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May 2016 Moms
AmmyBelle
member
Legal Things ...
AmmyBelle
member
I looked for a similar thread but in terms of legal things, all the came up was about dogs biting people? And this is less fur-baby related, and more human-baby, so here goes: (And yes, as a lawyer, I am ashamed I only started thinking about all this sometimes last week)
(1) What kind of legal things are we expected to do for our babies once they're born?
I already know of registering for their birth certificates, SSN and applying for passports after the former two things come in. Added to this, there is a rule of 30-31 days (depending on your insurance) whereby your baby is covered through you, during which you have to register them under their own names/pay the new premium.
Is there anything I am missing?
(2) This one's for STMs - How long did it take for the BC/SSN to come in?
(1) What kind of legal things are we expected to do for our babies once they're born?
I already know of registering for their birth certificates, SSN and applying for passports after the former two things come in. Added to this, there is a rule of 30-31 days (depending on your insurance) whereby your baby is covered through you, during which you have to register them under their own names/pay the new premium.
Is there anything I am missing?
(2) This one's for STMs - How long did it take for the BC/SSN to come in?
Re: Legal Things ...
Been married since 2009.
Unicornuate Uterus (yes I menstruate glitter)
Several MCs
DD born 2013 (our miracle "you can't have babies" baby!)
All good questions!! Of course there is a bit of a haze after delivery, so my answers are approximate!
A lady from Birth Registry called our hospital room to get baby's name and several other random stats, and then she came to our room to confirm and sign. This is for the birth certificate and SSN.
The newborn is automatically added to your insurance- you just have to call your insurance to add LO to your policy in that first month. You got it!
I was shocked at how fast the BC and SSN came in the mail. I think it was like 3 or 4 weeks. I thought it would take months.
We also plan to update our Wills as this is likely our last child.
Mama to Three Girls:
Twins born March 2014 at 26 weeks due to preterm labor
and our 37weeker born May 9th, 2016!
Married: Oct 20, 2013
BFP 1: Aug 31, 2015
EDD 1: May 12, 2016
DD1 Emma born May 12, 2016
An Honest Account of New Motherhood (with Postpartum Anxiety, Depression, and OCD)
BFP 2: October 07, 2019
EDD 2: June 20, 2020
As far as insurance, the doctor's office usually (I think) waits until the baby is on an insurance to bill for the first couple of visits. I think the time limit is correct though, around 30 days.
Adding her to the insurance was just a quick call to my companies benefit hotline. We haven't gotten passports for the kids since we don't plan on any out of country vacations anytime soon.
1) don't feel compelled to choose someone just because they'd expect you to or they feel they have the right (i.e. parents).
2) don't think too much about money. Your life insurance should provide for your children for a long time. However, don't pick someone you know would be irresponsible with your children's estate.
3) choose someone who would raise them most closely to how you would.
- Draft and execute a Combination Living Will, Designation of Health Care Surrogate, and HIPPA Release Authorization (FYI - these forms are often called something else, depending on your jurisdiction. For those non-lawyers - essentially, the living will allows you to decide whether or not to be put on life support, the designation of health care surrogate appoints a person(s) to make medical decisions for you in the event you become incapacitated, and the HIPPA release authorization allows your medical records and information to be shared with the person(s) you appoint.) I finally got around to executing this last week, but I still need to take an original by my hospital for their file. (Make sure you execute duplicate originals so you can have one for your records and one for the hospital.)
- MH and I already have current Power of Attorney instruments that designate one another as POA for the other for all personal and business purposes. (These make it so much easier when we need to fill out official forms and contracts that need to be signed by both of us. I am usually the one handling those types of things, so being able to sign for him when he isn't around makes my life so much easier. However, I caution against executing ones as broad as ours unless you really (and I mean really) trust your spouse/SO completely!)
- Contact health insurance provider to add child to policy (within 30 days)
- Fill out all paperwork at hospital to obtain SSN and birth certificate
- Update life insurance beneficiaries (MH and I are each the primary beneficiaries of one another's policies currently. If I can find time within the next couple of weeks, I plan to draft a family trust, open and fund a trust account, and change each of our policies to name the trust as the primary beneficiary. My sister will be the alternate trustee since she will be named as the guardian of our LO and I trust her to responsibly administer the trust for the benefit of our child in the event that both MH and I die.)
- Update our wills (which will be pourover wills into the trust and will designate my sister and BIL as guardians).
- Retitle our vehicles, boats, and real property in the name of the trust (This doesn't really have anything to do with LO, but it would make everything easier and allow our estate to avoid being probated if MH and were to die.)
**The following is not some ploy to get the non-lawyers to spend money on attorney fees, but rather some cautionary advice: Go see an estate planning attorney in your jurisdiction if you plan to execute any estate planning instrument. Do not go to one of those internet sites that generates a will or trust for you or use a template from Google or a friend. It may not cost you much now, but it could cost your beneficiaries thousands later. Before going into corporate law, I did a lot of trust and probate litigation, and so many of my cases arose from people trying to draft their own documents and screwing it up. Their beneficiaries often had to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees for an attorney to sort it all out so they could receive their inheritance, which in some cases ended up going to someone the decedent did not even intend because the instruments were so poorly drafted. Do yourself (and, more importantly, your beneficiaries) a favor and have everything prepared by a professional. They will likely be able to help your beneficiaries save on estate taxes as well.Edited to add general cautionary advice that somehow got cut off before.
I definitely agree with the benefits of a RLT, but I typically see younger people go the testamentary trust route so I was curious particularly why you went that route. I live in a state where probate is a breeze, so I'm sure that's a major factor why most go the testamentary trust route.
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If I'm not mistaken, I believe @Merciel practices in the Philadelphia area (I could be completely wrong, though!). She may have a good PA estate planning contact. If not, I have an old law school classmate from PA who may have a referral there.
Edited to try to fix the quote box that didn't show up in my reply. Didn't work, so I added a divider line. Weird.
@swflJD, thank you for the list. My husband is an attorney and I've actually forwarded your post to him because it seems so comprehensive. We have been discussing establishing a trust, but with a trustee outside of the family (largely to avoid anyone being the target of hurt feelings). Is there someone you would recommend? A friend? A private attorney?
DD: 05/14/16
However, the likelihood of your child going to college is much greater, so I would divert the dollars would would spend on insurance premiums into savings. You can fund a Roth IRA and use it for qualified education expenses for you or your dependents. You can also withdraw principal before 59.5 without incurring a penalty (I.e. Use this if something were to happen to your child... Or for any other emergencies, if needed). If you are beyond the income limits for a Roth IRA, you can do a "backdoor Roth conversion" that is a roundabout way to contribute to a Roth at higher income levels.
Many children's policies end up lapsing and being a money pit. Sometimes grandparents are sold the idea that whole life insurance policies are a great investment for their grandchildren (they're not 95% of the time).