What You Need To Know About School Emergency Contact Forms
It’s back to school time. The kids should be settled by now in school and their extra-curricular activities are starting up again.
Along with the new school year comes all the forms and contact sheets and other information you need to give to your child’s school or day care provider. I wanted to share this article by my colleague, Danielle G. Van Ess, that discusses what might happen if those forms are ever used. Her original post appears here.
Danielle and I do estate planning thousands of miles apart but our approach is very similar. For parents of young children, both of us recommend naming temporary guardians (among other things!).
In Ontario, the only way to appoint a guardian of your children is by a Will.
In my practice, I have developed a designation form for parents who are doing Wills and Powers of Attorney or trusts with me to appoint temporary guardians. There is no law in Ontario that says parents can do that, but as a mom myself, I want the people I trust to take care of my children to have a a signed, witnessed and notarized document giving them authority to care for my children if my husband and I are in an accident.
I give the temporary guardian form to the parents and to the people they have appointed so that if emergency strikes, everyone knows what to do and who is to take care of the children. I also recommend that caregivers and schools be provided with a copy of the form so they know who to contact.
Thankfully, none of my forms have ever been used (because that would mean something horrible would have happened to a client), but my hope is that in an emergency, the authorities will respect the designation made by the parents and the children of my clients will always be with people they know, love and trust.
Read on to find out more from Danielle.
What You Need To Know About School Emergency Contact Forms
by Danielle G. Van Ess
If your child is starting preschool, daycare, or elementary school, you’ve probably already been asked to complete the school’s emergency contact form. The school will release your child to your emergency contact in the event of an emergency, but would that form be sufficient if the emergency lasted more than a couple hours? None of us wants to think about it, but if we should happen to be involved in a serious accident, would our neighbors who kindly offered to serve as a temporary emergency contact on that school form be legally empowered to care for our children overnight? What about for a couple days or even a week? Would we want to ask them to do so and would they want to accept that kind of burdensome responsibility for our children, particularly in a time of crisis for our children?
If you have already legally named temporary emergency guardians for your minor children, you should provide a copy of that legal instrument to your child’s school along with their emergency contact form. You should also be sure your child’s named emergency guardians have copies in their possession to bring with them if possible if they are ever called upon to serve that way. You should also have documentation in your possession and on your person at all times alerting emergency responders to the fact that you have minor children and directing them to contact the named guardians with legal authority to care for the children. Finally, you need to provide information in a readily accessible format and keep it in a handy place and discuss with all of your children’s caregivers whom to call and in what order in the event of an emergency.
Perhaps that sounds like overkill or a bit daunting but I assure you it’s really very simple. And just consider the minimal extra effort required on your part to avoid the possibility of your children being temporarily placed in the care of the Department of Children and Families (a/k/a “DCF” or “the agency formerly known as DSS” a/k/a CPS).
That’s why this comprehensive temporary emergency planning for minor children is part of every estate plan I create with my clients. This is my focus and my passion; it’s taking my motherly perspective and applying it to the estate planning context.
If you have any questions or concerns about protecting your minor children in the event of an emergency no matter where you or they are, please email me (dgve@dgvelaw.com) or call (781) 740-0848.
Wishing you and your children a wonderful start to the new school year!
Danielle’s original post appears here.
The #1 Way To Get Your Wills Done – Fast!
Life is busy and getting your affairs in order by completing Wills, Powers of Attorney, and other estate planning documents (if necessary) can be one of those items on the eternal “to do” list that often never gets done.
But I have the secret to getting your Will done – fast!
What’s my secret?
Plan a vacation.
Nothing makes people more inclined to get things in order than a far away vacation looming in the not so distant future.
Summer time brings endless opportunities for travel – camping, family visits, dream vacations, second honeymoons – many vacations will be had in the next few months.
So we prepare and make lists and get things done and then worry that we left the stove on or the garage door open even after we make our departure.
But what about it something happens to you while you are away? What would happen to your children, to your spouse, to your assets?
Statistics on who does and does not have a Will are hard to come by, but it is estimated that less than half of all adults have a Will or any estate planning documents.
I often get calls from people who want to come in and get their documents completed before their vacation. That is great and I’m glad to help, but if your vacation starts in a couple of days, it may be too late.
So, in addition to getting your passport renewed or buying a new suitcase, here are a couple of other things you need to do before going on vacation this summer:
- Complete your Will. This is essential for parents, as a Will is the only way in Ontario you can legally name who will care for your children in the event you and their other parent pass away;
- Complete your Powers of Attorney for Property and for Personal Care so your family knows who is to make decisions if you can’t make them yourself; and,
- Make sure that you have the proper financial support in place so that your family and/or your business will be taken care of if something happens to you. Most of the time this comes in the form of life insurance, but this may not be the case, depending on your personal situation.
