There was a HUGE dust storm yesterday. It caused a 26 vehicle crash on I-80 right outside of town. No visibility whatsoever! There was also a wildfire on the mountain range to the east of our valley. It was started by a dry lightning storm the night before. The road was closed and we couldn’t go into town for my girls’ orthodontist appointments yesterday afternoon.
You never now what the day will hold and how your family will be affected, which brings me to today’s Establish a House topic: wills.
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Getting a legal will is probably one of the most important things parents can do for their children. It is also one of the tasks most parents put off for “tomorrow” or “someday.” We don’t like to talk about or think about us dying prematurely. But what if you did? Would your children be taken care of?
One of the most important reasons for getting a will is choosing a legal guardian for your children. Who do you want to raise your children? If you don’t have a guardian named in a will a judge will decide instead. There’s no guarantee that the court will choose a family member or even a close family friend.
My father-in-law lost both parents within one year of each other. His mother died in 1970; his father died in 1971. While my father-in-law was married, as was another brother and sister, the rest of the eleven children were still at home. Those children were extremely lucky that they were allowed to stay together in their home. Don’t rely on luck that your children will be able to do the same!
It is also important to name a property guardian or trustee to manage your money for your children until they reach legal age. This can be the same person as the legal guardian or someone different. If you have life insurance, 401(k)s or IRA accounts those list beneficiaries that trump what is in a will. Double check who you have listed on those accounts.
Mr. Ferrero Rocher and I did our wills about ten years ago. We used a local lawyer and it was a fairly painless process. Really! We choose a legal guardian and designated someone else to take care of our money for our kids. We need to go through them again and update them though. Circumstances have changed. We’ve added several more children to our family and so have those whom we had listed as legal guardians.
It may seem like a pain to create a will. You may not feel like you can pay a lawyer $300 or more to draft one for you. But, oh, it is so important that you do! It will be worth every penny. If anything were to happen to you your children will be grateful you thought ahead.
Do you have a will? Is is up to date?
My husband was in the military and having a will was so important to us. If something happened to him and then to me we wanted our family taken care of.
It is so VERY important to update the will!!!! 9 years ago my parents were younger {our number one to take our kids} and Steve’s brother was still alive{our #2}. and our #3 couple has divorced Other things change too and we need to make sure that we are prepared for changes.
Also, be ready to name people that you DON’T want to have your kids. Our circumstance is one that we have family members that will fight to have our kids just to spite another. They wouldn’t be raised the way we would want them to be and there would be no surety that they would stay together.
Talking about a Will is scary… almost like you are planning for this to happen. But it is so important to keep your family safe!
My husband and I created a will when our oldest was a baby. He’s now seven and we have added almost three more children to the mix. And we have been meaning to update our will since our second child was born. How easy it is to put it off until ‘tomorrow’. We’ve talked about it many times but it has soon been forgotten until we get another reminder. We need to stop having that mentality and actually get it done, especially since we want to make changes.
We have an up to date Will. What we need to do is a letter to our executor. Specifically what we would like to allow for money towards our children, not necessarily until they are of age but before. We have 3 children. Adding 3 kids all of a sudden to our legal guardians and anyone that would take our kids would obviously add a strain on their family, both financially and in regards to their living conditions. We want to allow a certain amount of money allocated towards them buying a bigger house, a stipend for the extra cost of raising our children. My sister explained it to me as which train would hit first. There is a cost involved in the raising of our children. The last thing we wanted was our guardians being strapped for cash in the raising of our children. If there is money left over at the end, then the children can have it according as our will states.
Jon and I have been talking about this for a long time. It seems like such an important thing. Thank you for the reminder !
My husband is a lawyer and tried to start up a business on the side doing wills and trusts on the cheap. What he found was so many people SAY they want and need a will, but they just never get around to actually doing it unless something tragic happens and it scares them enough to get things in order. It’s really important. In many states, if you do not have a will, your children go directly to the custody of the state and a judge will make a final decision about who gets them based on the arguments they hear, regardless of what your wishes might have been. Get a will. Amen.