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In the Event of Your Death . . .

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  • edited November 2009
    What do you wish to have become of your remains after death? Burial? Viking funeral pyre? Cryonic freezing? Food for the remaining survivors?
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • I will never buy life insurance for myself. That would be like buying a lottery ticket that only other people can cash in.

    The first to die will be Joe, because he is the oldest, and he drinks and smokes like a chimney. Wait, never mind. It's always those smokey old bastards who hold out. I'm betting it will probably just be one of the punk kids gets addicted to a video game and forgets to eat or drink for a day or two.
  • What do you wish to have become of your remains after death? Burial? Viking funeral pyre? Cryonic freezing? Food for the remaining survivors?
    Probably give body to science. Hopefully those still living who care will party and not sulk. Whether they party because they hate or like me matters not. If there is even any possibility of ghostiness or undeadness, I want some good foods to eat.
  • edited November 2009
    Viking funeral pyre?
    Oh come on, that was too easy.

    I'd like to be cremated. If anybody wants to do anything in my honor, I want it to be a party. If you want to mourn, get together and do it yourselves, but I don't want the traditional memorial service/giant group mourning/what have you attached to me. The best way to honor me is to celebrate the shit out of the fact that you're all still alive. At least, that's my philosophy.

    EDIT: I like Scott's "give the body to science" idea. That may supersede the cremating thing.
    Post edited by TheWhaleShark on
  • The first to die will be Joe, because he is the oldest, and he drinks and smokes like a chimney. Wait, never mind. It's always those smokey old bastards who hold out.
    I've already avoided suicide twice because I've said to myself at the last minute, "No, wait. I have to outlive Scott."
  • I'd like to be cremated. If anybody wants to do anything in my honor, I want it to be a party. If you want to mourn, get together and do it yourselves, but I don't want the traditional memorial service/giant group mourning/what have you attached to me. The best way to honor me is to celebrate the shit out of the fact that you're all still alive. At least, that's my philosophy.
    Yeah. I really hate funerals. I'm all about people partying and having a blast in celebration of their memory of me.

    I would either donate my body to science or be cremated.

    I really need to get a living will of my wishes for those DNAR conditions.
  • I've already avoided suicide twice because I've said to myself at the last minute, "No, wait. I have to outlive Scott."
    I just realized, it's pretty much worth it to buy life insurance policies on anybody who is significantly older than myself. It's almost guaranteed to pay off in my lifetime! Like a lottery you win by waiting.
  • edited November 2009
    I will never buy life insurance for myself. That would be like buying a lottery ticket that only other people can cash in.

    The first to die will be Joe, because he is the oldest, and he drinks and smokes like a chimney. Wait, never mind. It's always those smokey old bastards who hold out. I'm betting it will probably just be one of the punk kids gets addicted to a video game and forgets to eat or drink for a day or two.
    It isn't like buying a lotto ticket. You will die. It is a certainty. Any debts, medical bills not covered by insurance, and funeral costs will fall to your next of kin. Taking out life insurances is basically removing the financial burden from your family. Not having life insurance is like telling your family, "Not only will you have to mourn my death, but you may go broke because of my death."
    Post edited by Kate Monster on
  • You may bury my body, down by the highway side

    Baby, I don't care where you bury my body when I'm dead and gone

    You may bury my body, ooh, down by the highway side

    So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride

    - Robert Johnson, Me and the Devil Blues
  • Not having life insurance is like telling your family, "Not only will you have to mourn my death, but you may go broke because of my death."
    It's more or less a total dick move.
  • It isn't like buying a lotto ticket. You will die. It is a certainty. Any debts, medical bills not covered by insurance, and funeral costs will fall to your next of kin. Taking out life insurances is basically removing the financial burden from your family. Not having life insurance is like telling your family, "Not only will you have to mourn my death, but to may go broke because of my death."
    What debt can I possibly have? I don't have debts that I can't pay off. My student loans? Just don't pay them. What are they going to do? There's no debtor's prison.

    Medical bills? Just don't pay them. You wouldn't pay for a car that didn't work. Why pay a doctor if the patient is dead?

