Death - Are you ready?

[ram1964]

Sincere thoughts to all those that have lost loved one's and experienced what must be a most distressing experience and my post is in no way intended to offend.

I have started to give thought to my demise, and how to construct a will,  who i would like to bequeath certain poccesions too and possibly bung a few quid to an animal charity probably for dogs or adoption of a donkey.Always fancied having a donkey when I was a kid? no point giving money to the polar bears as the cuddly toy won't be any use to me and between Putin and Trump their time is probably less than mine anyway.

I digress.

So sorting a will, lots to think about .Not easy ,the more you give it thought the more involved it becomes.Power of attorney is worth giving a thought and I suppose putting all accounts into joint names with my wife,including bills might make sense.

what I do struggle with especially is not so much passing away, but what should be done with my remains..I am not religious ,although the the thought of rotting in a picturesque country grave yard some where sounds as good as any other solution,How does one arrange this?can I buy a plot so to speak, do you have to live in the parish? Attend the church or be of the faith? Cremation doesn't appeal and neither the thought of embalming fluid being pumped through me. Presume this replaced the blood? So where does that go?

Other  thought was to be dowsed  and set in concrete and made into a statue, would that be legal? Being serious.

Thoughts, advise appreciated.

[Smyth_18]

9 hours ago, ram1964 said:

Sincere thoughts to all those that have lost loved one's and experienced what must be a most distressing experience and my post is in no way intended to offend.

I have started to give thought to my demise, and how to construct a will,  who i would like to bequeath certain poccesions too and possibly bung a few quid to an animal charity probably for dogs or adoption of a donkey.Always fancied having a donkey when I was a kid? no point giving money to the polar bears as the cuddly toy won't be any use to me and between Putin and Trump their time is probably less than mine anyway.

I digress.

So sorting a will, lots to think about .Not easy ,the more you give it thought the more involved it becomes.Power of attorney is worth giving a thought and I suppose putting all accounts into joint names with my wife,including bills might make sense.

what I do struggle with especially is not so much passing away, but what should be done with my remains..I am not religious ,although the the thought of rotting in a picturesque country grave yard some where sounds as good as any other solution,How does one arrange this?can I buy a plot so to speak, do you have to live in the parish? Attend the church or be of the faith? Cremation doesn't appeal and neither the thought of embalming fluid being pumped through me. Presume this replaced the blood? So where does that go?

Other  thought was to be dowsed  and set in concrete and made into a statue, would that be legal? Being serious.

Thoughts, advise appreciated.

All i can offer is that i have a bank account that accepts transfers.

[Coneheadjohn]

9 hours ago, ram1964 said:

Sincere thoughts to all those that have lost loved one's and experienced what must be a most distressing experience and my post is in no way intended to offend.

I have started to give thought to my demise, and how to construct a will,  who i would like to bequeath certain poccesions too and possibly bung a few quid to an animal charity probably for dogs or adoption of a donkey.Always fancied having a donkey when I was a kid? no point giving money to the polar bears as the cuddly toy won't be any use to me and between Putin and Trump their time is probably less than mine anyway.

I digress.

So sorting a will, lots to think about .Not easy ,the more you give it thought the more involved it becomes.Power of attorney is worth giving a thought and I suppose putting all accounts into joint names with my wife,including bills might make sense.

what I do struggle with especially is not so much passing away, but what should be done with my remains..I am not religious ,although the the thought of rotting in a picturesque country grave yard some where sounds as good as any other solution,How does one arrange this?can I buy a plot so to speak, do you have to live in the parish? Attend the church or be of the faith? Cremation doesn't appeal and neither the thought of embalming fluid being pumped through me. Presume this replaced the blood? So where does that go?

Other  thought was to be dowsed  and set in concrete and made into a statue, would that be legal? Being serious.

Thoughts, advise appreciated.

Power of Attorney is the single most important thing,do it now.

I went through it with my mum and once there is any question of Dementia or associated problems it is just a nightmare.

We could basically do nothing for her because we left it so late and although we got a power of attorney the actual letter came in the post the morning she died.

Whichever one of us goes first leaves their half to the boys,I think it was called a property trust.

So they get half the house,whoever’s left lives in it,till they die or if they go into care that half is protected from the assessment for care home fees.

Be under no illusion once you get into the realms of putting someone in care and paying for it etc you would get more sympathy from the Waffen SS than your local authority.

My advice pay 250-500 quid see a good solicitor.

Spend it or give it away but do it early if you try doing it at the end it can be deemed unlawful,is it disposal of assets so you don’t pay for care?

[secretsquirrel]

 

[McRainy]

Always trust a man with bare feet and a cowboy hat. 

[King Kevin]

Me and the wife saw a taxidermist with the thought of being preserved after we die ."Would you like to be mounted " he asked ? No I replied just holding hands will be sufficient .

[McRainy]

 

[Boycie]

8 hours ago, Lambchop said:

Always trust a man with bare feet and a cowboy hat. 

[Parsnip]

22 hours ago, ram1964 said:

Other  thought was to be dowsed  and set in concrete and made into a statue

A statue of what though? (Serious question).

[ram1964]

3 minutes ago, Parsnip said:

A statue of what though? (Serious question).

Good question,not given it any great thought just assumed it would be of myself,but that wouldn't be very intresting. But it might look alright in the back garden?

[Phoenix]

13 hours ago, coneheadjohn said:

Power of Attorney is the single most important thing,do it now.

I went through it with my mum and once there is any question of Dementia or associated problems it is just a nightmare.

