Annuities?

[zzvyb6]

I'm now living off 4 S.P.I.A.s (Single Payment, Immediate, Annuity). Now in the RMW stage (Required Minimum Withdrawal). No regrets. Fortunately, I'm loosing money in the hay business, AGAIN !!! Thinking of hitching a ride to Arizona with my 2 dogs to border cross, getting them free phones, medical coverage, and voting rights via a driver's license, here in Michigan. The govt transport planes will bring us back here to Grand Rapids midnights for free, as they do every week now.

 

[RSKY]

My mother-in-law and father-in-law passed away within 12 hours of each other last year. They had wills and estate planning yet some items still had to be probated under Michigan law. Apparently some of the financial instruments ( IRA's and 401K's) required an "official" transfer by the administering institution upon death. My mother-in-law passed away first, my father-in-law 12 hours later, since my father-in-law did not have time to "officially" transfer everything to his name only, anything that was not transferred was probated. This was really forced on us by the financial institutions that were just covering their asses. It cost us a lot of lawyer fees.

OK, I understand. States are different and the closeness of the deaths complicated the transfer. In both of our cases the other spouse had passed away several years ago.

RSKY

 

[RSKY]

As I recall, my father's will had a contract with his lawyer who would settle the estate for a set fee. Nothing more, nothing less. That lawyer died before my father, and he didn't update his will to get a new lawyer. Fortunately, the lawyer that took over the deceased lawyer's practice honored the agreement. Unfortunately, he was inept, and it dragged out for a year. Didn't cost us anything more, but was slow as molasses.

I can understand that. As I have stated elsewhere in another thread (can't keep up with all of them) there is a family related to me by marriage that is having a serious problem with two inheritances. Basically ALL the cash involved has gone for lawyer's fees. Some property may have to be sold to pay the lawyers. I believe the lawyers have stoked the feelings of getting shafted by the conflicting parties to keep the money coming in. (That last sentence was hard to put into words) Now the process has gone on so long and become so bitter the siblings won't even look at each other much less try to talk it out.

RSKY

 

[MossRoad]

I can understand that. As I have stated elsewhere in another thread (can't keep up with all of them) there is a family related to me by marriage that is having a serious problem with two inheritances. Basically ALL the cash involved has gone for lawyer's fees. Some property may have to be sold to pay the lawyers. I believe the lawyers have stoked the feelings of getting shafted by the conflicting parties to keep the money coming in. (That last sentence was hard to put into words) Now the process has gone on so long and become so bitter the siblings won't even look at each other much less try to talk it out.

RSKY

Boy, that's sad.

I have 4 siblings. At the time of my last parent's death, I had a sibling that hadn't spoken to me and one of my other siblings for 15 years. Only spoke to the other two regularly. Yet even with that tension and animosity, that sibling still helped us clean up, organize, distribute, and disperse my dad's belongings. They offered to come down, spend a week or two in the houses, and do tasks when we were not there. So we set up a schedule between all of us so we didn't have to interact with each other in person. Weird, but effective.

I think we all knew that none of us were out to screw the other ones. We just disliked each other for various reasons, and were able to keep those reasons out of this situation. Worked out well. We all got some things that we wanted and didn't cause any drama for each other. The estate was split evenly amongst the siblings and there were no issues.

Eventually we started talking again. Took years.

 

[JethroB]

I don't understand. We settled two estates last year, my mother's and my father-in-law's, without a lawyer. Both had simple clearly written wills. Both were settled without a lawyer.

I understand that some families do not get along with each other but this was so simple.

RSKY

I was executor for both my parents a year apart a few years ago. I used a lawyer to file probate initially and transfer a few deeds around. Setting up the simple Trust as instructed by my dad‘s will was pretty simple in hindsight and didn’t require a lawyer. Just got a tax ID # from the IRS online and transferred land & financial assets into it. Legal?, dunno as the lawyer was pretty useless there. As the lawyer said I had broad powers and to use a little common sense. Banks, brokerage firms, DMV, etc. will walk you through most things at little or no cost. Don’t care to do it again though.

 

[M59]

As I recall, my father's will had a contract with his lawyer who would settle the estate for a set fee. Nothing more, nothing less. That lawyer died before my father, and he didn't update his will to get a new lawyer. Fortunately, the lawyer that took over the deceased lawyer's practice honored the agreement. Unfortunately, he was inept, and it dragged out for a year. Didn't cost us anything more, but was slow as molasses.

MossRoad,

Very good points about lawyer being appointed in Will and that all lawyers are not equal in skill or ethics. I too have seen the spectrum in all aspects of life. Closed on some property where counsel to the seller made a serious math error in calculating who bears what costs and error was in my favor. My lawyer informed me of the error ( several thousand dollars ) and sent me check for the "extra" dollars. Some lawyers are good solid ethical people and others are .....

 

[M59]

I can understand that. As I have stated elsewhere in another thread (can't keep up with all of them) there is a family related to me by marriage that is having a serious problem with two inheritances. Basically ALL the cash involved has gone for lawyer's fees. Some property may have to be sold to pay the lawyers. I believe the lawyers have stoked the feelings of getting shafted by the conflicting parties to keep the money coming in. (That last sentence was hard to put into words) Now the process has gone on so long and become so bitter the siblings won't even look at each other much less try to talk it out.

RSKY

RSKY,
A frustrating and sad situation. My wife's aunt had a clause in her Will intending to deter any conflict in settling her small estate ( less than $400K) that specifically stated any party who contests any portion of the will is immediately removed from the Will. As with all legal contracts, the ability to contest a contract, in USA, is dependent on the contesting party to fund the contest. By adding the removal upon contest wording to the will, the aunt made it potentially too expensive for a contest. The poison pill approach to settling family disputes.

 

[JasperFrank]

"I think we all knew that none of us were out to screw the other ones," - MossRoad.
Then, you were born in to a very well founded family of adults. Some of us, this wasn't the case, with everyone positioned to take as much as they could, with no real agreement of a best, common, strategy.

I am so glad now, that I walked away, and left a great deal on the table for the others to fight over, cause they did eventually destroy each other fighting over assests they didn't earn.

In a toxic environment like this, it is always best to just keep doing your own thing.
I lost money, being an Administrator of several estates. Just the time off, the distraction, and finding all the ways through the legal requirements, and also being in the chain of the titles: Which caused many a sleepless night.

 

[tractortroof]

Seems like if you doubled your money in 20 years of investing, you have lost quite a bit, due to our economic policies in America. Really if you doubled your money in the last 5 years, you probably broke even…anyone do that with their investments?

 

[turbo36]

I'm now living off 4 S.P.I.A.s (Single Payment, Immediate, Annuity). Now in the RMW stage (Required Minimum Withdrawal). No regrets. Fortunately, I'm loosing money in the hay business, AGAIN !!! Thinking of hitching a ride to Arizona with my 2 dogs to border cross, getting them free phones, medical coverage, and voting rights via a driver's license, here in Michigan. The govt transport planes will bring us back here to Grand Rapids midnights for free, as they do every week now.

I didn’t know they were handing out free phones to dogs!