Get all these things done BEFORE heading out on your vacation so you can have peace of mind that, no matter what happens, things are taken care of.
And believe me, you actually DO feel better once you get this planning done. I know because I ask my clients after they sign their documents (which hopefully is not on the same day they leave for a vacation – although that has happened!).
I must credit a colleague of mine for the inspiration for this article. The original article by Michael Licterman appears here http://www.lichtermanlaw.com/index.php/vacation-estate-planning/.
What is in your glove compartment?
Last Wednesday night, my husband had picked up our children so I was enjoying a rare quiet drive home by myself when I noticed a police cruiser following me. I made a mental note not to pull anything out of my purse, lest the officer think I was violating Ontario’s new anti-cellphone law. Other than that, I checked my speed and distance and, knowing that I wasn’t doing anything wrong, I settled in to my seat.
And then the lights went on. I pulled over and looked for my license and ownership, wondering why the heck I was pulled over. The officer’s introduction was “Your sticker is expired. It says December 2009.”. I explained that would be my husband’s job and that I was sure he had renewed the sticker, but maybe just hadn’t put the new one on. He asked for my ownership and insurance so he could run the vehicle.
And this is where it gets embarrassing. Do you think I could find the documents I needed? I rifled through the glove compartment, throwing Tim Horton’s napkins and ketchup packets all over the place. When the contents had all been dumped in the front seat and on the floor, I found the ownership for the vehicle. Then the officer asked for a current insurance certificate, since the one I gave him was from 2006. I didn’t even own the car in 2006, how did that get in there? I rifled through all the stuff I had emptied out of the glove compartment, looking at all the little pink insurance slips that my husband must have shoved in there as we received each policy renewal. I finally found the current one and gave it to the officer.
When all was said and done, the officer found that yes, the plates had been renewed. He cautioned me to put on the current sticker and I was on my way.
You are probably asking right now what is the point of this whole story, right? Well, the point is that although I have no burning desire to organize the contents of my glove compartment, it is something that needs to be done. If I wouldn’t have been able to find the documents the officer needed, I would have gotten a ticket (or two), for no other reason than not being organized and not being prepared.
It is the same thing with doing an estate plan. No one really wants to come and see me to talk about what will happen after they die, but it is something that needs to be done. Part of the process I bring clients through is a review of their financial picture which requires them to gather and organize their information. I do this using our Legal Needs Questionnaire and by providing clients with the Peace of Mind Personal Inventory, which I have previously discussed here.
But now I’m going even further. I will soon be offering a Whole Family Wealth Audit, where you can meet with me to get your legal and financial affairs and documents organized once and for all. You will walk away from the meeting with a FREE Family Financial Freedom Notebook with all of your important documents and information stored inside.
Watch for more information, but if you are interested in attending a complimentary Whole Family Wealth Audit, or if you would like a copy of our Peace of Mind Personal Inventory, call our office at 613-933-7720 to speak with Erin, the Client Services Director for Allinotte Law Office.
What’s in Your Wallet?
What’s in Your Wallet?
By Alexis Martin Neely
Take a quick inventory of your wallet. How much of your “wealth” is in there?
If you’re like most people, you have a few credit cards, a small amount of cash and your driver’s license.
But what about wealth as it relates to your kids, your pets and keeping everyone in your family safe and secure if you are in an accident? Is that covered in your wallet? It should be.
This isn’t a trick question and the solution to protecting your “wealth” as it relates to your loved ones is so much easier than you think.
Essentially, you must carry a card in your wallet that gives medical or emergency personnel instructions about the children, pets or other dependents waiting for you at home and who to call in the event of an emergency in which you cannot communicate.
Let me give you an example so this is crystal clear.
You go out to run errands and leave your children at home with their teenage babysitter. On the way home, there’s a car accident and you cannot communicate. Based on your wallet, the police have just enough information to ID you, but they have no idea you left your little ones at home with a babysitter and their father is out-of-town on business.
After a few hours, the babysitter begins to worry. She calls her own mother for advice—who suggests calling the police because you haven’t come home yet. The police arrive and confirm that yes, you’ve been in an accident and asks the babysitter if she knows anyone in your family who could come be with the children.
But, your babysitter only knows your neighbors. And the authorities won’t leave your children with the neighbors because there isn’t any written authorization from you to do so. Instead, they call in social services to figure out what to do.
