My girlfriend’s mother just passed unexpectedly this week. She hasn’t updated her will since the mid 80s, she had no medical directive, and seemingly did not have her life insurance long enough that they would cover anything, they are just refunding what she has paid to the present.
This has us both thinking about getting ourselves set up properly just in case. We haven’t paid it much mind until now as we don’t have all that much, and no kids, but now that we are seeing the difficulty not having those things brings when people least need added stress, we want to start pursuing it.
What have you done to prepare your family for these types of events and how did you determine what sort of insurance and plans you needed for your situation. Also have you ever either had to deal with a relative leaving no plans behind, or did someone do something that made the situation much easier?
My wife and I formed a revokable trust and put all our assets into it, in addition to creating our wills. The main advantage to a trust is your assets don’t have to go through probate and the trustee(s) can basically start executing your wishes right away. You (the grantor) specify what the trust should do with your assets.
Very useful if you have minor children that will need to be cared for.
I’m not sure if this is necessary, at least at our current wealth level, but just a few moments reading has added this to my list of things to learn more about!
There’s a lot of interesting legal and financial aspects to it!
Actually, whether or not you want or need a trust will depend on what state you live in. Some states may try to force probate if you don’t have one, but in other states it isn’t necessary at all. Just to add more confusion!
It sounds like a person can’t even die anymore without first consulting a lawyer! 😕