Can I throw away my records?

February 20th, 2012

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I have a friend who does organizing for people as a business and I’ve used her services myself.  Why?  Because I always think I may need things later.  It helps to have someone hold up a t-shirt that I haven’t worn for 15 years, and is in a size that I am sure I’ll never see again and make me say out loud that I really need to keep it.  And yes, I now have 2 big bags of clothes to take to the charity resale store.

That works with clothes, but what about my financial records?

Part of me knows that I really don’t need my electric bills from 1994 from a house that has since been sold, but they really don’t take up much room and they would be difficult to recreate if I ever did need them.

This time of year, I hear people recommending that you dispose of financial records that are over 3 years old.  This may be correct for tax purposes.  I’m not a tax expert so I really can’t say.

But, if you want to apply for Medicaid, you need to be able to ‘look back’ 5 years to see if you’ve made a gift that might create a penalty period.  Or rather, you need to be able to prove that you did NOT make a gift in the past 5 years.

And since I’m never sure of what may happen in my life, I want to be prepared, just in case.

So my goal for this spring is to dispose of financial records from 2005 and before.  Yes I know that 2006 was 6 years ago and not five, but at least I’ll get rid of those electric bills from 1994!

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Elder Law, Estate Planning, General Information | No Comments »

Who pays the debts when someone dies?

February 13th, 2012

This has come up twice in the past week.

In one instance someone asked me if they could file an ‘estate bankruptcy’ because the person who died had a lot of debt and there was not enough money to pay all of the outstanding bills.  In another instance someone said that they knew that the children were responsible for their parent’s bills when they died.

Bankruptcy is only available for living beings or businesses.  An estate can’t file for Bankruptcy.  If there isn’t enough money to  pay all of the debts, the estate is just considered ‘insolvent’.

If you are the executor or administrator of an insolvent estate, you are not automatically personally responsible for the payment of all of the debts, but you should make sure that you know the order in which to pay any of the debts because if you pay them in the wrong order you might be held personally responsible for the wrongful payment amount.

If you are not the executor or administrator of the insolvent estate, and you haven’t signed something saying that you have accepted responsibility for a parent’s debt, it is not your debt and you do not have to pay.  Remember this when someone puts a paper in front of you to sign that you will accept responsibility to pay.

In fact, if you are not the executor or administrator of an estate, you don’t need to do anything at all.

You are not automatically responsible for your parent’s outstanding debts when they die just because you are the child.

Of course, if there are any assets in the estate, those assets should be used first to pay any bills and the heirs will only receive what is left.  If there isn’t enough to pay all of the debt, there won’t be any left for the heirs.

So what happens to that unpaid debt?  It just doesn’t get paid at all.  It is usually just ‘charged off’ by the debtor as uncollectible.

If you are worried that you might have to pay someone else’s debts after they have died, you might want to consider talking to a probate attorney or the official who handles probate matters where the person died.

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Estate Planning | No Comments »

Statute of Limitations for Child Support?

February 4th, 2012

About a year ago, I posted that there was really no statute of limitations on the payment of child support.  That was true at the time based on the Virginia Court of Appeals interpretation of the law as published in the case of Adcock v. Department of Social Serivices, 56 Va. App. 334, 693 S.E.2d 757 (2010).

Mr. Adcock was ordered to pay the back child support, and he appealed that decision to the Virginia Supreme Court.

In November of 2011 the Virginia Supreme Court issued their ruling in the case of Adcock v. Department of Social Services, 282 Va. 383 which reversed the ruling of the Virginia Court of Appeals and says that since the child support obligations are set and cannot be modified after the date on which the obligation is due, any payments that were due and unpaid were judgments that are subject to the 20 year statute of limitations.

What does this mean?  This means that the judgment to pay child support for any given month ‘expires’ 20 years from that month unless something is done to extend that judgment.

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Family Law, Support | No Comments »

Do you have a blended family?

February 2nd, 2012

My parents were divorced and my dad remarried a woman who had children, so I come from a ‘blended’ family.  I am also divorced from my children’s father and I’m now married to a man who has children from his first marriage.   All to say that I know what it’s like to live in a ‘blended’ family.

I’ve heard that the schools now have projects to trace your family ‘bush’ instead of your family ‘tree’.  It’s a sign of the times.

But, the laws haven’t quite caught up with society.

A step-child, even if they have been in your household and you have acted as their parent for their entire lives, is not considered your child for inheritance purposes.  And problems can arise when a current spouse and children from a previous relationship all want to take ‘their rightful portion’ of an inheritance.

There are ways to take care of the ones you love by talking to an Estate Planning attorney and making sure that your estate is used the way you want.  This is important for everyone.

It is even more important if you have a blended family.

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Estate Plan, Estate Planning, Trust, Will | No Comments »

Can I record a phone call?

November 20th, 2011

As with most things in law, the details of each individual situation can make a difference in how the judge might interpret the laws.

Virginia is one of the ‘one party consent’ states that allows recording of a phone conversation if at least one of the parties to the conversation knows about and consents to the recording.   So it would appear that you could record your own calls if the entire conversation takes place in Virginia.

The problem occurs if the other party to the conversation is in a state where the law requires all parties to consent before a call can be recorded.  For example, Maryland law requires that all parties consent before a call can be recorded.  To be totally safe from prosecution for unauthorized taping (which is a felony in Virginia), you should abide by the most strict law.  This means that if you are talking to someone in Maryland, you should get their permission before recording the call.

If someone is notified that the call is being recorded, and they continue to talk, they have given their consent, even if they don’t say the words ‘I consent’ or even ‘ok’.  If someone is notified that the call is being recorded and they don’t want to be recorded, they can always just hang up.

I have read about a situation where a woman starts each conversation with her ex-husband with the phrase ‘this conversation may be recorded for use in a court of law’.  While she may not have actual need to use the recordings, she reports that it has reduced the harassment that was previously part of every phone call about their joint children.

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

Tags: , ,
Posted in General Information | No Comments »

« Older Entries