By now your kids are very scared, upset and have been put through hours of unnecessary worry because there weren’t proper directions left for them to be cared for by someone you know and trust in the event of an emergency. Is this what would happen if you were in an accident?
Or maybe you don’t have children at home, but you do have pets that you consider your babies. If you’re in an accident, are there clear instructions in your wallet that describe your pets and who should care for them in case of an emergency? If not and you are in an accident, your pets could remain alone and uncared for because no one knows they are there waiting for you. All of this is so easy to prevent.
Take a few minutes and put a card in your wallet that tells emergency personnel how to care for your family members should something happen to you. It doesn’t need to be fancy—but it should be just enough to protect your most important and valuable “wealth” in the event of an unexpected emergency so strangers are not making decisions on your behalf.
And don’t forget that we have a great and affordable resource if you need help putting a “legal bubble” around your loved ones. For more information or to order the kit, go to http://www.kidsprotectionplan.com.
Written by Alexis Martin Neely, author, speaker, Personal Family Lawyer, Family Financial & Legal Expert for Better TV and MOM. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Subscribe to Alexis’ free online magazine “Family Wealth Secrets” at FamilyWealthMatters.com.
How much does a will cost?
One of the most common questions asked in phone calls to law offices is how much the average will costs. This is the #1 question I field and also one of the most challenging to answer. A Will is not (or at least should not be!) a commodity, and the process of creating an estate plan should not be akin to purchasing a television off a store shelf.
There are very inexpensive Will-drafting software packages for sale in office supply and box stores (about $30-50), there are relatively inexpensive online Will drafting services (about $100), there are are other fresh out-of-law-school newbies and many general practice lawyers who will be happy to fill in some form documents and churn out a run-of-the-mill, bare bones, basic will for around anywhere from $200 to $500 for a couple.
The trouble with all of these is that if you have any special circumstances in your life whatsoever or need any professional guidance, these will not serve your interests. There are other legal instruments that are often more critically important to people than Wills, but if all they think they need is a simple will and they don’t get proper guidance, they never learn that. Furthermore, if you go through the trouble and don’t properly execute the legal instruments, they aren’t worth the paper on which you print them. With these options there is also little to no legal counseling to help you make the best decisions to accomplish your individual goals and objectives and spare you and your loved ones the headaches and hassles of a failed plan.
An estate plan needs to be a living breathing thing that gets reevaluated periodically and regularly as your life’s circumstances change to ensure that it is still accomplishing what you want, protecting what’s most important to you, and doesn’t become a worthless pile of paper. I practice estate planning very differently from most of the other attorneys around here. I enjoy developing meaningful, lifetime relationships with my clients and provide them an exceptional level of personalized service and professional counseling, all in a very relaxed and friendly way.
I charge neither the least nor the most expensive rates for my estate planning legal services. The temptation for all of us is strong to try to save money by shopping around for the best deal. It is of critical importance, however, to be able to compare apples to apples. I only charge within a set range of flat rate fees from which my clients select once we’ve looked at what they have, what they want to accomplish, and what is most important to them. I can accept credit card payments, set up payment plans, and help make it as affordable as possible. What I do not want to be is, as someone recently put it, the Walmart of Wills. “I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed.” (John Cusack/Say Anything, anyone? Clearly I’m dating myself here.) But seriously, I have no desire to mass-produce shoddy documents at discounted prices without caring about whether that is really what my clients need.
I do want to provide a much higher level of personal service in an ongoing working relationship as my clients’ trusted family advisor. I’ve developed a great professional network of financial advisors and insurance professionals to be able to work as a team to ensure that my clients are taken care of in the best way possible. I have relationships with local real estate agents, bankers, mortgage professionals, and lawyers who practice in other areas of the law, including family and criminal law. It is my pleasure to refer my clients to those other professionals whom I personally know, trust, and to whom I have and would turn again for my family’s needs.
If this sounds like the sort of legal service you want, please call Allinotte Law Office at (613) 933-7720.
Adapted from an article by Danielle G. Van Ess, see the original at http://dgvelaw.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-much-does-will-cost.html.
If You Really Can’t Decide on Who to Name as Guardians, Here’s What to Do
There are a lot of parents out there who have not named
guardians for their kids because they really can’t decide.
You might be one of them.
But, here’s the thing. If you don’t decide and something happens to you, the decision gets made by a Judge.
You don’t want that, do you?
Here’s a few things that may help you decide:
1. Think through on a practical, realistic and non-emotional (to the extent you can) level who would come forward to raise your kids if you were in an accident.
