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.
Dwight Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” It is the advisor-lead planning process itself that is of value to the clients, not the documents. By planning I mean 1) speculating about the cause and effect relationship between what you do today and what will happen in the future relative to your objectives 2) asking “What facts, if they exist, would prevent you from achieving your objectives?” and 3) finding out how likely it is that those facts could exist. By examining these alternative facts, and what to do if they occur, you can anticipate possible future situations and know what to do when it happens.
· None of my children have a drug problem, but it is possible that one or more of them could be caught up in the opiod crisis. If one of them does so and has judgments against them from creditors at my death, those creditors get whatever assets that child might receive from my estate. The fact that a child might have judgments against them due to an opiod addiction means that assets will not go to my child, but to their creditors instead.
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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.
Identity theft can be partially mitigated by not identifying oneself unnecessarily (a form of information security control known as risk avoidance). This implies that organizations, IT systems and procedures should not demand excessive amounts of personal information or credentials for identification and authentication. Requiring, storing and processing personal identifiers (such as Social Security number, national identification number, driver's license number, credit card number, etc.) increases the risks of identity theft unless this valuable personal information is adequately secured at all times. Committing personal identifiers to memory is a sound practice that can reduce the risks of a would-be identity thief from obtaining these records. To help in remembering numbers such as social security numbers and credit card numbers, it is helpful to consider using mnemonic techniques or memory aids such as the mnemonic Major System.
However, many accounts, such as bank savings, CD accounts, and individual brokerage accounts, are unnecessarily probated every day. If you hold these accounts, they can be set up—or amended—to have a transfer on death (TOD) designation, which lets beneficiaries receive assets without going through the probate process. Contact your custodian or bank to set this up on your accounts.
The Texas Power of Attorney Act, which is contained in Chapter 7 of the Texas Probate Code,[1] allows a resident to transfer financial and health care decision-making powers to another individual. Powers of attorney are very useful for anyone to have in place, no matter what one's age might be. The reality is that events can occur suddenly that make an individual unable to make certain decisions on their own. A power of attorney allows another person, who has been chosen in advance by the individual, to make those decisions for them.
Some thieves use a skimming device that easily can be placed over a card reader on an ATM or a fuel pump without looking out of the ordinary. When somebody swipes a debit or credit card at a compromised machine, the skimmer reads the information from the card's magnetic stripe and either stores it or transmits it. A criminal can then use this information to make purchases.
Not only are children in general big targets of identity theft but children who are in foster care are even bigger targets. This is because they are most likely moved around quite frequently and their SSN is being shared with multiple people and agencies. Foster children are even more victims of identity theft within their own family and other relatives. Young people in foster care who are victims of this crime are usually left alone to struggle and figure out how to fix their newly formed bad credit.[21]
There is an active market for buying and selling stolen personal information, which occurs mostly in darknet markets but also in other black markets.[40] People increase the value of the stolen data by aggregating it with publicly available data, and sell it again for a profit, increasing the damage that can be done to the people whose data was stolen.[41]
A growing area of concern involves medical identity theft, which gives thieves the ability to access prescription drugs and even expensive medical treatments using someone else’s identity. When successful, medical identity theft frequently results in erroneous entries being put into the victim’s medical records, which in turn may even lead to inappropriate and potentially life-threatening decisions by medical staff.
Yet, trustee transitions aren’t always smooth. Financial institutions and others who deal with the trust must be convinced to accept the authority of a successor trustee. Financial firms, in particular, require a high level of substantiation before they will accept the successor trustee’s directions. While a successor trustee might not have to go to court to take actions, it could take some time and expense to complete the transition.
The executor also has to pay off any taxes and debt owed by the deceased from the estate. Creditors usually have a limited amount of time from the date they were notified of the testator’s death to make claims against the estate for money owed to them. Claims that are rejected by the executor can be taken to court where a probate judge will have the final say as to whether or not the claim is valid.
In child identity theft, someone uses a child's identity for various forms of personal gain. This is common, as children typically do not have information associated with them that could pose obstacles for the perpetrator, who may use the child's name and Social Security number to obtain a residence, find employment, obtain loans or avoid arrest on outstanding warrants. Often, the victim is a family member, child of a friend or someone else close to the perpetrator. Some people even steal the personal information of deceased loves ones.
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…
If you have minor-aged children at home, it's important to have a will that appoints guardianship of your children. If a guardian is not appointed at the time of death, your surviving family will have to seek help in a probate court to have a guardian appointed for your children. The person appointed may not be one whom you would have wanted to be entrusted with your kids.
Texas-based artist Edward Gustav Eisenlohr (1872 – 1961) came to Dallas at the age of two, where his father established Eisenlohr Drug Store. Eisenlohr drew inspiration for art subjects from the Oak Cliff area of Dallas and his travels to New Mexico, the Texas Hill Country, and the western areas of his adopted state. Eisenlohr was Ellen Dorn’s grandfather’s first cousin—in other words, his grandfather was her great great grandfather.
