Its the question we usually ask our parents late one night while sitting around the kitchen table.
Or we ask our siblings when they become parents for the first time.
Do you have a will?
But even if youre young and feel invincible, you should probably have a will, tool.
Life can come at you fast.
What Is a Will, Anyway?
Probably not as good as youd like.
It always seems like an uphill battle to build (and keep) a decent amount in savings.
But what if your car breaks down, or you have a sudden medical bill?
It also lists your wishes for your assets and property, and names guardians for your children.
When you die, the assets are passed on outside of probate court.
An irrevocable trust cant be changed once its finalized.
Unless you revoke the document, power of attorney typically expires when you die.
Should You Have a Will or a Trust?
You might want to consider getting a will and a trust.
The benefit of a trust instead of just having a will is privacy.
If you want that information to be private to your beneficiaries, set up a trust.
You should always have a will, Ruth said.
But if you have a trust, all the will says is that everything goes into the trust.
This is typically called a pour-over will.
Without a trust, probate is unavoidable.
It can take a regular person a year to get through probate, estate attorney Gale Allison said.
And time, as we all know, is money.
People think you have to have a lot of dough to get a revocable trust, Allison said.
People think theyre not worth enough.
It often also contains power of attorney for health and finance.
It [power of attorney] controls everything the trust doesnt, Allison said.
For more of us, theres a long illness or an accident with a period of uncertainty that follows.
Two-thirds of us will have a long slide into the abyss, Allison said.
If you confront that and you dont have the proper things in place, there are problems.
Its hard to make money last.
Its hard to have a family not fall into complete dysfunction.
So, What Does a Will Really Cost?
They call offices up and ask, How much for a will?
Thats like calling a car dealership and asking how much for a car, Allison said.
The answer is nobody will know until you sit down and tell them what you want.
If you just went in and got a will, that would cost a couple hundred, he said.
Allison advises working with an attorney on an estate plan.
You might as well not make any effort as to plan only addressing that one scenario.
Some states also offer free power of attorney documents.
Most states let you do your own will, Allison said.
I dont think its a good idea, but its better than nothing.
Lisa Rowan is a former senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
(Can you sense my millennial sarcasm there?)
You know which ones were talking about: rent, utilities, cell phone bill, insurance, groceries…
