What happens to my Facebook profile after death?

Facebook! With users easily surpassing 1,000,000,000, Facebook is arguably the most common social media platform. However, what happens to your Facebook page when you pass away? Who has access to your profile upon your death? Can you have your account deleted upon your passing?

Each person has their own Facebook page, right? The whole point of Facebook is you can make that page your own and post, share, like, whatever you want. However, when "you" are no longer available to take care of your page, what happens to it? Surprising to many, access to one's Facebook profile can become highly restricted after a person passes away, even if that person is a mother trying to access her deceased daughter's account. http://thehill.com/policy/technology/335759-german-court-rejects-mothers-request-to-access-deceased-daughters-facebook

As the desire for greater access to decedents' accounts grow, Facebook has come up with several different options for accessing a decedent's page.

One of the most common means is the legacy contact. Each person can designate one of their Facebook "friends" to serve as their "legacy contact" after they pass away. This individual has the authority to write posts on their wall, post articles (e.g. an obituary), and even shut down their Facebook page. This process can work great if you have a desire to notify distant relatives/friends of your passing when most of your communication is through social media. As social media becomes the norm for notification about such events, the legacy contact option is becoming more and more popular. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/02/12/facebook-policy-change-allows-one-final-post-after-death/23184757/

Another option is to have Facebook simply delete your profile upon your passing. This option is great for the individual who simply wishes their online persona to die with them. No exposure of past messages or lingering digital presence. Instead, your Facebook profile is simply deleted after Facebook is notified of your passing.

A final option utilized by some, but certainly not condoned by Facebook, involves sharing your username and password with a trusted person and informing them to login as you after your passing and shut down your profile. While this may be the simplest option, sharing username and passwords is a risky proposition, indeed!

While Facebook is just one electronic provider, there is no denying that online accounts are becoming more pervasive. And while Facebook is just one example, with online banking, automatic billing, etc. all becoming much more commonplace, knowing how your online accounts will be addressed are a top priority to ensure an easy and smooth process for the loved ones you leave behind!

If you’d like to ensure that you maximize the resources available to your loved ones and keep your family out of Court and out of conflict, schedule a Family Life and Legacy Planning Session.™ We can review your existing plan and help you make adjustments that will help you achieve your goals.

This article is a service of The Estate Planning Group and Davidson Law Office, LLP, your Life & Legacy Planning Lawyers, who believe in developing trusting relationships with families for life. We don’t just draft documents, we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

How can I preserve my assets for my kids and loved ones?

With tax time well behind us, you may be thinking you did well by minimizing what you paid to Uncle Sam and your state in taxes, so more can go to your family.  Every year around tax-time, we’re reminded of how complicated maximizing your money and minimizing tax liabilities can be - and for many people, this seems to be the singular focus for how to preserve assets for loved ones.

Unfortunately, we don’t get much in the way of real information about really preserving our assets through estate planning.  And, regrettably, many of us simply don't think about it, or maybe think we don't have enough to make a difference.

Simply put, this is Penny Wise and Pound Foolish - Your family will likely lose more in the costs of estate administration than you can ever overcome with annual tax tricks. 

Truth is, if you have people you love and any assets at all in your name, you do have an estate and it is worth preserving for the people you love. In some cases, that may mean keeping them out of court and out of conflict, if anything happens to you. (Did you know that the biggest family fights happen over the smallest sums of money or even the personal effects of a person who has passed on? Let’s keep that from happening to your family!)  

If you’re concerned about maximizing the amount your heirs receive and minimizing the amount received by governments, there are several steps you can take.

First and foremost, keep your family out of Court. It’s unnecessary, extremely expensive and almost always public. Consider using a Trust to make it easy to handle your assets if you become incapacitated or when you pass on. 

Second, ensure legal documents are in place for trusted family or loved ones to take care of financial, legal and health care issues in the event of any incapacity.  An incapacity without simple legal planning in place can be devastating to a family, both financially and emotionally. 

Third, while most Americans need not worry about the Federal estate and gift tax ($5.49 million in 2017), if you have an estate near or above that level ($10.9 million for married couples) you need to implement tax minimization strategies to avoid the extreme estate tax hit your heirs will experience. Some will need to think about State taxes, as well, if you live in one of the 20 states that impose them. (Wisconsin does not.) 

If you’d like to ensure that you maximize the resources available to your loved ones and keep your family out of Court and out of conflict, schedule a Family Life and Legacy Planning Session.™ We can review your existing plan and help you make adjustments that will help you achieve your goals. 

