1. jmh105

    jmh105 Active Member

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    How to monetarily support oneself after deaths of both parents?

    Discussion in 'Research' started by jmh105, May 21, 2018.

    Hi, everyone,

    For my character's backstory, he has a certain medical situation that can be costly. As a result, his parents are frugal and he works long hours. To continue to cut down on costs, they share a single car, which the boy uses to go to work.

    Furthermore, as is stated in the title, the parents get into a car accident (in their only car) and die. The costs of the funeral/cremation and dealing with medical bills and other debts is overwhelming, especially on a young guy who just lost two parents. I am trying to make it easier on him by having an adult relative come help him out, but then there is also a new car to buy.

    These problems, on top of his medical situation, are devastating. This is especially an issue since he compensates and turns to criminal life (robbing), which shouldn't garner much money to live off of anyway. Now, he does this instead of the original job I mentioned earlier. There is no adult relative watching over him at this point.

    How can I make the character's ability to sustain himself within the story believable?
     
  2. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    Things I learned about inheritance in the US, when my parent died with an estate that looked likely to go negative;

    - You generally can’t inherit debt—usually, the estate just goes to zero, and the creditors are out of luck.

    - The non-mortgaged assets of an estate usually go to modest funeral expenses first.

    - Also, life insurance is not an asset of the estate of the insured dead—-it belongs to the beneficiary.

    - I’m guessing that if his parents had a ton of medical debt from when he was a minor child, that would be their debt, not his.

    For example, imagine that his parents had ten thousand in the bank, owed millions for his medical expenses before he was 18, and had a million dollar life insurance policy. Imagine he’s racked up three-quarters of a million in medical debt since he turned 18.

    The funeral would be paid by the ten thousand. The rest of the ten thousand would be swallowed by his parents’ debts, and the rest of those debts would just go unpaid, and he would not be liable for them. He would get the life insurance, and could pay his own debts with it. Whatever was left of the life insurance would be his.

    So you can play with life insurance and his personal debt to leave him in whatever state you choose.

    Edited to add: this also assumes that there is no public health care and he has no, or bad, insurance?
     
  3. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    I'm sorry you know that, but it was very informative, thanks for sharing.
     
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  4. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Crippling medical bills are very common. Assuming no insurance or ability to pay, people will often rack up the charges, declare bankruptcy, deal with the credit fallout, and wait for it to pass (7 years in the US? Not sure about that).
     
  5. Privateer

    Privateer Senior Member

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  6. Privateer

    Privateer Senior Member

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    Same here. I had a great uncle who had no wife or children and spent the last years of his life having a rare old time of it, spending money like it was going out of fashion before he finally croaked leaving the banks out of pocket by a considerable amount. He'd already liquidated all his assets and taken to living entirely in hotels, so there was no estate for the banks to raid so they just had to take a soaking on that one.

    To be fair, they had nobody to blame but themselves; who in their right mind lends large sums of money to an 80-year old man?
     
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  7. jmh105

    jmh105 Active Member

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    Thanks for your answers!

    @ChickenFreak
    The personal debt he would have would be in continuing his medical care, I am assuming. To answer your question on insurance: I wasn’t sure, but then I found a source that said Medicare in the US should help cover the health issues (hormone therapy, etc). That insurance, plus whatever is left of the life insurance resulting from the parents’ deaths, should cover it?

    Do any of you guys know any more info on transgender and health care or can verify what I found?

    Thanks again, everyone.
     
  8. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    I don’t think that Medicare will cover anything for someone this young, unless there’s some factor that I’m missing. He would likely need some other form of health insurance.
     
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  9. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    This site might help, but it does say that Medicare is for older people or people with disabilities, and I doubt that the government counts gender dysphoria as a disability.
     
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  10. jmh105

    jmh105 Active Member

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    Yeah, definitely not. I misread that detail! But fortunately, I did find a site that lists insurances that handle transgender issues, so that’s a start. :) http://www.hrc.org/resources/finding-insurance-for-transgender-related-healthcare

    What I found brings up another question, though: can an 18 year old inherit this kind of healthcare insurance from his parents?
     

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