    Funeral costs? Just don't have a stupid funeral.
  • edited November 2009
    It isn't like buying a lotto ticket. You will die. It is a certainty. Any debts, medical bills not covered by insurance, and funeral costs will fall to your next of kin. Taking out life insurances is basically removing the financial burden from your family. Not having life insurance is like telling your family, "Not only will you have to mourn my death, but to may go broke because of my death."
    What debt can I possibly have? I don't have debts that I can't pay off. My student loans? Just don't pay them. What are they going to do? There's no debtor's prison.

    Medical bills? Just don't pay them. You wouldn't pay for a car that didn't work. Why pay a doctor if the patient is dead?

    Funeral costs? Just don't have a stupid funeral.
    Just not paying would ruin their credit. As for "not having a funeral" even the cheapest legal way to handle the body costs money.
    Post edited by Kate Monster on
  • It isn't like buying a lotto ticket. You will die. It is a certainty. Any debts, medical bills not covered by insurance, and funeral costs will fall to your next of kin. Taking out life insurances is basically removing the financial burden from your family. Not having life insurance is like telling your family, "Not only will you have to mourn my death, but to may go broke because of my death."
    What debt can I possibly have? I don't have debts that I can't pay off. My student loans? Just don't pay them. What are they going to do? There's no debtor's prison.

    Medical bills? Just don't pay them. You wouldn't pay for a car that didn't work. Why pay a doctor if the patient is dead?

    Funeral costs? Just don't have a stupid funeral.
    Scott? Are those serious questions or are you just trolling?
  • It isn't like buying a lotto ticket. You will die. It is a certainty. Any debts, medical bills not covered by insurance, and funeral costs will fall to your next of kin. Taking out life insurances is basically removing the financial burden from your family. Not having life insurance is like telling your family, "Not only will you have to mourn my death, but to may go broke because of my death."
    For funeral costs, sure. For debts and bills, I'm sure that is not so.

    If you have debts or bills where you and someone else is listed as owing the money, you are right. They'd have to make good.

    Most of the time, your debts would die with you. If, for example, Scott were to die, no lender could come after his folks unless they had explicitly co-signed on a debt with him. The lenders could ask all they want, but there is no legal or moral obligation to pay. The lenders can seek payment from Scott's estate, but have no way to make anyone else pay.

    The moral: if you have no dependents, you could (should?) have insurance or assets enough to cover funeral costs, but there's no reason for more.
  • @ Hank, you are incorrect in your assumptions. I have worked Estates before and, based on the which State the people concerned live in, the next of kin can be held responsible for the debts.
    Moreover, if a person owns a home and the mortgage on the home is greater than the value of the home (a not so rare occurrence at this time) and the other assets of the deceased do not cover the excess amount of debt and selling the home would not generate the missing revenue, then the next of kin will likely have to eat that expense or relinquish the home to foreclosure (which then can effect their finances/credit).
  • I've already avoided suicide twice because I've said to myself at the last minute, "No, wait. I have to outlive Scott."
    I just realized, it's pretty much worth it to buy life insurance policies on anybody who is significantly older than myself. It's almost guaranteed to pay off in my lifetime! Like a lottery you win by waiting.
    I do believe these kinds of things are factored into the costs of life insurance. The house always wins.
  • edited November 2009
    I've already avoided suicide twice because I've said to myself at the last minute, "No, wait. I have to outlive Scott."
    I just realized, it's pretty much worth it to buy life insurance policies on anybody who is significantly older than myself. It's almost guaranteed to pay off in my lifetime! Like a lottery you win by waiting.
    I do believe these kinds of things are factored into the costs of life insurance. The housealwayswins.
    I believe in most circumstances that you must have the persons permission and you assume some responsibility for their finances on their death. I have never worked insurance, but it seems unlikely that it functions in the way you are describing. Also, you have to continually pay into life insurance. It isn't a one time purchase.
    EDIT: Just an FYI that life insurance for young, reasonably healthy people is usually quite cheap (around $25.00 per month).
    Post edited by Kate Monster on
  • Medical bills? Just don't pay them. You wouldn't pay for a car that didn't work. Why pay a doctor if the patient is dead?
    Most of the time, said medical bills are for the cost of things like narcotics and life-support, and occasionally surgeries. In any case, doctors express the fact to the family that loss of life is a possibility, and the family will still be held accountable for costs should someone die in a bed or on the table. A doctor performing a surgery that only carries a possibility (instead of certainty) of saving someone's life is still doing his job as he or she should, as long as malpractice doesn't occur, even if the patient dies. It's because of this that most health care institutions work quite closely with collection agencies and various credit bureaus.

