Three questions, and Social Security ignores the first answer

On one night this February, 600 private jets flew out of a single California city. The same night Elon Musk spent millions to send a message to 125 million Americans. But Wall Street veteran Whitney Tilson says what happened that night is the most important financial signal he's seen in years. He's sharing his full analysis free, here.

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Good morning.

Which company insured my father’s life? I have been trying to answer that since Tuesday, and I cannot. My mother may know, and I have not asked her.

There was no letter yesterday. I promised a short one for Thursday and did not send it, so it arrives on a Friday, with the Friday parts attached.

What follows are three questions for a parent, each about a paper that only works if somebody can find it. None of them needs a lawyer to ask. I am not a lawyer, and none of this is advice about your family’s papers.

A durable power of attorney lets a named person sign for someone who can no longer sign for themselves. Banks and brokers usually honor one, though many want to review it first, and the rules differ between states.

Several of today’s sponsors write about frozen bank accounts. In the claim files I handled, the freeze families ran into was usually a bank that would not deal with a grown child because the parent had signed nothing.

Social Security is the exception families tend to find late. The Treasury does not recognize a power of attorney for negotiating federal payments. The agent has to apply separately to be the representative payee, and the agency checks the applicant before it approves anyone.

There is a way to choose ahead of time. A person who receives benefits can name up to three advance designees, and the agency considers those names first if a payee is ever needed.

An insurer pays a life policy when a beneficiary files a claim, and a beneficiary who does not know about the policy files nothing.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners runs a free search for that situation. By July 31, 2026, its locator had matched more than 780,000 policies and annuities, worth about $17 billion, to the people they were meant for.

It works only after a death, and it answers only the beneficiary or someone with legal authority. Before then, the quickest search is a question at the kitchen table about which company and roughly what year.

A will is probated from the original. In New York, when a will the person once kept cannot be found after the death, the law presumes the person destroyed it on purpose.

A copy can still be admitted. The family has to show the will was never revoked, prove it was signed properly, and prove its terms through two credible witnesses or a copy shown to be complete.

In 2023 a Westchester family did that with an unsigned, undated copy, and only after an appeal. The original had stayed with the lawyer who drafted it and had never been in the dead man’s possession, which is what overcame the presumption.

The question to ask is where the signed original sits and which other person knows the place.

My score on these is zero for three. My mother has mentioned her will at two Thanksgivings, both times while passing the rolls, which is not when anyone takes notes.

I do not know where the original is or who drafted it. I do not know whether my father carried a policy with anyone after he retired.

The question about the deed in Memphis is also still unasked, so the list has grown to four.

My card is written and clipped to the phone I use for Sunday calls to Memphis. Write yours before the weekend and keep it next to the phone you will use.

WASHINGTON  Forty states and the District of Columbia asked the Supreme Court to hear New Jersey’s challenge over whether federal law overrides state gambling rules for prediction markets.

MARKETS  On Thursday the S&P 500 slipped 0.46% to 7,766, the Nasdaq fell 1.25%, and the Dow rose 0.10%.

TECHNOLOGY  Common Sense Media reported that some guardrails in ChatGPT’s teen version do not work as intended.

ENERGY  Crude oil traded above $102 a barrel on Thursday, and energy stocks led the market.

WORLD  The WWF’s Living Planet Report found monitored wildlife populations down 73% on average since 1970, with some recoveries noted.

TOMORROW  The monthly list of things I said I would do and have not done.

Read the policy before you need it. — Rita