Wills - DIY or Lawyer?

[violagirl]

We were out for supper with my brother and parents. We all agreed, and have thought about it for awhile, that we need to have some wills made. Not that any of us have lots of money to take care of, but it would be good to have things in place. Also good to have end of life type of things I suppose too. So is it worth it to hire a lawyer to do up a will or should we just use the "legal will kit"? 

I always say that if we both die, my favorite dog will inherit the house and whoever agrees to take care of the animals in the style to which they have become accustomed gets the money. 

[Bonny]

We should probably have a "sticky" thread on estate planning and when one should consider doing a trust.

A lot depends on your state, whether you are married, have real property, children or in your case, pets. 

[msventoux]

I'm single and don't have a will.  All of my investments have beneficiaries and the state can sell the house and sort out the creditors as far as I'm concerned; it would probably mostly be a wash in the end. 

After my mom died my sibling and I finally convinced my dad to get a will.  He only has personal property and a couple pieces of real estate so nothing complex at all.  But I still paid for him to go to a lawyer, more for my own peace of mind than anything.  It was worth it to pay a few hundred dollars so that a third party could be involved and it wouldn't be entirely on my shoulders to prepare the stupid thing and have questions arise later about the preparation of it.

[violagirl]

I assume the assets will go to our next of kin, but I suppose it would be easier for them if we have all our assets, life insurance, retirement, bank accounts etc etc all detailed. And I do have some friends who I wouldnt' mind inheriting our stuff either. This is really only an issue if we both die. I say we dont' have much, but I suppose if we both died in an accident, there is a substantial amount of insurance along with our house - and 6 pets. 

How much is it generally to have a lawyer do a will? 300? 500? We are talking married, no kids, house, some insurance, retirement savings. Not really super complicated (I dont' think). 

[Bonny]

If you own real property you should take the time to see if you should set up a Trust to avoid the cost and delay of probate. Most States have some limits on "small estates". As an example in thyme4change 's question for her MIL, $100k in equity is AZ's is the small estate limit.

If I had 6 pets I would set up a pet Trust for them to ensure they went to a home where they were wanted and were cared for.

We don't have kids. We have a Pet Trust for the two evil kitties and some minor bequests to my niece and nephews. The rest is split between a no kill pet shelter and a land conservation trust. 

[resolution]

A few years ago we paid an attorney $300 for a set of mirrored his and hers wills.

In our particular state, the lawyer advised we didn't need a trust unless we had enough assets to trigger the estate tax. His concern about a trust is that we would have to keep adding things into it as we acquired them, and he said that a lot of people end up forgetting to add things to the trust and go through probate anyway. His price for a trust was $1500 and we opted to do the wills instead. YMMV, but we don't have kids or other dependents so anything our relatives and charities get will be a surprise.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

When DH and I were planning on making out our wills, we talked first, and decided what we wanted to allocate and to whom, pretty much settled before speaking to an attorney.

We had them set up so that if one pre-deceased the other, the surviving spouse would inherit all. In the event that both of us became deceased (due to car/travel accident, etc), specific monetary amounts would be distributed among family members - also household goods/heirlooms allocated more specifically.

And sale of house/distribution of funds from the sale.

We pretty much had our plan in place before even going to our attorney - he helped us fine-tune it and do a few changes to our original plans based on his advice, and then had them drawn up. The cost was minimal since we had our basic plan in place before even discussing our wishes with him.



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[msventoux]

It was around $300 for my Dad's will/power of attorney/advanced healthcare directive.  I called around a bit and some lawyers were more expensive, but I think they were trying to add more complexity than his situation really warrants. 

I suppose I should be worried about my pets, but if something happened to me I know my family would take them and give them a good home until the end of their days, and likewise if something happens to family I would adopt their pets.  We might treat each other like crap upon occasion, but our pets are treated like royalty!