Have you made a will?

[Lovely2CU]

We had our wills drawn up and witnessed by a solicitor, about 12/13 yrs ago now.

 

[JohnsPrincess]

We're both in the military so they make us. Not that having one is a bad thing! So I've had one since I was 19 (obviously changed when we got married).

 

[Pin Wizard]

Had one done just before DS was born. Need it for him in case something happens.

 

[JanaNs]

Yes we had our wills drawn up about 10 years ago before we went on a trip to WDW with our 2 older children and left the baby home with my mom. We started to think about not having one in the case of something happening on out trip and decided it was a good time.

 

[minkydog]

We had our wills made about 4 years ago. You know how it is. You kind of don't think about it, but you know you need to do it, but you put it off some more.

Then my father died. He had a homemade, invalid, non-notarized will leaving his entire property to his five adult children. Sounds easy right? Wrong. We got the will qualified in a few weeks. But getting the financial affairs and property settled took years--have you ever tried to get 5 different people to agree on the same thing at the same time? Almost impossible. I swore that we were going to do better by our children.

4 weeks after my father's passing DH & I had our somewhat-complicated wills made. It was really trying to have to think about choosing guardians--I mean, NOBODY will ever be good enough for my kids-- but in the end we asked ourselves "If we needed a guardian *tonight* who would be better than going to foster care?" And we pared it down from there. Just getting it done has given me huge peace of mind. It might not be perfect and we will probably tweak it from time to time, but we have now have an enforceable document legal in the state of Georgia and we KNOW that our kids will be cared for properly.

 

[Green Tea]

I had a hard time doing this. Mentally, hard to think about. Hard to get the motivation to call for an appointment. Once the attorney sent the drafts, I had a mental block against reading it to check everything. But eventually I did, and I got thru it and went and signed everything which was a much bigger production than I had anticipated. But, it is done.

The attorney also recommended powers of attorney and living wills. We did it all. Trustees, substitute trustees, how money is divided among the children. It covered it all.

It's done, and I don't anticipate revising it anytime soon.

But do it.

 

[Handbag Lady]

Nope, at this point in time, I don't see the need.

We don't own a home and we don't have kids. We both work and we each have insurance with the other listed as the benefactor.

(but if anyone has a reason to persuade me, I'm listening! I've learned a lot on these here boards.)

 

[lillygator]

No but we need to....I want to make sre we have full say in who our children go with.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

Yes, we have one, but we really should tweak it. It hasn't been updated since number 3 was born. (Although he is completely taken care of because it says something like "and all other children the couple may have") We also have separate people for their guardian and who is in charge of our money for them.

Not a fun thing to do, but I think necessary if you have children. If we all five go at once, we have different charities getting everything.

 

[AristocatFan]

DH and I each made ours up a few nights ago. It's just a basic do-it-yourself from the internet but it was free and now we just have to get two witnesses to sign them and get them notarized. Fortunately, a friend of ours is a notary so we'll just have her and her husband sign also. The hardest part was who to leave guardianship of the kids to. There's no grandparents and DH and I are best friends so no real close friends either.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

Nope, at this point in time, I don't see the need.

We don't own a home and we don't have kids. We both work and we each have insurance with the other listed as the benefactor.

(but if anyone has a reason to persuade me, I'm listening! I've learned a lot on these here boards.)

I would think you both might want living wills so if a horribly hard decision has to be made regarding life support, you know your partner's wishes. I am not sure my DH family believes the same thing we both do, so I know I am glad my DH has one.

 

[ameraumi]

We went in and updated our wills when DH was diagnosed with cancer. I am so glad we did that as things would be a total mess right now. He passed away June 3rd and it would be harder on me to handle that on top of everything else.

I guess now I will have to go in and have mine updated again. *sigh* But it is so worth it to have peace of mind, especially with the kids.

 

[ameraumi]

Nope, at this point in time, I don't see the need.

We don't own a home and we don't have kids. We both work and we each have insurance with the other listed as the benefactor.

(but if anyone has a reason to persuade me, I'm listening! I've learned a lot on these here boards.)

I can! If you do not have a will, everything with his name on it will have to go into probate. While it is nothing major, it is something that takes time and not something you should have to go thru. That is one thing our attorney made sure to point out to us, also to have both of our names on all accounts and anything with a title.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

We do not, and with the tragedy our extended family experienced in the last 10 days it is something we need to consider sooner rather than later.

 

[Mom2Ashli]

No we don't. But we keep saying we need to do it. That hardest part is picking someone to care for my child.

 

[Handbag Lady]

We went in and updated our wills when DH was diagnosed with cancer. I am so glad we did that as things would be a total mess right now. He passed away June 3rd and it would be harder on me to handle that on top of everything else.

I guess now I will have to go in and have mine updated again. *sigh* But it is so worth it to have peace of mind, especially with the kids.

Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. The DIS is a good place to vent and to talk about things if ever you find yourself in need of a good ear.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I would think you both might want living wills so if a horribly hard decision has to be made regarding life support, you know your partner's wishes. I am not sure my DH family believes the same thing we both do, so I know I am glad my DH has one.

See, good point! I don't know husband's wishes are for sure. We've talked about them and I know he doesn't like mine...duly noted.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I can! If you do not have a will, everything with his name on it will have to go into probate. While it is nothing major, it is something that takes time and not something you should have to go thru. That is one thing our attorney made sure to point out to us, also to have both of our names on all accounts and anything with a title.

Also a good point. We don't mix money (and we've never had a money argument) but we should have each other's names on our cars.

 

[DisneyBlonde]

No, but we know we have to. DH's brother passed unexpectedly a few years ago and it was a mess for his wife.

 

[AmericangirlinFrance]

Also a good point. We don't mix money (and we've never had a money argument) but we should have each other's names on our cars.

Right - good point - if you don't have a will, your non-probate assets will pass to the listed survivor without any hassle (i.e., bank accounts that are joint tenancies, houses, cars, life insurance with named beneficiary), but ALL OTHER assets will have to go through probate.