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November 2013

When someone you love passes away, how do you deal with their death on Facebook? An excellent article in Readers Digest suggests the following ways:

Keep A Profile Active

If you leave a deceased person's Facebook profile alone, it will continue to pop up as Someone You May Know and in other suggestion boxes. Memorializing the page removes old status updates and allows only friends to see the profile or locate it through a search. To memorialize a page, type "special request for deceased person's account" into the Facebook search bar and follow the directions.

Delete A Profile

Log on to the decedent’s Facebook account using his or her password. Note that without the password, you can't delete the page. Type "delete my account" into the search bar at the top of the page. On the Delete Account page, click Delete My Account to permanently erase the page, including all posts, photos, and status updates. To download the contents of the account before deleting the profile, click the Settings button at the top right of the page and select Account Settings. Click General, then Download a Copy of Your Facebook Data, and Start My Archive.

Create A Memorial Page

Sign in to Facebook and click Create a Group. Type in a name for the memorial page you want to create. Set the privacy settings to open (anyone can see the group, its members, and all posts), closed (anyone can see the group and its members, but only members can see posts), or secret (only members can see the group, other members, and any posts). Click Create. To add a donation button to your memorial page, search for "donation button creator" on Facebook. Type in the name of your charity or individual, and click Install on Facebook Page and then Add Donation Button Creator.

See Coping with Death on Facebook in Readers Digest, October, 2013 issue by clicking here.

Most people who have adult children figure it is easiest to give an inheritance to your children outright with no strings attached. It is simple and clean. But there are downsides to giving to your adult children in a simple manner. Your grandchildren may never receive it. It could pass to the child’s spouse, the spouse could remarry, and all of the inheritance you gave to your child could go outside your family to the new mate of your child's spouse.

There is a better alternative. Why not give property to adult children in a Transparent Trust? A Transparent Trust holds property for the life of a child. The child is the Trustee of the trust. The child takes his or her inheritance and puts it in a trust account at a financial institution. The child could spend the funds for his or her support in reasonable comfort, maintenance in her or his accustomed manner of living, education, and health. The child would show any income from the trust on Schedule E of the child’s income tax return. The child could appoint the property at any time to his or her children. At the child’s death, all of the property goes to the child’s children (your grandchildren).

The benefit of a Transparent Trust is that it requires the child to keep the funds in a separate account as Trustee and spend it only for the child’s or grandchild’s health, education, maintenance and support. If a spouse of a child wants to spend it, the child can say, “I am sorry that money was given to me by my parents for my benefit and after I die for the benefit of our children.” The child controls the trust accounts so the account remains subject to claims of creditors. But the result would have been the same as when you give an inheritance to your son or daughter outright.

If you want to protect your grandchildren while giving your adult child complete control of the funds, consider using a Transparent Trust.