This article is a service of The Estate Planning Group and Davidson Law Office, LLP, your Life & Legacy Planning Lawyers, who believe in developing trusting relationships with families for life. We don’t just draft documents, we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

10 Estate Planning Questions to Ask Yourself

We are all busy, right? We have things to do, places to visit, and people to see. So, it is understandable why people do not often think about what would happen in an emergency, where something happens and you can no longer do things you want, visit the places you plan, and see the people you want.

While a proper estate plan cannot avoid these issues, it can leave you better equipped to address these situations when they arise.

Here are 10 estate planning questions to get you started. How many of these questions can you answer, "Yes" to?

1.    Have you appointed a trusted financial decision-maker for financial decisions during your life?

2.    Have you appointed someone who knows your health care wishes if you cannot communicate them?

3.    Have you shared your health care desires with your health care decision-maker?

4.    Do your beneficiary designated-assets, reflect your current wishes?

5.    Would someone know how to access your online accounts if they need to access them?

6.    If you wish to avoid the probate process, does your current plan accomplish this?

7.    Have I planned for a potential stay in a nursing home?

8.    Have you shared your wishes with your family, so your desires will be followed upon your death?

9.    Will your medical records be accessible to your family if they need to view them?

10. Does your current plan reflect your current wishes?

Proper consideration of these factors now can avoid needless time, effort, and headaches, for your loved ones.

Take the first step now and talk with an estate planning attorney today about putting in place a plan, so you can answer "Yes" to all ten questions!

Why are Powers of Attorney so Important?

We often receive phone calls inquiring about updating their will or trust.  While undoubtedly important, these documents generally only address one event, namely what happens to your assets when you pass away.

Equally important, but often overlooked, is protecting yourself and your family from financial and health care emergencies during your lifetime.  Properly drafted, Powers of Attorney can safeguard you from emergencies that may strike when you least expect it.

 

Everyone over 18 should complete both a Health Care and Financial Power of Attorney (P.O.A.).  While surprising to most people, the Wisconsin Statutes do not make a parent, a spouse, a relative or family member the default decision maker for anyone over 18.  The only alternative is oftentimes a costly and stressful legal proceeding involving the courts.

Each Power of Attorney document, in effect, nominates another person (your "agent") to legally make decisions for you.

 

A Health Care Power of Attorney allows you to designate an agent to discuss your condition with your doctor and make medical decisions according to your wishes when you are unable to communicate those desires.

A Financial Power of Attorney names an agent who can make financial and other non-medical decisions.  An agent’s authority can be immediate at the time of signing the document or it can take effect only in the event of "incapacity"–that is, when you are unable to act for yourself.

Undoubtedly, the role of agent is an important responsibility that should not be lightly considered.  So, who should you choose as your agent?

Naming an individual who shares your same values and beliefs can help ensure your wishes are followed.  We also suggest discussing with your agent any specific health or financial priorities and wishes you may have.  This conversation helps to avoid future questions about your goals and objectives when your agent is called upon to act.

Both a Health Care P.O.A. and a Financial P.O.A. can eliminate future conflict by laying out your wishes and designating someone to make decisions when you cannot.  These should be a key part of your estate plan.

Who do we give the Packer Season Tickets to?

Green Bay Packers Season Tickets. As of the writing of this article, the current wait list is around 120,000 people. So, it is easily understandable why families with tickets want to pass them on to loved ones.

But for some, the answer to who to give the tickets to is a challenging decision. We recently had someone come to see us who was really struggling over who to give his tickets to because he did not want to appear to favor any of his children. Thankfully though, he is making this difficult decision now.

All too often, inadequate instructions can cause conflict among family members and yes, sometimes even lawsuits (See Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Article, "Brother sues brother over Packer Tickets.").
While these are hard decisions, understanding the rules can streamline the process.

Green Bay Packer Ticket Policy requires that the owner of every season ticket be either an individual or a business (no co-ownership allowed). This bears noting because if you have multiple beneficiaries, they may not agree on a single individual owner and in the absence of agreement, no transfer occurs.

Without any direction from a season ticket holder, upon their passing, season tickets will likely first go to a surviving spouse, and if no spouse, then to surviving children. Remember, if the surviving children, cannot agree on a single child owning the tickets, no transfer takes place.

If you have put in place a will or a trust, you can specify who you desire to take ownership of the Packer tickets. Importantly, your will or trust can also list alternate beneficiaries, if your first choice, passes away before you.

In endeavoring to assist individuals, the Packers organization has also put together a Season Ticket Transfer Form to memorialize your desires and pass your tickets to your chosen beneficiary.

