What if Your College Kid is Sick or Has an Emergency?

If your kids need help, these are the healthcare documents you may need

Sending kids off to school in the fall has always been an important ritual that marks the changing seasons. It’s an exciting time for kids: A time for learning, social development and a growing independence. Parents are just glad to get back into familiar routines.

Nothing’s normal anymore: Be prepared with health care documents

Anxiety over COVID is forcing new conversations as kids return to college campuses this fall. At 18 or more, these students are officially adults, but they still depend on their parents for food and shelter. Parents declare them on their taxes and pay for their health care. While these kids may be testing their independence, they remain closely tied to their families.

It may seem morbid to talk about health care documents for robust young people, but accidents and illnesses happen to young adults. COVID infects every demographic, and young people are vulnerable too. Nothing is normal anymore. If your kids are away at college and something happens to them, you want to be the one making decisions for them.

 

If there’s a medical emergency with your child, these three forms will help you come to the aid of your child.

 

1. Advance Healthcare Directive

Also referred to as a Healthcare Agent or Medical Power of Attorney, a Healthcare Power of Attorney. By signing this document, you are appointing someone to act on your behalf to make medical decisions if you become incapacitated. Your agent will have access to your medical records and your permission to talk with your health care providers. In this case, your son or daughter would sign this document, giving you, as a parent, permission to act in your behalf. At California Document Preparers, we include an Advance Healthcare Directive in our Living Trust package, along with our Power of Attorney.

 

2. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) authorization (also called a HIPAA release)

This is a more narrow document that permits healthcare providers to disclose your health information to anyone you specify. A standalone HIPAA authorization (meaning that it is not incorporated into a broader legal document like an Advance Healthcare Directive) does not have to be notarized or witnessed; however we include Notary on our form.

This document alone will often suffice for you to get information from the health care institution treating your child. In a HIPAA authorization, young adults can stipulate that they don’t want to disclose information about sex, drugs, mental health or other details that they prefer to keep private. As with the broader Advance Healthcare Directive, a HIPAA release can also be included in a Living Trust, but it is always included as a standalone document in our estate planning package to conform with particular California rules and so that your agent doesn’t have to share your Trust document just to get health care information.

3. Power of Attorney 

A Power of Attorney enables a designated agent (in this case a parent) to make financial decisions on the student’s behalf. The POA can begin immediately after signing the document or only if your child becomes incapacitated. As the designated Power of Attorney, the agent can sign tax returns, access bank accounts, pay bills, make changes to a child’s financial aid package or figure out tuition problems.

Fortunately, most families will never need these forms, but it’s always a better idea to be prepared in case you do.

What else changes at 18?

As teenagers turn 18, they’re adults according to the law. They can now vote, serve in the military and on a jury, sign a contract and get married without parental consent. They still can’t legally drink alcohol and car rental companies usually will not allow them to rent cars, but their legal status is decidedly different than it was at 17. All males with U.S. citizenship must register for the selective service upon reaching the age of 18.

 

COVID has created urgency on so many levels

As the COVID crisis drags on, many more of our clients are scheduling appointments to create or update their Living Trusts. Our Trust package includes a Pour Over Will, and for those families with children under 18, it means that they can name a Guardian rather than having the court appoint one for them. Creating a Trust helps provide some peace of mind during these uncertain times. Best of all, we guide you through it and we prepare the legal documents.

Our Trust package includes a Will, Power of Attorney, an Advance Healthcare Directive and Incapacity Planning. At California Document Preparers, for most of our services, we charge one flat fee. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable.

We service the entire East Bay and North Bay areas

Berkeley, El Cerrito, Richmond, Pinole, Alameda, San Leandro, Castro Valley Newark, San Lorenzo, Concord, Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Discovery Bay, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Livermore, Tracy and Fremont. Our clients also live in the Napa Valley, Benicia, Vallejo, Martinez, Fairfield.

COVID Heroes: Feeding Workers, Putting Restaurants Back to Work

We’re six months into this miserable disease and there’s little to feel good about. Yet stories emerge of truly heroic people who are manning soup kitchens, putting in 14-hour days in healthcare facilities and fueling supply chains to help save lives. Now independent groups have come together as “Frontline Foods”. An estimated 1,000 volunteers have delivered more than 541,000 meals.

“It’s been an incredible experience,” said Alexis Perlmutter, one of the Frontline Foods volunteers leading Chicago’s efforts. “This would not be possible without an army of volunteers that is rolling up their sleeves to solve problems together.”

