{"id":56,"date":"2007-05-27T06:53:15","date_gmt":"2007-05-27T11:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/?p=56"},"modified":"2007-05-27T06:53:15","modified_gmt":"2007-05-27T11:53:15","slug":"ducks-in-a-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/2007\/05\/27\/ducks-in-a-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks in a Row"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Poly people out there, do you have your legal ducks in a row?<\/p>\n<p>Most of these things are legal documents that anyone, poly or not, should have in order.  Thing is, because polyamorous situations can muddy legal waters, it&#8217;s important to have your wishes clear.   Not all of the documents will apply to all poly situations, but many are important.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who should be contacted in case of an emergency?  Is this written down <em>anywhere<\/em>? (I actually have a &#8220;drop dead&#8221; file that I made when I went in for surgery once.  Everything that people will need to take care of stuff if I drop dead is in that file &#8212; legal and routine).<\/li>\n<li>Who do you want to allow to visit you in the hospital?  You can have this information on file with your primary care physician as well as your local hospital.<\/li>\n<li>Do you have a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nolo.com\/resource.cfm\/catID\/EDC82D5A-7723-4A77-9E10DDB947D1F801\/309\/292\/295\/\">living will<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li>Do you want anyone to have medical power of attorney?  If so, do you have the paperwork on file for this?<\/li>\n<li>What about a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nolo.com\/resource.cfm\/catID\/F251EA55-13A9-4EE0-85D21CEB27636030\/309\/298\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;real&#8221; will<\/a>?  Even if you don&#8217;t own significant property, you&#8217;ve seen fights over who gets Grandma&#8217;s pearls, or a silver teapot.  Don&#8217;t do this to the people you love.<\/li>\n<li>If you do own significant property where probate would disrupt people&#8217;s lives, you might want to consider a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nolo.com\/article.cfm\/objectID\/02B5FD86-BB5F-4F9C-88C5ED4A0D7F64BC\/309\/227\/FAQ\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">living trust<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>If you have kids, do you have guardianship documents?  Poly situations can get sticky.  You&#8217;re going to want <a href=\"http:\/\/www.polyfamilies.com\/polychildcare.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">child care authorizations<\/a> for anyone who you want looking after your child on a regular basis.  You want to make sure your will clearly establishes your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nolo.com\/article.cfm\/ObjectID\/EA2707C0-AFE9-4D7E-88E71D0951B8FFF3\/catID\/FD1795A9-8049-422C-9087838F86A2BC2B\/309\/ART\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">guardianship <\/a>wishes if something happens while the kids are still young (You really <span style=\"font-style: italic\">really<\/span> don&#8217;t want to leave this to the whims of the courts!)  If you have any children with whom you have no <span style=\"font-style: italic\">legal<\/span> relationship but to whom you have assumed a responsibility, I strongly suggest either a life insurance policy with that child as a beneficiary (they&#8217;re not that expensive) or a joint bank account that you contribute to regularly with the child having rights of survivorship.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is not a comprehensive list, but is meant to get you to thinking:  Are there situations as a poly person that might be outside the box where you will have to deal with a bureaucracy?   If so, there are usually ways to make sure that you get what you want for you and your loves, but you do need to make a special effort to make sure any necessary paperwork is on file.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, polyamory is about love.  Make sure you&#8217;re thinking about the people you love here.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.digg.com\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/img\/badges\/80x15-digg-badge-2.png\" alt=\"Digg!\" height=\"15\" width=\"80\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poly people out there, do you have your legal ducks in a row? Most of these things are legal documents that anyone, poly or not, should have in order. Thing is, because polyamorous situations can muddy legal waters, it&#8217;s important to have your wishes clear. Not all of the documents will apply to all poly&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting","category-the-polyamory-community"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}