Full Description

Everything Your Family Needs—to Organize Essential Information

My Wishes is an essential guide to organizing your life and preparing for the future. It provides an effective way to communicate to your loved ones all of your life plans, and it gives your family immediate access to information when long searches for vital documents are the last thing they want to do.

Whether you are looking for a way to send a lasting message or simply want to get all your affairs in order, My Wishes provides the peace of mind needed in times of sorrow. Follow its simple steps to ease a trying time and start your family on a healing path. Use it to quickly organize all your affairs.

--Prepare a will or trust to distribute your wealth among your loved ones
--Arrange for hospice care and treatment options with your doctor
--Write your own obituary and eulogy
--Organize your bills, insurance policies and other important papers
--Execute powers of attorney to safeguard your health and your finances
--Make final arrangements so your family won’t have to

My Wishes organizes and communicates all the information you want your loved ones to know, when they need it most.

Table of Contents

Preface -
Introduction -

Part 1: Personal Issues
Chapter 1: Preparing for the Inevitable -
- Planning for the Inevitable—Presidential Style
- Sudden Adult Death
- Terminal Illness
- Live Life Today
- A Financial Planning Checklist for Terminal Illness

Chapter 2: Living with Dying -
- Accepting Fate—Not Death
- Finding the Support You Need
- Embracing Your Spirituality

Chapter 3: Advance Health Care Planning and Organ Donation -
- Develop a Plan
- Share Your Plan
- Treatment Issues
- Organ Donation
- Recording Your Plans for Advance Health Care Planning

Chapter 4: The Role of Hospice -
- History of Hospice Care
- What Hospice Care Is
- How Hospice Care Works
- Services Provided by Hospice Care
- Qualifying for Hospice Care
- Affording Hospice Care

Chapter 5: The Funeral Service -
- The Service
- Pallbearers
- Speakers
- Funeral Service Planner
- Writing Your Own Eulogy
- A Celebration of Life Service

Chapter 6: Preplanning Arrangements -
- Pre-Need Arrangements
- Alternatives to Prepayment
- Funeral Homes and the Funeral Rule
- Cremation
- Burial or Cremation—Make Your Wishes Known
- Cemeteries
- Veteran Funerals
- Memorial Societies
- Headstone Inscriptions
- Second Marriages

Chapter 7: Obituaries and Video Letters -
- Sample Obituary
- Obituary Worksheet
- Video Letters

Chapter 8: If You Have to Relocate -
- Making the Decision

Chapter 9: If You Are Alone -
- Medical Care
- Hospice
- Home Nursing and Caregiver Services
- Estate Planning
- Final Interment
- Organ Donation

Chapter 10: How to Behave -
- Your Choice of Executor and Trustee
- Division of Money and Other Liquid Assets
- Division of Personal Property
- Let’s Be Friends
- Your Behavior Towards Others

Chapter 11: Legacy Wills -
- Writing Your Legacy Will
- Sample Legacy Will

Part 2: Managing Your Affairs
Chapter 12: Disposing of Personal Property and Cleaning House -
- Disposing of Embarrassing Items
- Keeping Promises to Leave Property
- Distributing Personal Property During Your Lifetime
- Making Charitable Donations of Your Property
- Frequent Flyer Miles
- Don’t Be a Pack Rat
- Checklist for Organizing Your Home
- Caring for Your Pets

Chapter 13: Wills and Trusts -
- Last Wills and Testaments
- Will Preparation Worksheet
- Last Will and Testament
- Special Will Provisions
- Guardianships
- Last Will and Testament (Guardian)
- Providing Health Information
- Family Medical History and Health Insurance Information
- Personal Medical History
- Revocable Trusts versus Wills
- Inheritance Taxes

Chapter 14: Living Wills -
- Preparing a Living Will
- Living Will (A Directive to My Physician)

Chapter 15: Powers of Attorney -
- Advance Health Care Power of Attorney
- Power of Attorney for Health Care
- Financial Power of Attorney
- Durable Power of Attorney
- Conservatorships

Chapter 16: Navigating Through the Paperwork -
- Organizing Your Financial Records
- Personal Data and Record Locator
- Organizing Your Credit Accounts
- Accounts Organizer

Chapter 17: Managing Debt -
- Who Gets Paid
- Is Filing for Bankruptcy an Option?

Chapter 18: Private Insurance and Financial Planning -
- Reverse Mortgages
- Disability Insurance
- Long-Term Care Insurance
- Funeral Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Travel Insurance

Chapter 19: Medicare and Social Security Disability -
- Medicare
- Social Security Disability Benefits
- Claim Procedures
- Request for Reconsideration (The First Appeal)
- Request for Hearing (The Second Appeal)
- Types of Social Security Programs
- Survivor’s Benefits

Chapter 20: The Role of an Attorney -
- When Do I Need an Attorney?
- Finding a Lawyer
- Medicare and Elder Law Issues

Chapter 21: Scams -
- New Best Friend Scams
- Living Trust Scams
- Funeral Industry Scams
- Identity Theft Scams
- Health Insurance Scams
- Other Common Scams

Chapter 22: When Death is Imminent -
- Debts of the Deceased
- Schedule of Debts
- Notification to Credit Card Companies
- Notification to Social Security
- Notification to Disability Insurance and Long-Term Care Insurance Providers
- Notification to Pension Benefit Providers
- Home Maintenance and Other Emergencies
- Home Maintenance and Emergency Worksheet

Chapter 23: Unfinished Business -
- Relieving Your Survivors’ Burden
- Prepaid Purchases
- Personal Injury and Other Legal Actions
- Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks

Conclusion -
Glossary -
Appendix: Blank Forms -
Index -
About the Author

Excerpt

Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Customer Reviews: