically handles end-of-life health care situations whereas a medical power of attorney covers a broad range of healthcare decisions and only goes into effect when a person becomes incapacitated (unable to think for themselves).
While you can appoint multiple agents, decide whether these agents must act jointly or separately in making decisions. Multiple agents can ensure more sound decisions, acting as checks and balances against one another. The downside is that multiple agents can disagree and one person's schedule can potentially delay important transactions or signings of legal documents.
Identity theft occurs when someone steals your personal information—such as your Social Security number, bank account number, and credit card information. Identity theft is committed in many different ways. Some identity thieves sift through trash bins looking for bank account and credit card statements. Other more high-tech methods involve accessing corporate databases to steal lists of customer information. Once they have the information they are looking for, identity thieves can ruin a person's credit rating and the standing of other personal information.
An agent is a fiduciary and as such has multiple duties when acting for the principal. These include an overriding duty to do only those acts authorized by the power of attorney, and when performing those acts to act in accordance with the principal’s reasonable expectations, to act in the principal’s best interest and to attempt to preserve the principal’s estate plan. The preservation of the estate plan is dependent on a number of factors, including the agent’s knowledge of the plan and the needs and desires of the principal. If the agent assumes responsibility for the principal’s investments, the agent has a duty to invest and manage the assets of the principal as a prudent investor. This standard requires the agent to exercise reasonable care and caution in managing the assets of the principal. The agent must apply this standard to the overall investments and not to one specific asset. An agent possessing special financial skills or expertise has an obligation to use those skills. The agent is required to keep careful records and may be required to provide an accounting. Everything the agent does for the principal should be written down, and the agent should keep all receipts and copies of all correspondence and consider logging phone calls so if the agent is questioned, records are available. Agents should consult with lawyers to be sure they understand all of the duties applicable to them.
Like a power of attorney, a trust may authorize an individual (the “trustee”) to act for the maker of the trust during the maker’s lifetime. Like an agent, the trustee may manage the financial affairs of the maker of the trust. A trustee has power only over an asset that is owned by the trust. In contrast, an agent may have authority over all of the principal’s non-trust assets. Another important distinction is that a trustee may continue acting for the maker of the trust after the maker of the trust dies. In contrast, the power of attorney expires upon the death of the principal. Whether a trust or an agent is the most appropriate tool for a specific situation is a question that should be addressed to an attorney.
This phenomenon lead to the creation of Senate Bill 52: Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2010.[47] Section 2 of this bill states that it recognizes the importance of communication and multimedia for the development, exploitation and dissemination of information but violators will be punished by the law through imprisonment or a fine upwards of Php200,000, but not exceeding 1 million, or depending on the damage caused, or both (Section 7).
The Texas parental guardianship of minor child power of attorney form is used by those who have a minor child and need a relative or close friend to assume parental guardianship rights. The agent selected will have the decision making options of choosing the minor child’s educational facilities and all medical care needs. These powers will only be required in the chance the principal should become…
As a result, the individual has a lower effective cost of giving, which provides additional incentive to make those gifts. And of course, an individual may wish to make charitable contributions to a variety of causes. Estate planners can work with the donor in order to reduce taxable income as a result of those contributions, or formulate strategies that maximize the effect of those donations.
Yes. If the incapacitated person executed a valid durable power of attorney before the incapacity, it may not be necessary for the court to appoint a guardian, since the agent already has the authority to act for the principal. As long as the agent has all necessary powers, it may not be necessary to file guardianship proceedings and, even when filed, guardianship may be averted by showing the court that a durable power of attorney exists and that it is appropriate to allow the agent to act on the principal’s behalf.
The Texas durable financial power of attorney, also known as the “Statutory” form, can be used to designate powers to another person for monetary reasons that are broad and sweeping. This particular document remains effective for financial use even if the principal should be in a position where they cannot think for themselves. The representative chosen by the principal should be trustworthy and act in…
Other types of identity theft have become more common in Sweden. One common example is ordering a credit card to someone who has an unlocked letterbox and is not home in the daytime. The thief steals the letter with the credit card and then the letter with the code which typically arrives a few days later. Usage of a stolen credit card is hard in Sweden, since an identity document or a PIN code it is normally demanded. If the shop does not demand that, it must take the loss from stolen credit cards. The method of observing someone using the credit card PIN code, stealing the card or skimming it, and then using the card, has become more common.
Ellen Dorn is a solo practitioner specializing in the law of wills, trusts, probate, tax exempt organizations, and charitable gift planning. Admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1988, Ellen has been awarded an “AV” rating by Martindale Hubbell and has been elected as a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. She practices in a small office with her husband, who is a civil engineer. Her practice is both personal and collaborative one; she works individually with each client to accomplish that client's goals.
