Writing A Will, Online Style
I’ve talked in the past about how I needed to write a will, and how, in fact, I went so far as to write one on the back of a piece of scrap paper in a panic in the waiting room for a medical procedure. Clearly, that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind as far as wills go. I know that I need a will - if for nothing else, because I have children and if both my spouse and I were to die at the same time, I need a guardian appointed for my children.
So why haven’t I written a will? Largely, for two reasons - the money and the effort. It might seem contradictory that I haven’t written a document to dispose of my money because of the money it will cost, but there it is. I’m just intimidated by finding a lawyer and paying them a large amount (to me) of money to write my will. Which leads to the effort factor. As I said, I’m intimidated. Once I do it, I’ll have done it and I’ll feel more comfortable about the whole process, but right now the whole thing just feels overwhelming.
So, like many things that feel overwhelming to me, I’ve broken it into small tasks. First was to look into online software that can construct a will for me. This isn’t necessarily the most specific type of will to construct, and for someone with a complicated estate it certainly wouldn’t do. But I do not have a complicated estate, and I believe that some sort of will is better than none, so it was what I wanted to try first. This cut out both of the factors that were giving me pause - online do-it-yourself solutions are certainly much less expensive than an attorney, and since I can do research and ease into it, it cuts out the intimidation aspect. My ultimate goal is still to go to an attorney and have a will constructed for my spouse and I, but for now, I am happy with easing into it with the online alternative.
I had researched several different alternatives, all costing less than $100, and was still comparing between four or five and deciding which I wanted to commit to, when I read a post on My Money Blog over the weekend with a code to get Suze Orman’s Will and Trust program free of charge. Well, since that was one of the ones I was looking into, and the cost had just been reduced to zero - that became the clear winner for this segment of my creating a will journey. So I went to the site, used the code, and was on my way to creating my first true will.
The process of creating a will with this program was very straightforward, and all told took me about 30 minutes to complete - from login to final document. My life is not that complicated and I’m not making any special provisions beyond designating beneficiaries and guardians for my children, so it wasn’t that involved. The program simply asked me a series of questions and then turned my answers into legalese and spit out a pretty generic but straightforward document.
My spouse has gone through the program and done one for himself as well. I printed out two copies of my final document, and one I signed right away and put into my important papers file. But in my state (maybe in every state, I have no clue) for the will to be actually valid, the program said I need to sign it in front of two witnesses who are not named in the will and a notary, and have it notarized. Since I don’t have a notary just hanging around my house, that will have to happen on another day. So I left the second copy unsigned and hopefully will get myself to cross the notary hurdle very soon.
So now I have a will. The next step - find a notary and some witnesses. And then, I’ll move on to the next step in my original list - start researching actual attorneys. No one I know offline here that I have asked actually has a will and an attorney to recommend, so I’m going to have to figure it out on my own.
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June 30th, 2008 at 7:30 am
My dad passed away earlier this year. He had a will and left everything to my mom. At some point in this process (I still don’t know exactly how it all works), my mom took the will to an attorney, who looked it over, and told her that she would need to change some things in her will, (in addition to removing Dad as a benficiary) because there were some problems with it. Apparently, there weren’t any problems when only one spouse passed, but there might have been problems if both had passed.
Anyway, all of that to say that custody of children (my little brother is still at home and under 18) is something that the language of the will needs to be specific and correct.
I’m sure that an attorney would cost more (definitely more than free!), but there might be some language needed that isn’t covered by an online or software-created will.
Of course, having anything is better than not, and I definitely understand the part about not wanting to spend unneccessary money, but you might have the will checked by an estate attorney, just to be on the safe side…
June 30th, 2008 at 7:34 am
It is very important for anyone using these programs to make sure that they are designed to be state specific. States have a lot of laws regarding wills. You have to follow these rules precisely in order for the will to be upheld in court.
June 30th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Congrats on taking the first step, but I would strongly urge you to find an attorney. Our church actually did several things after looking into how so many marriages break up over financial reasons and one of the proactive steps they took to help families was to pay half for having a will drawn up (they picked the lawyer). We only had to pay $125 and the whole process took about an hour’s worth of our time. The law firm had a worksheet we filled out before our appointment, then we met with the attorney and talked to make sure we understood the terms and how things worked (half an hour, maybe). Then they called us when the will was written and we read over and signed it (another 20 minutes).
We knew since we had our son this was something we had to do and the sense of peace we have about it is well worth the time/money investment.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:42 am
I found this through Dave Ramsey, and it works well. It’s cheap and easy to use. I know you already used Suze’s program, but for other readers it might be helpful.
http://www.uslegalforms.com/dave/?auslf=daveramsey
June 30th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Usually banks have notaries available at all times, I’m sure they can pull a teller or someone else as a witness. Good for you for getting that done. As others have said it might be good to have a lawyer look over it for the wording and your state, but you have the most part done so it shouldn’t cost too much if they’re just looking over it.
June 30th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Please make sure you have two other documents: 1) A patient advocate designation and 2) a power of attorney. These designate someone to act for you: 1) for medical and potentially mental health treatment and 2) in managing your financial and business affairs. An attorney generally drafts these for you in addition to a will.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Good for you for taking the first step!
All states require a signature in the presence of (usually two) witnesses who are not beneficiaries of the will in order to be valid. This is for evidentiary purposes and helps ensure that the will is not fraudulent. There have been cases where a will was invalidated because one witness left the room to use the restroom or something like that when the will was actually signed. I understand that, as long as the person’s intent is clear, some states are starting to relax this requirement slightly, but it would not be a good idea to risk it.
Notary publics are pretty easy to find, and it’s worth doing sooner rather than later if you have a child. Good luck!
June 30th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Thanks for sharing your experience on another topic that I really need to get out of the way. Have you looked into a revocable living trust? Several books I have read encourage people to set these up.
June 30th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Thank you for the post!
This is one of the most overlooked and underrated tasks I believe and I’m glad to see the free offer from Suze. At the same time, though, I knew it wasn’t enough just to have an online kit but I thought of it as a good starting point.
I hope you continue to detail your process in getting that will and other important documents. I for one will definitely appreciate the insight.
June 30th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
When I went to my lawyer (a long long time ago) for a divorce, he would not start the divorce until he had a will done for me. He said that my son (1) needed to have his guardianship settled first as it was more important. So I did. And I have been updating it about every 2-3 years, as things change, for the past 30 years.
Also get your medical power of attorney done.
Banks and school district offices are the easiest places to find a notary - at least in my world.
Thanks for bringing an item of such major importance to the forefront.
June 30th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
PS - My lawyer charges about $100 now for the revisions - it’s worth in it to my piece of mind to keep things current. And I want to make sure each new grandchild also is mentioned and gets a momento.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
The program also creates a revocable living trust (and a bunch of other things, actually) but the words “revocable living trust” seemed like something that one should have a lawyer do.
Not that i shouldn’t have a lawyer do a will. This isn’t (hopefully, unless I die soon) an end point, it is just the step i needed to take to start getting me somewhere. Honestly, at this point, the bigger obstacle in my mind is the intimidation/fear of the unknown vs the money it costs.
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 am
You can also leave some of your wishes to your family (though they aren’t legal wills) through www senterna com, which is pretty new.
I know you’ll still have to draft up a will anyway, but you can leave heartfelt gifts to your children and grandchildren on that site by recording videos of yourself, or writing stories about your life, or submitting old and new photos (maybe ones they haven’t seen.)Its a very sentimental way of doing it.
So as well as what you leave them in your will, you can give them some more things to remember you by which don’t actually cost anything.
Could save some people money perhaps.