No and both my husband and I keep saying we need one but we just never get around to it....stupid I know

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I have significant familial assets. If I were to die I would like the vast majority of them to go to my children. DH understands.

My parents with significant assets used to have the will set up that if my mom died her inheritance would come to me and my siblings. They recently realized the tax implications are substantially higher than if it goes to my father and then eventually to us (gifts, inheritance...) as I understood it.

When I was pregnant with my now 7 yr old we started a will but hit stumbling blocks and never completed: one was who to name as POA, one was who to name as “backup guardians” if something happened to us and our selected guardians, and one was how I should divide my inheritance between my husband and my eventual children. We really need to start over and get this done!

Please, please, please I beg everyone to have a will even if they think they don’t own very much and have told people what they want to happen. Your wishes need to be in writing in the form of a will. I’m currently dealing with a situation in which a relative died without a will but owned a property that is now in legal limbo. It could have so easily been avoided if he had made a will.

Don’t leave a mess for your family members to clean up!

Couple with young kids in our late 30s and we got a will done a few years ago. I used the legal services offered through my work benefits and found an attorney in that network. It doesn't really matter who you use, in general these things are really basic.

Setting up the trust, and determining POA and guardianship were the big things. It might be a difficult decision, but try to think about if you died without these instructions. Your worst case scenario could come true (i.e. the family member you despise gets your kids, uses your money, etc.). It's always better to have SOMETHING! And tell someone about it too so they know to look for it if you pass.

Stephen Moller in Alexandria did my Trust.

What are pros of setting up a trust? Say, if you live in DC.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm 50 with older teenagers and we never got around to making a will. We don't have much in the way of assets but the big mental block was we never could think of who would take care of the kids if we both died.

This seems like the most important part of the will when you have kids...

and that's why we never got a will done.

This borders on negligence. Shame on you. Time to grow up.

shush up judge judy.

Yeah, considering something like 60% of people don't have wills...I don't think PP is alone in this. What we did when we were experiencing that mental block is to write down all of our wishes and contingencies for guardianship and made sure our beneficiary designations were all up to date with primary and contingencies and had P.O.D. for all non-retirement accounts. That way some money would be available immediately and our wishes/thinking were written down. It wasn't fully "responsible" but it was where we could get in the middle ground before we made a decision. We eventually got the estate plan pulled together and it was easier for having done this thinking over time.