Hellobee Boards

@Adira: can I get it a copy of your template? I've been meaning to take care of that but didn't know how to start. Wasn't sure about Legalzoom, willing.com and etc...
Thank you!

Just want to caution everybody that estate documents written for a specific state doesn't necessarily translate to other states. When a client moves from one state we usually have to research whether the Will's verbiage still applies. We have an attorney who does this for us for free, luckily. For instance, if you live in a community property state then your Will might be quite different.

We recommend clients use Legal Zoom if they have basic estate planning needs. Most of your assets most likely transfer outside of probate so your main needs will consist of establishing guardianship and most likely a trust for your children. If you create a trust, you will want to update life insurance and other accounts with beneficiaries to reflect this. Legal Zoom is completely capable of walking you through the process and should cost less than $150 each.

A good estate planning document should last several years (if not decades) and can be revised via inexpensive codicils as life changes (such as you deciding to use different trustees, etc). I would view your estate documents as a long term investment.

I just want to throw out there that sometimes, employers offer legal benefits similar to health insurance. Certain plans offer estate planning as part of the monthly cost (we pay about $12 a month for the Cadillac package, which includes estate planning).

@LBee: We did a trust for our grandma and I agree it wasn't too complicated or expensive. The lawyer we would pay is a bit more pricey, but our situation is a little more complicated and we just want to make sure thinks are setup well. Now if we could only decide on guardians for our kids that we are comfortable with.

@MrsF: I definitely suggest making things as straightforward as possible. We are dealing with a family trust issue right now and it's a mess! Something that should have been really straightforward has led to a complicated matter with a very expensive lawyer, a lot of people with their hands tied, and someone on the verge of being homeless.

Ugh every time a post like this pops up I am reminded that we need to get one done too! We also don't have anything complicated.

Does anyone know what happens in the case there is no will set in place?

@snowjewelz: We have also recently added this to the top of our to do list after meeting recently with a financial planner - he said that in our state basically DCF decides who your kids go to - so for example if both sets of grandparents volunteered to take them, DCF would be the deciding factor. Which is nuts to me so we definitely need to do this ASAP.