2. Is that who you would want to raise your kids?
3. If not, who would be better than that person or those people?
4. If more than one person would come forward, who
would a Judge pick if the Judge had to decide between all
the people who would come forward?
Bottom line?
If you don’t decide, a Judge will. Even your worst choice would be better than that, right?
The free KidsProtectionPlan.com website will walk you through the entire process of choosing the right guardians for your kids and then legally document your decisions.
If not knowing who you want to name has been holding you back, don’t let it hold you back a second longer.
Do it now. It’s Free. It’s Easy. No Excuses.
By Alexis Martin Neely. Reprinted with permission from www.familywealthmatters.com
Why Parents Need an Estate Plan
As a parent, I know that life is busy. It took me a while to get an estate plan completed, and I’m a lawyer. But here is the thing: it is something you MUST do. Why? Well, read on.
1. Protect Your Children
Having a proper plan will allow you to name both temporary and long term guardians for your children. Right now, without a plan, if you and your spouse passed away, the court would appoint a guardian, and that person might not be who you would have chosen to care for your children. At worst, the person you would never want to parent your children could be appointed.
Also, if you have not appointed any guardians and there is no one locally with authority to care for your children, there is a risk that your children could be placed temporarily with the Children=s Aid Society until this could be sorted out. As a mother, I cannot imagine that happening to my children.
As well, with proper estate planning, you could provide for how you would want your property distributed to your child (and future children) in the event that you both passed away. For example, you could set up a trust so that your child would inherit any property at specified ages, for example, part at age 21 and the remainder at age 25. In the absence of a plan, your property would be held in trust for your child and managed by a government agency until your child reached 18, when all of it would all be distributed to him or her outright. I know that I would not have been very responsible with any large sums of money when I was 18, and most of my clients agree and decide to wait until the children are older for the funds to be distributed.
2. Distribute Your Assets the Way You Want
Your estate plan will also allow you to determine what should happen to your property if one of you were to pass away, leaving the survivor as a single parent. Currently, if the value of your estate is over $200,000, the surviving spouse is entitled that amount. The remainder of your estate would then be divided equally between the surviving spouse and your children. The funds for the children would be held in trust and managed by a government office and distributed upon the child attaining the age of 18. The surviving spouse could only manage those funds if a court application is made and even then, the funds would still require distribution at the age of 18.
3. Appoint a Person You Trust to Administer Your Assets
Aside from all the estate planning issues that come up as parents, your Will can provide for who will administer your assets and property in the event a death of you or you and your spouse. Right now, without any planning, someone you love, even the surviving spouse, would have to make an application to the court to be appointed as the person to administer your estate. Again, this person may not be who you would have wished to make these decisions for you.
4. Provide for Incapacity, or Give Your Loved Ones the Power to Make Decisions
Protecting your children and your assets is not the only important reason to do estate planning. As part of our plans, we would draft Powers of Attorney for Property, and Powers of Attorney for Personal Care. This would allow you and your spouse to make decisions for the other in the event that one spouse became incapacitated. As part of this process we also appoint alternate individuals to act in the event that both of you are incapacitated or there is only one surviving spouse who can no longer handle his or her personal affairs, or medical decisions.
Making decisions for a loved one who is incapacitated without a Power of Attorney is a bit of an unknown. Under the legislation, the spouse is one of the persons entitled to make decisions. However, without a document specifying who will make the decisions and what decisions should be made, there is the risk of disagreements between family members, especially if difficult personal care decisions need to be made. In the event that both you and your spouse were incapacitated or one of you had passed away, things can become even more complicated.
We also can do a Living Will instruction as part of our Power of Attorney for Personal Care. This would allow you to specify any conditions regarding your personal care in the event you were unable to make decisions for yourself, or each other. Many clients choose to include a Ano extraordinary measures@ clause, but you may have some additional conditions you would like to add.
Michele R.J. Allinotte is a lawyer in Cornwall, Ontario who focuses on estate planning, business law, and real estate. You can find out more about her at www.yourcornwalllawyer.com.
Think you have a complete estate plan? Think again.
Part of the changes I am making to the way I practice law is by creating tools to help you with estate planning and other legal issues. I know that you are as busy as I am and anything to make things easier and faster is always welcomed.
One of the things I always tell clients is that as part of the estate planning process, it is a good idea to get all of your information together in one place. You know, account numbers, contact people, life insurance numbers, all that “stuff” that you know where to find, but no one else would. I recommend my clients gather this information and either give this information to the person they have appointed as their executor, or at lease let that person know where this information is stored.
Yes, I’m a lawyer and I know all the legal reasons why you need to plan for incapacity or death, but I’ve also experienced the practical reasons you need to organize your information too.
