Can you believe that? I know, I know. As usual, there is background to be provided. Last year about this time, I got it into my head that I should see a financial planner to make sure that I was doing things right with my money and to get some objective outsider to determine whether or not I was going to meet my goals. The biggest piece of advice he gave me was to get my affairs in order. After he heard about my accident and how I had the accident and didn't have a will in place, he almost made me do it right in front of him. So a year has passed and I finally got around to getting all the paperwork together to have a will and also create a living trust of which I am the trustee of the trust until I pass. I'll stop with the morbidity. But the most important step is to actually legally change those things that I own from being mine, but instead being owned by the trust with me as the trustee who makes the decision. I've basically created a shell corporation for myself. The most significant item to be moved into the trust was the house. It required my housemates and I to change the deed of the house to have the two of them and the trust as the owners of the home. We had our form notarized and then it had to officially recorded by the San Francisco Recorder/Assessors Office. This office is in the large City Hall building. As you can see from the following photos (not mine but taken from the web) SF City Hall is actually an amazingly beautiful building. It's of the Beaux Arts style. (I have no real idea what that means but I know that the Beaux Arts is always used in conjunction with City Hall.)
Never in my wildest dreams would I have allowed myself to believe that the offices inside the building were actually efficient, functional and dare I say...helpful? The Recorder/Assessors office closes at 4PM so I had to boogie back to SF to make it in time before it closed. I got there and the line to record the document had no one in it. I walked right up to the woman clerk, but I had to get an official description of our property, so I was sent to the main line. After three minutes, where every single clerk was working with a resident, I got my form printed out. I asked another question about the homeowners exemption and my clerk called the guy who handles the exemption. Not only was he in the office on a Friday afternoon, but he came right over and listened to my question. He went away and a couple minutes later came back with the reason why there was a mixup and a solution. He gave me a couple forms to fill out and upon being returned in the mail, the exemption would be in place for the 2006-07 tax bill.
I moved back over to the first line. There were five people in front of me, but it became quite clear that each person's time with the clerk was less than a minute, and before I knew it there I was with the the clerk. $12 later, my paperwork was done. I had one more question, but she pointed me to the main desk again. I got another clerk who then called over the guy who's in charge of addresses and all that stuff. He too was in the office on a Friday afternoon and came right over and answered my question.
I was done. I walked out of the office and out of the building completely amazed at how easily the whole thing had gone. There really is something called a functional municipal government.
MOMENT OF HISTORY: This same Office of the Recorder/Assessor is the same office that issued marriage liscenses to all the gay couples that got married back in 2004 when the mayor of San Francisco decreed gay marriage legal in the city.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have allowed myself to believe that the offices inside the building were actually efficient, functional and dare I say...helpful? The Recorder/Assessors office closes at 4PM so I had to boogie back to SF to make it in time before it closed. I got there and the line to record the document had no one in it. I walked right up to the woman clerk, but I had to get an official description of our property, so I was sent to the main line. After three minutes, where every single clerk was working with a resident, I got my form printed out. I asked another question about the homeowners exemption and my clerk called the guy who handles the exemption. Not only was he in the office on a Friday afternoon, but he came right over and listened to my question. He went away and a couple minutes later came back with the reason why there was a mixup and a solution. He gave me a couple forms to fill out and upon being returned in the mail, the exemption would be in place for the 2006-07 tax bill.
I moved back over to the first line. There were five people in front of me, but it became quite clear that each person's time with the clerk was less than a minute, and before I knew it there I was with the the clerk. $12 later, my paperwork was done. I had one more question, but she pointed me to the main desk again. I got another clerk who then called over the guy who's in charge of addresses and all that stuff. He too was in the office on a Friday afternoon and came right over and answered my question.
I was done. I walked out of the office and out of the building completely amazed at how easily the whole thing had gone. There really is something called a functional municipal government.
MOMENT OF HISTORY: This same Office of the Recorder/Assessor is the same office that issued marriage liscenses to all the gay couples that got married back in 2004 when the mayor of San Francisco decreed gay marriage legal in the city.
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