WWYD: Low cost estate planning/living trusts

[Bluebird9]

v

Edited by Bluebird9 - 11/27/11 at 10:08am

[lunarlady]

Your will and testament is legally binding as long as it is notorized. So basically, you could write down (with a bit more detail) everything you mentioned in your post, take it to a notary, sign it in their presence, and be done. This is by far the cheepest route to take. Note that if it is multiple pages, you will need to inital or sign each page to make it legal, and the number of pages must be noted on the page that is noterized.

Unless something happens between now and your wedding, your assets will automatically go to your husband, and his to you, in the event of one of you passing. If you pass before the wedding, your assets would go to DD. If you both pass, your assets go to your DD, but DD needs a caretaker, which does make things a bit more dicey if you feel that several family members might step forward to offer to care for her. Immediate family (brother, sister, grandparent) are given priority over more distant family (cousins).

Rather than buy something online, if you want a formal form, I would consider scoping out a local law school and see if they have a student who will do it for you for free as a practice for their estate law class. You might be pleasently surprised.

Overall, it is not something you have to worry too much about unless you have a family that is likely to try to grab a peice of your assets and be a PITA if something happens.

[Bluebird9]

v

Edited by Bluebird9 - 11/27/11 at 10:08am

[mnnice]

I know your resources are limited, but I thought that having a lawyer help us with this was useful especially if you plan on living in your current area for long. If you have a lawyer then you have a contact person if you need other legal help later and they can help refer you to someone else if need be.

You didn't mention durable health care power of attorney which I think would be really key with having an SO that you are not legally married too.

I don't think it's typical include items like jewelry or momentos in a will either. If it's important people write it down and who it goes too and included it in a list that they store with their wills. Then hopefully people read it and follow the directions.

[velochic]

We did go through an attorney because our wills are quite complicated... family, property and inheritance for dd in 3 different countries. All told, even with complications, the bill for us was only $750, however, my cousin is an attorney and she referred us to this guy (she does not do wills and also she is dd's designated guardian and trustee) so he knocked off $250 as a courtesy.

I had asked him about some things I wanted to be designated in the will and he said that they really didn't belong. He said that we could write up these wishes ourselves, but that even notarized they are not guaranteed legally through the court systems. For example, I have a rather expensive set of bone china and silver that my oldest sister has drooled over for years. I already gave her a set of collectible bone china tea pots that she promptly sold on ebay, probably for drug money, although I've never actually confirmed drug use (just suspect it). I specifically do not want her to have my china. Not something to put in the will, but no way to make those wishes legally binding, either. One thing I was able to make legally binding was that she was never to get custody of dd. That, I was able to put in the will.

We had our wills in place already, but I did download (for free) Suze Orman's Will Kit to see if there was anything I could learn from it. I found it to be very thorough and beneficial, especially for someone who is just starting to set up a will. I'd encourage you to start there. I know I downloaded it for free, so check around for promo codes if it's asking for $$ for the download.

I agree, though, that having an attorney is a good plan. They are flesh and blood you can confer with about how to set up your will. Most wills are boilerplate and will just be fill-in-the-blank for you if your main concern is designating a guardian, but there is always the chance that you have something that needs to be discussed. I doubt, though, that in your case it would get very expensive.

Also, I agree with getting a living will set up, especially if you want your dp calling the shots if you are incapacitated. You also probably want a durable power of attorney, which is different than a living will. A will and revocable trust, durable power of attorney, and a living will are the three documents we had the attorney draw up for us.

Good luck! Everyone should at least do the minimum and get a guardian designated for their kids. If there is a power struggle, the kids could spend years in foster care while it all gets hashed out. It's a hard thing to think about, but death *is* certain, so it's a practical affair to take care of. Good for you to be thinking of it!

[honeybunmom]

I think the main difference between a will and a trust is that a will must go through probate and the corpus of a trust (all the stuff you're leaving to people) does not. Probate is a judicial process. Even if in the end it's just a rubber stamp of your will, it will place a period of time between your death and the enforcement of your will. So, while you could go the piece of paper and notary route, if you want more expediency, I'd learn more about the trust process.

[june'smom]

I used to work in an estate planning law office (I drafted all the documents as a paralegal).

There are several things you can do to avoid your bank accounts and such from being included in your probate without having to set up trusts. You should be able to go to the bank and have each account set up to transfer upon death. That should be super easy.

Second go to your state website and see if they have durable power of attorney forms for health care and finances (two separate forms). These will allow the person named to make decisions for you for health care (important if you are not married) and the financial POA will allow the person named to handle finances and pay your bills.

As far as a will goes, that can be used to name a guardian for your child. You can include language in there to have a trust for that child in the event you have a bunch of money in the future without having to set it all up right now. For this you will need an attorney to draft it.

As far as your personal property, there are forms called Tangible Personal Property Lists. These are just forms that you date and sign. They basically tell your personal rep who should get what.

In my law firm, an estate plan like this would cost about $500. I wouldn't count on forms on the internet for this stuff. The probate judge could just throw out the will and everything with it if mistakes are made. That most likely won't happen but if there is an unforeseen issue, you won't be around to fix it. Just my 2 cents.

[velochic]

Originally Posted by june'smom

As far as your personal property, there are forms called Tangible Personal Property Lists. These are just forms that you date and sign. They basically tell your personal rep who should get what.

That was the term that I couldn't remember. Our attorney said that these are not legally binding... that if the executor had a beef about someone getting something, they could go against the stated wishes. So if, for example, I wanted my step-mom to get my china, but my executor wanted to give it to my sister, in spite of my wishes, my step-mom couldn't legally go after the china. Does that sound right to you? I asked my cousin, the attorney, but she doesn't know that much about estate law.

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by velochic

That was the term that I couldn't remember. Our attorney said that these are not legally binding... that if the executor had a beef about someone getting something, they could go against the stated wishes. So if, for example, I wanted my step-mom to get my china, but my executor wanted to give it to my sister, in spite of my wishes, my step-mom couldn't legally go after the china. Does that sound right to you? I asked my cousin, the attorney, but she doesn't know that much about estate law.

I don't see why your china is different than your cash; property is property. The executor is bound to carry out the terms of the will.

[velochic]

Originally Posted by Emmeline II

I don't see why your china is different than your cash; property is property. The executor is bound to carry out the terms of the will.

It's not in the will. We have a separate, non-legally binding document that just states what our wishes are in regards to some of our possessions. Technically, if we die, it all goes to dd, but my cousin (our executor) has a list of some of our property we want others to get.