    So yeah, you can leave a medical debt behind, but it will only thrust your loved ones into debt of their own.
  • Also, you have to continually pay into life insurance. It isn't a one time purchase.
    What is term life insurance, then?
  • edited November 2009
    Also, you have to continually pay into life insurance. It isn't a one time purchase.
    What isterm life insurance, then?
    You still have to pay a set amount over time.
    Term life insurance is simple to understand, and allows for personal choice. You pay a (low) monthly premium based on the term length and amount of coverage you choose. That's it. Simple. You can choose term lengths such as 10, 20 or 30 years, and coverage amounts anywhere from $100,000 to several million dollars.
    Source: http://www.jdpower.com/insurance/articles/the-benefits-of-term-life-insurance (link function not working for me).
    EDIT: I know far more about this than most 26 year olds have a right to know. Cancer and previously working as a paralegal for a firm that handles estate law will do that.
    Post edited by Kate Monster on
  • edited November 2009
    Yes, death isn't a quick fix to your debt problems.

    Scott may avoid some funeral expense by donating his body to Gunther von Hagens' BodyWorlds exhibit. Then his bodily remains would spend eternity skinned, mummified/plastinated in formaldehyde and resin, and posed to look like he's kicking a soccer ball. His body could be posed to look like it's more active in death than it was in life.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • From my limited knowledge working at a debt collection agency, I know that, at least in NY State, medical bills are not "passed on" to the next of kin. If there is an estate, debts are taken out of it before it is divvied up amongst the living. If there is no estate, the bills are written off. I would assume it worked somewhat like that in other places, because it seems patently ridiculous that one could inherit a debt without signing over their consent in some way.
  • look like he's kicking a soccer ball. His body could be posed to look like it's more active in death than it was in life.
    You know, it would be highly ironic if his body was positioned to doing a push-up. ^_~
  • edited November 2009
    Also, you have to continually pay into life insurance. It isn't a one time purchase.
    What isterm life insurance, then?
    You still have to pay a set amount over time.Term life insurance is simple to understand, and allows for personal choice. You pay a (low) monthly premium based on the term length and amount of coverage you choose. That's it. Simple. You can choose term lengths such as 10, 20 or 30 years, and coverage amounts anywhere from $100,000 to several million dollars.
    Source: http://www.jdpower.com/insurance/articles/the-benefits-of-term-life-insurance (link function not working for me).
    EDIT: I know far more about this than most 26 year olds have a right to know. Cancer and previously working as a paralegal for a firm that handles estate law will do that.That is simply the equivalent of taking out a loan. I'm sure you could pay for the insurance in a lump sum if you desired to. The important fact is that it is a fixed amount of money.
    From my limited knowledge working at a debt collection agency, I know that, at least in NY State, medical bills are not "passed on" to the next of kin. If there is an estate, debts are taken out of it before it is divvied up amongst the living. If there is no estate, the bills are written off. I would assume it worked somewhat like that in other places, because it seems patently ridiculous that one could inherit a debt without signing over their consent in some way.
    I gather that this is mostly the case, but spouses are an exception.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • edited November 2009
    Debt acquired after marriage is marital debt. Both spouses are jointly and severally liable for it. If you acquire some medical bills and then die, your spouse is going to have to figure it out.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • As I thought.
    There isn't likely to be a good reason for Scott to get life insurance, then.
  • As I thought.
    There isn't likely to be a good reason for Scott to get life insurance, then.
    But perhaps I SHOULD get it out on my siblings.
  • look like he's kicking a soccer ball. His body could be posed to look like it's more active in death than it was in life.
    You know, it would be highly ironic if his body was positioned to doing a push-up. ^_~
    They probably couldn't force his body into that position.

    If I go to that exhibit after Scott is dead, and I see one of the bodies posed on a sofa watching anime, I'll know it used to be Scott.
  • Yes, death isn't a quick fix to your debt problems.
    Except for Federal Stafford Loans. If I die, they magically vanish!
  • I think that the bodies in Gunther von Hagens' BodyWorlds exhibit should be posed to represent the sins the people committed in life.
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