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Sign your living will according to your state's rules. Many states require at least 1 witness to watch you sign the form. The witness must be someone who is not your relative, healthcare provider, or legal agent. Some states will not accept your living will as valid without the right witnesses. Check with your lawyer if you are not sure about the state laws for living wills.

Philippines, which ranks eighth in the numbers of users of Facebook and other social networking sites such as Twitter, Multiply and Tumblr, has been known as source of various identity theft problems.[46] Identities of those people who carelessly put personal information on their profiles can easily be stolen just by simple browsing. There are people who meet online, get to know each other through the free Facebook chat and exchange of messages that then leads to sharing of private information. Others get romantically involved with their online friends that they tend to give too much information such as their social security number, bank account and even personal basic information such as home address and company address.

Estate planning is an ongoing process and should be started as soon as an individual has any measurable asset base. As life progresses and goals shift, the estate plan should shift in line with new goals. Lack of adequate estate planning can cause undue financial burdens to loved ones (estate taxes can run as high as 40%), so at the very least a will should be set up—even if the taxable estate is not large.
With a trust you initially serve as trustee and manage the property. If you become disabled or pass away, the successor trustee, or trustees, you named in the trust agreement automatically takes over management of the property. After you pass away, the trust property is managed and distributed according to the terms of the trust. The courts aren’t involved.
Decide what type of power of attorney is right for you. There are different types of powers of attorney that you may want to execute, depending on your situation. Some cover only financial issues, whereas others address health care issues.[2] These powers of attorney can either become effective immediately, or on a future date, when you are unable to make decisions on your own behalf, due to disability, illness, or injury. The state of Texas has established a Statutory Durable Power of Attorney law[3] that allows you to choose the type of power of attorney that best accomplishes your goals.
A medical power of attorney is also known as a “health care proxy”— and this person acts as an agent to make medical decisions for you if you can’t talk to the doctors yourself. So instead of a piece of paper, you have a person you trust to speak on your behalf—acting in your best interests—while honoring your original wishes. So, you would need to have a conversation with them to make sure they know how you feel about important medical decisions.
You cannot make your own medical decisions: Your living will takes effect when you can no longer let healthcare providers know what care you want. Depending on the state you live in, 1 or 2 doctors have to decide that you can no longer make medical decisions. You may not be able to communicate what you want. You may lack the ability to understand the choices that need to be made about your medical care and the effects of the choices.

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Unless the power of attorney has been made irrevocable by its own terms or by some legal principle, the grantor may revoke the power of attorney by telling the attorney-in-fact it is revoked. However, if the principal does not inform third parties and it is reasonable for the third parties to rely upon the power of attorney being in force, the principal might still be bound by the acts of the agent, though the agent may also be liable for such unauthorized acts.

·        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.

You must sign and notarize the original power of attorney document, and certify several copies. Banks and other businesses will not allow your agent to act on your behalf unless they receive a certified copy of the power of attorney. Attorneys are unnecessary to execute a power of attorney. However, it may be wise to consult one for advice about the powers being granted, to provide counsel on your candidate agent, and to make sure your document meets all legal requirements.

Suppose you become mentally incompetent due to illness or accident while you have a power of attorney in effect. Will the document remain valid? To safeguard against any problems, you can sign a durable power of attorney. This is simply a general, special, or health care POA that has a durability provision to keep the current power of attorney in effect.

Identity thieves sometimes impersonate dead people, using personal information obtained from death notices, gravestones and other sources to exploit delays between the death and the closure of the person's accounts, the inattentiveness of grieving families and weaknesses in the processes for credit-checking. Such crimes may continue for some time until the deceased's families or the authorities notice and react to anomalies.[31]
_{One of the major identity theft categories is tax identity theft. The most common method is to use a person's authentic name, address, and Social Security Number to file a tax return with false information, and have the resulting refund direct-deposited into a bank account controlled by the thief. The thief in this case can also try to get a job and then their employer will report the income of the real taxpayer, this then results in the taxpayer getting in trouble with the IRS.[23]}
The Texas general power of attorney form grants broad powers to an individual selected to handle business affairs, representation, and all real personal and property actions on another’s behalf. The form grants the exact same powers to the agent as the Durable form except that this document does not remain in effect if the principal should become incapacitated and unable to think for themselves. For…
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