Frontline Foods works with World Central Kitchen, a global nonprofit, delivering fresh meals to essential workers

Bringing meals to hospitals in a safe and organized fashion can be extremely difficult, said Nate Mook, the chief executive of World Central Kitchen. But World Central Kitchen has the expertise to help. Having served communities ravaged by disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes, it has stepped in to coordinate these separate fundraising initiatives.

• World Central Kitchen has served more than a million meals in more than 95 cities across the country.
• It has also been working in seven cities in Spain, which had one of the world’s highest coronavirus mortality rates.
• In one week, the Chicago’s Frontline Foods teamed up with 10 restaurants and delivered more than 1,000 meals to six hospitals.
• In New York, World Central Kitchen set up a distribution site at Hudson Yards to serve the staff at the makeshift hospital in the Jacob K. Javits Center. The organization is also planning to bring daily meals to roughly 30,000 professionals working in the city’s public hospitals and health clinics, with support from Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.
• In Washington DC, World Central Kitchen staffers cooked 8,000 meals/day for homeless people, older residents and essential workers, including firefighters and police officers.

World Central Kitchen: Helping restaurants whose businesses have slowed or closed

We all have our favorite neighborhood bars and restaurants, many of them now shuttered. Those lucky enough to have outdoor seating have reopened, but we know they’re limping along. We wonder how long they can hang on, what our neighborhoods will look like when this is all over. Happily, World Central Kitchen is extending a hand.

World Central Kitchen is providing administrative and financial backing to Frontline Foods and other grassroots groups, like Off Their Plate, which has operations from Boston to Seattle. “We’re good at moving quickly,” said Tim Kilcoyne, the director of chef operations at World Central Kitchen. Yet given how widespread the current health crisis is, he said, “the only way we would be able to help as many people as possible is with partners.”

Other collaborations are underway in Oakland

• World Central Kitchen has delivered thousands of meals from dozens of local restaurants to medics at drive-through testing sites, homeless residents in transitional housing, seniors and at-risk youth.
• Kingston 11, a Jamaican restaurant that has been contributing to those relief efforts, has hired back more than half of its back-of-house staff, said Sam Chapple-Sokol, who works for World Central Kitchen in Oakland. “They’re open three days a week right now, because of the limited demand and the limited ability,” he said.
• World Central Kitchen has also been creating opportunities for food delivery workers. It has connected with Uber Eats and other delivery companies to bring meals from local restaurants to front-line workers and others in need in Los Angeles, Newark and New York, as well as Washington and Oakland.

If someone is hungry, you start cooking

The motivation behind the organization’s work comes from the can-do attitude of its founder, the celebrity chef and activist José Andrés, said Mr. Chapple-Sokol. “If somebody is hungry,” he said, “you just get in the kitchen and start cooking.”

COVID has created an urgency on many levels, including creating a Living Trust

As the COVID crisis drags on, more clients are scheduling appointments to create or update their Living Trusts. Our Trust package includes a Pour Over Will, and for those families with children under 18, it means that they can name a Guardianrather than having the court appoint one for you. Creating a Trust helps provide some peace of mind during these uncertain times. Best of all, we guide you through it and we prepare the legal documents.

Our Trust package includes a Will, Power of Attorney, an Advance Healthcare Directive and Incapacity Planning. At California Document Preparers, for most of our services, we charge one flat fee. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable.

We service the entire East Bay and North Bay areas

Berkeley, El Cerrito, Richmond, Pinole, Alameda, San Leandro, Castro Valley Newark, San Lorenzo, Concord, Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Discovery Bay, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Livermore, Tracy and Fremont. Our clients also live in the Napa Valley, Benicia, Vallejo, Martinez, Fairfield.

Divorced Couple Rethinks Estate Planning after Cancer Diagnosis

A 60-year old Antioch woman came in to our Walnut Creek office because she needed assistance creating Living Trusts for both herself and her ex-husband. “Anna” and “George” divorced seven years ago after more than 20 years of marriage and three grown children.

Now, it seems, they have become each other’s best friends

This happens more often than you might think. People share many experiences as they build their careers and raise their children together. Once the day-to-day pressure of living together is removed, we often hear about couples rediscovering the reasons they got together many years before and rethinking their relationship.

George’s struggle with cancer has been a wakeup call for this couple

Anna is now there for George as he struggles with terminal cancer. His treatment has given him hope, but he’s also realistic. He and Anna want to be prepared so that their children don’t have to deal with Probate when he dies.

Anna and George co-own two townhomes in the same Antioch neighborhood. They own the homes 50/50 as unmarried people; they’re listed on the title as joint tenants, which means that if one of them dies, the other automatically becomes the property’s owner.

