The totally off-topic thread

[Cossie]

All I can say from experience is be wary of leaving money to charities in your will, it deeply complicates and extends the process of winding up the deceased person's estate and can get quite messy.

I'll be dead, so i won't know about it.

 

[docjames]

I bought it from Appliances on Line in September. I have spoken to Bosch and I suppose I have to await the outcome of the eventual service call. If it can't be fixed on the spot I want a full refund and will go with a Miele next.

Well AoL's service levels have dropped substantially. They just replaced ours and took the faulty one back.

 

[Major]

gong xi fa cai

 

[Hvr]

All I can say from experience is be wary of leaving money to charities in your will, it deeply complicates and extends the process of winding up the deceased person's estate and can get quite messy.

I'll be dead, so i won't know about it.

Having seen the effects of a contested deceased estate I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy let alone a loved one.

Also, never ever use the Public Trustee to write or administer your will.

 

[Pushka]

Agree with HVR. Keep it simple. Get a good lawyer to draw up the Will as they have seen all the issues a poorly worded one creates. And avoid the Public Trustee at all costs.

 

[Denali]

...Public Trustee to write or administer your will.

.... And avoid the Public Trustee at all costs.

Problem is, we dont have anyone to trust to act as trustee and we want to protect "Jane" from my sister, who will be all in our estate business. Edit. Jane is a young adult but my sister is quite a force and makes no secret she will be contesting our mums will (which Im also not in/Im ok with that).

 

[Pushka]

Problem is, we dont have anyone to trust to act as trustee and we want to protect "Jane" from my sister, who will be all in our estate business. Edit. Jane is a young adult but my sister is quite a force and makes no secret she will be contesting our mums will (which Im also not in/Im ok with that).

In the case of any dispute we have nominated our Lawyer to act as go between. They will act impartially. Especially if you have discussed with them your concerns.

 

[RB]

Go Kurri Kurri-

I actually saw the NBN news report for this the other night. There were a couple of decent mullets shown HUNTER VALLEY HOTEL FISHING FOR AUSTRALIA’S BEST MULLET – NBN News

 

[love_the_life]

we are a bit the same - we used to give a bit to a lot of different ones, but they must share their lists or something as we found we were getting constant phone calls. It became rather irriitating. So we decided to rationalise it and give to Batting for Change, sponsor a child through the Smith Family Education program and a monthly regular donation to Medecine Sans Frontiers. It seemed to be a good spread of charities and we could concentrate our giving, We still do the odd irregular donation - Soldier On for e.g. and if someone turns up at the door, but on the whole just those 3.

The bit that gets me these days is that you often can't give a small one off donation as they want you to commit to monthly payments from your credit card - I refuse to sign up to anything now especially where they use contract staff in shopping centres to ambush you as you go past.

 

[Denali]

Or if you make a one off, you then get bombarded with donation emails, mail ect.

Eg, Smith Family. Happy to have a aussie sponsor kid but the first 6mths after signing up, lots of mail asking for more. Wonder how much they spend on postage.

 

[love_the_life]

I'll second and third anyone who said to stay away from the Public Trustee to handle any wills or estate. FIL didn't trust lawyers so went to the Public Trustee - his will turned out to be a bit complicated as he had given a life interest in his house to his second wife who in the end developed dementia and went to a nursing home. Luckily for us her family managed to get her to sign away this but only after the house had been left empty for nearly 2 years. The trustee was pretty hopeless and of course took out lots of money to administer the estate (about 15 years). Had an equally bad experience with them in the case of BIL's sudden death in 2003. That dragged on for over 3 years.

 

[Flying mermaid]

The bit that gets me these days is that you often can't give a small one off donation as they want you to commit to monthly payments from your credit card - I refuse to sign up to anything now especially where they use contract staff in shopping centres to ambush you as you go past.

Or if you make a one off, you then get bombarded with donation emails, mail ect.

Eg, Smith Family. Happy to have a aussie sponsor kid but the first 6mths after signing up, lots of mail asking for more. Wonder how much they spend on postage.

I agree - charity unfortunately has become a business with people paid commissions to raise funds and admin costs really out of control. The door knockers like St Vinnies are still happy to take whatever donation you give them.

We’ve stuck with Smith Family because we’ve done it for so long and I like the connection to helping an Australian family - maybe that support when a child is young might actually make a real difference in their life.

MSF - well the doctors really put it on the line, so happy to do a regular donation there.

Batting for Change - as I said I know the family and I know that almost everything gets channeled to the recipients. Education for females is critical in those sorts of countries, so once again I feel it is making a real difference and happy to know the most of my charity dollar gets used not the 30 to 40% in normal charities.

 

[straitman]

My BIL and myself were the executors of my mothers estate. After she died we made an appointment with the solicitor who held the will but when we got there found him rather on edge and almost coy about getting things done. Suddenly we realised the problem and both said to him that there were no issues, animosity or problems and that everyone was comfortable with the will and the whole process. Suddenly he relaxed and settled down. Without going into specifics he explained how nasty and horrible the situation frequently gets.

 

[Cossie]

I wouldn't use the public trustee either, but I can recommend(?) a firm in Manuka NOT to use, after dealing with them and my Mother's estate I came to fully understand all the anti lawyer jokes out there!

 

[Cossie]

International Womens Developement Agency, can I add a bit more, if it's not appropriate then please delete?

IWDA

Visit their site and have a read, no religion involved, which in my opinion is worth a lot.

I still intend leaving them a sizeable amount.

 

[LadyC]

Without going into specifics he explained how nasty and horrible the situation frequently gets.

Unfortunately I have been there and the only thing to show from it at the end was a large legal bill and a fractured family. Not fun.

 

[GarrettM]

So the woman on the Delta flight, who got kicked off for complaining about crying baby (who isnt crying in the video), named dropped with "I work for the governor" and threatening FAs job, is suspended/on leave.

Report: Woman kicked off plane to Syracuse suspended from NY state job

Good.
Ordinarily I strongly dislike the idea of people losing their jobs due to some random incident/error of judgement/social media stupidity.

But she tried to threaten the FA with her "work for the governor" quip, assuming it would do the trick.

She sounds like a real winner.

 

[get me outta here]

In fairness, I didn''t actually ask AOL to do something about as I'd contacted Bosch.

Well AoL's service levels have dropped substantially. They just replaced ours and took the faulty one back.

 

[Denali]

Speaking of the legal industry: WA woman charged with $1.9 million theft

Wonder how she got busted. Its usually because all those balls she has juggling in the air comes down because she went on leave and someone filled in for her/said this cant be right and investigated or there were too many errors that someone finally engaged a independent audit.

 

[OZDUCK]

Speaking of the legal industry: WA woman charged with $1.9 million theft

Wonder how she got busted. Its usually because all those balls she has juggling in the air comes down because she went on leave and someone filled in for her/said this cant be right and investigated or there were too many errors that someone finally engaged a independent audit.

We had a internal fraud at work and, as you suggested, it was only found when he went on leave and didn't hide the files properly. From memory he got about 5 years of extra, unpaid, leave.