{"id":16320,"date":"2023-01-08T04:12:34","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T14:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=16320"},"modified":"2023-01-08T04:12:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T14:12:35","slug":"keep-a-paper-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2023\/01\/08\/keep-a-paper-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep A Paper Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

by Sheryll Bonilla, Esq.<\/em>

My daughter likes to listen to Bloomberg News, so while we drove, she put on a podcast explaining cryptocurrency. I listened and thought this is nuts, why would anyone put their money in cryptocurrency?

There\u2019s no paper trail or statements to prove you had the funds.  You can\u2019t buy anything since there\u2019s no place that accepts this currency instead of dollars. With all transactions on Discord, there\u2019s no privacy because everyone else can see how much you deposit and withdraw.

There\u2019s no regulations or oversight so fiduciaries act properly to account for each person\u2019s funds and to safeguard the money. To me this libertarian \u201cdon\u2019t tread on me\u201d approach was full of problems.

I\u2019m a believer in regulation. Rules and standards make sure that houses are built to live in safely and withstand weather and natural disasters as much as possible. These ensure that food is safe to eat and won\u2019t cause illnesses and products we buy are safe to use.

Rules and standards help create workplaces and work procedures that are safe.  Regulation and agencies that enforce them protect our drinking water supplies from chemicals or pollution that can harm us or that the land we live on doesn\u2019t cause physical harm to us.

I usually suspect that the people who balk about regulation are the ones who want to do wrong to others and don\u2019t like being stopped from doing so.

The FTX bankruptcy proved that all the wariness was correct. Now the people who lost their funds are asking the government to replace their monies. They\u2019re asking the very government they didn\u2019t want to oversee the companies, regulate the processes, safeguard funds, and protect the investors.

On a subsequent podcast after the FTX fiasco became public, a British financial reporter interviewed one of its principals. Hearing his exculpatory responses, I finally said to the podcast: \u201cAsk him! Ask him! Where are they? They know they did something wrong. I bet you they\u2019re in countries that have no extradition treaties with the U.S.\u201d

Almost as if she heard me, the reporter\u2019s very next question to the FTX principal was if they all happened to be vacationing in the locations they\u2019re in because those nations had no extradition treaties with the U.S.. No, he said, that\u2019s just a coincidence. My daughter turned to look at me with a grin and wide eyes.

Protection by regulation aside, I told my daughter the biggest problem with cryptocurrency was its secrecy. She said that\u2019s what these people want \u2013 they don\u2019t want the government knowing how much they have. Big mistake I immediately told her.

With this much secrecy, what happens when the person dies? How are his heirs supposed to the money if they don\u2019t know all the passcodes? She hadn\u2019t thought about that. She\u2019s too young to think about things as dying and inheriting. Then she found podcasts on two channels \u2013 financial and legal \u2013 that talked about that very issue.

Paper trails aren\u2019t just important in the invisible currency arena. Inheritance is a major consideration.

After you die, for your loved ones to inherit, there must be proof of which financial institutions you have money at, that you have money there, how much it is, and the account numbers for the company to find the funds.

The secrecy surrounding cryptocurrency can make retrieving monies from a dead person next to impossible.  Online banking, for all its convenience, can raise similar issues.

A serviceman passed away during training at a base on Oahu. He was divorced and had only one child, who lived with her mother on the east coast.

Understandably, being military and wanting to avoid the humbug that comes with paper statements from his financial institutions, he did all his banking and investing online.

Convenient, yes, with no file folders to track or pack up to move to the next duty station.  He had not kept any paper statements of his accounts. It was all online.

After the Army notified his family of his death, they came to collect his belongings. There were no statements to show where he kept his money. He had done all his banking and investing online. The family asked Verizon and Google \u2013 his internet carrier and service providers \u2013 for access to his email accounts so they could find his money. Both companies provided the family with templates for them to obtain a court order permitting them to give them that information.

The court reviewed the templates but said that the right of privacy transcends death.  If the deceased person didn\u2019t leave a paper trail or give them his passwords or account numbers, they were out of luck.

What\u2019s the lesson here?

Keep a paper trail. Once in a while, print out statements from your online accounts and put them with your estate planning documents.

When you die your family at least knows where you kept your money so when they take the statements to the bank or investment company, those institutions can locate your funds to pay it to you.

Those paper statements are proof of the existence of accounts. Marriage or birth certificates can show your relation to the decedent, to confirm your beneficiary status when the bank or brokerage checks its records of who was designated as beneficiaries.

We all work hard to earn our living. When we pass away, we want to make sure our loved ones receive what we left unused. Keep a paper trail to help ensure that this happens.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not to be constructed as offering legal advice. Please consult an attorney for your individual situation. The author is not responsible for a reader\u2019s reliance on the information contained here.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sheryll Bonilla, Esq. My daughter likes to listen to Bloomberg News, so while we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,27],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?fit=960%2C970&ssl=1",960,970,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?fit=297%2C300&ssl=1",297,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?fit=640%2C647&ssl=1",640,647,true],"large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?fit=640%2C647&ssl=1",640,647,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?fit=960%2C970&ssl=1",960,970,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?fit=960%2C970&ssl=1",960,970,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?resize=960%2C800&ssl=1",960,800,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?resize=870%2C570&ssl=1",870,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?resize=600%2C900&ssl=1",600,900,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1",600,600,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?resize=960%2C715&ssl=1",960,715,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?resize=522%2C500&ssl=1",522,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?fit=960%2C970&ssl=1",960,970,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?resize=540%2C285&ssl=1",540,285,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?resize=375%2C250&ssl=1",375,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Featured<\/a> Legal Notes<\/a>","tag_info":"Legal Notes","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/LN-Paper-Trail-color_01072023.jpg?fit=960%2C970&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16321,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16320\/revisions\/16321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}