Sunday, January 26, 2014

Intended Audience for Meet Wally Street

The intended audience for my soon to be released book, "Meet Wally Street. The Reason You're Stupid," are the people currently doing business with banks, insurance companies and Wall Street firms. A secondary audience for my book is directed at those who use or who are thinking about using those online legal document preparation companies. Before you make a stupid decision and buy your legal documents online, I suggest that you give this a little more thought.

If you have already gone online and had your legal documents prepared, then I have a question or two for you. How do you know that the hospital will accept that Health Care Power of Attorney? In addition, how will you know if a bank or brokerage firm will accept your Durable Power of Attorney which only springs into action upon you being declared legally incompetent and unable to take care of your affairs?

The truth is that you have no earthly idea. Don't you see? Just because you "created it" does not mean that these documents will perform as expected.

Do you know the rules in your state for Durable Powers of Attorneys? In my state of Florida, a little over a year ago, the law completely changed regarding Durable Powers of Attorneys. Does your self-created document meet these new requirements?

Do you realize that with some online legal document firms, they put language in their version of a Durable Power of Attorney document that allows your agent to open accounts in your name? They do not even have to tell you about it either. Conversely, what if you need to have an account opened in your name, but the proper language is not in the document? In my practice, I rarely ever see a brokerage firm allow an account to be opened on someone else's behalf based on an online legal document firm's Durable Power of Attorney. Most of the time, or let me rephrase that, almost all of the time, they are rejected due to inadequate language. You did not know this, did you? Creating the document yourself is only half of the process. Don't you see?

What about the recent changes in Medicare and Medicaid, because of the Affordable Care Act? Do you know about those changes? Do you know if your newly created legal documents will help you if you have a long term care issue? Will they protect your assets? Odds are they will not protect your assets, because you just bought a living trust online.

You have "created" some legal documents, but the reality is that you have no idea if these documents will work. Why? Because you are not an attorney! You do not know the laws in your state!

In my book, I give my readers example after example of how people who thought they were real smart by using those online legal document companies to save a buck. However, they soon found out the hard way what a huge and costly mistake that was for their families.Instead of having the properly prepared documents done by an Estate Planning or Elder Law attorney, they soon found out that the assets intended for their heirs were lost to taxes, or the nursing home owner. That is instead of their heirs. Not very smart on their part.

Before you go online to one of those online legal document firms, you just might want to buy a copy of my book first. You might appreciate what I tell you in the book.

I am waiting only on Amazon to add my book to their web site and Kindle to get my book formatted for Kindle devices. If you have a Kindle app for iPad or a Kindle app for Android devices, then you will be able to buy my book on those devices, too. The book will be available at most fine booksellers also.

It should be available to all on February 1st.


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