current will?
- Thread starter Tabitha
- Start date
Welcome to Wondercafe2!
A community where we discuss, share, and have some fun together. Join today and become a part of it!
Seeler
Well-Known Member
At our children's urging we looked after this last fall. A friend from church recommended a lawyer. I think maybe he gave us a special price because it was very reasonable, something around $300 for both wills, and POA for financial, and another for personal/medical decisions.
I worked in estate/trust work many years ago. I think these documents are top-notch.
(And I'm ashamed to say that despite my experience, our previous wills were over 30 years old and we couldn't locate them.)
Chemgal - take my advice. Get a will, even if its handwritten or on one of those do-it-yourself forms. It will simplify everything for your relatives and beneficiaries. Perhaps you have everything in joint accounts that will pass to the surviving spouse - but what happens if you are both killed in an accident? Assets can be tied up for years while things are sorted out. Banks and financial institutions have millions of dollars in unclaimed accounts. (I know, one small savings account of my mil, less than $1,000, in a bank in Toronto. It would cost more in money, let alone time, to get all the documentation (starting with proof of death, proof of next of kin (seven sons, five now deceased, some leaving children)) than it is worth. An Executor named in a Will could simplify withdrawal and distribution - $100+ each is better than leaving it to the bank.)
I worked in estate/trust work many years ago. I think these documents are top-notch.
(And I'm ashamed to say that despite my experience, our previous wills were over 30 years old and we couldn't locate them.)
Chemgal - take my advice. Get a will, even if its handwritten or on one of those do-it-yourself forms. It will simplify everything for your relatives and beneficiaries. Perhaps you have everything in joint accounts that will pass to the surviving spouse - but what happens if you are both killed in an accident? Assets can be tied up for years while things are sorted out. Banks and financial institutions have millions of dollars in unclaimed accounts. (I know, one small savings account of my mil, less than $1,000, in a bank in Toronto. It would cost more in money, let alone time, to get all the documentation (starting with proof of death, proof of next of kin (seven sons, five now deceased, some leaving children)) than it is worth. An Executor named in a Will could simplify withdrawal and distribution - $100+ each is better than leaving it to the bank.)
Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I have been planning to read ours over to see if anything needs to be changed now that Little M is of age. I don't think so, though, as I think the provision for a guardian is age-contingent (ie. Only kicks in if he is under 18) and the trust provisions run until he is 25.
Can you trust provisions if someone sees afore hand how to alter the trust? Does happen ... I had that empiric ... an experience in humanistic avarice ... teaches one how not to do it if to be a virtue pragmatic ... true to "the ALL" portion? God almighty broken up in laughter at the flaw created ... RIP Ur in space ? Thus we bits (chitz) fell out as cosmologists satyr! We were not to know things beyond our place according to old Roman-Judean/Julian (power of) Roué ... a decree? Cause to look up ... word(s)? Some examine them inappropriately ...
ChemGal
One with keen eye
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Her
We do have information laid out and beneficiaries/successors in place where applicable. I suppose we could formalize things a bit more ourselves handwriting them. It just seems really silly to be paying for it based on our current circumstances.
GordW
Church-Geek-Oramus
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I think the recipient of the bequest needs to be specified by name, so "whatever church I currently attend" would not be accurate wording for the legalities (though it would be so much simpler).
I know that for us the default is that which ever one of us dies first everything goes to the other spouse. Then there is a clause that lists out what happens if we are both gone.
crazyheart
Rest In Peace: tomorrow,tomorrow
We did our wills and POA's less than a year ago. $650, seeler. Yours was very reasonable. Glad we did.
Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Check with your local Lung Association. Some of them (eg. London at times) do a fundraiser where you get a basic will and PoAs done for a set fee which then gets donated to the Lung Association. That's how we did ours (being in respiratory care, my employer is very active in supporting the lung association).
Hilary
Member at Large
I feel this way too. We are married but have no joint assets or dependants. My things would go to him. His things would come to me.
It makes sense that we should sort out what to do if we both die together, but I'm still young and invincible... so not in a hurry to do that.
ChemGal
One with keen eye
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Her
I see it as going a bit beyond a 'young and invincible". It's like paying for an insurance policy where the risk of the damage is fairly low and the payoff is also pretty low - what's the point of paying for that?
With a more complicated situation, sure. As long as our parents are alive, we don't have dependents and our assets aren't all that great the cost doesn't seem worth it. We did discuss it after buying the house.
Chemguy does need to do a PoA and personal directive. That can be done free of charge though. He had plans to go to the same workshop I did and work got in the way - that needs to be replanned.