realdonaldtrump removed you from their Friendslist

[captainsblog]

Nope, sorry, just kidding. That must've come through because dude deleted his blog- 29 days in:

Former President Donald Trump’s blog — a webpage where he shared statements after larger social media companies banned him from their platforms — has been permanently shut down, his spokesman said Wednesday.

The page “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” has been scrubbed from Trump’s website after going live less than a month earlier.

It “will not be returning,” his senior aide Jason Miller told CNBC.

“It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on,” Miller said via email.

Just for some perspective here: I began my REAL LiveJournal blog on April 17, 2004. Counting the crossposts since I bailed from their homophobic content restrictions, I have posted over 6,300 entries, including at least one a day for all of 2021 except one day.

Must be my hands are bigger than his tiny ones.

Reports indicate he was mad, or sad, or something, about the lack of traffic: only a couple thousand hits a day.  Hell, I'd kill for that kind of exposure.

But don't worry, Mr. FPT. There's always MySpace, still.

----

Update from yesterday's possible firing: wasn't. Client emailed back, was respectful and respectful of the boundaries that were set.

I then set out to define some other boundaries for some future clients, boundaries within which they should be confining their brains.  I've had a particular issue come up several times recently, either in cases referred to me or others that co-workers are handling.  They all involve the scenario of older people/couples, which is to say old farts our age, trying to "help out" their child(ren) by either signing over real estate to them or providing for them to receive real estate in their wills.  It became a common enough occurrence that I wrote up a handy dandy handout on what they're doing and why, if they do it, they should do it carefully. Some, but not most, of the guidance in this is New York-specific. Feel free to share with attribution:



Some things to think about before you do….

It’s natural to want to look after your adult kids’ future and help them prepare for the years when you may be limited in your ability to help them.  Some homeowners try to “help” by transferring things like their own homes to one or more of their kids. This can be an outright deed to them, a partial transfer  (“joint tenancy” or “tenancy in common” are the recognized ways), or  granting  a “remainder” interest to them with you retaining a “life estate.”  You can also accomplish these goals by naming one or more children in a will, as either specifically receiving “the house,”  or by granting them a share of the entire estate after the second spouse (if there is one) passes away.

All of these are noble ideas, but they often come at a price- to you, the kids, or both.  Among the things you want to consider before signing that deed or executing that will:

Your finances. If you transfer real estate, in whole or in any of the partial ways, your creditors or the state (especially if you wind up applying for Medicaid) may limit your eligibility or try to undo the transaction.  If for any reason you wind up in bankruptcy, you will be asked about any transfers made in the previous six years, and there can be consequences to you and/or the recipient once that transfer is investigated.

Your kids’ finances. The same rules can come into play if the recipients of a deeded property either have unpaid debts or incur them after the transfer. If there is an existing judgment on file against a child in the County Clerk’s office where your property is located, it automatically attaches to their interest in the property you deed to them, and will have to be resolved before they- or you- can sell or refinance that property. If the child tries to deal with the judgment through filing bankruptcy, they will not be able to avoid it as they could a judgment against their own property entered AFTER they took title. And even if you retain a “life estate” protecting your own rights in the property, if they file bankruptcy at any time after the deed is recorded- even 10 or 20 years later- that filing will create a title problem that will likely cost them some or all of their share of the value.  While you can prevent some of these issues by “giving” them the house in your will, if you pass away before they file bankruptcy, or within 180 days after they do- even if they don’t find out about it for months or even years after the death- their share of the property will become subject to the claims of their bankruptcy creditors.

Tax consequences. Most homeowners do not pay income tax on the sale of the home they lived in, if they lived there long enough. But once you transfer a share to a child, that share is not subject to this exclusion and they may wind up having to pay capital gains tax when the house is sold.  That “gain” will also be computed using your “basis” in the property (what you paid for it) as the starting point; if they do not receive the asset until after you die, under current law the “basis” is automatically “stepped up” to what the house was worth when you passed away. Additionally, filing a deed with a child as partial owner may affect your STAR exemption- either your eligibility for enhanced STAR, or even the amount or form of payment of the basic STAR exemption you may now be receiving.

Is there a mortgage on that house? If there is, it probably has a clause that allows the bank to declare the entire debt immediately due and payable if you transfer an interest in it. That does not mean the bank necessarily will do so, particularly if the loan has always been current, but they often have the legal right to do it.

So, what to do?