Anna and George are considering separate Living Trusts, and as part of their Trusts, they will create Powers of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directives, naming their younger daughter, “Amanda” as their Agent. Amanda is a CPA and lives close by, which makes her an ideal candidate. Being an Agent is a responsibility that can require a significant commitment, so we generally caution our clients to name someone who has availability. It also helps if it’s someone who has a facility working with numbers, as it’s often necessary to manage financial accounts.

There are other issues on the table for this couple as they complete their estate planning 

• If each creates a separate Living Trust, they will spend twice as much money.
• Anna may be eligible to receive a portion of George’s pension when he dies.
• If they remarried, they could create a joint trust, which would meet their requirements, including providing ownership succession for George’s home, Power of Attorney and an Advance Healthcare Directive.
• Most of all, if they remarried, Anna might be better positioned to receive a portion of George’s pension.

We printed a marriage-license request from the county recorder, and Anna took it with her as she went home to talk to George about the practical benefits of becoming man and wife again—nearly 30 years after they’d originally exchanged their vows.

If you’re working on an estate plan, a Living Trust is an important part of that planning. Call California Document Preparers at one of our three Bay Area offices today to schedule an appointment today. You can also jumpstart the process with our easy-to-use, secure online storefront. We’re still available by phone and email if you have questions. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable.

Single Mom Creates Living Trust to Provide for Her Daughter

The concept of family has evolved. It’s not uncommon for men or women these days to decide that they really don’t want to get married at all, but they do want to have a child and be a parent. The families they form may include the child’s birth father or mother—or not. It’s really up to them to define their version of the new American family.

Introducing Mary: A 34-year-old pregnant surfer

One such woman, “Mary” recently came in to our Walnut Creek office. She is 34, lives in Danville, has a great job, loves to surf at Ocean Beach—and is five months pregnant with a little girl. She and her boyfriend, “Oliver” have been together for five years, and he’s a software salesman who does a fair amount of traveling. When she told him that she was pregnant, he wanted to get married. But while she loves Oliver, she doesn’t want to marry him.

Mary owns two properties—a four-unit apartment in Alameda and the home in Danville in which she lives. It had been her grandmother’s house, and when she died, Mary and her parents became equal owners.

Having a child will dramatically change her lifestyle

Mary is healthy, happy and eagerly anticipating the birth of her daughter. She knows that being a single mother is going to be challenging and that her lifestyle will change dramatically. Even with her demanding job, she knows she must prioritize the needs of her new daughter.

But Mary has always wanted to have children, and she knows that this is the right time. She also knows she can count on her strong support system, including Oliver. Her parents, who live close by, are ecstatic about the prospect of their first grandchild. Mary also has friends and extended family members who live in the East Bay, and she knows she will need to rely on all of these people as she navigates her new life as a single mom.

What happens to her daughter if something happens to Mary?

Mary is worried, however, about what would happen to her daughter if something happened to her. She wants to make sure her daughter would inherit her assets, but she also wants to make it easy for Oliver to raise their child.

Here’s how California Document Preparers helped Mary provide for her daughter:

• We created Mary’s Living Trust package from the information she provided in our easy-to-use workbook.
• She named Oliver and her father as Co-trustees.
• Mary left the apartment to Oliver and her home to her parents.
• She named Oliver as the child's guardian and her sister as a backup guardian.
• Our comprehensive Living Trust package includes a Power of Attorney, and she decided that her father, an attorney, will be her Financial Power of Attorney, with Oliver as the backup.
• Mary named Oliver, her sister, mother and father on her Advance Healthcare Directive.
• We also did two Deeds transfers for Mary; the Alameda apartment building is 100% in her Trust and her grandmother’s Danville home is 50% in her parents’ Trust and 50% in her new Trust.

Mary is delighted that we were able to take care of her Trust in one week--long before her child is due. It is giving her peace of mind as she prepares for the birth of her daughter.

There’s a common misperception that Living Trusts are just for old people! In the same way that Mary wanted to provide for her daughter if something happened to her, anyone with dependents should have a Trust.

Call California Document Preparers at one of our three Bay Area offices today to schedule an appointment. We’re helpful, compassionate, affordable.

Mom Dies in CC County, but Nevada Home Means Separate Probate

A woman came into our Walnut Creek office seeking help with her parents’ estate. Like many of the clients who come through our doors, she needed information. She’d never dealt with an estate before and was still in shock over her mother’s sudden death. Her mother had been healthy and active but had collapsed during her morning exercise class. They’d called 911 and rushed her to the hospital, but she’d had a ruptured aneurism. Despite heroic efforts by the EMTs and the emergency room doctors, her mother died in the hospital.

