[Cheesehead]

My wife brought this up. If I were to die, what would happen with my affiliate relationships? Would I continue getting checks and could my wife sign them? I know I should discuss this with an attorney, but a lot of people, even perhaps lawyers, seem to know absolutely nothing about this business so I thought I would start here.

[Geno Prussakov]

My wife brought this up. If I were to die, what would happen with my affiliate relationships? Would I continue getting checks and could my wife sign them?
Get her on one of your accounts so that she could sign them and then, I guess, she could just deposit the funds endorsing the checks... [can't believe I'm writing this]

G.

[Geno Prussakov]

...but a lot of people, even perhaps lawyers, seem to know absolutely nothing about this business...
I don't see why this business should differ from any other business. Say, you own a business which is an online store operating as a sole proprietorship. People write checks to your name. You cash them. What happens with the checks written to the proprietor's name when/if the proprietor dies? May be a good question for a business attorney forum...

G.

[Cheesehead]

You make a good point. Treat this like any other sole proprietorship (which is what I have). What makes this a little different is that the income continues after the sole proprietor is deceased, perhaps many years after.

[Trust]

Not sure if an accountant handles that or a lawyer of maybe both. Accountants start off cheaper so might start there :) It's probably something most affiliates haven't looked into because it's something we don't think about but something we probably should.

[Greg Rice]

I would do 2 things. First, state in your will that she gets it all. Second, you can give her a Power of Attorney so she can sign for you on documents, checks, etc. Just be careful with a POA since she can have all rights to everything. I believe you can restrict her "power" and just allow her to sign certain documents.

The POA can come in handy while she's waiting for your will to finalize. If anyone contests your will, it could be in court for months or years. Without permission to sign legal documents, she may not be able to access the money incoming (legally) while the will in is probate.

[missdonna]

At a minimum she should understand how to keep your hosting and your domain registrations live. Without that everything would crash to a halt. If she can maintain the sites, even better.

A friend of mine knew he didn't have long to live, and he wanted his personal site to outlive him. At my urging he registered the name for 5 years, but he wouldn't let me host it on my server, and when his relatives stopped his internet access account his site vanished.

[Cagles Mill]

A lot of the money I earn online is direct-deposited into a joint checking account. So... at least as far as those direct deposits go, my wife would have no trouble accessing the money if something happened to me since her name is also on the checking account.

[Cheesehead]

Thanks all. We need to get the will made out. In the course of 5 years, my affiliate income will be the equivalent of a life insurance policy (which I also have) and provide immediate and steady income yet without POA, she might not be able to cash the checks.

[Alan Hamilton]

Cheese - this is really not a complex issue. As a sole proprietor, unless you have a will that states otherwise, your wife is the beneficiary of your estate. However a couple of simple things you can do to insure nothing is held up in probate.

1. you say that you are a sole proprietor. it sounds like you have not registered a dba business name. if this is true, simply register your sole proprietorship with the Secretary of States office in your state. for instance, let's say that your present sole proprietorship is owned by Joe Cheesehead (you the individual). You simply register with the SOS an where the form asks for a "dba" (doing business as) name, you enter Cheesehead Assoc. You then list yourself and your wife as the partners.

2. using your tradename above, go to your bank and open a business checking account under the dba name (Cheesehead Assoc).

3. contact merchants and / or networks and arrange for checks to be made out to cheesehead assoc.

It takes very little to do the above and in turn, you eliminate any potential problems should the need arise.

Hpe this helps you out.

[Paul_Ward]

Guess your wife could keep on running the business as it is if she wanted. On death everything you have winds up as your "estate", usually the estate is wound up, but it doesn't have to be - look at Elvis, his estate still earns millions a year.

Whatever way if it's a concern, then a lawyer seems to be a must.

[Adam Ward]

It is my understaning that a POA ends at death.

Go with an LLC and also get cheaper health insurance.

[cozy]

automation.
The biz is an LLC and survives my death; Into an estate upon both our demise.
The kids can not extract more than 50% the first yr ( a chance to learn without losing all) ... prorated from that point.
Important domains are on auto renewal with multiple yrs, checks to the company.
Explicit instructions are left as the the wife and kids have no clue as to what is; Update the card here/there ... the rest is fairly sound.
I'm around $3-4k/month in residuals b4 affiliate sales .... so it can ride and even grow as is ... as long as the cc bills/annual_renewals ( LLC) are paid.
If they blow that, it dies ... but I've done all I can.

[John Powell]

Your wife should probably have at least a basic knowledge of how to check your accounts, network, hosting, and CC used for outgoing payments. I got an email the other day that said to log in to the network and agree to the new TOS by a certain date or be dumped. No big deal for me but my wife would never see that since she wants to know nothing about those details.

If your wife is as disinterested as mine you probably need a list of simple instructions on how to keep things running, and attach it to the will. I have often worried about continuity for the sites I maintain for other people.

[Snib]

Go with an LLC and also get cheaper health insurance.

How does having an LLC get you cheaper health insurance?

- Scott

[Adam Ward]

When we changed from a sole proprietor to an LLC, Aetna gave us "group rates".

My wife is 17 years younger than I.
She has met the vast majority of my Super Group as well as most of the network reps worth knowing and Haiko.

She could pick up and run the BIZ.
It only took me 5 years to get her interested.

[mrbshouse]

as far as CJ goes i don't think the relationships are transferable, unless she was added as an operator at the min (then payment info would have to be changed using the new SS # after anything should happen god forbid). Those relationships are based on your SS # unless you've set up a proper business as such if you were to not be able to continue that would stop to...technicaly.

If it's setup using a business that would be totally different.

But get word from CJ direct on that I could be wrong.

[~Michelle]

We just had this question covered by our attorney because we had a full "Will" package drawn up a couple weeks ago.

As it stands right now, my husband is a signatory on my business account, so he can sign checks and put them in my account, but he can't withdraw money or sign checks from my account.

I asked my lawyer how I should go about making it legal for him to have full access to my accounts should something happen to me. (and me have access to my husbands should something happen to him)

What we had drawn up is basically a power of attorney stating that in the event of my death or I am incapacitated my husband then gets immediate & all legal rights to access my accounts and act on my behalf in all my business dealings. We had a second one drawn up giving me the same rights to my husbands business dealings.

If something were to happen to both of us, then this power goes to our children, or if they are minors, their conservator.

Hope this helps...

PS
Wanted to add that I have a DBA and business bank account, but that wouldn't make a difference if I didn't because the paperwork now covers all of it.

I also keep a hard copy of all my affliate logins & passwords, along with the URL to the affiliate logins. One of all my domain names, along with expiration dates, registrar info, etc, and a hosting sheet that lists where domains are hosted, how much it costs, size of package, when it is renewable. I showed my husband where this is all at and have shown him how to take care of the basics. As far as updating, my daughter knows how to do that.

Also, we had a full will package drawn up, It contained the papers for each of us to be each other POA, papers for each of us to be the others Patient Advocate, papers for two other to be our patients advocates in case either one of us is unable to do so, a will for each of us, a set of papers explaining what happens to our children if they are minors at the time of our death and who their guardians & conservators would be, and something else... I would have to pull out the folder and look.

The one thing we did that I liked is in our will it states that if anyone contests our wills for any reason, no matter the outcome, the end result will be that they get NOTHING. BWAAHAAHAA

Anyways, the whole thing only cost us $350.00. That is a small amount for the big piece of mind that it brings.

[waytogo]

she just needs to login to each account, and change the info to her name.
that will then change the check payee's name. so simple.

you do trust your wife, don't you?