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1. Durable power of attorney
Names who pays your bills if you are in the hospital.
- "Durable" means the person you name keeps that authority after you become incapacitated.
That word is the whole point of the document.
- Without one, a Family member — even your spouse — may have to go to court. In Kansas that court
route is conservatorship, and the judge must find by clear and convincing evidence that the need
cannot be met by a less restrictive alternative. A power of attorney is one of those alternatives.
The limit nobody tells you. A durable power of attorney does not reach your federal
benefit checks. Social Security's own words: "Having power of attorney, being an authorized
representative or having a joint bank account with the beneficiary is not the same thing as being a
payee," and "The Treasury Department does not recognize power of attorney for negotiating
federal payments, including Social Security or SSI checks. This means, if you have power of attorney
for someone who is incapable of managing his or her own benefits, you must still apply to serve as
his or her payee." VA works the same way: under 38 CFR part 13, VA appoints its own fiduciary for
a beneficiary VA has rated unable to manage funds — a power of attorney, and even a court-appointed
guardian, does not automatically take that place.
So do both. Sign the durable power of attorney for the bank, the house and the bills. Then
apply separately to be
SSA representative payee
and, if VA benefits are in play, through
the VA fiduciary program. Families find
this out at the worst possible moment. Find it out today.
★ You cannot sign it after you need it.
Medical
2. Healthcare power of attorney
Names who can decide for you — not just who gets told.
- It names who can decide for you — consent to treatment or refuse it — when you cannot.
- Doctors may already talk to Family involved in your care without any paperwork. What they cannot
do without this document is take orders from them. That is the gap this paper closes.
Kansas trap. Under K.S.A. 58-629 your agent's authority does not begin until the attending
physician determines you are impaired — unless the document says otherwise. Ask whoever drafts
it about that line, on purpose, out loud.
★ Name one person. Name a backup.
Medical
3. Living will
Says whether you want machines. In Kansas it does less than people think.
- Kansas: "Any adult person may execute a declaration directing the withholding or withdrawal of
life-sustaining procedures in a terminal condition" —
K.S.A. 65-28,103.
Two Kansas limits. The declaration reaches a terminal condition only, and it has
no effect while the declarant is pregnant. If you want your wishes to govern a coma or advanced
dementia that is not "terminal," say so in your healthcare power of attorney — the living will
alone may not reach it.
★ One page does not cover it. Use both.
Property
4. Will or trust
Die without one and your state writes it for you.
- If you die without a will, Kansas law decides who gets what, under
K.S.A. 59-502,
"Descent of property of intestate resident." A statute divides your property, not you.
- Every state has its own version of that statute, and they do not match. If you move, your plan
moves with you and should be re-checked.
★ Somebody writes it. Make it you.
Money
5. Beneficiary forms
401(k), IRA, TSP, SGLI, life insurance. Check every one.
- These forms usually control instead of your will — but not always, and the rule is
different for each account type.
- Private 401(k)-type plans. Labor Department:
"In most defined contribution plans, if you should die before you receive your benefits, your
surviving spouse will automatically receive them. If you wish to select a different beneficiary, your
spouse must consent by signing a waiver, witnessed by a notary or plan representative." Naming
your kids on the form without that signed spousal consent does not work. For defined benefit and
money purchase plans the default is a joint and survivor annuity that takes both a written waiver and
written spousal consent to give up.
- TSP. TSP's own words: "A will, prenuptial agreement, separation agreement, property
settlement agreement, or court order will not override either a beneficiary designation or the order
of precedence."
- SGLI. Runs the same way under 38 CFR part 9 — a designation on file controls, and with
none on file the money goes down a statutory order of precedence: spouse, children, parents,
executor, next of kin. Not by your will.
- That federal spousal-consent rule the Labor Department describes applies to ERISA plans —
not to IRAs, and not to TSP.
A stale TSP or SGLI designation cannot be fixed by a will, a divorce decree, or a spouse's
signature. It is fixed by filing a new designation. Do it the month the Family changes.
★ Pull every form. Read who is on it.
Property
6. Transfer-on-death deed
Kansas allows it. It has to be recorded, and it does not do everything.
- K.S.A. 59-3501:
"An interest in real estate may be titled in transfer-on-death, TOD, form by recording a deed
signed by the record owner of such interest, designating a grantee beneficiary or beneficiaries of
the interest."
- Recording is the act. A signed but unrecorded TOD deed does nothing. Record it with the
register of deeds in the county where the real estate sits.
- You cannot revoke it with your will. Revocation is
K.S.A. 59-3503: the
designation is revoked by "executing, acknowledging and recording in the office of the register of
deeds in the county where the real estate is located an instrument describing the interest revoking
the designation." Recording a new TOD deed also revokes prior designations for that interest
(K.S.A. 59-3502).
- Whether your state has this deed at all is a state-law question. Check your own statutes.
It keeps the house out of probate. It does not keep it away from Kansas Medicaid estate recovery.
See the next panel before you count on it.
★ Signed is not done. Recorded is done.
Read this one
7. Medicaid estate recovery — Kansas is not Texas
This is where Kansas families lose the house they thought was saved.