No Living Trust, but there might be a Will . . .

Our client had a brother, but she would be managing the estate. They knew that their mother and father, who had died the previous winter, had never created a Living Trust, despite their frequent urging. They did think, however, that their parents had at one time created a Will.

Brook encouraged her client to try and find the Will, as it would detail how her parents’ assets would be distributed. The client returned a week later with the Will—she had carefully gone through her mother’s papers and found it locked in the back of a desk with other important documents, including the title to her car, tax statements from the last few years and the deed to a home in Nevada.

The Will detailed that the assets would be evenly divided between the son and daughter, our client. There were a life insurance policy and some stocks that had significantly appreciated over the years. The Will also identified how some of the family’s belongings–a few quality antiques, paintings and jewelry, would be allocated between their son and daughter.

No real property, assets less than $150,000: They avoided Probate—in California

Since they had owned no real property in California, their assets totaled less than $150,000, they did not have to ask the court to Probate any California assets. Yet, because California is her state of residence, our client will have to file for Probate in California first in order to have the authority to initiate Probate in Nevada.

A separate Probate in Nevada

Brook initiated the Probate process, preparing court documents stating that her client would be the Executor of her mother’s estate. These documents will be used at the hearing that the Probate clerk schedules; it is at this hearing that the Probate judge signs off on this document, legally naming her the Executor. She will then take this certified document to a Nevada attorney to initiate a Probate case in that state. The full Probate process will take place in Nevada.

A cautionary tale . . .

If our client’s parents had created a Living Trust, settling her parents’ estate would have been a simple matter of distributing their assets according to the details of the Trust. The estate has now gotten significantly more complicated—and expensive.

Are you still putting off creating your Living Trust? We prepare the legal documents and notarize them–most of our clients tell us they’re surprised at just how easy it was! Schedule an appointment at one of our three Bay Area offices today today.  

Case Study: Deed Still in Mom’s Name, No Way to Avoid Probate

Last year a couple in their 70s came in to the Walnut Creek office to see Barbara Theobald. The husband’s mother, who was in her nineties, had died and he was going through her papers. They had moved in with his mother nearly ten years before. While still in fairly good health, she had become frail, and the house was more than she could care for. They were also concerned that she was not eating properly, and as her friends died, she was becoming increasingly isolated, and they worried that she was becoming depressed. Their living together solved a number of problems, and the mother was frankly relieved to have the company of her son and daughter-in-law at this stage of her life. There was also the understanding that the mother would add their names to the home’s deed so that when she died, the house and her other assets would belong to them.

The deed was in the name of the mom and the son

As the son was going through his mother’s papers, he found the deed to her house which he had thought was in his and his wife’s names also. He was distressed to see that the deed was in Mom’s name and his name only, without any vesting. This meant that Mom’s share of the property had to be probated. Barbara inquired if there was a Will, and he thought there was but couldn’t find it—Barbara suggested he try to find it, to see if it detailed his mother’s wishes. Since there were also two sisters in the family, if there was no Will, all three of them would inherit Mom’s half of the house. The sisters always thought the house would be theirs, even though it was the brother and his wife who had cared for their mother for the last ten years of her life.

They found mom’s Will, proceeded to Probate

Barbara gave this couple information about our Probate services, and since there was clearly a lot at stake, encouraged them to try and locate the Will, and when they were ready, to call her again. It took some time, but they found mom’s Will, which clearly stated that the son would inherit all of her property. Both of our clients were relieved and decided to proceed with Probate.

The appraisal determined that the value of mom’s half of the property was less than $150,000, so we were able to prepare a small Probate to determine succession, which only requires one court hearing. Within several months, the property belonged totally to the son. Barbara then prepared a new deed transferring the property to both him and his wife, with the proper vesting. When they came in to sign the new deed, Barbara showed them our Living Trust portfolio and suggested they think about protecting their assets. They promised to think about it.

It took nearly another year . . .

It took them almost a year, but in November of 2016, the couple came back to see Barbara and signed up for a Living Trust portfolio. Barbara was delighted that they decided to take care of their own estate so that when they died, their own son would not have to go through Probate, as they had.

Being able to help clients like this and provide good customer service make me especially proud of my work at California Document Preparers. When it comes to a Living Trust, our clients tell us they’re surprised at just how easy it was! Best of all, we’re there for you every step of the way. Make an appointment today to get started on your Trust. It’s the most thoughtful thing you can do for your loved ones.