Do you or your family have one? Did you have to go through an attorney? Cost? Any free paperwork/website?
I have been looking into getting one for awhile, as I am a single parent and my children are of age to receive any benefits that I leave them. Yesterday I was two walking feet away from getting hit and killed by a city bus running the red light-truly believe in guardian angels as someone was holding me back from crossing that street for a second! So I am really on a mission to get things in order. I changed my life insurance policy a few weeks ago-hmmm did I have a premonition?
You should get the advice of a lawyer, a CPA if nothing else, just to make sure everything is ironed out the way you want it to be.
You should go through a lawyer. It will cost you between $400 - $1,000 depending on how complicated your situation is. But if you don't, your kids will spend thousands in fees after your death. Most lawyers will meet with you and explain everything first, then let you decide if you want to fork out the money or not. Also, get one that specializes in wills and trusts. There is a good one in Flint/Fenton area if you want his name just let me know. He will answer all your questions, including going through online, and let you make the call.
Hi M.---It would be best to have legal counsel. Your financial planner, if you have one, could help to recommend some ideas. One thing that we had stipulated was that our estate was to pay for the kids education, living expenses and care, but they really didn't get any money until they were 30 or something like that. We didn't want them to receive a 'windfall' and not have the maturity to use it wisely.
Laws are always changing so it is best to have it done right. It is an investment in your peace of mind. Best of luck to you and good job for being so proactive. Be well, D.
BLESS YOU! And I say that because when my husband died in May, he left it up to the kids and me to figure things out. Had to go through filing cabinets one after the other. Guess he never thought he'd have to implement things! But morbid as it is, it IS better to have things in order.
We did do a living trust. I can't recall if we used a lawyer or not. I don't think so. But a notary republic, I believe. I think there are guidelines to take you through it. Go online and see. It just makes things easier than having to go through probate.
And be careful! :)
This is something you need to do with a lawyer, if you want it to be thorough enough to be legally binding. And honestly, it's not cheap. We're doing one now and it's going to run us about $1000. But still, because of our life insurance policies, it saves the kids a potential almost 400K in taxes.
Hopefully it will be money wasted. But better safe than sorry, I say.
We used an attorney because the free sites give you generics, but don't really go into detail if you want things a certain way. We wanted my BIL to be the trustee but my sister is raising the kids. Ours was a little more in depth so there would be no fighting etc. between the families.
It cost us about $1000 to do the trust and a few other things we had set up at the same time.