When my grandparents were in their later years, my grandmother was experiencing the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. My mother helped them relocate from Brantford, Ontario, to the granny suite my parents had built here at their home in Cornwall. I recall my mother’s frustration at trying to make sense of all of the papers and documents she found. She tried to sort everything out then, but I still recall her searching later on, after one or both of my grandparents had passed, and she found an old life insurance policy that had been cancelled due to non-payment.
If my grandparents had done proper planning and recorded all this information, my mother would have had a much easier time sorting through their affairs. Yet, in my own life, I know it isn’t that easy to get it all together. I thought about how to make this easier and thought that some kind of a checklist would be very helpful.
So, I have created the “Peace of Mind Personal Inventory”, an 8 page checklist where you can record all of your information from where you keep your spare key to life insurance details and medical information to email and bank passwords. Once you fill out the form, you initial the envelope and give it to your designated person or you can give it to your lawyer to be kept with your will (as long as the important people in your life know that this information is with your lawyer!). All of your important information will be in one place and you can rest assured that your loved ones will have a much easier time should you become incapacitated or pass away.
I’m providing this checklist to you at no charge because I think it is such an important part of your estate planning process. To get your complimentary copy of the Peace of Mind Personal Inventory, email erin@allinottelawoffice.com.
15 Freedoms You Voluntarily Relinquish Without Adequate Estate Planning
The following is a list of some of the freedoms you choose to give away, not have taken away, mind you, when you neglect your estate planning. A simple will is simply not enough and expressing your wishes to your loved ones is not legally enforceable in any way. Everyone who cares about her or his loved ones and wishes to minimize the suffering of those left behind needs to create and maintain an up-to-date estate plan.
By neglecting to create and maintain an up-to-date estate plan, you voluntarily relinquish your freedoms to:
1. Name the people you want to be able to respond immediately in an emergency to legally step in to care for your minor children if you are unable to do so either temporarily or permanently, and avoid the possibility of having your children taken into child protective services and temporarily placed in foster care until such time as the authorities can locate and approve of a suitable alternative
2. Name the people you want to permanently raise your minor children in the event of the death of both parents and specify how you wish those people to raise your children according to your values and beliefs
3. Name the people you want to manage the financial affairs of your estate for the benefit of your children and their inheritance, especially where they are very young minors, in the event of the death of both parents, often not the same people you wish to physically care for and raise your children, and avoid the potentially very expensive need for a court-appointed guardian for your children’s finances with the requisite regular reports to the court and associated accounting and court costs which can eat up your children’s inheritance over time
4. Choose to whom, how, and when you want all of your assets (your home, your car, your personal property, etc.) distributed upon your death, including at what age(s) you want your children to receive their inheritance, which just might not be a lump sum distributed outright at the less than fully mature age of 21
5. Exclude anyone you would not ever want to raise your children but who might petition the court and the court might otherwise permit to do so, for example, relatives who look good “on paper” but about whom you have information to the contrary or from whose personal values and beliefs yours diverge fundamentally
6. Exclude anyone you would not want to receive distributions of your assets, for example, family members from whom you are estranged or who might be financially incapable of handling their own finances or have problems with gambling, drugs, alcohol, or be involved in lawsuits or divorces to which those assets would be vulnerable
7. Nominate any charities to which you wish to leave a specific bequest, for example, instead of or along with other distributions to certain relatives in the event your other named beneficiaries have died along with or predeceased you
8. Name the persons you wish to receive access to your protected health information, make medical decisions for you in the event of your temporary or permanent incapacity to do so, and speak for your family to express your wishes regarding life-sustaining artificial treatments
9. Name the persons you wish to be responsible for the management of all your financial affairs in the event of your incapacity
10. Specify whether you wish to be an organ donor and specifically of which organs and for what purposes
11. Specify what type of memorial or funeral service you wish to have and what you would like done with your remains
12. Avoid paying the highest taxes levied, both Massachusetts and federal estate taxes
13. Avoid the very public court process called probate, which can subject your survivors to unscrupulous practices by those who prey upon the most vulnerable people in their most vulnerable times, like grieving survivors with new inheritances
14. Avoid the time delays involved in the probate process, which is about 12-14 months in Massachusetts, and temporarily freezes your assets making them unavailable to your loved ones immediately as needed
15. Avoid the inherent financial costs of probate, which are about 5-15% of your estate in Massachusetts in total court costs, accounting and appraisal fees, and attorneys’ fees
This post was originally posted by Danielle G. Van Ess, Esq. on her blog. You can see her blog here.