Do some homework.  We do not routinely conduct title or lien searches on the beneficiaries of the people we work with to prepare real estate or estate planning documents, but as part of the scope of legal services, we can undertake such efforts. Speak with us when we meet about time frames and costs.  Or, you can ask the child(ren) if they are aware of any such issues before making your decisions. If you sense discomfort on their part, you may want to dig deeper.

Tell them what you are doing. Officially, no deed can be recorded in New York without all parties to the transaction signing one or more recording forms. Often, parents or well-meaning attorneys will sign “on behalf” of the child(ren) to whom the transfer is being made, and they likely know their social security numbers when asked for them.  While this may be convenient now or a “nice surprise” in some cases, in other cases their lack of knowledge may cost them some or even all of the benefit you are trying to provide to them.

Work with the whole team. While some people are meeting a lawyer for the first time when considering these choices, others have multiple attorneys for different projects, as well as financial planners, accountants or tax preparers or other trusted professionals.  Make sure that everyone knows what everyone else is doing or may be doing in the future.  Lawyers are obligated to maintain your confidences, so you may need to provide permission for one to speak to the other about details, but it can be time well spent to exchange these points of view so you can make the final informed decision(s) about what you want done.

Understand the rules. Any deed that you prepare and record to a child will require that child to consent and sign off on any change you wish to make to that arrangement in the future. You should expect additional recording costs and possibly more legal fees to carry these out. A grant of property in a will does not require the child’s consent or knowledge, but you must be alive, and competent, in order to make the change, and if you are “leaving them out” to protect your property from their creditors, do not count on “handshake” agreements from other beneficiaries to “look after them” outside the formal legal process. There are ways of providing for their needs without subjecting the asset(s) to claims of their creditors, but these involve trust and “power of appointment” provisions that are beyond the scope of the services we offer and we would encourage  you to find (and if you ask, refer you to) specialized estate planning counsel to go over these options with you.



Okay, the STAR bit is definitely NY-specific: it's an annual credit against school taxes for homeowners that all can claim below a set but generous annual income limit, with an "enhanced" credit available to seniors below a much less generous limit.  Just this week, clients of a coworker had a "name on the deed" situation threaten to cost the parent close to 600 bucks a year.  Hopefully this will help re-engage the heads before the hearts get too stupid.

----

Speaking of heads: Eleanor signed up for an Alzheimer's study. I am required to "partner" with her, but I'm not sure to what extent they're going to get into my brain.  She found herself concerned about some small cognitive things- like having trouble judging how close oncoming cars are when merging onto the four-lane highway we live off from the "suicide lane."  I have similar things, like in the other office today when I felt nature's call and started to walk into the supply closet rather than the loo. Started is the operative word. I have no trouble remembering who and where I am, who the president is, and unfortunately who the president was.

Good thing, too, because there's no longer that blog of his to refresh my memory with....

----

ETA.  Hmmmm. That link in the header didn't work:

Error

The account name realdonaldtrump isn't currently registered.

Nah, it can't be this easy, can it?
 

 

I'm not gonna mess with it- law licenses and death threats and all that- but maybe SOMMMEBODY could set up a nice parody blog with it ::ebeg::

Comments

Did someone mention my name?

[realdonaldtrump]

I'm back, and better than ever! Thelibs will rue the day they blocked me from twitter! Bigly!!!

OMG

[dauntless_heart]

I had no idea My Space still existed. :O

Seems like my Livejournal started around the time yours did--I hope you imported all those entries to Dreamwidth.

Hope Miss E is ok, especially after her dustup with the street. :( There's just no right way for an adult to fall... Yeah, I have a brain fart once in awhile, too. The other day I put my doglet Minuet out to potty and forgot her. Dave called me from next door about 45 minutes later--did I know she was in the yard and was I okay? She's such a nervous Nellie that I go back to get her pretty quickly but for some reason just didn't. It was weird, too--because I got a full night's sleep for once. Maybe my brain doesn't know what to do with itself when that happens???

Anyway, I always say if you can tell the cops where you live, you're good. :D

Re: OMG

[captainsblog]

EVERY time we let the dog into the yard, when she wants to come in she comes back to the door and barks, jumps and acts like she's been abandoned out there for days. All she remembers was the one unfortunate Dad Went To Mighty Taco And Forgot incident.

Of course, she was a stray for we don't know how long before her previous rescue (which is itself quite a weird story of Millennials Being Millennials), so she may still have issues from that.