Gainesville Georgia Legal Blog

Georgia residents can use a power of attorney to give a trusted person or entity the authority to make financial decisions on their behalf should become unexpectedly incapacitated. If there is no power of attorney in place, their family will have to involve the courts, which can be costly, time-consuming and burdensome during a time at which they are likely to be emotionally strained.

No matter their age, all adults should complete a power of attorney. This also applies to people who are married, as there are plenty of financial transactions that can only be completed with signatures from both spouses. If there are assets that are in the name of just one spouse and there is no power of attorney in place, the other spouse will not be able to access those assets in order to handle the costs associated with the medical condition of the spouse.

People in Georgia need to take steps to protect their investments and other finances if they are getting a divorce. In order to do this, they need to have complete documentation of those finances, including assets, debts, income and expenses.

They will need a number of documents to prepare, including tax returns, credit card statements and bank statements. Tax returns can be used to verify income. People who own shares in a business should get information about that as well, including whether any personal expenses were paid by the business. Along with the financial statements, online tools are available that can help pull information from accounts. People should be as thorough and as accurate as possible in identifying all expenses and projecting them into the future since this will be important in negotiating property division.

It sometimes seems like a minor point to name the beneficiary when people in Georgia are setting up their individual retirement accounts. While individuals may not think it's important in the moment, failing to name a beneficiary or naming the wrong one is one of the biggest estate planning mistakes a person can make. The reason is that the family of the IRA owner can go through unnecessary stress or face unnecessary costs when there are beneficiary mistakes.

When the owner of an IRA dies without designating a beneficiary, the assets in the IRA are immediately transferred into the person's estate. In cases where a beneficiary has been properly designated, however, the IRA assets pass outside of probate. Most of the time, people list their spouses as designated beneficiaries on retirement accounts. Indeed, this is required for 401(k)s unless the spouse has made an explicit waiver in writing. With IRAs, it's up to the owner to make the designation. Setting the spouse as the beneficiary often makes the most sense because the spouse's tax obligations will be stretched out for a long period.

Georgia residents who tune in to the Weather Channel may know that the two stars of the show "Storm Wranglers" died while pursuing a tornado in Texas in March of 2017. The duo had been speeding and apparently ignored a stop sign. That was when they collided with a jeep, killing both the 25-year-old driver of the other vehicle and themselves.

The Weather Channel live streams these tornado chases on its Facebook page. The chase that led up to the fatal crash was recorded as well, abruptly ending at the moment of the collision.