Drawing Up A Will

filsonhand · Jun 7, 2015

Hello all
I'm looking to draw up a will, and am looking for some advice on honest lawyer or such to assist with process.
Thanks in advance :s0155:

BoonDocks36 · Jun 7, 2015

There are several web sites that produce what is in essence a Fill in the Blanks... With your information...

Search under Paralegal should get results....

The cost of a lawyer can be reduced or eliminated with this route.

Hope that Helps

philip

Oregonhunter5 · Jun 7, 2015

Sometimes a trust is better, according to my dad. He was a estate planner for 50 years. I think we think trusts are for wealthy folks, but I don't think that's the case. I could be wrong though.

Classic · Jun 7, 2015

If you are thinking about a will then you have to have an idea of what/where/who you want your estate going to. Don't be cheap or a real lawyer will be able to tear it apart if challenged. I wanna say that I spent $300 and a real Lawyer with mad skills wrote ours up.
Quality is like buying Oats. If you want good clean oats expect to pay a fair price. If you don't mind oats that have already been through the horse (or an internet Lawyer) then yup they are a little cheaper

308 · Jun 7, 2015

Make sure to put me in it.

filsonhand · Jun 7, 2015

308 said:
Make sure to put me in it.

I was wondering where to send my stinky ol' work boots and undies, 308 your in the will

LOL

jbett98 · Jun 7, 2015

If you write up your own will, make sure you name all close family members, even the ones you don't want to leave anything to.
Let's say you have three biological children, and you only want two of them to inherit your assets.
Specifically include the black sheep, but state that you only leave that one $10.00 cash or some other nominal valued asset.
Otherwise, they can claim an error of omission, and demand a third of the assets.

RicInOR · Jun 30, 2016

Estate planning in general

Does someone have a check list?

I am working thru this with my parents and will have to do mine.

What I have are categories like:
Info - where are the documents, how to get into the safe
Assets - house, gold, cash, car parts, beanie baby collections, storage units
Debts - bills, stuff you have borrowed ie books, tools
Hazardous Stuff - if you have an X-ray machine, or tannerite,
Regulated Stuff - any NFA in your collection, Eagle feathers, ivory

TIA

See also: Do you tell your wife how much stuff really costs? (https://www.northwestfirearms.com/threads/do-you-tell-your-wife-how-much-stuff-really-costs.201698)

L84Cabo · Jun 30, 2016

A trust is usually the better option. It eliminates probate and giving the government 10%. And trust me, you want to avoid probate for both the process and giving the government more money, but also because of the risk. There are people out there who make their living showing up at open hearings and contesting wills. The hope is that they can obtain a quick payout from you to make them go away.

Note too that most estate attorneys will do both a trust and a will. A will is still usually done just to catch anything that doesn't get put into the trust.

You should also have a Power of Attorney, Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare, Hippa form, any medical directives that you want (like a DNR - Do Not Resuscitate), etc. Estate attorneys usually charge about $1800 for a complete package. But it's money well spent in my opinion.

And as a matter of practicality...if you're doing this for parents or something...make sure you have a complete list of all their various accounts as well as access/passwords to their on line account. It can be invaluable when the time comes. Recognize too that just because you have a power of attorney, does not guarantee that a given financial institution will accept it. They may not. If it's something like family/parents, it's not a bad idea to have them add you to the accounts even with all of the above in place.

PDXSparky · Jun 30, 2016

L84Cabo said:
You should also have a Power of Attorney, Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare, Hippa form, any medical directives that you want (like a DNR - Do Not Resuscitate), etc.

Get a PoA from both of your parents while they are still in good shape. It becomes more difficult to establish one for a person once they start down the road of cognitive decline. Alzheimers is the worst thing that can happen to a parent, and if it should happen to yours, it's best to be prepared. Personal experience talking here.

L84Cabo's whole post is spot on, especially the part I quoted.

L84Cabo · Jul 1, 2016

PDXSparky said:
Get a PoA from both of your parents while they are still in good shape. It becomes more difficult to establish one for a person once they start down the road of cognitive decline. Alzheimers is the worst thing that can happen to a parent, and if it should happen to yours, it's best to be prepared. Personal experience talking here.

L84Cabo's whole post is spot on, especially the part I quoted.

To elaborate, when I went down this road with my mom (Alzheimers), most of the financial institutions were good about accepting the PoA. There were a couple, however, who didn't. It didn't matter that I had written diagnosis from doctors confirming her status. They wanted me to go to court and have her legally declared incompetent before they would accept the PoA. Now mind you, these same institutions cancelled her credit cards immediately upon my notifying them of the situation. But they were not willing to accept my directives on the accounts.

This is where having the on line access can help. I quickly and quietly transferred the bulk of her holdings elsewhere. Problem solved.