FINANCES

My concern is that if Dad was to die soon, his liquid assets would be tied up and we only have $4K in Mom's cash account. We must not sell stocks that have been held for a long time because of the capital gains taxes.

I called Linda Noonan, Esq...

When either parent dies, the trust reverts to the surviving spouse. However, she is almost certain that VL and I as executors would have almost immediate control of the funds, so we'd be able to access Dad's cash. LN will double check this and get back to me tomorrow.

However, she advised us to withdrawal the $14K gift ASAP for us (VL got the Buick as gift). As POA, we can also transfer funds between ARM's and VJM's accounts now, if we wish.

As for gifting...

She was a little fuzzy on gifting from their accounts. We'd have to be careful if the gift was to us, unless they had a history of gifting (ha!). However, this would only be an issue for Medicaid Law -- which is unlikely to be an issue unless Mom lives for 10 more years.

Immediate needs...

We need $5K plus for bills each month, $14K for the current 'gift', and say $10K to prepay both funerals -- say $30K for short term needs, i.e., November. Dad has $17K and Mom has $4K. $30K in treasury bills are coming due soon, but I don't know when just yet.

I called Mark Schaaf, the Wachovia account exec...

The first securies he would liquidate would be the Evergreen funds in Dad's account. Because of the fund rules, up to $40K can be sold by November 1st. The cash should appear in the cash account a few days later. He will do that on Monday and we should be OK for the next couple of months.




- posted by Rodney B. Murray, PhD @ 3:28 PM