Any lawyers in the house?

[de8212]

Me and the wife need to make a will. A good friend of hers has a husband that's a lwyer so se's going to get an appt. with him soon.
What I want to do in the mean time is to maybe write up a rough draft so that we won't spend forever in his office.
I could search google (and I probably will) but I was hoping to get someinput from those that have done this so I could be a little more prepared.
Anyone have any insight into this?

Thanks

 

[allisolm]

Ten Steps to Completing Your Last Will and Testament

http://www.ilrg.com/forms/lastwill-married-nc/us/ga

These should help. If you're going to write simple wills, you can do it with free forms from a site like this without any lawyers. Good luck!

 

[moshquerade]

i find that lawyers don't like to give out free information, even online.

 

[kranky]

When I got mine done I didn't need to do a rough draft. He asked what we wanted to do with our stuff if we died, we told him, and he wrote it up that way. I suppose if I had kids he would have had questions about guardianship.

 

[de8212]

Thanks for the links allisolm. I'll check them out.

 

[TheAdvocate]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
i find that lawyers don't like to give out free information, even online.

It's more than that - there are legal and ethical issues to giving out online advice.

When it comes to wills, the laws in each state can differ significantly. Ask someone locally or at least consult a reference book targeted to your state.

 

[de8212]

Allisolm

Is there a form for married with children? i may be blind because I can't see it.

Also, for anyone reading, I am not trying to get lawyers advice online that I will make my own will, etc. I just want to get some input from either lawyers or anyone that has had a wll made.

The stuff on the page that allisolm linked is retty well waht I need. I'm going to just use it as a guide so we're not sitting in his office all day.
I know he will advise us on everything, just want to be a liitle more prepared of what all will be asked.
For example, we have one son. He's almost 1 year old. I guess we would want to leave him pretty much everything but most of it he won't get until 18/21. So until then, we just pick out another relative (brother) that will keep the stuff???? Then when he gets of age, what would he do?

Again, this is just me being curious as to what happens in this situation. When you have a child that is this young he can't really use the stuff we own.

 

[dirtboy]

Will he be collecting probate fees on your estate if something happens to you and your estate goes through probate because he sold you a will? That's great... brilliant.

 

[de8212]

Originally posted by: dirtboy
Will he be collecting probate fees on your estate if something happens to you and your estate goes through probate because he sold you a will? That's great... brilliant.

Did I say that?

 

[everman]

You need a living trust. You will not avoid probate with the will, a living trust can do that.
Some unethical lawyers will say you only need a will so they will collect probate fees from you later on.

 

[allisolm]

Originally posted by: de8212
Allisolm

Is there a form for married with children? i may be blind because I can't see it.

http://www.ilrg.com/forms/lastwill-married/us/ga

Here's the page with all the choices: http://www.ilrg.com/forms/#estateplanning

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: de8212
Allisolm

Is there a form for married with children? i may be blind because I can't see it.

Also, for anyone reading, I am not trying to get lawyers advice online that I will make my own will, etc. I just want to get some input from either lawyers or anyone that has had a wll made.

The stuff on the page that allisolm linked is retty well waht I need. I'm going to just use it as a guide so we're not sitting in his office all day.
I know he will advise us on everything, just want to be a liitle more prepared of what all will be asked.
For example, we have one son. He's almost 1 year old. I guess we would want to leave him pretty much everything but most of it he won't get until 18/21. So until then, we just pick out another relative (brother) that will keep the stuff???? Then when he gets of age, what would he do?

Again, this is just me being curious as to what happens in this situation. When you have a child that is this young he can't really use the stuff we own.

- pick ONE guardian to get custody of your child(ren). When my wife and I had our will drafted we said we wanted my sister and her husband to get custody. The lawyer asked, 'what if the two of them are no longer together at that time?'

-The situation you describe of giving money requires a Trust. The lawyer will establish a trust and you will appoint a trustee; that is, someone to manage that trust according to your wishes. You can stipulate that the child gets all the assets of the trust at age whatever.

A good lawyer will help you think through all the 'what if' possibilities that you wouldn't come up with on your own. Draw up a list of your assets and what you want to happen with each of them, and the lawyer will help you find a way to make it all happen.

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: allisolm

Originally posted by: de8212
Allisolm

Is there a form for married with children? i may be blind because I can't see it.

http://www.ilrg.com/forms/lastwill-married/us/ga

Here's the page with all the choices: http://www.ilrg.com/forms/#estateplanning

That's interesting... that form says, "I am married to ________" "My children are __" etc etc etc.

What happens if you're no longer married to that person when you die? What happens if you have more children after you draft this will and you die without their names on your will? What happens if one of your children dies before you do?

Does that invalidate the whole will? Only an estate attorney in your area would know for sure.

While we all believe we'll update our wills when our life situations change, the fact of the matter is that you really need to think about these things. My will says things like "any and all children" and "my spouse" without naming names to cover these eventualities. (I think.)

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink

Originally posted by: allisolm

Originally posted by: de8212
Allisolm

Is there a form for married with children? i may be blind because I can't see it.

http://www.ilrg.com/forms/lastwill-married/us/ga

Here's the page with all the choices: http://www.ilrg.com/forms/#estateplanning

That's interesting... that form says, "I am married to ________" "My children are __" etc etc etc.

What happens if you're no longer married to that person when you die? What happens if you have more children after you draft this will and you die without their names on your will? What happens if one of your children dies before you do?

Does that invalidate the whole will? Only an estate attorney in your area would know for sure.

While we all believe we'll update our wills when our life situations change, the fact of the matter is that you really need to think about these things. My will says things like "any and all children" and "my spouse" without naming names to cover these eventualities. (I think.)

Not using names isn't that good either, considering it varies from state to state where not even a wife, but a "partner" that has lived with you for so many years will have the same rights to your estate as a spouse.

 

[allisolm]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink

Originally posted by: allisolm

Originally posted by: de8212
Allisolm

Is there a form for married with children? i may be blind because I can't see it.

http://www.ilrg.com/forms/lastwill-married/us/ga

Here's the page with all the choices: http://www.ilrg.com/forms/#estateplanning

That's interesting... that form says, "I am married to ________" "My children are __" etc etc etc.

What happens if you're no longer married to that person when you die? What happens if you have more children after you draft this will and you die without their names on your will? What happens if one of your children dies before you do?

Does that invalidate the whole will? Only an estate attorney in your area would know for sure.

While we all believe we'll update our wills when our life situations change, the fact of the matter is that you really need to think about these things. My will says things like "any and all children" and "my spouse" without naming names to cover these eventualities. (I think.)

Our wills were originally written after the birth of our daughter but before the birth of our son. For many years he was miffed because she was mentioned by name and he was "any other issue of this marriage."