We could basically do nothing for her because we left it so late and although we got a power of attorney the actual letter came in the post the morning she died.

Whichever one of us goes first leaves their half to the boys,I think it was called a property trust.

So they get half the house,whoever’s left lives in it,till they die or if they go into care that half is protected from the assessment for care home fees.

Be under no illusion once you get into the realms of putting someone in care and paying for it etc you would get more sympathy from the Waffen SS than your local authority.

My advice pay 250-500 quid see a good solicitor.

Spend it or give it away but do it early if you try doing it at the end it can be deemed unlawful,is it disposal of assets so you don’t pay for care?

Beware. There are two types of Power of Attorney, 1 for property and financial affairs and 1 for health and welfare. Best to get both, as we have found to our detriment.

https://www.which.co.uk/money/wills-and-probate/power-of-attorney/what-is-power-of-attorney-anlkg0k94v7z?wgu=5665_54264_15403304242957_5022ec36ba&wgexpiry=1548106424&utm_source=webgains&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_content=22278&source_code=314AGJ

[Wolfie20]

4 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

Beware. There are two types of Power of Attorney, 1 for property and financial affairs and 1 for health and welfare. Best to get both, as we have found to our detriment.

https://www.which.co.uk/money/wills-and-probate/power-of-attorney/what-is-power-of-attorney-anlkg0k94v7z?wgu=5665_54264_15403304242957_5022ec36ba&wgexpiry=1548106424&utm_source=webgains&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_content=22278&source_code=314AGJ

If you end up going down the Power of Attorney route, don't be hoodwinked into going to a solicitor etc- we were quoted £400 for them to carry out the process on our behalf. Go to the official government site - it's quite straightforward and there's a checking facility to ensure you obtain the various signatories in the correct order. For both types of LPAs' the total cost is £82 but it can take up to 10 weeks to complete the process.

[Parsnip]

45 minutes ago, ram1964 said:

Good question,not given it any great thought just assumed it would be of myself,but that wouldn't be very intresting. But it might look alright in the back garden?

You've got me thinking now. I've always felt that i'd be happy to be pig food but now i definitely want a statue. But what??? I keep coming back to this Mayan Phallus.

[Carl Sagan]

If I'm not going to do the cryonics thing, I'd like to have my body sent out of the airlock into space, like in all the best scifi movies. It might orbit the Sun for millions of years before a new civilization comes along and reconstructs something from what's left.

[RamNut]

On 7 September 2018 at 03:17, Carl Sagan said:

Sympathies to everyone on here who's been through a tough time.

I made my first will last year. Felt very serious and grown up. I don't have dependents but was shocked, when discussing it with friends who do, that most haven't. 

I work with a bunch of "transhumanists" who are on a mission to cheat death - basically they see ageing as a disease to be cured and reversed. Some are signed up for cryonic preservation with some of those prepared to have their dead brains destructively scanned and uploaded into computers, once a certain probability of success has been reached. 

The young generally think they're immortal. When I was young I thought I'd be part of that wave who kept ahead of death with new technological developments, until immortality is effectively achieved. Now I expect to die at some stage. I am considering the cryonic thing, but it would be far better if taking that seriously to move out to America, to close to the Alcor headquarters in Arizona. 

I can't think of anything worse than being a frozen head in a shed in arizona.

it would bother me if i knew my dead parents head was still knocking around 

[RamNut]

6 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

If I'm not going to do the cryonics thing, I'd like to have my body sent out of the airlock into space, like in all the best scifi movies. It might orbit the Sun for millions of years before a new civilization comes along and reconstructs something from what's left.

I prefer the idea of being shot into space, and burning up on re-entry like a shooting star.

then again there's always the possibility of a big lump of scorched and steaming pelvis surviving re-entry, and taking out a school bus or a house.....maybe not such a good idea.

[Coneheadjohn]

9 hours ago, Phoenix said:

Beware. There are two types of Power of Attorney, 1 for property and financial affairs and 1 for health and welfare. Best to get both, as we have found to our detriment.

https://www.which.co.uk/money/wills-and-probate/power-of-attorney/what-is-power-of-attorney-anlkg0k94v7z?wgu=5665_54264_15403304242957_5022ec36ba&wgexpiry=1548106424&utm_source=webgains&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_content=22278&source_code=314AGJ

We were advised to just get the financial part simply because of our circumstances.

 

[Coneheadjohn]

8 hours ago, Wolfie20 said:

If you end up going down the Power of Attorney route, don't be hoodwinked into going to a solicitor etc- we were quoted £400 for them to carry out the process on our behalf. Go to the official government site - it's quite straightforward and there's a checking facility to ensure you obtain the various signatories in the correct order. For both types of LPAs' the total cost is £82 but it can take up to 10 weeks to complete the process.

This is very true,we paid 500 quid and got a solicitor to get the financial part for my mum simply because she had dementia and although her GP was ok with a Power of Attorney we wanted it to be 100% above board.

Going to do ours when I’m 50 and will be doing it ourselves as you have said above.

[ram1964]

This thread has really got me giving serious consideration to all eventualities. Will do a little research into alternative funeral arrangements other than traditional burial / cremation and post my findings in due course. Wonder what the legalities of building a mini pyramid in the back garden are?

[eddie]

13 hours ago, Parsnip said:

You've got me thinking now. I've always felt that i'd be happy to be pig food but now i definitely want a statue. But what??? I keep coming back to this Mayan Phallus.

It was meant to be a condor but someone made a rooster-up.