For more tips and suggestions on ensuring all of your assets, including your Packer tickets, pass smoothly to your chosen beneficiaries, come to our final seminar of 2016 at the Heart of the Valley Chamber of Commerce Building in downtown Kaukauna on Saturday, December 3^rd at 10:00 am. Refreshments will be provided. For information on how to sign-up, click here!

Time To Take Steps Toward Asset Protection

I've recently run into a string of situations wherein Asset Protection Planning could have saved my clients or their families significant monies and countless worries and headaches.   The most important pair of words in that sentence is "could have,"  which, of course, begs the question "if?"

The answer to that "if" is simple, yet ignored by nearly everyone, every day.  That answer is "if they had put in place an asset protection plan."  Simply put, no plan, no protection.

Simple enough?

Of course, plans vary, and levels of protection vary along with those plans, but the  bottom line is that everyone can benefit from the tools and techniques of asset protection planning.

The fundamentals underscoring the need for asset protection are counterintuitive to the American Dream - we want ot own things.  Regrettably, everything you now own becomes a potential liability and a potential target. 

A statistic related to me by a colleague recently was that it is now estimated that 1 in 3 Americans can expect to be dragged into a lawsuit.  A staggering statistic - take a look at the person to your left, now take a look at the person to your right, one of you three are likley to be involved in at least one lawsuit.

Another staggering figure was related to me at a client's kitchen table.  As we discussed the husband's pending return home from a short stay at a local nursing home, talk turned to the potential costs if he was unable to return home.  The nursing home had quoted a rate of $7,480.00/month!  It is easy to see how a modest estate may leave nothing for children, grandchildren or other loved ones with these levels of expenses for care.

Whether the particular desire or need is to protect real estate for heirs or from creditors, to protect assets for beneficiaries in the event of a need for medical care, or to protect business or family assets from unforseen creditors, or simply to avoid the erosion of esate value imposed by the probate process, steps can be taken to secure your assets, and to secure peice of mind.

First step, of course, is to contact an asset protection attorney to discuss what's at risk and what can be done to protect it. 

It's time to take that step toward securing your assets, before it's another "could have" statistic. 

* Note that this information is provided as general information only and does not constitute legal advice with regard to any particular set of circumstances. As with any legal issue, consult with an experienced attorney if you have questions regarding matters related to the topics discussed in the blog or video. Davidson Law Office and Attorney Kevin Davidson do not provide legal advice outside of an attorney/client relationship memorialized by a written and signed contract for legal services.

Davidson Law Office, LLP is an Appleton, Wisconsin law firm with a focus on business, asset protection and estate planning. Serving clients throughout Wisconsin from the heart of the Fox River Valley, with offshore asset protection services, intertnational business corporations, domestic business structures, irrevocable trusts, family living trusts, life estates, powers of attorney, and complete estate and family security planning packages.  Attorney Kevin W. Davidson is a registered overseas agent for Anguilla B.W.I.'s Corporations Ministry.  Free consultations.

Should A Revocable Trust Be Part Of Your Estate Plan?

Revocable Trusts have become the central document in basic estate planning over the past several decades, all but replacing the Will. Yet they remain a bit of a mystery to many people, and sometimes we fear the unknown.

What is a Revocable Trust? What does it do? How does it Work? and, perhaps most importantly, Should a revocable trust be part of your estate plan?

I was recently interviewed for an article in e-zine TotallyHer.com regarding these very questions. The article provides a nice primer/overview of the revocable trust. Here's and excerpt:

"What does work is the advice of someone like Kevin W. Davidson, founding member of Davidson Law Office, LLP. In a recent interview, Kevin talked about using revocable trusts as part of your estate planning strategy.

A revocable trust, also known as "living trust", "intervivos trust", and "grantor trust", is essentially a contract between the person (or persons) setting up the trust and placing assets in it, who is referred to as the "grantor", and the person (or persons) who will be responsible for managing the trust, known as the "trustee". The contract spells out what assets belong to the trust, how the assets may be managed, and, ultimately, how the assets will be distributed at the termination of the trusts' purpose, which is usually to hold and protect assets for the benefit of some beneficiaries.

Kevin added this important reminder about trying to define a revocable trust: "The term 'revocable trust' is very generic, and there are dozens of special purpose trusts that fall under the revocable trust genre. Additionally, the specific provisions and clauses that are allowable within a trust are dictated to some extent by statute, and, accordingly, some of the details of how a trust is drafted varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction."

You can read the complete article here.

Appleton Attorney Kevin Davidson is a Wisconsin wills, trusts, estate planning and asset protection lawyer with Davidson Law Office, LLP. Kevin provides personal attention and exceptional legal service to clients throughout the Greater Appleton and Fox River Valley areas and northeast Wisconsin.