chapter 3: part 2

continued from chapter 3: part 1

Our accountant loved playing the horses and hadn't much energy for his job in a respectable accounting firm; eventually he departed hastily and quietly.
Hal was intrigued by quirky characters and he thought this man was okay despite some questionable business advice in the past.

This same fellow had referred a lawyer to us and so what did we expect? This lawyer didn’t work from an office when we first knew him and he handily rode the subway to our house when we needed to see him. We did think this was a tad unusual but we never investigated his past. Eventually he rented a corner in a large legal firm but that didn’t make him any more successful.

This man failed us miserably when we needed his skills. We had one meeting with him, told him what had been happening to Hal and asked him to put the wills together quickly. He never completed the task. We took turns phoning him every few days and he always replied they would be ready “next week” and he would call us but he never did. Finally, I sent him a letter literally firing him and he responded by billing us for three hundred dollars,” for financial advice”.
You will get an idea of our mind states when I tell you I paid the bill, although I had the satisfaction of telling him what a sorry specimen he was.

Quirky characters were beginning to lose their appeal and Hal remembered a lawyer he had met through a writing assignment and called him. Alan remembered Hal and made an immediate appointment when he learned the reason. Hal was frank about his cancer and his prognosis and Alan thoroughly covered what the law requires and went over everything we might need to know.

While we were at it, we made a separate memorandum to be attached to our wills telling the children how we wanted our personal possessions disposed of after our deaths. We took a hard-nosed approach here. When it came to leaving things to the kids and their mates, we couldn’t assume each marriage would remain intact, but the kids were ours forever, so we simplified by dividing everything up between the kids and omitted specific bequests to mates and offspring.

I asked Alan what would happen if Hal were to be physically or mentally incapacitated during his illness or anytime for that matter. Would I have the authority to make business decisions for him or even sell the house if we needed cash to make him more comfortable? Alan suggested that power of attorney was a good vehicle. This document assigns complete power of your personal and business affairs.

He also said, “Pat, what makes you think you’re exempt from running into health problems? Both you and Hal should assign one another power of attorney. You sign these forms and leave them with me and if they’re ever needed, there won’t be a delay of many months while the province sorts it out.”

To be continued in chapter 3: part 3