- Federal law lets each state choose. Social Security Act sec. 1917(b) permits a state to define
"estate" as the probate estate or to expand it to "any other real and personal property and
other assets in which the individual had any legal title or interest at the time of death ...
including such assets conveyed to a survivor, heir, or assign of the deceased individual through joint
tenancy, tenancy in common, survivorship, life estate, living trust, or other arrangement."
- Texas took the narrow road — its program reaches property subject to probate.
Kansas took the wide one.
K.S.A. 39-709(k)(3)(B)
includes, without limitation, property passing by "joint tenancy, tenancy in common, survivorship,
transfer-on-death deed, payable-on-death contract, life estate, trust, annuities or similar
arrangement."
- Kansas reaches further than that short list. KDHE's own eligibility manual
(KEESM 1725) includes assets
conveyed "through joint tenancy, tenancy-in-common, survivorship, transfer-on-death deed,
pay-on-death contract, life estate, trust, annuity, life insurance policy (whole or term life) or
similar arrangement." Naming a beneficiary on a life insurance policy does not by itself put
the proceeds beyond Kansas estate recovery.
- "Lady Bird" deeds. Enhanced life-estate deeds are recognized in only a handful of states,
and they do not exist in Kansas. Whether such a deed shields a home from Medicaid depends
entirely on how that state defines the estate it recovers from. A Kansas veteran who assumes a deed
protects the house is being misled. See an attorney licensed in your state.
If you are the survivor, do not assume they can take it. Medicaid.gov: states may not recover
from the estate of an enrollee survived by a spouse, by a child under 21, or by a blind or disabled
child of any age — and
every state must have an undue-hardship waiver procedure. If a recovery
notice arrives, ask for the hardship waiver in writing and ask what the deadline to request it is.
medicaid.gov estate recovery
★ Ask before you plan. Ask again before you pay.
Medical
8. HIPAA authorization
Useful. But the law already allows more than hospitals tell you.
- A HIPAA authorization removes all doubt and lets you name exactly who may receive your records.
Sign one. It is worth the ten minutes.
- Know what the rule already allows. HHS: the Privacy Rule permits a provider to talk with
family or friends involved in your care when you do not object — permission can be obtained by
asking, by telling you and letting you object, or by reasonably inferring it from the circumstances.
No writing is required. Under
45 CFR 164.510(b),
"The covered entity may orally inform the individual of and obtain the individual's oral agreement
or objection."
- If you are unconscious, a provider may share what it determines is in your best interests — and
"only the protected health information that is directly relevant" to that person's involvement
in your care.
A hospital that flatly says
"HIPAA won't let us tell you anything" is overstating the rule. Stay
polite and ask for the facility's
privacy officer, and point to
HHS FAQ 2087
and 45 CFR 164.510(b).
★ Sign it anyway. Then know the rule.
Property
9. Your digital accounts
Phone code, email, the photos. Nothing is locked forever — but the paperwork is long.
- Without a written direction, your Family may face months of paperwork or a court order to reach
your accounts.
- Kansas gives them a path. Under
K.S.A. 58-4807, if
you consented or a court directs it, the provider must disclose the contents of your electronic
communications to the personal representative of your estate, on proof of death and appointment.
- The fastest fix is to use the provider's own online tool — Kansas law defines it as
"an electronic service provided by a custodian that allows the user, in an agreement distinct from
the terms-of-service agreement, to provide directions for disclosure or nondisclosure of digital
assets to a third person" (K.S.A. 58-4802) — and say what you want in your will, trust or
power of attorney.
- Do not plan on handing over passwords. That can violate the provider's terms of service.
★ Set the legacy contact. Then write it down.
Veteran only
10. The papers only a veteran has
These belong in the same folder as the will.
- DD-214. Put a copy where your Family can actually find it — with the estate papers. Many
counties will also record it in the deed records so a certified copy can be pulled later. Ask your
county.
- SGLI, VGLI and VA life insurance. Check who is named on the beneficiary of record. That
designation controls the money — your will does not.
- Burial in a national cemetery. Write your wishes down and tell the Family out loud. A
wish nobody knows about is not a plan.
- Your VA benefits are not controlled by your will. VA runs by VA's own designations and
rules. Handle them where they live, not in the estate papers.
- VA fiduciary. If VA rates a veteran unable to manage funds, VA appoints its own fiduciary
under 38 CFR part 13. Start at
benefits.va.gov/fiduciary.
★ One folder. Tell somebody where it is.
Make it stick
11. A paper that fails its formalities is worth zero
Signed wrong is the same as never signed — and you find out on the worst day.
- Kansas durable power of attorney.
K.S.A. 58-652
requires words such as "This is a durable power of attorney and the authority of my attorney in
fact shall not terminate if I become disabled," and the document must be "signed by the
principal, and dated and acknowledged in the manner prescribed by the revised uniform law on notarial
acts."
- TOD deed: record it (K.S.A. 59-3501). Unrecorded does nothing.
- This is not a one-time checklist. Re-read every document and every beneficiary form after
a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death, a move to another state, or a new account.
- Move states, re-check everything. The deed that worked in one state may not exist in the
next one.
See an attorney licensed in your state. This page is written against Kansas law and it is
information, not legal advice. If money is tight, ask the nearest legal assistance office, your
county bar's lawyer referral line, or a legal aid organization what they offer veterans — and ask a
veterans service organization service officer who they send people to. There is almost always a next
door.
★ Get it right once. Then keep it current.